LSD’s Origins in Nazi Germany Brain-Washing Experiments, the CIA’s MKUltra Program, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

LSD has been banned in the United States for decades and became a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance in 1970, but it has experienced a resurgence among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to overcome mental roadblocks and psychiatrists running tests to use it as a treatment for addiction, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. But what few know is that LSD has its origins in Nazi Germany.

The drug was developed in Switzerland in 1943 and quickly acquired and militarized by the Third Reich. The Nazis coopted LSD for their mind control military research—research that the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s.

Today’s guest is Norman Ohler, author of “Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age.” We discuss:

· How the history of LSD is interwoven with that of the Cold War and its arms race, and how the US government’s introduction to LSD through Nazi research influenced much of the federal government’s early attitudes around it

· How, in addition to LSD’s militarized misconception from the Nazis, there were other areasof US drug policy influenced by the Third Reich for over half a century

· How psychedelic research was marginalized and stigmatized for so long by prohibition and the War on Drugs, and how high the hurdles remain today for approval of psychedelic medicine, despite the opportunities—rather than dangers—they represent

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Employed Podcast.
0:07.0	Psychodellics became popular as part of 1960s counterculture and they've had a resurgence
0:12.3	in the last 10 years as Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
0:15.3	microdose with silocybin and federal law restricting LSD as a controlled substance
0:19.6	are starting to loosen up so that psychiatrists can test it to treat depression, PTSD, and other mental illnesses.
0:26.0	But LSD has a very surprising origin, and that origin was precisely why it was illegal for so many decades,
0:32.0	and it has little to do with its
0:33.6	purported danger. It was developed in 1943 in Switzerland and quickly co-opted by
0:37.8	Nazis using it in mind-control military research hoping it would be some sort of
0:42.3	truth serum.
0:43.0	And at the end of the Cold War, the U.S. acquired it, which gave her to the MK Ultra program,
0:47.5	the CIA's notorious research into brainwashing and psychological torture.
0:51.5	In today's episode, I'm speaking with Norman Oler, author of Tripp, Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the dawn of the psychedelic
0:58.4	age.
0:59.4	There were other areas of US drug policy influenced by the Third Reich.
1:02.8	Nazi Germany banned all sorts of recreational drugs, which included LSD,
1:07.1	and this shadow cast on the substance affected the war on drugs in the United States in the 1960s.
1:12.1	In this episode, we're going to look at this long history of
1:14.6	LSD, how dubious origins of something can affect its reputation decades after those initial
1:19.7	conditions ceased to exist, and many other things in this discussion with Norman Owen.
1:24.0	And one more thing before we get started with this episode,
1:29.0	a quick break for word from our sponsors.
	...

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