Project MKULTRA, or
MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human experimentation program, run by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government
program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late
1960s, and it used U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects.
The published evidence indicates that Project MKULTRA involved the
use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and
alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of
drugs and other chemicals, hypnosis,
sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture.
Project MKULTRA was first brought to wide public attention in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, through investigations by the Church Committee, and by a presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms
ordered all MKULTRA files destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and
Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of
direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that
survived Helms' destruction order.