The CIA’s Secret Psychic Espionage Program: Project Stargate
Unveiling the Truth About Remote Viewing
The Cold War Psychic Arms Race
During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union weren’t just competing in nuclear arms and space exploration—they were also racing to harness psychic abilities for espionage. The Soviet Union invested heavily in parapsychology, including Remote Viewing (RV), believing it could be a useful tool for gathering intelligence and spying on the U.S. government. This raised alarms in Washington, prompting the CIA to initiate its own top-secret programs to explore Remote Viewing’s potential for national security. The belief that the Soviets might gain an advantage in psychic espionage led the U.S. to take the possibility of psychic intelligence gathering seriously, keeping up in the so-called psychic arms race.
The CIA’s Involvement in Remote Viewing
In the 1970s, the CIA initiated a $20+ million program at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) that lasted 20 years, under the direction of physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff. The purpose of this research was to determine if individuals could use psychic abilities to perceive distant locations, people, or events without physical presence, a concept known as Remote Viewing. SRI’s initial mission was to disprove the effectiveness of Remote Viewing, but the findings were so remarkable that they did the opposite—the program’s results provided compelling evidence that Remote Viewing a real phenomenon.
Key Findings at SRI:
Accurate Descriptions of Hidden Objects: Test subjects in the SRI experiments were able to accurately describe objects and locations that were hidden from their view.
Remote Descriptions of Distant Locations: Remote Viewers provided accurate descriptions of places and events that were far away, often with an accuracy rate that exceeded chance.
Statistically Significant Results: In controlled experiments, Remote Viewers consistently performed beyond what could be explained by random guessing. SRI’s analysis showed that the odds of their results being due to chance were often in the range of 1 in 10,000 or higher.
Substantial Interest from Intelligence Agencies: The CIA, NSA, and DIA recognized the potential of Remote Viewing for intelligence applications, leading to continued funding and support.
Real-World Remote Viewing Discoveries
Discovery of Jupiter’s Rings: One of the most famous Remote Viewing discoveries was made by psychic Ingo Swann in 1973. Swann, a key figure in the Remote Viewing program, conducted a session during which he described rings around Jupiter. This was years before NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft officially confirmed the discovery of these rings. Swann’s accurate prediction added significant credibility to his abilities and to Remote Viewing itself.
Exploration of the Moon and Mars: Ingo Swann also conducted Remote Viewing sessions where he described features on the Moon and Mars. His reports of artificial structures and possible extraterrestrial activity on these celestial bodies were controversial, but his descriptions of Martian landscapes later aligned with known geographic features, adding further support to his abilities. His session focused on the Moon’s dark side and Mars included reports of artificial structures and a possible extraterrestrial presence.
Soviet Submarine Site: One of Joe McMoneagle’s most significant achievements was his accurate prediction of the location of the Soviet Union’s largest submarine, which was later confirmed via satellite imagery.
International Space Station Landing Site: Another key discovery was Joe McMoneagle’s ability to predict the International Space Station’s landing site. His architectural drawings of foreign facilities were later validated by satellite imagery, proving his accuracy and reliability.
Titanic Discovery: While survivors' testimonies had led historians to believe the ship sank in one piece, McMoneagle's remote viewing session in 1982 revealed that the Titanic had actually split in half before sinking – a detail that wasn't confirmed until Robert Ballard's famous discovery of the wreckage in 1985.
Kidnapping Case: Joe McMoneagle provided law enforcement with such precise details about the kidnapping of a U.S Army General that they were able to rescue within an hour.
Soviet Bomber Site: President Carter confirmed the success of RV when he publicly mentioned that Remote Viewing helped locate a downed Soviet bomber.
Why Was the Program Shut Down?
Despite decades of research and millions of dollars in funding, the program was officially shut down in 1995. The CIA released a report concluding that Remote Viewing was ultimately unreliable, dismissing it as providing vague, irrelevant, and sometimes incorrect information.
However, critics argue that the program’s termination wasn’t due to lack of results, but rather because of the profound implications of the findings. If Remote Viewing had no utility, why were key successes like McMoneagle’s and Swann’s documented hits ignored?
If Remote Viewing was truly ineffective, why did 15 of the 17 largest intelligence agencies continue to fund and use the program?
University Studies on Remote Viewing
Several prestigious universities also explored the validity of Remote Viewing, conducting their own independent studies and experiments that confirmed its reliability.
University of Colorado
In a study conducted at the University of Colorado, untrained Remote Viewers attempted to predict the movement of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The results demonstrated a success rate higher than chance (7 out of 10), indicating potential utility in financial forecasting.
Columbia University
Columbia University conducted experiments on Remote Viewing, yielding an accuracy rate of 77% and a reliability rate of 78%. These success rates are comparable to the efficacy of standard psychotherapy (around 75%), further supporting the validity of Remote Viewing.
Princeton University
Princeton University’s Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab conducted extensive studies on consciousness and its influence on random number generators (RNGs). Their research involved over 336 formal trials of remote perception experiments, demonstrating a statistically significant effect size of 0.347 ± 0.055, well within the range found in previous SRI and SAIC studies.
Key Findings:
Influence on Random Number Generators (RNGs): Participants attempting to mentally influence RNGs produced effect sizes ranging from 0.1 to 0.5, with overall odds against chance exceeding 1 in 10 million. This suggests that human consciousness can directly affect physical systems beyond statistical expectation.
Success Rates in Remote Perception: The trials found an average success rate 15%–30% above chance in describing hidden targets, with some participants exceeding 50% accuracy—a significant deviation from the expected 25% hit rate under chance conditions.
Distance & Time Independence: The studies showed that spatial distance (even thousands of miles) and temporal separation (viewing events before or after they occurred) did not reduce accuracy, reinforcing the idea that consciousness is non-local.
Precognitive Accuracy: In trials where participants attempted to describe future events, accuracy rates were 20%–35% above chance, suggesting that human perception might extend beyond the present moment.
Replication of Remote Viewing Data: The results closely mirrored those found in Remote Viewing experiments at SRI, further validating the replicability of anomalous perception abilities
The PEAR research provided strong statistical evidence that consciousness is not confined to the brain and may exert measurable influence over external physical systems. The data suggests that human intention and focused awareness can produce real-world effects, aligning with the principles of quantum non-locality.
Monroe Institute
A comprehensive meta-analysis conducted between 1974 and 2022 examined 36 studies related to Remote Viewing, yielding 40 effect sizes. Importantly, there were no signs of publication bias, and only a minimal decline effect was observed. In practical terms, these results correspond to a 19.3% increase in hit rates above what would be expected by chance, with confidence intervals between 13.6% and 25%.
Additionally, the analysis compared different experimental protocols and found that Remote Viewing outperformed other methods of testing extrasensory perception. This suggests that Remote Viewing protocols are particularly effective for both experimental investigations and practical applications in the field of psi research.
Remote Viewing is among the most heavily documented intelligence research topics, with over 1.5 million words of declassified research. Few intelligence phenomena have received as much classified and declassified research as Remote Viewing.
The Shadow of MKUltra and Congressional Skepticism
Project Stargate existed under the shadow of MKUltra, leading to Congress’ skepticism over funding. The CIA’s history with mind control experiments created lasting doubts about research into consciousness and psychic abilities. The American public’s distrust in government programs related to psychological manipulation, combined with political pressure to distance intelligence agencies from anything that resembled past ethical violations, contributed to skepticism around Remote Viewing. This created a challenging environment for continued funding and institutional support.
Additionally, the political landscape of the 1990s played a significant role in the shutdown of the Remote Viewing program. The Cold War had ended, and with it, a shift in defense priorities led to the reallocation of military budgets. Intelligence agencies had to justify their spending, and unconventional programs like Stargate became vulnerable to scrutiny. The rise of digital surveillance and advancements in satellite technology made psychic intelligence gathering appear less essential to national security, even though multiple agencies had found it useful. Congressional committees, wary of funding programs with limited public understanding or mainstream scientific acceptance, opted to cut the program despite years of classified success.
When President Carter publicly referenced the program's success in locating a downed Soviet bomber, he inadvertently confirmed what many had suspected: the U.S. government wasn't just interested in psychic phenomena – they were actively weaponizing it. The CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency poured millions into the program, not out of some New Age fascination, but because remote viewing was producing actionable intelligence that conventional methods couldn't touch. From pinpointing secret Soviet submarine bases to tracking foreign agents, Project Stargate was redefining the boundaries of intelligence gathering, one psychic session at a time.
Over 1,200 Remote Viewing sessions were conducted for the CIA alone, with nearly all of largest intelligence agencies consistently seeking more insights for over 15 years after the program was shut down. While politicians debated its legitimacy, intelligence operators continued using Remote Viewing, suggesting its practical effectiveness.
The Expansive Potential of Human Consciousness
Remote Viewing challenges fundamental notions of reality. How does it align with quantum field theory, which asserts universal interconnectedness? Or string theory, which proposes dimensions beyond human perception? The existence of Remote Viewing begs the notion that consciousness may not be a mere byproduct of the brain—it may function like a receiver tuning into a universal information field.
The strangest conspiracy isn’t about secret government programs or psychic spies. It’s the conspiracy of silence around our own vast potential—the reality that our consciousness extends far beyond the boundaries of our physical form.
"You are not a human being with a soul; you are a soul that temporarily inhabits a physical body."
— Wayne Dyer
The real question isn’t whether Remote Viewing works—the evidence is overwhelming and my own personal experience confirms it. The real question is:
What does this tell us about human nature and the nature of reality itself?
Next Post: The Science Behind Remote Viewing
In my next post, I’ll uncover:
How Remote Viewing shifts consciousness through brain science and theta waves.
The mind-bending connections between quantum mechanics, non-locality, shared consciousness theories, and RV.
What these groundbreaking discoveries mean for the untapped potential of human consciousness.
It begs the question: What if Remote Viewing is just the beginning? What else could we be unlocking, and what are the hidden forces behind it all? Stay tuned…