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The memories that O'Brien has asserted she possesses were retrieved through the use of hypnosis. Because most MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then CIA Director Richard Helms, it has been difficult, if not impossible, for investigators to gain a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research sub-projects sponsored by MKULTRA and related CIA programs. According to scholar Michael Barkun, investigations into the story produced no credible evidence and numerous inconsistencies.
O'Brien's Trance Formation of America has been credited as the origination of one of the most significant mind control conspiracy theories, According to O'Brien, George H. W. Bush used a hologram to appear as a lizard alien in her presence. "Claiming to me to be an alien himself, 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."
O'Brien says that she has developed dissociative identity disorder (previously called multiple personality disorder) and that she has no memory of some of her activities.
She also says that she has a photographic recall of the events that she suffered whilst her alternate personalities were in control. Swedish scholar Mattias Gardell states that O'Brien's assertions are almost entirely unsupported by any evidence outside her testimony or the similarly unverified testimony of others. Michael Barkun states that "scholarly and journalistic treatments of MK-ULTRA make no mention of a ".
Her accounts have entered the conspiracy culture, linking assertions of satanic ritual abuse with MKUltra.