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What’s the Deal With Vacaville?
In my quest through the underbelly of hippy history, I keep coming across references to either a Vacaville State Prison and the California Medical Facility two miles south. At least three rather important prisoners were kept at Vacaville - quite possibly all at the same time. Two of them even had neighboring cells, or so the legend goes.
After he [Timothy Leary] returned to the United States in 1973 it is said that he was assigned to solitary confinement next to a “hole mate” who quoted the bible in a booming voice. This “Born Again Christian” was none other than Charles Manson. Leary left his “Turn on , tune in, drop out” campaign behind in prison, he became a self- styled prophet of “Life Extension” and “Space Exploration,” “Cyronics” and finally “Cyberspace.” All these, he said in turn with great enthusiasm, were where it was at!
I’ve never heard Manson described as a Born-Again, and that’s odd that this is the point when Leary began advocating what I’ve always believed is the more bullshit aspects of his theories: transhumanism. Another source though claims that the Leary/Manson encounter happened at Folsom rather than Vacaville.
“They took you off the streets,'’ Manson informed Leary, “so that I could continue with your work.”
Charlie couldn’t understand how Leary had given so many people acid without trying to “control” them.
Supposedly though, Vacaville is one of those locations that was implicated in the MK-ULTRA documents as having been a testing ground for behavioral modification and “brain-washing” by the CIA. I’ll have to look around for some documentation of that though. In any event, this bit on Leary describes Vacaville thusly:
[…] horrendous experiments such as “anectine therapy” had been conducted on non-volunteer inmates under CIA covert guidance. Anectine stops the respiratory functions of the body and the “subject” feels as if they are dying. An attendant must keep them breathing with a machine. As the panic sets in when the involuntary muscles quit, an attendant says, “This is what will happen if you break the law .” And just before the “subject” loses consciousness, the respiratory is turned on the the “subject” is brought back from the brink of death.
W.H. Bowart, the author of that article, apparently was acquainted with Leary, and upon Leary’s release from there thought to himself upon seeing Leary’s sorry state: “He’s been the victim of one of the secret prison mind control programs.” Bowart also interviewed a cell mate of Leary’s from Vacaville:
“Well, one day he comes back to the cell with lines on his head. They were actually very precise measurement lines. His head was shaved and it was marked with all these careful, precise blue lines.
“I asked him what the lines were for. He told me that they were going to give him a lobotomy. They were going to stick ice picks into his brain. He told me that it was really going to be great. They had him completely brainwashed. He said, ‘this is going to be the greatest thing. All my life I’ve been going through this, you get up, you get down, but now, ‘ he said, ‘I’ll be just as smart as I am, but I won’t have to feel emotions any more. Wow!’”
“You think they broke him?” I asked.
“Totally controlled him. They gave him a lot of those fright drugs. They kept him in solitary. They did everything they could to break his mind, and they succeeded. Look at him now…”
Again, it’s all pretty speculative. The other twist that ties into all this is one Donald “Cinque” DeFreeze, leader of the SLA which kidnapped and brainwashed heiress Patty Hearst only a year later in 1974. Rigorous Intuition has a great article about this, so I’ll quote from there.
DeFreeze was a petty criminal who worked as an informer for the LAPD, until…
He found himself incarcerated at Vacaville State Prison “at the same time the CIA was conducting mind control experiments there under MKSEARCH Subproject 3,” writes Dr Colin Ross in his Bluebird: The Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personalities by Psychiatrists. “These experiments involved administration of the drug pemoline [apparently researching memory function]…
While there, DeFreeze came under the tutelage of CIA psychological warfare expert Colston Westbrook who gained the trust of DeFreeze and other African-American inmates under the guise of the Black Cultural Association. It’s alleged that Westbrook is the source of DeFreeze’s guerilla name, “Cinque” and the designer of the seven-headed cobra of the SLA.
After two years of heavy programming, DeFreeze’s mentors at Vacaville apparently decided that he was ready for the next step in the script: his “escape.” DeFreeze was transferred from Vacaville to Soledad Prison, near Salinas, California, in December, 1973. Four months later, in March, 1974, DeFreeze “escaped” from Soledad. But using the word “escape” is misleading; the facts are, that DeFreeze was placed in a situation at Soledad where all he had to do was walk away from the prison.
DeFreeze then kidnapped Patty Hearst. Hearst later claimed that she was subjected to torture typical of so-called mind control victims. She assumed the identity of “Tania” and aided the SLA in robbing a bank. Oddly enough, she was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton on the last day of his presidency.
This just goes deeper and deeper and deeper. Anybody know any other noteworthy tidbits about Vacaville or how the three characters mentioned above might otherwise connect?
July 10th, 2005 at 12:51 am
Man, did you just give me a double take. Until nine months ago, I lived there. About twelve years ago, I even lived across the street from CMF. (Knew the grandson of the guy who set Charlie on fire, even)
There definitely have been freaky incidents, including a few escapes and an incident where it got very hot and three prisoners who were drugged died when the air conditioning went out.
July 10th, 2005 at 2:53 am
Take a look at Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger (1)… he talks about visiting Leary at the medical facility in Vacaville.
Also note the locals pronounce the first “a” like the “a” in “cap”. It’s not Vah-cuh-ville.
Only slight less perplexing than a few miles down the road in Vallejo where it should be either Va-Yeh-Ho or Vall-eh-Jo… but instead they say it half right and half wrong.. Vall-eh-Ho.
But I digress again.
July 10th, 2005 at 6:19 am
Incidentally, “Vacaville” means, literally, “cow town.”
July 10th, 2005 at 6:50 am
i think we`ve all be manipulated into fighting with eachother, politically and otherwise so that the government can do what the fuck they want. the deeper you dig into the connections between the counter-culture icon of the sixties and seventies the more you get background influences. how about the millionairess who helped ira einhorn leave america when he was wanted for murder? i always found that odd.
July 10th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
LOL. I drive by there all the time on camping tricks. I always plan to stop and pick up some jail dirt to use for spells and stuff by I usually get overruled by my wife who wants to go to In & Out insteead.
July 10th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
Maybe transhumanism — the idea that we’ll eventually be able to “upload” ourselves into machines, and thus attain immortality — is an empty promise meant to salve the dread of a certain variety of thanatophobic pseudo-intellectual by tricking them into submitting to what will be, in reality, involuntary suicide.
“Okay, so we’ll just hook you up to this here machine, and when we switch it on, your entire conscioussness will be transfered into this here OTHER machine!”
“Cool! Will there be chicks?”
“Oh yeah! It’ll be indistinguishable from reality, except there will be no rejection. Total VR5 versimilitude. And you’ll be immortal! You’ll be able to sex up Sailor Moon and those Tatu girls… FOREVER!”
“Dude… what are you waiting for? Pull that switch!”
“Alright. May God forgive me.”
“What?”
ZAAAP!!!
July 10th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
HOLY SHIT…. that seems so freakin plausible.
July 10th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Imagine the line-ups.
July 10th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
[…]
Transhumanism: Excuse for Euthanasia?
I love this comment from Jerky about transhumanism: Maybe transhumanism — the […]
July 10th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Cool! Thanks for the ego-boost, Tim!
July 10th, 2005 at 8:43 pm
Take a look at Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger (1)… he talks about visiting Leary at the medical facility in Vacaville.
[Brian wrote]
“Also note the locals pronounce the first “a” like the “a” in “cap”. It’s not Vah-cuh-ville.
Only slight less perplexing than a few miles down the road in Vallejo where it should be either Va-Yeh-Ho or Vall-eh-Jo… but instead they say it half right and half wrong.. Vall-eh-Ho.
But I digress again.”
not at all
me old Homestead, and yes, we “split the difference” between the anglo and espanolo . . .
in the same way that Lower Manhatten (esp the old Five Points Neighborhood) is one sorta occult or spiritual “pole” for the US, the North Bay Area — esp an area generally including VMF, Vallejo, Napa, south the S.F. and east to the Livermore Valley (L.L. Labs) and Mt. Diablo — are the western “pole”
no accident about the CIA (etc) at VMF, nor is it coincidence that the Zodiac operated geomantically in these areas (first killing between Benecia and Vallejo, on Lake Herman Rd., and area that we local kids called “haunted” years before Zodie showed up . . .
(this general area also was part of the old Borges Ranch, which is implicate on many fronts, and the old “Good Serpent’s Orphanage” was located on a “propitious” hilltop nearby)
the second murders were at Vallejo’s Blue Rock Springs Park, the killing at Lake Berryessa in Napa — a highly stylized and occult job — then the one next to the Presidio Army Base in SF
Zodie also has direct personal ties to Mt. Diablo, which has a long a skeery history of its own, with which i won’t bore y’all . . .
the Napa Valley, again not coincidentally, is called the “Valley of Kings” and is connected not only to ancient Sumero-Egyptian regency, but of course also to ritual regicide (blood/wine/grapes, the usual story) — Napa State Hospital also figgers in here . . .
ennyway, long story — very long — but yes, the “interventions” at VMF have a lot to do with America’s conduct and karma over the past few decades
July 11th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Talking about the Carcquinez (sp?) Strait - what about Port Chicago?
Last I remember, I believe Manson was transferred out of Vacaville because he was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire by another inmate while he was in his cell, I may be wrong about some of the details, but he was lit up, it was on TV/in newspapers, sometime around early 1990’s.
Most people I have met pronounce Vallejo “Va-Lay-O”. I lived there, dude.
-tc
“when you believe in something you don’t understand”
-Stevie Wonder
July 11th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
Last I remember, I believe Manson was transferred out of Vacaville because he was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire by another inmate while he was in his cell, ___
Yeah, my friend Bobby’s granddad (who was pretty nuts) did that.
On a related not, seems to be a disproportionate number of Norcal folks in here?!
July 11th, 2005 at 9:14 pm
And- speaking of Vacaville, if anyone’s got a lot of free time on their hands, i’ve go a leyline map of the place from a dowser friend…
July 12th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
I’m from Jersey, I going to grad school at the time - USF.
-tc
July 12th, 2005 at 11:51 pm
Thomas Conlon Says:
July 11th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Talking about the Carcquinez (sp?) Strait - what about Port Chicago?
right-o, and the Strait has quite a history of its own — gateway, e.g., to Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Last I remember, I believe Manson was transferred out of Vacaville because he was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire by another inmate while he was in his cell, I may be wrong about some of the details, but he was lit up, it was on TV/in newspapers, sometime around early 1990’s.
Most people I have met pronounce Vallejo “Va-Lay-O”. I lived there, dude.
-tc
no second “c” in carquinez
dood
it was uniquely dislocative and surreal — even for the times — to have police escorts to school during the Zodie “school bus scare”
the intention was never really to bomb “the kiddies,” as the terminology went . . . it’s obvious from the “bomb plans” received by mail . . . it was a tactic, with alternate purposes, not a literal threat . . . ‘course everybody was a bit EDGY by then . . .
the zombie-surreality was reminiscent of the post-j.f.k.- hit days, and also reminds me of the post m.l.k.-hit weeks, when v.p.d. had to actually patrol the hallways of vhs, so classes could be held
random note on Chuckles Man/Son: Jung’s “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies” (1959) is still one of the best ufo books written
if i recall, the plates include an illustration of a man who strikingly resembles Chuckles
October 29th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
[…] Quote by: Nono Prax, you’re deeply confused between productive economic activity and destructive activity. As Bobby says, having your country (and others) levelled is a gigantic net loss, obviously. It’s like arguing that the 1917 Halifax explosion was a terrific boon to window manufacturers, and therefore "not all bad". Quite a strange point of view. You are not taking into consideration the importance of controlling a region, such as the US has been attempting do ever since the establishment of Israel, Vietnam and the Prussian Gulf war. These are economic/military objectives and the US adopted this consciousness which began with a Prussian general. Mass production demands mass resources and mass markets. This is assured with military might, and the control of shipping lanes and regions. 9/11 was an attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This was an attack on the New World Order, not the citizens of US. It would be so nice if everyone woke up and smelled the coffee. As for the other countries not continuing with the excessively inhuman human experiments done by the NAZI, this belief is ignorant of what is happening within the US. From the spread of LSD to the inhumane treatment of prisoners, the experimenting continues in the US. Slave Revolt: United States of Guinea PigsBEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROGRAM AT VACAVILLE PRISON 1970’s … One of the nastiest secrets was an experiment designed to determine how much plutonium a human … slaverevoltradio.blogspot.com/2004/12/united-states-of-guinea-pigs.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages prisoner_experimentation_linksUnited States Prison Experiments. Vacaville, CA. Behaviour Modification Mind Control By Harry V. Martin and David Caul, The Napa Sentinel: a series which … prisoner_experimentation_links - 16k - Cached - Similar pages TAB D-5 DISCLAIMER The following is a staff memorandum or other …174) reported on experimental brain surgery and psychosurgery on inmates in California’s Vacaville prison. The experiments at Vacaville received attention … http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiati…b_d/br13d2.txt - 26k - Cached - Similar pages Whats the Deal With Vacaville? - Pop OccultureHe found himself incarcerated at Vacaville State Prison at the same time the CIA was conducting mind control experiments there under MKSEARCH Subproject 3 … What’s the Deal With Vacaville? - To[p oBcultu]re - 44k - Cached - Similar pages "The feeling of awe and sense of wonder arises from the recognition of the deep mystery that surrounds us everywhere, and this feeling deepens as our knowledge grows". Anagarika Govinda […]