Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1
ATTACHMENT
2:
Comments on Six Questions Contained in Previous Memo
Question
1:
The basic. claim^ made for remote viewing
-and PK are
technically,
of course,
that both exist and can be demonstrated with
some measure
of reliability.
Claims also pertain to the distance over
which remote viewing takes place,
its noisy characteristics,
and its
presence
in virtually all persons.
As
a practical matter, many of these
claims are not valid
as
judged from the experimental
data,
yet appear
to be substantiated from anecdotal- data.
1 am less
familiar with the
PK claims,
and will accordingly not address
those.
See,
however, my
statements of the review of remote viewing literature
in
a later section
of the black notebook.
Operationally,
the claims are not nearly as
extraordinary.
Although some operational people are confirmed skeptics,
others are obviously believers,
and feel that there
is some intelligence
value
to the remote viewing and PK activities.
Some persons have gone
so far
as
to claim that the Soviets can in fact use PK on a long distance
basis
to inflict substantial damage
to strategic
and tactical warfare
equipments.
These claims
are unsubstantiated,
yet believed by
some.
Question
2:
Very few reliable data exist to support these claims.
As indicated above and
in my analysis of the SRI activities,
the
"data"
are subject to experimental flaws
in most cases and should be treated
cautiously.
On the other hand,
the rejection of such claims
is. not a
simpile matter because of the statistical implications of doing an
experiment necessary
to disprove the existence of a phenomenon.
Such an
experiment is by definition a critical one,
yet clearly must also be
treated
in
a probabilistic sense.
Thus,
very few scientists would lay
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1
claim to being able
to conduct an experiment designed to disprove the
existence of anything.
Question
3:
This question
is almost too broad to answer.
Clearly,
the
first form of experimentation that is required
is
that of
a controlled
nature,
not one subject tp
the
fancies of contract monitors,
ranking
officers,
and key political figures.
Rather,
a long-range experimental
plan,
clearly stating hypotheses
to be tested and procedures
to be
followed,
is required before any experimentation should be supported or
undertaken.
I do not consider the AMSAA work
to be of this programmatic
and planned nature.
That
is not to say that there
is
insufficient,
evidence
to justify such research being done;
rather,
there
is sufficient
preliminary evidence to justify a future planned program,
but not
continued exploration of targets of opportunity.
Question
4:
The basic mechanisms underlying RV and
PIC phenomena
are certainly not agreed upon,
and are probably largely undefined.
The so-called tests which have been conducted are of limited scientific
value and have been conducted under limited scientific control.
Again,
a programmatic plan acceptable
to scientists before
the conduct of the
experiment
is
necessary,
rather than
a description of how the test was
conducted
after. the
fact.
The existing SRI protocol,
for example,
is
totally insufficient in detail
to serve as
a model for conduct of such
a program.
Question
5:
Assuming the scientific claims are somewhat valid,
then one should conduct controlled operational experiments much as one
might conduct, controlled
' laboratory experiments.
That
is,
meaningful
content of
a form unknown to the experimenters and the viewer should be
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1
established by an intelligence agency,
so that the response can be
scored objectively against that content.
Thus,
one should be able
to
directly compare essential elements of information in a remote viewing
protocol and transcript much as one evaluates essential elements of
information in
a photographic transcription.
In order
to make any
comparison with other operational
techniques,
common information
element^ must be directly compared in terms of accuracy,
completeness,
and false information.
Question
6:
The relative importance of many of the
steps used in
these experiments
is questionable,
and perhaps justified only by the
claims of the experimenters who have developed
the research protocols.
See my detailed question and answer discussion in the black book
for
some details.
Others are contained in the report described in previous
meetings.
Certainly,
based upon the existing experimental evidence,
it
is
impossible
to tell exactly and to what extent each of the steps
in
the experimental procedures produces
the claimed positive results.
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230040-1