7. its origins: “A Planetary Science Strategy for the Moon,” Lunar Exploration Science Working Group, NASA, July 1992, 2.
8. a view of the ancient aftermath: Mitchell, Explorer, 52.
9. Zener cards: These are among the oldest symbols known to man. The circle represents the Sun and the Moon and (much later in man’s evolutionary process) the wheel and the gear. Across time, circles have been associated with infinity, perfection, and the divine. The square is a quadrilateral, with four equal angles and four equal sides. Squares represent the four seasons, the four directions, and the four elements. The square is a symbol of civilization and of things man-made. The five-pointed star is an ideogram, a graphic symbol that, across history, has represented military power and ideas. Stars symbolize stardom. The cross, or plus symbol, with its arms of equal length, has religious and mathematical meaning. Three wavy lines is a symbol for mystery.
10. the days of cuneiform writing: Interview with Irving Finkel.
11. “This scale is so deceiving”: Apollo 14 Transcript, 359.
12. Shepard opened the hatch: Ibid.
13. “Keep the mind focused”: Interview with Mitchell. Further, he discusses serendipity in Explorer and Anthology of Psychic Research.
14. Believe in serendipity: Interview with Mitchell.
15. “We deceived the program by telling it”: Interview with Don Eyles.
16. Mitchell entered these critical keystrokes: “Apollo 14 Lunar Surface Journal: Landing at Fra Mauro,” Corrected Transcript, 1. Ed Mitchell was certain he could handle the task that lay ahead, he recalled in 2015. He had conviction. “Few astronauts knew the lunar module systems as thoroughly as I did.”
17. “You are go for a landing,” Apollo 14 Transcript, 449.
18. eighty-seven feet: Apollo 14, Mission Highlights, NASA (nasa.gov), July 8, 2009.
19. learn more about Earth’s origins: Oldroyd, David R., ed. “The Earth Inside and Out,” 17; Mitchell, Explorer, 52. Since the beginning of the space age, images from spacecrafts have allowed scientists to map the surface of the Moon, changing it from an astronomical object to a geological one. Every day, fifty meteorites weighing at least 100 grams each impact the Earth.
20. “I couldn’t see the Earth at all”: Mitchell, Earthrise, 110–111.
21. Disagreements followed: Apollo 14 Transcript, 132.
22. Mitchell consulted his map: Photograph, insert. There is some debate as to whether the document Mitchell is consulting in the photo is a map or a checklist. In our interview, Mitchell told me he thinks it was the map. Maps have been helping man navigate since prehistory, painted on cave walls in Turkey and Ukraine, baked into clay tablets in Babylon.
23. “objects typically appeared one-half as far away”: Mitchell, Explorer, 54; interview with Mitchell.
24. “We kangaroo-hopped”: Mitchell, Explorer, 56.
25. rendezvousing with Stu Roosa: Apollo 14 Transcript, “Table 6-1, Sequence of Events.”
26. “savikalpa samadhi” in space: Interview with Mitchell.
27. “Al Shepard doubled over with laughter”: Mitchell, Explorer, 61; interview with Mitchell.
28. headline: “Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, the Uri Geller of the Astronauts,” Maariv, February 19, 1971.
29. his worldview had shifted: Mitchell, Anthology, 45. “There was something wrong with ideas such as nation and state. From this point of view it is only logical to make war on other countries and on the countryside,” Mitchell wrote.
30. “is the ultimate frontier”: Mitchell, Anthology, 28.
31. The Apollo astronaut was on board: Interview with Mitchell.
Chapter Eight: The Physicist and the Psychic
1. a bit of a prodigy: Author FOIA, CIA: Puthoff Résumé, “Harold E. Puthoff, Senior Research Engineer, Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory, Information Science and Engineering Division,” submitted to the CIA October 1973.
2. unsolved questions: Interview with Puthoff.
3. “research in quantum biology”: In our interview, we discussed Puthoff’s paper, “CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute,” Association of Former Intelligence Officers, The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies 12, no. 1 (Summer 2001), in which the program’s origins were discussed.
4. SRI performed: Author FOIA, CIA: Hal Puthoff, “Qualifications of Stanford Research Institute,” circa 1973.
5. Project Lightning: Interview with Puthoff.
6. hypotheses involving a subatomic particle: Ya. P. Terletsky, “Positive, Negative and Imaginary Rest Masses,” Journal de Physique at le Radium 23, no. 11 (1963): 910–920; G. Feinberg, “Possibility of Faster-Than-Light Particles,” Physical Review 159 (1967): 1089–1105 (1967).
7. fear of being caught in a lie: “The Polygraph and Lie Detection,” The National Academies Press, Washington D.C., 2003, 13–16.
8. Why not try to elicit: Cleve Backster, “Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant Life,” International Journal of Parapsychology 10, no. 4 (Winter 1968): 329–348.
9. a eureka moment for him: Backster was not the first scientist to postulate such an idea. In 1848, the experimental psychologist Dr. Gustav Theodor Fechner argued that plants grew better with affection and attention, but Backster was the first to place the story in the mainstream. Backster appeared on the TV shows of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, and David Frost.
10. Bird, a CIA operative: Bird’s life remains a puzzle. Many sources confirm that he was CIA, as was noted in his obituary. See bibliography and also Eric Pace, “Christopher Bird, 68, a Best-Selling Author,” New York Times, May 6, 1996.
11. plants lack a nervous system: K. A. Horowitz et al., “Plant ‘Primary Perception’: Electrophysiological Unresponsiveness to Brine Shrimp Killing,” Science, August 8, 1975, 478–480; John M. Kmetz, “Plant Primary Perception: The Other Side of the Leaf,” Skeptical Inquirer 2 (1978): 57–61.
12. Charles Darwin: František Baluška et al., “The ‘root-brain’ hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin. Revival after more than 125 years,” Plant Signaling & Behavior 2, no. 12 (December 2008): 1121–1127. The authors discuss one of Darwin’s last books, The Power of Movement in Plants, which is a record of the numerous experiments Darwin performed together with his son.
13. “Mother Nature”: Josh Eells, “Cleve Backster, b. 1924. He talked to plants. And they talked back,” New York Times Magazine, December 21, 2013.
14. “I’d zap one culture”: Paul H. Smith, Reading the Enemy’s Mind, 54–55; interview with Puthoff.
15. understood and accepted by his maternal grandmother: Interview with Murleen Ryder (note that Ingo changed the spelling of his name, adding a second n).
16. To pay the bills: Swann, “Remote Viewing, The Real Story: An autobiographical Memoir,” unpublished autobiography,Chapter 4, 5.
17. high-society entertainer: “Buell Mullen, Muralist and Painter on Metals,” New York Times, September 10, 1986.
18. Swann generally disliked: Swann, unpublished autobiography, Chapter 12, 14.
19. pursuing a related hypothesis: Interview with Puthoff; Hal Puthoff papers. Puthoff’s proposal was called “The Physics of Psychoenergetic Processes Research Proposal.” To his reader, Puthoff wrote: “Please note the use of the term Tachyon, from the Greek word meaning ‘swift.’”
20. “Swann said”: Puthoff, The Intelligencer, 61; interview with Puthoff.
21. a one hundred percent match: “New ASPR Search on Out-of-the-Body Experiences,” Karlis Osis, ASPR Newsletter 14 (Summer 1972); Osis, Karlis, and Donna McCormick, “Kinetic effects at the ostensible location of an out-of-body projection during perceptual testing,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 74, no. 3 (1980).
22. “Reception for Ingo Swann”: Swann, unpublished autobiography, Chapter 31. According to Swann, the week before the party, the publishing committee said it would not be publishing the results. They were, the committee said, so good that there “must be something wrong with them.”
; 23. “The gossip line exploded”: Swann, unpublished autobiography, Chapter 31.
24. “I was able to gain access”: Puthoff Papers, “Words at Ingo Swann’s Memorial Service,” n.d.
25. Office of Naval Research: Author FOIA, CIA: H. E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, “Proposal for Research ISU 75-241, Magnetometer Stability Studies,” November 14, 1975, 2.
26. “You’re standing on top of it”: Interview with Puthoff.
27. how the quark detector worked: Author FOIA, CIA: Puthoff and Targ, “Proposal for Research ISU 75-241,” 2.
28. vocal proponent of extrasensory perception: Interview with Brian D. Josephson, June 2015, in Cambridge, UK.
29. “outside the range”: Author FOIA, CIA: Puthoff and Targ, “Proposal for Research ISU 75-241,” 1.
30. he hit his head: Swann, unpublished autobiography, Chapter 37.
31. “the active perturbation”: Author FOIA, CIA: H. E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, “Technical Memorandum: A Progress Report on Contract Number 1471(S)73,” February 23, 1973, 3.
32. ice cream to celebrate: Interviews with Hal Puthoff and Adrienne Puthoff.
33. “Their credentials”: Interview with Puthoff; H. E. Puthoff, “CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute,” Association of Former Intelligence Officers, The Intelligencer, 61.
34. by the standards: It appears that Ingo Swann was already on their radar. Intelligence officers had been to the offices of the ASPR, in New York City, and had questioned Dr. Osis and Janet Mitchell about Swann, per Swann’s memoir; interview with Green.
35. Geller tested on behalf of the CIA: Interview with Green; interview with Mitchell. This had to be done under cover of civilian research.
36. Swann-Geller phenomena: Author FOIA, CIA: “Some Reflections on Parapsychological Phenomena in the Intelligence Community,” Draft, 23 Jan 73 (n.p., 10 pages).
Chapter Nine: Skeptics versus CIA
1. “We are not in the business”: Author FOIA, CIA: “Suggested PR Release in the event the DCI is queried about Agency Involvement in Paranormal Research,” n.p., n.d. Underlining is in the original.
2. Those invited were told: Author FOIA, CIA: “Memorandum For (See Distribution), Subject: Proposed Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena,” n.p., n.d.
3. considered becoming an Episcopal priest: Interview with Green. For Green’s official government CV, see “Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies,” Committee on Military Intelligence Methodology, National Research Council, National Academies Press (2008), Appendix A, 91.
4. Green wore many hats: Interview with Green. The men who had overseen the original tests with Ingo Swann were with the Office of Research and Development.
5. administration of medical tests on the psychics: Interview with Green; Author FOIA, CIA, “Summary Tests,” n.p., n.d. Tests included EEGs, the Buschke Memory test, the Knox Cube test, the Thematic Apperception test, the Verbal Concept Attainment test, the Halstead-Wepman Aphasia Screening test, the Bender Gestalt Visual Motor test, the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality and the Rorschach inkblot tests. CT scan technology combined X-ray images with a computer and was the first significant improvement on the seventy-year-old X-ray technology.
6. “brain scans”: Interview with Green. Initially, Green worked from his office at CIA headquarters, analyzing reports from local physicians contracted by SRI. Later, he would travel to SRI to study the psychics.
7. Mind Science Institute of Los Angeles: Author FOIA, CIA; Puharich, Henry, and Mitchell, Edgar D., Captain. “A Research Program Whose Goal Is to Unambiguously Resolve the Question as to Whether or Not Direct Brain Perception and Direct Brain Action Exist,” n.d.
8. leading up to Geller’s arrival: Geller photographs; interview with Geller.
9. Geller’s first meeting: Interviews with Ed Mitchell, Uri Geller, and photos in both men’s private collections. The meeting with von Braun, which was arranged by Mitchell, took place in Germantown, Maryland, in the offices of Fairchild Industries, where von Braun worked.
10. one news story: Lee Rickard, “Psychics and Scientists,” Observer 17, no. 2 (June 1, 1973); interview with Geller, March 2016, in Jaffa, Israel.
11. analysts at the Pentagon: P. T. Van Dyke and M. L. Juncosa, “Paranormal Phenomena—Briefing on a Net Assessment Study,” WN-8019 ARPA, January 1973, 2.
12. “ICBM’s guidance program”: Ibid., 6.
13. great challenge: Ibid., 27.
14. remembers Puthoff: Interview with Puthoff.
15. “one in a million”: Author FOIA, CIA: Puthoff and Targ, “Technical Memorandum: A Progress Report on Contract Number 1471(S)73, Task 3; Experimentation with Uri Geller. February 22, 1973, 10.
16. “one in a trillion”: Ibid., 11.
17. “an apparent ability of Geller”: Ibid., 13. In their report to CIA, the scientists noted that they made efforts to “debunk” the experiment by using magnets and discharging static electricity; in those instances the balance was not perturbed.
18. Kibler said: Cited in interview with Ray Hyman, An Honest Liar, starts at minute 20:15.
19. reported in Time magazine: Leon Jaroff, “The Magician and the Think Tank,” Time, March 12, 1973.
20. ARPA’s George Lawrence told Jaroff: Author FOIA, CIA: “Memorandum for C/IP&A/ORD, Subject: Briefing by Stanford Research Institute,” January 24, 1973.
21. write an exposé: Leon Jaroff, “The Magician and the Think Tank,” Time, March 12, 1973. Ray Hyman told Time that the SRI experiments were performed with “incredible sloppiness.”
22. “Lawrence… denies having talked to TIME”: Author FOIA, CIA: “Subject: More Geller Business,” February 28, 1973.
23. an anti-Geller crusade: Ibid.
24. “SRI should be destroyed”: John Wilhelm, The Search for Superman, 28.
25. “Geller brings disgrace”: Interview with James Randi; James Randi, The Magic of Uri Geller, 5.
26. “we have no scientific explanation”: Author FOIA, CIA: H. E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, “Perceptual Augmentation Techniques,” Proposal for Research, October 1, 1973, 23: “As a result of Geller’s success in this experimental period, we consider that he has demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner.”
27. “there might be phenomena”: Author FOIA, CIA: “Memorandum for the Director,” January 1973.
28. internal memos for Helms: Author FOIA, CIA: Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence: Subject: Office of Research and Development and Office of Technical Service, Paranormal Perception Research Project DD/S&T 3697-73, 1.
29. “paranormal perception phenomena”: Ibid., 3.
30. a convention in Los Angeles: The convention Pat Price refers to was a Scientology gathering. I discussed this issue with Puthoff as well as with the others involved. Puthoff’s written statement on this, published in the Skeptical Inquirer in 2007, and in response to a criticism by Martin Gardner, is as follows: “Let’s take the subject of my brief involvement in Scientology in the early 1970s to which Gardner devotes considerable space. He notes, correctly enough, that I am on record as being no longer involved, but asks ‘but how much of it does he still buy?’ What I ‘still buy’ is that GSR (galvanic skin response) can be used to dredge up forgotten traumatic memories from youth, with some cathartic effect. I learned this first by accident during routine polygraphing for security purposes when I was a NSA employee in the early 1960s. It was this experience that led me out of curiosity to later investigate Scientology procedures from an empirical, firsthand viewpoint. It became obvious to me, however, that, in addition to the expected defects that accompany any circumscribed belief structure, the ethics of the organization in those years was developing some fatal flaws as well, so I severed all connections. It is ironic to me that during the time I was being accused of being a Scientology member by Martin Gardner and others, the Scientologists were picketing me for my outspoken support of those who would dare to
call them to task for their activities. So it goes.”
Chapter Ten: Remote Viewing
1. “a trivialization of my abilities”: Targ and Puthoff, Mind Reach, 27.
2. in the real world of espionage: Swann was not supposed to know that the client was the CIA; in his unpublished memoir he says he knew.
3. first computerized mapping system of Mars: Interview with Vallée.
4. “I suggested he look”: Interview with Vallée.
5. “Virtual addressing”: Vallée, Forbidden Science 2, 194.
6. “a means of accessing data”: Ibid., 193.
7. Puthoff remembers himself saying: Interview with Puthoff; also discussed in Puthoff, The Intelligencer, 63.
8. “that wasn’t even his real name”: Interview with Green.
9. the following address: Author FOIA, CIA: H. E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, “Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part One—Technical Proposal,” ORD #4718-73, October 1, 1973, 7–9. GPS coordinate (latlong.net) is: 38° 34' 15.8484” N, 79° 16' 28.3836'” W.
10. “It was so odd”: Interview with Puthoff.
11. classified code name: Kenneth A. Kress, “Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions,” Studies in Intelligence 21 (Winter 1977): 10.
12. “This was all nonsense, he said”: Interview with Green.
13. ultrasecret facility run in part by NSA: Interview with Puthoff; interview with Green.
14. “A significant investigation”: Interview with Puthoff.
15. Green recalls Price saying: Interview with Green.
16. series of jobs: John L. Wilhelm, The Search for Superman, 208.
17. Burbank Police Commission: Interview with Burbank Police Commission, public affairs spokesperson, January 2016; Wilhelm, 229.
18. “What interested me was the nausea”: Interview with Green.
19. what force: Interview with Green. In this experiment, Green had broken SRI protocol and changed the location extemporaneously, thereby reducing the opportunity for fraud to nil.
20. Berkeley police enlisted Price: Author FOIA, CIA: “Memorandum for the Record. Subject: Operational Use of Paranormals in Police Activities,” n.d., 2.
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