Remote viewing

From Free net encyclopedia

Remote viewing (RV) is a procedure developed by parapsychologists at the Stanford Research Institute to perform clairvoyance under controlled conditions. Somewhat similar to astral projection, the phenomenon involves a belief in the projection of consciousness to remote locations, and is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream scientists.

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Proponents' claims

Remote viewing allegedly allows a viewer to use his or her clairvoyant abilities to "view", i.e. gather information on a target consisting of an object, place, person, etc., which is hidden from physical view of the viewer and typically separated from the viewer in space by some distance, and sometimes separated in time (future or past) as well. Supporters claim that the existing experimental evidence supports the validity of these techniques, and claim that remote viewing is a method of clairvoyance which is better suited to experimental testing.

Proponents argue that remote viewing is distinguished from other forms of clairvoyance in that it follows a specific experimental protocol (or some variant of it). The critical aspect common to these protocols, proponents contend, is that the viewer is blind to the target in the sense of being given no (or negligible) information regarding the target being viewed.

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Skepticism

Some critics of remote viewing claim that it is a pseudoscience, and that the experimental evidence is inadequate. Some critics liken remote viewing to dowsing, and accord remote viewing just as much validity as that procedure.Template:Ref And some say that remote viewing is just clairvoyance under a new name, made to seem more credible.

While proponents call the remote viewing technique "scientific", it has only a minority acceptance among scientists. Skeptics contend that an incorrect description of an object by a remote viewer is often considered a "hit" due to small similarities, and that visual cues and extraneous evidence under poorly designed testing protocols account for the more accurate descriptions. Positive results have only been achieved in tests designed and run by remote viewing proponents.

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Protocol

Under the remote viewing family of protocols, the viewer is blind to the target, i.e. is not explicitly told what the target is; rather it is specified in one of several ways. One common method is that the target is described either in writing or by a photograph or by some set of coordinates (e.g. latitude & longitude), the latter of which may be encrypted.

The description is then placed in a double-set of opaque envelopes which may be shown to the viewer or its location described to the viewer, but which the viewer is not allowed to touch or open during the viewing session. The viewer then writes down whatever information he can gather about the target, typically including drawings and gestalt impressions as well as visual details (and sometimes auditory or kinesthetic details as well). The viewing session is often administered or facilitated by a second person called the monitor.

The output of the viewing session is evaluated by a third person, the analyst or evaluator, who matches or ranks the output against a pool consisting of the actual target with some number of decoy or dummy targets. In research scenarios (experiments) the monitor and analyst are also blind to the target along with the viewer until the evaluation is complete. The viewer is typically given information about the target after the evaluation is complete, especially during training sessions.

In the opinion of most of its proponents, remote viewing is a skill that typically improves with training, and certain variations of the protocol are used during training.

Some variations on the remote viewing protocol include:

  • Outbounder Remote Viewing, in which a person (the outbounder) physically present at the target site acts as a "beacon" to identify the target site. This was one of the earliest protocols used in the SRI program.
  • Coordinate (or Controlled) Remote Viewing (CRV) in which target sites were originally described in terms of geographical coordinates, and later any (non-descriptive) identifying code used to identify a target to the viewer.
  • Technical Remote Viewing (TRV), a term trademarked by a company called PSI TECH, based upon CRV.
  • Associative Remote Viewing (ARV), a variant which adds a level of indirection, specifically proxy targets associated with events in order to answer binary (yes/no) questions. Often applied to predicting future events.
  • Predictive Remote Viewing (PRV), developed by researchers Simon Turnbull and Charles Scarf, originally for use in predicting stock market fluctuations.
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History

The process of remote viewing was first developed by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute at the behest of the CIA in 1972. The program -- initially codenamed Scanate -- apparently came as a response to Soviet research into psychic phenomena, on which the USSR was believed to have spent 60 million rubles in 1970. Initially, the project focused on a small number of individuals who appeared to show potential, most famously New York artist Ingo Swann.

Subsequently, properly controlled tests were done by several other researchers, eliminating several sources of cuing and extraneous evidence that had been present in the tests. These new tests produced negative results. The data of Puthoff and Targ were reexamined by the other researchers, and it was found that their students were able to solve the locations without use of any psychic powers, using only the clues that had inadvertently been included in the Puthoff and Targ transcripts.

The program went through a number of changes over the years, both in structure and in name. Later code names include Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, and in 1991, Star Gate. Over the course of twenty years, the United States spent $20 million on Star Gate and related projects. Over the course of its existence more than forty personnel worked on the project, including more than twenty remote viewers. Though the program was classified throughout its existence, columnist Jack Anderson wrote about it in the mid-1980s. It is worth to note that from 2003 the entire scanate/grillflame/gondola wish/centrelane programs documents have now been mostly declassifed (1% or less still classified) and are available to the general public under the FOIA.

Concerns about the program's effectiveness led the CIA to contract the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to provide an evaluation. Their final report included an endorsement from statistician Jessica Utts, who found the government psychics' 15% success rate statistically significant; and a rebuttal from noted skeptic Ray Hyman, who pointed to flaws in the ways the experiments were conducted and results were tabulated. AIR's final recommendation to the CIA was to terminate the program, which it did in 1995. According to the CIA, ESP has never provided data used to guide intelligence operations.

Since the end of the government's involvement with Project Star Gate, remote viewing has entered the private sector. Companies such as PSI TECH claim to teach remote viewing procedures, and hundreds of books that detail remote viewing history and methods exist by various authors. Though a minority believes strongly in the procedure, to date the existence of remote viewing as a psychic phenomenon has not been proven to the satisfaction of the mainstream scientific community.

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Uses

Because remote viewing is simply a means of clairvoyance, it has been used in a variety different fields and purposes. The principal reason for its development was for the intelligence community, who have used it to gather information in concert with conventional intelligence gathering techniques and on targets where conventional means could not go. Since its publicity has grown, remote viewing has been used in similar intelligence gathering modes, such as assisting local police forces in solving crimes and advising businesses on decisionmaking. It has also been used to investigate more esoteric fields, including validating religious scriptures and searching for extraterrestrial life.

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Trivia

Suspect Zero, starring Ben Kingsley and Carrie-Anne Moss, was a 2004 film about an ex-FBI remote viewer who used remote viewing to stalk and kill serial killers.

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Remote Viewers

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References

  • Courtney Brown, Ph. D., Remote Viewing : The Science and Theory of Nonphysical Perception. Farsight Press, 2005. ISBN 0976676214
  • David Morehouse, Psychic Warrior, St. Martin's, 1996, ISBN 0312964137
  • Jim Schnabel, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997 , ISBN 0440223067
  • Paul H. Smith, Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate -- America's Psychic Espionage Program, Forge, 2005, ISBN 0312875150
  • Ronson, Jon, The Men who Stare at Goats, Picador, 2004, ISBN 0330375474 - written to accompany the TV series The Crazy Rulers of the World)
  • Buchanan, Lyn, The Seventh Sense: The Secrets Of Remote Viewing As Told By A "Psychic Spy" For The U.S. Military, ISBN 0743462688
  • F. Holmes Atwater, Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul: Living with Guidance, Hampton Roads 2001, ISBN 1571742476
  • McMoneagle, Joseph, The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy, Hampton Roads 2002, ISBN 1571742255
  • Tim Rifat, Remote Viewing : What It Is, Who Uses It and How To Do It, Vision 2003. ISBN 1901250962
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External links

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