CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240020-1

Approved For Release 2003/09/16 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240020-1
WIZZ
STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA 94025
(415) 326 6200
March 19, 1976
Dr. F. W. Niedonfuhr
Defense Advance Research Projects Agency
1400 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia
22209
Doar Dr. Niedenfuhr:
Having seen your letter to Randi the magician, reproduced as an appendix
in his book The Magic of Uri Geller, I thought I would write to bring
you up to date on Randi's latest contribution to disinformation. Although.
in general we have no argument with Randi's criticism of Geller's public
performances with regard to the possibility of chicanery, we find that
with regard to Randi's description of the work at SRI, Randi is clearly
up to his old tricks, deception by misdirection. In looking over his
book we found that in every instance Randi, in his efforts to fault the
SRI experiments with Geller, was driven to hypothesize the existence of
loophole conditions that did not in fact exist. Enclosed is a fact sheet
correcting the errors in Randi's book with regard to the SRI work, which
you may find revealing. Rather than a serious attempt to put forward
expert criticism as to the possibilities of chicanery - (his suggested
possibilities aro trivial and naive in comparison with the sophisticated
advice that we obtain from consulting magicians of the caliber of
Milbourne Christopher) - we consider his book as simply a commercial
vontare on his part.
Beyond that, our work with Goller constituted less than 3% of our overall
effort in the field of so-called paranormal functioning, even though it
seemed to garner the most publicity, in no small part due to Randi's efforts.
The bulk of the other 97% is summarized in the March Proceedings of the
IEEE just published this month. In this paper we detail the results obtained
in over 50 experiments with nine subjects (including visiting skeptical
government scientists who acted as subjects), carried out to examine
a putative paranormal perceptual mode by which an individual obtains
visual data about a remote physical location which may be a building,
laboratory, or natural setting.
The editorial accompanying the paper was written by Dr. R. W. Lucky,
editor of the journal and also head of the Advanced Data Communications
Department al Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ. We understand that as part of the
review process a group at Bell independently replicated our experiment
and obtained results similar to ours. Three other labs have also replicated
the experiment, and these results are in various stages of preparation for
-
publication.
1
Approved For Release 2003/09/16 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240020-1
CABLE
STANBES, MENLO PARK '
TWX 910 373 1240

Approved For Release 2003/09/16 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240020-1
If you have any questions, either with regard to Randi's allegations
or the IEEE paper, please do not hesitate to contact us for clarification.
With best regards, .
H. E. Puthoff, PhB K1029
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory
.
Approved For Release 2003/09/16 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240020-1