aM STANFORD RESEARCH INST SSRZe” a NEWS RELEASE am CONTACTS: Ronald |. Deutsch, Ext. 3754 Home: (415) 326-8773 RELEASE DATE: For immediate release martini yy '5) 329-0 545 Stan DeVaughn, Ext. 3034 Home: (415) 322-3342 Menlo Park, Calif. --Two California scientists reported today on experiments with subjects who demonstrate an ability to perceive information not presented to any known sense and blocked from ordinary perception, In a research paper on paranormal phenomena, Dr. Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, physicists at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), presented evidence for the existence of a channel through which information about a remote location can be obtained. "Our observation of the phenomena leads us to conclude that experiments in the so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted, and it is our hope that other laboratories will initiate additional research to attempt to replicate these findings, ''! they said. The scientists said one of their objectives was to resolve under conditions "as unambiguous as possible the basic issue of whether a certain class of paranormal perception phenomena exists. | "At all times we took measures to prevent sensory leakage and to prevent deception, whether intentional or unintentional, " they said. (more) Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220003-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220003-6 2/2/2 The results, which covered research from October, 1972 to March, 1974, were published in the current issue of NATURE, the British journal. The scientists described experiments in which: ~-Uri Geller, an Israeli subject, reproduced target pictures drawn by experimenters at remote locations while Geller was in an electrically- shielded room. --Pat Price, a former California police commissioner, perceived remote outdoor scenes many miles from their physical location in experiments in which neither the subject nor the experimenters knew the location in advance. --Brain wave recordings (EEGs) were made of subjects isolated in a room in an effort to determine whether physiological measurements could be made of a remote stimuli. The stimuli was a flashing light in another room. "It may be that remote perceptual ability is widely distributed in the general population, " Targ and Puthoff speculated, 'but because the perception is generally below an individual's level of awareness, it is repressed or not noticed, '' In the experiments with Geller, he was asked to reproduce 13 drawings over a week-long period while physically separated from his experimenters in a shielded room. Geller was not told who made the drawing, who selected it for him to reproduce or about its method of selection. The researchers said that only after Geller's isolation--in a double- walled steel room that was acoustically, visually and electrically shielded oa f (more) Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220003-6
Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220003-6 3/3/3 from them--was a target picture randomly chosen and drawn. It was never discussed by the experimenters after being drawn or brought near Geller, All but two of the experiments were conducted with Geller in the shielded room, with the drawings in adjacent rooms ranging from four meters to 475 meters from him. In other experiments, the drawings were made inside the shielded room with Geller in adjacent locations, Examples of drawings Geller was asked to reproduce included a firecracker, a cluster of grapes, a devil, a horse, the solar system, a tree and an envelope. Iwo SRI researchers--not otherwise associated with the research-- were submitted Geller's reproductions for judging on a "blind" basis. They matched the target data to the response data with no errors, a chance probability of better than one in a million per judge. In a second series of experiments with Geller involving 100 target pictures of everyday objects, he was not successful. The object was to determine whether direct perception of envelope contents was possible without some person knowing which target picture Geller was attempting to reproduce, The pictures were drawn by an SRI artist, sealed by other SRI personnel in double envelopes containing black cardboard. They were randomly divided into groups of 20 for use in experiments that lasted three days. Each day Geller passed or declined to associate any envelope with a drawing he had made. Both Geller and the researchers agreed that in those (more) Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220003-6