ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE, FROM DATA BASE SEARCH. 'COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS ASSESSMENT OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00791R000200230037-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: June 25, 1981
• Content Type: NOTES

Approved For Wefease 21708[0if1 dT?t f -RDP96-00791 R000200230037-2
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
June 25, 1981, Thursday, PM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 676 words
HEADLINE: Committee Recommends Assessment of Parapsychology
BYLINE: By BARTON REPPERT, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The esoteric world of parapsychology may now merit a "serious assessment" by
Congress to help decide whether further research is warranted, according to a
study prepared for the House Science and Technology Committee.
Parapsychology, which involves heavily disputed phenomena such as "remote
viewing" and influencing people at a distance through mental powers, is among
more than 150 science and technology issues included in the survey, which was
released Wednesday.
other research horizons sketched out by the study range from global air
pollution and weather modification to nationwide nutrition monitoring, the
technology of robots, predicting earthquakes and advanced measures to help
counter terrorism.
Rep. Don Fuqua, D-Fla., chairman of the panel, said committee staff members
and outside specialists took more than two years to compile the 530-page survey.
The report's section on "the physics of consciousness" said recent
experiments in remote viewing and other aspects of parapsychology "suggest that
there exists an 'interconnectiveness' of the human mind with other minds and
with matter."
Experiments on person-to-person phenomena have offered "encouraging results,"
it said, while studies on affecting physical objects at a distance "have yielded
less compelling and more enigmatic results. The implication of these experiments
is that the human mind may be able to obtain information independent of
geography and time."
The congressional study cautioned that there is no certainty what may emerge
from exploratory research now underway, and thus its potential importance can
only be speculated upon." It added, however, that "a general recognition of the
degree of interconnectiveness of minds could have far-reaching social and
political implications for this nation and the world."
For example, the report said, "in the area of national defense, there are
obvious implications of one's ability to identify distant sites and affect
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The Associated Press, June 25 1981
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sensitive instruments or other humans."
Deeper understanding of such phenomena also could bear upon other areas such
as investigative work, education and "mind-initiated cures" in medicine.
The study observed that U.S. research in parapsychology has received
relatively low financial backing "largely because the credibility and potential
yield of such research is widely questioned, although less today than ever
before."
"Given the potentially powerful and far-reaching implications of knowledge in
this field, and given that the Soviet Union is widely acknowledged to be
supporting such research at a far higher and more official level, Congress may
wish to undertake a serious assessment of the research effort in this country,"
it said.
Weather modification through cloud seeding and other techniques. Federal
funds for research in this area have remained nearly level during recent years
and a cost-benefit study may be advisable to help map out a more long-term,
comprehensive program.
Nutrition. "The United States lacks a uniform and integrated dietary, food,
nutrition and health status data monitoring system. Such a system may be needed
in order to know what nutrition problems currently exist and how these problems
can best be resolved," the report said.
Earthquake prediction by animals. Although this field is considered "highly
speculative," abnormal animal behavior is credited by the Chinese with
predicting the major Haicheng earthquake in 1975. U.S. research funds in this
field are only about $100,000 a year and "Congress may wish to question whether
sufficient priority is being given to animal studies and other alternative
approaches to earthquake prediction."
Counter-terrorism technology. "The possible use of scientific and
technological innovations to cope with the problem of terrorism has not been
fully explored," the report said. Expanded research may be needed on electronic
information systems, crisis management techniques, surveillance methods and
"combative technology."
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