The first stage of the program involves gathering data on the subject. What websites does the subject frequent, what are the subject's political and religious views, where does the subject go, what bars does he frequent, which coffee shop does he frequent, where does he work, what types of products does he buy, etc... This information is used to formulate a psychological profile on the subject as well as determine where to plant undercover agents and materials for the subject to encounter. These days the data gathering phase has been made a great deal easier with the advent of the internet, social media and mobile phones. Most of the data is readily available on the subject's social media page, one need only send a friend request and voila. The rest of the information can be had through data already collected by advertising networks. If need be the subject's phone can be hacked simply by luring him to a website written to take advantage of any one of the endless stream of software and hardware vulnerabilities that plague modern devices.
"Be on the side of a playlist that's for good, not evil."
-101.7
The program starts well before contact is made with the subject, for example, a CIA front organization sets up an "independent" radio station in the subject's local area and advertises this radio station on the subject's favorite television channels. The subject tunes in to find that the station plays all of his favorite songs, almost as if the playlist were tailored specifically for him which, of course, it was. A few months go by and a link to a webpage about numerology is dropped in a forum thread the subject has been active on. The subject follows the link where he is instructed to add together the letters of his full name where each letter corresponds to its position in the alphabet, a=1, b=2 and so on. The subject adds his name together and comes up with 117, his new favorite radio station plays over the frequency 101.7. The subject thinks, wow what a strange coincidence, but this is only the beginning, the coincidences are going to start piling up.
While waiting in line at his typical coffee shop the subject finds himself standing behind a priest carrying a breifcase that has a 101.7 sticker on it. After leaving the coffee shop and on his way to work the subject is stopped at a red light, the car in front of him has a license plate that reads GD2-117 and as he's noticing this the song Stairway to Heaven plays over the radio. After several more "coincidences" of this nature the subject is beginning to think that God is trying to tell him something, but what? On one of his favorite gaming forums the subject comes across a recent post by someone going by the name "hitman117." The post is a conspiracy laden rant about a shadowy organization controlling the world and calling itself the Illuminati. The post is quickly removed by forum moderators, but not before the subject caught sight of it, as luck would have it the post came in just as the subject was directing his browser to the forum.
With his interest peaked the subject starts searching the internet for information about the Illuminati. His Google search results direct him to pages and websites operated by the CIA. He reads all about the satanic cult of the Illuminati, a group of exorbitantly wealthy people who control world events from the shadows. The websites list certain symbols, numbers and phrases as being secret codes used by the Illuminati to indicate their activity to those in the know. The subject starts seeing these secret codes in subtle places everywhere he goes. Eventually he starts to notice people in suits and sunglasses watching him intently, sometimes they follow him. He goes to the post office to mail a birthday package to his niece and the attendant quietly calls him by his on-line screen name. Not sure if he heard correctly he asks the attendant to repeat themselves at which point they use his given name.
"No one's gonna take me alive"
-Muse (Knights of Cydonia)
The subject is becoming increasingly paranoid in public, he starts mentioning things about the Illuminati to his coworkers who begin distancing themselves from him thinking he might be going crazy. Now isolated the subject begins to see noticeably elevated levels of minor everyday annoyances. His key stops working for his apartment and he has to call his landlord to let him in. His debit card number was stolen and had to be locked and replaced by the bank. He leaves the office one day to find that his car has a flat tire. A new tennant occasionally plays loud party music all night preventing the subject from sleeping. Often times these incidences are accompanied by people in suits nearby that seem to be conspicuously staring at him.
Meanwhile a billboard is erected nearby advertising the subject's favorite radio station with a new tagline. The radio station bills itself as being independent from the national broadcasters, the tagline reads "be on the side of a playlist that's for good, not evil." The subject remembers that all of this began when God lead him to his revelations about what was really going on in the world, God must've had a reason. The Illuminati have made it clear that they're on to him, but why don't they just kill him? Maybe they can't kill him, maybe they're afraid of him because he's on a mission ordained by God himself. He starts researching information about firearms, he's not quite sure yet what to do so he's just seeing what the possibilities are. He's listening to the radio, as always these days, and the song Knights of Cydonia by Muse is playing while he's doing his research. The lyrics echo in his head:
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
-Muse (Knights of Cydonia)
The subject looks up the music video for the song, an old western theme where a hero comes into town guns blazing, rescues a beautiful woman and kills a bunch of outlaws. A few days later he's driving to the grocery store when a car slowly passing by catches his attention. The car has a custom paint job with graphics featuring the silhouette of a naked woman, this is what draws his attention to the car. As the car passes he sees a sticker on the back window, a picture of a gun and the words "I don't call 911." Knights of Cydonia starts playing over the radio. A few blocks later a sign advertising a gun show at the convention center the upcoming weekend. Three weeks later the subject is dead, just another active shooter brought down by the police. There are no crisis actors. The mass shooter is real, the victims are real, the police are real, the journalists are real.
Some notable MK-Ultra cases include the Charles Manson family killings (Helter Skelter), the John Lennon assassination, the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, the James Holmes mass shooting in Aurora Colorado and the Aaron Alexis Naval Yard shooting.
Obviously this is just one example of how an operation might play out. Operations like this tend to be custom tailored to the subject. Subjects might be lead to believe they've been contacted by God, aliens or even some type of covert group of freedom fighters. The details can vary quite a bit, there might be references to any secret society, religious organizations such as the Catholic Church or Scientology, political groups, rebel groups or even alien species such as greys, reptilians and shape shifters. It all depends on the subject's pre-existing world view and what it is the program intends to direct the subject to do.
Sometimes it may be that the subject is simply directed to commit suicide. In this case, once the subject is hooked, you might direct them to a website or periodical that convinces them to kill themselves. This is easier than it sounds, first you'll want to damage the subject's will to live by introducing stressful situations such as the aforementioned flat tires, apartment lockouts, sleep deprivation, arguments with "random" strangers at the mall or at work, in parking lots, etc. Eventually, when the subject is good and depressed, the subject finds themselves reading something that sounds almost like it's speaking directly to them, a lot like a horoscope. There might be references to things such as car accidents or other past events that are very similar, but not exactly the same, as events that have happened in the subject's life. This puts the subject in a more receptive state, they believe they're reading something that wasn't written specifically for them by the author, but intended for them by God, aliens or, otherwise, a higher power.
"there might be references to any secret society, religious organizations such as the Catholic Church or Scientology, political groups, rebel groups or even alien species such as greys, reptilians and shape shifters."
-Adam T. Ryder
The reading material will then go on to inform the subject that death is not the end. Now that the subject believes the reading material was destined to reach them they'll read something to the effect of "when you die your soul leaves your body and instantly gains all universal knowledge. At this time your soul is given a choice of whether to remain in this state of universal knowledge and eternal existence or return to your body to live out the rest of your days. If you choose to continue your life on earth your soul will return to your body and you will lose all universal knowledge, returning to the mental state under which you existed before death. If you were to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger you will find that you will be given the option to return to life or remain in a state of universal knowledge."
Mass shootings, on the other hand, have a variety of use cases. You might direct a subject to enact a mass shooting event at a particular place and time where an assassination target is known to be in attendance in the hopes that the shooter kills the target. If the subject is the assassination target a mass shooting may be preferable to suicide if the subject is in possession of sensitive information. Directing the subject to commit mass murder not only ends with the subject dead or imprisoned, but also destroys their credibility as at this point everything they've ever said or ever will say will be tainted as nothing more than the ramblings of a madman.