What passages in the KUBARK manual explicitly describe the 'Alice in Wonderland' or confusion technique and where can the primary text be read?
Executive summary
The KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual contains a named section, “Alice in Wonderland” (also called the confusion technique), that explicitly states its aim is “to confound the expectations and conditioned reactions of the interrogatee,” and the passage appears in the manual’s Chapter 47, pages commonly cited as 76–77 of the declassified text [1] [2] [3]. The declassified KUBARK manual is available in public archives and online reproductions including scanned/declassified PDFs and crowd-hosted transcriptions cited by researchers and commentators [4] [5] [3].
1. What the manual actually says: the key passage and its wording
The KUBARK manual’s “Alice in Wonderland” or “confusion technique” is introduced with the line that “the aim of the Alice in Wonderland or confusion technique is to confound the expectations and conditioned reactions of the interrogatee,” and the manual then explains how dismantling the subject’s world of continuity and logic can make them try to restore coherence by offering information or confessions, with the technique noted as potentially effective “with the orderly, obstinate type” [1] [2] [3].
2. Where in the manual this appears: chapter and page references
Scholarly and public reproductions place the “Alice in Wonderland” write-up in the manual’s Chapter 47 and commonly on pages 76–77 of the declassified edition, with multiple reproductions and chapter listings in online versions referring to Chapter 47 as the dedicated section for that technique [3] CIA's'Alicein_Wonderland'" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[6] [7].
3. Where the primary text can be read: archives and reproductions
The declassified KUBARK manual has been posted in scanned PDF form and through various online archives and reproductions; commentators point readers to declassified PDFs (often mirrored on sites such as Lermanet and other repositories) and to crowd-curated transcriptions and wiki-type mirrors that host the Kubark files for public reading [4] [5] [3]. Researchers also cite published collections and printed compilations of the Cold War KUBARK files that reproduce the same passage [6] [7].
4. Origins, context, and competing claims about provenance
Multiple commentators link the “Alice in Wonderland” phrasing to broader historical debates: some note that L. Ron Hubbard used Alice as a training text in Scientology routines and argue the language resembles those practices, while others emphasize that the CIA formalized a “confusion” method in KUBARK as part of Cold War interrogation doctrine—sources documenting both links appear in public commentary and secondary analyses [8] [9] [10]. Scholarship on interrogation and literary analysis has also compared the manual’s nonsense-driven technique to Carrollian absurdity, but primary documentation in KUBARK itself frames the method operationally rather than attributing its origin to any single outside source [6] [7].
5. Reliability and limits of the available reporting
The cited wording and chapter placement come from declassified KUBARK reproductions widely circulated online and cited by academic and popular writers, but much public discussion relies on secondary websites, blog posts, and digitized reproductions rather than a single centralized official CIA-hosted reader; those reproductions are the basis for the quoted passage and chapter reference [4] [1] [2]. Where assertions go beyond the manual’s text—about precise origins, operational use in specific interrogations, or cross-influence from Scientology—sources diverge and rely on inference or secondary linkage rather than documentary proof contained within the KUBARK pages themselves [8] [10].
6. Bottom line for readers seeking the primary passage
To read the passage in context, consult the declassified KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual (look for Chapter 47, “Alice in Wonderland,” pp. 76–77 in common declassified pagination) in the public PDFs and transcriptions that reproduce the Cold War KUBARK files; those reproductions contain the explicit language about confounding expectations and the subsequent explanation of how prolonged nonsense can induce admissions [3] [4] [1].