00:00They checked in looking for help. They left as different people entirely.
00:03In the 1950s and 60s, ordinary Canadians walked into Montreal's Allen Memorial Institute
00:09struggling with depression and anxiety. They trusted their doctors.
00:14They had no idea what was waiting for them. Their psychiatrist, Ewan Cameron, had a theory.
00:19Mental illness could be cured by erasing the mind completely and rebuilding it from scratch.
00:24The CIA agreed. They funded him quietly through a program called MKUltra.
00:29What followed was almost impossible to believe. Patients were kept asleep for months at a time using heavy drugs.
00:35Electroshock was delivered at up to 40 times the normal dose.
00:39Recorded messages played on loop for thousands of hours straight.
00:42When it was over, survivors couldn't recognize their own children, couldn't remember their marriages,
00:47couldn't control their own bodies.
00:49Cameron died in 1967 with his reputation intact.
00:53The CIA quietly walked away and paid nothing.
00:56The Canadian government eventually settled with survivors, but no one was ever charged with a crime.
01:01They went looking for help. The government used them instead.
