Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

from all of these experiments, Targ and Puthoff (1974, p. 607) concluded: “A channel exists whereby information about a remote location can be obtained by means of an as yet unidentified perceptual modality.” They also suggested that “remote perceptual ability is widely distributed in the general population, but because the perception is generally below an individual’s level of awareness, it is repressed or not noticed.” finally, they stated, “Our observation of the phenomena leads us to conclude that experiments in the area of so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted, and it is our hope that other laboratories will initiate additional research to attempt to replicate these findings.” Nature (1974, pp. 559–560) published an editorial along with the article by Targ and Puthoff. According to the referees who reviewed the article before publication, the descriptions about the precise manner in which experiments were carried out, including precautions taken to prevent unconscious or conscious leakage of information to the subjects, were “vague.” I did not find this to be so, but readers can judge for themselves. The referees also thought that more care could have been taken in the target selection process. Again, I found the methods, as described, to be adequate. favoring publication of the paper, said nature, was the fact that the authors were “two qualified scientists, writing from a major research establishment.” nature found the phenomena worthy of investigation, even if many scientists were skeptical about their reality. As nature put it, “If scientists dispute and debate the reality of extra-sensory perception, then the subject is clearly a matter for scientific study and reportage.” nature also recognized that failure to publish the article might add fuel to rumours circulating among scientists that “the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) was engaged in a major research programme into parapsychological matters and had even been the scene of a remarkable breakthrough in this field.” It was felt that “publication of this paper, with its muted claims, suggestions of a limited research programme, and modest data, is . . . likely to put the whole matter in more reasonable perspective.” The editorial concluded (1974, p. 560): “nature, although seen by some as one of the world’s most respected journals cannot afford to live on respectability. We believe that our readers expect us to be a home for the occasional ‘high-risk’ type of paper . . . Publishing in a scientific journal is not a process of receiving a seal of approval from the establishment; rather it is the serving of notice on the community that there is something worthy of their attention and scrutiny.”

But much more was happening at SRI than the experiments reported in nature . The SRI experimenters were not only carrying out basic research establishing the reality of remote viewing but were actually carrying out remote viewing missions on behalf of the intelligence gathering agencies of the United States government and military. These programs involved substantial recruiting efforts. during screenings of large numbers of candidates, it turned out that about one percent possessed good remote viewing abilities (Radin 1997, p. 101).

On July 10, 1974, a physicist working for the cIA came to SRI with a test assignment. Analysts at the cIA were interested in a certain building complex in the Soviet Union. The physicist gave Targ the coordinates of a location in the Soviet Union, about ten thousand miles away from the SRI in Menlo Park, california. Targ and one of SRI’s remote viewers, Pat Price, went into one of the electrically shielded rooms they used for their experiments. Price focused on the coordinates and began describing a site with buildings and a gantry moving back and forth on a track with one rail. He sketched the layout of the buildings and crane. He later drew a detailed picture of the crane. Over the next few days, additional details were added. “We were astonished,” said Targ, “when we were told [later] that the site was the super-secret Soviet atomic bomb laboratory at Semiplatinsk, where they were also testing particle beam weapons . . . The accuracy of Price’s drawing is the sort of thing that I, as a physicist, would never have believed, if I had not seen it for myself” (Targ 1996, pp. 81–82; in Radin 1997, p. 26).

The remote viewing program at the Stanford Research Institute operated as part of Stanford University throughout the early 1970s, after which it became an independent organization, called Stanford Research International. The remote viewing program was founded by Harold Puthoff, who was joined early on by Targ and a few years later by physicist Edwin May. Puthoff left SRI in 1985, and May took over the leadership of the organization. In 1990, the remote viewing program moved to Science Applications International corporation (SAIc), a big defense contractor. In 1994, the program ended (so we are told, anyway), after 24 years and $20 million from the cIA, defense Intelligence Agency, Army intelligence, navy intelligence, and nASA. Radin (1997, p. 98) noted: “The agencies continued to show interest in remote viewing for more than twenty years because the SRI and SAIc programs occasionally provided useful mission-oriented information at high levels of detail.”

In one test case in the intelligence-gathering program, supervisors gave a remote viewer only the barest amount of information about a target—that it was “a technical device somewhere in the United States.” According to Radin the target was actually “a high-energy microwave generator in the Southwest.” Unaware of this, the viewer made drawings and gave verbal descriptions of an object the same size and shape as the microwave generator. He correctly stated that its beam divergence angle was 30 degrees (May 1995, p. 204; in Radin 1997, p. 99).

In another case from the late 1970s, supervisors gave a remote viewer the map coordinates of a location in the United States. The remote viewer gave an accurate description of a super secret military installation. The very existence of this installation, located in virginia, was at the time extremely confidential. Radin (Puthoff 1996; in Radin 1997, p. 99) said the viewer “was able to describe accurately the facility’s interior and was even able to correctly sense the names of secret code words written on folders inside locked file cabinets.” In 1977, a reporter, who had learned about the remote viewer’s report, went to the spot to verify the existence of the military installation. The reporter saw just a hillside with sheep and concluded the report was not true. But the installation actually was at that spot—not on the surface, but underground (Radin 1997, p. 99).

In September of 1979, the national Security council of the United States became interested in knowing what the Soviet Union was doing inside a large building in northern Russia. Spy satellite photos of activities around the building indicated some kind of heavy construction, but the nSc wanted to know exactly what was happening inside. A remote viewer working for the army, chief Warrant Officer Joe McMoneagle, was assigned to the task (McMoneagle 1993, Schnabel 1997; in Radin 1997, pp. 194–195). The officers in charge of the project did not at first show McMoneagle the satellite photos or tell him anything about their content. They gave him only a set of map coordinates and asked what he could see at that location. He described large buildings and smokestacks in a cold location near a large body of water. After receiving this essentially accurate report, the officers showed McMoneagle the satellite photos of the building in which they were especially interested, and asked him to see what was going on inside. McMoneagle reported that a submarine was being constructed inside the building.