vault backup: 2026-10-05 17:40:05

10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ingo Swann.md

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ By the early 1970s, Swann was participating as a paid research subject in paraps
 
 ### Scientology Background
 
-Swann was a practicing member of the [[Church of Scientology]] from the mid-1960s through at least the early 1970s, reaching advanced levels in Scientology's training hierarchy. He subsequently maintained that his Scientology background was irrelevant to his remote viewing abilities, which he characterized as natural sensory phenomena rather than church-specific training. The CIA's internal program assessments flagged the Scientology affiliations of Swann, Price, and Puthoff as a counterintelligence concern, and the church's possible exploitation of the program was considered in internal reviews.
+Swann joined [[Scientology]] in the 1960s and "would later resign," according to [[Jim Schnabel]].[^1] The [[Time (magazine)|Time]] cover story of March 4, 1974 wrote that Hal Puthoff promoted "the bizarre and controversial cult of Scientology" and that Swann, "another psychic tested by S.R.I., also practices" it.[^2] In the Washington Post in 1977, [[John L. Wilhelm]] wrote that Swann "helped to establish Scientology's 'Celebrity Center' in Los Angeles, the headquarters recently raided by the FBI," and that at his original SRI testing Swann "revealed that there are 'fourteen Clears [a medium-high level of Scientology achievement], more than I would suspect,' working at SRI."[^3] [[Tony Ortega]] published a paper by Swann for the First Conference on Psychotronic Research in Czechoslovakia in 1973, titled "Scientological Techniques: A Model Paradigm for the Exploration of Consciousness and Psychic Integration."[^4] In a preliminary report on psychological testing of six SRI subjects, an unsigned clinician wrote that "at least four of the subjects in this study describe to me an interest in scientology and two of them indicate that they have been involved in the Church of Scientology for some time."[^5]
 
 ### SRI Magnetometer Experiment and CIA Contact (1972)
 
@@ -49,11 +49,11 @@ After Price's death in 1975, Swann returned to SRI and worked with Puthoff to fo
 
 ### The SCANATE Sessions
 
-SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried out on what might be termed micro-abilities, Swann expressed the opinion that the insights obtained had strengthened a macro-ability which had been researched prior to his joining the SRI program; namely, the ability to view remote locations." In a training series "100 targets on the earth's surface, ten per day for ten days, were chosen at random," Swann "being given a target location by latitude and longitude only," each run of ten finished "in less than thirty minutes"; the report itself cautioned that "an individual could, in principle, obtain good results on the basis of memory" or "subliminally from an experimenter who knows the target location." On May 29, 1973, at 4:34 in the afternoon, Hal Puthoff gave him coordinates supplied by the sponsor, 38°23'N, 79°25'W, "described simply as being in [[West Virginia]]," with no maps, on videotape: "This seems to be some sort of mounds or rolling hills. There is a city to the north (I can see the taller buildings and some smog). This seems to be a strange place, somewhat like the lawns that one would find around a military base, but I get the impression that there are either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir. There must be a flagpole, some highways to the west, possibly a river over to the far east, to the south more city." The next morning: "Cliffs to the east, fence to the north. There's a circular building (a tower?), buildings to the south. Is this a former Nike base or something like that? I seem to get the impression of something underground, but I'm not sure." On July 21, 1973, given 49°20'S, 70°14'E, he said: "My initial response is that it's an island, maybe a mountain sticking up through a cloud cover," with buildings "rather mathematically laid out," one orange, "something like a radar antenna, a round disc," two white cylindrical tanks, and "to the northwest a small airstrip," and the next day mapped its coastline. Later, surprised in a New York hotel room with an abacus locked in the adjoining room, bought as "a target analogous to a cipher machine of particular interest," he drew its outline "in approximately one minute" and called it "a game box with little balls." The 1975 final report's West Virginia sessions are coded to subject S3.[^1]
+SRI's SCANATE report records that "as a result of the experimentation carried out on what might be termed micro-abilities, Swann expressed the opinion that the insights obtained had strengthened a macro-ability which had been researched prior to his joining the SRI program; namely, the ability to view remote locations." In a training series "100 targets on the earth's surface, ten per day for ten days, were chosen at random," Swann "being given a target location by latitude and longitude only," each run of ten finished "in less than thirty minutes"; the report itself cautioned that "an individual could, in principle, obtain good results on the basis of memory" or "subliminally from an experimenter who knows the target location." On May 29, 1973, at 4:34 in the afternoon, Hal Puthoff gave him coordinates supplied by the sponsor, 38°23'N, 79°25'W, "described simply as being in [[West Virginia]]," with no maps, on videotape: "This seems to be some sort of mounds or rolling hills. There is a city to the north (I can see the taller buildings and some smog). This seems to be a strange place, somewhat like the lawns that one would find around a military base, but I get the impression that there are either some old bunkers around, or maybe this is a covered reservoir. There must be a flagpole, some highways to the west, possibly a river over to the far east, to the south more city." The next morning: "Cliffs to the east, fence to the north. There's a circular building (a tower?), buildings to the south. Is this a former Nike base or something like that? I seem to get the impression of something underground, but I'm not sure." On July 21, 1973, given 49°20'S, 70°14'E, he said: "My initial response is that it's an island, maybe a mountain sticking up through a cloud cover," with buildings "rather mathematically laid out," one orange, "something like a radar antenna, a round disc," two white cylindrical tanks, and "to the northwest a small airstrip," and the next day mapped its coastline. Later, surprised in a New York hotel room with an abacus locked in the adjoining room, bought as "a target analogous to a cipher machine of particular interest," he drew its outline "in approximately one minute" and called it "a game box with little balls." The 1975 final report's West Virginia sessions are coded to subject S3.[^6]
 
-At [[Maimonides Medical Center]], in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976, [[Edwin May]] and [[Charles Honorton]] had him attempt to influence a noise-driven binary random generator: 29 runs gave a mean of 493 against 500 expected (p = 0.011), improving as he was moved twelve feet away behind "two double steel walls," while a control run after he left gave 499.7. "We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psychokinetic influence on the instrument." The SRI final report's instrumented magnetometer series of 1974 and 1975, thirteen ten-trial runs on a Develco gradiometer at four metres giving p = 0.004, was run with subject S1, the code that matches Pat Price's sessions, not S3; the "early research (1972)" perturbation "of a Josephson effect magnetometer" is described there as a pilot study of "a few hours" that "prevented a proper investigation." He visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] on October 17, 1978, and was still reporting to Puthoff as a consultant in April 1984.[^2]
+At [[Maimonides Medical Center]], in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976, [[Edwin May]] and [[Charles Honorton]] had him attempt to influence a noise-driven binary random generator: 29 runs gave a mean of 493 against 500 expected (p = 0.011), improving as he was moved twelve feet away behind "two double steel walls," while a control run after he left gave 499.7. "We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psychokinetic influence on the instrument." The SRI final report's instrumented magnetometer series of 1974 and 1975, thirteen ten-trial runs on a Develco gradiometer at four metres giving p = 0.004, was run with subject S1, the code that matches Pat Price's sessions, not S3; the "early research (1972)" perturbation "of a Josephson effect magnetometer" is described there as a pilot study of "a few hours" that "prevented a proper investigation." He visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] on October 17, 1978, and was still reporting to Puthoff as a consultant in April 1984.[^7]
 
-The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^3]
+The report of the Army's [[Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee]] of December 1979 recorded that "in July 1978, DIA sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which "the DIA Project Officer had prepared three sets of Soviet/Bloc target coordinates, and one US control set," and that "Swann provided a 'moderate to high', lengthy description of the last target, a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow... Swann passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel. Going through this passageway he entered a command and control room. One comment, among many, stands out: 'The floors are paved in "white tiles".'" The same report put SRI's experiments with him at "7000+," "only a fraction" of them published.[^8]
 
 ### Training the Army Program
 
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ Swann maintained an active painting career throughout his life, exhibiting abstr
 
 ### Footnotes
 
-[^1]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
-[^2]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Visit of Ingo Swann to AMSAA, 17 October 1978," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240010-3, and "Memo to Dr. H.E. Puthoff from I. Swann, Consultant, Subject: Work Report," April 15, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100140033-6, titles only.
-[^3]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
+[^1]: Jim Schnabel, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies* (Dell, 1997), passage on Scientology following the Time cover story; chapter note "Puthoff and Swann resign: Puthoff; Swann." https://archive.org/details/jim-schnabel-remote-viewers-the-secret-history-of-americas-psychic-spies_2
+[^2]: Leon Jaroff, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," *Time*, March 4, 1974 (CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100030002-8
+[^3]: John L. Wilhelm, "The Scientology Link," *Washington Post*, 1977, in CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3
+[^4]: Tony Ortega, as cited on the vault page Scientology for the paper's title and the 1973 conference (not independently opened; coordinator should reopen before merging). Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^5]: "Preliminary Group Report for the Psychological Testing of Subjects from the Parapsychology Study at Stanford Research Institute," unsigned (CIA-RDP96-00787R000200140007-0). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200140007-0
+[^6]: Stanford Research Institute, "Project SCANATE, Exploratory Research in Remote Viewing," 1973, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100480002-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
+[^7]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part one, executive summary, SRI Project 3183, covering January 1974 to February 1975, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100420001-1. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Puthoff, Harold E., and Russell Targ. *Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,* final report, part two, research report, December 1, 1975, SRI Project 3183, 153 pp., CIA-RDP96-00791R000100410001-2. The report codes its subjects; S3 and S1 are identified as Swann and Price by matching their responses to the named sessions in the SCANATE report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. "Visit of Ingo Swann to AMSAA, 17 October 1978," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200240010-3, and "Memo to Dr. H.E. Puthoff from I. Swann, Consultant, Subject: Work Report," April 15, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100140033-6, titles only.
+[^8]: *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.