Dr. Donald Hebb
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">Mind Control 101</h3>
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<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on" ><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--TL7j2AH49Q/TmCJIgBopYI/AAAAAAAAALc/Aimu0I2_xpc/s1600/mcgill%2Bhebb%2Bexperiment.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="/0f5c8587-3743-50f5-af9f-3499aec614a6.jpg"/></a>
The man in the photo, taken at McGill University in 1951, is 17-year-old Leonard Cohen. He's wearing a blindfold, and his ears, fingers and hands are encased in padded restraints which prevent movement and cut off all sensory stimulation. This is one of <a href="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/09/07/hebb.pdf?guni=Article:in%20body%20link">Dr. Donald Hebb's famous/notorious sensory isolation experiments</a>, for which student volunteers were paid the then-princely sum of $20 a day. Some of the volunteers were unable to stand this torture for more than a few hours. Some tore off the bandages and banged on the door of the isolation chamber, screaming and crying to be released.
Back in the 1980s, when I lived <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/ann-diamond/the-man-next-door/ebook/product-21618487.html">next door, Leonard Cohen</a> once told me he enjoyed these experiments. He said he learned to dissociate, leave his body, and go on long voyages through the universe. The experience was so pleasant that later he volunteered to be placed in a flotation tank while on LSD. He enjoyed that, too.</div>
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