I've long been fascinated by MKULTRA, along with other means of mind control. This book provides a thorough and terrifying play-by-play (or rather chapter-by-chapter) account of how it came to exist, what it did, and what followed.
From the inception to the horrific real-life tests to the grizzly aftermath, this is an unflinching look at what happens when power goes unchecked and ideas become more valuable than people.
Meticulously researched, this can be a somewhat dry read, especially in the latter chapters which turn into a court drama. But the earlier chapters read like a horror book, just as compelling and disturbing.

Overall, a fascinating read. Recommended for the thinking audience, especially those with an interest in the subject. Thanks Netgalley.

This was such a wild and engrossing book! The primary sources are interviews/depositions with some of the players involved, and so it's very dialogue-heavy. Normally I don't like this in nonfiction, but it was such an effective technique for allowing the participants and architects of these programs to explain in their own words. Such an eerie, strange era, and the author provides context around what was happening to try and make sense of it. It's still so odd and unsettling, and a scary reminder that it just takes some normal-seeming but unscrupulous figures in positions of power to do a lot of serious damage.

An absolutely fascinating look at the long and strange history of the CIA and LSD. Born out of cold war paranoia, the CIA looked towards LSD as a possible truth serum/brainwashing tool, and even as a battlefield weapon.

Project Mind Control by John Lisle is both fascinating and unsettling. Lisle takes you inside the CIA’s Cold War experiments with hypnosis, LSD, and other attempts at mind control, and he writes it in a way that feels almost like reading a thriller. It’s well-researched but still very readable, and some of the stories are so wild you can hardly believe they’re true. If you like narrative nonfiction that blends history and suspense, this is definitely worth picking up.

A fascinating overview of a deeply corrupt piece of modern US history that I knew very little about. The people involved were extraordinarily weird and often so misguided it's almost difficult to keep reading .The brutality of the government overreach and arrogance is equally hard to take, but nevertheless good to be reminded of. A lot of these people could've easily been fundamentalists or UFO believers or whatever else that might be a signal of not being terribly well-rounded as thinkers - alongside also being super powerful and entirely ruthless.
However I found that about halfway through it got tiring to read of yet another corrupt incident and files disappearing as a result. I'm sure that's what actually happened but I think the book could've used some variety in how it the events were narrated.

I really enjoyed this one, haven't read anything about this before. This seemed well researched and a lot of primary source material was used. Definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the past sordid history of the CIA and US government.

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for August 27th
Amazon and Barnes & Noble reviews submitted, pending those system approvals
Blog link goes live September 5th
Youtube Review going up in Friday Reads August 22nd


**TL;DR**: Tons of sources, lots of infuriating facts.
**Source**: NetGalley - Thank you to the publisher!!

**Readability**: Incredibly readable, I flew through this one.
**Scope:** This focuses in on the drug use, abuse, and absolute negligence of these folks.
**Sources:** A full 35% of the back end of this was notes, sources, appendixes, etc.
****

**Thoughts:**

There is a lot of conspiracy theories out there about MKULTRA and the CIA. Most of what I’ve heard is what the show Stranger Things was based on - psychics, remote viewing, etc. Project Mind Control however shows us what is easily accessible in the records and interviews that remain and that was wild drug abuse.

Project Mind control breaks down the situation, the reasoning, and then the actions that these folks took during the lifespan of this project. The bulk of the book focuses on the abuse of LSD and the experiments the department performed. Many of these were on unwilling, unaware, or unwell individuals. There was abuse of personal and public trust, and more than a few deaths as a result.

We also look at possibly linked crimes and events. Credit where credit is due though, our author makes a point of focusing on only what he has sources for and even goes out of the way to advise the reader against falling for the conspiracy theories and wild stories that float around with no proof.

This one was quick, it was easy, and it really is an approachable book on the topic while also infuriating the reader. If you’re interested in or you have a friend or family member who is, I’d recommend it!

A deep dive into the CIA using American citizens to conduct testing on them using psychological and/or chemical warfare and how it was covered up and then exposed. A few other controversies involving Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA are also discussed. Unfortunately not surprising but hopefully making it more visible will help prevent similar things in the future.

*3.5 rounded up to 4 for NetGalley*

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the eARC of this book!

This was a very in-depth look at MKULTRA, the CIA, and the kinds of things they got away with while no one was watching. It was interesting, easy to follow, and chock full of fascinating details, interviews, and insight. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to people with an interest in learning more about the CIA and MKULTRA.

In this wild inside scoop on MKULTRA, the CIA’s secret mind control project, John Lisle uses never-before-seen testimony from people involved with the project to bring it to life. Following Sidney Gottlieb, a top CIA chemist, as he worked on these dangerous, deadly, and secret experiments, the book tracks the horrors of these questionably ethical (at best) experiments in the name of national defense and the impact that Gottlieb had on other CIA projects including the assassinations of foreign leaders. Bringing these harrowing and complex depositions about MKULTRA to light, Lisle delves into the stories of MKULTRA’s victims and the reasonings behind the project and its successful coverup. Brutal and detailed, this is a morbidly fascinating book that readers will struggle to put down. The details are absolutely incredible, and the previously unpublished depositions and documents really bring the complicated facts and stories of MKULTRA to life. Readers will be unable to put this complicated and powerful new history book down, and Lisle has done a brilliant job researching and explaining the scientific nuances and information behind the project. Fascinating, complicated, and occasionally challenging, readers will enjoy the wild and detailed exploration of MKULTRA that Lisle offers in this powerful new release.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, this book was wild. MKUltra was something I'd only briefly heard about. This book was well written, informative and well researched.

This is a historic overview of the absolutely bonkers experimentation the CIA got up to in the midcentury, as they rushed to outpace and outwit the Soviets. If you try to tell your friends about some of these experiments (like remote-controlling living animals, which, even more unbelievably, sounded like it kind of worked!), you are going to sound like you’re the one on LSD.

But underneath the splashy, bizarre details is a more tragic story. There were people who took their own lives after being drugged by CIA employees without realizing it. Bold, haphazard experiments were conducted in psych wards, prisons, and rehab facilities on already vulnerable populations. This is a cautionary tale about what happens when a government agency thinks it is above the law.

I was absolutely riveted by this book, and if you’re into twentieth-century history, you will be too.

Fiction might be my love, but history is my jam.

MK Ultra is something that interests me, but admittedly I've only watched docs about it on TV.

This has been quite a read and left me with plenty of thoughts about how the world around us is more vivid than fiction.

Thanks for the read Netgalley and St. Martins Press.

Unfortunately I didn't end up finishing this, I found it interesting but it was hard to hold my attention.

This factual history text reads more like a dystopian horror as John Lisle lays out how the CIA spent their time during the Cold War, taking advantage of no oversight, a large budget, and rampant paranoia to do whatever the hell they wanted. And what they wanted was to develop a drug that allowed them the power of mind control. They ended up with LSD - and a lot of counter-culture songs inspired by the effects - and along the way got a lot of people hurt or killed.

Lisle does an excellent job showing the sources for everything, and wow, even with some materials redacted, hidden, or outright destroyed, there is a ton of information out there, if you know where to look. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of DISinformation, which he is careful to point out, and beg people to not trust everything they read on the internet.

Non-fiction fans - Project Mind Control is unhinged!
Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy for feature.
CIA chemistry whiz Sidney Gottleib had a vision. Well, many visions. Of finding methods to control people's minds through various fairly nefarious methods. LSD experiments and MKULTRA are just some of the well-known results. But author John Lisle delves deep into events that MKULTRA and the like could be attributed to.
This is a book full of "I thought I knew about this, but I so did NOT". So many case studies presented that absolutely do not feel like real-life.
Project Mind Control is truly a read that's stranger than fiction.
Recommended!
Released on May 20.

MKUltra has always been a morbid curiosity to me ever since I heard about all of the crazy conspiracy theories about it. (Or is it crazy at all...? Hmm...) This book was very well researched and the evidence told in an enthralling manner.

It is always interesting to read more about the MKUltra space. This book had a lot of new and interesting points on the topic. I really enjoyed this book.

This was a fantastic nonfiction book about the CIA's mind control program. An detailed in depth look and very well written. I had trouble putting it down. Almost read like a work of fiction and very hard to believe this actually went on.

John Lisle takes us inside the CIA and provides us with example after example of the many devious practices that the CIA used as they were in a race understand mind control.

Programs started by the CIA, and funded surreptitiously under different names, did experiments on other agents, prisoners, gangsters, and just regular people, all done to see if they could understand how to control interrogations, behavior, and people’s mind. Drugs of course were part of the experimenting, and sometimes things went very wrong and people had terrible reactions to the drugs and even died.

The book is harrowing, and I am not sure if these practices are outlawed. I can only imagine that many countries use the same tools and even more.

Read it to see what goes on. I thought it interesting.