Parapsychology in Intelligence:

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[jimlilko]

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Parapsychology in Intelligence: The Rise and Fall of the CIA's Psychic Spies by Jon Elliston Dossier Editor pscpdocs@aol.com It is the summer of 1974. In Langley, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, a handful of CIA officers venture to the edge of espionage, launching the first documented psychic spying mission in U.S. history. The target: a secret research center in a remote region of the Kazakh Republic, USSR. At the CIA, where little is known about the facility, the Soviet site is referred to as URDF-3 (Unidentified Research and Development Facility Number 3). Pat Price, a "remote viewer" working on a CIA contract, is handed the coordinates of the target. After clearing his mind, Price peers out mentally in search of the site, and claims to observe it. A striking feature of the facility, he says, is the presence of a "damn big crane." A CIA officer assigned to the unorthodox operation has seen the latest reconnaissance photos of URDF-3, and he marvels at what he later calls "some amazing descriptions" furnished by Price. There is indeed an unusually large crane at the site, one that Price is able to sketch in startling detail. The day of the psychic spies had arrived.

 

Price's remote viewing (RV) operation, and the strange developments in the U.S. intelligence community that set the stage for psychic spying, were described in detail as far back as 1977. But the astonishing story of the CIA's plunge into the paranormal was then available to a limited audience -- in fact, it was restricted to CIA eyes only.

A classified history of the CIA's attempts to utilize RV for espionage purposes appeared in Studies in Intelligence, the agency's internal journal on the tricks of the spy trade. Released to the public in 1996, the report has gone largely unnoticed in its file box at the National Archives facility in University Park, Maryland.

Titled "Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions," the report was authored by Dr. Kenneth A. Kress, a CIA engineer with the agency's Office of Technical Services (OTS). Kress managed the day-to-day operations of the project, and became one of the best known CIA parapsychology buffs. Working in this capacity, Kress held what might be the rarest of CIA jobs, that of paranormal project officer.

RV was a natural choice for the intelligence officer with a yen for weird science. The technique is a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP), a purported psychic phenomenon that has stirred heated debate among scientists. If RV could be verified as a viable way of "seeing" far-off people and places, Kress and others reasoned, the CIA (or perhaps the KGB!) would have the ultimate spy weapon in hand. Mental powers, properly focused, could circumvent the enemy's secrecy and security measures completely.

Jim Schnabel, an investigative reporter from England, notes in his book Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies that Kress was "in some ways the father of America's remote-viewing program." Who better, then, to recount the origins and demise of the CIA's RV program? Kress' report is richly detailed, offering not only his own observations as a key player in the program, buy also the analysis of several other CIA officers who became involved.

After briefly reviewing CIA-sponsored explorations of psychokinetics (the ability to affect physical objects with mental powers), Kress devotes most of the report to RV matters. He reveals some interesting background by mentioning that the CIA had ventured into the study of ESP a decade before his projects began. He notes a 1961 study of the phenomenon secretly contracted "under the auspices of Project ULTRA" -- the CIA program of mind and behavior control experiments more commonly known as MKULTRA. The study, by Oxford University's Stephen Abrams, "claimed ESP was demonstrated but not understood or controllable."

As Kress tells it, it was Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, two physicists in the employ of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), who "re-awakened CIA research in parapsychology." SRI, a California-based research group that has long handled scientific tasks for military and intelligence agencies, would conduct much of the CIA's RV work. The ball got rolling in early 1972, when Targ and Puthoff convinced the Office of Technical Services to invest $874 in a small psychic research project.

The test went well, and soon OTS had committed and additional $2,500. By the end of the year, OTS was fully on board with the psychic research effort, upping its investment to $50,000. Eventually the CIA would spend some $750,000 on research and development of psychic spying skills, according to news reports published in the 1990s.

In Kress' account, we can see the rancorous debates that funding such projects caused at CIA headquarters. In the mid-1970s, top officials were so beleaguered by scandal that they had little enthusiasm for weird-sounding endeavors like the RV spy ops. At one important juncture in the experiments, Kress writes, William Colby, then the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations, and CIA Director James Schlesinger decided that "the project was too sensitive and potentially embarrassing" to pursue. With the agency under heavy fire for its role in the Watergate scandal, this strange form of spy craft was seen as yet another risky political liability for the agency.

Looking back on the context of his RV work, Kress would note with a bit of humor: "As Project Officer, clearly my sense of timing had not been guided by useful paranormal abilities!"

Yet the RV project went forward, albeit in halting, unsure steps. Operational experiments using Pat Price, the psychic spy Kress called "our best subject," produced some arguably useful results. "In general, most of Price's data were wrong or could not be evaluated," Kress reported. "He did, nevertheless, produce some amazing descriptions."

In November 1976, CIA Director George Bush became concerned about Soviet advances in parapsychology and called the agency's RV researchers for a briefing.

In late 1975, Price's CIA handlers asked him to envision several sites in Libya using RV. Price spotted clandestine training centers for guerrilla fighters and underwater demolition teams. His findings were confirmed by reconnaissance photos, and the CIA's RV unit was hopeful that the program would survive based on the success of the Libya operation. But just when things were looking up, the RV intelligence collection program was dealt a fatal blow: Price suffered a heart attack and died, and the program was effectively shut down.

The CIA/RV story did not end with Price's demise, however. Some senior officials kept an eye on the phenomenon. Kress reports that in November of 1976, CIA Director George Bush became concerned about reported Soviet advances in parapsychology, and called in the agency's RV researchers for a briefing. (Such concerns often provided the impetus for U.S. government parapsychology research; the fear that the Soviets were getting ahead in the mind-war game was widespread among paranormal enthusiasts at military and intelligence agencies.)

In late 1995, the CIA finally fessed up to its secret involvement in parapsychology projects, and commissioned a report by private analysts to evaluate the merits of the RV method. (Click here to read the report and an overview by Enigma editor D. Trull.) A CIA public statement on the matter said that the agency's experiments with the technique were "always considered speculative and controversial."

Though the CIA seems to have all but abandoned RV in the mid-1970s, various Defense Department offices picked up the technique and examined and employed it much more extensively than the agency had. Since the 1995 revelations a number of media reports, memoirs, and investigative history books have revealed that several government agencies used psychic spying, with occasional apparent successes, to search out far more than just enemy research facilities. RV targets included U.S. hostages in foreign countries, Soviet submarines under the sea, and even secrets stashed in U.S. government filing cabinets (an effort to determine if the Soviets could conceivably do the same thing).

Psychic spying even caught the attention of the White House. In 1996, former President Jimmy Carter revealed that during this administration, the government used RV to locate a downed U.S. spy plane. (Click here for a report on Carter's comments.)

By the time the programs ground to a halt, the Defense Department had invested an estimated $20 million in RV and related pursuits. While the military's interest in the programs had fluctuated over the years, the Pentagon was prodded on by a pack of paranormal-minded politicians in the U.S. Congress.

So is there real potential for parapsychology in intelligence operations? Kress' final analysis of the CIA's short-lived RV work was both hopeful and regretful. "Tantalizing but incomplete data have been generated by CIA-sponsored research," he concluded. The agency never definitively determined if psychic spying works, he wrote, because "circumstances, biases, and fear of ridicule prevented CIA from completing a scientific investigation of parapsychology and its relevance to national security."


Want to know more?

Click here to read Kress' full report, "Parapsychology in Intelligence." Two excellent Web resources contain extensive information and declassified documents on government RV programs: see the Remote Viewing/Mind Control Index and the Star Gate Documents page.

 

 

	Document: Parapsychology in Intelligence
	Related Article: Operation Star Gate
	Dossier: Covert Ops & Secret Documents

[JustPiper]

You have not met your match and neither have I. Unless you can see God. Amen

Again the belief system. I like your way of thinking and I am very glad you posted this. Eventually it would be nice to get together ;)

[nopardons]

Things, such as precognition and ESP have absolutely NOTHING to do with the occult. Read the OT and therein, you'll find many prophets/men of GOD, who had special talents, talents that today would be called paranormal. Even Jospeh, who deciphered dreams, could be called a " witch " be some hyperventaling types, here. Think about that !

[JustPiper]

Just because you choose to live in a world that ignores many RECORDED strange events, does not mean it is "pseudoscience" to try to determine what causes them....and no, it doesn't necessarily have to be "little green men" or something.

Thank you! Psuedo implies emptiness.

[nopardons]

Mothers have " special " ESP. Doubt that ? DON'T ! It's what has kept babies, children, teenagers, and yes, even adult children safe ( or found out. LOL ), for millenia.This has NOTHING to do with " evil " spirits, or any other kind of spirits.

[JustPiper]

However, I believe a lot of this stuff is plain occultic in origin/association.

And I think there's a price to be paid for getting info through such sources.

How right you are on your second point.

On your first though my grandma was no stinkin' gypsy I tellya ;) She sure weren't no witch.

But witchcraft,paganism, als0 is not what you believe. My source is God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth thank you (smiles)

But occult is truly not a dirty word and Theosophy can explain it .

[JustPiper]

You know, I was warned early on, stay away from oujia boards, seances etc. just because of the point you make. And not to be redundant, but again the belief system is what matters. I have never invited a poltergeist I tell you ;)

[Quix]

The view of a lot of us is that you are talking about authentic getting supernatural info from God and a counterfeit getting marbled, flawed, partially inaccurate info from satan.

We see only two sources for information supernaturally.

Watchman Nee, a very humble but potent Christian who died in China in the 70's?? postulated that Adam in his original form before the fall had many skills and abilities we have since lost. I could go some distance with that.

But when one gets into spiritual input/guides . . . any kind of input from a spiritual dimension--the source is either A or B.

And God seems to care a great deal which souce we see information from--or through.

[nopardons]

ESP has absolutely nothing to do with " guides ", spirits, or the supernatural. Neither does true precognition. This isn't some " seance on a wet afternoon " kind of thing. As I have said before, on this thread, most people use about 10% of their brains. There are things, which one could do, which one no longer CAN, due to attrophe/ disuse. It's like the appendix. Watchman Nee was on to something, but it just wasn't Adam, who had abilities, which people no longer seem to, in such profusion.

When it comes to the paranormal/supernatural, there are many frauds, liers, and such. Yes, I DO believe that evil exists and yes, evil can posess people. That isn't what I, or the article is even getting near. :-)

[Quix]

I can give you a fair amount of the benefit of the doubt.

But mostly, I think you are more likely to be fooled in all this than I am.

I've been on both sides in terms of experiences--personal experiences.

And angels of light can pretend to be all kinds of things, including dormant personal skills.

I personally would rather play it safe and lean on God and His Spirit for supernatural input.

Having said that,

I must confess, that when someone gives me a photo, I report out personality factors and habits based on what?

Experience, training and I believe some level of Gifting involving Holy Spirit. I don't know what percentage each. I give God all the glory for all of it since everything good is from Him. But I can't prove anything about it.

I believe a lot of your assertions are also based more on faith than on something anyone can prove.

[nopardons]

My "assertions ", as you choose to call them, are based on personal experience, studies, and yes, the BIBLE." Faith " hasn't a thing to do with what I know .

Yes, I know, YOU see GOD in every raindrop, sort of thing. Not everyone thinks like that. Not everyone looks for some " hidden " meaning to every banal daily occurance; whether " evil " or from GOD. If you truely believe, that GOD created Adam and Eve and that they could talk to the serpent, then they had very special talents. If you believe, that Joseph could not only decipher the Pharoh's dream, but that that dream was precognicient, then not only Joseph, but the Pharoh, who did NOT belive in GOD, had abilities that you might suspect were from " the dark side ".

Your analogy, re giving people in photos, certain characteristics, isn't clairvoyant at all. They've done those tests on tiny babies. Babies, without the ability of speech, hence, NOT the same as older children and adults, who have certain acquired / conditioned biases, ALL had similar responses to the way individuals, both known and unknown look. It's something that is instictive...even " hardwired " into almost every human brain. If you are now claiming that " angels of light ", or whatever, micro-manage every single person and every single person's reactions, thoughts, behaviors, then you have crossed into some realm of utter religious fanaticism. That's just my ( and probably many others' ) opinion, of course, and since you haven't yet proved that you are in any way dangerous, it's of no consequence to me, what you believe . :-)

[Quix]

i THINK/BELIEVE you took several flying leaps off of several cliffs in terms of extrapolating from what I said.

But that's OK.

I don't think you're dangerous either.

I could elaborate a bit on what I KNOW from experiences, too. But I'll spare both of us.

And the picture thing was quite at least more if not other than you seem to assume.

Blessings,

[jimlilko]

Just cover you temples if you don't want to be read.

Cover the back of your neck if you don't want to be written to.

(I think I've been burning too many CD's.)

But really try, it with an Australian sheep dog.

The eyes are a very powerful medium also.

[nopardons]

No, the " picture " thing, as YOU stated it, was far from being anything even remotely akin to the thread's topic, or ESP of any kind, unless you knew an unknown person's name, occupation, life history, from looking at it. You did NOT claim such a thing; are you going to change your story now ? LOL

[Quix]

Was merely trying to say your characterization of what I typically experience when looking at a photo was a lot more limited in scope than my experience.

As a shrink, I'm aware of the research you were talking about. And the scope of that research was more limited than the scope of my typical experience with photos.

I think that's all I was trying to say.

[nopardons]

And your " typical " experience with photos is ?

It's conditioning, life expirience, and education; unless you KNOW almost everything about the person, in the picture, without knowing that person or anyone else who does know them . Now, IF you know things, about said individual, that you shouldn't, just by looking at a picture, which angels are whispering in your brain; good or evil ones and are you certain that you can tell the difference ? :-)

[jimlilko]

ref. #40
I suspect there is real substance behind the reports, but my real question is, how does one discern familiar and deceiving spirits and their involvement in these phenomenon from other possible processes?

The entire affair seems identical with spiritual phenomenon encouraged by deceiving spirits,...some might be intentionally true in order to further deceive latter.

---

Through transcendental meditation and astral projection one can venture outside his own mind and body into the realm of light or darkness and get lost very easily. The certainty of the unknown will at first seem enthralling. Then outside forces will try to take over.
Without Jesus Christ being my Savior, I would not even begin to think of trying such parlor tricks without Him being an Anchor that I could call upon. Their is no fear in the Lord Jesus Christ, only fear of self. Just say, " Jesus save me." I am Roman Catholic and yes I am a confirmed Roman Catholic. It takes faith and it has to be absolute. God in heaven would probably work to. For the Jewish people???
Good luck and stay safe
Tree Top Flyer

[Quix]

Oh, I think the continuum is a lot longer with a LOT more points on it than 0 or everything.

Yes, I believe when one begins one's day applying the Whole Armor of God as the Scriptures state; seeking to be covered in the awesome Blood of Jesus and declares one rejects any and everything from the evil one and accepts only that which comes through the Blood and Cross of Jesus . . . etc.

and seeks to operate selflessly in behalf of others . . .

the odds are quite high that one is a lot less likely to be deceived by counterfeit inputs from the enemy.

I suppose it's somewhat common for me to pick up something from The Lord that might comprise 5-40% of the input I report out about the person from a picture.

It's usually on the order of something I've sensed they've just been through or are about to go through or some issue that I sense they need to really give some different quality of attention to in a very significant way etc.

I think most of the personality stuff is more toward the research you were first talking about. But sometimes a personality factor, trait or habit comes to mind which doesn't really seem to overtly leap out of the picture at me. I don't know that I can say it's not at all from the eyes or facial features. Nor can I say it is.

I just prefer to Give God all the glory for whatever's from Him and anything good from it is from Him regardless of the route or mechanism.

IMHO

[nopardons]

You'd actually be sort of interesting ( maybe ), if you'd refrain from the constant preaching. Since you either can't, or refuse to, then would you P-L-E-A-S-E just post to religious threads ? It's not that I'm anti-religion / GOD; however, you do rather spoil threads for people, who don't want nor need to have YOUR brand of GOD stuffed down their throats, no matter WHAT topic is being discussed here.

We'll never know, whilst we live ; but , I wager ( and no, I don't bet/gamble...it's a turn of phrase ) that good people, who are as devout , in their own quiet way, as you are, will get to heaven too. You ALWAYS make such a fuss, that it reminds me about that scripture, that tells people to NOT make a display of their prayers and religion. You DO know the one I mean ... right ? :-)

[Quix]

Yes, I know the Scripture you're referring to.

It's always interesting to me. People can talk about their philosophy.

People can naturally include their philosophical perspectives in their responses about all manner of things.

People can answer candidly about all manner of things including philosophical perspectives and religious perpsectives.

But IF the responses are in a fairly narrow range of Christianity--particularly very Biblical AND Biblically supernatural--then there is all kinds of offense quick to be taken. What a double standard.

Sorry. I reserve the right to just be myself. And if someone asks me a question that includes part of my spirituality/philosophy, then I'll include it as naturally as I would the fact that I'm a man; a shrink and a SouthWesterner/Texan/New Mexican/adopted Chinese at heart etc. if those factors were an honest part of the answer; an honest part of the issue discussed from my perspective.

The double standard gets old at least as fast.

There's even a very liberal standard fairly commonly applied here on FR of all places!

All kinds of religious sources and religious comments can be the origin of various posts or documents or perspectives on the War on Terror or the Iraq war etc. And all those OTHER religous sources/perspectives/comments are quite fine and more or less ignored or ran with without any feathers being ruffled. And the threads stay in the main NEWS/ACTIVISM section.

It's kind of like schools--witchcraft, Islam, a long list of other isms etc. can have a field day in schools and there's only encouragement and support. But if authentic Christianity is involved, the screams begin.

On FR, the flack gets thick and the thread gets shunted to the Religion section. That's a very liberal type double standard I have been shocked to see routinely applied hereon.

It's interesting, perhaps there's some relationship between all that and curses. One never hears: "Oh Buddah!" or "Fork Mohammad" or "Fork Shiva" etc. Did you ever wonder why?

[Quix]

BTW, that Scripture talks about not making a show of one's prayers like the Pharisees did--going so far even as to have people run ahead of them calling attention to their strutting about praying loudly in fine robes.

The Apostle Paul, however, was quick to speak up in the public square, the synagogue, at court, wherever there were likely listeners to provide food for thought; reasons for his faith; testamony for what God has done.

I do try and limit my spiritual comments to honest answers and input which are naturally part of my answer or remark about the topic at hand. I don't go out of my way to trump up a reason to make a spiritual comment. Yes, I naturally do see many to most things in life having spiritual implications or associations. But that's me.

So, black people are OK. Islamic people are OK. calm silent Christians are OK when they never mention Christianity. Hindus are OK. Buddhists are OK. But I have such a unique and intolerable smell that I'm not to be afforded the same charity; the same live & let live attitude as others? Sheesh. What a double standard.

People have a great capacity to filter out what is boring, uninteresting or even offensive--to ignore it--pay attention to what's of interest or use and go on calmly and productively.

When they choose to be offended, there is probably a reason for that which may or may not have much to do with the offender.