Harold Puthoff

Harold Puthoff

Type	Person
Also known as	Hal Puthoff, Puthoff
On the Timeline	50 events, 1972–2022

Harold E. "Hal" Puthoff (born 20 June 1936) is an American electrical engineer and parapsychology researcher. He co-led the U.S. government-funded remote-viewing research at SRI International from the 1970s, has proposed controversial theories linking inertia and gravity to the quantum vacuum, and co-founded the UFO company To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science in 2017.^[1]

Education and early career

Puthoff was born in Chicago. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Florida and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1967, with a thesis on using the stimulated Raman effect as a tunable laser. He worked on tunable lasers and electron-beam devices and co-wrote the textbook Fundamentals of Quantum Electronics (1969) with his adviser, Richard Pantell.^[1][2] He has also been reported to have served with the Naval Security Group and the National Security Agency.^[1]

In the late 1960s Puthoff became involved with the Church of Scientology, reaching an advanced level by 1971 and writing for its publications, before breaking with it in the late 1970s.^[1]

Remote viewing at SRI

From the early 1970s Puthoff and physicist Russell Targ directed research at SRI (then Stanford Research Institute) into claimed psychic abilities, funded by the CIA and later the military, in the program eventually known as Stargate. They tested subjects including artist Ingo Swann, former police official Pat Price and performer Uri Geller, and in 1974 published a paper in Nature reporting positive results.^[1][3] Psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann later reported that they could not replicate the results and found cues in the experiment transcripts that could explain the hits, and critics including Martin Gardner and James Randi disputed the methods.^[1]

Vacuum physics and EarthTech

In 1985 Puthoff founded the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, later operating as EarthTech International, to study energy generation and advanced propulsion. He published a 1989 paper in Physical Review A proposing that gravity is a force arising from zero-point fluctuations of the quantum vacuum, and in 1994, with Bernard Haisch and Alfonso Rueda, a paper proposing that inertia is a zero-point-field effect.^[1][4][5] Physicists including Steve Carlip disputed the calculations.^[1] In 2002 he proposed a "polarizable vacuum" approach to gravity, and in 1998 he received a patent for transmitting information through a modulated potential, which has since been used as a case study of examiners missing pseudoscience.^[1]

UAP work

Puthoff was involved with Robert Bigelow's research efforts and contributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency's AAWSAP program, which produced 38 technical reports on advanced physics, including several by EarthTech researchers.^[6] In 2017 he co-founded To The Stars Academy with Tom DeLonge and former CIA officer Jim Semivan. He has said publicly that he believes non-human craft have been recovered, and he appears in the 2025 documentary The Age of Disclosure.^[1][7] Jacques Vallée's journals record decades of conversations in which Puthoff discussed rumoured hidden programs.

On the UAP Timeline

• Ingo Swann's magnetometer test (1972) (June 1972) — Ingo Swann's remote-viewing test with SRI leads to a CIA contract months later.
• Puthoff's report of a new secret study (1972) (7 October 1972) — Hal Puthoff tells Vallée a former NSA colleague said a new secret UAP study was underway.
• Secret project asks about remote viewing (1973) (27 October 1973) — Puthoff tells Vallée a secret UAP project with an official charter asked about remote viewing.
• Twelve officials to study UFOs (1974) (2 June 1974) — Puthoff relays that 12 senior officials have decided to focus on UAP study.
• Pat Price's alien base reports (July 1982) — The Army's remote viewing chief finds 1973 reports of claimed underground UAP bases.
• Sandia uncle crashed saucer story (1982) (29 September 1982) — Puthoff relays a story of a scientist who studied a crashed saucer and copied an antigravity device.
• Puthoff leaves SRI (1985) (Summer 1985) — Hal Puthoff leaves SRI to explore alternative energy sources.
• Puthoff on tracking the phenomenon (1989) (11 July 1989) — Puthoff tells Vallée nobody seems to be tracking the phenomenon properly.
• Puthoff pitches vacuum energy (1994) (1994) — Hal Puthoff says he pitched vacuum energy technology to oil companies.
• Bigelow recruits consciousness experts (1996) (7 January 1996) — Bigelow tells Vallée he is hiring experts on consciousness.
• Las Vegas data-gathering meeting (1996) (28 January 1996) — Military, scientific and corporate figures meet in Las Vegas about gathering UAP data.
• Zero-point field theory of inertia paper (1998) (August 1998) — Puthoff and Lockheed researchers publish a paper on inertia and vacuum energy.
• Jim Westwood's MJ-12 disinformation theory (1 January 1999) — A former CIA consultant suggests the MJ-12 briefing document was a fake to fool the KGB.
• Puthoff–Green emails on a pseudonymous article (31 July 1999) — Puthoff emails Kit Green about a UFO magazine story.
• Former TRW employee reverse-engineering claim (8 May 2000) — Vallée, Davis and Puthoff discuss a claim of a secret reverse-engineering project at a contractor.
• Pentagon audit discovery story (2000) (9 May 2000) — Puthoff tells Vallée a story about a secret program uncovered in a Pentagon audit.
• Westwood on MJ-12 disinformation (2001) (5 May 2001) — A consultant tells Vallée the MJ-12 documents are disinformation.
• Puthoff on black-budget physics (2002) (2002) — Puthoff tells author Nick Cook there is solid evidence of secret aerospace programs.
• Will Miller's offer to Davis and Puthoff (25 April 2002) — A retired Navy commander offers his services researching crash retrievals.
• Peter Sturrock on zero-point energy (2003) (22 March 2003) — Stanford's Peter Sturrock tells Vallée he doubts Puthoff's zero-point energy work.
• One black UFO operation claim (2003) (23 August 2003) — Puthoff and Petersen tell Vallée there is only one 'black UFO operation', about hardware.
• Puthoff's "front door" attempt (10 September 2003) — Lockheed's Bernard Haisch says Puthoff tried official channels to reach a secret UFO program.
• Arlington Institute contact scenario exercises (14 September 2003) — Puthoff took part in a think tank's role-play of possible alien contact scenarios.
• Puthoff protects a key source (2003) (2 October 2003) — Puthoff tells Vallée he is holding back details to protect a key insider source.
• Four "iron post" sources (6 March 2004) — A consultant tells Vallée that four trusted insider sources back Puthoff and Davis.
• Eric Davis asks George H.W. Bush about Corso (26 March 2004) — Eric Davis says he asked George H.W. Bush about Philip Corso's claims.
• Contractor speculation dinner (2004) (28 March 2004) — Vallée's circle speculates about which contractors handle real UAP projects.
• Charles Bowsher audit claim (7 August 2004) — A consultant says a former U.S. comptroller general found a 'crashed UFO program' in an audit.
• EG&G Special Projects manager meeting (2005) (5 December 2005) — A former Nevada Test Site manager tells Vallée, Puthoff and Davis about secret work.
• High-level Arlington workshops (2005) (6 December 2005) — Puthoff describes high-level workshops on the UAP question.
• Sarfatti–Puthoff zero-point debate (25 January 2006) — Physicist Jack Sarfatti claims a debate with Puthoff was arranged at the intelligence director's office.
• 1960s disc hovercraft inquiry (5 Jan 2007) — Puthoff and Davis look into a 1960s Lockheed hovercraft that looks like a disc.
• Martins–Pinheiro inertia papers (1 February 2007) — Lisbon physicists suggest electric and magnetic fields could alter inertial mass.
• Puthoff locates the hardware program (2007) (4 August 2007) — Puthoff tells Vallée he thinks he knows where the secret UFO hardware program hides.
• BAASS "back door" approach (24 December 2008) — A BAASS team member says he tried to get 'back door' access to an aerospace contractor.
• Obama White House meeting interest (2008) (24 December 2008) — Puthoff tells Vallée the White House is interested in a meeting about the phenomenon.
• Project Grudge data and the artifact file (23 January 2009) — A BAASS team member is said to be retrieving old Project Grudge data from Area 51.
• Alexander on Edward Teller (15 February 2011) — Col. John Alexander says physicist Edward Teller would be among the few who knew the truth.
• Sekret Machines (5 April 2016) — DeLonge publishes the novel Sekret Machines, which he says advisers helped shape.
• DeLonge's research groups (2016) (31 August 2016) — Tom DeLonge says he became involved with groups studying crashed craft and biology.
• Bernard Haisch on legacy programs (2018) — Lockheed astrophysicist Bernard Haisch comments on alleged 'legacy' UAP programs.
• EarthTech–BAASS industry collaboration claim (24 June 2018) — Eric Davis says BAASS and EarthTech collaborated with a major aerospace company.
• TTSA–EarthTech contracts (16 August 2018) — To The Stars hires Puthoff's EarthTech to study potentially exotic materials.
• Puthoff denies threats (2020) (8 February 2020) — Hal Puthoff denies rumors his family was threatened over antigravity information.
• Doty worked for Puthoff (8 February 2020) — Puthoff says Richard Doty worked for him on a program before AATIP.
• Sarfatti's slow-light Tic Tac theory (20 March 2020) — Physicist Jack Sarfatti suggests the Tic Tac used a metamaterial that slows light.
• Will Miller's secret groups claim (2020) (25 June 2020) — Retired Navy commander Will Miller says he believes secret groups control advanced craft.
• Puthoff on withheld materials science (11 February 2022) — Puthoff says private companies withhold materials science information.
• Ultraterrestrial hypothesis paper (31 July 2022) — Puthoff releases a paper on the 'ultraterrestrial' hypothesis.
• Brandon Fugal's conviction (27 October 2022) — Skinwalker Ranch owner Brandon Fugal says senior figures convinced him reverse engineering is real.

References