Montreal experiments

The Montreal experiments were a series of experiments, initially aimed to treat schizophrenia[1] by changing memories and erasing the patients' thoughts using the Scottish psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron's method of "psychic driving", [2] as well as drug-induced sleep, intensive electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation and Thorazine.

The experiments were conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University between 1957 and 1964 by Cameron and funded by the CIA as part of Project MKUltra, which lasted until 1973 and was only revealed to the public in 1975.

[2][6] In 1953 he developed his theory of "psychic driving" to cure schizophrenia which he later used on his patients under the Project MKUltra, with the codename "Subproject 68"[1] for which he was recruited by the CIA in 1957.

He was paid $69,000 through the front company "Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology"[7] from 1957 to 1964 to carry out these experiments, as well as receiving "more than $500,000 between 1950 and 1965"[8] from the federal government.

The procedures included psychic driving, drug-induced sleep, intensive electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation and the administration of neuroleptic Thorazine.

Cameron often combined the sleep periods with injections of hallucinogenic drugs (e.g. LSD), as well as administration of electroshocks and the playing of pre-recorded messages into patients' ears.

This process took place for up to 16 hours a day, and over the whole period messages could be repeated up to half a million times altogether.

[8] The subjects of the experiment mainly had mental health issues like depression and schizophrenia, and were hoping to get treated for these illnesses by Donald Ewen Cameron.

It was not until 1975 that the general public were informed about the extent of CIA meddling, largely due to the involvement of the Church Committee, which was tasked with the investigation of "the extent, if any, to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities were engaged in by any agency of the Federal Government,"[23] During the 1977 Senate Hearing on MKUltra, Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy called for the release of all documents pertaining to MKUltra, saying "the best way to put this period behind us, obviously, is to have the full information…"[24] The Senate Hearing also allowed the CIA Director of the time, Stansfield Turner, to give his prepared statement and to elaborate on the discovery of seven boxes of information related to Project MKUltra, most of which turned out to consist of "approvals for advance of funds, vouchers, accountings, and the like - most of which are not very informative as to the nature of the activities that were undertaken.

[25] The second episode, released in 2017, focuses on the present-day struggle of the victims to receive compensation, the hindrances made to prevent them from speaking out about their experiences, and the efforts of the CIA and Canadian government to keep their involvement hidden.

"[8] To this day, neither the Canadian government nor the CIA have issued formal apologies for their involvement and funding of Project MKUltra or the Montreal experiments.