End of Stargate (1995)
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| Program | U.S. government remote-viewing research and operations, final name "Star Gate" |
|---|---|
| Run by | SRI and later SAIC (research); Army intelligence and the DIA (operations), at Fort Meade, Maryland |
| Cost | About $20 million over its life |
| Review | American Institutes for Research (AIR), 1995, for the CIA; reviewers Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman |
| Finding | No documented intelligence value; laboratory effects disputed |
| Outcome | Terminated and declassified in 1995 |
| Date | 30 June 1995 |
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Remote viewing & psi (topic) |
| People | Jessica Utts, Ray Hyman, Ed Dames |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 123 |
| Year | 1995 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1995 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
In 1995 the U.S. government closed its long-running remote-viewing program, known in its final years as Star Gate. A CIA-commissioned review had concluded that it never produced intelligence useful in operations.[1][2][3] The review's two scientific assessors disagreed sharply on the laboratory results. The statistician Jessica Utts found evidence for psychic functioning, while the psychologist Ray Hyman judged that conclusion "premature".[1][4] The program's records were later released in the CIA's online reading room.[5][9]
The program
Government-funded research into remote viewing, the claimed ability to describe distant places with the mind, began at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1972 under Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ.[1][6] According to Targ, the term "remote viewing" itself was suggested by the psychic Ingo Swann in December 1971.[1][7] Puthoff, the program's founder and first director from 1972 to 1985, wrote that intelligence officials approached him out of concern about Soviet-funded parapsychology research.[8] Swann is credited with proposing "coordinate" remote viewing, in which viewers are given only geographic coordinates.[7]
The program's history, in outline:[3]
- 1977. The Army began "Gondola Wish" to evaluate how adversaries might use remote viewing.
- 1978. It was formalized as the operational program "Grill Flame", based at Fort Meade, Maryland.
- Later names. It became "Center Lane" in 1983 and "Sun Streak" under the Defense Intelligence Agency.
- 1991. Research contracting moved from SRI to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
- Final form. The program received its final name, Star Gate.
The operational unit was small, about 15 to 20 people working in "an old, leaky wooden barracks".[3] Its viewers included Joseph McMoneagle and Pat Price.[1] Over its life the effort cost about $20 million.[1] Funding dwindled in late 1994. In 1995 the defense appropriations bill directed that the program be moved from the DIA to the CIA.[1][3] A remote viewers' website maps the people, methods and schools that grew out of these programs.[10]
The review
The CIA commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to evaluate the program. Its report, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications", was by Michael Mumford, Andrew Rose and David Goslin.[2][9] Utts and Hyman were asked to judge the scientific value of the research, concentrating on ten experiments carried out at SAIC.[4]
- Utts. She concluded that "using the standards applied to any other area of science", psychic functioning "has been well established". She said arguments that the results came from methodological flaws "are soundly refuted". She found some subjects scoring 5 to 15 per cent above chance.[1][4]
- Hyman. He agreed that the SAIC experiments were free of the flaws of the early SRI work, and that their effect sizes were too large to dismiss as flukes. But he argued that statistically significant departures from chance were not enough. The findings came from a single laboratory and had not been replicated independently, and Utts's conclusion was "premature, to say the least".[1][4]
Hyman wrote that parapsychologists needed to "specify conditions under which one can reliably witness their alleged phenomenon". Both reviewers recommended that the SAIC sessions be rejudged blind by independent judges and replicated elsewhere.[4] On operational use, Hyman warned that "subjective validation" can produce "compelling, but false, convictions" that a description matches a target.[4]
The AIR report concluded that remote viewing had never produced actionable intelligence. Goslin said, "There's no documented evidence it had any value to the intelligence community."[1][2] The archived copy of the report is a scan without searchable text.[2]
Closure
The CIA cancelled and declassified the program in 1995. One account dates the closure to 30 June and the declassification to that November.[1][3] Time magazine reported in 1995 that three full-time psychics were still working at Fort Meade on a budget of $500,000 a year.[1] The program's records, released in the CIA's online Stargate collection, include sessions on UFOs and Mars.[3][5] Several former participants went on to teach or sell remote viewing commercially, including Ed Dames and Joseph McMoneagle.[3][5]
Assessment
The government's own review found no intelligence value.[1][2] On the science, the reviewers split. Utts read the data as proof of psychic functioning. Hyman required independent replication and lawful, predictable effects before accepting it.[4] Earlier critics, among them the psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann, had found sensory cues in the original SRI transcripts that could explain their hits. Remote viewing experiments have generally lacked proper controls and repeatability.[1][6]
People and topics
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Stargate Project — The U.S. government's remote-viewing program, which ran from the 1970s until 1995.
- Remote viewing — The claimed ability to describe distant places by mental means.
- Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
- Jessica Utts — Statistician who reviewed the Stargate program in 1995.
- Ray Hyman — Psychologist who reviewed the Stargate program in 1995.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Ed Dames — Former Army remote viewer who founded Psi-Tech.
On the Timeline
- America West Flight 564 sighting (25 May 1995) — An airliner crew and an F-117 both see a huge cigar-shaped object over the Southwest.
- Dan Sherman and abduction messages (Mid 1995) — Sherman says his messages seemed to involve alien abductions.
See every 1995 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
- Remote viewing — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Michael Mumford, Andrew Rose and David Goslin, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications", American Institutes for Research (1995) · web.archive.org · archived copy
- Stargate Project — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Ray Hyman, "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena" (1995) · web.archive.org · archived copy
- Stargate collection, CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- 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
- AIR evaluation of remote viewing (1995) — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- remoteviewed.com · remoteviewed.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Remote viewing”, “Stargate Project”, “Ingo Swann”, 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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