Remote viewing

According to the Parapsychological Association, remote viewing is a term for extra-sensory perception, usually performed during experiments in which the percipient tries to describe a distant location or the environs of a distant agent. The term was introduced by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff in 1974. Skeptics often say that remote viewing, like other forms of extra-sensory perception is the result of self-delusion or fraud, such as mentalism.

Remote viewing process
Remote viewing is said to allow a "viewer" to use his or her intuitive abilities to gather information on a target consisting of an object, place, or person, etc., which is hidden from the physical perception of the viewer and typically separated from the viewer at some distance.

History
The Stargate Project was one of a number of code names used to cover "remote viewing programs". Others included Sun Streak, Grill Flame, Center Lane by DIA and INSCOM, and SCANATE by CIA, from the 1970s, through to 1995. It was an offshoot of research done at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

The Stargate Project created a set of protocols designed to make clairvoyance a more scientific process, and minimize as much as possible session noise and inaccuracy. The term "remote viewing" emerged as a generalized short hand to describe this more structured approach to clairvoyance.

The project was eventually terminated, according to the official report at the time, because there was insufficient evidence of the utility of the intelligence data produced. David Goslin, of the American Institute for Research said, "There's no documented evidence it had any value to the intelligence community."

In 1995 the project was transferred to the CIA and a retrospective evaluation of the results was done. The CIA contracted the American Institutes for Research for this evaluation. An analysis conducted by parapsychologist Jessica Utts showed a statistically significant effect, with some subjects scoring 5%-15% above chance, though subject reports included a large amount of irrelevant information, and when reports did seem on target they were vague and general in nature. Skeptic Ray Hyman concluded a null result and based upon both of their collected findings, the CIA followed the recommendation to terminate the 20 million dollar project. Time magazine stated in 1995 three full-time psychics were still working on a $500,000-a-year budget out of Fort Meade, Maryland, which would soon close up shop.

Criticism
According to John Alcock, in experiments conducted in 1973 at the Stanford Research Institute, the notes given to the judges contained clues as to which order they were carried out, such as referring to yesterday's two targets, or they had the date of the session written at the top of the page. Alcock said these clues were the reason for the experiment's high hit rates.

Others have said that, the information from remote viewing sessions can be vague and include a lot of erroneous data. The 1995 report for the American Institute for Research "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications" by Mumford, Rose and Goslin, contains a section of anonymous reports describing how remote viewing was tentatively used in a number of operational situations. The three reports conclude that the data was too vague to be of any use, and in the report that offers the most positive results the writer notes that the viewers "had some knowledge of the target organizations and their operations but not the background of the particular tasking at hand."

Popular Culture

 * In the movie Suspect Zero detectives must track a killer who has the Remote Viewing ability. A major theme of the film is remote viewing, and the DVD's extra features include interviews with people who worked with the US military and intelligence agencies as part of those programs.
 * In the second season of The Dead Zone, episode 16 (The Hunt) involves the protagonist being recruited by a covert government remote viewing team. He enables the team to provide real-time intelligence information to U.S. special forces engaging with terrorists in Afghanistan.
 * Remote Viewing is a common topic on the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM.
 * Remote Viewing is often claimed to be the method used to locate Saddam Hussien when he was hiding out in his "spider hole". see *Brazilian remote viewer
 * In the video games Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and Second Sight, the main characters have remote viewing as one of their abilities.
 * In the science fiction novel Three Days to Never by Tim Powers one character is a psychic spy, but also blind, using her Remote Viewing to see normally through the eyes of others. The underground US military Remote Viewing spy training facility in the desert which honed her RV capabilities as a child is loosely based on an actual CIA program which existed until the 1980s.
 * In the TV series Numb3rs, season two episode "Mind Games" features John Glover as a remote viewer who assists Eppes' FBI team with a case.
 * The Band Cephalic Carnage has a song entitled "Scientific Remote Viewing," in which they describe the phenomena and alleged information gained by remote viewing.
 * In the animated TV series Delta State, one of the four protagonists has the power of remote viewing.

Notable Remote Viewers

 * Ingo Swann, one of the founders of remote viewing
 * Pat Price, one of the early remote viewers
 * Paul Smith, credited with authoring/editing the original CRV training manual
 * Russell Targ, cofounder of the Stanford Research Institute's investigation into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s
 * Joseph McMoneagle, one of the early remote viewers
 * Ed Dames, associated with PSI TECH, Inc.
 * Courtney Brown, founder of the Farsight Institute
 * David Morehouse, remote viewer during Stargate program
 * Lyn Buchanan
 * Douglas James Cottrell, who uses remote viewing in his deep meditation sessions
 * Vance West, trained by Farsight Institute, PsiTech, Ed Dames and others. Noted for lottery examples, assisting in missing persons cases.
 * Jon Aaron Baklund, trainied in 1996 by Farsight Intitute, founder of Inomanti International
 * Aaron C. Donahue, former Remote Viewing student of Ed Dames, successfully featured in "In Search Of" episode about Remote Viewing

Books

 * Courtney Brown, Ph.D., Remote Viewing : The Science and Theory of Nonphysical Perception. Farsight Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9766762-1-4
 * David Morehouse, Psychic Warrior, St. Martin's, 1996, ISBN 0-312-96413-7
 * Jim Schnabel, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997, ISBN 0-440-22306-7
 * Paul H. Smith, Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate -- America's Psychic Espionage Program, Forge, 2005, ISBN 0-312-87515-0
 * Ronson, Jon, The Men who Stare at Goats, Picador, 2004, ISBN 0-330-37547-4, written to accompany the TV series The Crazy Rulers of the World)
 * Paolini, Christopher Eragon & Eldest Knopf publishing, 1989 ISBN 0-432-2191-5
 * Buchanan, Lyn, The Seventh Sense: The Secrets Of Remote Viewing As Told By A "Psychic Spy" For The U.S. Military, ISBN 0-7434-6268-8
 * F. Holmes Atwater, Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul: Living with Guidance, Hampton Roads 2001, ISBN 1-57174-247-6
 * McMoneagle, Joseph, The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy, Hampton Roads 2002, ISBN 1-57174-225-5
 * Targ, Russell and Hurtak, J.J.The End of Suffering2006, Hampton Roads.

Papers

 * Utts and Josephson, The Paranormal: The Evidence and Its Implications for Consciousness, 1996