CIA Star Gate Project: An Overview (1993) [pdf]

(cia.gov)

47 points | by dvrp 11 hours ago

7 comments

  • noworld 1 hour ago
    • FuturisticLover 45 minutes ago
      This is so shocking, considering the similarities.

      Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.

    • perfmode 49 minutes ago
      Interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing.
    • namanyayg 1 hour ago
      What does the first pdf mean?

      (And does it remind anyone else of an ee cummings poem or is it just me)

      • noworld 59 minutes ago
        The first PDF is the record of a remote viewing session from 2 days before the USS Stark incident, and it is eerily similar to the incident. The feelings and "atmosphere" (can't think of a better word for it) sound like what you might expect on a ship being attacked by a random missile.

        For example:

        1. The drawing on p. 7 looks like the superstructure of a warship.

        2. The next few pages might describe what it feels like to wonder if your ship is actually under missile attack.

        3. On page 10 it records "aircraft--large, multiengined; distant; orbiting; distraction controlled, directed. 'Under orders.'" This USNI article has a little more detail on the AWACS plane detecting the incoming attack: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/j...

        There are other similarities, but the CIA report predates the attack, which is especially strange.

        • FuturisticLover 43 minutes ago
          Yeah, Remote Viewing should be a real-time event. This is Precognition.
        • squigz 33 minutes ago
          How many of these 'remote viewing' sessions didn't bear any similarities to anything?

          If you throw a bunch of stuff at a wall, some of it is going to stick. Especially when it appears to be random words that can be applicable to millions of situations.

      • finalarbiter 1 hour ago
        The first PDF is the results/notes of someone attempting remote viewing. Given the dates, I agree with the above poster that the similarities are impressive.
  • cushychicken 3 minutes ago
    It's only dumb if it doesn't work.

    If it works... well, congratulations. You now have an edge that no one else knows about.

  • diogenes_atx 18 minutes ago
    No surprise here. The geniuses at the CIA failed to anticipate the fall of the Soviet Union, missed the warning signs about 9/11, and falsely claimed there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq during the American invasion in 2003. Apparently the so-called intelligence agency was busy with important research on "telepathy," "psychokinesis" and other "para-psychological phenomena."
  • mberning 38 minutes ago
    I am amazed that people take Hal Puthoff at his word that he has worked on all these secret projects for decades even though he cannot describe in definitive terms what the actual outcomes of those programs were. But he is able to talk about them for hours in the vaguest terms possible. How is that even possible. I mean I worked for an aerospace company for 5 years and could go into great and boring detail about what I did while I was there. But all these people supposedly worked on things much more exotic and can’t remember anything. This is the greatest psyop of all time.
  • kubb 1 hour ago
    It’s hard to believe that so recently, “serious” people would fund research of literal mumbo jumbo. By all means, the 90s was a different time epistemologically.

    We aren’t immune to this today, far from it, though the hoaxes have become way more believable in my assessment.

    • willis936 1 hour ago
      The CIA has been this way since basically its inception. It's where a bunch of lead-lined brains are given unreasonable budgets and discretion.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directorate_of_Science_and_Tec...

      • firesteelrain 58 minutes ago
        It appears this was actually authorized by Congress.

        “ In the FY 1991 Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was identified as executive agent for initiating a new program to investigate parapsychological/ anomalous phenomena. A funding level of $2 million was authorized for DIA to undertake specific research and other activities relative to this activity. Objectives of this authorization were to enable a systematic and scientifically sound approach to the R&D effort, to permit wider and more systematic review of potential intelligence applications, and to assess foreign developments in this area.”

        It was taken serious enough to be funded for two decades starting in the 70s. Eventually it was terminated when the strategic pressure eased.

        AIR was commissioned to look at the research and says in this [1]

        “A three-component program involving basic research, operations, and foreign assessment has been in place for some time… beginning in the 1970s, it has conducted a program intended to investigate the application of one paranormal phenomenon — remote viewing, or the ability to describe locations one has not visited.”

        “The AIR review found that remote viewing produced occasional hits that were statistically better than chance, but it remains unclear whether the observed effects can unambiguously be attributed to paranormal phenomena, and the laboratory conditions under which effects were seen do not generalize to real intelligence problems. The information provided by remote viewing was judged vague and ambiguous, making it difficult or impossible for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy for actionable intelligence.”

        1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R0002001...

        • RobotToaster 40 minutes ago
          > A funding level of $2 million was authorized

          In government terms that's pretty small. I guess even if there's a low chance of working, the payoff if it did would be huge.

          • firesteelrain 35 minutes ago
            I agree. $2million is small. Where I work, I am regularly given budgets well over that to buy software or hardware.
      • drpepper42 14 minutes ago
        Yeah pretty much this unfortunately. Imagine some person tasked and genuinely interested in helping the united states but they do it all with subterfuge which backfires more than it helps anything. Such a person must experience a lot of cognitive dissonance and would generally be susceptible to conspiracy theories such as this which only reinforces the cycle of meddling.
    • namanyayg 1 hour ago
      How do we know if something is "mumbo jumbo" until we actually check and verify it?
      • kubb 47 minutes ago
        I see you’re interested in epistemology yourself. You should study it.
    • TheAceOfHearts 54 minutes ago
      It's perfectly rational to allocate a bit of money towards investigating unlikely phenomenon. In this case, it started around the 70s and it was believed that the Soviet Union was also doing research into paranormal effects, so even if people were skeptical it seems prudent to allocate funds and research if there's anything there.
    • ifh-hn 58 minutes ago
      The benefits of hindsight. I'm sure in 30 odd years someone will be making the same comments about our current hoaxes.
      • kubb 44 minutes ago
        And we will have new hoaxes by then.

        The embarrassing part is that we can identify many of them already, before the historical consensus catches on.

        • Teever 3 minutes ago
          Do you have any examples of these easily identifiable contemporary hoaxes?
        • MangoToupe 8 minutes ago
          That's the whole thing about consensus tho, it's hardly embarrassing
    • antonvs 1 hour ago
      I'm not sure it's changed that much. Look at the work around the em drive. Or fusion power for that matter. I'm not saying we shouldn't be researching fusion, but all the fusion "startups" are essentially jokes, or more charitably, monuments to the unwarranted hubris of investment capital.
    • exe34 1 hour ago
      > By all means, the 90s was a different time epistemologically

      We're in an age when vaccines are treated as the enemy and the us health secretary believes paracetamol causes autism.

      • Mistletoe 1 hour ago
        The Tylenol thing is one of the least crazy things he has believed in, at least it had some initial studies suggesting it. There’s no science at all in most of his beliefs.
    • AniseAbyss 1 hour ago
      [dead]
  • franky47 1 hour ago
    Disappointing they didn't have their research facility in Cheyenne Mountain.
  • meindnoch 1 hour ago
    TLDR? Goat-staring is real?
    • Xmd5a 1 hour ago
      There is a regain of interest in these topics. See what's happening here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GATEresearch/
    • krapp 59 minutes ago
      "real" in that the program existed and research was done? Yes.

      "real" in that remote viewing and psychic powers actually exist? No.

      The CIA researched a ton of "mind-control" techniques under MKULTRA too but that doesn't mean they can control your mind.

      The government has programs to research UFOs but that doesn't mean aliens are buzzing our skies and kidnapping our cattle.

      I think what we're really seeing here is just money laundering and confirmation bias.

    • hosh 47 minutes ago
      > TLDR? Goat-staring is real?

      The movie was based on the work of a journalist investigating the topic and wrote a non-fiction book on the subject.