The Cure

I didn't know what I expected to hear from Dr. Hess. Probably something I didn't want to hear or didn't want to know.

Sources can be like that sometimes: pure bullshit or gold. You can never really be sure until you see and hear what they've got.

Hess had been my history professor when I had been in the University. His specialty was the 20th century and he was great for background. More than once his insights had put my stories in the correct context and perspective. He had never steered me wrong before so whenever he called, I'd make the time to listen.

I entered University History Department office late in the afternoon and a graduate assistant was manning the receptionist desk. She looked up and said, "Mr. Sawyer. Dr. Hess is expecting you. You can go right in."

I thanked her and headed back into the warren of offices and his door was open.

Dr. Hess was a little over sixty with white hair. He was sitting behind a cluttered desk which was home to two desktop PCs and a laptop. He looked up from his screen and said, "Kevin. Come in and pull the door closed if you don't mind."

I closed the door and sat in the same chair that I sat in as a student talking to my faculty advisor years ago. I said, "Dr. Hess what have you got for me?"

Hess said, "It's a long story that I think you might find interesting."

I said, "Go ahead Doc. I'm off the clock and have time."

"First, let me tell you where this comes from. In 1989 when the Soviet Union fell, the Russians sent us copies materials that they seized from the Nazis when Germany collapsed in 1945- material that has never been seen in the West before. For the last three years I have been studying it."

Hess pulled some notes out and sat them on his desk in front of him. "It starts in Nazi Germany in 1943. The war is going poorly for Germany and the whole of their scientific establishment is pressed into service to find any weapon that can turn the tide of the war."

I said, "I'm familiar with this part. Germany's wonder weapons: jet aircraft, super-tanks..."

Hess nodded. "Yes. That's the part that most people know about from the History Channel. Other things were going on behind the scenes that we only now beginning to learn about. You see the Nazis were also interested in making weapons of their people."

"Super-soldiers?"

"They were looking into it", Hess replied. "but they were decades away from any real progress. They did make a big breakthrough in human conditioning."

"At the Auschwitz death camps Dr. Mengele oversaw a large medical experimentation group. One of those groups was run by a young psychiatrist named Johan Muller who studied under Carl Jung in Vienna during the thirties. He developed a method of physical and psychological stress combined with drugs that he called the death of personality or Persönlichkeit Tod. Once a persons personality has been effectively destroyed, they could basically reprogram the subject to be anything they wanted them to be. They were the perfect sleeper agents: completely unaware of who and what they were. Unable to betray themselves or their mission even under extreme interrogation."

I said, "That's terrifying. Agents so psychologically conditioned that don't even know whose side they are on."

"Exactly. Although the Nazis made the breakthrough, they didn't have time to use it. In January 1945 the Soviets liberated Auschwitz and NKVD teams snatched up all the Nazi scientists and research that they could find. The Soviets immediately saw the value of Muller's research. The process is so rigorous that it killed about 10% of the subjects. They took the research and ran with it. By 1955 the Soviets were putting deep cover sleeper agents all over the world. That's why throughout the Cold War Western Intelligence Agencies seemed to be completely swamped by Soviet agents."

I said, "Well- that explains a lot about the Cold War and it would make a good historic interest piece for the Sunday edition."

Hess continued, "Perhaps it would but the story doesn't end there. The Soviets used Sleeper agents until the very end in 1989. It was only after the Archives were turned over and we got a few defectors that the CIA finally figured out what the sleepers actually were."

"In 1990 a working group of various scientists were given access to the archives. They were tasked with finding anything that might be of scientific or medical use. Guess who was a member of the group?"

I said, "I have no idea Doc."

"Dr. Vernon Roth- fresh out of medical school and working on his psychiatric specialty at Georgetown."

I searched my memory and the name did sound familiar. "As in Roth Pharmaceuticals?"

"He is one of the elder Roth's three sons and key player in developing in Roth's multi-billion dollar line of psychiatric medications."

I said, "Isn't he some sort of an anti-gay nut?"

"Vernon Roth is a major contributor to anti-gay organizations all over the country and has ties to this clinic in Costa Rica."

Hess handed me a very slick tri-folded glossy flier with a photo of a modern looking clinic in a tropical setting called the Freedom Institute. I turned the page of the flier and read a bold headline: Freedom from the Spiritual Bondage of Homosexuality.

I said, "Doc are you saying that you think this clinic is using this Nazi developed and Soviet refined mind control method to reprogram homosexuals?"

Hess said, "That's your story Kevin. Look at the details. The Soviet method of programming a sleeper took a year and two months. The clinic's program lasts one year and two months. It's very expensive- the cost of the treatment is over a quarter million dollars. It's the only method of treatment for homosexuality to boast a 100% success rate."

"I've covered the Ex-gay movement here in the region and they only claim a 30% success rate."

Hess said, "That's just it Kevin. Homosexuality is part of the personality at a very deep level. The only way to change it is to completely reorder the personality. This method is just how you would go about it."

I said, "I like it. This would make a great story. Do you have anything more for me?"

Hess handed me a sheet of paper with names and addresses. "This is a list of five people that have completed the therapy at the Freedom Institute and one more who died of a heart attack while he was undergoing treatment. It's not much but its a start."

"Thanks Doc. I'll see what I can do with this. Would you mind emailing me more of the background?"

Hess said, "I'll be waiting for you when you get home. Good luck Kevin.'