The basic idea of encounter therapy was that through manipulating an environment, namely

a group environment or a social environment, one could induce powerful, thrilling, and

agonizing emotions in participants.

Now, it's obvious that the style of group therapy is extremely volatile, but it's important

to point out that it's psychologically inflationary as well. New and novel techniques are needed

to continue delivering the required emotional kick. The public was beginning to view these

groups as cults. Even proponents of the methods would admit that maybe they went too far,

that mistakes were made. So Chuck began to experiment with even stranger ways for the

members to get their emotional fix.

Disappaceants were Chuck's first real stab at making a new kind of game, and they formed

the basis for all later developments. Disappaceants involved marathon game sessions up to 72 hours

long and focused heavily on reliving and reenacting childhood traumas. The hallmarks of a

dissipation were lack of sleep, hunger, and extended time in extreme emotional discomfort.

The next discovery made by Chuck and company was called the trip, which he built on top

of the dissipation. Picture this, you're corigning from reliving the absolute worst moment of

your life, to line flat on your back while jazz music blares, before sitting cross-legged

next to flickering candlelight as a man and a purple robe looks unbleaking into your eyes

and lectures you about Walden Pond. This would go on for days. Trippers would achieve

states of perfect delirium. Have you ever been hungry for a long time, really hungry?

Mix that in with weeping and no sleep, and forget about using the bathroom.

Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the man funding the experiments on junkies at at Lexington from episode

1, oversaw the highly classified CIA project known as MK-Oltra. We still don't know

...