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---
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aliases:
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- Amnon Rubinstein
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category: "Skeptics & Critics"
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category: "Political Figure"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Skeptic
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summary: "Amnon Rubinstein was a prominent Israeli legal scholar, politician, and television talk show host."
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- Israel
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- Knesset
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- Shinui
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- Meretz
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- ConstitutionalLaw
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- UriGeller
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- TelAvivUniversity
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alias:
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- Amnon Rubinstein
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- Prof. Amnon Rubinstein
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- Dr. Amnon Rubinstein
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- Rubinstein
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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."
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born: 1931-09-05
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died: 2024-01-18
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location: "Tel Aviv, Israel"
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Tel Aviv University]]"
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start: 1961
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end: 1975
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role: "professor of law; dean of the Faculty of Law, 1968 to 1973"
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fn: 2
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Shinui]]"
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start: 1974
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role: "founded the Shinui (Change) movement after the Yom Kippur War"
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fn: 3
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- type: member_of
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with: "[[Knesset]]"
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start: 1977
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end: 2001
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role: "Democratic Movement for Change (9th Knesset), Shinui (9th to 12th), Meretz (12th to 15th)"
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
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start: 1984
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end: 1987-05-26
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role: "Minister of Communication, 21st and 22nd governments"
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
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start: 1992
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end: 1993-06-07
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role: "Minister of Science and Technology until December 31, 1992, then Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, 25th government"
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Government of Israel]]"
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start: 1994-05-30
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role: "Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, 25th and 26th governments"
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya]]"
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role: "dean of the Radzyner School of Law, provost, and president for a year"
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fn: 4
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-10-05
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---
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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].
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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].
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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]
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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].
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### Academic and journalistic career
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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].
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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]
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### Uri Geller, 1969 to 1970
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[[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]
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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]
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### Political career
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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]
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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]
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### Later positions and honors
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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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 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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[^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).
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[^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).
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[^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
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[^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/
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[^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.
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[^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).
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[^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).
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@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ Bill Ray was one of the five remote viewers from [[United States Army Intelligen
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### The Documents
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"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]
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"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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 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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[^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.
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[^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.
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@ -15,8 +15,9 @@ Garrison Rapmund was a Major General and the Assistant Surgeon General of the [[
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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].
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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]
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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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 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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[^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.
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[^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.
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@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ During the experiment, Sergeyev monitored Kulagina's physiological responses, wh
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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].
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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]
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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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 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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[^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.
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[^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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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]].
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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]
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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]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^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
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will now check for an existing page for "Nita Scoggan".
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
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[^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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@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried ou
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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]
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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]
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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]
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### Training the Army Program
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[^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.
|
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[^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.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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"
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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."
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -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
|
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- type: member_of
|
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with: "[[James Randi Educational Foundation]]"
|
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role: "director of its million dollar paranormal challenge, later president, as stated on his own website"
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fn: 1
|
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---
|
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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].
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|
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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].
|
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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]
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|
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### Before Project Alpha
|
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|
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[[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]
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|
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### Project Alpha, 1979 to 1983
|
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|
||||
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]
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|
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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]
|
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|
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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]
|
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|
||||
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]
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|
||||
### 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]
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|
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### 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.
|
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|
||||
[^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).
|
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[^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
|
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[^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
|
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[^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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