NICK REDFERN rummages through some real X-Files to uncover the truth about how the US government investigated the military potential of ESP.

In 1977 Dr. Kenneth A. Kress, an engineer with the CIA’s Office of Technical Services prepared a document for the Agency titled Parapsychology in Intelligence. It dealt with the CIA’s involvement in Remote Viewing – what could arguably be termed ‘psychic spying’ – and remained exempt from public disclosure for decades.

Among other highlights, the now declassified document demonstrates the American Government’s secret interest in ESP-type phenomena dated back to the Second World War. It also reveals that studies run by the CIA on the intelligence-gathering value of ESP were initiated as far back as 1961, and perhaps even earlier. Moreover, there is a clear indication that the Agency had some very real and startling successes in this controversial field.

The document begins by explaining the nature of the CIA’s investigations of parapsychology, the potentials and pitfalls faced by the Agency once it became immersed in the murky world of psychic phenomena, and much more. Most notably, the report states that: ‘Tantalising but incomplete data have been generated by CIA-sponsored research. These data show, among other things, that on occasions unexplained results of genuine intelligence significance occur…’

You can read the rest of this article in issue 29 of Paranormal Magazine

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