A declassified CIA training film reveals just how deep U.S. intelligence once ventured into the realm of hypnosis-based mind control-not as science fiction, but as standard operating procedure.
"Mary Jones was made to carry out her surreptitious and illegal activity by use of a code word and a post-hypnotic suggestion."
- CIA Hypnosis Training Film, Unit B
The subject: a trusted employee named Mary Jones. The technique: a simple phone call that triggered a pre-programmed response, turning a secretary into a Top Secret thief.
She walked calmly into her office, opened the classified safe, took a document, and handed it to a stranger in a parked car.
All without knowing she’d done it.
🧠 The CIA’s Hypnosis Unit Had a Name: "Unit B"
"The function of Unit B includes the control of the words, thoughts, and activities of individuals-willing or not."
- CIA internal memo
Unit B wasn’t theoretical. It was a staffed division attached to the Office of Security, tasked with testing hypnosis as a tool of control, interrogation, and memory erasure. The CIA openly feared the Soviets were using similar techniques-and they were determined to match or beat them.
Their goals? Learn how to detect, resist, and ultimately weaponize hypnosis.
🛋️ Relax. You’re Under Control.
"You ought to learn how to relax. Here-let me show you."
- Narrator, CIA hypnosis training script
That’s all it took. According to the film, hypnotic suggestion could be implanted at a party, a date, or even in casual conversation. Once under, the subject could be made to perform tasks with no outward signs of trance-and no memory afterward.
One scene shows a woman typing at her desk, unaware that hours earlier she had committed espionage.
⚠️ Sabotage, Espionage, Even Murder-All While Hypnotized
"This film will show that physically amazing things can be accomplished under hypnosis… and it would be foolish to deny the phenomena."
- CIA narrator
The film stages dramatic reenactments:
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A hypnotized woman plants a bomb in an office.
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A subject robs an unconscious man.
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Another loads and fires a weapon, believing it’s only a drill.
At the end of each scene, a simple touch to the forehead sends the subject back into sleep-proof, the agency claimed, that they were never truly "awake" to begin with.
🎥 The Final Frame: “Do You Have a Jones in Your Office?”
The conclusion doesn’t offer answers. It ends with a question.
As the screen fades on Mary Jones returning to her desk, the narrator leaves viewers with a cold warning:
"She has no memory of what she did last night… Do you have a Jones in your office?"
