1. Citizen Scientist
Exploring the
Science of
Remote Viewing
How a mental technique used
to gather intelligence during
the Cold War era may prove
instrumental in expanding
our notions of time and
human consciousness.
By Patricia S. Cyrus
2. Project Star Gate
How does one reconcile mainstream scientists investigating paranormal phenomenon with a
top secret intelligence program run by the U.S. Government’s Department of Defense?
During the Cold War era, the DOD’s intelligence agencies learned that certain aspects of
psychic functioning were demonstrable and verifiable. This led to the creation of a top secret
program, most commonly known as Project Star Gate, which lasted for 23 years (1972-1995).
During this period over $20 million dollars were spent to research and exploit the mental skill
called “remote viewing.” Specially trained military men and women used their minds to
transcend time and space to acquire information about people, places or objects that were
shielded from their normal sensory perceptual channels. We weren’t the only ones interested
in this technique; the former USSR and China also expended comparable amounts of funds
during the same period to study psi functioning, finding similar results.
Project Star Gate, run by the CIA, DIA and U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
(USA INSCOM), was terminated after two decades and declassified in June, 1995. This was
followed with a dramatic exposé in November, 1995 on ABC News Nightline, a popular
investigative program with Ted Koppel, interviewing Robert Gates, the former head of the
CIA, as well as several other prominent individuals involved with the program. Additional
details followed starting in the year 2000 when the U.S. Government declassified
approximately 90,000 pages of material. Still, much about the Star Gate project remains
classified. The complete history of this important era in psychic research may never be
known by the general public.
Since the program ended in 1995, many of the scientists, viewers and analysts involved have
come forward to share details about their experiences. In 1999, select scientists and
practitioners formed a non-profit organization called The International Remote Viewers
Association (IRVA). According to IRVA, “The concluded objective was to create an
organization that would provide a mechanism for evaluating the discipline called "remote
viewing,” encourage scientifically sound research, propose ethical standards and provide
overview educational information to the public.”
For more information on IRVA:
http://www.irva.org/index.html
3. My Involvement in Remote Viewing Research
I remember the 1995 Nightline program well, however, I never could have imagined that two
years later I would select this topic in a science theory course at the University of Pittsburgh,
challenged by my professor to refute or support the research methods employed in the Star
Gate program. After studying all of the available documents, I concluded that the
experiments were legitimate. In fact, their research protocols, developed and refined over
many years with continuous scientific critical oversight, met or exceeded the standards
accepted by scientists for investigating mainstream phenomenon.
Fast forward 20 years to 2015 – have we learned anything since the Star Gate project was
declassified? Are we any closer to discovering how precognition and telepathy work? Have
we replicated the experimental results reported during the Star Gate era? The answer is
“yes,” we are making progress.
Empirical evidence accumulated over the past 50 years has demonstrated that precognition is
genuine, but the mechanism of information transfer still eludes us. Unfortunately, this
research is still considered taboo by the very fields necessary to move the subject forward.
This translates into a lack of institutional support and funding required to tackle anomalous
cognition. Fortunately, there are a handful of dedicated scientists around the world that
recognize the significance of this phenomenon.
Nobel Laureate physicist, Niels Bohr, once said, “Every great and deep difficulty bears in
itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” Eventually the
mechanism of information transfer underlying precognition and telepathy will be discovered,
and our notions of time and human consciousness will undergo much-needed paradigm shifts.
This will lead to new models in physics, neuroscience, biology and information theory.
I was given an opportunity to participate in a remote viewing field study that took place
between 2000 and 2012 with one of the lead scientists and a former Star Gate project director,
Dale E. Graff. A few of our actual RV sessions appear in the following pages, part of a larger
study of over 250 experiments completed over a 10-year period. Some of the sessions were
accomplished in both the conscious state and dream states of awareness. All of the
experiments in this study were conducted with Dale Graff (tasker) and Patricia Cyrus
(viewer), separated by approximately 1,000 miles.
Also included is an example of a special form of remote viewing called Associative Remote
Viewing (ARV). The task in this instance was to describe the photograph associated with the
winning team that would be revealed to the viewer in the future during the feedback phase.
This session was completed with Paul Elder (tasker) and Patricia Cyrus (viewer), separated
by over 3,300 miles.
4. Target: Describe the image in the sealed envelope
Type of Experiment: Remote Viewing
Target Type: Color photograph of Lincoln Memorial
Single Blind: target known to tasker, not to viewer
Viewer RV Mode: Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
Tasker Name and Location: Dale Graff, Prince Frederick, Maryland USA
Viewer Name and Location: Patricia Cyrus, Orlando, Florida USA
Physical distance between Tasker
and Viewer:
927 miles
Date/Time Target assigned by
Tasker to Viewer:
Friday, May 13, 2003
Tasking: 10:59 PM ET
Date/Time of Remote Viewing
session by Viewer:
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Start: 9:00 PM ET
End: 9:10 PM ET
Date/Time of Feedback: Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Feedback: 8:19 PM ET
Time elapsed between Viewing
and Feedback:
96 hours, 6 minutes (3 days, 23 hours)
Notes: The viewer also made contact with the target in the dream
state, but the results are too involved to describe here.
Contact author for the dream state session results. Viewer
also perceived water at the site. Although this is accurate,
water does not appear in the target photograph. Further, the
viewer had not visited the site at the time of the experiment.
She visited the Lincoln Memorial for the first time on May
4, 2012.
6. Target: Describe the main image and related article that will appear (in the future) on page
B1 of the Reading Eagle newspaper on Monday, November 27, 2006
Type of Experiment: Remote Viewing
Target Type: Newspaper article, image and text (it will appear when the
newspaper is published on Monday, November 27, 2006)
Double Blind: target not known to tasker or viewer
Viewer RV Mode: Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
Tasker Name and Location: Dale Graff, Hamburg, Pennsylvania USA
Viewer Name and Location: Patricia Cyrus, Orlando, Florida USA
Physical distance between Tasker
and Viewer:
1,029 miles
Date/Time Target assigned by
Tasker to Viewer:
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tasking: 10:47 AM ET
Date/Time of Remote Viewing
session by Viewer:
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Start: 5:00 AM ET
End: 5:26 AM ET
Date/Time of Feedback: Monday, November 27, 2006
Feedback: 11:42 AM ET
Time elapsed between Viewing
and Feedback:
30 hours, 26 minutes (1 day, 6 hours, 26 minutes)
Notes: The viewer made best contact in the dream state. She also
made contact with the target in the conscious state, most
notable she described the site as having a “Bavarian
feeling.” The town where the photograph was taken is
located in Kutztown, PA, a community founded in the late
1700’s by immigrants from Bavaria, Germany. According
to 2015 census data, Kutztown‘s population demographics
are predominantly of German heritage.
8. Target: Describe the image in the sealed envelope
Type of Experiment: Remote Viewing
Target Type: Artist’s color rendering of superconductor process
Single Blind: target known to tasker, not to viewer
Viewer RV Mode: Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
Tasker Name and Location: Dale Graff, Hamburg, Pennsylvania USA
Viewer Name and Location: Patricia Cyrus, Orlando, Florida USA
Physical distance between Tasker
and Viewer:
1,029 miles
Date/Time Target assigned by
Tasker to Viewer:
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tasking: 11:45 AM ET
Date/Time of Remote Viewing
session by Viewer:
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Start: 5:00 PM ET
End: 5:21 PM ET
Date/Time of Feedback: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Feedback: 9:56 AM
Time elapsed between Viewing
and Feedback:
24 hours, 16 hours, 35 minutes (1 day, 16 hours, 35 minutes)
Notes: Email summary transmitted with RV session from viewer to
tasker: “My perceptions were of my attention being pulled
up towards the night sky. It seemed as though an object
were detectible far above me in the distance. It seemed
natural and rock-like, perhaps a meteor or comet (or my idea
of what a meteor or comet would be like). A glowing,
streaming light could be seen trailing behind the object with
fuzzy light emitting from the front or head of the object. Not
many other sensations related to this target other than that of
observing an unusual celestial event in the night sky with a
sense of wonder.”
10. Target: Describe the image associated with the winning team of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup
Playoff that you will be shown at the conclusion of Game 7
Type of Experiment: Associative Remote Viewing (ARV)
Single Blind: target known to tasker, but tasker did not
know identify of the winning team at the time of tasking
Target Type: Color photograph of two oranges, one sliced open
Single Blind: target known by tasker, not to viewer
Viewer RV Mode: Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
Tasker Name and Location: Paul Elder, Port Alberni, British Columbia CANADA
Viewer Name and Location: Patricia Cyrus, Orlando, Florida USA
Physical distance between Tasker
and Viewer:
3,357 miles
Date/Time Target assigned by
Tasker to Viewer:
Friday, June 10, 2011
Tasking: 2:50 PM ET
Date/Time of Remote Viewing
session by Viewer:
Monday, June 13, 2011
Start: 6:00 AM ET
End: 6:18 AM ET
Date/Time of Feedback: Thursday, June 16, 2011
Feedback: 12:52 AM ET
(Target seen by viewer on June 16 at approx. 9:00 AM ET)
Time elapsed between Viewing
and Feedback:
74 hours, 42 minutes (3 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes)
Notes: Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoff was played in Vancouver,
B.C. on Wednesday evening, June 15. Feedback was
provided to the viewer after the results of the game via
Email. The viewer did not read the Email containing the
feedback results until Thursday, June 16 at approx. 9:00 AM
ET; she did not seek the results of the hockey game on
television or via internet the night of the game.
12. Remote Viewing: Update of an Ancient Spiritual Practice
The ability to psychically acquire information about the future has been reported since the
dawn of human civilization. Commonly referred to as ‘clairvoyance’ or clear seeing, this
ability has not changed over thousands of years. Accessing information about the future
(precognition) has apparently always been available to us in both the conscious and dream
states of awareness.
Historically, precognitive information was transmitted orally and sometimes in written form
to those seeking answers on a topic. In Biblical times, seers known as prophets held
positions of respect as interpreters of prophetic dreams and as advisors to political leaders
concerning potential threats to their kingdoms. In ancient Greece, institutionalized oracles
were held in high esteem by both the leaders and the community. In the rise of Christianity,
saints who had reached a sufficient spiritual level were often described as having powers of
prophecy. And, in the East, monks and yogis with these abilities played a guiding role in
the spiritual lives of their leaders and followers.
During the Star Gate era, the term ‘clairvoyance’ was changed to ‘remote viewing,’ to give
the phenomenon a neutral sounding term that would be free of the prejudices held by some
of the reviewers of the program. There are distinct differences, however, – not in the way
information is accessed by the mind – but in the way the information is reported by the
percipient and evaluated by the analyst/scientist.
Remote viewing is actually a misnomer because all of the physical senses are active during
a typical RV session. Results by the participants include not only visual perceptions but
also dimensional aspects, scents, sounds, textures, energetics and esthetics about a given
target.
Remote viewing was developed by physicists, Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, working
closely with Ingo Swann, a well-known New York artist with documented ESP abilities.
Swann created and codified a technique called Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) to guide
the military viewers to qualitatively and consistently record their psychic impressions.
During the early years of the program, scientists identified talented participants by their
ability to perceive hidden targets. Participants had generally reported previous experiences
of psi functioning in their backgrounds and were self-selected to be tested.
Formal training is not required to perform a successful RV session. What matters most is
the end result. Using the signal-to-noise metaphor, formal training helps the viewer better
identify the “signal” from the “noise” during their session. In other words, training will
sensitize you to, “learn to refrain from filling in gaps in the information with personal
experience or imagination.” (Defense Intelligence Agency – Directorate for Scientific and
Technical Intelligence: Psychoenergetics Research, 7 August 1984).
13. How to Remote View
Remote viewing is surprisingly easy and natural. Research indicates that most humans
experience intuitive perceptions. First, find a partner that will act as your tasker to select a
color photograph with a central focus as your target. Alternatively, an object can be used as
a target if you are in the same location. Photographs are preferred because they can be sent
via email from the tasker to the viewer during the feedback phase, and they are easier to
store with your session records.
National Geographic or Smithsonian magazines are excellent sources of quality
photographs. The target should be placed in an opaque, sealed envelope if it will be in the
same room as the viewer. Preferably, the target will remain with the tasker at their location.
Remember, distance means nothing to a remote viewer. You will generate the same results
whether the target is 10 feet away or ten thousands of miles.
Specify a time to perform your RV session. You and the tasker must agree when you will
do your RV session. It could be on a specific date/time, or you may wish to do it over the
weekend when you are not preoccupied with work and family. One hour is adequate, with
30 minutes to relax and 30 minutes to access and perceive the target. Select a quiet
location where you won’t be disturbed. You’ll need a pad of plain, white paper and a pen to
record your impressions. Begin by writing your name, date and starting time of your
session at the top of page. As you progress with additional pages, number your pages to
keep them in order.
Sit comfortably, quiet your mind, and then direct your attention to the target. Record all of
your impressions, no matter how fleeting, including sketched images, fragmented or fully-
formed, that come to mind. There is no time limit on a session. Work as long as you feel
that you are acquiring information about the target. Don’t force the process.
Remain as objective as possible. Describe, don’t analyze your perceptions. When there is
nothing left to perceive about the target, end your session and indicate your concluding
time. Write a summary, incorporating all of the elements perceived. Once you complete
your summary, it is never permitted to add or change any of your data. This is a non-
negotiable rule in remote viewing protocol.
Finally, ask the tasker to reveal the target to you (this can be done via email if the tasker is
in a different location than the viewer). Compare your sketches and verbal descriptions to
the target. The feedback should be provided as soon as possible to the viewer. The tasker
and viewer are encouraged to dialog about the results as part of the feedback and learning
process.
14. Helpful Tips
q The practice of regular meditation is helpful. Emptying your mind of thoughts and daily
residue in order to allow yourself to focus inward is fundamental to successful remote
viewing.
q Select a tasker that is positive about participating in your session. Research shows
that working with a partner that believes in the possibility of perceiving nonlocal
information is preferable to working with a person who is negative or not interested in
your results.
q The target can be absolutely anything; there are literally billions of possibilities.
Be open and trusting of your perceptions. Write everything down. Do not discount any
impressions you receive.
q Approach remote viewing with no expectations of the outcome. Applying too much
pressure on yourself can extinguish psi functioning just as easily as holding a negative
attitude. Be psychologically neutral and pay attention to all of your perceptions.
q During the feedback phase, spend a good deal of time reviewing your results, including
researching background information about the target. Re-sketch the target after you
receive feedback to viscerally connect to the photograph or object. The theory of
retrocasation, the future influencing the past, hypothesizes that paying close attention to
your feedback may strengthen your precognitive abilities.
q Have fun!
15. About the
Author
Patricia Cyrus began participating in psi research began in 1997 while attending the
University of Pittsburgh. Following a presentation she made on remote viewing in a science
theory course, she contacted Dale Graff, physicist, psi researcher, author and former project
director of the DIA’s Star Gate program. This led to a fruitful 16-year collaboration, with
Dale Graff as tasker and Patricia as viewer/percipient.
Patricia’s involvement in the field also includes a precognitive remote viewing group
experiment on November 3, 2003 with researcher and author, Stephan Schwartz, to predict
the circumstances of the capture or discovery of the former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.
Her sketch of the Adwar farm house and description of Mr. Hussein's disheveled appearance
and other details of his capture significantly matched the events that transpired. The results
of her session, predicted 40 days in advance, were included by Mr. Schwartz in his 2007
book, Opening to the Infinite. This experiment was also investigated by Dutch film maker,
Renée Scheltema, in her 2009 documentary, Something Unknown is Doing We Don’t Know
What, exploring the science behind psi research.
Patricia has been interviewed by the BBC and A&E on precognition and appeared in an
episode of the National Geographic Channel series, Paranatural, in 2013.
Contact:
Patricia Cyrus
cyrus.patricia@yahoo.com
Special thanks to Dale E. Graff and Daniel P. Sheehan for their contributions.
