The CIA Files: What Declassified Documents Reveal About Psychic Phenomena

A Socratic Dialogue on Government Research Into the Unseen

Part 4 of 8: Declassified Proof

In Parts 1, 2, and 3, we explored why consciousness resists scientific study, why all cultures report similar phenomena, and who profits from suppressing this knowledge. Now we examine the smoking gun: declassified government documents proving that intelligence agencies took psychic phenomena seriously enough to study them for decades and spend millions.

This isn’t conspiracy theory. These are publicly available CIA documents you can read yourself.

Project Stargate: The Psychic Spy Program

Me: You keep mentioning CIA remote viewing research. I want specifics. What exactly did they find?

Respondent: Project Stargate ran from 1975 to 1995. Twenty years. Over $20 million in funding. The CIA, DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and Stanford Research Institute recruited individuals who could apparently perceive distant locations through consciousness alone.

The Setup:

“Viewers” would be given only coordinates or a target number
No information about what they were supposed to see
They would describe impressions, sketch what they perceived
Analysts would compare descriptions to actual targets
Success was measured statistically against chance

The Results:

Success rates significantly above chance (statistical significance: p < 0.01)
Some remarkable specific hits (describing classified Soviet facilities, locating hostages, identifying ship movements)
Not consistent enough for reliable intelligence gathering
But consistent enough to defy conventional explanation

Me: If it worked, why shut it down?

Respondent: Official reason in the final report: “Unreliable for intelligence purposes.” The program showed effects, but couldn’t produce actionable intelligence consistently enough.

Real reasons likely include:

Couldn’t be standardized or weaponized
Too unpredictable for military planning
Politically embarrassing if it became widely known
Other intelligence methods more reliable

But here’s what’s crucial: They didn’t say it was fake or that psi doesn’t exist. They said it wasn’t reliable enough for their purposes. That’s an enormous difference.

The Gateway Process: Consciousness Engineering

Me: What about other CIA consciousness research?

Respondent: The Gateway Process document is even more revealing. Declassified through FOIA, it’s an analysis of consciousness alteration using audio technology called Hemi-Sync (different frequencies in each ear creating brain hemisphere synchronization).

What the CIA Document States:

Consciousness may exist independent of physical body
Reality might be holographic in nature
Time could be a human construct consciousness can transcend
Out-of-body experiences have operational potential
Non-local awareness might be achievable through specific techniques

This isn’t a “woo-woo” blog post. This is the Central Intelligence Agency—tasked with understanding and manipulating reality for national security—explicitly discussing metaphysical concepts as potentially real and exploitable.

The Document Explores:

Quantum mechanics and consciousness
Holographic models of reality
Altered states and information access
Practical applications for intelligence work

Me: Why would the intelligence community care about consciousness and metaphysics?

Respondent: Because if any of it works—even partially, unreliably—it represents:

Intelligence gathering beyond conventional surveillance
Communication channels that can’t be intercepted
Access to information through non-physical means
Potential advantages over adversaries

The fact that they studied it seriously for decades proves they found something worth investigating.

What “Unreliable” Actually Means

Me: But you said it was unreliable. Doesn’t that mean it didn’t really work?

Respondent: “Unreliable” in intelligence terms means you can’t depend on it for mission-critical operations. It doesn’t mean fake.

Analogy: If a spy gives you accurate intelligence 60% of the time and wrong information 40% of the time, they’re “unreliable” for intelligence purposes—but they’re definitely accessing real information somehow.

Remote viewing showed similar patterns:

Statistically significant results (better than chance)
Some stunning successes (accurate descriptions of classified facilities)
Enough failures to make it unreliable for operations
But real enough to study for 20 years

What This Proves: Consciousness can access non-local information through means we don’t understand. Not perfectly. Not consistently. But genuinely.

The Soviet Mirror Program

Me: Did other countries study this too?

Respondent: The Soviets had extensive programs, which is partly why the US felt compelled to research it. Intelligence agencies don’t spend millions on fantasy—they respond to perceived threats and opportunities.

Soviet Research:

Studied telepathy for military communication
Investigated psychokinesis for sabotage potential
Researched remote influence of biological systems
Developed training protocols for psi abilities

The Arms Race Dynamic: Whether psi worked or not, if the Soviets believed it might work and invested heavily, the US had to investigate to avoid strategic surprise. This created parallel programs on both sides.

Other Nations:

China has ongoing research (qigong, remote viewing)
Russia continues post-Soviet programs
Israel reportedly has remote viewing units
Multiple nations study consciousness for defense applications

The fact that multiple adversarial nations independently pursue this research suggests they’re all finding something real enough to warrant continued investment.

Specific Documented Successes

Me: Can you give examples of remote viewing that actually worked?

Respondent: Several are documented in declassified files:

1. Soviet Submarine Location (1979): Remote viewer described a large submarine at specific coordinates, details of its construction, and unusual features. Satellite confirmation showed remarkable accuracy.

2. Hostage Location (1980s): When conventional intelligence failed to locate a kidnapped military officer, remote viewers provided location details later confirmed accurate.

3. Classified Facility Description: Viewers described Soviet facilities they couldn’t have known about through normal channels—layouts, equipment, purposes—later verified through other intelligence.

4. Missing Aircraft: Several cases where remote viewers provided accurate information about crash locations when conventional search methods failed.

The Pattern: Not 100% accuracy. But far better than chance. And sometimes providing information that seemed impossible to obtain through normal means.

Why This Matters for You

Me: Interesting history, but what does Cold War psychic spying have to do with my life?

Respondent: Everything. Because if consciousness can access non-local information, then:

You’re More Than Your Physical Body: The mechanistic view—consciousness as mere brain activity—is incomplete at best. If remote viewing works at all, consciousness has properties that transcend physical location.

Your Perceptions Might Be Valid: Those “gut feelings,” synchronicities, intuitive hunches—maybe they’re not irrational. Maybe you’re accessing information through channels science hasn’t validated but intelligence agencies have quietly used.

Authority Isn’t Absolute: The same institutions that tell you “consciousness is just neurons” quietly study consciousness as something more. They know more than they admit publicly.

Reality Is Stranger: If government agencies with unlimited resources and no-nonsense mission focus found psi phenomena real enough to study for decades, maybe it’s time to take your own anomalous experiences seriously.

The Pattern of Public Denial and Private Research

Respondent: Notice the disconnect:

Public Narrative:

Telepathy is pseudoscience
Remote viewing is fraud
Psi phenomena are delusions
Anyone claiming otherwise is a crank

Private Reality:

CIA studies it for 20 years
Military explores operational applications
Stanford researchers find consistent effects
Multiple nations have active programs

This disconnect isn’t accidental. Public skepticism serves a purpose:

Keeps populations believing consciousness is limited
Prevents widespread exploration of human potential
Maintains institutional control over “legitimate” knowledge
Protects intelligence advantages from adversaries

Me: So the same institutions suppressing consciousness research publicly were researching it privately?

Respondent: Exactly. And that tells you everything you need to know about whether these phenomena are real.

What the Documents Don’t Say

Respondent: It’s important to note what the declassified CIA documents DON’T claim:

They Don’t Say:

Psi is perfectly reliable
Remote viewing can replace conventional intelligence
Everyone can do it equally well
We understand how it works
It’s ready for operational use

They DO Say:

Statistical effects above chance exist
Some individuals show remarkable abilities
The phenomena deserve serious study
There may be operational applications
Conventional physics doesn’t explain results

This measured conclusion from hard-nosed intelligence professionals should carry more weight than dismissive skeptics who never examined the evidence.

Putting This Into Practice

If intelligence agencies found this real enough to study, what could anyone do with that information?

Not everyone has the skills, the time, the money, and the space to explore these subjects personally. Especially remote viewing and telepathy. You might find it hard to even find partners who would partake in such endeavors. The closest thing I can imagine is the “superstition” from the Fulbhe in Guinea that claims:

If you think about someone for a long period of time they might randomly think about you. That means, if I think about or reminisce about a person, the thought of you might come to their mind.

The consequence of the previous claim is that, when you randomly start calling things or people a name of a person that’s not even there, people will state that the person is talking about you somewhere.

I never tried to prove this. You can try and have fun with this if you can. The point is that these kinds of phenomena aren’t the easiest to study. Instead, you can leave an open mind to reduce your confirmation bias and find documentation on previous and existing studies. There are tons of declassified documents and publicly accessible information that you can connect. Keep in mind that declassified information could be redacted and that there’s always more that won’t ever be declassified. I treat it as “they found better and don’t think can make much of the released information”.

So what can you do?

Keep journals of intuitive hits and misses
Notice synchronicities without dismissing them
Experiment with meditation and altered states
Read declassified documents (freely available online)
Examine the actual research, not dismissive summaries
Compare the data to skeptical claims
Form your own conclusions

Be A Critical Thinker:

When someone says “that’s impossible,” ask if they’ve examined the evidence
When institutions dismiss phenomena, ask who benefits from that dismissal
When “consensus” emerges, follow the money

Trust Direct Experience:

Your intuitions might be more than random noise
Your anomalous experiences might be genuine perceptions
Your consciousness might have capacities you’ve been taught to deny

In Part 5, we shift from consciousness to geopolitics, examining how France maintains colonial control over 14 African nations through currency manipulation—showing how the same suppression dynamics operate at national scales.

Sources

CIA Stargate Project files (available at CIA FOIA reading room)
CIA Gateway Process document (declassified 2003)
DIA remote viewing reports