Government mind control is the stuff of conspiracy theories. Many homeless people suffering from schizophrenia or meth-induced psychosis claim to be victims of it. And it is common to find people online who say they are victims of mind control, directed energy weapons, and gang-stalking by government agents.

These delusions appear to have arisen after evidence emerged in the 1970s that the CIA was engaged in mind-control efforts, the subject of a congressional hearing last week. The CIA’s MKUltra program, for example, tested LSD on prisoners and hospital patients without their consent.

After World War II, the CIA may have continued Nazi experiments into mind control, even using former Nazi doctors and operating a black site in Germany where some victims died, testified a journalist-turned-historian.

A test subject of Andrija Puharich (left); Andrija Puharich (center); Henry Kissinger (right) (CREDITS: Puharich Archives; Sarite Sanders; GETTY IMAGES)