CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9

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Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9
STATUS OF ESP RESEARCH
ORD
# 4282-74
Introduction
ESP and general psychic research has been of interest and at times
a concern to funding and operating agencies, both public and private.
The potential contributions of this research has been most difficult
to assess because the investigations have not always been conducted
under appropriate and carefully monitored conditions nor have they received
the type of funding that other social science areas have found available.
Thus the ESP community tends to be more private, inbred, and difficult to
evaluate.
This investigator has had the opportunity since 1961 to become
reasonably well acquainted with major ESP Centers and researchers. This
opportunity resulted from his position with a foundation willing to offer
funding and advice to the ESP field. He has served as formal and informal
consultant to such people as J.B. Rhine and his Institute in Durham, North
Carolina (formerly Parapsychological Laboratory, Duke University); to
Gaither Pratt of the University of Virginia, and to others. He has
attended the national and international meetings of the Parapsychological
Association as a member in good standing for over 10 years. His interest
in the ESP and psychic phenomena areas has been that of an observer not
as an advocate nor a debunker. This philosophical position has been well
known to the parapsychological researchers, thus has posed no threat
to them personally or professionally. He holds therefore, a unique
relationship to evaluate the trends in this field.
Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9
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Approved For Release/2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9
Study Objectives
To determine the status of ESP and psychic phenomena research
and studies and to evaluate potential application of published
and private findings.
The general area of psychic phenomena gained tentative acceptance
in the late 60s and early 70s and its investigators have been able to
publish in more journals of other disciplines than in the past. Previously
their reports were principally restricted to journals of parapsychology
and psychic phenomena. In addition, parapsychology is now a division of the
AAAS and some articles have appeared in their publication Science.
Articles
have appeared in the public press such as Newsweek, Time, and other
magazines describing the research efforts of such prestigeful groups as
Stanford Research Institute on the psychic phenomena. The Department of
Defense publicly commented on such research studies and attempted to
evaluate to some degree the application of such findings. Unfortunately
such critiques have been limited to only a few research efforts in the
general field.
It is suggested in this proposal that a more systematic review
be made not only by examination of published research but by inter-
views with researchers in the field. Potential insights of such
individuals would give us much more understanding and comprehensive knowledge
of this field than just published reports.
It is anticipated that this investigator, with his history as an
observer in the field, would have good access to such populations.
Such a review written would be more objective, less dramatic than those
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Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9
written by the news media for popular consumption. It could identify
potential areas for future research emphasis and replication. A
systematic investigation of psychic phenomena research would also
identify potentially productive research personnel entering the field.
It is important that such a review be done without either threatening
research personnel nor raising their hopes for more "respectable" funding
than they have been able to find in the past. Obviously such a review
should help eliminate some of the myths associated with this devilishly
attractive and yet disappointing area of investigation. At the same time
potentially important leads regardless of their approaches or implications
could be carefully evaluated.
Approach
Such a study must be conducted at a reasonably personal but objective
level. It must be low-key" but thorough. (1) a literature survey of
domestic and selected foreign sources should be examined and recorded
as an annotated bibliography; (2) interviews with both domestic and
foreign investigators should be conducted to identify important ongoing
projects; (3) major meetings of parapsychological association and other
associations should be attended and reported; (4) appropriate visits
should be arranged to examine procedures and methodologies being used
by ESP and psychic phenomena investigators; (5) a report of these
findings should be submitted at the end of the project.
*A recent article in the New York Times (20 August 1974) best
illustrates the need for the low key and personal approach. The story
discusses the exposure of Dr. Levy, a well respected parapsychologist as
a data manipulator. In few "scientific fields" is this type of event a
reasonably common experience. Only through personal contact and trust
can any hopefully effective study be made of these phenomena avoiding
the morass of personal enthusiam and lifetime commitment.
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Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9
Contributions of the Study
The value of the study generally appear in the text above. Its
principal contribution explicitly would be the status report and an
objective evaluation of where the investigators in the ESP and psychic
phenomena area have been, where they are now, and what is predicted to
be general trends in the future. These findings obviously would apply
to pptential utilization of such research for practical application by
a variety of public and private organizations.
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Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090013-9