NEWS REPORT ON RESEARCH PERFORMED BY STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON ABILITY TO VIEW LOCATIONS REMOTELY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080011-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 1998
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: January 1, 1974
• Content Type: PAPER

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Menlo Park, CA--The ability to view remote geographical locations
by means of an unknown perceptual channel may be widespread in the general
population, according to two Stanford Research Institute (SRI) researchers.
In an article appearing in the March issue of the prestigious Proceedings
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), SRI physicists
Dr. Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ report that a wide variety of subjects--
including visiting government scientists, and other persons without previous
experience in paranormal functioning--have demonstrated the ability to describe
correctly, often in great detail, geographical or technical material such as
buildings, roads and laboratory apparatus at remote locations unknown to them.
More than 50 experiments have been conducted under controlled
laboratory conditions over a three-year period at SRI, using both experienced
and inexperienced subjects.
The principal difference between the two types of subjects was not
that the inexperienced ones never exhibited the faculty of remote viewing,
the article says, but rather that their results were less reliable than those of
their more experienced counterparts.
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Remote' perceptions sometimes include sounds as well as sights.
For example, one subject described a squeaky triangular black swing in a
playground as a "black iron triangle bigger than a man, " and reported hearing
a "squeak, squeal,: about once a second.
The ability of subjects to accurately describe remote scenes appeared
to be independent of distance and electrical shielding. Distances between
subject and scene varied from a. few meters up to 4000 kilometers (about 2480
miles). Subjects were tested while sitting both inside and outside of a Faraday
cage--an electrically screened room that blocks the passage of radio waves
over most of the spectrum.
The article states that subjects commonly reported perceiving the object
or scene as if they were close to it. It also notes that they could shift their
point of view so as to perceive elements that would not be visible to an observer
standing at ground level.
For example, one subject described and drew a belt drive on top of a
drill press and out of sight of someone operating the machine.
Another subject described items hidden by shrubbery from onlookers
at the site.
The researchers carried out an original successful series of experiments
followed up with five additional verification series using different subjects.
The total number of experiments added up to 51.
A member of SRI management not otherwise connected with the experi-
ments supervised the selection of target locations for each series of experiments,
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keeping each target in an individually sealed envelope in his office safe.
When an experiment was to be performed, one of the sealed envelopes
was selected by a random procedure and handed, still. sealed, to the experi-
menter who was to visit the site. The latter then proceeded directly to the
site accompanied by a team of observers.
Meanwhile, the other experimenter, who remained ignorant of the site,
was closeted with the subject in the laboratory for the entire experimental
period, beginning before the outbound experimenter received his travel orders
and ending after the travel team had returned to the Institute.
While the team was at the site, the subject focused on the outbound
experimenter and his location, describing elements of the scene and making
any drawings he wished while the experimenter who was closeted with him tape
recorded his comments.
When all the experiments in a given series had been completed, the
typed but unedited transcripts of the subjects' tape recordings, together with
associated drawings if any; were. handed, unlabeled and in random order, to
independent judges.
The judges--all members of the SRI professional staff not otherwise
connected with the experiments--were asked to match the transcripts to
the sites.
Even under a very conservative statistical procedure, the results of
five of the six studies were significantly better than would be expected by chance
alone. Three of the studies differed from chance expectations by odds of
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1000 to 1 or better, one by odds of half a million to one.
In one study involving only visiting government scientists, the odds
were 60 to 1.
Even the single study that was not statistically significant contained
individual descriptions and drawings that bore a striking resemblance to objects
at the site.
The researchers point out that while the information channel that
couples events remote from the viewer is not yet understood, its existence
is not inconsistent with modern. scientific thought. In fact, they note, modern
physics and neurophysi.ol.ogy provide powerful techniques that can be used to
study the nature of this channel.
"We therefore consider it important, " they state in the article, "to
continue data collection and to encourage others to do likewise. Investigations
such as those reported here need replication and extension under as wide a
variety of rigorously controlled conditions as possible.
SRI is an independent, nonprofit organization that performs contract
research for worldwide clients in business, industry and government.
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