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@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
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- Military
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- DIA
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summary: "Jack Vorona was the Assistant Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and served as the overall manager of the Grill Flame program."
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-08
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---
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Jack Vorona was the Assistant Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence at the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) and served as the overall manager of the [[Stargate Project|Grill Flame]] program. He played a crucial role in the continuation and restructuring of the U.S. government's psychic research programs after the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] scaled back its involvement[^1][^2].
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@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ A "Project Contacts" list of August 1, 1995, in the CIA's files, its author reda
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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could not be spent in the field of parapsychology," and "solicited BG Rapmund's assistance in getting the Perry letter rescinded."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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A DIA project report of October 19, 1983 totals the three-year Grill Flame project at $1,475.5K for fiscal years 1981 to 1983, of which $962K was DIA money, $313.5K Army INSCOM money and $200K money from [[DARPA]].[^8]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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@ -54,3 +56,4 @@ On August 27, 1981, he met Brigadier General [[Garrison Rapmund]] of the Army Me
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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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[^8]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Directorate for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, "GRILL FLAME Project Report," October 19, 1983, Appendix III, CIA-RDP96-00788R001000410001-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001000410001-6.pdf
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@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ A memorandum for the record dated April 16, 1974, in the [[Central Intelligence
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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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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 [[DARPA|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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@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ relations:
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end: 2021-11-30
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-09-25
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updated: 2026-09-25
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updated: 2026-10-08
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---
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Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., known as Larry Visoski, is an American pilot who flew [[Jeffrey Epstein]]'s aircraft from 1991 to 2019, including the Boeing 727 known as the [[Lolita Express]]. Federal Aviation Administration files and a [[Government of the United States Virgin Islands|Virgin Islands]] complaint list him as manager or member of several of the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]] companies that held Epstein's jets and helicopters. He was the government's first witness at the 2021 trial of [[Ghislaine Maxwell]] in the [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]], where he testified that Epstein had paid for his two daughters' education and had given him land at [[Zorro Ranch]] in [[New Mexico]]. Bank records released by the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] in 2026 show checks from Epstein's [[JPMorgan Chase]] account totaling 106,654 dollars to [[Syracuse University]] for one of the daughters between 2009 and 2012.[^1][^2][^3]
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@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ A [[Deutsche Bank]] know-your-customer page headed "The 2013 Butterfly Trust," p
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On May 16, 2014, Epstein's accountant [[Richard Kahn]] asked Visoski to "poke around tonight about Black Diamond Trading," a company he had heard was trying to buy the St. Thomas Jet Center. Visoski replied, "Here you go Rich ask and ye shall receive," supplied the tail number of the Black Diamond Learjet, and asked, "can you ask if you want me to introduce myself?" Kahn forwarded the information to Epstein, noting that "Larry has obtained some good info on them." Black Diamond Capital Management's founder, [[Stephen Deckoff]], bought Little St. James and [[Great St. James]] from Epstein's estate in May 2023 through his firm SD Investments.[^7]
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On September 9, 2014, a charter booker emailed Kahn and Visoski that a JEGE LLC charter flight carrying the New Mexico attorney general and gubernatorial candidate [[Gary King]] and his running mate, [[Deb Haaland]], from Santa Fe was "on the ground at IAD."[^8] On July 25, 2016 the head of security at [[Bard College]] wrote that a helicopter landing for Epstein's visit to the campus would be coordinated with "Epstein's pilot, Larry Visoski, and the local fire company"; the college's president, [[Leon Botstein]], replied "Excellent."[^9]
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At 5:40 PM that day Visoski sent Kahn a message listing "LearJet 60," "N114BD," and "Is Blackdiamond."[^8] At 6:08 PM, under the subject line "Barn," he wrote, "Here you go Rich ask and ye shall receive," and "They arrived this evening at 7 PM in the Learjet, can you ask if you want me to introduce myself?" Kahn forwarded the exchange to Epstein, asking, "should larry meet the aircraft and poke around with them tonight at 7:30pm?" A reply from the account "jeffrey E." reads "yes why not?"[^9] Data Set 9 of the Justice Department's release contains an undated photograph of Stephen Deckoff's Black Diamond business card (EFTA01204007) and, numbered immediately before it, a screenshot of an aviation application with a 5:40 PM AST radar timestamp and the route "TIST KEWR," St. Thomas to Newark (EFTA01204006).[^10]
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The FAA's releasable aircraft database lists N114BD in 2026 as a 2009 Dassault Falcon 7X registered to Black Diamond Aviation Group LLC of Greenwich, Connecticut, and its deregistered-aircraft file lists a 1999 Learjet 60 (serial number 166) under the mark N112BD, cancelled on July 1, 2025.[^11] A listing of FAA registry records for Greenwich shows N114BD on that Learjet 60, serial number 166, with a certificate issued December 9, 2004 to Black Diamond Aviation Group LLC.[^12]
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On September 9, 2014, a charter booker emailed Kahn and Visoski that a JEGE LLC charter flight carrying the New Mexico attorney general and gubernatorial candidate [[Gary King]] and his running mate, [[Deb Haaland]], from Santa Fe was "on the ground at IAD."[^13] On July 25, 2016 the head of security at [[Bard College]] wrote that a helicopter landing for Epstein's visit to the campus would be coordinated with "Epstein's pilot, Larry Visoski, and the local fire company"; the college's president, [[Leon Botstein]], replied "Excellent."[^14]
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### Tuition and Favors
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@ -76,7 +80,7 @@ On April 7, 2011, after his elder daughter was denied an interview for an [[NBC]
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Visoski testified on November 29 and 30, 2021. He named passengers he had flown with Epstein, including [[Donald Trump]] ("There was more than once, I believe"), [[Bill Clinton]], [[Prince Andrew]], Senators [[John Glenn]] and [[George Mitchell]], the actors [[Kevin Spacey]] and [[Chris Tucker]], and the violinist [[Itzhak Perlman]]. He testified that he flew Epstein to [[Columbus, Ohio]] to see [[Leslie Wexner]], whom Epstein called his client, and that "Ms. Maxwell had nothing to do with the passenger manifests." Under cross-examination he said he "never saw any sexual activity" on the aircraft, and of the accuser known at trial as "Jane," "I didn't know her age. She didn't look young." He testified that Epstein kept the cockpit door closed during flights, and confirmed that Epstein had paid for both of his daughters' college education and given him acreage at Zorro Ranch.[^1][^2][^3]
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Judge [[Alison Nathan]] relied at sentencing in part on the testimony of two of Epstein's pilots that [[Sarah Kellen]] had been Maxwell's assistant, one element of the four-level leadership enhancement that the [[Second Circuit]] upheld in September 2024.[^10]
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Judge [[Alison Nathan]] relied at sentencing in part on the testimony of two of Epstein's pilots that [[Sarah Kellen]] had been Maxwell's assistant, one element of the four-level leadership enhancement that the [[Second Circuit]] upheld in September 2024.[^15]
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### Footnotes
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@ -87,6 +91,11 @@ Judge [[Alison Nathan]] relied at sentencing in part on the testimony of two of
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[^5]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein, No. ST-20-CV-14 (V.I. Super. Ct.), Second Amended Complaint, paragraphs 33 to 36, 137 to 139, filed as Exhibit 1 to Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), ECF No. 1-1 (December 27, 2022). https://web.archive.org/web/20260117011558/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/001-01.pdf
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[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01364303, DataSet 10, Deutsche Bank know-your-customer page "The 2013 Butterfly Trust" (DB-SDNY-0054829); EFTA01372887, DataSet 10, Deutsche Bank "KYC Print," July 15, 2019 (DB-SDNY-0066790). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01364303.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01372887.pdf
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[^7]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Still no resort plans for Epstein's islands purchased by Deckoff." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 6, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/still-no-resort-plans-for-epsteins-islands-purchased-by-deckoff/article_84d776de-8427-4080-a1b5-6cf81418e23d.html
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[^8]: Paras, Julian, and Pat Davis. "Records show Gary King, Deb Haaland used Epstein-linked jet during 2014 campaign." *New Mexico Political Report,* February 17, 2026. https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2026/02/17/records-show-gary-king-deb-haaland-used-epstein-linked-jet-during-2014-campaign/
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[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02047292, DataSet 10, email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein visit to Bard," July 25, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02047292.pdf
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[^10]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 22-1426-cr (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2024) (Cabranes, Wesley, Lohier, JJ.), reported at 118 F.4th 256. https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2024/09/17/united_states_v._maxwell.pdf
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[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02383246, DataSet 11, email chain headed "Jeffrey Epstein," May 16, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02383246.pdf
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[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02583238, DataSet 11, email chain headed "Re: Barn," May 16, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02583238.pdf
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[^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01204007 (photograph of a business card) and EFTA01204006 (screenshot of an aviation application), DataSet 9, undated. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01204007.pdf and https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01204006.pdf
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[^11]: Federal Aviation Administration, Aircraft Registry, Releasable Aircraft Database, MASTER.txt entry for N114BD and DEREG.txt entry for N112BD (serial 166), downloaded October 8, 2026. https://registry.faa.gov/database/ReleasableAircraft.zip
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[^12]: City-Data.com, "FAA Registered Aircraft, Dealers and Manufacturers in Greenwich, Connecticut" (listing derived from FAA registry data, retrieved October 8, 2026). https://www.city-data.com/aircraft/air-Greenwich-Connecticut.html
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[^13]: Paras, Julian, and Pat Davis. "Records show Gary King, Deb Haaland used Epstein-linked jet during 2014 campaign." *New Mexico Political Report,* February 17, 2026. https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2026/02/17/records-show-gary-king-deb-haaland-used-epstein-linked-jet-during-2014-campaign/
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[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02047292, DataSet 10, email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein visit to Bard," July 25, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02047292.pdf
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[^15]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 22-1426-cr (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2024) (Cabranes, Wesley, Lohier, JJ.), reported at 118 F.4th 256. https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2024/09/17/united_states_v._maxwell.pdf
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@ -12,19 +12,38 @@ summary: "Leningrad physiologist who led the Soviet Union's telepathy research f
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born: 1891-04-12
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died: 1966-02-08
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location: "Leningrad, Soviet Union"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-08
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relations:
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)]]"
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start: 1960
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role: "cited the accounts in a 1960 lecture and, per I. V. Tsykunov, in a March 1960 report to the Soviet defense minister"
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fn: 5
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---
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Leonid Vasiliev was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] parapsychologist and chairman of the physiology department at the University of Leningrad, a past winner of the Lenin Prize and a key figure in the resurgence of Soviet [[Parapsychology|psi]] research following the publication of [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|"The Secret of the Nautilus"]] article in 1960. He argued that "the discovery of the energy underlying ESP will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy."[^1]
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Leonid Vasiliev was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] parapsychologist and chairman of the physiology department at the University of Leningrad, a past winner of the Lenin Prize (as Ostrander and Schroeder and Schnabel give it; the 1975 DIA study gives the Order of Lenin) and a key figure in the resurgence of Soviet [[Parapsychology|psi]] research following the publication of [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|"The Secret of the Nautilus"]] article in 1960. He argued that "the discovery of the energy underlying ESP will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy."[^1]
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He stated in April 1960 that Soviet scientists had conducted extensive, unreported investigations into telepathy under the Stalin regime, predating American efforts, and that they had successfully performed telepathy tests over a quarter-century before the alleged U.S. Nautilus tests. He held that the publication of articles like [[Jacques Bergier]]'s "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" and "The Secret of the Nautilus" in French journals stimulated Soviet research, and used them to advocate for increased Soviet investment in the field: "Today the American Navy is testing telepathy on their atomic submarines. Soviet scientists conducted a great many successful telepathy tests over a quarter of a century ago. It's urgent that we throw off our prejudices. We must plunge into the exploration of this vital field."[^1][^2]
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By the early 1960s Vasiliev was heading a well-funded parapsychology laboratory, and his work soon concentrated on "remote-influencing" experiments, such as attempting to telepathically induce sleep in a distant receiver. In a 1963 Kremlin edict, the Soviet minister of defense, R. J. Malinosky, declared [[Telepathy]] to be science- and technology-based, leading to the creation of the Special Laboratory for Biocommunications Phenomena at the University of Leningrad, with Vasiliev in charge; its goals included establishing "scientific proof of telepathic communications" and identifying the nature of the brain energy that produces it. His efforts, along with those of other Soviet researchers like [[I. M. Kogan]], contributed to the establishment of numerous other psi research centers in the Soviet Union, and to the Soviet nomenclature around ESP being rewritten to sound technical, severing ties with its occult past: mental telepathy became "long-distance biological signal transmission," and [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] "non-ionizing, in particular electromagnetic, emissions from humans."[^1][^2]
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Ostrander and Schroeder date that address to April 1960, at a gathering to commemorate the discovery of radio; [[I. V. Tsykunov]] suggests May, when Soviet Radio Day fell, and the translated Znanie-Sila report of [[Gleb Anfilov]] places a Vasiliev lecture at the Leningrad Scientists Club on June 15, 1960 in which he mentioned the American attempts at telepathic communication with the Nautilus.[^3][^4][^5]
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A [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] briefing on "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," given to the Air Force in July 1987, opened its timeline with [[Vladimir Bekhterev|V. M. Bekhterev]] and "L. L. Vasil'yev (1919-)," under the headings "hypnosis," "automatic responses" and "long distance (1700 km)," and dated his "open publications" and "new lab, Leningrad Univ." to 1959-1965, with [[Genady Sergeyev|G. A. Sergeyev]] working in "Vasil'yev's lab" from 1965 to 1970.[^3]
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Tsykunov reports a seven-page memorandum of March 21, 1960 drawn up by Vasiliev, [[P. I. Gulyaev]] and [[Igor Poletaev|I. A. Poletaev]], attached to a report that Poletaev sent to Defense Minister Malinovsky on March 26, 1960. As Tsykunov quotes it, the report says Vasiliev had told Poletaev in March 1960 that the American armed forces had adopted telepathy for communication with submarines, that two French magazines had published brief reports, and that a test with the Nautilus submerged under polar ice about 2,000 kilometers from its base had produced 70 percent correct symbols; it says that without discussing the reliability of the reports the danger of a new psychological weapon was too great to leave them without attention, and it proposes that Vasiliev and Gulyaev continue telepathy research.[^4]
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Raphael L. Khérumian of the Institut Métapsychique International sent Vasiliev clippings of the Science et Vie and Constellation articles in late 1959 and early 1960. In his 1962 book Vasiliev acknowledged receiving them and, in a footnote, said such reports must be treated with caution, having been denied in Washington and by other American sources; [[Martin Ebon]] quotes the book as calling the experiment a "totally unexpected foreign confirmation" of tests Vasiliev had conducted twenty-five years earlier.[^6][^7]
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By the early 1960s Vasiliev was heading a well-funded parapsychology laboratory, and his work soon concentrated on "remote-influencing" experiments, such as attempting to telepathically induce sleep in a distant receiver. In a 1963 Kremlin edict, the Soviet minister of defense, [[Rodion Malinovsky]], declared [[Telepathy]] to be science- and technology-based, leading to the creation of the Special Laboratory for Biocommunications Phenomena at the University of Leningrad, with Vasiliev in charge; its goals included establishing "scientific proof of telepathic communications" and identifying the nature of the brain energy that produces it. His efforts, along with those of other Soviet researchers like [[I. M. Kogan]], contributed to the establishment of numerous other psi research centers in the Soviet Union, and to the Soviet nomenclature around ESP being rewritten to sound technical, severing ties with its occult past: mental telepathy became "long-distance biological signal transmission," and [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] "non-ionizing, in particular electromagnetic, emissions from humans."[^1][^2]
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Tsykunov writes that the laboratory was created at the physiology institute of Leningrad University in 1960 and that a "biotelecommunication" group in Vasiliev's laboratory of electromagnetic fields and aeroions included P. I. Gulyaev, V. K. Pavlenko, A. I. Pudovkin, V. P. Leutin, V. A. Doroshenko and A. S. Efremov.[^4]
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A [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] briefing on "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," given to the Air Force in July 1987, opened its timeline with [[Vladimir Bekhterev|V. M. Bekhterev]] and "L. L. Vasil'yev (1919-)," under the headings "hypnosis," "automatic responses" and "long distance (1700 km)," and dated his "open publications" and "new lab, Leningrad Univ." to 1959-1965, with [[Genady Sergeyev|G. A. Sergeyev]] working in "Vasil'yev's lab" from 1965 to 1970.[^8]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
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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]: 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.
|
||||
[^3]: Ostrander, Sheila, and Lynn Schroeder. *Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain*. Prentice-Hall, 1970, pp. 6-7.
|
||||
[^4]: Tsykunov, I. V. "От фантазии к реальности: как история «Наутилуса» открыла гонку сверхъестественных вооружений между СССР и США" [From fantasy to reality: how the story of the Nautilus opened the race for supernatural weapons between the USSR and the USA]. Aliter, no. 20 (2023), pp. 34-55. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ot-fantazii-k-realnosti-kak-istoriya-nautilusa-otkryla-gonku-sverhestestvennyh-vooruzheniy-mezhdu-sssr-i-ssha. Sole source for the passages so cited. Quoting Vinokurov and Gurtovoy, Психотронная война, pp. 147-149.
|
||||
[^5]: Anfilov, Gleb. "Is Telepathy Possible?" *The Soviet Review*, vol. 2, no. 6 (June 1961), pp. 3-7, translated from Znanie-Sila, 1960, no. 12. https://archive.org/details/sim_russian-social-science-review_1961-06_2_6
|
||||
[^6]: Newsletter of the Parapsychology Foundation, "Nautilus Hoax Exposed," vol. 10, no. 6, November-December 1963, citing This Week, September 8, 1963. NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040002-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/nsa-rdp96x00790r000100040002-2.
|
||||
[^7]: Ebon, Martin. *Psychic Warfare: Threat or Illusion?* McGraw-Hill, 1983, chapter 3, pp. 26-27.
|
||||
[^8]: 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.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -5,13 +5,18 @@ tags:
|
|||
- PROMIS
|
||||
- CIA
|
||||
summary: "Former president of Armtec Defense Products, the Army's sole combustible cartridge casing supplier, who advised the Cabazon-Wackenhut joint venture and was a witness in the Justice Department's INSLAW inquiry."
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Meridian International Logistics]]"
|
||||
role: "board member; asked later to be taken off the board (Zokosky to Seymour, 2001)"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
---
|
||||
[[Peter Zokosky]] was an arms manufacturer and a key figure in various covert operations and business ventures, often associated with [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Michael Riconosciuto]]. He was a former president of [[Armtec]], a company that produced combustible cartridge cases for the Army, and was under a non-compete agreement with them until August 1981. Zokosky also served as a consultant to the [[Great Britain|British Government]] on shell casings.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Justice Department Inquiry
|
||||
|
||||
Zokosky told the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s special counsel, [[Nicholas Bua]], that he was the former president of Armtec Defense Products of Coachella, California, which in the early 1980s was the single-source supplier of combustible cartridge casings to the Army. He took people from the Cabazon-[[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] joint venture to [[Picatinny Arsenal]] in Dover, [[New Jersey]], to meet [[Dr. Harry Fair]] and the Army project officer R. Scott Westley, whom he knew from Armtec, about establishing a second-source casing plant on the reservation. [[Robert Frye]] recalled first meeting Michael Riconosciuto on a trip to the arsenal in May 1981; Zokosky agreed there was a May trip but said Riconosciuto was not on it and that Frye met him on a second trip in October 1981.[^2]
|
||||
Zokosky told the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s special counsel, [[Nicholas J. Bua]], that he was the former president of Armtec Defense Products of Coachella, California, which in the early 1980s was the single-source supplier of combustible cartridge casings to the Army. He took people from the Cabazon-[[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] joint venture to [[Picatinny Arsenal]] in Dover, [[New Jersey]], to meet [[Dr. Harry Fair]] and the Army project officer R. Scott Westley, whom he knew from Armtec, about establishing a second-source casing plant on the reservation. [[Robert Frye]] recalled first meeting Michael Riconosciuto on a trip to the arsenal in May 1981; Zokosky agreed there was a May trip but said Riconosciuto was not on it and that Frye met him on a second trip in October 1981.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
Bua examined the "Special Operations Report" titled "Nicaraguans and Earl Brian at Lake Cahuilla, 9/10/81," which placed [[Earl Brian]] at the joint venture's weapons demonstration of September 10, 1981. He found it had been typed on October 10, 1991, by Gene Gilbert, an investigator for the Riverside County District Attorney, after a jailhouse interview with Riconosciuto, and that all its information except license plate numbers came from Riconosciuto; the former Indio officer Dave Baird, who had memorized the plates at the demonstration, did not identify Brian as Gilbert's later report said. Gilbert told Bua that had he known the stir it would cause he "would have left Earl Brian's name out."[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -21,13 +26,13 @@ The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that Zokosky was a key participant in the [[Cabaz
|
|||
|
||||
### Biological Warfare Technology
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour wrote that Zokosky took part in the proposed development of biological warfare "viruses" at [[Stormont Laboratories]], grown in cow uteri, and with Robert Booth Nichols presented a proposal for biological warfare technology and anti-toxin kits to the Army (Dr. Harry Fair at Picatinny Arsenal) and to [[FMC Corporation]]; she described the technology as capable of selectively wiping out segments of humanity with the appropriate genetic material. Zokosky spoke of incubating viruses in fish tanks at [[Hercules Research]], where, Seymour wrote, Michael Riconosciuto worked on the same technology.[^1]
|
||||
Seymour wrote that Zokosky took part in the proposed development of biological warfare "viruses" at [[Stormont Laboratories]], grown in cow uteri, and with Robert Booth Nichols presented a proposal for biological warfare technology and anti-toxin kits to the Army (Dr. Harry Fair at Picatinny Arsenal) and to [[FMC Corporation]]; she described the technology as capable of selectively wiping out segments of humanity with the appropriate genetic material. Zokosky spoke of incubating viruses in fish tanks at [[Hercules Research]], where, Seymour wrote, Michael Riconosciuto worked on the same technology.[^1] Seymour's 1992 VORTEX account separately says Zokosky had been involved in a proposal to sell biological warfare viruses to a Dr. Harry Fair in Arlington, Virginia.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Connections to Robert Booth Nichols and Meridian International Logistics
|
||||
|
||||
Zokosky was a board member of [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]], a holding company headed by Robert Booth Nichols. He stated that MIL was a "front company" used to funnel money to its board of directors, with funds, he said, coming from the [[NSA|NSA]], partly from drug profits. He believed that Robert Booth Nichols worked for the [[National Security Council|NSC]] and NSA, doing "contract work" for various government agencies, and that Nichols handled "corporate and government" transactions related to narcotics at a higher level.[^1]
|
||||
Zokosky was a board member of [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]], a holding company headed by Robert Booth Nichols. He stated that MIL was a "front company" used to funnel money to its board of directors, with funds, he said, coming from the [[NSA|NSA]], partly from drug profits. He said Robert Booth Nichols worked "for the NSC" ([[National Security Council]]) and did "contract work for the NSA/NSC," and that Nichols handled "corporate and government" transactions related to narcotics at a higher level.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Zokosky and Nichols were involved in a proposed joint venture with FMC Corporation, where Michael Riconosciuto was Vice President of [[Meridian Arms]]. Zokosky also discussed Robert Booth Nichols and Michael Riconosciuto conducting business in [[Australia]], which he thought had something to do with the [[Nugan Hand Bank]].[^1]
|
||||
Seymour wrote in her 1992 VORTEX account that Michael Riconosciuto had once been vice president of Meridian Arms, the subsidiary of MIL.[^3] Zokosky also discussed Robert Booth Nichols and Michael Riconosciuto conducting business in [[Australia]], which he thought had something to do with the [[Nugan Hand Bank]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Role in "The Octopus" Investigation
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -47,4 +52,5 @@ He was an investor in the Cabazon Indian Reservation and a skeet range, though h
|
|||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. The special counsel's report records the Picatinny meeting date as disputed and found no support for the presence of Contra leaders or Earl Brian at Lake Cahuilla. Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* March 1993, pp. 56-64.
|
||||
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.,* March 1993, pp. 56-64.
|
||||
[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. "VORTEX," diary dated February 24, 1992, p. 11. https://archive.org/details/VORTEXDocument
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
title: Russell Targ
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- Russell Targ
|
||||
|
|
@ -36,9 +36,15 @@ The Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]], which met Targ, Puth
|
|||
|
||||
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 DARPA network experiments, 1976 to 1977
|
||||
|
||||
A 1977 SRI final report by Hal Puthoff, Targ and [[Edwin May]], "Advanced Threat Technique Assessment," lists in its section on long-distance remote-viewing experiments the "Use of the [[DARPA]] teleconferencing computer network to provide date and time records of experiments in progress," with experiments from New York to California, New York to Dayton, and New Orleans to California.[^5] Papers of the 1977 International Conference on Cybernetics and Society describe the conversational TALK mode of the DARPA net being used for post-experiment feedback between a subject in California and an experimenter in New York.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Zarbo]], writing in 1992, describes a 1976 test, reported in The New York Times, in which Targ acted as a conduit in New York City while a viewer at SRI in California typed his impressions on a terminal linked to DARPA's computer network. He writes that the target, chosen only minutes before the test, was the central water fountain in Washington Square Park.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### 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."[^5]
|
||||
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."[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -46,4 +52,7 @@ Targ requested his CIA files in May 1994, "moved from number 540 in line to numb
|
|||
[^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]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
|
||||
[^4]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited." *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, pp. 18-29. https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1982/07/22165420/p20.pdf
|
||||
[^5]: Targ, Russell. "Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s: A Memoir," *Journal of Scientific Exploration,* vol. 10, no. 1, 1996, pp. 77-88, reprinted from Targ and Katra, *Mind-to-Mind* (1996); read in a Wayback Machine copy of the journal's PDF.
|
||||
[^5]: Harold E. Puthoff, Russell Targ and Edwin C. May, "Advanced Threat Technique Assessment," Stanford Research Institute, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200270001-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200270001-7.pdf
|
||||
[^6]: Proceedings, International Conference on Cybernetics and Society, IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, Washington, D.C., September 19 to 21, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080055-4. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080055-4.pdf
|
||||
[^7]: Michael E. Zarbo, "Remote Viewing: Parapsychological Potential for Intelligence Collection?" master's thesis, Defense Intelligence College, November 1992, CIA-RDP96-00789R002600250001-6, citing William J. Broad, "Pentagon is said to Focus on ESP for Wartime Use," *The New York Times,* January 10, 1984, section C. Sole source for the account of the 1976 test as carried here. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002600250001-6.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: 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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