Po Zi SSS Pea STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE Menlo Park, California 94025 - U.S.A. SLUT ST “=A ae L, Brot ght REMOTE VIEWING OF NATURAL TARGETS — io hea sorts hepa Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff wren fate wee aaa se ers | Vans Stanford Research Institute Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory To be presented at the Conference on Quantum Physics and Parapsychology Geneva, Switzerland, August 26-27, 1974 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 REMOTE VIEWING OF NATURAL TARGETS This paper presents a series of experiments in which a subject is asked to describe a remote site chosen by experimenters and unknown to the subject. This work was undertaken to test the idea that natural geographic places or man-made sites that have existed for a long time are more potent targets for paranormal perception experiments than are artificial targets prepared in the laboratory. This is based in part on the suggestions of two of our subjects (Messrs. Pat Price and Ingo Swann) who consider the use of artificial targets to be a "trivialization of the ability,’ as compared with natural preexisting targets. In order to build a physical theory for the explanation of psychical phenomena, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what constitutes the phenomena which are to be explained. fn this paper we endeavor to present a series of coherent and repeatable experiments which represent a sufficiently stable data base against which to test various theories for psychical functioning. In these experiments we have three principal findings. First, we have definitely established that it is possible to obtain significant amounts of descriptive information about remote locations. Second, the physical distance separating the subject from the scene to be perceived does not greatly effect the accuracy of perception, In our experiments the distance was varied from two miles to two thousand miles. Finally, Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 the use of electromagnetic shielding does not in any apparent way degrade the quality or accuracy of the descriptions obtained, These facts taken together cast great doubt on theories for psychic perception based on a conventional use of electromagnetic radiation. Although it is possible for extremely low frequencies to penetrate our shielded room, we question whether signals of such low frequency have the necessary information carrying capacity to account for the experiments described in this paper. In our experience, a subject is more likely to describe accurately a remote site chosen at random from hundreds of nearby locations than he is to select correctly an integer from zero to nine chosen by a similar random process. In a later section we describe the protocol used to quantify the correspondence between the subject's description and the observables present at the target location. We consider that this differ- ence in task difficulty lies in the fact that a subject can make a perfect mental picture of each numeral from one to ten from his own imagination, whereas he is more likely to try to make his mind a blank when attempting to perceive pictorial information from remote locations about which he has no mentally stored data. Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 In experiments carried out in our program to investigate the abilities of a New York artist, Mr. Ingo Swann, he expressed the opinion that the insights gained during experiments at SRI had strengthened his ability (researched before he joined the SRI program) "to view remote locations. To test Mr. Swann's assertion, a pilot study was set up in which a series of targets from around the globe were supplied to the experimenters by SRI personnel on a double-blind basis. In our estimation, Mr. Swann's ability to describe correctly details of buildings, roads, bridges, and the like indicated that he could perceive remote locations, sometimes in great detail, given only their geographic latitude and longitude. Thus, we considered the descriptions were sufficiently accurate to warrant our setting up a research program in remote viewing. We present here the results of a remote viewing experiment, carried out with a second subject in the remote viewing program (Mr. Pat Price). This experiment consisted of a series of double-blind, demonstration-of~- ability tests involving local targets in the San Francisco Bay area which could be documented by several independent judges. In each of nine experiments in which Mr. Price served as remote- viewing subject and SRI experimenters as a target demarcation team, a remote location was chosen in a double-blind protocol. Mr. Price, who remained at SRI, was asked to describe this remote location, as well as whatever activities might be going on there. * K. Osis, ASPR Newsletter, No. 14, Summer 1972, Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 Data from the nine experiments are presented in the following para- graphs, Final judging indicated that several descriptions ylelded sig- nificantly correct data pertaining to and descriptive of the target loca- tion. In the nine double-blind remote-viewing experiments, the following procedures were used. A set of twelve target locations clearly differen- tiated from each other and within thirty minutes driving time from SRI, had been chosen from a target-rich environment (more than 100 targets of the type used in the experimental series) prior to the experimental series by an individual in SRI management, the director of the Information Science and Engineering Division, not otherwise associated with the experiment. Both the experimenters and the subject were kept blind as to the contents of the target pool, which were used without replacement. To begin the experiment, an experimenter was closeted with Mr. Price at SRI to wait 30 minutes to begin the narrative description of the remote location, The SRI locations from which the subject viewed the remote locations consisted of an outdoor park (Experiments 1,2) a double-walled copper-screen Faraday cage (Exper iments 3,4, 6-9), and an office (Experi- ment 5). <A second experimenter would then obtain.a target location from the Division Director from a set of traveling orders previously prepared and randomized by the Director and kept under his control. The target * The Faraday cage provides 120 dB attenuation for plane wave radio frequency radiation over a range of 15 KHz to 1 GHz. For magnetic fields the attenuation is 68 dB at 15 KHz and decreases to 3 dB at 60 Hz. Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3
\ _ Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 demarcation team, consisting of two to four SRI experimenters then pro- ceeded directly to the target by automobile without communicating with the subject or experimenter remaining behind, Since the experimenter remaining with the subject at SRI was in ignorance both as to the particular target and also as to the target pool, he was free to question Price to clarify his descriptions. The demarcation team then remained at the target site for an agreed-upon thirty-minute period following the thirty minutes allotted for travel. During the observation period, the venote-viewing subject would describe his impressions of the target site into a tape recorder. A comparison was then made when the demarcation team returned. To represent best the detail and style of these narratives, we have repro- duced in an Appendix the entire unedited text of one of the better narra- tives (Exp. 7) which contains very few incorrect statements. In general, Mr. Price's ability to describe correctly buildings, docks, roads, gardens, etc., including structural materials, color, ambience, and activity, sometimes in great detail, indicated the functioning of a remote perceptual ability. However, the descriptions contained inaccuracies as well as correct statements. To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy. of the remote viewing experiment, the experimental results were subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by five SRI scientists who were not otherwise associated with the research. The judges were asked to match the nine locations, which they independently visited, against the typed manuscripts of the tape-recorded narratives of the remote viewer. The transcripts were unlabeled and presented in random order. The judges were asked to find a narrative which they would consider the best match for each of the Apprave HSE Ratesss add divs? “CTA MbPBS-b0787RObUS00410001-3 4a
_ Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 one target. location. A correct match requires that the transcript of a given date be associated with the target of that date. The table shows the distribution of the judges' choices. For purposes of display : We present the table such that the main diagonal corresponds to the correct choices. The number of correct matches by Judges A through E is 7, 6, 5, 3, and 3, ‘respectively. The expected number of correct matches from the five judges was five; in the experiment twenty-four such matches were obtained.* Among all possible analyses, none is more conservative than a permutation analysis of the plurality vote of the judges' selections assuming assignment without replacement, an approach independent of the number of judges. By plurality vote, six. of the nine descriptions and locations were correctly matched. Under the null hypothesis (no remote viewing and a random selection of, descriptions without replacement), this outcome has an a.priori probability of p = 5.6 x 1074, since, among all possible permutations of the integers one through nine, the probability of six or more being in their natural position in the list has that value. Therefore, although Price's descriptions contain -inaccuracies, the descriptions are sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to differentiate among the various targets to the degree indicated. tThe a priori probability of such an occurrence by chance, conservatively assuming assignment without replacement on the part of the judges, is p = 8-10710, Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500410001-3 5