17. Psychedelic Nightmare Pt. 1: Fucked Up Set & Setting Artwork

Unpacking The Eerie

Unpacking the Eerie is a passion project that merges the intersections of our dark curiosities with our deeply held values. Each episode we’ll dig past the surface of morbid fascination, scavenging for unasked questions surrounding the stories that creep the hell out of us. We hope that when you listen, you’ll experience the feels, the enjoyment, the horror and interludes of comedic relief that we do. - 2 politicized social workers based in the PNW and in India.
Visit our website at www.unpackingtheeerie.com | Follow us on instagram @unpackingtheeerie & Facebook at Facebook.com/unpackingtheeerie.

Music Credit: Creepy Mood by Oleg Fedak

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Unpacking The Eerie

17. Psychedelic Nightmare Pt. 1: Fucked Up Set & Setting

June 22, 2022 • Unpacking the Eerie • Episode 17

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DARK HISTORY: MKULTRA, Intro/History

In our second series, we explore our first ever conspiracy theory, that is absolutely wild & incredibly true. Project MKULTRA was a secret CIA project that took place between the early 1950s to the early 1970s, in which hundreds of tortuous experiments were conducted on (mostly) unsuspecting human subjects. The project, Sidney Gottlieb, aimed to develop strategies and identify drugs (such as LSD), that could be used for the purposes of “mind-control” (read: how can we psychologically torture, force confessions and manipulate the consciousness of the human mind?). In the first part of this multi-part series, we dig in to Allan Memorial, one of the many institutions where these experiments took place & set the stage for MKUltra. Learn about how the Cold War and the Red Scare motivated the creation of this project, the discovery of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and its unique characteristics and of course, the project’s lead “Poisoner in Chief”, Sidney Gottlieb.

content warning: gun violence, torture, homophobia, racism, drugs

Uvalde/Buffalo Shooting Resources & References

Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

Support the show

From October to December 2025 we will be re-releasing our favorite series' - A Lethal Location and A Psychedelic Nightmare. They will only be available for a limited time, as starting January our minisodes and 2nd part onwards of our series' will be exclusively available for our wonderful patrons.

Thank you for listening to our passion project <3 You can find us on social media here! We're a team of 2 people & have always been ad-free. If you are enjoying, please consider supporting our sustainability on Patreon or through Buzzsprout.

- your grateful hosts

P.S. We're in the process of updating our intro and making edits to our episodes. You may notice inconsistencies as we do that!