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A Perceptual Channel
for
Information
Transfer over Kilometer Distances:
Historical Perspective
and Recent Research
Harold
E.
Puthoff and Russell Targ
I
INTRODUCTION
"It
is
the province
of natural
science
to
investigate
nature,
impar-
tially and without prejudice
[1]."
Nowhere
in scientific
inquiry has
this
dictum met
as
great
a challenge
as
in
the
area of so-called extrasensory
perception
(ESP),
the detection of remote
stimuli
not mediated by
the
usual
sensory processes.
Such phenomena,
although under
scientific con-
sideration
for over
a
century,
have historically been
fraught with unre-
liability and
controversy,
and validation of
the phenomena
by accepted
scientific methodology has
been
slow
in coming.
Even
so,
a recent
sur-
vey conducted
by
the British publication
New Scientist
revealed
that
percent
of nearly
1500 responding readers
(the majority of whom are
working
scientists
and
technologists)
considered ESP
to be
an established
fact or
a
likely possibility,
and
88 percent held
the
investigation of ESP
to
be
a
legitimate
scientific undertaking
[2],
A review of
the
literature
reveals
that although experiments
by
reputable
researchers yielding positive
results were begun over
a century
ago
(e.g.
,
Sir William Crookes’
study of
D.
D,
Home,
1860s)
[3],
many con-
sider
the
study of
these phenomena
as only recently emerging
from
the realm
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TABLE
Distribution of Rankings Assigned
to Transcripts Associated
with Each Target
Location
for Learner
Subjects
S5 and
S6
Subiect
Target Location
Distance
(km)
Rank of
Associated
Transcript
S5
Pedestrian overpass,
Palo Alto
5.0
S5
Railroad trestle bridge,
Palo Alto
1.3
S5
Windmill, Portola Valley
8.5
S5,
S6
White
Plaza,
Stanford
(2)
3.8
S6
Airport,
Palo Alto
5.5
S6
Kiosk in Park,
Menlo Park
0.3
S6
Boathouse,
Stanford
Total
sum of ranks
4.0
(p=0. 08,
NS)
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FIGURE
WHITE PLAZA AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY
SUBJECT DREW WHAT SHE CALLED
"CURVY BENCHES" AND THEN
ANNOUNCED CORRECTLY THAT THE
PLACE WAS "WHITE PLAZA AT STANFORD"
SA-3 183-4
SUBJECT
(S6) DRAWING OF WHITE PLAZA, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
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better
than expected,
we initiated
a
series
of experiments
to explore
fur-
ther whether individuals other
than putative "psychics"
can demonstrate
the
remote viewing ability.
To
test
this
idea,
we have
a continuing pro-
gram
to carry out additional experiments of
the outdoor
type with new
subjects whom we have
no
a priori reason
to believe have paranormal per-
ceptual ability.
To date we have
collected data
from five experiments
with
two individuals
in
this
category:
a man and
a woman who were visit-
ing government
scientists
interested
in observing our experimental proto-
cols.
The motivation
for
these particular experiments was
two-fold.
First,
the experiments provide data
that indicate
the
level
of proficiency
that
can be expected from unselected volunteers.
Second,
when an individual
observes
a successful demonstration experiment involving another person
as
subject,
it inevitably occurs
to him that perhaps chicanery
is
involved.
We have
found
the most effective way
to
settle
this
issue for
the obser-
ver
is
to have
the individual himself
act
as
a subject
so
as
to obtain
personal experience against which our reported results
can be evaluated.
The
first visitor
(VI)
was
invited
to participate
as
a
subject
in
a
a
three -experiment
series.
All
three experiments contained elements de-
scriptive of
the
associated target locations;
the quality of response
increased with practice.
The
third response
is
shown
in Figure
9,
where
again
the pattern elements
in the drawing appeared
to
be
a closer match
than
the
subject's analytic interpretation of
the
target object as
a
cupola.
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The
second visitor
[V2]
participated
as
a subject
in
two experiments.
In his
first
experiment,
he
generated
one
of
the higher
signal- to-noise
results we have observed.
He began his narrative "There
is
a
red A-frame
building
and next
to
it
is
a
large yellow thing
[a
tree--Editor ]
.
Now
further
left
there
is another A-shape.
It
looks
like
a
swing-set,
but
it
is
pushed down
in
a gully
so
I can’t
see
the
swings,"
[All correct.]
He
then went
on
to describe
a
lock on
the
front door that he
said "looks
like
it's made
of
laminated
steel,
so
it must be
a Master
lock."
[Also
correct.
For
the
series
of
five--three
from the
first
subject
and
two
from
the
second,
the numerical evaluation based
on blind
rank ordering
of
the
transcripts at
each
site was
significant at
p
= 0.017
and
included
three
direct hits and one
second rank
for
the target-associated
transcripts.
( See Table
6)
.
Observations with unselected
subjects
such as
those described above
indicate
that
remote viewing may be
a
latent
and widely distributed
perceptual
ability.
F
.
Technology Series;
Short-Range Remote Viewing
Because
remote viewing
is
a perceptual
ability,
we
considered
it
important
to obtain data
on
its
resolution capabilities.
To accomplish
this,
we
turned
to
the
use
of
indoor
technological
targets.
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TABLE
Distribution
of Rankings Assigned
to Transcripts Associated
with Each Target Location
for Visitor
Subjects
VI and V2
Subject
Target Location
Distance
(km)
Rank of
Associated
Transcript
VI
Bridge over
stream,
Menlo Park
0.3
i
yi
Baylands Nature Preserve,
Palo Alto
6.4
VI
Merry-go-round,
Palo Alto
3.4
V2
Windmill,
Portola Valley
8.5
V2
Apartment
swimming pool,
Mountain View
9.1
Total
sum of ranks
(p=0. 017)
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Twelve
experiments were carried
out with
five different
subjects,
two
of whom were visiting government
scientists.
They were
told
that
one
of
the
experimenters would be
sent by random protocol
to
a
laboratory
within
the
SRI complex and
that he would
interact with the
equipment
or
apparatus
at
that
location.
It was further explained
that
the experimenter
remaining with
the
subject was,
as
usual,
kept
ignorant
of
the
contents
of
the
target pool
to prevent cueing during questioning.
(Unknown
to
subjects,
targets
in
the pool were used with replacement;
one
of
the
goals
of
this particular experiment was
to obtain multiple
responses
to
a given target
to
investigate whether correlation
of
a number
of
subject
responses would provide
enhancement
of
the
signal- to-noise
ratio.)
The
subject was asked
to describe
the
target both verbally
(tape recorded)
and
by means
of drawings during
a
time- synchronized
15-minute
interval
in
which
the
outbound experimenter interacted
in
an appropriate manner with
the
equipment
in
the
target area.
In
the
twelve
experiments,
seven targets were
used:
a drill
press,
Xerox machine,
video
terminal,
chart
recorder,
four-state
random number
generator,
machine
shop,
and typewriter.
Three
of
these were used
twice
(drill press,
video terminal,
and
typewriter)
and one
(Xerox machine)
came
up
three
times
in our random selection procedure.
Comparisons
of
the
targets and
subject drawings
for
three
of
the
mult ip le- response cases,
the typewriter,
Xerox machine,
and video term-
inal,
are
shown
in Figures
10,
11,
and
12.
As
is apparent
from these
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TECHNOLOGY SERIES
TYPEWRITER TARGET
*$*£»"*> ~U ***&#. «4&
&¥f>
oh ~Uf>
(Men- -
a
|McceiuMA civ
2.
*
.
Stt 6tr
KtfOJ -
C*4t«j-A
Ka.3
L
SUBJECT SWANN
(S3) RESPONSE
SUBJECT HAMMID
(S4) RESPONSE
TA-760525-5
FIGURE
DRAWINGS OF A TYPEWRITER TARGET BY TWO SUBJECTS
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FIGURE
DRAWINGS
BY
THREE
SUBJECTS
(S2,
S3,
AND
V3)
FOR
XEROX
MACHINE
TARGET
When
subject
(V3)
was
asked
to
describe
the
square
at
upper
left
of
response
on
the
right,
the
subject
said,
"There
was
this
predominent
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.
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TABLE
Summary:
Remote Viewing
Subject
Number of
Experiments
p-Value,
Rank
Order Judging
With natural
targets
Si
(experienced)
2.9
X
10" 5
S2 and
S3
(experienced)
-4
3.8
X
S4
(learner)
1.8
X
10' 6
S5
and
S6
(learners)
0.08
(NS)
Vl and
V2
( learners/ visitor s)
0.017
With
technology
targets
S2,
S3,
S4,
V2,
V3
0.036
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