Remote Viewing (more precisely, Remote Perception – since in practice it engages far more than vision alone: intuitive sensing, bodily impressions, emotional and spatial awareness, and much more) is a method of extrasensory perception developed under strictly scientific conditions. It is unique because it was designed from the outset to eliminate suggestion, chance, and illusion. Its protocols did not emerge from esoteric circles – they emerged from military and academic laboratories funded by the CIA and the United States Army. It is precisely this rigorous protocol that distinguishes Remote Viewing from every other form of extrasensory perception, and makes it the only phenomenon in this field to have faced the scrutiny of the scientific method – and emerged intact.

Many people, upon first hearing about extrasensory perception, ask the same question: “If this works, why don’t we hear about it? Why don’t the military and intelligence services use it?” The answer is that they do – and have for a long time. Remote Viewing is the best evidence of this.

How Did Scientific Research into Extrasensory Perception Come About?

The answer is surprisingly mundane: fear and mutual paranoia.

The Cold War forced the intelligence superpowers to seek an edge literally everywhere. In conditions of severely limited insight into what the other side actually possessed, combined with intense counterintelligence disinformation – it was easy to believe that the enemy was years ahead in some secret program.

According to one of the most ironic anecdotes in the history of intelligence, French services allegedly planted a rumor with the Soviets that the United States was running a program of “parapsychic spies” capable of penetrating Soviet military installations with their minds to gather intelligence. The Soviets believed it and launched their own program. When U.S. intelligence learned of the Soviet parapsychic program – without waiting for confirmation of its effectiveness – it responded in kind, reasoning: “If the Soviets have psychic spies, we cannot afford to fall behind on this front.”

And so – through mutual paranoia and a chain of misunderstandings – one of the most extraordinary and costly research programs in the history of modern intelligence came into being.

How Were the Remote Viewing Protocols Developed?

Who Was Ingo Swann – and Why Was His Role Critical?

Remote Viewing research accelerated when Ingo Swann joined the program – a New York artist with exceptional perceptual abilities who became the first person to submit to systematic scientific testing at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). He worked under physicists Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff, whose experiments were designed to answer one specific question: is extrasensory perception a repeatable, measurable phenomenon?

Swann not only demonstrated remarkable ability – more importantly, he actively collaborated in developing the methodology. He created the protocols that revolutionized the entire approach to the subject. Those protocols were the answer to a fundamental problem: how to study extrasensory perception in a way that leaves skeptics no reasonable objection.

The SRI research results were published in 1974 in the prestigious scientific journal Nature – an event unprecedented in this field. The Targ and Puthoff paper documented statistically significant Remote Viewing effects under controlled conditions, provoking a wave of scientific criticism – and no small amount of interest.

What Are the Two Pillars of Remote Viewing’s Scientific Approach?

What distinguishes Remote Viewing from all other methods of working with extrasensory perception are two fundamental methodological principles that eliminate the main skeptical objections.

First pillar: blind research.

The person perceiving – the Remote Viewer – receives only a multi-digit identifier. Nothing else. No name, no photograph, no context. Only a number that points in coded form to the research target, known only to the person who prepared it. The viewer does not know throughout the session what they are examining – yet they are capable of conveying information that proves to be an accurate description of the object, location, or situation being studied.

This eliminates the main skeptical objection: that ESP results are suggested by the question itself or by the person running the experiment. The Remote Viewer cannot be suggested to, because there is nothing to suggest with.

Second pillar: division of roles eliminates analytical mind interference.

It was discovered that one of the greatest obstacles to effective extrasensory perception is the moment when the mind stops receiving – and starts analyzing. When someone during a session begins “thinking” about what they’re receiving, they activate the brain region responsible for creative imagination. Instead of perceiving reality, they start constructing it.

The solution is a division of roles: the perceiving person remains in a state of focused relaxation, recording only raw impressions without evaluating them in real time. The person conducting the session – the monitor – listens, analyzes, and asks non-leading questions, helping to direct perception without disturbing its quality.

This division also eliminated objections familiar from hypnotic sessions, where the facilitator may unconsciously shape the subject’s responses – here the monitor deliberately suggests nothing, and the procedures make this impossible.

What Did Declassified CIA Documents Confirm?

Did Remote Viewing Actually Work in Intelligence Practice?

The answer the declassified documents give is unambiguous: yes – and at a level that surprised even the researchers themselves.

The program operated officially for more than two decades under various code names (Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, Center Lane, Stargate – to name only those that have been disclosed). Remote Viewing sessions were conducted regularly, and results were verified independently by intelligence analysts and statisticians.

The effectiveness of the best Remote Viewers – including Ingo Swann and Joseph McMoneagle, officially designated “Remote Viewer #001” – was estimated at approximately 70%. This figure gains its proper dimension in context: classical human and technical intelligence methods also don’t achieve one hundred percent accuracy. The question was never “is the method perfect?” but “does it provide useful information unavailable through any other means?” Remote Viewing answered that question affirmatively – for more than twenty years.

Moreover, there was nothing preventing multiple Remote Viewers from working on the same target simultaneously – and results from several independent sessions could then be compared and triangulated. This substantially raised the value of the information obtained and provided an additional verification tool.

The declassified materials later inspired filmmakers – including The Men Who Stare at Goats, a humorous but factually grounded reconstruction of the program’s backstory – one of my personal favorites, treating the subject with distance and wit without diminishing its seriousness.

Why Was the Military Program Eventually Closed?

What Actually Drove the Decision to Close Project Stargate?

In 1995, the CIA commissioned an external evaluation from the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The report confirmed the existence of effects statistically above chance – but simultaneously recommended ending funding due to “limited operational value.” The program was officially closed.

Unofficially, the situation was far more complex, and several factors converged simultaneously.

The political reason. The topic was simply embarrassing. Publicly acknowledging that the U.S. military had been funding parapsychological research was difficult to sustain in a political environment where decision-makers answer to public opinion. Absurd fears emerged – that since Remote Viewers could perceive distant locations, perhaps they could also “read the minds” of officials and politicians. This is of course not true, but the fear of that possibility almost certainly accelerated the decision to sweep the matter under the rug.

A completely unexpected reason. This is the genuinely fascinating thread that is rarely discussed directly. During many sessions, Remote Viewers encountered something no one had anticipated – something that fit no military category. Instead of describing missile silos and Soviet military installations, they began encountering objects and beings unknown to official science, entering spaces that clearly exceeded the physical reality of Earth.

Many of the era’s Remote Viewers described situations in which, during sessions, beings or objects would enter their perceptual field and attempt to draw their attention toward something entirely different – something these beings themselves considered more significant than the military target of the session. Imagine the consternation among military personnel when a Remote Viewer sent to investigate a Soviet installation returned with descriptions of luminous beings and spaces far beyond the mission’s parameters. The confusion was enormous – and entirely understandable from the perspective of a military institution. These experiences launched an entire chain of subsequent research and events that continues to this day.

The human reason. Training extrasensory perception had an unforeseen side effect: it developed people. Remote Viewers trained by the military began perceiving a broader perspective, asking questions that exceeded the boundaries of any military assignment, thinking independently about the nature of reality and their own consciousness. The military wanted obedient operators. Instead it got enlightened seekers – which was, from the institution’s perspective, highly undesirable.

What Does Remote Viewing Look Like Today?

Is Remote Viewing Still Used After the Cold War?

Officially, the program was closed. Unofficially – Remote Viewing lives and flourishes, in a different form.

Declassification freed former military Remote Viewers to publish books, run training programs, and work as private contractors. Significantly: the military still uses Remote Viewing – through private firms – and standard nondisclosure agreements mean this is not publicized.

Today Remote Viewing is applied across a surprisingly wide spectrum:

• Natural resource exploration – mining companies use Remote Viewers as one of their exploration tools
• Financial markets – some investors and funds apply Remote Viewing to analyze probable market movements
• Innovation and patent research – generating novel technical solutions using extrasensory perception
• Scientific research – an increasing number of academic institutions are returning to consciousness research in which Remote Viewing is one area of investigation
• Personal and spiritual development – for me personally, this is the most important dimension of all

No company that uses these services typically says so publicly. Remote Viewing remains a quiet tool – effective precisely because it has no need to be on display.

Remote Viewing in Poland – How Did Polish Research Begin?

Poland had no official military Remote Viewing program. Research into this method began here much later than in the West – and entirely through grassroots initiative.

I began my own Remote Viewing research around the year 2000, coming from a community of researchers studying OOBE (Out-of-Body Experience), which had been my first area of investigation following a spontaneous out-of-body experience in the second half of the 1990s.

When I encountered Courtney Brown’s book Cosmic Voyage, in which he described military Remote Viewing protocols, I saw something that was not obvious to anyone at that time: that these protocols could be effectively adapted for remote work via the internet – that research sessions could be conducted with participants in different locations while maintaining full protocol integrity and result credibility.

This was the origin of the first Polish Remote Viewing research group. The results we began obtaining were convincing enough to continue – and over time to transform private research into regular training and sessions for others.

Today I teach Remote Viewing techniques and lead a research group, passing on knowledge to people who have the opportunity to confirm for themselves what decades of research across the Atlantic have confirmed: that our perception reaches considerably further than we have been led to believe.

Why Remote Viewing Matters Beyond Intelligence

If Remote Viewing works – and the declassified documents and statistics indicate that it does – then it means human consciousness has access to information that no known physical sense can provide. That perception is not exclusively a function of eyes, ears, and nerves. That between the observer and the observed reality there exists a connection that the materialist model of science cannot yet explain.

This changes the perspective on fundamental questions: what are we, how does consciousness operate, what does “knowing” actually mean?

Remote Viewing is in this sense something more than a technique. It is empirical evidence – verifiable, repeatable, documented – that our perception reaches further than we have been told. And that is what makes this method important not only for intelligence or business, but for anyone who seriously asks about the nature of their own consciousness and wants to test it through their own experience.

Observations from Years of Working with Remote Viewing

Across years of working with this method – both in my own practice and with others – I observe one regularity that still strikes me.

Remote Viewing changes people. Not as a tool, not as a technique – but as an experience.

When someone sits down for the first time with a sheet of paper and a pen, receives a random string of digits, and without any knowledge of the target begins writing down impressions that turn out to be accurate – something in them breaks. Not dramatically. Quietly and irreversibly. It is the moment when convictions about what consciousness is and where its limits lie stop being abstractions.

I see this particularly in people who arrive with strong skepticism – and who, precisely because they are skeptical, are also the best candidates for this work. Because Remote Viewing requires no belief. It requires only honesty toward one’s own experience.

And that is something no argument can replace.

Sources

• Targ, R., Puthoff, H. (1974). Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding. Nature, 251, 602-607. https://doi.org/10.1038/251602a0
• Utts, J. (1996). An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10(1), 3-30.
• May, E. C. et al. (1988). Review of the Psychoenergetic Research Conducted at SRI International 1973-1988. SRI International Technical Report.
• Mumford, M. D., Rose, A. M., Goslin, D. A. (1995). An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications. American Institutes for Research (report for the CIA).
• McMoneagle, J. (2002). The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy. Hampton Roads Publishing.
• CIA CREST Database – declassified Stargate program documents: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/stargate
• Targ, R. (2012). The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities. Quest Books.

FAQ

How does Remote Viewing differ from ordinary clairvoyance? The key difference lies in the protocol. Remote Viewing is a method designed to exclude suggestion and chance – the viewer does not know the target, and the session proceeds according to strictly defined procedures that allow independent verification of results. Clairvoyance as a concept carries no methodological requirements and is not subject to verification under the same conditions.

Has Remote Viewing been scientifically confirmed? Yes – statistical effects above chance have been documented in multiple independent studies, including CIA reports and the paper published in Nature in 1974. The effectiveness of the best Remote Viewers is estimated at approximately 70%. The mechanism remains unexplained by mainstream science, but the effect itself is repeatable and measurable.

Why did the CIA close the Remote Viewing program? The official reason was “limited operational value.” Unofficially, several factors converged: the political embarrassment of the topic, decision-makers’ concerns about the nature of phenomena encountered by viewers during sessions, and the fact that developing extrasensory perception turned soldiers into independent thinkers – which was undesirable from a military institutional perspective.

Is Remote Viewing still used today? Yes – through private contractors, in ways that are not publicized. It is also used for personal and spiritual development, and for many people this is its most important dimension. The practice of Remote Viewing, regardless of context, develops the capacity for subtle perception, teaches presence and openness to information beyond rational thinking. For many it becomes a direct experience confirming that consciousness has a far wider reach than the materialist model of reality suggests.

Jakub Qba Niegowski – Extrasensory Awareness Development Specialist

You can also learn the method step by step in a live online remote viewing course.