1953

1953

21 March 1956

MK-ULTRA [unreadable]: COMPTROLLER

ATTENTION: Finance Division

SUBJECT: MK-ULTRA, Subproject 58

Under the authority granted in the Memoranda dated 13 April 1953 from the DCI to the DD/2, and the extension of this authority in subsequent memoranda, Subproject 58 has been approved, and $2,000.00 of the over-all Project MK-ULTRA funds has been obligated to cover the subproject’s expenses and should be charged to Allotment 6-2502-10-001.

[redacted – Acting Chief] TSS/Chemical Division

APPROVED FOR OBLIGATION OF FUNDS.

Research Director [redacted] Date: [redacted]

Mazatecs get flooded by dam, are relocated. 

Wasson and Weitlaner there in 1953

They meet Aurelio Carreras that same year.

The velada was held on the night of Saturday, 15 August 1953 stretching into the early hours of the following day, in Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca. We were talking with one of our best informants in Huautla, don Aurelio Carreras, a one-eyed butcher. […] He had furnished us with entheogenic mushrooms of two species and clearly meant us well. He had no success in finding shaman […] As we chatted with Aurelio, quite casually, don Roberto asked,

‘And tell us, Aurelio, when you give treatments (hace curaciones), are they successful?’

‘Always’, he answered.

For days we had been talking to a cotacine (‘one-who-knows’ in Mazatec, ‘shaman’) all unawares.

~ Gordon Wasson

</blockquote>

Gordon Wasson in Persephone’s Quest, Yale University Press, 1986, ISBN: 0-300-05366-9

pp. 33-35

On April 13, 1953, While Huxley was dashing off that enthusiastic note to Osmond concerning mescaline, the CIA formally approved MK-ULTRA, and diverted $300,000 to fund its initial investigations.[…]

Hiding itself behind two respectable fronts, the Josiah Macy Foundation and the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research, the CIA began funneling dollars to an intercontinental network that rivaled the one being forged by Huxley and Hubbard.<a id="ednref1" href="#edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>

~ Jay Stevens

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<a id="edn1" href="#ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> Jay Stevens, Storming Heaven, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987, pp. 80-81. ISBN: 0-87113-076-9

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In A Terrible Mistake, regarding Andrija Puharich’s background, Hank Albarelli states:

In February 1953, Puharich gave a lecture on extrasensory perception to the Pentagon’s Advisory Group on Psychological Warfare and Unconventional Warfare. A few months later, he was asked to give a similar presentation to the Air Force Aviation School in San Antonio, Texas.

In November 1953, ten days before Frank Olson’s death, Puharich was invited to the Pentagon to meet with CIA officials and psychological warfare experts. The group was interested in funding his research into extrasensory perception, but made it clear that funds would have to go through a university that would act as what Puharich termed “a blind.” He agreed to the proposal but nothing happened for several months, until his commanding officer, Col. Norman W. Wlton, at Edgewood Arsenal, asked if he would consider doing another lecture on extrasensory perception before a select group from Edgewood, Camp Detrick, and the CIA.[…]

Recently uncovered document fragments from the mostly destroyed MKULTRA collection reveal that Puharich had far more contact and interaction with the CIA and Army concerning drug experimentation then he indicates in any of his books. Indeed, it appears that Puharich participated in a number of secret experiments with Amanita muscaria, the species of psychoactive mushrooms mentioned in his book. The experiments took place at prisons for men in New Jersey and Maryland, as well as at spring Grove mental hospital in Catonsville, Maryland. Also involved in these experiments was Dr. Amadeo Marazzi.

Worth noting, is that Col. Norman W. Elton, according to declassified Army documents, oversaw the “use of volunteers in research in defense against chemical warfare," including "the exposure of individuals to the hazards of toxic chemicals." These chemicals being standard or candidate CW agents or they may be standard or candidate therapeutic agents."<a id="ednref1" href="#edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>

~ Hank Albarelli

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<a id="edn1" href="#ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> Hank Albarelli, A Terrible Mistake: The Murdier of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, Trine Day, 2009. P. 53ff

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The dam project was started in 1947 according to Benitez (p. 14).   The summary from the internet (see above) is wrong.  In April of 1953 the first group of Mazatecs was relocated (Benitez, p. 18). The dam was completed in 1954, after being tested first by engineers and then by Mazatec witches (p. 21-22).

Checking the website History Orb. com show me that in Jan. 1953 the Cold War got into high gear: Jan 7th - US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb

33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman

Jan 9th - Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off Pusan killing 249

Jan 11th - J. Edgar Hoover declines 6 figure offer to become president of International Boxing Club

Jan 12th - 9 "Jewish" physicians arrested for "terrorist activities" in Moscow

Jan 13th - Marshal Josip Tito chosen president of Yugoslavia

First Director of the FBI J. Edgar HooverFirst Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover

Jan 14th - Yugoslavia elects its 1st president (Marshal Tito)

Jan 15th - GDR Min of Foreign affairs Georg Dertingen arrested for "espionage"

Jan 15th - East Germany purges senior officials, accused of spying for 'imperialistic powers' and plotting against the state

Jan 16th - Egyptian Premier Gen Naguib disbands all political parties

Jan 20th - 1st live US coast-to-coast inauguration address (Eisenhower)

Jan 21st - John Foster Dulles appointed as US Secretary of State

On July 27 1953, peace negotiations ended and the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea was formed.  What a year!!! Dullles and Hoover appointed. Tito into power.   Spying charges galore.

1953

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