The document that kicked off the MK-Ultra program.
A memorandum explores the hypothesis that the Russians are using hypnotic techniques, possibly in conjunction with drugs, to elicit false confessions from individuals who would not confess under normal duress. Soviet psychologists had demonstrated 20-30 years ago that hypnosis could be used to induce innocent individuals into giving false confessions. The memorandum presents evidence indicating how hypnotic techniques could be used to produce false confessions, and highlights the difficulty in detecting a post-hypnotic trance state. However, the hypnosis explanation presented is still weak.
The author suggested disguising the hypnotic induction by talking relaxation allegedly as part of a medical examination, using drugs to induce hypnosis, inducing post-hypnotic amnesia, building up a favorable attitude towards the hypnotist, implanting false memories, and training the subject to go into a trance state whenever a simple signal is encountered.
