26 May 2007
National Security Archive
Gelman Library
2130 H St NW Ste 701
Washington DC, District of Columbia 20037
1-202-994-7000 (T)
1-202-994-7005 (F)
Dear
I wish to thank you again for your excellent assistance and detailed answers to my queries the other day on the telephone. Thanks again, you were very kind, tolerant, and thoughtful.
As per our conversation of Friday, May 25, 2007, please mail all available government documents (redacted or otherwise – I believe you said there were thirty-five pages in total) regarding MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory, to the above listed mailing address.
You quoted me a price of $7.92 for attaining these documents. Please find attached a money order in that amount for the aforementioned documents.
The information that follows is primarily for my own personal records, but also might be of interest to you, The National Security Archive or other persons and organizations. What follows is by no means new or original research and has been documented by a wide variety of other researchers and authors in the past. (The exception being the ACIM milleu’s connection to SRI-Scientology).
The following information essentially serves as a rough bullet point outline and should not by any means be construed as a cohesive narrative of events, past or present, regarding Dr. William Thetford or the A Course In Miracles book.
Beware, the “critique” I engage in here (especially in the latter half) is not “structuralist”. There are also the usual concerns regarding “conspiracy theories”. I have extensively studied, deconstructed and analyzed this term over the years. Please refer to the following compendium of information regarding this subject.
Most of the following biographical information regarding Dr. William Thetford and A Course in Miracles is primarily available from online Wikipedia documents. As of this revision 3/2010, Wikipedia has deleted the criticism and controversy section from their ACIM page.
http://ce399.typepad.com/weblog/2009/12/wikipedia-removes-a-course-in-miracles-controversy-and-criticism-section-.html
Dr. William Thetford, along with David Saunders, headed CIA MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory, while at Columbia University between 1971-1978.
Dr. Thetford’s Professional Vita (also available on the A Course in Miracles web site) makes reference to his involvement in a Personality Theory Research Project while Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University, though the information does not specifically cite this as a CIA MK- ULTRA SubProject. (The information might have recently been altered to reflect involvement in MK-ULTRA.)
Dr. William Thetford also directly assisted Dr. Helen Schucman as a so-called ‘scribe’ in the initial transcription (or ‘channeling’) of the A Course in Miracles book originally published in 1975 by an organization called The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena.
Dr. Thetford was working for the CIA conducting Personality Theory experiments under MK-ULTRA at the same time the A Course in Miracles book was published in 1975.
A Course in Miracles is commonly known as “the Bible of the New Age.”
The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena may have been funded by members involved with or employed by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Menlo Park, California, as Remote Viewers at the time. One of the individuals with connections to SRI was Judith Skutch, the president and founder of The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena, which, once again, originally published A Course in Miracles in 1975.
Other researchers in this area have speculated that Judith Skutch’s Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena may have even been an outright front organization for the CIA. The publishing of A Course in Miracles may have been a CIA operation from the beginning.
It has also been claimed Skutch funded many of the early experiments by Israeli telepath Uri Geller. Geller worked for SRI during this same time period.
A Course in Miracles legal documents have revealed that Skutch met with David Hurt (an engineer associated with SRI), Russell Targ, Thetford and Schucman at a luncheon in 1974. Russell Targ was co-founder of the Stanford Research Institute´s CIA funded Remote Viewing program at SRI during this same time period. Targ´s collegue at SRI was chief researcher Dr. Harold Puthoff. Puthoff was a high ranking ‘Operating Thetan’ for the Church of Scientology and was also working under the auspices of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program along with Targ when this meeting took place. As previously stated, William Thetford, the so-called co-’scribe‘ of ACIM, was also under the payroll of the CIA during the same period, conducting research under MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory at Columbia University.
In 1998 Russell Targ wrote a book entitled Miracles of Space. Targ and Scientology claim Targ was never a member of L. Ron Hubbard´s so-called ´church.´
According to the Washington Post of August 7, 1977, high-level ‘Operating Thetans‘ (Harold Puthoff, Pat Price, Ingo Swann) from the Church of Scientology were in charge of all Remote Viewing and other related CIA mind control operations at Stanford Research Institute under the auspices of CIA MK-ULTRA during this time period, which began sometime in 1973. (See the Washington Post article of August 7, 1977, Psychic Spying? by John L. Wilhelm regarding the connection between the Stanford Research Institute, CIA mind control operations via MK-ULTRA and the Church of Scientology.)
MK-ULTRA was ‘investigated’ by the US Congress’ Church Committee and the group appointed by President Ford known as the Rockefeller Commission in 1975. MK-ULTRA is now obviously a matter of public record. As you stated, all of the scanned CIA MK-ULTRA documents are available to the public from the CIA itself on CD-ROM format.
Fast forwarding to the present: Unity Church, a ‘Christian New Age’ tax exempt organization, with locations in numerous communities across the United States, hosts many A Course In Miracles seminars on a weekly basis, and includes the information contained in the book as part of their regular ‘church services.’
I spoke with a woman named ‘Mxxxx’ at the Unity Church in Eugene, Oregon, via telephone on Friday, May 25, 2007, and she stated Unity Church holds seminars in A Course In Miracles twice a week. I requested documentation from her to this effect via regular mail. She claimed that she would comply with this request. And, I might add, she seemed quite ‘happy’ and ‘joyful’ to mail any and all material made available from the church.
Unity Church also sponsors or hosts UFO seminars with titles like: ´UFOs: Earth’s Cosmic Watergate´ and ´Flying Saucers ARE Real.’ These seminars espouse a ‘spirituality’ similar to those found in UFO cults such as the former Heaven’s Gate in San Diego, California and the Church of Scientology. Usually, the ‘information’ disseminated at these UFO seminars claims that a giant, invisible UFO mother ship – containing the spirits of deceased humans, famous leaders from history and supernatural beings such as angels or even Jesus Christ himself – is hovering just above the earth’s atmosphere.
The Scientology UFO ‘religious’ belief system is very similar, though much more detailed, complicated and multifaceted. Part of Scientology’s ‘creation mythos’ advocates passive acceptance of what basically constitutes ‘galactic genocide’ as part of its cult programming. Indeed, from the limited contact I have had with people who have been programmed by these and other similar types of off shoot UFO cult groups such as those found at Unity Church, advocacy of euthanasia or suicide are causally incorporated into their belief systems; even in their interpersonal relationships with others and are completely devoid of any critical analysis as to the larger implications of upholding such philosophies. Briefly, in this respect, similarities to Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World (1932) have come to mind.
Scientology is considered to be a destructive, totalitarian cult by the German government and other European countries and is highly regulated there.
Unity Church and A Course In Miracles are ultimately all about forgiveness and prayer; yet this forgiveness exists in a spiritual construct devoid of basic human social justice.
This construct basically constitutes the same old, repacked and regurgitated snake oil peddled by ‘confidence men’ since the days of PT Barnum. The mantra goes something like this: ‘God will take care of everything and God will forgive everything;’ and therefore, accountability, responsibility, and oversight are not necessary. Thus, the organized crooks, mass murderers, torturers, destroyers of culture, various two bit thugs and other assorted sub humans are allowed to continue perpetuating their endless cycle of banal criminality at the expense of the innocent and the powerless. As a result, human justice and even human memory itself has now, for all intents and purposes, been eviscerated. This is the literal apotheosis of what the authors Gore Vidal and Studs Terkel have each separately called: ‘The United States of Amnesia‘ and ‘The United States of Alzheimer’s.‘
For example, in 2004, the A Course in Miracles website had an very interesting article regarding the Abu Graib Prisoner Abuse Scandal, in which it stated the following:
Let us, then, take a closer look at the Iraq prison scandal from the perspective A Course in Miracles gives us. We will be looking at the monstrous acts of other people, but the point is not to pass judgment on these people, but to use their example to illuminate ego dynamics common to all of us. I’m reminded of what Jesus once said to Helen [Dr. Helen Schucman] before giving an account of the ego lapses she and Bill [Dr. William Thetford] had fallen into on a particular day: “There is nothing of special interest about the events described below, except their typical nature” (Absence from Felicity, by Ken Wapnick, p. 260). The “monster” revealed by the Iraq prison scandal is all too typical, but if we are willing to look at it calmly, we will put ourselves in a position to let it go through forgiveness.
(What the Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Reveals: Looking Calmly at the Monster and Letting It Go by Greg Mackie. Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340. http://www.circlofa.org. info@circleofa.org, 1-928-282-0790.)
This is an excellent example of what many other commentators, researchers, and authors have coined New Age Fascism (also see: From UFO’s to Yoga) and this particular type of mind control programming perfectly compliments the fascism promoted by the Christian and Religious Right or Right Wing Christian Evangelical movements in the United States. I fail to see the fundamental difference between the views espoused by Mr. Mackie above and the opinions communicated by Rush Limbaugh on his talk show. They are both essentially being apologists for the Bush Administration’s use of torture in conducting the so-called ‘War on Terror.‘
‘Students’ in A Course in Miracles programs (which evidently includes devotion to Oprah Winfrey – who has avidly and enthusiastically promoted the book on her television show) might also be involved in an experimental trauma healing treatment program called See Morg Matrix, which includes hypnosis and the evisceration (or ‘clearing’) of memories. Other research in this area has referred to these techniques as ‘pseudo-therapies’.
Involvement in the Unity Church mind control and UFO cult usually comes about through association with some form of unlicensed ‘therapist,’ healer or guru type figure. Possibly even ‘ordained ministers’ in Unity Church serve dual functions as ‘counselors’ or ‘therapists.’ In other words, possible involvement with Unity religion manifests itself as a result of someone seeking some form of psychotherapy, usually to heal childhood or adult trauma and abuse.
An unfortunate possible result and side effect of an individual being involved in this network of healing programs and therapies (and there are many more which I have not mentioned in this brief overview) can be the apparent disability of higher brain functions, including a basic inability to think clearly and engage in basic relationship psychodynamics. The book utilizes hypnotic, mantra-like repetition of concepts which are, more often than not, logically incoherent and are meant to brainwash and control the thoughts of the ‘student.’ I personally know of one person who has been reading A Course In Miracles almost exclusively, (in other words, without reading anything else – like a New York Times best seller, for example) for over twenty years. Indeed, these and other similar types of side effects are relayed in the criticism section from the A Course In Miracles web page documented by Wikipedia:
Some Doctrinal Christian apologists have considered it heretical or counterfeit. Author and Yogi, Joel Kramer, states that the Course could be considered a classic authoritarian example of programming thought to change beliefs. Anton van Harskamp, a German scholar of religion, says that the Course contains, “…endless variation on some universally meant insights in life…” that, “…brings readers of the book, [or] in any case this reader, [to] a mood in which bewilderment and boredom take turns”. Long time teacher of the Course, Hugh Prather, notes that ACIM students often become, “far more separate and egocentric,” with many ultimately, “[losing] the ability to carry on a simple conversation”. He admits that he and his wife Gayle, “…had ended up less flexible, less forgiving, and less generous than we were when we first started our path!
I believe that at the turn of the previous to the last century, similar procedures were carried out through damage to, or the surgical severing of, the nerve fibers connecting the pre frontal cortex to the thalamus of the brain. These were known as lobotomies to the functionaries at ‘Houses of Bedlam’ or asylums for the ‘insane.’ The end result of the procedures described in the above previous paragraphs is, in my opinion, basically the same as a lobotomy.
As mentioned previously, this letter is meant to be a brief overview of the connections between Unity Church, A Course In Miracles, CIA MK-ULTRA Artichoke Subproject 130 and the Stanford Research Institute.
There are many other high level individuals of dubious sanity who espouse equally unsound philosophies surrounding the ACIM millieu. Some of these individuals include: Lee Carroll (Kryon), who apparently channels nonsense with the blessing and sanction of the United Nations and Barbara Marx Hubbard, who openly advocates genocide. Further information about these and other caustic so-called New Age leaders is currently beyond the scope of this letter.
Though the MK-ULTRA program has been official declassified and considered terminated, the effects of the damage wrought by this program of psychological warfare (PSYOP) or ‘Mind War’ are still being felt in the year 2007.
Indeed, as I have stated in letters to Senator xx and Peter Dale Scott, among many others, I suspect a new and more high-tech COINTELPRO / MK-ULTRA hybrid domestic surveillance and harassment program may be currently operational today in the United States and is currently being used against US citizens.
One only need look at the stellar work of Nick Begich, MD, Mr. Kucinich in the House of Representatives (see HR 2977) and especially John J. McMurtrey, M.S., and his 2003 paper, Inner Voice, Target Tracking, and Behavioral Influence Technologies (see previous link), to really understand the extent of the potentially bottomless pit of a Pandora’s Box that has been opened by those Aldous Huxley called the ‘power elite.’
As a side note, John J. McMurtrey’s aforementioned paper contains eleven excellent and eye-opening pages of footnotes, with a great many US Patent Office numbers issued for related inventions, dating back to the early 1960’s. The complete document should still be available via Wikipedia, keyword search: Microwave Auditory Effect or Microwave Hearing.
All of the patents referenced in that document are readily available and easily accessible via the US Patent Office website complete with abstracts, claims and detailed descriptions.
Of special interest is Apparatus and Method for Remotely Monitoring and Altering Brain Waves, (United States Patent 3951134), which was issued in 1974, coincidentally, approximately the same year A Course In Miracles was published (1975). To the best of my knowledge, the United States Patent Office does not give patent numbers to inventions that do not work.
Similarly, Nick Begich, MD has done extensive research into the area of what the US military calls the Microwave Auditory Effect, a so-called non-lethal weapon capable of producing intra-cranial sound inside the head of a human target :
This area of research is one of the most important because it points to the ultimate weapon of political control: the ability to place information directly into the human brain, bypassing all normal filtering mechanisms.
In 1995, the US Department of Defense put forward the contract, “Communicating via the Microwave Auditory Effect; Awarding Agency: Department of Defense; SBIR Contract Number: F41624-95-C-9007″. The description of this technology, which would be used for direct communications with military personnel, is written as follows:
“Title: Communicating via the Microwave Auditory Effect. “Description:
An innovative and revolutionary technology is described that offers a
means of low-probability-of-intercept Radio Frequency (RF)
communications. The feasibility of the concept has been established
using both a low intensity laboratory system and a high power RF
transmitter. Numerous military applications exist in areas of search and rescue, security and special operations.”
(Mind Control: The Ultimate Brave New World, Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 13, Number 2, February – March 2006)
In the August 28, 2005 edition of the Washington Post, an article entitled Xtreme Defense by Sharon Weinberger, stated that similar ’non-lethal’ weapons, as previously described above, are currently being utilized by private contractors and the US military in Iraq:
His latest is to use ultrasonic waves in the dazzler not just to blind enemies, but also to convey messages in their heads, similar to Gibbs’ Medusa project. Hearing voices from God is a ‘big thing’ in Arab culture according to Bitar. “We flash-blind them. And, while their eyes are shut, you could send a recorded message or deep guttural voice that echoes in the inside of their head…“
There is absolutely no doubt that these and other similar types of technologies and programs have been privatized and are being used extensively in theatre today in the Middle East to combat the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ These technologies may also be exasperating the ‘civil wars’ currently raging in Iraq and the Occupied Territories in Palestine.
Ultimately, the point that really needs to be emphasized, above any other is that which has been categorized as an ‘exotic or non-lethal weapon’ is a form of information weapon (the book A Course In Miracles serves a similar purpose – as an information weapon or a weapon of propaganda). Thus, the warfare engaged in is an information type of warfare (or PSYOP) which, by default, constitutes propaganda. Propaganda or PSYOP, by its very definition under US code is lying, speaking an untruth or distorting the truth; as such, propagandizing the citizens of the US or using PSYOP against the citizens of the US is a criminal act under the current laws of the United States of America. [This law might have been overturned by Patriot Act Two]
Most Sincerely,
Revised 7/2010
