SRI NEWS RELEASE ADVANCE FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 10, A.M.'S

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100018-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 13, 1998
• Sequence Number: 18
• Content Type: PREL

CPYRGHT
NEWS RELEASE ~
CPYRGHT
RELEASE DATE: Advance for Saturday, March 10, A. M. 's
SG
New York, N. Y., or Menlo Park, Calif. --Stanford Research Institute
(SRI) has issued the following statement in connection with its research in the
field of psychic or psychoenergetic effects:
"Our scientists have drawn no conclusions as to the nature, or indeed
the existence of psychical. powers. They are prepared to suggest only that
further investigation of this subject is warranted and that it is a legitimate
subject for scientific inquiry.
"Any published reports to the contrary are clearly a distortion of
the facts.
"For the past several months a team of researchers has been seeking
to determine whether so-called psychic phenomena--presently not explained by
science--can be verified by experiments performed under rigorous laboratory
conditions.
"Throughout mankind's history there has existed a folklore that certain
gifted individuals have been capable of producing physical effects by means of
some agency generally referred to as psychic or psychoenergetic. Substantiation
of such claims by accepted scientific methodology has been slow in coming, but
recent laboratory experiments, especially in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia,
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and more recently in our own laboratory, have indicated that sufficient evidence
does exist to warrant serious scientific investigation.
"From the evidence it would appear that experiments could be conducted
with sufficient scientific rigor to uncover not just a catalog of interesting events,
but rather a pattern of cause-effect relationships of the type that lend themselves to
analysis and hypothesis in the forms with which we are familiar in the physical
sciences.
"As scientists we consider it important to examine various models describing
the operation of these effects so that we can determine the relationship between
extraordinary human functioning and the physical and psychological laws we
presently understand. It is not the purpose of our work at SRI to add to the
literature another demonstration of the statistical appearance of these phenomena
in the laboratory, but rather we seek to achieve an understanding more compatible
with contemporary science, and more useful to mankind.
"The work at SRI is only in its preliminary stages.
"We are well aware that this area of research is one of the most
controversial topics in modern science, in part because of its history of
charlatanism and fraud.
"However, we do not feel that controversy should deter us from what
we believe is a legitimate subject for scientific inquiry.
"Our work is being performed within the framework of a research
organization dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and its application rather than
from a position of advocacy. "
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"Our role in this area, as in all other areas of research we undertake,
is to be neutral and objective.
"Questions raised about the background of subjects with whom we have
worked have been taken into account.
"Our scientists are well aware that many persons who claim psychic
abilities can seem to have extraordinary powers while actually employing only
sophisticated deception.
"We do not discount or minimize the possibility of trickery. Indeed,
we proceed on the assumption that any subject could seek to circumvent
laboratory safeguards and try to fool our researchers.
"Whenever it was felt that any experiment could have been influenced by
trickery or subterfuge- -whether we had any proof of that or not--that experiment
was summarily dismissed from consideration.
"On that basis, we feel our work should be judged on its merits. If there
is an area here that can be explored to the benefit of mankind, it should be explored
without prejudice. "
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