GROUNDS POOL HOUSE f SERVICE CONCRETE BLOCK \ YARD . . eee - FIRE “STATION one, J \ ‘PICNIC AREA/ \ ~ . nd a~Q (a) City map of target location FIGURE 1 that is chosen in a double-blind fashion out- lined below, An outbound experimenter is assigned a target location by an independent experimenter who has generated a list of targets located within a 30-minute driving time from SRI, and who accesses this list by a randomization pro- cedure, The target pool consists of more than 100 target locations chosen from a target-rich environment, The target location selected is kept blind. to both the subject and experimenter closeted at SRI. In detail: To begin the experiment, a.sub- ject is closeted with an experimenter at SRI to wait 30 minutes before beginning a narrative description of an undisclosed remote location that will be the target for the experiment, A second experimenter, accompanied by other mem- bers of a target demarcation team, then obtains sealed traveling orders from a monitor who. has previously prepared and randomized a set of such orders, After leaving SRI by automobile, the target demarcation team opens the traveling orders and proceeds directly to the target without any communication with the subject or experimenter remaining at SRI, The experiment- er remaining with the subject in the SRI labo- ratory is kept ignorant of both the particular target and the target pool so as to eliminate the possibility of cueing (overt or subliminal) and to allow him freedom in questioning the sub- ject for clarification of his descriptions, The . target demarcation team remains at the target site for a prearranged 15-minute period follow- ing the 30 minutes alloted for travel. During the coservation period, the experimenter in the TRS MOTEL Tome er Spe arrow er RR Fon I DO se PET OEP S02 SRE pa SREES (b) SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX AS REMOTE VIEWING TARGET Drawing by Price lab tape-records the subject's remote viewing impressions of the target site and collects ar drawings made by the subject, After the targe demarcation team returns to SRI, the impressic obtained from the subject are compared with tl actual observations of the team, Finally, following the experiment, the subject is taker to the site so that he may obtain direct feedback, Initial Experimental Series with a Subject Experienced in Remote Viewing Our first subject in. a formal series of experiments to investigate the remote viewing function was Mr, Pat Price, a former Califor police commissioner and city councilman, who participated in nine experiments, Mr, Price came to our experiments with a reported histo of spontaneous remote viewing experiences, Ih general, Price's ability in our experiments t: describe correctly buildings, docks, roads, gardens, and the like, including structural materials, color, ambience, and activity--som times in great detail--indicated the function of a remote perceptual ability. A Hoover Tow target, for example, was recognized and cor- rectly named, Nonetheless, Price's descripti generally contained inaccuracies as well as c rect statements, A typical example is indica by his drawing shown in Figure 1 in which he correctly described a park-like area containi two pools of water: one rectangular, 60 X 89 £t (actual dimensions 75 X 100 ft); the other circular, diameter 120 ft (actual diameter 11 ft), As can be seen from his drawing, he als included some elements, such as the tanks sho in the upper right, that are not present at t -Q— Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080008-6 ania BR tek abi Bs ti RM Ni ea ih Reg adi hig Tala cyt RCNP Uh" Se ROE ESE Nee Tea aie, Pec
Approved For Releagg 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-0078%8000200080008-6 target site, We also note an apparent left- right reversal, often observed in paranormal perception experiments, Further, he incorrectly indicated the function of the site as water purification rather than recreational swimming. We often observe essentially correct descriptions of basic clements and patterns coupled with incom- plete or erroncous analysis of function, This theme emerged as a thread which continued throughout our work and eventually led to a breakthrough with regard to an understanding of the interrelationship between paranormal per~ ception and cerebral functioning, namely: that paranormal functioning may involve spccializa- tion characteristic of the brain's right. homi- sphere, which predominates in spatial and other holistic processing, in contrast to the left hemisphere which predominates in verbal and other analytical functioning,” Judging of Results To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the remote viewing experiment, the experimental results were subjected to indepen- dent judging on a blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise associated with the re- search, Price's response packets, which con- tained the nine typed, unedited transcripts of the tape-recorded narratives. and associated drawings, were unlabeled and presented in ran- dom order, Working alone, the analyst visited each target location in -turn and in a blind fashion rated Price's descriptions on a scale 1 to 9 (best to worst match), The statistic of interest is the sum of ranks assigned to the target-associated transcripts, lower values indicating better matches, For nine targets, the sum of ranks could range from nine (for perfect matching) to eighty-one, The technique for calculating the probability that a given sum of ranks s or less will occur by chance is given in Reference 2, The results of the judging, shown in Table 1, included seven direct hits out of the nine, The overall result was statisti- cally significant at p = 2.9 X10. Table 1 also indicates the various types of targets used in this series, Further, in experiments 3, 4, and 6-9, the subject was secured in a double-walled copper screen Faraday cage, which provides 120-dB attenuation for plane-wave radio-frequency radiation over the range of 15 kHz to 1 GHz, The results of rank-order judging indicate that the use of such shielding goes not prevent high-quality descriptions from being obtained, Replication Series with a Subject Inexperienced in Remote Viewing , Having completed this initial series of . experiments with Price, we concluded that Table l DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH FACH TARGET LOCATION FOR EXPERIENCED SUBJECT PRICE Distanc Rank © Target Location Gan) © | Associat: Transcriy Hoover Tower, Stanford | 1 Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto 1 ‘Radio telescope, Portola Valley 1 Marina, Redwood City 1 Bridge toll plaza, | | Fremont 6 Drive-in theatre, Palo Alto 1 Arts and Crafts Plaza, Menlo Park 1 Catholic Church, Portola Valley 3 Swimming pool complex, ; Palo Alto 1 Total sum of ranks 16 (p=2.9X10° remote viewing was both a real and a robust phenomenon, Our next task was to try to find out how widely distributed the ability was in the general population, We began with the following replication experiment, The subject for this experiment was Mrs, Hella Hammid, a gifted professional photogra- pher, She was selected for this series on th basis of her good performance as a percipient in an earlier EEG experiment designed to meas physiological response to remote strobelight stimuli, a hypothesized screening procedure f remote viewing. Outside of that interaction, she had had no previous experience with appar paranormal functioning, At the time we began working with Mrs, Hamnid, she had no strong feelings about the likelihood of her ability to succeed in t task, This was in contrast to both Ingo Swan who suggested these experiments and who had come to our laboratory fresh from an apparent successful series of similar experiments with Dr. Karlis Osis at the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in New York?! ana Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080008-6 cool ac ane 4 alte dan, inc Tes ee Sites ap fit es a diye Mea ah, arncibig aan tes Gielen ccc P RS Reena 2 ah, Aas etic ieGie Nahant, Na aS ipa eR eg a RS a a ABR iE a ANN al Stk
cl on a abet abe Raat Loe i pproved For Release 2001/03/26 : if . : : is oe rea dee wat |A-RDP96 Beats i 0787g000200080008-6 Pedestrian Overpass Target CC cole, FIGURE 2 SUBJECT HAMMID DRAWING, DESCRIBED AS “SOME KIND OF DIAGONAL TROUGH UP IN THE AIR” Pat Price, the first subject in our formal series of experiments, who felt that he used his remote viewing ability in his everyday life. In working with an inexperienced subject, we must take into account the fact that many people are influenced to a large degree by their environment and by public scrutiny when it comes to activities generally considered to be impos~ Sible, A reluctance to cope with negative feed~ back from society often inhibits individuals from exploring a potential for paranormal per- ception, Therefore, in addition to maintaining Scientific rigor, one of our primary tasks as researchers is to provide an environment that lends protective support for a subject to pur- sue such exploration, With a new subject, we also stress the nonuniqueness of the ability because our experience indicates that paranor- mal functioning is a latent ability that all subjects can demonstrate to some degree, We observed in working with Price that i remote viewing structure and form tended to b correct even when interpretation was incorrec We therefore found it an advantage that Mrs, Hammid's artistic background enabled her to draw and describe visual images that she could not identify in any cognitive or analyt sense, When the target demarcation team went to a pedestrian overpass target location, for example, the subject said that she saw "a kin of diagonal trough up in the air," which she indicated in the upper part of her drawing in Figure 2, She further explained that "If you Stand where they are standing you will see something like this,” indicating the nested squares at the bottom of Figure 2. As can be seen from the photograph of the target locati as shown in Figure 2, a judge standing where indicated would have a view closely resemblin what she had drawn, We emphasize, however, t judges did not have access to our photographs Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080008-6 TAG aout ab viele ata sural: sas Alb: chile ines eM ile RNG ae
Whee FE Approved For Releage’2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-007874800200080008-6 the site, used here for illustrative purposas only; rather, they proceeded to each of the tar- get locations according to a list, As in the original scries with Price, the results of this ninc-experimont series were sub- mitted for independent judging on a blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise asso- ciated with the research, According to the judging procedure previously outlined in the section, "Judging of Results," the judge ranked each target location on a scale of 1 to 9 (best to worst match) on the basis of the narratives and drawings submitted by the subject. The sum _ of ranks assigned to the target-associated transcripts was statistically significant at p= 1,8 X 1076, This included five direct hits and four second ranks as shown in Table 2 along with the locations of the nine experiments in this set, Table 2 DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TARGET LOCATION FOR LEARNER SUBJECT HAMMID Rank of Associated Transcript Distance Target Location (im) Methodist. Church, Palo Alto Ness Auditorium, Menlo Park Merry-go-round, Palo Alto Parking garage, Mountain View SRI International Courtyard, Menlo Park Bicycle shed, Menlo Park Railroad trestle bridge, Palo Alto ; Pumpkin patch, Menlo Park Pedestrian overpass, Palo Alto Total sum of ranks (p=1.8x107°) In comparing the results of the Hammid and Price experiments, we observe a difference in the subjects’ styles that evidently affected the pattern of results, The descriptions from Price were usually more detailed than those of Hammid Fy seed iin beta asa and thus led to more first-place matches--thai ds, direct hits in the rank order judging, At the same time, his striving for detail produce erroncous analytical interpretations that re- sulted in two distinct mismatches, On the other hand, the more restrained narratives of Mrs, Hammid resulted in fewer first-place matches, but none fell below second place, 5 a comparison of results docs not indicate that one subject necessarily has more paranormal pe ception than the other, but rather shows the effects in this type of judging procedure due a difference in tyle, Experiments with Unselected Subjects After more than a year of following the ' experimental protocol described above and ob- serving that even inexperienced subjects ob- tained results better than expected, we began series of experiments to explore further whether individuals other than so-called "psy- chics" could demonstrate the remote viewing ability. To test this idea, we initiated an extensive series of experiments using unselec? ed subjects and local targets in the Bay Area. We had no particular reason to believe that these additional subjects possessed paranorma. perceptual ability, These experiments served a twofold pur- pose, First they provided an opportunity to obtain data that indicate the level of profi- ciency that can be expected from unselected volunteers, Second, they served to dispel co cerns about the possibility of deception, Fo example, many scientists from the government and elsewhere have visited our laboratory to decide whether their particular departmeucs. should be concerned with paranormal reseaxch, Their requests generally focus on a-desiie to "see something psychic," and we had been will ing to demonstrate the remote. viewing protoce with one of our subjects, However, when an individual observes a successful experiment demonstrated with another person as subject, inevitably occurs to him that perhaps chicane is somehow involved, We have found that the most effective way to settle this issue is to have the doubter become the subject, thereby providing him with personal experience as a basis for evaluating our experimental protocc and reported results, Consequently, we have discontinued demonstration experiments, In- stead, we ask the visitor to become a subject so that he can personally evaluate what he ex periences and sees, After the experiment, he is then taken to the target site where he car determine firsthand if it corresponds to whai he has visualized during the experiment, We have found that the actual experience as a st ject of successful remote viewing is by far more instructive than observation of what soz one else has done, The following results Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080008-6 aR iii ta at Se AN ell a es tala Vp tin th a ENC aay yg