PERCEPTUAL AUGMENTATION TECHNIQUES PART ONE--EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JANUARY 1974 - FEBRUARY 1975

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP96-00787R000100110001-0
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RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
19
Document Creation Date: 
November 4, 2016
Document Release Date: 
March 23, 2000
Sequence Number: 
1
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
February 25, 1976
Content Type: 
REPORT
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PDF icon CIA-RDP96-00787R000100110001-0.pdf1.06 MB
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Final Report Covering the Period January 1974 through February 1975 By: Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory SRI Project 3183 ;:1_AS.>a?;I.r. iati'.. 027585 . ___..__._. F^;~'~?~;~'"r' F'Rl.>i~9 ('::':~!RAL DECL.ASSle'~.:.,-STS%.`' ., . :i:Ci~ .... JF "l Ci I lua.'., E:Y.G?.1I'"i'lOJ C:': i'k_t.~?.;'~': ! il' (i i. ~(2). ~. OR (4) (Cl:~'..li-C~~: `: OR ~~~Ve'.@i AUTOMA"('1CALLY D!?.C!.-,SSIFIEU OV Approved by: Earle Jones, Director Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory Impossible to determine ___ (UtiLESS Ih'.r'OSSIBLE, ItiSERT DATE Ok l:~ LNr7 Bonnar Cox, Executive Director Information Science and Engineering Division f' responsible for threat analysis in this area. In response, SRI per- sonnel received a set of geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds) of a facility, hereafter referred to as the FTest Virginia Site. Ttze 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. 'It~~o 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). A long-distance remote viewing experiment was then carried out on a snonsor-designated target of interest, a research center at Semipalatinsk, iTSSR. 'T'he Contracting officer Technical Representative (COTR) furnished map coordinates to the experimenters. The only additional information provided was the designation of the target as an R&D test facility. The experimenters then carried out a remote viewing experiment on a double- blind basis with a subject (Sl) * trained in the SRI program. Figure 1( a) shows the subject's graphic effort for building layout; Figure 1(b) shows the subject's particular attention to a multistory gantry crane he observed at the site. (Again, these results were obtained on a double-blind basis A lcey to numerical designations for subjects is available from the COTR. ~. Approved For Release 2000/0 ~ DP96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED FIGURE 1 Approved For Releas~0~`Ef~` ~~~~QP~6-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000 -RDP96-007878000100110001-0 before exposure to the COTR-held information, thus eliminating the possi- bility of cueing.) For comparison an artist`s rendering of the site as known to the ~OTR (hut not to contract personnel) is sbown in figure 2(a), with crane detail shown in Figure 2(b ). The exceptionally accurate descrip- tion of the multistory crane was taken as indicative of probable target acquisition, and therefore the subject was introduced to sponsor personnel who col.l.ected further data for evaluation. The latter contained both addi- tional physical data which were independently verified by other sponsor resources, thus providing additional calibration, and also initially- unverifiable data of current operational interest. Several hours of tape transcript and a notebook full of drawings were generated over a two-week period. A description of the data and evaluation is contained in a separate report. '!?ie results contained noise along with the signal, but were none- theless clearly differentiated from the chance results generated by control subjects in comparison experiments carried out by the COTR. R . Category II: Technology Series (Multiple) A series of experiments designed to measure the resolution capability of the remote viewing phenomenon were carried out within the confines of SRI. In each experiment a subject was asked to attempt to describe remote laboratory equipment, demarcated only by a target individual sent to a lo- cation of interest by means of a random protocol outside the experimenters` contro l The experimenter remaining with the subject was kept ignorant of the contents of the target pool to prevent cueing during questioning. The subject was asked to describe the apparatus both verbally (tape recorded) and by means of drawings. The sample presented here is not an edited collection of "best ever" results, but rather consists of the results of the entire col- lection of experiments directly involving visiting CIA personnel in which ~.~ ~.~~ . Approved For Release 2000/08/10 s CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 v~ ~.~~ . Approved For Release 200 / A-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 two or more subjects independently viewed an identical technological target. The target for Experiment 1, a typewriter, was chosen by a sponsor staff member during a site visit. The response drawn by the subject (54), located approximately 100 yards away, is shown on the right of Figure 3. The target was re-used at a later date with another subject, resulting in the response on the left . T'he target for Experiment 2 was a Xerox machine, chosen by the COTR during a site visit. In response the drawing on the right of Figure 4 was generated by a second sponsor staff member who agreed to participate as a subject in this one experiment in order to evaluate the protocol. The target was re-used at a later date with an SRI subject (S2) in an experiment under observation by sponsor personnel, resulting in the response on the left. Finally, the same target came up for subject S3 during a random tech- nological target series, resulting in the drawing in the center. T'he target for Experiment 3, a computer input-output. unit, resulted in the responses shown in Figure 5. The response on the left was generated by SRI subject S4, the one on the right by a visiting sponsor staff member who participated as a subject in a random technological target series. Such results, generated in experiments with viewing windows of 15- min. duration, indicate the presence of an information channel of useful bit rate. Furthermore, it would appear that by correlating a number of subject responses to a given target, we can obtain enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio. 8 Approved For Relea~~/Q~~:~~~~6-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED TECHNOLOGY SERIES TYPEWRITER TARGET Sans fu ~~,e~e ~ ~~~ _ awP 4[ia+wb ow"~sP a w~la~G~lu"?+n +;K ~ Por9b . lywn.c pN 7.~.t Si~ . Stt 6Ge ~.Qo'L M.OkI ^ ~'`?`i'~' V1[ ~i~~ laid 4! WSir~r Q 0UXG~wL Approved For Releas~~f~` ~~~R~P56-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED -,~ W Approved For Releas~~0'10'd~TDs ~I~FRD'PJ6-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED 0 W ~z Approved For Releas~~~10'81'I~' ~~a-~~P96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 C. Category III: Remote Sensing of Internal States of Electronic Equipment To determine whether remote viewing could be extended beyond visual perception to the sensing of the internal state of a piece of electronic equipment, further experimentation was carried out with six subjects who had shown an ability in remote viewing. The task was the determination of the internal electronic state of a four-state random number generator (p = 1/4 for each of four equal-probability outputs) whose characteristics had been examined in detail to verify its randomness. The solid-state machine has no moving parts and provides no sensory cue to the user as to its target gener- ation. (See Figure 6.) Although the task appeared more difficult, one of six subjects consistently scored significantly better than chance -7 (p= 3x10 ). In the required 2500-trial run the latter obtained 17.4% more hits (734) than would be expected by chance (625}. When the subject was asked to repeat the entire experiment at a later time, he was able to replicate successfully a high scoring rate (11.5% more hits than expected by chance, p = 4.8 x 10-4). 12 Approved For ReleasQ1~8~05 ~~I~~I?6-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 UNCLASSIFIED FIGURE 6 FOUR-STATE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR The printer to the right of the machine records data automatically on fan-fold paper tape. Approved For Releas~/8'ST~~:~~ ~P96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/ DP96-007878000100110001-0 D. Cate~o ~ IV: Perturbation of Remote Equipment Additional experimentation was initiated to investigate the possibility that the remote sensing channel may possess bilateral aspects; for example, it might be possible to couple energy from an individual to a remote location as well as in reverse. To test-this hypothesis, experiments were carried out with a sensitive magnetometer in an adjoining laboratory as the remote target. Use of an ORD-developed magnetometer was arranged by ORD personnel. In a series of thirteen 10-trial runs with 50 seconds per trial, perturbations of the magnetometer by a subject gifted in remote viewing were obtained under a strict randomization protocol, yielding a positive result significant at the p = 0.004 level. Because of the potential signif icance and impli- cations of such findings, we intend to collect considerable additional data before arriving at a hard conclusion. Nonetheless, as a tentative conclusion there is evidence that a piece of sensitive equipment can be perturbed by a subject during remote viewing, thus implying that the informa- tion channel under investigation may sustain energy transfer in either di- rection. E. General Considerations The primary achievement of the SRI program was the elicitation of high quality remote viewing by individuals who agreed to act as subjects. Crit- icism of this claim could in principle be put forward on the basis of three potential flaws: (1) the study could involve naivete in protocol which permits various forms of cueing, intentional or unintentional; (2) the experiments discussed could be selected out of a larger pool of experiments of which many are of poorer quality; (3) data for the reported experiments could be edited to show only the matching elements, the non-matching Approved For Release 2000 4? I -RDP96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release~~~'0{/~ ~(~~~~~-007878000100110001-0 elements being discarded. All three criticisms, however, are invalid. First, with regard to cueing, the use of double-blind protocols ensures that no person in contact with the subject can be aware of the target. Second, no selection of experiments for reporting takes place; every experiment is entered as performed on a master log and is included in the statistical evaluations. Third, data associated with a given experiment remain unedited; all data associated with an experiment are tape recorded and included unedited in the data package to be judged, evaluated, etc. Finally, the entire unedited file of tape recordings, transcripts and drawings for every exper- iment is available to the COTR and others in the scientific community for independent analysis. The observed results outlined in A through D above (target acquisi- tion, equipment description, electronic state specification, and perturba- tion of instrument operation) may together constitute different aspects of a single remote coupling phenomenon. With regard to understanding the phenomenon itself, the precise nature of the information channel coupling remote locations is not yet understood. However, we can show that its charac- teristics are compatible with both quantum theory and information theory and with recent developments in research on brain function. Therefore, our working assumption is that the phenomenon of interest does not lie outside the purview of modern physics and with further work will yield to analysis and specification. Further, with an eye toward future subject selectian, subjects possessing a well-developed natural ability in the area under considera- tion underwent complete physical, psychological, and neuropsychological profiling, the results of which suggest the core of a screening procedure. 15 Approved For Releas~1~8~(~~~~~~6-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release~p~~ ~~~-007878000100110001-0 Finally, it is concluded by the research contractors that the accrual of experience in three years of successful effort constitutes an asset that could be utilized in the future both for operational needs and for training others in the development and use of the remote sensing capability. 16 Approved For Relea~ ~~~0~1s ~~~iF~96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 t L c Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-007878000100110001-0 TRANSMITTAL, SLIP DATE 2/25/in ~?' EO/DD/S&T ROOM NO. BUILDWG 6E56 Hqs. REMARKS:? The attached are being forwarded per your request. Please return them because they are our only copies. FROM: D/ORD ROOM NO. BUILDING EXTENSION ~` Ames '^ DORM 36-B (d7} Approved For Release 2000/08/10 :CIA-RDP96-00787F~000100110001-0