Leah Haley's Research

This is one in a series of posts on the Leah Haley Case.

Leah Haley provided me opportunities to exchange research and compare notes with her during the past three years. She also allowed me to ask her many questions on several occasions. I was and continue to be very grateful for her willingness to dig up bones, rub salt in the wound or any number of additional metaphors that relatively apply - yet nonetheless fail to fully encapsulate - the emotionally charged dynamics of the situation.

Incidents of potential interest in her life continued after those described in her books. Such incidents, Haley explained, included what she came to term "virtual reality experiences" and messages from the "Silent Voice."    

Haley additionally explained a curious discovery. Leah became aware she and Marshall Applewhite, leader of the infamous Heaven's Gate cult, attended the same college a few years apart during the 1960's. While such occurrences might well bring Project MKULTRA to mind, certain circumstances in and of themselves are interesting concerning how Haley became more deeply immersed in researching mind control operations.

In the fall of 2003 Haley received an anonymous note essentially suggesting she review projects MKULTRA, BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE. The note included detailed instructions on how to request the related compact disk set available from the Central Intelligence Agency via the Freedom of Information Act. Haley went on to obtain the disks and the some 20,000 pages of documents contained therein, and, due to what she learned from the documents, continues to consider the anonymous note a major breakthrough.

MKULTRA Documents

Page one of a 1954 CIA memo titled,
Hypnotic Experimentation and Research

Among the documents Marc Davenport and Haley found of interest was #190691, Hypnotic Experimentation and Research. Events were documented in February of 1954 in which two women were used as research subjects to establish a person could be manipulated via hypnosis into virtually completely abandoning their normally held principles and ethics, up to and including being willing to kill another human being when instructed to do so. What's more, the researchers claimed the subjects had no recollections of the experiments taking place.

"The importance of this document," Haley stated, "is that it shows that the CIA had pretty much perfected the Manchurian Candidate by 1954."

Document #190527, SI and H Experimentation (25 September 1951) explained, Haley noted, how researchers claimed to have successfully administered post-hypnotic suggestions by telephone via codewords. It was documented that the post-hypnotic directives included executing detailed instructions related to activating bombs and that, of particular potential significance, the subjects could largely not remember their participation in the experiments. It should be noted that "SI and H" stands for sleep induction and hypnosis.

Haley added, "A second experiment the same evening concerned whether or not individuals whose moral values would normally prevent them from stealing a wallet could be influenced to do so while in a hypnotic state. The answer was yes."

Document #149585, Film Sequence of Top Secret Theft, further asserted findings as described above. It suggested post-hypnotic instructions could indeed be activated via telephone.

Document #147025 is a copy of a 1954 memorandum in which mind control applications, particularly concerning the use of hypnosis, were discussed. One such application included the intentional manufacture of split personality induced during hypnosis. Project objectives included manipulating subjects into executing various predetermined actions when prompted later and with no recall.

Hypnosis was further discussed in document #190597, in which an interview with a professional hypnotist was detailed. Consideration was given to such factors as the physical appearance, place of residence and overall community standing of the hypnotist in relation to the feasibility the hypnotist would make a suitable consultant. 

The hypnotist asserted post-hypnotic suggestions could last some 20 years, Haley noted, and such suggestions would be particularly strong if reinforced periodically. The interviewer asked if the hypnotist would be willing to act as a consultant with the Agency and the hypnotist agreed.

For those unaware, Project MKULTRA included some 149 known sub-projects, according to the document, Prepared Statement of Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence, which was issued during the 1977 Senate hearings. When project objectives are taken into consideration, it is not difficult to envision the confirmed abuse of involuntary human research subjects may have become entangled with what became reports of supposed high strangeness, such as alleged alien abductions. 

A portion of the Research and Development Program of TSS/Chemical Division (of the CIA) was devoted to the discovery and methods of some 17 different means of mind control/behavior modification. In 1955, project objectives included (see page 125) developing "materials which will render the induction of hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its usefulness," "materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use" and "substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public."

There are many such authenticated documents. For further reading I recommend, among other sources, the landmark work of John Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate.

An August, 1977, New York Times article, Private Institutions Used in C.I.A. Effort to Control Behavior, revealed details of the disturbing situation as they continued to emerge. Investigative journalists John M. Crewdson, Nicholas M. Horrock, Boyce Rensberger, Jo Thomas and Joseph B. Treaster collaborated to produce the article. The identities of some of the involved doctors were documented, as well as how the broad scope of such abusive research included and was concealed by personnel at specific nonprofit corporations, major colleges, medical facilities and a vast network of such traditionally trusted institutions while spanning no less than 25 years.

For more information about the specific evolution of the role of hypnosis in nefarious operations and its implications to ufology, I highly recommend the work of Gary Haden. Many of his posts on his former blog, Speculative Realms, are now archived on the website of Emma Woods. I particularly recommend locating and reading Haden's Mass Hypnotic Stupor: The MPD "JOKE" and the Paranormal Cult Stupidification of America. 

US Patents

Davenport and Haley used the US Patent Office as a resource to monitor and track the possible evolution of technology. Among the documents Haley found most interesting, she explained, was Patent #3,951,134, Apparatus and Method for Remotely Monitoring and Altering Brain Waves, in which brain waves were declared to be remotely read, entrained and altered to a "desired change" via electromagnetic frequencies.

"Patent #'s 5,270,800 and 5,159,703," Haley continued, "describe systems to submit subliminal messages."

In addition to the patents referencing subliminal messages cited by Haley, I invite consideration of a 1979 Time Magazine article, Behavior: Secret Voices, which explored dozens of department stores playing subliminal anti-theft messages over music systems. Incredible decreases in theft were reported, including one chain claiming a whopping 37% reduction, translating into increased savings of some $600,000 over a nine month period.

The secret recipe? People in stores were subliminally instructed to believe they were honest.

Patent #'s 4,858,612 and 4,877,027, Haley pointed out, addressed the creation of sound in the human head via microwaves.  

"He (Davenport) also found a number of other patents," Haley stated, "that supported our theory that those voices I heard in my head were not based in the supernatural, and my memories of alien encounters could have been nothing more than human-implanted experiences."

Haley went on to cite additional MKULTRA documents and patents she discovered long after writing about experiences that might reasonably be suspected to correlate with technology described in such documents. One such example was document #173602, Non-Lethal Personnel Behavioral Control, in which high intensity light and electrical current were discussed as methods of behavioral control. Haley detailed such experiences several years prior to learning of the document in both Lost Was the Key and Unlocking Alien Closets.

Another such example Haley suspected might correlate with her experiences was document #190669, SI and H Experimentation, 17 November 1953. An experiment was discussed involving a hypnotized research subject directed to rapidly memorize a long, technical passage and recall it only when prompted later by a codeword. Researchers claimed the experiment was successful, including the subject having no recollection of the activity. Haley noted how reading the document reminded her of an experience she wrote about on page 71 of Unlocking Alien Closets, details of which involved just such reading and memorization of technical material.

Additional reading of interest might include Anna Keeler's Remote Mind Control Technology, a very well constructed piece circa 1980's which offers us somewhat of a 'then and now' perspective. Keeler's work is among that which further established the reality of research and development of mind control devices and methods, as well as symptoms of overexposure to the related electromagnetic frequencies. Such symptoms included, among others, sleep disturbances, hallucinations, memory loss and 'sunburned,' reddened skin (even at night), all of which were very common to witness testimonies of alleged alien abductions.

More recently written material includes US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights, a report completed in December, 2006, in which co-authors Peter Phillips, Lew Brown and Bridget Thornton explored the evolution of the US intelligence community human rights violations and continuing research in electromagnetic weapons. The work was sponsored by Sonoma State University, Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation.

UFO Land, Stateside

My interactions with individuals such as Leah who came to believe themselves involuntary research subjects naturally caused me to repeatedly evaluate what I thought took place in their lives. I am empathetic of their perspectives and I ultimately cannot pass judgment one way or the other. It is not difficult for me to suspend judgment on conclusions, particularly as compared to the more out of this world claims, because at least I conclusively know involuntary research subjects and mind control victims exist. Why would I think it impossible - or even particularly unlikely - some of them became involved in ufology, all things considered?

It would seem to me aversions to accepting such likelihoods would be indicative of refusals to accept the US government actually conducted such intrusive operations in the first place. We have to accept the latter to accept the former, and, let's face it, most people just do not want to think about such things (for a variety of personal reasons).

The challenge with averting from serious consideration of the topic is it leaves a vastly incomplete picture of ufology. Alien abduction, if it is nothing, is all about trauma, and the US government has a long and detailed history of administering and studying trauma. If you doubt further research is justified into the likelihood any of that has anything to do with the American UFO community, I invite you to take a much closer look at who, exactly, is present - and specifically what they are doing - in UFO Land, Stateside.