The idea of “secret projects” such as MKUltra were once considered complete fiction and nothing but conspiracy theories. As were secret projects to influence the weather or the use of remote viewers by such intelligence agencies as the CIA. However, we now know that these efforts existed, at least on an initial research and experimental level.
If these top secret and once-denied projects were more factual than authorities would have originally had us believe, then what should we make of some of the other, albeit bizarre, allegations of top secret projects and programs that operate in the shadows of governments, funded by the “black budget?” Here are ten such programs. Some are more believable than others, no doubt, but all are intriguing to the max.
10 Project Mannequin
According to several whistle-blowers, Project Mannequin is a joint operation involving the NSA and the British intelligence agencies.[1] Although a variety of activities and projects operate under the Mannequin name, the main purpose is to train and develop units of “super soldiers.” Some of these are used as part of UFO retrieval and security lockdown operations. Others, though, are called “sleepers” and are claimed to be mind-controlled and activated remotely to carry out deadly assassination missions, of which they will not be aware.
Not crazy enough for you? Okay, most of these super soldiers become members of these programs via kidnappings or through years of grooming via military and high-status families, who apparently submit their children to such programs for rewards unknown.
The main hub of the operation is said to be in a top secret facility 60 meters (200 ft) underground in Berkshire in Southern England. In addition to the training sessions in developing super soldiers and mind-controlled assassins (if, of course, we subscribe to these apparent leaks of information, which most don’t) there are also remote viewing sessions. These occur for a variety of purposes, not least to gain political and military advantages. Some whistle-blowers even claim “astral attacks” take place from this facility under the Project Mannequin name.
Perhaps one of the most high-profile people to make claims of involvement in Project Mannequin was Max Spiers, who died in the most suspicious of circumstances and whose death—shortly after making such claims—remains unsolved to any satisfactory degree still today. Make of that what you will.
9 Project Bluebird/Artichoke
In contrast to the outlandish claims about Project Mannequin, our next entry is all too real. Most of us, even those who don’t involve themselves with “conspiracies” and the like, are aware of such programs as MKUltra, even if only by name. The forerunner to this very real project went first under the name Project Bluebird, and then, very likely for security reasons and for a lack of a clear paper trail, under the moniker of Project Artichoke.[2] Perhaps this activity is indicative of the nature of the “black budget projects” that would seemingly become standard operating procedure for many intelligence agencies as the 20th century progressed.
These programs began around 1950, in the aftermath of World War II and, incidentally or not, Operation Paperclip. (The Nazis were known to have carried out extensive experiments with mind control.) While there is no direct evidence to link him to the programs, it is generally accepted by many researchers that the work of Jose Delgado, who was looking to replace the brutal nature of lobotomies with electrical stimulation of the brain, perhaps unintentionally provided intelligence agencies with the insight they required to use such knowledge to their own ends.
8 Project Dreamscan
While the objectives of Project Dreamscan have little documentation to back up the whistle-blower-type claims, the methods utilized within the program very much do. It is widely known, for example, that the CIA experimented relatively extensively with remote viewing, particularly during the Cold War (mainly due to intelligence that their Soviet counterparts were doing so).
According to the claims of some, the objective of Project Dreamscan was to have remote viewers leave their bodies and enter a target’s mind in a dream state.[3] These missions were thought to have been attempts to influence the thought processes of the targets. Interestingly, some researchers suggest that such remote viewers often accompany high-ranking officials to meetings with the UN in order to use their powers on other countries’ officials for similar reasons. Rumors even exist that Uri Geller was employed in such a way.
Furthermore, a purported CIA document declassified in 2017 suggests that similar missions would “send” remote viewers not only to other planets but to different times, both in the future and the past. While most dismiss this aspect entirely, it is an interesting notion that time travel may be something achieved on an astral plane as opposed to a physical one.
7 Project Stargate
As we mentioned above, many of these secret programs were a product of the Cold War and the intelligence obtained by both US and Soviet agencies. In reality, it is tempting to say that each country likely fed the other a good helping of purposeful disinformation. However, in the paranoid nature of the times, neither side could afford to ignore possible intel, no matter how absurd. It is easy to see, then, where the murkiness of such projects comes from.
One of these operations was Project Stargate, which, according to what little information is available on it, was a “psychotronic research” program.[4] Furthermore, beginning in the late 1970s, established and proven remote viewers would “teach” other to hone their skills—all at the expense of the United States government, of course. This was, according to some, the new “psychic warfare” that was taking place in full view of an unknowing and unsuspecting public.
There are even more bizarre reports from some researchers that suggest these talented remote viewers would, on occasion, be “loaned out” to friendly countries for use in their own private matters. Like many such programs, whatever the truth of their operations, Project Stargate would suddenly cease operating, at least under that name, in the 1990s.
6 Project Rainbow
Perhaps another seemingly outlandish “secret” operation was Project Rainbow, whose roots allegedly reside in such equally insane projects as the Philadelphia Experiment, which, of course, most people insist are mere fantasy at best. It also has more direct connections to another supersecret program in the Phoenix Time Travel Project, which some researchers believe is essentially the same operation under a different name.[5]
While much of the project—if we accept, for a moment, the authenticity of the claims—revolved around the attempted creation of time tunnels and wormholes, the other part of the Project Rainbow umbrella would look at weather control. This, particularly in recent years, is something that is increasingly being dragged from the conspiracy tray to the fact tray.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing connections to other conspiracies are the claims that it was from these weather and space-time experiments that the seeds of the fully working mind control devices came from. It is another interesting layer to such conspiracies that sees a now all-but-proven “conspiracy theory” such as weather control coupled with the much more unpalatable prospect of controlling the minds of unsuspecting members of the public.
5 Operation Sleeping Beauty
Project Rainbow was not the only operation to involve experiments more akin to mind control. Rainbow’s weather control research allegedly also reportedly resulted in the secret program known as Operation Sleeping Beauty.
Whether these experiments ever made it off the drawing board is unknown, although as you might imagine, some conspiracy theorists insist they did. And what’s more, they contend that the experiments are likely still going on today.
The drive behind these conspiracy theories is the notion that mind-altering electromagnetic weaponry could be used to the US military’s advantage.[6] They would, through such advanced and experimental technology, be able to achieve battlefield superiority. Their enemies would be mentally disorientated to the point of surrender.
Another interesting aspect of this approach was that the soldiers affected would not have the slightest idea of what was happening to them. This confusion alone would inspire substantial fear. In short, such a secret, advanced weapon is not at all beyond the realms of imagination or possibility.
4 The Mindwreaker Project
A very similar advanced battlefield weapon program would be Project Mindwreaker (sometimes called “Mindwrecker”) an effort to create a state of artificial paralysis through “mentally induced” weapons.[7]
According to the conspiracies (and, once again, we should note that there is no absolute solid evidence to back these outlandish claims up), the project came to light through another unintended observation during the weather control experiments of Project Rainbow. Once they realized there was a potential to paralyze subjects through the technology they had created, they looked to weaponize it.
In a conspiracy claim already bordering on lunacy, further accusations suggest that this technology was derived from reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, which only made the conspiracy theory more appealing to some and more unbelievable to others. Perhaps just to add another layer of appeal to the whole affair, Mindwreaker is also claimed to be one of the last secret projects commissioned by the Reagan administration. Of course, who was actually in charge during the Reagan years is perhaps also open to debate and is, in fact, likely the bigger conspiracy.
3 Project Sigma
Maybe the claims behind the apparent Project Sigma are the most intriguing of them all, if only because they offer an admittedly tentative explanation for the alien abduction phenomenon.
The roots of Project Sigma go back to the alleged, and equally controversial, meeting between President Eisenhower and two different alien races. One race was the Greys, whose offer of advanced technology apparently won Eisenhower’s mind against the offer of “green technology” from the other alien race (said by some to be the Nordics). Further rumors suggest that Eisenhower didn’t wish this technology to end up in the hands of the Soviet Union.
So, then, if we buy into the theories that Eisenhower did indeed meet with two alien races, one of which was the Greys, what was the outcome of such a meeting? Well, according to some researchers, themselves relying on whistle-blower testimony, it was Project Sigma. This was essentially an alien-human hybridization program. The reason behind this is said to be that the Greys’ DNA had suffered “extreme degradation” due to exposure to radiation on their home planet. In short, they could no longer reproduce. So, in return for this technology, the Greys were apparently granted “access” to humans for abduction, under the condition the abductees would not recall such abductions and would be returned unharmed.[8]
It is certainly an interesting notion. Might this be the ultimate reason behind the reports of abductions by Grey aliens since the early 1960s?
2 Project Moon Dust
The official reason for Project Moon Dust was to recover the remains of Soviet satellites that reentered the atmosphere and crashed to Earth. And they didn’t just recover these satellites in the United States but all over the world, in places such as South Africa, Bolivia, and even as far away as the Himalayan Mountains.
However, according to some researchers, most prominently Clifford Stone, a great many of the Moon Dust missions actually recovered crashed UFOs. Many of these craft are thought to have been taken back to the United States to various air bases and research facilities, with a view to reverse-engineering the technology available.[9] Stone, who also claimed involvement in the missions, would state shortly before his death in 2014, “While we were doing this, we were telling the American public there was nothing to it [UFOs].”
Stone would also state that on most of these missions, the unit thought they were going for a satellite or a Soviet test plane. However, he would also state that on each of these missions, there was also a person assigned at the last minute who “wasn’t an Army official.” It would appear that these mysterious additions to the mission were the only ones in full possession of the actual facts of each incident. The claims, while perhaps requiring a pinch of salt or two, are certainly intriguing.
1 The CHANI Project
Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these alleged secret projects is the CHANI (Channeled Holographic Access Network Interface) Project, which one researcher described as an “orgasmic interaction between science theory and spiritual awareness.”[10]
A simple way of explaining this apparent project is a moving of remote viewing and the use of psychics into the digital age. Through various computer software programs, the conspiracy says, a digital “channeler” or presence would make contact with spirits and energies from another realm—or, more accurately, with one energy or spirit, who was referred to rather ominously as “the Entity.”
Even more bizarre, the Entity was in contact with humanity on behalf of “the Elders,” the creators and overseers of the universe. This is an interesting notion and one that is found in the legends of many ancient civilizations. Ancient Egypt, for example, had legends of nine creator gods. Perhaps interestingly, it is claimed that similar channeling experiments in the 1950s and 1960s, themselves an offshoot of the MKUltra and remote viewing experiments, made contact with one of these creator gods.