I promised to write about attending the talk at the Rhine Institute by the remote viewing expert. Said expert goes by the name of Dale Graff, one of the founders of Project Stargate, the CIA-funded effort to harness psychic abilities for use in intelligence.

Needless to say, STARGATE was a controversial project – a hot potato when word leaked out about it in 1984. After the plug was officially pulled on the project in 1995, Graff and others could come forward with news of its activities.

Graff is a physicist by training and portrays the bookish mannerisms of a lifelong scientist. Working for the CIA as an analyst of Soviet technology, he gets word that the Soviets have invested in research of psychic phenomena. Graff writes up a proposal for funding which mentions a “psychic gap” between the Cold War nations and the project was born.

Graff’s background is most intriguing to me. He is a trained scientist – quite used to working within the boundaries provided by conventional science. Yet somehow he saw beyond those boundaries and created a career in an area of knowledge most consider to be voodoo. Graff told us that he actively kept a dream journal and discovered that his dreams were often prophetic. Buttressed by his own experience in so-called psychic phenomena, he felt confident he could work to improve understanding in this area.

And that is exactly what he did. I’m not sure who coined the phrase “remote viewing,” but by doing so, he or she removed the biggest obstacle in its understanding. Suddenly it is no longer taboo – it is a technique. Along with researchers at the Stanford Research Institute, Graff’s team helped to refine mental capabilities that once seemed like so much fantasy.

Graff narrated a slideshow where he highlighted the often stunning success of his remote viewing team. His team played a role in locating downed pilots, hostages, fugitives, and secret projects hidden away behind the Iron Curtain. The details provided were so jaw-droppingly precise that one’s mind boggles at the odds they came about simply through chance. After a half-dozen success stories, I became convinced.

While Graff didn’t detail his team’s failures (other than their advice being neglected in the Col. William Higgins hostage case), the successes are too impressive to dismiss.

I left the talk wanting to learn more about this skill, including how to use it myself. If it really can be done, I want to see for myself.