CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing |
Figure 1 - Sketch of target by V1 |
Figure 2 - Target (merry-go-round) |
Expanding the protocols yet further, Swann proposed a series of experiments in which the target was designated not by sending a "beacon" person to the target site, but rather by the use of geographical coordinates, latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes and seconds. Needless to say, this proposal seemed even more outrageous than "ordinary" remote viewing. The difficulties in taking this proposal seriously, designing protocols to eliminate the possibility of a combination of globe memorization and eidetic or photographic memory, and so forth, are discussed in considerable detail in Reference [9]. Suffice it to say that investigation of this approach, which we designated Scanate (scanning by coordinate), eventually provided us with sufficient evidence to bring it up to the contract monitors and suggest a test under their control. A description of that test and its results, carried out in mid-1973 during the initial pilot study, are best presented by quoting directly from the Executive Summary of the Final Report of the second year's followup program [2]. The remote viewers were Ingo Swann and Pat Price, and the entire transcripts are available in the released documents [2].
"In order to subject the remote viewing phenomena to a rigorous long-distance test under external control, a request for geographical coordinates of a site unknown to subject and experimenters was forwarded to the OSI group responsible for threat analysis in this area. In response, SRI personnel received a set of geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds) of a facility, hereafter referred to as the West Virginia Site. The experimenters then carried out a remote viewing experiment on a double-blind basis, that is, blind to experimenters as well as subject. The experiment had as its goal the determination of the utility of remote viewing under conditions approximating an operational scenario. Two subjects targeted on the site, a sensitive installation. One subject drew a detailed map of the building and grounds layout, the other provided information about the interior including codewords, data subsequently verified by sponsor sources (report available from COTR)."4
Since details concerning the site's mission in general,5 and evaluation of the remote viewing test in particular, remain highly classified to this day, all that can be said is that interest in the client community was heightened considerably following this exercise.
Because Price found the above exercise so interesting, as a personal challenge he went on to scan the other side of the globe for a Communist Bloc equivalent and found one located in the Urals, the detailed description of which is also included in Ref. [2]. As with the West Virginia Site, the report for the Urals Site was also verified by personnel in the sponsor organization as being substantially correct.
What makes the West Virginia/Urals Sites viewings so remarkable is that these are not best-ever examples culled out of a longer list; these are literally the first two site-viewings carried out in a simulated operational-type scenario. In fact, for Price these were the very first two remote viewings in our program altogether, and he was invited to participate in yet further experimentation.
"To determine the utility of remote viewing under operational conditions, a long-distance remote viewing experiment was carried out on a sponsor-designated target of current interest, an unidentified research center at Semipalatinsk, USSR.
This experiment, carried out in three phases, was under direct control of the COTR. To begin the experiment, the COTR furnished map coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds. The only additional information provided was the designation of the target as an R&D test facility. The experimenters then closeted themselves with Subject S1, gave him the map coordinates and indicated the designation of the target as an R&D test facility. A remote-viewing experiment was then carried out. This activity constituted Phase I of the experiment.
Figure 3 - Subject effort at building layout |
Figure 4 - Subject effort at crane construction |
Figure 3 shows the subject's graphic effort for building layout; Figure 4 shows the subject's particular attention to a multistory gantry crane he observed at the site. Both results were obtained by the experimenters on a double-blind basis before exposure to any additional COTR-held information, thus eliminating the possibility of cueing. These results were turned over to the client representatives for evaluation. For comparison an artist's rendering of the site as known to the COTR (but not to the experimenters until later) is shown in Figure 5.....
Figure 5 - Actual COTR rendering of Semipalatinsk, USSR target site
Were the results not promising, the experiment would have stopped at this point. Description of the multistory crane, however, a relatively unusual target item, was taken as indicative of possible target acquisition. Therefore, Phase II was begun, defined by the subject being made "witting" (of the client) by client representatives who introduced themselves to the subject at that point; Phase II also included a second round of experimentation on the Semipalatinsk site with direct participation of client representatives in which further data were obtained and evaluated. As preparation for this phase, client representatives purposely kept themselves blind to all but general knowledge of the target site to minimize the possibility of cueing. The Phase II effort was focused on the generation of physical data that could be independently verified by other client sources, thus providing a calibration of the process.
The end of Phase II gradually evolved into the first part of Phase III, the generation of unverifiable data concerning the Semipalatinsk site not available to the client, but of operational interest nonetheless. Several hours of tape transcript and a notebook of drawings were generated over a two-week period.
The data describing the Semipalatinsk site were evaluated by the sponsor, and are contained in a separate report. In general, several details concerning the salient technology of the Semipalatinsk site appeared to dovetail with data from other sources, and a number of specific large structural elements were correctly described. The results contained noise along with the signal, but were nonetheless clearly differentiated from the chance results that were generated by control subjects in comparison experiments carried out by the COTR."
For discussion of the ambiance and personal factors involved in carrying out this experiment, along with further detail generated as Price (see Figure 6) "roamed" the facility, including detailed comparison of Price's RV-generated information with later-determined "ground-truth reality," see the accompanying article by Russell Targ in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 10, No. 1. Click here to read the abstract.
Figure 6 - Left to right: Christopher Green, Pat Price, and Hal
Puthoff.
Picture taken following a successful experiment involving glider-ground
RV.
Additional experiments having implications for intelligence concerns were carried out, such as the remote viewing of cipher-machine type apparatus, and the RV-sorting of sealed envelopes to differentiate those that contained letters with secret writing from those that did not. To discuss these here in detail would take us too far afield, but the interested reader can follow up by referring to the now-declassified project documents [2].
As the program expanded, in only a very few cases could the clients' identities and program tasking be revealed. Examples include a NASA-funded study negotiated early in the program by Russ Targ to determine whether the internal state of an electronic random-number-generator could be detected by RV processes [16], and a study funded by the Naval Electronics Systems Command to determine whether attempted remote viewing of distant light flashes would induce correlated changes in the viewer's brainwave (EEG) production [17]. For essentially all other projects during my 14-yr. tenure at SRI, however, the identity of the clients and most of the tasking were classified and remain so today. (The exception was the occasional privately-funded study.) We are told, however, that further declassification and release of much of this material is almost certain to occur.
What can be said, then, about further development of the program in the two decades following 1975?7 In broad terms it can be said that much of the SRI effort was directed not so much toward developing an operational U.S. capability, but rather toward assessing the threat potential of its use against the U.S. by others. The words threat assessment were often used to describe the program's purpose during its development, especially during the early years. As a result much of the remote-viewing activity was carried out under conditions where ground-truth reality was a priori known or could be determined, such as the description of U.S. facilities and technological developments, the timing of rocket test firings and underground nuclear tests, and the location of individuals and mobile units. And, of course, we were responsive to requests to provide assistance during such events as the loss of an airplane or the taking of hostages, relying on the talents of an increasing cadre of remote-viewer/consultants, some well-known in the field such as Keith Harary, and many who have not surfaced publicly until recently, such as Joe McMoneagle.
One might ask whether in this program RV-generated information was ever of sufficient significance as to influence decisions at a policy level. This is of course impossible to determine unless policymakers were to come forward with a statement in the affirmative. One example of a possible candidate is a study we performed at SRI during the Carter-administration debates concerning proposed deployment of the mobile MX missile system. In that scenario missiles were to be randomly shuffled from silo to silo in a silo field, in a form of high-tech shell game. In a computer simulation of a twenty-silo field with randomly-assigned (hidden) missile locations, we were able, using RV-generated data, to show rather forcefully that the application of a sophisticated statistical averaging technique (sequential sampling) could in principle permit an adversary to defeat the system. I briefed these results to the appropriate offices at their request, and a written report with the technical details was widely circulated among groups responsible for threat analysis [18], and with some impact. What role, if any, our small contribution played in the mix of factors behind the enormously complex decision to cancel the program will probably never be known, and must of course a priori be considered in all likelihood negligible. Nonetheless, this is a prototypical example of the kind of tasking that by its nature potentially had policy implications.
Even though the details of the broad range of experiments, some brilliant successes, many total failures, have not yet been released, we have nonetheless been able to publish summaries of what was learned in these studies about the overall characteristics of remote viewing, as in Table 5 of Reference [8]. Furthermore, over the years we were able to address certain questions of scientific interest in a rigorous way and to publish the results in the open literature. Examples include the apparent lack of attenuation of remote viewing due to seawater shielding (submersible experiments) [8], the amplification of RV performance by use of error-correcting coding techniques [19,20], and the utility of a technique we call associational remote viewing (ARV) to generate useful predictive information [21].8
As a sociological aside, we note that the overall efficacy of remote viewing in a program like this was not just a scientific issue. For example, when the Semipalatinsk data described earlier was forwarded for analysis, one group declined to get involved because the whole concept was unscientific nonsense, while a second group declined because, even though it might be real, it was possibly demonic; a third group had to be found. And, as in the case of public debate about such phenomena, the program's image was on occasion as likely to be damaged by an overenthusiastic supporter as by a detractor. Personalities, politics and personal biases were always factors to be dealt with.
Finally, a recent unclassified report [23] prepared for the CIA by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), concerning a remote viewing effort carried out under a DIA program called Star Gate (discussed in detail elsewhere in this volume), cites the roles of the CIA and DIA in the history of the program, including acknowledgment that a cadre of full-time government employees used remote viewing techniques to respond to tasking from operational military organizations.10
As information concerning the various programs spawned by intelligence-community interest is released, and the dialog concerning their scientific and social significance is joined, the results are certain to be hotly debated. Bearing witness to this fact are the companion articles in this volume by Ed May, Director of the SRI and SAIC programs since 1985, and by Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman, consultants on the AIR evaluation cited above. These articles address in part the AIR study. That study, limited in scope to a small fragment of the overall program effort, resulted in a conclusion that although laboratory research showed statistically significant results, use of remote viewing in intelligence gathering was not warranted.
Regardless of one's a priori position, however, an unimpassioned observer cannot help but attest to the following fact. Despite the ambiguities inherent in the type of exploration covered in these programs, the integrated results appear to provide unequivocal evidence of a human capacity to access events remote in space and time, however falteringly, by some cognitive process not yet understood. My years of involvement as a research manager in these programs have left me with the conviction that this fact must be taken into account in any attempt to develop an unbiased picture of the structure of reality.
[2] Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, "Perceptual Augmentation Techniques," SRI Progress Report No. 3 (31 Oct. 1974) and Final Report (1 Dec. 1975) to the CIA, covering the period January 1974 through February 1975, the second year of the program. This effort was funded at the level of $149,555.
[3] H. E. Puthoff, "Toward a Quantum Theory of Life Process," unpubl. proposal, Stanford Research Institute (1972).
[4] H. E. Puthoff and R. Targ, "Physics, Entropy and Psychokinesis," in Proc. Conf. Quantum Physics and Parapsychology (Geneva, Switzerland); (New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1975).
[5] Documented in "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact (U)," DST-1810S-202-78, Defense Intelligence Agency (30 March 1978).
[6] R. Targ and H. E. Puthoff, "Information Transfer under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," Nature 252, 602 (1974).
[7] H. E. Puthoff and R. Targ, "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research," Proc. IEEE 64, 329 (1976).
[8] H. E. Puthoff, R. Targ and E. C. May, "Experimental Psi Research: Implications for Physics," in The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, edited by R. G. Jahn (AAAS Selected Symposium 57, Westview Press, Boulder, 1981).
[9] R. Targ and H. E. Puthoff, Mind Reach (Delacorte Press, New York, 1977).
[10] J. P. Bisaha and B. J. Dunne, "Multiple Subject and Long-Distance Precognitive Remote Viewing of Geographical Locations," in Mind at Large, edited by C. T. Tart, H. E. Puthoff and R. Targ (Praeger, New York, 1979), p. 107.
[11] B. J. Dunne and J. P. Bisaha, "Precognitive Remote Viewing in the Chicago Area: a Replication of the Stanford Experiment," J. Parapsychology 43, 17 (1979).
[12] R. G. Jahn, "The Persistent Paradox of Psychic Phenomena: An Engineering Perspective," Proc. IEEE 70, 136 (1982).
[13] R. G. Jahn and B. J. Dunne, "On the Quantum Mechanics of Consciousness with Application to Anomalous Phenomena," Found. Phys. 16, 721 (1986).
[14] R. G. Jahn and B. J. Dunne, Margins of Reality (Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, New York, 1987).
[15] J. Bamford, The Puzzle Palace (Penguin Books, New York, 1983) pp. 218-222.
[16] R. Targ, P. Cole and H. E. Puthoff, "Techniques to Enhance Man/Machine Communication," Stanford Research Institute Final Report on NASA Project NAS7-100 (August 1974).
[17] R. Targ, E. C. May, H. E. Puthoff, D. Galin and R. Ornstein, "Sensing of Remote EM Sources (Physiological Correlates)," SRI Intern'l Final Report on Naval Electronics Systems Command Project N00039-76-C-0077, covering the period November 1975 - to October 1976 (April 1978).
[18] H. E. Puthoff, "Feasibility Study on the Vulnerability of the MPS System to RV Detection Techniques," SRI Internal Report, 15 April 1979; revised 2 May 1979.
[19] H. E. Puthoff, "Calculator-Assisted Psi Amplification," Research in Parapsychology 1984, edited by Rhea White and J. Solfvin (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1985), p. 48.
[20] H. E. Puthoff, "Calculator-Assisted Psi Amplification II: Use of the Sequential-Sampling Technique as a Variable-Length Majority-Vote Code," Research in Parapsychology 1985, edited by D. Weiner and D. Radin (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1986), p. 73.
[21] H. E. Puthoff, "ARV (Associational Remote Viewing) Applications," Research in Parapsychology 1984, edited by Rhea White and J. Solfvin (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1985), p. 121.
[22] "The Real X-Files," Independent Channel 4, England (shown 27 August 1995); to be shown in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel.
[23] M. D. Mumford, A. M. Rose and D. Goslin, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications," American Institutes for Research (September 29, 1995).
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Following are abstracts from the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume 10, Number 1, in which this article first appeared... To read articles from past issues, and/or for subscription information, click here to visit their Website.
An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning
by Jessica Utts
Division of Statistics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 3.
Research on psychic functioning, conducted over a two decade period,
is examined to determine whether or not the phenomenon has been scientifically
established. A secondary question is whether or not it is useful for government
purposes. The primary work examined in this report was government sponsored
research conducted at Stanford Research Institute, later known as SRI International,
and at Science Applications International Corporation, known as SAIC. Using
the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that
psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results
of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance. Arguments
that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments
are soundly refuted. Effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored
research at SRI and SAIC have been replicated at a number of laboratories
across the world. Such consistency cannot be readily explained by claims
of flaws or fraud. The magnitude of psychic functioning exhibited appears
to be in the range between what social scientists call a small and medium
effect. That means that it is reliable enough to be replicated in properly
conducted experiments, with sufficient trials to achieve the long-run statistical
results needed for replicability. A number of other patterns have been
found, suggestive of how to conduct more productive experiments and applied
psychic functioning. For instance, it doesn't appear that a sender is needed.
Precognition, in which the answer is known to no one until a future time,
appears to work quite well. Recent experiments suggest that if there is
a psychic sense then it works much like our other five senses, by detecting
change. Given that physicists are currently grappling with an understanding
of time, it may be that a psychic sense exists that scans the future for
major change, much as our eyes scan the environment for visual change or
our ears allow us to respond to sudden changes in sound. It is recommended
that future experiments focus on understanding how this phenomenon works,
and on how to make it as useful as possible. There is little benefit to
continuing experiments designed to offer proof, since there is little more
to be offered to anyone who does not accept the current collection of data.
Evaluation of a Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena
by Ray Hyman
1227 University of Oregon, Department of Psychology, Eugene, OR 97403
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 31.
Jessica Utts and I were commissioned to evaluate the research on remote
viewing and related phenomena which was carried out at Stanford Research
Institute (SRI) and Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
during the years from 1973 through 1994. We focussed on the ten most recent
experiments which were conducted at SAIC from 1992 through 1994. These
were not only the most recent but also the most methodologically sound.
We evaluated these experiments in the context of contemporary parapsychological
research. Professor Utts concluded that the SAIC results, taken in conjunction
with other parapsychological research, proved the existence of ESP, especially
precognition. My report argues that Professor Utts' conclusion is premature,
to say the least. The reports of the SAIC experiments have become accessible
for public scrutiny too recently for adequate evaluation. Moreover, their
findings have yet to be independently replicated. My report also argues
that the apparent consistencies between the SAIC results and those of other
parapsychological experiments may be illusory. Many important inconsistencies
are emphasized. Even if the observed effects can be independently replicated,
much more theoretical and empirical investigation would be needed before
one could legitimately claim the existence of paranormal functioning. Note:
This article is followed by a response from Jessica Utts.
Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir
by Russell Targ
Bay Research Institute, 1010 Harriet Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 77.
Hundreds of remote viewing experiments were carried out at Stanford
Research Institute (SRI) from 1972 to 1986. The purpose of some of these
trials was to elucidate the physical and psychological properties of psi
abilities, while others were conducted to provide information for our CIA
sponsor about current events in far off places. We learned that the accuracy
and reliability of remote viewing was not in any way affected by distance,
size, or electromagnetic shielding, and we discovered that the more exciting
or demanding the task, the more likely we were to be successful. Above
all, we became utterly convinced of the reality of psi abilities. This
article focuses on two outstanding examples: One is an exceptional, map-like
drawing of a Palo Alto swimming pool complex, and the other is an architecturally
accurate drawing of a gantry crane located at a Soviet weapons laboratory,
and verified by satellite photography. The percipient for both of these
experiments was Pat Price, a retired police commissioner who was one of
the most outstanding remote viewers to walk through the doors of SRI.
The American Institutes for Research Review of
the
Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary
by Edwin C. May
Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, 330 Cowper Street, Suite 200, Palo Alto,
CA 94301
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 89.
As a result of a Congressionally Directed Activity, the Central Intelligence
Agency conducted an evaluation of a 24-year, government-sponsored program
to investigate ESP and its potential use within the Intelligence Community.
The American Institutes for Research was contracted to conduct the review
of both research and operations. Their 29 September 1995 final report was
released to the public 28 November 1995. As a result of AIR's assessment,
the CIA concluded that a statistically significant effect had been demonstrated
in the laboratory, but that there was no case in which ESP had provided
data that had ever been used to guide intelligence operations. This paper
is a critical review of AIR's methodology and conclusions. It will be shown
that there is compelling evidence that the CIA set the outcome with regard
to intelligence usage before the evaluation had begun. This was accomplished
by limiting the research and operations data sets to exclude positive findings,
by purposefully not interviewing historically significant participants,
by ignoring previous DOD extensive program reviews, and by using the discredited
National Research Council's investigation of parapsychology as the starting
point for their review. While there may have been political and administrative
justification for the CIA not to accept the government's in-house program
for the operational use of anomalous cognition, this appeared to drive
the outcome of the evaluation. As a result, they have come to the wrong
conclusion with regard to the use of anomalous cognition in intelligence
operations and significantly underestimated the robustness of the basic
phenomenon.
FieldREG Anomalies in Group Situations
by R. D. Nelson, G. J. Bradish, Y. H. Dobyns, B. J. Dunne, and R. G.
Jahn
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, School of Engineering/Applied
Science,
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 111.
Portable random event generators with software to record and index
continuous sequences of binary data in field situations are found to produce
anomalous outputs when deployed in various group environments. These "FieldREG"
systems have been operated under formal protocols in ten separate venues,
all of which subdivide naturally into temporal segments, such as sessions,
presentations, or days. The most extreme data segments from each of the
ten applications, after appropriate correction for multiple sampling, compound
to a collective probability against chance expectation of 2 X 10^-4. Interpretation
remains speculative at this point, but logbook notes and anecdotal reports
from participants suggest that high degrees of attention, intellectual
cohesiveness, shared emotion, or other coherent qualities of the groups
tend to correlate with the statistically unusual deviations from theoretical
expectation in the FieldREG sequences. If sustained over more extensive
experiments, such effects could add credence to the concept of a consciousness
"field" as an agency for creating order in random physical processes.
Anomalous Organization of Random Events by Group Consciousness:
Two Exploratory Experiments
by Dean I. Radin, Jannine M. Rebman, and Maikwe P. Cross
Consciousness Research Laboratory, Harry Reid Center,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4009
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 143.
Two experiments explored the hypothesis that when a group of people
focus their attention on a common object of interest, order will arise
in the environment. An electronic random number generator was used to detect
these changes in order. Events judged to be interesting to the group were
called periods of high coherence and were predicted to cause corresponding
moments of order in the random samples collected during those events; uninteresting
events were predicted to cause chance levels of order in the random samples.
The first experiment was conducted during an all-day Holotropic Breathwork
workshop. The predictions were confirmed, with a significant degree of
order observed in the random samples during high group coherence periods
(p = 0.002), and chance order observed during low group coherence periods
(p = 0.43). The second experiment was conducted during the live television
broadcast of the 67th Annual Academy Awards. Two random binary generators,
located 12 miles apart, were used to independently measure order. The predictions
were confirmed for about half of the broadcast period, but the terminal
cumulative probabilities were not significant. A post-hoc analysis showed
that the strength of the correlation between the output of the two random
generators was significantly related (r = 0.94) to the decline in the television
viewing audience.