PAGE
”
w
LEVEL
-
14 OF 20 STORIES
Approved For Release 2003/04/18
: CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230029-1
Copyright
1983
Information Access
Co.,
a division of
Ziff Communications
Co.;
Copyright American Association for the Advancement
of
Science
Science
December
2,
1983
SECTION:
Vol
.
222
;
Pg
.
997;
ISSN:
0036-8075
LENGTH:
555 words
HEADLINE:
Parapsychology update.
BYLINE:
Holden,
Constance.
BODY:
Parapsychology Update
At
least
one member of Congress,
Senator Claiborne Pell
(D-R.I.),
has
publicly expressed an interest
in parapsychology,
but apparently there are quite
a few others sufficiently curious
to ask the Congressional Research Service
(CRS)
to report
on the status
of such research.*
(CRS does
not reveal names
of
requesters
.
)
*
"Research into
"psi'
Phenomena:
Current
Status and Trends
of Congressional
Concern.
The report,
completed last
summer,
carries on at
some length about
the
potential educational,
military,
anticrime,
and health applications
if psychic
phenomena are ever understood well enough to be replicable.
Currently,
says
the report,
a paltry
$
500,000
a year
is going
into psi
research
in the United States,
almost all
from private
sources.
In contrast,
research
is more
or
less thriving
in the Soviet Union where speculation puts the
funding at
tens
of millions
of dollars.
However,
the only recognized application
is dowsing,
which
is
taught
to mineralogists and geologists
at
the Omsk
Polytechnical
Institute.
The People's Republic
of China
is
said to have
developed a fairly recent
interest
in parapsychology,
including psychic healing.
In the United States,
the field has been chiefly explored by psychologists,
but physicists have become increasingly involved and are employing the
latest
technologies
in an effort
to detect
the slightest
effects
of mind on matter.
Most research
is devoted either
to extrasensory perception
(ESP)
or
telekinesis--the ability to move objects.
Currently,
extensive efforts are being
made to correlate psychic ability with personality variables
or with particular
altered states
of consciousness,
according to the report.
The prime
location for
this,
says the report's author Christopher Dodge,
is
the Maimonides Medical
Center
in New York.
Another major thrust has been the use of random number generators
to seek
statistically significant psi-induced deviations.
Robert
Jahn,
dean of
Engineering at Princeton University,
has been doing this
for some years,
and
claims weak but persistent positive results.
Jahn and several other engineers
are increasingly interested
in possible psi
interactions with computers,
examining,
for example,
the possible disturbance
of
the memory functions
of
single microelectronic chips.
Approved For Release 2003/04/18
: CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230029-1
PAGE
Science
December
1933
Approved For Release 2003/04/18
: CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230029-1
So
far,
the most
striking results appear
to be coming
from remote viewing
experiments.
At Stanford Research Institute physicist Harold Puthoff
is
conducting double-blind experiments where a person
is
sent
out
to engage
in an
activity and the subject
is asked to visualize where the person
is.
The
investigators are claiming a 70 percent
success
rate.
The report notes
that there
is
"no conclusive physical theory of psi'
phenomena,
but
tat
is not
for
lack of trying.
Theoreticians have found
explanations based on electromagnetic
or sound waves
inadequate and are
looking
for more
"holistic
paradigms.
An extension of quantum mechanics
to cover the
laws
of consciousness
is one
idea;
another extends
the concept
of hyperspace to
postulate an added dimension in human experience.
The report concludes with a glowing catalog of all
the fields
of human
endeavor that could be enhanced by the harnessing of psi abilities.
It makes no
mention of the appalling social disruption such powers could also bring.
IAC -NUMBER
:
IAC 03039561
IAC-CLASS
:
Health;
Magazine
LANGUAGE:
ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE -MDC
:
July
29,
1994
Approved For Release 2003/04/18
: CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230029-1