PENTAGON, CIA COOPERATING ON PSYCHIC SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130107-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 107
• Publication Date: May 3, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130107-2
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ARTICLE APPEARED
;ON PAGE_., -/11 -
Pentagon, CIA
Cooperating on
Psychic Spying'
In past columns, I have reported
that the Pentagon is engaged in
"Twilight Zone" research, using psy-
chics to spy on the Soviet Union.-
Now I've learned that the Pentagon
is spending $1 million a year on. the
project and is sharing results with
Weird -though psychic espionage
may seem, top-secret reports from
the CIA and Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) claim remarkable suc-
cesses for their long-distance mind-
readers. Psychics have "seen" things
deep inside the Soviet Union that
they couldn't possibly have known
about. And their psychic sightings
were later confirmed by spy satel-
lites or by agents. _ .,
The Pentagon project, called
"Grill Flame," is being conducted by
SRI, a research institute, in Menlo
Park, Calif. One source insisted that
the project, which was begun before
978, was officially killed in 1982.
But sources told my associate
Dale Van Atta that its apparent dis-
appearance was a bookkeeping mat-
ter. The funding, which rose from
S200.000 to $1 million a year, was
WASHINGTON POST
3 May 1984
transferred from DIA's budget to the research and go for immediate au-
Pent
'
l b
d
agon
s genera
u
get.
One of Grill Flame's project lead-
ers is a respected physicist, Harold
Puthoff. And the project's top psy-
chic, Ingo Swann, is a New York art-
ist with an impressive record of suc-
cessful "remote viewing."
He first interested skepticalSRI
researchers in 1973, when he used
his unexplained psychic power . to
throw a heavily shielded Stanford
University magnetometer off. track.
The researchers are convinced that
phcatnon.
Targ also feels that Americans are
entitled to know, as far as possible,
what their taxes have been paying
for. He has joined Keith Harary, a
psychologist and psychic, in writing
a book, "The Mind Race: Under-
standing
and Using Psychic Abili
-
ties," which details and demystifies
unclassified SRI experiments.
On a visit to Moscow, the authors
learned that the Soviets had dupli-
cated U.S. remote-viewing successes
.
Swann's feat could not have been "It was clear," Targ said, "that psy-
trickery. ? _ chic research has been taken serious-
It was also Swann who suggested. ly at-the highest level of the Soviet
the first CIA-DIA psychic project,-' scientific community."
called' "Scanate." He and other psy- .Seagoing Strategy: Federal bud- -
chics used their powers,' with star- get-cutters are second only to the
tling success, to "view" installations Soviet fleet on the U.S. Navy's list- of
at secret locations, using geograph- enemies. This was clear in a recent
ical coordinates. Yet Swann has been secret directive from the chief of na-
reluctant to promote "remote" view- val operations. Development of the
"
ing
as a spy technique because it Navy's budget, it says, has been
often produces bad information
along with good.
Rep. Charlie Rose (D-N.C.), a sen-
sible proponent of the. Pentagon's
psychic research program, is con-
cerned that the intelligence commu-
nity is pushing for quick results be-
fore scientific research is completed.
Sharing this opinion . is Russell
Targ, a former partner in the, "It is imperative, therefore, to gain
Scanate and Grill Flame projects. 'maximum force multipliers, such as
Targ reportedly quit the. projects in innovative strategy, tactics and the
1982,' partly because the CIA and contributions of other services and
DIA wanted to skip the long-term allies to naval missions ...."
"constrained by a significant decre-
mint in fiscal guidance." That is,
they're cutting the budget.
It continues: "Even though the
Soviet military threat continues to
increase and future U.S. readiness
requirements seem unlikely to di-
minish, we will face continued fiscal
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130107-2