(This is not Dennis...in case you are wondering)
Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me......
I don't think there can be a more straightforward question one can ask than "Why didn't someone tell me...?" I have said in the past that I did not grow up in the WCG. I grew up Presbyterian and came into WCG first by an interest in the literature and teachings at the tender age of 14 and then at Ambassador College, which, to my ignorant and naive youthful understanding, was a legitimate seminary and expert on all things Biblical.
The literature made sense to me. It touched on topics my Presbyterian minister never covered yet were in plain view in the Old and New Testament. He had gone to Westminister Theological Seminary, which I thought was probably just another seminary like Ambassador College. I told you I was naive. The AC catalogue looked good and the faculty had "Dr" next to their names.
Of course, I ended up asking myself..."why didn't someone tell me?"
At that time, no one had ever told me about such things as the Kingdom of God, Jesus return, the Resurrections, healing, the Millennium, The Book of Revelation, Repentance, water baptism and the meaning of the Holy Spirit. No one ever told me about the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter or that there were other days and celebrations in the Bible. I knew nothing of the teachings in the NT but had grown up memorizing vast swaths of the OT and the Psalms. I probably new the Bible better by the time I started AC than most knew leaving it. Calvinist Dutch Churches are like that with their kids.
And so I swallowed WCG, hook, line and sinker. I turned down going to Roberts Wesleyan College and Seminary in Rochester, NY, where I had been accepted to go to Ambassador College. Seemed the better choice to me for what i envisioned my goals to be and "calling." I sneaked my application in my winter parka past my parents and eventually got a call from the minister in Buffalo who came by to see me. Nice guy who seemed to know his stuff. I was hooked and going to AC no matter what anyone said. I deliberately ate my last ham sandwich on the plane in celebration of never eating another!
Since then I have kidded my parents who were eventually to also come into WCG along with dozens of other family members, that they should have slapped me and told me what they really thought. Dad was of the mind that one should make their own choices in life and so I went to California. He later became an elder and now is sitting right back in the same Presbyterian pew he sat in with me next to him where my feet had yet to be able to touch the floor. Quite a trip.
I went to be a minister. I had no doubts about what I wanted to do, teach and be. The first forum as a student, GTA made it clear one did not come to AC to be a minister and that was the quickest way to get booted. Hmmmmm, I remember thinking, "well, screw you. I'll study and learn it so well you won't have any choice." That's kinda how it worked out. Ted didn't like me much from what I can tell due to a run in we had when I was a mere freshman. However, he was in trouble with the Church around my graduation time and had nothing to do with my being placed into the ministry. I am pretty sure he would have hacked me then. Hmmm....what would have been had that happened instead of what did happen? Oh well!
When in college, I was the only person I knew who hiked over to Fuller Theological Seminary, not far from the College to use their library. No one told me this was a no no. It was there I found better books and first wondered why no one had ever told me this stuff.
The first revelation I had was that the Gospels were hardly coherent or harmonious even though I was then enrolled in a Harmony of the Gospels class taught by Roderick Meredith. No one ever told me he didn't know what he was talking about, never read a book about the problems with the Gospels and was a mere Bible reader and commentator and not a real teacher.
It was at Fuller I had my first inkling that the birth narratives of Jesus were not in agreement, added at a later date to fight the charge of fornication and Jesus being a bastard. It was the first time I ever asked myself "where do all babies really come from?" Why didn't anyone ever tell me about mythologies the politics of the Bible?
In fact.....in time I learned to wonder why no one ever told me that:
Genesis is not a science story of how things came to be, "The Genesis Flood" text not withstanding. The first three chapters are meant to dethrone the goddess and her serpent counselor and switch from matriarchy to patriarchy, priests, temples and meat sacrifices. (that was the WHOLE point of the Cain and Able sacrifices but that's another story). The fault of everything is women who will now just have babies painfully and say "yes sir" to men.
No Moses ever wrote the Pentateuch and that it was really written by multiple priests and scribes probably during the Babylonian captivity.
No Exodus as described ever really happened in space and time
Israel did not conquer Canaan. They just oozed into it over time.
"I am that I am" is not a great theological pronouncement but rather a pun with the god meaning, "It is none of your business who I am." Nuther long story.
The story of David and Goliath is terribly confused and contradictory as written in Samuel. That's because it was written by two authors who didn't carefully consider what each other said before writing their version. Nice, "King was an amazing child " story however. A common tactic in tale weaving.
Most OT prophecies aren't prophecies at all in their original context and that most of the major prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel NEVER came true.
That the four faced beast in Ezekiel with the face of a man, a bull, a lion and an eagle is another way of saying Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall in astro-theological tale weaving.
And, why didn't anyone tell me of the New Testament..
The Gospels were originally not written by any of the names who are affixed.
The Gospels are not eyewitness accounts of anything.
The fact that the Resurrection accounts of Jesus are very contradictory and contrived.
The Jesus story is an old archetype and the dying/rising godman story a very common theme .
That Matthew was an expert in making the OT mean what it never really meant.
The second ending of John's Gospel may well be the missing ending of Mark's used to bring Peter back into the fold against John's will.
That if Paul was a Pharisee, he was like none before him in his reasonings, loyalties and tactics.
That Jesus for Paul was hallucinatory and Paul NEVER knew the Gospel Jesus, much less what he taught.
That Paul never quoted any real Jesus when it would serve him well to do so.
That Paul never met or knew Gospel Jesus
That Paul had lived, written and died before any gospels were ever written.
That being all things to all men may not be a good trait and leave you wondering just what did the man believe and why?
That Paul may have been the "false Apostle" railed against by the Jesus of Revelation in the Ephesian letter.
That the Book of Revelation is not about today.
The main players in the New Testament Church really didn't like each other very much nor did they all "speak the same thing." I had to find out myself that Paul , Luke and John wrote to say that Peter as denier of Jesus was no more worth following than Judas who betrayed him. I learned that Paul had nothing but contempt for Peter, James and John, "reputed pillars" and "I learned nothing from them." Whew....why didn't someone point that out to me at AC? Actually, the thought would never have crossed their minds.
The fact that John always spoke badly of Peter and sandwiched comments about him between two comments about Judas to show he also felt Peter was Apostle Poop. It is called Intercalation and was how you made an obvious point in a somewhat subtle way.
James wrote about faith without works to counter the ridiculous faith without works book of Romans, written by Paul.
That the story of Jesus is the same story as Osiris, Mithras, Dionysius and others.
That there is an astro-theological spin to the literalized story Jesus
That outside of the Bible itself, there is precious little reference to any Jesus of the Gospels that is not second hand hearsay and not quite what one would expect about a man who was so well known. Seems the writers of the day never heard of him and some lived right there in town with him. We have caught someone adding some Jesus history to Josephus, but know it was added at a later date to give Jesus some secular credentials. However, they really don't exist. Makes me nervous.
That it is not very wise to read the Bible like a newspaper.
And so on.
Why it has taken decades to clear the air on these issues is beyond me. I wish someone had told me sooner. I guess I would not have believed them back then anyway and would have had a hundred reasons why they would be wrong , of the devil, uncalled, unholy and uninformed.
So I guess it really is an individual journey with all it's personal twists and turns custom made for each person as needed to finally graduate in some way from Earth School for some reason I have yet to understand.
21 comments:
Ah, yes, Dennis, as usual your reminiscences have triggered some memories of my own. You had your last ham sandwich on the plane, I had what I thought would be my last cigarette.
You chose AC, I exploited it since it was the only college I knew I'd be allowed to attend by my WCG parents. Going to California was a deliberate attempt to distance myself from home. Otherwise, I am sure the daily spankings would have continued until my 21st birthday. Actually, I was working a sneaky agenda by going to Pasadena. Due to the Beach Boys, those of us in other parts of the USA considered California to be a kind of Mecca. I figured I'd put in some time at AC, hoping the Viet Nam war would end quickly, and then I could segue into the California underground hotrod and biker scene.
You wanted to be a minister. I categorically stated during my first week that there was no way I was going to become one, and my dormmates all replied that I was exactly the type who ended up being one. They just didn't know how strong willed and resistant I was.
Ah, yes. GTA. Seems like that was almost one of the rights of passage for any of the students whom he observed in a pensive, rather than smiling mode as they listened to one of his sermons. Someone leaked to me that I was about to have a similar encounter with him. I deliberately went to Saturday Night Sing-along, which he always led with his guitar, and fake smiled my ass off through the whole thing, making sure he saw me numerous times. Somehow, my name got crossed off his appointment list, while other friends in my social group did in fact have to endure his inquisition. Seems like he did this every year from what I was told.
You indulged in a taboo by going to Fuller's library for research. Upon being expelled from AC, I applied to both Fuller and Pepperdine figuring those were two places where my credits might be worth something. While I was accepted by both, I ended up going to Pasadena City College, upon which some of the boxboys from El Rancho greeted me with, "Hey, Bob! We wondered when you were going to show up here!"
You mentioned things not being in the AC Catalogue. You must have known a friend of mine from New Jersey. Upon his arrival, he went around saying that Olcott Place was not in the College Catalogue, the ants which infested our dorm were not in the catalogue, etc. He was right, of course.
I can't agree with your list of controversial conclusions at the bottom of your post, but then I know you know they are all subject to debate, interpretation, and widely diverse opinions.
Write on, Bud!
BB
Thanks Bob, I really appreciated the personal insights. I guess I really did not know your own background very well but I do understand it well now. We're all here to learn and I don't expect anyone to be on the same path I am nor would they want to be I suppose. My conclusions are present conclusions. The trip is not over and the path is not yet covered in full .
I only ever wanted to know "the truth" That's all I still ever really want to know, take me where it will. Sit before it as a little child and love the ride. I appreciate the freedom to do so now and those who share the journey with me.
Thanks again. I feel a bit closer to you as a human bean!
den
PS NO2HWA scares me. He put the video up that I watched last night that put this thought in my mind but I never told him that. He has spies. I loved that video. It calmed me somehow
Well, that makes both of us truthseekers.
Or, as Pete Townshend wrote: "I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked the Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, and he couldn't help me either. They call me the Seeker, and I've been searching low and high! Won't get the answers, til the day I die!" (The Seeker, recorded by The Who, 1969).
One more thing. It's nice to have reached a place where we're not all required to reach the same conclusions.
As for your last night's experience with synchronicity between you and Gary, there are those who feel that the subconscious minds of all living things are interlinked to form the great collective consciousness, which is one possible explanation for some of the things which we discuss here. Ain't life grand?
BB
Oh BB, you can't mean Gary and my mind are linked....kinky. But I know what you mean and i do believe it. Bottom line seems to be that somehow and in someway, we are all small parts of the one big same thing. Well we can hope.
We don't have to have or come to the same conclusions. It's all a sliding continuim to me. Each at their own junctions and on their own paths. I have no idea how any two can speak the same thing much less whole organizations of people. Me thinks many just go underground with their real thoughts and beliefs, stand up on the outside but are really sitting down on the inside..ha.
I think we should have our own NO2HWA FOT. Feast of Truthseekers. We'd prolly laugh our asses off and all become pretty good friends for it all.
My son said he was watching a movie last night with his girls, 3 and 6 and a man being chased by a monster said "shit" Chris told Magan that we don't really say that and Magan said...'Right, except if THAT is happening."
Hilarious. Makes life fun again
"Magan said...'Right, except if THAT is happening.'"
Thanks for the belly laugh, Dennis. I'm with Magan.
Bob,
Whatever happened to that gentleman from Patterson, NJ? The last time I saw RJ was around 1979 or 1980. We were in Pasadena, sitting in a park on a bench next to a tennis court. RJ had his shirt off (getting some sun)and had his tennis racquet on the bench and a six pack of malt liquor on the ground under the bench. We talked about landscaping, penny stocks, how to win multiple radio contests, and laughed over stories about Joe Sr. shotguns, and the visiting program. I still miss that guy and I still miss Captain Ernie (Eugene Taber), too.
My apologies to the other readers of this blog for all the "inside AC/WCG" comments with Bob and Dennis. We were all on campus in Pasadena at the same time, so comments from either of them often trigger similar memories for me.
Den, you sometimes wonder why your comments about the bible get so few specific comments. For me, I don't know what to say, except for "Why didn't anyone tell me that back then?" and "I feel like such a dumbass even today for having been so stupid back then." I am still stunned that I ended up at AC in the first place (definitely linked to a previous long episode of major depression for me).
One thing I missed at AC, after spending 5 years in "previous college" was the lack of any real, serious discussion of anything either in or out of class, at least for me. Meredith announced during the first week of First Year Bible (Harmony of the Gospels) that he didn't have time for questions during class. Pretty much the same thing from Jon Hill in Second Year Bible (the OT) and Richard Plache in Epistles (Third Year), at least for me. I never felt comfortable discussing the Bible in any depth with anyone at AC because I was pretty sure that my questions and ideas would lead to my getting kicked out. There was no intellectual honesty at AC that I saw, except in a few personal discussions I had privately at different times with Frank Brown, Bob Kuhn, Brian Knowles, Jack Martin and Steve Martin. One of the few times I got into a serious, in-depth discussion with a minister was when I told Howard Clark that I would not pledge undying loyalty to HWA as a precondition for baptism and couldn't understand why that was required or why anyone would agree to it. He finally dropped it as a pre-baptismal requirement for me.
I never discussed how it was that an egomaniac like Paul could argue with Jesus's disciples and say he never learned anything from any of them. It was 2 or 3 years after graduation while I was working in the Business Office that I began to really read the Bible in any critical fashion and to ask obvious questions of myself about what I read. At that point I was on my way out the door, but stayed around another 5 or 6 years to keep my marriage together (which was totally worth it to me), even if it did put me on an emotional rollercoaster.
Anyway, Den - thank you for posting such thoughtful pieces. People like me and others appreciate them even if we don't get into "bible discussions" in response.
Bob and Den, I hope you both find or have found peace where you are now. I enjoyed having both you guys and RJ and Captain Ernie and a bunch of other AC/WCG people in my life story.
Glenn Parker (aka Paco)
Glenn Parker, you remind me: "Meredith announced during the first week of First Year Bible (Harmony of the Gospels) that he didn't have time for questions during class," as an example of " the lack of any real, serious discussion of anything either in or out of class."
This was a big reason I left Ambassador at the end of my freshman year--the anti-intellectualism. Another big reason was the general smothery earnestness of the place. I was the kind of kid who appreciated irony, and precious few ever engaged in it there.
The experience was not wasted, though. As I like to point out, you can learn more from one bad example than you can from twelve good ones.
When I became a secular professor in a secular school, I operated the opposite way to Meredith. I did give lectures sometimes--ten-minute ones--but mostly I structured class meetings around student questions. I would assign them to write questions about the readings, compile them into a list (naming the students who had asked the questions), hand them out (later e-mailed them), and invite students to answer their fellows' questions. I tried to teach the value of independent inquiry.
I'm glad to see that commenters on this blog have learned that value independently.
We could hold Feast services at Barney's Ltd Pub in Old Town Pasadena. They have great shrimp and calamari! If we are going to tick off the Armstrongites, let's go whole hog! :-)
I have always thought it would be great to get a bunch of us together and spend afternoon together. What a trip that would be!
What shall we call our Feast?
There was a bunch of gay guys from Pasadena who were organizing a get together for gays in the Church years ago. They were going to do it in Las Vegas and were going to call it, Fall Autumn Gathering. So we would need a great acronym for our gathering.......
We could go and pay homage at HWA's grave-site.
The Salt Shaker has been torn down, so no High Holy Day meals there after Atonement. Ernie Jr.s is in Eagle Rock.
Perhaps we could invite James Malm, Lord knows he needs some fun in his dismal life! Maybe all he needs is a cigar, some beer and some people who would actually listen to him.
So... you go to AC to become a minister (just about the only way in WCG to become one), and the first thing they tell you is you shouldn't want to be a minister, if you want to be one.
THAT explains a lot.
Wow, what a cool video!
It takes me back to when I first took LSD when I was 18, and it really opened my mind to another something.
(I bought a few hits of blotter acid from Jack "Jesse" James that day.
Previously, I'd heard about LSD, but was very afraid to try it. But I had a conversation with my friend Spinny who had taken it, and he described his own experience to me, and allayed my fears.
Now, I don't remember all that he said in that conversation, but I do remember him describing seeing a small twig at the end of a tree branch that was spinning around it.
So, I put the little square piece of paper I'd purchased for $2.00 under my tongue. I waited for 20 minutes. Nothing. After another 20 or so minutes, with still no results, I put the other little $2 squares of paper under my tongue.
I resolved to go tell Jack how the "A" he'd sold me was useless. Maybe get my money back.
While walking over to Jack's house to complain, something strange happened. I had a glimpse of something. It happened while I noticed a small piece of a tree's root protruding from the ground next to the sidewalk. While walking, and during that quick glance at that little root nodule, I became aware of something, and perceived in a way I'd never perceived before.
I got to Jack's house, sat down, and he arrived shortly after I had smoked a roach in the ashtray on his kitchen table. I tried to complain to him. I really did.
The acid I'd taken was really kicking in while we conversed. I stuck to what I'd decided to do, which was to complain that the acid hadn't done anything for me(which was completely true 45 minutes earlier), but we both knew I was totally bullshitting at that point. .. He had the biggest smile on his face as he said things like "are you sure?
I left Jesse's and walked down the street to where Steve was babysitting at his aunt's home. The kids had gone to sleep by that point, as it was about 8:30PM.
I sat down in a comfortable chair, and somehow Steve and I got into a conversation about the Grateful Dead song, Unbroken Chain. I said that it was Phil Lesh who sang it, but Steve got really emotional and was practically in tears as he insisted that it was Jerry singing it "in the key of G"
I went to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror into my eyes. It was beyond anything I'd experienced up to that point in my life. My pupils were dilated, and my green irises were pulsating like how a jellyfish propels itself through it's watery domain.
All was good, as I stood in the bathroom, checking out my eyes and starting to wonder about what was happening.
I left and started walking home. (I lived with my parents and had pretty much grown up in the WCG.)
That walk home was amazing. As I walked over a bridge, I felt the water below was some new kind of thing. As I walked onto the far side of the bridge, I had a flash and leapt up and tore off leaves from a tree into my hands, tightening my fists onto them as I tilted and jumped and had the profound realization that what my parents had taught me did not have to be how I see things.
I can't accurately describe it. Maybe it's why it's said to not use God's name.
It was like a wind in the soul that cut so far down that there was nothing left to say about it.
Norm
Norm!! send me some!! :)
Allan: Magan's comment still has me giggling. I learned my last mortal words on earth would be "Oh Shit" as one night on the way home from a church function I was approached by a head on collision. The last thing I consciously saw was the pattern in his headlights nose to nose with me. Then it was over. Nothing....I was sitting on the side of the road and there was no other car...nuttin. No collision...nuttin. That car was gone. I drove home and to this day have no idea what happened. I'm pretty sure God was saving me to be a massage therapist.
Hey Glenn. enoyed our Starbucks chat awhile back. Hang in there!!! Nothing is for nothing! (Or so they say :)
Gary: I say we have part of our progressive dinner at Joe Jr's home. I still want to talk to him about retirement, the trinity and that godawful Surprising God Blog
Dennis Luker told me that students at Ambassador College were subsidized to the tune of $8,000 per year. That means that over a period of 4 years, the tithes us ordinary nothing members sacrificed by paying the subsidies was $32,000 for each student.
So now we see that the guys with the special bonding each of whom we paid $32,000 cult blood money some of which became ministers of the cult and lied to us, now are thinking of having a get together as part of a special exclusive "club" and telling us about their "good old days".
I'm not sure what the rest of us should feel about that.
Nice to have bragging rights, though.
Douglas,
Thank you (and all others) for making it possible for me to live and work for 10 years in the nicest physical surroundings of my life. I once added up all the money I was paid by AC/WCG and compared that to how much I had contributed. Needless to say, I cam out way ahead. So, I cannot say that being a member of the church was a financial hardship for me. The fact that my relatively well-off existence came at the expense of other members was something that bothered me for years. But, I paid a price in other ways, physically and emotionally.
Glenn Parker
Douglas:
I don't think anyone here is talking about a "special exclusive club" getting together. It's about anyone who participates here that has been part of the Armstrongite cults getting together.
The chances of it happening are very slim considering the distance we all live apart from each other. It's more a time to share horror stories and our experience of what life was like in the cult - just like we all do here.
Personally, in retrospect, I am so glad I did not attend Ambassador College. You are all very well welcome to the $75,000+ I contributed over my lifetime to just the WCG.
I strongly suspect that it would have been an unqualified disaster, not just for me, but for everybody, especially those in the ministry and administration -- just like I do here. But maybe much much much worse.
"So now we see that the guys with the special bonding each of whom we paid $32,000 cult blood money some of which became ministers of the cult and lied to us, now are thinking of having a get together as part of a special exclusive "club" and telling us about their "good old days"."
I dont really see it that way Doug. They were fooled just like the rest of us. Some by their parents and some by just the ministers. You cannot really fault Dennis, Gary, Glenn or any of these other guys for going to AC. For most church youth, it was simply expected of them. Regardless of who paid for their "bonding" they have every right to cherish the little good they found in what amounted to being a really, really bad situation.
Onward.
Douglas, if I were to feel resentment towards anyone, it would be someone like Dennis Luker or Ron Kelly. Or perhaps the the whole group who conspired for years to go form United. It was all about money and power for them, above all "beliefs" and principals.
Glenn,
If you saw RJ as late as 1980, then you last saw him after I did. When I left WCG in 1975, I deliberately cut myself off from both members and ex-members. It's not that I had anything against ex-members per se, it's just that there was so much new that I was discovering and discussing with new friends, but it seemed that any time I ran into ex members (including my own family!) all we ever managed to discuss was our past with Armstrongism. It was stuff I was trying to purge, not perpetuate. Now, with better grounding, I don't mind discussing it any more, because I know we are often helping others.
During your visit with RJ, it sounds as if he was behaving in vintage RJ fashion. Sunning, athletics, investments, and the always present Colt 45. That's a kind of unique combination, it's stuff we originally did at Olcott Place. Occasionally, we'd ditch sabbath services, and catch some rays and Colt 45 on the roof at Olcott. Generally, we'd be reading the Bible, or some church lit so that we wouldn't be totally profaning the sabbath, but we'd also be discussing some of the prettier AC coeds (a lot!). RJ had a huge crush on a girl named Bev.
I don't know what happened to our friend. I do know that he had lifelong problems with blood pressure, and hope he got that under control. He has a very unique last name, and one would think that if he were active on the internet or in social media, he'd be easy to find, but I have never been able to track him down. He certainly had a unique perspective on life. Very intelligent, with multiple degrees (one in teaching), but very highly strung. I hope life has gone well for him. I also don't know what ever happened to Captain Ernie.
Like yourself, I apologize to the membership of our blog here for delving into personal conversation, (and my past waste of their tithes!) but, hey, life is about people and the relationships we form while here on terra firma.
BB
Norm,
There was a lot of the stuff you described happening in Pasadena during the early 1970s. Seems like it started to hit the young people in WCG right about 1972. I personally never had a psychedelic experience, but have read quite a bit about Owsley, Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, Kerouac, Timothy Leary, Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels, and the others who were influential in the San Francisco Bay counter-culture that eventually swept the nation.
As I understand it, the more intellectually inclined used halucinogens in much the same ways in which Native Americans pursued spiritual enlightenment. To me, that whole scene is further indication of man's innate need for something greater than himself. It's another way in which mankind has tried to find some sort of generic enlightenment, or specifically God. Others, of course, simply took drugs to party.
The Unitarians believe that all roads we can take in life ultimately lead back to God. It is fascinating to study the many ways in which some of our great thinkers have pursued Him.
BB
"The Unitarians believe that all roads we can take in life ultimately lead back to God. It is fascinating to study the many ways in which some of our great thinkers have pursued Him."`
Why is "pursuit" necessary? If I make anything, I'm right there by it and available. The object doesn't have to go looking for me and theorizing who and what I am.
I recently made a set of dog stairs our little Pomchi uses to climb up on our bed. It's no mystery to her or anyone else who the creator of that set of stairs with its carpeted steps is. I didn't go hide somewhere like the great "creator" so many people like to prate about, leaving mystified observers to speculate and theorized who or what brought that thing into being.
I have a bit of pride in what I constructed. It would never occur to me to make a mystery of its origin.
Byker Bob,
Although you may not have experimented as I did, it sounds like you actually have a better understanding of the history, in some respects.
I am convinced that having a good mindset and environment in which one engages in such experimentation can make all the difference in how it goes.
Slipping someone something like that without their knowledge just seems so incredibly wrong, with a large potential for harm.
Boning up on the history, I just read Wikedia's page about Project MKULTRA, and it's very disturbing.
During the CIA's Project MKULTRA, people were given psychoactive drugs, often without their consent or knowledge.
In 1973, CIA Director Helms ordered all MKULTRA files destroyed. However, there were apparently another 20,000 MKULTRA documents which were never destroyed due to them being mis-filed, and they turned up by virtue of a Freedom of Information request.
Here's an interesting bit-
Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, participated in CIA-sponsored MKULTRA experiments conducted at Harvard University from the fall of 1959 through the spring of 1962. During World War II, Henry Murray, the lead researcher in the Harvard experiments, served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a forerunner of the CIA. Murray applied for a grant funded by the United States Navy, and his Harvard stress experiments strongly resembled those run by the OSS. Beginning at the age of sixteen, Kaczynski participated along with twenty-one other undergraduate students in the Harvard experiments, which have been described as "disturbing" and "ethically indefensible."
Norm
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