CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
£
TAB
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 :- CIA REP96 00788R001700360003-3
.
.
.
cnth ?: On the Strategic
Potential of ESP
By Dr. Roger A. Beaumont
INTEREST IN the military potential
Lof ESP-extrasensory percep-
tion-has grown in recent years.
Some of it stems from the search
for reliable and jamming-free
modes of communication. A popu-
lar wave of interest in ESP
stemmed from a boom in the occult
and supernatural phenomena in the
late 1960s and early 1970s, a time
when ESP research in Eastern Eu-
rope and the Soviet Union also
attracted popular attention. Claims
of success in using ESP in military
operations, however, appeared af -.
ter the First World War'.
In spite of all such assertions, a
basic question remains unan-
swered: does ESP actually work?
While many have thought so-and
think so-some scientists in the
West have feared that the mounting
fascination with ESP, in league
with the resurgence in the occult .
and mysticism, threatens science.
itself. Moreover, such nagging
doubt about psychic phenomena is
Dr. Roger A. Beaumont is a profes-
sor of history at Texas A&M Uni-
versity and has authored more than
40 articles on military history and
strategic studies, as well as three
not evident in Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union. The Russians
have long recognized that if ESP
were an actual effect and could be
harnessed, it would have great stra-
tegic potential.
Are such systems really possi-
ble? Many have thought so for
some time2. In this respect, it may
be useful to look closely at the
differences in approach in ESP re-
search in the West, on the one
hand, and in the Soviet block coun-
tries on the other. In the latter,
parapsychology is not considered
to be a separate research disci-
pline. Instead, articles on "bio-
communications" (telepathy) ap-
pear in traditional scientific jour-
nals, salted in among what Western
scientists view as orthodox re-
search. The attention of many in
the West was aroused in the 1970s,
as Soviet authorities brought a
heavy hand down on news cover-
age of ESP research in Russia3.
Western Research
In the West, psychic research
has long been tainted by sensation-
alism and some charlatanism.
Since the late 19th century, many
Approved For Release2600/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001/0658600913 the mystical have
UNCLASSIFIED
SIGNAL, JANUARY, 1982
39
-

Approved For Release 2000/08/0
RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
'sought links with the supernatural
through such means as Ouija
boards and séances. The dramatic
and the absurd overtones of the
popular culture aspect of ESP has
led even the more conservative ele-
ments of the popular press to treat
ESP as a novelty. Also confusing is
the fact that the various types of
apparent ESP-telekinesis (the
projection of force), telepathy
(mental transmission), clairvoy-
ance (the sensing of remote images)
and precognition (foreknowl-
edge)-have been lumped together
as related phenomena. Major cen-
ters of ESP research in the West, at
Utrecht, London and Duke Uni-
versity, have come under suspicion
from many scientists. As a result,
· researchers, like J. B. Rhine, re -.
cently deceased, have labored to
prove an effect which the Soviets
accept and attempt to explain-and
control.
.
While the enfolding of "biocom-
munications" within their central-
ized research system may reflect
Soviet concern that ESP drifts too
close to religion, their closing of
public access to ESP research
might be a parallel to what hap-
pened in the United States and
Britain during World War II after
work on an atomic bomb began4.
When it was still visible, Russian
research seemed to be trying to
reconcile individual ESP experi-
ence with transmission and recep-
tion of low-peer low-frequency
electromagnetic waves. similar to
the kind used to transmit radio,
television and radar signals5. Much
of the work on "biocommunica-
tions" dealt with the electrical
dynamics of organisms, even back
in the 1950s, when, in the United
States, the idea that animals and
plants and individual cells could be
influenced by electromagnetic radi-
ation other than heat was rejected
in biological research.
Soviet Research
Since the 1930s, biologists and
parapsychologists in the Soviet
Union have traced out in ever
greater detail a telepathic transmit-
ter-receiver ESP model, based on
the concept that people with strong
abilities as either transmitters or
receivers can communicate by
sending basic symbols or sensa-
tions (but not detailed or precise
verbal thoughts or images) at great
distance, thus, constituting a "cy-
-
MILITARY SPECIFICATION
SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLIES
FROM
MODULAR POWER SYSTEMS INC.
We are advancing the state-
of-the-art in MILSPEC
switch mode power sup-
plies with superior
product features such
as high power density,
modular construction,
new operating efficiency
levels, low harmonic current
distortion, redundant circuitry,
and high MTBF. Call us today
for complete details.
MODULAR POWER
Technology Leader In
High Performance
Switch Mode
Power Supplies
SYSTEMerqueG
Modular Power Systems, Inc.
AUSTIN
8900 Shoal Creek Blvd.
TEXAS
Austin, Texas 78758 Ph: (512) 452-8151
For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R00170036000Bujes. Discovery of such
bernetic system with all its proper-
ties"6-based on very-long-wave
transmission. Nevertheless, the
Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GSE)
of 1974 states flatly in the article on
"Parapsychology" that while ESP
is a phenomenon, it is not related to
a variant of long-wave electromag-
netic transmission. Since the GSE
is known to be a vehicle for official
policy and is rather Orwellian in
nature, the refutation, which con-
trasts with much extant in Soviet
ESP research, is interesting.
While transmission of data over
great distances by ESP was exam-
ined in the West from the 1920s on,
it was rejected at first, since it was
in violation of scientific laws which
were believed to govern radio
transmission and which decreed
that there was a falling-off of power
relative to the square of the dis-
tance between transmitter and re-
ceiver. Later, when unexpected
long-range transmission of weak
signals due to atmospheric effects
was discovered, a theory of analo-
gous enhancement and relay
through psi-sensitive individuals of
ESP "signals" came to the fore,7
while other research pointed to the
effects of electromagnetic radiation
on the body&
Research into the biological ef-
fects of electromagnetic`waves is,
of course, not an exclusive pre-
serve of Soviet science. It has been
known for almost a century, for
example, that magnetic fields in-
duce a sensation of light in the
human eye, even in darkness9. In
the late 1960s, a Russian-born
American physicist noted magnetic
resonance effects in matter con-
taining particles with gyromagnetic
properties, observing that "absorp-
tion of electromagnetic energy can
cause transitions from lower to
higher energy levels with resulting
absorption of radiation and re-ori-
entation of the dipoles."10 Most
recently, a British investigator re-
ported a relationship between
depth of hypnotic trance and the
electrical resistance of the skin.11
While such evidence of overlap
between parapsychology and biolo-
gy, physics and chemistry falls
short of the certainty needed for
firm scientific conclusion, the un-
certainty poses a problem for de-
fense policy makers. It is especially
frustrating, considering the history
of ESP which is strewn with hoax-
es and wishful thinking that even
some scientifically-trained para-
psychologists have drifted into mis-
representation and fudging, as des-
perate searches for conclusive re-
sults have led to a shaving of
SIGNAL
SIGNAL JANUA
Y 1982
·

Approved For Release 2000/08/0g
NICLAS
CIA-RDP06-00788R001700360003-3
"Perhaps ESP is a not-yet-understood sensitivity to subtle cues, or the brain
.
function, as a computer processing information subconsciously. Perhaps
those who are most sensitive "print out" slightly before or in parallel with
distant events, thus appearing to be clairvoyant, but having actually calcu-
lated probabilities unconsciously from data gathered along the way-also
· unconsciously."
hoaxes further discredits a field of
investigation under suspicion. As
John Beloff, a parapsychologist,
has noted, ESP research has "
.
suffered from its fatal attraction for
persons of unbalanced mind who
seek in it their personal salvation.
"*12
Nevertheless, what is to be made
out of the evidence that suggests
the possibility that there may be
something more solid lying behind
it?13 That question makes govern-
ment funding of ESP-related re-
search, at the worst, a ticking
bomb and, at best, a quandary.
Sponsoring such seemingly wild-
eyed studies could well explode
back in the face of sponsoring
agencies, policymakers or re-
searchers-but failure to follow
leads might yield great advantages
to those less skeptical.
Perhaps ESP is a not-yet-under-
stood sensitivity to subtle cues, or
the brain function, as computer
processing information subcon-
sciously. Perhaps those who are
most sensitive "print out" slightly
before or in parallel with distant
events, thus appearing to be clair-
voyant, but having actually calcu-
lated probabilities unconsciously
from data gathered along the way-
also unconsciously. Are such ran-
dom coincidences noticed only un- .
der stress, as psychiatrist Carl Jung
suggested in his theory of "syn-
chronicity"? Or is there actually a
lining up of electropotential forces
in the brain at certain times, creat-
ing a low-power long-wave trans-
mitter-receiver system of the kind
suggested by Kogan?
Defense-related Research
the Army's Redstone Arsenal in
ESP research. Later, the names of
.
the Rand Corporation and the Insti-
tute for Defense Analyses cropped
up occasionally. In the early 1960s,
there were reports of telepathy be-
tween the submarine USS NAUTI-
LUS and a shore-based command
post-which was denied forthwith
by the Navy.14 In 1973, stories ap-
peared describing CIA-sponsored
probing of Soviet and Chinese se-
cret installations by individuals
with high psi ability.15 By the mid-
1970s, Stanford Research Institute
appeared to be carrying the ball.16
From time to time, some indica-
tions of interest on the part of
NASA emerged to public view.
Following a call for an experiment
in the course of the moonlanding
programs in the late 1960s,17 an
astronaut, Captain Edgar Mitchell,
conducted an experiment using
star-cross-wave-square-circle psi
cards developed at Duke Universi-
ty. In six sessions, he "transmit-
ted" 25 card images at preset
times, while "recipients" recorded
their impressions. While the results
exceeded statistical probability,
they were not overwhelming. 18
NASA was quick to disclaim offi-
cial sponsorship.
Other cases of NASA involve-
ment included a communication
project funded through Stanford
Research Institute, which generat-
ed hostile reaction in some scien-
tific circles, and a "previewing" of
Jupiter by a well-known psychic
researcher.19
Evidence of interest and re-
search, however, does not neces-
sarily mean serious acceptance or
commitment to programs. James
Dougherty pointed out how nations
involved in disarmament talks may
interject "jokers" or "riders" into
otherwise serious and rational pro-
posals to make sure that their op-
ponents will not accept them.
Those thus maneuvered into the
role of rejectors may then seem in
the eyes of technically unaware
publics to be the foes of peace.20 A
corollary to this is the strategy of
mounting shadow programs to
American defense analysts and
policy makers seem to have been
hedging their bets in this area for
some time. Reports of U.S. de-
fense-related ESP research have
appeared fairly regularly in the
public press over the last quarter of
a century. In the 1950s, for exam-
ple, news releases and popular fea-
tures described the involvement of
Westinghousepprvedtber Release 2000/08/08adetA-RDB96:00788R001700368803Spoofing, deception and
and resources-into a dead-end,
the essence of Soviet efforts in the
-
field of "disinformation." If Soviet
.
research in this area proved to be a
spoof, the diversion of money and
people to ESP could lead to the
overlooking of other develop-
ments, as well as serving as a waste
of effort.
Such cautions do not erase the
tantalizing advantages to be gained
in harnessing ESP. Given that such
phenomena are based on an ele-
ment of reality, the strategic use of
ESP raises a further series of ques-
tions. Are the alignments of people
or conditions only random or occa-
sional? Is psi ability a by-product
of surrounding electromagnetic ra-
diations, or of solar radiation or
induced by terrestrial magnetism?
Is it enhanceable through hypno-
tism or drugs? Is there means for
testing for psi ability? Or for devel-
oping it? Can it be jammed? Is the
effect simply explainable in terms.
of a variation of radio-communica-
tions theory? Can "information
bits," or code messages really be
transmitted by sending combina-
tions of basic sensory images? Is
foreknowledge and remote-sensing
possible? Is it group enhanceable?
ESP and C3
In a parallel vein, the mounting
interest in C3-command, control,
communication-reflects concern
about the complexities of war in
what National Security Advisor
Breszinski called the "nucleotronic
age." The situation is made more.
critical not only by a rising curve of
innovation but also by anxiety
about Russian developments in this
area. Contradictions in their pub-
lished material do not produce
much agreement among Western
analysts about where the Soviets
are going, but their lines of thought
and unorthodox military problem-
solving techniques are unique and
sometimes strange.21
And so it is not clear at this point
if both sides are really just playing
with each other, or if there is some-
thing really developing in the realm
camouflage are normal strategies in
the conduct of war-and peace. If
-------
------

LINGLAS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08_ CIk-FDA96400788R001700360003-3
ESP does work as a kind of long-
wave radio, it could allow reliable,
unjammable, unmonitorable com-
munication with remote strategic
weapons, especially the nuclear
submarine force. Is there, then,
some overlap between ELF-the
extremely low-frequency radio sys-
tem proposed by the Navy over the
last 10 years under the titles San-
guine and Seafarer-and ESP?
The congruence of the Soviet
model of ESP and the characteris-
tics of ELF (Extremely Low Fre-
quency) communication occur at
several qualitative levels, from the
simple aspect of hypothetical-theo-
retical overlap of transmission and
reception, to the need for an un-
jammable and EMP-proof C3 medi-
um in post-nuclear exchange envi-
ronment modes, from "broken-
back war" fighting to conflict
termination. One main hypotheti-
cal parallel is the problem of slow
data rate, a la the age of signal flags
and semaphores, and the early era
of telegraphy and radio, a problem
overcome with codebooks, and
imagination. Unhappily, an effec-
tive ESP system would, depending
on the nature of the phenomena,
offer potential to the executor of a
surprise attack, from the psychic
influencing of targets, through pre-
cognition and remote sensing, to
message transmission below the
detection and countermeasure
threshold of a potential victim.22
. Thus the anxiety born of the magni-
tudes of increase in threat and con-
sequence of error tends to overide
rationalist skepticism.
Threat Perception
Perception and interpretation of
threat, after all, has been a growing
problem in the age of machine war-
fare, a by-product of the rising
speed and destructiveness of weap-
ons. Since the 1950s and the com-
ing of H-Bomb-tipped ICBMs, the
nuclear super-powers have wired
together elaborate networks of ra-
dar screens, electronic computers,
radios, telephones and, more re-
cently, satellites, fiber optics, fluid-
ic computers and lasers. Articles in
the Western popular press on the
strategic potential of ESP began to
appear in the late 1950s, as the first
generation of inter-continental bal-
listic missiles cut nuclear surprise
attack warning time from hours to
minutes. Since then, such concern
born of increasingly destructive nu-
clear power has been a driving
force in shaping such "command
and control" systems to function
ciency, systems which are de-
signed as much to prevent war as to
fight. The anxiety has also been
reinforced by the fact that the two
nuclear superpowers are the na-
tions which suffered the greatest
strategic surprises of World War II,
Operation BARBAROSSA, the
Nazi assault on Russia, and Pearl
Harbor, both in 1941, within six
months of each other.
A principal problem in the realm
of ESP stems from the dynamics of
political power in an age in which
"far-out" concepts have regularly
become reality. Those who seek
and hold political power often lack
technical knowledge about the
complex systems on which defense
and foreign policy rely. Many mod-
ern leaders have come to be as
dependent on their scientific advi-
sors as ancient kings were on their
shamans and soothsayers. The
controversial influence of Dr. Lin-
demann (later Lord Cherwell) on
Winston Churchill in the Second
World War is still viewed as cru-
cial, since Lindemann's advice led
to a major redirection of British
bombing toward attacks on Ger-
man civilians.
In the Nuclear Age, national
leaders have often had science ad-
visors act as translators of the ar-
cane, even though the performance
of such modern shamans has been
uneven. Albert Speer, for example,
overlooked the potential of nuclear
research, and the influence of Lord
Cherwell on Winston Churchill has
long been under scrutiny by histori-
ans. In any case, science has yield-
ed much of use in modern war,
and, recently, as World War II
secret files have been opened, the
electronic warfare and decoding
battles of that period, truly resem-
ble, as Churchill said, a duel of
magicians.
When looking at the current
plight of policy makers in respect
to ESP, then, it is sobering to recall
that the vast atomic bomb project
of World War II, undertaken in fear
of parallel Nazi efforts, was based
on an unproven hypothesis in a
highly theoretical branch of sci-
ence. Nevertheless, two days be-
fore Pearl Harbor, President Roo-
sevelt committed vast and scarce
resources to support the work of
scientists who had no firm data in
hand, to seek the exotic goal of
loosing the electrical bonds of mat-
ter. As a result, what was literally
science fiction until 1944 became
brutal truth in 1945.
Effects of Programs
The data at hand hardly suggest
rapidly, and at ApprovedFor Releaseh20000808inCYAURORA608800170036
is in order. Any substantial pro-
gram mounted in this area would
-
face hazardous paradoxes. If too
much were spent, and produced a
dead-end, the political result could
be deadly. But if the potential were
ignored, and an adversary succeed-
ed in harnessing ESP, the result
would be worse than embarrass-
ment. If ESP can, indeed, be mea-
sured and controlled, whichever
player in the game of international
power mastered it might succeed
without tipping their hand; it would
be hard to keep sealed off. If the
effect proved to be a variant in the
phenomenon of extra-long wave
communication, a whole sub-world
of communications research would
be opened up, not to mention the
impact on geography, meteorology
and psychometry.
The tendency for those who
dwell in corridors of power to over-
read threats is proverbial. In view
of that, even suspicion that a foe
was using ESP could generate tur-
bulence in a system in times of
stress or crisis. The uncertainty
regarding the designs and motives
behind Soviet interest in ESP also
raises other questions. Is that inter-
est merely a spoof, a form of "dis-
information," or are they really
into pay-dirt and trying to cover
up? Did they move their ESP re-
search into their first-line scientific
research establishment to conceal
developments-or to heighten
Western anxiety and uncertainty?
Do they fear that the West may be
active in this area-or even ahead?
Perhaps, in the end, all the inter-
est and effort in this area will prove
merely superstitious and wasteful.
Or perhaps many have already
glimpsed bits and fragments of an
effect-or effects-which will
someday be measured scientifical-
ly. For those looking out over this
strange and blurred landscape, and
trying to fit it into a context of
policy, operations and technology,
it is a very tough call, indeed.
Footnotes
"The Czechs, for instance, claimed the use of
clairvoyance against the Hungarians in 1918 and in
guerrilla warfare in World War II: Sheila Os-
trander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries
Behind the Iron Curtain, Englewood Cliffs. Pren-
tice Hall, 1970, pp. 312-313; Peter Maddock,
"Electromagnetic Induction of Psi States: The
Way Forward in Parapsychology,".in Mysteries,
Colin Wilson, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1978, p. 632.
2In the 1920s, the British government reportedly
funded development of a device to measure psy-
chic emanations, Ian Stevenson, "The Uncom-
fortable Facts About Extra-Sensory Perception,"
Harper's. July 1959. pp. 20-25: The military theo-
FC Fuller, a student of the occult.
Wellfiedstrong Links between psychic power and
generalship: Anthony John Trythall. "Boney"
Fuller: Soldier, Strategist and Writer, 1878-1966.

TINCLAS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDA96-007883001700360003-3
New Brunswick, Rutgers-University Press, 1977.
'See Henry Gris and William Dick, The New
Soviet Psychic Discoveries, Englewood Cliffs,
Prentice Hall. 1978, pp. 286-287; R. A. McCon-
nell. "Parapsychology in the USSR," Journal of
Parapsychology (39:2), June 1976; pp. 129-134;
Milan Ryzl. Parapsychology: A Scientific Ap-
prouch: J. G. Pratt, "Soviet Research in Parapsy-
chology" in Handbook of Parapsychology, Benja-
min Woolman, ed., New York, Van Nostrand
Reinhold. 1977: Alfred Douglas, Extra-Sensory
Perception: A Century of Psychic Research, Lon-
don, Victor Gollancz, p. 345. In 1974, it was
announced that E. M. Naurov, a principal Soviet
ESP investigator, had been jailed for two years on
charges of having personally profited from his
work and contacting foreigners, and, in 1977,
Russian security police detained an American
journalist for questioning who had tried to inter-
view Soviet ESP researchers. Reports of Soviet
VIPs seeking health treatment from a well-known
medium have appeared in the West, e.g., see n.a.,
"Über Ihrem ein Leuchten," Der Spiegel (35:17),
April 20, 1981, pp. 126-139.
"See Leslie Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The
Story of the Manhattan Project, New York,
Harper and Brothers, 1962, p. 146ff. .
"See M. Ryzl, 'Model of Parapsychological
Communication," Sdelovica Technika (8), 1964,
pp. 299-302, AD-466927, and I. M. Kogan, "The
Information Theory Aspect of Telepathy," transl.
F. J. Krieger, Rand Paper p. 41-45, 1969. For
whatever reason, since Kogan's article appeared,
listing of ESP-related research in US unclassified
technical report indices has ceased.
"L. Vasiliev, Studies in Mental Telepathy, Mos-
cow, Gospoliditzat, 1966. Joint Public Research
Service Document No. 10702. p. 175.
?See Adrian Dobbs, "The Feasibility of a Physi-
cal Theory of ESP" in J. R. Smythies, Science and
ESP, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971,
pp. 230-254.
*A. S. Presman, "The Role of Electromagnetic
' Fields in the Processes of Vital Activity," Bio-
physics, 1964, p. 134, also see na., "Biofields: The
Aura of Magic," Washington Post, July 20, 1978.
Sec. K, p. 10.
'E.g., see Horace Barlow, Henry I. Kohn and
E. Geoffrey Walsh, "Visual Sensations Aroused
by Magnetic Fields," American Journal of Physi-
ology (L48:2), Feb., 1947, pp. 372-375; Walter
Sullivan, "Finger Tip Regrowth Starts a Study of
Regenerating Nerves and Limbs," New York
Times, Dec. 30, 1979, Sec. 1, pp. 1 & 18.
1ºAlexander Kolin, "Magnetic Fields in Biolo-
gy," Physics Today, November, 1968, pp. 39-50.
In the early 1970s, the use of very low level
currents to aid in the 'healing of broken bones
evolved from research on the electrical aspects of
limb regrowth in lower order animals.
11C. Maxwell Cade and Ann P. Woodley-Hart,
"The Measurement of Hypnosis and Auto-hypno-
sis by Determination of Electrical Skin Resist-
ance," Journal of the Society for Psychic Re-
search (76:748), June 1971, p. 99.
12For a brief critique and description, see Eliza-
beth Hall, Possible Impossibilities, Boston,
Houghton-Mifflin, 1977, p. 161.
13See Stephan A. Schwartz, "Deep Quest,"
Omni, March 1979, p. 94ff.
""Gerald Messarie, "Le Secret du Nautilis,"
Science et Vié, No. 509, 1960, pp. 30-35, and n.a.,
"L'Armée Americaine étudie le 6 sense," Science
et Vić, No. 508, 1960, p. 32.
15New York Times Index, 1973; and Bris and
Dick, New Soviet Psychic Discoveries, Engle-
wood Cliffs, Prentice Hall. 1978, p. 293. For a
more recent perspective, see Ingo Swann. Ban-
quet Address. "Proceedings of the 17th Annual
U.S. Army Operations Research Symposium."
Ft. Lee. VA. Approved FaraRelease 2000ud
#AD B 0362704, pp. 9-27.
"For evidence of a trend in the late 1970s, see
Ingo Swann, "The Threat of Possible Psychic
Techniques in Future Conflicts, Proceedings of
the 17th Annual U.S. Army Operations Research
Symposium. 6-9 November 1978. Fort Lee. VA
(DDC#AD B 036704); also see Dennis M. Ross,
"Hypnosis as a Tool of Military Intelligence,"
Military Intelligence (4:3). July-September 1978.
pp. 34-37; and John B. Alexander, "The New
Mental Battlefield: 'Beam Me UP. Spock,' " Mili-
tary Review (LY:12), Decemer 1980, pp. 47-54.
17M. Ruderfer,"Note on the Effect of Distance
in ESP," Journal of the American Society for
Psychical Research (63:2), April, 1969, p. 201.
"N.a., "Space Experiment in ESP is De-
scribed," New York Times, February 23, 1971. p.
40.
19See Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, "A
Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer Over
Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspectives and
Recent Research" in Mind at Large: IEEE Sympo-
sia on the Nature of ESP, ed. Charles T. Tant,
Puthoff and Targ (New York: Praeger. 1979). pp.
13-76; n.a., "Techniques to Enhance Man/Ma-
chine Communication," Stanford Research Insti-
tute, July 1974, Final Report on NASA Project
(NAS 7-100).
"James E. Dougherty. How to Think About
Arms Control and Disarmament, New York,
Crane and Russak, 1973, p. 52.
21E.g., V. V. Druzhinin and D. S. Kontorov,
Concept, Algorithm, Decision. Washington, DC:
U.S. Air Force, 1974.
"See Clinton Roche, "ELF and the SSN: Data
Rate at Depth and Speed Today," SIGNAL (35:8),
April 1981, pp. 29-32
THE SATCOM SOURCE
AIRBORNE - SHIPBOARD . GROUND - PORTABLE
With two decades of experience in design, development, and manufacturing
airborne satellite communication antennas,. Dorne & Margolin, Inc. has
broadened : its capabilities .for additional UHF SATCOM, antenna designs.
DM C34-3/B
DM 1501341 Series
WIDE
AIRBORNE
AIRBORNE
WORLD
COVERAGE
DM C120 Series
UHF
SATCOM
DM C99-2
DM C101-3
Portable/ Manpack
Shipboard/ Mobile
If your current or future requirements indicate a need for satellite commu-
nication antennas, please contact Thomas J. Nichols or Frank W. Kellerman
for further information.
dm
Bohemia, N. Y. 11716
: CIA-RD:96-00-88R00970365063GLIN, INC.
2950 Veterans Memorial Highway
Tel. 516-585-4000
TWX 510-228-6502
.
!
. ...
dm
.

UNCLAS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
ARE
The Pentagon is spending millions on parapsychology
in a crash program to end Russia's psycho-superiority.
BY RON MCRAE AND SUE MERROW
dow of a modest storefront: "Madame
Zodiac, Psychic. Palms Read. Horo-
scopes : Interpreted. ; Russian Sub-
.marines Tracked."
Picture this sign propped in the win- . spectral image analyzer." Whitehouse . spending money on such a loony gim-
assured the gullible admirals they could
mick as an anti-missile time warp -- a
·variant on Dr. Wonmug's time machine
in the comic strip. "Alley Oop"-which
would intercept incoming Soviet
missiles over the North Pole and cause
them to detonate thousands of years
ago:
locate a particular submarine by insert-
`Ing a photograph of it in his machine.
And only last year, the Navy tested
some professed mind-readers, in-
cluding New York seer Shawn Rob-
bins, to see if they could chart Soviet
Navy maneuvers.
Like so much of our military. spend-
ing since World War II, the outlays on
our Ouija-board warriors have been
Justified as an answer to a perceived
threat from the Kremlin. But the history
of this branch of research is almost a
caricature of the pervasive East-West
rivalry.
So far, results have been as elusive
as the Soviet submarines. But the ever-
hopeful Pentagon keeps trying. Psych-
ics ,and . so-called "psychotronic"
devices, which supposedly measure or
amplify . mental · powers; are being
tested for their ability to break codes,
locate hidden missiles 'and. penetrate
Laughable? Only If you're the kind of
eccentric who thinks it's amusing when
Uncle Sam throws" your tax dollars
around on wierd sci-fi projects. The fact
is that: the : United States Navy pays
"Madame Zodiac", and 33 other so-
called psychics $400 a month each to
plot: the movements of Soviet sub-
marines :. That's $163,200 - a year-
peanuts by Pentagon standards, but
only a small part of the military and in-
telligence community's research into
parapsychology,- or extrasensory per-) guarded military installations.
ception:
The Navy stoutly denles that; it.
employs sub-chasing swamis, but The
Investigator , has uncovered a", long."
record of the"admirals' fascination with
Advocates of these spooky projects,
using the old "they laughed at Colum-
bus": routine, Insist that psychic
weapons are as revolutionary, and
the : possiblity that psychics , might potentially as important, as the atomic
somehow be able to read the minds "
-- or the secret instructions-of Soviet . sist with equal vehemence that the pro-
submarine commanders as they zigzag
through the world's oceans.
Dr. J.S. Lawson Jr., technical direc-
tor. of the Naval Electronic System
Command, told The Investigator, "I've
thought for 20. years that ESP is the
way to fight submarines." As early as
1952, in fact, a top secret Navy docu-
ment suggested that psychics be used
to pinpoint hidden submarine pens.
In' 1977, the Navy shelled. out
$5,111 to a self-styled psychic named
Charles WhiteHORee8engins Belease 2000
Va., for a device he called a "multi-
bomb. Physicists and other skeptics in-
'Jects are ridiculous. Despite the crit-
icism, the experiments continue, at the
taxpayers' expense. The CIA, the
space agency, the National Institutes of
Health, the National Security Agency
and the armed services all have re-
search programs on one area of para-
psychology or another.
-
All of these projects are cloaked in
the deepest secrecy. The obvious
reason is national security. But from the
few bizarre examples that have leaked
out, another possibility for secrecy sug
believer might be reluctant to admit.
Research in the military potențial
of ESP had a low priority at the Pen-
tagon during the 1950s, and if it existed
at all in the Soviet Union, it was not of-
The Pentagon was
alarmed. Was there a
"psycho-gap" in the
making?
ficially sanctioned. Then, in 1960, the
French press reported that telepathic
experiments had been made aboard
the U.S. submarine Nautilus while it
was chambered in the Ice under the
North Pole.
"s'nyår! embalAGEM.6:027&ARRO170096000 ?? press reports were prob-
ably fabricated out of whole cloth, but

UNCLAS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CTA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
parapsychology researchers in the
Soviet Union-every bit as hungry for
their share of the defense budget as are
their counterparts in this country-
seized on the stories as an opportunity
to win approval for their own ex-
periments.
That did it. A few years after the
Nautilus reports, stories of questionable
accuracy began surfacing here and
there about amazing Soviet advances in
voodoo warfare. One apocalyptic ac-
count suggested that the Russians were
.
"Psychotronic weapons
already exist, and their
lethal capability has
already been
demonstrated."
amassing an Army 'of "two million
trained psychics" whose mission was to
subjugate the world for the Kremlin.
The Pentagon was alarmed. Was
there a "psychogap" in the making?
Clearly, what was needed was money
.- and there were plenty of charlatans
willing to help the generals ward off im-
pending attack by the Soviet psychic ar-
my in return for a few thousand dollars,
or a few hundred thousand.
.. Some of the psychics managed to
penetrate the U.S. Treasury-if not the:
secret recesses of the Kremlin. For ex-
ample, In. the early 1970s Stanford
Research Institute' scientists. Harold
Putoff and Russell Tard claimed to
have proven that psychics could project
their minds and through "remote view-
Ing". see inside any military installation
the the world. The SRI psychics for
whom these incredible claims were
made were Pat Price, now deceased,
Ingo Swann and Uri Geller, who also
· claims the ability to bend spoons by
· mental force. Swann and Geller have
- since been exposed by professional
magicians as simply gifted illu-
sionists-that is tricksters.
.
Nevertheless, SRI's "remote
viewing" experiments with Price,
Swann and Geller persuaded the in-
telligence community, and especially
the Navy, that psychic research was
worth a serious effort, and of course a
serious expenditure of money.
was called "Project Scanate," and its
results so awed some government of-
ficials that one exclaimed, "There's no
security left!"
Swann and Price were given geo-
graphic coordinates and asked to
describe the site. Swann sketched a
target island in the Indian Ocean. Price.
did even better: he gave a detailed
description of a secret military facility in
Virginia, and even purportedly read
code-worded files ("Cueball," "14 ball"
and "Rackup") locked inside a top
secret installation that monitored Soviet
space flights.
For his next act, Swann turned his
psychic eye on the Soviet Union itself :
and described a supposedly secret in-
stallation in the Urals in amazing detail.
He even told the astonished test spon-
sors that the secret base was staffed by
"an unusually high proportion of
women."
Security experts in the "Project
Scanate" audience were not con-
vinced. But enough top brass in both
the CIA and the Navy were Impressed
to push for expanded psychic resarch.
Since the Scanate test, Putoff and
Targ have publicized their findings
widely, which has allowed independent.
investigators to run their own tests.
These experiments have been generally
negative,and none has brought the
spectacular: results claimed for the
Scanate performance."
The Navy was unruffled by evidence
of improper procedures in the Scanate
test, however. In the summer of 1977,
Swann and five other Stanford Re-
search Institute subjects were taken in a
Navy research submarine 2,000 feet
down to the floor of the Pacific. There
they predicted correctly that the sub
would find lost anchors and parts of
sunken ships. The Navy did not
disclose whether the research site was,
perhaps, the scene of a World War II
naval engagement.
This was the same year the Navy
bought Charles Whitehouse's $5,111
"spectral image-analyzer," the machine
that could supposedly locate a Soviet
sub by ingesting its photograph.
Whitehouse has refused to disclose
how his gadget performed in 20 days of
trials, but the Navy bought it, and hired
Whitehouse to train two officers and
five enlisted men in its operation.
The Navy's obsession with psychic
weapons was a modest bonanza for the
Stanford Research Institute. In 1975,
the Navy gave SRI a $50,703 contract
to determine if psychics could. detect
remote electromagnetic sources. A
year later, it threw in another $26,000
to find out if the mindreaders could ex-
ert any influence on magnetometers,
which measure magnetic fields and are
important in submarine detection .. "
.: By all odds the most bizarre research
undertaken. by our seagoing psycho-
nauts, though, was their investigation
of theso-called "Backster Effect."
.That's the phenomenon of plants sup-
posedly reading human thoughts. You
HE TRIED
TO FIX
ME
HIMSELF
T.V.
REPAIR
DES/
In 1973, the CIA and the National
Security Agency arranged a top secret
IS THIS TRUE ?"
demonstratidApproxbForiRollenšet2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
62
The Investigator, October 1981

UNIDAD
can see the devastating effect this could
have: smuggle a psychic philodendron
into the Soviet Presidium's council
chambers, and the Kremlin' darkest
secrets could be ours-presumably
shuttled to the Pentagon by carrier
aphids.
.
Cleve Backster is a polygraph
operator who claimed to have discov-
ered that plants attached to a lie detec-
tor will "faint" if someone thinks about
plucking a leaf, and vegetables' growth
will languish if they take a dislike to the
gardener. Many amateur horticulturists
have long suspected things like this, but
Backster actually tried to prove it by.
"interrogating" a. plant that had been
present at a murder. The police were
persuaded to march 20 suspects past
the plant, but the leafy witness was
unable to finger the killer.
Some of the Air Force's interest in
parapsychology is based on concern for
security of nuclear weapons. If a Uri
Geller can bend a spoon by sheer will-
power, might someone similarly gifted
be able to move the quarter-ounce trig-
ger of a bomb the one-eighth of an inch.
necessary to explode it? Or could a
mindreader pick the brain of a missile
officer and learn the code words that
control the weapon's release? The
James S. McDonnell Laboratory is
conducting top secret studies on this.
The Pentagon is spending
generously on parapsy-
, chology in a crash
program to end Russia's
psycho-superiority.
The Army has not been lagging in
ESP. research. In 1972, the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
sent a team to evaluate Stanford
Research Institute's claimed results with
spoon-bender Geller. The team was
headed by Dr. George Lawrence, a
psychologist who is open-minded on
the subject of parapsychology. With
him were Ray Hyman, an accomp-
lished magician and ESP debunker,
and Dr. Robert Van de Castle, a
University of Virginia sleep and dream
expert and a past president of the
American Parapsychological Associa-
tion.
. Approved For Release 2000/08/New Mantal Battlefield: Beam Me
The team's report was totally nega-
tive. Hyman was moved to suggest that
Callar ha cont on a tour of the Soviet
After viewing Project Scanate, one government
official exclaimed, "There's no security left!"
Union, in the hope that he would . "Psychotronic weapons already exist,
defect.
As a result of their evaluation, the
Army grew cool toward some psychic
weapons development-but not com-
pletely turned off by any means. In
1976, the Army awarded a $145,000
contract to check into the "aura" seen
around human beings by ' so-called
Kirlian photography. The researchers
found that the "aura" was an easily ex-
plained interaction of body moisture
and the electric field. Army: in-
vestigators even managed to get photos
of the "auras". surrounding a wet
sponge, a bowl of spaghetti and a used
prophylactic.
When the always-available Stan -. ander's claims is that he's writing about
ford Research Institute proposed a $3.5
"million study of "remote viewing". in .. His assertions go beyond any ex-
1977, the defense research agency flew
.in a team of debunkers and SRI's pro-
posal was quickly rejected.
But it-is the Army's "psychic task
force" ... that . has reported .the most
alarming possibilities of psychic
research. As Jack Anderson reported
several months ago, the secret psychic
task force, operating in a room in the
Pentagon basement, has come up with
some hair-curling predictions of Soviet
mastery in the ESP field.
According to retired - Lt. Col.
Thomas E. Bearden, the Russians have
already deployed third-generation
psychotronic weapons. These include
the ."photonic barrier modulator,"
which can induce death or illness from
thousands of miles away with the ease
`of a : Haitian- witch doctor; the
"hyperspatial howitzer," which can
transmit nuclear explosions · instan-
taneously to any point in the world,
and the "hieronymous machine,"
(perhaps named for the protosurrealist
painter, Hieronymous Bosch) which
Bearden contends sank the U.S.
nuclear submarine Thresher in 1963.
Ludicrous as all this may seem,
psychotronic weaponry has its staunch
believers in government. In December
1980, Military Review, the straight -
laced professional journal of the U.S.
Army, published an article entitled
Up, Spock, by Lt. Col.
ohn B. Alex-
ander. Alexander's assertions are startl-
ing. Here are a few:
.
and their lethal capability capacity has
already been demonstrated."
. "The ability to mentally move objects
has also been repeatedly demonstrated.
under scientifically controlled condi-
tions."
, "Research done on the Transcen-
dental Meditation Sidhis Program. .
has produced evidence that individ-
uals can be taught to physically lev-
itate."
· "The intelligence gathering capability
of remote viewing is obvious."
Note that he says "capability," not
"potential."
An important point about Alex-
Soviet research, not the Pentagon's.
perimental results reported in this coun-
try. And his article presumably : con-
stitutes an update of a Defense In -.
telligence Agency study in 1972, which
predicted, with something less than cer -.
tainty:
"Soviet efforts in the field of PSI
research, sooner or later might enable
them to do some of the following:
"A. Know the contents of top secret
U.S. documents, the deployment of .
: our troops and ships and the location
and nature of our military installations."
"B. Mold the thoughts of key U.S.
military and civilian leaders, at. a
distance."
C. Cause the instant death of any
U.S. official, at a distance."
"D. Disable, at a distance, U.S. military
equipment of all types, including space
craft."
Whether the Soviets' . Star Wars
scientists have actually progressed to
the deployment stage, as Alexander
seems convinced they have, there's
one federal agency that's taking no
chances: the Secret Service has com-
missioned studies on ways to protect
the President from the Kremlin's mind
control. And senior agents from both
the Secret Service and the CIA have .
been required to take courses in mind
control offered at universities in the
0369903gon area, to prevent them from
falling under the spell of Soviet
psychics.CI
.... . .......

UNCLAS
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : GIA RDP96-00768R001700360003-3
-
JACK ANDERSON
CIA Toys With Extrasensory Weapons
In James Bond circles, nothing is
too farfetched to be dismissed. The associate Dale Van Atta
Central Intelligence Agency, for exam.
ple, has been toying for years with the
idea of using extrasensory perception
in its work - spurred by the suspi-
'cion that the Russians have somehow
succeeded in opening an ESP gap.
I've already reported on the Penta-
gon's $6-million-a-year research to de-
velop ESP weapons that can brain-
wash or incapacitate enemy leaders by
thought transfer, deliver nuclear
bombs instantaneously thousands of
miles away by psychic energy, or even
create a protective "time warp" to
make incoming Soviet missiles explode
harmlessly in the past.
1
i .
These wacky projects have support
from the Defense Intelligence Agency,
which reports the Russians have been
doing intensive' research in the field
for nearly 50 years. The DIA even
credits the omnipotent Kremlin scien.
tists with successfully demonstrating
ESP's deadly potential on insects, a.
possibility that should bring joy to.
farmers and backyard gardeners
and strike terror in the insecticide in-
dustry.
..
The CIA, though historically less
alarmist about the Red Menace than
; the Pentagon spooks are, has also
been monitoring Soviet ESP research'
and pondering the possibility of less
bizarre psychic weapons. A top-secret
report on the subject by a CIA scien-
tific expert has been examined by my
The analysts estimated that "the
Soviet military and KGB have had a
covert applied parapsychology pro-
gram since the mid-1960s." This was
the period when the CIA was experi-
menting with hallucinogenic drugs on
unsuspecting Americans and with foot
powder that would make Fidel Cas-
tro's beard fall out.
The CIA warns the Soviets may be
"ahead of the U.S. in parapsychology."
Evidence of Soviet progress is sketchy
because the Kremlin's, voodoo scien-
tists, the CIA suspects, have gone un-
dercover. Intelligence sources estimate
that at least 200 Soviet experts in
various disciplines are working on
ESP weapons development.
The CIA report identified several
areas of suspected Soviet study:
. "Electrostatics of telekinesis," ... or
the ability to move objects by mental
concentration.
. "Extremely low frequencies of
electromagnetic radiation for informa-
tion transmission." This may have
been what the KGB was up to when
it bombarded the U.S. Embassy in
Moscow with microwave radiation for
nearly 20 years. :
. Application of theories involving"
links between the way the human
brain and electronic computers oper-
ate.
. Remote monitors and stimulators
to determine or influence another per-
son's physical condition by telepathy,
like a Haitian witch doctor might try.
. High-frequency analysis of" an
electroencephalogram, a sort of wire- ,
tapping of someone's brain waves.
The area of- Soviet ESP research
that really has the CIA's mouth wa-
tering is the possibility of "remote
viewing" by telepathy from thousands .
of miles away. Who'd need a mole in
the Kremlin if a psychic sitting at a
desk in Washington could zoom in
mentally on a super secret Soviet mis-
sile site or a Politburo meeting?
Under the Dome: House Minori-
ty Leader Robert Michel (R-Iil) ap-
pears to be cracking under the strain
of his job. He has taken to composing
such Literary gems as "Uncle Bob's
Primer for Big Spenders." Excerpts:
"See Big Spenders run in 1980. See
Big Spenders lose, in 1980 ., . See
Big Spenders forgetting the lesson of
1980, See Big Spenders run in 1982.
Lose, Big Spenders, lose." Another ef-
fort, inspired by the old song, "Is You
Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" goes
like this: "Is the Democrats or ain't
the Democrats backing the mandate
the people gave Reagan?" Mercifully,
Michel didn't try to sing it.".
. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) is the
man who introduced Budget Director
David A. Stockman to then-candidate
Ronald Reagan, and Kemp says he's
glad he did. "Stockman is an intellec-
tual giant who can get along with peo-
ple," Kemp claims.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
.
Monday, March 30, 1981
B13
*

Wdonal Secur . Anticy par .
fer Approved For Release 2499
200 Cianns that cer-
tain porque have psychic abilities. The results SRI repor-
ted were astonishing.
. The SHI investigators, physicists Harold E. Puthoff (a
former ASA research engineer) and Russell Targ, set out
i demonstrate to their CIA sponsor that their subjects, a
inoted prychic named Ingo Swann and .a middle-aged
businessman named Pat Price, could describe distant lo-
cations merely by knowing which geographic coordi-
nates to "look at." Some parapsychologists call this al -.
leged ability "astral projection," or "out of body experi-
ence." Puthoff and Targ prefer the term "remote view-
ing."
To check such startling claims, a"rigorous test under.
control of the sponsor" was conducted, according to the
experimenters' report, entitled "Project Scanate." The
geographic coordinates of target sites chosen by the
NSA monitor were encoded to ensure their security,
then transmitted from his Washington-area location to a
CIA scientist in Menlo Park, Calif., where SRI headquar-
1ers is located. The CIA man decoded the coordinates,
passed them to Dr. Puthoff, who then presented them to.
the subjects. In one case, Swann described and sketched
with reasonable accuracy a target island in the South In-
dian Ocean. In another instance, Pat Price gave an in-
· credibly detailed description of a supposedly secret,
underground military installation in Virginia. But there
was more. According to the SRI report:
"On a later date Pat was asked to return [mentally) to
the Virginia site with the goal of obtaining codeword in- :
formation, if possible. In response, Pat supplied the fol-
Jowing information:
Top of desk had papers labeled:
Flytrap
"Minerva®
. File cabinet on north wall labeled:
Operation Pool - (2nd word unreadable)
Folders inside cabinet labeled :.
Cueball
14 Ball
4 Ball
8 Ball
Rackup
Name of site vaguely seems like Hayfork or Haystack
Personnel:
Col. R. J. Hamilton
Maj. Gen. George R. Nash
Major John C. Calhoun ?? [sic]" .
"Hell, there's no security left," a government security
officer exclaimed upon hearing of Price's alleged suc.
cess at psychic spying. According to a military source
.who requests anonymity, the site Price described was a
satellite interrogation station which . eavesdrops on
. Soviet space vehicles, and the code words referred to
those operations. A security investigation was launched .
to determine whether the sensitive information had
been leaked to Price or others involved in the tests. "The
security men wouldn't buy the idea of remote viewing,"
he says. Neither would CIA psychologists who have exa-
mined the evidence with considerable skepticism.
But Price had more surprises in store. He volunteered
to scan "the other side of the globe for a [Soviet] Bloc
ENCLOSURE C
Psychic
Spying
The CIA, the Pentagon
And the Russians Probe
The Military Potential
Of Parapsychology
By John L. Wilhelm
Wilhelm is a former national science correspondant
for Time magazine. His book on psychic research, "The
Search for Superman," was published last year.
equivalent, and found one in the Urals," continues the
SRI report. In addition to giving geographic coordinates
for this Soviet installation, Price described it in minute
detail, including visions of helipads, rail tracks leading
into a mountainside, radar antennae and even the obser-
vation of an "unusually high ratio of women to men, at
Jeast at night." "
The CIA scientist monitoring the tests, a physiologist
from the research and development side of the agency,
believed he had a potential class A espionage agent who
could roam psychically anywhere in the world, ferreting
· secrets undetected - in effect, the perfect spy.
A Murky Business
F
OR THE PAST 25 years, various branches of the mil-
itary and intelligence communities have actively in-
vestigated this highly controversial field of parapsychol-
ogy. Their interest, which parallels recently revealed ac-
counts of drug and mind control experiments, ranges
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
ricca
:
.
. :
By David Suter for The Washington Post
from intelligence reports on foreign developments and
theoretical background studies to funding of original ex-
periments and even semi-operational tests of psychic es-
pionage abroad.
The frequently grandiose claims made for parapsy-
chology include reading or controlling people's thoughts
telepatby), gaining information about distant persons,
places and things (clairvoyance), predicting the future
kprecognition), and influencing physical objects (psycho-
(kinesis) - all by unknown, extrasensory or psychic
means. Such claims are by no means well established
scientifically, and they have stimulated raucous debates
between "believers" and "debunkers" within the agen-
cies charged with evaluating whether parapsychology
[holds any promise (or danger) for mind warfare.
. .
dreams, biofeedback, human factors, biocybernetics and.
non-ionizing radiation. For example, one $30,000 CIA
contract study published last year is ingeniously camou-
flaged by the title, "Novel Biophysical Information
... . Transfer Mechanisms (NBIT)." Funding officers prefer
to shelter these "high giggle factor" programs from Con-
gress (and sometimes their own bosses) to avoid public
embarrassment as well as to conceal what some project
managers fervently believe may be breakthrough mill-
tary/intelligence capabilities equal to the discovery of
atomic energy.
.There is particular concern about Soviet psychic capa-
bilities, including allegations that the Russians are able
telepathically to influence the behavior of others, alter
their emotions or health, knock them out or even kill by
directing a kind of psychic double-whammy at them. A
recent report by the Defense Intelligence Agency states:
Wading through all the dubious claims, conflicting re-
Sports and deliberate disinformation is mushy business at .
best. Much of the research in this country is classified or
.
ApprovedFor Release.2000/08108v@ADR96:00788R001700360003-3
Sce PSYCHIC, Page B5 .

Approved Ebi Release 1200010 8/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R0047003600balhere when lasers were just get-
"Other Soviet tests included sending to the percipient
the anxiety associated with suffocation and the sensa-
tion of a dizzying blow to the head. . . Some Western
followers of psychic phenomena research are concern-
ed, for example, with the detrimental effects of sublimi-
nal perception techniques being targeted against U.S. or
allied personnel in nuclear missile silos. The subliminal
message could be 'carried' by television signals or by tel-
epathic means.
"The potential applications of focusing mental influ-
ences on an enemy through hypnotic telepathy have
surely occurred to the Soviets . . . Control and manip-
ulation of the human consciousness must be considered
a primary goal."
A few analysts even fear that the President and other
leaders could become the telepathic targets of Soviet
mind control efforts. They argue that defensive meas-
ures need to be researched to prevent such apparent sci-
ence-fiction possibilities. One spéculation voiced in sup-
port of this thesis is that the decade-old microwave sig-
nals beamed against the U.S. embassy in Moscow might
have been an operational experiment in behavior modi-
fication using "psychotronic" methods - that is, involv-
ing psychic powers amplified by special devices. Wild as
this sounds, the CIA's "NBIT" study lends some credence
to the hypothesis: "The Russians may now be imple-
menting the next logical step [to experiments proposed
five years earlier), namely to reinforce, enhance, or aid
NBIT in certain trained or gifted individuals after hav-
ing discovered the basic communication carriers." And
the DIA reports:
-
.
"Soviet or Czech perfection of psychotronic weapons
would pose a severe threat to enemy military, embassy
or security functions. The emitted energy would be si-
lent and difficult to detect electronically (although the
Soviets claim to have developed effective biological en-
ergy sensors) and the only power source required would
be the human operator."
Most experts, publicly discount the idea, however,
countering with the argument that the Moscow signals
involve jamming devices or scanners that "see" inside
the embassy.
-
.
.
.
.
ting started." Investigators at the Navy's Surface Weap-
ons Center and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
also have run "informal" tests on Geller, with dubious
results.
The Geller Tests
IF HE GROWING governmental interest in psychic
possibilities had been accelerated in 1972 when Dr.
Andrija Pubarich, a longtime researcher in the field,
brought Geller to be studied at Stanford Research Insti-
`tute. This $100-million-a-year think tank south of San
Francisco (just renamed SRI International) conducts a.
wide variety of studies for both government,and busl-
ness. SRI has evaluated the potential of LSD and other
drugs for the CIA, forecast world trade in the year 2000
' for multinational companies, even analyzed an 1842
minute tape gap for just one customer, Richard Nixon.
SRI scientists are no strangers when it comes to dealing
with hush hush projects.
Neither is Pubarich. His connections with the .mili-
tary/intelligence communities go back to the early 1950s
when he worked in the Army's Chemical and Biological
Warfare Center at Ft. Detrick, Md .; site of the CLA's now
famous shellfish toxin repository. He presented a paper
entitled "On' the Possible Usefulness of Extrasensory
Perception in Psychological Warfare" to a Pentagon
conference in 1952 and later lectured the Army. Air
Force and Navy on other possibilities for mind warfare.
Expert in hypnotism as well as microelectronics, Puha-
rich also invented a miniature tooth radio, reportedly
for the CIA.
So it was Puharich who netted Geller for study, stud-
. ies paid for by a few small, private foundations formed
expressly to fund such research, including one beaded
by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell. In addition to telep-
athy and clairvoyance, SRI researchers claimed that Gel-
ler could erase magnetic tapes, levitate tiny weights,
even materialize and dematerialize small objects. The
Pentagon's DARPA sent a team of consultants to SRI to
see if such bizarre claims rated their funding. But the
DARPA consultants concluded that SRI's work with Gel-
ler was conducted with "incredible sloppiness." Geller
now is largely discounted as merely an extremely facile
conjurer.
While Geller and others were undergoing tests at SRI,
CIA scientists were canvassing the country for addi-
tional evaluations, prowling parapsychology meetings
and tapping experts in an effort to fathom the conflic-
ting, and often quite emotional, reports from both be-
lievers and skeptics alike.
"I had two men from the CIA come down and visit
me," recalls Dr. Robert Van de Castle, at the time a Uni-
versity of Virginia psychologist and also a member of
the DARPA team that investigated. Geller. "One thing
they wanted to know was if Geller could jam computers.
.
But they were particularly interested in out-of-body
stuff. They were concerned that the Russians bad devel-
oped it to such an extent that they were using it for in-
telligence monitoring. They seemed to think that psy-
chic intelligence gathering was not beyond the realm of
Pro
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
:
.
The Soviets have a special laboratory dedicated to par-
apsychology, according to some intelligence analysts.
The CIA report estimates that the laboratory may have a
technical staff as large as 300 physicists, doctors,
biochemists and electrical engineers, all studying the
theory and applications of psychic functioning. A Soviet
physicist now living in Paris, August Shtern, recently
claimed that he had worked for several years in a secret
laboratory in Siberia trying to find a physical basis for
psychic energies. Shtern also said that, before leaving
Russia two years ago, he had heard that an even more
secret laboratory under direction of the KGB now is pur-
suing similar research in Moscow.
In June, Los Angeles Times correspondent Robert
Toth was detained in Moscow by the KGB, allegedly for
receiving "state secrets" about parapsychology research.
The paper given to Toth by a scientist said to be labora -.
tory chief at the Moscow Institute of Medical-Biological
.
+

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3 .
.
CIA
ס
"Hawker here's
convinced the dam'
Commies have invented a
secret brain-washing ray
that's beamed in on
Jimmy Carter."
Langdon In Punch
:ae Electronics Systems Command, explaining the
Navy's interest. "I've thought for 20 years that ESP is the
way to fight submarines." In fact, one of Ingo Swann's
remote viewing demonstrations at SRI was to pinpoint
the location of Soviet submarines around the world.
Within the past few weeks, Swann and five other SRI
subjects descended some 2,000 feet below the Pacific in-
side a tiny submersible to try to their remote viewing on
the sea floor. According to a scientist from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, who also made the
dive, the psychics correctly predicted - prior to diving
- where to find various man-made objects such as an-
chors and parts of sunken ships.
Mind Trips to Jupiter?
A
BOUT THE SAME time that the second Navy con-
tract was given to SRI, the scientific assistant to the
secretary of the Navy, Dr. Sam Koslov, received a rou-
tine briefing on various research projects, including
SRI's. As the briefer flashed his chart onto the screen
and began to speak, Koslov stormily interrupted: "What
the hell is that about?"
Among the glowing words on the projected chart, the
section describing SRI's work was labeled: "ELF AND
MIND CONTROL.'
"ELF" stands for "extremely low frequency" elec-
tromagnetic waves, from the very slow brain frequen-
Ècies up to about 100 cycles per second. The Navy is inter-
sted in ELF because its Project Seafarer (formerly Pro-
reversed himself completely: "From what I have seen It
was a valid test as far as the investigators are con-
cerned." The excuses range from: (1) the NSA or CIA
man "couldn't read a map" and therefore the coordi-
nates got confused; and/or (2) the psychic subjects zo-
omed in on the nearby Sugar Grove space communica-
tions center (which does have a few similarities to the
described target, but is in West Virginia, has public
tours through it and so is not secret, and is manned by
Navy, not Army, personnel); and/or (3) the subjects read
the mind of the NSA officer rather than the coordinates.
Says Foote: "There may have been a slight exaggeration."
but it was a matter of degree rather than a deliberate
falsehood."
The CIA, NSA and SRI have not responded to requests
to clarify the discrepancies. Puthoff and Targ continue
to stand by the "Project Scanate" report, and maintain
that their investigations "are among the most severely
monitored in the history of science."
The Scientology Link
0
NE ITEM that continues to trouble those in govern-
ment who follow the SRI work is the unusually
large number of Scientologists involved with the psychic
tests there.
SRI's chief researcher, Dr. Harold Puthoff, is a high-
ranking Scientologist and has written defenses of his or-
ganization's methods and bellefs. Scientology's beliefs
include the development of personal psychic powers,

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 Y CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
Toth .was detain. d in Moscow by the KGB, allegedly for
receiving "stat secrets" about parapsychology research.
The paper given to Toth by a scientist said to be labora.
tory chief at the Moscow Institute of Medical-Biological
Preparations described a theory of psychic functioning
called "mitogenetic radiation" which has been discussed
publicly for years and largely discounted by others in
the field. One theory is that the Russians hope to mislead ..
the United States into believing that they are far ahead
in parapsychology research so that we will either (1)
waste scientific resources trying to find out what they
are up to, or (2) do productive research which they then
can tap into because of our more open system of scien-
tific reporting. It is indeed a murky business.
From ESP to Voodoo
UT, FOR MANY YEARS, small groups within the
3 U.S. government have taken seriously the specula-
tions about using psychic powers for mind warfare:
. Dr. J. B. Rhine, the dean of American parapsychol-
ogy, conducted extrasensory perception (ESP) tests for
the Army as far back as 1952. In the carly 1960s, a team
of Air Force scientists tested junior college coeds for
ESP in an effort to develop a strict experimental method
that others might follow.
. During the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps tried
dowsing or "water. witching" as a technique to uncover
, hidden mines and tunnels in the mountainous I Corps
arca west of Hue.
· The National Institutes of Health has supported a
few studies in parapsychology. Funding for one of these
programs. experiments in dream telepathy at Brooklyn's
Maimonides Hospital, now has been taken over by the
McDonnell Aerospace Foundation, founded by James
McDonnell of McDonnell Douglas Corp., one of the coun-
try's largest defense contractors.
· Three years ago, NASA paid $80,000 to see if
"machines could teach ESP (they could not) and for some
pilot studies that measured brain waves during alleged
telepathic/clairvoyant communications.
. Last year, the Defense Department's Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored a $145,000
contract to determine whether. the Soviet-discovered
Kirlian photography really depicted the glowing "aura"
of a person's "etheric body." The study found that Kir-
lian pictures are related to the moisture content in a per. .
son's skin, a conclusion which is scientifically interesting .
but certainly not grist for occult lovers.
· One West Coast Veterans Administration hospital
harbors secret biofeedback/telepathy experiments; an-
other VA hospital in the Midwest conducts "out of body"
investigations. Whether these are officially sanctioned
projects ór just bootstrap investigations is undeter-
mined, since the investigators refuse to discuss their re. .
search publicly.
.
CIA psychologists are swamped with proposals for psy-
chic studies, including one this spring which offered to
study a Trinidadian voodoo specialist who reportedly
flattens automobile tires - and presumably people -
merely by sticking pins in their photographs.
Ron Robertson, a security officer at Lawrence Liver-
more Laboratory in California, one of the country's pri-
mary nuclear weapons arsenals, has acknowledged that
"some of the [government's] interest in psi [psychic stu-
diesj ties into classified intelligence areas, for example, .
the.security of nuclear weapons." Robertson, who has
followed psychic developments on an official 'basis, seri-
ously fears that a talented psychic might trigger or dis-
able a warhead merely by psychokinetic force of mind.
"All it takes is the ability to move one eighth of an ounce
a quarter of an inch at a distance of one fost," he has
warned.
They
« pied it to such an extent that they were doing it for ...
1lligence monitoring. They seemed to think that psy :.
chic intelligence gathering was not beyond the realm of
possibility," continues Van de Castle, adding quickly:
"They gave more serious weight to that possibility than I
would as a parapsychologist."
"Remote Viewing"
P
ERHAPS the CIA investigators were just better in-
formed. About the same time that Van de Castle
was being interviewed, the CIA was closely monitoring
SRI's "remote viewing" experiments with Ingo Swann.
and Pat Price. Specialists from the operational side of
the agency were brought in to attempt to confirm the
"remote viewing"' effect, and did so, according to two
sources, by testing both Swann and Price, and others,
.apart from SRI. For example, Swann and Price were
given foreign targets to focus on, including some in Rus-
sia and China. Though there were frequent misses,
enough accurate information was gleaned to please the
CIA, according to the reports. How did the monitors
·know that the information was accurate? Sometimes,
the answers were not known until after the remote
viewing descriptions had been given and "ground truth"
checks were made by agents operating abroad. ""
Swann denies ever having worked for .the CIA, and
may have been unaware of the identity of the tests'
sponsor. "If anybody gets the idea that there's psychic.
"warfare going on, 1 could get killed in the streets,'
Swann has said.
The project did suffer one notable failure. When an
Air Force officer was kidnapped by Turkish terrorists a
few years back, Price and some others attempted to
"see" where he was being held captive. Acting on their
psychic tipsters' information, intelligence operatives
checked the site, but to no avail. But that did not deter
the psychic spy enthusiasts.
In a self-proclaimed "independent and somewhat criti-
cal study of extrasensory perception," intelligence con-
sultant Joseph A. Ball of Santa Barbara, Calif., con-
cluded in 1975 that the work at SRI. "produced mani-
festations of extrasensory perception sufficiently sharp
and clear-cut to justify serious consideration of possible
applications," that is, psychic spying.
Under a section headed "Practical Applications," Ball.
writes: "No matter how gifted the. paragnost [psychic],
existing ignorance of the basis of paranormal phen-
omena together with the capricious and unreliable na-
ture of the channel dictate that information derived
from this source can never stand alone and must be used
with caution. Extrasensory information should at best
[his emphasis] supplement normal information or guide
its collection, but should never serve in place of it." But
his point is that espionage by ESP is a reasonable expec-
tation.
SRI's highly advertised "Project Scanate" results
served the crucial purpose of garnering further govern-
ment funding. Legitimized by the participation of CIA
and NSA personnel in their tests, SRI's Puthoff and Targ
briefed "every government agency you can name" look-
ing for further support. One that bit was the Special.
Warfare Branch of the Naval Electronics Systems.Com-
mand, The decision to fund was taken largely on the
basis of an impressive briefing on "Project Scanate" by
the SRI experimenters which their CIA monitor atten-
ded.
In October, 1975, the Navy let a $50,703 contract to SRI
for psychic sensing of remote electromagnetic sources, a
continuation of carlier work supported by NASA in
which subjects allegedly used their powers to detect re-
motely flashing lights. Most of the experiments were
carried out under subcontract to Langley Porter
Neuropsychiatric Institute in San Francisco -- and were
a bust. Early in 1976. Puthoff and Targ received $26,000
in supplemental money from the Navy to see if magne
tometers could be affected by human beings. The SRI
researchers already had reported that some of their sub-
jects could indeed affect the workings of a shielded
magnetometer.
Physicists at Livermore, the University of California
and elsewhere believe that psychic functioning - in-
cluding Robertson's fears of nuclear sabotage by psycho-
:
kinesis - can be explained by electromagnetic, quan-
tum mechanics or relativity theories. The scientists at
Livermore have conducted psychokinetic tests with the
young Israeli stage performer, Uri Geller, all on an "in-
formal" basis, they insist, According to Robertson, the
"We have a deep and abiding interest in magnetom
excit AnnoKed For Release.2000/08/08 :GIA RDP96-00788R001700360903-3son Jr., technical director,
.

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
citic reseat covers are interested in
because many theerists believe that radiation at the
sa. ELF frequencies is responsible for psychic commu-
ations.
. ut the "Mind Control" label really upset Koslov. He
tered the SRI investigations for the Navy stopped,
.. cancelled another $35,000 in Navy funds slated for
ore remote viewing work. "We [Koslov's emphasis] do
"t fund programs in this area," the outspoken scientist-
tes. "If you ask me, 'Do you think it's a pile of crap?' I
, and you can quote me." In March of this year, Koslov
sin insisted that the Navy is "simply out of this busi-
.. : ss. I don't believe it's the function of the military to
'pport parapsychology rescarch."
Contrary to Koslov's assertion, the Navy still is sup-
rting psychic research. An interdisciplinary team at
.. Navy's Electronics Laboratory Center in San Diego
5 been continuing some of the work begun at SRI. Led
" an expert in bionics, the $100,000, two-year project
dy be cut because of tight research money. Which is
nfortunate, since the experiments seem far better de-
Ened than earlier ones elsewhere.
This spring, SRI's Puthoff and Targ again made the
ounds of Washington drumming up sponsorship. One/
iroposal that they hoped to sell to NASA was a $100,000
rogram precognitively to predict eclipses of the four
major Jovian moons by having a subject fly his con-
sjousness to the giant planet to "record the actual time
f the eclipse as observed on Jupiter [SRI's emphasis].".
'hough SRI's proposal claimed that "pilot studies have
een encouraging," NASA declined.
The SRI investigators also sent feelers to DARPA in
opes of winning long-term support for their work.
keptics at the agency quickly flew in an outside team
[ debunkers to brief engineers in the strategic and tac-
cal offices who were considering funding SRI's psychic
ork. Just three days after the debunkers presented
,cir case, DARPA spokesperson Jane Smith flatly de. .
ied that the agency had any interest in psychic re-
harch or in Puthoff and Targ. Queried repeatedly, she
.wod on the statement from DARPA Director George H.
leilmeier: "DARPA has not received and is not consider-
ing a proposal, formal or informal, on psychic research."
According to one of the paid consultants who briefed
ARPA, SRI had proposed a $3.5 million program on
remote viewing."
"Scanate" or "Bullpasture?"
0
N THE SURFACE, all this government interest in
parapsychology strongly supports the "believers"
..: their heated debate with the skeptics over the reality
"f psychic functioning. Price's apparent hit on the al.
.eged secret military installation in their demonstration
test for the CIA is particularly impressive - until one
asks other government funders touting the test, "Did
"ou ever check it out?" The answer is "no."
So on Sunday, March 13, with compass, topographic
maps and aerial photographs in hand, I drove to an area
.ome 135 miles west southwest of Washington, the site
identified by the coordinates given in the SRI report. A
NASA official and his two sons accompanied me. From
all the secrecy surrounding this test we half-expected to
discover the base camp of an extraterrestrial scouting
party or, at the very least, the command center for
World War III.
No such luck. Just a sparse hillside, a few flocks of
'heep, and lots of droppings. No "underground storage
areas," no "computers, communication equipment" or
."Army Signal Corps" personnel, as reported by Price.
The only "codeword" was the name of the place, Bull-
pasture Mountain. Under the circumstances, it seems
.hat SRI's "Project Scanate" would be named more ap-
propriately, "Project Bulipasture."
When told of the results of our hike, James Foote, the
Navy project manager for the SRI tests, was astonished:
"I am just chagrined that we didn't catch this. It wasn't
just SRI that told us this [the test results] but the [CIA
and NSA] sponsors, otherwise I wouldn't have taken it so
much for granted . . . There's definitely some fallacy
in this Scanate report."
Several days later, Foote abruptly changed his tune.
.
VII Oper ving Thetan, die signest rul
ment's cenplex ladder of achievements; Pat Price, who
died two. years ago, also was a high-level "Operating
Thetan." The laboratory assistant to Puthoff and Targ
during many of the Geller experiments was a Scientolo-
gist married to a "minister" of Scientology.
Some of the Initial funding for SRI's experiments
came from a ranking Scientologist who had established .
his Science Unlimited Research Foundation "at Hal
Puthoff's suggestion," according to the foundation's ex-
ecutive director at the time. Ingo Swann helped to estab-
lish Scientology's "Celebrity Center" in Los Angeles, the
headquarters recently raided by the FBI. At the time of .
his original testing, Swann revealed that there are "four-
teen Clears [a medium-high level of Scientology
achievement], more than I would suspect," working at '
SRI.
The involvement of Scientologists in the tests.at SRI
partially accounts for at least two government agencies
pulling back from funding further work there. Sociolo-
gist Marcello Truzzi, one of the consultants called in last
.. March to brief DARPA on Puthoff's and Targ's experi-
ments, says letting Scientologists conduct ESP research
is "like giving money to a cardinal of the Church to do
experimentation into the veracity of transubstantia-
`tion.""
-On the other hand, some within government argue.
that it makes sense to let Scientologists investigate the
· psychic claims subscribed to by members of the organi-
zation. But at best, this is questionable science. :
Bad Drives Out Good
0
NE EVEN MORE confusing possibility is that the
SRI experimenters may to some extent be unwit-
ting participants in a deliberate put-on, a consideration
they themselves have raised. Col. Austin Kibler, director
of DARPA's human resources division in 1973, confided
to one of his consulting psychologists that "it could be
that we are pretending to support this [psychic] work to
throw off the Russians." One ranking CIA scientist pri-
vately voiced the same possibility just a few months
back:
But there is a core of dedicated believers inside sev-
eral government agencies who are intensively reviewing
parapsychology research, weeding though the mass of
conflicting opinion, biased reports and inconclusive ex-
periments in an attempt to determine what next steps
should be taken, if any.
The authors of the CIA's two-volume study urge "that
it is worthwhile for the United States government to in. .
itiate and support systematic research in this [psychic]
area . . . Thus, it is recommended that a system in-
tegration and research planning anlaysis team be for- (
med to evaluate research work completed, update an
overall NBIT research system model, identify and out-
line new areas of research and organize interdisci-
plinary meetings between different research groups so
that they are continuously updated and educated about
the state of the art."
Those are strong recommendations for such flimsy ev-
idence, at least such flimsy public evidence. Regrettably,
most scientists operating within the mainstream refuse
to involve themselves in the contorted debates over psy-
chic phenomena. And, if they do stir themselves to opin-
ion, it is generally formed on the basis of emotion, not
experiment. They fear loss of "legitimate" research
grants and stigmatization for showing interest in such a
taboo subject. Thus, bad science drives out the good.
If there is reason to believe that psychic functioning
, performs according to the "mind war" scenarios de-
scribed in the few classified studies that have leaked
out, public debate can help shape safeguards to insure
benign application. If there is the slightest shred of evi-
dence that psychotronic weaponry is at all possible, it
should be considered biological warfare and banned in
accordance with existing agreements.
Whether psychic phenomena are nothing but hoax
and laboratory artifact or the gateway to new dimen-
sions of human experience are questions that should be
pursued by the very best laboratories, basing their pub-
licly reported conclusions on rigorous experiment, unal-

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
UNCLASSIFIED
'Mind Weapons' Seen in Future Wars
By RANDALL SHOEMAKER
Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - Soldiers in the not-too-
distant future may find themselves on the
sending end or the receiving end of
"psychotronic" weapons.
That's the suggestion of Lt. Col. John B.
Alexander in an article published in a re-
cent issue of Military Review, the monthly
magazine of the Army's Command and.
General Staff College.
In "The New Mental Battlefield," Alex-
ander described psychotronics as the inter-
action of mind and matter.
"There are weapons systems," he said,
"that operate on the power of the mind and
whose lethal capacity has already been
demonstrated."
The Soviet Union and its allies are gener-
ally believed to be well in the lead in
parapsychological research, and the
amount of paranormal phenomena they
have verified is voluminous, Alexander
said. He cited these examples:
. The ability to heal or cause disease can
be transmitted over distance, but while this
has been demonstrated on lower organ-
isms, flies and frogs, "the present capacity
for human death is still debated."
. Energy emanations from the body,
reflecting changes in emotional condition,
have been widely demonstrated through
radiation field photography known as the
Kirlian effect.
.
ZAP!
4.5.
Illustration by Garnett Sullivan
has been repeatedly demonstrated under
scientifically controlled conditions.
The extent of such research in the U.S. is
not well known nor is it centrally organ-
ized, the officer said. Because the phe-
nomena are frequently beyond explanation
in known scientific terms, they often are
discounted as nonexistent, he said.
Researchers at Stanford Research Insti-
. The ability to move objects mentally - tute have done the best known
experimentation on "remote viewing," the
ability to collect data from afar, the officer
reported. He also discussed so-called out-
of-body experiences, bending of metal by
nonphysical means, acupuncture, biofeed-
back and meditation research.
Two unclassified Defense Intelligence
Agency reports dated in 1972 and 1975 were
cited as sources of information on certain
psychotronic weapons applications investi-
gated by the Soviets.
"Certainly, with development, these
weapons would be able to induce illness or,
death at little or no risk to the operator,".
Alexander said .. "Range may be a present
problem, but this will probably be over-
come if it has not been already."
Soviet researchers have applied electro-
magnetic radiation against the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow, he pointed out. Also,
he cited researchers suggestions that
extremely-low-frequency emissions "can
be used to induce depression or irritability
in a target population."
The use of telepathic hypnosis holds
"great potential," Alexander said, and'
other mind-to-mind thought induction tech-
niques are also being considered.
Although the officer did not specify the
extent or cost of U.S. military interest in
parapsychological research, other reports
have claimed that investment in psychic
warfare by the Pentagon has amounted to
about $6 million.
Many people in the scientific community
remain skeptical of all claims for even
partial success in psychic experimentation. ,
Among such doubters, some have suggest-
ed that reports emanating from Soviet
sources about psychotronic accomplish-
ments are most likely a "disinformation"
effort aimed at encouraging the U.S. to
waste money on research. And, some say
the U.S. spending may be a counter-disin-
formation ploy designed to make the Sovi-
ets nervous.
Alexander and official Army spokesmen
declined to comment on the article or any
further questions about psychic warfare
research.
UNCLASSIFIED
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3
SOURCE:
ARMY TIMES MAGAZINE, MARCH 30, 1981
TAB F