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@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ Major General Edmund R. Thompson was the [[United States Army|Army]]'s assistant
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His eyes-only memorandum on the steering committee warned that Representative Charles Rose had an "oft-repeated desire to be kept up to date on a continuing basis" and that "a situation as before in which the last briefing was done at his instigation, forcing us to be reactors rather than action takers, should be avoided." By January 1980 he "has briefed the DDO on the INSCOM program." On April 16, 1981, he sat with Lieutenant Colonel Murray Watt to brief Rose, assuring him that the Army wished to keep working with SRI, and on May 8, 1981, asked the Secretary of the Army to approve work with civilian contractors under Procedure 18 of the Defense Department's rules on human subjects, granted on May 27 on condition that it serve "an important foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purpose." In 1981 his office transferred management of the project to INSCOM.[^4][^5]
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Thompson received a copy of [[Ruth Davis]]'s memorandum of November 20, 1978, on the oversight of the remote-viewing project; the report of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] records that in the spring of 1978 "the Army ACSI was designated focal point to develop a DA program" of "moderate intensity, low profile," that he sat on the steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, and that in 1979 "MG Thompson requested the Surgeon General designate, by name, a fully qualified behavioral scientist to act as consultant during protocol development." According to Major [[William Stoner]], [[Ray Hyman]]'s candidacy for the committee ended "because of a protest memo from MG Thompson to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]," and at the briefing of January 14, 1980, "when quizzed by MG Thompson on what the word 'proof' in the report findings meant, Gale responded with a flurry of scientific buzzwords and jargon, the bottom line of which is that SCIENTIFIC PROOF has not been demonstrated."[^900]
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Thompson received a copy of [[Ruth Davis]]'s memorandum of November 20, 1978, on the oversight of the remote-viewing project; the report of the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] records that in the spring of 1978 "the Army ACSI was designated focal point to develop a DA program" of "moderate intensity, low profile," that he sat on the steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, and that in 1979 "MG Thompson requested the Surgeon General designate, by name, a fully qualified behavioral scientist to act as consultant during protocol development." According to Major [[William Stoner]], [[Ray Hyman]]'s candidacy for the committee ended "because of a protest memo from MG Thompson to Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]]," and at the briefing of January 14, 1980, "when quizzed by MG Thompson on what the word 'proof' in the report findings meant, Gale responded with a flurry of scientific buzzwords and jargon, the bottom line of which is that SCIENTIFIC PROOF has not been demonstrated."[^6]
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At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Thompson "had no objections to taping the briefing" for the subcommittee. An undated note of his to Lieutenant General [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]] reads: "Reference my 3 October memo discussing the GRILL FLAME Steering Committee, Dr. LaBerge agreed that the principals should meet soon. My office was asked to coordinate."[^901]
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At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Thompson "had no objections to taping the briefing" for the subcommittee. An undated note of his to Lieutenant General [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]] reads: "Reference my 3 October memo discussing the GRILL FLAME Steering Committee, Dr. LaBerge agreed that the principals should meet soon. My office was asked to coordinate."[^7]
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### Footnotes
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@ -42,5 +42,5 @@ At Watt's briefing of Representative Rose on January 16, 1980, "Page 3 of Incl 1
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[^3]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^4]: Thompson, E. R., Major General, memorandum "GRILL FLAME Steering Committee" to Dr. La Berge, eyes only, undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250013-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 April 1981," April 17, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190007-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^5]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Grill Flame - Action Memorandum," December 11, 1981, with the memorandum of Major General E. R. Thompson of May 8, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100240001-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^900]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^901]: Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Thompson, E. R., "Note for: LTG Tighe," undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250008-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^6]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^7]: Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Thompson, E. R., "Note for: LTG Tighe," undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250008-6. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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@ -35,15 +35,15 @@ Vorona chaired the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee, which grew out of
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Vorona arranged the briefing of Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] on September 29, 1982, two days before Congress ended the Army's funding; "Senator Pell had had previous briefings concerning parapsychology from Dr. Vorona." On October 5, 1983, with Hal Puthoff and the [[Center Lane]] officers, he briefed Senator [[Malcolm Wallop]], "the individual who was responsible for the project being eliminated," and asked him "to insert language in the Congressional Conference Report that would permit the program to be included in the FY 85 GDIP submission"; Wallop "replied that he is only one person." On October 7 the committees' staff asked "what is the benefit of placing the program back in the NFIP since DIA has Program 6 (P-6) money," and when he answered "security," told him "that there was no security in the NFIP, and since P-6 money is available, it could be dangerous to reintroduce the subject to the Congressional Committees. Dr. Vorona did not continue the debate and terminated the briefing." As chairman of the working group he had answered the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]]'s report of December 1979 with a memorandum supporting its finding that "unexplained observations of human capabilities to generate data of potential utility to intelligence have been documented" and objecting that "many of the difficulties in the report, especially those of fact and incompleteness, could have been avoided if the report had been collectively reviewed in draft."[^4]
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In the report of the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, "in August 1978, Dr. Vorona, DIA, chaired a meeting to develop a coordinated DOD program," and he sat at the first meeting of the Grill Flame steering committee on February 13, 1979, "standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]]." The committee visited him at DIA on September 26, 1979. On November 27, 1979, his working group moved that he "contact Mr. Gale and inform him of the working group's desire and need to see and be briefed on the Gale Committee's report prior to it being given to any other party or group," a discussion held "while the committee chairman was not present," after which "consultation with him reveals that his view of the Committee's goal and function is not one of oversight but one of coordination and liaison." His minutes of January 10, 1980, record that Gale's briefing "was not received favorably" and that the report was "misleading and inadequate"; according to Major [[William Stoner]], he wrote to Tighe on January 11 urging him "to intercede with Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]] on the report" so that it "be put on hold until the Working Group, as part of its responsibilities, could provide a clear analysis of what the report says." His signed comments as chairman of the working group followed.[^900]
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In the report of the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, "in August 1978, Dr. Vorona, DIA, chaired a meeting to develop a coordinated DOD program," and he sat at the first meeting of the Grill Flame steering committee on February 13, 1979, "standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]]." The committee visited him at DIA on September 26, 1979. On November 27, 1979, his working group moved that he "contact Mr. Gale and inform him of the working group's desire and need to see and be briefed on the Gale Committee's report prior to it being given to any other party or group," a discussion held "while the committee chairman was not present," after which "consultation with him reveals that his view of the Committee's goal and function is not one of oversight but one of coordination and liaison." His minutes of January 10, 1980, record that Gale's briefing "was not received favorably" and that the report was "misleading and inadequate"; according to Major [[William Stoner]], he wrote to Tighe on January 11 urging him "to intercede with Dr [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]] on the report" so that it "be put on hold until the Working Group, as part of its responsibilities, could provide a clear analysis of what the report says." His signed comments as chairman of the working group followed.[^5]
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The minutes of the meeting of August 24, 1978, in his conference room record him opening "with comments about the extreme sensitivity of the subject," that "the program will be established specifically to investigate the remote viewing phenomenon and the extraordinary collection potential it offers," and his decision "against the establishment of a restricted access list and a special codeword for the program, since this would only generate more paperwork"; his letters of September 6 to the service intelligence chiefs asked for "funding levels you might be able to sustain over the next five years."[^901]
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The minutes of the meeting of August 24, 1978, in his conference room record him opening "with comments about the extreme sensitivity of the subject," that "the program will be established specifically to investigate the remote viewing phenomenon and the extraordinary collection potential it offers," and his decision "against the establishment of a restricted access list and a special codeword for the program, since this would only generate more paperwork"; his letters of September 6 to the service intelligence chiefs asked for "funding levels you might be able to sustain over the next five years."[^6]
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### Career in the Documents
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A "Project Contacts" list of August 1, 1995, in the CIA's files, its author redacted: "From 1975 to his retirement from DIA as DDS&TI in 1990, Jack had principal responsibility for the operational use of the phenomena. He has a list of contacts both active and retired of end-users who have already testified to a number of important governmental committees as to the utility of anomalous cognition. Since 1991, Jack has served as the chair of our Policy Oversight Committee." A "Key Players" list gives him as "Dr. Jack Vorona (GS-18)"; an oversight roster as "Jack Vorona, Ph.D."; his title is printed variously as Deputy Director, Assistant Vice Director and Assistant Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, office symbol DT. He testified to the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee on April 12, 1983, in a GDIP budget overview. At an Army meeting of April 13, 1982, "it was decided that Dr. Vorona would be the 'point person' in defending the GRILL FLAME Program to Congress"; [[Lincoln D. Faurer|Lincoln Faurer]] of NSA "had been exposed to GRILL FLAME some time ago by Dr. Jack Vorona, DIA, who knew LTG Faurer when he was assigned at DIA"; [[Edwin May]] wrote in 1995 that "Senator [[William S. Cohen|Cohen]] first learned of the program from Jack Vorona." He signed the DIA information memorandum of December 22, 1981, on "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG [[James L. Dozier|Dozier]]." In February 1983 he "has either obtained or received commitment for $200K from DARPA," "the amount that Dr Vorona stated was needed to keep SRI intact for FY 83," and after briefing [[Richard DeLauer|Richard De Lauer]] on October 3, 1983, "received $600,000 Program 6 money to continue his program."[^900]
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A "Project Contacts" list of August 1, 1995, in the CIA's files, its author redacted: "From 1975 to his retirement from DIA as DDS&TI in 1990, Jack had principal responsibility for the operational use of the phenomena. He has a list of contacts both active and retired of end-users who have already testified to a number of important governmental committees as to the utility of anomalous cognition. Since 1991, Jack has served as the chair of our Policy Oversight Committee." A "Key Players" list gives him as "Dr. Jack Vorona (GS-18)"; an oversight roster as "Jack Vorona, Ph.D."; his title is printed variously as Deputy Director, Assistant Vice Director and Assistant Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, office symbol DT. He testified to the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee on April 12, 1983, in a GDIP budget overview. At an Army meeting of April 13, 1982, "it was decided that Dr. Vorona would be the 'point person' in defending the GRILL FLAME Program to Congress"; [[Lincoln D. Faurer|Lincoln Faurer]] of NSA "had been exposed to GRILL FLAME some time ago by Dr. Jack Vorona, DIA, who knew LTG Faurer when he was assigned at DIA"; [[Edwin May]] wrote in 1995 that "Senator [[William S. Cohen|Cohen]] first learned of the program from Jack Vorona." He signed the DIA information memorandum of December 22, 1981, on "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG [[James L. Dozier|Dozier]]." In February 1983 he "has either obtained or received commitment for $200K from DARPA," "the amount that Dr Vorona stated was needed to keep SRI intact for FY 83," and after briefing [[Richard DeLauer|Richard De Lauer]] on October 3, 1983, "received $600,000 Program 6 money to continue his program."[^7]
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On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Medical Research and Development Command, who "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology," and "solicited BG Rapmund's assistance in getting the Perry letter rescinded." Visiting the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, he "said that he would like to see psychoenergetics turn into a major discipline. He envisions expanding the current program in a manner similar to that of the disciplines of ELINT, SIGINT, COMINT, etc.," "would like to expand the current program to include PK and medical/psychological assessment," and reported that he and Rapmund "has signed an MOU" under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87," besides "TIARA funds and another $600K of P6 funds"; "he will be the central manager of the program under DIA and we will work for him." On March 11, 1985, four days after the DIA memorandum of agreement, "Dr. Vorona granted approval to continue with the training," an approval that fell to him "because of the human use implications" once the project was DIA's. The Sun Streak Oversight Panel met first in January 1986 with "Mr. D. Latham (Asst SecDef, C3I)" as chairman, "Lt Gen L. Perroots" of DIA as member, and "Dr. J. Vorona (DIA/DT), advisory member"; the unit's training reports and annual reports of 1985 to 1988 are addressed "TO: DT (Dr. Vorona)."[^900]
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On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Medical Research and Development Command, who "stated that as long as the Perry letter... remained as DoD policy, R&D funds could not be spent in the field of parapsychology," and "solicited BG Rapmund's assistance in getting the Perry letter rescinded." Visiting the Center Lane office on August 31, 1984, he "said that he would like to see psychoenergetics turn into a major discipline. He envisions expanding the current program in a manner similar to that of the disciplines of ELINT, SIGINT, COMINT, etc.," "would like to expand the current program to include PK and medical/psychological assessment," and reported that he and Rapmund "has signed an MOU" under which Rapmund "will provide one million dollars during FY85, two million during FY86, and four million during FY87," besides "TIARA funds and another $600K of P6 funds"; "he will be the central manager of the program under DIA and we will work for him." On March 11, 1985, four days after the DIA memorandum of agreement, "Dr. Vorona granted approval to continue with the training," an approval that fell to him "because of the human use implications" once the project was DIA's. The Sun Streak Oversight Panel met first in January 1986 with "Mr. D. Latham (Asst SecDef, C3I)" as chairman, "Lt Gen L. Perroots" of DIA as member, and "Dr. J. Vorona (DIA/DT), advisory member"; the unit's training reports and annual reports of 1985 to 1988 are addressed "TO: DT (Dr. Vorona)."[^7]
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### Footnotes
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@ -51,6 +51,6 @@ On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Me
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[^2]: 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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[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^4]: Jachim, Robert J., memorandum "Information Briefing for Senator Clairborne Pell," October 6, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320001-5; Buzby, Brian, information paper "GRILL FLAME Briefing Presented to Senator Pell," February 6, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100320004-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memorandum "Briefing to Senator Wallop, 5 October 1983," October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270015-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memorandum on the briefing of Congressional intelligence committee staff of October 7, 1983, October 14, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270017-8; "ITAOPS Fact Sheet, Inputs for MG Stubblebine," April 10, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220021-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5; Vorona, J., "Comments on 'Report By: The GRILLFLAME Scientific Evaluation Committee,'" memorandum of the Grill Flame Working Group, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300060001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^901]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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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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[^5]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^6]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the Meeting of the DoD Committee on Remote Viewing Activities," August 24, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140009-7; Vorona to the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, S-1862/DT-1, September 6, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410015-9; Commander, Naval Intelligence Command, to DIA, September 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410025-8; DIA to the 902d Military Intelligence Group, September 22, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140015-0; James L. Brown, Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, USAF, to Vorona, September 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410026-7; Army ACSI (DAMI-ISH) to Vorona, October 4, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200410024-9. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^7]: "Project Contacts," August 1, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190048-5; "Key Players," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200270002-9; "Scientific Oversight Committee," CIA-RDP96-00789R003200130001-2; bibliography citing Vorona's testimony to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee of April 12, 1983, in "RV Reliability Enhancement and Evaluation," 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001800150001-7; "OACSI Meeting About Grill Flame," April 13, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200060003-1; "Recent Actions Concerning Project Grill Flame," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2; "Center Lane Briefing 3-7 October 1983," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270013-2; "Discussion with Dr. Jack Vorona," August 31, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090055-8; "Meeting With Dr. Vorona, 11 March 1985," CIA-RDP96-00788R001700290007-7; "Sun Streak Oversight Panel, Minutes of First Meeting," January 1986, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100200001-6; "Special Intelligence Support Relating to the Kidnapping of BG Dozier," December 22, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600180016-8; "Grill Flame Briefing for Director, NSA," June and July 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230004-6; May, Edwin C., memorandum "Contacts," February 23, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190073-7; Jachim, R. J., "Meeting Between BG Rapmund and Dr. Jack Vorona," September 1, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440071-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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@ -1,16 +1,80 @@
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---
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aliases:
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- John L. Wilhelm
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category: "Skeptics & Critics"
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category: "Authors & Journalists"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Skeptic
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summary: "Wilhelm's exposé centered on the U.S."
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- Journalist
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- Time
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- SRI
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- UriGeller
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- Parapsychology
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- HPSCI
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- Documentary
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alias:
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- John L. Wilhelm
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- John Wilhelm
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- John Lenhart Wilhelm III
|
||||
- John Lenhart Wilhelm
|
||||
- Wilhelm
|
||||
summary: "Time science correspondent whose 1976 book The Search for Superman and August 7, 1977 Washington Post article on psychic spying drew a CIA memorandum in 1974 and a House intelligence committee briefing in 1977."
|
||||
location: "Washington, D.C."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Time]]"
|
||||
start: 1961
|
||||
role: "reporter, then National Science Correspondent; listed on the March 4, 1974 Time masthead and described by the CIA on April 16, 1974 as a former Time reporter"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Stanford Research Institute]]"
|
||||
start: 1974-04
|
||||
role: "wrote to SRI president Charles Anderson in 1974 requesting interviews with Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ; CIA records the request"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]"
|
||||
start: 1977-11-16
|
||||
role: "his August 7, 1977 Washington Post article occasioned a committee staff briefing by the CIA Office of Technical Service"
|
||||
fn: 8
|
||||
- type: employed_by
|
||||
with: "[[Science 80]]"
|
||||
role: "managing editor, after Time"
|
||||
fn: 11
|
||||
created: 2026-05-15
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-05
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
John L. Wilhelm was a journalist and a skeptic of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and other anomalous mental phenomena. He is known for his *Washington Post* article, "Psychic Spying? The [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[Pentagon]] and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of [[Parapsychology]]," published on August 7, 1977[^1].
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John Lenhart Wilhelm III graduated from [[Princeton University]] in 1959, served as an aviation intelligence officer in the [[U.S. Navy]] (planning bombing raids during the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to his obituary), and joined [[Time]] in 1961. At Time he became National Science Correspondent and reported on manned and unmanned space flights, the Vietnam War battle of Hamburger Hill, the 1968 B-52 crash at [[Thule Air Base]] in Greenland, the Kent State shootings, the [[Pentagon Papers]] and the arrest of [[Daniel Ellsberg]], and wrote the magazine's first cover story on environmental pollution.[^1] His name appears among the correspondents on the masthead of the March 4, 1974 issue of Time, which carried the cover story "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier" by [[Stefan Kanfer]].[^2]
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|
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Wilhelm's exposé centered on the [[U.S. Navy]]'s top scientist, [[Samuel Koslov]], who publicly expressed outrage about the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] project on ESP, claiming he had demanded its cessation. Koslov told Wilhelm, "If you ask me, ‘Do you think it’s a pile of crap?’ I do, and you can quote me." Wilhelm's article highlighted the public relations nightmare faced by Koslov, especially as the nefarious details surrounding the [[Moscow Signal]] and [[Project Pandora]] had only recently become public[^1].
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### Request to interview SRI, 1974
|
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|
||||
A memorandum for the record dated April 16, 1974, in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] STARGATE collection, is headed "Request for Information about Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Paranormal Research Project by Mr. Wilhelm former Time Reporter." It records that Wilhelm had written to [[Charles Anderson]], president of the [[Stanford Research Institute]], asking permission to interview [[Harold Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]], and that Wilhelm "desires to write a true positive story of the activities at SRI to obviate the previous biased public accounts." Puthoff had telephoned the CIA to report the request and to ask its opinion. The memorandum states that "it was mutually agreed that since publication of certain portions of the work is imminent, refusal to see Mr. Whilhelm would only delay such interviews which will become more frequent in the future," and that the SRI investigators "will grant the interview and confine the discussions to the innocuous portions of their studies."[^3]
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### The Search for Superman, 1976
|
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|
||||
Wilhelm's book *The Search for Superman: An Extraordinary Journey of Psychic Exploration* was published by Pocket Books in 1976.[^4] An outline of it kept in the CIA collection among SRI miscellaneous papers lists as its characters [[Uri Geller]], [[Andrija Puharich]], [[Hannah Shtrang]] and [[Shipi Shtrang]], [[Ingo Swann]], [[Pat Price]], [[J. B. Rhine]], [[Edgar Mitchell]] and Adrienne Puthoff (the "ring incident"), gives the purpose of the book as presenting "the facts as best they can be determined in the controversial psychic experiments carried out over the past several years by SRI," and notes that "assistance by SRI was given grudgingly, if at all" and that Wilhelm was "not allowed to witness any of their psychic tests." The same outline names [[George Lawrence]] of the [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] and [[Robert Van de Castle]] on the "loose" Geller experiments.[^5]
|
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|
||||
The British weekly *[[New Scientist]]* reviewed the book's treatment of the 1974 *Nature* paper by Targ and Puthoff. [[Joseph Hanlon]] wrote that "in his book, Wilhelm comes close to accusing Targ and Puthoff of dishonesty": Wilhelm alleged that in three of the thirteen picture-drawing trials Geller passed but a drawing was nonetheless included, that in one of these, a horse drawn against a camel target, "apparently Targ and Puthoff themselves may have helped select one of Uri's many drawings that best fit the target," that Puthoff told Geller whether a target was a geometric picture or an object, and that Shipi Shtrang and Jean Mayo were present at sessions, so that Geller's "SRI experiments tended to be more like full-blown stage performances than private experiments."[^6]
|
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|
||||
In the *Humanist* review of Targ and Puthoff's *Mind-Reach*, [[Ray Hyman]] quoted Wilhelm's book on Hyman himself: "He has a personal belief structure that seemingly would suffer least if psychic phenomena became accepted as a scientific reality." Hyman cited the passage to argue that his criticisms of Targ and Puthoff were not dogmatic fanaticism.[^7]
|
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|
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### "Psychic Spying?" and the House committee, 1977
|
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|
||||
On August 7, 1977 the [[Washington Post]] published Wilhelm's article "Psychic Spying? The CIA, the Pentagon and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of Parapsychology."[^8] [[Annie Jacobsen]] reports that the article centered on [[Samuel Koslov]], described there as the Navy's top scientist, who publicly expressed outrage about the SRI work on extrasensory perception and said he had demanded that it stop. According to Jacobsen, Koslov told Wilhelm: "If you ask me, 'Do you think it's a pile of crap?' I do, and you can quote me," and the article appeared when the details of the [[Moscow Signal]] and [[Project Pandora]] had only recently become public.[^9]
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|
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A CIA memorandum of November 17, 1977 (OTS/BAB Memo 287-77) records that "the Committee's interest was occasioned by the article 'Psychic Spying' which appeared in the Parade Section of the Washington Post on 7 August 1977." In response to a request from the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]], the Director of the [[Office of Technical Service]], David Brandwein, and other OTS officers briefed committee staff, among them Michael O'Neil and Pat Long, from about 1000 to 1100 hours on November 16, 1977, in the committee's offices. The staffers "asked very pertinent questions and were given frank and in-depth replies" to a short oral history of OTS work in the field dating to 1961. An OTS officer was asked to find out whether any other agency component was sponsoring ESP research. OTS left with the committee a written outline of its ESP work (classified SECRET), the IEEE article covering the unclassified portions of the SRI work, and a brief article on Pat Price; the committee declined additional information.[^10]
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|
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### Later career and death
|
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|
||||
After Time, Wilhelm was managing editor of the American Association for the Advancement of Science magazine *Science 80*, then a freelance science writer, with an early profile of [[Stephen Hawking]] among his pieces. He became a television producer, and was Emmy-nominated as executive producer of the [[PBS]] documentary *Comet Halley*, narrated by [[James Earl Jones]]. His other productions included *Planet Earth*, *My Heart, Your Heart* with [[Jim Lehrer]], *Two Cheers for the CIA*, and *Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America*, the last co-produced with his wife, Sally Squires Wilhelm. The obituary was published by the [[Association of Former Intelligence Officers]], of which he was a longtime member. He died at his home in Washington, D.C. on August 21, 2025, aged 87, of pancreatic cancer.[^11]
|
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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]: "John Wilhelm, Longtime AFIO Member and Journalist," obituary, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, October 17, 2025. https://www.afio.com/obituaries/2025/10/17/john-wilhelm-longtime-afio-member-and-journalist/
|
||||
[^2]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time,* March 4, 1974, cover story, with the issue's Publisher's Letter (which names Associate Editor Stefan Kanfer as writer of the cover story) and masthead, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection: https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000700030001-3
|
||||
[^3]: Memorandum for the Record, "Request for Information about Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Paranormal Research Project by Mr. Wilhelm former Time Reporter," April 16, 1974, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200200023-5 (a second copy is CIA-RDP96-00787R000700090018-9). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^4]: Wilhelm, John. *The Search for Superman: An Extraordinary Journey of Psychic Exploration.* Pocket Books, 1976; publication year and publisher as given in Hanlon, Joseph, "Spoon-bending science," *New Scientist,* 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080018-5, and in the AFIO obituary cited above.
|
||||
[^5]: "The Search for Superman by John L. Wilhelm," typed outline, in "1978-80 SRI Misc. Papers," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100040006-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^6]: Hanlon, Joseph. "Spoon-bending science," *New Scientist,* 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080018-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^7]: Hyman, Ray. "Psychics and Scientists: 'Mind-Reach' and Remote Viewing," review of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, *Mind-Reach* (Delacorte, 1977), CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080037-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^8]: Wilhelm, John L. "Psychic Spying? The Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of Parapsychology," *Washington Post,* August 7, 1977 (title and date as given in Jacobsen and in the CIA memorandum cited at note 10).
|
||||
[^9]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited (Koslov's statements).
|
||||
[^10]: OTS/BAB Memo 287-77, "Briefing for House Permanent Select Committee re OTS Involvement in ESP Research," November 17, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020020-8 and sanitized copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000500170001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^11]: "John Wilhelm, Longtime AFIO Member and Journalist," Association of Former Intelligence Officers, October 17, 2025. https://www.afio.com/obituaries/2025/10/17/john-wilhelm-longtime-afio-member-and-journalist/
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|
|
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|
|
@ -28,11 +28,11 @@ Murray B. Watt, called Scotty, was a major of military intelligence in the human
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|
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Watt briefed the committee on "INSCOM training and operational application of the remote viewing phenomenon" on November 27, 1979, and, as a lieutenant colonel, briefed Representative [[Charlie Rose|Charles Rose]] with General [[Edmund Thompson]] on April 16, 1981, writing the record of it. On June 30, 1981, as "outgoing project manager," he gave the first Grill Flame briefing to the new commander of INSCOM, [[Albert Stubblebine]], alongside his successor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jachim.[^3]
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Watt wrote INSCOM's record of the first meeting of "the DoD Committee on Special Sensors" on November 28, 1978, as "MAJ, MI, GRILL FLAME Project Officer, INSCOM," listing himself and Major [[William Stoner]] among thirteen present with [[Jack Vorona]], Dailey of the Under Secretary's office, [[Dale Graff]], [[John Kramar]] and Colonel Al DeProspero of AMSAA, Bill Mehuron of the Navy and a redacted name from NSA, and noting that "DIA will have 'Intelligence Oversight' responsibility; local IG cannot inspect without approval." On January 16, 1980, "I briefed Congressman Charlie Rose... on the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project," with Thompson, Vorona, "Jake Stewart, NSC Staff Member" and "Dick Giza, Office of Congressman Rose" present; "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Rose "encouraged us to continue with our program." His comments on the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee|Gale report]] in February 1980 called it "very shallow in nature," noted "after all, we provided the committee with most of the data contained in the Annex," and asked of its handwriting passage, "Did they, in fact, question Targ on this handwriting issue?"; "at the working meeting held 30-31 Jan I outlined most of our major objections."[^900]
|
||||
Watt wrote INSCOM's record of the first meeting of "the DoD Committee on Special Sensors" on November 28, 1978, as "MAJ, MI, GRILL FLAME Project Officer, INSCOM," listing himself and Major [[William Stoner]] among thirteen present with [[Jack Vorona]], Dailey of the Under Secretary's office, [[Dale Graff]], [[John Kramar]] and Colonel Al DeProspero of AMSAA, Bill Mehuron of the Navy and a redacted name from NSA, and noting that "DIA will have 'Intelligence Oversight' responsibility; local IG cannot inspect without approval." On January 16, 1980, "I briefed Congressman Charlie Rose... on the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project," with Thompson, Vorona, "Jake Stewart, NSC Staff Member" and "Dick Giza, Office of Congressman Rose" present; "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Rose "encouraged us to continue with our program." His comments on the [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee|Gale report]] in February 1980 called it "very shallow in nature," noted "after all, we provided the committee with most of the data contained in the Annex," and asked of its handwriting passage, "Did they, in fact, question Targ on this handwriting issue?"; "at the working meeting held 30-31 Jan I outlined most of our major objections."[^4]
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|
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### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^3]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 28, 1978 (enclosed in Progress Report #1), July 12, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130008-9), November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1), and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 April 1981," April 17, 1981, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190007-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Buzby, Brian, memoranda for the record, "Initial Grill Flame Briefing to MG Stubblebine as CG, INSCOM, 30 June 1981" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220001-0), "Meeting With MG Stubblebine on 30 November 1983" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220010-0), and "Meeting with MG Stubblebine on 6 January 1984" (CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220009-2). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
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[^900]: Defense Intelligence Agency, S-1004/DT-1, "Minutes of the Meeting, DoD Grill Flame Committee," November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; Watt, Murray B., "Summary of Working Group Meeting, DoD Committee on Special Sensors (C), 28 Nov 78," November 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240006-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., "Comments Concerning 'GRILL FLAME SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION COMMITTEE REPORT,' dated December 1979," catalogued February 13, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130025-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
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[^4]: Defense Intelligence Agency, S-1004/DT-1, "Minutes of the Meeting, DoD Grill Flame Committee," November 28, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000140013-2; Watt, Murray B., "Summary of Working Group Meeting, DoD Committee on Special Sensors (C), 28 Nov 78," November 29, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240006-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., memorandum for the record, "INSCOM GRILL FLAME Briefing for Congressman Rose, 16 January 1980," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100190001-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Watt, Murray B., "Comments Concerning 'GRILL FLAME SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION COMMITTEE REPORT,' dated December 1979," catalogued February 13, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130025-0. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
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|
|
|
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|
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@ -31,18 +31,18 @@ Despite the personality conflicts and the controversial nature of the research,
|
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|
||||
The paper he and Puthoff published in *Nature* on October 18, 1974, "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," reported thirteen drawing experiments with Uri Geller in "a double-walled steel room" and later "a double-walled, copper-screen Faraday cage," in which two judges "each matched the target data to the response data with no error"; a hundred-picture series on which Geller "passed" every day, with results that "do not depart significantly from what would be expected by chance"; a die in a steel box called correctly eight times of eight; nine double-blind remote-viewing trials with Pat Price against Bay Area sites chosen by the division director with a random-number calculator, of which five judges matched six of nine; and an EEG series in which one subject of six, "H.H.," showed "a consistent alpha blocking effect" when a distant light flashed. It concluded that "a channel exists whereby information about a remote location can be obtained by means of an as yet unidentified perceptual modality," that "the information channel appears to be imperfect, containing noise along with the signal," and that the ability "may be widely distributed in the general population." The acknowledged sponsor was "The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, New York City," with thanks to Judith Skutch and [[Edgar Mitchell]] of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]]. In 1978 [[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] reported in *Nature* that they had failed to replicate the work and argued that the Price transcripts held cues such as "second place of the day" that let judges match them; Targ, Puthoff, and [[Charles Tart]] answered in January 1979 with re-edited transcripts and a new judge who matched seven of nine.[^2]
|
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|
||||
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], which met Targ, Puthoff and Charles Tart at SRI on July 24 and 25, 1979, wrote of the long-distance series that a drawing of the San Andres airport, in the Costa Rica series, had been made by "one of the experimenters who substituted his time for that of" the designated subject, and in its protocol annex: "The lack of repeated use of Targ as a Subject is thus supported, even though he provided an excellent response to the San Andres airport. (One must wonder why he wasn't used again in view of this highly accurate response!)" Its summary of the SRI work: "The only way that their concepts will be accepted by the scientific community is for non-reproachable experimenters to conduct similar research, using improved methods, without any possible intrusion by persons (such as Puthoff and Targ) having a vested interest in the results."[^900]
|
||||
The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], which met Targ, Puthoff and Charles Tart at SRI on July 24 and 25, 1979, wrote of the long-distance series that a drawing of the San Andres airport, in the Costa Rica series, had been made by "one of the experimenters who substituted his time for that of" the designated subject, and in its protocol annex: "The lack of repeated use of Targ as a Subject is thus supported, even though he provided an excellent response to the San Andres airport. (One must wonder why he wasn't used again in view of this highly accurate response!)" Its summary of the SRI work: "The only way that their concepts will be accepted by the scientific community is for non-reproachable experimenters to conduct similar research, using improved methods, without any possible intrusion by persons (such as Puthoff and Targ) having a vested interest in the results."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 wrote of one SRI target that "Targ, who selected the coordinates, had also worked for Sylvania," that "Targ was an accomplished amateur magician," quoting his pages in Mind-Reach on "sleights" and "illusions," and of an airport drawing, "Was it drawn by Russell Targ?"; David Marks found in the fourth Price transcript Targ's remark to the subject, "Nothing like having three successes behind you," on a page missing from the copy SRI gave John Wilhelm.[^901]
|
||||
The Snyders' evaluation of 1979 wrote of one SRI target that "Targ, who selected the coordinates, had also worked for Sylvania," that "Targ was an accomplished amateur magician," quoting his pages in Mind-Reach on "sleights" and "illusions," and of an airport drawing, "Was it drawn by Russell Targ?"; David Marks found in the fourth Price transcript Targ's remark to the subject, "Nothing like having three successes behind you," on a page missing from the copy SRI gave John Wilhelm.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1996 Memoir
|
||||
|
||||
Targ requested his CIA files in May 1994, "moved from number 540 in line to number 474" in a year, and with "two Washington lawyers, two congressmen, and a senator" obtained them on August 11, 1995. His memoir of 1996 recounts Price telephoning Puthoff in June 1973 to say he had been "doing that kind of psychic thing for years, catching crooks when he was the police commissioner in Burbank"; the protocol of sixty target cards and a calculator with a random-number key, run by the laboratory director Bonnar Cox, with Targ and the viewer in a Faraday cage on the second floor of the Radio Physics building; Price's drawing of the Rinconada Park pools, "about a hundred feet in diameter (it was actually hundred and ten feet)," with water tanks that the city's centennial report showed had stood there in 1913; and the session of July 10, 1974, in which Price, given coordinates by "a physicist from the CIA," said: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head. As I drift up in the air and look down, it seems to be riding on a track with one rail on each side of the building." Targ added that Price described "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" being assembled from "thick metal gores" with welding difficulties, and that *Aviation Week* of May 2, 1977, reported satellite photographs of Soviet technicians manufacturing "huge extremely thick steel gores" for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." He quoted the *Chicago Tribune* of August 13, 1977, on Director [[Stansfield Turner]]'s disclosure that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world through his psychic powers," dropped in 1975: "'He died,' Turner said, 'and we haven't heard from him since.'" Of the agency's position in 1995 he wrote: "It is as though the CIA discovered that there were indeed little men on Mars, but concluded that since they were pretty small and didn't have weapons, they weren't worth investigating any further."[^3]
|
||||
Targ requested his CIA files in May 1994, "moved from number 540 in line to number 474" in a year, and with "two Washington lawyers, two congressmen, and a senator" obtained them on August 11, 1995. His memoir of 1996 recounts Price telephoning Puthoff in June 1973 to say he had been "doing that kind of psychic thing for years, catching crooks when he was the police commissioner in Burbank"; the protocol of sixty target cards and a calculator with a random-number key, run by the laboratory director Bonnar Cox, with Targ and the viewer in a Faraday cage on the second floor of the Radio Physics building; Price's drawing of the Rinconada Park pools, "about a hundred feet in diameter (it was actually hundred and ten feet)," with water tanks that the city's centennial report showed had stood there in 1913; and the session of July 10, 1974, in which Price, given coordinates by "a physicist from the CIA," said: "I am lying on my back on the roof of a two or three story brick building. It's a sunny day. The sun feels good. There's the most amazing thing. There's a giant gantry crane moving back and forth over my head. As I drift up in the air and look down, it seems to be riding on a track with one rail on each side of the building." Targ added that Price described "a giant, 'sixty-foot diameter metal sphere'" being assembled from "thick metal gores" with welding difficulties, and that *Aviation Week* of May 2, 1977, reported satellite photographs of Soviet technicians manufacturing "huge extremely thick steel gores" for "a large sphere estimated to be about 18 meters (57.8 feet) in diameter." He quoted the *Chicago Tribune* of August 13, 1977, on Director [[Stansfield Turner]]'s disclosure that the agency "had found a man who could 'see' what was going on anywhere in the world through his psychic powers," dropped in 1975: "'He died,' Turner said, 'and we haven't heard from him since.'" Of the agency's position in 1995 he wrote: "It is as though the CIA discovered that there were indeed little men on Mars, but concluded that since they were pretty small and didn't have weapons, they weren't worth investigating any further."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^2]: Targ, Russell, and Harold Puthoff. "Information Transmission under Conditions of Sensory Shielding," *Nature,* vol. 251, October 18, 1974, pp. 602-607, read in the CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP96-00787R000100220001-8 on archive.org. Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments," *Nature,* vol. 274, 1978, pp. 680-681; quoted from Puthoff, Targ, and Tart, "Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments: II," with Tart, "Reanalysis of SRI Remote Viewing Experiments," submitted to *Nature,* January 1979, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090017-5, archive.org mirror.
|
||||
[^3]: Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.
|
||||
[^900]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^901]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
|
||||
[^3]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
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[^4]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
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[^5]: Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.
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