The military intelligence application of RV

In 1978, a few persons were recruited by the U.S. military to begin a small but intense effort toward using psychic ability to answer questions that government and military intelligence agencies had. They were culled from the military based on a variety of factors, interviews, and actual RV testing.

Some questions are not easy to answer through physical spies or radio satellites, and so it was hoped that psychics might be able to come up with some of the pieces to the puzzle. The unit began with half a dozen people, and at its largest seldom had more than a dozen people at any one time. Eventually it was a mix of military and civilian intelligence, full and part-time personnel.

The psychics in the early unit generally worked under the "remote viewing" protocol when possible, and most were familiar with and at some point at least peripherally involved with research as well. So the personnel in the unit were referred to as "remote viewers." The psychics who founded the unit were successful, and the unit's abilities generated interest and more tasking from every known government agency.

Later recruiting techniques were different, and in 1985, after the retirement of the last of the ‘original’ team of Viewers, the intelligence unit was transferred from the Army to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). At that point psychic methods that Ingo Swann had compiled were taught to people coming new into the unit, as a different approach to teaching and practicing this kind of psychic work.

The program was closed (including the Unit) in 1985 after being transferred to the CIA.

-- PJ