The Stargate Project was
the code name for a U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland,
by the Defense Intelligence Agency and SRI International (a California
contractor) to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and
domestic applications. This primarily involved remote viewing, the purported
ability to psychically "see" events, sites, or information from a
great distance. The project was overseen until 1987 by Lt. Frederick Holmes
"Skip" Atwater, an aide and "psychic headhunter" to Maj.
Gen. Albert Stubblebine, and later president of the Monroe Institute. The unit
was small-scale, comprising about 15 to 20 individuals, and was run out of
"an old, leaky wooden barracks".
The Stargate Project was terminated in 1995 after a CIA report concluded that it was never useful in any intelligence operation. Information provided by the program was vague, included irrelevant and erroneous data, and there was reason to suspect that its project managers had changed the reports so they would fit background cues. The program was featured in the 2004 book and 2009 film entitled The Men Who Stare at Goats, although neither mentions it by name.
Information in theUnited States on psychic research in some
foreign countries was sketchy and poorly detailed, based mostly on rumor or
innuendo from second-hand or tertiary reporting, attributed to both reliable
and unreliable disinformation sources from the Soviet
Union .
The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency decided they should investigate and know as much about it as possible. Various programs were approved yearly and re-funded accordingly. Reviews were made semi-annually at the Senate and House select committee level. Work results were reviewed, and remote viewing was attempted with the results being kept secret from the "viewer". It was thought that if the viewer was shown they were incorrect it would damage the viewer's confidence and skill. This was standard operating procedure throughout the years of military and domestic remote viewing programs. Feedback to the remote viewer of any kind was rare; it was kept classified and secret.
Remote viewing attempts to sense unknown information about places or events. Normally it is performed to detect current events, but during military and domestic intelligence applications viewers claimed to sense things in the future, experiencing precognition.
In 1970,United States intelligence sources believed that
the Soviet Union was spending 60 million rubles
annually on "psychotronic" research. In response to claims that the
Soviet program had produced results, the CIA initiated funding for a new
program SCANATE ("scan by coordinate") in 1970. Remote viewing research began in 1972 at the Stanford
Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park ,
California
In 1977, the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED) started the GONDOLA WISH program to "evaluate potential adversary applications of remote viewing." Army Intelligence then formalized this in mid-1978 as an operational program GRILL FLAME, based in buildings 2560 and 2561 atFort Meade , MD
In 1984 the existence of the program was reported by Jack Anderson, and in that year it was unfavorably received by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. In late 1985 the Army funding was terminated, but the program was redesignated SUN STREAK and funded by the Defense Intelligence Agency Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate (office code DT-S).
In 1991 most of the contracting for the program was transferred from SRI to SAIC, with Edwin May controlling 70% of the contractor funds and 85% of the data. Its security was altered from Special Access Program (SAP) to Limited Dissemination (LIMDIS), and it was given the name STAR GATE.
In 1995, the defense appropriations bill directed that the program be transferred from DIA to CIA oversight. The CIA commissioned a report by American Institutes for Research that found that remote viewing had not been proved to work by a psychic mechanism, and said it had not been used operationally. The CIA subsequently cancelled and declassified the program.
The Stargate Project created a set of protocols designed to make the research of clairvoyance and out-of-body experiences more scientific, and to minimize as much as possible session noise and inaccuracy. The term "remote viewing" emerged as shorthand to describe this more structured approach to clairvoyance. Stargate only received a mission after all other intelligence attempts, methods, or approaches had already been exhausted.
It was reported that there were over 22 active military and domestic remote viewers providing data. When the project closed in 1995 this number had dwindled down to three. One was using tarot cards. People leaving the project were not replaced. According to Joseph McMoneagle, "The Army never had a truly open attitude toward psychic functioning". Hence, the use of the term "giggle factor" and the saying, "I wouldn't want to be found dead next to a psychic."
In 1995, the project was transferred to the CIA and a retrospective evaluation of the results was done. The appointed panel consisted primarily of Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman. The psychologist David Marks noted that as Utts has published papers with Edwin May "she was not independent of the research team. Her appointment to the review panel is puzzling; an evaluation is likely to be less than partial when an evaluator is not independent of the program under investigation." A report by Utts claimed the results were evidence of psychic functioning, however Hyman in his report argued Utts' conclusion that ESP had been proven to exist, especially precognition, was premature and the findings had not been independently replicated. Hyman came to the conclusion:
A later report by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) also came to a negative conclusion. Joe Nickell has written:
Based upon the collected findings, which recommended a higher level of critical research and tighter controls, the CIA terminated the 20 million dollar project, citing a lack of documented evidence that the program had any value to the intelligence community. Time magazine stated in 1995 three full-time psychics were still working on a $500,000-a-year budget out ofFort Meade , Maryland
David Marks in his book The Psychology of the Psychic (2000) discussed the flaws in the Stargate Project in detail. Marks wrote that there were six negative design features of the experiments. The possibility of cues or sensory leakage was not ruled out, no independent replication, some of the experiments were conducted in secret making peer-review impossible. Marks noted that the judge Edwin May was also the principal investigator for the project and this was problematic making huge conflict of interest with collusion, cuing and fraud being possible. Marks concluded the project was nothing more than a "subjective delusion" and after two decades of research it had failed to provide any scientific evidence for remote viewing.
According to the American Institute for Research, which performed a review of the project, no remote viewing report ever provided actionable information for any intelligence operation.
The Stargate Project was claimed to have been terminated in 1995 following an independent review which concluded:
The Stargate Project was terminated in 1995 after a CIA report concluded that it was never useful in any intelligence operation. Information provided by the program was vague, included irrelevant and erroneous data, and there was reason to suspect that its project managers had changed the reports so they would fit background cues. The program was featured in the 2004 book and 2009 film entitled The Men Who Stare at Goats, although neither mentions it by name.
Background
Information in the
The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency decided they should investigate and know as much about it as possible. Various programs were approved yearly and re-funded accordingly. Reviews were made semi-annually at the Senate and House select committee level. Work results were reviewed, and remote viewing was attempted with the results being kept secret from the "viewer". It was thought that if the viewer was shown they were incorrect it would damage the viewer's confidence and skill. This was standard operating procedure throughout the years of military and domestic remote viewing programs. Feedback to the remote viewer of any kind was rare; it was kept classified and secret.
Remote viewing attempts to sense unknown information about places or events. Normally it is performed to detect current events, but during military and domestic intelligence applications viewers claimed to sense things in the future, experiencing precognition.
History
In 1970,
In 1977, the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED) started the GONDOLA WISH program to "evaluate potential adversary applications of remote viewing." Army Intelligence then formalized this in mid-1978 as an operational program GRILL FLAME, based in buildings 2560 and 2561 at
In 1984 the existence of the program was reported by Jack Anderson, and in that year it was unfavorably received by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. In late 1985 the Army funding was terminated, but the program was redesignated SUN STREAK and funded by the Defense Intelligence Agency Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate (office code DT-S).
In 1991 most of the contracting for the program was transferred from SRI to SAIC, with Edwin May controlling 70% of the contractor funds and 85% of the data. Its security was altered from Special Access Program (SAP) to Limited Dissemination (LIMDIS), and it was given the name STAR GATE.
In 1995, the defense appropriations bill directed that the program be transferred from DIA to CIA oversight. The CIA commissioned a report by American Institutes for Research that found that remote viewing had not been proved to work by a psychic mechanism, and said it had not been used operationally. The CIA subsequently cancelled and declassified the program.
The Stargate Project created a set of protocols designed to make the research of clairvoyance and out-of-body experiences more scientific, and to minimize as much as possible session noise and inaccuracy. The term "remote viewing" emerged as shorthand to describe this more structured approach to clairvoyance. Stargate only received a mission after all other intelligence attempts, methods, or approaches had already been exhausted.
It was reported that there were over 22 active military and domestic remote viewers providing data. When the project closed in 1995 this number had dwindled down to three. One was using tarot cards. People leaving the project were not replaced. According to Joseph McMoneagle, "The Army never had a truly open attitude toward psychic functioning". Hence, the use of the term "giggle factor" and the saying, "I wouldn't want to be found dead next to a psychic."
In 1995, the project was transferred to the CIA and a retrospective evaluation of the results was done. The appointed panel consisted primarily of Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman. The psychologist David Marks noted that as Utts has published papers with Edwin May "she was not independent of the research team. Her appointment to the review panel is puzzling; an evaluation is likely to be less than partial when an evaluator is not independent of the program under investigation." A report by Utts claimed the results were evidence of psychic functioning, however Hyman in his report argued Utts' conclusion that ESP had been proven to exist, especially precognition, was premature and the findings had not been independently replicated. Hyman came to the conclusion:
Psychologists, such as myself,
who study subjective validation find nothing striking or surprising in the
reported matching of reports against targets in the Stargate data. The
overwhelming amount of data generated by the viewers is vague, general, and way
off target. The few apparent hits are just what we would expect if nothing
other than reasonable guessing and subjective validation are operating.
A later report by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) also came to a negative conclusion. Joe Nickell has written:
Other evaluators-two
psychologists from AIR assessed the potential intelligence-gathering usefulness
of remote viewing. They concluded that the alleged psychic technique was of
dubious value and lacked the concreteness and reliability necessary for it to
be used as a basis for making decisions or taking action. The final report
found “reason to suspect” that in “some well publicised cases of dramatic hits”
the remote viewers might have had “substantially more background information”
than might otherwise be apparent.
Based upon the collected findings, which recommended a higher level of critical research and tighter controls, the CIA terminated the 20 million dollar project, citing a lack of documented evidence that the program had any value to the intelligence community. Time magazine stated in 1995 three full-time psychics were still working on a $500,000-a-year budget out of
David Marks in his book The Psychology of the Psychic (2000) discussed the flaws in the Stargate Project in detail. Marks wrote that there were six negative design features of the experiments. The possibility of cues or sensory leakage was not ruled out, no independent replication, some of the experiments were conducted in secret making peer-review impossible. Marks noted that the judge Edwin May was also the principal investigator for the project and this was problematic making huge conflict of interest with collusion, cuing and fraud being possible. Marks concluded the project was nothing more than a "subjective delusion" and after two decades of research it had failed to provide any scientific evidence for remote viewing.
According to the American Institute for Research, which performed a review of the project, no remote viewing report ever provided actionable information for any intelligence operation.
Official Statement
The Stargate Project was claimed to have been terminated in 1995 following an independent review which concluded:
The foregoing observations
provide a compelling argument against continuation of the program within the
intelligence community. Even though a statistically significant effect has been
observed in the laboratory, it remains unclear whether the existence of a
paranormal phenomenon, remote viewing, has been demonstrated. The laboratory
studies do not provide evidence regarding the origins or nature of the
phenomenon, assuming it exists, nor do they address an important methodological
issue of inter-judge reliability.
Further, even if it could be demonstrated unequivocally that a paranormal
phenomenon occurs under the conditions present in the laboratory paradigm,
these conditions have limited applicability and utility for intelligence
gathering operations. For example, the nature of the remote viewing targets are
vastly dissimilar, as are the specific tasks required of the remote viewers.
Most importantly, the information provided by remote viewing is vague and
ambiguous, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the technique to yield
information of sufficient quality and accuracy of information for actionable
intelligence. Thus, we conclude that continued use of remote viewing in
intelligence gathering operations is not warranted.
— Executive summary, "An Evaluation of Remote
Viewing: Research and Applications", American Institutes for Research,
Sept. 29, 1995
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