NEW FLAP OVER URI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2014
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: November 4, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

; Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/01/09 : - .
OA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6
Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/01/09 :
CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6
Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/01/09: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6
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New Flap Over Uri
The title of the report printed in
Nature magazine seemed innocuous
enough: "Information transmission un-
der conditions of sensory shielding." But
to the world of parapsychology, publi-
cation of the paper, the first claimed
proof of extrasensory powers to have ap-
peared in that prestigious scientific jour-
nal for many years, was nothing short
of a sensation. Parapsychologists and
others who believe in the existence of
such psychic phenomena as telepathy,
psychokinesis and precognition were ju-
bilant; in their view, Nature had be-
stowed upon them the recognition and
respectability that the scientific estab-
lishment has so long withheld. Some
skeptics were dismayed; they felt the
mere publication of the report in Nature
would lend legitimacy to many of the
hotly disputed tenets of parapsychology.
Submitted by Physicists Russell
Targ and Harold Puthoff, the Nature ar-
ticle emphasized experiments at the
Stanford Research Institute involving
the controversial Israeli psychic and
nightclub magician Uri Geller (TIME,
March 14, 1973). Among other things,
the report claimed that Geller correctly
called the roll of a die inside a steel box
eight out of ten times; on the other two
rolls he declined to pick a number. The
odds against his performing that feat by
chance, Targ and Puthoff calculated,
were about a million to one. Geller was
also reported to have sketched remark-
ably accurate versions of drawings
picked at random by researchers hid-
den in another room. Those claims,
printed in Nature, did seem to make a
case for extrasensory perception.
Lengthy Expos?What was gen-
erally overlooked?or purposely ignored
?in the reaction to Nature's publica-
tion, was the unprecedented almost
apologetic editorial that accompanied
the Stanford Research Institute report.
In the editorial, Nature's editors not only
criticized the SRI paper but also point-
edly called attention to the same week's
issue of another respected British mag-
azine, New Scientist, which carried a
lengthy expos?hat undermined both
Geller and the SRI report.
Nature said that the original SRI pa-
per was "weak in design and presen-
tation," that its details were "disconcert-
ingly vague," that some methods used
were "naive," and that the experiment-
ers showed "a lack of skill." Nonethe-
less, after sending the paper back to SRI
for modifications, the magazine finally
ISRAELI PSYCHIC URI GELLER
One in a million.
decided to publish it. Why? It had been
submitted by "two qualified scientists"
with the backing of a major research in-
stitute; the subject was "worthy" of in-
vestigation; the paper would allow other
researchers "to gauge the quality of the
Stanford research and assess how much
it is contributing to parapsychology."
Nature also praised as a "service"
the concurrent publication of the 16-
page New Scientist article, which was
PALL MALL GOL
LONGER... YET MILDER.
Warning :The Surgeon General Has Determined
That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous toYour Health.
21 mg. "tar". 1.5 mg. nicotine an per cigarette. FTC Report March'74.
100
TIME, NOVEMBER 4, 1974
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/01/09: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6
Al ?
TEST DRAWING (LEFT) & URI'S VERSION
written by Physicist Joseph Hanlon af-
ter a two-month investigation of Gel-
ler, and the SRI experiments. Hanlon,
who delayed publishing his article until
Nature printed the SRI paper, cited ex-
amples of Geller's evasiveness and re-
ports of his cheating on television and
during interviews with journalists. He
also criticized the controls that Targ and
Puthoff used in their experiments. Han-
lon noted that Geller's sponsor, Andri-
ja Puharich, a doctor, holds 56 patents,
primarily in medical electronics. He sug-
gested that Puharich might well have
implanted a tiny radio receiver in one
of Geller's teeth; it could have been used
to give Geller information about draw-
ings being selected in another room.
Hanlon also questions Geller's success
with the die. "Knowing the inability of
the SRI scientists to control the other ex-
periments," he says, "I can only con-
clude that this one was just as badly
organized."
Hanlon, who was somewhat in-
dined to believe in some of Geller's pro-
fessed powers when he began his inqui-
ry, now insists that "no matter how good
they are as laser physicists, Russell Targ
and Hal Puthoff are no match for Uri
Geller." Furthermore, he says, the SRI
paper published in Nature "simply does
not stand up against the mass of cir-
cumstantial evidence that Uri Geller is
simply a good magician."
The Pollution of Space
When the two new satellites were
launched last May, NASA hailed them
as the latest example of space-age tech-
nology benefiting life on earth. One sat-
ellite, dubbed ATS-6 (for Applications
Technology Satellite), is relaying edu-
cational TV programs to remote regions;
the other, SMS-1 (Synchronous Meteo-
rological Satellite), is a new breed of
weather satellite equipped with infra-
red cameras that can shoot remarkably
detaad cloud pictures even at night.
Both satellites are performing splen-
didly, but both are producing unexpect-
ed and undesired side effects: they are
creating so much electronic interference
that radio astronomers are sometimes
virtually "blinded"?unable to distin-
guish the celestial radio signals so cru-
cial to their work.
"It can cost us time, money and lost
observations," grouses Radio Astrono-
mer Frank J. Kerr of the University of
Maryland. What makes the situation
even worse, he explains, is that the sat-
ellites use a portion of the radio spec-
trum especially important to radio as-
tronomy. Sms-1, for instance, operates
near the 18-cm. band, which is the nat-
ural wave length of hydroxyl, one of the
first molecules discovered in space. It is
from the signals of the hydroxyl mol-
ecule (which consists of one atom of hy-
drogen and one of oxygen) that radio
astronomers have been learning about
star formation and the nature of the
clouds of gases between the stars.
ATS-6 broadcasts near an even more
important frequency: the 11-Cm. band,
which has been specifically set aside
by the International Telecommunica-
tions Union for the use of radio as-
tronomers in their explorations of qua-
sars, pulsars, distant galaxies and even
the sun. Trouble is, the signals from
these celestial sources are often so faint
that they can be easily overwhelmed
by signal spillover from the satellites'
powerful radio transmissions, even
when the complex craft are in a dif-
ferent part of the sky.
Kerr, who has been studying this
new form of electronic pollution for the
National Academy of Sciences, echoes
the concern of his fellow radio astron-
omers: "We can perhaps live with one
or two satellites, but if they put up 20 or
100 satellites that interfere in this way,
it would be catastrophic."
TIME, NOVEMBER 4, 1974 101
Declassified and Approved For Release 2014/01/09: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010081-6