“REMOTE VIEWING IS A HIGHLY CONTROLLED AND FORMALLY ESTABLISHED, UNIQUE INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CAPABILITY”
Those words directly emphasize the potential of psychoenergetic practices for intelligence efforts. Although it may seem absurd, they come directly from a classified report of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The United States Intelligence Community, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has long explored and employed unconventional intelligence techniques, amidst praise, criticism, and controversy. Among their programs, the Stargate Project is one of the most interesting and enigmatic intelligence initiatives of the past century. Our knowledge of it mainly derives from declassified CIA documents on the project. The program, falling under the umbrella of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), explored using psychoenergetics as tools for intelligence-gathering.
The term psychoenergetics encompasses psychokinesis, telepathy, and remote viewing (the latter being the main focus of research and operations efforts). Essentially, it is the process through which individuals may psychically interact with objects, organisms, locations, or events. The project belongs to the Cold War years, starting in 1977 and closing in 1995. Nonetheless, we should not entirely dismiss it as an eccentricity of the time, as its implications remain extremely intriguing.
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1 Historical Context
1.1 Cold War
During the Cold War, a desire to gain strategic advantage over their opponent drove the USSR and the US. This led the two powers to explore all the available means, and this often led them into controversial fields. It is in this scenario that both engaged in extensive research in extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis. Although the Pentagon lengthily attempted to deny its spending in psychic research, we now know that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) launched what were the roots of Project Stargate in 1972.
This happened after the US Army Surgeon General published studies of the USSR and Czechoslovakia’s work on the topic. Its aim was to assess the potential security and intelligence applications of psychic phenomena. This was especially in the form of remote viewing – the ability to perceive targets without using known sensory channels. The program gained a stronger footing once the US Missile Intel Agency expressed interest in replicating and integrating their work from 1976 through Project Gondola Wish. The program officially began the following year, 1977. [source; source; source]
1.2 Rival Efforts
The Soviet Union conducted its own research into the realm of parapsychology. The aim was the same: to achieve strategic advantage over its adversary. Their investments and scientific curiosity in various psychic phenomena led them to claim that researchers demonstrated and tested ESP, psychokinesis, and telepathy in controlled settings and conditions starting from the 1950s. Sceptics from both powers heavily criticized such claims as unscientific and propagating an unnecessary belief in mysticism and occultism. Nonetheless, research and applications proceeded.
Alongside this, the DIA reported that, during their experiment with children, the Chinese had detected remote viewing. The claim remains dubious due to insufficient data on the experiments that led to such a conclusion. However, this shows that there was a competitive environment for theories about this field. [source; source]
What developed from this competition is a form of “psychic arms race”. The two superpowers tried to unlock the latent potential of the human mind and apply it to intelligence and military purposes. This competition was, as many of that time, characterized by a large degree of secrecy, and heavy scepticism regarding the actual progress accomplished by the other party. Nonetheless, both the United States and the Soviet Union spent time and resources trying to scientifically validate and operationalize psychic abilities.
This historical context of the Cold War typically tied together scientific inquiry and national security imperatives. What makes Stargate Project and its USSR counterparts–such as Troop 10003–especially interesting is that they show how the boundaries of conventional scientific research were pushed to the limit in trying to achieve any possible advantage, even if as unorthodox to be labelled by the public as “a pseudoscience rife with charlatans and naive researchers mired in self-deception.” [source]
2 CIA’s Psychoenergetic Projects: Research and Applications
Project Grill Flame and Sun Streak were perhaps the most crucial components of the initiatives on utilizing psychic phenomena in intelligence gathering. Their focus resided in remote viewing (RV). RV is defined as a practice of seeking impressions of an unseen target using ESP. The participants of such projects are often referred to as “viewers” and would, through meditation and trance, attempt to visualize and describe chosen targets. The targets were various, including military movements, installations, personnel, and technologies. [source]
2.1 Early Efforts
Remote Viewing (RV) as a tool for intelligence gathering gained footing and traction earlier than Grill Flame and Sun Streak through Department of Defence experiments starting in the 70s. The procedures were led by Hal Puthoff and Russel Targ, considered “experienced experimentors”. The two collaborated with individuals mentioned as “gifted subjects” such as Pat Price and Ingo Swann. Already at this stage, their work achieved significant results such as the gaining of detailed insights into the Soviet R&D facility at Semipalatinsk. It seems this early success laid the groundwork for the pursuit of later initiatives such as Project Grill Flame.
2.2 Grill Flame and Setbacks
The first operational mission of Grill Flame, conducted in September 1979, was a success. It located an aircraft crash site within fifteen miles of its actual location. Such an early positive signal pushed the project from training to operational status by the end of the year. Evidently, psychoenergetics were perceived as a viable intelligence tool.
Evaluations of the program proved important to the development and use of psychoenergetics in intelligence. Those conducted by the Gale Committee affirmed their strategic potential, as well as the threat they may pose if employed by rivals. Despite periods of funding suspension, the interest in psychoenergetics remained constant. A pivotal moment was when Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Dr. William Perry terminated R&D funding for psychoenergetics activities with a memorandum released on March 5th 1980; this decision was reversed in 1983.
This shift back towards the continuation of remote viewing applications and research led to the launch of Project Sun Streak. Operations shifted, in this context, from a Californian research facility to the military base of Fort Meade (Maryland), also the home of NSA’s headquarters.
2.3 Sun Streak
Sun Streak was the core of the Stargate Project and by far its most interesting and complete initiative. It describes remote viewing as a “highly controlled and unique intelligence collection capability”. The resources required for it are minimal, making it extremely inexpensive as the only equipment needed is people. Furthermore, RV is defined as passive and, as far as known, impossible to defend against. Based upon those features, there was hope that it was potentially a great intelligence tool.
Under this project, RV tasks were categorized in seven areas: penetration of inaccessible targets; science and technology information; cuing of other intelligence collection systems; imminent hostilities; determination of nuclear from non-nuclear targets; human source assessments; accurate personality profiles. Penetration of inaccessible targets and intelligence cuing were reportedly the most used, while human source assessments and personality profiling were questioned due to limited data supporting them.
Sun Streak had, compared to previous initiatives, a solid degree of rigorosity. It emphasized having structured sessions with comprehensive training and careful documentation. Practical exercises were combined with theoretical lectures, literature reviews, and hands-on training to lead participants to perfect their psychoenergetic skills. This evidence is very interesting, as it shows the project bridged an unconventional practice, such as RV, with systematic methodology.
The project was deemed to have a distinct potential for certain counterintelligence, counternarcotics, and counterterrorism cases, and even for providing predictive data under certain conditions. Nonetheless, the results and reliability of RV depend on available talent, and it is hard to obtain highly reliable and operationally applicable data on it.
3 The End of Stargate
In 1995, the CIA contracted the American Institute for Research (AIR) to evaluate the Stargate Program. The evaluation, released to the public on 28 November 1995, advised the termination of the program, which followed in the same year. It must be pointed out that the report acknowledges that a statistically significant effect was indeed observed in a laboratory setting. Nonetheless, there is no proof of the origins or nature of such phenomena. Furthermore, the evidence arising from RV is claimed to be vague and ambiguous, hence lacking the quality and accuracy deemed necessary for actionable intelligence.
It was upon the evidence of this evaluation–the fact that ESP could not provide data to guide intelligence operations–that the CIA concluded the Stargate Project’s efforts. Still, it should be acknowledged that there were numerous documented cases of success of the use of RV in intelligence efforts. Statistician Jessica Utts claimed the government psychics were accurate about 15% of the time throughout her measurements. Furthermore, the end of the Cold War competition, poor unit morale, and divisiveness within the organization may have also influenced the decision to terminate the project.
4 Conclusion: Implications and Legacy
Despite its termination in 1995, the Stargate Project has left behind an interesting legacy. It was an example of daring experimentation that pushed the boundaries of traditional intelligence operations. Stargate showcased the willingness of the US intelligence community to explore unorthodox methods, often dismissed as pseudoscience, with a focus on scientific rigour. The very centre of these efforts was the practice of remote viewing, which achieved occasional successes and was considered to have potential as an intelligence tool. Nonetheless, the potential was insufficient for it to become established in operational intelligence, as its inconsistent accuracy prevented it from affirming itself as an actionable tool.
The case of the Stargate Project remains interesting beyond its practical applications. Its nature challenges the common perceptions of human capability and provokes inquiry into the realm of human potential. Could modern neuroscience achieve, with scientific rigour, evidence of how consciousness may transcend physical limitations? Were all of the success stories of the 70s and 80s pure coincidence, or are they replicable in any way? And most importantly, even if there was certain evidence in favour of the realm of psychoenergetics, how would this affect intelligence and security?
