--- created: 2025-07-23 updated: 2026-10-09 title: Round Table Foundation aliases: - Round Table Foundation - Round Table Foundation Laboratory - Round Table Laboratory of Experimental Electrobiology - Round Table Foundation, Glen Cove, Maine tags: - Organization - PrivateOrganization - Research - Parapsychology - Psi - RoundTableFoundation - Maine - 1940s - 1950s category: "Private Organization" start: 1948 end: 1958 location: "Glen Cove, Maine" summary: "The Round Table Foundation was a privately funded parapsychology laboratory that Andrija Puharich founded in Maine, which operated until 1957 or 1958 and tested psychics inside a Faraday cage." relations: - type: founded with: "[[Andrija Puharich]]" reverse: true start: 1948 fn: 2 - type: employed_by with: "[[Andrija Puharich]]" reverse: true role: "director of research" start: 1949 end: 1958 fn: 1 - type: funded with: "[[Alice Astor Bouverie]]" reverse: true start: 1948 end: 1956 fn: 8 - type: funded with: "[[Marcella Miller du Pont]]" reverse: true fn: 8 - type: participant_in with: "[[Arthur M. Young]]" reverse: true start: 1952 end: 1953 fn: 11 - type: participant_in with: "[[Eileen Garrett]]" reverse: true fn: 12 - type: participant_in with: "[[Peter Hurkos]]" reverse: true start: 1956 end: 1956 fn: 15 - type: participant_in with: "[[Harry Stump]]" reverse: true fn: 12 --- The [[Round Table Foundation]] was a privately funded parapsychology laboratory that [[Andrija Puharich]] founded in Maine. It studied [[Parapsychology|psi]] phenomena, principally [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis]], and tested gifted subjects inside a [[Faraday cage]]. Its patrons included [[Alice Astor Bouverie]] and [[Marcella Miller du Pont]], and the laboratory drew visits from [[Aldous Huxley]].[^1] ### Founding and Maine laboratory Puharich's curriculum vitae, filed in the trial record and also held in [[Central Intelligence Agency]] files, states that he held the position of director of research at the foundation from 1948 to 1958, "except for a two-year leave of absence for military duty (1953-55)," and that he "helped to found" the non-profit foundation at [[Glen Cove, Maine]].[^2] His sworn testimony in the patent litigation gives the directorship as 1949 to 1958.[^1] The curriculum vitae describes the first years as animal research under a three-year fellowship from the [[General Foods Corporation]], recording electrical responses of dogs and cats to taste, and a collaboration from 1949 to 1952 with the ear surgeon [[Samuel Rosen]] on the stapes surgery that Rosen later extended to humans.[^2] The [[Warrenton Estate]], a 45-room mansion in Glen Cove, is described as the foundation's home and laboratory.[^3] A [[Portland Press Herald]] story datelined [[Camden, Maine|Camden]] on January 9, 1949 described the "Round Table Foundation Laboratory of experimental electrobiology" as set up in a converted barn on the Bald Mountain retreat near Camden, close to the home of [[Zlatko Balokovic]] and his wife [[Joyce Borden Balokovic]].[^4] The 1949 story places it at Camden, the curriculum vitae and trial testimony at Glen Cove, and the [[Down East]] magazine account at Rockport, while describing the estate as at Glen Cove.[^3] The Down East account states that the foundation "formally shut down in 1957" and that the estate became a Bible school in 1959.[^3] ### Army service and the 1952 Pentagon paper Puharich testified that the [[Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare]] of the [[U.S. Army]] approached him in 1952 and early 1953 to run a test, which consisted of photographs sealed in opaque envelopes that a subject held and described, and that the results "were given in confidence to the Department of the Army people who were involved."[^5] The paper he presented, "An Evaluation of the Possible Usefulness of Extrasensory Perception in Psychological Warfare," is dated November 23, 1952 in his curriculum vitae, for a conference on psychological warfare at the Pentagon.[^2] A 1977 article in the CIA's journal [[Studies in Intelligence]] by [[Kenneth A. Kress]] states that "in 1952 the Department of Defense was lectured on the possible usefulness of extrasensory perception in psychological warfare." Its footnote to that sentence names Puharich's "On the Possible Usefulness of Extrasensory Perception in Psychological Warfare," "delivered to a 1952 Pentagon conference," and cites [[The Washington Post|The Washington Post]] of August 7, 1977. The article's reference list gives a Post item of that date as J. Wilhelm, "Psychic Spying?", Outlook section.[^6] Kress's next paragraph states that parapsychology "induced one of the earliest U. S. Government parapsychology investigations" when the chief of the CIA's Office of Technical Service became interested in ESP, and that [[Stephen I. Abrams]], director of the parapsychological laboratory at [[Oxford University]], then prepared under [[Project ULTRA]] a review article "which claimed ESP was demonstrated but not understood or controllable." The article cites that work as Abrams, "Extrasensory Perception," draft report, December 14, 1965.[^6] From 1953 to 1955 Puharich served as a captain in the Medical Corps and chief of the outpatient service at the [[U.S. Army Dispensary]] of the [[U.S. Army Chemical Center]] in Maryland. He testified that there he "conducted biological and radiological warfare research."[^5] His curriculum vitae lists "specialized training in chemical, radiological and biological warfare and classified responsibilities therefrom."[^2] [[Roger A. Beaumont]] wrote in the January 1982 issue of [[Signal (magazine)|Signal]] that Puharich's connections with the military and intelligence communities "go back to the early 1950s," when he "worked in the Army's Chemical and Biological Warfare Center at Ft. Detrick, Md."[^7] Jacobsen wrote that a Lieutenant Colonel [[John B. Stanley]] of the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare, who also served as an Army liaison to the CIA, met with Puharich and recalled him to military service in March 1953.[^8] The trial record and the curriculum vitae confirm the Army's approach and the 1953 service, but neither names Stanley.[^2][^5] The CIA's interest in Puharich continued after the Army years. A January 24, 1973 memorandum from the agency's Office of Research and Development, reviewing the [[Stanford Research Institute]] film of [[Uri Geller]], states that "Geller's connections with Dr. A. Puharich, with whom many unsavory reports have been linked, also is disturbing."[^9] A 1967 report by the Czech parapsychologist [[Milan Ryzl]] on parapsychology in Eastern Europe states that Soviet interlocutors showed interest in the work and theories of Puharich.[^10] ### Faraday cage and the subjects The laboratory's principal apparatus was a Faraday cage used to test whether shielding enhanced ESP scores. Jacobsen wrote that Puharich built it with the inventor [[John Hays Hammond Jr.]].[^8] The trial photographs show the cage as used in the Glen Cove laboratory in 1952 and 1953 and possibly into 1955.[^1] [[Arthur M. Young]], who met Puharich in 1952, testified that his own [[Foundation for the Study of Consciousness]], chartered in 1952, took over the guidance of the Round Table's research while Puharich was drafted, covering late 1952 and 1953. Young's job was to locate sensitive subjects and bring them to Maine for tests in the cage.[^11] Puharich testified that he used nine principal subjects at the foundation, among them [[Peter Hurkos]], [[Harry Stump]], [[Eileen Garrett]] and [[D. G. Vinod]].[^12] Of Garrett, Puharich testified that inside the treated cage her results gave a probability against chance of 5.5 times ten to the minus seventh, while a control subject outside the cage scored at chance expectation (probability .64). In a run with the cage uncharged her score was at the .28 level.[^13] Puharich testified that in a test before the Psychic Research Society of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] the percipient in the treated cage scored 18 hits out of 50, "which gives a probability of about 5.5 times 10 to the minus 7 against chance occurrence."[^14] The demonstrations of September 29 and 30, 1956 at the foundation were recorded in an 11-page report that Puharich entered in the record as Plaintiff's Exhibit 7.[^15] The report lists five MIT student observers, among them a Charles Tart, and lists Mrs. Balokovic among others present; [[Charles Tart]], later a parapsychologist, had studied at MIT before transferring to [[Duke University]].[^15] The report describes split Matching Abacus Test series in which Peter Hurkos and a second subject, written "Mr. Stone" in the report, sat in separate Faraday cages about 18 feet apart. Most runs scored at chance. For Demonstration No. 11 (50 trials, 18 on-target hits) the report states that the results "were considered evidence for the existence of telepathic interaction on the part of Mr. Stone and Mr. Hurkos."[^15] Puharich's counsel described the series in the appellate brief as "a clear demonstration of a telepathic interaction between one Peter Hurkos and one Harry Stone."[^16] The testimony spells the second subject's name "Harry Stump."[^12] The Stanford Research Institute grant application of 1972 by [[Russell Targ]] describes "privately-circulated material" by Puharich on experiments in which subjects were placed in separate Faraday cages, or one subject in a copper-sheet cage while the other sat in a car a mile from the laboratory, and states that scoring fell back to ordinary levels when the shielding or the ground connection was broken.[^17] An anonymous mid-1960s paper in the CIA's files, "The World of the Supra-Sensory," states that Puharich "was director of a nonprofit foundation in Maine for several years where he studied various sensitives under 'scientific' conditions" and "was responsible for bringing Peter Hurkos to this country."[^18] ### Patrons and visitors Jacobsen wrote that Alice Astor Bouverie, the only daughter of [[John Jacob Astor IV]], provided an initial check of $106,000 in 1948 and served as the foundation's first vice president.[^8] The Down East account states that Bouverie wrote the check that launched the foundation and that she died unexpectedly in July 1956.[^3] Jacobsen also wrote that Marcella Miller du Pont was a principal patron who was called the "mother of magic" within the organization, and that Library of Congress documents show she brought the foundation to the attention of [[John E. Gingrich]], director of security and intelligence at the [[Atomic Energy Commission]].[^8] Jacobsen names [[Henry Belk]] as a later investor who brought Peter Hurkos to Maine in the fall of 1956.[^8] Huxley visited the laboratory in August 1955 for about two weeks, according to the Down East account, which states that he arrived by commuter plane at Owls Head and went on by taxi, quotes him describing Puharich as "a lively bird," and quotes a letter in which he wrote of the visit, "It was all very lively . . . and, I really think, promising."[^3] Puharich's curriculum vitae records that he sat on a 1960 symposium at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, moderated by Huxley.[^2] Jacobsen wrote that Huxley was present in August 1955 when Puharich gave Stump the mushroom [[Teonanacatl|teonanácatl]] without Stump's knowledge, and that Huxley objected and insisted that an antidote be given.[^8] ### Mushroom research Puharich's curriculum vitae lists membership in the Mycological Society of San Francisco from 1959.[^2] From 1958 to 1961 he worked at the U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Ord, California, and in his testimony he described himself as a special consultant in mycology and mushroom poisoning.[^1] A 1960 expedition he led into the Chatino country of Oaxaca, Mexico, was sponsored by the [[U.S. Army Chemical Corps|Army Chemical Corps]], the [[University of Washington]] and the [[Aluminum Company of America]].[^2] Puharich's book *The Sacred Mushroom: Key to the Door of Eternity* was published by Doubleday in 1959.[^19] Jacobsen wrote that the CIA, through an officer named James Moore, bypassed Puharich and approached [[R. Gordon Wasson]] directly about the mushroom for [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA Subproject 58]], and that Puharich was sidelined from it.[^8] Jacobsen also wrote that a trance by Stump in June 1954, in which Stump drew a mushroom that Puharich identified as [[Amanita muscaria]], gave the CIA a key lead in its search.[^8] ### Patent litigation Puharich filed patent application Serial No. 291,096 on June 27, 1963, for a "Method and Apparatus for Creating a Controlled Condition for the Observation of the Sensory Abilities of a Human Subject." The Patent Office examiner finally rejected the claims on February 16, 1965, and the Board of Appeals affirmed on June 30, 1966.[^1] Puharich sued under 35 U.S.C. section 145 against [[Edward J. Brenner]], Commissioner of Patents. The district court entered judgment for the Commissioner, and Young testified for the plaintiff at the trial.[^1] On June 25, 1969 the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] affirmed in an opinion by Circuit Judge [[Leventhal]], which describes the device as "a kind of cage" with electrical installations in the screen casing and declines to disturb the district court's findings.[^2] ### Closing and later record The curriculum vitae ends the directorship in 1958, the trial testimony gives 1958, and the Down East account gives 1957.[^1][^2][^3] From 1961 Puharich was president and director of medical research of the [[Intelectron Corporation]] in New York, which he testified was formed "to develop and market certain of my ideas and patents in the field of hearing."[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Transcript of Record, Appendix, *Puharich v. Brenner*, No. 22286 (D.C. Cir.), testimony of Henry K. Puharich on direct examination (Appx. 22a-23a, 58a-67a) and testimony of Arthur M. Young (Appx. 36a-37a), https://archive.org/details/dc_circ_1968_22286_henry_k_puharich_v_edward_j_brenner. [^2]: Henry K. Puharich, curriculum vitae, Appendix to the record in *Puharich v. Brenner* (above), and CIA Reading Room document "Direct Brain Perception/Action," submitted by Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, USN, prepared by Henry (Andrija) Puharich, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100190001-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100190001-2. Also *Puharich v. Brenner*, 415 F.2d 979 (D.C. Cir. 1969), Leventhal, J., https://static.case.law/f2d/415/cases/0979-01.json. [^3]: Down East, "When a Shadowy Maine Estate Was an Epicenter of Psychics and Psychedelics," https://downeast.com/history/psych-out. [^4]: Jim Moore, "Secrets Of Life," *Portland Press Herald* (Portland, Me.), January 9, 1949, p. 61, https://www.newspapers.com/image/848421406/. [^5]: Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, Appx. 66a-67a (Army approach, confidential results) and Appx. 23a (Army Chemical Center service). [^6]: Kenneth A. Kress, "Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions," *Studies in Intelligence*, vol. 21, no. 4, winter 1977, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200030040-0, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00791r000200030040-0. Footnote 1 and the reference list. [^7]: Roger A. Beaumont, "On the Strategic Potential of ESP," *Signal*, January 1982, p. 39, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700360003-3. [^8]: Annie Jacobsen, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis* (Little, Brown and Company, 2017). [^9]: Memorandum, Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Research and Development, ORD-413-73, "Briefing by Stanford Research Institute," January 24, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400070029-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400070029-2. [^10]: Milan Ryzl, "Report on the Situation in Parapsychology in Eastern Europe," summer 1967, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400010036-0, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400010036-0. [^11]: Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, Appx. 36a-37a, testimony of Arthur M. Young on the 1952 meeting, the charter of the Foundation for the Study of Consciousness and the 1952 to 1953 guidance of research. [^12]: Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, Appx. 66a-67a, testimony of Henry K. Puharich listing the nine principal subjects. [^13]: Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, testimony of Henry K. Puharich on cross-examination, Appx. 73a-74a, describing the Garrett control experiments and the probabilities reported for the treated and control runs. [^14]: Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, Appx. 61a-63a, direct testimony of Henry K. Puharich on the Psychic Research Society test. [^15]: Plaintiff's Exhibit 7, Puharich report, Transcript of Record, *Puharich v. Brenner*, Appendix, section 8.80 and following (laboratory demonstration for the Psychic Research Society of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 29 and 30, 1956; split Matching Abacus Test series between Peter Hurkos and Harry Stone). Exhibit 7 is at Appx. p. 178a. [^16]: Brief for Appellant, *Puharich v. Brenner*, No. 22286 (D.C. Cir.), bound with the Transcript of Record at https://archive.org/details/dc_circ_1968_22286_henry_k_puharich_v_edward_j_brenner. [^17]: Russell Targ, Public Health Service grant application "Techniques To Enhance Extraordinary Human Perception," Stanford Research Institute, project period October 1, 1972 to October 1, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100150001-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000100150001-6. [^18]: "The World of the Supra-Sensory," anonymous typescript by a behavioral scientist, CIA-RDP96-00787R000400040032-1, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000400040032-1. [^19]: Andrija Puharich, *The Sacred Mushroom: Key to the Door of Eternity* (Doubleday, 1959), as listed in a bibliography in CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230018-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230018-6.