CIA photon detection experiment: full report text
Transcribed directly from CIA-RDP96-00789R003800470001-9, available in the CIA FOIA reading room. The report's title page, abstract, and methodology section are reproduced below in the document's own language.
Interim Report, Objective E, Task 1
Covering the Period 1 October 1985 to 30 September 1986
AN EXPERIMENT TO EXPLORE POSSIBLE ANOMALISTIC BEHAVIOR OF A PHOTON DETECTION SYSTEM DURING A REMOTE VIEWING TEST
By: G. Scott Hubbard, Edwin C. May
Prepared for: Peter J. McNelis, DSW, Contracting Officer's Technical Representative
Contract DAMD 17-85-C-5130
Robert S. Leonard, Executive Director, Geoscience and Engineering Center
SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025, U.S.A.
This document consists of 20 pages.
"It was claimed that anomalous signals from photomultiplier tubes (PMT) are observed during sessions in which 'exceptional vision' was successfully employed to identify Chinese language characters concealed in the PMT housing."
"Specifically, we experimentally examined the possibility that light is emitted in the vicinity of correctly identified remote viewing target material."
This is the report's own framing, transcribed directly. The claim under investigation, that successful remote viewing produced a detectable light-emission signal in scientific instrumentation, is stated as the explicit hypothesis the experiment was designed to test.
"The experiment consisted of a brief pilot phase in order to refine the protocol; a formal phase utilizing the same four individuals from the pilot phase; and a control phase consisting of two types of controls."
"This report constitutes Objective E, Task 1, detailing an experiment to determine fundamental parameters of feedback, shielding and limits of spatial resolution for RV."
"During the first study, four viewers were asked to contribute..." [text continues in original document, degraded in scan]
The three-phase design described above, pilot, formal, and dual control, is the structure of a genuine controlled physics experiment, not an anecdotal investigation. The explicit reference to determining fundamental parameters of feedback, shielding, and spatial resolution indicates the researchers were attempting to establish whether any detected signal had a real physical basis that could be characterized and measured, rather than simply reporting whether an effect was observed or not.
The use of four individuals across both the pilot and formal phases, rather than recruiting new subjects for each phase, suggests an attempt to maintain experimental consistency, allowing comparison of results across the pilot and formal testing periods using the same population of viewers.
This transcript establishes that the U.S. government funded a structured, multi-phase physics experiment under formal Army contract specifically to test whether successful remote viewing sessions produced a measurable light-emission signal in photomultiplier tube equipment. The report's own language confirms this was the explicit hypothesis under test, originating from prior anecdotal claims involving concealed Chinese characters.
This transcript does not establish what the experiment's quantitative results were. The full 20-page report, available at the CIA reading room link below, contains the complete data, statistical analysis, and conclusions, portions of which are degraded in the publicly available scan. Researchers and journalists seeking the complete results should consult the full document directly.
You just read one document. Pro shows you every document that contradicts it.
The Contradiction Engine cross-references any two records in the archive and shows you where the government’s own story changed. The Evidence Chain View maps how one program became the next, sourced at every step. Citations generated correctly, every time. Your own notes, saved against the document.
Start your free month →This site costs real money to run. If it’s useful to you, you can help keep it going →