REMOTE VIEWING METHODOLOGIES

Controlled (also "Coordinate") Remote Viewing

Controlled remote viewing (CRV)--together with its derivatives--is probably the most widely known and practiced of the varieties of remote viewing methodologies. CRV was originally known as "coordinate" remote viewing, because the primary mechanism for targeting viewers was the geographic coordinates of the target's location. After the government program became public knowledge in 1995, the name was changed from "coordinate" to "controlled" to reflect the broader aspects of the methodology. CRV was developed beginning in the mid-to-late 70s. As SRI's research revealed the promising aspects of remote viewing, it seemed reasonable to explore ways to develop the skill that some people seemed innately to have in others who had not yet demonstrated the ability. Working closely together, Hal Puthoff and Ingo Swann worked out a structured approach to remote viewing that promised to make the skill transferable and teachable. This method was used to train military personnel and government civilians to become effective remote viewers, and became a major RV methodology employed for the last 11 years of the government program.

CRV is based on the notion that one does not train someone to be "psychic," but rather teaches a person to "expand the parameters" of his or her perceptions, as Swann puts it. Information obtained through CRV is carried to the viewer on a theorized "signal line" which the viewer's subconscious detects. The goal of CRV is to facilitate the transfer of information from the viewer's subconscious, across the threshold of awareness, and into waking consciousness, where it can be "decoded" into a form the viewer can express intelligibly. Viewers are trained how to deal with--in other words, control--the mental "noise" encountered in the course of the remote viewing session.

To implement this process, CRV is structured as a set of formal stages which correspond to the progressively deeper levels of awareness the viewer goes through as he or she gains ever greater contact with the RV signal line. A typical description of these stages is as follows:

• Stage 1.  Perception of basic, overall nature of the site or target (usually referred to as the "major gestalt"). Examples of these major gestalts might be "land," "structure," "water," "event," etc.
• Stage 2.  Basic sensory perceptions--tastes, sounds, colors, qualities of light, textures, temperatures, etc.
• Stage 3.  Perception of the site's or target's dimensional qualities--i.e., height, breadth, width, depth, angularity, curvature, density, etc. Sketching of viewer perceptions is an important aspect of this stage.
• Stage 4.  Perception of increasingly complex and abstract perceptions about the site or target.
• Stage 5.  "Interrogation" of the signal line. Allows details of the target to be more fully explored.
• Stage 6.  Allows further sketching and three-dimensional modeling or sculpting of aspects of the site or target, while acquiring further qualitative information.

Various derivatives of the original Swann/Puthoff methodology have re-ordered some of the stages, made alterations to some of the content, and introduced changes in the vocabulary originally adopted by SRI. However, the overall intent of each of these derivatives remains the same as the original version of CRV.

Two of the more widely-known of these CRV derivatives are "technical remote viewing" (TRV), taught by Mr. Ed Dames through his company Technical Remote Viewing Institute; and a TRV-derivative/Transcendental Meditation hybrid known as "scientific remote viewing" (SRV), which was developed by Dr. Courtney Brown through his Farsight Institute.

Versions of CRV itself are offered by:
Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc., of Austin, TX; and
Problems>Solutions>Innovations, of Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Extended Remote Viewing

All these acronyms for methods of remote viewing tend to confuse me. I sort of know what "CRV" is, but what is "ERV"?

In Extended Remote Viewing, or ERV for short, a viewer relaxes on a bed or other comfortable support and tries to reach a 'hypnagogic' state - a condition at the borderline between asleep and awake. The room is darkened and soundproofed if possible.

As the viewer reaches the edge of consciousness, a second person in the room, the monitor, begins the session with a tasking, that is directions to the viewer to access the desired target. Once the viewer can describe elements of the correct target, the monitor quietly poses questions about the target. These questions may request details, purpose, appearance, construction, activities, or other target-related information. The monitor records or writes down the answers the viewer provides. After the session the viewer makes additional notes about what was perceived, along with appropriate sketches or drawings.

The theory behind ERV is that, given the likelihood that remote viewing impressions bubble up from the subconscious, then deliberately approaching an unconscious state should make it easier to detect these impressions with less mental noise. (In reality, this noise does not seem any less in ERV than it does in other remote viewing methods.)

The term ERV was originally coined by Capt. F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater while he was operations and training officer for the Army's remote viewing unit at Ft. Meade, MD. ERV existed before its name did, and was used by some of the first military viewers. Because an ERV session took longer than did a CRV one, Skip decided to call it by "extended" RV, and the name stuck.