Summary of Martin A. Lee & Bruce Shlain's Acid Dreams

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The use of drugs by secret agents had been a part of cloak-and-dagger folklore for years, but this would be the first concerted attempt by an American espionage organization to modify human behavior through chemical means.

#2 The OSS tested the drug on themselves, their associates, and US military personnel, and they found that it made their sense of humor extremely funny. But there were also those who experienced toxic reactions, and they would not be able to discuss anything.

#3 The CIA used narcohypnosis and a combination of two drugs with contradictory effects to interrogate subjects. They tried to keep subjects in a stuporous limbo as long as possible.

#4 The goofball approach was not a precision science. There were no strictly prescribed rules or operating procedures regarding what drugs should be employed in a given situation. The CIA interrogators were left to their own devices, and a certain amount of recklessness was inevitable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822523005

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Martin A. Lee & Bruce Shlain's Acid Dreams

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The use of drugs by secret agents had been a part of cloak-and-dagger folklore for years, but this would be the first concerted attempt by an American espionage organization to modify human behavior through chemical means.

#2

The OSS tested the drug on themselves, their associates, and US military personnel, and they found that it made their sense of humor extremely funny. But there were also those who experienced toxic reactions, and they would not be able to discuss anything.

#3

The CIA used narcohypnosis and a combination of two drugs with contradictory effects to interrogate subjects. They tried to keep subjects in a stuporous limbo as long as possible.

#4

The goofball approach was not a precision science. There were no strictly prescribed rules or operating procedures regarding what drugs should be employed in a given situation. The CIA interrogators were left to their own devices, and a certain amount of recklessness was inevitable.

#5

The CIA’s mind control program was originally designed to create an exploitable alteration of personality in selected individuals. The whole concept of a truth drug was a bit farfetched, and it presupposed that there was a way to chemically bypass the mind’s censor and turn the psyche inside out.

#6

The CIA had a fascination with cocaine, a potential truth serum, in the early 1950s. They tested it on mental patients, and found that it would produce free and spontaneous speech within two days in mute schizophrenics.

#7

The search for an effective interrogation technique eventually led to heroin. The CIA believed that heroin and other habit-forming substances could be useful in reverse because of the stresses produced when they were withdrawn from those who were addicted to their use.

#8

The CIA had begun experimenting with LSD as a mind control drug in the early 1950s. They had found that the drug could cause hallucinations, and they used it to test the effects of various chemicals on the conscious suppression of experimental or non-threat secrets.

#9

The CIA used LSD to try and extract information from their prisoners, but they soon realized that the drug did not really produce a truth serum. It produced anxiety in those who received it, and sometimes even led to delusions of grandeur and omnipotence.

#10

The CIA was interested in using LSD as a truth drug, but they soon realized that it was far more than that. It was also a lie drug, and could produce extreme and contradictory reactions. There was also concern that the Soviets and the Red Chinese might use it as an espionage weapon.

#11

The CIA used LSD on its agents, and even tried to give it to trainee volunteers to see how they would react. It was used to test the agents’ anxiety proneness, and to see if