Qe ee Fig. 4. Subject Hammid (S4) drawing, described as ‘‘some kind of diagonal trough up in the air.” TABLE Il DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TARGET LOCATION FOR EXPERIENCED Sussect Price (S1) cee | km Rank of Associated Transcript Target Location Hoover Tower, Stanford Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto Radio celescope, Portola Valley Marina, Redwood City Bridge coll plaza, Fremont Drive-in theater, Palo alto Arts and Crafts Plaza, Menlo Park Catholic Church, Portola Valley Swimming pool complex, Palo Alto Total sum of ranks (p=2.9x10°5 ) who felt that he used his remote-viewing ability in his every- day life, ; In comparison with the latter two, many people are more influenced by their environment and are reluctant under public scrutiny to attempt activities that are generally thought to be impossible. Society often provides inhibition and nega- tive feedback to the individual who might otherwise have explored his own nonregular perceptual ability. We all share an historical tradition of “the stoning of prophets and the scientific rigor, one of our primary tasks as researchers is to provide an environment in which the subject feels safe to explore the possibility of paranormal perception. With a new subject, we also try to stress the nonuniqueness of the ability because from our experience paranormal functioning appears to be a latent ability that all subjects can articulate to some degree. Because of Mrs. Hammid’s artistic background, she was ca- pable of drawing and describing visual images that she could not identify in any cognitive or analytic sense. When the target demarcation team went to a target location which was a pedestrian overpass, the subject said that she saw “‘a kind of trough up in the air,’ which she indicated in the upper part of her drawing in Fig. 4. She went on to explain, “If you stand where they are standing you will see something like this,” indicating the nested squares at the bottom of Fig. 4. As it tumed out, a judge standing where she indicated would have a view closely resembling what she had drawn, as can be seen from the accompanying photographs of the target loca tion. It needs to be emphasized, however, that judges did not have access to our photographs of the site, used here for illustrative purposes only, but rather they proceeded to each of the target locations by list. In another experiment, the subject described seeing “an open barnlike structure with a pitched roof.” She also saw a “kind of slatted side to the structure making light and dark bars on the wall.” Her drawing and a photograph of the associated bicycle shed target are shown in Fig. 5, (Subjects are encouraged to make drawings of anything they visualize buming of wiAGh ST Gee? Per RResteaser 2000/08/08". CiA_ROPSC00 TESRONS LO0F2000Fe4'rawings they tion of those who claim to perceive things that the majority do not admit to seeing. Therefore, in addition to maintaining make are in general more accurate than their verbal description.) As in the original series with Price, the results of the nine
338 GHT CPYR BICYCLE SHED TARGET a _ PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 197 ole UU0 1-4 DETAIL OF BICYCLE SHED Fig. 5. Subject Hammid (S4) response to bicycle shed target described as an open “barn-like building” with “slats on the sides” and a “pitched roof."” : TABLE III DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TARGET LOCATION FOR LEARNER SUBJECT Hammip (S4) Distance km Rank of Associated Target Locacion Transcript Methodist Church, Palo Alto we 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 Punpkin patch, Menlo Park we ftw OO OC @®@ wb’ Oo Ke SoM Ye KF Be &— B&H i <n ro Pedestrian overpass, Palo Alto Total aum of ranks 13 (pal, 8x 107°) Pxperiment series were submitted for independent judging on a blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise associ- ated with the research. While at each target location, visited n turn, the judge was required to blind rank order the nine nedited typed manuscripts of the tape-recorded narratives, ong with any associated drawings generated by the remote iewer, on a scale I to 9 (best to worst match). The sum of anks assigned to the target-associated transcripts in this case as 13, a result significant at p = 1.8 X 107° by exact calcula- fion ( GiA-RDR&AE Gri on “Apploved Of fVelews 699000/08/08-cr and four le III). Again, as a backup Judging procedure, a panel of five addi- tional judges not otherwise associated with the research were asked simply to blind match the unedited typed tran- scripts and associated drawings generated by the remote viewer, against the nine target locations which they independently visited in turn. A correct match consisted of a transcript of a given date being matched to the target of that date’ In- stead of the expected number of 1 match each per judge, the number of correct matches obtained by the five judges was 5, 3, 3, 2, and 2, respectively. Thus, rather than the ex- pected total numbet of 5 correct matches from the judges, 15 such matches were obtained. C. Subjects S2 and $3: Experienced Having completed 4 series of 18 remote-viewing experiments, 9 each with experienced subject $1 (Price) and learner $4 (Hammid), additional replication experiments, four with each subject, were carried out with experienced subjects § 2 (Elgin) and $3 (Swann) and learners S5 and S6. To place the judging on a basis comparable to that used with S1 and S4, the four transcripts each of experienced subjects S2 and S3 were com- bined into a group of eight for rank order judging to be com- pared with the similarly combined results of the learners S5 and S6. | The series with S2 (Elgin, an SRI research analyst) provided a further example of the dichotomy between verbal and draw- ing responses. (As with medical literature, case histories often ROROORADIMMGA Arete) then periment described here was the third conducted with this
Fig. 6. Subject Elgin:(S2) drawings in response to tennis court target. subject. It was a demonstration experiment for a government visitor who had heard of our work and wanted to evaluate our experimental protocol. In the laboratory, the subject, holding a bearing compass at arm’s length, began the experiment by indicating the direction of the target demarcation team correctly to within 5°, (In all four experiments with this subject, he has always been within 10° of the correct direction in this angular assessment.) The subject then generated a 15-min tape-recorded description and the drawings shown in Fig. 6. In discussing the drawings, Elgin indicated that he was uncertain as to the action, but had the impression that the demarcation team was located at a museum (known to him) in a particular park. In fact, the target was a tennis court lo- cated in that park about 90 m from the indicated museum. Once again, we note the characteristic (discussed earlier) of a resemblance between the target site and certain gestalt ele- ments of the subject’s response, especially in regard to the drawings, coupled with incomplete or erroneous analysis of the significances. Nonetheless, when rank ordering transcripts 1 through 8 at the site, the judge ranked this transcript as 2. This example illustrates a continuing observation that most of the correct information related to us by subjects is of a non- analytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name. A second example from this group, generated by S3 (Swann), experiments, he dictates two lists for us to record. One list contains objects that he ‘‘sees,” but does not think are located at the remote scene. A second list contains objects that he thinks are at the scene. In our evaluation, he has made much progress in this most essential ability to separate memory and imagination from paranormal inputs. This is the key to bringing the remote-viewing channel to fruition with regard to its potential usefulness. The quality of transcript that can be generated by this pro- cess is evident from the results of our most recent experiment with Swann. The target location chosen by the usual double- blind protocol was the Palo Alto City Hall. Swann described a tall building with vertical columns and “set in’? windows. His sketch, together with the photograph of the site, is shown in Fig. 7. He said there was a fountain, “but I don’t hear it.” At the time the target team was at the City Hall during the experiment, the fountain was not running. He also made an effort to draw a replica of the designs in the pavement in front of the building, and correctly indicated the number of trees (four) in the sketch. For the entire series of eight, four each from S2 and S3, the numerical evaluation ‘based on blind rank ordering of tran- scripts at each site was significant at p = 3.8 X 10~* and in- cluded three direct hits and three second ranks for the target- associated transcripts (see Table IV). D. Subjects S5 and S6:. Learners sractze, IA BBER GSE POE RON SE, AOOUIMEIDG c:CIADRORSSDQEARO RAI OR1A0NM ade were caria Swann, he has been studying the problem of separating the ex- = a a mo co" ‘- out with learner subjects $5 and $6, a man and woman on the RI_professiong f h in this case, taken as a
4° Approved For REIGSS¢ 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROBSISOFAOGO MHF IEEE, MARCH 1976 ie a SEE ese Tae S Fig. 7. Subject Swann (S3) response to City Hall target. group, did not differ significantly from chance. For the series of eight (judged as a group of seven since one target came up twice, once for each subject), the numerical evaluation based on blind rank ordering of transcripts at each site was non- significant at p = 0.08, even though there were two direct hits and two second ranks out of the seven (see Table V). One of the direct hits, which occurred with subject S6 in her first experiment, provides an example of the “first-time effect” that has been rigorously explored and is well-known to experi- menters in the field [57]. The outbound experimenter obtained, by random protocol from the pool, a target blind to the experimenter with the subject; as is our standard pro- : TABLE IV . DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED with Eacu TARGET LogATION FoR EXPERIENCED SuBJects ELGIN (S2) AND Swann (S3) Rank of Associated Tranacript | BART Station (Transit Syatem), Fremont Shielded room,! SRE, Menlo Park i Tennis court, Palo Alto Golf course bridge, Stanford City Hall, Palp Alto Miniature golf, course, Menlo Park Kiosk in park,: Menlo Park Bay lands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto Total sum of! ranks 15 (pa. 8x10"*) TABLE V DISTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TarGET/LOCATION FoR LEARNER SUBJECTS S5 AND S6 janes | tutta tae | $5 5.0 Pedestrian overpass, Palo Alto Rank of Associated Transcript Railroad crepele bridge, Palo Alto { Windmill, Portola Valley White Plaza, Stanford (2) Airport, Palo Alta Kiosk in Park, Menlo Park Boathouse, Stan€ord Total sum of ranks 20 ! (px0.08, NS) vious experience in remote viewing, began to describe a large square with a fountain. Four minutes into the experiment, she recognized the tion and correctly identified it by name (see Fig. 8). (It should be noted that in the area from which the target locations) were drawn there are other fountains as well, some of which were in the target pool.) As an ex- ample of the style of the narratives generated during remote viewing with inexperienced subjects and of the part played by the experimenter rernaining with the subject in such a case, we have included the entire unedited text of this experiment as Appendix B. £. Normal and Paranormal: Use of Unselected Subjects in Remote Viewing After more than a year of following the experimental pro- tocol described above and observing that even inexperienced subjects generated results better than expected, we initiated a series of experiments to explore further whether individuals other than putative {psychics” can demonstrate the remote- viewing ability. To itest this idea, we have a continuing pro- gram to carry out adilitional experiments of the outdoor type with new subjects whom we have no a priori reason to believe have paranormal perceptual ability. To date we have collected data from five experiments with two individuals in this cate- gory: a man and a} woman who were visiting government scientists interested in observing our experimental protocols. The motivation for these particular experiments was twofold. ration A BRPOUEU FOP RACH FO0H/OI08™OtA -RBPIS-COFEERI0IA08 12000M idticate the level of matician € computer science laboratory who had no pre- proficiency that can be expected from unselected volunteers.
PUTHOFF A roved For Release 20 00/08/08 > CdAFRRR98-00789RG034 B04 20001 -4 341 Fig. 8. Subject (S6) drawing of White Plaza, Stanford University. Sub- ject drew what she called ‘curvy benches” and then announced cor- rectly that the place was “White Plaza at Stanford.” Second, when an individual observes a successful demonstra- tion experiment involving another person as subject, it inevi- tably occurs to him that perhaps chicanery is involved. We have found the most effective way to settle this issue for the observer is to have the individual himself act as a subject so as to obtain personal experience against which our reported results can, be evaluated. The first visitor (V1) was invited to participate as a subject in a three-experiment series. All three experiments contained elements descriptive of the associated target locations, the quality of response increased with practice. The third re- RESPONSES OF VISITING sponse is s in Fi e i si the 8 APBrOVEL E St Rraraia dee POGOUHSTHE®. CIA-RDP96-00BBSRONST0Sd 2oOON -4 analytic interpretation of the target object as a cupola. Fig. 9. Subject (V1) drawing of merry-go-round target.
HE IEEE, MARCH 1976 cpyraipproved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789RO0STU0T 2005 1-4 TECHNOLOGY SERIES TYPEWRITER TARGET Saoncs to aerolee dite 2ooils, a wnehing Cy ApH. wits on the side , ett he [Lor now — (uitge ibay We Bete waol ba ride A Ahead Crecqut SUBJECT SWANN (S3) RESPONSE SUBJECT HAMMID (S4) RESPONSE Fig. 10. Drawings of a typewriter target by two subjects. The second visitor [V2] participated as a subject in two ex- TABLE VI periments. In his first experiment, he generated one of the DistRigUTION OF ‘Rawihos AshcxD 10 TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCTATED WITH higher signal-to-noise results we have observed. He began his narrative, ‘There is a red A-frame building and next to it ouscace | arcu is a large yellow thing (a tree—Editor]. Now further left Target Locacion Transcript there is another A-shape. It looks like a swing-set, but it is pushed down in a gully so I can’t see the swings.” [All cor- rect.] He then went on to describe a lock on the front door Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto that he said “looks like it’s made of laminated steel, so it Merry-go-round, Palo Alto must be a Master lock.” [Also correct.] For the series of five—three from the first subject and two from the second—the numerical evaluation based on blind Apartment swimming pool, Mountain View rank ordering of the transcripts at each site was significant at total ue of canks p=0.017 and included three direct hits and one second rank | (px0.017) i Bridge over stream, Menlo Park Windeill, Porto la Valley
PUTHOFF AMbPRROVER AOR RE ashe2 000108408 .1SlAnR DSP B6-00789 RQ93400120001 -4 343 TARGET LOCATION: XEROX MACHINE (TECHNOLOGY SERIES) age a —<—— Fig. 11. Drawings by three subjects (S2, S3, and V3) for Xerox machine TO ADD INTEREST TO TARGET LOCATION EXPERIMENTER WITH HIS HEAD BEING XEROXED target. When asked to describe the square at upper left of response on the right, subject (V3) said, “There was this predominant light source which might have been a window, and a working surface which might have been the sill, or a working surface or desk.’’ Earlier the subject had said, ‘‘l have the feeling that there is something silhouetted against the window.” Observations with unselected subjects such as those de- scribed above indicate that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed perceptual ability. F. Technology Series: Short-Range Remote Viewing Because remote viewing is a perceptual ability, we consid- ered it important to obtain data on its resolution capabilities. To accomplish this, we turned to the use of indoor techno- logical targets. Twelve experiments were carried out with five different sub- jects, two of whom were visiting government scientists. They were told that one of the experimenters would be sent by random protocol to a laboratory within the SRI complex and that he would interact with the equipment or apparatus at that location. It was further explained that the experimenter remaining with the subject was, as usual, kept ignorant of the contents of the target pool to prevent cueing during question- ing. (Unknown to subjects, targets in the pool were used with replacement; one of the goals of this particular experiment was to obtain multiple responses to a given target to investigate whether correlation of a number of subject responses would provide enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio.) The sub- ject was asked to describe the target both verbally (tape recorded) and by means of drawings during a time-synchronized 15-min interval in which the outbound experimenter inter- acted in an: appropriate manner with the equipment in the target area. In the twelve experiments, seven targets were used: a drill press, Xerox machine, video terminal, chart recorder, four- state random number generator, machine shop, and type- writer. Three of these were used twice (drill press, video Comparisons of the targets and subject drawings for three of the multiple-response cases (the typewriter, Xerox machine, and video terminal) are shown in Figs. 10, 11, and 12. As is apparent from these illustrations alone, the experiments provide circumstantial evidence for an information channel of useful bit rate. This includes experiments in which visit- ing government scientists participated as subjects (Xerox machine and video terminal) to observe the protocol. In general, it appears that use of multiple-subject responses to a single target provides better signal-to-noise ratio than target identification by a single individual. This conclusion is borne out by the judging described below. Given that in general the drawings constitute the most accurate portion of a subject’s description, in the first judging procedure a judge was asked simply to blind match only the drawings (i.e., without tape transcripts) to the targets. Multiple- subject responses to a given target were stapled together, and thus seven subject-drawing response packets were to be matched to the seven different targets for which drawings were made. The judge did not have access to our photographs of the target locations, used for illustration purposes only, but rather proceeded to each of the target locations by list. While standing at each target location, the judge was required to rank order the seven subject-drawing response packets (presented in random order) on a scale | to 7 (best to worst match). For seven targets, the sum of ranks could range from 7 to 49, The sum in this case, which included 1 direct hit and 4 second ranks out of the 7 (see Table VII) was 18, a result significant at p = 0.036, In the second more detailed effort at evaluation, a visiting scientist selected at random one of the 12 data packages (a terminal, anApprovedahosketeas 2000/03/08p: ChA-RDBP96 00789 RO031001 2QQ0mAted it for in- three times in our random selection procedure. dependent analysis to an engineer with a request for an esti-
TARGET: “4 Approved ForORae4sid 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R0G8190892000 HE IEEE, MARCH 197 | . alll VIDEO MONITOR FOR TEXT EDITING (TECHNOLOGY SERIES) S le all wel leads Fig. 12. Drawing by two subjects of a video monitor target. (a) Subject (S4) drawing of “box! with light coming out of it... painted flat black and in the middle of the room.” (b) Second subject (V2) saw a computer terminal|with relay racks in the background. TABLE VII DIsTRIBUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO SUBJECT DRAWINGS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TARGET LOCATION Rank of Associated Dravings Drill press Xerox machine Video terminal Charc recorder Random number generator Machine shop Typewriter Total sum of ranks 18 (p=0.036) mate as to what was being described. The analyst, blind as to the target and given only the subject’s taped narrative and drawing (Fig. 13), was able, from the subject’s description alone, to correctly classify the target as a “‘man-sized vertical boring machine.” G. Summary of Remote Viewing Results 1) Discussion: The descriptions supplied by the subjects in the experiments involving remote viewing of natural targets or laboratory apparatus, although containing inaccuracies, were sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to differentiate amonAppKey esbdrow Release Bb0n8/08 : R i TABLE VUI SuMMary: REMOTE VIEWING Sub edt Experiments i With natural targets p-Value, Rank Order Judging 2.9% 10> 3.8 x 10" La x 108 0.08 (NS) 0.017 sl (experienced) $2 and $3 (experienced) S4 (learner) S85 and S6 (learners) VL and V2 (learners/visttors) With technology targets $2, S3, S4, V2, er) i tabulation of the statistical evaluations of these fifty-one ex- periments with nine subjects is presented in Table VIII. The overall result, evaluated conservatively on the basis of a judging procedure that ignores transcript quality beyond that necessary to rank grder the data packets (vastly underestimat- ing the statistical significance of individual descriptions), clearly indicates the presence of an information channel of useful bit rate. Furthermore, it appears that the principal difference between experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers is not that the latter never exhibit the faculty, but rather that their results are simply less reliable, more sporadic. Nevertheless, as described earlier, individual transcripts from the inexperienced group of subjects number among some of the best obtained. Such observations indicate a hypothesis is RraCAUR Grey db F2650 47 widely distributed
PUTHOFF AMeppROverk fore leas e=2 000/08/084TOMURDPS6-00 TBO RRGH001 20001 -4 Fig. 13. Subject (S4) drawing of drill press showing belt drive, stool, and a ‘‘vertical graph that goes up and down,”’ Thus the primary achievement of the SRI program was the elicitation of high-quality remote viewing from individuals who agreed to act as subjects. Criticism of this claim could in principle be put forward on the basis of three potential flaws. 1) The study could involve naiveté in protocol that permits various forms of cueing, intentional or unintentional. 2) The experiments discussed could be selected out of a larger pool of experiments of which many are of poorer quality. 3) Data for the reported experiments could be edited to show only the matching elements, the nonmatching elements being discarded. All three criticisms, however, are invalid. First, with regard to cueing, the use of double-blind protocols ensures that none of the persons in contact with the subject can be aware of the target. Second, selection of experiments for reporting did not take place; every experiment was entered as performed on a master log and is included in the statistical evaluations. Third, data associated with a given experiment remain unedited; all cece AR ESVER Er Belk ase ZhAnHOSION: 345 In the process of judging—attempting to match transcripts against targets on the basis of the information in the transcripts—some patterns and regularities in the transcript descriptions became evident, particularly regarding individual styles in remote viewing and in the perceptual form of the descriptions given by the subjects. These patterns and the judging procedure are discussed below. a) Styles of response: The fifty-one transcripts were taken from nine different subjects. Comparing the tran- scripts of one subject with those of another revealed that each pattern tended to focus on certain aspects of the remote target complex and to exclude others, so that each had an individual pattern of response, like a signature. Subject S3, for example, frequently responded with topo- graphical descriptions, maps, and architectural features of the target locations. Subject S2 often focused on the behavior of the remote experimenter or the sequence of actions he carried out at the target. The transcripts of subject S4, more than those of other subjects, had descriptions of the feel of the lo- cation, and experiential or sensory gestalts—-for example, light/dark elements in the scene and indoor/outdoor and enclosed/open distinctions. Prominent features of S1’s tran- scripts were detailed descriptions of what the target persons were concretely experiencing, seeing, or doing—for example, standing on asphalty blacktop overlooking water; looking at a purple iris, The range of any individual subject’s responses was wide. Anyone might draw a map or describe the mood of the remote experimenter, but the consistency of each subject’s overall approach suggests that just as individual descriptions of a directly viewed scene would differ, so these differences also occur in remote-viewing processes. b} Nature of the description: The concrete descriptions that appear most commonly in transcripts are at the level of subunits of the overall scene. For example, when the target was a Xerox copy machine, the responses included (S2) a rolling object (the moving light) or dials and a cover that is lifted ($3), but the machine as a whole was not identified by name or function. In a few transcripts, the subjects correctly identified and named the target. In the case of a computer terminal, the subject (V2) apparently perceived the terminal and the relay racks behind it. In the case of targets which were Hoover Tower and White Plaza, the subjects (§1 and S6, respectively) seemed to identify the locations through analysis of their initial images of the elements of the target. There were also occasional incorrect identifications. Gestalts were incorrectly named; for example, swimming pools in a park were identified as water storage tanks at a water filtration plant (S1). The most common perceptual level was thus an intermediate one—the individual elements and items that make up the tar-. get. This is suggestive of a scanning process that takes sample perceptions from within the overall environment. When the subjects tried to make sense out of these fragmen- tary impressions, they often resorted to metaphors or con- structed an image with a kind of perceptual inference. From a feeling of the target as an ‘‘august’”’ and ‘‘solemn”’ building, a subject (84) said it might be a library; it was a church. A pedestrian overpass above a freeway was described as a conduit ($4). A rapid transit station, elevated above the countryside, CLR ABE CU SORIA Od HOO tH i intomme
346 CPYRGHT ad e Relea = tion: similarly, this occurs in other parapsychological experi- ments. These observations are compatible with the hypotheses that information received in a putative remote-viewing mode is processed piecemeal in pattern form (consistent with a low bit rate process, but not necessarily requiring it); and the errors arise in the processes of attempted integration of the data into larger patterns directed toward verbal labeling. When the subjects augmented the verbal transcripts with drawings or sketches, these often expressed the target elements more accurately than the verbal descriptions. Thus the draw- ings tended to correspond to the targets more clearly and precisely than the words of the transcript. The descriptions given by the subjects sometimes went be- yond what the remote experimenter experienced, at least con- sciously. For example, one subject (S4) described and drew a belt drive at the top of a drill press that was invisible even to the remote experimenter who was operating the machine; another subject ($1) described a number of items behind shrubbery and thus not visible to members of the demarcation team at the site. Curiously, objects in motion at the remote site were rarely mentioned in the transcript. For example, trains crossing the railroad trestle target were not described, though the remote experimenter stood very close to them. Also in a few cases, the subject descriptions were inaccurate regarding size of structures. A 20-ft courtyard separating two buildings was described as 200 ft wide, and a small shed was expanded to a barn-like structure, c) Blind judging of transcripts: The judging procedure entailed examining the transcripts for a given experimental series and attempting to match the transcripts with the cor- rect targets on the basis of their correspondences. The tran- scripts varied from coherent and accurate descriptions to mix- tures of correspondences and noncorrespondences. Since the judge did not know a priori which elements of the descriptions were correct or incorrect, the task was complicated, and tran- scripts often seemed plausibly to match more than one target. A confounding factor in these studies is that some target lo- cations have similarities that seem alike at some level of per- ception. For example, a radio telescope at the top of a hill, the observation deck of a tower, and a jetty on the edge ofa bay all match a transcript description of “looking out over a long distance.” A lake, a fountain, and a creek may all result in an image of water for the subject. Therefore, in several cases, even correct images may not help in the conservative differential matching procedure used. According to the judge, the most successful procedure was a careful element-by-element comparison that tested each tran- script against every target and used the transcript descriptions and drawings as arguments for or against assigning the tran- script to a particular target. In most cases, this resulted in either a clear conclusion or at least a ranking of probable matches; these matches were subjected to the statistical analyses presented in this paper. 2) Summary: In summary, we do not yet have an under- standing of the nature of the information-bearing signal that a subject perceives during remote viewing. The subjects com- monly report that they perceive the Signal visually as though they were looking at the object or place from a position in its immediate neighborhood. Furthermore, the subjects’ per- ceptual viewpoint has mobility in that they can shift their Point of view so as to describe elements of a scene that would VU0/UG/06 : A-K PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1971 OYROO UU UU0 1-4 not be visible to observer merely standing at ground leve: and describing what he sees. (In particular, a subject often correctly describes elements not visible to the target demarca- tion team.) Finally, motion is seldom reported; in fact. moving objects often are unseen even when nearby static objects are correctly identified. A comparison of; the results of remote viewing (a so-called free-response task) with results of forced-choice tasks, such as the selection of one of four choices generated by a random number generator [ ie , Teveals the following findings. From a statistical viewpoint. a subject is more likely to describe, with sufficient accuracy/ to permit blind matching, a remote site chosen at random than he is to select correctly one of four random numbers. Qur experience with these phenomena leads us to consider that, this difference in task performance may stem from fundamental signal-to-noise considerations. Two principal sources of noise in the system apparently are mem- ory and imagination, both of which can give rise to mental Pictures of greater clarity than the target to be perceived. In the random number task, a subject can create a perfect mental picture of each of the four possible outputs in his own imagi- nation and then attempt to obtain the correct answer by a mental matching operation. The same is true for card guessing experiments. On the other hand, the subject in remote view- ing is apparently more likely to approach the task with a blank mind as he attempts to perceive pictorial information from remote locations about which he may have no stored mental data. Finally, we observe that most of the correct information that subjects relate to us is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name. In consultation with Dr. Robert Ornstein of the Langley- Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San F rancisco, CA, and with Dr. Ralph Kiernan of the Department of Neurology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, we have formed the tentative hypothesis that paranormal functioning may involve specialization characteristic of the brain’s right hemi- sphere. This possibility is derived from a variety of evidence from clinical and neurosurgical sources which indicate that the two hemispheres of the human brain are specialized for dif- ferent cognitive fun jtions. The left hemisphere is predomi- nantly active in verbal and other analytical functioning and the right hemisphere predominates in spatial and other holistic processing [59], [60]. Further research is necessary to elucidate the relationship between right hemisphere function and paranormal abilities. Nonetheless, we can say at this point that the remote-viewing results of the group of subjects at SRI have charactristis in common with more familiar performances that require right hemispheric function. The similarities include the highly schematicized drawings of ob- jects in a room or of remote scenes. Verbal identification of these drawings is often highly inaccurate and the drawings themselves are frequently left-right reversed relative to the target configuration. | Further, written material generally is not cognized. These characteristics have been seen in left brain-injured patients and in callosal-sectioned patients. As a result of the above considerations, we have learned to urge our subjects simply to describe what they see as opposed to what they think they are looking at. We have learned that their unanalyzed perceptions are almost always a better guide to the true target than their interpretations of the perceived data, Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003100120001-4
CPYRGHT PUTHOFF AMppir@Ve ch FotuReleaser2000/08(08 41ChAFRDF96-00789R003100120001-4 IV, CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING TIME If the authors may be forgiven a personal note, we wish to express that this section deals with observations that we have been reluctant to publish because of their striking apparent in- compatibility with existing concepts. The motivating factor for presenting the data at this time is the ethical consideration that theorists endeavoring to develop models for paranormal functioning should be apprised of all the observable data if their efforts to arrive at a comprehensive and correct descrip- tion are to be successful. During the course of the experimentation in remote viewing (Section III), subjects occasionally volunteered the informa- tion that they had been thinking about their forthcoming par- ticipation in a remote-viewing experiment and had an image come to them as to what the target location was to be. On these occasions, the information was given only to the experi- menter remaining at SRI with the subject and was unknown to the outbound experimenter until completion of the experi- ment. Two of these contributions were among the most accurate descriptions turned in during those experiments. Since the target location had not yet been selected when the subject communicated his perceptions about the target, we found the data difficult to contend with. We offer these spontaneous occurrences not as proof of pre- cognitive perception, but rather as the motivation that led us to do further work in this field. On the basis of this firsthand evidence, together with the copious literature describing years of precognition experiments carried out in various other labo- ratories, we decided to determine whether a subject could per- form a perceptual task that required both spatial and temporal remote viewing. It is well known and recently has been widely discussed that nothing in the fundamental laws of physics forbids the appar- ent transmission of information from the future to the present (discussed further in Section V). Furthermore, there is a gen- eral dictum that “‘in physical law, everything that is not forbid- den, is required” [61]. With this in mind, we set out to con- duct very well-controlled experiments to determine whether we could deliberately design and execute experiments for the sole purpose of observing precognition under laboratory conditions. The experimental protocol was identical to that followed in previous remote-viewing experiments with but one exception. The exception was that the subject was required to describe the remote location during a 15-min period beginning 20 min before the target was selected and 35 min before the outbound experimenter was to arrive at the target location. In detail, as shown in Table IX, each day at ten o’clock one of the experimenters would leave SRI with a stack of ten sealed envelopes from a larger pool and randomized daily, con- taining travéling instructions that had been prepared, but that were unknown to the two experimenters remaining with the subject. The subject for this experiment was Hella Hammid (S4) who participated in the nine-experiment series replicating the original Price work described earlier. The traveling experi- menter was to drive continuously from 10:00 until 10:30 be- fore selecting his destination with a random number generator. (The motivation for continuous motion was our observation that objects. and persons in rapid motion are not generally seen in the remote-viewing mode of perception, and we wished the traveler to be a poor target until he reached his target site.) At 347 TABLE IX EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL: PRECOGNITIVE REMOTE VIEWING Experimenter/Subjece Activity Outbound experimencer leaves with 10 envelopes (contsining target locatLons) and random number generator; begins half-hour drive Time ‘Schedule Experimenters remaining with subject in the laboratory elicit from subject a description of where outbound experimenter will be from 10:45-11:00 Subject response completed, at which time laboratory part of.experiment is over Outbound experimenter obtains random number from a random number generator, counts down to associated envelope, and proceeds to target location indicated Outbound experimenter remains at target location for 15 minutes (10:45-11:00) Fig. 14. Subject Hammid (S4) described ‘‘some kind of congealing tar, or maybe an area of condensed lava some kind of boundaries.” ... that has oozed out to fill up ated a random digit from 0 to 9 with a Texas Instruments SR-51 random number generator; while still in motion, he counted down that number of envelopes and proceeded di- rectly to the target location so as to arrive there by 10:45. He remained at the target site until 11:00, at which time he re- turned to the laboratory, showed his chosen target name toa security guard, and entered the experimental room. During the same period, the protocol in the laboratory was as. follows. At 10:10, the subject was asked to begin a descrip- tion of the place to which the experimenter would go 35 min hence. The subject then generated a tape-recorded description and associated drawings from 10:10 to 10:25, at which time her part in the experiment was ended. Her description was thus entirely concluded 5 min before the beginning of the tar- get selection procedure. Four such experiments were carried out. Each of them ap- péared to be successful, an evaluation later verified in blind judging without error by three judges. We will briefly sum- marize the four experiments below. The first target, the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, consisted en- tirely of mud flats because of an extremely low tide (see Fig. 14). Appropriately, the entire transcript of the subject per- tained to “some kind of congealing tar, or maybe an area of condensed lava. It looks like the whole area is covered with some kind of wrinkled elephant skin that has oozed out to fill up some kind of boundaries where (the outbound experi- menter) is standing.”” Because of the lack of water, the dock where the remote experimenter was standing was in fact rest- the end of AApproVvednE.oreRelease 2006108 OF: CIA-RDP96-00 789R003100120001-4
~ 348 Fig. 15. Subject (S4) described a formal garden “very well manicured” behind a doubie colonnade. Note that the subject has learned not to rush into interpreta- tion as to the nature or purpose of the place. This is a result of our cautioning based on the observation that such efforts tend to be purely analytical and in our experience are almost invariably incorrect. If a subject can limit himself to what he sees, he is often then able to describe a scene with sufficient accuracy that an observer can perform the analysis for him and identify the place. The second target visited was the fountain at one end of a large formal garden at Stanford University Hospital (Fig. 15), The subject gave a lengthy description of a formal garden be- hind a wall with a “double colonnade” and “very well mani- cured.” When we later took the subject to the location, she was herself taken aback to find the double colonnaded wall leading into the garden just as described. The third target was a children’s swing at a small park 4.6 km from the laboratory (Fig. 16). The subject repeated again and again that the main focus of attention at the site was a “black iron triangle that the outbound experimenter had somehow walked into or was standing on.” The triangle was “bigger than a man,” and she heard a “squeak, squeak, about once a second,” which we observe is a match to the black metal swing that did squeak. THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 1-4 Cebb yee Me Fig. 16. Subject (S4) s¢w a “black iron triangle that Hal had somehow walked into” and heard a “‘squeak, squeak, about once a second.” 4 Fig. 17. Subject (84) described a very tall structure located among city streets and covered with “‘Tiffany-like glass.” The final target was the Palo Alto City Hall (Fig. 17). The subject described a very, very tall structure covered with “Tiffany-like glass.” ‘She had it located among city streets and with little cubes at the base. The building is glass-covered, and the little cubes are 4 good match to the small elevator exit buildings located in the plaza in front of the building. To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the pre- cognitive viewing, the experimental results were subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by three SRI scientists who were not otherwise associated with the experiment. The judges were asked td match the four locations, which they visited, against the unedited typed manuscripts of the tape- recorded narratives, along with the drawings generated by the remote viewer. The transcripts were presented unlabeled and in random order and Were to be used without Teplacement. A correct match required that the transcript of a given experi- ment be matched with the target of that experiment. All three judges independently matched the target data to the response data without error. U; channel and a rando der the null hypothesis (no information selection of descriptions without re- placement), each judge independently obtained a result signifi- cant at p =(4!)7! =09, For reasons we do n generated in the preco 42, t as yet understand, the four transcripts ition experiment show exceptional co- herence and accuracy Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R0 as evidenced by the fact that all of the judges were able to match success of the transcripts to 003100120004
PUTHOFF ARB BPS et HOP RE CASS 2000108708" CTA RDPIS-00789R0094001 20001-4 the corresponding target locations. A long-range experimental program devoted to the clarification of these issues and involv- ing a number of subjects is under way. The above four experi- ments are the first four carried out under this program. Currently, we have no precise model of this spatial and tem- poral remote-viewing phenomenon. However, models of the universe involving higher order synchronicity or correlation have been proposed by the physicist Pauli and the psychologist Carl Jung [62]. ACAUSALITY. If natural law5 were an absolute truth, then of course there could not possibly be any processes that deviate from it. But since causality’ is a statistical truth, it holds good only on average and thus leaves room for exceptions which must somehow be experienceable, that is to say, real. I try to regard synchronistic events as acausal exceptions of this kind. They prove to be relatively independent of space and time; they rela- tivize space and time insofar as space presents in principle no ob- stacle to their passage and the sequence of events in time is in- verted so that it looks as if an event which has not yet occurred were causing a perception in the present. We shall see in the next section that such a description, though poetic, has some basis in modern physical theory. V. DISCUSSION It is important to note at the outset that many contempo- rary physicists are of the view that the phenomena that we have been discussing are not at all inconsistent with the framework of physics as currently understood. In this emerg- ing view, the often-held belief that observations of this type are incompatible with known laws in principle is erroneous, such a concept being based on the naive realism prevalent before the development of modern quantum theory and information theory. One hypothesis, put forward by I. M. Kogan of the USSR, is that information transfer under conditions of Sensory shielding is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves in the 300-1000-km region [37]- [40]. Experimental support for the hypothesis is claimed on the basis of slower than inverse square attenuation, com- patible with source-percipient distances lying in the induc- tion field range as opposed to the radiation field range; ob- served low bit rates (0.005-0.1 bit/s) compatible with the information carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffec- tiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator; and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically gener- ated currents yielding results compatible with observed signal- to-noise ratios. M. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Laurentian Uni- versity, Toronto, Canada, has narrowed the ELF hypothesis to the suggestion that the 7.8-Hz “Shumann waves” and their harmonics propagating along the earth-ionosphere waveguide duct may be responsible. Such an hypothesis is compatible with driving by brain-wave currents and leads to certain other hypotheses such as asymmetry between east-west and west- east propagation, preferred experimental times (midnight-4 A.M.), and expected negative correlation between. success and the U index (a measure of geomagnetic disturbance throughout the world). Persinger claims initial support for these factors on the basis of a literature search (63], [64]. On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF interpretation as a blanket hypothesis are the following: a) ap- 5 As usually u 349 parent real-time descriptions of remote activities in sufficient detail to require a channel capacity in all probability greater than that allowed by a conventional modulation of an ELF signal; b) lack of a proposed mechanism for coding and decod- ing the information onto the proposed ELF carrier; and c) ap- parent precognition data. The hypothesis must nonetheless re- main open at this stage of research, since it is conceivable that counterindication a) may eventually be circumvented on the basis that the apparent high bit rate results from a mixture of low bit rate input and high bit rate “filling in the blanks” from imagination; counterindication b) is common to a number of normal perceptual tasks and may therefore simply reflect a lack of sophistication on our part with regard to perceptual functioning .[65]; and counterindication c) may be accom- modated by an ELF hypothesis if advanced waves as well as retarded waves are admitted [66], [67]. Experimentation ‘to determine whether the ELF hypothesis is viable can be carried out by the use of ELF sources as targets, by the study of para- metric dependence on propagational directions and diurnal timing, and by the exploration of interference effects caused by creation of a high-intensity ELF environment during ex- perimentation, all of which are under consideration in our lab- oratory and elsewhere. Some physicists believe that the reconciliation of observed paranormal functioning with modern theory may take place at a more fundamental level—namely, at the level of the founda- tions of quantum theory, There is a continuing dialog, for example, on the proper interpretation of the effect of an ob- server (consciousness) on experimental measurement [68], and there is considerable current interest in the implications for our notions of ordering in time and space brought on by the observation [69], [70] of nonlocal correlation or ‘‘quan- tum interconnectedness” (to use Bohm’s term [71]) of distant parts of quantum systems of macroscopic dimensions. The latter, Bell’s theorem [72], emphasizes that ‘‘no theory of reality compatible with quantum theory can require spatially separated events to be independent” [73], but must permit interconnectedness of distant events in a manner that is con- trary to ordinary experience {74]-[75]. This prediction has been experimentally tested and confirmed in the recent experiments of, for example, Freedman and Clauser [69], [70]. E. H. Walker and O, Costa de Beauregard, independently Proposing theories of paranormal functioning based on quan- tum concepts, argue that observer effects open the door to the possibility of nontrivial coupling between consciousness and the environment and that the nonlocality principle permits such coupling to transcend spatial and temporal barriers [76], [77]. Apparent “time reversibility’—that is, effects (e.g., observa- tions) apparently preceding causes (e.g., events)—though con- ceptually difficult at first glance, may be the easiest of appar- ent paranormal phenomena to assimilate within the current theoretical structure of our world view. In addition to the familiar retarded potential solutions f(t - r/c), it is well known that the equations of, for example, the electromagnetic field admit of advanced potential solutions f(t + r/c)—solutions that would appear to imply a reversal of cause and effect. Such solutions are conventionally discarded as not corresponding to any: observable physical event. One is cautioned, however, by
350 CPYRGHT Approved or Release NOOO The reader has doubtless noted that the choice of the function ft ~ r/c) is highly arbitrary, since the field equation admits also asolution f(t + r/c). This function leads obviously to an advanced time, implying that the field can be observed before it has been generated by the source. The familiar chain of cause and effect” is thus reversed and this alternative solution might be discarded as logically inconceivable. However, the application of “logical” causality principles offers very insecure footing in matters such as these and we shall do better to restrict the theory to retarded action solely on the grounds that this solution alone conforms to the present physical data. Such caution is justified by the example in the early 1920's of Dirac’s development of the mathematical description of the relativistic electron that also yielded a pair of solutions, one of which was discarded as inapplicable until the discovery of the positron in 1932. . In an analysis by O. Costa de Beauregard, an argument is put forward that advanced potentials constitute a convergence toward “finality” in a manner symmetrical to the divergence of retarded potentials as a result of causality [77]. Such phenomena are generally unobservable, however, on the gross macroscopic scale for statistical reasons. This is codified in the thermodynamic concept that for an isolated system entropy (disorder) on the average increases. It is just this requirement of isolation, however, that has been weakened by the observer problem in quantum theory, and O. Costa de Beauregard argues that the finality principle is maximally operative in just those situations where the intrusion of consciousness as an ordering phenomenon results in a significant local reversal of entropy increase. At this point, further discussion of the subtleties of such considerations, though apropos, would take us far afield, so we simply note that such advanced waves, if detected, could in certain cases constitute a carrier of information precognitive to the event. The above arguments are not intended to indicate that the precise nature of the information channel coupling remote events and human perception is understood. Rather, we in- tend to show only that modern theory is not without resources that can be brought to bear on the problems at hand, and we expect that these problems will, with further work, continue to yield to analysis and specification. Furthermore, independent of the mechanisms that may be involved in remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon implies the existence of an information channel in the information-theoretic sense. Since such channels are amenable to analysis on the basis of communication theory techniques, as indicated earlier, channel characteristics such as bit rate can be determined independent of a well-defined physical channel model in the sense that thermodynamic concepts can be ap- plied to the analysis of systems independent of underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, as we have seen from the work of Ryzl discussed in Section II, it is possible to use such a channel for error-free transmission of information if redundancy coding is used. (See aiso Appendix A.) Therefore, experimentation involving the collection of data under specified conditions per- mits headway to be made despite the formidable work that needs to be done to clarify the underlying bases of the phenomena. VI. CONCLUSION : For the past three years we have had a program in the Elec- tronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of SRI to investigate those facets of human perception that appear to fall outside 08: A-RUPY6-00 : PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 197¢ OY ROU ole UU0 1-4 bilities. The primary achievement of this program has beer the elicitation of high-quality “remote viewing’’—the ability of both experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteer: to view, by means of innate mental processes, remote geo- graphical or technical targets such as roads, buildings, and laboratory apparatus. Our accumulated data from over fifty experiments with more than a half-dozen subjects indicate the following. a) The phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance over a range of several kilometers. b) Faraday cage shielding does not appear to degrade the quality or accuracy of perception. c) Most of the correct information that subjects relate is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name. (This aspect suggests a hypothesis that information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding may be mediated pri- marily by the brain’s right hemisphere.) d) The principal difference between) experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers is not that the latter never exhibit the faculty, but rather that their results are simply less reliable. (This observa- tion suggests the hypothesis that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed, though repressed, perceptual ability.) | Although the predise nature of the information channel cou- pling remote events and human perception is not yet under- stood, certain concepts in information theory, quantum theory, and neurophysiological research appear to bear directly on the issue, As ajresult, the working assumption among re- searchers in the field is that the phenomenon of interest is consistent with modern scientific thought, and can therefore be expected to yield to the scientific method. Further, it is recognized that communication theory provides powerful techniques, such as tthe use of redundancy coding to improve signal-to-noise ratio, which can be employed to pursue special- purpose application of the remote-sensing channel independent of an understanding) of the underlying mechanisms. We there- fore consider it important to continue data collection and to encourage others to) do likewise; investigations such as those reported here need replication and extension under as wide a variety of rigorously controlled conditions as possible. APPENDIX A SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT IN A PARANORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BY APPLICATION OF REDUNDANCY CODING i 1 Independent of the mechanisms that may be involved in remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon implies the existence of an information channel in the information- theoretic sense. As we have seen from the work of Ryzi dis- cussed in Section II,’ it is even possible to use such a (noisy) channel for error-ftee transmission of information if suf- ficient redundancy coding is used [30], [31]. Following isa general procedure that we have used successfully for signal enhancement. | We shall assume that the “‘message” consists of a stream of binary digits (0,1) of equal probability (e.g., binary sort of green/white cards as'in Ryzi’s case, English text encoded as in Table X‘and sent tong distance by strobe light on/off, and so on). To combat channel noise, each binary digit to be sent through the channel requires the addition of redundancy bits (coding). Efficient coding requires a compromise between the desire to maximize eliability and the desire to minimize re- the rayp prowech rorRebeasen200(/A8/O8¢: eld\-ROWAS-AU7BSRUOSY CONDI Taf work done by