Book Review: "Thanks For The Memories" By Brice Taylor

"Thanks For The Memories" is a relentless, horrific, and haunting memoir about a woman who claims to have been a "mind-controlled slave," "presidential sex toy," and "personal computer." Even if you don't buy the basic premise here -- that the author was the subject of a massive multi-generational MK-Ultra experiment that involved being prostituted to, and tortured by, many of the key figures in politics and entertainment over the last 50+ years -- this is is still a must-read for both those interested in both conspiracies and just far-out narratives in general.

In short, is there an "Outsider Art" designation for books? Because "Thanks For The Memories" would certainly fit into that category. It has all the aesthetics of a Henry Darger piece. Also: the text is one big "trigger warning," so keep that mind if you have PTSD, abuse issues, etc.

"Thanks For The Memories" opens with Brice Taylor (a.k.a. Sue Ford) being raped by her father as an infant, "signed" into some sort of awful multi-generational abuse/slave situation by her "Uncle Charlie" (which I elaborate more on here) then later "sold" to comedian Bob Hope in a surreal cross between a child beauty pageant and a "child slave" auction. These scenes are deeply hard to read, and yet at the same time bring to mind, at least metaphorically, current pop-cultural phenomena such as "Toddlers in Tiaras."

Bob Hope: Mind-Control Guru?

And yes, I did say "Bob Hope." He is one of the two main "handlers"/masters in Taylor's life, the other being Henry Kissinger. While Hope keeps her (from a very young age) as a personal concubine, pornography subject, and sexual "gift" to friends (the scene where she is literally wrapped as a birthday president for Bing Crosby is particularly striking), Kissinger operates more as a MK-Ultra mad-scientist. The goal of both parties is to both deliver sensitive information to high-value targets in business, entertainment, and politics -- as well as entrap them in "honey pot" schemes to use as blackmail.

Taylor also claims to have been prostituted to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton (Jimmy Carter respectfully declined to have sexual congress with Taylor). Other alleged johns and/or pedophiles include Sylvester Stallone (who she describes as an aficionado of "dolphin porn"), Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Ted Kennedy (a supposedly especially nasty fellow), and so on. Each of these encounters are delivered in excruciating detail, complete with commentary as to who liked rough sex, who had a bigger penis, what their bodies smelled like, and what type of underwear they preferred to wear.

According to Taylor, Reagan had sex "passively"

It is at this point that even the most paranoid, dyed-in-the-wool scholar of Mind-Control/DID/MPD/MK-Ultra/Ritual Abuse is tempted to drop out of Taylor's narrative and dismiss it as utter rubbish. Her credibility is not helped by the relentless, repetitive nature of the storytelling -- much like the carousel-type rides/devices Taylor claims to have been forced to ride as she received her daily dose of "programming."

This includes the frequent use of rhymes as "programming cues," which are particularly disturbing and begins to entrance the reader him- or herself. There is simply not a single thing Taylor has apparently done in the first 35 years of her life -- not a family vacation, not even the mundane acts of stepping outside to cross the street -- that does not get tangled up in shadowy men snatching her and torturing her with cattle-prods and needles, or Hope/Kissinger sending the young woman off to one political sex-mission after another.

I just can't figure out how she had the time to do this all. It would have had to be that she was watched 24/7 by several interested and powerful organizations, being one of the most important MK-Ultra assets in U.S. history.

Taylor repeatedly refers to herself in the book as a "human computer" and "robot"

I would have to write like ten posts to get anywhere near a complete breakdown of the major points brought up in "Thanks For The Memories" -- and maybe one day I will. We have major political intrigue, a whole system of mind-control involving "human computers" who retain massive amounts of information in "files" within their brains, and, of course, the "New World Order" (the masterminds of which are referred to as "The Council").

Now, there is a quick-and-easy way to explain away the deeply disturbing content of "Thanks For The Memories." That is: early on in the book Taylor writes she had two very bad brain injuries, which she credits in part for "reactivating" her suppressed memories of being this mind-control victim. The brain injuries: they "created" this whole story, right?

But you see: that is the "quick and easy" of assessing this text. Using the "binary" method of the "Ultimate Yes" and the "Ultimate No" -- it either has to be all true, or all false.

don't know where this creepy pic of Taylor and JonBenet Ramsey came from...but it's creepy

In actuality, however, there are so many possibilities here:

1. Taylor made the entire text up on purpose -- possibly, it has been alleged, even plagiarizing content from other well-known "MK-Girl" cases like Cathy O'Brien -- just to make a buck off the credulous.

2. Taylor didn't make up the text and honestly believes it, but it is all sadly the result of a delusional mind.

3. Taylor remembered some content accurately -- such as the sexual abuse she suffered as a child -- but other stuff like Hope/Kissinger was the result of organic/psychological mental delusion partially brought on by her head injuries.

4. Taylor remembered some of the content correctly -- including being in essence a "presidential prostitute" and Bob Hope's concubine. But that she unknowingly overlayed these memories with an elaborate mis-remembered conspiracy/intrigue narrative (including psychic adventures, the dolphin porn, etc.)

5. Taylor remembered some of the content accurately & was involved in a horrible MK-Ultra experiment -- but her handlers purposely gave her "screen" memories involving celebrities an politicians as to "discredit" her story should she ever wish to go public.

6. Everything in "Thanks For The Memories" is accurate.

7. Lastly, what I like to refer to as "The Icke Maneuver" -- 85% of Taylor's story is accurate, but she added the more "out there" elements to make it seem ridiculous on purpose, so she wouldn't immediately be "taken out" as a threat. (I'm not saying that this is what David Icke has actually done with his own work -- but he has most certainly been accused as such).

not a flattering portrait of the comedian

For example, one of the people who contributed introductions to the book confirms that he saw Taylor work for Hope decades ago. An unauthorized biography of Hope written by Groucho Marx's son paints a picture of the beloved entertainment icon Hope as a rather unpleasant individual who did keep a number of mistresses and concubines -- as well as actively connived with the Republican Party to keep Americans in the Vietnam War and so on.

The Jimmy Savile and Vatican cases absolutely prove to skeptics that massive conspiracies to perpetrate and cover-up pedophilia do exist. Schemes to blackmail high-value targets with prostitutes/child sex is a very common tactic used in international espionage. And there are simply waaaaay too many abuse/mind-control narratives similar to Taylor's -- at least in the basics -- to dismiss all of these aspects of her tale.

So to even begin to suss out the relative validity of Taylor's book, one would have to do a substantial amount of detective work -- using the book as a guide, not an impossible task if one was so inclined.

My personal take on the book, based on just what I read? Looking back on my "possibilities" list above, I place it so far somewhere in the murk between #s 3-5.

Or perhaps I've completely been, as the say, "taken for a ride."

And hence the inherent pitfalls of delving into these sorts of texts -- the ever-present danger of falling into what Robert Anton Wilson dubbed "Chapel Perilous."

Yet, the desire for even shredded tendrils of the Truth moves me forward.

You can purchase "Thanks For The Memories" at Amazon.com.