Remote-Viewing Replication: Evaluated by Concept Analysis
Russell Targ · Journal of Parapsychology · 1994
For more than a decade, scientists at SRI International investigated a human perceptual processing technique called remote viewing (RV). Remote viewing pertains to the acquisition and description, by mental means, of verifiable information about the physical universe blocked from ordinary perception by distance or shielding and generally considered to be secure from such access. In the 10 years since our original publications of remote-viewing studies (Puthoff & Targ, 1976; Targ & Puthoff, 1974), 24 replications have been attempted, with more than half of these being reported as successful (Hunsen, Schlitz, & Tart, 1984). The purpose of the present study was to conduct a new remote-viewing experiment with inexperienced volunteer subjects, so that we could compare their results with the data we obtained when we began RV experiments in 1972. An additional motivation was our interest in formally evaluating a new judging technique called concept analysis, which we felt would enable judges to be more objective and therefore more reliable in assessments of the target-transcript correspondences in free-response trials. BASIC PROCEDURAL DESIGN The general procedure in remote-viewing studies, as carried out at SRI, is to closet the percipient (hereafter called the viewer) with an interviewer and at a prearranged time to obtain from the viewer a description of an undisclosed, remote site being visited by a target team, one of whose members is known to the remote viewer and who thereby constitutes the target or beacon person.(1) The target team is assigned a target location selected at random from a list of targets located within a 30-minute driving time from SRI. The target pool consists of 60 target locations chosen from the target-rich San Francisco Bay Area (500 [km.sup.2]). The target is determined by random-number access to a target pool of traveling orders prepared ahead of time by an experimental team (not including interviewers) and kept locked in a safe. The target location selected is kept blind to both the viewer and the interviewer closeted at SRI. The protocol is thus of the double-blind type. During a predetermined viewing period of 15 minutes' duration, the remote viewer is asked to render drawings and describe into a tape recorder impressions of the target site being visited by the outbound target person. The interviewer, with the remote viewer, is kept ignorant of the target and is therefore free to request clarification of descriptions without fear of providing clues (overt or subliminal) about the particular target. After the target person returns to SRI following the remote-viewing period, the viewer is taken to the target site in order to obtain direct feedback. Following a series of such trials over a period of several days, a formal blind-judging procedure is used to evaluate the data and quantify the results.(2) During May, June, and July of 1979, six one-week remote-viewing series were conducted, one week with each of six participants. These series were carried out at a rate of two series per month. The viewers in these experiments were all adult males between 25 and 55 years of age. The six viewers were chosen as likely candidates from a group of 30 through interviews dealing with their life experiences and their thoughts and beliefs about ESP. The interviews were carried out jointly by Russell Targ (R.T.) and Hal Puthoff (H.P.). Six remote-viewing sessions were conducted for each participant at a rate of one per day, except on Thursdays, when two sessions were conducted. The researchers divided the interviewing tasks and target selection tasks; R.T. always remained with the viewer for the first four trials and H.P. always acted as interviewer for the last two trials. We believe that this very slow rate of carrying out trials contributed significantly to the successful outcome of the series. Remote Viewer and Interviewer Roles An important methodological aspect of the SRI remote-viewing protocols is the use of a single information-gathering unit (the viewer and the interviewer) in which the remote viewer's role is designed to be that of perceiver (information source), and the interviewer's role is designed to be that of analytical control. …