Approved For Release 2000/08/1£US.88R001 700360003-3
Cnth?: On the Strategic
Potential of ESP
By Dr. Roger A. Beaumont
I
nterest in the military potential
of ESP—extrasensory
percep-
tion—has grown
in
recent
years.
Some of
it stems from the search
for
reliable
and
jamming-free
modes of communication. A popu-
lar wave
of
interest
in ESP
stemmed from a boom in the occult
and supernatural phenomena in the
late 1960s and early
1970s, a time
when ESP research in Eastern Eu-
rope
and
the
Soviet Union
also
attracted popular attention. Claims
of success in using ESP in military
operations, however, appeared
af-.
ter the First World War
.
In spite of all such assertions, a
basic
question
remains
unan-
swered: does ESP actually work?
While many have thought so—and
think
so—some
scientists
in
the
West have feared that the mounting
fascination
with
ESP,
in
league
with the resurgence
in the occult
,
and
mysticism,
threatens
science
itself.
Moreover,
such
nagging
1 doubt about psychic phenomena is
Dr. Roger A. Beaumont is a profes-
sor of history at Texas A&M Uni-
versity and has authored more than
40 articles on military> history and
strategic studies, as well as three
Approved For Releas^SfcflO/O
not evident in Eastern Europe and
the
Soviet Union. The
Russians
have long recognized that
if ESP
were an actual effect and could be
harnessed, it would have great stra-
tegic potential.
Are such systems
really possi-
ble? Many
have
thought
so
for
some time2
. In this respect, it may
be
useful
to look
closely
at
the
differences in approach in ESP re-
search
in
the West, on
the one
hand, and in the Soviet block coun-
tries on the
other.
In
the
latter,
parapsychology
is not considered
to be
a
separate
research
disci-
pline.
Instead,
articles
on
“bio-
communications”
(telepathy)
ap-
pear
in
traditional
scientific jour-
nals, salted in among what Western
scientists
view
as
orthodox
re-
search. The attention of many
in
the West was aroused in the 1970s,
as
Soviet
authorities
brought
a
heavy hand down on news cover-
. age of ESP research in Russia3
.
Western Research
In
the West,
psychic
research
has long been tainted by sensation-
alism
and
some
charlatanism.
.
...
Since the late
19th century, many
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'
sought links with the supernatural
through
such means
as
Ouija
boards and sdances.'The dramatic
and
the
absurd
overtones of the
popular culture aspect of ESP has
led even the more conservative ele-
ments of the popular press to treat
ESP as a novelty. Also confusing is
the fact that the various types of
apparent ESP—telekinesis
(the
projection
of
force),
telepathy
(mental
transmission),
clairvoy-
ance (the sensing of remote images)
and
precognition
(foreknowl-
edge)—-have been lumped together
as related phenomena. Major cen-
ters ofESP research in the West, at
Utrecht, London and Duke Uni-
versity, have come under suspicion
from many scientists. As a result,
researchers, like
J. B.
Rhine,
re--
cently deceased, have labored to
prove an effect, which the Soviets
accept and attempt to explain—and
control.
„
„
.
While the enfolding of “biocom-
munications” within their central-
ized research system may
reflect
Soviet concern that ESP drifts too
close
to
religion,
their closing of
public
access
to ESP
research
might be a
parallel
to what hap-
pened
in
the
United
States and
Britain during World War II after
work on an atomic bomb began4
.
When
it was
still
visible, Russian
research seemed
to be
trying
to
reconcile
individual ESP
experi-
ence with transmission and recep-
tion
of
low-peer
low-frequency
electromagnetic
waves, similar
to
the kind used
to
transmit
radio,
television and radar signals5
. Much
of the work on “biocommunica-
tions”
dealt
with
the
electrical
dynamics of organisms, even back
in the
1950s, when, in the United
States,
the idea that animals and
plants and individual cells could be
influenced by electromagnetic radi-
ation other than heat was rejected
in biological research.
Soviet Research
Since the
1930s,
biologists and
parapsychologists
in
the
Soviet
Union
have
traced
out
in
ever
greater detail a telepathic transmit-
ter-receiver ESP model, based on
the concept that people with strong
abilities
as
either
transmitters
or
receivers
can communicate by
sending
basic
symbols
or
sensa-
tions (but not detailed or precise
verbal thoughts or images) at great
distance, thus, constituting a “cy-
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riA_RnPQfi_nn7«r
bemetic system with all its proper-
ties”6—based
on
very-long-wave
transmission.
Nevertheless,
the
Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GSE)
of 1974 states flatly in the article on
“Parapsychology” that while ESP
is a phenomenon, it is not related to
a variant of long-wave electromag-
netic transmission. Since the GSE
is known to be a vehicle for official
policy and
is
rather Orwellian
in
nature, the refutation, which con-
trasts with much extant in Soviet
ESP research, is interesting.
While transmission of data over
great distances by ESP was exam-
ined in the West from the 1920s on,
it was rejected at first, since it was
in violation of scientific laws which
were
believed
to
govern
radio
transmission
and
which
decreed
that there was a falling-off of power
relative to the square of the dis-
tance between transmitter and re-
ceiver.
Later,
when
unexpected
long-range
transmission
of weak
signals due to atmospheric effects
was discovered, a theory of analo-
gous enhancement
and
relay
through psi-sensitive individuals of
ESP “signals” came to the fore,7
while other research pointed to the
effects of electromagnetic radiation
on the body8
.
Research into the biological ef-
fects of electromagnetic ‘waves
is,
of course,
not an
exclusive
pre-
serve of Soviet science. It has been
known for almost a century, for
example,
that magnetic
fields
in-
duce a
sensation of
light
in
the
human eye, even in darkness9
. In
the
late
1960s,
a
Russian-born
American physicist noted magnetic
resonance
effects
in
matter con-
taining particles with gyromagnetic
properties, observing that “absorp-
tion of electromagnetic energy can
cause
transitions
from
lower
to
higher energy levels with resulting
absorption of radiation and re-ori-
entation
of the
dipoles.” 10 Most
recently, a British investigator re-
ported
a
relationship
between
depth of hypnotic trance and the
electrical resistance of the skin. 11
While such evidence of overlap
between parapsychology and biolo-
gy,
physics
and
chemistry
falls
short of the certainty needed for
firm
scientific conclusion, the un-
certainty poses a problem for de-
fense policy makers. It is especially
frustrating, considering the history,
of ESP which is strewn with hoax-
es and wishful thinking that even
some
scientifically-trained
para-
psychologists have drifted into mis-
representation and fudging, as des-
perate searches for conclusive re-
I
suits
have
led
to
a
shaving
of
0170tt®60d03ufcs. Discovery of such
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'
“Perhaps ESP is a not-yet-understood sensitivity to subtie cues, or the brain
function, as a computer processing information subconsciously. Perhaps
those who are most sensitive “print out” slightly before or in parallel with
distant events, thus appearing to be clairvoyant, but having actually calcu-
lated probabilities unconsciously from data gathered along the way—also
unconsciously.”
hoaxes further discredits a field of
investigation under
suspicion. As
John
Beloff,
a
parapsychologist,
has noted, ESP research has
.
.
suffered from its fatal attraction for
persons of unbalanced mind who
seek in
it ‘their personal salvation.
. .” 12
Nevertheless, what is to be made
out of the evidence that suggests
the possibility
that there may be
something more solid lying behind
it? 13 That question makes govern-
ment
funding
of ESP-related
re-
search,
at
the
worst,
a
ticking
bomb
and,
at
best,
a
quandary.
Sponsoring such
seemingly
wild-
eyed
studies
could
well
explode
back
in
the
face
of
sponsoring
agencies,
policymakers
or
re-
searchers—but
failure
to
follow
leads might yield great advantages
to those less skeptical.
Perhaps ESP is a not-yet-under-
stood sensitivity to subtle cues, or
the
brain
function,
as
computer
processing
information
subcon-
sciously.
Perhaps
those who
are
most sensitive “print out” slightly
before
or
in
parallel
with
distant
events, thus appearing to be clair-
voyant, but having actually calcu-
lated
probabilities
unconsciously
from data gathered along the way
also unconsciously. Are such ran-
dom coincidences noticed only un-
der stress, as psychiatrist Carl Jung
suggested
in
his
theory
of “syn-
chronicity”? Or is there actually a
lining up of .electropotential forces
in the brain at certain times, creat-
ing a low-power long-wave trans-
mitter-receiver system of the kind
suggested by Kogan?
Defense-related Research
American defense analysts and
policy makers seem to have been
hedging their bets in this area for
some
time.
Reports
of U.S.
de-
fense-related ESP
research
have
appeared
fairly
regularly
in
the
public press over the last quarter of
a century. In the 1950s, for exam-
ple, news releases and popular fea-
tures described the involvement of
Westinghous&Pl^fbtfttltBeteReAftsise
the Army’s Redstone
Arsenal
in
ESP research. Later, the names of
the Rand Corporation and the Insti-
tute for Defense Analyses cropped
up occasionally. In the early 1960s,
there were reports of telepathy be-
tween the submarine USS NAUTI-
LUS and a shore-based command
post—which was denied forthwith
by the Navy. 14 In 1973, stories ap-
peared
describing CIA-sponsored
probing of Soviet and Chinese se-
cret
installations
by
individuals
with high psi ability. 13 By the mid-
1970s, Stanford Research Institute
appeared to be carrying the ball. 16
From time to time, some indica-
tions
of
interest
on
the
part
of
NASA
emerged
to
public
view.
Following a call for an experiment
in the course of the moonlanding
programs
in
the
late
1960s, 17 an
astronaut, Captain Edgar Mitchell,
conducted
an
experiment
using
star-cross-wave-square-circle
psi
cards developed at Duke Universi-
ty. In
six sessions, he “transmit-
ted”
card
images
at
preset
times, while “recipients” recorded
their impressions. While the results
exceeded
statistical
probability,
they
were
not
overwhelming. 18
NASA was quick to disclaim offi-
cial sponsorship.
Other cases of NASA
involve-
ment
included
a
communication
project
funded
through
Stanford
Research Institute, which generat-
ed hostile reaction in some scien-
tific circles, and a “previewing” of
Jupiter by
a well-known psychic
researcher. 19
Evidence
of
interest
and
re-
search, however, does not neces-
sarily mean serious acceptance or
commitment
to
programs.
James
Dougherty pointed out how nations
involved in disarmament talks may
interject “jokers” or “riders” into
otherwise serious and rational pro-
posals to make sure that their op-
ponents
will
not
accept
them.
Those
thus maneuvered
into
the
role of rejectors may then seem in
the
eyes
of
technically
unaware
publics to be the foes of peace. 20 A
corollary to this
is the strategy of
mounting
shadow
programs
to
206fit/O8/fl8adSfe^RpR9&tOift7ta&R9O
and
resources—into
a
dead-end,
the essence of Soviet efforts in the
field of “disinformation.” If Soviet
research in this area proved to be a
: spoof, the diversion of money and
people
to ESP could lead
to the
overlooking
of
other
develop-
ments, as well as serving as a waste
of effort.
Such cautions do not erase the
tantalizing advantages to be gained
in harnessing ESP. Given that such
phenomena are based on an de-
ment of reality, the strategic use of
ESP raises a further series of ques-
tions. Are the alignments of people
or conditions only random or occa-
sional? Is psi ability a by-product
of surrounding electromagnetic ra-
diations,
or of solar radiation or
induced by terrestrial magnetism?
Is
it enhanceable through hypno-
tism or drugs?
Is there means for
testing for psi ability? Or for devel-
oping it? Can it be jammed? Is the
effect simply explainable in terms
of a variation of radio-communica-
tions
theory?
Can
“information
bits,” or code messages really be
transmitted by
sending combina-
tions of basic sensory images? Is
foreknowledge and remote-sensing
possible? Is it group enhanceable?
ESP and C3
In a parallel vein, the mounting
interest in C3—command, control,
communication—reflects
concern
about the complexities of war in
what
National
Security
Advisor
Breszinski called the "nucleotronic
age.” The situation
is made more-
critical not only by a rising curve of
innovation
but
also
by
anxiety
about Russian developments in this
area. Contradictions
in their pub-
lished
material
do
not
produce
much agreement among Western
analysts about where the Soviets
are going, but their lines of thought
and unorthodox military problem-
solving techniques are unique and
sometimes strange. 21
And so it is not clear at this point
if both sides are really just playing
with each other, or if there is some-
thing really developing in the realm
7OC3B8BO350oofing,
deception and
camouflage are normal strategies in
the conduct of war—and peace.
If
Approved For Release 2000/08!
788R001 700360003-3
ESP does work as d kind of long-
wave radio,
it couid allow reliable,
unjammable, unmonitorable com-
munication
with
remote
strategic
weapons,
especially
the
nuclear
submarine
force.
Is
there,
then,
some
overlap between ELF—the
extremely low-frequency radio sys-
tem proposed by the Navy over the
last
10 years under the titles San-
guine and Seafarer—and ESP?
The
congruence
of
the
Soviet
model of ESP and the characteris-
tics of ELF (Extremely Low Fre-
quency)
communication
occur
at
several qualitative levels, from the
simple aspect of hypothetical-theo-
retical overlap of transmission and
reception,
t.o the need for an un-
jammable and EMP-proof C3 medi-
um in post-nuclear exchange envi-
ronment
modes,
from
“broken-
back
war”
fighting
to
conflict
termination. One main hypotheti-
cal parallel
is the problem of slow
data rate, a la the age of signal flags
and semaphores, and the early era
of telegraphy and radio, a problem
overcome
with
codebooks,
and
imagination. Unhappily, an
effec-
tive ESP system would, depending
on the nature of the phenomena,
offer potential to the executor of a
surprise
attack, from the psychic
influencing of targets, through pre-
cognition and remote
sensing,
to
message
transmission
below
the
detection
and
countermeasure
threshold
of a
potential
victim. 22
Thus the anxiety born of the magni-
tudes of increase in threat and con-
sequence of error tends to overide
rationalist skepticism.
Threat Perception
Perception and interpretation of
threat, after all, has been a growing
problem in the age of machine war-
fare,
a
by-product
of
the
rising
speed and destructiveness of weap-
ons. Since the 1956s and the com-
ing of H-Bomb-tipped ICBMs, the
nuclear super-powers have wired
together elaborate networks of ra-
dar screens, electronic computers,
radios,
telephones
and, more
re-
cently, satellites, fiber optics, fluid-
ic computers and lasers. Articles in
the Western popular press on the
strategic potential of ESP began to
appear in the late 1950s, as the first
generation of inter-continental bal-
listic missiles cut nuclear surprise
attack warning time from hours to
minutes. Since then, such concern
bom of increasingly destructive nu-
clear power
has
been
a
driving
force m shaping such “command
and control” systems
to function
rapidly, and
at
ciency,
systems
which
are
de-
signed as much to prevent war as to
fight. The
anxiety
has
also been
reinforced by the fact that the two
nuclear superpowers
are
the
na-
tions which
suffered
the
greatest
strategic surprises of World War'll,
Operation BARBAROSSA,
the
Nazi assault on Russia, and Pearl
Harbor,
both
in
1941,
within
six
months of each other.
A principal problem in the realm
of ESP stems from the dynamics of
political power in an age in which
“far-out” concepts have regularly
become ^reality. Those who -seek
and hold political power often lack
technical
knowledge
about
the
complex systems on which defense
and foreign policy rely. Many mod-
em
leaders have come
to be
as
dependent on their scientific advi-
sors as ancient kings were on their
shamans
and
soothsayers.
The
controversial influence of Dr. Lin-
demann
(later Lord Cherwell) on
Winston
Churchill
in
the Second
World War
is
still viewed as cru-
cial, since Lindemann’s advice led
to
a major
redirection
of British
bombing toward
attacks on
Ger-
man civilians.
In
the
Nuclear
Age,
national
leaders have often had science ad-
visors act as translators of the ar-
cane, even though the performance
of such modem shamans has been
uneven. Albert Speer, for example,
overlooked the potential of nuclear
research, and the influence of Lord
Cherwell on Winston Churchill has
long been under scrutiny by histori-
ans. In any case, science has yield-
ed much
of use
in modem
war,
and,
recently,
as
World War
II
secret
files have been opened, the
electronic
warfare
and
decoding
battles of that period, truly resem-
ble,
as
Churchill
said,
a
duel
of
magicians.
•
When
looking
at
the
current
plight of policy makers in respect
to ESP, then, it is sobering to recall
that the vast atomic bomb project
of World War II, undertaken in fear
of parallel Nazi efforts, was based
on
an unproven
hypothesis
in
a
highly
theoretical
branch
of
sci-
ence. Nevertheless, two days be-
fore Pearl Harbor, President Roo-
sevelt committed vast and
scarce
resources to support the work of
scientists who had no firm data in
hand,
to
seek the
exotic
goal of
loosing the electrical bonds of mat-
ter. As a result, what was literally
science
fiction
until
1944 became
brutal truth in 1945.
Effects of Programs
The data at hand hardly suggest
s4h2O60^O8inidlteiReP96{OO^8Ri
is
in
order. Any
substantial
pro-
gram mounted
in
this area would
face hazardous paradoxes.
If too
much were spent, and produced a
dead-end, the political result could
be deadly. But if the potential were
ignored, and an adversary succeed-
ed
in
harnessing ESP,
the
result
would be worse than embarrass-
ment. If ESP can, indeed, be mea-
sured
and
controlled,
whichever
player in the game of international
power mastered
it might succeed
without tipping their hand; it would
be hard to keep sealed
off.
If the
effect proved to be a variant in the
phenomenon
of
extra-long
wave
communication, a whole sub-world
of communications research would
be opened up, not to mention the
impact on geography, meteorology
and psychometry.
The
tendency
for.
those who
dwell in corridors of power to over-
read threats is proverbial. In view
of that, even suspicion that a foe
was using ESP could generate tur-
bulence
in a system
in
times of
stress
or
crisis.
The
uncertainty
regarding the designs and motives
behind Soviet interest in ESP also
raises other questions. Is that inter-
est merely a spoof, a form of “dis-
information,”
or
are
they
really
into
pay-dirt and trying to cover
up? Did they move their ESP re-
search into their first-line scientific
research establishment to conceal
developments—or
to
heighten
Western anxiety and uncertainty?
Do they fear that the West may be
active in this area—or even ahead?
Perhaps, in the end, all the inter-
est and effort in this area will prove
merely superstitious and wasteful.
Or
perhaps many
have
already
glimpsed bits and fragments of an
effect—or
effects—which
will
someday be measured scientifical-
ly. For those looking out over this
strange and blurred landscape, and
trying to
fit
it
into a context of
policy, operations and technology,
it is a very tough call, indeed.
Footnotes
'The Czechs, for instance, claimed the use of
clairvoyance against the Hungarians in 1918 and in
guerrilla warfare
in World War
II;
Sheila Os-
trander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries
Behind the Iron Curtain, Englewood Cliffs. Pren-
tice
Hall,
1970,
pp.
312-31?;
Peter Maddock,
"Electromagnetic
Induction of
Psi
States:
' The
Way Forward in Parapsychology,"
in Mysteries,
Colin Wilson, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons,
1978, p. 632.
*In the 1920s, the British government reportedly
funded development of a device to measure psy-
chic emanations,
lan Stevenson, "The Uncom-
fortable Facts About Extra-Sensory Perception,"
Harper's. July I9J9. pp. 20-25; The military theo-
I f?ni
It'&n9irfoi'y-
s,udent
of
th=
occult,
’ li/ggcnwPMWftg'fihYs between psychic power and
generalship;
Anthony
John
Trythall.
"Boney”
Fuller: Soldier, Strategist and Writer, 1878-1966.