Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1200050009-6
04(on 130st
'Psychic Studies
Might Help Ue@j*
I Aplore Soviets
U.S. intelligence agencies won't
talk about it, but they are rushing to
catch up with the Soviet Union in
what one scientist jocularly (alls 'the
@race for inner space-psychic re-
search.
Parapsychology is a field so full of
pseudo-scientists, flakes and outright
charlatans 'that its easy to debunk
the whole idea as a comic-strip con-
cept unworthy of serious scientific
study.
In 1981, when I first began report.
-
ing on secret U.S. and Soviet pro
grams using so-called psychics to
gather intelligence, some of the gov.
t,niment-funded projects were obvi-
ously off-the-waU. There was the
'hyperspatial nuclear howitzer" that
would "transmit" a bomb explosion
from the Nevada desert to down-
town Moscow with the speed of
thought, or, the "anti-missile time
warV that would send an incoming
enemy mimile into the past, blowing
tip dino6aurs iriateaO of 20th century
)kniericans.
But there are legitimate labora-
tory projects that may eventually
unlock the mysteries of the human
mind. One Of the most promising is
the testing of "remote viewine-the
claimed ability of some psychics to
describe scenes thousands of miles
awaly.
The CIA and the Pentagon have
an obvious interest in this phenom-
enon. If they could get psychics to
throw their Wads behind the Iron
Curtain, there'd be no need to risk
the fives ol human agents.
The CIA sent representatives. 0 a
parapsychology conference in Virgin-
ia last December. Besides the usual
spoon-bending-which professional
magicianshave denounced as a fairly
simple trick--there was serious dis-
cussion of remote viewing. In fact,
the CIA is now seriously pondering
-y of raising "psychic
the possibilit
shields" to keel) Soviet remote view-
Us away from our secrets.
I asked my skp@ptical associates
Dale Van Atta and Joseph Spear to
find out how remote viewing has be-
come almost univenially accepted )in
the intelligence community. They
gabried access to top-secret briefings
on the subject. This is what they
le&lrned;
. The CIA's latest remote viewing
project was code-named -Grin
Flame," mid was carried out in
part
by two respected academics: Huold
putiloff, formerly with the National.
Security Agency, mid Russell Targ,
formerly with the Stanford Research
Institute in Mehilo Park, Calif.
Puthoff and Targ conducted at
Monday, AprH23,1984
least two tests that produced ast%
. 6
ishing results. They gave one. psyclk
the latitude and longitude of a 4L
mote location and txild him to pro.;
ject his mind there and describe t1w,' ,
scene. He described an airrield, C41111@@
plete with details-including a 6,Xe
gantry and crane at one end of it
field.
The CIA was impressecl, but
ical. There was indeed an airfield,
the map coordinates the psychic
been given. The site was the Soviets'
ultra-secret miclear testing ared A
Semipala-ti4sk, Kazakfistan. 30
there was no gantry or crane thera@!'("
still, it had. been a while &10"
U.S. spy satellites had taken pict@A'
of the Semipalatinsk bme. SO
CIA wailkd for the nei
tos---and sure enough, there wi*.,
the gantry and crane, just as the 01-
chic had. described therr.,,,. No onojh
U.S. intelligence agencies had kndip':
the equipment was there, so the !I-
formation couldn't have been leaW
to him.
viet".
The second 'test involved a SIA
TU95 "Backfire" bomber, which the
CIA knew had crashed somewhere in
Africa. They were eager to find it be-.-
fore the Soviets did, so they ed'i,&`
, @ 1'@
take photographs and perhaps pur- -
loi.n secret gear from the wreckag4. @ @.
So one of Project Grill Flamesre- -
mote viewers was asked to locate4he
downed bomber. He gave the CIA,
the location within several miles.,
A ;WiWi =MT@AA
Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788ROO1200050009-6