SRI STUDIES IN REMOTE VIEWING: A PROGRAM REVIEW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090018-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2003
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 1, 1984
• Content Type: STUDY

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SRI STUDIES IN REMOTE VIEWING: A PROGRAM REVIEW
For the past eleven years, a small group headed by Dr. H. Puthoff has
sought evidence that would support the case for extrasensory perception. In
recent years, the focus of these studies has centered on "remote viewing" by
subjects claiming to visualize the scene at a point beyond the field of vision,
and in many cases, in a remote part of the world, typically not known to them
by actual experience. The implication of success in remote viewing, if it
exists, are revolutionary; since as described to the review team, it is mani-
festly incompatible with currently accepted scientific principles. Remote view-
ing of future events--"precognition"--evidently violates causality; real time
remote viewing clearly requires a transmission mechanism other than any known
process: electromagnetic, gravitational, etc.
The lack of a physical model should not be taken to preclude the existence
of the capability to view a remote location. However, this circumstance has
thus far limited application of the classic methods of scientific investiga-
tion to less cogent issues, such as controls for inadvertent cueing, statistil
evaluation of the incidence of positive findings, estimation of false-positiv
and false-negative responses, and in particular, the design of experiments th
would limit as far as possible intrusion of extraneous factors relating to
personal interaction and observer biases.
The evidence shown to us is too impressive to dismiss as mere coinciden
Certain similarities between the SRI and Princeton results, obtained in very
different circumstances by unrelated investigators, are particularly compel
The Princeton work is somewhat more quantitative than that at SRI and leads
an estimate by Dr. R. Jahn that the phenomena he has observed could be
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explained by a transfer of information above noise at a level of about one bi
per thousand. This of course raises the question of how much information is
required to construct the impressions gained by remote viewing, a question
which the investigators cannot presently answer. Therefore, the review team
feels that remote viewing is either real or due to some sort of experimental
interference from one or some of the participants; something one might descri?
as "inadvertent cueing." Although, on the basis of our brief exposure to the
SRI program, we found no obvious evidence of cueing or collusion between the
viewer and the experiment monitors.
The briefings strongly emphasized the investigator's ability to train
others in their techniques. This training program has developed over the pa
five years through the dedicated participation of Mr. Ingo Swann. His diver
talents have been devoted to self-training which he now feels competent to
impart to others. Approximately a dozen trainees have completed instruction
various levels of claimed competence. An important aspect of Swann's contribi
tions relates to his dissection of separate elements in the perceptual process
Under his guidance, the technique centers around the use of a coordinate methoc
to describe the remote location, expressed in degrees of latitude and longitudc
It is here that any attempt at a rational understanding of the perceptual
process is lost. Since the significance of the coordinates.so expressed is
unknown to the viewer in most instances, it is impossible to understand why
such a method should be translated in the viewing process into a precise delin-
eation of geographic characteristics of the target site. The arbitrariness of
this approach has not escaped the investigators, but repeated attempts to
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elicit a rational basis for this procedure, or to secure definitive informa
tion about possible success or failures with other methods that they may have
tried, were uniformly unsuccessful. The investigators' attitude was that sir
they had found the coordinate method to work, they were not disposed to quer,
the mechanistic basis of its applications, nor to seek an appraisal of other
potentially successful methods.
Mr. Swann has distinguished three phases in his subjective interpretat-
of his viewing capabilities. The initial percept appears very rapidly with
latency stated to be as short as 1/50 of a second. Thereafter, for a period
that may persist for several minutes, increasing detail may be added. There
after, and only after as much material has been added to the initial percept
possible, is the subject encouraged to examine his subjective image in a cri,?
ical way, or to make syntheses or judgments about the significance of the
perceived material. Swann pointed out that intrusion of a judgmental or in
pretive attitude too early in the building of the percept was generally
destructive, and to be discouraged in the course of training others.
A considerable variety of material was presented with photographic bac
in support of the validity of the perceptual method. Much of this was highs,
impressive. The data showed the effects of training on the success rate,
which typically reached a sustained plateau at a level higher than prior to
training, both for groups of subjects as well as for individual trainees.
What then may be anticipated if the program is continued? In the absence
of a physical model for the perceptual process, no predictions are possible
about higher success rates in larger groups of viewers concentrating on the
same target, nor about the effect on success rates to be expected if the
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technique were extended to those with special intellectual abilities or
professional backgrounds.
Exploration of the phenomenon should not be restricted to specific
applications. Rather, remote viewing should be studied as a scientific
research program aimed at establishing the existence or non-existence of the
phenomenon. In this way, a comprehensive and credible evaluation of the
phenomenon should be available from continuing effort over the next five
to ten years. The potential impact of this phenomenon is clearly profound.
Therefore, a mandatory requirement would be the existence of independent but
related programs conducted by others, with the free exchange of techniques
and results. Only through independent reproducibility can a phenomenon so
unconventional ever become accepted.
It is our conclusion that Dr. Puthoff's team warrants cautious continued
fiscal support, and that the research should be conducted as much as possible
in an open unclassified mode so that its reproducibility and accuracy can be
independently verified by others.
W. ROSS ADEY
DONALD M. KER 1'/.
F. ZACHARIASEN
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