THE MILITARY APPLICATION OF HYPNTISM (HYPNOTISM)

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00140402
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: September 25, 2024
• Document Release Date: October 4, 1999
• Publication Date: June 22, 1954

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MEM
June 22, 1954
THE MILITARY APPLICATION OF HYPNTISM
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FROM:
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I choose two practical applications from many with which to
illustrate my propositibn:
�1. The safeguarding of the messages entrusted to eburiers.
In deep hypnosis the subject, military or citilian, can
.be given a message to be delivered to say Colonel X
in Berlin. The subject may then be sent to Berlin on
any perfectly routine assignment. The message will
be perfectly safe and will be delivered to the proper
person because
a. the subject will have no memory whatsoever
in the waking state as to the nature and contents
of the message. '
b. it'can be arranged that the subject will have no
knowledge of ever having been hypnotized.
no
c. It can be' arranged that/One beside Colonel X
in Berlin can hypnotize the subject and recover
the message.
This hypnotic messenger, if I may use the phrase has if my
opion at least two very definite advantages over the ordinary .t
courier. .First he will never under any .circumstance by a slip of the
tongue divulge the true nature of his' mission for the very simple
reason that he has nd conscious knowledge of what that mission
may be. He is merely going on a routine replacement in say the
Adjutant General's Office. This will be his story and the story
which. he believes.
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Secondla, ii' any chrulce. he is nicked un.throurh a lnlka:sc Pr.
information irom other Sources the -essae is sic. nd 41mctInt of tnrid
degree tactics can pry it loose, for he simply does not Ipve it
.in his conscious mind. Even-if the enemy suspects the use of hypnotism
the message is still safe for no one can hypnotize him except this
Colonel X in Berlin.
. May I point cut that ttis technique isk one which an be demonstrated
-% uncar experimental conditions where you Wi'sh and when you wish allowing
ascertain amount of time to train the subjects in question.
2. A specific counterintelligence technique to be used against
enemy agents. This particular use of hypnotism would be
more complicated and more difficult than the rather simple
case which I outlined in the preceding paragraphs, but is,
I.assure you, quite practical. I wild take a number of men
and will establish in them through the use of hypnotism the
condition of split personality. Consciously they will be
ardent Cotmunists, phanatical adherence to the party line, �
ready and eager to submit to any discipline which the party
may prescribe. Unconsciously they will be loyal Americans
just as grimaey determined to thwart the Columnists
at.e-very.turn in the road.
These men again will have no knowledre of anything that occurs in
the hypnotic state7-will have no knowledge of ever having been hypno-
tized and can only be hypnotized by sush persons as the original
operator may choose. Consciously ther will associ7,te with the Communists
gid learn al] the plans of the organization.� Once every month or
at such time is advisable they will be contacted by a member of our
intelligence department, hypnotized, and as loyal Americans will
tell what they. know. This sounds unbelievable, but I assure, you, it
will work.
Once ain the advantages. Your hypothetical counter spy wi4
,be placed..in a very difficult situation--amounting at best to social
ostracism, at worst criminal prosecution. He will not disclose his
true role for the very simple reason that he can not. Consciously
he is a Communist and will not in a moment of weakness admit to
his relatives or to his friends that he is anything but a.Communist.
Acain, if �through some leakae, he is suspected of being an informeer
his true role is safely guarded, locked in the unconscious and im-
pervious.to all assults from the outside.
01.
ff:I consider myself an authority on the theoreticl
appIiatihs 4fhypnotism to warfare and would point out that it is a
highly specialized subject. The average psychologist or even
psychiatrist iqras at much of a loss here as would be the average
chemist-or physicist if called on to super)vise a very.:-pecialized
project for which he had had no particulars training. claim that I
cati:demonstrate all my particular contentions to the satisfaction of
the government agencies and request the opportunity so to do.
' In closing, may I.make one very significant point. The hussian
literature is hard to get end carefully avoids any mention of the topic
in question. Those Russian articles which I have been able to get
leave no doubt about the fact that the kussian is just as conversive
about the field of hypnotism as are we. .
Respectfully submitted,
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