Project Moonstruck brain-stimulation claim

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Contents 7
Project Moonstruck brain-stimulation claim
Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
Date1952
TopicsGovernment programs (topic)
PeopleJohn C. Lilly
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 44
Year1952 in UFO history
Timeline1952 on the UAP Timeline
Sources2

"Project Moonstruck" is the name given in an online timeline of CIA interest in the paranormal to an alleged 1952 CIA program of electronic brain implants for long-range tracking and behaviour control. No released CIA record confirms it.[1]

The claim

Uri Geller in Moscow (Russia)
Uri Geller in Moscow (Russia) Photo: Dmitry Rozhkov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The timeline, hosted on Uri Geller's website, lists "Project Moonstruck/CIA" under 1952 with a set of attributes: electronic implants in the brain and teeth, long-range targeting, implantation during surgery or covertly "during abduction", high-frequency to extremely-low-frequency transceivers, and purposes including tracking, mind and behaviour control, and covert operations, based on electrical stimulation of the brain. It gives no source.[1]

The documented history

Laurance Rockefeller: Photograph of Laurance S. Rockefeller, at champagne party, in Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center. Original image cropped by Emiya1980 using…
Laurance Rockefeller: Photograph of Laurance S. Rockefeller, at champagne party, in Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center. Original image cropped by Emiya1980 using… Photo: New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Bottega, John, photographer. · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The CIA's real behaviour-control research of the period is well documented. It began with Project Bluebird, later called Artichoke, and in 1953 the agency launched MKUltra, which tested drugs, hypnosis and other methods, sometimes on unwitting subjects. CIA director Richard Helms ordered MKUltra files destroyed in 1973, and the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations had to rely on surviving records.[2]

Assessment

Illustration of lights in formation over the landscape
Illustration: lights in formation over the landscape. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The destruction of records has left gaps that unverified claims have filled. "Project Moonstruck" appears in lists of alleged mind-control projects but not in any released government document.[1][2]

People and topics

This is a page from the declassified documents of MKULTRA . The documents were "provided by the Central Intelligence Agency under a subsequent…
This is a page from the declassified documents of MKULTRA . The documents were "provided by the Central Intelligence Agency under a subsequent… Photo: Central Intelligence Agency · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
  • Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
  • MKULTRA — The CIA's mind-control research program, begun in 1953.
  • John C. Lilly — Neuroscientist who invented the isolation tank and later claimed contact with cosmic intelligences.

On the Timeline

Illustration of a disc-shaped craft in the night sky
Illustration: a disc-shaped craft in the night sky. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
  • Project Winterhaven (1952) — Physicist Thomas Townsend Brown proposes Project Winterhaven, a military study of electrogravitic propulsion.
  • MJ-12 Fifth Annual Report (1952) — A disputed, possibly hoaxed 'Majic' report describes the 1947 recovery of craft and five bodies.

See every 1952 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

Further reading

This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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