PSYCHOENERGETIC RESEARCH: SUGGESTED APPROACHES. SRI INTERNATIONAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000500070002-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 1, 1978
• Content Type: RP

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1 May 1978
PSYCHOENERGETIC RESEARCH:
SUGGESTED APPROACHES
Harold E. Puthoff
Russell Targ
Edwin C. May
Radio Physics Laboratory
ed
333 Ravenswood Ave. ? Menlo Park, California 94025
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Recent research in both Western and Soviet Bloc countries continues
to provide mounting evidence for the existence of so-called parapsycho-
logical or psychoenergetic processes. These include:
(1) The acquisition and descriptions, by mental means, of
information blocked from ordinary perception by distance
or shielding and generally believed to be secure against
such access.
(2) The production of physical effects such as the perturbation
of instrumentation or equipment that appears to be well
shielded against such interactions.
This document identifies and discusses key areas of psychoenergetic
research, and indicates those areas for experimentation and analysis
most likely to provide answers to critical questions. An appropriate
research program should include the following action items:
? Catalog the characteristics of the phenomenon, such as
resolution, reliability, bit rate, effects of shielding,
etc., including investigation of various models (e.g.,
electromagnetic)
? Ascertain those correlates of paranormal functioning which
may lead to screening and training (psychological con-
ditions, medical profiling; environmental factors; etc.)
? Determine application potential with regard to: alternate
communications systems, enhanced environmental monitoring
(near and far), information security processes, enhanced
man/machine interactions, etc.
It is recommended that a research program be initiated with SRI
along the lines indicated in this document. It is further recommended
that SRI, as the major contractor, serve a dual function: (1) carry
out the major portions of the contracted R&D efforts; and (2) host
interagency and inter-contractor conferences to consolidate available
resources and information.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II KNOWNS AND UNKNOWNS IN PSYCHOENERGETIC RESEARCH . . . . . .
III RESEARCH APPROACHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
A. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
B. Characteristics, Analysis, and Theory . . . . . . . . . 10
1. Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
a. Remote Viewing Reliability
Enhancement (Coding) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
b. Role of Feedback in Remote Viewing . . . . . 13
c. Role of Consciousness (Computer-
Controlled Experiments) . . . . . . . . . . . 15
d. Tracking of Targets in Motion . . . . . . . . 16
e. Measurement of Accuracy as a Function
of Repetition Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3. Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
a. Theoretical Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
b. ELF Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
c. Subject-Induced Equipment Perturbation
Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
(1) Strain Gauge Experiments . . . . . . . . 22
(2) Random Number Generator Experiments . . 22
(3) Magnetometer Experiments . . . . . . . . 25
C. Psychophysiological Correlates . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1. Physiological Measures for Psi-Conducive
States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2. Environmental Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
a. Altered States of Consciousness: Special
Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
b. Examine the Part Played by the
Experimenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. Educational Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
a. Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
(1) Explore Training Techniques with
Children, the Blind, and Other
Special Subjects . . . . . . . . . . 29
(2) Distance Experiments with Identical
Twins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
ii
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b. Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
(1) Training in Perceptual Tasks
Paralleling Ordinary Perception . . . . 30
(2) Training in Abstract Targeting,
Including Geographical Coordinates . . . 32
IV PRIORITIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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I INTRODUCTION
In this document we summarize and discuss key areas of psychoenergetic
research. We deal with both the known and unknown in an effort to identify
those research areas most likely to answer critical questions. No attempt
is made to present evidence or data to support the existence of psycho-
energetic phenomena; data supporting the existence of the phenomena can
be found in the documents listed in the reference section at the end of
the paper.
Recent publications provide mounting evidence for the existence
of so-called parapsychological or paraphysical processes. These pro-
cesses are taken to include the following:
(1) The acquisition and description, by mental means, of
information blocked from ordinary perception by distance
or shielding and generally believed to be secure against
such access.
(2) The production of physical effects such as the perturbation
of instrumentation or equipment that appear to be well
shielded against such interactions.
The literature also indicates evidence of an acceleration of
research in both Western and Soviet Bloc countries in an effort to pre-
cipitate a breakthrough. In the West, a large-scale exploratory research
effort on psychoenergetic channels has been carried out by the authors in
the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory and the Radio Physics Lab-
oratory of SRI International. Our work dealt primarily with a human
information-accessing capability that we call "remote viewing." This
phenomenon pertains to the ability of certain individuals to access and
describe, by means of mental processes, remote geographical locations up
to several thousand km distant from their physical location. In more than
50 experiments with roughly a dozen subjects, including government
scientists sent to examine experimental protocols, significant results
were obtained in the viewing of remote buildings, laboratory apparatus,
and real-time activities. From this work we conclude thatl-s
References are listed at the end of this document.
1
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(1) The phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance
over a range of several kilometers and is still operative
over a range of several thousand kilometers.
(2) Faraday cage electrical shielding does not appear to
degrade the quality or accuracy of perception.
(3) Most of the correct information pertains to shape, form,
color, and material, rather than to function or name,
suggesting that the function may be mediated primarily by
the brain's right hemisphere.
(4) The principal difference between experienced subjects and
inexperienced volunteers is not that the latter do not
exhibit the faculty but rather that their results are
simply less reliable, indicating that remote viewing may be
a latent and widely distributed, though suppressed,
perceptual ability.
(5) Subjects trained over a several-year period have shown
improved performance under continuing experiments.
(6) Clear evidence has been obtained showing that subjects in
laboratory experiments can describe future events, not yet
determined at the time of their description.
The breadth of work in this area of research in the Soviet Union
and Czechoslovakia is detailed in a recent document prepared by the
U.S. Army Medical Intelligence and Information Agency.' In this
document it is pointed out that, beginning with early work (1930s) in
the laboratory of L. Vasilievs(Leningrad Institute for Brain Research),
Soviet efforts in the area of paranormal functioning have concentrated
on behavior modification and control (e.g., putting people into a
trance at a distance through hypnosis). This is in contrast to the
Western orientation toward remote data acquisition. Also, apparently in
keeping with their ideology, the Soviet's work is strongly oriented
toward the physical aspects of the channel, such as determining the
propagation mechanisms involved. Indeed, some of the best theoretical
work has been done by Soviet researcher I. Kogan in his investigation
of the ELF (extremely low frequency) electromagnetic hypothesis. s 9
A study by Garrett Airesearch, a review of the Soviet literature on
psychoenergetic research, treats Soviet application of statistical
theories, research done on electrostatics, the development of remote
sensors, hypothesized carrier mechanisms, human sensitivity to magnetic
fields, and training to improve psychoenergetic performance.10-11
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Garrett concludes that the Soviet Bloc has had and probably still has an
active interest and vigorous research program in this area.
The above reports point to the increasing importance of the psycho-
energetic area in Soviet research, an importance underlined in 1973
when the Soviet Psychological Association issued an unprecedented position
paper calling on the Soviet Academy of Sciences to step up efforts in this
area.12 The Association recommended that the newly formed Psychological
Institute within the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Psychological
Institute of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences review the area and
consider the creation of a new laboratory within one of the institutes to
study persons with unusual abilities. It also recommended a comprehensive
evaluation of experiments and theory by the Academy of Sciences' Institute
of Biophysics and Institute for the Problems of Information Transmission.
Two more recent classified reports issued in 1977 also provide
detailed analyses of the scope, direction, and distribution of Soviet
and East Bloc research in psychoenergetics.13,14 These reports in no
way contradict the data and conclusions presented in the unclassified
literature, which they are intended to supplement.
In this document we concentrate on those areas of psychoenergetic
research that, in our judgement, need to be addressed to provide answers
to critical questions. Tables 1 and 2 represent a matrix, or "road
map" of the various areas of interest, and indicate the type of experi-
mentation that needs to be done in each area.
Table 1 represents a breakdown of the various psychoenergetic
processes; the two main classifications are:
? Perceptual processes, which act as information input to a
human subject (remote viewing, telepathy, dowsing, etc.)
? Perturbation (psychokinetic) processes, which act as output
control from a human subject (generation of fields,
temperature changes, mechanical forces, physiological
effects, etc.)
Table 2 indicates the various action item areas for experimentation
and analysis: It identifies three areas of activity:
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? Catalog the characteristics of the phenomenon, such as
resolution, reliability, bit rate, effects of shielding,
etc., including investigation of various models (e.g.,
electromagnetic)
? Ascertain those .correlates of paranormal functioning
which may lead to screening and training (psychological
conditions, medical profiling, environmental factors,
etc.)
? Determine application potential with regard to: alternate
communications systems, enhanced environmental monitoring
(near and far), application to information security processes,
enhanced man/machine interactions, etc.
Section II of this document lists knowns and unknowns about items
in the tables; Section III summarizes research strategies for handling
the specific areas; and Section IV presents our priorities and
recommendations.
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The following pages provide a brief description of what is known
(K) and unknown (UK) about the psychoenergetic processes shown in
Tables 1 and 2. The discussion under each heading is not intended to
be an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but rather serves as a
brief listing of salient points.
? Remote Viewing Characteristics
K: Abilities appear widespread, though latent; results
are insensitive to distance and shielding; shape,
form, color, material are described better than
analytical concepts (function, name).
UK: Extent to which a subject can improve spatial and
temporal resolution, accuracy of the process; upper
limit to bit rate; ability to track targets in
motion; whether, and to what extent, psychoenergetic
processes can be amplified by technological means.
? Target Acquisition
K: Subject can acquire target site on the basis of
presence of cooperative agent at site; targeting
by geographical coordinates without agent.
UK: What is necessary for target acquisition (names,
maps, pictures, other coordinate systems);
accuracy of target acquisition, e.g., circular error
of probability (CEP); how subject identifies target.
? Other Sensory Modalities
K: In addition to visually observable detail, subjects
sometimes report sounds, smells, electromagnetic
fields, etc. at target locations.
UK: The accuracy of these sensory modalities; other
sensory modes available.
? Time of Flight
K: Information access often appears to be available in
essentially "real" time.
UK: Time-of-flight of psychoenergetic phenomena; mechanism
of propagation.
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? Precognitive Remote Viewing
K: Some subjects report precognitive perception of
future events; laboratory experiments verify access
to information up to an hour in the future.
UK: Limit to forward temporal distance of the phenomenon;
basic mechanisms involved; event time accuracy,
especially as a function of temporal distance.
? Mechanisms, Theoretical Models
K: Phenomena characteristics (relative independence
of distance, shielding, temporal order) often appear
to be at variance with present scientific models.
UK: Mechanisms responsible for the phenomena; relation-
ship of phenomena to electromagnetic, quantum, etc.
bases of present scientific understanding; degree to
which phenomena can be mechanized, energy stored.
K: Subjects appear to induce perturbations in the output
of noise and nuclear-decay-driven random-number generators.
UK: To what extent this process can be stabilized;
mechanisms responsible for this type of interaction.
? Magnetometers, Temperature Devices, and Pendulums
K: Past experiments indicate possible psychoenergetic
interaction with these devices.
UK: Repeatability of phenomena; limits to magnitude of
effects; other types of devices capable of registering
such interactions (nuclear decay, gravitational,
neutrino, Mossbauer effects?); mechanisms responsible.
? EM (Electromagnetic) Effects
K: Subjects can sense certain EM parameters (frequency
[i.e. color], presence/absence of EM noise); ELF (extremely
low frequency) models can account for certain para-
meters of psychoenergetic functioning (low bit rate,
relative independence of distance and shielding).
UK: To what extent, if any, EM mechanisms play a role;
efficacy of ELF generators for targeting, jamming;
effectiveness of shielding obtainable by deep-diving
submersible.
? Physiological Correlates
K: Physiological measures such as brainwave activity,
galvanic skin response, blood volume sometimes
correlate with psychoenergetic effects.
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UK: Stability of such correlations; coupling mechanisms
involved.
? Training
K: Widespread latent abilities observed in the population;
decline effect, with certain types of experiments;
many SRI subjects have improved with practice;
evidence for trainability.
UK: Extent to which remote viewing ability can be taught
to novice subjects; what enables good subjects to
enhance their ability; significance of environmental
factors; effects of experimenter psychology; percentage
of population trainable; optimum screening tests,
profiling methods.
? Application Potential
K: Low-bit-rate communication via psychoenergetic
processes possible, low-level perturbation of
equipments observable, low-level physiological effects
probable.
UK: Optimum systems design for, and degree to which
competitive; applications in environmental information
monitoring; communications; security; machine control;
component design and mechanization; energy storage;
medical/psychological diagnosis and treatment strategies;
education.
9
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A. Objective
A comprehensive program is proposed that is based on information
derived from SRI experimentation and the documented work of others. The
goals of the program are twofold:
? To establish the repeatability of the psychoenergetic
process and the statistics that govern its usefulness
for various applications
? To determine the underlying physical characteristics
of the channel, such as bit rate, channel capacity,
and resolution potential.
B. Characteristics, Analysis, and Theory
1. Characteristics
a. Remote Viewing Reliability Enhancement (Coding)
One of the most successful psychoenergetic processes
is the remote viewing of target locations demarcated by some means, such
as the presence at the site of an individual known to the "viewer".
Unfortunately, this process--which works so well--results in narrative
description that is difficult to assess in a quantitative manner.
In order to utilize the remote sensing phenomena as a
tool to investigate the physical and psychological parameters of
psychoenergetic processes, it is important to establish optimum analysis
(judging) procedures. Because experiments are designed with the goal of
varying specific parameters, such as subject shielding or the necessity
of feedback, the analysis or judging procedure must be as rapid as
possible, while retaining objectivity, if immediate feedback to both
subject and experimenters is to be provided.
To objectify the analysis of a single response from a
subject during a remote sensing experiment, it is necessary to quantify
the target content in some discrete way. From an examination
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of the data base accumulated to date it would appear that at least five
recurrent target attributes are frequently sensed correctly by our subjects.
If each of these attributes is assigned a binary digit--a "one" if the
attribute is present at the target site, and a "zero" if it is absent--
we can, for the sake of research experimentation, construct a pool of 32
targets corresponding to all possible combinations of five individual
attribute bits. Table 3 shows one such example for an indoor swimming
pool.
QUANTITATIVE JUDGING TECHNIQUE
Code Word
Bit Position
Target
Attribute
Bit Assignment
1
Inside
1
Outside
0
2
Subdued lighting
1
Bright lighting
0
3
Wet
1
Dry
0
4
Passive
1
Active
0
5
Man-made
1
Natural
0
A judging procedure utilizing the binary-coded target
pool is then as follows. After a target is selected at random, and
after the subject has registered his response in the usual way, the
judge's task is simply to ascertain from the subject's response whether
each of the five attributes is present (1) or absent (0). The resulting
five-bit number is then compared to the actual five-bit number for the
target. In the case of good functioning, it is possible to obtain
statistically significant results with one or two such trials. From
pilot work it appears that the individual attributes are identified with
an 80% reliability; thus the results indicate that this judging procedure
may provide a rapid and accurate technique to use remote sensing as a tool
to test various models of psychoenergetic functioning.
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