Secret project asks about remote viewing (1973)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 27 October 1973 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Harold Puthoff, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 77 |
| Year | 1973 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1973 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
In his published journals, Jacques Vallée records that in October 1973 physicist Hal Puthoff admitted to him that a government UFO project existed and had approached him about remote-viewing work. Vallée quoted Puthoff as saying, "Well, yes, there is such a project."[1]
The journal entries
The entries, dated 16 and 27 October 1973 in the second volume of Forbidden Science, describe Puthoff — then running remote-viewing experiments for the CIA at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) — telling Vallée that the project had asked whether remote viewing could help with its work. A contact Vallée called "David M." later said his own unit was being disbanded. On 17 November 1973 Puthoff told Vallée he had found the leader of the CIA group monitoring UFOs, and in 1974 Vallée met "David M." and others at the CIA, finding them less informed than he was.[1]
Background
Puthoff and Russell Targ began remote-viewing research at SRI in 1972 with CIA funding, working with subjects such as Ingo Swann and Pat Price; the work later became part of the government programme known as Stargate. Price's 1973 claims of alien bases inside four mountains came from the same period.[2][3]
Assessment
The claim comes only from Puthoff, as recorded by Vallée, and the project was not named. Puthoff's SRI research is well documented in declassified CIA files, but its links to UFO study are not. By 1980, after lunch with Puthoff, Vallée wrote that he no longer believed the government had an ongoing UFO project, and that Puthoff had reached similar conclusions — though both later revised their views again.[1][3]
People and topics
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- SRI International — The research institute where the government's remote-viewing studies began.
- Remote viewing — The claimed ability to describe distant places by mental means.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- To The Stars Academy — The company founded by Tom DeLonge in 2017 that released the Navy UAP videos.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
On the Timeline
- Pascagoula abduction (11 October 1973) — Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker say they were taken aboard a craft near Pascagoula, Mississippi.
- Barry Goldwater and the Wright-Patterson room (28 December 1973) — Sen. Barry Goldwater says he was refused access to a UAP 'room' at Wright-Patterson.
See every 1973 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Was there secret US government research?", UFOs Scientific Research (Oct 2016) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Parapsychology research at SRI — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stargate Project — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Harold E. Puthoff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 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
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
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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