William Sargant

Graves certainly had the respect of Gordon Wasson, vice-president of J.P Morgan and William Sargant, who worked for the British intelligence services. Wasson went to Mexico to look for the mystical mushrooms after corresponding with Graves. Wasson had also been impressed with Grave’s play, I Claudius, so it’s probably safe to assume that Wasson held Graves in high regard if he went to Mexico because of him.

<a href="http://socialmediatrader.com/social-networks-influencers-and-the-story-of-lsd/">http://socialmediatrader.com/social-networks-influencers-and-the-story-of-lsd/</a>

Frank Olson met with William Sargent - Acid - A New Secret History of LSD, pg. 27-28 by David Black

<a href="http://www.robertgraves.org/trust/print.php?id=3309">http://www.robertgraves.org/trust/print.php?id=3309</a>

Subseriers: Gordon Wasson_16

Description

Letter from Gordon Wasson to Dr William Sargent

Main author

Wasson, Gordon (1898-1986)

2nd author

Wasson, Valentina (1901-1958)

Recipient

Sargant, William

Items

Original or copy

original

Physical details

Red ring binder - Wasson & Mushrooms

Genre

letter

Subseries ID

CC-0458-016

Call No

CC-0458-016

Date From

n.d.

Notes

1 TL carbon. Unsigned. Probably stapled to letter to Graves.

The defining role of the relentless beat in rock music explains why its impact is musically rather than lyrically. As sociologist Simon Frith points out in his book Sound Effects, Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock ‘n’ Roll, "A word-based approach is not helpful at getting at the meaning of rock . . . . The words, if they are noticed at all, are absorbed after the music has made its mark."18

The physical damage to the eardrums caused by the excessive volume rock is discussed at some length in Chapter 8 by Tore Sognefest. Studies on hearing loss indicate that listening to rock, whether through walkman, discotheques, or concerts, has become a widespread hazard. The problem has assumed such alarming proportions that consumer activists and audiologists have proposed that local governments should enforce a 100-decibel level on rock played in clubs.57 In a major study on the Neurophysiology of Rock, research scientists Daniel and Bernadette Skubik emphasize with amazing clarity  the musical impact of the rock beat. "The conclusion of these studies is twofold. First, lyrics are of minor importance here.   the overall neurophysiological effects generated by rock music remain the same. in its impact. Second, short-term implications involve a decrease in receptivity in discursive communication, while long-term implications pose serious questions for rehabilitation of degraded left-hemisphere cognitive skills. In less technical jargon and in

The Effects of the Rock Beat. A wealth of scientific research exists on the various psychological, physiological, and social negative effects of the rock beat on humans and animals. Experts have examined rock music, not as a spiritual or religious experience, but as a social, psychological, and physiological phenomenon. Since Chapter 8 deals specifically with the effects of rock music, only a few studies are cited in this context.

An important reason why rock music affects the body in a way that is unlike any other type of music is the unique character of the rock beat, usually referred to as "offbeat." The offbeat of rock music consists, as noted earlier, of a weak-strong sequence. This offbeat stops at the end of each bar or measure, as if the music stops and then starts again. This causes the listener to subconsciously come to an halt at the end of each bar. This is the opposite of the so-called dactylic or waltz-like beat, which reflects the heartbeat and other rhythms of the body.

Psychiatrist Verle Bell offers a graphic explanation of how rock beat causes addiction: "One of the most powerful releases of the fight-or-flight adrenaline high is music which is discordant in its beats or chords. Good music follows exact mathematical rules, which causes the mind to feel comforted, encouraged, and ‘safe.’ Musicians have found that when they go against these rules, the listener experiences an addictive high.

"Like unscrupulous ‘diet’ doctors who addicted their clients to amphetamines to ensure their continued dependence, musicians know that discordant music sells and sells. As in all addiction, victims become tolerant. The same music that once created a pleasant tingle of excitement no longer satisfies. The music must become more jarring, louder, and more discordant. One starts with soft rock, then rock ‘n’ roll, then on up to heavy metal music."20 Neuroscientists Daniel and Bernadette Skubik provide a concise explanation of how the rock beat affects the muscles, the mind, and the hormone levels. "Rhythm for which drums provide or generate the basic beat, produces measurable responses in the body’s muscular system, brainwave patterns and hormone levels. Briefly, (1) muscle coordination and control become synchronized with the basic beat; (2) brainwave activity itself aligns with the rhythm so generated; and (3) various hormones (specifically, opiates and sex hormones) are released as a result of electrophysiological synchronization with the rhythm. These results have been regularly documented by various researchers, and though individual subjects may vary in their response over narrow ranges of controlled input, all normal subjects have reacted as indicated when the rhythm exceeds 3-4 beats per second–roughly speaking a rhythm exceeding the rate of the average heartbeat."21 The Effect of the Rock Beat on Muscles. John Diamond is a respected physician who has conducted extensive research on the impact of music on the human body. His book Your Body Doesn’t Lie contains a wealth of information on this subject. After a study of over 20,000 records, he found that the rock beat affects the body negatively in several ways. For example, he found that the stopped offbeat weakens the body because it goes against the normal rhythm of human physiology, thus affecting the heart and blood pressure. The rock beat sets in motion an automatic fight-and-flight response, which causes a secretion of the hormone, epinephrine.22 The body reacts to the beat with muscle weakness, anxiety, and aggressive behavior. Diamond relates the unexpected way in which he came to research the effects of the rock beat. "Several years ago my research on the effect of music took an unexpected turn. Shopping in the record department of a large New York store, I became weak and restless and generally ill at ease. The place was vibrating with rock music. Later I did the obvious thing–I tested the effect of this music. . . . Using hundreds of subjects, I found that listening to rock music frequently causes all the muscles in the body to go weak. The normal pressure required to overpower a strong deltoid muscle in an adult male is about 40 to 45 pounds. When rock music is played, only 10 to 15 pounds is needed."23 In his book Tuning the Human Instrument, Steven Halpern reports several studies on how the rock rhythm affects the mind and the body. One of them is similar to the study of Dr. Diamond. He wrote: "Dr. Sheldon Deal, a nationally known chiropractor and author, and by no means an old fuddy-duddy categorically putting down all of Rock and Roll per se, demonstrated the effect of the standard Rock ‘n’ Roll beat on muscle strength of the body. Using tests basic to kinesiology [that is, movement dependent on stimulation], he showed that the rhythm arrangement that we hear all the time in pop music has a definite weakening effect on the subject’s strength. . . . This effect held true whether the subject liked the style of music or not. In other words, how one ‘felt’ about the music, tastewise, was irrelevant in terms of how the body ‘felt’ . . . a common denominator cutting through most subjective reactions is that of sexual arousal."24 Other scientific studies have produced similar results. "Researchers at Louisiana State University found that listening to hard-driving rock music increased the heart rates and lowered the quality of workouts in a group of twenty-four young adults. In contrast, easy-listening or softer music lowered heart rates and allowed for longer training sessions."25 Similar experiments are reported in Chapter 8. One of them was conducted by the author of the chapter, Tore Sognefest, a Norwagian music professor and author of the book The Power of Music. In another study on the effects of rock music, "Researchers at Temple University found that university students exposed to recordings by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and other similar bands, breathed faster, showed reduced skin resistance to stimuli, and had an increased heart rate compared to those exposed to random background noise."26

Rock Rhythm and Sexual Response. One of the best known effects of the rock rhythm is sexual arousal. Rock musicians are well aware of this fact and exploit it to their advantage. Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS was asked on Entertainment Tonight if parents should be concerned about teens listening to their music. With candid frankness Simmons replied: "They should be concerned because we are into girls–that is what rock is all about–sex with a 100-megaton bomb, the beat."27 Here, without comment, are few other testimonies of rock stars. Mick Jagger said: "You can feel the adrenalin flowing through the body. It’s sort of sexual. I entice my audience. What I do is very much the same as a girl’s striptease dance."28 Jim Morrison stated: "I feel spiritual up there. Think of us as erotic politicians."29 Richard Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, said: "Rock music is sex and you have to hit them [teenagers] in the face with it."30 John Taylor, bassist for Duran Duran, stated: "When the music works, the audience and the performer often feel like they’re having an orgasm together."31 These comments by rock stars make it abundantly clear that rock is designed to stimulate people sexually.

How does the rock beat stimulate sexual arousal? Daniel and Bernadette Skubik explain the process: "When the beat generates high levels of sensory excitation (that is, when due to the pace of the rhythm and loudness of the music the auditory impact nears maximal reception), the brain is put in a state of stress. This state of stress is measurable in ‘driving’ brainwave activity. This driving activity occurs in all people when highly stimulated; subjective evaluation of the input–such as whether one likes or dislikes the music–is not a factor. To force its activity levels down and to achieve homeostasis, the brain releases the body’s natural opioids. These opioids are naturally produced opiates chemically similar to drugs like morphine. They are used to control the body’s sensitivity to pain. . . .

Considerable evidence confirms that rock music generates or enhances sexual arousal by way of this same process. That is, to high sensory stimulation the body responds with the release of gonadotrophins as well as opioids. The result is a strong connection forged between a stressed fight-or-flight drive state and the young person’s developing sexual drive, which then invariably links arousal to aggression. . . . As rock music has moved farther away from its historical roots and medium (viz. folk music), it both causes and expresses an increasing association of overt aggression linked to sexuality."32 A similar and yet simpler explanation is given by Anne Rosenfeld in her article "Music, The Beautiful Disturber," published in Psychology Today. She explains that music arouses "a range of agitated feelings–tense, excited, sometimes sexual–through pronounced and insistent rhythms, . . . artfully used to heighten the sexual tension . . . drumming may produce these powerful effects by actually driving the brain’s electrical rhythms."33 The secretion of hormones, caused by the abnormal stimulus of the rock beat, results in an overstimulation of the sex glands without a normal release. Bob Larson points out that this is "the prelude to the release that will occur in the parked car after the dance, and it is a direct cause of the bodily obscenity that occurs on the dance floor. I speak not only from medical counsel, but also from personal observation when I state that girls who erotically give their bodies to the frenzied gyrations accompanying rock rhythms may be undergoing a sexually climactic condition. . . . We must also realize that unconscious emotion, because of its nature, is influenced by many factors, one of which is vibrations (e. g., the deep bass sound found in rock music). . . .The sex-related emotions generated by the vibrations in the unconscious seek expression in conscious thought and activity. I have observed couples who actually undergo an imaginary sex act in their minds and bodies while dancing. This abnormal, musically induced, simulated orgasm is both psychologically and physiologically destructive. Neurosis is the direct result. It is also sin!"34

The Effects of Rock on the Mind. Rock music affects not only the physical but also the mental processes of the body.

we need to be aware of the fact that music is perceived through the portion of the brain that receives stimuli for sensations and feelings, without being first screened by the brain centers involving reason and intelligence.

This discovery, which was made over fifty years ago and has been confirmed since then by numerous scientists,38 has contributed to the development of music therapy. "Music, which does not depend upon the master brain to gain entrance into the organism, can still arouse by way of the thalamus–the relay station of all emotions, sensations, and feeling. Once a stimulus has been able to reach the thalamus, the master brain is automatically invaded."39 Two German scientists, G. Harrer and H. Harrer, conducted experiments to determine the effect of music on the body. They found that even when the attention of the listener was purposely drawn away from the music, a strong, emotional response was registered on instruments measuring changes in the pulse and breath rates, as well as in the psychogalvanic (electrical) skin reflexes.40 Bob Larson, who studied medicine before becoming a popular rock musician, explains this point with considerable clarity: "The spoken word must pass through the master brain to be interpreted, translated, and screened for moral content. Not so with music–especially with rock music. Such pounding fury can bypass this protective screen and cause a person to make no value judgment whatsoever on what he is hearing."41 Joseph Crow, a researcher at the University of Seattle, conducted an interesting study of the rock culture and its music. He found that "Rock is a use of music based on mathematical formulae to condition the mind through calculated frequencies (vibrations), and it is used to modify the body chemistry to make the mind susceptible to modification and indoctrination. Rock music can be (and is) employed for mindbending, reeducation, and re-organization."42 Several scientific studies have established the negative effects of rock music on the mind. In his study of "Behavioral Kinesiology" [that is, movement dependent on stimulation], Diamond found that the weak rock beat causes "switched" thinking in the brain. "Using the principles and techniques of Behavioral Kinesology, I have also demonstrated that when the weakening beat is played, the phenomenon called switching occurs–that is, symmetry between the two cerebral hemispheres is lost, introducing subtle perceptual difficulties and a host of other early manifestations of stress. The entire body is thrown into a state of alarm."43 Diamond continues explaining more fully the effects of rock music on the mind. "The perceptual changes that occur may well manifest themselves in children as decreased performance in school, hyperactivity, and restlessness; in adults, as decreased work output, increased errors, general inefficiency, reduced decision-making capacity on the job, and a nagging feeling that things just are not right–in short, the loss of energy for no apparent reason. This has been observed clinically hundreds of times. In my practice I have found that the academic records of many school children improve considerable after they stop listening to rock music while studying."44 Similar conclusions have been reached by other scientific studies on the effects of rock music on the mind. Psychologist Jeffery Arnett found that young people who listened to metal rock "reported a higher rate of a wide range of reckless behaviors, including driving behavior, sexual behavior, and drug use. They were also less satisfied with their family relationships. Girls who liked heavy-metal music were more reckless in the areas of shoplifting, vandalism, sexual behavior, drug use, and reported lower self-esteem."45 In his book Rock Music, William Shafer, a scholar not opposed to rock music, acknowledges that "rock is a tool for altering consciousness. . . . Associated with rock, for instance, is a cult of irrationality, a reverence for the instinctual, the visceral–and a distrust of reason and logic; this form of anti-intellectualism can be highly dangerous, can lead to totalitarian modes of thought and action. Linked with this anit-intellectualism is an interest in the occult: magic, superstittion, exotic religious thought, anything contrary to the main currect of Western thought."46

Rock Music and Patty Hearst’s Conversion. One of the most frightening examples of the awesome power of rock music to alter the mind is the conversion of Patty Hearst. In February 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Shortly after the kidnapping, Patty was caught on video cameras helping the SLA robbing banks. You wonder how they converted her? William Sargant, one of Britain's foremost experts on brainwashing, examined Patty Hearst.

Sargant’s alarming conclusions were reported by Newsweek: "She was an unwilling victim of a ‘forced conversion’ or brainwashing. According to Sargant, a person whose nervous system is under constant pressure can ‘inhibit’ and ‘exhibit paradoxical brain activity–bad becomes good and vice versa.’ And that, Sargant argues, is precisely what happened to Patty Hearst. Her nervous system was kept at maximum stress by the continual playing of loud rock music."47 The capacity of rock music to alter the thinking process of a person like Patty Hearst, making her "an unwilling victim of a forced conversion," exemplifies the danger of exposing oneself to such music. In his book Tuning the Human Instrument, Steven Halpern warns us of this danger with these arresting words: "Rock stars are juggling fissionable material that could blow up at any time."48 Rock musicians have long recognized the mind-altering power of their music. Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist who ended up serving a Californian jail sentence for possession of marijuana, makes this point in his song "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out," which became an anthem for millions. In his book, Politics of Ecstasy, Leary states: "Don’t listen to the words, it’s the music that has its own message. . . . I’ve been stoned on the music many times. . . . The music is what will get you going."49 In a similar fashion, Mick Jagger said: "We are moving after the minds and so are most of the new groups." 50 In Melody Maker he said: "Communication is the answer to the whole of the world’s problems and music is the key to it all because the music opens the door to everybody’s mind." 51 Graham Nash similarly stated: "Pop music is the mass medium for conditioning the way people think."52 Rock Music Is Felt, not Heard. Rock music has a unique mind-altering power because, as Bob Larson explains with enviable clarity, contrary to other forms of music, "it is written to be felt rather than heard. It is performed to dull the attention of the listener. It is not the melodic inventiveness or the chromatic arrangement of the chords that interests the average teenager. Rock performers try to produce a ‘sound’ with the dull, steady, heavy, throbbing, mid-deadening beat. And it is this beat that is captivating so many young people, making them easy prey for the lyrics. Other types of music could be found guilty or wrong also, but at present rock music is the most damaging to the young contingent of Americans who are preparing to take the leadership of the country in the years ahead."53 The subordination of the melodic line in rock music to a pulsating, relentless rhythm has an hypnotic effect that causes people to lose touch with reality. Bob Larson states: "The steady pounding can cause the mind to go into a state of daydreaming in which it loses touch with reality. This in turn causes the dancer or the listener to lose touch with the value system related to reality. Any monotonous, lengthy, rhythmic sound induces various stages of trances. It is quite obvious to any qualified, objective observer that teenagers dancing to rock often enter hypnotic trances. When control of the mind is weakened or lost, evil influences can often take possession. Loss of self-control is dangerous and sinful. In a state of hypnosis the mind of the listener can respond to almost any suggestion given it. Such compulsive behavior is indicated by the rising tide of promiscuity and by the increasing rebelliousness of modern youth."54 Janis Joplin, a popular rock singer who committed suicide, described the tremendous power of rock music she experienced following her first appearance at the Avalon, a San Francisco ballroom. "I couldn

t believe it, all that rhythm and power. I got stoned just feeling it like it was the best dope in the world. It was so sensual, so vibrant, loud, crazy. I couldn’t stay still; I have never danced when I sang, but there I was moving and jumping. I couldn’t hear myself, so I sang louder and louder. By the end I was wild."55 There is no way to insulate the bodily responses from the pulsating and pounding power of rock music, because it impacts directly on the body, bypassing the mind. Marye Mannes is quoted by the Washington Post as saying that rock music is "the new illiteracy, and the young love it. They love it because they would rather feel than think. It is easier. It is easier for those who cater for them. For, to blast the senses–to blow the mind–you don’t need training. You don’t need knowledge. You don’t even need talent. All you need is a boundless ego, a manic temperament, and the loudest amplifying equipment you can get. Then you can do your own thing." She concludes: "If the essence of creative expression is to bring meaning and beauty into life, then the sound and the fury of the new illiteracy is bent on destroying both."56

--=-

All of this inevitably conjures associations with the CIA’s notorious mind control program of the 1950s and beyond, MKULTRA. And as it happens, there is an overlap here also, in the form of William Sargant. Sargant was a contemporary of my grandfather and a British psychiatrist best remembered for promoting treatments such as psychosurgery, deep sleep treatment, electroconvulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. Sargant worked in some capacity for MI5 (and possibly MI6),80 and corresponded with the infamous psychiatrist Ewen Cameron (who was performing MKULTRA research in Canada). While he reputedly wanted the British government to distance itself from the CIA project (he called it “blacker than black”81), he remained committed to the principle of mind control, and allegedly became the link between British Intelligence and MKULTRA.

Besides his affiliations with the Tavistock Institute,* the first reason Sargant is relevant to my own family history is that, once again, there is a curious overlap with the world of Fabianism, leftist movements, and progressive creative circles. In 1954, a convalescing Sargant was completing his book Battle for the Mind in Majorca, and had Robert Graves on hand to help him edit it. Robert Graves is of course the famous poet, novelist and critic who is as responsible as Joseph Campbell for reintroducing ancient myths into popular culture (The White Goddess) and popularizing ancient history (I Claudius). In passing, he was teaching at Oxford during my grandfather’s tenure there, so it’s possible they met, though if so, I never heard about it.

~ Jasun Horsely - Occult Yokrshire - 46

William Sargant

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