Cathy O'Brien (born December 4, 1957) is an American conspiracy theorist and author who claims to have been a victim of a government

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashi ...

program called "Project Monarch", which she alleges was part of the CIA's

Project MKUltra Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...

. O'Brien made these assertions in ''Trance Formation of America'' (1995) and ''Access Denied: For Reasons of National Security'' (2004), both of which she co-authored and self-published with her husband, Mark Phillips. According to scholars, there is no credible evidence for O'Brien's claims and there are numerous inconsistencies with her story.

Conspiracy theories

In ''Trance Formation of America'', O'Brien claims that as a child, she was first sexually abused by her father as well as by a network of child pornographers. Supposedly, she was then forced by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

to participate in ''Project Monarch'', which she claims is a subsection of

and Project ARTICHOKE. According to O'Brien, under

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

she was able to recall memories of sexual abuse — of both herself and her daughter — by international

pedophile Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pubert ...

rings, drug barons, and satanists, who allegedly used a form of "trauma based mind control programming" to make her a

sex slave Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a s ...

. O'Brien accuses a wide range of prominent individuals — from American, Canadian, Mexican, and Saudi Arabian government officials, to stars of the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

scene — of being part of a Project Monarch conspiracy to operate sex slave rings and commit child abuse. For example, O'Brien claims that George H. W. Bush and

Miguel de la Madrid Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (; 12 December 1934 – 1 April 2012) was a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 59th president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988. Inheriting a severe economic an ...

used

hologram Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...

s to appear to her in altered forms, saying that "Bush apparently activated a hologram of the lizard-like 'alien,' which provided the illusion of Bush transforming like a chameleon before my eyes. In retrospect, I understand that Bush had been painstakingly careful in positioning our seats in order that the hologram's effectiveness be maximized." O'Brien claims Project Monarch caused her to develop

multiple personality disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...

but during alternate personality episodes, she has photographic recall. O'Brien's ''Trance Formation of America'' has been credited as originating "one of the most significant" and "extreme"

conspiracy theories, and her claim of links between

satanic ritual abuse The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in th ...

and MKUltra have influenced popular conspiracy culture. Religious and political scholars have criticized O'Brien's claims for their lack of any supporting evidence. David G. Robertson characterized them as symptomatic of "baseless"

moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...

and noted that "no-one has ever been prosecuted of such crimes nor has any corroborating material evidence ever been produced". According to scholar

Michael Barkun __NOTOC__ Michael Barkun (born April 8, 1938) is an American academic who serves as Professor Emeritus of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, specializing in political and religious ext ...

, "scholarly and journalistic treatments of MKUltra make no mention of a Project Monarch". Barkun describes O'Brien's account as "sensational even by the standards of conspiracy literature" and notes that even black helicopter conspiracy theorist Jim Keith considered it "fraudulent or delusional". Jodi Dean cited O'Brien's claims as an example of conspiracy theorists' tendency to excessive "leaps in imagination and willingness to deviate from common sense".

Bibliography

O'Brien self-publishes her books. * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Cathy 1957 births Living people American conspiracy theorists American women writers Mind control People from Muskegon, Michigan Project MKUltra Satanic ritual abuse Writers from Michigan