The Peculiar Truth about the CIA's Project Stargate

• The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union created tension and paranoia across the globe. It gave rise to elaborate spy operations that sometimes went to extremes, including drug-induced brainwashing experiments used in Project MKULTRA.

• Among the more bizarre US plans, however, was Project Stargate. It employed people who supposedly possessed extra sensory perception (ESP) for techniques such as ‘remote viewing’ and psychokinesis (the ability to move objects with one’s mind).

• CIA operatives believed that their Soviet counterparts might be engaging in the paranormal and therefore they couldn’t permit their rivals to get the upper hand. So in 1972, the US Congress set aside millions in funding for the spy agency to experiment in the same manner.

• The program was initially overseen by Major General Albert Stubblebine, a career Army man involved in intelligence. Serving under him was Lt. Skip Atwater. In all, no more than 20 people were involved.

• The project was subcontracted to the non-profit Stanford Research Institute in California (not associated with Stanford University). Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, two physicists and self-professed parapsychologists, set about finding individuals who exhibited the talents required.

• Among the first individuals brought in was an Israeli citizen named Uri Geller. Tests were conducted, and Geller seemed like a natural fit. But he was soon deemed a fraud and was let go. He later became a world-famous celebrity known for bending spoons with nothing but his mind.

• Next, they brought in Ingo Swann, a psychic and high-ranking Scientologist. Targ and Puthoff were so impressed with his abilities that they published papers about his feats of remote viewing. Their findings were easily refuted in a public rebuke, and one of Swann’s colleagues outed him as a clever manipulator.

• The next most promising candidate for the project was Rosemary Smith. She was an administrative assistant on Project Stargate. She proved uniquely talented at ‘remote viewing.’

• As the name implies, Ms. Smith was able to view certain places and things remotely. Using nothing but her mind in the same manner as a satellite imaging system, she supposedly was able to ‘see’ the location where a Soviet plane had crashed in a remote part of Zaire. Local agents were dispatched to her coordinates where indeed the aircraft was found.

• Hers was a rare success story, however. Most of Project Stargate’s assessments amounted to little or nothing, and it was recommended that remote viewing information only be used in concert with more reliable sources.

• One prolific member of the program was Joseph McMoneagle, a US Army veteran. From 1978-1984, he was involved in roughly 450 psychic “missions.” Aside from remote viewing, he also engaged in the purported practice of using the power of the mind to pass through solid walls.

• McMoneagle frequently received sealed envelopes and was asked to divulge the contents using nothing but his ESP. His rate of success is unknown.

• Other participants included a former Burbank cop named Pat Price and Special Ops infantryman David Morehouse. Both claimed to have been engaged in remote viewing operations.

• Price, Puthoff, and Ingo Swann had something else in common: They all were members of the Church of Scientology.

• Project Stargate ceased to exist in 1995 after more than 20 years and many millions of taxpayers’ dollars.

• Puthoff and Targ, as well as other participants, wrote books about their experiences with the paranormal. McMoneagle published a book entitled Remote Viewing Secrets: A Handbook (May 2000). David Morehouse published Psychic Warrior: Inside the CIA's Stargate Program: The True Story of a Soldier's Espionage and Awakening (1996, St. Martin's Press).

• In 2017, CIA records regarding Stargate were made available to the public, even though author Jon Ronson had already written the definitive book about the program in 2004 with The Men Who Stare at Goats (followed by a documentary and later a Hollywood film of the same name).

• ALSO:

• Russell Targ of Project Stargate is past age 90 as of this writing. He was legally blind for decades yet drove a motorcycle. He wrote a book titled Do You See What I See? Memoirs of a Blind Biker.