Influenced by MK Ultra, Aum Shinrikyo believed that “mind control” existed and tried to use it on its followers—without success.
by Toshihiro Ota*
*A lecture given at the symposium organized by the Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est (IFRAE), Paris, March 20, 2025, “L’héritage de l’affaire Aum à la société japonaise: 30 ans après les attentats au gaz sarin du métro de Tokyo.”
Article 3 of 5. Read article 1 and article 2.
Next, let’s move on to the story of Aum Shinrikyo. Under the guise of spiritual training, Aum sought to merge the consciousness of its followers with that of its leader (or guru) and manipulate them as he wished. This trend showed that MK Ultra’s influence grew stronger, especially in the later stages of their activities.
Aum Shinrikyo officially launched as a religious organization in 1987. Shortly thereafter, in 1988, Asahara commented about Aum’s ultimate teaching, which it presented as “Vajrayana”: “The teachings of Vajrayana place the guru in an absolute position, and one must devote oneself to that guru. One must strive to empty oneself, and then fill that empty vessel with the guru’s experience and energy. In other words, one must become a clone of the guru… This is Vajrayana.”
Thus, once the spirit of the ascetic had been completely erased, then the data of Asahara, the final liberator, was poured into it with the aim of “cloning the guru.” Creating a “god-man” in this way was Aum’s ultimate goal.
From 1986 to 1988, an initiation called “Shaktipat” played an essential role in the early days of Aum. In this practice, Asahara would place his thumb between the disciple’s eyebrows, injecting divine energy and encouraging the “awakening of the Kundalini.” This practice led many followers to mystical experiences. Asahara initially received training in acupressure at a school for the blind, which he attended as a child, so his technique was outstanding. His inherent charisma also appears to have had a particular hypnotic effect.
Between 1988 and 1989, “blood initiations” and “love initiations” were held. These initiations involved followers drinking a liquid containing Asahara’s blood or a DNA culture solution. Asahara firmly believed that as a person who had attained final enlightenment, his genes contained mystical powers, and by having his followers ingest these, he encouraged them to “unite with the guru.”
After 1993, toward the end of Aum Shinrikyo, the influence of MK Ultra became stronger, and it is clear that the nature of initiation changed to some extent. This was probably because a follower with knowledge of MK Ultra joined the leading members, but the exact details are unknown.
The first breakthrough came in September 1993 with the development of a device called the “Perfect Salvation Initiation” (PSI). It was claimed that this device could transfer Asahara’s brain waves during meditation to his followers, enabling the rapid mass production of enlightened individuals.
In December of the same year, another initiation began in which the “Determination Tape” recording of Asahara’s words, “I’m gonna train, I’m gonna train,” was distributed to followers. From then on, the practice of having followers repeatedly listen to tapes of Asahara’s sermons to instill his teachings in them continued.
At this time, Aum was becoming increasingly suspicious that spies had infiltrated the group. To uncover these spies, Aum introduced polygraph tests and developed a truth serum using thiopental and isopropyl alcohol. In May 1994, the group began the “Bardo Enlightenment Initiation,” in which the members’ consciousness was confirmed through intravenous infusion of sleeping pills and truth serums. Furthermore, in July of the same year, the group also began the “New Narco” method, which attempted to erase members’ memories by administering electric shocks.
The medical team within Aum mainly conducted these tests and experiments. One of the senior followers, Ikuo Hayashi, originally a cardiac surgeon, recounts his conversation with Asahara. On one occasion, Asahara ordered Hayashi to “find a way to erase memories.” In response, Hayashi cited the MK Ultra book written by Gordon Thomas and said that even the CIA had failed to erase memories. Then Asahara replied, “That’s why you’re so naive. The CIA uses pressure to alter stories. I only believe what I have verified myself.” This scene confirms that MK Ultra-related literature was being read within Aum and that it was being accepted in a conspiracy theory manner.
During the same period, Aum also promoted the use of drugs to induce mystical visions. That is, they manufactured LSD and stimulant drugs for believers to ingest, then locked them in solitary confinement and forced them to listen to Asahara’s sermons. These were called “Initiation of Christ” and “Initiation of Rudra Chakrin.”
As described above, in the final phase of Aum, attempts were made to use electromagnetic waves and audio tapes for indoctrination, sleeping pills and truth serums for induction, electric shocks for memory erasure, and LSD and stimulants for consciousness alteration. It is all too clear that MK Ultra influenced these actions.
However, it is important not to misunderstand that this does not mean that scientific mind control was possible within Aum. In that respect, like MK Ultra, the numerous attempts within Aum were extremely confused, and far from scientifically manipulating the mind, they ended up producing a large number of victims who suffered physical and mental injuries.
There are many instances in which it can be seen that Aum did not achieve “brainwashing” or “mind control.” Still, the most obvious case is the kidnapping and murder of Kiyoshi Kariya, the director of a notary public office, which occurred between February and March 1995. At that time, Aum kidnapped Kariya and attempted to force him to reveal the whereabouts of his sister, who was a follower of the group. However, Aum’s doctors, including Hayashi Ikuo, administered an overdose of thiopental in their haste, resulting in the man’s death.
If Aum had truly possessed the scientific technology to manipulate the mind, their activities would have been more sophisticated and refined, and there would have been no need to resort to numerous murders and sarin terrorism. In reality, they were merely obsessed with the “fantasy” of mind control, and what we saw here was an outbreak of irrational violence.
Let’s also examine the contents of a magazine called “Vajrayana Satcha,” which Aum published for the general public. The seventh issue, published in February 1995, featured a special section on “Devil’s Mind Control.”
According to this article, the devil is now turning humans into animals by giving them pleasures such as sports, gourmet food, and sex. It also uses media and electromagnetic waves to control people’s consciousness. As long as we are under the influence of this kind of mind control, the catastrophe of the world is inevitable, and to survive it, we must find a savior in the present and input the data of truth. It could be said that what was playing out here was a classic “mind control conspiracy theory.”
In fact, Aum was a violent religious group driven by various fantasies. These fantasies included spiritual evolution, messianic salvation, supernatural powers, and impending Armageddon. “Mind control” was also one of those fantasies.
Toshihiro Ota was born in 1974. He specializes in religious studies and intellectual history. He received his PhD from the University of Tokyo for his research on Gnosticism and published “The Thought of Gnosticism: The Fiction of the ‘Father’” (Shunjusya, 2009). He subsequently researched Aum Shinrikyo, publishing “The Spiritual History of Aum Shinrikyo: Romanticism, Totalitarianism, and Fundamentalism” (Shunjusya, 2011) and “The Roots of the Modern Occultism: The Light and Darkness of Spiritual Evolution Theory” (Chikuma Shobo, 2013). He currently teaches liberal arts as a part-time lecturer at Saitama University. He has also published a volume collecting lectures on the history of Western religious thought, “The Brief History of Monotheism” (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2023).
