French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

[cyberianpan]

In a story redolent of the Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco it transpire the Americans made a French village go mad in 1951 by spiking their bread with LSD. There are still survivors - so wonder how this will affect Franco-US relations.

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment - Telegraph

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

cYp

[Catalpa]

In a story redolent of the Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco it transpire the Americans made a French village go mad in 1951 by spiking their bread with LSD. There are still survivors - so wonder how this will affect Franco-US relations.

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment - Telegraph


cYp

I remember reading a very long article about it back in the mid 60s and the bread was blamed for what happened.

IIRC similiar outbreaks occured in France in the Middle Ages too.

It sounds highly unlikely to me that the CIA would do this to a civilian population in a NATO Country - almost unbelievable IMO.

Anyway the visions and experiences of these unfortunate villagers do not really tally with the type of hallucinations and actions of those on LSD despite the passing similarities.

Sure people can have a 'Bad Trip' on Acid

- but the Diabolical ones that happened in this Village are way way above that.

[HaHa_U_Fools]

See 'MK Ultra' and 'Monarch Programming' for more details of allegations of how CIA used methods on many subjects in way that most would still not be ready to hear. Some of the claims surrounding that make this appear tame.
There's also those who claim that they and other clandestine government agencies such as Tavistock Institute and the Stanford Research Institute had a big hand in to whole 'counter-culture' of 60s in order to hijack and derail the anti-war movement.
.

[Catalpa]

See 'MK Ultra' and 'Monarch Programming' for more details of allegations of how CIA used methods on many subjects in way that most would still not be ready to hear. Some of the claims surrounding that make this appear tame.
There's also those who claim that they and other clandestine government agencies such as Tavistock Institute and the Stanford Research Institute had a big hand in to whole 'counter-culture' of 60s in order to hijack and derail the anti-war movement.
.

Yeah the CIA made them freaking hippies fry their brains instead of blocking the streets man...

You could probably fill many shelves of a Library with all the conspiracies the CIA were supposed to have carried out...

[odie1kanobe]

Elements of doubt in this as they had enough of their own country to experiment on and they did do that.

However the Brits experimented in Weather manipulation under Project Cumulus which is alledged cause this The Lynmouth Floods of 1952, Exmoor

[rubensni]

The CIA gave massive amounts of money to Dr Ewen Cameron, a Scottish psychiatrist working in Canada who was completely out of control. Some have managed to sue:
Brainwash victims win cash claims - Times Online

[truthisfree]

I remember reading a very long article about it back in the mid 60s and the bread was blamed for what happened.

IIRC similiar outbreaks occured in France in the Middle Ages too.

It sounds highly unlikely to me that the CIA would do this to a civilian population in a NATO Country - almost unbelievable IMO.

Anyway the visions and experiences of these unfortunate villagers do not really tally with the type of hallucinations and actions of those on LSD despite the passing similarities.

Sure people can have a 'Bad Trip' on Acid

- but the Diabolical ones that happened in this Village are way way above that.

Agreed, but I did not know that the LS could be removed from LSD, wonder if that caused it?

One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the "secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit" and explains that it was not "at all" caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.

[Mitsui2]

In a story redolent of the Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco it transpire the Americans made a French village go mad in 1951 by spiking their bread with LSD.

Holy sh1t! There's an amazing book about this incident called The Day of Saint Anthony's Fire by John G Fuller. I came across it back in the '70s and still have it on my bookshelves. Incredible stories of the effects experienced by people - one man so freaked out he was running on broken legs, if I remember correctly. So that was a secret CIA experiment, was it? Jeez, that's the sort of news that makes it really tempting to be a conspiracy theorist sometimes!

[Mitsui2]

Reading the rest of the thread I tend to agree with Catalpa. The blame at the time was put on ergot, a naturally-occuring mould that grows on damp cereals. Seemingly it makes for things very like acid trips but very, very extreme and more or less invariably very, very bad. After which, very often, you die. Which is what happened in the French incident.

That doesn't sound like acid to me, unless it had at least been messed around with pretty severely. Sounds more like angel dust (PCP) or something.

Oh well - must dig the book out and read it again. It tells an astonishing story if anyone ever comes across it - though I daresay it's OOP by this stage.

[Almanac]

It sounds highly unlikely to me that the CIA would do this to a civilian population in a NATO Country - almost unbelievable IMO.