Remote Viewing and Human Consciousness
The concept of remote viewing (RV) represents a profound challenge to conventional scientific understanding of perception and consciousness. Broadly defined, remote viewing is the purported ability to psychically acquire information about events, sites, or data from a great distance, without relying on any known sensory means. This practice involves seeking impressions about a distant or unseen subject, purportedly sensing with the mind. The phenomenon is often associated with Extrasensory Perception (ESP), a term coined by pioneering parapsychology researcher J.B. Rhine in 1934, and frequently overlaps with concepts such as clairvoyance and telepathy. A particularly intriguing claim within remote viewing is the capacity to access information not only across spatial distances but also across time, encompassing precognition (sensing future events) and retrocognition (accessing past events, sometimes referred to as “Akashic records” in ancient Indian texts). The diverse definitions of RV, ranging from “psychic seeing” to “acquiring information without known sensory means,” immediately highlight its inherently anomalous nature relative to conventional scientific understanding. The inclusion of temporal dimensions further challenges fundamental concepts of causality and spacetime. This broad scope positions RV as a phenomenon that, if validated, would necessitate a radical re-evaluation of the boundaries of human perception and the very fabric of reality, making it a compelling subject for interdisciplinary study.
The U.S. government's serious engagement with remote viewing techniques for military purposes has notable origins in the Cold War era. This interest was significantly spurred by the 1970 book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, which reported extensive Soviet investment in “psychotronic” research. In response to these perceived Soviet advancements, the CIA, Army, and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) initiated highly classified projects, collectively known as Project Star Gate, which operated between 1972 and 1995. The primary motivation behind this endeavour was pragmatic: to deploy a “potent new weapon” or a “hell of a cheap radar system” against the Soviet Union. The Cold War context is critical because it illustrates how perceived national security imperatives can drive significant investment in highly speculative scientific domains, even those widely dismissed by mainstream academia. The U.S. government's willingness to spend millions on “mind-reading” was not primarily driven by scientific curiosity but by a perceived “intelligence gap” and the desire for a strategic advantage. This demonstrates that the pursuit of anomalous phenomena can be influenced by geopolitical anxieties and a pragmatic, cost-benefit analysis, rather than solely by empirical validation.
The core claims of remote viewing—that human consciousness can observe and interact with physically hidden objects or systems, and access information across vast distances and even time —directly challenge the prevailing scientific paradigm that largely confines consciousness to the physical brain and its localized neural activity. If these phenomena are veridical, they fundamentally contradict the dominant materialist or physicalist views of consciousness, which typically posit consciousness as an emergent property solely of the brain. The ability to acquire information non-locally implies that consciousness might possess properties or operate through mechanisms that extend beyond the confines of the cranium, suggesting it could be a more fundamental or interconnected aspect of reality. This sets up the central tension of this report: how to reconcile the empirical claims of RV with established scientific and philosophical models of consciousness.
In this writing we will systematically explore the historical development, methodologies, scientific controversies, theoretical implications for consciousness, and ethical considerations surrounding remote viewing, culminating in a discussion of current research and future directions.
Historical Trajectory of Remote Viewing Research
Early Explorations and the Coining of “Remote Viewing”
The notion of perceiving distant or hidden information is not a modern invention; historical records indicate that ancient civilizations, particularly in Indian Yogic lore and Chinese scriptures, were familiar with clairvoyant skills, which were reportedly applied for military intelligence purposes. This historical context suggests a long-standing human fascination with and belief in extraordinary perceptual abilities.
The systematic scientific investigation into phenomena akin to remote viewing, such as telepathy and extrasensory perception (ESP), began in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. A pivotal figure in this early research was J.B. Rhine, who conducted pioneering work at Duke University. Rhine's methodology involved controlled experiments, famously utilizing “Zener Cards” (a set of five cards with distinct symbols like a square, circle, star, plus sign, and wavy pattern) to test for telepathic or clairvoyant abilities. In these tests, a “transmitting agent” would focus on a randomly selected card in one room, while a “receiver” or “viewer” in an adjacent room attempted to guess the card. The success rate in these “card guessing” tests was meticulously recorded.
The specific term “remote viewing” was introduced later, reportedly coined by New York artist Ingo Swann in December 1971 during an experiment at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City. This term was subsequently popularized by physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff in the context of their parapsychological research at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). The explicit intention behind coining “remote viewing” was to distinguish it from the broader, more general concept of clairvoyance. The evolution of terminology from “telesthesia” and “travelling clairvoyance” to “ESP” and then “remote viewing” reflects a deliberate effort to shift the study of anomalous perception from its historical roots in occultism and spiritualism towards a more formalized, albeit controversial, scientific domain. This evolution in nomenclature indicates an attempt to define, categorize, and investigate these phenomena with greater precision, even as they continued to challenge conventional scientific paradigms.
Project Star Gate (1972-1995)
Project Star Gate, a highly classified program, was initiated in 1972 by the CIA, Army, and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). This undertaking was a direct response to U.S. intelligence reports that suggested the Soviet Union was extensively funding “psychotronic” research for espionage purposes, with annual expenditures estimated at 60 million roubles. The project aimed to harness psychic phenomena, including remote viewing, telepathy, and clairvoyance, to gain an intelligence advantage during the tense period of the Cold War. Proponents of the program envisioned it as a “hell of a cheap radar system”.
The operational unit for Project Star Gate was relatively small, comprising about 15 to 20 individuals, and was run out of modest facilities, described as “an old, leaky wooden barracks”. Despite its unconventional nature and the skepticism it faced, funding for the remote viewing program continued for nearly two decades, with Congress approving funds for its operations. The substantial investment in Project Star Gate was primarily driven by a perceived “intelligence gap” and the fear of falling behind Soviet psychic research. This highlights how national security concerns can compel governments to explore highly speculative and scientifically unproven domains. The pragmatic goal of a “cheap radar system” underscores a willingness to consider any potential advantage, regardless of its scientific orthodoxy, in a high-stakes geopolitical environment.
Key Figures and Their Contributions
Several individuals played pivotal roles in the history of remote viewing research, particularly within the context of Project Star Gate:
Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ: These physicists at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) were instrumental in initiating formal remote viewing research in 1972. They claimed that their experiments often exceeded the 65% accuracy rate required by clients. Their work focused on phenomena such as remote viewing and psychokinesis.
Ingo Swann: A New York artist, Swann was a key participant in early SRI experiments and is widely credited with coining the term “remote viewing”. His contributions include a notable instance in April 1973 where he described a “fat ring” around Jupiter, a year before NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft confirmed its existence. Swann also reportedly described a top-secret NSA microwave listening post in West Virginia using only geographic coordinates.
Uri Geller: The internationally renowned psychic Uri Geller worked with SRI in the early 1970s. His apparent gifts for remote viewing and psychokinesis, particularly metal bending, were the primary focus of a 1974 Nature article authored by Puthoff and Targ. However, the psychologist Ray Hyman later concluded that Geller was a “complete fraud,” which subsequently led to the termination of Geller's government contract with SRI.
Joseph McMoneagle: An Army veteran designated “Remote Viewer 001,” McMoneagle was a prominent figure in Project Star Gate. He reportedly participated in approximately 450 missions between 1978 and 1984. His alleged successes include assisting the Army in locating hostages in Iran and pinpointing a shortwave radio concealed in the pocket calculator of a suspected KGB agent captured in South Africa. McMoneagle also claims to have remote-viewed Mars and ancient sites.
Pat Price: Another significant remote viewer, Price reportedly provided accurate descriptions of Rinconada Park, including details about water tanks that had been at the site 75 years prior, and a giant steel sphere under construction at a Soviet weapons factory, details later corroborated by satellite imagery. Price also identified Donald Defreeze as the ringleader of the Symbionese Liberation Army during the Patty Hearst kidnapping investigation.
The prominence of “psi-gifted” individuals like Swann, Geller, and McMoneagle was crucial for the early momentum and public fascination with RV. Their dramatic “hits” provided compelling anecdotal evidence that fuelled continued funding. However, the controversies surrounding figures like Geller and the later critiques of “sensory leakage” highlight the inherent challenges in scientifically validating phenomena heavily reliant on specific individuals, rather than generalizable and consistently reproducible effects. This underscores the tension between individual talent and scientific rigour.
Declassification and Public Awareness
The U.S. government's involvement in remote viewing became publicly known through the partial declassification of information about Project Star Gate in July 1995, with additional records released in 2017. This declassification brought the previously clandestine program into mainstream public awareness.
Following the declassification, the CIA commissioned a report by the independent American Institutes for Research (AIR) to evaluate the program's effectiveness. The AIR report, issued in 1995, concluded that remote viewing had not been proven to work by a psychic mechanism and, crucially, had not been used operationally to yield actionable intelligence. The report noted that while some trials showed “something beyond odd statistical hiccups,” the information provided was generally “vague and ambiguous,” making it difficult for intelligence purposes. This assessment ultimately led to the program's termination in 1995. The declassification of Project Star Gate documents generated significant public interest, positioning RV as a real, albeit secret, government endeavour. However, the simultaneous official conclusion by the CIA/AIR that the program was a “failure” due to vague and ambiguous data creates a stark paradox. This divergence highlights the challenge of reconciling compelling anecdotal narratives and public intrigue with the stringent requirements of scientific validation and practical intelligence utility.
Contrast with the Modern “Stargate Project” (AI Focus)
Interestingly, the name “Stargate” has recently resurfaced, albeit in an entirely different context. In 2025, a new “Stargate Project” was announced, focusing on building massive Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This modern initiative aims to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and involves a substantial investment, potentially reaching $500 billion by 2029. The re-appropriation of the “Stargate” moniker for a monumental AI initiative is highly symbolic. It suggests a recurring pattern in national strategic thinking: a persistent drive to invest heavily in “frontier” or “holy grail” technologies that promise a significant competitive edge, regardless of past failures or current scientific consensus. The shift from psychic phenomena to AI reflects the evolving landscape of perceived technological breakthroughs, yet the underlying ambition to transcend current limits remains consistent. This also subtly critiques the allocation of vast public resources to highly speculative ventures, drawing a parallel between the original project's dubious returns and the potential risks of the new one. The new project, unlike its paranormal predecessor, is firmly rooted in the digital age, aiming to revolutionize data centres and electricity grids to stamp American dominance in the global AI race.
Methodologies and Protocols of Remote Viewing
“Free-Response” Approach, Nonanalytic Ability, Independence from Distance and Time
Remote viewing primarily utilizes a “free-response” approach, where participants are encouraged to describe their mental images and impressions without being confined to a limited set of choices. This methodology contrasts sharply with older, “forced-choice” paradigms, such as ESP card-guessing, which were found to suffer from significant signal-to-noise problems due to interference from memory.
A fundamental characteristic of RV is its classification as a “nonanalytic ability”. Practitioners and researchers have observed that describing a distant scene or location is reportedly easier than engaging in analytical tasks, such as guessing numbers. This is attributed to the idea that conscious naming or intellectual grasping can interfere with the “psi signal.” Ingo Swann, a prominent remote viewer, termed this interference “analytical overlay (AOL)”. A notable paradox experienced by practitioners is that the fainter or less confident the perception, the more likely it is to be accurate, while overconfidence often correlates with inaccuracy. The emphasis on RV as a “nonanalytic ability” and the need to avoid “analytical overlay” suggests that psi information is processed by the mind in a fundamentally different way than conventional sensory data. The idea that conscious analysis can be “noise” implies that the raw psi signal might be pre-cognitive or non-conceptual, requiring a specific mental state to access without distortion. This challenges traditional cognitive models that prioritize conscious, analytical processing, suggesting a deeper, more intuitive layer of perception.
A key claim derived from early SRI experiments was that the accuracy and reliability of remote viewing were independent of distance, extending up to 10,000 km, and independent of time, reaching up to several days into the future. This assertion suggests that psi ability may violate ordinary ideas of causality, as future events could potentially act as a “cause” or “trigger” for experiences occurring at an earlier time.
Detailed Examination of Key Protocols
Over the decades, various structured protocols have been developed to standardize and enhance remote viewing practice.
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Protocols (1972 onwards)
The foundational remote viewing research began at SRI, establishing many of the core experimental designs.
Core Design: Early SRI experiments typically involved a “percipient” attempting to describe a “target” that was being observed by a “sender” from a remote location. As the research evolved, the presence of a “transmitting agent” at the target site was sometimes eliminated, with viewers instead provided only with geographic coordinates of the target.
Outbound Experimenter Protocol: A common and influential method was the “outbound experimenter protocol.” In this setup, an “outbound person” (an experimenter) would travel to a randomly selected site, serving as a “beacon.” The remote viewer, meanwhile, remained in a sequestered room, often electronically shielded, accompanied by an interviewer. Importantly, experiments indicated that psi performance did not degrade in electronically shielded rooms, suggesting the phenomenon was not dependent on known electromagnetic signals.
Role of the Interviewer/Monitor: The interviewer's role was critical in guiding the viewer's session. To maintain experimental integrity, the interviewer remained “blind” to the actual target, preventing any overt or subliminal cueing of the viewer. Interviewers encouraged viewers to report “raw perception rather than analysis,” as conscious interpretation could distort the incoming information. Sketching impressions was also highly encouraged, as drawings were considered vital for concretizing visual imagery. A fundamental rule for interviewers was, “never lie to your subjects”.
Initial Sketching (“Glyphs”): Ingo Swann, a key psychic in the SRI program, believed in the “wisdom of the hand” and advocated for viewers to begin a session by relaxing their hand and making small, often formless sketches, which he called “glyphs.” He felt these initial drawings were the “first and truest link” with the image being processed by the psychic mind.
Target Selection: Research at SRI found that natural scenes were significantly more effective as targets for remote viewing than abstract symbols. Target pools were carefully designed to minimize similarities between potential targets, thereby preventing confusion during the judging process.
Judging Protocol: The accuracy of remote viewing sessions was typically assessed using a double-blind, rank-order matching protocol. An independent judge, who had no knowledge of the actual target, would compare the viewer's descriptions (both drawings and verbal reports) with the real target and a set of non-target “decoys.” Statistical methods were then used to calculate the odds of success against chance, determining the significance of the results.
Session Frequency: To prevent fatigue or potential contamination of results, typically no more than one remote viewing session was conducted with an individual viewer per day.
Claimed Successes: SRI research produced several notable alleged successes. Ingo Swann, for instance, accurately described Palo Alto City Hall, including a quadrangle, a fountain with no water, and interlocking circles on the pavement, from a significant distance. He also described an NSA microwave listening post in West Virginia using only geographic coordinates, and Pat Price later reportedly “penetrated” this site to read top-secret code words. Swann's precognitive description of a “fat ring” around Jupiter in April 1973, before its confirmation by Pioneer 11, is frequently cited. Pat Price is also credited with accurately describing the dimensions of pools at Rinconada Park and even mentioning water tanks that had been at the site 75 years prior, as well as a giant steel sphere under construction at a Soviet weapons factory, details later corroborated by satellite images. Furthermore, SRI viewers reportedly located a downed Soviet Tu-22 Backfire bomber in northern Africa, which U.S. satellite photography had failed to find.
Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV)
Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) represents a highly structured and formalized protocol that evolved from the initial SRI efforts in the 1970s, specifically developed and utilized by the military. Its objective is to enable individuals to obtain “psychoenergetic perceptions” or “specific and accurate non-local information” from the time/space matrix using the mind.
Process: CRV focuses on a systematic method for bringing descriptive information from the subconscious mind to the conscious mind, and then objectifying it through detailed reporting. The methodology emphasizes “remaining in structure” by following a series of defined phases, typically Phases I through IV.
Training: Training in CRV involves a rigorous process aimed at refining sensory impressions, developing a precise communication language with the unconscious mind (which is believed to access non-local information), and building a specialized vocabulary to express target impressions. Impressions are categorized, focusing on physical aspects such as temperature, colour, and texture, as well as emotional or purposeful aspects like historical significance, social context, motives, or plans. Mastering CRV is a demanding endeavour that can require years of dedicated practice, akin to training in martial arts.
Ingo Swann's Contribution: Ingo Swann's CRV system was particularly focused on the critical task of separating “signal from noise” during a viewing session. This was achieved by having the viewer record different types of information (e.g., raw perceptions versus analytical interpretations) in distinct areas of the paper, allowing for later differentiation. This approach aimed to minimize “analytical overlay” and capture the purest form of the psi signal.
Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
Extended Remote Viewing (ERV) is a protocol specifically developed by Joseph McMoneagle for solo practitioners. Its design aims to facilitate the gathering of information about remote targets, including future events, while minimizing the risk of “front-loading” (inadvertently providing information about the target to the percipient).
Techniques: McMoneagle's ERV process involves preparing targets by writing the intended date and a specific targeting phrase on 3×5 inch cards. These cards are then sealed within envelopes to ensure the viewer has no prior knowledge of the target content. Examples of targeting phrases might include “Describe the status of Social Security years 2050–2060” or “Describe primary transportation between years 2025–2050”. A core assumption in McMoneagle's practice is that the information received is pertinent to the United States, unless the target explicitly indicates otherwise.
Response Style: ERV employs an open-ended response style, where the viewer records all images, feelings, and associations that come to mind during the session.
Information Management: After a session, if the remotely viewed information is deemed complete and coherent, it is inputted into a computer for future reference, and the physical target card is destroyed. If the information is incomplete, unclear, or represents a “complete miss,” the card is notated and “recycled” into a fresh envelope for subsequent attempts. This recycling mechanism ensures a continually large pool of targets, preventing prior knowledge of selected targets.
State of Mind: The ERV process typically begins with the remote viewer entering a state of focused relaxation or meditation. This can be achieved through various techniques such as progressive relaxation, focused breathing, or entrainment with a light/sound rhythm. The theoretical basis suggests that during this period, brainwave activity shifts from an alert beta state to alpha and then into theta states. This altered state of consciousness is believed to facilitate a total dissociation from immediate surroundings and a closer affiliation with the target.
Drawbacks: A significant drawback of ERV, particularly when applied to viewing the future, is that its effective use requires a combination of innate intuitive gifts, extensive training, or both. It often necessitates a sustained and considerable learning effort over time to be reliably employed, especially in practical applications like futures consulting.
Associative Remote Viewing (ARV)
Associative Remote Viewing (ARV) is a psi-based methodology primarily utilized by individuals and for-profit organizations for predictive purposes, such as forecasting sporting event outcomes or stock market movements.
Mechanism: The core principle of ARV involves associating distinct scenes or images with possible outcomes of a future event. Remote viewers then focus their attention forward in time towards a predetermined “feedback event” and attempt to describe the scene they perceive associated with that future outcome. For example, one image might be associated with a stock market “up” outcome, and another with a “down” outcome. The viewer describes the image they perceive, and this description is then matched to one of the pre-assigned images to predict the event's outcome.
Feedback and Emotion: A crucial element in ARV experiments is the deliberate creation of a “peak emotional event” at the time of feedback, when the correct target scene associated with the actual outcome is revealed to the viewer. This emotional salience is believed to enhance the paranormal result and reinforce the associative link. The theory suggests that it is easier for a person to “see” events along their own “world line,” especially if they make a deliberate attempt to have them occur.
Bias Mitigation: To minimize biases and prevent “displacement” (where the viewer accesses information about the wrong target), computerized target selection and judging functions are often employed. Furthermore, participants are instructed to limit their emotional experiences during the period between the viewing session and the feedback event, to prevent their minds from being diverted to the wrong time or event.
Target Types: Targets in ARV can be real objects, physical places, or pictures (slides and photographs of scenes). After a session, viewers may fill out questionnaires with specific questions about the target scene to aid in judging.
Scientific Validity and Replicability
The scientific validity of remote viewing has been a subject of intense debate, characterized by conflicting experimental results, methodological criticisms, and challenges in replication. While proponents cite statistically significant findings, skeptics point to persistent flaws and a lack of independent verification.
Arguments for Validity and Evidence from Parapsychology
Proponents of remote viewing argue that substantial empirical evidence supports its existence, particularly within the field of parapsychology. Jessica Utts, a statistics professor specializing in parapsychology research, asserted in 1995 that, “using the standards applied to any other area of science, the case for psychic functioning has been scientifically proven”. She maintained that the statistical results from studies were “far beyond what is expected by chance”. Utts specifically noted that effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) have been “replicated at numerous laboratories across the world”. This consistency across laboratories, in her view, helps to refute explanations based on fraud, sloppy protocols, or isolated methodological problems.
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis by Patrizio E. Tressoldi and Debra Katz, encompassing 36 studies with 40 effect sizes related to remote viewing tasks up to December 2022, reported a “strong average effect size of .34”. This corresponds to a difference in “hits” score of 19.3% above chance expectation. The meta-analysis found no signs of publication bias and a minimal decline effect, suggesting that remote viewing experimental protocols appear to be the “most efficient for both experimental and practical applications” among various extrasensory perception tests. This finding reinforces the view among some researchers that, despite challenges, RV exhibits a consistent, albeit small-to-medium, effect size.
Further support for RV's validity comes from specific examples of alleged successes. Ingo Swann's purported description of a “fat ring” around Jupiter before its confirmation by NASA's Pioneer 11 is often cited as a precognitive hit. Joseph McMoneagle, a prominent remote viewer from Project Star Gate, claimed involvement in 450 missions, including locating hostages in Iran and tracing a KGB agent's concealed radio. Pat Price's descriptions of a top-secret NSA microwave listening post and a giant steel sphere at a Soviet weapons factory, later reportedly corroborated by satellite images, are also presented as compelling evidence. Proponents argue that such specific and verifiable details, obtained under controlled conditions, cannot be easily dismissed as mere chance or subjective interpretation.
Criticisms and Methodological Flaws
Despite the claims of statistical significance and anecdotal successes, remote viewing faces substantial criticism from the mainstream scientific community, which largely regards it as pseudoscience. The primary reasons for this rejection include a lack of consistent replication under properly controlled conditions, the absence of a coherent theoretical framework, and numerous identified methodological flaws.
One of the most vocal critics is psychologist Ray Hyman, who, along with others, evaluated Project Star Gate. Hyman argued that even if statistically significant results were observed, they would not constitute a “conclusive demonstration of the existence of psychic functioning”. He contended that parapsychological claims often rely on a “negative outcome” (i.e., results not explainable by normal means) rather than a positive theory that guides experimental design and controls. Hyman explicitly stated that the “overwhelming amount of data generated by the viewers is vague, general, and way off target,” and that the “few apparent hits are just what we would expect if nothing other than reasonable guessing and subjective validation are operating”. He also emphasized that the quality and quantity of RV experiments are “far too low to convince the scientific community to abandon its fundamental ideas about causality, time, and other principles”.
Specific methodological flaws
Sensory Leakage and Cues: Early experiments, including some at SRI, were criticized for inadvertently leaving clues or “sensory leakage” that could have allowed participants to produce “hits” without using any parapsychological ability. For instance, psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann attempted to replicate Targ and Puthoff's SRI experiments and found that notes given to judges contained clues about the order of trials or session dates, which could have biased the judging process. In another example, Experiment One of the SAIC Remote Viewing Program was criticized for potential “information leakage” due to a non-blind experimenter potentially leaving handling cues on response sheets.
Lack of Independent Replication: A persistent criticism is the inability to consistently replicate positive results under properly controlled conditions by independent investigators. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Lab, for example, reported statistically significant deviations from chance in its psychokinesis and remote viewing studies, but these results were often minimal (between 0.1% and 1%) and proved difficult for other organizations to reproduce. PEAR's own attempts to reproduce their results also reportedly failed in some instances, and critics pointed to issues like “baseline bind” (where the random number generator used was not truly random) and the disproportionate contribution of a single test subject to the observed effect.
Subjectivity and Ambiguity of Reports: The information provided by remote viewers is frequently described as vague, ambiguous, and requiring substantial subjective interpretation. This lack of concreteness makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy for actionable intelligence, which was a key reason for Project Star Gate's termination.
Confirmation and Hindsight Bias: Critics argue that proponents may be susceptible to confirmation bias (selectively remembering successes while overlooking failures) and hindsight bias (interpreting vague descriptions to fit known targets after the fact). Michael Shermer noted that in some experiments, a limited number of generic designs (e.g., lines and curves) were used as targets, which could be interpreted as a “hit” for almost any object.
Lack of Peer Review and Transparency: Some government-funded experiments were conducted in secret, making independent peer review impossible. Ray Hyman argued that the covert nature of the program hampered its scientific credibility by preventing the “checks and balances that come from doing research in a public forum”.
Conflict of Interest: The involvement of principal investigators also serving as judges, such as Edwin May in Project Star Gate, raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, collusion, cueing, and fraud.
While some parapsychological studies report statistically significant results for remote viewing, the mainstream scientific community remains largely unconvinced due to persistent methodological criticisms, issues with replicability, and the lack of a robust explanatory theory grounded in known physics.
Theoretical Implications for Human Consciousness
The claims and purported phenomena of remote viewing have profound implications for philosophical and scientific theories of human consciousness, challenging conventional understandings of the mind-body relationship, the nature of perception, and the fundamental fabric of reality.
Remote Viewing and the Mind-Body Problem
The mind-body problem, a central question in philosophy of mind, concerns the relationship between mental phenomena (consciousness, thoughts, feelings) and physical phenomena (the brain, body, and material world). Remote viewing claims directly engage with this problem, offering perspectives that challenge traditional dualist and materialist positions.
Dualism
Dualism, famously championed by René Descartes, posits that the mind and body are distinct entities. Substance dualists argue that the mind is a non-physical “thinking thing” separate from the physical brain, lacking attributes like size, shape, or location. Interactionist dualism suggests that mind and body causally affect each other.
Remote viewing, particularly in its more invasive forms, presents a complex challenge to dualism. If consciousness can “enter another person's conscious space” and lead to a “forced quantum entanglement of consciousness”, where the viewer's mind mirrors the target's neurobiological rhythms, it implies a level of interconnectedness that goes beyond typical dualist interactionism. The reported physical manifestations in the viewer, such as mirror flinching, respiratory disruption, hormonal imbalances, and phantom pains that mirror the target's experiences, suggest a profound blurring of the distinct boundaries between individual minds and bodies. This level of physiological mirroring, if veridical, makes it difficult to maintain that the mind is an entirely separate, non-physical substance that merely interacts with the body. Instead, it points to a more integrated, perhaps even shared, psychophysical reality.
Critics of dualism often highlight the “interaction problem”—how an immaterial mind could causally interact with a material body. While remote viewing might seem to support a non-physical aspect of mind by demonstrating non-local perception, the reported physical and psychological symptoms experienced by remote viewers suggest that the “mind” is not merely observing from a distance but is deeply, and sometimes harmfully, intertwined with the physical and energetic states of the target. This phenomenon pushes dualism to explain how such a profound, involuntary, and even pathological, interbody influence could occur if minds are truly distinct and separate substances.
Materialism (Physicalism)
Materialism (or physicalism) is the prevailing scientific view, asserting that only physical matter exists, and all phenomena, including mental states and consciousness, are ultimately reducible to or caused by physical processes in the brain and nervous system. From this perspective, consciousness is an emergent property of complex neural interactions.
Remote viewing claims present a direct challenge to reductive materialism. The ability to acquire information about distant or hidden targets without any known sensory input, or to perceive future events (precognition), fundamentally contradicts the idea that consciousness is solely a product of localized brain activity. If information can be accessed non-locally, it implies that consciousness operates beyond the physical confines of the brain, suggesting a non-physical or at least non-local mechanism of information acquisition that current physics cannot explain.
The existence of such phenomena, if proven, would necessitate a significant revision, or even abandonment, of fundamental materialist assumptions about causality, time, and the brain's role in consciousness. Materialists argue that there is no evidence for a “mind force” or other non-physical properties at work in conscious beings. However, remote viewing, if genuine, would imply that consciousness is not merely an emergent property of the brain but might be a more fundamental aspect of reality, or at least interact with reality in ways not currently understood by physical laws. This would require a profound re-evaluation of the relationship between mind and brain, moving beyond a purely brain-centric model of consciousness.
Non-Local Consciousness Theories and Quantum Connections
To account for phenomena like remote viewing, some theoretical frameworks propose a “non-local” nature of consciousness, suggesting it transcends the boundaries of space and time. This perspective challenges the conventional view that awareness is confined to the physical body, positing instead that consciousness behaves more like a continuum, linking individuals to a larger expanse of life.
Theories of non-local consciousness often draw parallels with concepts from quantum physics, particularly quantum entanglement. Entanglement describes a situation where particles become interconnected such that the state of one instantaneously influences the state of another, regardless of distance. This “spooky action at a distance,” as famously demonstrated by John S. Bell, defies classical physics and suggests that the universe operates according to principles that transcend ordinary notions of space and time.
Some theorists propose that consciousness itself may operate in a similarly non-local manner, existing as a fundamental aspect of the universe rather than an emergent property solely of individual brains. In this view, minds are conceptualized as “receivers” tuning into a universal consciousness field, much like radios receive signals. The accuracy exhibited by remote viewers is seen by proponents as evidence supporting this non-local nature of consciousness, operating at speeds yet unmapped.
Several quantum mechanisms are proposed to explain anomalous cognition like remote viewing:
Quantum Entanglement and Information Fields: Some models suggest that human intelligence and cognition are not solely products of neural computations within the brain but are accessed through persistent quantum entanglement with an extensive “quantum information field” or “external intelligence field”. In this framework, the brain functions not as a self-contained processor but as a “quantum receiver”. Information, including memories and thoughts, may be retrieved non-locally from this entangled field rather than being stored internally within the brain. Experimental methodologies are proposed to test this hypothesis, including measuring quantum coherence beyond the brain and leveraging quantum computing to simulate the behaviour of an intelligence field.
Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch-OR): Proposed by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, Orch-OR suggests that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons, specifically within microtubules. The theory posits that quantum processes, such as objective reduction, orchestrated by microtubules, account for creativity, innovation, and problem-solving abilities. While criticized for the “warm, wet and noisy” environment of the brain being unsuitable for quantum coherence, proponents argue that microtubules might sustain quantum states long enough to influence conscious thought. This theory attempts to address the “hard problem of consciousness” by linking consciousness to fundamental spacetime geometry.
Integrated Information Theory (IIT): Developed by Giulio Tononi, IIT postulates that consciousness arises from the integration of information within a system, quantified by a measure called Phi (Φ). While IIT is not explicitly a quantum theory of consciousness, it is often discussed with non-local phenomena because it suggests that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe, akin to space and time, and can exist in any system that integrates information. This aligns with panpsychist views, where consciousness is ubiquitous. IIT's “experience-first” approach attempts to bridge phenomenology and mechanism, suggesting that properties of conscious experience constrain the properties of the underlying physical system.
Electromagnetic Fields and Neural Networks: Another perspective, aligned with quantum biology, links the emergence of conscious experience to electromagnetic fields interacting within neural networks. It is hypothesized that these electromagnetic interactions and the brain's electrochemical communications exhibit properties that can be modelled and predicted using quantum mathematics.
Nonlocal Plasticity Theory (NPT): Developed by Escolà-Gascón, NPT proposes that anomalous cognitive information flows occur nonlocally, emerging from meaning systems embedded within experience rather than travelling from the external environment. It suggests that the processing of anomalous information occurs unconsciously, leading to a sensation of “knowing something” without understanding how the knowledge was acquired. NPT leverages biological mechanisms like implicit learning and neuroplasticity, suggesting that quantum-like learning can occur by disrupting local simultaneity of stimuli.
These quantum-inspired models offer potential mechanisms for how consciousness could interact with distant targets or future events, providing theoretical frameworks for phenomena like remote viewing that are not easily explained by classical physics. However, many of these theories remain speculative, requiring further empirical research to conclusively support any single model and to fully address the multifaceted and subjective nature of conscious experience.
Boundaries of Human Perception and Potential Negative Effects
Remote viewing, particularly in its more invasive or unstructured forms, reportedly pushes and can even violate the conventional boundaries of human perception, potentially leading to severe negative psychological and physiological effects. While remote viewing is generally defined as perceiving distant information without physical senses, some practitioners describe a process of “complete immersion” or “inhabiting” the target, where they perceive through the target's senses and even thoughts. This goes beyond passive observation, becoming “active identity mimicry”.
The implications of such invasive remote viewing are described as a breakdown of natural boundaries between individuals, leading to a “forced quantum entanglement of consciousness” where the viewer's mind begins “mirroring the target's neurobiological rhythms”. This purported entanglement can manifest in severe somatic symptoms for the remote viewer, including:
Mirror Flinching and Involuntary Movement: The viewer experiences identical micro-movements, spasms, or facial twitches as the target, even when not actively engaged in a remote viewing session. This suggests a direct physical mirroring.
Respiratory Disruption and Sleep Apnea: The viewer's breathing pattern may synchronize with the target's, leading to gasping for air, temporary suffocation, or requiring medical intervention like CPAP machines.
Hormonal Imbalance and Gender Crossover Symptoms: In extreme cases, female viewers of male targets reportedly experienced missed menstrual cycles, growth of coarse hair, and sensations mimicking male arousal, suggesting the viewer's endocrine system attempts to match the target's biological blueprint.
Loss of Appetite and Salivary Gland Dysfunction: The mirroring of the target's neurobiological processes can impair basic autonomic functions related to digestion.
These severe physical consequences highlight a profound, and potentially dangerous, interconnectedness between the mind and body of both the remote viewer and the target, challenging the notion of distinct individual physical autonomy.
Beyond these physiological effects, invasive remote viewing is associated with a range of psychological and spiritual harms, sometimes termed “Dissociative Spiritual Affliction Disorder (DSAD)” :
Identity Dissolution: Viewers may lose their sense of self, adopting the target's cravings, attractions, moral judgments, and even imitating their speech and gestures. This signifies a collapse of personal identity.
Neurological Echoes: Thoughts are no longer original but echo the target's, leading to “involuntary mind sharing” and the blurring of the distinction between “my mind” and “their mind”.
Disembodiment: Viewers may experience dysphoria, body-image confusion, and a sense of “wearing” someone else's flesh, indicating a spiritual detachment from their body.
Phantom Pain and Referred Trauma: Viewers may feel sympathetic pain or emotional grief experienced by the target, even without physical injury to themselves.
Furthermore, the practice is alleged to lead to addiction due to the vividness and euphoric feelings, which some misinterpret as “spiritual ascension,” but which can result in “soul fatigue” and susceptibility to “spiritual malware”. The reliance on hypnagogic states for deep remote viewing sessions can also increase susceptibility to hypnosis and external influence, leading to a diminished ability to discern suggestion from personal conviction and the internalization of implanted beliefs. This raises significant ethical concerns, particularly regarding the potential for manipulation, mind control, and the violation of free will in intelligence or cult contexts.
It is crucial to note that these severe negative effects are primarily reported in contexts of “invasive” or “unstructured” remote viewing, often in “cult circles” or intelligence operations where ethical boundaries are reportedly disregarded. Mainstream remote viewing practitioners and trainers often emphasize that, with proper practices and guidance, RV is a safe and beneficial activity, and that the claims of mental damage are myths. However, the existence of such reported phenomena, even if anecdotal or from specific contexts, underscores the potential risks when exploring the extreme boundaries of human perception and consciousness without adequate safeguards or ethical frameworks.
Spacetime and Causality
Remote viewing's claims of accessing information across vast distances and, more profoundly, across time (precognition and retrocognition) directly challenge conventional understandings of spacetime and causality. The ability to perceive events in the future or past, without any known physical intermediary, suggests that consciousness might operate outside the linear progression of time as typically understood in classical physics.
From the perspective of remote viewing proponents, the accuracy, and reliability of this “sensory awareness” do not diminish with increased temporal or spatial separation between the percipient and the target. This observation leads to the hypothesis that there might be an “apparent zero separation” between the subject and the target in a more fundamental, interconnected reality. Some theoretical models propose that consciousness may reside in an “expanded, timeless, fearless” state, or that “all of space-time is available to your consciousness”. This implies that the human mind is capable of “nonlocally accessing information blocked from ordinary perception”.
The phenomenon of precognition, where future events are perceived before they occur, is particularly challenging to the established scientific understanding of causality. If future events can act as a “cause or trigger for experiences at an earlier time”, it suggests a reversal or non-linear nature of causality that is not accounted for by classical physics. This challenges the deeply ingrained subjective experience of time asymmetrically flowing from past to future and brings into question the notion of free will.
Some theoretical models attempt to reconcile these observations with modern physics. For instance, some propose that a “complex eight spaces” or a “world line in space and time” could connect the viewer to a remote target, allowing for an experience of “zero spatial and/or temporal distance” in this metric. Others suggest that the “psychic signal” or “informational carrier” might be related to torsion fields, which are hypothesized to be emitted during changes in entropy. These ideas, while speculative, attempt to provide a physical basis for how consciousness could interact with spacetime in a non-local manner.
The fact that information about the future can reportedly enter human awareness at an earlier time suggests that our conventional understanding of everyday causality and the very nature of space and time might be fundamentally flawed or incomplete. This opens up metaphysical questions about whether the universe is a “block universe” where all events exist simultaneously, or a “temporal universe of true becoming”. While physics is far from providing a coherent and integrated account of such causal influences, the persistence of precognitive claims in remote viewing research continues to prompt inquiry into these fundamental aspects of reality.
Current Research and Future Directions in Parapsychology and Consciousness Studies
Despite the controversies and the official termination of government programs like Project Star Gate, research into remote viewing and its implications for consciousness continues within the academic and private sectors. Current efforts are characterized by a focus on refining methodologies, exploring underlying mechanisms, and integrating findings with broader interdisciplinary frameworks.
Ongoing Academic and Private Research
Academic parapsychology continues to investigate remote viewing as a specific form of anomalous cognition. Recent studies, such as one extending the original CIA experiments, have explored the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and remote viewing performance. This research found a positive association between experiential EI (related to intuitive information processing) and “hits” in RV experiments, with effect sizes consistent with the ontological reality of psi. This suggests that emotional states perceived during RV sessions may play a role in anomalous cognition. These studies also attempt to address past methodological criticisms, implementing triple-blind techniques and rigorous target selection to minimize cueing and bias.
Private organizations and individuals also continue to conduct and teach remote viewing. Courses are offered that cover the history, theory, and practice of RV from varied perspectives, often incorporating guided exercises and group-based experimental setups. These programs aim to facilitate personal experience of ESP, explore precognition and retrocausation, and connect with intuitive aspects of the self. Some incorporate technologies like Monroe Institute sound technology (Hemi-Sync® and MSS®) to fine-tune brainwave states, suggesting a focus on altered states of awareness for enhancing psi abilities.
The practical applications of remote viewing are also being explored in the private sector, ranging from finding real estate or cars to guiding career decisions. Some proponents suggest that through RV training, individuals become more sensitive to a “larger field” of information, leading to increased synchronicity and intuitive experiences in everyday life.
Emerging Theoretical Frameworks and Quantum Connections
The future of parapsychology and consciousness studies increasingly involves interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly with neuroscience, philosophy, and quantum physics. Researchers are seeking to understand the underlying mechanisms of psi phenomena, moving beyond mere statistical proof of existence.
Emerging theoretical frameworks attempt to explain anomalous cognition through quantum processes. For instance, the Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI) conceptualizes anomalous cognitions as operating through mechanisms analogous to quantum nonlocality. Quantum cognition theory suggests that while the origins of information processing may not be inherently quantum, certain mathematical structures allow cognitive phenomena to be accurately predicted using quantum probabilistic models. This aligns with the computational framework of QBism, which views quantum mechanics as a tool for modelling complex phenomena that Newtonian mechanics cannot capture, including conscious experience.
Further quantum-inspired hypotheses include:
Linking conscious experience to electromagnetic fields interacting within neural networks, with these interactions being modelled by quantum mathematics.
Proposing that conscious experience and levels of awareness can be predicted through molecular changes in cellular microtubules that follow quantum rules.
The Nonlocal Plasticity Theory (NPT) suggests that anomalous cognitive information flows nonlocally, emerging from meaning systems within experience, and that this unconscious processing produces a sensation of “knowing something” without understanding how it was acquired. NPT proposes leveraging implicit learning and neuroplasticity, where “quantum-like learning” can occur by disrupting local simultaneity of stimuli.
Recent empirical studies are beginning to explore these quantum connections. One study found that the entanglement of qubits in stimulus configurations explained a significant percentage of variance in accuracy within an implicit learning experiment, suggesting that “quantum entanglement enhances conscious experience and facilitates faster, more efficient learning”. This research points to the existence of “anomalous cognitive mechanisms capable of anticipating future, unpredictable stimuli”.
Challenges and Future Directions
Despite these ongoing efforts, significant challenges remain. The primary empirical challenge for psi researchers is to provide “well-controlled demonstrations of psi that can be replicated by independent investigators”. The lack of a universally accepted, positive explanatory theory for psi phenomena that is compatible with physical and biological principles continues to be a major theoretical hurdle.
Future research directions in parapsychology and consciousness studies
Understanding Mechanisms: Focus on understanding how psi phenomena work rather than solely proving their existence. This involves delving deeper into the neural mechanisms and cognitive processes behind these phenomena.
Interdisciplinary Integration: Continued collaboration with neuroscientists, philosophers, and other consciousness researchers to integrate parapsychological questions into a wider interdisciplinary framework. This includes exploring how psi experiences align with broader questions about consciousness and spiritual development.
Methodological Innovation: Development of more sophisticated methodologies to improve reliability and reduce bias, such as refined Ganzfeld techniques.
Applied Research Designs: Focus on applied research designs that allow for the prediction of meaningful events, moving beyond explicit “guessing” tasks.
Altered States of Consciousness: Further exploration of self-ascribed parapsychological abilities through altered states of consciousness (e.g., dreaming, meditation, hypnagogic states), which are believed to facilitate “anomalous cognition”.
Quantum Information Science: Continued investigation into how quantum AI models could interface with entangled intelligence, potentially leading to machine consciousness that does not rely on classical computation. This includes testing non-local cognition via quantum entanglement and simulating intelligence fields using quantum computing.
Ethical Considerations: As research progresses, increased attention to the ethical implications of exploring and potentially harnessing these abilities, particularly concerning privacy, free will, and potential misuse.
The field of parapsychology, including remote viewing, continues to operate at the frontier of scientific inquiry, probing the limits of human perception and the nature of consciousness. While skepticism remains prevalent, the ongoing research, particularly that which seeks to integrate quantum physics and neurobiology, suggests a persistent effort to unravel these complex and intriguing phenomena.
What to Think of This
Remote viewing, a purported extrasensory ability to acquire information about distant or hidden targets across space and time, has a fascinating and controversial history, significantly shaped by Cold War intelligence efforts. Project Star Gate, initiated by U.S. agencies in response to perceived Soviet psychic research, invested millions in attempting to operationalize remote viewing as an intelligence tool. While proponents, including prominent remote viewers like Ingo Swann and Joseph McMoneagle, reported compelling “hits” and statistically significant results in laboratory settings, the program was ultimately terminated in 1995 after a CIA-commissioned report concluded that remote viewing had not been proven to work by a psychic mechanism and failed to produce actionable intelligence.
The scientific validity of remote viewing remains a deeply contested domain. Proponents cite meta-analyses indicating small but statistically significant effect sizes, arguing that these results are consistent across various laboratories and refute claims of fraud or methodological flaws. They emphasize that RV operates as a nonanalytic ability, suggesting a unique mode of information processing that is independent of distance and time, challenging conventional notions of causality. Conversely, critics from mainstream science largely dismiss remote viewing as pseudoscience, pointing to persistent methodological flaws such as sensory leakage, lack of independent replication under rigorously controlled conditions, and the inherent vagueness and ambiguity of remote viewing reports. The absence of a coherent explanatory theory compatible with established physical and biological principles remains a significant barrier to its acceptance.
The theoretical implications of remote viewing for human consciousness are profound. If veridical, RV phenomena challenge both traditional dualist and materialist views of the mind-body problem. The reported ability to access non-local information, coupled with claims of physical and psychological mirroring effects in invasive remote viewing, suggests a more deeply interconnected and potentially permeable relationship between individual minds, bodies, and the broader reality than currently understood. This has led to the development of non-local consciousness theories, often drawing on concepts from quantum physics, such as quantum entanglement, to propose that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of the universe, operating beyond the confines of the brain. These speculative models suggest that the brain might function as a “quantum receiver” of information from a universal field, challenging the very fabric of spacetime and causality.
Current research in parapsychology continues to explore remote viewing, focusing on refining methodologies, understanding underlying cognitive and quantum mechanisms, and integrating these phenomena within interdisciplinary frameworks. While the field faces ongoing challenges related to replicability and theoretical explanation, the persistence of inquiry reflects a fundamental human curiosity about the limits of perception and the nature of consciousness itself. As scientific understanding evolves, particularly in areas like quantum biology and the complexities of the brain, the dialogue between conventional science and parapsychology may yield new insights into the enigmatic relationship between remote viewing and human consciousness. However, any future exploration must prioritize rigorous methodology, transparency, and stringent ethical considerations to navigate the complex and potentially challenging landscape of these phenomena.