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Remote Viewing

© Donna L. Quesinberry

Remote Viewing (RV) is a form of clairvoyance where the clairvoyant uses their telepathic abilities to view targets that are composed of objects, places, or persons that are hidden from the viewer's physical view; also the targets are separated by distance and time (meaning they are either in the future or in the past). RV can be distinguished from other forms of psychic activities in that RV follows experimental procedures and/or protocols.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified and released their RV program documents in July of 1995. The documents conveyed the facts behind their sponsorship of a program managed by Stanford Research Institute (SRI) that was designed to determine whether RV had intelligence collection utility. Their disclosure to the public consisted of a twenty year involvement of the intelligence community in the investigation of so-called parapsychological or PSI phenomena.

Supporters of the RV technique refer to it as scientific, but minorities of scientists accept this phenomenon. Critics claim experiments rely too greatly on subjective interpretations of results and claim experiments lack repeated confirmation under scrupulously controlled scientific conditions.

• Bob Monroe - Much of what is known about RV today results from the discoveries and early research of Monroe who learned how to induce his own "out of body" experiences. This was picked up by SRI with research beginning about 1972.
• Lyn Buchanan - Leonard "Lyn" Buchanan was assigned for over eight years to the U.S. Army intelligence unit that utilized Controlled RV as a data collection tool. He functioned as an RVer, a CRV Instructor, and a Viewer profile (database) manager, as well as miscellaneous other duties many members performed (for example, monitoring).
• Ingo Swann- Artist and alleged remote viewer, also co-developer with Puthoff and company of the original RV protocol(s).

Dr. Hal Puthoff, SRI researcher, put forth a series of proposals to study quantum mechanics in life processes. His paper outlined the intended research, Toward a Quantum Theory of Life Process, and was not widely accepted, but it was circulated to a number of people involved in similar research, including Clive Backster who was using polygraphs to study the electrical processes in plants. Clive's studies involved the use of the polygraph to measure plant reactivity to foreign stimulus and direct stimulus. It was about this time that bio-feedback was initiated and that biorhythming was found to be an application that plantlife also engaged in.

A local artist, Ingo Swann, read Clive's paper when visiting his laboratory and wrote him to suggest that he should study parapsychological effects on plants. He described a number of studies he had been involved with at the City College of New York. Interested, Puthoff invited Swann to SRI in 1972. Prior to their meeting Puthoff set up test equipment below the room where Swann demonstrated his talents, all recorded anomalies. As a result of their meeting, Puthoff was convinced parapsychological effects were worth additional study and published a short report on their meetings.

The copyright of the article Remote Viewing in New Age is owned by Donna L. Quesinberry. Permission to republish Remote Viewing in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.