[escherplex]

Well, looks like these Monroe Institute activities segued into CIA interest into what was called 'remote viewing' for use as a possible supplemental espionage methodology. Apparently one H. E. Puthoff was one of the primary researchers in this activity and there's an online history of this CIA initiated RV Program at SRI that he authored which may be of some interest:

URL = https://www.aestheticimpact.com/_pdf/AAestheticImpactCIABiof...

[taxicabjesus]

> Well, looks like these Monroe Institute activities segued into CIA interest into what was called 'remote viewing'

This document is dated June 9, 1983. Your link says the US intelligence agencies' program started in the early 1970's. It started as a threat analysis [3] of a mistranslation of intelligence [0] on Soviet activities, but developed into something much more than that.

The Gateway program is Robert Monroe's system for helping people develop the ability to have out-of-body experiences. Monroe started spontaneously popping out of body in the 1950's, and thought he was dying. After a few years he decided he wasn't dying, and started to explore the phenomenon. His first book, Journeys Out of the Body [1], was published in 1977, and was essentially just "hey I've decided I'm not dying and our western culture has no context for these experiences but these are my findings." Lots of people wrote to thank him for validating their own experiences.

Robert Monroe's followup book, Far Journeys [2], was much more rigorous. It was published in 1985, about 2 years after this submission's PDF was written.

Your link tells of Ingo Swann's pivotal role in the remote viewing program... My earlier comment [0] tells of the time I met Swann in Las Vegas. (Edit: hah, just noticed your link pdf was generated from content originally hosted at Swann's website, biomindsuperpowers.com)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17238552

[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=JqNXvQEACAAJ

[2] https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0385231814

edit: [3] Your link uses the terms 'threat potential' and 'threat assessment'. Quote from your link: "In broad terms it can be said that much of the SRI effort was directed not so much toward developing an operational U.S. capability, but rather toward assessing the threat potential of its use against the U.S. by others. The words threat assessment were often used to describe the program's purpose during its development, especially during the early years."

[escherplex]

Your link tells of Ingo Swann's pivotal role in the remote viewing program

About 10 years ago came across research papers (not via Blavatsky) on an old mind-altering Buddhist copper wall setup which involved a wooden chair oriented towards magnetic north placed over a thick panel of glass with a sheet of copper suspended vertically in front of a sitter with a 50 gauss magnet (N up) suspended by cord over the sitter's head. Colleagues with an interest in this subject pointed me in the direction of Ingo Swann, Elmer Green, with the Monroe Institute as a possible source of information. Via an email exchange with Ingo Swann and later with his ameneusis Tom Burgin it turned out that Swann had a copper wall setup in his flat which he found useful in meditation. Elmer Green, on the other hand, decided to construct an entire room with copper walls and ceiling emulating the original idea, which Swann (and others) commented drove them into overload. OK, Faraday-cage format out. What about emulating a pair of facing mirrors with two copper sheets, one in front and one behind the sitter? May act as an amplifier. Figuring this was an obvious experimental configuration decided to contact Skip Atwater over at the Monroe Institute:

was planning on experimenting with a classic 'copper wall' setting. If you are not familiar with this set up, essentially an individual is seated upright in a wooden chair placed over a panel of thick glass situated between 2 large vertical facing Cu panels affixed to parallel walls, and a 15 to 150 gauss magnet (North up) is suspended by an insulated cord above the subject and brought to within a centimeter of the crown of the head. (cf Elmer Green's work). I would imagine that you have worked with this configuration and am curious whether you have such a sensory amplification chamber which is available for monitored use.

response:

Yes, I am familiar with Elmer's work and years ago I was in Kansas an actually saw the copper wall setup. His work has never been replicated but as I know of his work for years, I believe it remains as an important finding. He also knew Bob Monroe personally.

We have not experimented with the "copper wall" setup. I would think that such experimentation would be valuable, however. Please keep good record and let us know how things go for your work.

Skip Atwater

results: overload. Stick with the original configuration if you want to experiment. :-(

BUT, this is HN not a Psychic Times :-) so stick to a data suggests motif if you feel like commenting and data-mine away :-)

[taxicabjesus]

I have a copy of Elmer Green's report on the Copper Wall research project at the Menninger Institute. Swann's book Psychic Sexuality tells of his experience of being the lab rat in those experiments... This text has been republished by the Estate, and is now available in ebook format.

> BUT, this is HN not a Psychic Times :-) so stick to a data suggests motif if you feel like commenting and data-mine away :-)

Data suggests that good hackers are more "psychic" (intuitive) than less-effective hackers.

Thanks for reminding me about the Copper Wall.

edit (note-to-self): https://www.monroeinstitute.org/blog/copper-wall-project

[Nasrudith]

I suspect that it might have also been considered as a cover up in the style of "carrots improve eyesight" for radar deception. Deliberate vaguely "plausible" bullshit.

Of course given they sent the Loony Toons division after Castro it is possible they are simply a bunch of monsterous incompetents.