SG1D SG1D SG1D SG1I Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 B. Basic Research 1. Testing Program During the first month of this program, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) instrument was administered de SG1D programs as being gifted in the area of paranormal perception, They are Mr. Patrick H, Price, screened for remote viewing ability, Mrs. Hella Hammid, screened for EEG correlates to remote stimuli, and Mr. Duane Elgin, screened for high scoring response to a random target generator. Further in-depth interviewing of the first two subjects was carried out by preparation by [ana will be avatlable to the contract technical representatives when completed, On the basis of discussion with technical representative, [ SRI representatives have consulted with a number of Bay Area neurophysiologists concerning administration of the Halstead Reitan (H-R) Neuropsychology Test Battery, Those contacted include Dr. Karl Pribram of the Stanford Medical School, Dr. Robert Ornstein of the Langley-Porter Neuropsychiatric Clinic, and Dr. Donald Lim of the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, To date satisfactory arrangements for administration of the H-R instrument have not yet been made, as only the latter facility has personnel experienced in its administration, but not ordinarily available for subcontracted consulting. The three individuals named above have, however, agreed to help locate an appropriate individual or facility to carry out such testing so no difficulty is anticipated in meeting this requirement. Approved For Release 2003/04/18 CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 A measure of the visual acuity of one subject (P.P.) was obtained utilizing one of the instruments available in the optics group of the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of SRI. The measurement method involves forced-choice discrimination on the part of the subject between alternate zero and finite-contrast grating images, for each of a number of spatial-frequency gratings. (See Appendix I1.) The system, which is automated, tracks and records the subject's forced-choice responses to yield a curve of threshold (75% correct choice) contrast sensitivity as a function of spatial frequency. As might be expected, higher contrast is required at the low and high frequency tails of the distribution, as compared with the middle range, to discriminate between grating and uniform images. The purpose of the test with regard to our program was to determine whether a subject possessing an unusual ability to view remote stimuli also possessed an unusual visual acuity response in a threshold-determining instrument, either because of unusual acuity in the ordinary sense, or through the use of an extraordinary ability to discriminate between a target and a blank under conditions of vanishingly-small information content. The resultant curve lay within the range of expected human variation indicating no unusual response activity. 2. Measurement Program A 10-channel polygraph facility under the direction of Dr. Jerry Lukas of the Sensory Sciences Research Center has been brought into the program and certain functions tailored to our specification. The facility will be used initially to monitor GSR, blood flow (plethysmograph), and EEG activity of subjects carrying out tasks involving perception of remote stimuli. For our purposes, the display of raw data has been augmented by a computer program which has been Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : €1A-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 written and debugged to provide on-line 5-second averages of EEG activity in the theta, alpha, and beta bands. Discussions are now in progress on experimental protocols to be employed in the utilization of this facility. EEG data taken prior to this program, but unanalyzed, has been subjected to analysis in an effort to determine whether a particular protocol was a viable instrument for defining correlates of remote perception, The description of the experiment and the results of the analysis is given in the EEG section of a paper submitted for publication to Nature, given here as Appendix I. In an effort to determine the effects of motivation on paranormal functioning, the following test procedure has been initiated. One subject (P.P.) has completed 7075 trials on guessing the state of a four-stage electronic random target generator without monetary reward being associated with the scoring, and is now repeating the series with a monetary reward scaled to scoring. Upon completion of the series, the results will be analyzed to determine whether the difference between scoring under the two conditions is significant. The reward system, shown in Table -1, is scaled linearly with difficulty. Table 1 REWARD SYSTEM FOR SCORING ON 25-TRIAL RUN, P=1/4 PER TRIAL Nr. hits/25-trial run,N Prob. of at least N hits Reward 10 0.071 — gl 1i ~ 0,030 2 12. 0.010 5 13 - 0.0034 12 14. 0.00092 35 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 5CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 FIGURE CAPTIONS l. Target pictures and responses drawn by Uri Geller under shielded conditions, 2. Computer drawings and responses drawn by Uri Geller. a. Computer drawing stored on video display b. Computer drawing stored in computer memory only c. Computer drawing stored on video display with zero intensity 3. Occipital EEG spectra, 0 to 20 Hz, for one subject (H.H.) acting as receiver, showing amplitude changes in the 9 - 11 Hz band as a function of strobe frequency. Three cases: 0, 6, and 16 flashes per second (12 trial averages). Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 LNTRODUCTTON In this paper we present results of experiments suggesting the existence of one or more perceptual modalities through which individuals obtain information about their environment, wherein this information is not presented to any known sense. Such perceptual abilities are often considered to be paranormal. The literature in the fielat > coupled with our own observations have led us to conclude that such abilities can be studied under laboratory conditions. ‘the phenomena we have investigated most extensively pertain to the ability of certain individuals to describe graphical material or remote scenes shielded against ordinary perception. In addition, we also performed pilot studies to determine if electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings might indicate perception of remote happenings even in the absence of correct overt responses. In these experiments we concentrated on what we considered to be our primary responsibility--namely, to resolve under conditions as unambiguous as possible the basic issue of whether a certain class of paranormal perception phenomena exists. Therefore, we conducted our experiments with sufficient control, utilizing visual, acoustic, and electrical shielding, to ensure that all conventional paths of sensory input were blocked. At all times we were vigilant in the design of our experiments to take measures to prevent sensory leakage and to prevent deception, whether intentional or unintentional, on the part of our subjects. Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 The overall goal of our research program is the determination of the laws underlying these phenomena. That is, our goal is not just to catalog interesting events, but rather to uncover patterns of cause-effect rela- tionships that lend themselves to analysis and hypothesis in the forms with which we are familiar in scientific study. The results presented here constitute a first step toward that goal, in that we have established under known conditions a data base from which departures as a function of physical and psychological variables can be studied in future work. In this paper we describe three related experiments which we consider to represent a single ability exhibiting different rates of information transmission. First, we conducted experiments with Mr. Uri Geller in which we examined his ability, while located in an electrically shielded room, to reproduce target pictures drawn by experimenters located at remote Locations. Second, we conducted double-blind experiments with two individuals, Mr. Ingo Swann and Mr. Pat Price, in which we measured their ability to describe remote outdoor scenes many miles from their physical location. Finally, we conducted preliminary tests using electroencephalo- grams (EEG), in which subjects were asked to perceive whether a remote Light was flashing, and to determine whether a subject could perceive the presence of the light, even if only at a noncognitive level of awareness. REMOTE PERCEPTION OF GRAPHIC MATERIAL We describe here a series of experiments in paranormal perception with a 27 year old Israeli subject, Uri Geller. In preliminary testing Mr. Geller apparently demonstrated an ability to reproduce simple pictures 2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 in order to eliminate the possibility of pre-experiment target forcing, Mr. Geller was kept ignorant as to the identity of the person selecting the target and as to the method of target selection. Mr. Geller’s task was then to reproduce with pen on paper the line drawing being generated by the experimenters at the target location. Following a period of effort ranging from a few minutes to half an hour, Mr. Geller either passed (when he did not feel confident) or indicated he was ready to submit a drawing to the experimenters, in which case the drawing was collected before Mr. Geller was permitted to see the target. In order to prevent sensory cueing of the target information, Experiments 1 through 10 were carried out using a shielded room in SRI's facility for EEG research, The degree of acoustic and visual isolation provided for this experiment is that afforded by a double-walled steel room, Locked by means of an inner and outer door, each of which is secured with a refrigerator-type locking mechanism. The person inside the room is continuously monitored by means of a one-way audio monitor. The target picture was never discussed by the experimenters after the picture was drawn or brought near the shielded room. In our detailed examination of the shielded room and the protocol used in these experiments, no sensory leakage has been found. The conditions and results for the ten experiments carried out in the shielded room are:displayed in Table 1. As indicated in the Table, all experiments, except Experiments 4 and 5, were conducted with Mr. Geller closeted inside the shielded room. In Experiments 4 and 5, the procedure was reversed-~i.e., the target was located inside the shielded room, with Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 (line drawings) which had been drawn and placed in opaque sealed envelopes which Mr. Geller was not permitted to handle. However, since each of the targets was known to at least one experimenter in the room with Mr. Geller, it was not possible on the basis of the preliminary testing to discriminate between Mr. Geller's direct perception of envelope contents and perception via some mechanism involving the experimenters, whether paranormal or subliminal. Therefore, an experimental study was undertaken to examine the phenomenon under conditions specifically designed to eliminate all conventional information channels, overt or subliminal. This was accomplished by separating Mr. Geller from both the target material and anyone knowledgeable of the target material, as in the recent experiments by Musso and Granero. The first part of the study consisted of a series of thirteen separate drawing experiments carried out over a seven day period. The thirteen- experiment data set constitutes the entire set of consecutive experiments carried out in the time available for the study, with no experiments deleted. The protocol for the experiments was as follows: At the beginning of the experiment either Mr. Geller or the experimenters entered a shielded room so that from that time forward Mr. Geller was at all times visually, acoustically, and electrically shielded from personnel and material at the target location. Only following Mr. Geller's isolation from the experimenters was a target chosen and drawn, a procedure designed to eliminate pre- experiment cueing. The method of target selection involved random procedures, such as randomly opening a dictionary and selecting the first word describing an object that could reasonably be drawn. Furthermore, Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Experiment 1 2 3 4 wn Oo CO “SO 10 il 12 13 Date 8/4/73 8/4/73 8/5/73 8/5/73 8/6/73 8/7/73 8/7/73 8/8/73 8/8/73 8/8/73 8/9/73 8/10/73 8/10/73 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 TABLE 1. SUMMARY: REMOTE PERCEPTION OF GRAPHIC MATERIAL Geller Location Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Room adjacent shielded room Room adjacent shiélded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room Shielded room 3EEG Facility shielded room (see text). b . . : Perceiver-target distances measured in meters. #17 #1 #1 to #1 to #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 #2° #2 #2 Target Location Adjacent room (4.1 m)> Adjacent room (4.1 m) Office (475 m) Shielded room #1 (3.2 m) Shielded room #1 (3.2 m) Adjacent room (4.1 m) Adjacent room (4.1 m) Remote room (6.75 m) Adjacent room (4.1 m) Adjacent room (4.1 m) Computer (54 m) Computer (54 m) Computer (54 m) “SRI Radio Systems Laboratory shielded room (see text). Target Firecracker Grapes Devil Solar system Rabbit Tree Envelope Camel Bridge Seagull Kite (computer CRT) Church (computer memory) Arrow through heart (computer CRT, zero intensity) Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 Figure la 1b le 1d No drawing No drawing No drawing le 1f 1g 2a 2b 2¢
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 Mr. Geller on the outside in an adjacent room, For those experiments in which Mr. Geller was inside the shielded room, the target location was in an adjacent room at a distance of about 4 meters, except for Experiments 3 and 8, in which the target locations were, respectively, an office at a distance of 475 meters and a room down the hall at a distance of about 7 meters. in Experiment 1,the object drawn on the basis of random dictionary selection was a firecracker, shown in Fig. l(a). Mr. Geller's immediate yerbal response via the audio monitor was that he saw "a cylinder with noise coming out of it." He made two responses to the target, also shown in Fig. l(a). In Experiment 2, the target--also chosen by random dictionary selection-- was a cluster of grapes. Mr. Geller said that he was quite certain that he had the picture. Both the target picture and Mr. Geller's response have 24 grapes in the cluster (Fig. 1(b)). In Experiment 3, Mr. Geller was locked in the shielded room with one experimenter outside as a monitor while the target was drawn in another building 475 meters away. The target, again randomly selected from the dictionary, was a devil (Fig. 1(c)). Mr. Geller spent 30 minutes on his drawing and expressed considerable difficulty in getting the target. The results are interesting from the standpoint of possible insight into the process that they provide. His drawings consisted of representations of Biblical symbology, including the "Moses tablets," an apple with a worm, a snake, and a concluding composite picture with the tablets on top of the world and the trident outside. Of these only the trident corresponds Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 SNOILIGNOS Q30T13IHS YAGNN H5T199 IHN AG NMVHC S3SNOdS3SY GONV SSYNLOld LADYVL JO ONILSISNOD WVINSLVW TWOIHdVYD = | FYNDIS (6) ty) (2) (P) 3SNOdS3ay : AADYVL ASNOdS3Y¥ AJSNOdS3Y ASNOdS3Y - \ 7 © Pa. f 139uvL = _/ ays wes cs / “ LIDYVL aS a (9) _ «®) & 3ASNOdS3u : @ J3SNOdS3¥ : L ASNOdS3Y LADYVL 3SNOdS3uY LAIDdVL 2 aSNOdS3Y \ (>) Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 At the beginning of Experiment 10, Mr. Geller expressed extreme confidence and entered the shielded room. The tatget then chosen for Experiment 10 was a bird in flight. Mr. Geller said almost immediately, via the audio monitor in the shielded room, that he saw a swan flying over a hill and that he was sure that his drawing was correct (Fig. 1(g)). Experiments 11 through 13 were carried out in SRI's Engineering Building, to make use of the computer facilities available there. For these experiments, Mr. Geller was secured in a double-walled, copper-screen Faraday cage 54 meters down the hall and around the corner from the computer room. For Experiment 11, a picture of a kite was drawn by one of the experimenters on the face of a cathode ray tube display screen, driven by the computer's graphics program. Mr. Geller's response, shown in Fig. 2(a), was a square with diagonals. For Experiment 12, a picture of a church was drawn and stored in the memory of the computer. Mr. Geller's responses are shown in the drawings of Fig. 2(b). Although his responses have some elements in common with the target. drawing, he did not recognize the target as a church. In Experiment 13, the target drawing, an arrow through a heart (Fig. 2(c)), was drawn on the face of the cathode ray tube and then the display intensity was turned off so that no picture was visible. Mr. Geller immediately tthe Faraday cage provides 120 dB attenuation for plane wave radio frequency radiation over a range of 15 KHz to 1 GHz. For magnetic fields the attenuation is 68 dB at 15 KHz and decreases to 3 dB at 60 Hz. Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 "ALISNSLNE OYSZ HLIM AV1dSIG OACIA NO G3yOLS JYNLIId (2) “ATINO AYOWSW YSLNdWOO NI GSYOLS JYNLOId (9) “Av1dSIC OJGIA NO GAyOLS FYNLIId (8) "437739 INN HLIM SLNSWISdxS ONIMVHO YALNdWOD WOYS TVIYSLVW TVOIHdVHD = ¢@ SHNDIS (2) (9) (e} @ ASNOdS43Y é ASNOdS4Y ASNOdS3y S A L ASNOdS3yY L JSNOdS3Y (| ” / te i39uVL ; La9uvL scacosezesesoscse20se9 2 bowed : : ; : : vocscessees ‘ ° : : . : 2 3 5S <8 os LIDyuVI / Approved For Release 2003/04/18 -181A-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 drew an arrow under a rectangle and then drew another arrow inside a suit- case, which he considered a better representation of the target. To obtain an independent evaluation of the correlation between target and response data, the experimenters submitted the data for judging on a "blind" basis by two SRI scientists who were not otherwise associated with the research. For the ten cases in which Mr. Geller provided a response, the judges were asked to match the response data with the “corresponding target data (without replacement). In those cases in which Mr. Geller made more than one drawing as his response to the target, all the drawings were combined as a set for judging. The two judges each matched the target data to the response data with no error. For either judge such a correspondence has an a priori probability, under the null hypothesis of no information channel, of p = (ior)! &3x 10. The quality of mateh between target and response in certain cases, together with the overall probability of matching obtained by the judges, constitute strong evidence for the existence of a potentially useful information channel. A second series of experiments was carried out to determine whether direct perception of envelope contents was possible without some person knowing of the target picture. One hundred target pictures of everyday objects were drawn by an SRI artist and sealed by other SRI personnel in double envelopes containing black cardboard. The hundred targets were divided randomly into groups of 20 for use in each of the three days' experiments. iil Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 On each of the three days of these experiments, Mr. Geller passed. That is, he declined to associate any envelope with a drawing that he made. On each day he made approximately 12 recognizable drawings, which he felt were associated with the entire target pool of 100. He seemed to be disturbed by the existence of such a large target pool. On each of the three days, two of his drawings could reasonably be associated with two of the 20 daily targets. On the third day, two of his drawings were very close replications of two of that day's target pictures. We consider that the drawings resulting from this experiment do not depart significantly from what would be expected by chance, which appeared to be Mr. Geller's conclusion also, leading to passes on his part. Thus, it would appear that eliminating a person knowledgeable of the target degrades the quality of the information channel. However, based on Mr. Geller's subjective impression, there is also the possibility that advance preparation of a Large target pool, in comparison with single target preparation,results in cross talk--i.e., diffuses the identity of the target. In a simpler experiment Mr. Geller was successful in obtaining information in which no persons were knowledgeable of the target. A double blind experiment was performed in which a single die was placed in a small steel box. The box was then vigorously shaken by one of the experimenters and placed on the table. The orientation of the die within the box was unknown to the experimenters at that time. Mr. Geller would then write down his perception as to which die face was uppermost. Thus, in this 12 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0
Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0 case the target pool was known, but the targets were individually prepared in a manner blind to all persons involved in the experiment. This experi- ment was performed ten times, with Mr. Geller passing twice and giving a response eight times. In the eight times in which he gave a response, he was correct each time.’ The probability of this occurring by chance is approximately one in a million, (1/6)°. To summarize the work with Mr. Geller ,° we observe that in certain situations significant information transmission can take place under shielded conditions. Factors which appear to be important and therefore candidates for future investigation include whether the subject knows the set of targets in the target pool, the actual number of targets in the target pool at any given time, and whether the target is known by any of the experimenters. REMOTE VEEWING OF NATURAL TARGETS In experiments carried out in our program to investigate the abilities of a New York artist, Mr. Ingo Swann, he expressed the opinion that the insights gained during experiments at SRI had strengthened his ability to view remote locations that had been researched before he joined the SRI 6 program. To test Mr. Swann's assertion, a pilot study was set up in which a t 1 ; . , ; The distribution of responses consisted of three 2s, one 4, two 5s, and two 6s. 13 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00791R000200040003-0