Wayne Edward Hanson, Writer

Most people are familiar with movies about drugs, hypnosis, electroshock and so forth that are used to manipulate and control human beings. But they’re science fiction, right? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Terminal Man, The Matrix, Total Recall, The Manchurian Candidate all feture stories about mental manipulation and control.

A little closer to reality One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest showed how electroconvulsive therapy can be used to control and suppress human beings. It was filmed at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, and created a wave of revulsion against electroshock that continues today, and is one obstacle  that electroshock advocates must hurdle.

You may be surprised to discover that there are electroshock advocates who are still zapping brains. Most people think the practice died out in the early 1960s, back when author Ernest Hemingway had 15 electroshock treatments, went home, put a shotgun in his mouth and blew the top of his head off.

But psychiatrists are still putting electrodes on the sides of people’s heads and shooting current through their brains. About 100,000 people per year endure the process. Those advocates  make it seem nicer these days, they put the patient to sleep first, and inject them with muscle relaxant so that they don’t break so many teeth and bones from spasms and contractions. Some even load up the body with insulin to make it go into convulsions. It has the advantage of reducing the electric bill, just an overdose of insulin and presto, you have a dazed and confused person who doesn’t seem so crazy.

Electricity even when used with good intentions often  ends up in the heavy hands of control. We’ve used jolts of electricity as punishment in many ways. Electric cattle fences, cattle prods, tasers, electric shock collars for dogs, etc. Ivar Lovaas, a UCLA professor who died in 2010 began putting autistic kids barefooted on electrical wires. He’d turn on the current until they did something non-autistic, then he’d turn off the current. On off, on off,like a light switch  over and over to condition the dog – or children rather – to act less autistic. Slaps, yelling, etc. were also used but electricity was the centerpiece.

And now, with the advance of technology, we’ve got subtle and not so subtle ways of using electricity to control others. Surveillance technology from closed circuit cameras to electronic ankle bracelets, GPS monitoring of cell phone locations, etc. But perhaps the most intrusive new technology is putting wires in people’s brains in something the  psychs call deep brain stimulation. This electrical stimulation of the brain – like electroshock – has its own 1950s bad example.

In the early 1950, it was a secret government project called MKULTRA – don’t worry, this is not “tinfoil on head”  stuff – here’s a document from the Supreme Court describing the program: “Between 1953 and 1966,” said the Supreme Court, “the Central Intelligence Agency financed a wide-ranging project, code-named MKULTRA, concerned with ‘the research and development of chemical, biological, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior.’” One project in MKULTRA was controlling the human mind with chemical and electrical brain implants. It was spurred by the Cold War and the idea was to figure out how to control the enemy’s minds and save money on bullets.

Since the project was bound to create outrage if discovered, it was kept secret for a while and when it was exposed, the CIA Director destroyed most of the records. But enough data leaked out that it was pretty big news.

Since secret government projects often appear on Wikileaks,  this time around — in my opinion — a project similar to MKULTRA  is being conducted in the open, albeit under cover of how electricity, wired into the brain, can  cure brain diseases, epilepsy, speed up learning and so forth. It’s funded by the Department of Defense. Sound familiar? The keyword is “electroceuticals,” a combination of “electricity” and “pharmaceuticals.” And DARPA the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding it.

Another idea is to control minds with wireless electricity, so much less messy. There could be little emitters all up and down the streets making everyone very passive, or happy or normal. But that sounds like science fiction again.

So when you hear about these marvelous new techniques in which electricity makes athletes stronger, makse students smarter, makes epilepsy disappear, stops compulsions and obsessions, and cures all sorts of intractable diseases — just stop a minute and remember that this stuff can be — and probably will be — used for some new and exotic flavor of mind control.