NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020001-5

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020001-5
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Hypnosis add Controlled Behavior
(military uses)
The possible military uses of hypnotism has many rather bizarre applications.
Although there is no concrete proof that hypnosis will play an important role in
controlling behavior in military situations, some uses will be mentioned. Biderman and
Zimmer discuss hypnosis and other possible alternatives for defense against brain-
washing.
The following discussion is based on a report by Estabrooks. According to the
author, the facts and ideas presented are, so to speak, too true to be good, but no
psychologist of standing would deny the validity of the basic ideas involved. Of interest
to this discussion are some of the fore infamiliar facets of hypnotism which make it of
use in warfare. If hypnotism can be used to advantage, we can rest assured that it will
be so employed.
One in every 5 adult humans can be placed into the hypnotic state - somnambulism -
of which they will have no memory whatsoever when they awaken. From the military view-
point there are a few facts which are of great interest. Can this prospective subject
be hypnotized against his will? Obviously no POW will be cooperative if he knows that
the hypnotist is looking for military information, nor will any ordinary citizen if he
suspects that the operator will use him to blow up a munitions plant. The answer to this
vital question is yes though hypnotists prefer to say "without his consent" instead of
"against his will." There are disguised techniques available for hypnotizing an unsus-
pecting or unwilling subject. The Soviets believe that telepathy may be one such
method.
Multiple personality can be cause by hypnotism. One could deliberately set up a
condition of multiple personality to further the ends of military intelligence and in the
development of the "super spy." In his normal waking state which is called Personality
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A, or PA, this individual will become a rabid communist. He will join the party,
follow the parth line and make himself as objectionable as possible to the authorities.
Note that he will be acting in good faith. He is a communist, or rather his PA is a
communist and will behave as such. Then develop Personality B (PB) , the secondary
personality, the unconscious personality. This personality is rabidly American and anti-
communist. It has all the information possessed by PA, the normal personality, whereas .
PA does not have this advantage. The proper training of a person for this role would be
long and tedious, but once he was trained, one would have a super sry compared to any
creation in a mystery story. The super spy plays his role as a communist in his waking
state, aggressively, consistently, fearlessly. But his PB is a loyal American, and PB
has all the memories of PA. As a loyal American, he will not hesitate to divulge those
memories, tut be sure he has the opportunity to do so when occasion demands. Here is
how this technique would work. Let us choose the Cubans as examples. One could easily
secure, say, one hundred excellent hypnotic subjects of Cuban stock, living in the US,
who spoke their language fluently, and then work on these subjects. In hypnotism one
would build up their loyalty to our country; but out of hypnotism, in the "waking" or
normal state, one would do the opposite, striving to convince them that they had a
genuine grievance against this country and encouraging them to engage in fifth column
activities. So one builds up a case of dual personality. They would be urged in the
waking state to become fifth columnist enemies to the US, but also point out to them in
hypnotism that this wass really a pose, that their real loyalty lay with this country,
offering them protection and reward for their activities. Through them one would hope
to be kept informed of the activities of their "friends," this information, of course,
being obrained in the trance state. They would also be very useful as "plants" in
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concentration camps or in any other situations where it was suspected their services
might be of use to our intelligence department. Once again these people would have a
great advantage over ordinary "informers." Convinced of their own innocence, they would
play the fifth column role with the utmost sincerity. This conviction of innocence
would probably be their greatest protection. Again, if suspected, no one could bexxdimir
obtain from them any useful information. Only a very few key people could throw them
into the trance and, without this, any attempt toget information would be useless.
There are some difficulties that would be encountered in building up an organization of
such personnel. Hardly one somnambulist in 10 or even a hundred according to Estabrooks:
would be suitable for such spy work; and the determining of this suitability would be a
difficult task. But, Estabrooks reports, it could be done, and one accomplished would
repay amply for all the trouble.
The possibility of creating assassins through hypnotic techniques on PO's exists.
As was pointed out above, the subject does not need to be willing to enter into such a
condition. Once the captive has been placed in a suitable hypnotic state then one need
only to establish the post-hypnotic suggestion or plan for the assassination. After the
prisoner is released and returned to his organization, he will carry out his assignment
through his unconscious state, while appearing perfectly rehabilitated in his wakeful
xing state. The main problem in the assassin plan is in the area of post-hypnotic
reinforcement. There have been some ideas mentioned that suggest one needs to establish
the reinforcement pattern during initial hypnosis; some object that will reinforce his
goal whenever he looks at it, hears a certain sound, etc. The real problem for the
friendly forces is the detection of these mentally altered individuals. At the present
`time there is no fool proof method of detection. There is no test by which one can
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discover these agents. Blood pressure, heart rate, electroencephalograph,
psychogalvanic reflex, all these devices which one can use to detect the most subtle
bodily changes are worthless for there are no bodily changes. Drugs, at least for the
present, appear to be of no value. Further, there are certain safeguards that the
hypnotic method provides for the enemy. Kost important is the the conviction of
innocence which the man himself has. He would never "act guilty" and if ewer accused of
seeking information would act quite honestly indignant, the conviction of innocence on
the part of the agent is perhaps his greatest safeguard under questioning by our
authorities. The Soviets are aware of the above mentioned possibilities and appear to
be using certain aspects of psi research in order to manipulate an inviciduals mental
behavior toward these activities.
ST-CS-01-169-72
DIA Task /T72-01-14
July 1972 pages43-45
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