Remote viewers and a military trial anomaly (1984)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
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| Date | May 1984 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Remote viewing & psi (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 96 |
| Year | 1984 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1984 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
The remote viewers and a military trial anomaly episode is a claim, recorded in Michael Shellenberger's 2024 UAP timeline, that "alleged CIA documents" from May 1984 show the Army's remote-viewing program investigating "an anomalous event during classified military trials".[5] The timeline quotes a viewer's description: "...It had to do with time or something; like the connective tissue of reality was twisted in some way, pulled apart. It was very much like something popped in our reality."[5] Its only cited source is a social-media discussion. The underlying document has not been identified in the sources read here, which is why the timeline calls it "alleged".[5]
The claim
- What the timeline says. In May 1984, according to the alleged documents, the Army's remote-viewing program "investigated an anomalous event during classified military trials".[5]
- The viewer's words. The quoted description speaks of time, of "the connective tissue of reality" being "twisted in some way, pulled apart", and of "something popped in our reality".[5]
- What is not known. The timeline does not identify the military trials, the viewers, or the document's file number.[5]
- A search of the CIA's online reading room for the quoted phrase could not be completed for this article, because the reading room's pages returned only its front page.
- Correction note: the earlier version of this article said that declassified documents "now in the CIA's online Stargate collection" show remote viewers being tasked with "incidents during classified military tests". The sources read here do not identify the specific document. The timeline itself describes it only as "alleged".[5]
The program in 1984
- The unit. The Army's remote-viewing unit had been set up at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1977 by the DIA and SRI.[4]
- 1984. In 1984 the columnist Jack Anderson reported the program's existence, and it was "unfavorably received" by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council.[4]
- Army funding ended in late 1985, and the program continued under DIA funding as "Sun Streak".[4]
- SRI. At SRI, Harold Puthoff had founded the research in early 1972 and directed it until 1985.[3][1]
- Viewers such as Ingo Swann took part.[2]
- The CIA declassified documents on its 1970s sponsorship of the SRI work in July 1995.[3]
- UFO targets. The program did sometimes target UFO-related subjects.
Assessment
- The 1995 review. The program was cancelled and declassified in 1995. A CIA-commissioned review by the American Institutes for Research found that remote viewing had not been shown to work by a psychic mechanism and had never been used operationally.[4]
- SRI's methods. Later scientists and sceptics found serious flaws in the methods used at SRI, leaving the work "largely discredited".[1]
- Two readings. Critics see UFO-related sessions as evidence of how loosely the program was run. Supporters see them as evidence of official interest in anomalies during the 1980s.[4]
- Unverified. Without the original document, the May 1984 description cannot be checked.[5]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Remote viewing — The claimed ability to describe distant places by mental means.
- Stargate Project — The U.S. government's remote-viewing program, which ran from the 1970s until 1995.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Saucer-like helicopters claim (1984) (11 March 1984) — Kit Green tells Vallée some military helicopters were designed to look like flying saucers.
- DSP "fast walker" detection (1984) (5 May 1984) — An anonymous source says a U.S. spy satellite detected a UAP passing close by.
See every 1984 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Stargate collection — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- Parapsychology research at SRI — Wikipedia · Www.Wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Ingo Swann — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Puthoff, 'CIA-initiated remote viewing at Stanford Research Institute' · newdualism.org · archived copy
- Stargate Project — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to the House Oversight Committee (13 November 2024), p. 96 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Ingo Swann”, “Stargate Project”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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