All language subtitles for Conspiracies.and.Coverups.S01E01.Mind-Controlled.Assassin.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

There's so many things
in the sky right now.

Let's face it, we live
in a time when fear and distrust

are at an all-time high.

There are so many
government conspiracies,

it can be hard to tell
what's real and what's not.

The drones off of New Jersey.

Are they Chinese?
Are they Russian?

Weather control.

The death of Jeffrey Epstein.

The list just goes on and on
and nobody knows

how to make sense
out of what's real...

and what's fake.

My name is Andrew Bustamante
and I am a former covert

CIA intelligence officer,

and I'm here to help you
separate fact from fiction.

Since leaving CIA,

I've made it my mission
to shed light

on the lies,
cover-ups,

conspiracies, and tactics used
to conceal them.

Now I'm going to pressure-test
the most sensational,

ripped-from-the-headlines
conspiracy theories out there,

and track down
key experts,

eyewitnesses,
and whistleblowers.

I'll analyze
never-before-seen footage,

conduct eye-opening
experiments...

He's right here.

See the drone
right there overhead?

You see it?

...and demonstrations.

Sleeping all the way down
deeper and deeper.

It's just so fast.
It's just incredible.

Nobody thinks of hypnotism
as a weapon.

My mission is simple...

Is there a tunnel
that connects us

to Cheyenne Mountain?

...to find the truth...

Epstein was reported to have
actually hung himself

from this side of the bed,
which is right here.

...and arm you with the tools
you need to determine

for yourself what is real

and what are
you being manipulated

to believe is real.

Three-twenty.

Three-hundred-forty feet.

Three-hundred-sixty feet.

Four hundred.

And 420, which is about
140 yards.

All right, go ahead
and just stop there

and stand still for me.

That's what a person looks like
140 yards away.

When Thomas Crooks
planned his shot

on then-presidential-candidate
Donald Trump,

he was looking at that
in the distance on a stage.

The would-be assassin was
killed at the scene,

leaving behind a trail
of unanswered questions.

Who was he?
What drove him?

And was this 20-year-old
acting alone?

It wasn't long
before conspiracy theories

started to swirl,

and one of them caught
my attention.

So you are alleging that
Thomas Crooks was groomed

by some type
of dark intel program,

MKUltra or otherwise?

I-- I think so.
I've said that all along.

He was programmed.

Programmed.

This mind-control theory
took off online.

Maybe Thomas Crooks wasn't just
some angry young shooter.

Maybe he was part
of something more sinister.

A pawn under the control
of the deep state.

But is that even possible?

Is it possible to get someone
to take action

against their will?

My own agency, the CIA,
spent years trying

to crack that code.
That isn't speculation.

That's history.

I'm not here to unpack

the Trump
assassination attempt.

I'm here to ask
a much bigger question.

Is it possible
to actually create

a mind-controlled assassin?

And what I discover
is shocking.

In my seven years at CIA,
I spent much of it

operating overseas, undercover,
in hostile territory.

One of my primary missions was
to recruit human assets--

to identify people
with access,

understand
their vulnerabilities,

and convince them
to switch sides.

When I hear
mind-controlled assassin,

I immediately think
of a real program

that CIA ran
not that very long ago.

It all started during
the Cold War.

In Korea,
American prisoners of war

who seemed brainwashed
and were paraded on TV.

The die was cast.

If America's enemies could bend
a soldier's will,

the US had to learn
how to do it too.

And fast.

So in 1953, CIA greenlit
a secret program to find out,

can you break a mind
and rebuild it?

The program was called
MKUltra.

The man in charge?

Sidney Gottlieb,
a chemist with a PhD

and an obsession
with a new drug called LSD.

Experimental drugs,
including LSD,

were administered
to human guinea pigs,

beginning with
American soldiers.

This was a totally different
era at CIA than mine.

There was no oversight,
and people like Sidney Gottlieb

were released on the American
public with blank checks

to fund crazy experiments.

At Stanford University,
they were handing LSD out

to students like it was candy.

An undergrad named Ken Kesey
loved the experience so much

that he stole LSD
from the lab

and started handing it out
in San Francisco.

Everybody must get stoned!

So yes, stolen CIA acid kicked
off a psychedelic revolution.

But meanwhile,
MKUltra-funded experiments

were turning darker.

The initial goal was to find
the perfect truth serum.

But soon, the mission expanded.

Erase memories.

Rewire behavior.

The room became
very distorted.

It was like some kind
of funny hell I'd fallen into

and I couldn't get out.

I just wanted to scream that
I wanted to get out of there.

I was completely...

Like they had complete control
over me.

The CIA's ultimate dream?

Create a Manchurian candidate.

Now we have come
almost to the end.

One last step.

A phrase coined after
the 1959 novel

about a US soldier
in the Korean War

brainwashed to become
a sleeper assassin.

MKUltra was officially
disbanded in the late 1960s,

but the public didn't find out
about it until the 1970s

when journalists dug in.

Congress held hearings
and survivors sued.

I believe that every citizen
of this nation

has the right to know just what
is fact and what is fiction.

Today, MKUltra is more than
a code word.

It's a meme, a myth,
a shorthand

for government mind control.

It's a conspiracy theory that
wasn't just a theory.

And the idea of mind control
lives on in pop culture...

in characters like
Jason Bourne,

and Eleven
from "Stranger Things."

But I've always wondered,

what is the real story
behind MKUltra?

And what did it achieve,
if anything?

So I started digging.

At CIA, you're trained to look
where others don't.

And the more I dug,
the more I realized

everyone was too focused
on the drugs.

And that's when something else
in the files caught my eye.

Hypnosis.

Controlling someone through
the power of suggestion

and subconscious
control mechanisms.

I found that lesser-known
MKUltra experiments

studied hypnosis.

There really isn't much
of a difference between

hypnosis and spying.

It's all about
influence, control.

You will leave
your present body.

The brain has an incredible
ability to frame its reality

around its perception.

I want to know, can somebody
actually take control

of another person's perception,
their behavior, using hypnosis?

To determine if there might be
a programmed assassin

connection between MKUltra
and hypnosis, I tracked down

Mike Evans from
the National Security Archive,

one of the leading researchers
on the program.

Are there any conclusions
we can draw

about MKUltra's focus
on hypnosis?

There were something like
10 or 12 MKUltra programs

that focused on hypnosis
one way or the other.

But a lot of the excitement
about that was kind of

overtaken by the discovery
of LSD and the possibilities.

And what happened was during
the investigations in the '70s,

Gottlieb and his boss
ordered the destruction

of basically all the files
related to MKUltra

behind all
the behavior control research.

And with that void of
information, many people think

that the American government
may have created

something else, correct?
- Right.

In the American imagination,
the CIA was turning people

into sort of
Manchurian candidate killers.

And it's important to ask
whether they succeeded

in doing that, whether
they're still trying to do that.

So there is no remaining
evidence that MKUltra

successfully created
a programmed assassin.

If you were going to destroy
documents, wouldn't these be

some of the first that
you would want to destroy?

So my next question is,

is it even possible to create
a mind-controlled killer?

Is hypnosis the key to turning
someone like Thomas Crooks

into a real-life
Manchurian candidate?

That's a question nobody has
tried to answer until now.

I think I found the perfect
person to help me answer

that question with an experiment
to figure out the truth.

Max?

Hello, Andrew.

Can I get a latte
and a glass of water?

Yeah.

We've invited our subject
to come here tonight.

They believe they're gonna
have some one-on-one time

with me to kind
of explore their mind.

But what they don't know
is during that time,

I'm gonna be reprogramming them
to actually poison your drink.

Wow!

2
Max?

Hello, Andrew.

And you can just sleep
deep all the way down.

Max Major is one
of the country's

leading hypnotists.

And you can no longer remember
your own name.

It's just been wiped
from your mind.

Sleep deep, all the way
down deeper.

Also a trained hypnotherapist,
Max is known for quickly

putting people into a hypnotic
state using his mastery

of focus, authority,
and emotion.

- What?
- Sleep deep,
all the way down.

That's why I think he's going
to be my perfect partner

on this mission.

I've been a hypnotist
since I was 18 years old,

so for more than 20 years now.

So I've always been fascinated
with the mind

and obviously MKUltra is
a wealth of information

about how people
can be controlled.

Without a doubt,
one of the least discussed,

least referenced points
of MKUltra was really

the hypnosis program.

They talk about how
they identified their victims

out of insane asylums
or psychiatric wards.

It just seems like a ripe
foundation for hypnosis.

Yeah, and the other thing
about it is like, most of what

we know about MKUltra is based
off of witness testimony.

But the thing about hypnosis is,
I could actually

hypnotize you to forget that
we ever even had a conversation.

So if I wipe your memory of
everything that occurred under

hypnosis, you wouldn't be able
to testify because you wouldn't

even know anything
ever happened.

So it's almost like we know
that experiments were done

with hypnotism, but we really
don't know what exactly they did

and what the results were.

You know what's really
interesting about this is that

in my experience at CIA,
80% of what we do well,

nobody ever finds out about.
- Insane.

So here's what I'm thinking.

- I want you to start crafting
an experiment...
- OK.

...where we can prove
this hypothesis true.

Can we create an experiment
that proves that hypnosis

could have been
a successful tool

used in the MKUltra program?

Can we find people?
Can we put them under hypnosis?

Can we get them to take actions
that they know they shouldn't

take and then have them forget
about the actions at the end?

I've never actually
performed in a situation

where in the back of my head
I have this, like, secret
ulterior motive.

I only know
secret ulterior motives.

But what I love about this is
that we could validate that

it's very likely it's already
been operationally deployed.

It's been active
in our world for decades.

- Absolutely.
- And we might be the first ones

to show that
it's possible at all.

In my experience,
gaining control

of a human subject takes weeks.
It takes months sometimes.

So the idea that he's going
to be able to hypnotize

and identify someone
who could become

a mind-controlled assassin
in a matter of minutes

is just amazing to me.

- Hey, hey!
- What's up, dude?

What is
this place, man?

This place is pretty cool.

- Yeah.
- This is called
Cosmo's Magic Theater.

People think that they're coming
to see me do a show,

but the real goal
tonight is to

essentially identify
the most susceptible person

to hypnosis
in the crowd.

- So this is the actual theater.
- Wow, look at this.

So, I mean, they're coming
to a real show.

We've got cameras you'll see
at the back of the room here.

- Oh, yeah.
- We've got
a camera up here.

- OK.
- And all of these are wired
to a room I have set up

for you where you can actually
observe the audience

throughout the show.

50 random strangers
were invited.

They are not actors,
they are not being paid,

and they don't know that we are
actually running

a covert experiment
to determine,

can you create
a mind-controlled assassin

and make them forget
what they did?

All right, I should
get backstage.

Max Major.

Here's how this works.

Hypnosis isn't anything
strange or woo-woo.

It's literally just,
I'm your guide,

and you're following along
with the instructions

that I'm giving you.

People are skeptical
about hypnosis.

Trust me, I was too, until
I learned the science behind it.

And here's how it works.

Let's try a really
simple exercise.

First, a hypnotist narrows
your attention to one thing.

It might be a voice,
a task, or your own breathing.

Put both your hands out
in front of you, palm-up.

Turn your right hand palm-down.

The body relaxes,
and the part of the brain that

evaluates and edits information
quiets down.

Keep your eyes closed
and listen to my voice.

Next, the hypnotist
guides the brain

into a more flexible state.

And take a deep breath
in through your nose.

Let it out through your mouth.

Your critical filters soften
just enough to explore

new emotions and perspectives.

Then comes
the suggestive phase.

Through calm,
repetitive language,

the hypnotist introduces
specific suggestions

and reinforces them.

I want you to look at the back
of your palm-down hand

and imagine tied to that wrist

were hundreds
of helium balloons.

And imagine
in your palm-up hand

was a bowling ball,
dragging that hand down.

And as I snap my fingers,
one hand gets heavier,

the other hand gets lighter,
higher and higher,

heavier and heavier.

Now you can open your eyes
and look at your hands.

But here's the catch.
Not everyone can be hypnotized.

Some people struggle to focus

and resist letting go
of control.

But Max isn't trying
to hypnotize everyone.

He's looking for the few,

the few who can
give up that control.

Anybody else,
when they open their eyes,

they look at their hands,
their hands were very far apart?

Could you stand up
and go to the stairs?

- Just let go and stop...
- Give me the name tag

on the person with
the goatee right now.

Noah.
Thank you.

Delaney, could you come
down to the front?

You can have a seat for now.

Dylan, could you join us down
here on stage?

Give them a round of applause.
They're doing great,
by the way.

Could you join me?
Noah, have a seat there.

Look beneath this eye
as I shake your hand.

Sleep deep, all the way down.
Deeper and deeper.

Sleep deep, all the way down.

Max is shaping
this entire crowd.

It's really
quite incredible to see.

In a moment, Noah,
you're gonna open your eyes,

and when you open your eyes,
time will not have passed.

You'll remember coming into
the show, but most importantly,

you've never been hypnotized.

One, two, wide awake,
all of you.

Open your eyes,
feeling great-- good.

Can you stand up?

This is super important,
because if Noah doesn't

remember being hypnotized,
we can erase his memories.

Cool, if you could just
get back in your seat,

because we were in
the middle of something.
- Thank you.

- Sorry about that, yeah.
- Oh-- thank you.

How did you end up
at the show tonight?

Like, why did you come?

Have you seen someone
hypnotized before,

or you wanted to be hypnotized,
or you're curious about it?

- Just curious?
- I was curious about it.

I've always wondered
what it felt like.

Right-- so you haven't been
hypnotized yourself?

I-- I don't think so.

Maybe you were hypnotized
and you, like, at a show

or something and they made
you forget or some--

I don't know if that's
possible, but that would be...

- I don't think that's possible.
- Oh, yeah.

He shows all the psychological
and physical characteristics

that we're looking for
to be suggestible

under Max's control.

OK, all right.
Hi, nice to meet you.

Chris, Max, hello.
Yeah, relax your hand.

Good, give it to me-- good.
Push down.

Look at the back
of this finger.

Good, look right here
at this finger.

Look up at me.
Can I hypnotize you?

- I don't think so.
- OK.

- Well, do you want
to be hypnotized?
- I do.

OK, go back to your seat,

just for now, just for now--
I'll explain...

As predicted, not everyone is
susceptible to hypnosis,

so Max continues working
through the audience,

trying to find
the most suggestible,

the most programmable
potential subjects.

Sleep deep,
all the way down, deeper.

Clyde, the next time that
you hear this-- [pen clicks]--

clicking sound,
you will stand up,

you will walk over
to the bookshelf,

you'll place your phone
on the bookshelf,

and you'll come back
to your seat,

and you'll close your eyes.

This is exactly
what we would have to do

with a mind-controlled assassin.

Give them multiple tasks
in a specific order

of operations
that they have to execute.

And Clyde...

is following orders right now.

At just the click of a pen,

he did exactly
what he was supposed to do.

One, two, wide awake,
open your eyes.

I am watching in real time
something that I thought

couldn't be done, like...
- Where's your phone?

It's in my pocket.

Max is
manipulating, shaping...

...growing trust, build--

he's influencing
these people in minutes.

Thank you for trusting me

with your time
and your attention.

My name is Max Major.
You guys have been great.

Thank you so much.

If you had a person
like this in the field,

you'd be able to execute a wide
range of operational objectives.

I mean, this is
incredibly valuable.

- What the-- holy smokes.
- Yeah, we have some--

That was incredible, man.

- I know exactly who I want.
- And I know who it is, too.

- Show me.
- Here.

You made people forget
their name tonight.

You made people forget that
they were hypnotized tonight.

If MKUltra had a fragment then
of what you have now,

they would have been doing
terrible things.

I'm feeling
uncomfortable already,

just with you saying that.
- I'm feeling uncomfortable

because if you could do this...
- Yeah.

...in 30 minutes...
- Right.

...what did
the MKUltra program--
- In 15 years.

2
Max's group session took place
in a controlled environment

with willing volunteers.

But would-be assassin,
Thomas Crooks,

wasn't in a theater.

He was in the real world.

Did Crooks show any signs
of influence?

What was his mental state
leading up to the rally?

Various reports reveal
that in the year prior,

friends and his own family
reported him becoming

more distant and detached,

likely signs of
an undiagnosed mental illness.

But do you know what else can
create symptoms of delusion

and radical personality change?

Hypnosis.

As my hand closes,
your eyes will close

and sleep deep,
all the way down, deeper.

This was reinforced
when I saw this interview

with New York Post's
Miranda Devine

about Crooks' unusual behavior.

He became increasingly violent
and sort of radicalized

against Democrats.
He was pro-Trump.

But then something
happened to make him become

rabidly anti-Trump.

And then suddenly something
happened in August of 2020,

and he just disappeared online.

So Thomas Crooks goes from
intensely pro-Trump online

to insanely anti-Trump,
and then disappears.

Changes like that
don't happen in a vacuum.

Something must have
shaped his shift.

If we're going to ask
the question whether a person

can be programmed to kill,
we have to go back to the case

that made that question famous,
Sirhan Sirhan.

In 1968, JFK's charismatic
younger brother Bobby

was running for president,
promising to end

the Vietnam War.

We are a great country,
and a selfish country,

and a compassionate country.

And I intend
to make that my basis

for running and over the period
of the next few months.

But on the night he won
the California primary...

...he was gunned down
in a hotel kitchen.

And the assassin, Sirhan Sirhan,

was captured on the spot.

But here's where things
really get strange.

To this day, Sirhan Sirhan
claims that he has no memory

of the shooting itself
or of the moments
surrounding it.

Well what do you remember about

the shooting, if you're willing
to talk about that?

I was, obviously, I was there,
but I don't remember

the exact moment.

I don't remember pulling
my gun out of my body

or wherever it was located,
and I don't remember aiming

at any human being.

Everything was always hazy
in my head about that.

That claim,
repeated for decades,

has fueled speculation

that he was under some kind
of hypnotic control.

It raises a disturbing question,
because how can someone commit

an act like that and have
no memory of it afterwards?

Tonight's experiment aims
to answer exactly that question.

Our mission is to get somebody
from Max's show to commit

an assassination and then
forget they ever did it,

which was the ultimate goal
of MKUltra.

I love the setting
that you picked.

Yeah, I think a coffee shop
is the perfect place.

It's also how something
like this might play out

in the real world, right?
- Yeah.

So here's the setup.

We've secured a popular cafe in
town and filled it with people

who know they're part
of a controlled experiment.

We've got cameras
covering everywhere.

In the back room, I built
a monitoring station where

I'll start observing the initial
phase of the experiment.

The subject has been told
they've been selected

to take part in a second round
of hypnosis with Max.

But what he doesn't know is
we're running an experiment

and everyone is in on it
except him.

What they're about
to experience may be intense,

but Max is operating
under strict moral boundaries.

No coercion, no harm.

And if this works,
the implications go

far beyond this room.

In many ways, this is
your first covert operation.

So I'll tell you the same thing
they told me.

Don't blink.

You only get one chance
to do something covert

for the first time.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And it's gonna be
over so fast.
- It's gone.

We will find out
tonight whether or not

the goal of MKUltra
was met or not met.

And it's just two dudes
in a bar figuring it out.

There he is.

That's the man
who's going to kill me.

- Hey.
- What's up, man?
How are you?

- Good. How are you?
- Good to see you.

Thanks for coming.

This subject was such a surprise

at the Magic Theater.
Absolutely suggestive.

Grab a seat.
I'll explain what we're doing.

The goal today is to kind
of teach you how to be able

to turn that dial
inside of you to become

the best version of yourself.
- OK.

- You know what I mean?
- Yeah.

All right.

So we're gonna start
with a little exercise in focus.

- Can I hypnotize you?
- Sure.

OK.
So if you could take

your left hand, kind of put
your elbow on the table...

One theory suggests
Sirhan Sirhan

wasn't acting alone,

that a handler was present,
triggering his hypnotic state

and inciting him to shoot RFK.

In this experiment,
the handler is Max.

Here's Max focusing
Clyde's attention.

Sleep deep, all the way down,
deeper and deeper.

And anything you hear outside
of my voice is just a reminder

to come back to me,
knowing that everything that's

happening here this evening is
meant to serve you.

And so if you're given a task,

you'll complete it
without question.

And you'll devote yourself
fully to these exercises.

Almost like a soldier.
So I say, one, two, wide awake,

open your eyes-- good.

I want you to put both
your hands down here.

And I want you to imagine that
in this palm is the strongest

magnet in the world,
and that magnet is drawn

to a steel plate in this table.

And as I snap my fingers,
that magnet becomes activated.

And the harder you try to pick
up that hand,

the more impossible it is--
just like life.

The more you struggle,
the more you fight,

the more effort you put in,
the harder things get.

Let that relaxation spread
down through your arm.

And then notice
if you don't try so hard

how easy it is to
lift up your hand.

You'll just feel it
come right up now.

- Wow.
- All right.

These are like,
thinking tasks.

And essentially you're trying
to decode, you know,

how these shapes
relate to these letters.

I don't know if that's
actually a letter.

This brain teaser exercise
is like an anchor point,

what the subject will be asked
to work on before and after

delivering the poison.

Dash, dot, dot, dash,
dash, dash.

He's really just completely
consumed in this process

of identifying
and decoding dashes and dots.

Dash, dot, dot, dot.
And that starts with

a dash, dot, dot.
Oh, it could be a Y.

And as this hand starts
to come in, you'll notice

your eyes change focus,
and when you notice your eyes,

you can just sleep deep, all
the way down,

deeper and deeper,
deeper and deeper.

You're gonna sit up right
here with your eyes closed.

Just relax for me
for just a moment.

And I'm going
to place in your hand
this little glass bottle.

You can feel it there.
You can hold it.

Still in that relaxed state.

You can place that glass bottle
into your pocket now,

just somewhere you'll be able
to get it later.

The next time
you hear this sound,

you'll stop what you're doing
on the iPad,

you'll get up from your seat,
you'll walk over to the table

in front of you,
you'll take the glass bottle

out of your pocket,
you'll open it up,

and you'll dump its contents
into the glass of water

on that table.

And you just come back
to your seat,

put the bottle back
in your pocket.

And when you open your eyes now,
you'll get back to work.

One, two, wide awake,
open your eyes.

That's my signal.
Let's go die.

Hey, brother.

Could I get a decaf latte
with oat milk?

And then a glass of water.

Perfect.

- Thank you so much, sir.
- Absolutely.

I got a latte up.

Do you have a sugar packet?

Slash, box, slash.

Now, for a little drama
where we really test

the limits
of this experiment.

Will he have any recollection
of his actions?

Oh my God!

call 911!

2

Call 911!

Wait, wait, wait, uh,
what did-- what did, um...

What was the drink
that you just gave him?

I gave him a latte.

I'm so--
if you don't mind,

if you could just put this
on hold for one second,

if you could just stand
over here.

Did you see what happened?
I know you were doing the...

Uh, I just heard him collapse.
That was it.

- [bleep]
- Maybe we just sleep deep, all
the way down, deeper and deeper,

deeper and deeper, all the way
down deeper and deeper.

And the deeper you go,
the better it feels.

Everything is fine.
Completely safe.

Everybody's OK.

OK.
We're good.

In a moment,
you're gonna wake up.

And when you open your eyes,

everything will be completely
normal to you.

If anybody were
to ask you what happened,

you would just remember
working on the iPad.

As I say, one, two, wide awake.

Open your eyes.
Good, feeling great.

Clyde, I need you to get up
for me, brother.

- You feeling OK?
- Yeah, I'm good.

Did you see that guy come in?

No, I was doing work
on the iPad over here.

I don't remember
much of anything.

- Can you come with me?
- Yeah.

I want to show you what's
on the other side of the skirt.

Hey, welcome backstage.
I'm Andy.

How you doing?
I'm Clyde.

- Clyde, nice to meet you.
- Pleasure.

Do you know this guy?

- No.
- We've obviously
been filming all of this.

I mean, you are aware that
we have been doing experiments

in hypnosis, but there might
have been some other things

that happened tonight, um...

that you weren't aware of.
Can you have a seat right here?

- Sure.
- Come on, man.

So what we have here is
a replay of what was happening

just a few minutes ago.
- OK.

I got a latte up.

Thank you.

- Do you have a sugar packet?
- The f...?

- Why did I do that?
- What did you put in my drink?

I-- I don't know.

Do you remember
putting that in my drink?

No, I see that I did.

I don't know what it was
or why I even got up.

I...

I don't know.

Let's just watch this part.

Call 911!

Did somebody call?

- Oh, my God.
- So this just happened to you?

I-- I don't know
what went into the cup.

Andrew.

I didn't even know
I had anything...

- Do you recall
this event?
- No.

I-- I was sitting down
at the table working on my iPad.

You have no memory of this?

You're talking
to Max right now.

I want you to sleep, all the way
down, deeper and deeper, deeper.

I mean, I can't argue
with what I'm seeing...

In a moment,
you're gonna wake up.

...but I don't remember it.

How does it feel right now
where you have one memory,

but you're watching completely
different evidence?

It's scary.

It's almost like
two different truths.

Where is the glass vial
that you used on my drink?

- I don't know.
- Can you check your pockets?

Oh, [bleep].

OK.
I guess that's it right there.

But I don't remember it.

Imagine, in the moment
of all that chaos,

if a police officer came
in the room

and that police officer said,

"Did anybody see
what happened?"

And someone showed
that video

to the police officer.

What do you think the next
thing they're gonna do is?

I'm done.

What do you think anyone would
think if they heard you say

something to the tune of,
"I don't remember,

I didn't have any control,
maybe I was hypnotized"?

What would someone's reaction
be to a statement like that?

They're gonna think
I'm lying.

Right.
For the record,
he's perfectly safe.

And you didn't harm me
in any way.

- In any way.
- OK, thank God.

And there is a point
to all of this,

and you did a phenomenal job.

Maybe it's time to tell Clyde
who you are.

So my name is
Andrew Bustamante.

- OK.
- I'm a former
CIA intelligence officer.

And we are here
doing an experiment...

- OK.
- ...to test whether or not
part of the MKUltra experiments

were ever successful.
Are you familiar with MKUltra?

They used drugs--

- Drugs, frequency, I think acid,
different kind of experiments.
- Yes.

To try to take control
of a person's mind.

- Right.
- They also tested hypnosis.

Wow.

But one of the hardest things
to find is any evidence

or declassified
documents related

to their hypnosis experiments.

So we know they used it,
but we don't actually know

what they did with it
or if it was successful.

And you just participated
in an experiment that shows

how possible it is that this
technique is still being used

in government operations.
- That's wild.

Thank you for your service.

- You did great.
- Thank you.

You did great, man.
I appreciate you.

- I appreciate you very much.
- Thank you.

I promised you I would spend
some time with you,

and if you'd like, I can do
that with you right now.

No strings, no hidden agenda.

I'd love to go inside
with you and just make

a few more changes.
- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, OK.
Let's do it.

One of Max's strengths is
showing people the power

of hypnosis to work through
personal struggles,

so he's giving Clyde
a personal hypnotherapy session.

What is the one belief
that you hold

that is holding you back

from being the best version
of yourself?

See yourself holding on
to a heavy bag, and in that bag

is both this belief that
you need to let go of,

"I'm not good enough," and also
anything else that you need

to load into it.
Any regret, any fear,

you load it up in that bag
and it's heavy.

Hypnosis is powerful.

But if you can be strong now
in this moment,

you're only gonna have
to carry it one last time,

and then you'll be free
of it forever.

It can create an assassin,

but it can also do things
as simple as fixing bad habits.

Three, feel the energy
of this universe filling you up.

Four, five, open your eyes.
Wide awake, feeling great.

And as complex
as healing past traumas.

- This was a crazy experience.
- Yeah.

I don't even know.

This is like
once in a lifetime.

Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you.

Max has shown hypnosis requires

a few key ingredients--

attention, authority,
and emotional framing.

And in the wake of
our experiment, when I think of

mind control in our world
today, I realize

those same ingredients
exist somewhere else,

in something we all use
every day.

2
What has this experience taught
you about the MKUltra program?

I mean, if there was ever
a question of whether you could

get someone to do something,
that's against their morals

or their own personal
boundaries,

I think unequivocally the answer
is there's no limit.

So if we were able to do this
with 48 hours of planning,

imagine what the government
could do...

weeks or months with a subject.

If you would have had a week
instead of 30 minutes,

would the outcome have been

greater, more complex,
more impactful?

If I had more time
with a subject,

I would be comfortable...

setting the task in motion
and leaving the room or maybe

never being in the building
in the first place.

I have no doubt that during
the MKUltra program they found

the same thing that we found
and that's the reason

you've never heard about it.

Do you believe that there
might be hypnotized assassins

floating around in the world
right now?

A hundred percent.

And once they are caught,
as soon as they start telling

people that they were
hypnotized or they don't

remember what they were doing,
what's the first thing

everyone thinks?
- You're crazy.

You're crazy.

They don't remember
anyone they met.

They don't remember
even what they did.

They don't even remember
their own actions.

Who are they gonna blame?

That is the ultimate
disposable asset.

So much of this reminds me
of Sirhan Sirhan

and the assassination of RFK
Sr., because even to this day,

Sirhan Sirhan says
he just doesn't remember.

He doesn't claim any emotional
connection at all.

He doesn't say
he's angry about it.

He doesn't say
he's sad about it.

He just says there
was this block of time

that he doesn't remember.

It perfectly aligns
with what we just observed.

I don't remember aiming
at any human being.

I don't remember any of that.
I'm sorry.

And I've said that
from the get-go.

The experiment with Max proves
that not only is it possible

that mind control could have
been used by MKUltra,

but that the likelihood of it
being deployed in some capacity

today would not be a stretch
of the imagination.

Which brings us
back to Thomas Crooks.

Was he a mind-controlled killer?

There's no hard evidence
he was programmed.

And unlike Sirhan Sirhan,
Thomas Crooks isn't here

to speak for himself.

But we do know this,
his behavior changed.

And it changed
in an environment

designed to do exactly that.

I'm not into conspiracy.

Hundreds of spectators
in on this plot.

He's a maniac.
He's a maniac.

Thomas Crooks fits a profile
intelligence agencies

have flagged for years.

A young man,
isolated, disaffected,

and chronically online.

Could internet radicalization
be the modern-day version

of mind control?

How else would you explain

the radical change in Crooks'
political views?

Something happened to make him
become rabidly anti-Trump.

Radicalization rarely feels
dramatic from the inside.

It's incremental.

One video, one thread,
one comment at a time.

Until the belief that you held
most strongly is replaced.

And it feels like
it was your idea all along.

If the essential ingredients
for mind control are

attention, authority,
and emotional framing,

modern-day algorithms
check every box.

They decide what we see,
what we hear,

what we're told matters.

So even if Thomas Crooks
wasn't programmed,

he was very likely primed.

Because mind control
didn't disappear.

It just evolved...

into this.