CIA began its own research into psychic phenomena in the summer of 1972, investigating whether people could 'see' distant locations and objects without being physically present, a capability called 'remote viewing.'
Notes on verification
Confirmed directly by CIA's official public statement and corroborated by independent sources including FAS archives, History.com, and academic writing by program founder Harold Puthoff. [tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- Ask Molly: Did CIA Really Study Psychic Powers? (seed:military_and_intelligence)
- https://irp.fas.org/program/collect/stargate.htm (corroboration)
- https://www.newdualism.org/papers/H.Puthoff/CIA-Initiated%20Remote%20Viewing%20At%20Stanford%20Research%20Institute.htm (corroboration)
- https://www.history.com/articles/cia-esp-espionage-soviet-union-cold-war (corroboration)