PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 64,NO. 3, MARCH 1976 no A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research HAROLD E. PUTHOFF, memaer, rete, ano RUSSELL TARG, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE Abstract—For move than 100 years, scientists have attempted to ‘determine the truth of fasity of claims forthe existence of a perceptual channel whereby certain individuals are able (0 perceive and describe remote dats not presented to any known sense, This paper presents an ‘outline of the history of scientific inquiry into such so~alled pannor- smal perception and surveys the current state of the art in parapsycho- logical research in the United States and abroad. ‘The nature of this perceptual channel is examined in a scries of experiments carried out in the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of Stanford Research Institute, The perceptual modality most extensively investigated isthe ability of both experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers to view, by innate mental processes, remote geographical or technical targets including buildings, roads, and laboratory apparatus. The ac ‘cumulated data indicate that the phenomenon is not a sensitive func- tion of distance, and Faraday cage shielding does not in any apparent ‘way degrade the quality and accuracy of perception. On the batis of this research, some areas of physics are suggested from which a descrip- tion or explanation of the phenomenon could be forthcoming. |. INTRODUCTION TE IS THE PROVINCE of natural science to investigate nature, impartially and without prejudice” {1}. Nowhere in scientific inquiry has this dictum met as great a chal- lenge as in the area of so-called extrasensory perception (ESP), the detection of remote stimuli not mediated by the usual sensory processes, Such phenomena, although under scientifi consideration for over a century, have historically been fraught with unreliability and controversy, and validation of the phe- nomena by accepted scientific methodology has been slow in coming. Even so, a recent survey conducted by the British publication New Scientist revealed that 67 percent of nearly 1500 responding readers (the majority of whom are working scientists and technologists) considered ESP to be an estab- lished fact or a likely possibility, and 88 percent held the investigation of ESP to be a legitimate scientific undertaking (2) ‘A review of the literature reveals that although experiments by reputable researchers yielding positive results were begun over a century ago (e.g., Sir William Crookes’ study of D. D. Home, 1860's) [3], many consider the study of these phe- omena as only recently emerging from the realm of quast- science. One reason for this is that, despite experimental results, no satisfactory theoretical construct had been advanced to correlate data or to predict new experimental outcomes. Consequently, the area in question remained for a long time in the recipe stage reminiscent of electrodynamics before the Manuscript received July 25, 1975; revised November 7, 1975. The submission of this paper was encournged after review of an advance proposal. ‘This work was supported by the Foundation for Parasensory Investigation and the Parapsychology Foundation, New York, NY; the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Palo AN, CA: and ihe National Aero: ‘nautics and Space Administration, under Contract NAS 7-100. The authors are with the Electronics gineering Laboratory, ‘Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, CA 94025. unification brought about by the work of Ampere, Faraday, and Maxwell. Since the early work, however, we have seen the development of information theory, quantum theory, and neurophysiological research, and these disciplines provide powerful conceptual tools that appear to bear directly on the issue. In fact, several physicists (Section V) are now of the opinion that these phenomena are not at all inconsistent with the framework of modern physics: the oftensheld view that observations of this type are prior! incompatible with known laws is erroneous in that such a concept is based on the naive realism prevalent before the development of quantum theory. In the emerging view, it is accepted that research in this area can be conducted so as to uncover not just a catalog of inter- esting events, but rather patterns of cause-effect relationships of the type that lend themselves to analysis and hypothesis in the forms with which we are familiar in the physical sciences. One hypothesis is that information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves, a proposal that does not seem to be ruled out by any obvious physical or biological facts. Further, the development of information theory makes it possible to characterize and quantify the performance of a communications channel regardless of the underlying mechanism. For the past three years, we have had a program in the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of the Stan- ford Research Institute (SRI) to investigate those facets of human perception that appear to fall outside the range of well- understood perceptual/processing capabilities. Of particular interest is a human information-accessing capability that we call “remote viewing.” This phenomenon pertains to the ability of certain individuals to access and describe, by means ‘of mental processes, information sources blocked from ordi- nary perception, and generally accepted as secure against such access. In particular, the phenomenon we have investigated most extensively is the ability of a subject to view remote geograph- ical locations up to several thousand kilometers distant from his physical location (given only a known person on whom to target).' We have carried out more than fifty experiments ‘under controlied laboratory conditions with several individuals whose remote perceptual abilities have been developed suf- ficiently to allow them at times to describe correctly—often in great detail—geographical or technical material such as build- ings, roads, laboratory apparatus, and the like. As observed in the laboratory, the basic phenomenon appears to cover a range of subjective experiences variously referred 10 * Our initial work in this area was reported in Narwe | orinted in the IEEE Commun. Soc. Newsletter. val. 13. lan.ae Airport in San Andres, Cotombis ie incu in the literature as autoscopy (in the medical literature); exteri- orization or disassociation (psychological literature); simple clairvoyance, traveling clairvoyance, or out-of-body experience (parapsychological literature); o astral projection (occult liter- ature). We choose the term “remote viewing” as a neutral descriptive term free from prior associations and bias as to mechanisms. The development at SRI of a successful experimental pro cedure to elicit this capability has evolved to the point where Persons such as visiting government scientists and contract monitors, with no previous exposure to such concepts, have learned to perform well; and subjects who have trained over a one-year period have performed excellently under a variety of experimental conditions. Our accumulated data thus indicate that both specially selected and unselected persons can be assisted in developing remote perceptual abilities up to a level of useful information tran In experiments of this type, we have three principal findings. First, we have established that it is possible to obtain signi cant amounts of accurate descriptive information about remote locations, Second, an increase in the distance from a few meters up to 4000 km separating the subject from the scene to be perceived does not in any apparent way degrade the quality or accuracy of perception. Finally, the use of Faraday cage electrical shielding does not prevent high-quality descrip- tions from being obtained, To build a coherent theory for the explanation of these Phenomena, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what constitutes the phenomena. In this paper, we first briefly summarize previous efforts in this field in Section II. We then present in Sections Il! and IV the results of a series of more PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 teviewing target, along with fornia produced by subject than fifty experiments with nine subjects carried out in our own laboratory, which represent a sufficiently stable data base to permit testing of various hypotheses concerning the func- tioning of this channel. Finally, in Section V, we indicate those areas of physics and information theory that appear to be relevant to an understanding of certain aspects of the phenomena, First, however, we present an illustrative example generated in an early pilot experiment. As will be clear from our later discussion, this is not a “best-ever” example, but rather a typical sample of the level of proficiency that can be reached and that we have come to expect in our research. Three subjects participated in a longdistance experiment focusing on a series of targets in Costa Rica, These subjects said they had never been to Costa Rica, In this experiment, one of the experimenters (Dr. Puthoff) spent ten days traveling through Costa Rica on 1 combination business/pleasure trip. This information was all that was known to the subjects about the traveler's itinerary. The experiment called for Dr. Puthotf to keep a detailed record of his location and activities, includ- ing photographs of cach of seven target days at 1330 PDT. A total of twelve daily descriptions were collected before the traveler's return: six responses from one subject, five from another, and one from a third. The third subject who submitted the single response supplied a drawing for a day in the middle of the series. (The subject's response, together with the photographs taken at the site, are shown in Fig. 1). Although Costa Rica is a mountainous country, the subject unexpectedly perceived the traveler at a beach and ocean setting. With some misgiving, he described an airport on a sandy beach and an airstrip with the ocean at thePUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER ar end (correct), An airport building also was drawn, and shown to have a large rectangular overhang (correct). ‘The traveler had taken an unplanned one-day side trip to an offshore island ind at the time of the experiment had just disembarked from 4 plane at a small island airport as described by the subject 4000 km away. The sole discrepancy was that the subject's drawing showed a Quonset-hut type of building in place of the rectangular structure. ‘The above description was chosen as an example to illustrate 4 major ‘point observed a number of times throughout the program {o be described. Contrary to what may be expectes a subject's description does not necessarily portray what may reasonably be expected to be correct (an educated or “safe” guess), but often runs counter even to the subject’s own expectations. ‘We wish to stress again that a result such as the above is not unusual, ‘The remaining submissions in this experiment pro- vided further examples of excellent correspondences between target and response. (A target period of poolside relaxation ‘was identified; a drive through a tropical forest at the base of 1 truncated volcano was described as.a drive through a jungle below a large bare table mountain; a hotel-room target descrip- tion, including such details as rug color, was correct; and $0 fon.) So as to determine whether such matches were simply fortuitous-that is, could reasonably be expected on the basis of chance alone—Dr. Puthoff was asked after he had returned to blind match the twelve descriptions to his seven target locations. On the basis of this conservative evaluation proce- dure, which vastly underestimates the statistical significance of the individual descriptions, five correct matches were ob- tained. “his number of matches is significant at p = 0.02 by exact binomial calculation? The observation of such unexpectedly high-quality descrip- tions early in our program led to a large-scale study of the phenomenon at SRI under secure double-blind conditions (i. target unknown to experimenters as well as subjects), with independent random target selection and blind judging. The results, presented in Sections III and IV, provide strong evi- dence for the robustness of this phenomenon whereby 4 human perceptual modality of extreme sensitivity can detect complex remote stimuli. I. BacKorounD Although we are approaching the study of these phenomena «as physicists, it is not yet possible to separate ourselves entirely from the language of the nineteenth century when the labora- tory study of the paranormal was begun. Consequently, we continue to use terms such at “paranormal the like. However, we intend only to indicate a process of information transfer under conditions generally accepted as secure against such transfer and with no prejudice or occult assumptions 1s to the mechanisms involved. Asin any other scientific pursuit, the purpose is to collect the observables that result from experiments and to try to determine the functional relationships between these observables and the laws of physics as they are currently understood. *The probability of a comect dally match by chance for any given uanscript p= 4. Therefore, the Provebilty of at tsa fve Correct, ‘matches by chance out of twelve tries can be calculated from ~Lfahie: Organized research into so-called psychic functioning began roughly in the time of J. J. Thomson, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Sir William Crookes, all of whom took part in the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882 in England. Crookes, for example, carried out his principal investigations with D. D. Home, a Scotsman who grew up in America and returned to England in 1855 [3]. According to the notebooks and published reports of Crookes, Home had demonstrated the ability to cause objects to move without touching them. We should note in passing that, Home, unlike most subjects, worked only in the light and spoke out in the strongest pos- sible terms against the darkened seance rooms popular at the time (5). Sir William Crookes was a pioneer in the study of electrical discharge in gases and in the development of vacuum tubes, some types of which still bear his name, Although everything Crookes said about electron beams and plasmas was accepted, nothing he said about the achievements of D. D. Home ever achieved that status. Many of his colleagues, who had not observed the experiments with Home, stated publicly that they thought Crookes had been deceived, to which Crookes angrily responded: Wall not my critics give me credit for some amount of common Sense? Do they not imagine thatthe obvious precautions, which jccur to them as soon as they sit down to pick holes'in my ‘experiments, hive oceurred.to me also in the course of my pro longed and patient investigation? ‘The answer to this, as to all ‘other objections 1s, prove it {0 be an error, by showing where the error lies, or if a trick, by showing how the trick is per- experiment fuly and fairly. If then fraud be pose it; if It be a truth, proclaim it, This isthe only scene procedure, and iti tht T propose steadily to pusve BI In the United States, scientific interest in the paranormal was centered in the universities. In 1912, John Coover (6] was established in the endowed Chair of Psychical Research at Stanford University. In the 1920's, Harvard University set up research programs with George Estabrooks and L, T. Troland {7}, [8]. It was in this framework that, in 1930, William McDougall invited Dr. J. B. Rhine and Dr. Louisa Rhine to join the Psychology Department at Duke University (9]. For more than 30 years, significant work was carried out at Rhine's Duke University Laboratory. To examine the existence of paranormal perception, he used the now-famous ESP cards containing 1 boldly printed picture of a star, cross, square, circle, or wavy lines. Subjects were asked to name the order of these cards in a freshly shuffled deck of twenty-five such cards. To test for telepathy, an experimenter would look at the cards one at a time, and a subject suitably separated from the sender would attempt to determine which card was being viewed Dr. J. B. Rhine together with Dr. J. G, Pratt carried out thousands of experiments of this type under widely varying conditions {10}. The statistical results from these experiments indicated that some individuals did indeed possess a paranor- mal perceptual ability in that it was possible to obtain an arbitrarily high degree of improbability by continued testing of agifted subject. ‘The work of Rhine has been challenged on many grounds, however, including accusations of improper handling of statis- tics, error, and fraud. With regard to the statistics, the general consensus of statisticians today is that if fault is to be found in Rhine's work, it would have to be on other than statistical grounds [11]. With regard to the accusations of fraud. the302 most celebrated case of criticism of Rhine's work, that of G. R, Price [12], ended 17 years after it began when the accusation of fraud was retracted by its author in an article entitled “Apology to Rhine and Soal,” published in the same journal in which it was first put forward [13]. It should also bbe noted that parapsychological researchers themselves. re- cently exposed fraud in their own laboratory when they encountered it [14] At the end of the 1940's, Prof. 8. G, Soal, an English mathe: matician working with the SPR, had carried out hundreds of card quessing experiments involving tens of thousands of calls (15). Many of these experiments were carried out over ex: tended distances. One of the most notable experiments was conducted with Mrs. Gloria Stewart between London and Antwerp. This experiment gave results whose probability of ‘occurring by chance were less than 10°. With the publication of Modern Experiments in Telepathy by Soal and Bateman (both of whom were statisticians), it appeared that card guess- ing experiments produced significant results, on the average.” The most severe criticism of all this work, a criticism diffi cult to defend against in principle, is that leveled by the well- known British parapsychological critic C. E, M. Mansel [17], who began his examination of the ESP hypothesis with the stated assumption, “In view of the @ prior! arguments against it we know in advance that telepathy, etc., cannot occur.” Therefore, based on the “'e priori unlikelihood” of ESP, Hansel's examination of the literature centered primarily on the possibility of fraud, by subjects or investigators. He reviewed in depth four experiments which he regarded as providing the best evidence of ESP: the Pearce-Pratt distance series [18]; the Pratt-Woodruff (19] series, both conducted at Duke; and Soal's work with Mrs. Stewart and Basil Shackle- ton [15], as well as a more recent series by Soal and Bowden [20]. Hansel showed, in each case, how fraud could have been committed (by the experimenters in the Pratt-Woodruff and Soal-Bateman series, or by the subjects in the Pearce-Pratt and Soal-Bowden experiments). He gave no direct evidence that fraud war committed in these experiments, but said, “If the result could have arisen through a trick, the experiment must be considered unsatisfactory proof of ESP, whether or not it is finally decided thet such a trick wes in fact used" (17, p. 18]. As discussed by Honorton in a review of the field (21], Hansel’: conclusion after 241 pages of careful scrutiny therefore was that these experiments were not “fraud-proof” and therefore in principle could not serve as conclusive proof of ESP. Even among the supporters of ESP research and its results, there remained the consistent problem that many successful subjects eventually lost their ability and their scores gradually drifted toward chance results. This decline effect in no way erased their previous astronomical success; but it was a disap- ointment since if paranormal perception is a natural ability, ‘one would like to see subjects improving with practice rather than getting worse, One of the first successful attempts to overcome the de: effect was in Czechoslovakia in the work of Dr. Milan Ry2l, a chemist with the Institute of Biology of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science and also an amateur hypnotist [22]. Through the use of hypnosis, together with feedback and "Recently, some of the eaily Soal experiments have been criticized 6}. However, his long-distance experiments cited here were judged {ns goublelind fasion of the type that tacaped the critic of the yexgerinente. PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1975 reinforcement, he developed several outstanding subjects, one of whom, Pavel Stepanek, has worked with experimenters around the world for more than 10 years Ryzl’s pioneering work came as an answer to the questions raised by the 1956 CIBA Foundation conference on extra- sensory perception. The CIBA Chemical Company has annual meetings on topics of biological and chemical interest, and that same year they assembled several prominent parapsy- shologists to have a state-of-theart conference on ESP (23] The conference concluded that little progress would be made in parapsychology research until a repeatable experiment could be found; namely, an experiment that different experi- menters could repeat at will and that would reliably yield a statistically significant result Ryzal had by 1962 accomplished that goal. His primary con- tribution was a decision to interact with the subject as a per- son, to try to build up his confidence and ability. His protocol depended on “working with” rather than “running” his sub- jects, Ryzl's star subject, Pavel Stepanek, has produced highly significant results with many contemporary researchers [24] ~ [29], In these experiments, he was able to tell with 60-percent reliability whether a hidden card was green side or white side up, yielding statistics of a million to one with only 2 thousand trials As significant as such results are statistically, the information channel is imperfect, containing noise along with the signal. When considering how best to use such a channel, one is led to the communication theory concept of the introduction of redundancy as a means of coding @ message to combat the effects of a noisy channel [30]. A prototype experiment by Ryzl using such techniques has proved to be successful. Ry2l had on assistant select randomly five groups of three digits each, ‘These 15 digits were then encoded into binary form and translated into a sequence of green and white cards in sealed envelopes, By means of repeated calling and an elaborate majority vote protocol, Ry2! was able after 19 350 calls by Stepanek (averaging 9 s per call) to correctly identify all 15 numbers, a result significant at p=10"'S The hit rate for individual calls was 61.9 percent, 11 978 hits, and 7372 misses G1] Note Added in Proof: It has been brought to our attention that 2 similar procedure was recently used to transmit without error the word “peace” in International Morse Code (J. C. Carpenter, “Toward the effective utilization of enhanced weaksignal ESP effects,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, NY, Jan, 27, 1973), ‘The characteristics of such a channel can be specified in accordance with the precepts of communication theory. The bit rate associated with the information channel is calculated from [30] R= H(e)~ Hy(x) a) where H(x) is the uncertainty of the source message containing symbols witha priori probability p,: 2 H(x)= = 3° py logs py @ fet and My(x) is the conditional entropy based on the @ posteriori probabilities that a received signal was actually transmitted: Aya) =~ F pees) os 0). ) =PUTHOFE AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER For Stepanek’s run, with pj = $, P/() = 0.619, and an average time of 9 per choice, we have a source uncertainty H(x) = | bit and a calculated bit rate R © 0.041 bit/symbol or RIT ~ 0,0046 bit/s. (Since the 15 digit number (49.8 bits) actually was transmitted at the rate of 2,9 X 10 bit/s, an increase in bit rate by a factor of about 20 could be expected on the basis of a coding scheme more optimum than that used in the experiments, See, for example, Appendix A.) Dr. Charles Tart at the University of California has written extensively on the so-called decline effect. He considers that having subjects attempt to guess cards, o perform any other repetitious task for which they receive no feedback, follows the classical technique for deconditioning any response. He thus considers card guessing “a technique for extinguishing psychic functioning in the laboratory” (32]. Tart’s injunctions of the mid-sixties were being heeded at Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, by a team of researchers that included Dr. Montague Uliman, who was director of research for the hospital; Dr. Stanley Krippner; and, later, Charles Honorton. These three worked together for several years on experiments on the occurrence of telepathy in dreams. In the course of a half-dozen experimental series, they found in their week-long sessions 2 number of subjects who had dreams that consistently were highly descriptive of pictorial material that a remote sender was looking at throughout the night. This work is described in detail in the experimenters’ book Dream Telepathy [33]. Honorton is continuing work of this free-response type in which the subject has no precon- ceived idea as to what the target may be, In his more recent work with subjects in the waking state, Honorton is providing homogeneous stimulation to the subject who is to describe color slides viewed by another person in & remote room. In this new work, the subject listens to white noise via earphones and views an homogeneous visual field imposed through the use of Ping-Pong ball halves to cover the subject's eyes in conjunction with diffuse ambient illumina- tion, In this so-called Ganzfeld setting, subjects are again able, now in the waking state, to give correct and often highly accurate descriptions of the material being viewed by the sender [34] In Honorton’s work and ebewhere, it apparently has been the step away from the repetitive forced-choice experiment that has opened the way for a wide variety of ordinary people to demonstrate significant functioning in the laboratory, with- out being bored into a dectine effect. This survey would be incomplete if we did not indicate certain aspects of the current state of research in the USSR. It {s clear from translated documents and other sources [35] that many laboratories in the USSR are engaged in paranormal research, Since the 1930's, in the laboratory of L, Vasiliev (Leningrad Institute for Brain Research), there has been an interest in the Use of telepathy as a method of influencing the behavior of a person at a distance, In Vasiliev’s book Experiments in Mental Surgestion, he makes it very clear that the bulk of his labora- tory's experiments were aimed at long-distance communica tion combined with a form of behavior modification; for example, putting people at a distance to sleep through hyp- nosis 1361 333 Similar behavior modification types of experiments have been carried out in recent times by I. M. Kogan, Chairman of the Bioinformation Section of the Moscow Board of the Popov Society, He is a Soviet engineer who, until 1969, published extensively on the theory of telepathic communication (37]- [40]. He was concerned with three principal kinds of experi- mental suggestion without hypnosis over short dis- » in which the percipient attempts to identify an object, ikening over short distances, in which a subject is wakened from a hypnotic sleep at the “beamed” suggestion from the hypnotist; and long-range (intercity) telepathic com- munication, Kogan’s main interest has been to quantify the channel capacity of the paranormal channel. He finds that the bit rate decreases from 0.1 bit/s for laboratory experiments to 0.005 bit/s for his 1000-km intercity experiments. In the USSR, serious consideration is given to the hypothesis that telepathy is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic propagation. (The pros and cons of this hypothesis are discussed in Section V of this paper.) In general, the entire field of paranormal research in the USSR is part of a larger one concerned with the interaction between electromagnetic fields and living organisms [41], [42]. At the First International Congress on Parapsychology and Psychotronics in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1973, for example, Kholodov spoke at length about the susceptibility of living systems to extremely low-level ac and de fields. He described conditioning effects on the behavior of fish resulting from the application of 10 to 100 wW of RF to their tank (43). The USSR take these data seriously in that the Soviet safety re- quirements for steady-state microwave exposure set limits at 10 uW/cm?, whereas the United States has set a steady-state limit of 10 mW/cm? [44]. Kholodov spoke also about the nonthermal effects of microwaves on animals’ central nervous systems, His experiments were very carefully carried out and are characteristic of a new dimension in paranormal research. ‘The increasing importance of this area in Soviet research was indicated recently when the Soviet Psychological Association issued an unprecedented position paper calling on the Soviet Academy of Sciences to step up efforts in this area [45]. ‘They recommended that the newly formed Psychological Institute within the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Psychological Institute of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences review the area and consider the creation of a new laboratory within one of the institutes to study persons with unusual abilities. They also recommended a comprehensive evaluation of experiments and theory by the Academy of Sciences’ Insti- tute of Biophysics and Institute for the Problems of Informa- tion Transmission. The Soviet research, along with other behavioristically oriented work, suggests that in addition to obtaining overt responses such as verbalizations or key presses from a subject, it should be possible to obtain objective evidence of informe. tion transfer by direct measurement of physiological parame- ters of a subject. Kamiya, Lindsley, Pribram, Silverman, Walter, and others brought together to discuss physiological methods to detect ESP functioning, have suggested that a whole range of electroencephalogram (EEG) responses such as evoked potentials (EP's), spontaneous EEG, and the contingent negative variation (CNV) might be sensitive indicators of the detection of remote stimuli not mediated by usual sensory Processes [46]. Early experimentation of this type was carried out by Dougias Dean at the Newark College of Engineering. In hisan search for physiological correlates of information transfer, he wed the plethysmograph to measure changes in the blood volume in a finger, a sensitive indicator of autonomic nervous system functioning 47]. A plethysmographic measurement was made on the finger of a subject during telepathy experi- ments. A sender looked at randomly selected target cards consisting of names known to the subject, together with names unknown to him (selected at random from a telephone book). ‘The names of the known people were contributed by the sul ject and ‘were to be of emotional significance to him. Dean found significant changes in the chart recording of finger blood volume when the remote sender was looking at those ‘names known to the subject as compared with those names randomly chosen, Three other experiments using the physiological approach have now been published, The first work by Tart (48], a later work by Lloyd [49], and most recently the work by the authors [4] all follow a similar procedure. Basically, a subject is closeted in an electrically shielded room while his EEG is recorded. Meanwhile, in another laboratory, a second person is stimulated from time to time, and the time of that stimulus is marked on the magnetic-tape recording of the subject's EEG. ‘The subject does not know when the remote stimulus periods are as compared with the nonstimulus periods, With regard to choice of stimulus for our own experimenta- tion, we noted that in previous work others had attempted, without success, to detect evoked potential changes in a sub- ject’s EEG in response to a single stroboscopic flash stimulus observed by another subject [50]. In a discussion of that experiment, Kamiya suggested that because of the unknown temporal characteristics of the information channel, it might ‘be more appropriate to use repetitive bursts of light to increase the probability of detecting information transfer [51]. There- fore, in our study we chose to use a stroboscopic flash train of 10-6 duration as the remote stimulus. In the design of the study, we assumed that the application of the remote stimulus would result in responses similar to those obtained under conditions of direct stimulation, For example, when an individual is stimulated with a low: frequency (< 30 Hz) flashing light, the BEG typically shows a decrease in the amplitude of the resting rhythm and a driving of the brain waves at the frequency of the lashes (52] We hypothesized that if we stimulated one subject in this manner (a putative sender), the EEG of another subject in a remote room with no flash present (a receiver) might show changes in alpha (9-11 Hz) activity and possibly an EEG driving similar to that of the sender, or other coupling to the sender's EEG [53]. The receiver was seated in a visually ‘opaque, acoustically and electrically shielded, double-walled steel room about 7m from the sender. The details of the experiment, consisting of seven runs of thirty-six 10- trials each (twelve periods each for O-Hz, 6-Hz, and 16-Hz stimuli, randomly intermixed), are presented in [4]. This experiment proved to be successful. The receiver's alpha activity (9-11 Hz) showed a significant reduction in average power (-24 percent, p< 0.04) and peak power (-28 percent, p< 0.03) during 16-Hz flash stimuli as compared with periods of no-lash stimulus. [A similar response was observed for 6-Hz stimuli (-12 percent in average power, -21 percent in peak power), ‘but the latter result did not reach statistical significance. } Fig. 2 shows an overlay of three averaged EEG spectra from cone of the subject's 36 trial runs, displaying differences in alpha activity during the three stimulus conditions. Extensive ‘Gimerel tradadinei @aih wideitien bs daraine th thee. PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEFE, MARCH 197% ¢ ° | 6 3 - al | 3B 3 i 3 -| 5 Hz 10 He 15 He Occipital EEG frequency spectea, 0-20Hz, of one sudject (H. ‘ting as receiver showing amplitude changes in the 9-11-Hz band as function of strobe frequency. Three cases: O-. 6:, and 16-Hz flashes (twelve trial averages). results were produced by system artifacts, electromagnetic pickup (EMI), or subtle cueing; the results were negative [4] AS part of the experimental protocol, the subject was asked to indicate a conscious assessment for each trial (via telegraph Key) a8 to the nature of the stimulus; analysis showed these guesses to be at chance. Thus arousal as evidenced by signifi- cant alpha blocking occurred only at the noncognitive level of Physiological response. Hence the experiment provided direct physiological (EEG) evidence of perception of remote stimuli even in the absence of overt cognitive response. Whereas in our experiments we used a remote light flash as a stimulus, Tart [48] in his work used an electrical shock to himself as sender, and Lloyd [49] simply told the sender to think of a red triangle each time a red warning light was illuminated within his view. Lloyd observed a consistent evoked potential in his subjects; whereas in our experiments and in Tart's, a reduction in amplitude and a desynchroniza- tion of alpha was observed—an arousal response, (If a subject is resting in an alpha-dominant condition and he is then stimulated, for example in any direct manner, one will observe 4 desynchronization and decrease in alpha power.) We con- sider that these combined results are evidence for the existence of noncognitive awareness of remote happenings and that they have a profound implication for paranormal research, Ill, SRI INVESTIGATIONS OF REMOTE VIEWING Experimentation in remote viewing began during studies carried out to investigate the abilities of a New York artist, Ingo Swann, when he expressed the opinion that the insights gained during experiments at SRI had strengthened his ability (verified in other research before he joined the SRI program) to view remote locations [54]. To test Mr. Swann’s asser- tion, a pilot study was set up in which a series of targets from around the globe were supplied by SRI personnel to the ex- perimenters on a double-blind, basis. Mr. Swann’s apparent ability to describe correctly details of buildings, roads, bridges, and the like indicated that it may be possible for 4 subject by means of mental imagery to access and describe randomly chosen geographical sites located several miles from the subject's position and demarcated by some appro- priate means. Therefore, we set up a research program to test the remote-viewing hypothesis under rigidly controlled scientific conditions. In carrying out this progrim, we concentrated on what we considered to be our principal responsibility-to resolve under “shuld lilacs Ata Nah a Rp SePUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER 33s class of paranormal perception phenomenon exists. At all times, we and others responsible for the overall program took ‘measures to prevent sensory leakage and subliminal cueing and to prevent deception, whether intentional or unintentional. To ensure evaluations independent of belief structures of both experimenters and judges, all experiments were carried out under a protocol, described below, in which target selection at the beginning of experiments and blind judging of results at the end of experiments were handled independently of the researchers engaged in carrying out the experiments. Six subjects, designated 1 through $6, were chosen for the study. Three were considered as gifted or experienced subjects (31 through $3), and three were considered as learners (S4 through $6). The @ priori dichotomy between gifted and learners was based on the experienced group having been successful in other studies conducted before this program and the learners group being inexperienced with regard to paranormal experimentation. The study consisted of a series of double-blind tests with local targets in the San Francisco Bay Area so that several in- dependent judges could visit the sites to establish documenta- tion. The protocol was to closet the subject with an experi- menter at SRI and at an agreed-on time to obtain from the subject a description of an undisclosed remote site being visited by a target team, In each of the experiments, one of the six program subjects served as remote-viewing subject, and SRI experimenters served as a target demarcation team at the remote location chosen in a double-blind protocol as follows. In cach experiment, SRI management randomly chose a target location from a list of targets within a 30-min driving time from SRI; the target location selected was kept blind to subject and experimenters. The target pool consisted of more than 100 target locations chosen from a target-rich environ- ment. (Before the experimental series began, the Director of the Information Science and Engineering Division, not other- ‘wise associated with the experiment, established the set of lo- cations as the target pool which remained known only to him. The target locations were printed on cards sealed in envelopes and kept in the SRI Division office safe. They were available only with the personal assistance of the Division Director who issued a single random-number selected target card that con- stituted the traveling orders for that experiment.) {In detail: To begin the experiment, the subject was closeted with an experimenter at SRI to wait 30 min before beginning narrative description of the remote location. A second ex- Perimenter then obtained from the Division Director a target location from a set of traveling orders previously prepared and randomized by the Director and kept under his control. The target demarcation team, consisting of two to four SRI experi- menters, then proceeded by automobile directly to the target without any communication with the subject or experimenter remaining behind. The experimenter remaining with the sub- Ject at SRI was kept ignorant of both the particular target and the target pool so as to eliminate the possibility of cueing (overt or subliminal) and to allow him freedom in questioning the subject to clarify his descriptions, The demarcation team remained at the target site for an agreed-on 15-min period following the 30 min allotted for travel* During the observa- “The frst subject (S1) was allowed 30 min for his descriptions, but it was found that he fatigued and had little comment after the first 15 min. The viewing time was therefore reduced to 15 min for subjects S2 through S6. tion period, the remote-viewing subject was asked to describe his impressions of the target site into a tape recorder and to make any drawings he thought appropriate. An informal com- Parison was then made when the demarcation team returned, and the subject was taken to the site to provide feedback. A. Subject $1: Experienced To begin the series, Pat Price, a former California police com- missioner and city councilman, participated at a subject in nine experiments. In general, Price's ability to describe correctly buildings, docks, roads, gardens, and the like, includ- ing structural materials, color, ambience, and activity often in great detail-indicated the functioning of a remote per- ceptual ability. A Hoover Tower target, for example, was recognized and named by name. Nonetheless, in general, the descriptions contained inaccuracies as well as correct state- ments. A typical example is indicated by the subject's drawing shown in Fig. 3 in which he correctly described a park-like area containing two pools of water: one rectangular, 60 by 89 ft (actual dimensions 75 by 100 ft); the other circular, diameter 120 ft (actual diameter 110 ft). He incorrectly indi- cated the function, however, as water filtration rather than recreational swimming, (We often observe essentially correct descriptions of basic elements and patterns coupled with in- complete or erroneous analysis of function.) As can be seen from his drawing, he also’ included some elements, such as the tanks shown in the upper right, that are not present at the target site, We also note an apparent left-right reversal, often observed in paranormal perception experiments, To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the remote-viewing experiment, the experimental results were subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise associated with the research. The subject's response packets, which contained the nine typed unedited transcripts of the tape-recorded narratives wong with any associated drawings, were unlabeled and pre- sented in random order. While standing at each target loci- tion, visited in turn, the judge was required to blind rank order the nine packets on a scale | to 9 (best to worst match). The statistic of interest is the sum of ranks assigned to the target- associated transcripts, lower values indicating better matches. For nine targets, the sum of ranks could range from nine to eighty-one. The probability that a given sum of ranks s or less will occur by chance is given by [55] Pr (sores) =e es en)", ) oni where 5 is obtained sum of ranks, V is number of assignable ranks, n is number of occasions on which rankings were mas and / takes on values from zero to the least positive integer k in (- n/n, (Table 1 is a table to enable easy application of the above formula to those casesin which N=.) The sum in this case, which included seven direct hits out of the nine, was 16 (see Table 11), @ result significant at p= 2.9X 10°* by calculation. In Experiments 3, 4, and 6 through 9, the subject was se- cured in a double-walled copper-screen Faraday cage. The Faraday cage provides 120-4B attenuation for plane-wave radio-frequency radiation over a range of 15 kHz to 1 GHz. For magnetic fields, the attenuation is 68 dB at 15 kHz and decreases to 3 dB at 60 Hz. The results of rank order judging (Table Il) indicate that the use of Faraday case electrical336 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFEF, MARCH 1976 i} Fig. 3, Swimming pool complex as remoteviewing targe!. (a) Clty map of target location. (b) Drawing by Price (S1). TABLE | CRITICAL VALUES OF SUMS OF RANKS FOR PREFERENTIAL MATCHING Tier [reese Gene sa oe aetcuras sn af Wn slam WG ge ical teat en. | o10 [0.10] 0.09] eos [o-cs] oot [0.0m [oon]o.on [ocons]| r= [ors 7 ie eal le sD alelials) el«| % 6 ofall ash] Teleavl) cell || oll wl sili 6 [effet etal ole] ole) a 7 [alwlulwlofs| «fal al wd] | ‘ wlalal 2] 20 w ” ty 1s piu ’ ’ ri a} we] om | 30 nl] we cry 2 a 20 wy ww] az] wo fs acs all Se Hisallh | ai scl aolll an as Pee ar andes [sift lalla | oc] x] ol el ela lalal ae a [ofalels] alo] of al al ao [sls fasl a ‘Note: This table applies only to those special cases in which the number of occasions on Which objects tre being ranked (7) is equal to the number of assignable ranks (NV). Each, entry represents the largest ‘tumber that i significant at the indicated p-evel. Source: R. L. Mort [SS]. shielding does not prevent high-quality descriptions from being obtained. ‘As a backup judging procedure, a panel of five additional ‘SRI scientists not otherwise associated with the research were asked simply to blind match the unedited typed transcripts (with associated drawings) generated by the remote viewer against the nine target locations which they independently visited in turn. The transcripts were unlabeled and presented in random order. A correct match consisted of a transcript of a given date being matched to the target of that date. In- stead of the expected number of | match each per judge, the ‘number of correct matches obtained by the five judges was 7, 6, 5, 3, and 3, respectively. Thus, rather than the expected total number of $ correct matches from the judges, 24 such matches were obtained. B. Subject 4: Learner This experiment was designed to be a replication of our pre- vious experiment with Price, the first replication attempted. ‘The subject for this experiment was Mrs, Hella Hammid, a sifted professional photographer. She was selected for this series on the basis of her successful performance as a per- cipient in the EEG experiment described earlier. Outside of ‘that interaction, she had no previous experience with apparent paranormal functioning. At the time we began working with Mrs. Hammid, she had no strong feelings about the likelihood of her ability to suc- ceed in this task. This was in contrast to both Ingo Swann who had come to our laboratory fresh from a lengthy and apparently successful series of experiments with Dr. Gertrude Schmeidier at City Colleee of New York (56) and Pat PricePUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER 7 Fig. 4, Subject Hammid (S4) drawing, described as “some kind of diagonal trough up in the si.” TABLE It DistRIRUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED 10 TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TANGET LOCATION FOR EXPERIENCED ect Price (SI) ust Location a) Pate aieo Bn | Arce and ceatts Plana, Mente tack a Swiming poot complies, le Alto a nst.ouurty who felt that he used his remote-viewing ability in his every day life In comparison with the latter two, many people are more influenced by their environment and are reluctant under public scrutiny to attempt activities that are generally thought to be impossible. Society often provides inhibition and nega- tive feedback to the individual who might otherwise have explored his own nonregular perceptual ability. We all share an historical tradition of “the stoning of prophets and the burning of witches" and, in more modern times, the hospitaliza- tion of those who claim to perceive things that the majority do got admit to séelag. Thesefose, in addition bo mainteinins scientific rigor, one of our primary tasks as researchers is 10 provide an environment in which the subject feels safe to explore the possibility of paranormal perception, With a new subject, we also try to stress the nonuniqueness of the ability because from our experience paranormal functioning appears to be a latent ability that all subjects can articulate to some degree Because of Mrs, Hammid’s artistic background, she was ca- pable of drawing and describing visual images that she could not identify in any cognitive or analytic sense, When the target demarcation team went to a target location which was a pedestrian overpass, the subject said that she saw “a kind of {rough up in the ais,” which she indicated in the upper part of her drawing in Fig. 4. She went on to explain, “If you stand where they are standing you will see something like this,” indicating the nested squares at the bottom of Fig. 4. As it tumed out, a judge standing where she indicated would have a view closely resembling what she had drawn, as can be seen from the accompanying photographs of the target locs- tion, It needs to be emphasized, however, that judges did not have access to our photographs of the site, used here for illustrative purposes only, but rather they proceeded to each of the target locations by list In another experiment, the subject described seeing “an open bamlike structure with a pitched roof.” She also saw a “kind of slatted side to the structure making light and dark bars on the wall.” Her drawing and a photograph of the associated bicycle shed target are shown in Fig. 5. (Subjects are encouraged to make drawings of anything they visualize and associate with the remote location because drawings they make are in general more accurate than their verbal description.) PRE seg Re RR EP TERR PURER SST IGa8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 BICYCLE SHED TARGET oe \ Fig. 5. Subject Hammid (S4) response to bicycle shed target described TABLE IIL DisrRiNUTION OF RANKINGS ASSIGNED TO TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED wit Exc Tanaer LocaTion For Leanwex SuasicT Hast (S4) Tongee Lscacion thadtat uted, Pale Alto 1 aching aacege, fountain how a : RE tncernattonal Courtyard, Manto tare | 0.2 1 1a : (et.onio experiment series were submitted for independent judging on 4 blind basis by an SRI research analyst not otherwise associ- ated with the research. While at each target location, visited in turn, the judge was required to blind rank order the nine unedited typed manuscripts of the tape-recorded narratives, along with any associated drawings generated by the remote viewer, on a scale 1 to 9 (best to worst match). The sum of ranks assigned to the target-associated transcripts in this case was 13, a result significant at p = 1.8X 10° by exact calcula- tion (see Table I and discussion), and included five direct hits and four second ranks (Table III). ( 18 open barnctike building” with “slats Again, as a backup judging procedure, a panel of five addi- tional judges not otherwise associated with the research were asked simply to blind match the unedited typed tran- scripts and associated drawings generated by the remote viewer, against the nine target locations which they independently visited in tum, A correct match consisted of a transcript of 4 waven date being matched to the target of that date’ In- stead of the expected number of 1 match each per judge, the number of correct matches obiained by the five judges was 5.3, 3. 2, and 2, respectively. Thus, rather than the ex- pected total number of 5 correct matches from the judges, 15 such matches were obtained, C Subjects $2 and $3: Experienced Having completed a series of 18 remote-viewing experiments, 9 each with experienced subject S1 (Price) and learner S4 (Hammid), additional replication experiments, four with each subject, were carried out with experienced subjects $2 (Elgin) and $3 (Swann) and leamers $$ and $6. To place the judging on a basis comparable to that used with S1 and $4, the four transcripts each of experienced subjects $2 and $3 were com- bined into a group of eight for rank order judging to be com- pared with the similarly combined results of the learners $5 and S6, The series with $2 (Elgin, an SRI research analyst) provided a further example of the dichotomy between verbal and draw- ing responses. (As with medical literature, case histories often are more illuminating than the summary of results.) The ex- ‘miestaiansh ansihad Valin eras: ta ‘Galak’ Ghia ais tikPUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER TARGET—TENNIS COURTS ae ie a | \ of Fig. 6. Subject Elgin (52) drawings in response to tennis court target subject. It was a demonstration experiment for a government visitor who had heard of our work and wanted to evaluate our experimental protocol In the laboratory, the subject, holding a bearing compass at arm’s length, began the experiment by indicating the direction of the target demarcation team correctly to within S°. (In all four experiments with this subject, he has always been within 10° of the correct direction in this angular assessment.) The subject then generated a 1S-min tape-recorded description and the drawings shown in Fig. 6 In discussing the drawings, Elgin indicated that he was uncertain as to the action, but had the impression that the demarcation team was located at a museum (known to him) ina particular park, In fact, the target was a tennis court lo- cated in that patk about 90 m from the indicated museum. Once again, we note the characteristic (discussed earlier) of a resemblance between the target site and certain gestalt ele- ments of the subject's response, especially in regard to the drawings, coupled with incomplete or erroneous analysis of the significances. Nonetheless, when rank ordering transcripts | through 8 at the site, the judge ranked this transcript as 2 This example illustrates 4 continuing observation that most of the correct information related to us by subjects is of a non- analytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name ‘A second example from this group, generated by $3 (Swann), indicates the level of proficiency that can be attained with practice. In the two years since we first started working with Swann, he has been studying the problem of separating the ex- Setial ‘chink Weis Huw ikea aka, Ea coat tie nee experiments, he dictates two lists for us to record. One list contains objects that he “sees,” but does not think are located at the remote scene. A second list contains objects that he thinks are at the scene, In our evaluation, he has made much progress in this most essential ability to separate memory and imagination from paranormal inputs. This is the key to bringing the remotewiewing channel to fruition with regard to its potential usefulness. The quality of transcript that can be generated by this pro- cess is evident from the results of our most recent experiment with Swann, The target location chosen by the usual double~ blind protocol was the Palo Alto City Hall. Swann described a tall building with vertical columns and “set in" windows. His sketch, together with the photograph of the site, is shown in Fig. 7. He said there was a fountain, “but I don't hear it At the time the target team was at the City Hall during the experiment, the fountain was not running. He also made an effort to draw a replica of the designs in the pavement in front of the building, and correctly indicated the number of trees (four) in the sketch. For the entire series of eight, four each from $2 and $3, the numerical evaluation ‘based on blind rank ordering of tran- scripts at cach site was significant at p= 3.8X 10~ and in- cluded three direct hits and three second ranks for the targel- associated transcripts (see Table IV), D. Subjects SS and $6: Learners To complete the series, four experiments each were carried ‘out with leamer subjects SS and S6,a man and woman on the WEE tieieciiosh ahah” Wikie omens Ride eek, adieow Gn oc340 4 7. Subject Swann ($3) response to City Hall tags group, did not differ significantly from chance. For the series of eight (judged as a group of seven since one target came up twice, once for each subject), the numerical evaluation based on blind rank ordering of transcripts at each site was non- significant at p = 0.08, even though there were two direct hits and two second ranks out of the seven (see Table V), (One of the direct hits, which occurred with subject S6 in her first experiment, provides an example of the “first-time effect” that has been rigorously explored and is wellknown to experi- menters in the field [57]. The outbound experimenter obtained, by random protocol from the pool, a target blind to the experimenter with the subject, as is our standard pro- cedure, and proceeded to the location, The subject, a mathe- matician in the computer science laboratory who had no pre- PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 TABLE IV Disrammuvion oF RANKINGS ASSIONED To TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED wrrn Eacn Taxcer Locarion ror Expentencen Suasecrs Etat (S2) AND Swann (83) UR Seatton (reamate System) [Bitelded room, SAL, Henle ask seaators remone ott cout ity Mab, Pato Alte Lt couree, tent 2a TABLE V DistamuTion oF RANKINGS ASSIGNED To TRANSCRIPTS ASSOCIATED witn Eacn TaxGet Location ron Learnen SUMECTS S$ AND S6 amet (ocation cvarnans, alo Ato $0 , | matieoae ri ate| 19 . | 5 | windatit, porsets vailey as 2 55, 5 | watee rlane, stanford (2) , , 6 | atrpors, pate a ss 2 howe, Seanford 40 1 Total wm of ranks Ey (70.08, ¥8) vious experience in remote viewing, began to describe a large square with a fountain, Four minutes into the experiment, she recognized the location and correctly identified it by name (see Fig. 8). (It should be noted that in the area from which the target locations were drawn there are other fountains 1s well, some of which were in the target pool.) As an ex- ample of the style of the narratives generated during remote viewing with inexperienced subjects and of the part played by the experimenter remaining with the subject in such a case, we have included the entire unedited text of this experiment as Appendix B. £. Normal and Paranormal: Use of Unselected Subjects in Remote Viewing After more than a year of following the experimental pro- tocol described above and observing that even inexperienced subjects generated results better than expected, we initiated a series of experiments to explore further whether individuals other than putative “psychics” can demonstrate the remote- viewing ability. To test this idea, we have a continuing pro- gam to carry out additional experiments of the outdoor type with new subjects whom we have no a priori reason to believe have paranormal perceptual ability. To date we have collected data from five experiments with two individuals in this cate- gory: a man and a woman who were visiting government scientists interested in observing our experimental protocols. ‘The motivation for these particular experiments was twofold. First, the experiments provide data that indicate the level of pioRolenes that can be exsected tices naiiactad ecbenbeaiePUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER Fig. 8. Subject (S6) drawing of White Plaza, Stanford University. Sub: Ject drew what she called “curvy benches” and then announced cot feetly that the place was "White Plaza at Stanford, Second, when an individual observes a successful demonstre tion experiment involving another person as subject, it nevi tably occurs to him that perhaps chicanery is involved. We have found the most effective way to settle this issue for the observer is to have the individual himself act as a subject $0 as to obtain personal experience against which our reported results can be evaluated The first visitor (V1) was invited to participate as a subject in a three-experiment series. All three experiments contained clements descriptive of the associated target locations; the quality of response increased with practice. The third re- sponse is shown in Fig. 9, where again the pattern elements in the drawing appeared to be a closer match than the subject's sensiiedlies ticneraatiabiadlaest ids theta Oommeeh tiidneh ue acametii RESPONSES OF VISITING SCIENTIST SUBJECT Fla: ©. Subject (V1) drawing of meery-qo-eeund terest.Ma PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 TECHNOLOGY SERIES TYPEWRITER TARGET rahi 6 2 pet: hte us ae nace fe aan = Caine =z ep a ian ayoemet SUBJECT SWANN (S3) RESPONSE SUBJECT HAMMID (S4) RESPONSE Fig. 10. Drawings of a typewriter target by two subjects ‘The second visitor (V2 participated as a subject in two ex- 5 a ‘sanner wi INI OFRasNon Asner TRANRITS AoCiTED wi periments In is fst experimen. he menerated one of the DSTMEL EY toe Lacan Wk VAT SCT ADVE his narrative, “There is a red A-frame building and next to it resale is a large yellow thing [a tree-Editor]. Now further left | ssbiece beast Location oa) | sraneciae | there is another A-shape. It looks like a swing-set, but it is pushed down in a gully so I can't see the swings.” (All cor- rect.] He then went on to describe a lock on the front door |"! | Mylanée satace vs that he said “looks like it's made of laminated steel, so it | v1 | men must be a Master lock.” [Also comrect.] For the series of five—three from the first subject and two from the second—the numerical evaluation based on blind | ¥ | s#srement sviming pool, nomtatn view | 9.1 1 rank ordering of the transcripts at each site was significant at P= 0.017 and included three direct hits and one second rank satis for the target-associated transcripts, (See Table V1.) ~_ ve, Pato Alto oa 2 nd, Pale Alte aM 1 vi | winantt, rorcota vattey a 1 otal sum of canta .PUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER a3 TARGET LOCATION: XEROX MACHINE (TECHNOLOGY SERIES) Fig. 11, De the right, been the Observations with unselected subjects such 43 those de- seribed above indicate that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed perceptual ability. F, Technology Series: Short-Range Remote Viewing Because remote viewing is a perceptual ability, we consid- cred it important to obtain data on its resolution capabilities. ‘To accomplish this, we turned to the use of indoor techno- logical targets. Twelve experiments were carried out with five different sub- jects, two of whom were visiting government scientists. They were told that one of the experimenters would be sent by random protocol to a laboratory within the SRI complex and that he would interact with the equipment or apparatus at that location, It was further explained that the experimenter remaining with the subject was, as usual, kept ignorant of the contents of the target pool to prevent cueing during question. ing. (Unknown to subjects, targets in the pool were used with replacement; one of the goals of this particular experiment was to obtain multiple responses to a given target to investigate whether correlation of a number of subject responses would provide enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio.) The sub- ject was asked to describe the target both verbally (tape recorded) and by means of drawings during a time-ynchronized 1S-min interval in which the outbound experimenter inter- acted in an appropriate manner with the equipment in the target area. In the twelve experiments, seven targets were used: a drill press, Xerox machine, video terminal, chart recorder, four- state random number generator, machine shop, and type- writer. Three of these were used twice (drill press, video terminal, and typewriter) and one (Xerox machine) came up three times in our random selection procedure. ues by three subjects ($2, $3, and V3) for Xerox machine target i, TO ADD INTEREST TO TARGET LOCATION EXPERIMENTER WITH HIS HEAD BEING XEROXED x Lib- When asked to describe the square st upper left of response on Comparisons of the targets and subject drawings for three of the multiple-response cases (the typewriter, Xerox machine, and video terminal) are shown in Figs. 10, 11, and 12, Asis apparent from these illustrations alone, the experiments provide circumstantial evidence for an information channel of useful bit rate. This includes experiments in which visit- ing government scientists participated as subjects (Xerox machine and video terminal) to observe the protocol. In general, it appears that use of multiple-subject responses to a single target provides better signal-to-noise ratio than target identification by a single individual. This conclusion is borne out by the judging described below. Given that in general the drawings constitute the most accurate portion of a subject’s description, in the fist judging procedure a judge was asked simply to blind match only the drawings (i.e, without tape transcripts) to the targets. Multiple- subject responses to a given target were stapled together, and thus seven subject-drawing response packets were 10 be matched to the seven different targets for which drawings were made, The judge did nor have access to our photographs of the target locations, used for illustration purposes only, but rather proceeded to each of the target locations by list. While standing at cach target location, the judge was required to rank ‘order the seven subject-drawing response packets (presented in random order) on a scale 1 to 7 (best to worst match). For seven targets, the sum of ranks could range from 7 to 49. The sum in this case, which included 1 direct hit and 4 second ranks out of the 7 (see Table Vil) was 18, a result significant at p = 0.036. In the second more detailed effort at evaluation, a visiting scientist selected at random one of the 12 data packages (a drill press experiment), sight unseen and submitted it for in- dcenins-cnabeiie tn cn eieineee els & seneeek Gk onealo Fig. 12. Drawing by two subjects of 4 video monitor target. (a) Subject (S4) drawing of “box with light coming out of it o painted flat black ‘and in the middle of the room.” (b) Second subject (V2) saw a computer terminal with relay racks in the background, TABLE VII Distuimurion oF RANKINGS ASSIONED To SuBICT Drawings Asscciarip winit Exc Taser Locarion (9.0.0) mate as to what was being described, The analyst, blind as to the target_and given only the subject's taped narrative and drawing (Fig. 13), was able, from the subject’s description alone, to correctly classify the target as a “man-sized vertical boring machine.”” G. Summary of Remote Viewing Results 1) Discussion: The descriptions supplied by the subjects in the experiments involving remote viewing of natural targets or laboratory apparatus, although containing inaccuracies, were sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to differentiate among various targets to the degree indicated, A summary TABLE ViIL Summary: REMOTE VIEWING soee seoriaate |! ee ae 2 and $9 (onparianced) . nario $3 and 96 (sarees) . 0.08 138) 8,9, 4 a 2 2.0% tabulation of the statistical evaluations of these fifty-one ex- periments with nine subjects is presented in Table VIII, The ‘overall result, evaluated conservatively on the basis of a judging procedure that ignores transcript quality beyond that necessary to rank order the data packets (vastly underestimat- ing the statistical significance of individual descriptions), clearly indicates the presence of an information channel of useful bit rate, Furthermore, it appears that the principal difference between experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers is nor that the latter never exhibit the faculty, but rather that their results are simply less reliable, more sporadic. Nevertheless, as described earlier, individual transcripts from the inexperienced group of subjects number among some of the best obtained, Such observations indicate a hypothesis that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed perceptual ability.PUTHOFF AND TARG. PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER 6 \ \ Fig. 13. Subject (Sa) drawing of deill prose showing belt drive, stool ‘and a “vertical graph that goes up and down.” Thus the primary achievement of the SRI program was the elicitation of high-quality remote viewing from individuals who agreed to act as subjects. Criticism of this claim could in principle be put forward on the basis of three potential flaws. 1) The study could involve naiveté in protocol that permits various forms of cueing, intentional or unintentional. 2) The experiments discussed could be selected out of a larger pool of experiments of which many are of poorer quality, 3) Data for the reported experiments could be edited to show only the matching elements, the nonmatching elements being discarded, All three criticisms, however, are invalid, First, with regard to cueing, the use of double-blind protocols ensures that none of the persons in contact with the subject can be aware of the target. Second, selection of experiments for reporting did not take place; every experiment was entered as performed on master log and is included in the statistical evaluations. Third, data associated with a given experiment remain unedited; all experiments are tape recorded and all data are included un- lited in the data package to be judged and evaluated. us In the process of judging-attempting to match transcripts against targets on the basis of the information in the transcripts—some patterns and regularities in the transcript descriptions became evident, particularly regarding individual styles in remote viewing and in the perceptual form of the descriptions given by the subjects. These patterns and the judging procedure are discussed below. a) Styles of response: The fifty-one transcripts were taken from nine different subjects. Comparing the tran- scripts of one subject with those of another revealed that each Pattern tended to focus on certain aspects of the remote target complex and to exclude others, so that each had an individual pattem of response, like a signature. Subject $3, for example, frequently responded with topo- graphical descriptions, maps, and architectural features of the target locations. Subject $2 often focused on the behavior of the remote experimenter or the sequence of actions he carried out at the target. The transcripts of subject $4, more than those of other subjects, had descriptions of the feel of the lo- cation, and experiential or sensory gestalts-for example, light/dark elements in the scene and indoor/outdoor and enclosed/open distinctions, Prominent features of S1’s tran- scripts were detailed descriptions of what the target persons were concretely experiencing, seeing, or doing-for example, standing on asphalty blacktop overlooking water; looking at 4 purple iris. ‘The range of any individual subject's responses was wide. Anyone might draw a map or describe the mood of the remote experimenter, but the consistency of each subject's overall approach suggests that just as individual descriptions of a directly viewed scene would differ, so these differences also occur in remote-viewing processes. 4) Nature of the description: The concrete descriptions that appear most commonly in transcripts are at the level of subunits of the overall scene. For example, when the target was a Xerox copy machine, the responses included (S2) a rolling object (the moving light) or dials and a cover that is lifted (S3), but the machine as a whole was not identified by name or function. In a few transcripts, the subjects correctly identified and named the target, In the case of a computer terminal, the subject (V2) apparently perceived the terminal and the relay racks behind it. In the case of targets which were Hoover Tower and White Plaza, the subjects (S1 and S6, respectively) seemed to identify the locations through analysis of their initial images of the elements of the target. There were also occasional incorrect identifications. Gestalts were incorrectly named; for example, swimming pools in a park were identified as water storage tanks at a water filtration plant (1) The most common perceptual level was thus an intermediate one-the individual elements and items that make up the tar- fet. This is suggestive of a scanning process that takes sample perceptions from within the overall environment. When the subjects tried to make sense out of these fragmen- tary impressions, they often resorted to metaphors or con- structed an image with 4 kind of perceptual inference. From 4 feeling of the target as an “august” and “solemn” building, a subject (S4) said it might be a library; it was a church. A pedestrian overpass above a freeway was described asa conduit (S4). A rapid transit station, elevated above the countryside, ‘was associated with an observatory (S2). These responses ‘seem to be the result of attempts to process partial inform:346 tion: similarly, this occurs in other parapsychological exper ments. These observations are compatible with the hypotheses that information received in a putative remote-viewing mode is processed piecemeal in pattern form (consistent with @ low bit rate process, but not necessarily requiring it); and the errors arise in the processes of attempted integration of the data into larger pattems directed toward verbal labeling. When the subjects augmented the verbal transcripts with drawings or sketches, these often expressed the target elements more accurately than the verbal descriptions, Thus the draw- ings tended to correspond to the targets more clearly and precisely than the words of the transcript. The descriptions given by the subjects sometimes went be- yond what the remote experimenter experienced, at least con- sciouly. For example, one subject (S4) described and drew 4 belt drive at the top of a drill press that was invisible even to the remote experimenter who was operating the machine; another subject ($1) described a number of items behind shrubbery and thus not visible to members of the demarcation team at the site. Curioudy, objects in motion at the remote site were rarely mentioned in the transcript. For example, trains crossing the railroad trestle target were not described, though the remote ‘experimenter stood very close to them. Also in a few cases, the subject descriptions were inaccurate regarding size of structures. A 20-ft courtyard separating two buildings was described as 200 ft wide, and a small shed was expanded to a bamndlke structure. ¢) Blind judging of transcripts: ‘The judging procedure entailed examining the transcripts for a given experimental series and attempting to match the transcripts with the cor- rect targets on the basis of their correspondences. The tran- scripts varied from coherent and accurate descriptions to mix- tures of correspondences and noncorrespondences. Since the judge did not know a prior! which elements of the descriptions ‘were conrect or incorrect, the task was complicated, and tran scripts often seemed plausibly to match more than one target. ‘A confounding factor in these studies is that some target lo- cations have similarities that seem alike at some level of per- ception, For example, a radio telescope at the top of a hi the observation deck of a tower, and a jetty on the edge of « bay all match a transcript description of “looking out over a long distance.” A lake, a fountain, and a creek may all result in an image of water for the subject. Therefore, in several cases, even correct images may not help in the conservative differential matching procedure used. According to the judge, the most successful procedure was a careful element-by-element comparison that tested each tran- script against every target and used the transcript descriptions and drawings as arguments for or against assigning the tran- script to a particular target, In most cases, this resulted in either a clear conclusion or at least a ranking of probable ‘matches; these matches were subjected to the statistical analyses presented in this paper. 2) Summary: In summary, we do not yet have an under- standing of the nature of the information-bearing signal that a subject perceives during remote viewing. The subjects com- monly report that they perceive the signal visually as though they were looking at the object or place from a position in its immediate neighborhood, Furthermore, the subjects’ per ceptual viewpoint has mobility in that they can shift their point of view so as to describe elements of a scene that would PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1976 ‘not be visible to an observer merely standing at ground level and describing what he sees. (In particular, a subject often correctly describes elements not visible to the target demarca- tion team.) Finally, motion is seldom reported; in fact, moving objects often are unseen even when nearby static objects are correctly identified. ‘A comparison of the results of remote viewing (a so-called freecesponse task) with results of forced-choice tasks, such a3 the selection of one of four choices generated by 1 random number generator {58} , reveals the following findings. From a statistical viewpoint, a subject is more likely to describe, with sufficient accuracy to permit blind matching, a remote site chosen at random than he is to select correctly one of four random numbers, Our experience with these phenomena leads us to consider that this difference in task performance may stem from fundamental signal-to-noise considerations. Two Principal sources of noise in the system apparently are mem- ‘ory and imagination, both of which can give rise to mental pictures of greater clarity than the target to be perceived. In the random number task, a subject can create a perfect mental ture of each of the four possible outputs in his own imagi- nation and then attempt to obtain the correct answer by @ mental matching operation. The same is true for card guessing experiments. On the other hand, the subject in remote view- ing is apparently more likely to approach the task with a blank mind as he attempts to perceive pictorial information from remote locations about which he may have no stored mental data. Finally, we observe that most of the correct information that subjects relate to us is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name, In consultation with Dr. Robert Ornstein of the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San Francisco, CA, and with Dr. Ralph Kiernan of the Department of Neurology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, we have formed the tentative hypothesis that paranormal functioning may involve specialization characteristic of the brain’s right hemi- sphere. This possibility is derived from a variety of evidence from clinical and neurosurgical sources which indicate that the two hemispheres of the human brain are specialized for dif- ferent cognitive functions. The left hemisphere is predomi- nantly active in verbal and other analytical functioning and the fight hemisphere predominates in spatial and other holistic processing [59], [60]. Further research is necessary to ‘elucidate the relationship between right hemisphere function and paranormal abilities. Nonetheless, we can say at this point that the remote-viewing results of the group of subjects at SRI have characteristics in common with more familiar performances that require right hemispheric function. The similarities include the highly schematicized drawings of ob- jects in a room of of remote scenes. Verbal identification of these drawings is often highly inaccurate and the drawings themselves are frequently left-right reversed relative to the target configuration, Further, written material generally is not cognized. These characteristics have been seen in left braiminjured patients and in callosal-sectioned patients. As a result of the above considerations, we have learned to urge our subjects simply to describe what they see as opposed to what they think they are looking at. We have learned that their unanalyzed perceptions are almost always a better guide to the true target than their interpretations of the perceived data,PUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER M7 IV. CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING TIME If the authors may be forgiven a personal note, we wish to express that this section deals with observations that we have been reluctant to publish because of their striking apparent in- compatibility with existing concepts. The motivating factor for presenting the data at this time is the ethical consideration that theorists endeavoring to develop models for paranormal functioning should be apprised of all the observable data if their efforts to arrive at a comprehensive and correct descrip- tion are to be successful. During the course of the experimentation in remote viewing (Section III), subjects occasionally volunteered the informa- tion that they had been thinking about their forthcoming par- ticipation in a remote-viewing experiment and had an image come to them as to what the target location was to be. On these occasions, the information was given only to the experi- menter remaining at SRI with the subject and was unknown to the outbound experimenter until completion of the experi- ment, Two of these contributions were among the most accurate descriptions turned in during those experiments. Since the target location had not yet been selected when the subject communicated his perceptions about the target, we found the data difficult to contend with. We offer these spontaneous occurrences not as proof of pre cognitive perception, but rather as the motivation that led us to do further work in this field. On the basis of this firsthand evidence, together with the copious literature describing years of precognition experiments carried out in various other labo- ratories, we decided to determine whether a subject could per- form a perceptual task that required both spatial and temporal remote viewing. It is well known and recently has been widely discussed that nothing in the fundamental laws of physics forbids the appar- ent transmission of information from the future to the present (discussed further in Section V). Furthermore, there is a gen- dictum that “in physical law, everything that is not forbid- den, is required” [61]. With this in mind, we set out to con- duct very well-controlled experiments to determine whether we could deliberately design and execute experiments for the sole purpose of observing precognition under laboratory conditions. ‘The experimental protocol was identical to that followed in previous remote-viewing experiments with but one exception. The exception was that the subject was required to describe the remote location during a 15-min period beginning 20 min before the target was selected and 35 min before the outbound experimenter was to arrive at the target location. In detail, as shown in Table IX, each day at ten o'clock one of the experimenters would leave SRI with a stack of ten sealed envelopes from a larger pool and randomized daily, con- taining traveling instructions that had been prepared, but that were unknown to the two experimenters remaining with the subject. The subject for this experiment was Hella Hamid (S4) who participated in the nine-experiment series replicating the original Price work described earlier. The traveling experi- menter was to drive continuously from 10:00 until 10:30 be- fore selecting his destination with a random number generator. (The motivation for continuous motion was our observation that objects and persons in rapid motion are not generally seen in the remote-viewing mode of perception, and we wished the traveler to bea poor target until he reached his target site.) At the end of 30 min of driving, the traveling experimenter gener- TABLE IX Exprainaytat Prorocot: Pascoowtrive Remore Viewinc 10:00 | outbound experinencer leaven vich 10 envelopes (emeaining 10:10 | eperiaenters romainiog vith sbject tn the laboratory 0 10:45 | outbovnd enpertaanter com 15 toutes (10:05-11100) 14. Subject Hammid (S4) described “some kind of congealing tar, ‘Of maybe an ares of condensed lava... that hat oozed out to fll up some kind of boundaries.” ated a random digit from 0 to 9 with a Texas Instruments SR-S1 random number generator; while still in motion, he counted down that number of envelopes and proceeded di- rectly to the target location so as to arrive there by 10:45. He remained at the target site until 11:00, at which time he re- turned to the laboratory, showed his chosen target name toa security guard, and entered the experimental room. During the same period, the protocol in the laboratory was as follows. At 10:10, the subject was asked to begin a descrip- tion of the place to which the experimenter would go 38 min hence, The subject then generated a tape-recorded description and associated drawings from 10:10 to 10:25, at which time her part in the experiment was ended, Her description was thus entirely concluded $ min before the beginning of the tar- get selection procedure Four such experiments were carried out. Each of them ap- peared to be successful, an evaluation later verified in blind judging without error by three judges. We will briefly sum- marize the four experiments below. The first target, the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, consisted en- tirely of mud flats because of an extremely low tide (see Fig. 14). Appropriately, the entire transcript of the subject per- tained to “some kind of congealing tar, or maybe an area of condensed lava. It looks like the whole area is covered with some kind of wrinkled elephant skin that has oozed out to fill up some kind of boundaries where (the outbound experi menter) is standing.” Because of the lack of water, the dock where the remote experimenter was standing was in fact rest- i aaaiien al MewesFig. 15. Subject (S4) described 1 formal garden “ery wall manicured behind + double colonnade, Note that the subject has learned not to rush into interpreta- tion as to the nature or purpose of the place, This is a result of our cautioning based on the observation that such efforts tend to be purely analytical and in our experience are almost invariably incorrect. If a subject can limit himself to what he sees, he is often then able to describe a scene with sufficient accuracy that an observer can perform the analysis for him and identify the place. The second target visited was the fountain at one end of 3 large formal garden at Stanford University Hospital (Fig. 15). The subject gave a lengthy description of a formal garden be- hind a wall with a “double colonnade” and “very well mani- cured.” When we later took the subject to the location, she was herself taken aback to find the double colonnaded wall leading into the garden just as described, The third target was a children’s swing at a small park 4.6 km from the laboratory (Fig. 16). The subject repeated again and again that the main focus of attention at the site was a “black iron triangle that the outbound experimenter had somehow walked into or was standing on.” The triangle was “bigger than a man,” and she heard a “squeak, squeak, about once & second,” which we observe is a match to the black metal swing that did squeak. PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MARCH 1 Fig. 16. Subject (S4) saw a “black iron triangle that Hal had somehow Walked into” and heard a "squeak, iquetk, about once a second {MN SE ‘ ss ae ‘aia ae om Fig 17. Subject (S4) described » very tall strveture located among city ‘eets and covered with “Tiffany like glass The final target was the Palo Alto City Hall (Fig. 17). The subject described a very, very tall structure covered with Tiffany-like glass.” She had it located among city streets and with little cubes at the base. The building is glass-covered, and the Little cubes are a good match to the small elevator exit buildings located in the plaza in front of the building. To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the pre- cognitive viewing, the experimental results were subjected to independent judging on a blind basis by three SRI scientists otherwise associated with the experiment. The judges were asked to match the four locations, which they ted, against the unedited typed manuscripts of the tape- recorded narratives, along with the drawings generated by the remote newer. The transcripts were presented unlabeled and in random order and were to be used without replacement, A correct match required that the transcript of a given experi- ment be matched with the target of that experiment. All three judges independently matched the target data to the response data without error. Under the null hypothesis (no information channel and a random selection of descriptions without re- placement), each judge independently obtained a result signifi- cant at p= (4!)"! = 0,042, For reasons we do not as yet understand, the four transcripts generated in the precognition experiment show exceptional co- herence and accuracy as evidenced by the fact that all of the fudaes were able to match successfully ofl of the tranecrinte to who were notPUTHOFF AND TARG: PERCEPTUAL CHANNEL FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER the corresponding target locations. A long-range experimental program devoted to the clarification of these issues and involy- ing a number of subjects is under way. The above four experi- ments are the first four carried out under this program, Currently, we have no precise model of this spatial and tem- poral remote-viewing phenomenon. However, models of the universe involving higher order synchronicity or correlation have been proposed by the physicist Pauli and the psychologist Carl Jung [62]. ACAUSALITY. If natural law’ were an absolute truth, then of ‘course there could not possibly be any processes that deviate from it. But since causality® is a satirical truth, it holds good only on average and thus leaves room for exceptions which must somehow be experienceable, that is to may, real. I try to regard synchronistic events as acatsal exceptions of this kind. They prove to be relatively independent of space and time; they rela- tivize space and time insofar as space presents in principle no ob- stale to their passage and the sequence of events in time is in- verted so that it looks as if an event which has not yet occurred were causing a perception in the present. We shall see in the next section that such a description, though poetic, has some basis in modern physical theory. V. DISCUSSION It is important to note at the outset that many contempo- rary physicists are of the view that the phenomena that we hhave been discussing are not at all inconsistent with the framework of physics as currently understood. In this emerg- ing view, the often-held belief that observations of this type are incompatible with known laws in principle is erroneous, such a concept being based on the naive realism prevalent before the development of modern quantum theory and information theory. One hypothesis, put forward by I, M. Kogan of the USSR, is that information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves in the 300-1000-km region (37]- [40]. Experimental support for the hypothesis is claimed ‘on the basis of slower than inverse square attenuation, com- patible with source-percipient distances lying in the induc- tion field range as opposed to the radiation field range; ob- served low bit rates (0.00S-0.1 bit/s) compatible with the information carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffec- tiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator; and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically gener- d currents yielding results compatible with observed signal- tornoise ratios. M. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Laurentian Uni- versity, Toronto, Canada, has narrowed the ELF hypothesis to the suggestion that the 7.8-Hz “Shumann waves" and their harmonics propagating along the earth-ionosphere waveguide duct may be responsible. Such an hypothesis is compatible with driving by brain-wave currents and leads to certain other hypotheses such as asymmetry between east-west and west- t propagation, preferred experimental times (midnight~4 AM), and expected negative correlation between success and the U index (a measure of geomagnetic disturbance throughout the world). Persinger claims initial support for these factors on the basis of a literature search [63], [64]. On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF interpretation as a blanket hypothesis are the following: a) ap- ‘pg paln iataceied, aus rent real-time descriptions of remote activities in sufficient detail to require a channel capacity in all probability greater than that allowed by a conventional modulation of an ELF signal; b) lack of a proposed mechanism for coding and decod- ing the information onto the proposed ELF cartier; and c) ap- parent precognition data. The hypothesis must nonetheless re- main open at this stage of research, since it is conceivable that counterindication a) may eventually be circumvented on the basis that the apparent high bit rate results from a mixture of low bit rate input and high bit rate “filling in the blanks” from imagination; counterindication b) is common to a number of normal perceptual tasks and may therefore simply reflect a lack of sophistication on our part with regard to perceptual functioning [65]; and counterindication c) may be accom- modated by an ELF hypothesis if advanced waves as well as retarded waves are admitted [66], [67]. Experimentation to determine whether the ELF hypothesis is viable can be carried out by the use of ELF sources as targets, by the study of para- metric dependence on propagational directions and diurnal timing, and by the exploration of interference effects caused by creation of a high-intensity ELF environment during ex- perimentation, all of which are under consideration in our lab- oratory and elsewhere, Some physicists believe that the reconciliation of observed paranormal functioning with modern theory may take place at 4 more fundamental level—namely, at the level of the founda- tions of quantum theory. There is a continuing dialog, for example, on the proper interpretation of the effect of an ob- server (consciousness) on experimental measurement [68], and there is considerable current interest in the implications for our notions of ordering in time and space brought on by the observation [69], (70] of nonlocal correlation or “quan- tum interconnectedness” (to use Bohm’s term [71 ]) of distant parts of quantum systems of macroscopic dimensions. The latter, Bell’s theorem [72], emphasizes that “no theory of reality compatible with quantum theory can require spatially separated events to be independent” (73], but must permit interconnectedness of distant events in a manner that is con- trary to ordinary experience (74]-{75]. This prediction has been experimentally tested and confirmed in the recent experiments of, for example, Freedman and Clauser [69], (70) E, H, Walker and ©. Costa de Beauregard, independently proposing theories of paranormal functioning based on quan- tum concepts, argue that observer effects open the door to the Possibility of nontrivial coupling between consciousness and the environment and that the nonlocality principle permits such coupling to transcend spatial and temporal barriers [76], 771 Apparent ‘‘time reversibility”"—that is, effects (¢.g., observi- tions) apparently preceding causes (¢.g., events)—though con- ceptually difficult at first glance, may be the easiest of appar- ent paranormal phenomena to assimilate within the current theoretical structure of our world view. In addition to the familiar retarded potential solutions /(¢ ~ r/c), it is well known that the equations of, for example, the electromagnetic field admit of advanced potential solutions /(t + 7/c)~solutions that would appear to imply a reversal of cause and effect. Such solutions are conventionally discarded as not corresponding to any observable physical event. One is cautioned, however, by statements such as that of Stratton in his basic text on electro- geameaitn thnerw 1001.350 ‘The reader has doubtless noted that the choice of the function Alt r/o) is highly abiteary, since the fled equation admits also a solution f(r r/c). This function lads obviously to an advanced time, impiying that the fleld can be observed before it has been generated by the source. ‘The famliar chain of cause and effect 4s thus revered and this alternative solution might be discarded a5 logically inconceivable. However, the application of “logical” causality principles offers very insecure footing in matters such as these and we shall do better to restrict the theory to reurded actin solely on the gzounds that ths solution alone conforms to the prevent physical data Such caution is justified by the example in the early 1920's of Dirac’s development of the mathematical description of the relativistic electron that also yielded a pair of solutions, one of which was discarded as inapplicable until the discovery of the positron in 1932 . In an analysis by O. Costa de Beauregard, an argument is put forward that advanced potentials constitute a convergence toward “finality” in 1 manner symmetrical to the divergence of retarded potentials as a result of causality [77]. Such phenomena are generally unobservable, however, on the gross macroscopic scale for statistical reasons. This is codified in the thermodynamic concept that for an isolated system entropy (disorder) on the average increases. It is just this requirement of isolation, however, that has been weakened by the observer problem in quantum theory, and 0. Costa de Beauregard argues that the finality principle is maximally operative in just those situations where the intrusion of consciousness as an ordering phenomenon results in a significant local reversal of entropy increase. At this point, further discussion of the subtleties of such considerations, though apropos, would take us far aficld, 80 we simply note that such advanced waves, if detected, could in certain cases constitute a carrier of information precognitive to the event. The above arguments are not intended to indicate that the precise nature of the information channel coupling remote events and human perception is understood. Rather, we in- tend to show only that modern theory is not without resources that can he brought to bear on the problems at hand, and we expect that these problems will, with further work, continue to yield to analysis and specification Furthermore, independent of the mechanisms that may be involved in remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon implies the existence of an information channel in the information-theoretic sense. Since such channels are amenable to analysis on the basis of communication theory techniques, as indicated earlier, channel characteristics such as bit rate can bbe determined independent of a well-efined physical channel model in the sense that thermodynamic concepts can be ap- plied to the analysis of systems independent of underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, as we have seen from the work of Ryal discussed in Section If, it is possible to use such a channel for error-free transmission of information if redundancy coding is used. (See also Appendix A.) Therefore, experimentation involving the collection of data under specified conditions per- mits headway to be made despite the formidable work that needs to be done to clarify the underlying bases of the phenomena. VI. Concusion For the past three years we have had a program in the Elec- tronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of SRI to investigate those facets of human perception that appear to fall outside the ‘tenes ‘of welbenieveinad eamentend ce tadinnedan somes PROCEEDINGS OF THE IFFE, MARCH 1976 bilities. The primary achievement of this program has been the elicitation of high-quality “remote viewing”-the ability of both experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers to view, by means of innate mental processes, remote geo- graphical or technical targets such as roads, buildings, and laboratory apparatus. Our accumulated data from over fifty ‘experiments with more than a half-dozen subjects indica the following. a) The phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance over a range of several kilometers. b) Faraday cage shielding does not appear to degrade the quality or accuracy of perception. c) Most of the correct information that subjects relate is of a monanalytic nature pertaining to shape, form, color, and material rather than to function or name. (This aspect suggests a hypothesis that information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding may be mediated pri- marily by the brain’s right hemisphere.) d) The principal difference between experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers is noe that the latter never exhibit the faculty, but rather that their results are simply less reliable. (This observa- tion suggests the hypothesis that remote viewing may be a latent and widely distributed, though repressed, perceptual ability.) Although the precise nature of the information channel cou- pling remote events and human perception is not yet under- stood, certain concepts in information theory, quantum theory, and neurophysiological research appear to bear directly fon the issue. As a result, the working assumption among re- searchers in the field is that the phenomenon of interest is consistent with modern scientific thought, and can therefore bbe expected to yield to the scientific method. Further, it is recognized that communication theory provides powerful techniques, such as the use of redundancy coding to improve signal-to-noise ratio, which can be employed to pursue special- purpose application of the remote-sensing channel independent of an understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We there- fore consider it important to continue data collection and to encourage others to do likewise; investigations such as thoxe reported here need replication and extension under as wide a variety of rigorously controlled conditions as possible, APPENDIX A SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT IN A PARANORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BY APPLICATION OF REDUNDANCY CopING Independent of the mechanisms that may be involved in remote sensing, observation of the phenomenon implies the existence of an information channel in the information- theoretic sense. As we have seen from the work of Ryzl dis cussed in Section II,* it is even possible to use such a (noisy) channel for error-free transmission of information if sul ficient redundancy coding is used [30], [31]. Following isa general procedure that we have used successfully for signal enhancement, We shall assume that the “message” consists of a stream of binary digits (0,1) of equal probability (e.., binary sort of sscen/white cards as in Ryz!'s case, English text encoded as in Table X and sent long distance by strobe light on/off, and so on). To combat channel noise, each binary digit to be sent through the channel requires the addition of redundancy bits (coding). Efficient coding requires a compromise between the desire to maximize reliability and the desire to minimize re- Set also the note added in proof on the successful work done by