WASHINGTONS DILEMMA By 1969, the growing evidence that the Soviets were undertaking research into amplified mind power techniques led to the American dilemma of how to respond to the psi situation. The American science community was not predisposed to undertaking a significant step toward psychic research, and many government and intelligence leaders feared ridicule. * But at the very least it had to be determined if there was any potential threat to American security if the Soviets had developed an array of amplified mind power techniques. * After what may have been a lot of soul searching, the CIA responded in 1973 by funding a classified exploratory project at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) placing it under the guidance of a physicist, Dr. H. E. Putoff. For years, the CIA involvement remained vague. But in 1996, Puthoff published a report entitled CIA-INITIATED REMOTE VIEWING PROGRAM AT STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE (JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION Vol. 10, No. 1. pp 63-76, 1996.) [NOTE: this document can be found in Section IV of this site.] * Up until 1973, it was commonly understood that the American intelligence community had taken no interest in psychic research or ESP. But in 1981, the following document suggesting otherwise was declassified and released. OUTLINE OF 1952 CIA PROJECT ON ESP The following text, released by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, deals with a twofold project designed to examine the potential use of extrasensory perception for practical problems of intelligence. The author of the memorandum outlined a project of at least three years in length and estimated the cost for its first year. The project was envisioned as aiming at reliability and repeatability among exceptionally gifted individuals and at the utilization of scattered ESP results through statistical concentration. Names, telephone numbers, and other items that might permit the identification of individuals or departments were deleted by the CIA at the time the document was released in 1981, and such deletions are noted in the text. There are no indications whether the project was actually undertaken, nor is it clear whether the text is an interoffice memorandum between two agency officials or was addressed to a CIA official by a researcher working under a contract or grant outside the agency. The memorandum is dated January 7, 1952, and its full text follows without quotes: If, as now appears to us established beyond questions, there is in some persons a certain amount of capacity for extrasensory perception (ESP), this fact, and consequent developments leading from it, should have significance for professional intelligence service. Research on the problems of extrasensory perception (ESP), this fact, and consequent developments leading from it, should have significance for professional intelligence service. Research on the problems of extrasensory perception has been in the hands of a few very workers and has not been directed to the purpose here in mind, or to any practical application whatever. However, having established certain basic facts, now, after long and patient efforts and more resistance than assistance, it now appears that we are ready to consider practical application as a research problem in itself. There are two main lines of research that hold specific promise and need further development with a view to application to the intelligence project. These two are by no means all that could be done to contribute to that end; rather, everything that adds anything to our understanding of what is taking place in ESP, is likely to give us advantage in the problems of use and control. Therefore, the Rockefeller-financed project of finding the personality correlates of ESP and the excursions into the question of ESP in animals, recently begun, as well as several major lines of inquiry, are all to the good. The two special projects on investigation that ought to be pushed in the interest of the project under discussion are, first, the search for and development of exceptionally gifted individuals who can approximate perfect success in ESP test performance, and, second, in the statistical concentration of scattered ESP performance, so as to enable an ultimately perfect reliability and application. We have something definite to go on in each case, and it is with this in mind that we are inclined to make a serious effort to push the research in the direction of reliable application to the practical problem of intelligence. First, a word about the special subject: On a number of occasions, through the years, several different scientific investigators have, under conditions of excellent control, obtained strikingly long runs of unbroken success from subjects in ESP tests. The conditions allowed no alternative. At least one of them occurred with the target cards and experimenter in one building and the subject several hundred yards away in another. Due to the elusive, unconscious nature of ESP ability, these same subjects could not reliably repeat, and during the years of investigation under the conditions of extreme limitations with which the work has had to be done, it has not been possible to solve the problem of overcoming this difficulty and bringing the capacity under reliable control. We have recently learned of two persons definitely reported to be able to keep up their rate of almost unbroken success over much longer stretches of time. These investigations have been going on in scientific laboratories, and from reports in our hands we have no reason to question their reliability. We have not been able to bring the subjects here or extend our investigation to the laboratories concerned. It looks, however, as if in these two cases the problem of getting and maintaining control over the ESP function has been solved. If it has, the rest of the way to practical application seems to us a matter of engineering with no insuperable difficulties. Even if there is anything wrong with one or both of these cases, this more extended control must come eventually, we think, and we have had in mind many lines of research, designed to try to bring it [about]. I shall not enlarge on the practical and technological developments that would be followed in bringing a capacity, such as that demonstrated in these card tests, of getting information in a practical situation. It will be seen that if a subject under control test conditions can identify the order of a deck of cards, several hundred years away in another building, or can identify the thought of another person several hundred miles away, the adaptation to the practical requirements for obtaining secret information should not give serious difficulty. The other practice on which research should be concentrated, we believe, is that of developing ways of using small percentages of success in such a way that reliable judgment can be made. While we are still exploring the advantages of this instrument of application, we have gone far enough to see how it is entirely possible and practical to use a small percentage of success, above that expected by chance alone, so as to concentrate the slight significance attaching to a given trial to the point where reliance can be placed upon the final application to the problem in hand. I believe you went into this matter thoroughly enough with [name of individual or unit deleted] that I will not need to review her the actual devices and procedures by which this concentration of reliability is brought about. If we were to undertake to push this research as far and as fast as we can reasonably well do in the direction of practical application to the problems of intelligence, it would be necessary to be exceedingly careful about thorough cloaking of the undertaking. I should not want anyone here in the [word or words deleted], except [two names apparently deleted] and myself to know about it. We are all three cleared for security purposes tot he level of Secret. I would perhaps feel bound to have confidential discussion on the matter with [name or names apparently deleted]. Funds necessary for the support of the work would understandably carry no identification and raise no questions. If there is no reason why there could not be, at any time it was justified, a renegotiation of additional needs that might arise that cannot be anticipated at this stage, I should prefer to proceed with some restraint in estimating what such a project would involve in the matter of funds. I shall estimate a research team of five persons working on this project primarily. There will be no careful line drawn. Three will be a great deal of exchange and, of course, no designation in the [several words deleted] a separate unit. For our purposes at the moment, however, the [deleted] can consider that such a test might consist of [names apparently deleted], a well-qualified statistician and two research workers qualified not only to handle groups of subjects but assist in the evaluative procedures as well. The total salary estimate for these five people would be between $22,500 and $25,000. In order to take advantage of mechanical aid in the statistical work and such other matters as traveling expenses, it would be advisable to add $5,000 as a conservative estimate. I think $30,000 would be well spent on the first year. It is almost anyones guess as to what the next year would lead us into, but it would almost certainly be more and probably a great deal more. I doubt if it would be profitable to try to fix it at this time. Frustrated as we have been by having to deal in short-term projects and the wastefulness of effort that accompanies the attempt to do long-term research projects on that basis, I am about ready to say that without pretty definite assurance of at least a three-year program I should not want to try to assemble the personnel, deign and research program and put the overall effort into what is really a major undertaking like this. Much as I feel the urgency of having our country have as much a lead as possible in this matter, I do not think it is advisable to undertake it unless there is a certain amount of confidence on both sides of the agreement, and these short-term grants-in-aid are, after all, usually measures of limited confidence. I might add that, while the Russians have both officially and through their leading psychologists disapproved of our kind of work, as they would have to do because of the philosophy of Marxian materialism, I have seen at least one reference to the fact that they have done experiments on our lines, giving a materialist interpretation. If you can give me any information on this, I would appreciate it. Sometime we might discuss what the Nazis undertook to do ... Reference: Martin Ebon. Amplified Mind Power Research in the Former Soviet Union. biomindsuperpowers/Pages/Ebon1.html
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:11:16 +0000
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