Beginning Remote Viewing History
- michaeldj1950
- 21 hours ago
- 13 min read
Originally published at now gone website "Reality Uncovered":
Part One: Adoption of the Term "Remote Viewing"
The development of a process and capacity that would later be called "remote viewing"
was essentially due to a sequence of circumstances and events involving a self-described
"ordinary" man whose vocation was as an artist and aspiring writer. Ingo Swann meant
ordinary in the sense that he was NOT a psychic (something he has asserted at all
stages of his life), but instead he considered himself to be a "consciousness researcher"
with an ability to occassionally enter altered states of consciousness.
Swann's friendship and experimental work with Cleve Backster and others (such
as ASPR leader Dr. Gertrude Schmeidler) would lead to him being invited to be
a part of experiments that were organized by Dr. Karl Osis, director of research
at the American Society for Psychical Research. Backster was (and still is) a well
known polygraphist whose early work in using polygraph equipment to detect
plant sensitivity to human thoughts and emotions was chronicled in a popular book,
The Secret Life of Plants (1973) by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. In early
1971, Swann was busy in Backster's lab sending "psi probes" into gasses contained
in small metal containers. Attached electrodes measured whether or not these
probes succeeded in exciting the gasses. The results were mixed, so at Backster's
suggestion, Swann moved on to trying to affect organic material (from one celled
animals to blood and seminal fluids).
When they began working with blood, it was found that Swann's "project probes"
(psychically) consistently caused a reaction in blood cells. With these types of
results, Swann noted: "If you think carefully now, you might realize the 'psychic
threat' potentials of this particular kind of phenomena. Cleve and his small circle
of friends certainly did. We mused these over while eating junk food in the Times
Square area. If anyone knew what was going on in the world regarding things like this,
Cleve certainly did because of his extensive network of contacts in law enforcement
agencies and within the CIA. 'Well,' he suddenly blurted out through a mouth stuffed
with frankfurter, 'you've just done something the Soviets have been working on for a
long time.' I didn't quite make the connection and asked him to explain. 'The potential
of invading someone's body by mind alone.'" [one]
(There was an increasingly popular book out during this time which pointed to
interesting Soviet activities in this arena: Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron
Curtain (1970) by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder. A growing awareness
that the Soviets were using paranormal capacities, apparently even in their intelligence
services, probably had an impact on our own intelligence services' interest in this
type of thing.)
In October 1971, Swann was invited to participate in experiments at the American
Society of Psychical Research. The experiment was staged in an upstairs room
(formerly a bedroom) that was divided into two by a partition and it was designed
to see if the subject (i.e. Swann) could "go out of the body" and up about 14 feet
to see what objects had been placed in a tray hanging 2 feet from the high ceiling.
Swann was always hooked up with electrodes connected to a brainwave recorder.
On the other side of the partition was Janet Lee Mitchell, Dr. Osis's research
assistant.
Interestingly, Swann had no experience with out of the body experiences and he
did not feel anyone was capable of doing this at will. But, that didn't bother Dr. Osis
who told Swann he would be paid $50/day. The way it was supposed to work was
for Swann to try and see the contents of the tray and narrate into a tape recorder
his perceptions. Later, the transcript would be compared to various drawings by
a psychologist (not part of ASPR) who was unaware that OOBE perceptions were
the focus of the experiment.
Despite some interesting early successes, Swann found the initial stretch (of a 7
month period) difficult going and, as a result, he pondered what may be inhibiting
him. He realized that he was "having trouble.....articulating what I thought I was
seeing into the microphone. I found I had to stop 'seeing', and think about how
to say what I felt I was 'seeing' [and] then I had to verbalize it." [two]
Everyone agreed then to let Swann sketch what he was seeing in his mind's eye
(in the attempts to perceive contents in the tray). A clipboard of paper and a pen
were balanced on his knees and since any movements while drawing did not
result in "artifacts" in the brainwave readout, all was set to go.
(Drawing and writing would become the standard practice in the later remote
viewing tasks conducted by covert government teams. From the first to the
last stages of RV efforts, typically with the guidance of a monitor, either forms
and shapes or words would be utilized to illustrate the deepening perceptions
in accordance with the focus of each stage.)
Like was implied before, in Swann's description of the process of "seeing"
the contents of the tray, his perceptions in these experiments did not seem
to generally involve a vehicle of consciousness traveling outside of the body.
Therefore, a new language or vocabulary was adopted, influenced (Swann reports)
by talking with Martin Ebon (apparently very aware of the Soviet scene and their
use of terminology for describing enhanced perceptual capacities). So instead
of struggling to fly out of his body and viewing the tray's various contents,
Swann began seeing the process as involving what he called the "perceptual
faculties of the biomind."
In late November 1971, Swann reports, good (albeit often partially successful)
results began to emerge more consistently and by early December results were
becoming repeatable and stronger. By this time, Swann's drawings were more
and more clearly matching all the various objects placed in the tray above
his head.
Needless to say, these picture drawings and the frequent matchings with the
target objects not only excited the ASPR staff and board members, but caused
them to deepen their consideration of actual process and design more challenging
experiments. So, they decided to try something harder and definitely different:
to see if Swann could determine the weather conditions in a distant city.
On December 8, 1971, Swann was hooked up as usual and waited while
his monitor (Janet) opened up a sealed envelope; revealed was the target
city of Tucson, Arizona.
Swann has described (in his online book on this history) what happened next:
[begin quote]
And when I first heard the mention of 'Tuscon, Arizona', a picture of hot desert flashed
through my mind. But then I had the sense of moving, a sense that lasted but a fraction
of a second. Some part of my head or brain or perception blacked out---and THERE I
was....something I would refer to years ahead as 'immediate transfer of perceptions.'
So fast was the whole of this, or so it seemed to me, that I began speaking almost as
soon as Janet had narrated the distant site through the intercom. 'Am over a wet
highway, buildings nearby and in the distance. The wind is blowing. Its cold. And
it is raining hard.' I didn't even have time to sketch this, for it was easy enough to
articulate into the tape recorder.'
'That's it?' questioned Janet through the intercom.
'Yeah, that's it---only that I'm slightly dizzy. I thought this would take longer. It's raining
and very cold there.' 'Okay', Janet replied....Through the intercom I heard her dialing the
number of the weather service in Tucson.
Before I could stand up, though, Janet said through the intercom: 'Well, you're right on, baby.
Right now Tucson is having unexpected thunderstorms and the temperature is near freezing?'[three]
[End quote]
This was only a first experiment of its kind (except for the much more moderate distance
of trying to see objects recently on Dr. Osis's coffee table upstairs). In order to provide
a new descriptive term for this new type of experimenting, Swann suggested that the
experiments be called either "remote sensing" or "remote viewing". Dr. Osis and Gertrude
Schmeidler preferred "remote viewing". And, that's the term that would be used from that
point on.
[three]http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/RealStoryCh17.html page three
A History of Remote Viewing – Part Two
–THE CIA GETS HIP TO A NEW INTELLIGENCE TOOL
Less than a year after Ingo Swann “remote viewed” weather conditions in Tucson, Arizona as part of experiments conducted at the New York City offices of the American Society of Psychical Research, the CIA would be giving an independent research organization, formerly a part of Stanford University until divested to its nuclear research projects, an “exploratory contract” of $49,909 to do classified research into the viability and potential of remote viewing.
The person at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) chosen to oversee this initial eight month project (called Biofield Measurements Program) was Hal Puthoff, at that time working on laser research at SRI. Joining him later would be a colleague (from laser research and also with an interest in parapsychology), Russell Targ.
Puthoff in a 1996 paper recounts the history of “CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute”. That paper could be written (see http://www.militaryremoteviewers.com/cia_remote_viewing_sri.htm) because in July 1995 the CIA declassified papers and reports generated by SRI’s research and use of remote viewing for the benefit of the CIA.
Another detailed account, in the form of an online book (see http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com
and the link there), was written by Ingo Swann (who along with a man named Pat Price would be the remote viewing participants in this initial remote viewing project on the CIA’s behalf).
And, perhaps most valuable of all due to the author’s access to not only his own notes of involvement in an unit of the government’s remote viewing operations since 1983 but also his interviews with most of the key figures (including Puthoff and Swann), is the book “Reading the Enemy’s Mind: America’s Psychic Espionage Program” by Paul H. Smith. Famed Pulitzer Prize journalist Jack Anderson wrote the forward to this book and summarizes his own history of examining and reporting on this long secret program.
(People can see Smith’s website, http://www.rviewer.com, for more information.)
In March 1972, Swann saw some intriguing correspondence, a paper on “quantum biology” by Hal Puthoff, at Cleve Backster’s home in New York. (During this time Swann was still doing experiments at the American Society of Psychical Research.) Swann soon wrote to Puthoff, sharing his experiences with the early experiments that attempted a PK influence over organic matter. Puthoff responded not longer after by phone and the stage was being set for Swann to visit SRI early in June 1972.
Puthoff prepared a surprise test for Swann on this first visit, involving getting access to a shielded, quark detecting magnetometer at Stanford University’s Physics Department. On his visit, it appeared Swann was able to disturb the operation of the magnetometer (while located on the floor above the vault). He further went on to impress Puthoff by drawing details of the the complex interior of the magnetometer. (No such schematics had been published prior to this.)
All this so impressed Puthoff that he wrote a paper about it and circulated it among scientific colleagues. What in particular impressed Puthoff were Swann’s detailed drawings of the magnetometer’s make-up. And, this is what also what impressed the two CIA representatives who showed up shortly after Puthoff sending his report out. They also had a copy of the report. (After this visit, Puthoff did write to Dr. Christopher “Kit” Green about the experiment. Green was then at the Life Science Desk, part of the CIA’s Office of Strategic Intelligence. Puthoff’s contact with him begin their many years of association.)
No one writing the history of remote viewing seems to know how these two CIA visitors came across Puthoff’s paper, but they were aware that Puthoff had worked as a Naval Intelligence Officer and then later as a civilian employee with the National Security Agency (NSA).
And, Puthoff reports in his account of this meeting that these representatives from the CIA expressed concern about Soviet parapsychological research and utilization of psychic skills as an intelligence tool. (Puthoff references a later-1978-paper by the Defense Intelligence Agency, identified as DST-18105-202-78 and entitled “Paraphysics R and D–Warsaw Pact U.)
The visitors explained that they had been looking for a research laboratory that was unconnected formally with an academic institution and that could serve as a quiet, low-profile place for classified research and investigation. SRI seemed to fit the bill. So, as a result, they gave SRI a small amount of money to fly Ingo Swann out to Stanford and have him participate in some tests to observe and evaluate his remote viewing skills.
This testing and evaluation happened in August 1972. CIA scientists came out to participating in testing and evaluating Swann’s potential enhanced perceptual abilities. Basically, Swann was asked to remote view the contents of sealed containers. In three cases, the CIA visitors placed items in three sealed boxes (contents picked and known only by them). Swann did well altogether, though he was very puzzled by what he saw in one of the boxes prepared by the CIA visitors. He thought he saw a “brown leaf” floating up by the underside of the lid. In fact, the CIA guys had placed a large brown moth in the box.
These trials were sufficient to move the CIA to fund on October 1, 1972 (the first day of the government’s fiscal year for 1973) a contract with SRI in the amount of $49,909 for exploratory research into parapsychology. This contract would fund the research for eight months (which began in January 1973).
Part Three: "All You Really Need Is An Address"
The focus for the first few months of SRI's initial 8 month long study
for the CIA was on PK effects, but with minimal success (and a lack of
consistency) in the results, SRI experimentation refocused on the potentials
of RV for use by their current client. It was not clear at first how remote viewing,
in the way they had been experimenting with it, would be of use to any
intelligence agencies. The most typical way they had been practicing it
was to send "outbounder" teams to a site which the viewer would then
focus on (via the presence of the team). The group at SRI was mulling
this over with only a short time left on the initial CIA contract (May '73 to Aug. '73,
with the contract having begun in January). A visitor to SRI, Jacques Vallee,
suggested a simple solution: "All you really need is an address."
Swann in turn suggested the use of geographic coordinates, somethingPuthoff and Targ thought didn't make sense due to the fact that coordinateswere artificial and abstract representations. But, preliminary experiementswere satisfactory enough and the CIA itself offered coordinates to a woodedarea in the hills of West Virginia. So far as the CIA person offering thecoordinates knew, there was only a vacation cabin at the site.
Ingo Swann and another man named Pat Price were tasked withremote viewing this location. (Price had recently heard about theproject and, feeling he had a psychic aptitude, volunteered for experiments.)Both Swann and Price described a partially underground military likefacility not far from the cabin! (Confirmed in followup visits and consultations.)Not only were the descriptions of the site (again, unknown even to theprovider of the coordinates) accurate, but the CIA's project managerfor the SRI contract, Dr. Ken Kress, noted: "Pat Price, who had nomilitary or intelligence background, provided a list of project titlesassociated with current and past activities including one of extremesensitivity. Also, the code-name of the site was provided. Other informationconcerning the physical layout of the site was accurate."[pages 72-73, Ken Kress, "Parapsychology in Intelligence: A PersonalReview and Conclusions", STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE, Washington, DC,CIA, Winter 1977.]
Other double-blind coordinates were tasked for the remote viewersbefore the CIA contract ended in August 1973 and since the resultswere good overall, CIA support for this research at SRI continueduntil 1975.
Ingo Swann would take a year long break from this study, but in addition
to Pat Price, others would become involved: Hella Hammid (professional
photographer), Duane Elgin (SRI employee), Gary Langford and Keith
Harary.
Pat Price's participation in RV efforts changed directions when he began
working with the CIA directly, in the months just prior to his unexpected
death in Las Vegas in July 1975. Not long after Price died (an event about
which some people have questions), the CIA dropped out of the RV
business. Being under fire in Congressional hearings over past questionable
practices, they were reluctant to hold onto what might be controversial.
Also very important: there was strong disagreement within the CIA over
using remote viewing. Many there felt it was neither real nor potentially
useful. Paul Smith reports in his book Reading The Enemies' Mind
("chronicling America's psychic espionage program") that "even though
a few in-house CIA employees had shown some success with remote
viewing, and Price himself was now working exclusively for the agency
and coming up with results corroborated by other intelligence information
the CIA had already obtained, this ongoing debate contributed to
the termination of CIA involvement after Price's sudden death in July
1975" [p.76, paperback edition]
A year before he died, Pat Price was still working for SRI, though, and
that's when he was given the task of remote viewing a research and
development facility in the old Soviet Union (near Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan).
After receiving the coordinates (on July 19, 1974), Price reported
his impressions of that location from the several remote viewing sessions
he did over the following two weeks. Some of his descriptions were
confirmed by satellite imagery: a large gantry crane that rode on rails
and that passed over a 2-3 story building and the presence of gas
cylinders. But not confirmed for another few years were 60 foot diameter
steel spheres that Price described being assembled.
The story of this particular remote viewing impressed many in the
intelligence community, but by July 1975 many others there felt
that the fact Price produced a lot of bad data and otherwise descriptions
that could be neither evaluated or confirmed made RV useless as
an intelligence tool. For example, this was the conclusion of the officers
at the CIA's Office of Research and Development when the CIA's
involvement with RV ended in 1975.
The SRI team spent its last stretch of time under CIA contract partially
examining the nature of RV phenomena (and seeing what factors
enhanced successful use). But, they more importantly focused on remote
viewing's potential uses. For example, a series of double blind experiments,
with 12 remote viewers targeting 7 pieces of instruments and machinery,
yielded some very detailed and accurate sketches.
At this stage, Paul Smith reports in history that some key conclusions and
observations had been made by those involved in the SRI study. He also
notes that at this point "it was also just two years into the program, and
many lessons about tasking, analysis, and reporting of remote viewing data
were yet to be learned." [p.68, paperback edition]. So far as some of the
understandings acquired from the study, Smith summarizes some, like
these key points: (1) concrete descriptions more accurate than labeling
and analysis; (2) using several remote viewers for a single task improved
quality of the final data; (3) anybody could be taught RV; and, RV improves
with practice.
Though the CIA ended its involvement with RV in the summer of 1975, later
in the year SRI's research effort would be sustained by funding from the Air Force
Foreign Technology Division at Wright Patterson. This came about through
the interest of a civilian employee there, Dale Graff.
Then, two years later an Army Lt. ("Skip" Atwater) begins forming an Army RV
program at the direction of Army Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence, Maj. Gen.
Edmund Thompson.
The DIA assumes control of the program.
Early 1980s, the remote viewing procedure is structured and training CRV to
government remote viewers begins.