In 1951, the CIA quietly circulated a document that reads less like inter-agency correspondence and more like the pitch deck for a psychological weapons program.
Titled simply Items of Special Interest, it outlines the Agency’s hunger for a chilling array of experimental technologies-from needleless injectors to mind-reading machines, truth-inducing gases, and a device known only as the “sleep machine.”
“This office would appreciate the opportunity of talking with anyone familiar with the work of…”
- Internal CIA memo
The objective? Identify, acquire, and test any technology that could manipulate the human body or mind without detection.
💉 Hypo-Spray: Inject Without a Needle, Leave No Trace
The memo kicks off with interest in a device called a “hypo-spray”-a tool capable of delivering drugs without breaking the skin.
Not only did the CIA want to acquire it, they wanted to know who was using it, what substances were being delivered, and whether it could be weaponized.
They weren’t asking casually. They wanted field contacts. Fast.
🧠 Lie Detectors and Brain Tech
“The Polygraph Unit… wishes to have a talk with anyone involved in deception-related machinery.”
- CIA internal correspondence
The Polygraph Unit wanted in, too. They weren’t just interested in machines to detect lies-they wanted new tools to create psychological pressure and extract truth without torture.
The document suggests they were open to anything: electrical, chemical, even gas-based methods.
Another line references “sleep-inducing machines” being used in foreign hospitals. It wasn’t a sedative or a shock device.
According to the memo, it was something different.
And the Agency wanted to see it up close.
🚨 Experimental Interrogations, Foreign Fronts
The CIA also referenced ongoing projects involving “interrogations of elite personnel” and made it clear they didn’t just want the results-they wanted the techniques.
What methods worked?
Were machines involved?
Could they replicate it?
“We would like to know what methods they are using… their techniques… and if they are using machines and instruments to assist them.”
There’s also mention of an operation involving “side-note delay”-a strange interrogation method using a device the Agency didn’t yet understand but urgently wanted access to.
🕳️ Mind Control in the Making
“We would like more information on this program…”
- Memo, Office of Security
The memo ends with a proposal to send teams to study institutions experimenting with psychological and behavioral modification.
These weren’t isolated curiosities. They were the early ingredients of MK-Ultra, still years from being publicly named but already well underway behind the curtain.
In total, the document outlines a sprawling interest in non-lethal tools of control: sleep manipulation, suggestion, deception detection, memory alteration-and delivery systems to make it all happen in silence.
