Dale Graff and Wright-Patterson remote viewing

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Contents 8
Dale Graff and Wright-Patterson remote viewing
US National Park Service marker for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
US National Park Service marker for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Photo: Pi3.124 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Date1979
TopicsBeings & bodies (topic), Government programs (topic), Remote viewing & psi (topic)
PeopleDale Graff
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 87
Year1979 in UFO history
Timeline1979 on the UAP Timeline
Sources11

Dale Graff, a physicist on the scientific staff of the Air Force's Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, managed Air Force-sponsored remote-viewing research in the late 1970s before moving to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), where he later directed the program that became known as Stargate.[1][2][3]

Wright-Patterson

The headquarters of SRI International in Menlo Park .
The headquarters of SRI International in Menlo Park . Photo: Coolcaesar at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A CIA memorandum of 20 April 1976 records discussions with Graff, who had cabled the agency for more information after learning of its parapsychology research at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Graff became the Defense Department's contract manager for remote-viewing research at SRI, and the Air Force program he managed ran from about the mid-1970s until about 1980, when the Air Force ended it.[1][3]

DIA and Stargate

The 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio received its first C-17 Globemaster III Jan. 21,2010. The aircraft is on loan from…
The 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio received its first C-17 Globemaster III Jan. 21,2010. The aircraft is on loan from… Photo: United States Air Force · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Graff moved to the DIA around 1980. He directed the government's remote-viewing effort from about 1990 to 1993, the period when it was renamed Stargate. Critics within the program later complained that the unit increasingly relied on self-described psychics rather than trained viewers. He has written about his experiences in Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness (1998).[3][4]

End of the program

USGS digital orthophoto of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio
USGS digital orthophoto of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio Photo: United States Geological Survey (USGS) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The program was declassified and closed in 1995 after a review by the American Institutes for Research concluded that remote viewing had never produced actionable intelligence.[2][3]

Significance

Defense Intelligence Agency Badge
Defense Intelligence Agency Badge Photo: Rgbrownii · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Graff's career is of interest to UFO researchers because it shows that the intelligence units at Wright-Patterson, long associated in UFO lore with recovered material, were willing to sponsor unconventional research.[1][3]

People and topics

Russell Targ
Russell Targ Photo: photo was taken by subject's wife (Patricia Targ) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

On the Timeline

Illustration of a disc-shaped craft in the night sky
Illustration: a disc-shaped craft in the night sky. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

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References

Further reading

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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