Project MKUltra was a secret and illegal CIA program of research on behavior modification. The program began in the early 1950s and lasted officially til 1973. The program used unwitting US and Canadian citizens as volunteers. MK Ultra involved the use of several methods for manipulating people’s individual mental states and brain functions, which included to surreptitiously give people drugs (especially LSD), hypnosis, sensory loss, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various kinds of torture.