Everybody whom of which has read the classic novel The Giver wonders the same thing: What if this was real? It was November 22nd, 1997 when American psychologist and author James Gaurvette was, like many people, intrigued by this concept. His brother, Lucas, was a very prominent figure in discoveries relating to the social sciences. Behind closed doors, James worked with government officials using his brother’s credibility to his advantage and, eventually, received a research grant of quite a few billion dollars to bring the idea to life. The government allowed him to close off circa thirty square miles of land in far-north America to bring this idea to life. While they could not do things such as remove all color and weather, they did the best they could. In January of 2004, this area of land was closed off and labeled “Area 93.” Military guards were assigned to “ensure total quarantine of the area.” The experiment was officially named “Project 49”, but was most commonly referred to as “The Giver Experiment”.
In this area of land, a third or so of the sectioned off land was restricted from both the public and the test subjects. The government offered “extraordinary living accommodations” and “the greatest place to live” to approximately 300 white U.S. citizens. 99% accepted. Every house was exactly the same, the area was mostly flat albeit there were a few hills, and there were designated sectors for everyday jobs and activities. These people were ordered to cease any and all communication with the outside, could not physically or vocally express any emotions and had to use extreme precision of language. This was the result of this experiment.
The first week, everything was normal. No emotion was expressed, exact language was used. As of that point, nobody had questioned any of the rules. Surprisingly, no warnings of broken rules had been given. The second week, a few rules, particularly the ones about precision of language, were broken. For seven more weeks, this is mostly how it goes. People follow the rules. Most of the transgressions were made by children, who were having trouble accustoming to the new way of life.
The ninth week was when things begun to become uneasy. Two families began to show signs of losing their grip on the laws of the community, although these changes were slight. It took another two weeks for anxiety to begin to settle in. People would have small bursts of emotions, usually negative. The subjects were constantly shifting glances, and could be observed having frequent outbursts in their homes. On the twelfth week, one man was starting to lose his grip on his sanity. He would be observed crying when alone, and was showing somewhat frequent emotional outbursts. The rest of the subjects were obviously becoming more and more disturbed as the weeks went on. The fifteenth week, the man, who was labeled as Subject J7, began throwing mild tantrums in his home. They grew more violent over the course of a few weeks, to the point where the man was clearly on the brink of madness, throwing chairs and screaming. The rest of the subjects were also slowly descending into insanity. They could be observed having similar symptoms to J7, crying alone and having frequent emotional swings.
Twenty seven weeks into the experiment, J7 had gone over the edge. After screaming at a guard, he was taken into custody. He was not seen again.
This was when the test subjects began reaching an emotional breaking point. People would cry at random, and occasionally murmur unknown words and phrases. Once, a soldier was simply standing guard when he was able to hear the whispers. They said things like “home” and “sadness.” Over the course of another ten weeks, subjects would begin saying these things louder to the point of being clearly audible. They all seemed to feel the same emotions, speaking phrases basically pitying themselves. Seven people had to be taken away and remained hidden from the community.
What happened on the sixth day of the fiftieth week could only be described as an absolute orgy. All the citizens, after countless reports of slipping into the depths of their dark subconsciouses, let all inhibitions go. The subjects began to strangle and beat each other to death, destroying every other living thing in their way. There were twelve suicides, fifty two homicides, thirty seven cases of rape, and even worse atrocities. None of the test subjects were seen again. All details surrounding the experiment were kept strictly confidential until 2019, when the government released official documents about the event. However, the actual area was kept in quarantine. But in 2033, a group of civilians were permitted entry by the government in order to film a documentary. What they saw was shown in the documentary and described by one of the two cameramen, Dwight Fordin, in his autobiography. Some excerpts from the chapter detailing the events are shown below.
“It was the most disturbing thing I’d ever seen. We drove through the central town, which was a complete wreck. Shattered glass covered the streets. Torched bodies had been hidden in uncovered mass graves. A statue of James Guarvette had been destroyed. We moved up into the staff area, where we stopped to film. It was absolutely unimaginable: Camera footage could be found covering half the building, wall to wall. I picked up one of the clipboards on the ground. What I read disturbed me.
"Joshua Stone | Age 54 | Behaviour: Violent.
"Alexis Letravna | Age 23 | Behaviour: Odd, anxiety-inspired.
"Louis Hoshna | Age 37 | Behaviour: Modest calm.
“My eyes scrolled down the page, horrified. The same thing, over and over again. They had been stalking these people.
“We finally came to the central building in the center of the community. There was very little of note, just average government stuff. I was searching for something worthy of putting on camera when I found a piece of typed paper. I picked it up. I got the same gut-wrenching feeling that had come from the lab.
"ALL SUBJECTS SCHEDULED FOR EVICTION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO THE EVICTION ROOM ON THE FOLLOWING DATES.
"Alexander Kingsley | 14/7/04
"Lucas Ledding | 14/7/04
“I wondered aloud, ‘What the hell is this?’ and asked the military folks escorting us where the Eviction Room was. They said they’d show us and I readied my camcorder. The other film-makers and I followed until we reached a door with the maximum required security level. The soldier simply kicked the glass door, breaking it, and we walked through. There was another door, except this one was metal. The sergeant leading the escorts slowly struggled to slide the metal door, but he managed. The door stayed open, as there was no electricity wired to it in order to close it. I suddenly learned what ‘Eviction’ was.
“The room was absolutely huge, made of solid white marble. The half of the room we stood on was completely normal. The other side was covered with mounds of corpses, each with bullet holes in them. The walls and floor were both covered in dry blood in a splattered pattern. We slowly walked up. I walked along a perimeter about a foot away from the bodies. Most of them had a small identification over the chest, but those were where most of the wounds were located. I did notice one corpse, however, where the bullet had missed its mark. The identification simply read J7.”