The Campaigner

what might happen to any of the people I was with. I had hypnotic variety I was still preferring to back away
to fight out of the state, from the real world into euphoric fantasies of associative
This period, the day of the 2nd, marked a period of thought. Dr. Spiegel profiled me to determine whether I
transition. As I summoned the effort to fight out of the was a hypnotisable "object" or not. He came to the
first layer of programming, the level on which I had been conclusion that I wasn't, and, because of my fearful
programmed to carry out specific instructions, "Plan reactions to the process, decided that I was a paranoid
'A'." schizophrenic. He, like Dr. Samuelly, did not consider
I came out not into reality but into other layers of remission likely, but he at least prescribed rest and
programming which had been set up to ensure that I relaxation rather than hospitalization as the curative
would become a self-perpetuating mental zombie, method, if remission was to be achieved.
absorbing information from the outside into the various During that period of "rest and relaxation," between
other layers of programmed information that had been the sixth and tenth of January, I was able to make selfbuilt
on top of my self-conscious mental apparatus, conscious use of the efforts others had made between the
"No sell can rat" sent me into the mental horror of the visits to Samuelly and Spiegel.
"infinite loop"; my mind was programmed to program I concentrated on recovering control of my senses. I
itself. Yet I had one instruction in that state which was went through the exercise schedule that had been
preplanted for recovery at the onset of the infinite loop. I developed on at least two days, and began to regain selfhad
been programmed _ith three telephone numbers, conscious control of my breathing and vision, etc. I ate
one in New York, one in Glasgow and one in London. well and often, thanks to the sacrifices of Labour
The New York telephone number, as it transpired, was Committee members (at the time I was under the
the Red Squad number; the name of Detective Finnegan mistaken impression that our fund-raising work was
sprang to my mind--even though I had never had proceeding well!). I plunged with enthusiasm into the
dealings with either that department or its officers up to early piano sonatas of Beethoven, concentrating this
that point. Except my recollection that early in the time on the development and maturation of that commorning
of the 31st'I had met one Detective Finch. poser's creative powers, on his Promethean, i.e. selfconsciously
human, worldview. I began to relate to
Those numbers were my last programmed instructions, other people in a real way, to take note of things that
My remission was now a question which, even with all were going on around me, to cook, to wash dishes --
the expert help in the world, I could only settle for even to wash myself regularly again!
myself. I had to choose between a life of associative Then .a third kind of evidence trom the
fantasy derived either euphorically, or depressively from "deprogramming" suggests the approximate length of
time that would have been needed to prepare me for the
whatever input others made, and linked in part to earlier
task. I had to have been taught German and a bit of
phases ofthebrainwashing/operation, or I could become Russian. I had to have been programmed with the
a self-conscious human being acting in and on a real various keys and codes. Other evidence, now on tape but
world, populated by other real people, irrelevant for these purposes, demonstrates that a full
That choice was the most difficult of all to make. For
treatment of retrogressive psychoanalysis, with torture,
several days I actually mounted a rearguard struggle to
maintain the joys of my own "private" fantasies. No electro-shock, drugs, hypnosis, was necessary. In effect,
to prepare one functional psychotic with the capability to
admission was too degraded for me to make, no lie too run around New York to deliver a garbled message to
big to be told. Truth and fantasy became mixed in an Marcus, make two phone calls, and then prepare the
infernal kaliedoscope as Lyn, my wife and other friends "infinite loop" eight-level program in case plan 'A' did
lovingly tried to wean me from my dreams. They connot
work out, would have taken something like three to
centrated on ending the dissociation which my four hours a day over three months.
programmers had inflicted on my body and mind. They There is no place that could have been done, except
encouraged me to relax. They showed me how I could the North London slum school, Sir William Collins, in
see, hear, taste and smell again, they developed physical Camden Town's Charrington Street, London NW1. That
exercises so I could renew self-conscious control of my school exists, and even without this business should be
bodily functions and movements, closed down; it is in the vanguard of government
Yet even by Saturday 6th of January, when we had an counterinsurgency organising of working-class youth.
appointment with a second psychiatrist, a Dr. Herbert But let's leave that aside for the moment. Brainwashing
Spiegel -- who is a well-known expert in military was not carried out on the school premises, but over the
psychological warfare of the "Manchurian candidate" road in a derelict housing area, there Irish and Scottish
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