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NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER
CHINA LAKE. CALIFORNIA 93555
IN REPLY RE FER TO:
015/WFC
: si
Reg 015-015-79
2 October
1979
From:
Frank Cartwright
To:
Chairman,
Grill Flame Committee
Subj
:
Comments on RV and PK Investigations
1.
This
letter
is by way of an interim report on my assessment of Grill
Flame activities as observed to date.
(The response
to the Davis questions
and critique of our committee reports will
follow.)
I
am submitting
this
because of
a perception that our committee's ultimate findings and recom-
mendations
should,
perhaps,
embrace more than an assessment of the specific
Grill Flame tasks now on going.
2.
My understanding of the current DoD interest
in performing PK and RV
experiments on a scientific basis
(rather than on an engineering or appli-
cations basis)
is
that proof of existence of either phenomenon would
compel
major effort
to exploit military applications of such phenomena.
In partic-
ular,
the RV phenomenon,
if it
exists,
represents
a catastrophic military
deficiency if left unexploited.
I believe
the following observations should
be kept
in mind in this regard.
(a)
The proof of existence of a newly observed physical
effect
is
extremely difficult almost by the fundamental premises of the scientific
method.
Phenomena which require even just
a modification or extension of
presently known "laws" of physics have always required detailed,
and repeated
physical measurements
.
(Interaction with other bodies,
electro-magnetic
fields,
etc.,
etc.)
Successful accomplishment of a definitive experiment which establishes
the existence of psychic interaction with
the material world
in an experi-
mental program of a few years
is,
I believe,
extremely improbable.
Performance of such
a
(repeatable)
experiment would require ,
I believe,
physical measurements, using physical measuring devices,
in which the
psychic phenomenon always produces
the identical
effect on
the measuring
devices.
Otherwise,
it cannot .be said that
the observed effect
is uniquely
caused by the psychic "interaction".
I know of no major accepted modifi-
cations of physical
"laws" which have been based on experiments which have
not established that the purported cause of an effect
is
always present
in
the manifestation of the effect,
and that the effect
is never present without
the purported
cause.
An unproved proposed natural mechanism whose effect
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001 200230034-8
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
: CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230»S3-®15-015-79
2 October 1979
Subj
:
Comments on RV and PK Investigations
can be otherwise explained by the operation of other already proved
mechanisms will
not,
in general,
be accepted as
an explanation of
nature.
(This may sound
like a tract
from the Tobacco Institute, but
read
on!)
In essence,
I
appeal
to the maxim of Occam's Razor,
(which
demands the simplest possible explanation of natural events.)
Coin-
cidence or fraud,
no matter how improbable ,
are more acceptable,
(to
Occam)
,
as an explanation of an unusual
event than an addition to the
conventional
set of natural
laws.
And most of the scientific community
are Occams.
(e.g.:
Norbert Wiener,
in his assessment of his
friend
Rhine's experiments).
The impossibility of an unusual
event without
such
a new natural
law must be proven before
a psychic/physics
inter-
action will be accepted by "hard science."
(You'll
excuse
the expression?)
Thus
the demonstration of the unlikelihood of coincidence
as
an
explanation of PK or RV experiences does not
suffice
to prove
the
existence of psychic-physical interaction.
Someday,
when the electro-
chemical manifestations of the brain are more clearly understood,
and
linked in
a cause-effect relationship to thoughts
(such
as
images),
a physical measurement
(such
as E£G wave forms)
of a "viewer" can be
uniquely linked to
a remote "view".
Until
such
is accomplished,
"proof"
of physical/psychic occurrences will not be accepted by the Occams.
(I
am an Occam.)
The conclusion of all
this
is
that
the expectation of an existence
proof of psychic-physical
interaction
is
a forlorn one,
if near term
results are anticipated from Grill
Flame.
(b)
In spite of the inevitable failure of the
"it can't be chance-
chance is too improbable" experiments
to prove RV-PK phenomena,
such
experiments can force the observation that something may be missing
in
the present set of physical
laws,
and thus encourage development of
physical means
to measure the phenomena.
(The Bohm/Capra School
of
thought would articulate this as Eastern science driving the attention
of Western science
to new arenas of investigation.)
Thus properly
executed PK-RV probability experiments,
whose goal
is solely to call
the attention of neuro-chemical-physical science to an improbable set
of coincidences would be scientifically justified.
The crucial element
is
the intent of such experiments;
i.e.,
not the proof of a psychic-
physical
link, but
the stimulation of physical measurements experiments
to explore such a
link.
(There are many experiments being performed
to identify the carcinogens in tobacco
smoke)
.
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