SPECIAL ORIENTATION TECHNIQUES

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Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP96-00788R001300160001-1
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RIFPUB
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U
Document Page Count: 
13
Document Creation Date: 
November 4, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 5, 2000
Sequence Number: 
1
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Publication Date: 
May 27, 1980
Content Type: 
REPORT
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Ar~v~g Fz~r Release 2000/08/07 : CfA-RDP96; 00788R001300160001-1 REVISED 5/27/80 Final Report Covering the Period from 1 May 1979 to 31 March 1980 SPECIAL ORIENTATION TECHNIQUES (U) SRI Project 8465 U'D r roved For Release 20 0/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001 W00 1-1 333 Ravenswood live 9 Monln Park nAllnrnh DRAF'T"Om I J A I OBJECTIVE (U) Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300160001-1 The objectives of this program are the optimization of ren, viewing (RV) protocols the orientation of selected individuals to reac, enhanced levels of ability, and the establishment of screening procedures to enlarge the population from which individuals are selected , Mmi Approved For Release 2000/08/pr' CIA-FIDP96-00 R001300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788'f2001300160001-1 II INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY (U) A. Basic Program Structure (U) In this report we present results and assessments of a one-year program for the optimization of remote viewing with kselected individuals. The objective of this program was to familiarize these individuals with the SRI remote viewing protocols, to produce enhanced levels of ability, and to establish screening tests and procedures for enlarging the population from which such individuals are selected. (U) For the past seven years SRI International has been investigating a human perceptual/processing ability called remote viewing (RV). This is the subject matter of the current study, and it pertains to the acquisition and description, by mental means, of information blocked from ordinary perception by distance or shielding and generally considered to be secure from such access. At the start .of this program, six individuals were chose J to participate in an RV technology transfer. With the exception of one of the six who had participated in an ESP study several years earlier, these participants when selected were inexperienced with regard to paranormal perception in general, and RV in particular. A variety of different training protocols were examined with the goal of helping the participants familiarize themselves with the SRI RV techniques. Formal assessment and transfer series were carried out with each of the six participants, in which they were asked to use mental imagery processes to describe distant geographic locations (bridges, roads, buildings, etc.), hidden 35-mm slides of similar sites, and objects placed in a controlled- access location. Several other information series were carried out. These are all described in later sections of this report. Approved For Release 2000/08/0Vj CIA-RDP96-00788f3Q.01300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-007888001300160001-1 (U) Four of the six participants each produced results that de- parted significantly from chance expectation in assessment series that were formally judged by very strict criteria. The other two produced results in the assessment series that were also suggestive of paranormal perception. Overall, this result constitutes highly significant per- formance (p = 4 X 10 5, or odds of one in 25,000 of such a result occurring by chance). ~ We are including in this introduction one illustrative example of an RV trial for a real-time San Francisco Bay Area outdoor target. The viewer, No. 372, who contributed this data, produced a mixture of responses, some excellent and some noncorresponding, in his two series at SRI. Sevdral of his descriptions were among the best obtained in the program, and his overall consistency in performance resulted in both of his individual series reaching statistical significance. (U) Current and proposed programs are directed at training partici- pants to bring their RV ability under more conscious control, and to learn to recognize and overcome the factors that limit RV reliability. These limiting factors center around the generation of erroneous data by the viewer from h s memory and imagination. An example of the successful resolution of such noise is the following. (U) The viewer was closeted with an interviewer in the laboratory at SRI to await the target team's arrival at their destination. The target was the Stanford Art Museum on the Stanford campus. The viewer made several tentative outline sketches of different shapes that he said were "associated with the face of a building." Finally, he made a careful perspective drawing of the building he was visualizing. A photograph of the target is shown in Figure 1(a), and the viewer's drawing is shown for comparison in Figure 1(b). The viewer's narrative described the face of the building as follows: "There is a white and black pattern, a white Approved For Release 2000/08 P96-00781 07 : CIA-RD 3 1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 (U) and black striped pattern." ... "It's like an inverted rectangle, with a square fastened to the back, or a rectangle laid down behind it." "Like two buildings in one. One building." "I have the sense that there is dirt by the walls ...." He went on to talk about trees, flowers, and bicycles, all of which can be found directly in front of the target building. B. Task Summary (U) (U) In the following we briefly summarize results of the various perceptual tasks that were undertaken: ? (U) 'Bay Area Target Site Remote Viewing. In the Phase one activities, six RV trials with local San Francisco Bay Area sites as targets were carried out with each of the six viewers. In these six series, four of the viewers each produced results that were independently significant (p < 0.05), making the series as a whole strongly significant (p = 4 X 10-5; odds of one in 25,000). ? Remote Viewing into a( Area. A viewer who was .-i ..cutvt.C viewing L)7 .ia-mm bilcies. These trials were carried out under varying conditions for five viewers in Phase Two. One viewer, who generated significant results in Phase One, was again independently significant in his description of distant slides. A second viewer, also producing significant results in- Phase One, produced drawings in Phase Two that were formally judged to have significant correlations with the slide targets, although his verbal material did not. A third viewer was asked to describe slides before they were chosen, that would be shown to him at a later time. His results were suggestive of success (p = 0.1) but not statistically significant. Similar trials with two other viewers were also encouraging-but- nonsignificant. objects held in aL J location,) successful in the slide viewing trials also carried out a series using extended remote viewing, in which he spent more than an hour on each of six attempts to describe lbw R.~bL__.P Approved For Release 2000/0> /O7 : CIA-RDP96-Qg7-88R001300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07: ~IA-RDP96-00788 001300160001-1 C. Report Organization (U) (U) In Section III we describe the SRI RV protocols, including results from the past, and our expectations for the present program. We also discuss the screening procedures used to select viewers and the judging procedures used to evaluate the results of the investigations carried out in the current program. (U) In Section IV we describe the first phase of the study, in which we systematically carried out RV trials with the participants to obtain baseline data from each under similar experimental conditions. I --jIn Section V we present the exploratory work carried out in Phase Two in an effort to extend the repertoire of RV tools available (U) Our conclusions and recommendations are presented in Section VI. .a 7 r , -, 00160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : (CIA-RDP96-00788RO01 300160001 -1 VI CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (U) In this report we have presented the results and assessments of a one-year program for the optimization of remote viewing with selected individuals. To meet the objectives of the program we have familiarized these individuals with the SRI RV protocol; pursued the development of enhanced levels of RV ability through exposure to several different orientation/training strategies, and established screening tests and-procedures for enlarging the population from which such in- dividuals: are selected. I Our principal observation in working with the six volunteers is that we have found considerable evidence for remote viewing functioning among them. In the basic local-site RV-familiarization task (Phase-One study), four of the six participants produces results that were individually statistically significant (p < 0.05), rendering the 5 series strongly significant as a whole (p = 4 X 10 , or odds of one in 25,000). (An entire summary of program data is shown in Table 5.) A second observation from that study is that in general, there is more variability from trial to trial for a given viewer than there is between the viewers themselves. There are no viewers in the group who have not shown some evidence for remote viewing, even though some of their individual series may not have reached the p < 0.05 level of departure from chance expectation. (U) In fact, each of these four series exceeded this requirement 0b y003 more than an order of magnitude reaching significance at the p level or better. 97 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : Cl -RDP96-00788 300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R901300160001-1 00 0 a ? 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The fact that the overall study was successful lends support to the effectiveness. of this initial screening-by-profile procedure. (2) The details of the results of the program indicate that a half dozen local-site RV trials may constitute a meaningful screening-by-performance procedure to separate the more reliable from the less reliable viewers. In order for screening-by-performance to be successful, it is necessary that the performance of a viewer be relatively consistent. We find that those individuals who were the most successful in the Phase- One trials, were also the most successful in Phase-Two, even though different remote viewing tasks were pursued. Of the four successful viewers in Phase-One, two produced significant results and one near-significant (the fourth was not available for the Phase-Two study). The two viewers from Phase-One that were least successful there (not reaching significance) again did not reach signifi- cance in Phase-Two. Although the sample is too small to be definitive, it appears that the Phase-One local- site RV series itself offers evidence of constituting a useful screening-by-performance procedure. The data indicating that a viewer can describe an individual slide as it is shown on a screen shows that targeting on high-resolution transient targets (charts, maps, etc.) is not out of the question. This, coupled with our findings that a viewer may be able to describe and identify alphabet letters is a most encouraging development, and one deserving of further work. Extension of the RV process to include high-resolution material, especially with a reading ability, would constitute a significant breakthroughs MM Approved For Release 2000/08/k7' CIA-RDP96-A 88R001300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 :(CIA-RDP96-00788R0 1300160001-1 (Certain of the individual responses in the FRV (future remote viewing) series, both with slides and with local sites as targets, appeared to give striking evidence of contact with the target. However, the trial-to-trial reliability was low and no series reached statistical significance. Therefore, although individual results were encouraging, no definitive statement can be made on the basis of this short study. Given its obvious applications potential, should its existence be capable of unambiguous verification, we consider it a high-priority item for further exploration. In the extended remote viewing (ERV) trials a viewer was able in each trial of the series to identify .significant elements of an object In these experiments the remote viewer worked alone over extended periods of time (up to three hours). At a minimum, the good results indicate that the RV process is not so fragile that it must be carried out under rigidly-specified conditions, since in this case an alternative style was in use and the results continued to be reliable. Further work would be required, however, before a definitive comparison of RV and ERV could be made. 1Finally, the encouraging results obtained in the CRV (coordinate remote viewing) trials indicates that comparable accuracy can be expected from experienced viewers and reliability a beacon person at the target, or on the basis of geographical latitude and longitude alone. As a by-product of the CRV study, which involved the use of special procedures being developed in another program for reliability enhancement, the high-quality output provided additional confirmation as to the effectiveness of certain new approaches being taken with regard to monitor/viewer interaction and control of the RV environment. 100 Approved For Release 2000/08/ CIA-RDP96-007881001300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : JCIA-RDP96-00788R001300160001-1 To take advantage of the most recent developments in remote viewing, and to achieve the goal of continuing to develop remote viewing we strongly recommend further development of capabilities in the following areas: ? Applications of Remote Viewing. A training procedure has been developed that appeares to greatly increase both the accuracy and reliability of remote viewing by coordinates. This technique should continue to be examined, and applied to targets ? Effects of-Feedback. An extensive examination should be made of the necessity for providing feedback in remote viewing trials. A systematic variation in the presence or absence of, feedback should, be used to determine the importance of this factor. ? Target Demarcation. Coordinate remote viewing experiments should be carried out in which the target is demarcated by means of various types of coordinates( f This should be done in order to discover a par e by the target coordinate in determining remote viewing accuracy. ? Audio Analysis. In an effort to separate correct from incorrect data available from taped subject descriptions of remote viewing target sites, the use of speech and audio analysis techniques should be investigated as a tool to provide selective editing. This should include semantic analysis, in which analysis of written transcripts'are carried out to look for variations in grammar, style, or vocabulary to help separate correct from incorrect statements in the RV transcript. SRI has under development certain strategies involving FRV feedback, computer averaging of multiple trials,.and so forth, which appear from pilot efforts to hold promise. ? Spatial Resolution. A study should be carried out to determine the extent to which it is possible to aid Approved For Release 2000/08/ ? Tracking. Further effort should be pursued to perfect the RV process whereby, instead of demarcating a location to obtain a target description, one provides a target description and asks for location ~. t Approved For Release 2000/08/07,! CIA-RDP96-00788801300160001-1 A protocol has been developed to address the relative evaluation portion of the overall RV transcript assessment problem. As a demonstra- tion of the technique, we provide in the following Appendix an analysis of a series of four remote viewings that were performed as calibrations In this series the remote viewing products were of relatively high quality, but nonetheless require a sensitive technique to differentiate because of the similarity of the targets and, hence, of the descriptions. (The series was chosen primarily for that reason.) Application of the assessment technique resulted in the correct blind matching (highest scoring in matches versus cross matches) of three of the four. (U) The material in this document thus constitutes an instruction manual or protocol for application of a step-by-step procedure for quan- titative assessment of the relative target/transcript correlations of a series of transcripts matched into a series of targets. Approved For Release 2000/08/07(: CdA-RDP96-0078801300160001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R00 00160001-1 viewers in learning to read hidden and distant printed material that is blocked from ordinary perception. ? Temporal Resolution. An ERV effort should be pursued to determine the accuracy of remote viewing as a function of time for future targets. ? ELF Experiments. Since one of the prevalent hypotheses for paranormal perception requires the use of an ELF electromagnetic carrier, we suggest carrying out definitive experiments to examine this hypothesis (e.g., by using ELF generators as beacons), and to provide analyses correlating data from our past data base with the daily record of geophysical parameters known to affect ELF propagation.- .Theoretical Studies. Modern physics offers several mathematical descriptions of reality that may also prove to be testable descriptions of paranormal perception in general, and remote viewing in particular. We recommend work with leading physicists who have agreed to consult for SRI on these theoretical problems, in an effort to develop a physical understanding of the phenomena we observe in the laboratory and in the field, and to apply this knowledge to improve remote viewing functioning. ? Technical Meetings. SRI proposes to host private quarterly conferences to bring together selected U.S. scientists and government representatives who are concerned with the technical issues in psychoenergetic research. , Successful pursuit of the above priority items could be expected to result in an increased reliability and breadth of utility of the RV 102 r Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : =RDP96-00788R0 1300160001-1