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Cathy O'Brien | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cathleen Ann O'Brien (1957-12-04)December 4, 1957 (age 67) Muskegon, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, speaker |
| Known for | Conspiracy theories, statements alleging victimization by CIA mind control project |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | http://trance-formation.com/ |
Cathy O'Brien (born December 4, 1957) is an Americanconspiracy theorist and author who claims to have been a victim of a governmentmind control program called "Project Monarch", which she alleges was part of theCIA'sProject MKUltra.[1][2][3][4][5] O'Brien made these assertions inTrance Formation of America (1995) andAccess Denied: For Reasons of National Security (2004), both of which she co-authored and self-published with her husband, Mark Phillips.[1] According to scholars, there is no credible evidence for O'Brien's claims and there are numerous inconsistencies in her story.[5]
InTrance Formation of America, O'Brien claims that, as a child, she was sexually abused first by her father and then by a network of child pornographers. Supposedly, she was then forced by theCIA to participate inProject Monarch, which she claims is a subsection ofProject MKUltra andProject ARTICHOKE. According to O'Brien, underhypnosis she was able to recall memories of sexual abuse—of both herself and her daughter—by international pedophile rings, drug barons, andsatanists, who allegedly used a form of "trauma based mind control programming" to make her asex slave.[2][3][4][5]
O'Brien accuses a wide range of prominent people—from American, Canadian, Mexican, and Saudi Arabian government officials to stars of the country music scene—of being part of a Project Monarch conspiracy to operate sex slave rings and commit child abuse.[6] For example, O'Brien claims thatGeorge H. W. Bush andMiguel de la Madrid usedholograms to appear to her in altered forms, saying, "Bush apparently activated a hologram of the lizard-like 'alien,' which provided the illusion of Bush transforming like a chameleon before my eyes. In retrospect, I understand that Bush had been painstakingly careful in positioning our seats in order that the hologram's effectiveness be maximized."[1]: 167, 211
O'Brien has claimed that Project Monarch caused her to developdissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) but during alternate personality episodes, she hasphotographic recall.[1] O'Brien'sTrance Formation of America has been credited as originating "one of the most significant" and "extreme"mind control conspiracy theories, and her claim of links betweensatanic ritual abuse and MKUltra have influenced popular conspiracy culture.[7]
Religious and political scholars have criticized O'Brien's claims for lacking any supporting evidence. David G. Robertson characterized them as symptomatic of "baseless"moral panic and wrote that "no-one has ever been prosecuted of such crimes nor has any corroborating material evidence ever been produced".[8] According to scholarMichael Barkun, "scholarly and journalistic treatments of MKUltra make no mention of a Project Monarch". Barkun describes O'Brien's account as "sensational even by the standards of conspiracy literature" and notes that evenblack helicopter conspiracy theoristJim Keith considered it "fraudulent or delusional".[5]Jodi Dean cited O'Brien's claims as an example of conspiracy theorists' "leaps in imagination and willingness to deviate from common sense".[9]
O'Brien self-publishes her books.[10]
