Russell Targ, a physicist formerly with Stanford Research Institute (SRI), pioneered research into remote viewing—the ability to describe distant locations without using the physical senses. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Targ and his colleague Harold Puthoff received funding from the CIA and other government agencies to investigate this phenomenon through a classified program eventually known as Project Star Gate.

Democratizing Psychic Abilities: The Untapped Potential Within Us All

For most of recorded history, psychic abilities have been portrayed as rare gifts bestowed upon a chosen few—mystics, oracles, shamans, and those born with “the sight.” Popular culture has reinforced this narrative through characters with supernatural powers that set them apart from ordinary humanity. This perception has created an artificial divide: those with extraordinary abilities and those without.

The groundbreaking research conducted by physicist Russell Targ and his colleagues at Stanford Research Institute fundamentally challenges this limiting belief. Their work, funded by the CIA and various intelligence agencies throughout the 1970s and 1980s, reveals something far more revolutionary: psychic abilities appear to be inherent human capacities that can be systematically developed through proper training and practice.

This paradigm shift—from viewing psychic functioning as a rare gift to recognizing it as a natural human potential—represents one of the most significant yet underappreciated scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. Much like literacy, which was once considered the exclusive domain of elites but is now recognized as a birthright of all humans given proper education, remote viewing and other psychic abilities appear to be skills that can be cultivated by virtually anyone willing to learn the appropriate methods.

The implications of this democratization extend far beyond the realm of intelligence gathering or psychic entertainment. If consciousness itself possesses capabilities that transcend conventional understanding, then our conception of human potential requires radical expansion. The boundaries we’ve accepted between possible and impossible, between the ordinary and the extraordinary, may be far more permeable than we’ve been led to believe.

What follows is an exploration of how these natural human capacities can be understood, developed, and integrated into everyday life—not as supernatural phenomena, but as extensions of human perception that have been overlooked by a culture that privileges certain ways of knowing while marginalizing others. In democratizing psychic abilities, we reclaim an aspect of our humanity that has long been mystified, opening doors to human potential that have remained closed for generations.

The SRI Remote Viewing Program

The SRI program began in 1972 when the CIA provided funding to investigate whether individuals could access information about distant locations through extrasensory perception. This research continued for over two decades with support from various intelligence agencies. According to Targ’s book “The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities” (2012), the program demonstrated that ordinary people could be trained to accurately describe distant locations and events.

Key findings from the SRI research included:

• Remote viewing appeared to be a latent human ability that could be developed through training
• Distance and time did not seem to affect the accuracy of remote viewing descriptions
• Electromagnetic shielding did not block remote viewing abilities
• The phenomenon appeared to work regardless of the viewer’s belief system

The program produced several notable successes, including locating a downed Soviet bomber in Africa, describing Soviet weapons facilities, and finding a kidnapped American general in Italy. According to declassified documents released in 1995, the program achieved sufficient success to warrant continued funding over many years.

Remote Viewing Training Protocol

Based on Targ’s published works, including “Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing and Transformation of Consciousness” (2004), the training protocol for remote viewing typically includes:

1. Relaxation and quieting the mind: Beginning with deep breathing and meditation to reduce analytical thinking
2. Target assignment: The trainee is given a random identifier (like a number) that’s associated with a target location unknown to them
3. Impression collection: The viewer describes initial impressions, focusing on sensory data (colors, textures, sounds, temperatures)
4. Sketching: Drawing impressions before analytical mind can interpret them
5. Detailed exploration: Methodically exploring the target area while reporting all perceptions
6. Feedback: After recording impressions, the viewer is shown the actual target for comparison

The protocol emphasizes recording initial impressions without analysis or judgment, as analytical thinking tends to introduce errors. According to Targ, consistent practice with feedback helps develop accuracy over time.

Relationship to A Course in Miracles

Targ has discussed connections between remote viewing and spiritual teachings, particularly A Course in Miracles (ACIM). In his book “Do You See What I See: Memoirs of a Blind Biker” (2008), Targ describes how his daughter Elisabeth introduced him to ACIM before her death from cancer. He found parallels between the non-local awareness in remote viewing and ACIM’s teachings about consciousness existing beyond physical limitations.

ACIM teaches that perception is a choice and that we can choose to see beyond physical appearances to a deeper reality. Similarly, remote viewing suggests consciousness can transcend ordinary sensory limitations. Both emphasize the importance of quieting the analytical mind to access deeper awareness.

Utility of Basic Psychic Skills

Targ’s research suggests that developing psychic abilities has practical applications beyond intelligence gathering:

• Enhanced intuition: Improving decision-making by accessing information beyond rational analysis
• Heightened memory: Psychic training often improves overall memory function through enhanced attention and perception
• Pattern recognition: Viewers often develop improved ability to detect subtle patterns in complex data
• Problem-solving: Accessing information through alternative pathways can provide novel solutions

In “The End of Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times” (2006), co-authored with J.J. Hurtak, Targ suggests these skills can be practical tools for navigating everyday challenges.

Connection to Ancient Meditation Techniques and Indigenous Wisdom

The methods developed at SRI show striking parallels to ancient practices. In “Mind Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities” (2005), Targ and Puthoff note similarities between remote viewing protocols and meditation techniques from various traditions:

• Buddhist mindfulness: The emphasis on non-judgmental awareness mirrors remote viewing’s focus on perception without analysis
• Yogic practices: Ancient texts like Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras describe siddhis (psychic abilities) that emerge from deep meditation
• Indigenous shamanic practices: Many indigenous traditions include techniques for “traveling” in consciousness to gather information

Indigenous wisdom traditions worldwide contain accounts of individuals with special abilities to “see” distant events. Australian Aboriginal dreamtime practices, Native American vision quests, and Siberian shamanic journeying all describe methods for accessing information beyond ordinary perception.

Targ has suggested in lectures and interviews that modern remote viewing research may be rediscovering abilities that traditional cultures have recognized for millennia. The key difference is that SRI approached these abilities through scientific methodology rather than spiritual frameworks.

Star Gate: The Legacy and Current Status of America’s Psychic Espionage Program

The classified U.S. government program known as Star Gate represents one of the most extensive institutional investigations into psychic phenomena in modern history. While officially terminated in 1995, its legacy continues to influence research, spark controversy, and raise profound questions about human consciousness and national security.

Origins and Evolution

Star Gate wasn’t the program’s original name, but rather the final designation for a series of related projects that evolved over more than two decades. It began in 1972 as Project SCANATE (Scan by Coordinate) at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) under physicists Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, with initial funding from the CIA. As promising results emerged, the program expanded under various codenames including Grill Flame, Center Lane, Sun Streak, and finally Star Gate.

The program’s primary focus was remote viewing—the ability to psychically access information about distant or hidden targets. What began as basic research gradually developed into an operational intelligence collection method, with trained remote viewers providing information about Soviet military installations, terrorist activities, hostage situations, and other targets of intelligence interest.

Declassification and Controversy

In 1995, the CIA commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Based on this assessment, which produced mixed conclusions, the program was officially terminated and partially declassified. Approximately 89,000 pages of documents were eventually released to the public through the Freedom of Information Act.

The AIR evaluation itself became controversial. While acknowledging some statistically significant results, it questioned the operational utility of the information obtained. Several former program participants, including physicist Edwin May who directed the research for its final decade, criticized the review as flawed and politically motivated.

Where Is It Now?

The official government-sponsored Star Gate program no longer exists as an operational entity. However, its legacy continues in several forms:

1. Private sector research: Some former Star Gate personnel continued their work through private institutions. The Laboratories for Fundamental Research, founded by Edwin May, conducted rigorous scientific studies of remote viewing phenomena for years after the government program ended. Similarly, the Farsight Institute, founded by former Star Gate remote viewer Courtney Brown, continues to conduct remote viewing projects.
2. Training programs: Several former Star Gate remote viewers, including Joseph McMoneagle, Paul H. Smith, and Lyn Buchanan, developed training programs to teach remote viewing methods to civilians. These programs follow protocols similar to those developed during the government program, making previously classified methodologies available to the general public.
3. Academic research: Though not directly connected to Star Gate, academic investigations into related phenomena continue at institutions like the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia and the Windbridge Research Center, which study various aspects of consciousness including potential non-local perceptual abilities.
4. Classified continuation rumors: Persistent rumors suggest that elements of the program may have continued under deeper classification in other government agencies or special access programs. In his 2017 book “Phenomena,” journalist Annie Jacobsen reported that some aspects of psychic research continued in classified settings. However, no definitive evidence of ongoing government-sponsored operational remote viewing has emerged.
5. International developments: While the U.S. officially terminated its program, there are indications that other nations, particularly Russia and China, have maintained interest in similar research. A 2016 report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences described experiments in “extraordinary human body science” that bear similarities to remote viewing research.

The Current Landscape

The most visible legacy of Star Gate today is in the civilian remote viewing community, which has established its own terminology, training standards, and applications. Annual conferences like the International Remote Viewing Association (IRVA) meetings bring together former government remote viewers, researchers, and practitioners to discuss developments in the field.

The declassified Star Gate documents themselves represent an invaluable resource for researchers, providing detailed protocols, experimental results, and operational reports that continue to inform civilian research. These documents are accessible through the CIA’s Reading Room website and various archives.

While the intelligence applications that drove the original program have largely moved into the private sector, the fundamental questions raised by Star Gate remain unresolved in mainstream science. The demonstrated abilities of remote viewers continue to challenge conventional understanding of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality itself.

As Russell Targ noted in a 2018 interview, “The end of the government program wasn’t the end of the phenomena. The abilities that remote viewing demonstrates don’t belong to any government agency—they’re inherent in human consciousness. The real frontier now is understanding what these abilities tell us about who we are and the nature of consciousness itself.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Deeper Understanding from Remote Viewing Research

The remote viewing research conducted by Russell Targ and his colleagues at Stanford Research Institute yielded insights that extend far beyond psychic phenomena themselves, challenging fundamental assumptions about consciousness and reality.

Perhaps the most profound philosophical implication is the apparent non-local nature of consciousness. The success of remote viewing experiments suggests that awareness is not confined to the brain or limited by physical distance and time. This directly challenges the materialist paradigm that has dominated Western science for centuries, which assumes consciousness is merely an epiphenomenon of brain activity. Instead, the research points toward a model where consciousness may be primary rather than secondary to physical reality.

This understanding aligns with quantum physicist David Bohm’s concept of the “implicate order,” which proposes that our visible universe (the “explicate order”) emerges from a deeper, interconnected reality. Remote viewing abilities suggest that human consciousness can directly access this implicate order under certain conditions. In his later writings, Targ proposed that remote viewing demonstrates that consciousness exists in what he called the “nonlocal space-time matrix” – a dimension of reality not limited by physical constraints.

Another significant insight concerns the relationship between analytical thinking and direct perception. The research consistently showed that remote viewing accuracy diminishes when viewers attempt to analyze or interpret their perceptions. This suggests that our analytical minds, while valuable for many tasks, can actually obstruct certain forms of knowing. The most successful remote viewers learned to temporarily suspend judgment and analysis, allowing information to flow without interference – a state remarkably similar to what meditation traditions describe as “beginner’s mind” or “pure awareness.”

The research also revealed something unexpected about the nature of time. Remote viewers could often access information about future events with the same accuracy as present locations, suggesting that consciousness may not be bound by linear time as we typically experience it. This aligned with physicist John Wheeler’s “delayed choice” experiments in quantum mechanics, which suggest that the present can influence the past. Together, these findings point to a more fluid and participatory relationship between consciousness and temporal reality than previously understood.

On a practical level, the research demonstrated that intuitive abilities are not supernatural gifts possessed by a special few but natural human capacities that can be systematically developed through training. This democratization of psychic functioning represented a significant shift from earlier approaches that focused on testing people with apparent natural talents. It suggested that human potential is far greater than commonly recognized, with implications for education, creativity, and problem-solving across all domains.

Perhaps most importantly, the research bridged ancient wisdom with modern science. What indigenous traditions had maintained for millennia – that consciousness can transcend physical limitations – was now being verified through controlled scientific experiments. This convergence suggested that the separation between science and spirituality might be artificial, reflecting cultural biases rather than fundamental incompatibility.

As Targ himself concluded in “The Reality of ESP”: “The evidence suggests we are all connected through consciousness in ways that transcend the physical barriers we perceive. The implications of this understanding for human potential and our relationship to each other and the cosmos are profound. We are not isolated beings in an indifferent universe, but interconnected aspects of a greater whole.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Sources

Targ, R. (2012). The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities. Quest Books.

Targ, R. (2004). Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing and Transformation of Consciousness. New World Library.

Targ, R. (2008). Do You See What I See: Memoirs of a Blind Biker. Hampton Roads Publishing.

Targ, R., & Hurtak, J.J. (2006). The End of Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times. Hampton Roads Publishing.

Targ, R., & Puthoff, H. (2005). Mind Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities. Hampton Roads Publishing.

Puthoff, H. (1996). CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing Program at Stanford Research Institute. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10(1), 63-76.

May, E.C., Rubel, V., & Auerbach, L. (2014). ESP Wars: East and West: An Account of the Military Use of Psychic Espionage As Narrated by the Key Russian and American Players. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Schwartz, S.A. (2007). Opening to the Infinite: The Art and Science of Nonlocal Awareness. Nemoseen Media.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​