Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 CONTENTS ABSTRACT . . 2 6 2 6 ew ew ee LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .. . LIST OF TABLES ACKNOWLEDGMENT . I INTRODUCTION II BACKGROUND III SRI INVESTIGATIONS OF REMOTE VIEWING A. Subject $1: Experienced Subject S4: Learner Subjects $2 and S3: Experienced B C D. Subjects S5 and S6: Learners EB Normal and Paranormal: Use of Unselected Subjects in Remote Viewing . ry G. Summary of Remote Viewing Results Ll. Discussion .....ee. 2. Summary... .. 2. ew ee IV CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING TIME VY DISCUSSION VI CONCLUSIONS . . 1. we ee ew ew ew we Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 Technology Series: Short-Range Remote Viewing ix xi 25 28 34 40 43 46 ol 59 59 67 71 83 89
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 APPENDICES A SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT IN A PARANORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BY APPLICATION OF REDUNDANCY CODING ...... 91 B REMOTE VIEWING TRANSCRIPT ...........000. 101 REFERENCES 2 1 1 wwe we ek ee 107 Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
10 11 12 13 Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 TLLUST RATIONS Airport in San Andres, Colombia, Used as Remote Viewing Target Along with Sketch Produced by Subject in California . 2. 1. 6 6 1 we ee et we ee ew ww he he 7 Occipital EEG Frequency Spectra, 0-20 Hz, of One Subject (H.H.) Acting as Receiver Showing Amplitude Changes in the 9-11-Hz Band as a Function of Strobe Frequency ..... 24 Swimming Pool Complex as Remote Viewing Target (a) City Map of Target Location (b) Drawing by Price (Sl) -. 0. 6. 6 we ew we we we tt 29 Subject Hammid (S4) Drawing Described as "Some Kind of Diagonal Trough up in the Air"... . 1. 1. ew ee ee 36 Subject Hammid (S54) Response to Bicycle Shed Target Described as an Open "Barn-Like Building" with "Slats on the Sides" and a "Pitched Roof" .....4...+.4+.4+2.64 6. £38 Subject Elgin (S2) Drawings in Response to Tennis Court Target . 1. ww ee ee ee ee ee ee eh 42 Subject Swann (S3) Response to City Hall Target. ...... 44 Subject (S6) Drawing of White Plaza, Stanford University .. 48 Subject (V1) Drawing of Merry-Go-Round Target ........ 50 Drawings of a Typewriter Target by Two Subjects ....... 54 Drawings by Three Subjects (52, $3, and V3) for Xerox Machine Target When subject (V3) was asked. to described the square at upper left, the subject said, "There was this predominant light source which might have been a window, and a working surface which might have been the sill, or a working surface or desk."" Earlier the subject had said, "I have the feeling that there is something silhouetted against the window." .. 55 Drawing by Two Subjects of a Video Monitor Target ......, 56 Subject ($4) Drawing of Drill Press Showing Belt Drive, Stool, and a Graph that Goes Up and Down .......... 60 vii Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
14 15 16 17 Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 Subject Hammid (S4) Described "Some Kind of Congealing Tar, or Maybe an Area of Condensed Lava....That Has Oozed Out to Fill up Some Kind of Boundaries"... . Subject (S4) Described a Formal Garden ''Very Well Manicured" Behind a Double Colonnade Subject (84) Saw a "Black Iron Triangle That Hal Had Somehow Walked Into" and Heard a "Squeak, Squeak, About Once a Second" . . . 1. 6 ee we et ee te el Subject (84) Described a Very Tall Structure Located Among City Streets and Covered With "Tiffany-Like Glass" Enhancement of Signal-to-Noise Ratio by Sequential Sampling Procedure (Pg = 0.4, py = 0.6, = 0.01, B= 0.01)... we ee ee ee ee Reliability Curve for Sequential Sampling Procedure (Pp = 0.4, py = 0.6, = 0.01, B=0.01) 2.1... 2... vili Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 76 77 79 80 95 98
me Oo © Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 TABLES Critical Values of Sums of Ranks for Preferential Matching . .. 1. ee ee ee ew es Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Transcripts Associated with Each Target Location for Experienced Subject Price (S1) Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Transcripts Associated with Each Target Location for Learner Subject Hammid (S4) Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Transcripts Associated with Each Target Location for Experienced Subjects Elgin (82) and Swann (S3) .. Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Transcripts Associated with Each Target Location for Subjects S5 and S6 Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Transcripts Associated with Each Target Location for Visitor Subjects Vl and V2 Distribution of Rankings Assigned to Subject Drawings Associated with Each Target Location ....... Summary: Remote Viewing .. Experimental Protocol: Precognitive Remote Viewing . 5-Bit Code for Alphanumeric Characters ......, ix Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 32 33 39 45 47 52 58 61 73 92
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Foundation for Parasensory Investi- gation and the Parapsychology Foundation of New York City, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Palo Alto, California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NAS 7-100, We wish to express our gratitude to our principal subjects, Mrs. Hella Hammid, Mr. Pat Price, and Mr. Ingo Swann, who showed us patience and forbearance in addition to their en- thusiasm and outstanding perceptual abilities. We note with sadness the death of one of our subjects, Mr. Price. We express our sincere thanks also to Mr. Earle Jones, Mr. Bonnar Cox, and Dr. Arthur Hastings, of SRI, and Mrs, Judith Skutch and Mr. Richard Bach, without whose encouragement and support this work could not have taken place. xi Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 of quasi-science. One reason for this is that, despite experimental re- sults, no satisfactory theoretical construct had been advanced to corre- late data or to predict new experimental outcomes. Consequently, the area in question remained for a long time in the recipe stage reminiscent of electrodynamics before the unification brought about by the work of Ampere, Faraday, and Maxwell. Since the early work, however, we have seen the development of information theory, quantum theory, and neuro- physiological research, and these disciplines provide powerful conceptual tools that appear to bear directly on the issue. In fact, several physicists (Section V) are now of the opinion that these phenomena are not at all inconsistent with the framework of modern physics: the often-neld view that observations of this type are a priori incom- patible with known laws is erroneous in that such a concept is based on the naive realism prevalent before the development of quantum theory. In the emerging view, it is accepted that research in this area can be conducted so as to uncover not just a catalog of interesting events, but. rather patterns of cause-effect relationships of the type that lend themselves to analysis and hypothesis in the forms with which we are familiar in the physical sciences. One hypothesis is that information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves, a proposal that does not seem to be ruled out by any obvious physical or biological facts. Further, the development of information theory makes it possible to characterize Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 and quantify the performance of a communications channel regardless of the underlying mechanism. For the past three years, we have had a program in the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of SRI to investigate those facets of human perception that appear to fall outside the range of well-understood perceptual/processing capabilities. Of particular interest is a human information-accessing capability that we call "remote viewing." This phenomenon pertains to the ability of certain individuals to access and describe, by means of mental processes, information sources blocked from ordinary perception, and generally accepted as secure against such access. In particular, the phenomenon we have investigated most extensively is the ability of a subject to view remote geographical locations up to several thousand km distant from his physical location (given only a known person on whom to target).” We have carried out more than 50 experiments under controlled laboratory conditions with several individuals whose re- mote perceptual abilities have been developed suffictently to allow them at times to describe correctly--often in great detail--geographical or technical material such as buildings, roads, laboratory apparatus, and the like. * Our initial work in this area was reported in Nature 252, October 18, 1974 [4], and reprinted in the IEEE Communications Society 13, January 1975. Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 As observed in the laboratory, the basic phenomenon appears to cover a range of subjective experiences variously referred to in the literature as autoscopy (in the medical literature); exteriorization or disassocia- tion (psychological literature); simple clairvoyance, traveling clairvoy- ance, or out-of-body experience (parapsychological literature); or astral projection (occult literature). We choose the term "remote viewing" as a neutral, descriptive term free from prior associations and bias as to mechanisms, The development at SRI of a successful experimental procedure _to elicit this capability has evolved to the point where: persons such as visiting government scientists and contract monitors, without any previous exposure to such concepts have leared to perform well; and sub- jects who have trained over a one-year period have performed excellently under a variety of experimental conditions. Our accumulated data thus indicate that both specially selected and unselected persons can be as- sisted in developing remote perceptual abilities up to a level of useful information transfer. In experiments of this type, we have three principal findings. First, we have established that it is possible to obtain significant amounts of accurate descriptive information about remote locations. Second, an in- crease in the distance from a few meters up to 4000 km separating the sub- ject from the scene to be perceived does not in any apparent way degrade the quality or accuracy of perception. Finally, the use of Faraday cage electrical shielding does not prevent high-quality descriptions from being obtained. Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 To build a coherent theory for the explanation of these phenomena, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what constitutes the phenomena. In this paper, we first briefly summarize previous efforts in this field in Section II. We then present in Sections III and IV the results of a series of more than 50 experiments with nine subjects carried out in our own laboratory, which represent a sufficiently stable data base to permit testing of various hypotheses concerning the functioning of this channel, Finally, in Section V we indicate those areas of physics and information theory that appear to be relevant to an understanding of cer- tain aspects of the phenomena. First, however, we present an illustrative example generated in an early pilot experiment. As willbe clear from our later discussion, this is not a "best-ever" example, but rather a typical sample of the level of proficiency that can be reached and that we have come to expect in our research. Three subjects participated in a long-distance experiment focusing on a series of targets in Costa Rica. These subjects said they had never been to Costa Rica. In this experiment, one of the experimenters (Dr. Puthoff) spent ten days traveling through Costa Rica on a combination business/pleasure trip. This information was all that was known to the subjects about the traveler's itinerary. The experiment called for Dr. Puthoff to keep a detailed record of his location and activities, includ- ing photographs of each of seven target days at 1330 PDT. A total of twelve Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 daily descriptions were collected before the traveler's return: six re- sponses from one subject, five from another, and one from a third. The third subject who submitted the single response supplied a draw- ing for a day in the middle of the series. (The subject's response, to- gether with the photographs taken at the site, are shown in Figure 1.) Although Costa Rica is a mountainous country, the subject unexpectedly perceived the traveler at a beach and ocean setting. With some misgiving, he described an airport on a sandy beach and an airstrip with the ocean at the end (correct). An airport building also was drawn, and shown to have a large rectangular overhang (correct). The traveler had taken a one-day, unplanned side-trip to an offshore island and at the time of the experiment had just disembarked from a plane at a small island airport as described by the subject 4000 km away. The sole discrepancy was that the subject's drawing showed a Quonset-hut type of building in place of the rectangular structure, The above description was chosen as an example to illustrate a major point observed a number of times throughout the program to be described. Contrary to what may be expected, a subject's description does not neces- sarily portray what may reasonably be expected to be correct (an educated or "safe" guess), but often runs counter even to the subject's own expec- tations. We wish to stress again that a result such as the above is not unusual. The remaining submissions in this experiment provided further examples of Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 excellent correspondences between target and response. (A target period of poolside relaxation was identified; a drive through a tropical forest at the base of a truncated volcano was described as a drive through a jungle below a large bare table mountain; a hotel room target description, including such details as rug color, was correct; and so on.) So as to determine whether such matches were simply fortuitous--that is, could reasonably be expected on the basis of chance alone, Dr. Puthoff was asked after he had returned to blind match the twelve descriptions to his seven target locations. On the basis of this conservative evaluation procedure, which vastly underestimates the statistical significance of the individual descriptions, five correct matches were obtained. This number of matches is significant at p = 0.02 by exact binomial calculation.* The observation of such unexpectedly high-quality descriptions early in our program led to a large-scale study of the phenomenon at SRI under secure, double-blind conditions (i.e., target unknown to experimenters as well as subjects), with independent random target selection and blind judg- ing. The results, presented in Sections III and IV, provide strong evi- dence for the robustness of this phenomenon whereby a human perceptual modality of extreme sensitivity can detect complex remote stimuli. * The probability of a correct daily match by chance for any given tran- script is p= 1/7. Therefore, the probability of at least five correct matches by chance out of twelve tries can be calculated from 12 ' i (12-i) 12! 1\'/6 p® Xe i!(12-i)! (3) (£} = 0.02 Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 Il BACKGROUND Although we are approaching the study of these phenomena as physicists, it is not yet possible to separate ourselves entirely from the language of the nineteenth century when the laboratory study of the paranormal was begun. Consequently, we continue to use terms such as "paranormal, "telep- athy,'' and the like. However, we intend only to indicate a process of information transfer under conditions generally accepted as secure against such transfer and with no prejudice or occult assumptions as to the mecha- nisms involved. As in any other scientific pursuit, the purpose is to collect the observables that result from experiments and to try to deter- mine the functional relationships between these observables and the laws of physics as they are currently understood. Organized research into so-called psychic functioning began roughly in the time of J. J. Thomson, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Sir William Crookes, all of whom took part in the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882 in England. Crookes, for example, carried out his principal investigations with D. D. Home, a Scotsman who grew up in America and re- turned to England in 1855 [3]. According to the notebooks and published reports of Crookes, Home had demonstrated the ability to cause objects to move without touching them. We should note in passing that, Home, unlike most subjects, worked only in the light and spoke out in the strongest possible terms against the darkened seance rooms popular at the time [5]. Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 Sir William Crookes was a pioneer in the study of electrical discharge in gases and in the development of vacuum tubes, some types of which still bear his name. Although everything Crookes said about electron beams and plasmas was accepted, nothing he said about the achievements of D. D. Home ever achieved that status. Many of his colleagues, who had not observed the experiments with Home, stated publicly that they thought Crookes had been deceived, to which Crookes angrily responded: Will not my critics give me credit for some amount of common sense? Do they not imagine that the obvious precautions, which occur to them as soon as they sit down to pick holes in my ex- periments, have occurred to me also in the course of my prolonged and patient investigation? The answer to this, as to all other objections is, prove it to be an error, by showing where the error lies, or if a trick, by showing how the trick is performed. Try the experiment fully and fairly. If then fraud be found, expose it; if it be a truth, proclaim it. This is the only scientific procedure, and it is that I propose steadily to pursue [3]. In the United States, scientific interest in the paranormal was cen- tered in the universities. In 1912 John Coover [6] was established in the endowed Chair of Psychical Research at Stanford University. In the 1920s, Harvard University set up research programs with George Estabrooks and L. T. Troland [7],[8]. It was in this framework that in 1930 William McDougall invited Drs. J. B. and Louisa Rhine to join the Psychology 10 Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6
Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6 Department at Duke University [9]. For more than thirty years, significant work was carried out at Rhine's Duke University Laboratory. To examine the existence of paranormal perception, he used the now-famous ESP cards containing a boldly printed picture of a star, cross, square, circle, or wavy lines. Subjects were asked to name the order of these cards in a freshly shuffled deck of twenty-five such cards. To test for telepathy, an experimenter would look at the cards one at a time, and a subject suit- ably separated from the sender would attempt to determine which card was being viewed. Dr. Rhine together with Dr. J. G. Pratt carried out thousands of ex- periments of this type under widely varying conditions [10]. The statis- tical results from these experiments indicated that some individuals did indeed possess a paranormal perceptual ability in that it was possible to obtain an arbitrarily high degree of improbability by continued testing of a gifted subject. The work of Rhine has been challenged on many grounds, however, includ- ing accusations of improper handling of statistics, error, and fraud. With regard to the statistics, the general consensus of statisticians today is that if fault is to be found in Rhine's work, it would have to be on other than statistical grounds [11]. With regard to the accusations of fraud, the most celebrated case of criticism of Rhine's work, that of G. R. Price [12], ended 17 years after it began when the accusation of fraud was re- tracted by its author in an article entitled "Apology to Rhine and Soal," ll Approved For Release 2002/05/17 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500020001-6