Approved For Release 2000/0Q GSC FRE FOPI6-00789R002200440001-9 SECTION 1. THE EARLY YEARS--CIA (UV) (S/NF) The Central Intelligence Agency was the first government organization to investigate parapsychology as it pertains to intelligence collection. Their work was initiated in 1961 when the Office of Technical Service OTS (then the Technical Services Division) became interested in ESP claims. Under the auspices of Project ULTRA, Stephen I. Abrams, Director of the Parapsychological Laboratory, Oxford University, England, reviewed parapsychological research and prepared an article stating that, at most, ESP had been demonstrated but was neither understood or controllable. After that effort, the field lay dormant at CIA for 10 years. (S/NF) In 1972 Russell Targ, then a SRI, cont&cted the CIA to discuss paranormal abilities. He proposed a demonstration of psychokinetic abilities at SRI. For the demonstration, a subject with psychokinetic abilities was taken to a super conducting shielded magnetometer and was able to visibly disturb the output signal by placing his attention on the interior of the magnetometer. This was followed by an additional few days of work in August, 1972, where further demonstrations of psychic ability were presented. The cost for this effort was $874.00. Another work order for $2,500 was then issued to develop a complete research plan. The result was a $50,000 contract for an expanded effort in parapsychology. It was at this time that the work caught the interest of the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the CIA. (S/NF) AS part of the expanded effort, a remote viewing (RV) experiment was conducted in the summer of 1973 that further stimulated CIA sponsored investigations of parapsychology. Geographic coordinates of a vacation property were given to an SRI subject. Having no more information than the coordinates, he described the site as being a military-like facility. As the coordinates were for a vacation cottage, the response was believed to be incorrect. However, the CIA went to the site several months later to investigate it more thoroughly and discovered a sensitive government installation a few miles from the vacation property. The subject was then asked to view the interior of the installation. When all the data were reviewed the quality of the experimental results was judged to be mixed. 1 SECRET Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200440001-9
Approved For Release 2000/09 68~ RE Ropss-00789R002200440001-9 (S/NF) The mix of good and bad results from RV experiments continued throughout the next 10 years. Only in the last few years have we begun to understand some of the causes of wrong data. When CIA reviewed the experiments conducted, they thought the results impressive enough to warrant a jointly funded program (ORD and OTS) to begin in February, 1974. In this program, the ORD funds were to be used for basic scientific studies, such as the identification of measurable physiological or psychological characteristics of psychic individuals, and to develop experimental protocols for validating paranormal abilities. The ORD project did demonstrate psychic functioning, but critics found fault with the equipment, the experimental designs, and the analysis of data (such fault-finding is a recurrent problem in parapsychological research). In addition, ORD’s new director was admittedly skeptical of parapsychology and his skepticism began to affect others, including some in OTS. (S/NF) Despite these pressures, SRI attempted the first intelligence collection operation using parapsychology. The target was Unidentified Research and Development Facility-3 at Semipalatinsk in the Soviet Union. The results were again mixed. While most of the data were either wrong or could not be evaluated, the subject did produce some amazing and accurate descriptions of a crane, shown in Figure 1. In addition, buildings under construction and some spherical tank sections were described accurately. However, the ORD officers concluded that the lack of control experiments with which to compare the data reduced their legitimacy to the status of "lucky guesses." (S/NF) At this point the contractors were claiming the experiments a success while the CIA officers were saying that the experiments were not meaningful because of poor experimental design. To resolve this dissonance, a critique of the investigations by a disinterested consultant was requested. After reviewing the parapsychology file and looking at the CIA data, he concluded that there is "a large body of reliable experimental evidence that points to the inescapable conclusion that extra sensory perception does exist as a real phenomenon albeit characterized by rarity and lack of reliability." This judgment gave impetus to continued investigations into parapsychology. Since then, considerable research has been devoted to improving the quality and reliability of data obtained by psychic means. 2 SECRET Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200440001-9
IA-RDP96-00789R002200440001-9 (b) CRANE COMPARISON SECRET/NF FIGURE 1 (S/NF) COMPARISON OF TARGET SITE AND DRAWING BY REMOTE VIEWER 3 Approved For Release sooo1ostte “ete pp9s-00789R002200440001-9