Psychedelics and Coercion

Brugmansia, a hallucinogenic flowering plant, recently hit the news after its mention in the Epstein files. Epstein writes in the subject line of an email, “Scopolamine [Brugmansia’s active ingredient]: Powerful drug growing in the forests of Colombia that ELIMINATES free will.” The message itself contains an article about how Brugmansia makes people highly suggestible and open to control. It states, “You can guide them wherever you want. It’s like they’re a child.” 

Allegedly, Epstein grew these plants in his nursery.

This case is not the first time people in power have investigated the use of psychedelic substances for manipulation. The CIA conducted dozens of studies exploring these drugs as part of MK-ULTRA, a program of experiments dedicated to mind control that ran from 1953 to at least 1973. 

The goal of MK-ULTRA was to develop reliable methods of behaviour modification and psychological manipulation that could be weaponised during the Cold War. American intelligence officials were deeply alarmed by reports that the Soviet Union and China were using psychological techniques to "brainwash" captured soldiers and political prisoners. 

MK-ULTRA was an attempt to match and surpass what the enemy might be capable of, at least according to those who ran the program. 

Projects investigated the effects of scopolamine, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin, along with various other sedating and toxic agents. LSD became the project’s primary drug of focus after chemist Sidney Gottlieb, who was deeply curious about the drug, was appointed as the CIA's Chief of the Chemical Division in 1951. 

Under Gottleib, numerous people were given LSD without consent, and their behaviours were observed. While it was shown that psychedelic substances could certainly wreck people’s minds, they didn’t prove to be the mind-control drugs, or “truth serums”, the CIA were after. 

“No effective knockout pill, truth serum, aphrodisiac, or recruitment pill was known to exist,” Gottleib states in a 1960s CIA document.

Though the CIA unsuccessfully utilised psychedelic substances for mind-control, criminals have proved their own success. 

In Colombia, robberies involving scopolamine, extracted from locally growing related Brugmansia species, have been a rife criminal activity since the 1950s. There have been many cases of victims unwittingly dosed with powdered extracts of Datura stramonium and Hyoscyamus albus in drinks and cigarettes. The plants are so potent that sometimes the powders are simply just blown in someone's face. 

In the brain, scopolamine blocks the activity of acetylcholine, a chemical messenger that plays an essential role in memory. It is particularly vital in episodic memory, the capacity to remember personal experiences, and semantic memory, a general knowledge of the world. 

When scopolamine disrupts acetylcholine function, people can forget who they are and where they are. They become extremely susceptible to the demands of others, so much so that there have been cases of people willingly withdrawing cash from bank machines to give to robbers. One Colombian woman even recounted that she’d led a man to her house and helped him gather her valuables from inside. 

What makes scopolamine perhaps even more ideal for criminals is that it blocks people’s ability to form new memories. Victims enter a state of anterograde amnesia, meaning they often wake up from an experience without any recollection of who it was that stole all their belongings, kidnapped them, or sexually assaulted them, or that these events even happened at all. 

“Victims often surrender their valuables to the criminals without resistance. Neither the victim nor the surrounding people are aware that a crime is being committed and, as a result, there are usually no witnesses,” wrote the authors of a paper titled ‘Million Dollar Ride: Crime committed during involuntary scopolamine intoxication’.

Scopolamine is typically classified as a deliriant, a subclass of psychedelics with distinct biological effects. Its neurological impact is particularly ideal for coercion and control. However, classical psychedelics – such as LSD and psilocybin – still run their own risks. 

Suggestibility is defined as the tendency to accept and act on ideas or information suggested by others, and it has long been recognised as a key effect of psychedelics. In the 1960 book The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy, psychiatrist Mortimer Hartman writes, “the patient under LSD, from a therapeutic point of view, is quite definitely hypersuggestible.”

An early study by researchers B. M. Sjoberg Jr. and L.E. Hollister tested the effects of classical psychedelics on hypnotic inductions. They gave subjects a series of verbal suggestions, such as that they’re falling forward or backwards, or that their arm can’t be bent, and scored how much they physically responded. Subjects were more likely to show a response if they were given LSD, mescaline, or a combination of LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. 

In a more recent study from Imperial College London, subjects listened to inductions of imagined scenarios, like re-experiencing themself in childhood, or eating a delicious piece of fruit, and then scored how “real” the scenario felt. Participants given LSD before these inductions scored much higher on this scale of creative imagination. 

Brain scanning experiments give clues as to why these substances make people more suggestible. Studies show that classical psychedelics induce hypofrontality, a state characterised by decreased blood flow and neural activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This brain region is implicated in critical evaluation, the ability to check information against our preformed understanding of the world. It has been likened to a regulator, something that suppresses interpretations that don’t fit reality based on everything we’ve learned to be “true” about ourselves and the world around us. 

Moreover, psychedelics decrease activity in a set of interconnected brain regions called the default mode network (DMN). This network is active during self-reflection and is associated with the ego and the sense of who we are. 

Combined, these neurological effects reduce the capacity to think critically or to connect to the morals and beliefs embedded in our sense of personhood. 

Such a state of suggestibility has troubling implications when it comes to using psychedelics in guided settings. For instance, a story on the BBC tells of a woman coerced into sexual acts by a shaman leading an ayahuasca ceremony in Peru. She was only 20 at the time. 

"It's disgusting," she commented in an interview. "Because he was a shaman, I thought he had moral superiority in a sense and I trusted him."

In fact, there have been many cases of sexual abuse and harassment reported by attendees of psychedelic ceremonies. Shamans and ceremony guides are often viewed with reverence, which can lead to an abuse of power when they’re working with people entering extremely vulnerable states.

Sometimes, sexual coercion and other forms of manipulation are not physical. Psychedelics can expand the mind, both neurologically and metaphysically, leading some people to feel as if their consciousness has moved beyond the material realm. In some cases, individuals have reported experiences of abuse occurring within this extra-physical dimension.

A Facebook post on the Australian Spiritual Community describes a woman who felt an intense sexual attraction towards a shaman during an ayahuasca ceremony. For weeks after, he kept appearing in her dreams, giving rise to the same sexual energy accompanied by a deep sense of discomfort. The authors of the post describe that what the woman experienced wasn’t in fact attraction but was rather an “energetic manipulation disguised as healing.”

It’s not just in spiritual circles and communities where coercion is a major concern. Like shamans, psychotherapists are also idealised and can abuse this power when working with clients in suggestive states. 

In 2015, Meaghan Buisson participated in a clinical MDMA therapy session with therapists Richard Yensen and Donna Dryer, in a trial for the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). MDMA doesn’t induce the same effects of hypofrontality as classical psychedelics, but it reduces activity in the amygdala, a brain region that responds to threat. With her defences down, Buisson claimed to have been violated during the sessions. 

In 2018, Buisson filed a civil lawsuit in 2018 claiming that Yensen initiated a sexual relationship framed as part of her therapy, which she described as coercive and abusive. MAPS acknowledged that the therapists’ conduct violated ethical boundaries and cut ties with them. However, Buisson believed the company hadn’t put appropriate measures in place to mitigate such harms. 

Another therapist associated with MAPS, Vicky Dulai, was accused of financially exploiting George Sarlo, an elderly Holocaust survivor. As a trained psychedelic therapist, Dulai reportedly administered ayahuasca, MDMA, and ketamine to help Sarlo address his trauma. During this time, Sarlo bought her a Porsche and gifted her $1.4 million to buy a home with her husband. A lawsuit was filed alleging that Dulai used coercion and psychedelic drugs to create dependency and manipulate Sarlo for financial gain.

The risks implicated from this suggestible state are unnerving. Yet, the psychedelic effects themselves aren’t inherently dangerous. If people enter such mindstates in a safe and supported setting, the openness and reduced rationality and defences can be potent for therapeutic outcomes. 

Mood disorders are largely characterised by “stuck” thought and behaviour patterns, whether it’s negative self-talk, overworrying, obsessive rituals, or addiction. A widely-used analogy likens these patterns to a sledge carving tracks down a hill. The more they're used, the deeper and more rigid they become until it’s as if the sledge can only go down those grooves. However, by inducing a state of openness, taking psychedelics can be like putting down a fresh layer of snow.

From a neuroscience stance, studies show that the normal neural firing patterns in the brain become less constrained when people are on psychedelics. There becomes more cross-talk between different areas, opening the possibility for new ways of perceiving and thinking about the world. 

As such, these suggestible states are also a means to help patients to “break free” from entrenched negative patterns and discover new, healthier ways of thinking and being. In line with this therapeutic theory, clinical trials show that patients who report higher scores of openness following psychedelic therapy are more likely to improve in symptoms. Such a finding emphasises this dichotomy of suggestibility being both a source of benefit and danger. 

Beyond the healing narratives, psychedelics can radically change people’s belief systems. This could be the framing of self, opinions about others, spiritual beliefs, political viewpoints, and beyond. While outcomes vary widely, research and reports consistently highlight the importance of set and setting. In a highly suggestible state, individuals are more likely to absorb influences from their environment or the people around them.

For instance, in the famous ‘Good Friday Experiment’ of the 1960s, students who were given psilocybin during a church service reported having a deepened religious faith following the experience. People who use ayahuasca in traditional settings often report having more animistic world views following ceremonies, echoing the cultural beliefs of South American communities. 

Given the influence of political set and setting, journalists and researchers have noted connections between psychedelics and far-right ideologies. In states of heightened suggestibility, exposure to extreme political views may increase the likelihood of adopting authoritarian, nationalist, or xenophobic perspectives. 

“Research supporting the hypothesis that psychedelics induce a shift in political beliefs must address the many historical and contemporary cases of psychedelic users who remained authoritarian in their views after taking psychedelics or became radicalized after extensive experience with them,” commented the authors of a paper published in Frontiers of Psychology. 

Psychedelics render people open, suggestible and stripped of their usual critical defences, and there is a long history of perpetrators seeking to take advantage of this vulnerability. However, the same neurological openness that can lead to abuse can also guide someone free from years of entrenched trauma. The same mind-expanding journey that can instil Nazi beliefs could also turn someone into a devout Christian. 

Such contrast of outcomes emphasises the essentialness of set and setting. The effects of psychedelics are unpredictable, but it's undeniable that being among trusted others in a safe environment will certainly reduce the risk of being negatively coerced. And it’s not just during the experience itself that we need to consider suggestibility. Rather, as the neuroplastic state continues, we must continue to be cautious about who and what we surround ourselves with for the days and weeks following a psychedelic trip.

Martha is one of our community bloggers here at Chemical Collective. If you’re interested in joining our blogging team and getting paid to write about subjects you’re passionate about, please reach out to Sam via email at [email protected]