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12
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dale Graff.md
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@ -27,19 +27,19 @@ Graff attended the first meeting of the Defense Department's Grill Flame committ
On *Nightline* in November 1995, identified as the physicist who had directed the DIA's project for five years, Graff said of the Dozier kidnapping, "we had one viewer come up with the name of the city, Padua. We had another one come up with the name of the building he was in," and of the Jordan search, "we like to count it as a success."[^3]
Graff attended the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee meeting of November 27, 1979, listed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, at which the working group moved to demand sight of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]'s report "prior to it being given to any other party or group."[^900]
Graff attended the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee meeting of November 27, 1979, listed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, at which the working group moved to demand sight of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]'s report "prior to it being given to any other party or group."[^4]
Graff attended the meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities in Vorona's conference room on August 24, 1978, as "Mr. Dale Graff, Air Force/FTD," with Vorona, Colonel Jack Capps of the Army staff and Charlie Carter of the Missile Intelligence Agency.[^901]
Graff attended the meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities in Vorona's conference room on August 24, 1978, as "Mr. Dale Graff, Air Force/FTD," with Vorona, Colonel Jack Capps of the Army staff and Charlie Carter of the Missile Intelligence Agency.[^5]
### The Documents
A cable from the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the CIA's Office of Technical Service, "Request for OTS Report," held in two copies, one dated April 13, 1976, stated that "in recent discussion with OTS regarding Stanford Research Institute (SRI) investigations on remote sensing, we were informed of an OTS published study related to this effort. Our office is investigating intelligence estimates regarding possible USSR applications of such a technique," and named "the OPR within FTD for this subject" as "Mr. Dale E. Graff/XRQ"; the undated copy is filed with [[David Brandwein]]'s memorandum of February 20, 1976, terminating OTS support. A request of May 15, 1978, asked that "Mr. Dale Graff of your organization be made available to assist DIA in their presentation by conducting an informal discussion/briefing on your most recent publication," the FTD report "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact." He sat at the meeting of August 24, 1978, and on the DoD Grill Flame committee as "Dale Graff FTD/TQTR," where in May 1979 he "briefed the Committee on the FTD Special Search project," in July "volunteered that he had already produced an ICR," and at the committee's meeting of November 28, 1978, "suggested that a cover story be developed for the program." A meeting at SRI on September 13 and 14, 1978, "to discuss experiments to test tactical applications of the remote viewing phenomenon" listed him with John W. Kramar and Colonel Albert De Prospero of AMSAA, Marion Bryson of CDEC, Major [[William Stoner]], and SRI's Puthoff, Targ, [[Edwin May]], [[Charles Tart]] and [[Ingo Swann]]. A tasking record of December 1984 notes a "follow-up interview conducted (date unknown) by D. Graff at RVer's location."[^900]
A cable from the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the CIA's Office of Technical Service, "Request for OTS Report," held in two copies, one dated April 13, 1976, stated that "in recent discussion with OTS regarding Stanford Research Institute (SRI) investigations on remote sensing, we were informed of an OTS published study related to this effort. Our office is investigating intelligence estimates regarding possible USSR applications of such a technique," and named "the OPR within FTD for this subject" as "Mr. Dale E. Graff/XRQ"; the undated copy is filed with [[David Brandwein]]'s memorandum of February 20, 1976, terminating OTS support. A request of May 15, 1978, asked that "Mr. Dale Graff of your organization be made available to assist DIA in their presentation by conducting an informal discussion/briefing on your most recent publication," the FTD report "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact." He sat at the meeting of August 24, 1978, and on the DoD Grill Flame committee as "Dale Graff FTD/TQTR," where in May 1979 he "briefed the Committee on the FTD Special Search project," in July "volunteered that he had already produced an ICR," and at the committee's meeting of November 28, 1978, "suggested that a cover story be developed for the program." A meeting at SRI on September 13 and 14, 1978, "to discuss experiments to test tactical applications of the remote viewing phenomenon" listed him with John W. Kramar and Colonel Albert De Prospero of AMSAA, Marion Bryson of CDEC, Major [[William Stoner]], and SRI's Puthoff, Targ, [[Edwin May]], [[Charles Tart]] and [[Ingo Swann]]. A tasking record of December 1984 notes a "follow-up interview conducted (date unknown) by D. Graff at RVer's location."[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room.
[^900]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^900]: Foreign Technology Division (XRQ) to CIA/OTS, "Request for OTS Report," cable of April 13, 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020005-5 and R000200020001-9; "Sensory Technology Assessment," November 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500120001-5; DoD Grill Flame Committee minutes of May 3, July 12 and September 25, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130022-3, R002000130020-5, R002000130009-8; "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact," May 15, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160008-6; minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; "QRT Tasking," December 4, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800220001-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Foreign Technology Division (XRQ) to CIA/OTS, "Request for OTS Report," cable of April 13, 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020005-5 and R000200020001-9; "Sensory Technology Assessment," November 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500120001-5; DoD Grill Flame Committee minutes of May 3, July 12 and September 25, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130022-3, R002000130020-5, R002000130009-8; "Paraphysics R&D - Warsaw Pact," May 15, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160008-6; minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; "QRT Tasking," December 4, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800220001-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

41
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Don Curtis.md
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@ -1,18 +1,43 @@
---
category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
aliases:
- Don Curtis
- Don Kurtis
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- Pseudonym
- Stargate
- Physicist
- RemoteViewer
summary: "Don Curtis is the pseudonym Jim Schnabel gave a Lawrence Livermore physicist who, with his wife, saw a hovering one-armed man in a gray suit after the group's Geller tests."
- LawrenceLivermore
- UriGeller
- KitGreen
summary: "Pseudonym (spelled Don Kurtis in the Grey Lodge Occult Review) used by Jim Schnabel for a Livermore physicist who, with his wife, saw a hovering one-armed figure with a hook for a hand."
location: "Livermore, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]]"
start: 1974
role: "physicist; pseudonym of an unnamed person in Schnabel (1997)"
fn: 2
created: 2026-05-22
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Don Curtis is the name [[Jim Schnabel]] gave to a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) in *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (1997); the *Grey Lodge Occult Review* spelled it "Don Kurtis" in stating that "the names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis... are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."[^1]
Don Curtis is the pseudonym [[Jim Schnabel]] gave a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] in *[[Remote Viewers]]* (1997); the *Grey Lodge Occult Review* spelled it Don Kurtis.[^2] In Schnabel's account he was part of the group that investigated [[Uri Geller]]'s psychokinetic abilities. After the group ceased its research activities with Geller, Curtis and his wife experienced one of the last bizarre apparitions: a hovering, holographic, one-armed man in a gray suit with a hook for a hand. This unsettling experience prompted [[Kit Green]] to demand a meeting with [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]] to understand the phenomena.[^1]
### The hooked arm
---
In Schnabel's account, the Livermore group that had tested [[Uri Geller]] stopped its work after [[Mike Russo]] complained of a telephone call from a metallic voice. "One of the last such apparitions sprang itself upon a Livermore physicist named Don Curtis and his wife. They were sitting in their living room one evening, soberly, uneventfully, not talking about Geller or the paranormal, when suddenly there was this... arm... hovering holographically in the middle of the room." The arm was clothed as if in a plain gray suit, with no stump at the shoulder, and ended "where a hand should have been" in a hook; it twisted around for a few seconds and disappeared.[^2]
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Havenstein, Rudy. "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley." Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5: "The names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis which appear below are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."
Curtis related the story to the CIA analyst Schnabel calls Richard Kennett (identified by the *Grey Lodge Occult Review* as [[Kit Green]]), and "for some reason, it seemed to push the CIA officer over the edge." Kennett telephoned [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]] of the [[Stanford Research Institute]] and demanded a meeting on their next trip to Washington. Schnabel writes that Kennett did not quite believe they could have produced the apparitions with SRI lasers as holograms, but expected their experience of Geller to bear on it.[^2]
Puthoff and Targ met Kennett at their hotel close to midnight. As Kennett described the arm ("It was a false arm," he said), Schnabel writes, there was a sharp, heavy pounding at the door; Targ hid behind the curtains and Puthoff stood in the bathroom. Kennett opened the door to a nondescript middle-aged man who walked slowly and stiffly to the middle of the room and said, in "an oddly stilted voice," "Oh! I guess... I must... be... in... the wrong... room," then left, "giving all of them time to see that one sleeve of his gray suit, pinned to his side, was empty."[^2]
### Other accounts
The review of Jonathan Margolis's *The Secret Life of Uri Geller* in *Lobster* states, naming the CIA officer Kit Green as the source, that at Livermore "one man, Don Gregory, was visited by a disembodied arm with a hook instead of a hand," and describes a meeting with two CIA officers interrupted by a middle-aged man with one arm who apologized and wandered out. The reviewer's "Don Gregory" differs from Schnabel's pseudonym.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Rudy Havenstein, "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley," Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5.
[^2]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), as excerpted at the Havenstein URL above. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^3]: *Lobster* 67 (2014), review of Jonathan Margolis, *The Secret Life of Uri Geller: CIA Masterspy?* (Watkins, 2013), https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/lob67-higher-strangeness.pdf. Sole source for the "Don Gregory" rendering.

2
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md
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@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ created: 2026-10-01
updated: 2026-10-01
---
Griffin Boyette Bell (October 31, 1918 to January 5, 2009) was a Georgia lawyer, a partner of the [[Atlanta]] firm [[King & Spalding]], a judge of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] from 1961 to 1976, and [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] of the [[United States]] under President [[Jimmy Carter]] from January 26, 1977 to August 16, 1979.[^1] As Attorney General he testified in support of the bill that became the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]], countersigned the commutation of [[G. Gordon Liddy]]'s sentence, and headed the Department of Justice when former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]] and two [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] executives were charged. After leaving office he conducted an internal investigation for the brokerage [[E.F. Hutton]] and in 1992 was asked by President [[George H.W. Bush]] to assist in seeking release of Bush's [[MOC - Iran-Contra|Iran-Contra]] deposition.
Griffin Boyette Bell (October 31, 1918 to January 5, 2009) was a Georgia lawyer, a partner of the [[Atlanta]] firm [[King & Spalding]], a judge of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] from 1961 to 1976, and [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] of the [[United States]] under President [[Jimmy Carter]] from January 26, 1977 to August 16, 1979.[^1] As Attorney General he testified in support of the bill that became the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]], countersigned the commutation of [[G. Gordon Liddy]]'s sentence, and headed the Department of Justice when former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]] and two [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] executives were charged. After leaving office he conducted an internal investigation for the brokerage [[E.F. Hutton]] and in 1992 was asked by President [[George H.W. Bush]] to assist in seeking release of Bush's [[Iran-Contra Affair|Iran-Contra]] deposition.
### Georgia Practice, the Vandiver Administration and the Fifth Circuit

22
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Fox (filmmaker).md
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@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ relations:
with: "[[The Phenomenon (2020 film)]]"
role: "director and producer; studio listed as CE3 LLC; released October 6, 2020"
start: 2020
fn: 1
fn: 3
- type: director_of
with: "[[The Program (2024 film)]]"
role: "director and producer with Lance Mungia; executive producers Jim Martin and Henry Marx of Lab 9 Films; sales by Verve Ventures"
@ -26,27 +26,27 @@ created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
James Fox is an American documentary filmmaker whose features on unidentified flying objects include "Out of the Blue," broadcast on the [[Sci-Fi Channel]], "I Know What I Saw," broadcast on the [[History (TV channel)|History channel]], and "UFOs: 50 Years of Denial?"; an October 19, 2020 item on [[Open Minds]] by [[Alejandro Rojas]] describes him as executive producer and director of those films and calls "[[The Phenomenon]]" his "fourth UFO documentary."[^4] In a 2024 statement he said "I've been making films on the topic of UFOs (now referred to as UAP) since the early 1990s."[^2]
James Fox is an American documentary filmmaker whose features on unidentified flying objects include "Out of the Blue," broadcast on the [[Sci-Fi Channel]], "I Know What I Saw," broadcast on the [[History (TV channel)|History channel]], and "UFOs: 50 Years of Denial?"; an October 19, 2020 item on [[Open Minds]] by [[Alejandro Rojas]] describes him as executive producer and director of those films and calls "[[The Phenomenon]]" his "fourth UFO documentary."[^1] In a 2024 statement he said "I've been making films on the topic of UFOs (now referred to as UAP) since the early 1990s."[^2]
### The Phenomenon, 2020
[[Apple TV]] lists "The Phenomenon" (2020, 1 hour 40 minutes, narrated by [[Peter Coyote]], studio "CE3 LLC") with Fox as director and producer, [[Dan Farah]], [[Marc Barasch]], [[Hanson Tse]] and [[Tony Cataldo]] as producers, and appearances by [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Kim Arnold]] and [[George Knapp]].[^1] The Open Minds item quotes [[Harry Reid]] as saying "The Phenomenon makes the incredible credible."[^4]
[[Apple TV]] lists "The Phenomenon" (2020, 1 hour 40 minutes, narrated by [[Peter Coyote]], studio "CE3 LLC") with Fox as director and producer, [[Dan Farah]], [[Marc Barasch]], [[Hanson Tse]] and [[Tony Cataldo]] as producers, and appearances by [[Christopher Mellon]], [[Kim Arnold]] and [[George Knapp]].[^3] The Open Minds item quotes [[Harry Reid]] as saying "The Phenomenon makes the incredible credible."[^1]
### Moment of Contact, 2022
Apple TV lists "Moment of Contact" (2022, 1 hour 47 minutes), on the 1996 events at [[Varginha UFO incident|Varginha]], [[Brazil]], with Fox as director and interviews with [[Stanton Friedman]], [[Brazilian Air Force]] general José Carlos Pereira and the Brazilian researcher [[Ademar José Gevaerd]].[^5] A 2025 follow-up, "Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters," is listed in the same catalog.[^5]
Apple TV lists "Moment of Contact" (2022, 1 hour 47 minutes), on the 1996 events at [[Varginha UFO incident|Varginha]], [[Brazil]], with Fox as director and interviews with [[Stanton Friedman]], [[Brazilian Air Force]] general José Carlos Pereira and the Brazilian researcher [[Ademar José Gevaerd]].[^4] A 2025 follow-up, "Moment of Contact: New Revelations of Alien Encounters," is listed in the same catalog.[^4]
### The Program, 2024
[[The Hollywood Reporter]] reported on September 25, 2024 that Fox directed "The Program," "exploring the unprecedented bipartisan congressional effort to uncover what intelligence agencies really know about UFOs, now referred to as UAP," narrated by Coyote, produced by Fox and [[Lance Mungia]], with [[Jim Martin]] and [[Henry Marx]] of [[Lab 9 Films]] as executive producers, and [[Verve Ventures]] "handling sales," with the film "set to screen for buyers."[^2] Interviewees named in that report were Christopher Mellon (described as the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence), [[Garry Nolan]] of [[Stanford University]], [[Jason Sands]] ("a master sergeant in the [[U.S. Air Force|United States Air Force]]"), [[Craig Lindsay]], [[Nick Pope]], Representatives [[Andre Carson]] and [[Tim Burchett]], Senator Harry Reid and [[Kirk McConnell]], formerly of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]].[^2] [[The Oxford Eagle]] reported on December 10, 2024 that "The Program" would be released on December 16, 2024 on Apple TV, [[Amazon Prime Video|Amazon Prime]], [[Hulu]] and [[Vimeo]], with [[Percy Townes]], an [[University of Mississippi|Ole Miss]] alumnus, as associate producer.[^6]
[[The Hollywood Reporter]] reported on September 25, 2024 that Fox directed "The Program," "exploring the unprecedented bipartisan congressional effort to uncover what intelligence agencies really know about UFOs, now referred to as UAP," narrated by Coyote, produced by Fox and [[Lance Mungia]], with [[Jim Martin]] and [[Henry Marx]] of [[Lab 9 Films]] as executive producers, and [[Verve Ventures]] "handling sales," with the film "set to screen for buyers."[^2] Interviewees named in that report were Christopher Mellon (described as the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence), [[Garry Nolan]] of [[Stanford University]], [[Jason Sands]] ("a master sergeant in the [[U.S. Air Force|United States Air Force]]"), [[Craig Lindsay]], [[Nick Pope]], Representatives [[Andre Carson]] and [[Tim Burchett]], Senator Harry Reid and [[Kirk McConnell]], formerly of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]].[^2] [[The Oxford Eagle]] reported on December 10, 2024 that "The Program" would be released on December 16, 2024 on Apple TV, [[Amazon Prime Video|Amazon Prime]], [[Hulu]] and [[Vimeo]], with [[Percy Townes]], an [[University of Mississippi|Ole Miss]] alumnus, as associate producer.[^5]
In a December 18, 2024 interview Fox described attending a congressional hearing weeks earlier at which Rear Admiral [[Tim Gallaudet]] testified, said he had been "told" the plan "is to at least disclose the fact that we have definitive proof that we're not alone by 2030," and, in the interviewer's paraphrase, said his research indicated the Department of Energy oversees many unacknowledged special access programs.[^7] He also recounted a conversation with a general who said "we have overwhelming data" of "structured craft of unknown origin."[^7]
In a December 18, 2024 interview Fox described attending a congressional hearing weeks earlier at which Rear Admiral [[Tim Gallaudet]] testified, said he had been "told" the plan "is to at least disclose the fact that we have definitive proof that we're not alone by 2030," and, in the interviewer's paraphrase, said his research indicated the Department of Energy oversees many unacknowledged special access programs.[^6] He also recounted a conversation with a general who said "we have overwhelming data" of "structured craft of unknown origin."[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Apple TV, "The Phenomenon," credits and studio listing. https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/the-phenomenon/umc.cmc.e8djkr1rhg7vubj9zgnv7b0a
[^1]: Alejandro Rojas, "Rojas Report: Filmmaker James Fox on new documentary The Phenomenon," Open Minds, October 19, 2020. https://openminds.tv/rojas-report-filmmaker-james-fox-on-new-documentary-the-phenomenon/
[^2]: Mia Galuppo, "UFO Doc 'The Program' From James Fox (Exclusive)," The Hollywood Reporter, September 25, 2024. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ufo-doc-the-program-james-fox-1236011733/
[^4]: Alejandro Rojas, "Rojas Report: Filmmaker James Fox on new documentary The Phenomenon," Open Minds, October 19, 2020. https://openminds.tv/rojas-report-filmmaker-james-fox-on-new-documentary-the-phenomenon/
[^5]: Apple TV, "Moment of Contact." https://tv.apple.com/movie/umc.cmc.eq4hi5uneea0v3a7e1sqrq9f
[^6]: Staff report, "Director James Fox, Ole Miss alumnus Percy Townes to release UFO documentary," The Oxford Eagle, December 10, 2024. https://oxfordeagle.com/?p=162243
[^7]: Higgypop, "Interview: James Fox's New Documentary 'The Program' Explores The 'Unprecedented' Push For Disclosure," December 18, 2024. https://www.higgypop.com/news/james-fox-interview/
[^3]: Apple TV, "The Phenomenon," credits and studio listing. https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/the-phenomenon/umc.cmc.e8djkr1rhg7vubj9zgnv7b0a
[^4]: Apple TV, "Moment of Contact." https://tv.apple.com/movie/umc.cmc.eq4hi5uneea0v3a7e1sqrq9f
[^5]: Staff report, "Director James Fox, Ole Miss alumnus Percy Townes to release UFO documentary," The Oxford Eagle, December 10, 2024. https://oxfordeagle.com/?p=162243
[^6]: Higgypop, "Interview: James Fox's New Documentary 'The Program' Explores The 'Unprecedented' Push For Disclosure," December 18, 2024. https://www.higgypop.com/news/james-fox-interview/

59
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Louis Andre.md
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@ -1,18 +1,59 @@
---
aliases:
- Louis Andre
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
summary: "Louis Andre was an analyst with the DIA who worked on the case of William Richard Higgins, a Marine Lieutenant Colonel abducted in Lebanon in 1988."
- DIA
- Analyst
- SunStreak
- Stargate
- Lebanon
- Hostages
alias:
- Louis Andre
- Lou Andre
summary: "Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who told Annie Jacobsen that remote-viewing sessions by Angela Dellafiora were useful in the search for Marine Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, abducted in Lebanon in 1988."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Defense Intelligence Agency]]"
start: 1988
role: "analyst on the William Higgins abduction case; the Sun Streak sessions on the case were reported to the DIA customer at the DIA Analysis Center, Bolling Air Force Base"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[William Richard Higgins]]"
start: 1988-02-17
role: "analyst working the abduction case that Sun Streak project 8808 was tasked against"
fn: 2
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Louis Andre was an analyst with the [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] who worked on the case of [[William Richard Higgins]], a Marine Lieutenant Colonel abducted in [[Lebanon]] in 1988. Andre had never spoken to a reporter before, and noted that many aspects of the operation remained classified due to its sensitive nature[^1].
Louis Andre was an analyst with the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) assigned to the case of [[William Richard Higgins]], the [[United States Marine Corps]] lieutenant colonel who headed a [[United Nations Truce Supervision Organization]] observer group and was abducted near [[Tyre]], [[Lebanon]], on February 17, 1988.[^1][^2] He told [[Annie Jacobsen]] that he had never before spoken to a reporter, and that much of the operation remained classified.[^1]
Andre was initially highly skeptical of [[Remote Viewing]], but he came to accept that the information provided by [[Angela Dellafiora]], one of the DIA's remote viewers, was valuable to the overall mission. Dellafiora identified where she thought Higgins was being held and perceived him to be alive. She also produced phonetically the name of one of the Amal Militia commanders involved in the Higgins case, providing accurate details about his role and family members[^1].
### The Higgins case
Andre found Dellafiora's ability to access such sensitive information astonishing. He observed that her talents continued to be applied throughout the 113 sessions dedicated to the search for Higgins[^1].
On February 24, 1988, the DIA's Directorate for Scientific and Technical Intelligence (office symbol DT-S) sent its deputy director an interim "SUN STREAK Operational Report - 8808" covering results obtained by three remote viewers between February 22 and 24, 1988, on the question of who was involved in the abduction. The memorandum states that information on the target's identity was shielded from the viewers and that the data were maintained by the customer at the DIA Analysis Center at [[Bolling Air Force Base]].[^2] [[Sun Streak]] was the designation of the DIA remote-viewing unit at [[Fort Meade]] in this period, and project number 8808 was the Higgins tasking.[^2][^3]
In that memorandum, Viewer 079 described a 47-to-50-year-old Lebanese Christian who until about early December 1987 had served with [[Amal]] forces as a "District Manager" with the rank of major, knew of the abduction, and had no direct role in planning or carrying it out. The viewer described him as short, dark, olive-complected and bearded, married with three children whose family was not with him in [[Beirut]], and recorded attempts to obtain his name as phonetics in an enclosure.[^2] The project 8808 session reports for Viewer 079 are headed "WRV" (written remote viewing), the method of [[Angela Dellafiora]].[^3][^4] Andre told Jacobsen that Dellafiora gave a phonetic rendering of the name of an Amal commander involved in the Higgins case, together with accurate details of his role and family, and that she identified where she believed Higgins was held and perceived him to be alive.[^1]
Andre described himself as initially highly skeptical of [[Remote Viewing]]. He told Jacobsen that he came to regard Dellafiora's information as valuable to the overall mission, called her access to such sensitive information astonishing, and said her sessions continued through 113 sessions dedicated to the search for Higgins.[^1]
### The Sun Streak session record
The mirror of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] STARGATE collection holds several hundred project 8808 items. The first Viewer 079 session in the series is dated February 18, 1988, the day after the abduction.[^3] The session sheets carry a standard header ("PROJECT SUN STREAK," "PROJECT NUMBER: 8808," "CLASSIFIED BY: DIA (DT)," "DECLASSIFY: OADR") and a mission line. A February 28, 1988 session by Viewer 011, conducted at the DIA on Bolling Air Force Base, took as its mission to determine the present location of Higgins and to describe his state and experiences; the session comments record that the viewer worked in unfamiliar surroundings, felt pressure because of the importance of the target, and was disturbed by aircraft noise from [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]].[^5]
A July 1988 Viewer 079 session (reported July 7, 1988) was tasked to "determine the projected date and describe the circumstances related to the release" of Higgins, the eight other American hostages, the West German [[Rudolf Cordes]] and [[Terry Waite]], taking into account the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the [[USS Vincennes]] on July 4, 1988, the trial of [[Mohammed Ali Hamadei]] in West Germany, and Lebanese broadcasts threatening retaliatory killings of [[Edward Tracy]], [[Joseph Cicippio]] and [[Terry Anderson]]. The viewer's summary placed Higgins near [[Anan]] and two reservoirs north of "Hill 1006," described the captors as "tired and drained" and "somewhat disgruntled with instructions being received from Iran," and proposed that Israeli voice-intercept direction finding could locate him in transit.[^6]
The series continued into 1989. A Viewer 079 session of August 3, 1989 (project number 8925, session 64) carried the mission to determine whether Higgins was dead or alive; its summary placed him at two locations, stated that it could not be determined whether he was alive, located Cicippio, Waite, [[Alan Steen]] and Tracy near Qaytulah, and described [[Abdul Karim Obeid]] as a "planner" in the kidnapping of Higgins.[^7]
The session sheets identify the customer only as the DIA Analysis Center.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited (Andre's statements, his initial skepticism, the 113 sessions).
[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C., memorandum DT-S for Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, "SUN STREAK Operational Report - 8808 (U)," February 24, 1988, CIA-RDP96-00789R003400980001-7. https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00789R003400980001-7/CIA-RDP96-00789R003400980001-7_djvu.txt
[^3]: "8808 WRV Session 1 - 18 Feb 88, Source 079, Summary, Notes & Drawings," CIA-RDP96-00789R003400750002-1; "8808 WRV Session 18 Report - 7 Jul 88, Source 079, Summary & Maps," CIA-RDP96-00789R003400640002-3. Titles as catalogued in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Dellafiora's use of written remote viewing: see the [[Angela Dellafiora]] page, citing the same collection.
[^5]: "PROJECT SUN STREAK," project 8808, date of session February 28, 1988, Viewer 011, CIA-RDP96-00789R003401110001-1. https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00789R003401110001-1/CIA-RDP96-00789R003401110001-1_djvu.txt
[^6]: "PROJECT SUN STREAK," project 8808, session of July 1988, report of July 7, 1988, with summary of information, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100100005-3 and CIA-RDP96-00789R002100100006-2. https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00789R002100100005-3/CIA-RDP96-00789R002100100005-3_djvu.txt
[^7]: "8808-B Solo Session 64 Report, 3 Aug 89, Source 079, Summary & Notes," CIA-RDP96-00789R000400960001-2. https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00789R000400960001-2/CIA-RDP96-00789R000400960001-2_djvu.txt

4
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Lyn Buchanan.md
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@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ After retiring from the Army, Buchanan founded Problems - Solutions - Innovation
In 2003, Buchanan published *The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a "Psychic Spy" for the U.S. Military* (Hampton Roads Publishing), an account of his Army remote viewing experience and his understanding of the CRV process. The book drew on his experience as both viewer and unit data manager and provided one of the more technically detailed accounts of operational military remote viewing from the Fort Meade period.[^1]
[[Edwin May]] wrote from the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory on September 21, 1995, that he had obtained a tape of "an hour program that aired a few weeks ago in England," Channel 4's version of [[Jim Schnabel]]'s Independent article, which "features [[Mel Riley]] and [[Ed Dames]] but includes interviews with MG (ret) [[Edmund Thompson|Ed Thompson]] (former ARMY ACSI), Adm. [[Stansfield Turner|Turner]], Dr. [[Hal Puthoff|Puthoff]], Lyn Buchanan, and [[John B. Alexander|John Alexander]]"; "in my opinion, the show is sensational and makes no attempt to separate fact from fiction. By implication it attempts (and perhaps accomplishes) to raise the credibility of Dames, Riley, and Alexander by association with generals, admirals and the Intelligence community."[^900]
[[Edwin May]] wrote from the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory on September 21, 1995, that he had obtained a tape of "an hour program that aired a few weeks ago in England," Channel 4's version of [[Jim Schnabel]]'s Independent article, which "features [[Mel Riley]] and [[Ed Dames]] but includes interviews with MG (ret) [[Edmund Thompson|Ed Thompson]] (former ARMY ACSI), Adm. [[Stansfield Turner|Turner]], Dr. [[Hal Puthoff|Puthoff]], Lyn Buchanan, and [[John B. Alexander|John Alexander]]"; "in my opinion, the show is sensational and makes no attempt to separate fact from fiction. By implication it attempts (and perhaps accomplishes) to raise the credibility of Dames, Riley, and Alexander by association with generals, admirals and the Intelligence community."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies.* Dell, 1997.
[^900]: May, Edwin, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, "Re: Publicity and things," September 21, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030077-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: May, Edwin, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, "Re: Publicity and things," September 21, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030077-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

4
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manfred Gale.md
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@ -18,10 +18,10 @@ Manfred Gale, of the Army staff at the Pentagon (office symbol DAMA-ZD, under th
The Defense Department's Grill Flame committee under [[Jack Vorona]] of [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] heard on November 27, 1979, that the report "had not been completed," one member "questioned the substantive expertise of the Gale Committee," and the group asked to see it "prior to it being given to any other party or group." Gale briefed it on January 10, 1980: "Mr. Gale's briefing was not received favorably by the Grill Flame group. There were many substantive reservations based upon errors in both facts and analysis. The report was, in the view of the group, misleading and inadequate." Major [[William Stoner]], the committee's own coordinator, wrote after Gale's briefing of January 14 that Gale "has, in briefing the report here and elsewhere, done a great deal of verbalizing (shading) issues, personal opinion, 'faction,' and general guesswork not contained anywhere in the report. Some of it is just plain misleading"; that his claim of having "rejected two people who had pronounced tendencies to be nonobjective" was false as to [[Ray Hyman]], "rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG [[Edmund Thompson|Thompson]] to Dr LaBerge"; that "the Gale report is big, but weak"; and that Gale, "selling the report around the Pentagon," "should be thanked by the DoD Steering Committee and allowed or told to quietly go his way." On January 25, 1980, Gale asked Stoner to distribute 27 copies of the report, with LaBerge's "official copy by Monday, 28 Jan."[^2]
Gale's Army title was "Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA." On August 8, 1979, the Under Secretary's military assistant wrote that "the Under Secretary would like you to brief" [[Ruth Davis]] and a Mr. Nealsen "with the same informal briefing that you gave him," that Nealsen "will also ask that you brief Admiral Murphy in the same way," and that "Dr. LaBerge discussed your proposed change in test design with USAMSAA. They are taking action to implement the proposal at this time." A month earlier his office had been told that [[Harry Snyder]] "has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman." Lieutenant Colonel [[Murray Watt]]'s message of November 1979 from Fort Meade recorded that "Mr Manfred Gale (Team Chief) assured LTC Watt that INSCOM would be provided with a copy of the team's report when it was finalized," and that his office was "anxious to see their recommendations concerning our program in particular and the DoD program as a whole."[^903]
Gale's Army title was "Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA." On August 8, 1979, the Under Secretary's military assistant wrote that "the Under Secretary would like you to brief" [[Ruth Davis]] and a Mr. Nealsen "with the same informal briefing that you gave him," that Nealsen "will also ask that you brief Admiral Murphy in the same way," and that "Dr. LaBerge discussed your proposed change in test design with USAMSAA. They are taking action to implement the proposal at this time." A month earlier his office had been told that [[Harry Snyder]] "has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman." Lieutenant Colonel [[Murray Watt]]'s message of November 1979 from Fort Meade recorded that "Mr Manfred Gale (Team Chief) assured LTC Watt that INSCOM would be provided with a copy of the team's report when it was finalized," and that his office was "anxious to see their recommendations concerning our program in particular and the DoD program as a whole."[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Gale, M., "Distribution of GRILL FLAME Reports," memorandum for Major Stoner, ACSI, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition, January 25, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230023-0; three CIA Reading Room items of February 13, 1980, are titled "Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC) Grill Flame Report, Dated November 1979" (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250025-7, R001100080007-6, R001200230026-7). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^903]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

14
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Marcus Foster.md
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@ -12,25 +12,25 @@ location: Oakland, California
created: 2026-06-03
updated: 2026-06-03
---
Marcus Albert Foster was born March 31, 1923, in [[Athens]], [[Georgia]], and moved to [[Philadelphia]] at age three as part of the Great Migration. He earned a doctorate in education from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and built a distinguished career in the Philadelphia public school system from 1957 to 1970, rising from teacher to principal to Associate Superintendent for Community Relations.[^3]
Marcus Albert Foster was born March 31, 1923, in [[Athens]], [[Georgia]], and moved to [[Philadelphia]] at age three as part of the Great Migration. He earned a doctorate in education from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and built a distinguished career in the Philadelphia public school system from 1957 to 1970, rising from teacher to principal to Associate Superintendent for Community Relations.[^1]
### Oakland Superintendency
In 1970, Foster was appointed the first African-American superintendent of [[Oakland]], [[California]]'s public school system, a district serving predominantly minority students in communities facing poverty and underinvestment. He was known for raising academic expectations, negotiating with diverse political factions, and working to improve educational outcomes in underserved schools. He developed a proposed student identification card system designed to reduce vagrancy and keep non-student drug dealers off campus, though the program was already being modified in response to community concerns.[^3]
In 1970, Foster was appointed the first African-American superintendent of [[Oakland]], [[California]]'s public school system, a district serving predominantly minority students in communities facing poverty and underinvestment. He was known for raising academic expectations, negotiating with diverse political factions, and working to improve educational outcomes in underserved schools. He developed a proposed student identification card system designed to reduce vagrancy and keep non-student drug dealers off campus, though the program was already being modified in response to community concerns.[^1]
### Assassination
On November 6, 1973, Foster was shot eight times with hollow-point bullets packed with cyanide as he left a school board meeting. His deputy superintendent, [[Robert Blackburn]], was critically wounded but survived. The [[Symbionese Liberation Army]], led by [[Donald DeFreeze]], claimed responsibility. According to later accounts, SLA member [[Patricia Soltysik]] fired the fatal shots while [[DeFreeze]] wounded [[Blackburn]] with a shotgun. The SLA justified the killing by citing Foster's student ID proposal, characterizing it as "fascist."[^1][^3]
On November 6, 1973, Foster was shot eight times with hollow-point bullets packed with cyanide as he left a school board meeting. His deputy superintendent, [[Robert Blackburn]], was critically wounded but survived. The [[Symbionese Liberation Army]], led by [[Donald DeFreeze]], claimed responsibility. According to later accounts, SLA member [[Patricia Soltysik]] fired the fatal shots while [[DeFreeze]] wounded [[Blackburn]] with a shotgun. The SLA justified the killing by citing Foster's student ID proposal, characterizing it as "fascist."[^1][^2]
### The Intelligence Dimension
Two weeks before the assassination, a neo-Nazi group had distributed a flyer predicting Foster's death. Witnesses described "Black men" fleeing the scene, but the arrested suspects were white. Blackface makeup was discovered in their apartments. The SLA at the time of the murder was led by Donald DeFreeze, a career criminal and [[Los Angeles Police Department|LAPD]] informant who had been recruited at [[Vacaville]] prison by [[CIA]] psychological warfare specialist [[Colston Westbrook]], an employee of CIA proprietary [[Pacific Architects and Engineers]]. The assassination of a prominent Black educator by a manufactured radical group led by an informant and mentored by a CIA operative raised questions about whether the killing served broader counterintelligence objectives.[^1]
Two weeks before the assassination, a neo-Nazi group had distributed a flyer predicting Foster's death. Witnesses described "Black men" fleeing the scene, but the arrested suspects were white. Blackface makeup was discovered in their apartments. The SLA at the time of the murder was led by Donald DeFreeze, a career criminal and [[Los Angeles Police Department|LAPD]] informant who had been recruited at [[Vacaville]] prison by [[CIA]] psychological warfare specialist [[Colston Westbrook]], an employee of CIA proprietary [[Pacific Architects and Engineers]]. The assassination of a prominent Black educator by a manufactured radical group led by an informant and mentored by a CIA operative raised questions about whether the killing served broader counterintelligence objectives.[^2]
### Memorials and Convictions
The Oakland Education Institute was renamed the [[Marcus A. Foster Education Institute]] in his honor. Fellowships and scholarships were established at the University of Pennsylvania and [[UC Berkeley]]. [[Joe Remiro]] was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 47 years before receiving parole. [[Russ Little]] was released after serving five years.[^3]
The Oakland Education Institute was renamed the [[Marcus A. Foster Education Institute]] in his honor. Fellowships and scholarships were established at the University of Pennsylvania and [[UC Berkeley]]. [[Joe Remiro]] was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 47 years before receiving parole. [[Russ Little]] was released after serving five years.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998.
[^3]: "50 Years After He Was Assassinated, Why Marcus Foster Is More Relevant Than Ever," *EdSource*, November 2023. https://edsource.org/2023/50-years-after-he-was-assassinated-why-marcus-foster-is-more-relevant-than-ever/688423; "Marcus A. Foster (1923-1973)," BlackPast.org. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/marcus-foster-1923-1973/; "The Assassination of Oakland Schools Chief Marcus Foster by Members of the SLA," Local News Matters, November 27, 2018. https://localnewsmatters.org/2018/11/27/the-assassination-of-oakland-schools-chief-marcus-foster-by-members-of-the-sla/
[^1]: "50 Years After He Was Assassinated, Why Marcus Foster Is More Relevant Than Ever," *EdSource*, November 2023. https://edsource.org/2023/50-years-after-he-was-assassinated-why-marcus-foster-is-more-relevant-than-ever/688423; "Marcus A. Foster (1923-1973)," BlackPast.org. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/marcus-foster-1923-1973/; "The Assassination of Oakland Schools Chief Marcus Foster by Members of the SLA," Local News Matters, November 27, 2018. https://localnewsmatters.org/2018/11/27/the-assassination-of-oakland-schools-chief-marcus-foster-by-members-of-the-sla/
[^2]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998.

52
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Peter Crane.md
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@ -1,19 +1,53 @@
---
category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
aliases:
- Peter Crane
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- Pseudonym
- RemoteViewer
summary: "Peter Crane is the pseudonym Jim Schnabel gave a Lawrence Livermore physicist who ran off-hours tests of Uri Geller in late 1974 and called the CIA's Kit Green about the apparitions that followed."
- Physicist
- LawrenceLivermore
- UriGeller
- KitGreen
- Psychokinesis
summary: "Pseudonym used by Jim Schnabel in Remote Viewers (1997) for the Livermore physicist who led unofficial Geller tests in late 1974 and telephoned the CIA analyst called Richard Kennett."
location: "Livermore, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]]"
start: 1974
role: "physicist; pseudonym of an unnamed person in Schnabel (1997)"
fn: 3
- type: investigated
with: "[[Uri Geller]]"
start: 1974
role: "organized after-hours metal-bending and laser tests with colleagues, per Schnabel"
fn: 3
created: 2026-05-22
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Peter Crane is the pseudonym [[Jim Schnabel]] gave a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) in *[[Remote Viewers]]* (1997).[^2] In Schnabel's account, in late 1974, concerned about the potential security threat posed by psychic abilities, Crane, along with security officer [[Ron Robertson]] and others, began conducting their own experiments with [[Uri Geller]] outside of work hours.[^1]
Peter Crane is the name [[Jim Schnabel]] gave to a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) in *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997). The *Grey Lodge Occult Review*, quoted by Rudy Havenstein, stated that "the names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis... are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel," and identified "Kennett" as [[Kit Green]].[^1] [[Uri Geller]] and [[Charles Panati]] name the engineer [[R. S. Hawke]] as Geller's 1974 host at the laboratory.[^2]
Crane and his group tested Geller's psychokinetic abilities, including metal-bending and attempts to deflect laser beams. While their tests concluded that Geller's abilities were not effective over long distances, Crane was one of the Livermore personnel who experienced a series of bizarre, hallucination-inducing phenomena after their involvement with Geller. These included visions of hovering, monochrome flying saucers and strange animals.[^1]
### Schnabel's account
Overwhelmed by these experiences, Crane contacted [[Kit Green]] of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] for help. Green investigated the situation, which included a strange metallic voice on an audiotape that pronounced the code name of a highly classified government project unknown to Crane or his colleagues. The apparitions eventually ceased after the Livermore group stopped their research activities with Geller.[^1]
In Schnabel's narrative, in late 1974 a group at Livermore, concerned that psychokinesis might threaten nuclear weapons, ran its own off-hours experiments with Geller; the group included the security officer [[Ron Robertson]].[^3] Crane's group recorded a Geller metal-bending session on audiotape, videotape and still film, including an infrared camera. According to Schnabel, the developed film showed "two diffuse patches of radiation" on an upper laboratory wall that grew for a few frames and faded, and the audiotape held "a distinctive, metallic-sounding voice, unheard during the actual experiment," speaking "a few apparently random words strung together."[^3]
---
In the following days and weeks, Schnabel writes, "Peter Crane and some of the others in the Livermore group quickly found themselves involved in more strangeness than they could handle." Members of the group, in the laboratory together or at home with their wives and children, saw a hovering, gray monochrome flying saucer about eight inches across, "almost comically stereotypical"; a physicist he calls [[Mike Russo]] and his wife saw a giant raven-like bird at the foot of their bed. After a few weeks, Schnabel writes, "Peter Crane decided to call for help," and telephoned Richard Kennett.[^3]
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Havenstein, Rudy. "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley." Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5: "The names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis which appear below are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."
Schnabel's Kennett had already visited Livermore as a CIA analyst to ask Crane and the others about their Geller results. On a Saturday morning "at the end of an otherwise unrelated trip to the San Francisco Bay Area" he met Crane in a coffee shop in the town of Livermore, and then held long meetings with Russo and the others. Schnabel gives Kennett's reasoning that Crane, Russo and the rest "had no history of involvement in the occult" and held top-secret clearances that had required psychological screening.[^3] The two or three intelligible words on the audiotape, Schnabel writes, were recognized by Kennett as "the code name of a very closely held government project" unconnected to psychic research and unknown to the Livermore group; Kennett reported the incident to CIA security, which "filed it away, and wondered if Dr. Kennett might be getting a little too close to his subject matter."[^3]
Schnabel states that the matter ended after Russo complained of a telephone call from the metallic voice demanding that the group stop its Geller work; the group stopped and "within a month, the bizarre apparitions faded away."[^3] The last apparition, to a physicist he calls [[Don Curtis]], led Kennett to demand a meeting with [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]] in Washington, during which a one-armed man in a gray suit knocked on the hotel room door.[^3]
### Other accounts
[[Annie Jacobsen]]'s *Phenomena* (2017) places the Livermore tests in the winter of 1975, in a wooden World War II barracks, with the AEC officer Ron Robertson, not a physicist, telephoning Kit Green after the second day.[^4] A CIA staff report records a telephone call of October 23, 1974 in which an AEC security officer at Livermore reported two days of testing Geller with forty AEC scientists.[^5] The review of Jonathan Margolis's *The Secret Life of Uri Geller* in *Lobster* summarizes the episode as a "group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory... working on 'the Geller effect'," and gives Kit Green as the source of the story.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Rudy Havenstein, "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley," Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5: "The names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis which appear below are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."
[^2]: Charles Panati, ed., *The Geller Papers* (Houghton Mifflin, 1976), introduction, https://urigeller.com/scientific-paranormal/the-geller-papers/introduction/; Uri Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair, *The Geller Effect* (Jonathan Cape, 1986).
[^3]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (New York: Dell, 1997), chapter on Kennett and Livermore, as excerpted at https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley. Sole source for the passages so cited; Schnabel uses pseudonyms for the Livermore physicists.
[^4]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena* (Little, Brown, 2017).
[^5]: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010023-0, https://archive.org/download/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0/cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0_djvu.txt.
[^6]: *Lobster* 67 (2014), review of Jonathan Margolis, *The Secret Life of Uri Geller: CIA Masterspy?* (Watkins, 2013), https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/lob67-higher-strangeness.pdf.

20
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert M. Collins.md
View file

@ -30,40 +30,40 @@ relations:
with: "[[UFO Cover-Up Live]]"
start: 1988-10-14
role: "shadowed interviewee code-named Condor, as alleged by Collins; identified to Robert Hastings in December 1988 by a member of the production team, per Hastings"
fn: 3
fn: 2
created: 2026-10-03
updated: 2026-10-03
---
Robert M. Collins wrote that he came to the UFO subject in the summer of 1985 as an analyst in theoretical and applied physics at the [[Foreign Technology Division]] (FTD) of [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]], [[Ohio]], now the [[National Air and Space Intelligence Center]], and that in the group around [[William L. Moore]] he was given the bird name Condor.[^1] [[Robert Hastings]] reported on March 1, 1989 that a member of the production team of [[UFO Cover-Up Live]] had identified the second source on the program, Condor, as Collins, then recently a captain in the [[U.S. Air Force]] at [[Kirtland Air Force Base]], and that "both Doty and Collins deny any involvement in the [[Majestic-12|MJ-12]] affair."[^3] The copyright page of *[[Exempt from Disclosure]]: The Black World of UFOs* ([[Peregrine Communications]], 2010) names Collins as author, with [[Richard Doty]] and [[Timothy S. Cooper]] as "contributors and writers."[^1]
Robert M. Collins wrote that he came to the UFO subject in the summer of 1985 as an analyst in theoretical and applied physics at the [[Foreign Technology Division]] (FTD) of [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]], [[Ohio]], now the [[National Air and Space Intelligence Center]], and that in the group around [[William L. Moore]] he was given the bird name Condor.[^1] [[Robert Hastings]] reported on March 1, 1989 that a member of the production team of [[UFO Cover-Up Live]] had identified the second source on the program, Condor, as Collins, then recently a captain in the [[U.S. Air Force]] at [[Kirtland Air Force Base]], and that "both Doty and Collins deny any involvement in the [[Majestic-12|MJ-12]] affair."[^2] The copyright page of *[[Exempt from Disclosure]]: The Black World of UFOs* ([[Peregrine Communications]], 2010) names Collins as author, with [[Richard Doty]] and [[Timothy S. Cooper]] as "contributors and writers."[^1]
### Service, as described by Collins
Collins wrote that his FTD assignment began in the summer of 1985 and that he had "18 years" in the subject by the time of writing, against Doty's "20 + years."[^1] He described himself as an FTD analyst in the areas of theoretical and applied physics, and in the account of his meetings in 1988 as "stationed at Kirtland AFB, [[Air Force Weapons Laboratory|Air Force Weapons Lab]]."[^1] Hastings, who wrote that he knew "very little" about Collins, reported that at his departure from the Air Force, in late 1988, Collins was a captain assigned to a plasma physics group at [[Sandia National Laboratories]] on Kirtland.[^3] [[Mark Pilkington]] called Collins "a former Air Force physicist."[^4] Collins wrote that he once had a "[[Detachment 22|DET 22]]" escort on a mission in [[Germany]] and [[France]]; that detachment, he wrote, accompanies personnel in technical intelligence capacities on risky travel.[^1]
Collins wrote that his FTD assignment began in the summer of 1985 and that he had "18 years" in the subject by the time of writing, against Doty's "20 + years."[^1] He described himself as an FTD analyst in the areas of theoretical and applied physics, and in the account of his meetings in 1988 as "stationed at Kirtland AFB, [[Air Force Weapons Laboratory|Air Force Weapons Lab]]."[^1] Hastings, who wrote that he knew "very little" about Collins, reported that at his departure from the Air Force, in late 1988, Collins was a captain assigned to a plasma physics group at [[Sandia National Laboratories]] on Kirtland.[^2] [[Mark Pilkington]] called Collins "a former Air Force physicist."[^3] Collins wrote that he once had a "[[Detachment 22|DET 22]]" escort on a mission in [[Germany]] and [[France]]; that detachment, he wrote, accompanies personnel in technical intelligence capacities on risky travel.[^1]
### The group around Moore
Collins wrote that FTD led him to ask about stories of bodies stored at Wright-Patterson, and so to retired Lieutenant Colonel [[Ernie Kellerstrauss|Ernie Kellerstrass]], whose last assignment had been FTD and who in 1985 worked for [[Systems Research Laboratories]] in [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]]. According to Collins, Kellerstrass named [[Anthony J. Cacioppo]], then chief FTD scientist, and [[Dale Graff]], reassigned from FTD to the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], as informed, and described a meeting at a ski lodge north of [[Albuquerque]] in 1968 about a wave of sightings.[^1] In the spring of 1986, on a temporary duty trip to consult the technical staff of [[TRW]] in [[Los Angeles]], Collins met Moore in his motel room for about an hour; Moore mentioned a "Mr. X" who had contacted him in 1980.[^1] Collins wrote that from 1986 onward Moore, [[Jaime Shandera]], Kellerstrass, Doty, [[Hal Puthoff]] (from 1987), [[Kit Green]] (from 1989) and he held a series of meetings, referring to MJ-12 as "the Committee," while the introduction to the same book dates the group's coming together to 1985.[^1]
In the fall of 1987, he wrote, Kellerstrass hosted Moore, Shandera, Puthoff, Colonel [[John B. Alexander]], "Scott Jones (assistant for Senator Pell)" ([[C.B. Scott Jones]], aide to [[Claiborne Pell]]) and Collins at dinner at his house in [[Beavercreek, Ohio]].[^1] The bird names, by his account, were Doty "the surrogate 'Falcon' when the real Falcon (DIA's, Dale Graff?) couldn't be found," Kellerstrass "Hawk," Puthoff "Partridge," Jones "Hummingbird," Green "Blue Jay," Alexander "Chickadee," and himself "Condor."[^1] He also wrote of "Heron ([[Jerry Miller]])."[^1] In the references he wrote that "in June/July 2012 the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Falcon was disclosed as none other than" [[Harry Rositzke]], who died on November 4, 2002 in [[Warrenton, Virginia]]; that "very few people were in a position to know who the real Falcon was," the two he knew of being Moore and Doty; that Moore "provided a name to his friend [[Greg Bishop]] in 2005"; that [[Brian Parks]], who had known Moore closely from the early 1980s until he left UFO research around 1994, "gave Brian the very same name as Bishop had"; and, in another reference, that "according to Bill Moore and known by Rick Doty it's Harry August Rositzke, born in [[New York]], 1910." He added a redacted 1961 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memorandum on Rositzke supplied by Parks and Parks's statement of "07-20-012." The name is Collins's report of what Moore said to others; Moore did not publish it.[^1] Moore had said in 1989 that he and Jaime Shandera invented the name Falcon in 1984 and that hints in 1987 that Doty was Falcon were a diversion.[^7] Pilkington asked whether Colonel [[Barry Hennessey]], who ran the AFOSI special projects unit at the [[Pentagon]] during the MJ-12 release and the Bennewitz affair and later directed Air Force counterintelligence and special program security, was Falcon, and wrote that Hennessey and Moore had both denied it.[^4]
In the fall of 1987, he wrote, Kellerstrass hosted Moore, Shandera, Puthoff, Colonel [[John B. Alexander]], "Scott Jones (assistant for Senator Pell)" ([[C.B. Scott Jones]], aide to [[Claiborne Pell]]) and Collins at dinner at his house in [[Beavercreek, Ohio]].[^1] The bird names, by his account, were Doty "the surrogate 'Falcon' when the real Falcon (DIA's, Dale Graff?) couldn't be found," Kellerstrass "Hawk," Puthoff "Partridge," Jones "Hummingbird," Green "Blue Jay," Alexander "Chickadee," and himself "Condor."[^1] He also wrote of "Heron ([[Jerry Miller]])."[^1] In the references he wrote that "in June/July 2012 the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Falcon was disclosed as none other than" [[Harry Rositzke]], who died on November 4, 2002 in [[Warrenton, Virginia]]; that "very few people were in a position to know who the real Falcon was," the two he knew of being Moore and Doty; that Moore "provided a name to his friend [[Greg Bishop]] in 2005"; that [[Brian Parks]], who had known Moore closely from the early 1980s until he left UFO research around 1994, "gave Brian the very same name as Bishop had"; and, in another reference, that "according to Bill Moore and known by Rick Doty it's Harry August Rositzke, born in [[New York]], 1910." He added a redacted 1961 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memorandum on Rositzke supplied by Parks and Parks's statement of "07-20-012." The name is Collins's report of what Moore said to others; Moore did not publish it.[^1] Moore had said in 1989 that he and Jaime Shandera invented the name Falcon in 1984 and that hints in 1987 that Doty was Falcon were a diversion.[^4] Pilkington asked whether Colonel [[Barry Hennessey]], who ran the AFOSI special projects unit at the [[Pentagon]] during the MJ-12 release and the Bennewitz affair and later directed Air Force counterintelligence and special program security, was Falcon, and wrote that Hennessey and Moore had both denied it.[^3]
### Howe and Lear, November 1987
Hastings wrote that [[Linda Moulton Howe]] told him that in November 1987 Collins was "frantically" trying to meet her in Albuquerque; that at the meeting, also attended by [[John Lear]], Collins showed them MJ-12 documents "primarily relating to a live alien allegedly held captive by the U.S. Government"; and that Collins said he had worked "behind the scenes" with Moore for years.[^3] Howe's own book does not name Collins.[^5]
Hastings wrote that [[Linda Moulton Howe]] told him that in November 1987 Collins was "frantically" trying to meet her in Albuquerque; that at the meeting, also attended by [[John Lear]], Collins showed them MJ-12 documents "primarily relating to a live alien allegedly held captive by the U.S. Government"; and that Collins said he had worked "behind the scenes" with Moore for years.[^2] Howe's own book does not name Collins.[^5]
### The program, 1988
Collins wrote that in August 1988 he, Moore, Shandera, Doty and Kellerstrass met at a state park near Dayton under arrangements Kellerstrass drew up, with the executive producer [[Michael Seligman]] present; that Seligman wanted to see picture identification and engaged a congressional investigator, and that the men "all checked out."[^1] In September 1988, in Albuquerque, Moore and Shandera filmed him as Condor.[^1] He wrote that after the broadcast of October 14 two high-level contacts approached Moore and Shandera, and that in April 1989 he attended a "mini-summit" at an Albuquerque motel with Puthoff, Green, Doty, Moore and Shandera on "the aftershocks" and "disclosure strategies" proposed by Green.[^1] Howe quoted Condor on the program as saying that an agreement had been signed with the extraterrestrials under which "we won't disclose your (ET) existence if you do not interfere in our (Earth human) society," and that the base was at [[Area 51]], "Dreamland."[^5] Moore said on July 1, 1989 that he was "convinced that at least some of that information falls under the category of disinformation" and "equally convinced that some of it is true."[^7] [[Barry Greenwood]] wrote in *[[Just Cause]]* in September 1989 that "a fair portion of the last hour [was] wasted in presenting what Moore admits to be false data."[^6]
Collins wrote that in August 1988 he, Moore, Shandera, Doty and Kellerstrass met at a state park near Dayton under arrangements Kellerstrass drew up, with the executive producer [[Michael Seligman]] present; that Seligman wanted to see picture identification and engaged a congressional investigator, and that the men "all checked out."[^1] In September 1988, in Albuquerque, Moore and Shandera filmed him as Condor.[^1] He wrote that after the broadcast of October 14 two high-level contacts approached Moore and Shandera, and that in April 1989 he attended a "mini-summit" at an Albuquerque motel with Puthoff, Green, Doty, Moore and Shandera on "the aftershocks" and "disclosure strategies" proposed by Green.[^1] Howe quoted Condor on the program as saying that an agreement had been signed with the extraterrestrials under which "we won't disclose your (ET) existence if you do not interfere in our (Earth human) society," and that the base was at [[Area 51]], "Dreamland."[^5] Moore said on July 1, 1989 that he was "convinced that at least some of that information falls under the category of disinformation" and "equally convinced that some of it is true."[^4] [[Barry Greenwood]] wrote in *[[Just Cause]]* in September 1989 that "a fair portion of the last hour [was] wasted in presenting what Moore admits to be false data."[^6]
### Later publications
Pilkington wrote that Collins and Doty "would reunite in 2005 as the authors of *Exempt from Disclosure*," cited the book as published by Peregrine Communications in 2006, and described Collins as one of the people who might be reached by telephone during the 2005 [[Serpo]] episode alongside Doty.[^4] Collins signed the book's introduction "Author: http://www.ufoconspiracy.com/."[^1] The archive.org copy carries a copyright notice of 2010 and refers to events of June and July 2012, so the passages on Rositzke come from a later revision than the editions Pilkington cited.[^1] Among the "Bird Code" samples the book prints, dated "87/88," one reads that "the Eagle mated with the Blue Jay," that "the new breed and rarest bird is called the Condor," and that "the Condor must open the apartment."[^1]
Pilkington wrote that Collins and Doty "would reunite in 2005 as the authors of *Exempt from Disclosure*," cited the book as published by Peregrine Communications in 2006, and described Collins as one of the people who might be reached by telephone during the 2005 [[Serpo]] episode alongside Doty.[^3] Collins signed the book's introduction "Author: http://www.ufoconspiracy.com/."[^1] The archive.org copy carries a copyright notice of 2010 and refers to events of June and July 2012, so the passages on Rositzke come from a later revision than the editions Pilkington cited.[^1] Among the "Bird Code" samples the book prints, dated "87/88," one reads that "the Eagle mated with the Blue Jay," that "the new breed and rarest bird is called the Condor," and that "the Condor must open the apartment."[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Robert Collins and Richard Doty, *Exempt from Disclosure: The Black World of UFOs*, introduction, Section 1 (Chapter 1, "FTD Is Not a Florist," with the sections "Go west as they say," "Summits without the Cocktails, the fall of 1987," "And We Became Birds: The Aviary," "August 1988: Cloak & Dagger," "September 1988," "April 1989") and Section 2, Chapter 4 with references; Internet Archive copy, https://archive.org/details/exempt-from-disclosure (copyright notice 2010, Peregrine Communications; text cites material of June and July 2012; ISBN printed as 09766426-2-/ and 978-0976642626). Collins's account is the sole source for the passages so cited.
[^3]: Robert Hastings, "The MJ-12 Affair: Facts, Questions, Comments," March 1, 1989, Wayback Machine capture of October 28, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20161028084620/http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/hastings.htm. The production-team member who named Collins is not identified in the text. Howe's account of November 1987 reaches the page through Hastings only.
[^4]: Mark Pilkington, *Mirage Men* (Constable, 2010), chapters on Doty and on Serpo and chapter notes, https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Mark%20Pilkington%20-%20Mirage%20Men%20-%20A%20Journey%20into%20Disinformation,%20Paranoia%20and%20UFOs.pdf
[^2]: Robert Hastings, "The MJ-12 Affair: Facts, Questions, Comments," March 1, 1989, Wayback Machine capture of October 28, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20161028084620/http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/hastings.htm. The production-team member who named Collins is not identified in the text. Howe's account of November 1987 reaches the page through Hastings only.
[^3]: Mark Pilkington, *Mirage Men* (Constable, 2010), chapters on Doty and on Serpo and chapter notes, https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Mark%20Pilkington%20-%20Mirage%20Men%20-%20A%20Journey%20into%20Disinformation,%20Paranoia%20and%20UFOs.pdf
[^4]: William L. Moore, address to the MUFON International UFO Symposium, Las Vegas, July 1, 1989, from the caption transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfimKiS-po (video of the Ron Regehr recording, Internet Archive item bill-moore-1989-mufon); names corrected from mis-rendered captions.
[^5]: Howe, *An Alien Harvest*, 2nd ed., pp. 195 to 196 (statements of "Falcon" and "Condor" in the broadcast of October 14, 1988); the book's index lists "Condor" at p. 196 and has no entry for Collins.
[^6]: "E B E's," part 17, UFO BBS file UFO1036, http://textfiles.com/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1036.ufo, quoting Barry Greenwood, *Just Cause*, September 1989.
[^7]: William L. Moore, address to the MUFON International UFO Symposium, Las Vegas, July 1, 1989, from the caption transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfimKiS-po (video of the Ron Regehr recording, Internet Archive item bill-moore-1989-mufon); names corrected from mis-rendered captions.

16
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Charles Manson.md
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@ -13,23 +13,23 @@ location: Corcoran, California
created: 2026-06-03
updated: 2026-06-03
---
Charles Milles Manson was born November 12, 1934, in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], and spent his childhood in and out of institutions. By the time he arrived in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Haight-Ashbury]] district in 1967, following his release from the federal penitentiary at [[Terminal Island]], Manson had spent more than half his life in correctional facilities. What happened next, the transformation of a petty criminal into a cult leader who ordered the murders of seven people over two August nights in 1969, has remained one of the most scrutinized criminal cases in American history.[^1][^3]
Charles Milles Manson was born November 12, 1934, in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], and spent his childhood in and out of institutions. By the time he arrived in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Haight-Ashbury]] district in 1967, following his release from the federal penitentiary at [[Terminal Island]], Manson had spent more than half his life in correctional facilities. What happened next, the transformation of a petty criminal into a cult leader who ordered the murders of seven people over two August nights in 1969, has remained one of the most scrutinized criminal cases in American history.[^1][^2]
### The Haight-Ashbury Period
Manson was released from prison on March 21, 1967, the same year the [[CIA]] launched [[Operation CHAOS]], a domestic surveillance program targeting anti-war and counterculture movements under Director of Central Intelligence [[Richard Helms]]. In San Francisco, Manson's parole officer was [[Roger Smith]], based at the [[Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic]] founded by Dr. [[David E. Smith|David Smith]]. The clinic was a nexus for counterculture health services, but it also sat directly adjacent to a facility operated by [[Louis Jolyon West|Dr. Louis Jolyon West]], the [[UCLA]] psychiatrist who headed [[MKULTRA]] Subproject 43 and had been cleared at Top Secret level by the CIA. Manson attended weekly meetings with his parole officer at the clinic, and members of the Manson Family used the clinic for medical treatment.[^3]
Manson was released from prison on March 21, 1967, the same year the [[CIA]] launched [[Operation CHAOS]], a domestic surveillance program targeting anti-war and counterculture movements under Director of Central Intelligence [[Richard Helms]]. In San Francisco, Manson's parole officer was [[Roger Smith]], based at the [[Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic]] founded by Dr. [[David E. Smith|David Smith]]. The clinic was a nexus for counterculture health services, but it also sat directly adjacent to a facility operated by [[Louis Jolyon West|Dr. Louis Jolyon West]], the [[UCLA]] psychiatrist who headed [[MKULTRA]] Subproject 43 and had been cleared at Top Secret level by the CIA. Manson attended weekly meetings with his parole officer at the clinic, and members of the Manson Family used the clinic for medical treatment.[^2]
### The Parole Question
Research into the case found that parole officer Roger Smith should have recommended Manson's return to prison for repeated drug violations but instead tried to arrange for Manson to live in [[Mexico]], which would have made supervision impossible. A retired deputy district attorney involved in the investigation stated that "somebody wanted him out there."[^3] Manson's criminal record, drug use, and probation violations provided ample grounds for revocation, yet authorities at every level permitted him to continue operating freely in the Haight-Ashbury and later in [[Los Angeles]].[^3]
Research into the case found that parole officer Roger Smith should have recommended Manson's return to prison for repeated drug violations but instead tried to arrange for Manson to live in [[Mexico]], which would have made supervision impossible. A retired deputy district attorney involved in the investigation stated that "somebody wanted him out there."[^2] Manson's criminal record, drug use, and probation violations provided ample grounds for revocation, yet authorities at every level permitted him to continue operating freely in the Haight-Ashbury and later in [[Los Angeles]].[^2]
### LSD, Conditioning, and the Family's Programming Methods
Manson's methods for controlling his followers paralleled documented MKULTRA techniques with striking precision. He used massive doses of [[LSD]] to break down personality structures, employed sleep deprivation, sensory overload, and repeated psychological conditioning to rewrite his followers' identities. The [[Process Church of the Final Judgment]], founded in [[London]] in 1966 by [[Robert DeGrimston]] and [[Mary Ann MacLean]], had documented contacts with Manson. Manson reportedly claimed "Moor and I are one and the same," referencing DeGrimston's birth name. The group published an essay by Manson in their 1971 Death issue. While a direct intelligence connection to the Process Church has never been established, the FBI maintained files on the organization.[^3]
Manson's methods for controlling his followers paralleled documented MKULTRA techniques with striking precision. He used massive doses of [[LSD]] to break down personality structures, employed sleep deprivation, sensory overload, and repeated psychological conditioning to rewrite his followers' identities. The [[Process Church of the Final Judgment]], founded in [[London]] in 1966 by [[Robert DeGrimston]] and [[Mary Ann MacLean]], had documented contacts with Manson. Manson reportedly claimed "Moor and I are one and the same," referencing DeGrimston's birth name. The group published an essay by Manson in their 1971 Death issue. While a direct intelligence connection to the Process Church has never been established, the FBI maintained files on the organization.[^2]
### The Helter Skelter Narrative
The official prosecution theory, advanced by Los Angeles District Attorney [[Vincent Bugliosi]], held that Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders to ignite a race war he called "Helter Skelter," framing the [[Black Panthers]] for the crimes. This narrative conveniently served Operation CHAOS objectives, which included discrediting the counterculture and Black radical organizations. Subsequent investigation found that the prosecution's case contained deliberate misrepresentations: "The facts that were presented to the public are not true. And, in the case of the prosecution of Charles Manson and the Manson Family, many things were, in fact, deliberately lied about."[^3]
The official prosecution theory, advanced by Los Angeles District Attorney [[Vincent Bugliosi]], held that Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders to ignite a race war he called "Helter Skelter," framing the [[Black Panthers]] for the crimes. This narrative conveniently served Operation CHAOS objectives, which included discrediting the counterculture and Black radical organizations. Subsequent investigation found that the prosecution's case contained deliberate misrepresentations: "The facts that were presented to the public are not true. And, in the case of the prosecution of Charles Manson and the Manson Family, many things were, in fact, deliberately lied about."[^2]
### Manson at Vacaville and the DeFreeze Network
@ -37,13 +37,13 @@ After his conviction, Manson was incarcerated at [[Vacaville]] Medical Facility
### Assessment of CIA Connections
Independent investigators stopped short of claiming definitive proof that Manson was a witting CIA asset, but concluded there was a "good likelihood that Manson is a product of MKULTRA, whether he was knowledgeable about it or not." The circumstantial evidence cited includes the failure to revoke Manson's parole, the proximity to Dr. West's operations, the alignment of the murders with Operation CHAOS objectives, and the deliberate distortions in the official prosecution narrative. West's files from the Haight-Ashbury period have reportedly gone missing.[^3]
Independent investigators stopped short of claiming definitive proof that Manson was a witting CIA asset, but concluded there was a "good likelihood that Manson is a product of MKULTRA, whether he was knowledgeable about it or not." The circumstantial evidence cited includes the failure to revoke Manson's parole, the proximity to Dr. West's operations, the alignment of the murders with Operation CHAOS objectives, and the deliberate distortions in the official prosecution narrative. West's files from the Haight-Ashbury period have reportedly gone missing.[^2]
### Death
Manson died of natural causes at [[Corcoran State Prison]] in California on November 19, 2017, at age 83.[^3]
Manson died of natural causes at [[Corcoran State Prison]] in California on November 19, 2017, at age 83.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998.
[^3]: O'Neill, Tom, and Dan Piepenbring. *Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties*. Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
[^2]: O'Neill, Tom, and Dan Piepenbring. *Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties*. Little, Brown and Company, 2019.

4
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/David Morehouse.md
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@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ The reception among former unit colleagues was largely negative. [[Joe McMoneagl
Despite these criticisms, *Psychic Warrior* introduced the Fort Meade program to a large popular audience and helped establish the commercial remote viewing training market that emerged after STAR GATE's 1995 declassification. Morehouse subsequently built a civilian career offering remote viewing training seminars.[^1]
An undated memorandum in the CIA's Star Gate files, headed "Will the Real [[C.B. Scott Jones|Scott Jones]] Please Stand Up?," records: "[[Ed Dames|Edward A. Dames]] serves as President of [[Psi Tech]], and David A. Morehouse is Vice President. They are based in [[Jessup, Maryland]], but there are rumors that they are planning to move to [[New Mexico]]." No other legible mention of him appears in the released collection.[^900]
An undated memorandum in the CIA's Star Gate files, headed "Will the Real [[C.B. Scott Jones|Scott Jones]] Please Stand Up?," records: "[[Ed Dames|Edward A. Dames]] serves as President of [[Psi Tech]], and David A. Morehouse is Vice President. They are based in [[Jessup, Maryland]], but there are rumors that they are planning to move to [[New Mexico]]." No other legible mention of him appears in the released collection.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies.* Dell, 1997. Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Morehouse, David. *Psychic Warrior: Inside the CIA's Stargate Program, the True Story of a Soldier's Espionage and Awakening.* St. Martin's Press, 1996.
[^900]: "Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?," undated memorandum, CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "Will the Real Scott Jones Please Stand Up?," undated memorandum, CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300004-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

8
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edwin May.md
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@ -36,11 +36,11 @@ In 1991, SRI withdrew from the remote viewing research contract. May negotiated
When the CIA, which had taken custody of the program from the DIA in 1995 at the direction of Congress, contracted the American Institutes for Research in June 1995 to evaluate it ([[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate]]), May, as principal investigator, was asked "to list those studies which he believes provide the strongest evidence" and every unique study since the 1988 [[National Research Council]] report. His memorandum of July 25, 1995, listed ten SAIC experiments, among them "Entropy II" (90 trials, effect size 0.550, p = 9.1 × 10^-8), "ERD AC Behavior" (70 trials, 0.303), "Remote observation" (48 trials, 0.361), and "AC with binary coding" (40 trials, −0.067). [[Jessica Utts]] took them, with the 1988 analysis of the SRI database, as establishing that "psychic functioning has been well established"; [[Ray Hyman]] agreed the effects were "too large and consistent to be dismissed as statistical flukes" but held that ten experiments from one laboratory could not establish a phenomenon. May told the panel that "approximately 20 percent of the information supplied by a viewer is accurate," and AIR noted that throughout the experiments "only one judge, apparently the Principal Investigator, was used in assessing matches." The report of September 29, 1995, recommended against continuing the operational program. May's commentary in the *Journal of Parapsychology* the next year described the review as the result of "a Congressionally Directed Activity" and gave the report's public release as November 28, 1995.[^1]
The CIA's chronology of the transfer records for February 28, 1995: "CIA met with DIA principal investigator at SAIC, Dr. Ed May. All-day technical exchange." An ORD memorandum for the record of April 20, 1995, its author redacted, states that "Ed May of SAIC called this morning and volunteered to send me unsolicited information he had obtained from a 'remote viewer' named 'Joe' relating to the [[Oklahoma City bombing|Oklahoma City Bombing]]," that ORD had no means of "tasking or disseminating this type of information," that May asked for a law-enforcement contact and, told to send it to his former contracting officer's representative at DIA, "said they didn't get along"; given an FBI number that evening, "he asked if this would be a 'cold call' because he didn't want to sound like a 'lunatic,'" and "agreed reluctantly" to call. The Director of Research and Development's covering memorandum to the [[Counterterrorist Center]] the same day: "We attach no credibility to this information, and currently have no way to evaluate it. We have asked Dr. Ed May of SAIC to forward this information to you directly. Please direct any questions regarding how the information was acquired to Dr. May. He has been the primary contract investigator in this area, and we have not completed our evaluation of his past efforts."[^900]
The CIA's chronology of the transfer records for February 28, 1995: "CIA met with DIA principal investigator at SAIC, Dr. Ed May. All-day technical exchange." An ORD memorandum for the record of April 20, 1995, its author redacted, states that "Ed May of SAIC called this morning and volunteered to send me unsolicited information he had obtained from a 'remote viewer' named 'Joe' relating to the [[Oklahoma City bombing|Oklahoma City Bombing]]," that ORD had no means of "tasking or disseminating this type of information," that May asked for a law-enforcement contact and, told to send it to his former contracting officer's representative at DIA, "said they didn't get along"; given an FBI number that evening, "he asked if this would be a 'cold call' because he didn't want to sound like a 'lunatic,'" and "agreed reluctantly" to call. The Director of Research and Development's covering memorandum to the [[Counterterrorist Center]] the same day: "We attach no credibility to this information, and currently have no way to evaluate it. We have asked Dr. Ed May of SAIC to forward this information to you directly. Please direct any questions regarding how the information was acquired to Dr. May. He has been the primary contract investigator in this area, and we have not completed our evaluation of his past efforts."[^2]
### The 1996 Commentary
May "was asked by the CIA to provide administrative support, technical documents, and briefings on an as-needed basis for the review," under a small contract to SAIC, from which he resigned on November 28, 1995, the day the report was released. His commentary in the *Journal of Parapsychology* argued that "there is compelling evidence that the CIA set the outcome with regard to intelligence usage before the evaluation had begun," by "limiting the research and operations data sets to exclude positive findings, by purposefully not interviewing historically significant participants, by ignoring previous extensive Department of Defense program reviews, and by using the questionable National Research Council's investigation of parapsychology as the starting point." He noted that AIR's president, [[David Goslin]], had also overseen the NRC's 1988 report; that of the seventeen members of the SRI and SAIC oversight committees and review board "only one was contacted by the CIA"; that his memorandum of June 6, 1995, "the existence of anomalous mental phenomena cannot be statistically determined from the results of a single laboratory," was "ignored by fiat"; and that a Senate staff member told him the CIA's briefing to Congress gave eight bullet points to Hyman's conclusions and four to Utts's. He quoted Jessica Utts's letter of December 19, 1995: "I was explicitly asked by AIR staff NOT to mention the NRC report in my review!" and "we were shown very little of the 'operational' remote-viewing work"; and [[Robert Rosenthal]] on the NRC's 1988 request that he omit his ganzfeld section, "censorship did not occur." He quoted [[Joe McMoneagle]]'s 1984 Legion of Merit citation, "more than 200 missions, addressing over 150 essential elements of information," reported "at the highest echelons," and traced a line from ARPA's George Lawrence and Hyman being refused access at SRI in 1974, through Lawrence's commissioning of the NRC study in 1985, to Goslin's AIR review. Of the program's last years: a 1993 attempt to move it to the CIA "found no willing recipient," the last DIA officer "had little knowledge of the program," and "the program was in shambles." "I am forced to conclude that either the AIR investigators were not competent to conduct a proper review of such a complex program, a view to which I do not subscribe, or they knew exactly what they were doing: They wanted to demonstrate that AC lacked usefulness for intelligence operations. They did so by construction rather than by careful analysis." On *Nightline* that November he said: "I think about 15% of our data, over 1500 separate remote viewing trials, are of such a quality that you might think they were sketched," and, after [[Robert Gates]] said the work was "better done on the outside": "I couldn't agree with Director Gates more."[^2]
May "was asked by the CIA to provide administrative support, technical documents, and briefings on an as-needed basis for the review," under a small contract to SAIC, from which he resigned on November 28, 1995, the day the report was released. His commentary in the *Journal of Parapsychology* argued that "there is compelling evidence that the CIA set the outcome with regard to intelligence usage before the evaluation had begun," by "limiting the research and operations data sets to exclude positive findings, by purposefully not interviewing historically significant participants, by ignoring previous extensive Department of Defense program reviews, and by using the questionable National Research Council's investigation of parapsychology as the starting point." He noted that AIR's president, [[David Goslin]], had also overseen the NRC's 1988 report; that of the seventeen members of the SRI and SAIC oversight committees and review board "only one was contacted by the CIA"; that his memorandum of June 6, 1995, "the existence of anomalous mental phenomena cannot be statistically determined from the results of a single laboratory," was "ignored by fiat"; and that a Senate staff member told him the CIA's briefing to Congress gave eight bullet points to Hyman's conclusions and four to Utts's. He quoted Jessica Utts's letter of December 19, 1995: "I was explicitly asked by AIR staff NOT to mention the NRC report in my review!" and "we were shown very little of the 'operational' remote-viewing work"; and [[Robert Rosenthal]] on the NRC's 1988 request that he omit his ganzfeld section, "censorship did not occur." He quoted [[Joe McMoneagle]]'s 1984 Legion of Merit citation, "more than 200 missions, addressing over 150 essential elements of information," reported "at the highest echelons," and traced a line from ARPA's George Lawrence and Hyman being refused access at SRI in 1974, through Lawrence's commissioning of the NRC study in 1985, to Goslin's AIR review. Of the program's last years: a 1993 attempt to move it to the CIA "found no willing recipient," the last DIA officer "had little knowledge of the program," and "the program was in shambles." "I am forced to conclude that either the AIR investigators were not competent to conduct a proper review of such a complex program, a view to which I do not subscribe, or they knew exactly what they were doing: They wanted to demonstrate that AC lacked usefulness for intelligence operations. They did so by construction rather than by careful analysis." On *Nightline* that November he said: "I think about 15% of our data, over 1500 separate remote viewing trials, are of such a quality that you might think they were sketched," and, after [[Robert Gates]] said the work was "better done on the outside": "I couldn't agree with Director Gates more."[^3]
### Post-STARGATE Research
@ -51,5 +51,5 @@ May continued to serve as a consultant on anomalous cognition research for acade
### Footnotes
[^1]: Mumford, Michael D., Andrew M. Rose, and David A. Goslin. *An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications.* American Institutes for Research, September 29, 1995, pp. 2-3, 3-18, 3-67, 5-2. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB438/docs/doc_57.pdf May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, 1996, pp. 3-23, abstract only.
[^2]: May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-23. The letter of December 19, 1995, is printed at pp. 15-17 as Utts's reply to May's e-mail of December 17, checked against the page images. "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room.
[^900]: "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," memorandum for the record, undated, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Memorandum for the record and memorandum for CTC from the Director, Research and Development, "Star Gate Program Issues," April 20, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030036-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "Star Gate Transfer Chronology: 1995," memorandum for the record, undated, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190017-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Memorandum for the record and memorandum for CTC from the Director, Research and Development, "Star Gate Program Issues," April 20, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030036-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-23. The letter of December 19, 1995, is printed at pp. 15-17 as Utts's reply to May's e-mail of December 17, checked against the page images. "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room.

8
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Hella Hammid.md
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@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ Hammid was a subject in the formal SRI remote viewing experiments described in P
The SRI protocol for Hammid and other subjects involved an outbound experimenter who traveled to a randomly selected location within thirty minutes' driving distance. The subject remained at SRI with Puthoff or Targ and attempted to describe the target location through spontaneous description and drawing. Independent judges matched the descriptions to the target locations blind, without knowing which description came from which trial.[^1]
[[David Marks]] wrote in 1982 that of the six transcripts of her series shown to him by the SRI judge [[Arthur Hastings]], "four of the six Hammid transcripts actually carried dates" and "one transcript even carried the name of the associated target"; he listed twenty-four cues ("This is the 18th of September," "Russell Targ has gone to the remote site," "Hal has gone to a second target," "Hella has made a drawing of Hal's first location") from which a judge in [[New Zealand]], using no descriptive material, matched the transcripts better than Hastings had, and reported that Hastings had received three target lists, one randomized and two not. Targ and Puthoff's own account of her had been that she was "a friend: 'I (R.T.) had known Hella for more than a dozen years.'"[^901]
[[David Marks]] wrote in 1982 that of the six transcripts of her series shown to him by the SRI judge [[Arthur Hastings]], "four of the six Hammid transcripts actually carried dates" and "one transcript even carried the name of the associated target"; he listed twenty-four cues ("This is the 18th of September," "Russell Targ has gone to the remote site," "Hal has gone to a second target," "Hella has made a drawing of Hal's first location") from which a judge in [[New Zealand]], using no descriptive material, matched the transcripts better than Hastings had, and reported that Hastings had received three target lists, one randomized and two not. Targ and Puthoff's own account of her had been that she was "a friend: 'I (R.T.) had known Hella for more than a dozen years.'"[^2]
### The 1974 Record
SRI's first progress report of March 1974 records "a preliminary remote viewing pilot experiment" with "a subject (H.H.) previously screened by the EEG correlates experiment": "The target chosen at random was a small red clapboard schoolhouse structure with a bell steeple on top in a miniature golf course. The subject's response was that she saw a red clapboard structure with a steeple that seemed to be artificial as in a movie set." An outside reviewer noted that of six subjects in the EEG work, "one of the six subjects, HH, showed a consistent alpha blocking effort. Therefore, this subject was studied further and most of the data recorded is based on HH's performance." A CIA officer who observed her in 1974 wrote: "Hella is very alert and outgoing; although not insightful. She is very concerned with her performance. Her aim seems to be pleasing the experimenters rather than proving anything to herself." "She does very badly on absolute size estimates. She does very well on indicating lighting conditions, including the presence of steady or pulsing lights. She does not often describe colors, but is very accurate when she does." "There can be no question that Hella can repeatably, although not reliably, produce information not available through normal means." Set to describe an electric typewriter on which the officer had typed for ten minutes, she missed, while [[Russell Targ]], who had been questioning her throughout, "gave a nearly perfect account of the target." Called in by a police lieutenant named Konar, who "had exhausted all available leads" in the murder of a young woman in the [[Stanford University|Stanford]] chapel, she "gave details of the crime location, described the victim and her assailant, indicated the exact location of the fatal wound, alluded to the ritualistic tone of the crime, and traced the victim's movements before the crime as well as the relocation of the body afterwards," the only known error being earrings; Konar wrote SRI a letter and followed her leads; but "none of the data that Hella generated, that has been verified, was unknown to Lt. Konar at the time of this experiment. Therefore, it is possible that Hella received all of her information from the Lt., by some unknown means." The same officer warned that if funding lapsed Puthoff and Targ "will publish everything they have generated," including "their association with unreliable subjects." A cassette of September 19, 1974, is catalogued "Tape 'N' Text Editor and Drill Press, Beacon Russell Targ, Viewer Hella Hammid."[^2]
SRI's first progress report of March 1974 records "a preliminary remote viewing pilot experiment" with "a subject (H.H.) previously screened by the EEG correlates experiment": "The target chosen at random was a small red clapboard schoolhouse structure with a bell steeple on top in a miniature golf course. The subject's response was that she saw a red clapboard structure with a steeple that seemed to be artificial as in a movie set." An outside reviewer noted that of six subjects in the EEG work, "one of the six subjects, HH, showed a consistent alpha blocking effort. Therefore, this subject was studied further and most of the data recorded is based on HH's performance." A CIA officer who observed her in 1974 wrote: "Hella is very alert and outgoing; although not insightful. She is very concerned with her performance. Her aim seems to be pleasing the experimenters rather than proving anything to herself." "She does very badly on absolute size estimates. She does very well on indicating lighting conditions, including the presence of steady or pulsing lights. She does not often describe colors, but is very accurate when she does." "There can be no question that Hella can repeatably, although not reliably, produce information not available through normal means." Set to describe an electric typewriter on which the officer had typed for ten minutes, she missed, while [[Russell Targ]], who had been questioning her throughout, "gave a nearly perfect account of the target." Called in by a police lieutenant named Konar, who "had exhausted all available leads" in the murder of a young woman in the [[Stanford University|Stanford]] chapel, she "gave details of the crime location, described the victim and her assailant, indicated the exact location of the fatal wound, alluded to the ritualistic tone of the crime, and traced the victim's movements before the crime as well as the relocation of the body afterwards," the only known error being earrings; Konar wrote SRI a letter and followed her leads; but "none of the data that Hella generated, that has been verified, was unknown to Lt. Konar at the time of this experiment. Therefore, it is possible that Hella received all of her information from the Lt., by some unknown means." The same officer warned that if funding lapsed Puthoff and Targ "will publish everything they have generated," including "their association with unreliable subjects." A cassette of September 19, 1974, is catalogued "Tape 'N' Text Editor and Drill Press, Beacon Russell Targ, Viewer Hella Hammid."[^3]
### Project Deep Quest
@ -52,5 +52,5 @@ Hammid was not herself a CIA employee or contractor; she was a civilian research
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research." *Proceedings of the IEEE* 64, no. 3 (March 1976): 329-354 (the primary published SRI remote viewing experimental results).
[^2]: Puthoff, Harold E. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* progress report no. 1, March 12, 1974, SRI Project 3183, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100010001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Review of Perceptual Augmentation Techniques," unsigned review of SRI progress reports 1 to 3, c. August 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200230001-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Experiments with Hella Hammid," CIA memoranda of 1974 with an officer's trip report of November 1974, author's name redacted, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200070006-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000200070002-3; cassette catalogue card of September 19, 1974, CIA-RDP79-00999A000400040013-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Puthoff, Harold E. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* progress report no. 1, March 12, 1974, SRI Project 3183, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100010001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Review of Perceptual Augmentation Techniques," unsigned review of SRI progress reports 1 to 3, c. August 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200230001-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Experiments with Hella Hammid," CIA memoranda of 1974 with an officer's trip report of November 1974, author's name redacted, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200070006-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000200070002-3; cassette catalogue card of September 19, 1974, CIA-RDP79-00999A000400040013-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

25
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Matthew Livelsberger.md
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@ -11,30 +11,33 @@ Matthew Alan Livelsberger was born July 22, 1987 in Arizona. He was raised in Bu
He attended Norwich University from 2016-2019 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis (Summa Cum Laude).
### Army Service
In January 2006, he joined the [[U.S. Army]] where he served actively until March 2011. He then joined the [[National Guard]] from March 2011 to July 2012. During this period he briefly worked for [[General Dynamics]] (July 2011-May 2012) as a hyperspectral Imaging Integrator on the “Lightguard Minotaur system.”[^7] This was followed by rejoining the [[Army Reserve]] from July 2012 to December 2012. He then reenlisted into active duty in the [[U.S. Army]] as part of the [[Special Operations Group|Special Operations]] where he served in active duty until his death January 1, 2025 in the [[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing]] as a potential [[act of terrorism]].[^5]
In January 2006, he joined the [[U.S. Army]] where he served actively until March 2011. He then joined the [[National Guard]] from March 2011 to July 2012. During this period he briefly worked for [[General Dynamics]] (July 2011-May 2012) as a hyperspectral Imaging Integrator on the “Lightguard Minotaur system.”[^1] This was followed by rejoining the [[Army Reserve]] from July 2012 to December 2012. He then reenlisted into active duty in the [[U.S. Army]] as part of the [[Special Operations Group|Special Operations]] where he served in active duty until his death January 1, 2025 in the [[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing]] as a potential [[act of terrorism]].[^2]
He served in Afghanistan (2017-2019), Ukraine (2016), the Republic of Congo (2014), Tajikistan (2016), and Georgia as a [[Green Berets]].[^1] He was awarded two Bronze stars and an Army Commendation Medal. In Dec 2016 he received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award (DMSHA) for work in Central Asian States. At one point he was stationed at [[Fort Bragg]], but most of his career he was stationed at [[Fort Carson]][^3]. His last assignment as a Master Sargent was to the 10th group in Germany as a "systems manager” and involved building drones. He was on leave in the days preceding the bombing and his death.
He served in Afghanistan (2017-2019), Ukraine (2016), the Republic of Congo (2014), Tajikistan (2016), and Georgia as a [[Green Berets]].[^3] He was awarded two Bronze stars and an Army Commendation Medal. In Dec 2016 he received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award (DMSHA) for work in Central Asian States. At one point he was stationed at [[Fort Bragg]], but most of his career he was stationed at [[Fort Carson]][^4]. His last assignment as a Master Sargent was to the 10th group in Germany as a "systems manager” and involved building drones. He was on leave in the days preceding the bombing and his death.
There were social media posts made that suggested he was helping to connect soldiers to recruiters for Ukraine.
### Personal Life
Livelsberger was married twice (first divorced in 2018) and had a young daughter from his most recent merger. His latest wife allegedly broke up with him in the days preceding the explosion over Matthew’s adultery.[^2]
Livelsberger was married twice (first divorced in 2018) and had a young daughter from his most recent merger. His latest wife allegedly broke up with him in the days preceding the explosion over Matthew’s adultery.[^5]
On the drive to [[Las Vegas]], he was texting [[Alicia Arritt]], an old girlfriend, about the cyber truck.
> “I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the shit”
> "I feel like Batman or halo”
> “I'm building drones in my new position”[^3]
> “I'm building drones in my new position”[^4]
He was on a history channel reality show at one point.[^6]
### Medical History
Matthew had back surgery twice from his time as a paratrooper[^3]. In 2019, following his service in Afghanistan, he suffered a traumatic brain injury causing behavior change. He did not seek treatment.
Matthew had back surgery twice from his time as a paratrooper[^4]. In 2019, following his service in Afghanistan, he suffered a traumatic brain injury causing behavior change. He did not seek treatment.
### Politics
Livelsberger was allegedly a supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him in Novemeber 2024.
### Manifesto
The day prior to his death, Livelsberger allegedly sent a manifesto ([[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing#^5630d3|manifesto text]]) to [[Sam Shoemate]] (@samosaur) on December 31, 2024[^4] alleging, among other things, that the [[New Jersey Drones|NJ Drones]] are Chinese [[anti-gravitic]] devices, that the United States also possesses this technology, that he is aware of war crimes committed in 2019 by the United States, and that he has TSSCI with [[UAP Task Force]] [[Special Access Programs|USAP]] access. He indicated that these craft were controlled from a building at Groom Lake.
The day prior to his death, Livelsberger allegedly sent a manifesto ([[Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing#^5630d3|manifesto text]]) to [[Sam Shoemate]] (@samosaur) on December 31, 2024 alleging, among other things, that the [[New Jersey Drones|NJ Drones]] are Chinese [[anti-gravitic]] devices, that the United States also possesses this technology, that he is aware of war crimes committed in 2019 by the United States, and that he held "an active TSSCI with UAP [[Special Access Programs|USAP]] access."[^7] He wrote that "our OPCEN location for this activity in the box is below"; the map pin that accompanied the text was at 37.2475372, -115.8155235 in Lincoln County, Nevada, at [[Groom Lake]].[^8]
### Footnotes
[^1]: [Man who rented Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas a Green Beret, official says](https://archive.is/RKsXC)
[^2]: [Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger’s wife broke up with him days before explosion outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas: sources](https://archive.is/V3mds)
[^3]: [ What Matthew Livelsberger texted ex days before Cybertruck explosion at Trump hotel in Las Vegas](https://archive.is/L0NjZ)
[^5]: [US Army statement](https://archive.is/Sebb4)
[^1]: [Livelsberger LinkedIn Page Archive](https://archive.is/ylhFG)
[^2]: [US Army statement](https://archive.is/Sebb4)
[^3]: [Man who rented Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas a Green Beret, official says](https://archive.is/RKsXC)
[^4]: [ What Matthew Livelsberger texted ex days before Cybertruck explosion at Trump hotel in Las Vegas](https://archive.is/L0NjZ)
[^5]: [Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger’s wife broke up with him days before explosion outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas: sources](https://archive.is/V3mds)
[^6]: [History channel show](https://x.com/InsideEdition/status/1875312049443758517) ([archive](https://archive.is/T0L86))
[^7]: [Livelsberger LinkedIn Page Archive](https://archive.is/ylhFG)
[^7]: Sam Shoemate, a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer posting as @samosaur, stated that Livelsberger emailed him the text on December 31, 2024 with the request "Please do not release until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then." "Livelsberger Reportedly Sent 'Manifesto' Before Vegas Hotel Blast," Casino.org, January 3, 2025, https://www.casino.org/news/matthew-livelsberger-reportedly-sent-manifesto-before-trump-hotel-explosion/; Collin Woodard, Jalopnik, January 6, 2025, https://jalopnik.com/las-vegas-cybertruck-bomber-claimed-nj-drones-are-ultra-1851733106; [Tweet by @samosaur](https://archive.is/BLh0q).
[^8]: [coordinates](https://archive.is/6iV4v)

2
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Morris K. Jessup.md
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@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ The annotations are in three hands, identified in the introduction as Mr. A, Mr.
### Death
Barker's 1973 preface opens with the statement that "on the evening of April 20, 1959, an astronomer committed suicide in Dade County Park, Florida," that he inhaled automobile exhaust which he had run by hose from the tail pipe into his station wagon, and that he died "unheralded and almost unrecognized in his discipline."[^2] The coroner's file was not available for this draft. The [[Miami Herald]] of April 22, 1959 reported under the headline "Author A Suicide, Police Say" that Metro detectives said on Tuesday, April 21, that Morris K. Jessup, 59, an astronomer and author of several books on flying space objects, had committed suicide by asphyxiating himself; that his body was found on Monday, April 20, in his parked car at [[Matheson Hammock Park|Matheson Hammock]]; and that investigators said a hose ran from the car's exhaust pipe to the inside of the automobile. The item states that he was survived by his wife, Ruby, that he lived at 1531 Saragossa Avenue in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], having moved there six months earlier, and that he was a onetime instructor at the University of Michigan and Drake University and the author of The Case for the UFO, a 1955 publication, with another book on outer space flight before his publishers at his death. It gives no time of death and does not mention Varo or Allende. The Herald calls the vehicle a car and gives Monday as the day of discovery; Barker calls it a station wagon and gives the evening of April 20 as the time of death.[^6] Barker added that a "tradition of bad luck or strange circumstances" attached to owners of the Varo Edition: a house destroyed by fire, the heart attack of Captain [[Edward J. Ruppelt]], former head of [[Project Blue Book]], "allegedly shortly after he read a borrowed copy," and the early death of the author [[Robert Loftin]]. He wrote that "except for the deaths, this is purely hearsay."[^2] Barker also wrote that "at least two national magazine articles explored Jessup's death and his connection with the book," and that [[Brad Steiger]] published reduced reproductions of three pages in [[Saga]] magazine for November 1967, in the article "Fantastic Key to the Flying Saucer Mystery," from a microfilm copy owned by [[Stephen Yankee]].[^2]
Barker's 1973 preface opens with the statement that "on the evening of April 20, 1959, an astronomer committed suicide in Dade County Park, Florida," that he inhaled automobile exhaust which he had run by hose from the tail pipe into his station wagon, and that he died "unheralded and almost unrecognized in his discipline."[^2] The [[Miami Herald]] of April 22, 1959 reported under the headline "Author A Suicide, Police Say" that Metro detectives said on Tuesday, April 21, that Morris K. Jessup, 59, an astronomer and author of several books on flying space objects, had committed suicide by asphyxiating himself; that his body was found on Monday, April 20, in his parked car at [[Matheson Hammock Park|Matheson Hammock]]; and that investigators said a hose ran from the car's exhaust pipe to the inside of the automobile. The item states that he was survived by his wife, Ruby, that he lived at 1531 Saragossa Avenue in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], having moved there six months earlier, and that he was a onetime instructor at the University of Michigan and Drake University and the author of The Case for the UFO, a 1955 publication, with another book on outer space flight before his publishers at his death. It gives no time of death and does not mention Varo or Allende. The Herald calls the vehicle a car and gives Monday as the day of discovery; Barker calls it a station wagon and gives the evening of April 20 as the time of death.[^6] Barker added that a "tradition of bad luck or strange circumstances" attached to owners of the Varo Edition: a house destroyed by fire, the heart attack of Captain [[Edward J. Ruppelt]], former head of [[Project Blue Book]], "allegedly shortly after he read a borrowed copy," and the early death of the author [[Robert Loftin]]. He wrote that "except for the deaths, this is purely hearsay."[^2] Barker also wrote that "at least two national magazine articles explored Jessup's death and his connection with the book," and that [[Brad Steiger]] published reduced reproductions of three pages in [[Saga]] magazine for November 1967, in the article "Fantastic Key to the Flying Saucer Mystery," from a microfilm copy owned by [[Stephen Yankee]].[^2]
Barker acquired an original copy in 1971 from a friend of Jessup to whom Jessup had given one, decided in July 1972 to publish, and issued a facsimile through [[Saucerian Press]] in 1973, stating the run would be no more than 500 copies.[^2] The transcription at the [[Internet Archive]] was prepared by the [[Quantum Future Group]] of Castelnau-Barbarens, [[France]], in 2003.[^2]

5
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ninel Kulagina.md
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@ -23,8 +23,9 @@ Another experiment involved Kulagina attempting to increase the heart rate of a
Kulagina's alleged abilities contributed to the [[Pentagon]]'s decision to launch a joint intelligence assessment of the "Soviet psychoenergetic threat," a term coined to encompass Soviet research into anomalous mental phenomena and [[Electromagnetic Weapons|electromagnetic weapons]] programs[^1]. Her work, along with that of [[Qian Xuesen|H. S. Tsien]] in [[China]], highlighted the perceived need for the U.S. to invest in its own psychic research programs.
A DIA briefing on Soviet psychoenergetics given to the Air Force in 1987 quoted [[Yuri Kobzarev|Yu. B. Kobzerev]], "radar pioneer, member USSR Academy of Science": "I am persuaded that the phenomena demonstrated by N. Kulagina (psychokinesis), and by L. Korabelnikova (extrasensory perception), are by no means tricks but rather the existence of the manifestation of unusual capabilities in man. My conviction is shared by many people including a group of professors and academicians," and [[Vladimir Kotelnikov|V. A. Kotel'nikov]], vice president of the Academy: "Psychokinetic abilities of N. Kulagina are real."[^900]
A DIA briefing on Soviet psychoenergetics given to the Air Force in 1987 quoted [[Yuri Kobzarev|Yu. B. Kobzerev]], "radar pioneer, member USSR Academy of Science": "I am persuaded that the phenomena demonstrated by N. Kulagina (psychokinesis), and by L. Korabelnikova (extrasensory perception), are by no means tricks but rather the existence of the manifestation of unusual capabilities in man. My conviction is shared by many people including a group of professors and academicians," and [[Vladimir Kotelnikov|V. A. Kotel'nikov]], vice president of the Academy: "Psychokinetic abilities of N. Kulagina are real."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

96
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/R. S. Hawke.md
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@ -1,20 +1,96 @@
---
aliases:
- R. S. Hawke
category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
- R. S. Hawke
- Ronald S. Hawke
- Ronald Hawke
- Ron Hawke
- Dr. Hawke
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- RemoteViewer
summary: "Hawke documented the results of one of these tests, stating that 'The magnetic pattern stored in the iron oxide layer of a magnetic program card was erased.' He concluded that 'Further experiments are warranted,' indicating a measurable effect from Geller's alleged abilities."
updated: 2026-09-22
- Physicist
- Engineer
- LawrenceLivermore
- Psychokinesis
- UriGeller
- AcousticEmission
- Railgun
- Stargate
- GrillFlame
summary: "Livermore electronics engineer who tested Uri Geller on magnetic program cards in 1974, built an acoustic emission experiment for metal bending, and was visited in 1979 by the Army's Grill Flame committee."
location: "Livermore, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]]"
role: "research physicist, Engineering Research Division, Electronics Engineering Department"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Uri Geller]]"
start: 1974
role: "invited Geller to Livermore in 1974 to alter magnetic program cards; wrote 'Magnetic Pattern Erasure'"
fn: 3
- type: investigated
with: "[[Psychokinesis]]"
start: 1978
role: "acoustic emission experiments with two subjects reputed to bend metal paranormally, outlined January 11, 1979"
fn: 7
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]"
start: 1979
end: 1979-12
role: "laboratory visited by committee members; Annex 7 of the December 1979 report evaluates his experiments"
fn: 11
created: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-10-05
---
R. S. Hawke was one of the scientists at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] who conducted classified [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] tests with [[Uri Geller]] in the winter of 1975. These tests aimed to determine if Geller could interfere with high-quality lasers and affect magnetic computer program cards[^1].
Ronald S. Hawke, who signed his technical writing "R. S. Hawke," was a research physicist in the Engineering Research Division of the Electronics Engineering Department at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (then Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, University of California) in the 1970s.[^1] His published and patented work at the laboratory concerned electromagnetic railguns and hypervelocity launchers: the May 8, 1979 preprint UCRL-82677, "Magnetic Propulsion Railguns: Their Design and Capabilities," written with Jonathan K. Scudder for the Second International Conference on Megagauss Magnetic Field Generation, concluded that projectiles could be accelerated to more than 20 kilometers per second; a July 1979 companion paper (UCRL-82296) examined railgun impactors for generating pressures of 1 to 10 terapascals; and United States Patent 4,343,223, "Multiple stage railgun," was filed May 23, 1980 by Hawke, Scudder and Kristian Aaland and issued August 10, 1982.[^1][^2] The laboratory's report series carries his name on railgun and plasma armature papers through 1991, among them "Results of Railgun Experiments" (UCRL-88703, 1983, with [[Los Alamos]] authors) and a 1991 progress report on a transition armature technology project.[^2]
Hawke documented the results of one of these tests, stating that "The magnetic pattern stored in the iron oxide layer of a magnetic program card was erased." He concluded that "Further experiments are warranted," indicating a measurable effect from Geller's alleged abilities[^1].
### Geller at Livermore, 1974
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] visited "Dr. Hawke" at Lawrence Livermore in November 1979 and wrote that "Committee members who visited Dr. Hawke's laboratory were very impressed by the scientific approach used in his investigations." Its annex on his work: "Highly specific physical phenomena are recovered by instruments while PK 'intent' is being 'exerted' by a Subject. Thus a definite 'result' is measured in terms of a physical phenomenon (e.g., grain fracture measured by physical measuring apparatus commonly used for such metallurgical experiments)." "Hawke's experiments are the most objective and scientific of the investigations we have reviewed... His type of PK experiments are, in my view, vastly more valuable than the PK effects on random number generators." "A means exists for conduct of these experiments on a compartmentalized basis: Since the experiments utilize measuring equipment commonly used in weapons development, 'cover' and access restrictions are relatively straightforward. As an example, NWC China Lake is just now initiating development of contact fuzing utilizing (for the first time in the fuzing community) acoustic emission of materials transitioning the plastic deformation regime. A small development project on 'AE applications to guided missile fuzing' would provide easily administered and controlled PK experiments by Hawke."[^900]
In his 1976 anthology *The Geller Papers*, [[Charles Panati]] wrote that during one of his West Coast trips [[Uri Geller]] visited "Ronald Hawke, an engineer working at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory" in late 1974, and that "no formal testing with Geller was undertaken," although Hawke and his colleagues "did observe events in their laboratory that they feel call for further scientific investigation."[^3] Panati's account of Hawke's contribution, titled "Magnetic Pattern Erasure: A Proposed Method of Scientific Study," says the targets were four computer cards carrying magnetic programs under a plastic coating, and that Geller's goal was to alter or erase them. Twice he failed, once when a card was sealed in a glass bottle and once when he was not allowed to touch a card. Two other cards were handed to him and he rubbed his fingers across their surfaces; Hawke stated that rubbing alone cannot alter the magnetic programs, yet when the cards were fed to a computer they were rejected as "ambiguous," and Hawke wrote that "subsequent inspection with a magnetic viewer after the meeting with Geller revealed that the magnetic patterns had been altered."[^3]
Geller's own account (1986, with Guy Lyon Playfair) names Hawke as "the physicist who invited me there," says Hawke "had published several articles in his highly specialized fields," and describes two successes in four attempts, the cards being "fed into a Hewlett Packard 65 calculator" and rejected by it although accepted before he touched them. Geller thanked "Ron Hawke and family" in the book's acknowledgements and listed Hawke among the 1974 investigators "all of whom produced positive reports."[^4]
A CIA staff report released in 2014, filed with a Reuters item of November 4, 1974 about a Geller prediction of war in the Middle East, records a telephone call received "on 23 October" from a "Security Officer" of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, who said "they had just spent two days in the laboratory testing Geller." The document states that forty AEC scientists took part in a month-long program designing the experiments, that the equipment cost $20,069, that Geller showed "unequivical evidence" of paranormal ability under conditions the Livermore project team "certified" fraud and cheat-proof, and that he was monitored by four kinds of magnetometers, neutron counters, active and passive infrared, low-light video and motion picture film, in part covertly. It also records that "predetermined portions of HP" program cards were erased, that a second series was planned at Livermore for the second week of December, and that arrangements had been made for testing at [[NASA Ames Research Center]] (Moffett Field). The writer adds that the information "was received anecdotally" from a security officer who had not been one of the experimenters. The document names neither Hawke nor the security officer. Other paragraphs of the same report concern "LSD personnel" and a career development course for "LSD."[^5]
[[Annie Jacobsen]]'s *Phenomena* (2017) describes classified [[Psychokinesis]] tests of Geller by Livermore scientists in the winter of 1975, with high-quality lasers and magnetic computer program cards, and attributes to Hawke the written result "The magnetic pattern stored in the iron oxide layer of a magnetic program card was erased."[^6]
### Acoustic emission experiments, 1978 to 1979
Hawke's later work with metal-bending subjects is documented in a paper titled "Outline of Acoustic Emission Experiments Performed with a Person Reputed to Have Paranormal Metal Bending Abilities," dated January 11, 1979 and stamped "In Strict Confidence." Its cover letter, on Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Electronics Engineering Department letterhead (reference WT 79-0027A), was addressed to an office designated DT-1A at 1735 North Lynn Street in Arlington, Virginia, and said the outline was the one "you requested during our meeting on December 4, 1978." Copies went to A. E. Brown, H. C. McDonald, E. K. Miller, A. J. Poggio and C. A. Tatro, and the outline's reference note thanked A. E. Brown and C. A. Tatro for help with design, implementation and interpretation.[^7]
The outline gives the reasoning for the method. Acoustic emission responds to "a single intragranular or intergranular fracture or grain boundary slip," its "high sensitivity requires non-contact, hence decreases possibility of deception," and the signals "are very distinct from all forms of touching, rubbing and other noise." The sensor was a lead zirconate titanate element resonant at 140 kilohertz, epoxied to the bowl of a standard stainless steel spoon clamped in a vise; other instruments included a logic probe recording electric field on the spoon, an air-core coil for magnetic field, an AM radio tuned to 1600 kilohertz, a video recorder that stored the acoustic signal on the video channel, and a helium-neon laser reflected from the underside of the spoon bowl onto a target to register any bending. Sessions lasted about an hour with the subject and two or three observers present; the subject was told that touching the spoon spoiled the record.[^7]
Results: during one session, with one subject, "at least 4 clear instances of A.E. events occurred" while the spoon and vise were untouched, typical of single-grain or grain-boundary fracture; "no anomalous A.E. events were recorded during dry runs"; no elastic or plastic deformation large enough to shift the laser beam was observed; "fewer but similar results were obtained with one other subject." The abstract said the results were "consistent with those of Crussard" (C. Crussard and J. Bouvaist, *Mémoires Scientifiques Revue de Métallurgie*, February 1978) and that "further experiments are warranted."[^7] The Stargate collection holds the same outline in several copies; the abstract in the copy filed under CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130003-5 reads "no significant bending was observed," where the copy filed under CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100001-9 reads "large amounts of bending were not observed."[^7][^8]
A routing note in the same file, unsigned, reads: "This piece may offer us excellent opportunity to bring in some other (than SRI) minds to work the problem. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the scientist, Hawke, might have manipulated the data/experiment. Might be a good idea to invite him to brief his work to the Science Monitoring Team when they visit California in late July 79."[^9] The file also contains a Hawke envelope addressed to Major Bill Stoner at DAMI 2E453 in the Pentagon (the Army's Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence) and an Army routing slip forwarding a visit request form that was "retained on file in DAMI-RMA."[^10]
### Grill Flame visit and the Department of Energy briefing, 1979
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], chaired by [[Manfred Gale]], listed Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and "Dr. Hawke" among the places and individuals contacted in the autumn of 1979 (Annex 2). Its December 1979 report states that "Committee members who visited Dr. Hawke's laboratory were very impressed by the scientific approach used in his investigations," and that his experiments were "considerably more valuable than PK effects on random number generators." Annex 7 records that "highly specific physical phenomena are recovered by instruments while PK 'intent' is being 'exerted' by a Subject," with control experiments performed and no mechanisms adduced; "Hawke's experiments are the most objective and scientific of the investigations we have reviewed... vastly more valuable than the PK effects on random number generators." The annex adds: "A means exists for conduct of these experiments on a compartmentalized basis: Since the experiments utilize measuring equipment commonly used in weapons development, 'cover' and access restrictions are relatively straightforward," proposing as an example that Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, which "is just now initiating development of contact fuzing utilizing... acoustic emission of materials transitioning the plastic deformation regime," could host "a small development project on 'AE applications to guided missile fuzing'" that "would provide easily administered and controlled PK experiments by Hawke." Elsewhere in the report, the committee's discussion of the Army MICOM random-number experiment says that an experiment using "the modification of the physical aspect of a structure" might be more convincing, and that "the acoustic emission experiment by Hawke might be an example of an attempt to do this."[^11][^12]
On November 28, 1979, Hawke met Dr. Ruth M. Davis, Assistant for Research Applications at the [[Department of Energy]], and Dr. W. LaBerge of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In a letter of December 26, 1979 (EMS79-0117) he wrote that, after talking to the laboratory's acoustic emission, metallurgy and ceramics staff, "the equivalent of 5-7 full employees would be the optimum," with tasks distributed "among 10-15 researchers, technicians and other consultants and advisors," enough in a one-year program "to obtain reliable data or nearly exhaust the possibility of obtaining such data." He had sounded out Henry McDonald (Associate Director for Engineering) and Dale Nielsen (Associate Director for Administration), who said "such types of multidisciplinary and discrete research are within the capability of LLL," and reported that director Roger Batzel "has been informed that such a project might be suggested by DOE and/or DOD"; Batzel was named as the person to contact. Copies went to Batzel, McDonald, Nielsen and LaBerge.[^13]
### After 1979
After the December 1979 letter, the laboratory's published record under Hawke's name consists of the railgun and launcher papers listed above.[^2]
Accounts of a Livermore group that experienced apparitions after its Geller sessions come from [[Jim Schnabel]], who gives the physicists the pseudonyms [[Peter Crane]], [[Mike Russo]] and [[Don Curtis]]; Schnabel's account does not name Hawke.[^14]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^1]: R. S. Hawke, "Outline of Acoustic Emission Experiments Performed with a Person Reputed to Have Paranormal Metal Bending Abilities," January 11, 1979, cover letter signed "R. S. Hawke, Engineering Research Division, Electronics Engineering Department," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100001-9 (archive.org mirror of the CIA STARGATE collection, https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100001-9/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100001-9_djvu.txt) and CIA-RDP96-00787R000500110001-6.
[^2]: R. S. Hawke and J. K. Scudder, "Magnetic Propulsion Railguns: Their Design and Capabilities," UCRL-82677, May 8, 1979, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6255454; Hawke and Scudder, "Prospects for Generating 1-10 TPa Pressures with a Railgun," UCRL-82296, July 13, 1979, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5974977; Hawke, Brooks, Fowler and Peterson, "Results of Railgun Experiments," UCRL-88703, 1983, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6263329; Hawke, "Transition Armature Technology Project, Progress Report No. 1, June 1-July 31, 1991," UCRL-ID-114847, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10107228; U.S. Patent 4,343,223, "Multiple stage railgun," inventors Ronald S. Hawke, Jonathan K. Scudder and Kristian Aaland, https://patents.google.com/patent/US4343223A/en.
[^3]: Charles Panati, ed., *The Geller Papers: Scientific Observations on the Paranormal Powers of Uri Geller* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), introduction, as reproduced at https://urigeller.com/scientific-paranormal/the-geller-papers/introduction/.
[^4]: Uri Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair, *The Geller Effect* (London: Jonathan Cape, 1986), chapters on 1974 investigators and on computers; acknowledgements; index entry "Hawke, Ronald S." http://www.mbdodd.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/1/6/14162844/the_geller_effect_-_uri_geller_and_guy_lyon_playfair.pdf. Geller is the sole source for his account of two successes in four attempts.
[^5]: CIA document CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010023-0, "Declassified in Part, Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/09," archive.org item cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0, https://archive.org/download/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0/cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0_djvu.txt. Sole source for the passages so cited; the writer and the caller are not named.
[^6]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017). Sole source for the passages so cited; Hawke's own wording in *The Geller Papers* differs (note 3).
[^7]: Hawke, outline of January 11, 1979, as in note 1; cover letter, reference WT 79-0027A.
[^8]: Hawke outline, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130003-5, https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130003-5/CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130003-5_djvu.txt.
[^9]: Unsigned note, "101-06 Lawrence Livermore Lab. Metal Bending - R.S. Hawke," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100002-8, https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100002-8/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100002-8_djvu.txt.
[^10]: Envelope addressed to Maj. Bill Stoner, DAMI 2E453, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100005-5; Army routing slip, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100008-2.
[^11]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee*, December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5, Chapter 2 paragraph 4b, Annex 2 (places visited, p. 43) and Annex 7 (pp. 66-67). https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5/CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5_djvu.txt.
[^12]: Same report, critique of the Army [[MICOM]] random-number experiment.
[^13]: R. S. Hawke to Dr. Ruth M. Davis, December 26, 1979, EMS79-0117, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100003-7, https://archive.org/download/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100003-7/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100100003-7_djvu.txt.
[^14]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), as excerpted in Rudy Havenstein, "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley," July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley.

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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ray Hyman.md
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@ -1,47 +1,135 @@
---
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-10-05
title: Ray Hyman
aliases:
- Ray Hyman
- Raymond Hyman
- Dr. Hyman
- Hyman
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
- PSI
- Psychologist
- Magician
- CSICOP
- UriGeller
- SRI
- Stargate
- AIR
- SRI
- 1970s
- 1990s
summary: "University of Oregon psychologist and skeptic who evaluated Uri Geller for DARPA in 1973 and, for the 1995 AIR review, judged ten SAIC experiments too few to establish remote viewing."
- NationalResearchCouncil
- GrillFlame
- Parapsychology
summary: "University of Oregon psychologist who observed Uri Geller at SRI for the Defense Department in 1972, sat on CSICOP's Executive Council, and wrote the skeptical half of the 1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate."
born: 1928-06-23
location: "Chelsea, Massachusetts"
location: "Eugene, Oregon"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Harvard University]]"
start: 1953-07
end: 1961-06
role: "assistant professor of social psychology"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[University of Oregon]]"
start: 1961-09
role: "associate professor of psychology, professor from September 1964"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Stanford University]]"
start: 1982-09
end: 1983-06
role: "visiting professor of psychology, Thomas Welton Stanford Chair for Psychical Research"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Uri Geller]]"
start: 1972-11
end: 1972-12
role: "observed a day of tests at SRI as consultant to the Department of Defense; wrote that the tests were performed with 'incredible sloppiness'"
fn: 3
- type: member_of
with: "[[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]]"
role: "Executive Council member"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[Skeptical Inquirer]]"
role: "editorial board, 1994"
fn: 1
- type: member_of
with: "[[National Research Council]]"
start: 1985
end: 1991
role: "Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance; led the parapsychology section"
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[American Institutes for Research]]"
start: 1995-06
end: 1995-09-11
role: "reviewer of the SRI/SAIC anomalous mental phenomena program for the CIA, with Jessica Utts"
fn: 12
---
Ray Hyman is a psychologist and a prominent figure in the scientific skepticism movement. He was contracted by [[DARPA]] in 1973 to evaluate [[Uri Geller]]'s purported psychic abilities at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]. Along with [[George Lawrence]] and [[Robert Van de Castle]], Hyman concluded that anyone who believed in Geller's powers was falling for the "ridiculous"[^1].
Raymond Hyman was born on June 23, 1928 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He took a bachelor's degree with honors in psychology from Boston University in 1950, a master's degree in 1952 and a doctorate in February 1953 from [[Johns Hopkins University]], and was an assistant professor of social psychology at [[Harvard University]] from July 1953 to June 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he was a consultant in behavioral research to the General Electric Company, and in January to July 1953 a consultant to the Systems Coordination Division of the [[Naval Research Laboratory]]. He joined the [[University of Oregon]] as associate professor of psychology in September 1961 and has been professor there since September 1964. From September 1982 to June 1983 he was visiting professor of psychology at [[Stanford University]], holding the Thomas Welton Stanford Chair for Psychical Research. His 1994 vita lists him on the Executive Council of the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] and on the editorial board of the *[[Skeptical Inquirer]]*, and states that he earned his way through college "performing mentalism and reading palms" and has published articles in magic journals.[^1]
Hyman, along with [[Martin Gardner]], joined forces in an anti-Geller crusade. He was critical of [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]]'s methodology, echoing Gardner's criticisms of [[J. B. Rhine]]'s research, citing loose laboratory controls, skewing of data, and the influence of experimenter bias[^1].
His vita states that "since 1953, I have been called upon by various governmental agencies to investigate or evaluate paranormal claims," and lists among examples "the evaluation of a lady who allegedly could read with her fingertips; the evaluation of the claim by a group of engineers that they could teach psychics to gather information from photographs; the assessment of parapsychological research by American and foreign investigators; and the observation of metal bending and other alleged miracles by Uri Geller."[^1]
In 1983, Hyman weighed in on the [[James Randi]] hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research, stating that Randi was "very upset by Geller’s using trickery to deceive scientists. He thought it was very immoral. And he felt that it was a prostitution of his beloved magic"[^1].
### SRI and Uri Geller, 1972 and 1973
Hyman was considered for the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] in 1979. Its coordinator, Major [[William Stoner]], wrote in January 1980, against the chairman's claim to have "rejected two people who had pronounced tendencies to be nonobjective," that "one person himself declined the offer to participate, claiming potential flak from his corporation. The other, Dr Ray Hyman, was rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG [[Edmund Thompson|Thompson]] to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]."[^900]
*[[Time]]* of March 12, 1973 described Hyman as "a psychology professor from the University of Oregon who is used frequently by DOD as a consultant." According to the magazine, news of the work at the [[Stanford Research Institute]] "reached the Department of Defense, and investigators were soon on the scene": Hyman, [[George Lawrence]], the [[DARPA]] projects manager, and Lawrence's companion [[Robert Van de Castle]], a University of Virginia psychologist. Van de Castle "decided that Geller was 'an interesting subject for further study,'" while "neither Lawrence nor Hyman was impressed." After a day with [[Uri Geller]], [[Russell Targ]] and [[Hal Puthoff]], Hyman said he "was able to spot the 'loopholes and inconclusiveness' of each feat." *Time* reported two episodes. In the first, Geller asked Lawrence to write a number between one and ten on a pad as large as possible while Geller covered his eyes with his hands, and Hyman saw Geller's open eyes through his fingers and the arm motions that identified the number. In the second, Geller turned a compass needle about five degrees, Lawrence moved his body and made the needle deflect further, Geller accused Lawrence of trickery, and Targ examined Lawrence for hidden magnets, while Hyman noted that Targ did not feel it necessary to search Geller. Hyman wrote in a letter to a friend that the SRI tests were conducted with "incredible sloppiness" and that the earlier records Targ and Puthoff offered were "the most uncontrolled and poorly recorded data I have ever encountered." The magazine added that his impressions were "admittedly based on observations made on a day when normal testing routine was not in effect."[^2]
A memorandum from the Under Secretary of the Army's office to Gale of July 17, 1979, reads: "Reference the 'few additional experts,' Dr. Orlansky has accepted. Dr. [[Harry Snyder|Snyder]] of VPI has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman - at this time he has not accepted the invitation." Snyder's own evaluation of remote-viewing research, delivered that June, cited "R. Hyman, personal communication" for its statement that [[Arthur Hastings]], the SRI judge, "is a professional magician."[^901]
*New Scientist*, in an issue of October 17, 1974 on the Geller research, places the visit in two ways. One passage says Hyman was "called in to see Geller at SRI by a government agency to whom Russell Targ and Dr Hal Puthoff had applied for funding," and that one of Geller's demonstrations for him "at SRI in December 1972" was to guess a number written by another person, where Hyman could "see his eyes through his hands" and the number 10 from "George's arm motions." Another passage says Hyman "observed a day of SRI tests on Geller in November 1972" and concluded that "they don't know how to observe. Targ and Puthoff recounted incidents we just saw in completely the reverse order, making them miracles." The same article records a story Hyman told, confirmed by another person present who asked not to be identified, about a Geller "premonition" of a plane crash in Washington during a half hour in which a newspaper report could have reached him.[^3]
[[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote that Hyman, Lawrence and Van de Castle concluded that anyone who believed in Geller's powers was falling for the "ridiculous," and that Hyman and [[Martin Gardner]] joined in what she called an anti-Geller crusade, criticizing Puthoff and Targ for loose laboratory controls, skewed data and experimenter bias, the charges Gardner had made against [[J. B. Rhine]]. She also wrote that Hyman, in 1983, said of [[James Randi]]'s campaign against Geller that Randi was "very upset by Geller's using trickery to deceive scientists. He thought it was very immoral. And he felt that it was a prostitution of his beloved magic."[^4] [[Edwin May]], in a 1996 commentary, wrote of the visit that Hyman, Lawrence and Van de Castle were refused access to an experiment in progress, and gave the date as 1973 or 1974.[^5]
In a 1985 paper Hyman wrote that "parapsychologists blamed me, rather than Geller, for the fact that Geller cheated in my presence because, as they put it, I did not impose sufficiently stringent conditions to prevent him from cheating."[^6]
### CSICOP
[[Paul Kurtz]] recorded that CSICOP was established on April 30 and May 1, 1976 at a conference at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Amherst campus. The call announcing the committee was signed by, among others, [[George Abell]], [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Antony Flew]], Gardner, [[Sidney Hook]], [[Philip Klass]], [[Ernest Nagel]], [[W. V. Quine]], [[B. F. Skinner]], Randi and [[Marcello Truzzi]]. In 1996 Kurtz listed Hyman, [[James Alcock]] and [[Susan Blackmore]] among the Executive Council members who had examined "in cooperation with parapsychologists, claims of psychic phenomena," set beside Gardner and Randi in "fearlessly debunking" popular claims, and named among efforts to discredit the committee "Hyman's tangle with parapsychologists."[^7]
### Grill Flame, 1979
Hyman was considered for the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] in 1979. Its coordinator, Major [[William Stoner]], wrote in January 1980, against the chairman's claim to have "rejected two people who had pronounced tendencies to be nonobjective," that "one person himself declined the offer to participate, claiming potential flak from his corporation. The other, Dr Ray Hyman, was rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG [[Edmund Thompson|Thompson]] to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]."[^8]
A memorandum from the Under Secretary of the Army's office to [[Manfred Gale]] of July 17, 1979, reads: "Reference the 'few additional experts,' Dr. Orlansky has accepted. Dr. [[Harry Snyder|Snyder]] of VPI has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman - at this time he has not accepted the invitation." Snyder's own evaluation of remote-viewing research, delivered that June, cited "R. Hyman, personal communication" for its statement that [[Arthur Hastings]], the SRI judge, "is a professional magician."[^9]
### Project Alpha, 1979 to 1983
Hyman held the Stanford psychical research chair during the academic year in which [[James Randi]] ended Project Alpha. Randi's account is that he placed two young magicians, [[Steven Shaw]] and [[Michael Edwards]], as subjects in the [[McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research]] at [[Washington University]] beginning in 1979, and revealed the arrangement at a press conference on January 28, 1983. Hyman is named in the August 1987 *Zetetic Scholar* among those who gave Truzzi critical commentary on the preliminary draft of his essay about Alpha, and is listed on its masthead as an associate editor. In it Truzzi recorded that Hyman had pointed out that even a psychic who performed a feat could not repeat it under exactly the same conditions, so a test of a conjuror against a psychic would require both to attempt the same feat under conditions agreed to by proponents, critics and agnostics.[^10]
### Research criticism, 1985 to 1994
Hyman's "Parapsychological Research: A Tutorial Review and Critical Appraisal" appeared in the *Proceedings of the IEEE* in June 1985 and is held in the CIA's STARGATE collection. Its abstract states that "each generation of parapsychologists has set aside the work of earlier generations and offered up as sufficient scientific evidence the best work of its own day," and that "two systematic evaluations of the best contemporary research programs in parapsychology revealed that the experiments departed from the minimal standards of adequate randomization of targets, appropriate use of statistical inference, and controls against sensory leakage."[^6] He was a member of the [[National Research Council]]'s Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance from 1985 to 1991, and Edwin May's 1996 commentary describes [[George Lawrence]] as commissioning that study in 1985 with Hyman leading its parapsychology section.[^1][^5]
In *Psychological Bulletin* in 1994, in "Anomaly or Artifact? Comments on Bem and Honorton," Hyman wrote that although the autoganzfeld experiments of [[Charles Honorton]] were "methodologically superior to previous parapsychological experiments, the tests of their randomization procedures were inadequate," and that "we have to wait for independent replications of these experiments before we can conclude that a replicable anomaly or psi has been demonstrated." The paper is in the same STARGATE files.[^11]
### The 1995 Evaluation
In 1995 the [[American Institutes for Research]], under contract to the CIA, engaged Hyman and the statistician [[Jessica Utts]] to review the research of the [[Stargate Project|Star Gate program]] ([[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate]]). His report of September 11, 1995, took the ten [[Science Applications International Corporation|SAIC]] experiments as "the only ones for which we have adequate documentation," agreed with Utts that they "were free of the methodological weaknesses that plagued the early SRI research" and that "the effect sizes reported in the SAIC experiments are too large and consistent to be dismissed as statistical flukes," and then answered no to three questions: whether the effects established anomalous cognition, whether "the possibility of methodological flaws" had been "completely eliminated," and whether the results were consistent with other laboratories. "Ten experiments, especially from one laboratory," he wrote, "is far too few to establish reliable relationships in almost any area of inquiry." He compared the field's negatively defined anomaly with the discovery of Neptune from the perturbations of Uranus, and told anyone relying on operational hits to read [[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] on subjective validation. Of operations he recorded [[Edwin May]]'s estimate that "approximately 20 percent of the information supplied by a viewer is accurate": "If May is correct, then 80% of all the information supplied by this talented viewer will be erroneous."[^2]
On June 12, 1995 Hyman faxed his curriculum vitae from the University of Oregon psychology department to "Mike" with a handwritten cover note, a document filed in the CIA's "Misc. Stargate Notes/Memos - 1995 Chrono."[^1] In 1995 the [[American Institutes for Research]], under contract to the CIA, engaged Hyman and the statistician [[Jessica Utts]] to review the research of the [[Stargate Project|Star Gate program]] ([[1995 AIR evaluation of Star Gate]]). The panel convened at AIR's Palo Alto office; AIR's Michael Mumford and Andrew Rose served as panel members and staff, [[Lincoln Moses]] of Stanford as statistical resource, and [[David Goslin]], AIR's president, as reviewer and coordinator. Utts and Hyman wrote independent reports, took part in conference calls to identify points of agreement and disagreement, and Utts wrote a reply to Hyman's statement of those points.[^12]
Writing in the *[[Skeptical Inquirer]]* in 1996, he said the CIA "abandoned this program in the late 1970s because it showed no promise," that under the DIA it "consisted of three components," one tracking foreign work, an operations program of "six, and later three, psychics on the government payroll," and the laboratory research at SRI and SAIC; that "because of some controversies within the program, a Senate committee decided to transfer the program from the DIA back to the CIA"; that "May helped identify the ten best studies for Utts and me to evaluate"; and that the panel "all agreed that any scientifically meaningful evaluation of these operational psychic intelligence uses was impossible." He ended: "It is premature to draw any conclusions. We will simply have to wait and see. If history is a guide, then this will be a long wait, indeed."[^3]
A preliminary draft by Hyman, titled "Preliminary Evaluation of SRI/SAIC Anomalous Mental Phenomena Program" and dated August 29, 1995, was faxed from his office to AIR on August 30, 1995. It opens with a passage from William James of 1909, calls the investigators' conclusion that anomalous cognition was "clearly demonstrated" "premature," and describes his work as "the tentative outcome of a quick first pass." It records that he was "unimpressed by the results of meta-analysis on the psychoenergetic research conducted at SRI International from 1973-1988," which covered 25,449 trials, and describes a "fatal flaw" in the original Targ and Puthoff judging protocol: because a subject learned each target after a session, successive trials were not independent, and a subject might avoid describing anything resembling earlier targets, which he illustrated with the Hoover Tower and the Palo Alto train station. It credits [[David Marks]] with discovering that transcripts given to judges contained clues, and recommends that the project, if continued, contract with several independent laboratories and "some non-parapsychological, neutral investigators" to replicate its key findings. The Hoover Tower illustration does not appear in his report of September 11 as reproduced in the AIR report.[^13][^12]
On *Nightline* on November 28, 1995, he said: "My considered judgment, if someone pushed me hard right now, I'd have to say the odds are 99 to 1 that there's nothing to remote viewing." Edwin May's commentary of 1996 traced "a thread of bias" from the visit to SRI (1973 or 1974, the accounts differ) at which Hyman, George Lawrence of ARPA, and Robert Van de Castle were refused access to an experiment in progress, and *Time* quoted Hyman on the tests' "incredible sloppiness," through Lawrence's commissioning of the [[National Research Council]] study in 1985 with Hyman leading its parapsychology section, to the AIR review under [[David Goslin]], who had administered the NRC report.[^4]
His report of September 11, 1995, reproduced in the AIR report at pp. 3-41 to 3-75, took the ten [[Science Applications International Corporation|SAIC]] experiments as "the only ones for which we have adequate documentation," agreed with Utts that they "were free of the methodological weaknesses that plagued the early SRI research" and that "the effect sizes reported in the SAIC experiments are too large and consistent to be dismissed as statistical flukes," and then answered no to three questions: whether the effects established anomalous cognition, whether "the possibility of methodological flaws" had been "completely eliminated," and whether the results were consistent with other laboratories. "Ten experiments, especially from one laboratory," he wrote, "is far too few to establish reliable relationships in almost any area of inquiry." He compared the field's negatively defined anomaly with the discovery of Neptune from the perturbations of Uranus, and told anyone relying on operational hits to read Marks and [[Richard Kammann]] on subjective validation. Of operations he recorded Edwin May's estimate that "approximately 20 percent of the information supplied by a viewer is accurate": "If May is correct, then 80% of all the information supplied by this talented viewer will be erroneous."[^12]
Writing in the *Skeptical Inquirer* in 1996, he said the CIA "abandoned this program in the late 1970s because it showed no promise," that under the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] it "consisted of three components," one tracking foreign work, an operations program of "six, and later three, psychics on the government payroll," and the laboratory research at SRI and SAIC; that "because of some controversies within the program, a Senate committee decided to transfer the program from the DIA back to the CIA"; that "May helped identify the ten best studies for Utts and me to evaluate"; and that the panel "all agreed that any scientifically meaningful evaluation of these operational psychic intelligence uses was impossible." He ended: "It is premature to draw any conclusions. We will simply have to wait and see. If history is a guide, then this will be a long wait, indeed."[^14]
On *Nightline* of [[ABC News]] on November 28, 1995, he said: "My considered judgment, if someone pushed me hard right now, I'd have to say the odds are 99 to 1 that there's nothing to remote viewing." May's commentary of 1996 traced "a thread of bias" from the visit to SRI, at which Hyman, George Lawrence and Robert Van de Castle were refused access to an experiment in progress, and *Time* quoting Hyman on the tests' "incredible sloppiness," through Lawrence's commissioning of the National Research Council study in 1985 with Hyman leading its parapsychology section, to the AIR review under David Goslin, who had administered the NRC report.[^15]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena," September 11, 1995, reproduced in the AIR report, pp. 3-41 to 3-75, and published in *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 31-58. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB438/docs/doc_57.pdf
[^3]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on Psychic Spying," *Skeptical Inquirer,* March-April 1996, pp. 21-23.
[^4]: "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room. May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-23.
[^900]: Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^1]: Hyman, Ray, "Curriculum Vitae," September 1994, faxed from the University of Oregon Department of Psychology June 12, 1995, in "Misc. Stargate Notes/Memos - 1995 Chrono," CIA-RDP96-00791R000100030044-7; Hyman's vita as reproduced in Appendix A of *An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications,* American Institutes for Research, September 29, 1995, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB438/docs/doc_57.pdf. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "The Magician and the Think Tank," *Time,* March 12, 1973, pp. 111-112, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100023-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Hanlon, Joseph, "Uri Geller and science," *New Scientist,* vol. 64, no. 919, October 17, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110020-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^5]: May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-23.
[^6]: Hyman, Ray, "Parapsychological Research: A Tutorial Review and Critical Appraisal," *Proceedings of the IEEE,* June 1985, CIA-RDP96-00789R003800330001-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Kurtz, Paul, "CSICOP at Twenty," *Skeptical Inquirer,* July/August 1996, pp. 5-8, https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1996/07/22165034/p05.pdf
[^8]: Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^9]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^10]: Truzzi, Marcello, "Reflections on 'Project Alpha': Scientific Experiment or Conjuror's Illusion?," *Zetetic Scholar,* nos. 12 and 13 (issue numbers printed 11 and 12), August 1987, https://archive.org/details/alpha-project-zetetic-scholar-nos-12-13; Randi, James, "The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 1. The First Two Years," *Skeptical Inquirer,* Summer 1983, https://archive.org/details/JamesRandiTheProjectAlpha
[^11]: Hyman, Ray, "Anomaly or Artifact? Comments on Bem and Honorton," *Psychological Bulletin,* vol. 115, no. 1, 1994, pp. 19-24, CIA-RDP96-00789R003200100001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^12]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena," September 11, 1995, reproduced in the AIR report, pp. 3-41 to 3-75, and published in *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 31-58; panel composition and procedure at AIR report pp. 2-2 to 2-5. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB438/docs/doc_57.pdf
[^13]: Hyman, Ray, "Preliminary Evaluation of SRI/SAIC Anomalous Mental Phenomena Program," August 29, 1995, fax transmittal to American Institutes for Research, August 30, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00789R003200290001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^14]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on Psychic Spying," *Skeptical Inquirer,* March-April 1996, pp. 21-23.
[^15]: "Psychic Spies: Cold War Whimsy or Secret Weapon?," ABC News *Nightline,* November 28, 1995, Radio TV Reports transcript for the CIA Public Affairs Staff, CIA-RDP99-01448R000402140001-7, read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room. May, Edwin C. "The American Institutes for Research Review of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE Program: A Commentary," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 60, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-23.

34
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ronald Lister.md
View file

@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Ronald Jay Lister was a former southern California police officer who became [[D
Before his criminal career, Lister spent nearly fifteen years as a police officer. He started as a military policeman for the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve, stationed in Orange County with the 414th Military Police company. His service records show he held a degree in political science and was trained in processing prisoners of war captured during the Vietnam conflict. He regularly received excellent fitness reports. While an army reservist, Lister hired on as an officer with the police department of Maywood, a small suburb of [[Los Angeles]] that employed only a handful of uniformed patrolmen. He was also a reserve deputy for the [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office|L.A. County Sheriff's Office]] at the same time.[^1]
Lister was called to active duty in the army for a few months in 1969, and later, when his enlistment ended, he volunteered for the U.S. Coast Guard, serving as a reserve port security officer at Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. In late 1973 he found a home with the [[Laguna Beach Police Department]], which patrols a posh Orange County suburb south of Los Angeles. There he rose through the ranks to become a detective in the burglary division.[^1] Lister's own account to the Justice Department's inspector general was about thirteen years in law enforcement: the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department from 1967, the Maywood police from 1969 to 1973 and the Laguna Beach police from 1973 to 1980. On leaving, he told the inspector general, he became owner of Terman International Security Consultants of Newport Beach, later Mundy's Security Group.[^7]
Lister was called to active duty in the army for a few months in 1969, and later, when his enlistment ended, he volunteered for the U.S. Coast Guard, serving as a reserve port security officer at Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. In late 1973 he found a home with the [[Laguna Beach Police Department]], which patrols a posh Orange County suburb south of Los Angeles. There he rose through the ranks to become a detective in the burglary division.[^1] Lister's own account to the Justice Department's inspector general was about thirteen years in law enforcement: the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department from 1967, the Maywood police from 1969 to 1973 and the Laguna Beach police from 1973 to 1980. On leaving, he told the inspector general, he became owner of Terman International Security Consultants of Newport Beach, later Mundy's Security Group.[^2]
Lieutenant Danielle Adams, who served with Lister, recalled him as "always very successful, very tenacious and got the job done." His former chief, [[Neil Purcell]], who was on the hiring board that gave Lister his job, offered a starkly different assessment: "The man, in my opinion, is a lying, conniving, manipulative person who likes to play with people's minds. He's very evasive and loves living on the edge. He's the biggest bullshitter that has ever been placed on this earth." Both agreed on one point: "Don't ever underestimate him. He's very, very bright and very tenacious," Adams warned.[^1]
@ -64,33 +64,33 @@ Between 1983 and 1986, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] opened five separ
### CIA Denials
When defense attorneys tried in 1996 to quiz Blandón about Lister's alleged relationship with the CIA, a federal prosecutor immediately objected, and the jury was ordered out of the courtroom. During a whispered conversation with the judge, the prosecutor said that while it was true that "Lister made a claim... that he was an employee of the CIA," the government believed it was false, made only to "impress [his] illegal business partners," and was an attempt "to deter prosecution." Nevertheless the prosecutor asked the judge to halt that line of inquiry because it was "muddying the waters." The judge decided that since Blandón had denied that Lister worked for the government, there was no need for any more questions. An internal CIA investigation in 1997 declared that Lister had no relationship with the agency.[^1] The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that "we have found no credible evidence that Lister ever had a relationship with the CIA. The evidence does indicate, however, that Lister frequently told people that he had an association with the CIA in order to impress them and to hide his illegal activities." The FBI had closed a 1984 investigation of his attempt to sell equipment to foreign nationals because he could not supply it, concluding that he "clearly had intentions of violating U.S. export laws" but lacked the ability, and its [[San Francisco]] office called him the "quintessential con man." The CIA's inspector general confirmed that William Nelson, the retired security consultant Lister named as a contact, had once been the agency's Deputy Director for Operations.[^7]
When defense attorneys tried in 1996 to quiz Blandón about Lister's alleged relationship with the CIA, a federal prosecutor immediately objected, and the jury was ordered out of the courtroom. During a whispered conversation with the judge, the prosecutor said that while it was true that "Lister made a claim... that he was an employee of the CIA," the government believed it was false, made only to "impress [his] illegal business partners," and was an attempt "to deter prosecution." Nevertheless the prosecutor asked the judge to halt that line of inquiry because it was "muddying the waters." The judge decided that since Blandón had denied that Lister worked for the government, there was no need for any more questions. An internal CIA investigation in 1997 declared that Lister had no relationship with the agency.[^1] The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that "we have found no credible evidence that Lister ever had a relationship with the CIA. The evidence does indicate, however, that Lister frequently told people that he had an association with the CIA in order to impress them and to hide his illegal activities." The FBI had closed a 1984 investigation of his attempt to sell equipment to foreign nationals because he could not supply it, concluding that he "clearly had intentions of violating U.S. export laws" but lacked the ability, and its [[San Francisco]] office called him the "quintessential con man." The CIA's inspector general confirmed that William Nelson, the retired security consultant Lister named as a contact, had once been the agency's Deputy Director for Operations.[^2]
Lister dismissed any suggestion that he was "knowingly" working for the CIA. In an interview with police in 1996, he claimed "that if he were affiliated with an organization like the CIA, he wouldn't talk about it." The detectives noted that "Lister did display some knowledge of the U.S. intelligence community during our interview." Blandón's attorney [[Brad Brunon]] described Lister as "one of these guys who would boast about having bugging capabilities, would boast about having wiretap capabilities, you could get any information any time, one of those... I-can-uplink-to-the-satellite sort of guy." Brunon said of Lister: "I never knew what his true role was. I mean, he covertly insinuated that he was CIA. At least, if not a sworn member, whatever the hell they do to get to become employees - some sort of operative." Brunon "really didn't have much communication with the guy because he scared me."[^1]
### Mundy Security Group
In mid-1983, Lister incorporated [[Mundy Security Group]] Inc. in Laguna Beach. Named as directors and officers were Lister, attorney Maurice Green, attorney Gary Shapiro, and reserve police officer Christopher W. Moore. A business card found in a 1986 drug raid identified Danilo Blandón as a vice president. The company was licensed with the U.S. State Department in 1983 to export U.S. Munitions List items to other countries, receiving three temporary export licenses (DSP-73s) for laser components and spare parts. Aside from burglar alarm installations, the company's main business activity was marketing a laser sighting device for AR-15 assault rifles designed by Lister's partner [[William Downing]].[^2]
In mid-1983, Lister incorporated [[Mundy Security Group]] Inc. in Laguna Beach. Named as directors and officers were Lister, attorney Maurice Green, attorney Gary Shapiro, and reserve police officer Christopher W. Moore. A business card found in a 1986 drug raid identified Danilo Blandón as a vice president. The company was licensed with the U.S. State Department in 1983 to export U.S. Munitions List items to other countries, receiving three temporary export licenses (DSP-73s) for laser components and spare parts. Aside from burglar alarm installations, the company's main business activity was marketing a laser sighting device for AR-15 assault rifles designed by Lister's partner [[William Downing]].[^3]
Moore described director Maurice Green as a self-proclaimed legal genius with a severe drug and alcohol problem who had a hollow wall built behind his desk for emergency escape. Green was prosecuted and disbarred in 1987 for forging prescriptions and sentenced to two years in prison in 1992 for grand theft and practicing law without a license. Director Gary Shapiro described an incident where angry doctors besieged the office over Green's financial mismanagement.[^2]
Moore described director Maurice Green as a self-proclaimed legal genius with a severe drug and alcohol problem who had a hollow wall built behind his desk for emergency escape. Green was prosecuted and disbarred in 1987 for forging prescriptions and sentenced to two years in prison in 1992 for grand theft and practicing law without a license. Director Gary Shapiro described an incident where angry doctors besieged the office over Green's financial mismanagement.[^3]
### Connection to William Nelson
Lister's most significant intelligence connection was [[William Nelson|Bill Nelson]], the CIA's former deputy director of operations from 1973 to 1976, who later became vice president for security at Fluor Corporation. During 1982 and 1983, Lister met with Nelson at Fluor's headquarters - described by Chris Moore as "Ron's big CIA contact." Former CIA officer John Vandewerker confirmed that Nelson and Lister knew each other. Nelson's name appeared at the top of a handwritten list of seven names that Lister prepared for his 1985 grand jury appearance, alongside Roberto D'Aubuisson and Ray Prendes.[^2]
Lister's most significant intelligence connection was [[William Nelson|Bill Nelson]], the CIA's former deputy director of operations from 1973 to 1976, who later became vice president for security at Fluor Corporation. During 1982 and 1983, Lister met with Nelson at Fluor's headquarters - described by Chris Moore as "Ron's big CIA contact." Former CIA officer John Vandewerker confirmed that Nelson and Lister knew each other. Nelson's name appeared at the top of a handwritten list of seven names that Lister prepared for his 1985 grand jury appearance, alongside Roberto D'Aubuisson and Ray Prendes.[^3]
### FBI KGB Investigation and Grand Jury
On April 3, 1985, two FBI agents, Richard Smith and David Cook, delivered a grand jury subpoena to Lister's home in Mission Viejo. They questioned him about contacts with Soviet bloc countries. Lister confirmed to police in 1996 that he had been the subject of a "grand jury investigation on my relationship with Soviet agents." He said he had sold an FBI "scrambler system" to someone overseas, and the FBI investigated only to find the equipment was declassified and available commercially.[^2]
On April 3, 1985, two FBI agents, Richard Smith and David Cook, delivered a grand jury subpoena to Lister's home in Mission Viejo. They questioned him about contacts with Soviet bloc countries. Lister confirmed to police in 1996 that he had been the subject of a "grand jury investigation on my relationship with Soviet agents." He said he had sold an FBI "scrambler system" to someone overseas, and the FBI investigated only to find the equipment was declassified and available commercially.[^3]
FBI agent Smith recalled that Lister was attempting to sell classified electronic equipment to Soviet [[KGB]] agents. The FBI conducted a sting operation with agents posing as KGB agents. Smith said Lister's activities were "completely illegal and clearly in violation of United States national security." Chief Purcell recalled the FBI was "absolutely convinced he was selling this stuff to the Russians" and showed him photographs of Lister meeting with Russians in San Francisco, New York, and the Embassy in Washington. But Purcell told the FBI: "Pardon me for laughing, but he's taking you guys for a ride." The FBI discovered Lister was overcharging the Russians four to five times retail for camera equipment. Smith claimed Lister was never prosecuted because he was "full of hot air" and lacked "present capability" to produce the equipment, though the case went to a grand jury.[^2]
FBI agent Smith recalled that Lister was attempting to sell classified electronic equipment to Soviet [[KGB]] agents. The FBI conducted a sting operation with agents posing as KGB agents. Smith said Lister's activities were "completely illegal and clearly in violation of United States national security." Chief Purcell recalled the FBI was "absolutely convinced he was selling this stuff to the Russians" and showed him photographs of Lister meeting with Russians in San Francisco, New York, and the Embassy in Washington. But Purcell told the FBI: "Pardon me for laughing, but he's taking you guys for a ride." The FBI discovered Lister was overcharging the Russians four to five times retail for camera equipment. Smith claimed Lister was never prosecuted because he was "full of hot air" and lacked "present capability" to produce the equipment, though the case went to a grand jury.[^3]
### Seized Documents and National Security Classification
When L.A. detectives tried to obtain FBI files on the Lister investigation in 1996, FBI Special Agent Tim Bezick stated that "the FBI reports and the transcripts of Lister's grand jury testimony were protected by the National Security Act." Joel Levin, chief of the Criminal Division of the San Francisco [[U.S. Attorney's office]], confirmed a court order would be required. The personnel files from Lister's old employers were also inaccessible: Maywood Police Department files were "sealed by the City of Maywood," and Laguna Beach Police Department files had been purged entirely.[^2]
When L.A. detectives tried to obtain FBI files on the Lister investigation in 1996, FBI Special Agent Tim Bezick stated that "the FBI reports and the transcripts of Lister's grand jury testimony were protected by the National Security Act." Joel Levin, chief of the Criminal Division of the San Francisco [[U.S. Attorney's office]], confirmed a court order would be required. The personnel files from Lister's old employers were also inaccessible: Maywood Police Department files were "sealed by the City of Maywood," and Laguna Beach Police Department files had been purged entirely.[^3]
Documents seized during a 1986 narcotics raid on Lister's house included a ten-page handwritten document chronicling weapons and equipment deals, including meetings with a customer named "Ivan" at the Fairmont Hotel in [[San Jose]] and a visit to the Russian embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]] Lister's monthly calendars for 1985 contained "frequent references to the Contras," including notations reading "SF Contras," "LA Contras," "D-Contra" and at least one reference to the DIA. Agents seized weapons code sheets and a handwritten note bearing the names of several CIA operatives working with [[Eden Pastora]]'s [[ARDE]] group.[^2]
Documents seized during a 1986 narcotics raid on Lister's house included a ten-page handwritten document chronicling weapons and equipment deals, including meetings with a customer named "Ivan" at the Fairmont Hotel in [[San Jose]] and a visit to the Russian embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]] Lister's monthly calendars for 1985 contained "frequent references to the Contras," including notations reading "SF Contras," "LA Contras," "D-Contra" and at least one reference to the DIA. Agents seized weapons code sheets and a handwritten note bearing the names of several CIA operatives working with [[Eden Pastora]]'s [[ARDE]] group.[^3]
A flow chart found in Lister's notes contained boxes labeled "Swiss Bank," "U.S. State Department," "H.K.," "X Country," and "Factory USA." [[U.S. Customs]] Service analysis concluded it diagrammed a scheme to illegally divert American-made weapons using fraudulent end-user certificates - precisely the method [[Oliver North]] used to arm the Contras after the congressional funding cutoff. The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that "whatever the legality of the transactions depicted in the flow chart, nothing indicates that it shows the sale of arms to the Contras, and certainly nothing suggests that it depicts the use of drug money in any of the deals," and that "the documents seized from Lister in 1986 largely corroborate his account of his relationship with Blandon and the Contras. Lister would have liked to sell military and security weaponry and equipment to the Contras and to factions in El Salvador but we found no evidence showing that he did."[^2][^7]
A flow chart found in Lister's notes contained boxes labeled "Swiss Bank," "U.S. State Department," "H.K.," "X Country," and "Factory USA." [[U.S. Customs]] Service analysis concluded it diagrammed a scheme to illegally divert American-made weapons using fraudulent end-user certificates - precisely the method [[Oliver North]] used to arm the Contras after the congressional funding cutoff. The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that "whatever the legality of the transactions depicted in the flow chart, nothing indicates that it shows the sale of arms to the Contras, and certainly nothing suggests that it depicts the use of drug money in any of the deals," and that "the documents seized from Lister in 1986 largely corroborate his account of his relationship with Blandon and the Contras. Lister would have liked to sell military and security weaponry and equipment to the Contras and to factions in El Salvador but we found no evidence showing that he did."[^2][^3]
### Drug Trafficking Expertise
@ -100,18 +100,18 @@ Lister told CIA inspectors that he had been to Colombia with Blandón and observ
### Cocaine Distribution Operations
As 1982 drew to a close, Blandón's cocaine trafficking business in Los Angeles expanded dramatically. Lister described the logistics to police: "I'd go over to D's [Blandón's] house, take my Mercedes over there, put three U-Haul boxes which will cover about 100 keys, about 33 per box plus one you'd squeeze in, in the trunk, go over to south L.A. It was the slickest deal you've ever seen."[^1] The Torres brothers told investigators that "Blandón is working with an ex-Laguna Beach police officer by the name of Ronnie, who lives in an expensive house in Mission Viejo and drives a new Mercedes automobile. Ronnie transported 100 kilos of [[Cocaine]] to the Black market and has transported millions of dollars to [[Miami]] for Danilo Blandón.".[^5]
As 1982 drew to a close, Blandón's cocaine trafficking business in Los Angeles expanded dramatically. Lister described the logistics to police: "I'd go over to D's [Blandón's] house, take my Mercedes over there, put three U-Haul boxes which will cover about 100 keys, about 33 per box plus one you'd squeeze in, in the trunk, go over to south L.A. It was the slickest deal you've ever seen."[^1] The Torres brothers told investigators that "Blandón is working with an ex-Laguna Beach police officer by the name of Ronnie, who lives in an expensive house in Mission Viejo and drives a new Mercedes automobile. Ronnie transported 100 kilos of [[Cocaine]] to the Black market and has transported millions of dollars to [[Miami]] for Danilo Blandón.".[^4]
### October 1986 Raids
On October 27, 1986, the [[LASD Major Violators]] raided Lister's former Mission Viejo house - where [[Aparicio Moreno]] was now living - and his new residence. At the new house, Deputy Bobby Juarez explained they were executing a drug warrant. Lister responded: "I know why you're here, but why are you here? Mr. Weekly knows what I'm doing and you're not supposed to be here." Lister told deputies he "had dealings in [[South America]] and worked with the CIA and added that his friends in Washington weren't going to like what was going on." Deputy Richard Love said Lister warned: "You don't know what you are doing. There's a bigger picture here. I'm working for the CIA. The government is allowing drug sales to go on in the United States." Lister also had "intimate details about a plane loaded with guns that crashed in Nicaragua" and "alluded to the fact that he had been on one of those planes before." No drugs were found. Seized evidence was logged as "miscellaneous CIA info" and included "a lot of Contra rebel correspondence."[^3]
On October 27, 1986, the [[LASD Major Violators]] raided Lister's former Mission Viejo house - where [[Aparicio Moreno]] was now living - and his new residence. At the new house, Deputy Bobby Juarez explained they were executing a drug warrant. Lister responded: "I know why you're here, but why are you here? Mr. Weekly knows what I'm doing and you're not supposed to be here." Lister told deputies he "had dealings in [[South America]] and worked with the CIA and added that his friends in Washington weren't going to like what was going on." Deputy Richard Love said Lister warned: "You don't know what you are doing. There's a bigger picture here. I'm working for the CIA. The government is allowing drug sales to go on in the United States." Lister also had "intimate details about a plane loaded with guns that crashed in Nicaragua" and "alluded to the fact that he had been on one of those planes before." No drugs were found. Seized evidence was logged as "miscellaneous CIA info" and included "a lot of Contra rebel correspondence."[^5]
Deputies found papers showing Lister had "regular meeting with DIA subcontractor [[Scott Weekly]]," handwritten weapons lists including antiaircraft weapons, 1,000 AR-15 rifles, and napalm bombs, and a list of names including William Nelson, Roberto D'Aubuisson, and Scott Weekly. Federal agents copied over 1,000 pages of seized documents, then nearly all copies disappeared. The CIA's Los Angeles office sent an "Immediate Director" cable asking for traces on Lister, Blandón, and Meneses. Lister denied the CIA claims, but Sergeant Art Fransen said Lister erupted in a "tirade": "You guys don't know what you are doing. I deal with the CIA. I got power!"[^3]
Deputies found papers showing Lister had "regular meeting with DIA subcontractor [[Scott Weekly]]," handwritten weapons lists including antiaircraft weapons, 1,000 AR-15 rifles, and napalm bombs, and a list of names including William Nelson, Roberto D'Aubuisson, and Scott Weekly. Federal agents copied over 1,000 pages of seized documents, then nearly all copies disappeared. The CIA's Los Angeles office sent an "Immediate Director" cable asking for traces on Lister, Blandón, and Meneses. Lister denied the CIA claims, but Sergeant Art Fransen said Lister erupted in a "tirade": "You guys don't know what you are doing. I deal with the CIA. I got power!"[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 18: "We bust our ass and the government's involved"
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9, Ch. 8.
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions.* December 1997, chapter V. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/special/9712/
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions.* December 1997, chapter V. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/special/9712/
[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9, Ch. 8.
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 18: "We bust our ass and the government's involved"

56
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Stefan Kanfer.md
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@ -1,17 +1,59 @@
---
aliases:
- Stefan Kanfer
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
category: "Authors & Journalists"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
summary: "Stefan Kanfer was a reporter for *Time* magazine."
- Journalist
- Time
- Critic
- Magician
- UriGeller
- SRI
- Parapsychology
alias:
- Stefan Kanfer
- Steve Kanfer
- Kanfer
summary: "Time associate editor who wrote the March 4, 1974 cover story on psychic phenomena, an amateur magician who treated Uri Geller and the SRI research as unproven and called for examiners with no prior belief."
born: 1933-05-17
died: 2018-06-19
location: "New York City, New York, USA"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Time]]"
end: 1987
role: "writer, critic, associate editor and senior editor; wrote the March 4, 1974 cover story 'Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier'; resigned his staff position in 1987"
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[City Journal]]"
start: 1995
role: "contributing writer, at the request of editor Myron Magnet"
fn: 3
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Stefan Kanfer was a reporter for *Time* magazine. He was a vocal critic of the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]'s involvement in [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] research, particularly its work with [[Uri Geller]]. Kanfer targeted SRI for blame, stating, "SRI should be destroyed" for carrying out this kind of research, and that "That’s the way fascism began"[^1].
Stefan Kanfer was born on May 17, 1933 and died on June 19, 2018, a month after his eighty-fifth birthday. He worked at [[Time]] for about three decades, edited its book review section, and wrote novels and biographies; he resigned his staff position in 1987 and stopped freelancing for the magazine about five years later. In a tribute in *[[City Journal]]*, [[Myron Magnet]] called him "by a long measure the best book and movie critic that *Time* magazine could boast, excepting only James Agee." Kanfer's other occupations, in that account, included playing the musical saw in Greenwich Village clubs, work in advertising, service as a military interrogator, and writing cartoon captions and television gags. He began writing for *City Journal* in 1995.[^1]
### The March 4, 1974 cover story
In the issue of *Time* dated March 4, 1974, the Publisher's Letter states that "Associate Editor Stefan Kanfer, who wrote the cover story, managed to remain free of psychic interruption last week," and quotes him: "I got into this topic through the back door, some would say front door, of magic and mentalism. There are many tricks with which one can duplicate paranormal phenomena." The letter describes Kanfer as an amateur magician who "astounded numerous TIME staffers" by guessing over the telephone cards drawn from a deck in the office of Senior Editor [[Leon Jaroff]], one floor above, and records that Jaroff, who brought "an admitted predisposition to skepticism" to the story, said that "belief in these matters is less a function of intelligence than of psychological need." The letter adds that Los Angeles Correspondent Richard Duncan had himself photographed by the Kirlian process at [[University of California, Los Angeles]], and that on closing night the magazine's computerized copy-processing system failed at about the moment the story was entered.[^2]
The cover story, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," opens with the assertion that the [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]] "assigns a team to investigate seemingly authentic psychic phenomena at the Stanford Research Institute." It describes [[Uri Geller]]'s work at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) as a film in which he picked a can containing an object from identical empty cans, influenced laboratory scales, reproduced drawings sealed in envelopes, deflected a magnetometer, and called the upper face of a die in a closed box eight times in eight tries. It reports that [[Ray Hyman]] of the [[University of Oregon]], assigned by the Department of Defense to report on the SRI work and accompanied by [[George Lawrence]], the DOD projects manager for ARPA, "caught Geller in some outright deceptions," and that Hyman called the SRI controls "incredible sloppiness."[^2]
The story gives [[James Randi]] a paragraph, describing him as a television performer who "duplicates many of Uri Geller's achievements with a combination of sleight of hand, misdirected attention and patented paraphernalia." It records that on the *[[Tonight Show]]* [[Johnny Carson]] imposed controls at Randi's suggestion and that nothing Geller attempted during twenty minutes succeeded, and that Geller cancelled a British tour citing "death threats" after English magicians planned to observe him. It reviews [[Andrija Puharich]]'s forthcoming book *Uri* (Doubleday), quoting the passage in which [[Russell Targ]] told Geller that his account of outer-space intelligences agreed "very well with things that Hal [[Harold Puthoff]] and I believe but we can't prove," and asking why the SRI scientists had not mentioned Geller's claimed contacts with outer space.[^2]
The same article lists connections it calls "questionable": that Puthoff is "a promoter of the bizarre and controversial cult of Scientology," which [[Ingo Swann]] also practices; that Putnam executive [[William Targ]] had contracted to publish astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]]'s *Psychic Exploration* and said at the signing that "the real race now between the Russians and us is in the area of sciences like ESP"; and that Mitchell's [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]] "helped to fund S.R.I.'s Geller research, which was conducted largely by Puthoff and Russell Targ, who happens to be Editor Targ's son." It closes that "there is only one way to tell: by a thorough examination of the phenomena by those who do not express an a priori belief," and that "until such examiners are allowed to play the psychic game, it is unlikely that the paranormal will escape" the prohibition of Leviticus on mediums and wizards.[^2]
The story was reproduced in the CIA's STARGATE collection (CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3, with a second copy at CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8). The April 16, 1974 CIA memorandum on a request by Time's former reporter [[John L. Wilhelm]] to interview Puthoff and Targ was written six weeks after its publication.[^4]
### Statement attributed to Kanfer on SRI
[[Annie Jacobsen]] reports that Kanfer blamed SRI for the psychic research and said "SRI should be destroyed" for carrying it out, adding "that's the way fascism began."[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: Magnet, Myron. "Irreplaceable Steve," *City Journal,* 2018. https://www.city-journal.org/article/irreplaceable-steve (birth date May 17, 1933 and death date June 19, 2018 as carried on the prior vault page; the tribute gives his eighty-fifth birthday as May 17, 2018).
[^2]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time,* March 4, 1974, cover story and Publisher's Letter, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000700030001-3
[^3]: Magnet, Myron. "Irreplaceable Steve," *City Journal,* 2018. https://www.city-journal.org/article/irreplaceable-steve
[^4]: Memorandum for the Record, "Request for Information about Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Paranormal Research Project by Mr. Wilhelm former Time Reporter," April 16, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200200023-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited.

5
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Tom McNear.md
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@ -26,8 +26,9 @@ Despite his proficiency, McNear did not want to remain part of the viewer unit a
In 1985, the [[Department of Defense]] published a forty-one-page how-to manual, "Coordinate Remote Viewing, Stages I–VI and Beyond." The author of this manual, declassified in 2000, was Tom McNear[^1].
The released CIA collection on the program carries no legible mention of McNear.[^900]
The released CIA collection on the program carries no legible mention of McNear.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: The archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection, about 13,000 items under the identifiers cia-rdp96-*, searched by title and OCR text.
[^2]: The archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection, about 13,000 items under the identifiers cia-rdp96-*, searched by title and OCR text.

78
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Walter Levy.md
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@ -1,16 +1,78 @@
---
aliases:
- Walter Levy
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
summary: "Walter Levy was an assistant to J."
- Parapsychologist
- Fraud
- Durham
- InstituteForParapsychology
- Rhine
- AnimalPsi
- 1970s
alias:
- Walter Levy
- Walter J. Levy
- Walter J. Levy Jr.
- Walter Jay Levy
- W. J. Levy
- W. Jay Levy
- Jay Levy
- Levy
summary: "Director of J. B. Rhine's Institute for Parapsychology in Durham who resigned in June 1974 after colleagues recorded him altering the output of rat and gerbil psi experiments."
location: "Durham, North Carolina"
relations:
- type: director_of
with: "[[Institute for Parapsychology]]"
start: 1973
end: 1974-06
role: "laboratory director at the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, Durham; resigned after the June 11, 1974 observation"
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[J. B. Rhine]]"
start: 1973
end: 1974
role: "full-time researcher after graduating from the Medical College of Georgia in 1973; summer worker from 1969"
fn: 3
- type: subject_of
with: "[[James Kennedy]]"
start: 1974-05-10
end: 1974-06-11
role: "observed and recorded by Jerry Levin, Jim Davis and James Kennedy; chart recorder installed June 9, 1974"
fn: 5
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Walter Levy was an assistant to [[J. B. Rhine]] at the [[Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory]]. In 1974, he was caught cheating in an experiment involving rats. The experiment was designed to test whether rats could use [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] to increase the number of pleasurable brain stimulations delivered by an apparatus[^1].
Walter J. Levy Jr. (known as W. Jay Levy) was a medical student who began working at J. B. Rhine's parapsychology institute in Durham, North Carolina during his summer vacation in 1969. In March 1971 the *[[Journal of Parapsychology]]* published "Repetition of the French Precognition Experiments with Mice" by Levy, L. Allen Mayo Jr., Eve Andre and Anita McRae; the editors' note describes Levy as a second-year medical student at the [[Medical College of Georgia]], Mayo as a [[Duke University]] zoology graduate student, Andre as a librarian in Victoria, Australia, and McRae as a research assistant at the [[Institute for Parapsychology]]. The copy of that paper is in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] STARGATE collection.[^1]
Levy's research assistants discovered him tampering with the lab equipment and recorded him on videotape. When confronted with the evidence, Levy confessed and resigned. This scandal became fodder for skeptics of Rhine and his [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]] research[^1].
### Directorship
The Institute for Parapsychology, in Durham, was the successor to the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory that [[J. B. Rhine]] had moved off campus on his retirement from Duke in 1965, and was part of the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man.[^2] [[Time]] reported on August 26, 1974 that after Levy graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in 1973 Rhine "hired him as a full-time researcher; soon he was promoted to director," that he had "showed an unusual talent for automating experiments and recording data," and that his experiments tested the ability of rodents to anticipate events (extrasensory perception) or to affect physical changes by will (psychokinesis). In the rat experiments, electrodes implanted in a pleasure zone of the brain delivered stimuli at random intervals from a computer keyed to the decay of atoms in a strontium 90 sample; the expected rate without influence was 50 percent, and by early May 1974 Levy was reporting 54 percent.[^3] [[James Kennedy]] later wrote that the Levy case came shortly after Rhine's 1974 article on researcher fraud.[^4]
### The 1974 exposure
The chronology written in 1974 by James Kennedy, J. W. Davis and Jerry Levin records the sequence. On Friday, May 10, 1974, Levin observed Levy at the indicator panel of the small-rodent precognition work holding wires from the random generator "in a position where he could control the target chosen"; Levin did not witness a clear-cut manipulation, and taped the wires. About a week later he told Kennedy. On Saturday, June 8, Kennedy set up a rat implantation experiment (the effect of valium on psychokinesis scoring) with the wires to the rat left disconnected without Levy's knowledge, saw Levy with his hand in the equipment several times, and on entering the room after Levy left found "a long string of hits had just been recorded on paper tape punch, which was the official record." Levy had commented several times that positive results with valium "might lead to some financial support." On Sunday, June 9, Kennedy, Levin and Davis installed an Esterline Angus chart recorder in the basement to record the output of the random generator, and decided that Davis would watch from the porch off the experimenter room.[^5]
On Tuesday, June 11, in an isolation experiment officially Kennedy's, Davis noticed that the mechanical counter sounded on every trial (every four seconds) but the paper punch, the official record, did not register on every trial while Levy was in the room. Comparing the punch record with the chart record afterward, "it was apparent that when a long string of hits occurred on the paper punch record, the misses were simply not recorded." From the porch Davis saw Levy enter the room and put his hand among the wires, and from the window saw that the plug carrying the channel that recorded misses had been removed; Levy returned twice more, and the plug was reinserted before Davis went back in. The three recorded that "for at least the past few months it has been Dr. Levy's practice to spend an excessive amount of time in close proximity to the equipment during studies involving his lines of research." Kennedy added in 2005 that he had left the rat's wires disconnected because he wished to test whether the experimenter or the animal produced the apparent effects, and had initially rejected Levin's suspicions because he "could not comprehend how someone would work so hard and be so devoted to a topic that he was fraudulently producing."[^5]
The three reported to Rhine, who confronted Levy. Time wrote that Levy "confessed and resigned, later telling friends that he had been under great pressure to produce positive results and had been overburdened by administrative duties," insisted that this was the only time he had falsified data, and said that after failing to reproduce earlier positive tests he felt a need to force the data to reflect the results he expected; Rhine "set other staff members to work, checking the more important of Levy's earlier findings, and cautioned other psychic researchers not to rely on these data until they can be verified." The magazine called the case "the parapsychological equivalent of the famous case of the painted mice at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering Institute."[^3]
[[Annie Jacobsen]] writes that Levy was a Rhine assistant who was caught in 1974 cheating in an experiment in which rats were thought to use ESP to increase the number of pleasurable brain stimulations, that his research assistants found him tampering with the equipment and recorded him on videotape, and that he confessed and resigned when confronted.[^6] Kennedy's contemporaneous chronology describes a chart recorder and a human observer, and does not mention videotape.[^5]
### Rhine's reports and later accounts
Rhine published "A New Case of Experimenter Unreliability" in the *Journal of Parapsychology* in 1974 (volume 38, pages 215 to 225) and "A Second Report on a Case of Experimenter Fraud" in 1975 (volume 39, pages 306 to 325); the volume 38 index lists a comment on the first by Jule Eisenbud.[^7] Kennedy wrote that the extent of the fraud took about a year to investigate, that the investigation found evidence of fraud in all of Levy's lines of research (including a fully fabricated computerized game experiment with human subjects), and that he later posted the original summaries of three of Levy's four lines of work (maze, rat implantation and egg).[^8] Kennedy also disputed accounts by [[D. Scott Rogo]], [[Chris Roe]] and [[John Palmer]] of who first became suspicious, whether Rhine and others suppressed reporting, and whether the fraud was confined to a single experiment.[^8]
The Levy case appears in the STARGATE collection in an abstract of Werner Eeman's article "Fraud" in *Psi-Forum* (1985), in *Parapsychology Abstracts International*, which states that "we should not dramatize these uncovered frauds, such as those of Soal and Levy."[^9]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: Levy, Walter J., Jr., L. Allen Mayo, Jr., Eve Andre and Anita McRae. "Repetition of the French Precognition Experiments with Mice," *Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 35, no. 1, March 1971, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100021-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Time (note 3) states Levy began working at the institute in the summer of 1969.
[^2]: "Rhine Research Center," Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research, https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ (states that testing continued at Duke until Rhine's retirement in 1965, when the laboratory moved off campus and was renamed the Foundation for the Research on the Nature of Man, which included the Institute for Parapsychology).
[^3]: "Science: The Psychic Scandal," *Time,* August 26, 1974. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,944971,00.html
[^4]: Kennedy, J. E. "Researcher Fraud in Experimental Parapsychology," Psi Encyclopedia, https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/researcher-fraud-in-experimental-parapsychology/ (gives Rhine's 1974 article on fraud as published shortly before the Levy case and records Rhine making Levy director in 1973).
[^5]: Kennedy, J. E., J. W. Davis and J. Levin. "Chronology of Events in Exposing W.J. Levy," 1974, with additional information added by Kennedy in March 2005. https://www.jeksite.org/psi/fchron.pdf, linked from https://www.jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm
[^6]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^7]: *The Journal of Parapsychology,* vol. 38 (1974) index, listing "a new case of experimenter unreliability, 215-25," https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1974_38_index; Kennedy, "Notes on a Case of Scientific Fraud in Parapsychology," https://www.jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm (gives the 1975 report as J. B. Rhine, "A Second Report on a Case of Experimenter Fraud," *Journal of Parapsychology,* 1975, pp. 306-325, and notes a "surprisingly accurate article" in Time on August 26, 1974).
[^8]: Kennedy, J. E. "Notes on a Case of Scientific Fraud in Parapsychology," https://www.jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm; Kennedy, "Researcher Fraud in Experimental Parapsychology," Psi Encyclopedia, https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/researcher-fraud-in-experimental-parapsychology/
[^9]: *Parapsychology Abstracts International,* abstract 02965, Eeman, Werner, "Fraud [Part 1]," *Psi-Forum,* 1985, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 82-94, CIA-RDP96-00792R000400040001-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

92
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Amnon Rubinstein.md
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@ -1,22 +1,94 @@
---
aliases:
- Amnon Rubinstein
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
summary: "Amnon Rubinstein was a prominent Israeli legal scholar, politician, and television talk show host."
- Israel
- Knesset
- Shinui
- Meretz
- ConstitutionalLaw
- UriGeller
- TelAvivUniversity
alias:
- Amnon Rubinstein
- Prof. Amnon Rubinstein
- Dr. Amnon Rubinstein
- Rubinstein
summary: "Israeli law professor and Knesset member (1977 to 2001), founder of Shinui and minister of communications and of education, whom Uri Geller named as the confidant to whom he confessed faking a trick in 1970."
born: 1931-09-05
died: 2024-01-18
location: "Tel Aviv, Israel"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Tel Aviv University]]"
start: 1961
end: 1975
role: "professor of law; dean of the Faculty of Law, 1968 to 1973"
fn: 2
- type: founded
with: "[[Shinui]]"
start: 1974
role: "founded the Shinui (Change) movement after the Yom Kippur War"
fn: 3
- type: member_of
with: "[[Knesset]]"
start: 1977
end: 2001
role: "Democratic Movement for Change (9th Knesset), Shinui (9th to 12th), Meretz (12th to 15th)"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
start: 1984
end: 1987-05-26
role: "Minister of Communication, 21st and 22nd governments"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
start: 1992
end: 1993-06-07
role: "Minister of Science and Technology until December 31, 1992, then Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, 25th government"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
start: 1994-05-30
role: "Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, 25th and 26th governments"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya]]"
role: "dean of the Radzyner School of Law, provost, and president for a year"
fn: 4
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Amnon Rubinstein was a prominent [[Israel|Israeli]] legal scholar, politician, and television talk show host. Known as the founding father of Israeli constitutional law, he served in various ministerial roles, including Minister of Communications, Minister of Science and Technology and Space, and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure[^1].
Rubinstein became a notable supporter of [[Uri Geller]]'s [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]] abilities since 1969. He first encountered Geller at a party, where Geller allegedly demonstrated a remarkable ability to influence Rubinstein's thoughts, making him choose a specific number that Geller had already written down. Rubinstein, initially skeptical, was astonished by this demonstration[^1].
Amnon Rubinstein was born in [[Tel Aviv]] on September 5, 1931 and died there on January 18, 2024. He served as an officer in the [[Israel Defense Forces]], studied economics, international relations and law at the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], was called to the Israel bar in 1963, and received a doctorate in law from the [[London School of Economics]] in 1966.[^1][^2]
He conducted numerous informal tests with Geller in his own home, where Geller consistently demonstrated the ability to "plant a thought right in our mind," such as writing down a number or a capital city that Rubinstein or his family would then choose. Rubinstein considered this ability far more significant than spoon bending, stating, "This is a single phenomenon that casts doubt on many of the foundations of our rational world." He remained a staunch defender of Geller's powers against critics[^1].
### Academic and journalistic career
Rubinstein advised Geller to go to America to be tested at a serious research institute like [[Stanford Research Institute|Stanford]], which ultimately led to Geller's testing by the CIA[^1].
Rubinstein was professor of law at [[Tel Aviv University]] from 1961 to 1975 and dean of its law faculty from 1968 to 1973; the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC) tribute of June 1, 2009 says he "laid the foundations of the faculty" as dean.[^1][^3] During the same period he wrote for *[[Haaretz]]* and held debates on Israeli television "during its first years."[^3] His curriculum vitae lists him later as political commentator for *Haaretz* and *[[Maariv]]*, and as the author of *Jurisdiction and Illegality* (Clarendon Press, Oxford), *Israel's Constitutional Law* (Hebrew, 6th edition, Schocken, 2005), *The Zionist Dream Revisited* (Schocken, New York, 1984) and *From Herzl to Rabin* (Holmes and Meier, 2000).[^2]
### Uri Geller, 1969 to 1970
[[Annie Jacobsen]] reports that Rubinstein became a supporter of [[Uri Geller]]'s extrasensory perception and psychokinesis from 1969, after meeting Geller at a party where Geller appeared to influence Rubinstein's thoughts, making him choose a number that Geller had already written down; that Rubinstein, "initially skeptical," was astonished; that Geller repeatedly "planted a thought right in our mind," such as a number or a capital city chosen by Rubinstein or his family, during informal tests at Rubinstein's home; that Rubinstein regarded this as more significant than spoon bending ("This is a single phenomenon that casts doubt on many of the foundations of our rational world"); and that he remained a defender of Geller against critics. Jacobsen further reports that Rubinstein advised Geller to go to the United States to be tested at a serious research institute such as [[Stanford Research Institute]], which led to Geller's testing by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].[^5]
Geller gives a different account on his own website. He writes that in 1970 a promoter at the Beit Hachayal auditorium in Tel Aviv asked him to fake a "clairvoyant" reveal of a car license plate number for a guest the promoter wished to impress, that he did so for "four or five performances," and that he then "confessed what I had done against my better judgment to a trusted and respected friend, Dr Amnon Rubinstein, who was then the dean of the Law School" (Geller places the school at the Hebrew University). Geller writes: "Amnon was horrified, and made me promise never to cheapen my talents again," and that Rubinstein told him he "should be co-operating with scientists and trying to find out" more about how the mind works.[^6]
### Political career
After the Yom Kippur War of 1973, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, Rubinstein concluded that he "could not rest only on his academic and journalistic laurels" and founded Shinui in 1974, a movement for free enterprise, electoral reform and a written constitution. It ran in the 1977 elections as part of the Democratic Movement for Change and became an independent Knesset faction in 1978, which Rubinstein chaired; in 1992 Shinui merged with Ratz and Mapam in [[Meretz]].[^3][^7] His curriculum vitae gives his Knesset service as 1977 to 2001 (the IDC tribute says 25 years), as a member of the Democratic Movement for Change in the Ninth Knesset, of Shinui in the Ninth to Twelfth and of Meretz in the Twelfth to Fifteenth.[^2][^3]
His curriculum vitae lists these government posts: Minister of Communication in the 21st government (1984 to 1985) and the 22nd government (until May 26, 1987); in the 25th government Minister of Science and Technology until December 31, 1992, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure until June 7, 1993, and from May 30, 1994 Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, a post he also held in the 26th government. His committee posts included chairman of the Economics Committee (Fourteenth Knesset) and chairman of both the State Control Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (Fifteenth).[^2] The IDC tribute credits him with passing the two Basic Laws on human rights and liberty and on free enterprise, and with opening academia to the public through colleges as education minister.[^3]
### Later positions and honors
After leaving the Knesset he was dean of the Radzyner School of Law at [[Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya]], then provost and, for a year, president. He was a board member and vice president of [[Liberal International]] and a member of the Israeli delegation to the [[Council of Europe]]'s [[Venice Commission]]. He received the [[Israel Prize]] in 2006, when the judges described him as the "father of constitutional law in Israel."[^3][^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (education, bar admission 1963, doctorate 1966, professor 1961 to 1975, dean 1968 to 1973).
[^2]: Rubinstein, Amnon. Curriculum Vitae, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, https://runi.ac.il/media/te4psgeq/profilecv-he-il.pdf (born 05/09/1931 in Tel Aviv; Knesset membership; government roles and dates; publications).
[^3]: "The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya Pays Tribute to Amnon Rubinstein," Honorary Fellow citation signed by Prof. Uriel Reichman, June 1, 2009, https://runi.ac.il/media/fpvpfvlt/amnon-rubinstein.pdf
[^4]: "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (Israel Prize 2006, Liberal International, Venice Commission, death on January 18, 2024); "In Memoriam: LI Patron Professor Amnon Rubinstein," Liberal International, https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/in-memoriam-li-patron-professor-amnon-rubinstein/
[^5]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^6]: Geller, Uri. "Straightening the Record," https://urigeller.com/the-geller-effect/straightening-the-record/ (Geller's own account; sole source for the passages so cited).
[^7]: "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (Shinui founded 1974, Democratic Movement for Change 1977, independent faction 1978, Meretz merger 1992).

5
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Bill Ray.md
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@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ Bill Ray was one of the five remote viewers from [[United States Army Intelligen
### The Documents
"CPT William G. Ray, presently G-2, 11th Signal Bde, Ft Huachuca, AZ, and currently on orders for assignment to HQ INSCOM, Ft Meade, effective 1 January 1984," was listed for [[Center Lane]]'s personnel spaces on August 2, 1983. On May 17, 1984, the project office recorded that "William G. Ray of this office reported that Congressman [[Charlie Rose|Rose]] had called Ingo Swann at SRI-I New York, 16 May 1984," and that Rose had told Swann that Dale Van Atta, "associate of [[Jack Anderson]]," had said "that although they had recently been under the influence of McRae, that this is no longer the case," and that "there would be a series of articles" in "a favorable vain, i.e., 'Why hasn't more been done?'" By December 10, 1985, he signed a memorandum on a telephone conversation with [[Hal Puthoff]] as "MAJ, MI, Ch, SSPD."[^900]
"CPT William G. Ray, presently G-2, 11th Signal Bde, Ft Huachuca, AZ, and currently on orders for assignment to HQ INSCOM, Ft Meade, effective 1 January 1984," was listed for [[Center Lane]]'s personnel spaces on August 2, 1983. On May 17, 1984, the project office recorded that "William G. Ray of this office reported that Congressman [[Charlie Rose|Rose]] had called Ingo Swann at SRI-I New York, 16 May 1984," and that Rose had told Swann that Dale Van Atta, "associate of [[Jack Anderson]]," had said "that although they had recently been under the influence of McRae, that this is no longer the case," and that "there would be a series of articles" in "a favorable vain, i.e., 'Why hasn't more been done?'" By December 10, 1985, he signed a memorandum on a telephone conversation with [[Hal Puthoff]] as "MAJ, MI, Ch, SSPD."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: "Center Lane Personnel Spaces," August 2, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700300001-1; "Recent Jack Anderson 'Grill Flame' Articles," May 17, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200030001-6; "Conversation via Telephone with Puthoff," December 10, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700030002-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "Center Lane Personnel Spaces," August 2, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700300001-1; "Recent Jack Anderson 'Grill Flame' Articles," May 17, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200030001-6; "Conversation via Telephone with Puthoff," December 10, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700030002-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

5
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Garrison Rapmund.md
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@ -15,8 +15,9 @@ Garrison Rapmund was a Major General and the Assistant Surgeon General of the [[
His intention was to emphasize testing the physiology of the viewers. However, after several rounds of negotiations, the Office of the Surgeon General ultimately declined to take over the program[^1].
On August 27, 1981, "at DIA, Pomponio Plaza," Rapmund, then "BG(P), CDR, USAMRDC, Ft Detrick," met [[Jack Vorona]] "to discuss the issue of human use and the need for a DoD research and development effort in the GRILL FLAME area"; he "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology. However, in his opinion there was a need to begin a serious effort in this field." Vorona told the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, that he and "MG Rapmund of the Army Medical R&D Command" had signed a memorandum of understanding under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87."[^900]
On August 27, 1981, "at DIA, Pomponio Plaza," Rapmund, then "BG(P), CDR, USAMRDC, Ft Detrick," met [[Jack Vorona]] "to discuss the issue of human use and the need for a DoD research and development effort in the GRILL FLAME area"; he "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology. However, in his opinion there was a need to begin a serious effort in this field." Vorona told the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, that he and "MG Rapmund of the Army Medical R&D Command" had signed a memorandum of understanding under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: "Project Contacts," August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5; "Key Players," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200270002-9; "Scientific Oversight Committee," CIA-RDP96-00789R003200130001-2; bibliography citing Vorona's testimony to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee of April 12, 1983, in "RV Reliability Enhancement and Evaluation," 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800150001-7; "OACSI Meeting About Grill Flame," April 13, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200060003-1; "Recent Actions Concerning Project Grill Flame," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2; "Center Lane Briefing 3-7 October 1983," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270013-2; "Discussion with Dr. Jack Vorona," August 31, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090055-8; "Meeting With Dr. Vorona, 11 March 1985," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700290007-7; "Sun Streak Oversight Panel, Minutes of First Meeting," January 1986, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100200001-6; "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG Dozier," December 22, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600180016-8; "Grill Flame Briefing for Director, NSA," June and July 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230004-6; May, Edwin C., memorandum "Contacts," February 23, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190073-7; Jachim, R. J., "Meeting Between BG Rapmund and Dr. Jack Vorona," September 1, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440071-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "Project Contacts," August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5; "Key Players," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200270002-9; "Scientific Oversight Committee," CIA-RDP96-00789R003200130001-2; bibliography citing Vorona's testimony to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee of April 12, 1983, in "RV Reliability Enhancement and Evaluation," 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800150001-7; "OACSI Meeting About Grill Flame," April 13, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200060003-1; "Recent Actions Concerning Project Grill Flame," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2; "Center Lane Briefing 3-7 October 1983," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270013-2; "Discussion with Dr. Jack Vorona," August 31, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090055-8; "Meeting With Dr. Vorona, 11 March 1985," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700290007-7; "Sun Streak Oversight Panel, Minutes of First Meeting," January 1986, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100200001-6; "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG Dozier," December 22, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600180016-8; "Grill Flame Briefing for Director, NSA," June and July 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230004-6; May, Edwin C., memorandum "Contacts," February 23, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190073-7; Jachim, R. J., "Meeting Between BG Rapmund and Dr. Jack Vorona," September 1, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440071-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

5
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Genady Sergeyev.md
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@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ During the experiment, Sergeyev monitored Kulagina's physiological responses, wh
Sergeyev also oversaw an experiment where Kulagina attempted to increase the heart rate of a skeptical physician, which reportedly reached dangerous levels. While some U.S. analysts suspected these demonstrations were part of a Soviet disinformation campaign, others in the U.S. military, particularly the Medical Intelligence Office of the [[U.S. Army]], considered the potential military applications of such abilities to be highly significant[^1].
A DIA briefing on "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," given to the Air Force in July 1987, dated Sergeyev's work to 1965-1970 in "Vasil'yev's lab," under the headings "communication (EEG code)," "remote action" and "N. Kulagina."[^900]
A DIA briefing on "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," given to the Air Force in July 1987, dated Sergeyev's work to 1965-1970 in "Vasil'yev's lab," under the headings "communication (EEG code)," "remote action" and "N. Kulagina."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/George Otis.md
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@ -17,9 +17,8 @@ Otis authored or co-authored a dozen books, including his autobiography, "High A
Otis was born in Payne, Ohio, and was an adventure-seeker from a young age. He took business classes at Earlham College and founded several electronics-related companies and later was general chairman of [[LearJet]].
Otis was deeply involved in the Charismatic revival in the [[United States]], and he and [[Harold Bredesen]] were considered "Holy Spirit fathers" by [[Pat Boone]].[^2]
Otis was deeply involved in the Charismatic revival in the [[United States]], and he and [[Harold Bredesen]] were considered "Holy Spirit fathers" by [[Pat Boone]].[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
[^2]: "George K. Otis, Sr. Another Christian General Goes Home." Obituary. The Last Circle (provided text).I have updated the page for George Otis. I
will now check for an existing page for "Nita Scoggan".
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
[^2]: "Christian Radio Pioneer George Otis Sr. Dies," *Charisma News,* July 24, 2007, https://mycharisma.com/?p=338046; Bob Slosser, *Reagan Inside Out* (Word Books, 1984), excerpt "The Prophecy," CBN, https://cbn.com/article/relationships/prophecy.

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ingo Swann.md
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@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried ou
At [[Maimonides Medical Center]], in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976, [[Edwin May]] and [[Charles Honorton]] had him attempt to influence a noise-driven binary random generator: 29 runs gave a mean of 493 against 500 expected (p = 0.011), improving as he was moved twelve feet away behind "two double steel walls," while a control run after he left gave 499.7. "We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psychokinetic influence on the instrument." The SRI final report's instrumented magnetometer series of 1974 and 1975, thirteen ten-trial runs on a Develco gradiometer at four metres giving p = 0.004, was run with subject S1, the code that matches Pat Price's sessions, not S3; the "early research (1972)" perturbation "of a Josephson effect magnetometer" is described there as a pilot study of "a few hours" that "prevented a proper investigation." He visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] on October 17, 1978, and was still reporting to Puthoff as a consultant in April 1984.[^2]
The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^900]
The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^3]
### Training the Army Program
@ -68,4 +68,4 @@ Swann maintained an active painting career throughout his life, exhibiting abstr
[^1]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Visit of Ingo Swann to AMSAA, 17 October 1978," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240010-3, and "Memo to Dr. H.E. Puthoff from I. Swann, Consultant, Subject: Work Report," April 15, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100140033-6, titles only.
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James Randi.md
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@ -1,36 +1,106 @@
---
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
title: James Randi
aliases:
- James Randi
- The Amazing Randi
- Amazing Randi
- Randy
- Randall James Hamilton Zwinge
- Randall Zwinge
- Zwinge
- Randi
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
- Magician
summary: "James Randi (1928–2020), known as 'The Amazing Randi,' was a Canadian-American stage magician, escape artist, and a prominent scientific skeptic."
- CSICOP
- UriGeller
- ProjectAlpha
- McDonnellLaboratory
- MacArthurFellow
- Debunker
summary: "Canadian-American stage magician who campaigned against Uri Geller, co-founded CSICOP, ran Project Alpha against the McDonnell Laboratory (1979 to 1983), received a MacArthur fellowship in 1986 and left CSICOP in 1991 amid Geller's lawsuits."
born: 1928-08-07
died: 2020-10-20
location: "Toronto, Ontario, Canada"
updated: 2026-09-22
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]]"
start: 1976-05-01
end: 1991-05
role: "signer of the founding call of 1976 and Executive Council member; resigned by a letter of May 11, 1991 because the committee was named in Geller's suits; wrote in 1995 that CSICOP 'essentially forced me to resign'"
fn: 7
- type: investigated
with: "[[McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research]]"
start: 1979
end: 1983-01-28
role: "placed Steven Shaw and Michael Edwards as subjects (Project Alpha); revealed the arrangement at a press conference on January 28, 1983"
fn: 8
- type: funded
with: "[[MacArthur Foundation]]"
reverse: true
start: 1986
role: "MacArthur fellowship of $272,000, class of 1986"
fn: 10
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Uri Geller]]"
start: 1991
end: 1995
role: "defendant with CSICOP in suits Geller filed from 1991; the courts ruled for the skeptics and ordered Geller to pay sanctions"
fn: 12
---
James Randi (1928–2020), known as "The Amazing Randi," was a Canadian-American stage magician, escape artist, and a prominent scientific skeptic. He dedicated much of his life to investigating and debunking paranormal and pseudoscientific claims, often challenging individuals who claimed to possess supernatural abilities[^1].
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge in Toronto on August 7, 1928; died October 20, 2020) was a stage magician and escape artist who became known as "The Amazing Randi." At twelve he was allowed to study independently outside the classroom and watched [[Harry Blackstone Sr.]] levitate a woman in a Toronto theater; at seventeen he joined a traveling carnival, and he has said he saw little point in finishing school. In 1995 *Scientific American* gave his count of television appearances as "more than 30 on the Tonight Show" and his main income as lecturing.[^1]
Randi became a vocal critic of [[Uri Geller]], stating, "Geller brings disgrace to the craft I practice... Worse than that, he warps the thinking of a young generation of forming minds. And that is unforgivable." He spent two years writing a 308-page exposé of Geller, arguing that Geller's actions had "done more to destroy what authority [[Andrija Puharich]] once held in the scientific community"[^1]. Randi speculated that Geller's assistant, [[Shimshon Shtrang]], helped him cheat, leading the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to deny Shtrang access to Geller during experiments[^1].
### Uri Geller, 1973 to 1982
Along with [[Martin Gardner]] and [[Ray Hyman]], Randi helped found the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] (CSICOP) to promote scientific inquiry and combat pseudoscience[^1].
Randi was present when [[Uri Geller]] performed at the New York offices of *[[Time]]*, a visit *Time* placed in the month before its issue of March 12, 1973 and *New Scientist* placed in March 1973. *Time* reported that after Geller left, Randi "duplicated each of his feats, explaining that any magician could perform them," and that the fork bending was sleight of hand.[^2] *New Scientist* of October 17, 1974 recorded that Randi and the picture editor of *Popular Photography*, Charles Reynolds, both said they saw Geller bend a key in his hand after asking for a beer can opener to divert attention, and that Randi had said stagehands told him that Geller specified a box of ten-penny nails for the Mike Douglas show and asked them to wrap some in a bundle an hour before airtime. Geller was asked about Randi's statement on the television program *Mid-Day Five* on May 3, 1974.[^3]
In January 1983, Randi orchestrated a hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University, sending two young magicians, Steven Shaw and Michael Edwards, to pretend to be psychics. They used sleight of hand to simulate [[Psychokinesis|psychokinetic]] feats like spoon bending. Randi later held a press conference to expose the hoax, generating significant negative press for the parapsychology community[^1].
*The Magic of Uri Geller* appeared in 1975. A fact sheet in the CIA's STARGATE files, unsigned and with no author or sponsor stated, answers the book point by point. It states that Randi's letter offering his services to [[Stanford Research Institute]] was dated September 6, 1973, "months after completion of the SRI work with Geller"; that [[Shimshon Shtrang]] ("Shipi Strang" in the book) and no other potential confederate was permitted in the target area; that the SRI team included an amateur magician of over twenty years' experience and that [[Milbourne Christopher]] had been brought in to critique film and videotape; and that Randi's quotations from [[Edgar Mitchell]] concerned a period before the experiments reported in *Nature*.[^4] [[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote that Randi spent two years writing a 308-page exposé of Geller, quoted him as saying "Geller brings disgrace to the craft I practice... Worse than that, he warps the thinking of a young generation of forming minds. And that is unforgivable," and wrote that Randi speculated Shtrang helped Geller cheat, leading the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] to deny Shtrang access to Geller during experiments.[^5]
Randi's actions, while aimed at exposing fraud, sometimes led to controversy. He was involved in libel cases brought by Uri Geller, and his campaign against Geller ultimately cost him his position on CSICOP[^1].
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] recorded in 1979 that [[Robert Lucky]] of Bell Labs "once proposed to Targ and Puthoff that they allow a 'debugger' like Randy the Magician to watch an SRI RV session. They refused on the grounds that no one believes them anyhow, and did not feel that permitting an extremely vocal critic to intrude into their lives/work would accomplish anything."[^6]
In 2011, Randi was involved in a scandal when it was revealed that his Carlos-the-channeler hoax, which involved a young man named Jose Alvarez (Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga) pretending to be a channeler, constituted a federal crime due to identity theft and false statements on a passport application. Despite this, Randi continued to maintain his stance against the paranormal[^1].
### CSICOP
### Publications
* *The Magic of Uri Geller* (1975)
[[Paul Kurtz]] recorded that the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal was established at a conference at the State University of New York at Buffalo on April 30 and May 1, 1976, and that the call announcing it was signed by, among others, [[George Abell]], [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Antony Flew]], [[Martin Gardner]], [[Sidney Hook]], [[Philip Klass]], [[Ernest Nagel]], [[W. V. Quine]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[Marcello Truzzi]] and Randi. Jacobsen wrote that Randi, Gardner and [[Ray Hyman]] helped found it.[^7][^5] In 1996 Kurtz listed Gardner and Randi among Executive Council members "fearlessly debunking the various forms of nonsense offered as gospel truth on the popular scene," and named among efforts to destroy the committee "efforts by Uri Geller, Eldon Byrd, and others to embroil CSICOP and Randi in protracted and costly legal suits."[^7]
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] recorded in 1979 that [[Robert Lucky]] of Bell Labs "once proposed to Targ and Puthoff that they allow a 'debugger' like Randy the Magician to watch an SRI RV session. They refused on the grounds that no one believes them anyhow, and did not feel that permitting an extremely vocal critic to intrude into their lives/work would accomplish anything."[^900]
### Project Alpha, 1979 to 1983
Randi's account, published in the *[[Skeptical Inquirer]]* in the summer and fall of 1983, is that when [[James S. McDonnell]], board chairman of [[McDonnell Douglas|McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft]], gave a $500,000 grant in 1979 to [[Washington University]] in St. Louis for the [[McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research]], he saw an opportunity for an experiment "contemplated for some time," coded "Project Alpha." The laboratory's director was the physicist [[Peter R. Phillips]]. Randi asked two young conjurors who had written to him, [[Steven Shaw]] ("Banachek," then 18, of Washington, Pennsylvania) and [[Michael Edwards]] (17, of Marion, Iowa), to write to the laboratory claiming psychic powers; the laboratory had considered some 300 applicants and chose only the two. Before the boys were tested he sent Phillips eleven "caveats" and offered to attend sessions at his own expense, and he continued to write offering to attend "all through the three-year period." Jacobsen counted twenty-two such letters, and wrote that Phillips dismissed the pair at one point and rehired them months later.[^8][^5]
Randi wrote that he "leaked" hints of the project at a magicians' conference in Pittsburgh in July 1981, and that at the [[Parapsychological Association]] meeting in Syracuse that August Phillips showed a Randi-prepared videotape of fake metal bending alongside the laboratory's own tape of the two subjects, after Phillips had asked him for a tape; Randi supplied an analysis pointing out "positively unmistakable evidence of deception" on the laboratory's film. He wrote that he told the boys afterward that Alpha was "probably about to end," that the laboratory then tightened its protocol, and that Banachek and Edwards went on to be tested or entertained by other investigators, among them the psychiatrist [[Berthold Schwarz]] and Professor [[Walter Uphoff]], whose meeting in Madison, Wisconsin Randi attended in disguise as "Adam Jersin" while [[BBC]] producer Tony Edwards used a Randi-designed protocol that, Randi wrote, produced "zero mental-bending."[^8]
At a press conference in New York on January 28, 1983, held with *[[Discover]]* magazine, which published the account in its March issue, Randi announced that Shaw and Edwards were conjurors who had conspired with him, and that they had agreed to answer any direct question about trickery with "Yes, and we were sent here by James Randi," but were never asked. He warned that a "Project Beta" was underway. His television special "Magic or Mystery?" was scheduled for February 8. The *Skeptical Inquirer* put the project on the cover of its Summer 1983 issue, and the matter was presented at CSICOP's conference in October 1983.[^9]
[[Marcello Truzzi]] recorded the replies. Washington University's spokesman said the laboratory had never endorsed the boys' abilities and cited a statement of September 1981 that nothing they had done could not be done by normal means. Phillips said there were "ethical issues involved." Truzzi wrote that Randi had given Phillips a "Straight Spoon Award" on April 1, 1982, less than a year before the announcement, for redesigning his procedures; that Randi's April 1, 1983 "Uri Award" for a fictitious "Archaeus Project" grant followed a prank notice written by Dennis Stillings, whom Truzzi named among Randi's foes; that the laboratory's funding was $500,000 over five years; and that Shaw had posed as a psychic since 1977, before meeting Randi, according to articles of 1977 and 1979. Truzzi also wrote that he learned of Alpha in late July 1981 from another conjuror, that Randi "initially flatly denied the existence of the project," and that Randi's reply to Truzzi's invitation to correct factual errors in the draft was "an angry and vituperative letter." [[Martin Gardner]] wrote of Alpha as a "landmark in the history of PK research," and, later, in Truzzi's quotation, as a case of "entrapment."[^9]
Jacobsen wrote that after the hoax Randi held a press conference and that Shaw "famously" stepped up to the microphone and said "I cheat."[^5]
### Lawsuits, resignation and the MacArthur fellowship
The [[MacArthur Foundation]] listed Randi in its 1986 class as an educator in communications and journalism, residing in Fort Lauderdale, with the description "an investigator of the paranormal."[^10] A news item of 1987 gave the grant as $272,000 and quoted him that the foundation "reached very far out, perhaps dangerously so," and that he intended to add a full-time researcher and a college scholarship for training "debunkers."[^11] *Scientific American* credited him with exposing the faith healer [[Peter Popoff]] in 1986 by intercepting radio transmissions from Popoff's wife, and with taking the tape to [[Johnny Carson]], after the California Attorney General's office declined to act.[^1]
In a letter of May 11, 1991 to supporters, Randi wrote that Geller "has announced that he intends to sue me 'in every state and in every country,'" that Geller then had "four lawsuits against me, two of which I have won (at a cost of over $155,000 in legal fees)," and that "I have resigned from the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, since the Committee is always named in the suits, and in order that CSICOP will be spared further involvement."[^12] The suit concerned remarks Randi made to a reporter that Geller "fooled some scientists" and that his tricks were of the kind printed on cereal boxes. The court first ruled in favor of CSICOP on July 27, 1993, and Geller was ordered to pay up to $120,000, a first installment of $40,000 being reported in the *Skeptical Inquirer* of May and June 1995.[^13] *Scientific American* gave the sanctions as $150,000 and said CSICOP announced a settlement in March for somewhat less than that amount.[^1] In July 1995 *Scientific American* quoted Randi: "These lawsuits from psychics have wiped me out financially," including the $272,000 MacArthur fellowship; "They got wimpy on me," he said of CSICOP; "They essentially forced me to resign. They were afraid of my continuing to make statements about Geller." He said he was unsure whether he wanted to rejoin.[^1] Jacobsen wrote that Randi's campaign against Geller ultimately cost him his position on CSICOP and that Geller's libel suits were brought against him.[^5]
### Later episodes
In 2011, according to Jacobsen, it was revealed that Randi's "Carlos" channeler hoax involved a young man, Jose Alvarez (Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga), who had used another man's identity on a passport application, and Jacobsen described this as a federal crime, adding that Randi continued to maintain his stance against the paranormal.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. The name is spelled "Randy" in the report.
[^1]: "Profile: James Randi: A Skeptically Inquiring Mind," *Scientific American,* July 1995, pp. 34-35, in "Stargate Misc. Doc's and Memos," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190022-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "The Magician and the Think Tank," *Time,* March 12, 1973, p. 112, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400100023-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Hanlon, Joseph, "Uri Geller and science," *New Scientist,* vol. 64, no. 919, October 17, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110020-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: "The Magic of Uri Geller by James Randi: Fact Sheet correcting errors with regard to SRI work with Geller," unsigned, undated, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240021-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^6]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. The name is spelled "Randy" in the report.
[^7]: Kurtz, Paul, "CSICOP at Twenty," *Skeptical Inquirer,* July/August 1996, pp. 5-8, https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1996/07/22165034/p05.pdf
[^8]: Randi, James, "The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 1. The First Two Years," *Skeptical Inquirer,* Summer 1983, and "Part 2. Beyond the Laboratory," Fall 1983, https://archive.org/details/JamesRandiTheProjectAlpha
[^9]: Truzzi, Marcello, "Reflections on 'Project Alpha': Scientific Experiment or Conjuror's Illusion?," *Zetetic Scholar,* nos. 12 and 13, August 1987, "The Revelation of Project Alpha," https://archive.org/details/alpha-project-zetetic-scholar-nos-12-13 Sections cited: "Project Alpha's success was soon questioned," "Randi's Minnows," and "Epilogue: On Alpha and Me."
[^10]: MacArthur Foundation, Fellows, class of 1986, James Randi, https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1986/james-randi
[^11]: "Randi: amazing good fortune," *New Zealand Skeptics,* May 1, 1987, https://articles.skeptics.nz/1987/05/01/randi-amazing-good-fortune
[^12]: Randi, James, letter of May 11, 1991, "Randi Needs Help," *New Zealand Skeptics,* August 1, 1991, https://articles.skeptics.nz/1991/08/01/randi-needs-help
[^13]: McShane, Owen, "Justice Lives," *New Zealand Skeptics,* August 1, 1995, reporting *Skeptical Inquirer,* May/June 1995, https://articles.skeptics.nz/1995/08/01/justice-lives

2
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Laurance Rockefeller.md
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@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ Rockefeller's letter of April 26, 1994 reports that his group had gone to [[Corn
On June 1, 1994 Rockefeller wrote that "it was Mel Laird who suggested that you should be the logical point of contact and coordination with the federal government," asked whether there were developments in the survey of information among federal agencies on Roswell that Gibbons had suggested, attached a letter from Laird, and mentioned "preliminary talks with those who might be interested in bringing about a United Nations Conference on extraterrestrial intelligence."[^34] Laird's letter, dated May 9, 1994 and replying to one from Rockefeller of April 25, stated that "you are proceeding properly by going through the President's Science Advisor," and that "any review will certainly disappoint some individuals who have built up some rather extreme antidotal and uncollaborated accounts."[^34] On July 27, 1994 Anne Bartley wrote to Gibbons about "follow-up on our meeting with Laurance S. Rockefeller and his associates," recalling that Gibbons had suggested "an informal inquiry into the availability of information within federal agencies about the 1947 Roswell, [[New Mexico]], event," asking about "prospects for a relaxation of the classification system," and stating that Rockefeller "has begun to wonder whether a U.N. Conference would be useful."[^35]
On August 11, 1994 Jones wrote to Gibbons that [[Edgar Mitchell]], founder of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]], on whose board Pell sat, would be glad to meet Gibbons "in the area that Laurance, you and I have been discussing," and that Gibbons "may want to talk to [[R. James Woolsey|James Woolsey]] about what you are doing." The next lines, partly cut off in the scan, say that Woolsey "has a document search project under way" and "has not discovered anything of significance," and Jones adds: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's" bureaucracy "and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within" the aerospace community "or perhaps [[General Motors]]."[^36] On September 5, 1994 Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for a note that he had received a report from the Air Force; after the Air Force released the results of its Roswell investigation (in July 1994 in the General Accounting Office's account, and publicly available in September in Gibbons's)[^19][^37] he wrote on December 9 thanking Gibbons for "your initiative in stimulating the recent Air Force Review of the Roswell incident," adding that "we are continuing our citizens' reconnaissance of the extraterrestrial intelligence phenomenon."[^38] On February 9, 1995 Jones wrote that "there is some shadowy evidence that the administration is in the process of modifying the government's policy concerning secrecy and denial about UFO phenomena," that "Laurance mentioned that he was also considering a public relations approach" and that "he can afford a rather aggressive and expensive effort implementing that strategy, e.g., full page ads in major newspapers," and that after Rockefeller's last meeting with Gibbons "we are not going to get feedback from our attempts to get the [[White House]] to open the books on this subject."[^39] On April 11, 1995 Rockefeller wrote that he had reviewed the draft executive order revising national classification policy and that "my concern with government information involving extraterrestrial intelligence was stimulated by the widespread public belief that the government was withholding information about UFO incidents."[^40]
On August 11, 1994 Jones wrote to Gibbons that [[Edgar Mitchell]], founder of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]], on whose board Pell sat, would be glad to meet Gibbons "in the area that Laurance, you and I have been discussing," and that Gibbons "may want to talk to [[R. James Woolsey|James Woolsey]] about what you are doing." The next lines say that Woolsey "has a document search project under way" and "has not discovered anything of significance," and Jones adds: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's" bureaucracy "and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within" the aerospace community "or perhaps [[General Motors]]."[^36] On September 5, 1994 Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for a note that he had received a report from the Air Force; after the Air Force released the results of its Roswell investigation (in July 1994 in the General Accounting Office's account, and publicly available in September in Gibbons's)[^19][^37] he wrote on December 9 thanking Gibbons for "your initiative in stimulating the recent Air Force Review of the Roswell incident," adding that "we are continuing our citizens' reconnaissance of the extraterrestrial intelligence phenomenon."[^38] On February 9, 1995 Jones wrote that "there is some shadowy evidence that the administration is in the process of modifying the government's policy concerning secrecy and denial about UFO phenomena," that "Laurance mentioned that he was also considering a public relations approach" and that "he can afford a rather aggressive and expensive effort implementing that strategy, e.g., full page ads in major newspapers," and that after Rockefeller's last meeting with Gibbons "we are not going to get feedback from our attempts to get the [[White House]] to open the books on this subject."[^39] On April 11, 1995 Rockefeller wrote that he had reviewed the draft executive order revising national classification policy and that "my concern with government information involving extraterrestrial intelligence was stimulated by the widespread public belief that the government was withholding information about UFO incidents."[^40]
On December 2, 1994 Jones sent Gibbons critiques of the Air Force Roswell report and told him that the Foundation's conference would invite President and Mrs. Clinton; on December 13, 1994 he sent Gibbons the manuscript of [[Whitley Strieber]]'s *Breakthrough* with a copy to Rockefeller. The White House declined for Mrs. Clinton on December 15, 1994 ([[Patti Solis]], scheduling director for the First Lady) and for the President on December 21, 1994 ([[William M. Webster IV]], director of scheduling and advance).[^41] The Clinton Library's collection 2008-1575-F holds the invitations and brochures; none are scanned.[^42]

49
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Mike Russo.md
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@ -1,16 +1,45 @@
---
category: "Psychics & Remote Viewers"
aliases:
- Mike Russo
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
- Person
- Pseudonym
- RemoteViewer
summary: "Mike Russo is the pseudonym Jim Schnabel gave a Lawrence Livermore physicist who, with other Livermore personnel, experienced apparitions after the group's involvement with Uri Geller."
---
Mike Russo is the pseudonym [[Jim Schnabel]] gave a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) in *[[Remote Viewers]]* (1997).[^2] In Schnabel's account he and other Livermore personnel experienced a series of bizarre, hallucination-inducing phenomena after their involvement with [[Uri Geller]]. These apparitions included hovering, monochrome flying saucers and strange animals, such as large raven-like birds.[^1]
Russo and others began to seriously question their sanity due to these experiences. He was part of the group that met with [[Kit Green]] of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to discuss the unsettling events. Russo also complained about a telephone call from a strange metallic voice that demanded the Livermore group cease its research activities with Geller, after which the apparitions faded away.[^1]
- Physicist
- LawrenceLivermore
- UriGeller
- KitGreen
summary: "Pseudonym used by Jim Schnabel in Remote Viewers (1997) for a Livermore physicist who, with his wife, saw a giant bird in their bedroom and later complained of a telephone call from a metallic voice."
location: "Livermore, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]]"
start: 1974
role: "physicist; pseudonym of an unnamed person in Schnabel (1997)"
fn: 2
created: 2026-05-22
updated: 2026-10-05
---
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Havenstein, Rudy. "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley." Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5: "The names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis which appear below are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."
Mike Russo is the name [[Jim Schnabel]] gave to a physicist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] (LLNL) in *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (1997). The *Grey Lodge Occult Review* stated that "the names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis... are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."[^1]
### Apparitions
In Schnabel's account, members of the Livermore group that had tested [[Uri Geller]] began to see fantastic images in the days and weeks afterward, among them hovering gray monochrome saucers and "fantastic animals from the ecstatic lore of shamans," including large raven-like birds that were seen "traipsing through the yards of several members of the group." One of these "appeared briefly to a physicist named Mike Russo and his terrified wife": the two were lying around one morning when a giant bird stood staring at them from the foot of their bed. "After a few weeks of this, Russo and some of the others began seriously to wonder if they were losing their sanity," and [[Peter Crane]] telephoned the CIA analyst Schnabel calls Richard Kennett, identified by the *Grey Lodge Occult Review* as [[Kit Green]].[^2]
### Meetings with Kennett and the telephone call
After meeting Crane in a coffee shop in the town of Livermore, Schnabel writes, Kennett "was having long meetings with Russo and the others. They perspired, trembled, and even wept openly as they related some of the things that had happened to them."[^2] The same passage says the group's security clearances had required screening for psychological disorders, and that Kennett recognized, among a few intelligible words spoken by a metallic voice on an audiotape of a Geller session, the code name of a closely held government project that Russo, Crane and the others did not know. Schnabel does not give the code name.[^2]
The situation "eventually resolved itself, after Russo complained about a telephone call from the strange metallic voice. The voice demanded that the Livermore group cease its research activities with Geller. The group did, and within a month, the bizarre apparitions faded away."[^2]
### Other accounts
[[Annie Jacobsen]]'s *Phenomena* (2017) has Green saying that the Livermore scientists "carried top-secret clearances," that they reported "raven-like birds on their bedposts" and orbs floating down hallways in their homes, and that "two of the Livermore scientists quit," taking events as a message that they should no longer work on nuclear weapons. The same book has a security officer, [[Ron Robertson]], telephoning Green after the second day of tests.[^3] A CIA staff report of late 1974 records an [[Atomic Energy Commission]] security officer's report, received on October 23, 1974, of two days of testing Geller at Livermore.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Rudy Havenstein, "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley," Substack, July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5.
[^2]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), as excerpted at the Havenstein URL above. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^3]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017), quoting Christopher Green; as quoted at https://schwabstack.substack.com/p/spies-of-the-superspectral-order.
[^4]: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010023-0, https://archive.org/download/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0/cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0_djvu.txt.

8
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Pat Price.md
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@ -42,13 +42,13 @@ SRI's SCANATE report introduces him without a surname: "As a backup test, the co
The Semipalatinsk experiment ran in three phases "under direct control of the COTR": Phase I with coordinates and the words "R&D test facility" only, Phase II after "the subject being made 'witting' (of the client) by client representatives who introduced themselves to the subject," and Phase III "the generation of unverifiable data concerning the Semipalatinsk site not available to the client, but of operational interest nonetheless," over two weeks. The Los Alamos analyst who reviewed the tapes of July 9 to 15, 1974, found that on the first day he "successfully evaded drawing a perimeter of the area even though he was asked to do this twice" and produced a 500-foot antenna, a swimming pool "for underwater testing," an array of telephone poles, and an airstrip that did not exist; that on the second "Price supplied the most positive evidence yet for the remote-viewing experiment with his sketch of the rail-mounted gantry crane. It seems inconceivable to imagine how he could have drawn such a likeness to the actual crane at URDF-3 unless: 1) he actually saw it through remote viewing, or 2) he was informed of what to draw by someone knowledgeable of URDF-3," adding, "I only mention this second possibility because the experiment was not controlled to discount the possibility that Price could talk to other people, such as the Disinformation Section of the KGB"; that on the third, shown the surface features of the underground Building 1, he said "No, that's a concrete apron, and there's nothing subterranean right in that particular area," which "was his most negative evidence yet"; and on the fourth admitted "he had been trying to force-fit a space-oriented situation to the target location." The conclusion: "I consider Price's remote-viewing experiment of URDF-3 to be unsuccessful. I recommend that the tapes be considered for use with the psychological stress evaluator." An outside reviewer of the SRI progress reports in 1974, under the heading "Remote Viewing by Mr. Price," wrote that "one cannot determine whether he was aware of the nine sites or had visited them prior to the experiment," and closed: "one still has the feeling that the prevailing philosophy is to 'prove' the existence of an information channel." When OTS briefed the House intelligence committee in November 1977 it left with the staff "a brief article on Mr. Pat Price."[^2]
[[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] of the [[University of Otago]] argued in Nature in August 1978 that the judging of his nine-trial series depended on "multiple extraneous cues which were available in the original unedited transcripts," such as "Nothing like having three successes behind you" in the fourth, and on a target list given to the judge "in the correct order"; Puthoff, Targ and [[Charles Tart]] answered with a rejudging of edited transcripts in which "seven of the nine were correctly matched," and Puthoff conceded in 1980 that the list had been "inadvertently (through an error) given in the same order." The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 added: "It is alleged, although unverified by the authors, that Price had once worked for the organization that had control over that particular site" in West Virginia.[^901]
[[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] of the [[University of Otago]] argued in Nature in August 1978 that the judging of his nine-trial series depended on "multiple extraneous cues which were available in the original unedited transcripts," such as "Nothing like having three successes behind you" in the fourth, and on a target list given to the judge "in the correct order"; Puthoff, Targ and [[Charles Tart]] answered with a rejudging of edited transcripts in which "seven of the nine were correctly matched," and Puthoff conceded in 1980 that the list had been "inadvertently (through an error) given in the same order." The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 added: "It is alleged, although unverified by the authors, that Price had once worked for the organization that had control over that particular site" in West Virginia.[^3]
### CIA Direct Work (1974-1975)
In the autumn of 1974, Price left SRI and began working directly for the CIA outside the SRI institutional framework, including a period attempting to identify coal deposits in Huntington, West Virginia, using psychic methods for a commercial client. He also undertook CIA-tasked remote viewing sessions to attempt to confirm locations of foreign intelligence facilities. He passed initial CIA verification tests, accurately describing embassy layouts and interior details that were confirmed against classified records.
The *Nature* paper of October 1974 reported his nine double-blind trials against Bay Area sites, six matched by a plurality of five judges, and gave him, with Hella Hammid, as one of "two of our subjects (H.H. and P.P.)" who "had not considered themselves to have unusual perceptual ability before their participation." Targ's memoir of 1996 quotes his words on July 10, 1974: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head," and his description of "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" assembled from "thick metal gores," which Targ set beside an *Aviation Week* report of May 2, 1977, of Soviet steel gores for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." In August 1977 [[Stansfield Turner]] told reporters that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world," dropped in 1975: "He died, and we haven't heard from him since."[^3]
The *Nature* paper of October 1974 reported his nine double-blind trials against Bay Area sites, six matched by a plurality of five judges, and gave him, with Hella Hammid, as one of "two of our subjects (H.H. and P.P.)" who "had not considered themselves to have unusual perceptual ability before their participation." Targ's memoir of 1996 quotes his words on July 10, 1974: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head," and his description of "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" assembled from "thick metal gores," which Targ set beside an *Aviation Week* report of May 2, 1977, of Soviet steel gores for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." In August 1977 [[Stansfield Turner]] told reporters that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world," dropped in 1975: "He died, and we haven't heard from him since."[^4]
### Death and Disputed Circumstances
@ -66,5 +66,5 @@ Within the government's remote viewing program, Price's Semipalatinsk session wa
[^1]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "An Analysis of a Remote Viewing Experiment of URDF-3," report of the four sessions of July 9 to 15, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200240001-0, cited by Kress as the work of Dr. Stillman of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, December 4, 1975. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Review of Perceptual Augmentation Techniques," unsigned review of SRI progress reports 1 to 3, c. August 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200230001-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Brandwein, David S., Director, Office of Technical Service, memoranda "Stanford Research Institute Parapsychology Research," February 20, 1976 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020001-9), and "OTS Support to Research in Parapsychology," October 7, 1976 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020016-3); memorandum for the record, "Briefing for House Permanent Select Committee re OTS Involvement in ESP Research," OTS memo 287-77, November 17, 1977 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020020-8); memorandum for the record, "Discussions with OTS on the SRI Project," June 22, 1974 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110016-8). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Targ, Russell, and Harold Puthoff. "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," *Nature,* vol. 251, October 18, 1974, pp. 602-607, read in the CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220001-8 on archive.org. Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.
[^901]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments." *Nature,* vol. 274, August 17, 1978, pp. 680-681, received July 2, 1977, accepted May 31, 1978. https://www.nature.com/articles/274680a0. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf Puthoff, H. E., and Russell Targ, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," and Tart, Charles T., "Reanalysis of SRI Remote Viewing Experiments," January 1979, "submitted for publication to Nature," CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090017-5; published as Tart, Puthoff and Targ, *Nature,* vol. 284, 1980, p. 191. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments." *Nature,* vol. 274, August 17, 1978, pp. 680-681, received July 2, 1977, accepted May 31, 1978. https://www.nature.com/articles/274680a0. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf Puthoff, H. E., and Russell Targ, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," and Tart, Charles T., "Reanalysis of SRI Remote Viewing Experiments," January 1979, "submitted for publication to Nature," CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090017-5; published as Tart, Puthoff and Targ, *Nature,* vol. 284, 1980, p. 191. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Targ, Russell, and Harold Puthoff. "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," *Nature,* vol. 251, October 18, 1974, pp. 602-607, read in the CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220001-8 on archive.org. Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.

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@ -177,6 +177,7 @@ Ollie Newell had been convicted of drug charges in Indiana in the late 1980s and
[^7]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 16: "It's a burn"
[^8]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 20: "It is a sensitive matter"
[^9]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 21: "I could go anywhere in the world and sell dope"
[^10]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 24: "They're gonna forget I was a drug dealer"
[^11]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 25: "Things are moving all around us"
[^12]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 26: "That matter, if true, would be classified"
[^13]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 27: "A very difficult decision"

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ron Robertson.md
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@ -1,19 +1,47 @@
---
aliases:
- Ron Robertson
- Ron Robertson
- Ronald Robertson
- Mr. Robertson
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- Stargate
- CIA
summary: "Ron Robertson was a security officer for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)."
- AEC
- Security
- LawrenceLivermore
- UriGeller
- Psychokinesis
summary: "Atomic Energy Commission security officer at Livermore who, as quoted in 1976, wondered whether a psychic could trigger a nuclear weapon, and who in Jacobsen's account called the CIA's Kit Green after Geller's tests."
location: "Livermore, California"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Atomic Energy Commission]]"
start: 1974
role: "security officer assigned to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (title and dates as given by Geller, 1986, and Jacobsen, 2017)"
fn: 1
created: 2026-05-22
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Ron Robertson was a security officer for the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC). He was assigned to oversee national security issues between the AEC, [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Livermore]], and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] during [[Uri Geller]]'s classified [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] tests in the winter of 1975[^1].
Ron Robertson is named as a security officer of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] in two published accounts of the laboratory's 1974 to 1975 sessions with [[Uri Geller]]: the Time correspondent [[John L. Wilhelm|John Wilhelm]]'s *The Search for Superman* (1976), as characterized by Geller, and [[Annie Jacobsen]]'s *Phenomena* (2017).[^1][^2]
These tests, conducted at a laboratory adjacent to Livermore in an old wooden [[World War II]] barracks, involved firing high-quality lasers at a target and placing magnetic computer program cards in a lead container to see if Geller could interfere with them. Robertson's role was to ensure security protocols were maintained, especially given Geller's status as a foreign national and unresolved potential role with the [[Mossad]][^1].
### The 1976 quotation
After the second day of tests, Robertson called [[Kit Green]] at [[Central Intelligence Agency]] headquarters, reporting that several nuclear weapons engineers had seen inexplicable phenomena, including "items flying across the room. Lights flashing. A six-inch ball of light, rolling down the hallway. One scientist reported seeing a flying orb." These incidents, which Green privately thought sounded like "poltergeist events," caused concern at both the AEC and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], leading Green to investigate whether the scientists were experiencing hallucinations[^1].
In *The Geller Effect* (1986), Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair wrote: "While I was being tested at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the security men there, Ron Robertson of the Atomic Energy Commission, wondered if somebody like me could trigger a nuclear explosion or, worse still, a malfunction. 'All it takes is the ability to move one-eighth of an ounce a quarter of an inch at a distance of one foot,' John Wilhelm quoted him as saying." The passage adds that Wilhelm mentioned reports of unexplained bomb explosions aboard American ships in the Vietnam area and noted that Geller had moved a one-twentieth-of-an-ounce weight on a pan balance at the [[Stanford Research Institute]]. Geller then wrote that "some time later" he was taken to a high-security installation in another country where someone with no connection to the Livermore scientists asked him to do what Robertson had in mind, with real, unarmed warheads hidden behind a screen.[^2]
### The October 1974 telephone call
A CIA staff report filed with a Reuters item of November 4, 1974 records that its writer received a telephone call "on 23 October" from a "Security Officer" of the AEC at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, who said the laboratory had "just spent two days in the laboratory testing Geller" with forty AEC scientists having spent a month designing the experiments. The document does not name the caller and says the information came "anecdotally" from a security officer who was not an experimenter.[^3]
### Jacobsen's account, 1975
Jacobsen places the tests in the winter of 1975 in a laboratory adjacent to Livermore, in an old wooden World War II barracks, with high-quality lasers fired at a target and magnetic computer program cards placed in a lead container, and has Robertson responsible for security arrangements given Geller's status as a foreign national and his unresolved possible role with the [[Mossad]]. After the second day, she writes, Robertson telephoned [[Kit Green]] at [[Central Intelligence Agency]] headquarters to report that several nuclear weapons engineers had seen "items flying across the room. Lights flashing. A six-inch ball of light, rolling down the hallway," and that one scientist reported a flying orb; Green privately thought the reports sounded like "poltergeist events" and began to investigate whether the scientists were hallucinating.[^1]
[[Jim Schnabel]]'s *Remote Viewers* (1997) tells the sequence differently: the Livermore group, led by a physicist he calls [[Peter Crane]], began unofficial after-hours tests in late 1974, and it was Crane who telephoned the CIA analyst Schnabel calls "Richard Kennett," whom the *Grey Lodge Occult Review* identified as Kit Green.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown, 2017). Sole source for the barracks, the lead container, the call to Green and the quoted descriptions.
[^2]: Uri Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair, *The Geller Effect* (London: Jonathan Cape, 1986), chapter on scientific research, citing John Wilhelm, *The Search for Superman* (New York: Pocket Books, 1976). PDF at http://www.mbdodd.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/1/6/14162844/the_geller_effect_-_uri_geller_and_guy_lyon_playfair.pdf. Geller is the sole source for the characterization of Wilhelm's quotation.
[^3]: CIA-RDP79-00999A000200010023-0, archive.org item cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0, https://archive.org/download/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0/cia-rdp79-00999a000200010023-0_djvu.txt. Sole source for the call.
[^4]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers* (Dell, 1997), as excerpted in Rudy Havenstein, "Dr. Green and the Goblins of Langley," July 11, 2025, https://rudy.substack.com/p/dr-green-and-the-goblins-of-langley, quoting *Grey Lodge Occult Review* 1, no. 5: "The names Richard Kennett, Peter Crane, Mike Russo and Don Kurtis which appear below are pseudonyms employed by Mr. Schnabel."

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Steven Shaw.md
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@ -1,16 +1,75 @@
---
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
title: Steven Shaw
aliases:
- Steven Shaw
- Steven Shaw
- Steve Shaw
- Banachek
- Steve "Banachek" Shaw
- Steven Banachek
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
- Magician
summary: "Steven Shaw was one of two young magicians, along with Michael Edwards, who participated in James Randi's hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University in 1983."
- Mentalist
- ProjectAlpha
- McDonnellLaboratory
- JREF
summary: "Mentalist known as Banachek who, at 18, became a subject at the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research as part of James Randi's Project Alpha and later directed the JREF million dollar challenge."
born: 1960-11-30
location: "England"
relations:
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Project Alpha]]"
start: 1979
end: 1983-01-28
role: "posed as a psychic subject in Project Alpha at Randi's request; revealed January 28, 1983"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research]]"
start: 1979
end: 1982
role: "subject of metal-bending, telepathy and fuse experiments directed by Peter R. Phillips"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Berthold Schwarz]]"
start: 1981
end: 1982
role: "subject of the 51-page paper 'Taming the Poltergeist'; Schwarz and Shaw gave differing accounts of what Shaw said about healing"
fn: 2
- type: member_of
with: "[[James Randi Educational Foundation]]"
role: "director of its million dollar paranormal challenge, later president, as stated on his own website"
fn: 1
---
Steven Shaw was one of two young magicians, along with [[Michael Edwards]], who participated in [[James Randi]]'s hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University in 1983. Shaw and Edwards pretended to be psychics capable of [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]], using sleight of hand to simulate feats like spoon bending[^1].
They spent a total of five weeks in the lab over a three-year period. When Randi held a press conference to expose the hoax, Steven Shaw famously walked up to the microphone and said, "I cheat," revealing the deception[^1].
Steven Shaw, who performs as Banachek, states on his own website that he was born in England on November 30, 1960, was educated in England, South Africa and the United States, saw magic first at fourteen at a school event in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and moved to the United States in 1976. He credits a used copy of [[James Randi]]'s book on [[Uri Geller]] with changing his life.[^1] In 1983 Randi described him as "an English immigrant hospital employee in Washington, PA, and part time mentalist" who was eighteen when Project Alpha began.[^2]
### Before Project Alpha
[[Marcello Truzzi]] recorded that Shaw had presented himself as a genuine psychic since 1977, before he met Randi, citing a newspaper item of 1977 and a feature by Terry Hazlett, "Steve Shaw: Mentalist or Magician?," in the Pittsburgh *Observer-Reporter* of January 2, 1979. The *[[Skeptical Inquirer]]* of Fall 1980 had published "Downfall of a Would-Be Psychic" by Donald McBurney and Jack Greenberg about a young subject, and a later letter to the journal pointed out that this was Shaw. Truzzi wrote that Randi had told the McDonnell Laboratory about the article in late December 1981, that [[Peter R. Phillips]] replied the next month that the article showed only that Shaw failed to demonstrate psi when controls were introduced and that he "had not been caught cheating at all," and that Randi's explanation in the journal was that Shaw's presentation of himself as a psychic was part of his "cover."[^3]
### Project Alpha, 1979 to 1983
Randi wrote that when the [[McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research]] at [[Washington University]] announced in 1979 that it sought subjects, he asked two young conjurors who had written to him to apply, and that Shaw and [[Michael Edwards]], 18 and 17, were the only two chosen of some 300 applicants. The two had agreed that if an experimenter asked directly whether they used tricks they would answer, "Yes, and we were sent here by James Randi." Randi wrote that they were never asked.[^2]
According to Randi, Shaw and Edwards switched paper tags on measured spoons and keys, peeked into envelopes closed with staples and restapled them through the same holes, reinserted blown fuses, and turned the "target" control of a video camera to make the picture "bloom," which the laboratory included in its film. He wrote that Shaw removed a metal rod from a groove in an acrylic slab, bent it and replaced it, an experiment the laboratory deemed impossible by trickery. He also described a sealed aquarium that the pair opened at night through an unlocked window, and a rotor under a glass dome turned by air from blowing at the base. After Phillips's tightened protocol of late 1981, which Randi said removed the pair's ability to use simple trickery, they were tested or entertained by other investigators. The psychiatrist [[Berthold Schwarz]] wrote a 51-page paper, "Taming the Poltergeist," on experiments with Shaw; Randi wrote that "actually, the experimenter was Banachek; Schwarz was the subject." Randi wrote that Shaw explained a swirl on 8-mm film, in which Schwarz saw faces, a UFO and other forms, by saying "he'd simply spat on the lens."[^2]
Truzzi recorded that Schwarz became involved with Shaw because he hoped Shaw might use psychokinesis to help Schwarz's seriously ill daughter, that Schwarz said Shaw encouraged both of them in the search for a paranormal cure, and that when Truzzi asked Shaw about this at the 1983 [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal|CSICOP]] conference, where Shaw was a featured speaker, Shaw "flatly denied this description of the events." Truzzi noted that Schwarz said a tape existed of Shaw's remarks about telekinetic therapy at the National Institute for Rehabilitation Engineering in New Jersey. He also recorded that Phillips issued a public statement on research with Steve Shaw on September 1, 1981, and that later experiments with Shaw and Edwards reported at the 1982 [[Parapsychological Association]] meetings used controls the authors regarded as adequate and produced results "not indicative of psi."[^3]
At Randi's press conference on January 28, 1983, [[Annie Jacobsen]] wrote, Shaw walked to the microphone and said "I cheat." Jacobsen wrote that Shaw and Edwards spent a total of five weeks in the laboratory over a three-year period; Randi's account gives "more than 160 hours during the four years of their lives" devoted to the experiment.[^4][^2]
### After 1983
[[Walter Uphoff]], whom Randi described as unable to explain his results after the exposure, asked a reporter, in Randi's quotation, "How do these kids know they're fakes?"[^2] [[Stanley Krippner]], quoted by Truzzi, was among parapsychologists who held that Alpha raised serious ethical issues.[^3]
Shaw's website describes him as a former president of the [[James Randi Educational Foundation]] who oversaw its million dollar challenge, as having helped investigate the evangelist [[Peter Popoff]], as the creator of the "magic bullet" bullet catch that [[Penn & Teller]] later performed in their Las Vegas show, and as the first person to be buried six feet underground in chains and handcuffs and escape. It lists consulting for Penn & Teller, [[Criss Angel]] and [[David Blaine]].[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: Banachek, "About," https://banachek.com/about/ (self-published biography; sole source for the passages so cited on birth, upbringing, JREF role, the bullet catch and the burial escape).
[^2]: Randi, James, "The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 1. The First Two Years," *Skeptical Inquirer,* Summer 1983, and "Part 2. Beyond the Laboratory," Fall 1983, https://archive.org/details/JamesRandiTheProjectAlpha
[^3]: Truzzi, Marcello, "Reflections on 'Project Alpha': Scientific Experiment or Conjuror's Illusion?," *Zetetic Scholar,* nos. 12 and 13 (issue numbers printed 11 and 12), August 1987, https://archive.org/details/alpha-project-zetetic-scholar-nos-12-13
[^4]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

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@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ Major General Edmund R. Thompson was the [[United States Army|Army]]'s assistant
His eyes-only memorandum on the steering committee warned that Representative Charles Rose had an "oft-repeated desire to be kept up to date on a continuing basis" and that "a situation as before in which the last briefing was done at his instigation, forcing us to be reactors rather than action takers, should be avoided." By January 1980 he "has briefed the DDO on the INSCOM program." On April 16, 1981, he sat with Lieutenant Colonel Murray Watt to brief Rose, assuring him that the Army wished to keep working with SRI, and on May 8, 1981, asked the Secretary of the Army to approve work with civilian contractors under Procedure 18 of the Defense Department's rules on human subjects, granted on May 27 on condition that it serve "an important foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purpose." In 1981 his office transferred management of the project to INSCOM.[^4][^5]
Thompson received a copy of [[Ruth Davis]]'s memorandum of November 20, 1978, on the oversight of the remote-viewing project; the report of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] records that in the spring of 1978 "the Army ACSI was designated focal point to develop a DA program" of "moderate intensity, low profile," that he sat on the steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, and that in 1979 "MG Thompson requested the Surgeon General designate, by name, a fully qualified behavioral scientist to act as consultant during protocol development." According to Major [[William Stoner]], [[Ray Hyman]]'s candidacy for the committee ended "because of a protest memo from MG Thompson to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]," and at the briefing of January 14, 1980, "when quizzed by MG Thompson on what the word 'proof' in the report findings meant, Gale responded with a flurry of scientific buzzwords and jargon, the bottom line of which is that SCIENTIFIC PROOF has not been demonstrated."[^900]
Thompson received a copy of [[Ruth Davis]]'s memorandum of November 20, 1978, on the oversight of the remote-viewing project; the report of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] records that in the spring of 1978 "the Army ACSI was designated focal point to develop a DA program" of "moderate intensity, low profile," that he sat on the steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, and that in 1979 "MG Thompson requested the Surgeon General designate, by name, a fully qualified behavioral scientist to act as consultant during protocol development." According to Major [[William Stoner]], [[Ray Hyman]]'s candidacy for the committee ended "because of a protest memo from MG Thompson to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]," and at the briefing of January 14, 1980, "when quizzed by MG Thompson on what the word 'proof' in the report findings meant, Gale responded with a flurry of scientific buzzwords and jargon, the bottom line of which is that SCIENTIFIC PROOF has not been demonstrated."[^6]
At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Thompson "had no objections to taping the briefing" for the subcommittee. An undated note of his to Lieutenant General [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]] reads: "Reference my 3 October memo discussing the GRILL FLAME Steering Committee, Dr. LaBerge agreed that the principals should meet soon. My office was asked to coordinate."[^901]
At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Thompson "had no objections to taping the briefing" for the subcommittee. An undated note of his to Lieutenant General [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]] reads: "Reference my 3 October memo discussing the GRILL FLAME Steering Committee, Dr. LaBerge agreed that the principals should meet soon. My office was asked to coordinate."[^7]
### Footnotes
@ -42,5 +42,5 @@ At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1
[^3]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Thompson, E. R., Major General, memorandum "GRILL FLAME Steering Committee" to Dr. La Berge, eyes only, undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250013-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 April 1981," April 17, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190007-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Grill Flame - Action Memorandum," December 11, 1981, with the memorandum of Major General E. R. Thompson of May 8, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100240001-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^900]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Thompson, E. R., "Note for: LTG Tighe," undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250008-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Thompson, E. R., "Note for: LTG Tighe," undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250008-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

14
10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Jack Vorona.md
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@ -35,15 +35,15 @@ Vorona chaired the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee, which grew out of
Vorona arranged the briefing of Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] on September 29, 1982, two days before Congress ended the Army's funding; "Senator Pell had had previous briefings concerning parapsychology from Dr. Vorona." On October 5, 1983, with Hal Puthoff and the [[Center Lane]] officers, he briefed Senator [[Malcolm Wallop]], "the individual who was responsible for the project being eliminated," and asked him "to insert language in the Congressional Conference Report that would permit the program to be included in the FY 85 GDIP submission"; Wallop "replied that he is only one person." On October 7 the committees' staff asked "what is the benefit of placing the program back in the NFIP since DIA has Program 6 (P-6) money," and when he answered "security," told him "that there was no security in the NFIP, and since P-6 money is available, it could be dangerous to reintroduce the subject to the Congressional Committees. Dr. Vorona did not continue the debate and terminated the briefing." As chairman of the working group he had answered the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]'s report of December 1979 with a memorandum supporting its finding that "unexplained observations of human capabilities to generate data of potential utility to intelligence have been documented" and objecting that "many of the difficulties in the report, especially those of fact and incompleteness, could have been avoided if the report had been collectively reviewed in draft."[^4]
In the report of the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, "in August 1978, Dr. Vorona, DIA, chaired a meeting to develop a coordinated DOD program," and he sat at the first meeting of the Grill Flame steering committee on February 13, 1979, "standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]]." The committee visited him at DIA on September 26, 1979. On November 27, 1979, his working group moved that he "contact Mr. Gale and inform him of the working group's desire and need to see and be briefed on the Gale Committee's report prior to it being given to any other party or group," a discussion held "while the committee chairman was not present," after which "consultation with him reveals that his view of the Committee's goal and function is not one of oversight but one of coordination and liaison." His minutes of January 10, 1980, record that Gale's briefing "was not received favorably" and that the report was "misleading and inadequate"; according to Major [[William Stoner]], he wrote to Tighe on January 11 urging him "to intercede with Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]] on the report" so that it "be put on hold until the Working Group, as part of its responsibilities, could provide a clear analysis of what the report says." His signed comments as chairman of the working group followed.[^900]
In the report of the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, "in August 1978, Dr. Vorona, DIA, chaired a meeting to develop a coordinated DOD program," and he sat at the first meeting of the Grill Flame steering committee on February 13, 1979, "standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]]." The committee visited him at DIA on September 26, 1979. On November 27, 1979, his working group moved that he "contact Mr. Gale and inform him of the working group's desire and need to see and be briefed on the Gale Committee's report prior to it being given to any other party or group," a discussion held "while the committee chairman was not present," after which "consultation with him reveals that his view of the Committee's goal and function is not one of oversight but one of coordination and liaison." His minutes of January 10, 1980, record that Gale's briefing "was not received favorably" and that the report was "misleading and inadequate"; according to Major [[William Stoner]], he wrote to Tighe on January 11 urging him "to intercede with Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]] on the report" so that it "be put on hold until the Working Group, as part of its responsibilities, could provide a clear analysis of what the report says." His signed comments as chairman of the working group followed.[^5]
The minutes of the meeting of August 24, 1978, in his conference room record him opening "with comments about the extreme sensitivity of the subject," that "the program will be established specifically to investigate the remote viewing phenomenon and the extraordinary collection potential it offers," and his decision "against the establishment of a restricted access list and a special codeword for the program, since this would only generate more paperwork"; his letters of September 6 to the service intelligence chiefs asked for "funding levels you might be able to sustain over the next five years."[^901]
The minutes of the meeting of August 24, 1978, in his conference room record him opening "with comments about the extreme sensitivity of the subject," that "the program will be established specifically to investigate the remote viewing phenomenon and the extraordinary collection potential it offers," and his decision "against the establishment of a restricted access list and a special codeword for the program, since this would only generate more paperwork"; his letters of September 6 to the service intelligence chiefs asked for "funding levels you might be able to sustain over the next five years."[^6]
### Career in the Documents
A "Project Contacts" list of August 1, 1995, in the CIA's files, its author redacted: "From 1975 to his retirement from DIA as DDS&TI in 1990, Jack had principal responsibility for the operational use of the phenomena. He has a list of contacts both active and retired of end-users who have already testified to a number of important governmental committees as to the utility of anomalous cognition. Since 1991, Jack has served as the chair of our Policy Oversight Committee." A "Key Players" list gives him as "Dr. Jack Vorona (GS-18)"; an oversight roster as "Jack Vorona, Ph.D."; his title is printed variously as Deputy Director, Assistant Vice Director and Assistant Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, office symbol DT. He testified to the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee on April 12, 1983, in a GDIP budget overview. At an Army meeting of April 13, 1982, "it was decided that Dr. Vorona would be the 'point person' in defending the GRILL FLAME Program to Congress"; [[Lincoln D. Faurer|Lincoln Faurer]] of NSA "had been exposed to GRILL FLAME some time ago by Dr. Jack Vorona, DIA, who knew LTG Faurer when he was assigned at DIA"; [[Edwin May]] wrote in 1995 that "Senator [[William S. Cohen|Cohen]] first learned of the program from Jack Vorona." He signed the DIA information memorandum of December 22, 1981, on "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG [[James L. Dozier|Dozier]]." In February 1983 he "has either obtained or received commitment for $200K from DARPA," "the amount that Dr Vorona stated was needed to keep SRI intact for FY 83," and after briefing [[Richard DeLauer|Richard De Lauer]] on October 3, 1983, "received $600,000 Program 6 money to continue his program."[^900]
A "Project Contacts" list of August 1, 1995, in the CIA's files, its author redacted: "From 1975 to his retirement from DIA as DDS&TI in 1990, Jack had principal responsibility for the operational use of the phenomena. He has a list of contacts both active and retired of end-users who have already testified to a number of important governmental committees as to the utility of anomalous cognition. Since 1991, Jack has served as the chair of our Policy Oversight Committee." A "Key Players" list gives him as "Dr. Jack Vorona (GS-18)"; an oversight roster as "Jack Vorona, Ph.D."; his title is printed variously as Deputy Director, Assistant Vice Director and Assistant Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, office symbol DT. He testified to the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee on April 12, 1983, in a GDIP budget overview. At an Army meeting of April 13, 1982, "it was decided that Dr. Vorona would be the 'point person' in defending the GRILL FLAME Program to Congress"; [[Lincoln D. Faurer|Lincoln Faurer]] of NSA "had been exposed to GRILL FLAME some time ago by Dr. Jack Vorona, DIA, who knew LTG Faurer when he was assigned at DIA"; [[Edwin May]] wrote in 1995 that "Senator [[William S. Cohen|Cohen]] first learned of the program from Jack Vorona." He signed the DIA information memorandum of December 22, 1981, on "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG [[James L. Dozier|Dozier]]." In February 1983 he "has either obtained or received commitment for $200K from DARPA," "the amount that Dr Vorona stated was needed to keep SRI intact for FY 83," and after briefing [[Richard DeLauer|Richard De Lauer]] on October 3, 1983, "received $600,000 Program 6 money to continue his program."[^7]
On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Medical Research and Development Command, who "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology," and "solicited BG Rapmund's assistance in getting the Perry letter rescinded." Visiting the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, he "said that he would like to see psychoenergetics turn into a major discipline. He envisions expanding the current program in a manner similar to that of the disciplines of ELINT, SIGINT, COMINT, etc.," "would like to expand the current program to include PK and medical/psychological assessment," and reported that he and Rapmund "has signed an MOU" under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87," besides "TIARA funds and another $600K of P6 funds"; "he will be the central manager of the program under DIA and we will work for him." On March 11, 1985, four days after the DIA memorandum of agreement, "Dr. Vorona granted approval to continue with the training," an approval that fell to him "because of the human use implications" once the project was DIA's. The Sun Streak Oversight Panel met first in January 1986 with "Mr. D. Latham (Asst SecDef, C3I)" as chairman, "Lt Gen L. Perroots" of DIA as member, and "Dr. J. Vorona (DIA/DT), advisory member"; the unit's training reports and annual reports of 1985 to 1988 are addressed "TO: DT (Dr. Vorona)."[^900]
On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Medical Research and Development Command, who "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology," and "solicited BG Rapmund's assistance in getting the Perry letter rescinded." Visiting the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, he "said that he would like to see psychoenergetics turn into a major discipline. He envisions expanding the current program in a manner similar to that of the disciplines of ELINT, SIGINT, COMINT, etc.," "would like to expand the current program to include PK and medical/psychological assessment," and reported that he and Rapmund "has signed an MOU" under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87," besides "TIARA funds and another $600K of P6 funds"; "he will be the central manager of the program under DIA and we will work for him." On March 11, 1985, four days after the DIA memorandum of agreement, "Dr. Vorona granted approval to continue with the training," an approval that fell to him "because of the human use implications" once the project was DIA's. The Sun Streak Oversight Panel met first in January 1986 with "Mr. D. Latham (Asst SecDef, C3I)" as chairman, "Lt Gen L. Perroots" of DIA as member, and "Dr. J. Vorona (DIA/DT), advisory member"; the unit's training reports and annual reports of 1985 to 1988 are addressed "TO: DT (Dr. Vorona)."[^7]
### Footnotes
@ -51,6 +51,6 @@ On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Me
[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Jachim, Robert J., memorandum "Information Briefing for Senator Clairborne Pell," October 6, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320001-5; Buzby, Brian, information paper "GRILL FLAME Briefing Presented to Senator Pell," February 6, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320004-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memorandum "Briefing to Senator Wallop, 5 October 1983," October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270015-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memorandum on the briefing of Congressional intelligence committee staff of October 7, 1983, October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270017-8; "ITAOPS Fact Sheet, Inputs for MG Stubblebine," April 10, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220021-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5; Vorona, J., "Comments on 'Report By: The GRILLFLAME Scientific Evaluation Committee,'" memorandum of the Grill Flame Working Group, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300060001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^900]: "Project Contacts," August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5; "Key Players," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200270002-9; "Scientific Oversight Committee," CIA-RDP96-00789R003200130001-2; bibliography citing Vorona's testimony to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee of April 12, 1983, in "RV Reliability Enhancement and Evaluation," 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800150001-7; "OACSI Meeting About Grill Flame," April 13, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200060003-1; "Recent Actions Concerning Project Grill Flame," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2; "Center Lane Briefing 3-7 October 1983," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270013-2; "Discussion with Dr. Jack Vorona," August 31, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090055-8; "Meeting With Dr. Vorona, 11 March 1985," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700290007-7; "Sun Streak Oversight Panel, Minutes of First Meeting," January 1986, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100200001-6; "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG Dozier," December 22, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600180016-8; "Grill Flame Briefing for Director, NSA," June and July 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230004-6; May, Edwin C., memorandum "Contacts," February 23, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190073-7; Jachim, R. J., "Meeting Between BG Rapmund and Dr. Jack Vorona," September 1, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440071-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^5]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: "Project Contacts," August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5; "Key Players," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200270002-9; "Scientific Oversight Committee," CIA-RDP96-00789R003200130001-2; bibliography citing Vorona's testimony to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee of April 12, 1983, in "RV Reliability Enhancement and Evaluation," 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800150001-7; "OACSI Meeting About Grill Flame," April 13, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200060003-1; "Recent Actions Concerning Project Grill Flame," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2; "Center Lane Briefing 3-7 October 1983," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270013-2; "Discussion with Dr. Jack Vorona," August 31, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090055-8; "Meeting With Dr. Vorona, 11 March 1985," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700290007-7; "Sun Streak Oversight Panel, Minutes of First Meeting," January 1986, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100200001-6; "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG Dozier," December 22, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600180016-8; "Grill Flame Briefing for Director, NSA," June and July 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230004-6; May, Edwin C., memorandum "Contacts," February 23, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190073-7; Jachim, R. J., "Meeting Between BG Rapmund and Dr. Jack Vorona," September 1, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440071-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

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@ -1,16 +1,80 @@
---
aliases:
- John L. Wilhelm
category: "Skeptics & Critics"
category: "Authors & Journalists"
tags:
- Person
- Skeptic
summary: "Wilhelm's exposé centered on the U.S."
- Journalist
- Time
- SRI
- UriGeller
- Parapsychology
- HPSCI
- Documentary
alias:
- John L. Wilhelm
- John Wilhelm
- John Lenhart Wilhelm III
- John Lenhart Wilhelm
- Wilhelm
summary: "Time science correspondent whose 1976 book The Search for Superman and August 7, 1977 Washington Post article on psychic spying drew a CIA memorandum in 1974 and a House intelligence committee briefing in 1977."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Time]]"
start: 1961
role: "reporter, then National Science Correspondent; listed on the March 4, 1974 Time masthead and described by the CIA on April 16, 1974 as a former Time reporter"
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Stanford Research Institute]]"
start: 1974-04
role: "wrote to SRI president Charles Anderson in 1974 requesting interviews with Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ; CIA records the request"
fn: 2
- type: subject_of
with: "[[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]"
start: 1977-11-16
role: "his August 7, 1977 Washington Post article occasioned a committee staff briefing by the CIA Office of Technical Service"
fn: 8
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Science 80]]"
role: "managing editor, after Time"
fn: 11
created: 2026-05-15
updated: 2026-10-05
---
John L. Wilhelm was a journalist and a skeptic of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and other anomalous mental phenomena. He is known for his *Washington Post* article, "Psychic Spying? The [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[Pentagon]] and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of [[Parapsychology]]," published on August 7, 1977[^1].
John Lenhart Wilhelm III graduated from [[Princeton University]] in 1959, served as an aviation intelligence officer in the [[U.S. Navy]] (planning bombing raids during the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to his obituary), and joined [[Time]] in 1961. At Time he became National Science Correspondent and reported on manned and unmanned space flights, the Vietnam War battle of Hamburger Hill, the 1968 B-52 crash at [[Thule Air Base]] in Greenland, the Kent State shootings, the [[Pentagon Papers]] and the arrest of [[Daniel Ellsberg]], and wrote the magazine's first cover story on environmental pollution.[^1] His name appears among the correspondents on the masthead of the March 4, 1974 issue of Time, which carried the cover story "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier" by [[Stefan Kanfer]].[^2]
Wilhelm's exposé centered on the [[U.S. Navy]]'s top scientist, [[Samuel Koslov]], who publicly expressed outrage about the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] project on ESP, claiming he had demanded its cessation. Koslov told Wilhelm, "If you ask me, ‘Do you think it’s a pile of crap?’ I do, and you can quote me." Wilhelm's article highlighted the public relations nightmare faced by Koslov, especially as the nefarious details surrounding the [[Moscow Signal]] and [[Project Pandora]] had only recently become public[^1].
### Request to interview SRI, 1974
A memorandum for the record dated April 16, 1974, in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] STARGATE collection, is headed "Request for Information about Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Paranormal Research Project by Mr. Wilhelm former Time Reporter." It records that Wilhelm had written to [[Charles Anderson]], president of the [[Stanford Research Institute]], asking permission to interview [[Harold Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]], and that Wilhelm "desires to write a true positive story of the activities at SRI to obviate the previous biased public accounts." Puthoff had telephoned the CIA to report the request and to ask its opinion. The memorandum states that "it was mutually agreed that since publication of certain portions of the work is imminent, refusal to see Mr. Whilhelm would only delay such interviews which will become more frequent in the future," and that the SRI investigators "will grant the interview and confine the discussions to the innocuous portions of their studies."[^3]
### The Search for Superman, 1976
Wilhelm's book *The Search for Superman: An Extraordinary Journey of Psychic Exploration* was published by Pocket Books in 1976.[^4] An outline of it kept in the CIA collection among SRI miscellaneous papers lists as its characters [[Uri Geller]], [[Andrija Puharich]], [[Hannah Shtrang]] and [[Shipi Shtrang]], [[Ingo Swann]], [[Pat Price]], [[J. B. Rhine]], [[Edgar Mitchell]] and Adrienne Puthoff (the "ring incident"), gives the purpose of the book as presenting "the facts as best they can be determined in the controversial psychic experiments carried out over the past several years by SRI," and notes that "assistance by SRI was given grudgingly, if at all" and that Wilhelm was "not allowed to witness any of their psychic tests." The same outline names [[George Lawrence]] of the [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] and [[Robert Van de Castle]] on the "loose" Geller experiments.[^5]
The British weekly *[[New Scientist]]* reviewed the book's treatment of the 1974 *Nature* paper by Targ and Puthoff. [[Joseph Hanlon]] wrote that "in his book, Wilhelm comes close to accusing Targ and Puthoff of dishonesty": Wilhelm alleged that in three of the thirteen picture-drawing trials Geller passed but a drawing was nonetheless included, that in one of these, a horse drawn against a camel target, "apparently Targ and Puthoff themselves may have helped select one of Uri's many drawings that best fit the target," that Puthoff told Geller whether a target was a geometric picture or an object, and that Shipi Shtrang and Jean Mayo were present at sessions, so that Geller's "SRI experiments tended to be more like full-blown stage performances than private experiments."[^6]
In the *Humanist* review of Targ and Puthoff's *Mind-Reach*, [[Ray Hyman]] quoted Wilhelm's book on Hyman himself: "He has a personal belief structure that seemingly would suffer least if psychic phenomena became accepted as a scientific reality." Hyman cited the passage to argue that his criticisms of Targ and Puthoff were not dogmatic fanaticism.[^7]
### "Psychic Spying?" and the House committee, 1977
On August 7, 1977 the [[Washington Post]] published Wilhelm's article "Psychic Spying? The CIA, the Pentagon and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of Parapsychology."[^8] [[Annie Jacobsen]] reports that the article centered on [[Samuel Koslov]], described there as the Navy's top scientist, who publicly expressed outrage about the SRI work on extrasensory perception and said he had demanded that it stop. According to Jacobsen, Koslov told Wilhelm: "If you ask me, 'Do you think it's a pile of crap?' I do, and you can quote me," and the article appeared when the details of the [[Moscow Signal]] and [[Project Pandora]] had only recently become public.[^9]
A CIA memorandum of November 17, 1977 (OTS/BAB Memo 287-77) records that "the Committee's interest was occasioned by the article 'Psychic Spying' which appeared in the Parade Section of the Washington Post on 7 August 1977." In response to a request from the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]], the Director of the [[Office of Technical Service]], David Brandwein, and other OTS officers briefed committee staff, among them Michael O'Neil and Pat Long, from about 1000 to 1100 hours on November 16, 1977, in the committee's offices. The staffers "asked very pertinent questions and were given frank and in-depth replies" to a short oral history of OTS work in the field dating to 1961. An OTS officer was asked to find out whether any other agency component was sponsoring ESP research. OTS left with the committee a written outline of its ESP work (classified SECRET), the IEEE article covering the unclassified portions of the SRI work, and a brief article on Pat Price; the committee declined additional information.[^10]
### Later career and death
After Time, Wilhelm was managing editor of the American Association for the Advancement of Science magazine *Science 80*, then a freelance science writer, with an early profile of [[Stephen Hawking]] among his pieces. He became a television producer, and was Emmy-nominated as executive producer of the [[PBS]] documentary *Comet Halley*, narrated by [[James Earl Jones]]. His other productions included *Planet Earth*, *My Heart, Your Heart* with [[Jim Lehrer]], *Two Cheers for the CIA*, and *Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America*, the last co-produced with his wife, Sally Squires Wilhelm. The obituary was published by the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]], of which he was a longtime member. He died at his home in Washington, D.C. on August 21, 2025, aged 87, of pancreatic cancer.[^11]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^1]: "John Wilhelm, Longtime AFIO Member and Journalist," obituary, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, October 17, 2025. https://www.afio.com/obituaries/2025/10/17/john-wilhelm-longtime-afio-member-and-journalist/
[^2]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time,* March 4, 1974, cover story, with the issue's Publisher's Letter (which names Associate Editor Stefan Kanfer as writer of the cover story) and masthead, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000700030001-3
[^3]: Memorandum for the Record, "Request for Information about Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Paranormal Research Project by Mr. Wilhelm former Time Reporter," April 16, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200200023-5 (a second copy is CIA-RDP96-00787R000700090018-9). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Wilhelm, John. *The Search for Superman: An Extraordinary Journey of Psychic Exploration.* Pocket Books, 1976; publication year and publisher as given in Hanlon, Joseph, "Spoon-bending science," *New Scientist,* 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080018-5, and in the AFIO obituary cited above.
[^5]: "The Search for Superman by John L. Wilhelm," typed outline, in "1978-80 SRI Misc. Papers," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100040006-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: Hanlon, Joseph. "Spoon-bending science," *New Scientist,* 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080018-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Hyman, Ray. "Psychics and Scientists: 'Mind-Reach' and Remote Viewing," review of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, *Mind-Reach* (Delacorte, 1977), CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080037-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^8]: Wilhelm, John L. "Psychic Spying? The Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of Parapsychology," *Washington Post,* August 7, 1977 (title and date as given in Jacobsen and in the CIA memorandum cited at note 10).
[^9]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited (Koslov's statements).
[^10]: OTS/BAB Memo 287-77, "Briefing for House Permanent Select Committee re OTS Involvement in ESP Research," November 17, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020020-8 and sanitized copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000500170001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^11]: "John Wilhelm, Longtime AFIO Member and Journalist," Association of Former Intelligence Officers, October 17, 2025. https://www.afio.com/obituaries/2025/10/17/john-wilhelm-longtime-afio-member-and-journalist/

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@ -28,11 +28,11 @@ Murray B. Watt, called Scotty, was a major of military intelligence in the human
Watt briefed the committee on "INSCOM training and operational application of the remote viewing phenomenon" on November 27, 1979, and, as a lieutenant colonel, briefed Representative [[Charlie Rose|Charles Rose]] with General [[Edmund Thompson]] on April 16, 1981, writing the record of it. On June 30, 1981, as "outgoing project manager," he gave the first Grill Flame briefing to the new commander of INSCOM, [[Albert Stubblebine]], alongside his successor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jachim.[^3]
Watt wrote INSCOM's record of the first meeting of "the DoD Committee on Special Sensors" on November 28, 1978, as "MAJ, MI, GRILL FLAME Project Officer, INSCOM," listing himself and Major [[William Stoner]] among thirteen present with [[Jack Vorona]], Dailey of the Under Secretary's office, [[Dale Graff]], [[John Kramar]] and Colonel Al DeProspero of AMSAA, Bill Mehuron of the Navy and a redacted name from NSA, and noting that "DIA will have 'Intelligence Oversight' responsibility; local IG cannot inspect without approval." On January 16, 1980, "I briefed Congressman Charlie Rose... on the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project," with Thompson, Vorona, "Jake Stewart, NSC Staff Member" and "Dick Giza, Office of Congressman Rose" present; "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Rose "encouraged us to continue with our program." His comments on the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee|Gale report]] in February 1980 called it "very shallow in nature," noted "after all, we provided the committee with most of the data contained in the Annex," and asked of its handwriting passage, "Did they, in fact, question Targ on this handwriting issue?"; "at the working meeting held 30-31 Jan I outlined most of our major objections."[^900]
Watt wrote INSCOM's record of the first meeting of "the DoD Committee on Special Sensors" on November 28, 1978, as "MAJ, MI, GRILL FLAME Project Officer, INSCOM," listing himself and Major [[William Stoner]] among thirteen present with [[Jack Vorona]], Dailey of the Under Secretary's office, [[Dale Graff]], [[John Kramar]] and Colonel Al DeProspero of AMSAA, Bill Mehuron of the Navy and a redacted name from NSA, and noting that "DIA will have 'Intelligence Oversight' responsibility; local IG cannot inspect without approval." On January 16, 1980, "I briefed Congressman Charlie Rose... on the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project," with Thompson, Vorona, "Jake Stewart, NSC Staff Member" and "Dick Giza, Office of Congressman Rose" present; "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Rose "encouraged us to continue with our program." His comments on the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee|Gale report]] in February 1980 called it "very shallow in nature," noted "after all, we provided the committee with most of the data contained in the Annex," and asked of its handwriting passage, "Did they, in fact, question Targ on this handwriting issue?"; "at the working meeting held 30-31 Jan I outlined most of our major objections."[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 April 1981," April 17, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190007-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memoranda for the record, "Initial Grill Flame Briefing to MG Stubblebine as CG, INSCOM, 30 June 1981" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220001-0), "Meeting With MG Stubblebine on 30 November 1983" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220010-0), and "Meeting with MG Stubblebine on 6 January 1984" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220009-2). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^900]: Defense Intelligence Agency, S-1004/DT-1, "Minutes of the Meeting, DoD Grill Flame Committee," November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; Watt, Murray B., "Summary of Working Group Meeting, DoD Committee on Special Sensors (C), 28 Nov 78," November 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240006-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., "Comments Concerning 'GRILL FLAME SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION COMMITTEE REPORT,' dated December 1979," catalogued February 13, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130025-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, S-1004/DT-1, "Minutes of the Meeting, DoD Grill Flame Committee," November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; Watt, Murray B., "Summary of Working Group Meeting, DoD Committee on Special Sensors (C), 28 Nov 78," November 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240006-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., "Comments Concerning 'GRILL FLAME SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION COMMITTEE REPORT,' dated December 1979," catalogued February 13, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130025-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.

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@ -31,18 +31,18 @@ Despite the personality conflicts and the controversial nature of the research,
The paper he and Puthoff published in *Nature* on October 18, 1974, "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," reported thirteen drawing experiments with Uri Geller in "a double-walled steel room" and later "a double-walled, copper-screen Faraday cage," in which two judges "each matched the target data to the response data with no error"; a hundred-picture series on which Geller "passed" every day, with results that "do not depart significantly from what would be expected by chance"; a die in a steel box called correctly eight times of eight; nine double-blind remote-viewing trials with Pat Price against Bay Area sites chosen by the division director with a random-number calculator, of which five judges matched six of nine; and an EEG series in which one subject of six, "H.H.," showed "a consistent alpha blocking effect" when a distant light flashed. It concluded that "a channel exists whereby information about a remote location can be obtained by means of an as yet unidentified perceptual modality," that "the information channel appears to be imperfect, containing noise along with the signal," and that the ability "may be widely distributed in the general population." The acknowledged sponsor was "The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, New York City," with thanks to Judith Skutch and [[Edgar Mitchell]] of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]]. In 1978 [[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] reported in *Nature* that they had failed to replicate the work and argued that the Price transcripts held cues such as "second place of the day" that let judges match them; Targ, Puthoff, and [[Charles Tart]] answered in January 1979 with re-edited transcripts and a new judge who matched seven of nine.[^2]
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], which met Targ, Puthoff and Charles Tart at SRI on July 24 and 25, 1979, wrote of the long-distance series that a drawing of the San Andres airport, in the Costa Rica series, had been made by "one of the experimenters who substituted his time for that of" the designated subject, and in its protocol annex: "The lack of repeated use of Targ as a Subject is thus supported, even though he provided an excellent response to the San Andres airport. (One must wonder why he wasn't used again in view of this highly accurate response!)" Its summary of the SRI work: "The only way that their concepts will be accepted by the scientific community is for non-reproachable experimenters to conduct similar research, using improved methods, without any possible intrusion by persons (such as Puthoff and Targ) having a vested interest in the results."[^900]
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], which met Targ, Puthoff and Charles Tart at SRI on July 24 and 25, 1979, wrote of the long-distance series that a drawing of the San Andres airport, in the Costa Rica series, had been made by "one of the experimenters who substituted his time for that of" the designated subject, and in its protocol annex: "The lack of repeated use of Targ as a Subject is thus supported, even though he provided an excellent response to the San Andres airport. (One must wonder why he wasn't used again in view of this highly accurate response!)" Its summary of the SRI work: "The only way that their concepts will be accepted by the scientific community is for non-reproachable experimenters to conduct similar research, using improved methods, without any possible intrusion by persons (such as Puthoff and Targ) having a vested interest in the results."[^3]
The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 wrote of one SRI target that "Targ, who selected the coordinates, had also worked for Sylvania," that "Targ was an accomplished amateur magician," quoting his pages in Mind-Reach on "sleights" and "illusions," and of an airport drawing, "Was it drawn by Russell Targ?"; David Marks found in the fourth Price transcript Targ's remark to the subject, "Nothing like having three successes behind you," on a page missing from the copy SRI gave John Wilhelm.[^901]
The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 wrote of one SRI target that "Targ, who selected the coordinates, had also worked for Sylvania," that "Targ was an accomplished amateur magician," quoting his pages in Mind-Reach on "sleights" and "illusions," and of an airport drawing, "Was it drawn by Russell Targ?"; David Marks found in the fourth Price transcript Targ's remark to the subject, "Nothing like having three successes behind you," on a page missing from the copy SRI gave John Wilhelm.[^4]
### The 1996 Memoir
Targ requested his CIA files in May 1994, "moved from number 540 in line to number 474" in a year, and with "two Washington lawyers, two congressmen, and a senator" obtained them on August 11, 1995. His memoir of 1996 recounts Price telephoning Puthoff in June 1973 to say he had been "doing that kind of psychic thing for years, catching crooks when he was the police commissioner in Burbank"; the protocol of sixty target cards and a calculator with a random-number key, run by the laboratory director Bonnar Cox, with Targ and the viewer in a Faraday cage on the second floor of the Radio Physics building; Price's drawing of the Rinconada Park pools, "about a hundred feet in diameter (it was actually hundred and ten feet)," with water tanks that the city's centennial report showed had stood there in 1913; and the session of July 10, 1974, in which Price, given coordinates by "a physicist from the CIA," said: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head. As I drift up in the air and look down, it seems to be riding on a track with one rail on each side of the building." Targ added that Price described "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" being assembled from "thick metal gores" with welding difficulties, and that *Aviation Week* of May 2, 1977, reported satellite photographs of Soviet technicians manufacturing "huge extremely thick steel gores" for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." He quoted the *Chicago Tribune* of August 13, 1977, on Director [[Stansfield Turner]]'s disclosure that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world through his psychic powers," dropped in 1975: "'He died,' Turner said, 'and we haven't heard from him since.'" Of the agency's position in 1995 he wrote: "It is as though the CIA discovered that there were indeed little men on Mars, but concluded that since they were pretty small and didn't have weapons, they weren't worth investigating any further."[^3]
Targ requested his CIA files in May 1994, "moved from number 540 in line to number 474" in a year, and with "two Washington lawyers, two congressmen, and a senator" obtained them on August 11, 1995. His memoir of 1996 recounts Price telephoning Puthoff in June 1973 to say he had been "doing that kind of psychic thing for years, catching crooks when he was the police commissioner in Burbank"; the protocol of sixty target cards and a calculator with a random-number key, run by the laboratory director Bonnar Cox, with Targ and the viewer in a Faraday cage on the second floor of the Radio Physics building; Price's drawing of the Rinconada Park pools, "about a hundred feet in diameter (it was actually hundred and ten feet)," with water tanks that the city's centennial report showed had stood there in 1913; and the session of July 10, 1974, in which Price, given coordinates by "a physicist from the CIA," said: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head. As I drift up in the air and look down, it seems to be riding on a track with one rail on each side of the building." Targ added that Price described "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" being assembled from "thick metal gores" with welding difficulties, and that *Aviation Week* of May 2, 1977, reported satellite photographs of Soviet technicians manufacturing "huge extremely thick steel gores" for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." He quoted the *Chicago Tribune* of August 13, 1977, on Director [[Stansfield Turner]]'s disclosure that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world through his psychic powers," dropped in 1975: "'He died,' Turner said, 'and we haven't heard from him since.'" Of the agency's position in 1995 he wrote: "It is as though the CIA discovered that there were indeed little men on Mars, but concluded that since they were pretty small and didn't have weapons, they weren't worth investigating any further."[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Targ, Russell, and Harold Puthoff. "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," *Nature,* vol. 251, October 18, 1974, pp. 602-607, read in the CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220001-8 on archive.org. Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments," *Nature,* vol. 274, 1978, pp. 680-681; quoted from Puthoff, Targ, and Tart, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," with Tart, "Reanalysis of SRI Remote Viewing Experiments," submitted to *Nature,* January 1979, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090017-5, archive.org mirror.
[^3]: Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^901]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
[^3]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
[^5]: Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.