Project STARGATE: Did the CIA's Declassified Psychic Experiments Actually Work?

A Long(ish) Intro: The Captive General

It’s the winter of 1982. NATO is in turmoil. One of their top officers in Europe, US General James Dozier has been kidnapped by a cell of Marxist terrorists in Northern Italy: the Red Brigades, infamous for executing their captives. As the chilly winds of January flip the calendar’s pages, Dozier’s relatives and compatriots jolt every time the telephone rings.

Every time they pick up the receiver, they fear hearing the voice of a terrorist, announcing in the typical dead-pan style of the Red Brigades that ‘General Dozier has been executed by a revolutionary tribunal.’

The Italian police do what the police do. They round up suspects, kick down doors, bust terrorist cells and confiscate military-grade arsenals. Allegedly, they also conduct some intense interviews using water-based ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’. But the DIA — America’s Defense Intelligence Agency — is not sitting idle, either.

Unable to conduct investigations on the ground, they have deployed one of their best assets. An operative who will be able to locate where General Dozier is kept hidden — without leaving US soil!

His name is Joe McMoneagle, an agent and psychic expert in ‘remote viewing’. Following an established procedure, McMoneagle practises meditation to remove any blockages which may hamper his mental ‘conduits’. Then a colleague acting as ‘monitor’, provides information and documentation related to the target, in this case General Dozier.

The information provided evokes a ‘signal line’, which strikes at a ‘cognitron’ within McMoneagle’s ‘autonomic nervous system’. Impressions, perceptions, images start forming within the remote viewer’s mind. A coastline appears, as seen from above.

As if hovering thousands of miles away from his body, McMoneagle closes in on the coast and then moves inland, identifying the area as North-Eastern Italy. In his own words: ‘I moved closer to the ground and began to pick out roadways and buildings. I followed the roads and eventually found myself near a small central plaza, across from some kind of a fountain, and picked up the smells of a butcher shop … I got an image of a very large apartment building and settled in on the second floor.’

Was Joe McMoneagle able to find General Dozier in time with his remote viewing abilities? Who won eventually this duel between extra sensorial perception and the harsh materialism of marxist-leninist armed insurgence? For everybody else, hold on tight, we shall find out later.

For the time being, I would like to shift our attention to the Project under which McMoneagle was recruited and trained. It may sound like a Stranger Thing pitched by a Netflix screenwriter, but for more than two decades the CIA and the DIA dedicated $22 million in funding to the research of remote viewing and other extra-sensorial capabilities, as well as their application to intelligence gathering. And before we dismiss the premise altogether, according to reputable news outlets, operatives within this programme scored some notable victories.

And even a Professor of Statistics had to concede that psychics hired by the DIA and CIA achieved results ‘far beyond what is expected by chance’. So, was American Intelligence on the right track? Is there any scientific truth and operational value supporting the use of remote viewing?

Let’s find out, as we decode … Project STAR GATE.

Cognitrons in the Matrix

The Project known today as STAR GATE was the last incarnation of a series of ‘remote viewing programs’ conducted by the CIA and the DIA between 1970 and 1995. The first efforts in the field were initiated by the CIA, in reaction to the concern that Soviet secret services may be conducting ‘psychotronic’ research. The CIA concluded that by 1970 the Soviets were spending 60 million rubles per year on psychic phenomena, with the budget predicted to increase five-fold by 1975.

The Cold War was essentially an appendage-measuring duel, in which the two opposing blocs constantly tried to out-do each other, at the expense of humankind. Thus, in 1970 the CIA secured funding for its first research programme in this field, called SCANATE. It took two years, however, before research on ‘remote viewing’ was initiated at the Stanford Research Institute, or SRI, in Menlo Park, California.

Let us take a moment to clarify exactly what ‘remote viewing’ is, and how it worked. The journal ‘Strategic Analysis’ describes it as ‘The ability of human beings to perceive information and imagery of remote geographical targets.’ This ability was conducted by applying three main techniques:

First, Coordinate Remote Viewing, or CRV. This was the original method developed by SRI in Menlo Park. Remote viewers were asked to describe, write down or sketch out what they could see or perceive at specified geographic coordinates.

Then, we have Extended Remote Viewing, or ERV. This method was based on relaxation and meditation, allowing viewers to tap into psychic perception without the need of coordinates.

At a later stage, the program introduced Written Remote Viewing, or WRV, a technique similar to automatic writing used by spiritual mediums.

I have searched the CIA archives for descriptions of how these techniques could work out, and found a detailed set of instructions for CRV, the technique based on coordinates. The document, dated July 1988, describes CRV as a technique that can be taught to anyone, even without innate psychic abilities, with a 6-stage training program. The unnamed author admits that not all about the CRV process is clear: ‘Many theory questions remain unanswered’ But enthusiastically concludes that ‘the fact is … the stuff works’

Well, let’s see how the stuff works then. Our unconscious mind supposedly contains a structure known as ‘Matrix’, described as all-knowing and omnipotent. The Matrix contains elements called ‘Patterns’, also referred to ‘Gestalts’ or ‘Thought Balls’. Each Pattern radiates its own energy in the form of a signal line, which causes ‘cognitrons’ to resonate.

Now, what is a ‘cognitron’? I have found references to this concept in a 1975 issue of journal ‘Biological Cybernetics’, as well as a 1964 report by the US Defense Technical Information Centre. In both cases, cognitrons are defined as nets of artificial neurons, in the context of research on artificial intelligence. The unnamed CIA author, however, seems to ignore this fact, and assume that they are actual neural networks within our minds, more precisely inside the ‘Autonomic Nervous System’ When a ‘signal line’ hits a cognitron, it resonates, thus producing perceptual feedback.

So, during a CRV session, a ‘monitor’ will read a set of coordinates to the remote viewer. These coordinates will evoke ‘The signal line corresponding to the pattern [within the Matrix] at that set of coordinates’ The signal line then hits the cognitron, generating ‘Impressions or perceptions of the target area keyed to the specific issues he is concerned with, e.g. structure terrain, emotions, etc’ This explanation therefore implies that the Matrix within our subconscious already contains all the information and knowledge available in the entire universe. The main purpose of the training programme is to unlock the free flow of information, as it leaves the unconscious mind and crosses the border — or ‘limen’ — with the conscious mind.

This information travels via ‘conduits’ or ‘channels’, which are normally blocked by inhibitors or ‘physical inclemencies’. For example: sickness, fatigue, hunger, or even the simple act of moving about. The author advises that for the viewer to be effective, these ‘inclemencies’ should be removed.

Thus, the viewers should not, well, ‘view,’ when they are sick, fatigued, hungry or in motion.

Now, before I completely fry the cognitrons of our esteemed ‘viewers’ — of the right kind — let me return to historical facts. The research kicked off in 1972 at SRI was led by physicist and parapsychologist Russell Targ as well as engineer and parapsychologist, Harold Puthoff. The latter had previously worked with the NSA, and was alleged to have ties with Scientology. Targ and Puthoff recruited promising agents among gifted individuals, such as artist and psychic Ingo Swann.

The remote viewing capabilities of subjects were tested to ensure they achieved a minimum accuracy rate of 65%. We will find out later about actual success rates …

In parallel, to the CIA-sponsored SRI research, the DIA, Army intelligence, launched their own psychic programme, under the supervision of the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence Systems Exploitation Detachment. This Army initiative, dubbed GONDOLA WISH, was launched in 1977, and was focused on evaluating how Cold War adversaries may potentially be using remote viewing. In 1978, GONDOLA WISH became GRILL FLAME, an operational collection effort. In other words: using psychic abilities to gather intelligence on the location of enemy installations, or the whereabouts of friends and foes alike.

GRILL FLAME was headquartered at buildings 2560 and 2561 at Fort Meade, Maryland, described by Army.mil as ‘The Nation’s Premier Platform for Intelligence, Information, and Cyber Operations’ GRILL FLAME was also known internally as ‘Detachment G’ of INSCOM, the US Army Intelligence and Security Command. It was manned by soldiers and a few civilians, believed to be gifted with natural psychic abilities.

Then, in early 1979, the SRI programme was integrated into GRILL FLAME. Four years later, the naming department at DIA decided it was time for a change, and the program was renamed as the INSCOM CENTER LANE Project, or ICLP. Harold Puthoff, one of the initial researchers at Stanford Research Institute or SRI still called the shots. He and his recruit Ingo Swann devised a training program which, in theory, could allow even non-gifted individuals to become proficient remote viewers.

ICLP was a highly classified program, but an internal leak allowed journalist Jack Anderson to first report about it in April 1984. In the same year — perhaps as a response to public scrutiny — the Army Research Institute, or ARI, commissioned the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to assess the effectiveness of remote viewing practices, as well as the results of research trials conducted by the SRI. The review panel was led by David A.

Goslin, Executive Director of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Goslin and colleagues published their report, titled ‘Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques’ in 1988.

So, what was the verdict of the ARI? In short, they found little or no support for the usefulness of remote viewing. Boom. There you go. Case closed. Right?

You Would Have Thought So

You would have thought so. Despite the damning report, research and operational activities under the ICLP umbrella continued throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. This happened largely thanks to the support of Democrat senators Claiborne Pell and Charles Rose. Pell in particular was known for his interest in the paranormal, and both were convinced of CENTER LANE’s effectiveness.

Nonetheless, in 1985 centralised Army funding was withdrawn, but the DIA’s Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate found some spare cash under the couch and were happy to pay the bills. They slapped another label on the program, SUN STREAK, and continued to flare up cognitrons until 1991.

That’s when the initiative received its most iconic moniker, STAR GATE, and was contracted to Science Applications International Corporations, SAIC. According to their own corporate website ‘SAIC is a premier Fortune 500 technology integrator driving our nation’s digital transformation. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defence, space, civilian and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, IT modernization and mission solutions’ Their list of clients include the Department of Defence, the US intelligence community, other federal civilian agencies, health services and the US Space Force.

The work conducted by SAIC was overseen by parapsychologist Edwin C. May, who acted both as principal investigator and ‘judge’ for the remote viewing experiments under STAR GATE. In other words, May was in charge of designing and conducting trials, as well as assessing the validity and robustness of the results — in itself a methodological flaw.

By the early 1990s, the program was also afflicted by poor morale, bickering at the top levels and poor performance. In 1995, the Defence Appropriations bill decreed for STAR GATE to be handed over to the CIA, where it all had started. As soon as this hot potato landed in the CIA’s lap, the agency contracted the American Institutes for Research — AIR — to conduct a retrospective assessment on the effectiveness of STAR GATE remote viewers. More in detail, they were to evaluate the success rates of the trials conducted by Edwin May at SAIC.

AIR asked two academics to produce two independent points of view. They were Dr. Jessica Utts, a Professor of Statistics at the University of California/Davis, and Dr. Raymond Hyman, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. Their evaluations were, I must say, rather surprising, and diametrically opposed. We will explore them in detail in a next section, for the moment I will just report that the final recommendation by AIR was to shut down the STAR GATE and throw away the key.

Thus, at the end of 1995, a 25-year effort to use remote viewing for intelligence gathering work was terminated. As mentioned earlier, the overall budget of STAR GATE and its predecessors had totalled at $22 million as of 1995 value. Adjusted for inflation, that is more than $44 million in today’s value. An expense of roughly $1.76 million per each year of the program.

Sure, those are drops in that ocean worth $1.77 trillion, that is the Department of Defence’s annual budget. But one wonders if that budget could have been more wisely spent elsewhere. For example: according to todaysmilitary.com, the US Armed Forces’ tuition assistance program ‘pays for up to 100 percent of the cost of tuition or expenses, up to a maximum of $250 per credit and a personal maximum of $4,500 per fiscal year per student’ Assuming a 4-year college course, STAR GATE funds could have supported 2,444 service personnel in studying actual science, rather than cleansing conduits linking the Matrix to cognitrons.

Instead, STAR GATE and its predecessors only employed a total of some 40 employees, of which 23 were remote viewers. This leads me to the first of two elephants in the room, staring at me from opposite corners. The first pachyderm to tackle is: what did these remote viewers actually achieve in terms of intelligence collection?

‘I see … a crane!’

As I mentioned earlier, the American Institutes for Research produced an extensive report on the effectiveness of viewers in a testing environment. But assessing the accuracy of their ‘vision’ in an operational setting is far more difficult, for two main reasons.

First, these viewers were asked to participate in operations whose details are largely classified. Sure, the CIA released some 12 million pages worth of documents following a FOIA request. I admit I didn’t have the time nor the patience to trawl through all of them, although I examined some of the most famous assignments. And even in those cases, large portions of the files had been redacted.

Second, the details about certain assignments were publicly disclosed after the closure of STAR GATE. But in those cases, the narrative of the events was owned by members or proponents of the program, who had a vested interest in portraying the remote viewing experiences as successes. Reputable news outlets picked on those stories, sometimes muddling important details.

Let’s kick off by looking at some apparent successes, reported by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff themselves. As a reminder, these two parapsychologists had been the lead investigators at Stanford Research Institute, during the early CIA program, SCANATE. In the first half of the 1970s, remote viewers working for Russell and Targ were apparently able to correctly describe three top-secret installations, after their ‘monitors’ had provided them with sets of coordinates.

On the first occasion, two psychics gave detailed accounts about an underground secret facility in West Virginia, even naming codewords and personnel active at the site. This was the secret government bunker under the Greenbrier resort, designed as an emergency hideout for Congress in case of nuclear attack. The existence of the Greenbrier bunker was revealed only in 1992.

Russell and Targ also alleged that one of the two psychics was also able to identify a similar installation on the Ural mountain range, a bunker to be used by the Soviet government, of course. According to Puthoff and Targ ‘the two reports for the West Virginia Site, and the report for the Urals Site were verified by personnel in the sponsor organisation as being substantially correct’

In 1974, a SCANATE viewer provided a description of a Soviet airfield, which included a vision of a large gantry crane. The site turned out to be the nuclear testing area of Semipalatinsk. However, the shadow of doubt was cast on these apparent successes.

The vision of the Greenbrier bunker was suspected of being the result of an internal leak. And the Semipalatinsk report was severely criticised by a CIA analyst: ‘The remote viewing of the site by subject S1 proved to be unsuccessful … the only positive evidence of the rail-mounted gantry crane was far outweighed by the large amount of negative evidence noted in the body of this analysis’

Based on later analysis of several remote viewing reports, it appears that the psychics may have been influenced by the leading questions posed by their ‘monitors’, as well as by their own operational knowledge of the matter at hand. In other words, if you are an Army veteran with good knowledge of Soviet military installations, and you are sitting opposite a monitor who is asking strongly suggestive questions, you are likely to get at least one detail right, even if you don’t possess paranormal abilities!

More Hits and Misses

Allow me to return to our intro, to assess the accuracy of remote viewing operatives. To recap, US General Dozier had been held prisoner by the Italian Red Brigades, while psychic Joe McMoneagle had allegedly located the site of his captivity. In later recounts of the event, McMoneagle stated that he had identified the Northern Italian city of Padua as the location of the General. His reports were forwarded to Italian authorities on January 20th and 26th, 1982.

On January 28th, a Special Operations squad of the Italian Police burst into an apartment in Padua and beat the living crap out of the terrorist cell, rescuing Dozier just when he was about to be executed. The only reported victim of the raid was the terrorists’ house cat.

So, what had happened? Had the Italians followed McMoneagle’s visions? It turns out that Italian Police had already been flooded with tip offs by local psychics, and so had decided to ignore the American viewer. They simply had done their job, busting the Red Brigades’ support network and offering lenient sentences in exchange for information.

Nonetheless, one might argue that McMoneagle had been proven right! Not so fast. A CIA file on the case states that run-of-the-mill analysts, based on their knowledge of the Red Brigades’ modus operandi, had already ventured that Dozier may be held in a city one and a half hour drive from Verona — the place of the kidnapping. And the city of Padua fit the bill!

After Dozier returned to safety in the US, a meeting was arranged between him and McMoneagle, to ascertain whether the psychic’s visions had been accurate. The minutes of their encounter have been declassified by the CIA, but the General’s reaction has been redacted. So, we’ll never know if his comment was: ‘Astonishing! Your cognitrons are truly connected to your Matrix!’ Or: ‘You stupid fool! While you were meditating in Maryland I was kept in chains for 42 days!’

Another case which made it to the headlines was the manhunt for Charles Frank Jordan. And for this next section I must thank author Joe Nickell, who wrote a comprehensive analysis of the event for the ‘Skeptical Enquirer’, in 2001.

So, back in 1989, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, sought the help of project SUN STREAK, as it was known back then, to locate Charles Jordan. This customs agent with the DEA had been taking bribes by drug runners. Once he learned he was being investigated, Jordan fled, evading law enforcement — and America’s Most Wanted — for a good two years.

The fugitive was eventually arrested in Wyoming. And it appears that a SUN STREAK operative was instrumental in securing Jordan’s capture, at least according to a version reported by the Washington Post in December 30th, 1996. A November 1998 BBC documentary also covered this case, stating that Jordan was arrested in northwest Wyoming, some hundred miles from a town called Lovell, next to a Native American burial ground.

Another account of the event comes from Dale E. Graff, a former project director with SUN STREAK and author of the book ‘Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness’. In his work, Graff states that one of the remote viewers ‘Narrowed down [Jordan’s] location to northern Wyoming near a campground. Although our data was not acted upon, the fugitive was captured a few weeks later at a campground in northern Wyoming.

This data was totally contrary to the DEA expectations. They believed he was hiding somewhere in the Caribbean region.’ In a later work, published in 2000, Graff wrote a slightly different version of the psychic’s account: ‘He is in Wyoming, near a place that sounds like Lowell. There is an Indian burial place nearby.’

You may have already noticed some discrepancies in these versions. The Washington Post writes that the psychic was ‘instrumental’ in capturing Jordan. While Graff states that the SUN STREAK report was ‘not acted upon’.

But there is more. The BBC and Dale Graff mention northern Wyoming as the location of the arrest, but in reality Charles Jordan was eventually caught in southern Wyoming. Graff also mentions that law enforcement was looking for the corrupt official in the Caribbean.

But the truth is that Colorado State Police had already found Jordan’s car just outside Denver, some days before his capture. The car was located on an Interstate road leading to Wyoming, by the way, which had prompted officers to look in that direction. And one last observation: Graff mentions the town of ‘Lowell’ and the Indian burial place only two years after these details were included in the BBC documentary.

I will let you ponder on this detail and draw your own conclusions …

Joe Nickell and the ‘Skeptical Enquirer’ identified the SUN STREAK viewer as Angela Dellafiora, previously a civilian analyst with INSCOM, the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command. Dellafiora did not follow the standard remote viewing techniques codified by Puthoff and Targ, and preferred to rely on spirit communication. She would fall into a trance, during which she channelled one of three entities: George, Dr Einstein or Maurice. One of the three would take control of her body and reply to the monitors’ answers via the technique of automatic writing.

Dellafiora had previously worked on the search for US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, kidnapped in Lebanon, in February 1988 by a terrorist cell affiliated to Hezbollah. Dellafiora reported that Higgins was alive, and soon to be released. On July 18th, 1989, all the terrorists released, was a video showing Higgins’ death by hanging.

Joe Nickell, as you may expect, raised some doubts on Dellafiora’s revelations via automatic writing. First of all, besides Graff’s 2000 book, other publications stated that she had almost guessed the location of Charlie Jordan by writing a word similar to ‘Low’, ‘Lowe’ or ‘Lowell’. But all these accounts were published at least 10 years after Jordan’s arrest in Lovell was common knowledge! Second, Nickell reports how Dellafiora’s own colleagues within SUN STREAK doubted her abilities, and that she ‘was too often inadvertently coached towards targets by her customers’ questions and answers’

The conclusion to this rather confusing example is that it is not possible to ascertain whether remote viewers’ contributions were actually accurate or useful, as tales of their successes are too often a) circulated years after the events have taken place b) compiled by individuals with a vested interest in defending the program, and c) not corroborated by primary sources, often classified or redacted. To evaluate the accuracy and operational effectiveness of remote viewing it is better to rely on an academic review of a large number of experiments, allowing to establish the presence, or not, of statistical significance.

Academia Steps In

Time to circle back to the analysis commissioned by the CIA in 1995, and conducted by the American Institutes for Research, or AIR. Earlier, I hinted at the fact that the AIR had involved two academics in their review, a statistician and a psychologist. What I did not specify is that, in their quest for a balanced view, the AIR pitted against each other a ‘believer’ in paranormal powers against a sceptic.

Let’s consider the non-sceptical assessment first. This was compiled by Professor of Statistics Dr Jessica Utts, published with the title ‘An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning’ On September 1st, 1995. Dr Utts focused on research conducted by the SAIC laboratory — this was the private firm contracted in 1991 by the DIA. The statistician noted how SAIC performed some investigation on ‘anomalous perturbation’, or telekinesis, but the bulk of their efforts were directed at ‘anomalous cognition’, another term for remote viewing.

By analysing test results, Dr Utts concluded that anomalous cognition is ‘to some extent possible in the general population.’ However, certain individuals seemed to be more gifted than others. She singled out a subject identified as Viewer 372 who was particularly proficient at describing technical sites.

She also concluded that training was nonetheless required for remote viewing to be accurate. She admitted that this technique was ‘rarely 100 percent accurate, and there is no reliable way to learn what is accurate and what is not’ But that the same levels of inaccuracy were true for traditional sources used for intelligence gathering.

All in all, Dr Utts’ review was largely positive. In her own words: ‘It is clear to this author that anomalous cognition is possible and has been demonstrated. This conclusion is not based on belief, but rather on commonly accepted scientific criteria … the statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance.’

As a next step, the statistician recommended not to invest valuable resources in finding proof of remote viewing’s effectiveness. She recommended instead to continue research to understand how this capability actually works.

Let’s now look at the sceptic response. This was penned by Professor of Psychology Dr Ray Hyman, published on September 11, 1995 with the title ‘Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena’. Dr Hyman admitted that the results provided by SAIC, and Dr Utts’ analysis, were enticing. However, he pointed out two methodological flaws.

First, all SAIC tests shared the same ‘judge’, program lead Edwin C. May. As I mentioned earlier, May was also the principal investigator, which raises questions as to impartiality of the results’ interpretation. Second, Hyman admitted that statistical results were beyond what was expected by chance … but this did not prove that remote viewing abilities were responsible.

Allow me to clarify this point. If I were to use my alleged anomalous cognition powers to try and guess certain words or phrases someone may use, I may get some of these right by total chance. Above a certain success rate, a statistician may be inclined to conclude that chance does not play a part. But this conclusion in itself does not mean that remote viewing capabilities played a part in defeating chance!

It may be that I nailed some or all of these predictions thanks to common sense, my previous knowledge of the topic, or the leading questions posed by a partner, monitor or client.

Dr Hyman posits that in order to detect the presence of anomalous cognition, a researcher should eliminate all other possibilities, all other influencing factors. Dr Hyman concluded that he did NOT believe that ‘contemporary findings of parapsychology, including those from the SRI/SAIC program, justify concluding that anomalous mental phenomena have been proven’ These could be definitely proven only if the SAIC experiments were to be carried out without influencing factors and with the allocation of independent judges. But even in that case, ‘This does not guarantee that this ability would have useful applications’

Dr Hyman proceeded to quote Edwin May himself, who stated to the AIR that only 20% of intelligence provided by a remote viewer was accurate and actionable. Moreover, it is not possible to discern which 20% of information is the accurate one! This implies that remote viewing reports need to be complemented by human or signal intelligence, gathered through traditional methods. Now, if an intelligence agency has to invest resources in traditional methods anyhow, why rely on psychics in the first place?

After having reviewed the diverging opinions of Dr Utts and Dr Hyman, the AIR panel presented their conclusions. They conceded that the SAIC lab research identified a ‘Statistically significant anomaly’ But the nature and source of this anomaly could not be ascertained. Moreover, there was no evidence that anomalous cognition ‘Would prove useful in intelligence gathering’ Information collected with this method was deemed to be vague and inconsistent, interspersed with large amounts of irrelevant and erroneous details.

And the final nail in the coffin: ‘In no case had the information provided ever been used to guide intelligence operations. Thus, Remote viewing failed to produce actionable intelligence’

As mentioned earlier, this AIR report finally convinced the CIA to get rid of STAR GATE for good — as expected. But I find it pleasantly refreshing that the world of academia did not dismiss outright the idea of remote viewing, but took a rigorous, scientific, and open-minded approach to prove or disprove its existence. The conclusion of AIR does not simply brand paranormal capabilities as outright ‘hokum’, but focuses instead on observable results and the methodology of the research.

To reiterate their verdict, they admitted that further, more rigorous research may be needed, but the operational results obtained thus far did not warrant further investment. I very much hope that a similar combination of rigour, open-mindedness and respectful dialogue would be applied by both sides to all future discussions between ‘believers’ and ‘sceptics’.

A Long(ish) Outro: The Second Elephant

I will test your patience for one last section. Earlier on I mentioned my room was crowded by two elephants, one being the accuracy of remote viewers. The second deals with the events that kicked off the CIA’s paranormal projects back in the 1970s: the reports that the Soviets had been investigating the application of ‘psychotronics’ to intelligence and military work. I must admit that I had initially laughed off this claim as the result of clever Soviet disinformation.

Surely, a marxist-leninist government would not invest in such activities, right?

Well, I have been served a hefty slice of humble pie by Serge Kernbach, a researcher at Cybertronica Research, a Center of Advanced Robotics and Environmental Science and an offshoot of the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The pie came wrapped into Kernbach’s paper ‘Unconventional research in USSR and Russia’, which provides an overview of paranormal activities actually conducted and funded by the Soviet government!

It appears that the Soviet government was prompted to fund paranormal research in the 1950s and 1960s following the acquisition of Ahnenerbe archives during WWII. The ‘Ahnenerbe’ was an organisation within the SS, initially tasked with researching the origins of the Aryan race. But it later evolved into other sinister endeavours, such as performing medical experiments without anaesthesia or, allegedly, delving into occult research. So, there you go, we managed to go through more than 5,000 words without mentioning the Nazis, but here they pop up at the end!

Kernbach’s paper casts some doubts on this origin story, as it seems that Soviet leaders were interested in unconventional research since the 1920s. Regardless, in the 1950s and 60s this research received a considerable impetus, focusing on three branches: First, parapsychological experiments in the field of remote viewing. Second, the influence of electro-magnetic fields on biological subjects.

Third, the possibility of physical manipulation with ‘biological’ radiation, which involved both telekinesis and telepathy. The latter research was led by Prof S.Y.Turlygin, who interestingly concluded that his experiments ‘Do not leave us in doubt about the presence of radiation emanating from the human body’ .

In general, all fields must have been considered promising enough. In 1973, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, P.N. Demichev, established a special commission to investigate psychic phenomena. The commission’s conclusion was ‘We were able to articulate and to defend a principal point. The phenomenon exists. The communication channel is unknown. The affecting channel is unknown.’ In other words: we believe that psychic phenomena exist, we just don’t know how.

I will not go into the details of Soviet research in this field, nor attempt to decode it — a task we may attempt in a future episode. I just wanted to point out a curious occurrence noted by Kernbach. The author of the paper states that Soviet Minister of Defence R.J.Malinovskiy, in 1960 received reports documenting US attempts to weaponize telepathy.

These publications appeared to be unreliable, and probably fake. However, they may have contributed to provide additional momentum to Soviet research … which in turn inspired the American to do the same, and so on! As Kernbach states: ‘It is likely that both countries have used each other in the arguments in favour of such studies and the struggle for funding’ Which depicts an interesting scenario: a psychic arms race, in which organisations on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain used alleged evidence of the enemy’s achievements to justify their very existence — and rake in taxpayer’s money!

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Project STAR GATE?

Project STAR GATE was the last incarnation of a series of ‘remote viewing programs’ conducted by the CIA and the DIA between 1970 and 1995. It involved the use of psychics to gather intelligence information.

What techniques were used in remote viewing?

The main techniques used in remote viewing were Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV), Extended Remote Viewing (ERV), and Written Remote Viewing (WRV).

What was the purpose of the training program for remote viewers?

The training program aimed to unlock the free flow of information from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind by removing ‘inclemencies’ such as sickness, fatigue, hunger, or motion.

Who were the lead investigators at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) for the early CIA program?

The lead investigators at SRI were physicist and parapsychologist Russell Targ and engineer and parapsychologist Harold Puthoff.

What was the outcome of the assessment by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) on Project STAR GATE?

The AIR concluded that while there was a statistically significant anomaly, the nature and source of this anomaly could not be ascertained. They found no evidence that remote viewing would prove useful in intelligence gathering.

What was the CIA’s initial concern that led to the start of Project STAR GATE?

The CIA was concerned that Soviet secret services might be conducting ‘psychotronic’ research and wanted to ensure the U.S. was not falling behind.

What was the budget for Project STAR GATE and its predecessors?

The total budget for Project STAR GATE and its predecessors was $22 million as of 1995, which is equivalent to over $44 million in today’s value.

What was the role of Joe McMoneagle in Project STAR GATE?

Joe McMoneagle was a psychic expert in ‘remote viewing’ who was deployed to locate General James Dozier, who had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades in Italy.

What was the conclusion of Dr. Jessica Utts’ assessment of Project STAR GATE?

Dr. Jessica Utts concluded that anomalous cognition is possible and has been demonstrated, and that the statistical results of the studies examined were far beyond what is expected by chance.

What was the conclusion of Dr. Raymond Hyman’s assessment of Project STAR GATE?

Dr. Raymond Hyman concluded that the results did not prove that remote viewing abilities were responsible for the outcomes and that further rigorous research was needed.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: Project STARGATE: Did the CIA’s Declassified Psychic Experiments Actually Work?
• Hero image source by Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum / openverse, by-sa.