RV HISTORY
A Brief Time Line of Remote Viewing History

Paul H. Smith

reprinted from APERTURE, Vol. 1, No.2, 2002

This chronology was compiled by IRVA vice-president Paul H. Smith partly based on research for his forthcoming book, Reading the Enemy's Mind.

This is only a brief chronology of events in remote viewing history. Many more details could be added, and many more names included. But this will serve as a starting place to record the major events and some of the important personalities in relation to one another. Certainly, important events and personalities remain to be added. This chronology will become more complete over time. If you wish to nominate an event to be considered for addition to the timeline please forward it to Timeline.

Readers should be aware that there are two parallel remote viewing timelines: the operational, military-run program at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and the civilian-led, military-funded research program in California. External civilian research and applications were also taking place. In the chronology below, the operational and military lines are intermingled with a few references to the RV-related activities in the civilian sector.

Sept 1971	Ingo Swann begins PK research with Cleve Backster
Nov 1971	Swann participates in PK experiments in Gertrude Schmeidler's lab; also participates in OBE experiments.
8 Dec 1971	First remote viewing experiment (describing weather in Tucson, AZ from ASPR offices in NYC). Term "Remote Viewing" is adopted.
22 Feb 1972	First beacon experiments (also conducted at ASPR)
March 1972	Cleve Backster shows Swann a letter from Dr. Hal Puthoff at Stanford Research Institute. Swann and Puthoff communicate.
6 June 1972	Swann/Puthoff magnetometer / quark-detector equipment experiment in physics building at Stanford University.
27 June 1972	Puthoff communicates with Kit Green, Central Intelligence Agency, concerning the magnetometer experiment results.
Aug 1972	Under Puthoff's supervision, CIA representatives conduct first evaluation trials with Swann. Russell Targ visits Puthoff at SRI.
1 Oct 1972	CIA awards SRI $50K exploratory contract.
Sept 1972	Russell Targ joins the RV program at SRI.
Summer 1973	Pat Price and Ingo Swann remote view NSA's Sugar Grove facility in West Virginia.
July 1974	Pat Price's operational remote viewing of a facility near Semipalatinsk in USSR conducted.
18 Oct 1974	Russell Targ and Hall Puthoff publish article on remote viewing research in Nature.
July 1975	CIA terminates involvement in and funding of remote viewing.
Later in 1975	Air Force Foreign Technology Division becomes the primary funder of SRI research program, with Dale Graff supervising.
March 1976	Puthoff & Targ publish a major article about remote viewing in Proceedings of IEEE.
1976	Dr. Edwin May joins RV program at SRI International.
1977	The book Mind Reach (Targ & Puthoff) is published.
June 1977	Founding of Mobius Group; Project Deepquest - a submarine RV experiment is jointly conducted by SRI International / Stephan Schwartz.
Sept 1977	US Army's remote viewing program GONDOLA WISH is extablished by Lt. F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater at the direction of the Army Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Edmund Thompson.
13 July 1978	GONDOLA WISH name is changed to GRILL FLAME.
Oct 1978	US Army's INSCOM is tasked by the ACSI  with developing a parapsychology program.
Dec 78 - Jan 79	Selection of remote viewers for GRILL FLAME. Mel Riley, Joe McMoneagle, Ken Bell, and three others are included.
4 Sept 1979	First Army-conducted operational remote viewing session performed.
March 1979	Remote viewers working with Dale Graff at Wright-Patterson AFB and at SRI correctly locate downed Soviet TU-22 recce aircraft.
1979-81	Stephan Schwartz conducts Alexandria Project, a remote viewing archaeology project in Egypt. His book Alexandria Project is subsequently published.
ca. 1980	Air Force Chief of Staff cancels AF RV program; Dale Graff joins Defense Intelligence Agency as principal staff officer for remote viewing effort.
1981-82	Puthoff and Swann develop coordinate remote viewing (CRV) architecture.
1982	Russell Targ leaves SRI International's RV program. Mel Riley departs Ft. Meade's operational RV unit.
1982	With Swann as instructor, two individuals (Tom McNear and Rob Cowart) begin first CRV training.
Dec 1982	US Army's RV project's name is changed to CENTER LANE.
1983	Charlene Cavanaugh joins military RV unit in August; Paul H. Smith joins in September.
Jan 1984	Bill Ray joins military RV unit; second group of CRV candidates begins training (group includes Smith, Ray, Charlene Chavanaugh; Ed Dames is last minute addition to training contract while remaining assigned to his sponsoring unit).
1984	The book Mind Race (Targ & Keith Harary) is published.
Apr 1984	Lyn Buchanan joins the Ft. Meade RV unit.
Sept 1984	Joe McMoneagle retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit.
July 1984	Brig. Gen Harry Soyster replaces Maj. Gen. Bert Stubblebine as Commander, INSCOM. Orders close of Army's CENTER LANE RV program. Soyster eventually persuaded to allow transfer of program & personnel to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
1985	Dr. Hal Puthoff leaves SRI International to take directorship of Institute of Advanced Studies in Austin, TX. Dr. Edwin May becomes director of SRI's program.
1985-86	Caravel Project, an underwater archaeology project conducted by Stephan Schwartz.
31 Jan 1986	After a year of holding operational control, DIA takes formal control of the military operational RV program, and renames it SUN STREAK. Ed Dames joins RV unit.
1986	Mel Riley is once more assigned to the Ft. Meade RV unit.
1987	Brig Leander Project, an underwater archaeology project conducted by Stephan Schwartz.
Dec 1987	F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater departs the Ft. Meade RV unit on retirement leave.
June 1988	David Morehouse is assigned to the Ft. Meade RV unit.
Dec 1988	Ed Dames departs the Ft. Meade RV unit.
June 1990	David Morehouse departs, and Mel Riley retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit.
Aug 1990	Paul Smith is reassigned from the Ft. Meade RV unit to the 101st Airborne Division for Desert Shield / Desert Storm.
Late 1990	Dale Graff becomes chief of the Ft. Meade RV unit, and changes project name to STAR GATE.
1991	Edwin May moves RV research program from SRI International to Science Applications International Corporation.
Jan 1992	Lyn Buchanan retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit.
1993	The book Mind Trek (McMoneagle) is published.
June 1993	Dale Graff retires.
1994	Wording added to Federal Y95 budget transferring control of STAR GATE from DIA to CIA.
1995	CIA begins Congressionally directed evaluation of RV as an intelligence tool. American Institutes of Research is hired to do a "scientific" study; in the report officially published in September the AIR concludes that RV has no value as an intelligence tool. Significant questions are raised about the completeness and accuracy of the AIR study.
30 June 1995	CIA cancels STAR GATE program. The five remaining personnel are reassigned to other jobs in the government.
28 Nov 1995	Ted Koppel's Nightline reveals existence of government remote viewing effort. Interviewed are former CIA director Robert Gates, Dale Graff, Edwin May, Joe McMoneagle, etc.
1996	Remote Viewing is featured in many media articles and broadcasts, and becomes a featured item on Art Bell's and other talk shows.
Nov 1996	The book Psychic Warrior (Morehouse) is published.
Feb 1997	The book Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies (Schnabel) is published.
18 March 1999	The International Remote Viewing Association is formed.
19-20 March 1999	First remote viewing conference: CRV Conference hosted by Lyn Buchanan's training company, P>S>I. Featured speakers: Russell Targ, John Alexander..
19-20 May 2000	Year 2000 Remote Viewing Conference in Mesquite, NV. Featured speakers: Charles T. Tart, Jessica Utts, Larry Dossey, Marcello Truzzi..
June 2001	First IRVA sponsored remote viewing conference. Held at Texas, Station Las Vegas, NV. Featured speakers: Edgar Mitchell, Dean Radin, Jeffrey Mishlove.
June 2002	IRVA remote viewing conference in Austin, TX, celebrating 30 years of remote viewing. Featured speakers: Ingo Swann, Hal Puthoff, Dale Graff, Cleve Backster.
October 2003	Joint sponsorship of remote viewing conference with the A.R.E. Held at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Featured speakers: Charles Cayce, James Spottiswoode, Hal Puthoff, and Dale Graff.
June 2004	IRVA remote viewing conference in Las Vegas, NV. Featured speakers: Ingo Swann, Melvin Morse, and Daryl Bem

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Copyright©2002 by Paul H. Smith.
Permission granted to quote in full or part with proper attribution.