MK-Ultra

Over the summer, I decided to re-read Stephen King’s 11/22/63 with my son. (It’s so freaking incredible. Ties into JFK’s assassination, but it’s obviously fiction. Have you read it?)

I was also somehow convinced against my will to watch Stranger Things with my daughter. (It’s way too scary for me and I’m not sure how I was convinced but here we are. And so far, I haven’t had any nightmares.)

Imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled onto something connecting these two things I’m into with my kids …

MK-Ultra!

The super-secret U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s human experiments program that ran for two decades. I first learned about this listening to a Stuff You Should Know episode back in 2008. The CIA was trying to unlock mind control methods and it involved all sorts of heinous things … like giving unsuspecting Americans LSD.

OK, full disclosure: I don’t believe MK-Ultra is actually mentioned in King’s book. But the unbelievable podcast Who Killed JFK? co-hosted by filmmaker Rob Reiner and journalist Soledad O’Brien. Reiner believes that Lee Harvey Oswald may have been a part of the MK-Ultra experiments. I haven’t finished listening to this series yet, but it’s completely mind-blowing and unexpected.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

For more about MK-Ultra, check out this horrifying video: