Remote viewing is a mental skill that allows a viewer to describe a target that is inaccessible to normal senses due to distance, time or shielding.

Remote viewers are trained to view something using their minds, no matter the distance, obstacles, or time. A remote viewer can view things that cannot be physically seen from his location or time period. In other words, a remote viewer might be able to describe an event that occurred long ago, to describe an object that is sealed inside of a container, or to describe a location on the other side of the world, which he has never visited or seen in photos.

Usually, the person who is doing the remote viewing is given some information about the target.

Unlike other forms of clairvoyance, remote viewing was developed in a research setting, using geographic locations, hidden objects, archaeological sites, and space objects as a target, rather than playing cards or colors.

Remote viewing involves a variety of phenomena that utilizes the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and even touch, as in a sensation of texture, as well as extrasensory perceptions that may involve clairvoyance, telepathy, or out-of-body experiences.

Remote viewers may verbalize what they are experiencing or perceiving, and they may also record what they are seeing in sketches.

As compared to other clairvoyant disciplines, remote viewing is more structured and remote viewing is a discipline that can be taught and learned, although some people may have a greater capacity for learning the skill than others.

Remote viewing is not used to give psychic readings or to tell fortunes, but as serious research, for those who believe in it, and in criminal investigations, government intelligence work, and commercial applications.

Historically, the popularity of remote viewing stems from a $20 million research project sponsored by the U.S. government for military applications. Officially, the project was terminated by the military in 1995, and transferred to the CIA, where some people insist that it has been continued secretly, although officially it was terminated later that year.

After some of the Stargate Project documents were declassified, several remote viewers, formerly employed by the US government, went into business for themselves, offering remote viewing services to businesses and others, as well as training new remote viewers, and appearing on various radio and television shows to answer questions about remote viewing.

Some of those previously employed by the government as remote viewers have insisted that the government has not actually suspended the program, but is continuing it under another name and agency.

The scientific community has since relegated remote viewing to the status of a pseudoscience, claiming that successful earlier results could not be duplicated using the scientific method.

 

 

Feature Article

Star Gate Project

Parapsychology is the study of paranormal and psychic phenomena, such as clairvoyance, precognition, remote viewing and telepathy. Over the years, these studies have intrigued many individuals, institutions and government organizations who have pursued research in the field.

Remote viewing is the ability of a remote viewer to view things such as an object inside an opaque box, or a location not visited by the viewer, that could not be experienced using normal sensory organs. The remote viewer describes the object or the location or even draws sketches to convey what he or she perceives sitting in a remote location.

The intelligence community of various countries, including Russia and the United States, displayed more than passing interest in using the concepts that are associated with remote viewing to intelligence gathering activities. In the 1960s, the United States intelligence agencies learned that the Russians were using remote viewing for intelligence gathering. The Russians had spent 60 million rubles on remote viewing in 1970, and were budgeted to spend 300 million rubles in 1975 because the Russians felt that they were making headway in the field of remote viewing.

The genesis of remote viewing as a discipline lies in programs launched by U.S. intelligence agencies in 1972. Beginning that year, these agencies conducted a series of experiments on the use of remote viewing for the purpose of gathering information from a distance. The main goals of the program were to:

  * Study the use of remote viewing in other countries
  * Conduct fundamental research in remote viewing
  * Assess suitability of remote viewing as an intelligence gathering process

The program aimed to create a method of spying to gather intelligence and information without endangering its assets on the ground. Remote viewing could also supplement its existing information gathering equipment and methods, in a way that could not escape detection.

In the United States, intelligence gathering is in the hands of different agencies belonging to various arms of the federal government. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) provides military intelligence to all stakeholders in the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gathers, processes and analyzes national security information from all over the world. It uses human intelligence to perform its tasks. It provides intelligence to the President and Cabinet of the United States. The United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) conducts operations in information, security and intelligence for U.S. Army commanders and national decision makers.

The DIA and INSCOM ran various programs involving remote viewing, starting from 1978, using the following code names:

  * GONDOLA WISH
  * GRILL FAME
  * CENTER LANE
  * SUNSTREAK

In its testing and training, the DIA used the services of Stanford Research Institute (SRI), where Hal Puthoff and Russel Targ were laser physicists and experienced experimenters. They used experienced remote viewers, Pat Price and Ingo Swann, to gain detailed information about Soviet R&D facility at Semipalitinsk, and they also performed other successful experiments using remote viewing. SRI became the premier agency to undertake remote viewing activities of various intelligence agencies.

In 1977, INSCOM established a remote viewing project known as GONDOLA WISH, which had the aim of integrating the Soviet and Eastern psycho-energetics (remote viewing) intelligence collection threat into the all-source operations (OPSEC) support scenario. By 1978, the army concluded that the evidence presented warranted a more comprehensive program to explore intelligence collection applications of remote viewing. Thus, it abandoned the GONDOLA WISH program and ventured into a larger program called GRILL FLAME, with the the goal of using remote viewing as an intelligence collection method.

On September 4, 1979, the remove viewing efforts of INSCOM tasted success by locating a missing navy plane through remote viewing within fifteen miles of the crash site. Based on that success, GRILL FLAME was assigned further operational tasks. Around the same time, an independent investigative committee known as the Gale Committee reported its findings which wanted to:

  * Continue remote viewing to assess its value for intelligence collection
  * Pursue the remote viewing threat from foreign countries
  * Establish a Department of Defense authority to fund and monitor the effort

As a result of the Gale Committee report, remote viewing secured a fillip by involving the CIA and NSA in the GRILL FLAME program, as well as other arms of the United States military.

Towards the end of 1982, the Budget Subcommittee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ended its funding to INSCOM on the charge of double budgeting. Because of this, the DIA took over the GRILL FLAME project. After a brief pause, INSCOM received funding from Security and Investigative Activities, prompting it to begin a new remote viewing program known as CENTER LANE. In the meanwhile, the DIA completed the GRILL FLAME program and, based on an independent evaluation, initiated fundamental research in remote viewing and remote action, continuing applied applications research into remote viewing under its leadership.

By 1985, the DIA had taken control of remote viewing activities when INSCOM came under its charge, and the CENTER LANE program came under the control of the DIA. In a later development, the DIA intended to use remote viewing to conduct actual intelligence collection programs rather than to simply continue fundamental research into the technology, a plan that met with the approval of the Senate Committee, which charged the DIA with the responsibility of handling more collection activities.

In its more focused operational role, the DIA began a new program known as SUN STREAK, which had the goal of undertaking operational intelligence applications using remote viewing. Soon, SUN STREAK had expanded its role, taking up seven tasks including the penetration of inaccessible targets and cuing of other intelligence collection systems.

A significant part of SUN STREAK's mission involved the training of professional intelligence assets in remote viewing. Training inputs included teaching of deep relaxation and focused attention techniques. Remote viewers followed a rigid structure that enabled them to establish better mental contact with the location.

The United States government, through its various arms, planned experiments in remote viewing to assist its intelligence gathering efforts. Its goal was to create a trainable, repeatable, operational and accurate method of psychic spying or information gathering. To this end, it committed resources and personnel, and carried on the experiment for twenty-three years under the STAR GATE code name.

During this period, the STAR GATE project undertook hundreds of experiments in intelligence collection projects through thousands of remote viewing episodes, with varying degrees of success.

However, in 1995, the government abruptly transferred the STAR GATE project from the DIA to the CIA with a caveat to review the program's effectiveness. The CIA appointed outspoken critics of extrasensory perception to the review panel, which recommended the closure of the project. Accepting the panel's recommendations, the government terminated the $20 million STAR GATE project, stating that it had not been found to be effective.

Perhaps coincidentally, this came about shortly after the project had found its way into the media.

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