PERCEPTUAL AUGMENTATION TECHNIQUES PART ONE--EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00791R000300030001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 1, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

Covering the Period January 1974 through February 1975
By: Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory
SRI Project 3183
Approved by:
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Earle Jones, Director
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory
Bonnar Cox, Executive Director
Information Science and Engineering Division
1 I ;\TIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unutharized Disc! =ure Subject to
Criminal Sanctions.
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The goal of this program was to determine the extent to which certain
individuals obtain accurate information about their environment under con-
ditions thought to be secure against such access and without the use of
known human perceptual modalities.
The program was divided into two categories of approximately equal
effort--applied research and basic research. The applied research effort
explored the operational utility of the above perceptual abilities. The
basic research effort was directed toward identification of the charac-
teristics of individuals possessing such abilities and the determination
of neurophysiological correlates and basic mechanisms involved in such
functioning.
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As a result of exploratory research on human perception carried out in
SRI's Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory, we observed the emergence
of a perceptual channel whereby certain individuals access and describe, by
means of mental imagery, randomly-chosen remote sites located several
miles or more away. In this final report, we document the study at SRI
of this human information-accessing capability which we call "remote
viewing," the characteristics of which appear to fall outside the range
of well-understood perceptual/information-processing abilities. This
phenomenon pertains to the ability of certain individuals to access and
describe, by means of internal mental processes, information sources
blocked from ordinary perception and generally accepted as secure against
such access. These individuals include not only SRI subjects, but visiting
staff members of the sponsoring organization who participated as subjects
in order to critique the protocol. Experiments carried out under controlled
laboratory conditions included the reproduction of line drawings shielded
against ordinary perception, the determination of the electronic state
of a four-state random number generator, and the viewing of remote
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geographical locations, all at levels of statistical significance p < 10.
Our initial work in this area has been reported in the open literature
under the title "Information Transmission Under Conditions of Sensory
Shielding," Nature 252, 18 October 1974, and reprinted in the IEEE
Communications 13, January 1975. A copy of this publication is included
as Appendix A of this report.
Since our initial work the phenomenon we have investigated most
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extensively is the ability of individuals to view remote geographical lo-
cations (up to several thousand kilometers), given only coordinates (latitude
and longitude) or a person on whom to target. We have worked with a number
of individuals, including sponsor personnel, whose remote perceptual abil-
ities have been developed sufficiently to allow them at times to describe
correctly---often in great detail--geographical or technical material such
as buildings, roads, laboratory apparatus, and the like.
The development of this capability at SRI has evolved to the point
where (a) visiting CIA personnel with no previous exposure to such concepts
have performed well under controlled laboratory conditions (that is, generated
target descriptions of sufficiently high quality to permit blind matching
of descriptions to targets by independent judges), and (b) subjects trained
over a one-year period have performed well under operational conditions
(that is, provided data of operational significance later verified by inde-
pendent sources). Our accumulated data thus indicate that both specially se-
lected and unselected persons can be assisted in developing remote perceptual
abilities to a level of useful information transfer.
To indicate the level of proficiency that can be reached, we present
four examples generated by experienced subjects. The first category consists
of long-distance (trans-Atlantic) remote-viewing of a large-scale installa-
tion. The second category consists of two or more subjects remote-
viewing the same target, independently, which in this series was technical
apparatus. The third category consists of remote sensing of the internal state
of a piece of electronic equipment. The fourth category consists of the
perturbation of remote equipment.
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A. Category I: Loner Distance Remote Viewing
In order to subject the remote viewing phenomena to a rigorous long-
distance test under external control, a request for geographical coordinates
of a site unknown to subject and experimenters was forwarded to the OSI
group 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 West Virginia Site. The 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. Two 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
sponsor-designated target of interest, a research cent-er at Semipalatinsk,
USSR. The 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 (Si) * trained in the SRI program. Figure l(a)
shows the subject's graphic effort for building layout; Figure l(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 key to numerical designations for subjects is available from the COTR.
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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 COTR (hut not to contract personnel) is shown 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 collected 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. "he 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.
B . 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'
control. 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
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The target for Experiment 1, a'typewriter, was chosen by a sponsor staff
member during a site visit. The response drawn by the subject (S4), 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.
The 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.
The 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.
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TECHNOLOGY SERIES
TYPEWRITER TARGET
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SRI SUBJECT S4 RESPONSE
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FIGURE 3 DRAWINGS BY TWO SUBJECTS OF A TYPEWRITER TARGET
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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
(p= 3x10In 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).
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FIGURE 6 FOUR-STATE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR
The printer to the right of the machine records data automatically on fan-fold
paper tape. ,
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D. Category 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 significance 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
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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 selection, 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.
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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.
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