re. ved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001 10005 OSE T TENTATIVE . - RIL FLAME (O_ OSE ROLD/CANO GARRY 28 September 1978 Proposal for Research. SRI No. ESU 78-100 SPECIAL TRAINING TECHNIQUES {U) Part One--Technical Proposal ce ¢ Prepared for: a Headquarters 2 Department of the Army ne Washington, D.C. 20310 og Attn: Maj. William Stoner c DAMI-ISH a Prepared by: ~+ P Russell Targ * Senior Research Physicist ~ Approved by: Radio Physics Laboratory ‘r Harold E, Puthoff, Ph.D. .. Senior Research Engineer #3 . Radio Physics Laboratory a Robert $. Leonard, Director Radio Physics Laboratory David D,. Elliott, Executive Director Systems Research and Analysis Division @RILL FLAME (0) copy Yo. 2 GLOSIE HOLD/HAND GARR YES document consists of 26 pages SRI 38-4443 Classification Determination Pending Protect as though cles sified SECRET S E Cc R E T 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, California 94025 TENTATIVE International ON el Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5 (415) 326-6200 « Cable: STANRES, Menlo Park « TWX: 910-373-1246
Approved For Release INCA S'S FPFED 0788R001 100050001-5 I INTRODUCTION CONTENTS e ° e ° * ° e e e e e « e o e ° e IIT TECHNICAL APPROACH . « 2 6 6 6» © © we we sw woes A. B. C. III OBJECTIVES Background e ° * @ @ . . . e e o ° e e ¢ Experimenter Influences . .... 21 ee ee Educational Procedures ....2.2-e «© we we l, 2. Sereening . .. 2. 6 «© © © © © wo © Tra ining * e a e e e e e o o ° e e * ° Training in Perceptual Tasks Paralleling Ordinary Perception. . Training in Abstract Targeting, Including Geographical Coordinates The Ten-Choice Numerical Training Facility e e e e e e * a e . e e Iv STATEMENT OF WORK e e e e ° e e e e e ° e e ° ° V REPORTING SCHEDULE ° ° e e e e e a s e e ° ° ° oJ VI QUALIFICATIONS OF SRI . 1. 1 2 2 0 ew wh wo wo REFERENCES e * e . . . . eo &© ©@ o . e . o ° e 1 UNCLASSIFIED aom™nw “w NSN Uw & 12 13 15 16 23 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5
Approved For Release 4ddi@/bA §18-HoPEdb0788R001100050001-5 I INTRODUCTION Recent publications provide mounting evidence for the existence of so-called parapsychological or. paraphysical processes. These processes are taken to include the following: (1) The acquisition and description, by mental means, of information blocked from ordinary perception by distance or shielding and generally believed to be secure against such access, (2) The production of physical effects such as the perturbation of instrumentation or equipment that appears to be well shielded against, or otherwise inaccessible to, human influence. The literature also indicates evidence of an acceleration of research in both Western and Soviet Bloc countries in an effort to precipitate a breakthrough. In the West, a large-scale exploratory research effort on psychoenergetic channels has been carried out by the authors in the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory and the Radio Physics Laboratory of SRI International. Our work dealt primarily with a human information-accessing capability that we call "remote viewing." This phenomenon pertains to the ability of certain individuals to access and describe, by means of mental processes, remote geographical loca- tions up to several thousand km distant from their physical location. In more than 50 experiments with roughly a dozen subjects, including government scientists sent to examine experimental protocols, signifi- cant results were obtained in the viewing of remote buildings, laboratory apparatus, and real-time activities. From this work we conclude that*” 3° (1) The phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance over a range of several kilometers and is still operative over a range of several thousand kilometers. (2) Faraday cage electrical shielding does not appear to degrade the quality or accuracy of perception. (3) Most of the correct information pertains to shape, forn, color, and material, rather than to function or name, suggesting that the function may be mediated primarily by the brain's right hemisphere. % References are listed at the end of this document. 2 UNCLASSIFIED Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5
Approved For Release 2000/0 PC RB ROR%K-09788R001100050001-5 (4) The principal difference between experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers is not that the latter do not exhibit the faculty but rather that their results are simply less reliable, indicating that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed, though suppressed, perceptual ability, Subjects trained over a several-year period have shown improved performance under continuing experiments. Clear evidence has been obtained showing that subjects in laboratory experiments can describe future events, not yet determined at the time of their description. 3 SECRET rammve Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5
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Approved For Release 9qQ GPA S'S RUF ©0788R001100050001-5 II TECHNICAL APPROACH With the overall objective of improving the reliability of psycho- energetic functioning, experimenters have attempted many different strategies, both to find more gifted subjects, and to provide the most optimal psychological environment for the subjects participating in experiments. In this section we will outline some of these approaches, with regard to special environments and methods for screening and training subjects, As Background One of the most effective psychoenergetic protocols in terms of successful subject performance is the remote viewing of natural targets. As observed in the laboratory, the basic phenomenon appears to cover a range of subjective experiences variously referred to in the literature as autoscopy (in the medical Literature); exteriorization or disassociation (psychological literature); simple clairvoyance, traveling clairvoyance, or out-of-body experience (parapsychological Literature); or astral pro- jection (occult literature), We choose the term "remote viewing" as a neutral descriptive term free from prior associations and bias as to mechanisms, As carried out at SRI, the general protocol is to closet a subject with an experimenter and at a prearranged time to obtain from the subject a description of an undisclosed, remote site being visited by a target team, one of whose members is known to the subject and who thereby constitutes the target person, The target team is assigned their target location by an independent experimenter who has generated a list of tar- gets located within a 30-minute driving time from SRI, and who accesses this list by a randomization procedure, 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. The experiment is thus of the double- blind type. In detail: To begin an experiment, a subject is closeted with an experimenter at SRI and instructed to wait 30 minutes before beginning a ‘narrative description of where the target team has gone. Meanwhile, the target team obtains sealed traveling orders from a monitor who has pre- viously prepared and randomized a set of such orders. After leaving SRI by automobile, the target team opens the traveling orders and proceeds directly to the target without any communication with the subject or experimenter remaining at SRI. The experimenter remaining with the subject in the SRI laboratory is kept ignorant of both the particular 5 UNCLASSIFIED Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5
Approved For Release 2000/08/85 RIE-ROR6.60788R001 100050001-5 target and the target pool so as to eliminate the possibility of cueing (overt or subliminal) and to allow him freedom in questioning the subject for clarification of his descriptions, The target team remains at the’ target site for a prearranged 15-minute period following the 30 minutes alloted for travel. During the observation period, the remote viewing subject at SRI is asked to describe his impressions of the target site into a tape recorder and to make any drawings he thinks appropriate. A tentative evaluation is made of the subject's output when the target team returns to SRI. Finally, following the experiment, the subject is taken to the site so that he may obtain direct feedback, To obtain a first cut at a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of a series of, say, N remote viewing experiments, the experimental results are subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by SRI research analysts not otherwise associated with the research. The response packets, which contain nine typed, unedited transcripts” of the tape- recorded narratives and associated drawings, are unlabeled and presented in random order. Working alone, an analyst visits a target location and in a blind fashion rates the subject's descriptions on a scale 1 to 9 (best to worst match). This procedure is repeated with different analysts for each target site, At the end, the statistic of interest is the sum of ranks assigned to the target-associated transcripts, lower values indicating better matches, For nine targets, for example, 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 l. As an overall calibration of the remote viewing process, against which specific examples can be gauged, we can take as a background data base a lengthy collection of 51 remote viewing trials collected over a several-year period with nine subjects, and published by the authors in Ref. 1. In these trials subjects were targeted on local targets (bridges, swimming pools, theaters, airports, computers, machine shops, etc.) within a 20 km range of SRI. The quality of the results was such that the judges, who had to determine in a blind fashion which subject- generated data packages (tape transcripts and drawings) were associated with which target sites, were able to blind match transcripts to targets in first place in roughly half the cases, * Except that statements which would cue a judge as to target order are removed (e.g., reference to a previous target), 6 SECRET cavtartve Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5 SG1B
a’ ; sciphroved For Release 2000/6 BC RE -RbRe6-00288R001100050001-5 B.- Exper imenter Influences From the work of Prof. Robert Rosenthal at Harvard it is clear that there is a strong difference in the outcome of some psychology experi- ments, depending on who conducts the experiment. This so-called experi- menter effect has been the subject of investigation for the past 15 years in an attempt to find means to objectify some of the principal findings of conventional perceptual and behavioral psychology. We are not suggesting that this experimenter effect in psychology is due to paranormal influences, but rather that some of the inability to replicate ESP experiments of one laboratory, when the experiments are transferred to another laboratory, might be due to subtle experimenter effects of the type known to occur in psychology and behavior experiments in general, We consider it important to find out if the success or failure of parapsychology experiments relate to the experimenter effect through interpersonal interaction, subliminal cueing, or some as-yet uncataloged factor. Rotation of experimenters and interchange of subject-experimenter roles can supply needed information on these factors, As of June 1978, Dr. Charles T, Tart, a well-known psychologist, has joined the program; one of his specific concerns is experimenter influence, C. Educational Procedures 1. Screening It is now generally agreed that psychic functioning is an innate or latent ability, somewhat similar to musical talent. That is, all people have it to some degree, but there is a wide range of abilities from the psychically tone deaf, to the virtuoso performer. It would be the goal of a screening program to locate and recruit the most psychically talented individuals available, both to obtain a measure of the range of abilities that exists, and also to make use of these abilities to further increase our understanding of 7 SECRET stavzarive Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001100050001-5 SG1B SG1B