Were You Part Of The "Mentally Gifted Minds" Program In California Scools back in the 70's?

For me Arlington Heights IL. I predated computers but what i remember most from my very young exposure to this program was being taken out of class for testing - and "special library time" where i was allowed to go to the Library by myself. There was a big special box of curriculum set aside over in a corner area that was especially for us.

I was terrified because i was so young - and had to go alone - and the bigger older kids were very frightening to me at the time.

Not crazy at all. Spontaneous memories from Childhood can be disconcerting - even the ones that seem "normal" sometimes. Its helpful to remember that awareness changes - as in awareness of right or wrong - over time - and changes in culture. Kids were treated differently as a whole when I was in this "experimental classroom" - it helps to consider that.

In other words you can't view everything through the microscope of today, you have to remember they used different microscopes. I hope this helps some.

Pretty obvious to me its a program to single out intelligent children and either use them for their purposes or dumb them down with shots, i'm guessing the former they found are intrinsically easier to manipulate.

Irony or destiny?

In my case I do believe the whole classroom - or perhaps the entire school was chosen for "experimental projects/programs" -

This caused some hardship with my parents - my mom who was a stay at home at the time but had a degree in education was excited about it. My Dad was skeptical and not enthused. He just wanted "normal" schooling for his kid.

This experimental class. We were all tested and sorted, and zener cards were part of that testing - and in first grade I was given a 3rd grade math book and 2 other children a 2nd grade book. The rest of the class was all standard. The reward for me when I finished my math - was that freedom to go alone to the library which terrified me - I can still to this day remember how big the other kids in the library seemed as I was such a runt.

NOW - here is the thing after this program would i not only not excel in math I would be an abject failure at the subject. My mom had been so excited because her sister had been offered math scholarships (something HIGHLY unusual) in the 1950s. So it was so exciting and "running in the family" - well no.

NO, in fact I have never repeated what ever that early promise was in that subject again. That assessment I took a couple of years ago at the VA relating to some health issues - included IQ tests - and I have 3 standard deviations on one test. The examining psychologist said to me - wow life must have been quite frustrating for you to be so advanced and so average at the same time. The Psychiatrist had another opinion and that was that I must have sustained some kind of brain injury.

Now I can't prove anything - not even really suggesting anything - just replying with my personal situation - So the odd advanced placement and interest in me at an early age. Medication after leaving the program. (Dad very unhappy about that) And continual "under achievement" from that point on despite such promise to start out with.

The thing about my experience is I was never really grouped with other kids, in my case it was more of a singling out. Also from what I have read in this thread over the years it seems as if the program got more advanced as time progressed. Meaning I was probably exposed when the programs were in their infancy - and others got more refined experiences later on, like with the computer exposure.

There was a definite connection in my case with the University of Chicago.
For the California kids - well you guys were and are an absolute hot bed of "programs" in my opinion - so much - out of California . . .

My bet if we really scrapped the bottom of this we would discover certain individuals in certain centers of higher learning behind these things. I don't mean the Education boards and districts that decided to incorporate this stuff - I mean the real brains behind it.

Personal note: I've also made some recent discoveries about the intelligence of some of my Ancestors who were quite unusual - I am - well I pale in comparison, but there is obviously something genetic in this also and I think they know this as well. (The poster that commented on the cheek swabbing)

For those of you who have recently combed this thread over - are there other people mentioning their families - blood types - personality types - or genetic aspects???

My parents are both deceased at this point - but I do recall this entire process/event caused disagreement between them and I knew about this, added to the fact I was singled out and not grouped - it also caused a lot of tension in me.
It was attention that was not pleasant. Afterwards it was always the constant nagging reminders that I was not living up to my potential.

Same for me...That puzzle! Ventura California mid 70s.

Corn Burritos?

So is GLP and other sites around the web - that are similar in being a bit non conformist - like a moth light for us?

Awful lot of people here from the programs - awful lot of California people here.

Once you step outside of the normal IQ range, you are generally free to walk about the building, including entering GLP.

OP are you ghosting me motherfucker?

[nips off into bushes to quietly circle round to OPs house. Just to observe his aggressive and strange actions, and to be forewarned.]

I would not say it is an "awful" lot.

Some of them are not so awful.

Oxnard? Christ, gtfo of there.

One time at centerpoint mall while I was playing kung fu master, some nagrah asked me if I had any tokens. I said 'not for you' and he fuckin assaulted me tho I spun around and stared that little shit right down and he crawled away. I had no idea what nagrah privilege was, but Oxnard might teach a man. Ha ha ha let the wave come.

1978 Toledo Ohio...

It's not really so much the memories coming back that is a problem - I've been dealing with that for a few years now, and I've come to terms with the fact that my childhood was very screwed up (nothing to do with GATE classes). My immediate concern, and what drew me back to this thread, is this sudden "reawakening of potential" I've faced in the last year or so.

I guess, until recently, I wasn't really aware of having lost anything. My GATE memories were always problematic, as were the weird things happening at that time in my home life, but I compartmentalized all of that and thought I was living a decent (if not hugely financially successful) life. It's only recently that I've started connecting the dots to something more, and something missing.

And yes, morality shifts over time, but I can't think of any occasion where experimenting on vulnerable children would be appropriate. If you take all the speculation and rabbit holes out of this discussion and stick to pure fact - it's clear that, at the minimum, we were all subjects in an evolving, multi-decade study of alternative teaching techniques that had no system in place for dealing with the fallout of that education style. It appears that it fundamentally broke a number of us for whatever reason. That alone is a highly questionable decision.

As for why I *should* be walking away from this thread (so far, not succeeding lol), it isn't so much the memories or triggers, it's the disturbing synchronicities I'm stumbling across now that I'm researching the details I'm finding here elsewhere on the web. I've had more weird memories triggered in 2 days than I have in 10 years.

Why would a 3rd grader be taught meditation, astral travel and remote viewing???? That's exactly what the head down, classical music bit was about. Those memories have come back clearly. No wonder I grew obsessed with the occult at that age.

They were just trying to get you to show your full potential, in their own fucked up ways.

And, of course, it's a DoD-funded recruitment tool, so they were also trying to get you to grow that potential into something they could use.

Nothing more. Nothing less. Don't take it personally. Change it because it's fucked? Sure. But it's not a mommy, it's a machine. It can't kiss and make up.

I think you are most likely correct, as the alternative (intentionally shutting down potential) is a much more disturbing idea, and one I can't imagine most teachers going along with. The hard evidence points to exactly what you are saying. I just find it curious that in an effort to cultivate that potential, they short-circuited it instead.

By the way, my personal motivation for revisiting this thread isn't to share experiences or debate the rabbit holes, though I have been caught up in a few of them along the way. At the end of the day, I like to see results from my efforts. I came back around to this topic mainly because I hope to find answers to resolve a specific inner conflict.

Like most of you in this thread, I've always known that potential was there, but I've had very little interest in applying it. Suddenly that has changed dramatically and without inciting incident. It was almost overnight (the last 6 months, anyway). Now it feels like my potential is an animal trapped in a cage, ready to break free and run again. I'm suddenly driven to pursue extreme accomplishment, but I've spent most of my adult life avoiding exactly that. It's left me spinning my wheels in a big way while trying to figure out how to proceed with my life, and as mentioned before, I like results, not delays.

So I'm starting with where I lost that drive to begin with - and that was during the years I was in GATE. I realize I'll probably never find the specific answers I'm looking for, but the journey itself so far has opened a huge number of blocked memories and abilities for me.

I completely forgot I could read upside down and backwards until 2 days ago, for one. Not quite as fast as I used to, but damn fast considering. I'm also speed-reading again. Forgot about that, too.

Glad, somewhat, to see this thread picking up interest again. I did link it in a similar new thread that was started about the same thing, so perhaps that has piqued further interest and contribution to this enduring one. I have been involved in this thread from early on and check in now and then to read it to current and present-day updates.

The most chilling part of this, in retrospect, as I have had a lot of time to ponder this whole scenario now that it has been HIGHLY validated with other contributions, are several things: One, that my parents had no clue about what was going on. I had the opportunity to recently approach the subject with my mother and she denied my involvement with any such program and had no clue I was being bussed, alone, across town to other buildings after school. And Two, the whole paper cup liquid dispensation and weird inoculations that were involved. I shudder to think what we were really exposed to, especially given many of our similar "symptoms" - especially the berefit, and lack of potential that many of us seem to share.

So many strange things have happened to me since I discovered this thread. I was relieved to find others that shared the same events, beyond the state of California, in these pages.

I don't know the answers to this - It has just become easier to deal with the high strangeness going on, if I just somehow accept that reality is not what we think it is. If I just throw ALL the ideas out on the table - and I mean even some really far out ones like some kind of advanced species is here with us currently and not flying in from outer space - and they manipulate our environment -
Well - it all makes sense if you consider it.
Scares the Hell out of me, but the concept at least makes some kind of sense.
I mean how arrogant are we to assume we are the - *THE* apex species?

I saw a small clip once of Neil Degrasse Tyson - talking about how we are only like 1% genetically removed/Advanced from Chimpanzees - but just think of that -
Chimps have no clue, are not consciously aware of humans doing algebra, flying in Air Planes or driving to the grocery store. They only become aware of humans when we mess with them. He postulated that some "Alien" life could exist 10% removed/ADVANCED OVER - us - We would not even be able to understand their technology. Why is it that we have to think those life forms COME FROM OUTER SPACE. Maybe they are already here.

Built the Pyramids, Account for "strange events" - UFOs - Big Foot sightings - targeted individuals - etc etc. - Monitoring and "testing" us - for their amusement - etc. We are only aware when they mess with us, but then only marginally aware.

I know, I know - way on out there - but really what did they want from all of us Program Kids, and why might they have been concerned some might become aware, so they MK Ultra'd kids in a program that might have had the where with all to figure stuff out.

Sorry if I went too wildly off the deep end there.

Part compartmentalization, part taking advantage of free (mental) labor in the schools.

The compartmentalization makes sense from an organizational viewpoint, but it creates schizophrenic-type decision making, where they need the whole picture but are too afraid to tell the people linking together the pieces what half those pieces are.

I worked on the bare-bones social uptake design behind Obamacare back in the 90s. While I may have had the technical knowledge and coursework required for social engineering, there was no way I could have made the parts I worked on effective without understanding the bigger picture, which I most certainly did not - both because I wasn't being told what the design was being used for specifically and because I was just a teenager sitting in an academic ivory tower.

Can you link the thread you are mentioning? I actually found this thread again through a Google search and bumped it. I'm glad as well that this topic hasn't totally died out - it's worth researching!

No apologies needed at all. I think a defining feature of many of us who went through these programs is the ability to simultaneously ponder extreme scenarios, while allowing those musings to be reigned in by scientific methods and facts to keep us grounded in some kind of reality.

I actually think it's a function of the training, that's exactly the point of exercises like the space shuttle/rebuilding society games.

yes, i played recorder and trumpet..lol. but in virgnia

and we played the stock market using "pretend" money

Those were standard classroom activities when I went to school.

TAG was more along the lines of bizarre hearing tests and scientific reasoning.

I think I'm following what you are saying here, but correct me if I have it wrong - are you saying kids were being used at the time they were in the program as problem solvers? They gave us bits and pieces of problems they were working on, in the form of educational experiments, and then collated the resulting data back to a single source as actionable information?

It's a fascinating theory and just as plausible as any I've seen so far with the facts we have. Or do I misunderstand?

wasnt born

I couldn't say for sure.
What I was locked into went far beyond traditional school-based TAG programs.

The social engineering classes were definitely in line with the TAG teaching methods, but were extra-curricular, at night, and outside of the school's jurisdiction; although very possibly not outside of the DoD's funding reach.

As for the Obamacare project, that was at Yale.