SRI International remote-viewing experiments

Record summary

Researchers Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff conducted remote-viewing experiments at Stanford Research Institute beginning in the early 1970s, later connected to U.S. military and intelligence programs such as Grill Flame and Stargate. The work is important for comparing laboratory parapsychology, occult claims of clairvoyance, and institutional uses of anomalous cognition. Supporters cite statistical results and trained viewers; critics emphasize methodological weaknesses, sensory leakage, selective reporting, and problems with operational applicability. The existence of the programs is well documented, while interpretations of the results remain disputed.