“I can hypnotize a man — without his knowledge or consent — into committing treason against the United States,” boasted Dr. George Estabrooks in the early 1940s.It was unthinkable at the time that an agency of the U.S. government would employ mind-control techniques on its own people. Therefore it was natural for George Estabrooks to believe that if America were threatened by hypnotic mind control, the threat would be posed by a foreign enemy working within the United States.
“All right, you say. This sounds beautiful on paper. But what about the well-known ‘psychological principle’ that no one will do anything under hypnosis that he wouldn’t do when he’s awake?” Estabrooks asked.
“My experiments have shown this assumption is poppycock. It depends not so much on the attitude of the subject as on that of the operator himself ... In wartime, the motivation for murder under hypnosis doesn’t have to be very strong,” Estabrooks warned.
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