April 18, Albert Einstein dies.

(circa) Dr Louis West, friends with Aldous Huxley. It was Huxley who suggested that West combine LSD and hypnosis in his experiments. (Lee, Martin and Schlain, Bruce, Acid Dreams, Grove Press, 1985, pg 48)

West was an Air Force Major, chairman of the Psychiatry Department of UCLA, director of the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, expert in hypnosis.

West was a veteran of the CIA's MKULTRA mind control program, and worked on interrogation techniques using hypnosis and LSD. West once killed an elephant by grossly overestimating a dose of LSD (elsewhere, I have heard that the tranquilizers required to calm the animal caused its death).

West also studied the returning American POWs from Korea for the effects of brainwashing. (Scheflin, Alan and Opton, Edward Jr., The Mind Manipulators, Paddington Press Ltd, 1978, pg 149-50)

MK-Ultra An experiment took place in which an Army "volunteer" was sealed in a sensory deprivation chamber for 40 consecutive hours. In panic and terror, he kicked his way out, and wept uncontrollably for a day. This resulted in a change of policy: the box was strengthened.

Morris K. Jessup published The Case For the UFO

The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases Hemophilus pertussis - obtained from the Army's biological warfare arsenal - over Tampa Bay, FL. According to Florida state medical records, the incidence of whooping-cough in Florida tripled that year.

Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.

Gray Barker tells us:

According to Riley Crabb:the annotated copy [of Jessup's book] was addressed to Admiral N. Furth, Chief, Office of Naval Research, Wshington 25, D.C., and was mailed in a manila envelope postmarked Seminole, Texas, 1955. In July or August of that year the book appeared in the incoming correspondence of Major Darrell L. Ritter, U.S.M.C., Aeronautical Project Office in ONR. When Captain Sidney Sherby reported aboard at ONR he obtained the book from Major Ritter. Captain Sherby and Commnder George W. Hoover, Special Projects Officer, ONR, indicated interest in some of the notations the book contained.

I first learned of the annotated copy when I was talking to Mrs. Walton Colcord John, director of the Little Listening Post, a UFO and New Age Publication in Washington. Speaking over the telephone, Mrs. John told me of a strange rumor going around to the effect that somebody had sent a marked-up copy to Washington, and that the government had gone to the expense of mimeographing the entire book, so that all the underlinings and notations could be added to the original text. This was being circulated rather widely, she told me, through military channels. She had not, of course, seen a copy of it, and didn't know too much about it, but somehow she seemed to connect it with an alleged Naval experiment wherein a ship had completely disappeared from sight. I couldn't make too much out of all this until later I also heard about the strange Allende Letters, which told of such an experiment in a most horrifying way.

The publication of the mimeographed edition is established, but I have been unable to confirm whether or not it was actually paid for by the government. It is established that the Varo Manufacturing Company, of Garland, Texas, actually produced the mimeographed edition. I have been unable to find out much about this company, except that it has been said that it engaged in "secret government work."

Apparently, Mr. Crabb in some way came into possession of a copy. [...] In his correspondence with me of September 24, 1962, Crabb clears up the mystery of how he happened to obtain a copy of the original Varo edition. It was the copy that the Navy originally gave to Jessup, and apparently was given to Crabb by Jessup. This copy, however, rather mysteriously disappeared in April, 1960, when Crabb mailed it to himself from Washington, and apparently he no longer possesses any copy at all. Crabb tells us:

"I understand that 25 copies were reproduced... Michael Ann Dunn, the stenographer who did the editing, explains why in the introduction. She's married now, living in Dallas, and won't answer her phone. [...] Varo, by the way, is a small manufacturing firm in electronics and up to its neck in space age business. Apparently it has succeeded in developing some kind of a death ray gadget, judging from a guarded press release of last fall when a group of Congressmen visited there for a demonstration."

See Adventures Chapter 24 for more details on the creation of the Philadelphia Experiment myth via the death of Morris K. Jessup.

Richard Russell U.S. Senator, Head of Senate Armed Services Committee. "I have discussed this matter with the affected agencies of the government, and they are of the opinion that it is not wise to publicize this matter at this time." Regarding his sighting of a UFO during a 1955 trip to the Soviet Union.

Lyndon Johnson suffers a severe heart attack in the summer.

Recuperating from one of his operations, Kennedy decides to write a book. Profiles in Courage becomes a bestseller.

President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on September 24th while at the summer White House in Denver. He makes a steady recovery and after 7 weeks is released from the hospital. He resumes his duties after additional rest.

General Douglas MacArthur "The nations of the world will have to unite, for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must someday make a common front against attack by people from other planets." The New York Times, October 8, 1955

Allen Dulles "Maximum security exists concerning the subject of UFOs." Dulles was CIA Director, 1955.