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MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Office of Research and Development and
Office of Technical Service Paranormal
Perception Research Project
SG1 I
1. It is recommended that a research and development investigation
of paranormal perception phenomena be initiated with Stanford Research
Institute (SRI). A proposal for such an investigation.is attached.
Since this is a tightly directed advanced research project, it is further
recommended that the effort be jointly funded and monitored by the Office
of Research and Development and the Office of Technical Service. The
Project Officer will bel The estimated cost for the
proposed effort is.$149,555.
2. The objectives of the proposed effort are four-fold. Approximately
50% of the effort will be directed towards the investigation of the oppor-
tunities for the operational use of "gifted" individuals; twenty percent
will be directed towards establishin .g those characteristics which will
enable us to identify "gifted" subjects; twenty percent will be directed
towards investigation of the neurophysiological correlates of paranormal
activities; ten percent will be directed towards validation of paranormal
experiments.
3. A previous OTS project, summarized in the attached proposal,
indicated the existence of paranormal perception phenomena. The phenomena
include remote perception of documents, objects, activities, and locations.
The demonstrated reproducibility of such remote parception under controlled
conditions strongly Suggests these phenomena are and will continue to be
interesti.ng to the in .telligence community for either offensive operational
exploitation or defensive threat assessment.
4. The proposed effort will be concentrated in the areas described
in the Statement of Work section of the attached proposal. In summary
these are: (a) Characterization of the remote perception abilities of
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gifted subjects, with emphasis on those characteristics of most
importance to intelligence matters such as resolution, information
transfer rate and accuracy; (b) Correlation of physiological responses
to reliability and accuracy of paranormal perception; (c) Enhancement
of those abilities which seem to be most useful to the intelligence
community; and (d) Exploration of new avenues of research discovered
during the course of the Program.
. 5. The proposed project is well suited to a joint effort by the
Office of Research and Development and the Office of Technical Service.
The proposed investigation is a ttghtly directed advanced research project.
It involves the exploration of demonstrated phenomena to determine the
significance and limitations of remote perception abilities of "gifted"
individuals for intelligence collections. Necessarily a parallel effort
elucidating the fundamental nature of the paranormal perception phenomena
is proposed. This fundamental information is required in order to develop
an orderly comprehensive program which would lead to the basic understand-
i.ng essential for the full exploitation of the phenomena for intelligence
activities. It is expected that the combination of attitudes and experi-
ences represented by OTS and ORD will produce timely relevant results and
insure an objective assessment of the significance of those results.
6. The recommended project should be completed by Stanford Research
Institute. SRI has produced some of the most significant investigations
in paranormal phenomena. This has occurred bec'ause of the phlosophies
and abilities of the principal investigators., These investigators have
established competence in the physical sciences and in paranormal phenomena
research. They have been responsive to past OTS directives and are willing
to investigate intell.igence related applications. SRI has given these
investigators the institutional integrity and facilities necessary to
achieve creditable research in both the public and a more restrictive
private domain.
7.@ Although the controversy associated with paranormal research
may create some unique security problems, they are not insurmountable.
These problems include embarrassment of being involved in an assumed
fraud; the potential adverse propaganda associated with the use of psychic
mind altering or control techniques, and the fact that some subjects may
be of questionable stability. These potential problems can be controlled
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because of the motivation and integrity of the principal investigators.
Both the investigators and the Institute have solid reputations and
derive much of their support from government projects. Involvement
with fraudulent experiments, publication of poor experimentation and
open association with CIA would be deleterious to the careers of the
investigators and the credibility of the Institute. For this effort,
we recommend a SECRET level contract but remain flexible to other security
arrangements which could be implemented-as deemed necessary.
SG1 I
'Carl E. Duckett
Deputy Director
for
Science and Technology
SGII
Date,
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APPROVED: