CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210010-1

Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210010-1
Behavior
Back From Beyond
By Antoinette May
When Ingo Swann was a small child he
would sometimes float from his bed at night,
soaring out of his body and slipping into the
earth of his native Rocky Mountains where he
would follow the veins of metal ore through the
ground until they emerged on the mountain
surface.
A childhood fantasy? Perhaps. But
consider the many today, still floating-only
this time at the direction of Stanford Research
Institute in Menlo Park.
Again and again, Swann has demonstrat-'
ed the ability to "see" a distant object without
leaving his body. Dr. Harold Puthoff and
Russell Targ, physicists at Stanford Research
Institute (SRI) call this phenomenon "remote
viewing."
Swann calls it out-of-body-experience or
OOBE.
Swann's OOBE began in the most
common manner, a stress situation. The classic'
OOBE happens spontaneously during an
accident or surgical operation. The individual,
generally after being terrified by the prospect
of death, is amazed to find himself hovering
above his body watching the surrounding.
activity with a new detachment.
Ingo Swann experienced this phenome-
non when he was three years old during a
tonsillectomy .. Gliding up above his small body,
the child watched with fascination as the
doctor performed the operation. Hearing the
doctor say a forbidden word as his knife slipped
brought a sense of shocked pleasure to the
small voyeur. Then Ingo Swann says that he
looked down his own open mouth and saw
blood oozing from the accidental wound. He
noted with interest that the doctor placed the
tonsils behind two rolls of paper in a side
cabinet.
"When I awakened from the anesthetic, I
began to cry because my throat had been cut-
though I couldn't possibly feel it, everything
was numb; The doctor couldn't understand
how I knew. Then I asked him for my tonsils. A
souvenir was the very least he could do, I
thought, but he insisted that he'd thrown them
away. I wouldn't let him get away with that!
'No, you didn't,' I contradicted him. "You put
them over there behind those things.'"
From this point on, out-of-body rambles
vart Wolker
-
A student gets instructions via headphones in the
M-5000 program, designed to help achieve
OOBE experiences.
.
"The classic OOBE happens
spontaneously during àn
accident or operation."
added a dazzling dimension to Swann's life. Ho
grew up, was graduated from Westminster
College in Salt Lake City with degrees in art
and biology, served three years in the army,
and became a critically acclaimed artist. Then,
thirty years after his initial experience, Swann
volunteered as a subject for a series of
controlled experiments demonstrating his
unique ability to view remote objects. This was
the procedure:
Swann would sit or lic quietly in a cubicle
or isolation booth. Several electrodes connect-
ed to an EEG were secured to his head. The
machine would be disconnected if he moved his
head more than minimally-providing proof of
a floorbound body. Far above Swann, a small
platform was suspended. On the platform, out .
of sight, were the targets.
Swann's task was to "float up out of his
body" and observe the objects. After examin-
ing these targets from a point some ten feet
above his body, Swann floated down and
proceeded to sketch what he had seen.
The experiment over, he was unplugged
from the machine. A ladder was brought and .
the targets taken down from the platform.
These were then compared to the sketches.
Later both targets and drawings were
submitted to an independent judge who
correctly matched each copy with its original.
At a series of eight such tests conducted by the
-. American Society of Psychical Research in
New York all were easily matched. Statistical-
ly, this could happen by chance once in 40,000
trys.
.
Did success spoil Ingo Swann?
No, but it bored him. "One day," he says,
"life at SRI reached an apex of boredom."
Swann was tired of earthly targets. He'd had
enough of objects on platforms or in adjoining
labs or even outside the building. He wanted a
target that was literally out of this world.
It was March 1973, nine months prior to
the scheduled bypass of NASA's Pioneer 10
spacecraft with Jupiter. Swann decided to float
up and observe the planet for himself. His own
sightings could then be compared to the
eventual feedback from Pioneer 10.
To make the experiment even more
interesting, Swann invited the psychic Harold
Sherman to make the trip with him. The
OOBE probe took place on the evening of April
27, 1973. Sherman "took off" from his
Mountain View, Arkansas home at eight p.m.
Central Standard Time, Swann's probe com-
menced at six p.m. Pacific Standard Time from
SRI. The simultaneous journeys were recorded
by Dr. Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, who
recorded the data and then relayed it to
scientific colleagues around the country.
The two subjects separated by nearly
2,300 miles described the same things.
observed the same environmental conditions on
Jupiter. Each spoke of glittering ice crystals,
winds of terrific velocity, great mountain
ranges and powerful magnetic forces.
The same conditions were later confirmed
by the Pioneer 10 probe.
Nearly a year later a similar entrasensory
probe was undertaken. This time the target was
the planet Mercury. Despite the prevailing
theory that the planet would have neither an
.atmosphere nor a magnetic field, both subjects
continued
Approved For Release 2003/09/10': CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210010-1

Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210010-1
+
"Behavior continued
insisted otherwise. Scientists evaluating the
data obtained by Marina 10 on March 29,
1974 -- nineteen days after the Swann-Sher-
man probe - discovered both conditions.
What can Ingo Swann possibly do for an
encore?
"The problem lies in finding places that I
can't be accused of reading up on, that can still
be verified by someone credible," he explains.
"There is loose on this planet an anti-psychic
attitude. It breeds jealousy. People say, "Why
does he have it and I don't?' It's easier for that
kind of mind to simply decide that I don't have
it, than to deal with the whys involved."
At the opposite extreme are those who do
believe in the OOBE, which they are apt to call
"astral travel." Many of these consider
Swann's psychic tripping dangerous. "What if
someone wants to take over your body?" they
ask. "What if you don't come back?"
Ingo Swann believes both possibilities to
be unlikely. "Why would anyone want my.
body?" he laughs, but admits, "perhaps some
could attract such dangers to themselves by
their own paranoia.
"I'll come back, I've lots to do in this life;
but an even greater incentive to return to this
body is the idea of having to be born again and
go to grade school another time. I can't think of
any reality worse than that!
"No," Swann replies in anticipation of
the inevitable question, "I haven't met God yet,
but I've lots to take up with him when I do."
One who thinks the meeting highly
unlikely is Dr. Jobn Palmer,' a research
psychologist at the University of California at
Davis. Though Palmer has a love affair going
with the OOBE-having devoted six years to
its study-he does not see anything mystical
about the phenomenon.
"The OOBE should not be regarded as
proof of soul survival," he insists. "It may or
may not be spiritual, and whether it is or not
should be decided by something other than the
out-of-bodiness of it."
Approaching the OOBE from the point of
view of the experimental psychologist and
parapsychologist, Palmer's attitude is one of
detachment. "One must consider the psychol-
ogical set of the person having the OOBE," he
says.
"Where is he coming from? What sort of
experience was he having just before his
OOBE? OOBEs often occur in a death
situation. There is this common idea that dying
means leaving the body. . So what do you
suppose that person has in the back of his
mind? Maybe something like, 'Gee, I'm dying!
What's going to happen next? I go to heaven --
at least I hope I go to heaven.' So the person is
primed for a mystical experience or OOBE.
Perhaps his unconscious mind obligingly comes .
through with one."
Whether or not in OOBE has an
objective reality or is merely a creation of the
imagination has yet to be established scientifi-
cally. But of one thing Palmer is certain. There
is nothing rare about the experience or special
about the individual having it.
He cites an experiment undertaken with a
colleague in Virginia. Seven hundred question-
naires were sent to adult residents of.
Charlottesville, Virginia, and to 300 University
of Virginia students. Respondents were asked,
"Have you ever had an experience in which you
felt that you were located outside or away from
your physical body; that it, the feeling that
your consciousness, mind, or. center of
' awareness was at a different place from your
physical body. (If in doubt, please answer
".('סח' .
- Of the 341 townspeople (49 percent) who.
returned the questionnaire and answered the
item, forty-eight (or 14 percent) answered
affirmatively. Of the students queried, 266 (89
percent) answered the item and sixty-six of .
these (25 percent) affirmatively.
In the combined samples, 83 percent of
.
those reporting an OOBE told of having the
experience more than once, and 34 percent. '
reported having it eight or more times.
· In an effort to stimulate an OOBE in a
laboratory setting, Palmer tested some 180
undergraduate students. All were unpaid
volunteers and no effort was made to select
people with a previous OOBE history. The
subjects included seventy-eight men and 102
women. Relaxation and sensory deprivation
techniques were employed to induce an altered
state of consciousness. As in the case of Ingo
Swann, hidden targets were employed.
When the series of experiments .was
completed, 50 percent of the subjects reported
having OOBEs. Evidence of ESP was often
prevalent among those reporting OOBEs, but
that does not constitute proof that their
OOBEs were real .in Palmer's opinion. Both
OOBEs and ESP are by-products of the
hypnogogic state, he believes, a borderline
condition between sicep and wakefulness that
can be induced by relaxation and sensory.
deprivation.
The out-of-body experience is just that-
an experience. It would be premature indeed,
in Palmer's estimate,' to conclude that it
constitutes a "dry' run" for the death
experience.
Whatever the prevailing scientific
definition of the OOBE, there are many who
would like to achieve it, decide for themselves
the meaning of it all, and then return to tell the
tale. For these cosmic explorers, the ultimate
trip can be arranged.
The M-5000 program administered by
the Monroe Institute in San Francisco is the
vehicle, program director Christopher Lenz the
tour guide. Robert Monroe, known in parapsy-
chology circles as Mr. Out-of-Body, has
devised the route. Formerly a sound engineer,
Monroe's life changed forever nearly twenty
years ago when he discovered himself floating
some twelve feet above the floor of his
bedroom. Directly below was his wife lying in
bed with another man."
" 'I haven't met God yet,
but I've lots to take up
with him when I do.'"
Assuming himself to be dreaming, Mon-
roe studied the male form curiously: "Just who
would I dream to be in bed with my wife?" he
pondered. Then, peering more closely, Monroe
says he recognized the man as himself. "I must
be dead!" was his terrified reaction. Desperate-
ly he swooped down to his body and dove in.
Then, feeling the bed below and the covers
above, he cautiously opened his eyes and saw
the room from a more familiar perspective.
This was the beginning of many such
experiences as Monroe discovered that he
could leave his body at will. The M-5000
program is an outgrowth of the experiments
that followed. It involves a weekend workshop
where participants spend most of their time in
sleeping bags, stereo headphones clamped to
their heads.
The stated purpose of the program is to
enable each participant to become aware of the
threshold state between wakefulness and sleep,
then to stabilize this threshold to such an
extent that it becomes a gateway to new means
of thought and perception. Quite often this
takes the form of an out-of-body experience.
The workshop begins Friday evening and
continues through Sunday noon. A minimum
of eleven forty-five minute tapes are heard.
Bach is designed to develop perceptual abilities
by careful coordination of instructions from
Monroe, combined with varying frequencies of
audio pulsing.
-
Between tapes there's a break for
discussion of experiences. Most attend the
program hoping for an OOBE but this is
generally just the beginning. Some participants
report talks with long dead loved ones, others
: tell of self-healing or telepathic communica-
tion. But greater than any of these wonder tales
is a sense of guidance and perspective from an
. apparently heightened consciousness.
Christopher Lenz suggests that those
attending the workshop bring not only pillows
and blankets (to keep the body comfortable on
the floor while the spirit soars) but questions
and problems for which outside help is desired.
Ingo Swann might say the answers come from
. the cosmos. John Palmer would suggest the
individual's subconscious mind. Lenz frankly
does not know where the answers come from. It
is enough for him that they invariably come.
"We like to make those distinctions,
neatly labeling everything that comes our way
into either/or categories," he points out.
"Maybe this is more a matter of both/and."
An enthusiastic "graduate" is psychia-
trist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On
Death and Dying, who referred to the training
session one year later as a wonderful and
consistent method of exploring and under-
standing one's total self. "It has helped
broaden my understanding not only of life here,
but of that existence beyond what we call
death," she said.C
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