Next Story 
June 24, 1996
The topic: Sex and drugs and -- mind control.
"Survivors of incest are subjects for mind control. They have 44 times the visual acuity of the average person, perfect for becoming ... mercenaries," said author Cathy O'Brien of Muskegon, hawking her new book, Trance Formation of America, a tale of her life as a "CIA mind-control sex slave" who served virtually all of Washington.
As O'Brien told a bizarre story of Satanism and swingers, the audience sat stoically, occasionally nodding in agreement or muttering "doesn't surprise me at all."
But are Svengalis in Washington really experimenting with mind control or is the American tradition of collective political paranoia once again infesting the heartland?
The answer, according to experts, is yes to both questions.
"There is truth to CIA mind-control experiments," said John Nutter, a former Michigan State University professor who now consults on the militia movement and other "patriot" groups.
"We know, that particularly in the early 1950s, the government began experimenting with all kinds of drugs, sensory deprivation ... shock treatment ten times the recommended maximum of all the psychiatric rules. John Marks laid it out in his book, In Search of the Manchurian Candidate."
That, Nutter and other experts say, is precisely the problem fueling a resurgent paranoia throughout America, particularly among the middle class.
"There always is a grain of truth," said Dr. Norman Goldner, psychotherapist and professor of sociology at the University of Detroit Mercy. "The critical element in the paranoid system is logic. ... You can't crack it.
"We live in such a chaotic world. The more scientific developments there are, the more questions there are. And we want answers. ... preferably simple ones."
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency "absolutely is not involved in mind control."
"Frankly, these are issues that were addressed in detail by a number of Congressional committees back in the 1970s," Mansfield said. "Any such activities were discontinued decades ago."
It's not just the right wing that breeds conspiracy theories, which of themselves can be a sort of mind control in reverse.
Experts say conspiracy theories are sometimes embraced by environmental groups, and even by various churches. For example, the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has spent millions trying to dispel the decades-old rumor that the number 666 is stamped on the bottom of its products as a secret sign of Satanism. Still, the chain letters continue to circulate.
But ferreting truth from fiction isn't always an easy task because rapidly advancing technology often echoes a plot from the X-Files.
Consider mind control. A February article in Popular Mechanics headlined, "Mind control, the next remote control device may be in your head," describes in lengthy detail how several companies are developing technology that uses the mind to move a computer screen cursor or manipulate other devices.
There is no question that the federal government has extended its reach through an increasing amount of regulation, said Clark McCauley, social psychologist at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia. That has prompted an increasing number of Americans to perceive the federal government as a real threat, he said.
"Some national polls have put that number as high as 38 percent," McCauley said. "At the top of their list is the IRS. Out West, you have the government telling you what you can do with your land so they can save a snail darter. Then the government is telling you who you have to hire ... or busing, who goes to school where."
Why do people gravitate toward conspiracy theories?
McCauley has studied different reactions to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A congressional inquiry concluded that a lone rifleman, Lee Harvey Oswald, was responsible for Kennedy's death.
But many people, like movie director Oliver Stone did in his 1991 film JFK, insist that Oswald could not have acted alone.
"There are two theories I have about why people believed in a conspiracy," McCauley said. "The first is consistency. People don't like to believe big change in the world can happen from a small cause ... that one lone nut ball can get out of bed on the wrong side and effect catastrophic change, that is inconsistent."
"The other is that in society, people feel it is almost impossible for the little man to do anything. They believe a group is more likely to succeed over a lone individual. When in fact with a conspiracy, the weakest link in the chain is likely to fail. The Secret Service worries much more about the lone nut ball that's not on file in the computer."
Some activist groups worry that they are unfairly labeled as conspiracy theorists in a deliberate attempt by opponents to discredit them or deflect attention from the real debate.
"I totally believe there has been a conspiracy to undermine my group's involvement with environmental issues," said R.P. Lilly, spokesman for RECAP (Romulus Environmentalists Care About People). Lilly's group is fighting attempts to locate a hazardous waste deep-injection well in Romulus.
"We try not to deal with hysteria and instead simply be truthful," Lilly said. "The first thing people try to do is discredit you."
As society becomes more advanced, the likelihood of individuals embracing a conspiracy theory increases, some experts say.
"Remember Orson Welles' War of the Worlds?" asked U-D's Goldner, referring to an Oct. 30, 1938, radio show in which Welles and his actors performed a simulated broadcast about an attack on New Jersey by invaders from Mars.
"The people who drove out of the city really believed that the Martians were invading. The natural reaction is that only ignorant people believe this stuff. Not necessarily. In fact, they were people who had some understanding of space, of stars ... experienced in these areas."
Explained Michael Bernacchi, professor of marketing at U-D Mercy: "There definitely is a market for this kind of (paranoiac) thinking.
"Everyone can relate to the fact of having to pay taxes. At some point, most of us have looked at the IRS and said, 'Yes, get the suckers.' There is that seed in each of us."
That dissatisfaction has spawned a cottage industry, Bernacchi said. O'Brien, for example, sold several hundred books at $15 each during her Livonia appearance.
But although O'Brien has linked herself to the patriot movement, not everyone on the far right is buying her story, however sexy it may be.
"These people are pay-triots" who simply want to make money off the paranoia of the public, said Tom Wayne, spokesman for the Michigan Militia Wolverine Corps, the largest militia group in the state. "I spend a lot of time de-bunking stuff like that.
"I've seen so many good groups be discredited by something so bizarre. But Americans have always liked their conspiracy theories."
He stressed that most members of his movement are not lock-step with far-out conspiracy theorists.
"Most politicians aren't smart enough to pull off something like that," Wayne said. "Just because you're in government doesn't mean your IQ is much above a plant. People should be worried about the bureaucrats and what's going on in the schools."
And although the Livonia audience cheered O'Brien, many members did not wish to be quoted or identified for a newspaper story.
"But it goes to show you," Wayne said. "Sex does sell."