Pres~~Ooitt-&tPoP4Rb?6ag*l~oo*V/V8fff udlr-ftbMC!00tM6W68 Asso tiong St. Louis. A Survey of Expert Opinion on Potentially Negative Uses of Psi, U.S. Government Interest in Psi, and the Level of Research Funding of the Field Charles T. Tart University.of California at Davis Considerable concern has been expressed by some parapsychologists lately about the possible mil~itarv uses of psi ability. This concern is partially based on assessments that the U.S.S.R. is not only conducting secret research on the development of military applications of psi, but that this military r( Arch is f4LrI4~!d su2port- levels such that significant progress on understanding and using psi is more likely in the U.S.S.R. than in the U.S.A. These kinds of concerns have been expressed in the recently declassified Defense intelligence Agency document DST- 181OS-387-75, "Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research." Adequate assessment of this situation is difficult for several reasons. First, any estimate of what is happening with secret military research in the U.S.S.R. must involve considerable inference and conjecture. Second, there has been-no collection of expert opinion in the U.S.A. as to whether psi can potentially be used for military purposes. Third, there has been little.-if any factual data on the actual level of support of parapsychologi- cal research in the U.S.A. This paper will report a survey of (1) expert opinion on the potential military uses of psi; (2) the degree to which the U.S. cially made inquiries about the field among experts in (3) the level of funding of parapsychological research years. Hopefully this will provide some data relevant questions. Sampling Procedure: Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-0078 government has offi- parapsychology; and over the past five to these important 7R000500350001 -0 I io SG1J Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0500350001 -0 Tar t -2- Except for possible classified research on psi, it is relatively straightforward to identify the handful of individuals and research labora- tories that have produced the bulk of experimental data on parapsychology in the last five years.- Based on the membership list of the Parapsychological Association (PA), my.knowledge of the literature, and my personal acquain- tance with most of the workers in this field, in March of 1978 1 sent ques- tionnaires to individuals (the director or an outstanding individual scien- tist) at. ries in this country. My criteria for selection was that each individual had to be a fu~_1~ ~ol ~the ~PAwho had been actively working and publishing in the field for the last five years. Each had to ha ve at least one occasional colleague to qualify to represent a laboratory or center. In order to pro- t~~he ~confiden~tiali~tyof ~myrZspondents, I shall not specify my selection criteria in any more detail, but I believe that an almost identical selection would be made by every knowledgeable parapsychologist. Thirteen of the four- teen questionnaires were completed and returned to me. The questionnaire asked each respondent for his or her opinion on three Rotential military applications of psi, about official government visits to their laboratory, and about the average funding level of their laboratory over the past five years. Results: guestion 1: "How strongly do you believe that psi abilities might 12oten- tially be used in the future in a practically useful way for espionage and military intelligence activities? Assume that very large amounts of money and scientific manpower would be used to study and develop these activities in making your estimate." The response categories allowed for this and the following two questions were "Impossible," "Unlikely," "Possible," "Likely," and "Certain." No Approve-d-Por- Release ROOffWO350001 -0 A nproved For Release 2000/08/07 - CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0500350001 -0 Tarqp -37- respondent considered espionage use of psi impossible or unlikely. Four considered it possible, five likely, and the remaining four considered it certain. 2uestion 2: "How strongly do you believe that psi abilities might Roten- -tially be used in the future in a practically useful way by the military to physically harm, sicken, or kill individuals? Again assume enormous re- sources devoted to such development." considered No respondent 4-! this impossible, two thought it unlikely, seven possible, three likely, and one certain. Question 3: "How strongly do you believe that psi abilities might poten- tially be used in the future in a practically useful way by the military to physically interfere with the operation of physical equipment, such as com- puters, observation instruments, etc." Again assume enormous resources devoted to such development." The distribution of answers to this question was almost identical to those of the second question. No respondent thought this impossible, one thought it unlikely, seven possible, four likely, and one certain. There is a fairly general consensus of these experts, then, that several military applications of psi are possible or even likely if enough development research were carried out. Question 4: "Have you or one of your laboratory staff been approached by agents or officials of the U.S. government, acting in an official capacity, in the last five years, in order to gather information on parapsychology for any government agency?" The alternatives here were "Never," "Once," "Several Times," and "Fre- quently." The bulk (8) of the respondents had never been approached, one had been once, and four had been approached several times. None answered that they had been approached frequently. Thus the U.S. government has Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0500350001 -0 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0500350001 -0 Tar t -4- gathered at least some information about the field from knowledgeable sources. Funding Level: Because the question of fundinR in a chronically under- funded field can be emotionally sensitive, the questionnaires were returned to me in a manner that did not allow me to identify individual respondents. ---------- I asked the respondents to estimate their laboratory's average yearjy_.~ud t (over the pas' fi ~,.Years) that had been available fof~research.72~psi. Teaching or service activities were not to be included in this estimate, nor was any dollar value to be put on volunteer help. Researchers who had a full-time salary but who could use only part of their time on psi research were to prorate their salary accordingly. I would guess that the funds- available to these 13 respondents probably represent at (e:a:sjt:80~-9(0% of ail the funds available for scientific parapsychological research. Thus the figures below should be close estimates of actual dollars that have been available for research. The total-funds available per year for the entire group of respondents -52, ~000. W