What is Remote Viewing? Declassifying a Psychic Phenomenon
Remote viewing is the psychic ability to acquire accurate information about a distant or non-local place, person, or event without using your physical senses or any other obvious means. It’s associated with the idea of clairvoyance, seemingly being able to spontaneously know something without actually knowing how you got the information. It is also sometimes called “anomalous cognition” or “second sight.”
Many of us experience this from time to time as an intuitive flash of insight that turns out to be correct. Many well-known entrepreneurs and business people, like George Soros, Conrad Hilton, Thomas Alva Edison, and Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, have attributed their business success to this ability. And we’ve all seen natural psychics perform seemingly amazing feats of mental skill on TV.
The difference between natural psychic receptivity and remote viewing is that the latter is a trained skill, a controlled process, that the average person can learn to do to some degree.
This ability seems to be distributed in the human population in varying degrees, just like a musical skill—some people are really good at playing an instrument, but almost everyone can hum a tune or whistle.
History of the Remote Viewing Program
Remote viewing in modern times originates from the U.S. government’s interest in psychic espionage during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Back during World War II, the Soviets had heard rumors that the U.S. military was using psychic spies and communications at sea. While it’s not clear now whether this was true, the Soviets believed it and started their own psychic training within their military and intelligence agencies many decades ago. The U.S. government learned of this program and, in the early 1970s, decided to create a remote viewing CIA training program.
Stanford Research Institute Remote Viewing Experiments
Money and resources were given by the Central Intelligence Agency to Stanford Research Institute (SRI), located on the campus of Stanford University at the time, to test the possibility of remote viewing. The goal was to disprove that psychic functioning was real. No one wanted it to exist. It was the last thing the military establishment wanted to worry about, especially if it was a new Soviet threat.
Physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, working at SRI, were tasked with determining whether extrasensory perception (ESP) and related phenomena were real or not (known as parapsychology). During their parapsychological research, Targ and Putoff set about to locate some natural psychics and test them. Their first subject was artist, psychic, and scientist Ingo Swann of New York City, who had demonstrated an ability to accurately “remote view” weather in various American cities. He also published some articles about ESP and psychokinesis (the ability to mentally affect distant objects) when he worked with researcher Gertrude Schmeidler of City College and the American Society for Psychical Research.
Working with Schmeidler, Swann had shown that he could affect the temperature of thermistors sealed in insulated thermos canisters twenty-five feet away from him. At a friend’s request, Swann sent his published findings to Putoff, who asked Swann to come to SRI and demonstrate his abilities. The first thing they had Swann do was to see if he could affect a super sensitive, electromagnetically shielded quark detector buried five feet underground in a cement floor. Every time Putoff asked Swann to think about the detector (used to detect subatomic particles), the readings from the device would noticeably deviate from the baseline readings. Putoff was convinced that Swann had special abilities, and so the program to test and develop remote viewing began.
Expanded Scope
At first, they had Swann view objects in a box; this was a practice he was good at but quickly became bored with. Swann said to them, “I can view anything in the universe; this is a trivialization of my abilities.” A few days later, he came up with a new way to do remote viewing: viewing map coordinates. Targ and Putoff went out and bought the biggest atlas they could find at the local bookstore. Swann’s coordinate map viewing turned out to be a big success. A critic at the Central Intelligence Agency suggested that maybe he had memorized the entire global map.
Swann went on to use randomly chosen numerical coordinates to view randomly selected events, people, and structures around the planet. He performed equally well using this coordinate-based viewing system.
Validation of Remote Viewers
Swann coined the term “remote viewing” to describe the process, though you can question whether the information is remote to the viewer or whether the process is entirely visual. Some people are more sensitive to auditory, kinesthetic, or other sensory types, and few viewers actually “see” the target very clearly. Nonetheless, the name stuck and was sufficient to convince the intelligence agencies to fund the project.
Other viewers were also tasked to help Targ and Putoff understand remote viewing. Pat Price, a former police commissioner from Burbank, California, also proved to be an excellent viewer. Price used his own system to view where he imagined that he was at the distant target site. His results were so good that the Central Intelligence Agency hired him to work for them directly. Back East, another natural viewer, Joe McMoneagle, also known as “Remote Viewer No. 1,” worked directly with the U.S. Army and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was also tested and found to have amazing abilities to describe and sketch distant locations. Upon retirement, McMoneagle was awarded a Legion of Merit award, in part, for his five years of remote viewing missions for the military and various government agencies.
Beyond government use, some remote viewers have claimed applications in areas such as crime-solving, missing persons searches, and even financial market predictions. However, these claims remain anecdotal and lack independent verification.
Coordinate Remote Viewing
However, Swann was able to describe, with great precision, what he was doing with his mind and attention as he was viewing, an ability other viewers did not have. This allowed him to come up with a 6-stage system that could be taught to anyone, including you or me. It became known as CRV: Coordinate (or Controlled) Remote Viewing.
Swann’s CRV system is based on separating out signal from noise in your mind as you are viewing. All the information is recorded during a session, but the viewer puts the noise in a different place on the paper than the signal. At the end of the session, you can separate them from one another. The method became the basis of the remote viewing protocols that the U.S. Army taught to several groups of viewers. The program continued until 1995, at which point it was declassified by the government. Over two decades, approximately $20 million of funding went to what eventually became known as the Stargate Project.
Princeton’s Random Number Generator Research
During this time, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) at Princeton University, run by Bob Jahn and Brenda Dunn, also conducted twenty years of research into remote viewing and so-called “micro-psychokinesis” with experiments on the effect of human intention on Random Number Generators (RNGs). They found that looking at the cumulative results of hundreds of thousands of trials, their subjects could influence about 2 or 3 events per 10,000 random coin flips by seemingly moving the device away from true randomness in an inexplicable way. The odds of these results being by chance were an astonishing 375 trillion to one.
Scientific Analysis of the Program
When the Stargate program was declassified, one of the two people asked to evaluate the program was statistician Jessica Utts, the head of the American Statistical Association at the time of this writing. She concluded, “Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted. Effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and SAIC (another government-sponsored think tank) have been replicated at several laboratories across the world. Such consistency cannot be readily explained by claims of flaws or fraud.”
Researcher Dean Radin, doing very complex meta-analyses using the results of many studies about psychic perception over many decades, came to the same conclusion. Looking at the entire population, not just trained viewers, remote viewing has a weak effect, about four to eight percent higher than expected if we were only using our physical senses to gather information; yet, it’s consistently there in everyone.
Coordinate Remote Viewing
However, Swann was able to describe, with great precision, what he was doing with his mind and attention as he was viewing, an ability other viewers did not have. This allowed him to come up with a 6-stage system that could be taught to anyone, including you or me. It became known as CRV: Coordinate (or Controlled) Remote Viewing.
Swann’s CRV system is based on separating out signal from noise in your mind as you are viewing. All the information is recorded during a session, but the viewer puts the noise in a different place on the paper than the signal. At the end of the session, you can separate them from one another. The method became the basis of the remote viewing protocols that the U.S. army taught to several groups of viewers. The program lasted until 1995 when it was declassified; about $20 million was spent over the two decades.
How Does Remote Viewing Work?
When someone asks you to describe something, you normally proceed to name what you’re perceiving using nouns and symbols. Remote viewing is just the opposite. You begin by describing your perceptions without trying to identify anything about what they mean or what the larger picture is. Start with basic gestalt: fundamental, general components of the target site, such as whether it’s manmade, living, or natural. You then proceed to basic colors, smells, temperatures, shapes, and sizes.
Unlike clear mental pictures, the information usually surfaces as vague impressions, symbols, or sensory cues. Remote viewers often describe textures, colors, or feelings rather than full images, which makes the verification and feedback loop essential to interpret the data accurately.
Only after you’ve been describing the target for a while can you proceed to more specific ideas and possibly names, nouns, and more analytical types of information.
In this way, Swann would say that you are opening the aperture of your perception slowly and resisting the temptation to draw conclusions about what you are viewing.
Follow the Ambiguity Methodology
Our minds are always attempting to conclude what we’ve perceived at any given moment, but because you have no conscious, physical information to work from in remote viewing, you’re almost always likely to be wrong if you do so. This brings us to one of the great paradoxes of remote viewing: the fainter the perception, the more likely it is to be accurate and the less likely you are to feel confident in that perception.
In other words, the more confident you are about your remote perceptions during the session, the less likely those perceptions are to be correct! And the less confident you feel, the more likely it is that your perceptions are right on. How’s that for a paradox?
Good remote viewers learn to trust the feelings of uncertainty and ambiguity they get while doing a session.
How to Learn Remote Viewing
If you’d like to explore remote viewing, there are many resources available. Books by participants in the original program—such as Joe McMoneagle, Lyn Buchanan, Paul Smith, Ingo Swann, Dale Graff, and researchers like Russell Targ or Ed May—offer firsthand accounts and training methods. Others, including Dean Radin, Courtney Brown, and Angela Thompson Smith, continued studying the subject after the government program was declassified. You can also look into the International Remote Viewers Association (IRVA), which holds an annual conference for those interested in the practice.
No one entirely understands how remote viewing works, so you’re likely to learn the most by keeping an open but balanced mindset as you read about it and perhaps try it for yourself. Meditation or other focus practices can be useful starting points, especially if you’ve never done any subtle awareness training before.
While many groups promote remote viewing as a learnable skill, it’s important to approach the practice with both curiosity and skepticism. Scientific consensus maintains that no controlled studies have confirmed its reliability, so any personal experiences should be treated as subjective rather than objective proof.
About the Author
What Is Remote Viewing and How Is It Developed?
Table of Contents
- What Is Remote Viewing?
- Stanford Research and the Origins of Remote Viewing
- Understanding the Difference Between Clairvoyance and Remote Viewing
- Remote Viewing Training: How to Practice and Actionable Techniques
- Can Everyone Develop Remote Viewing?
- Spiritual Benefits of Developing Remote Viewing
- Myths and Facts About the Art of Remote Viewing
- The Continuing Debate Around Remote Viewing
What Is Remote Viewing?
Remote viewing is one of the most advanced psychic abilities and a structured practice of extrasensory perception (ESP) that allows a remote viewer to describe or gather information about a distant target site using only the mind. Unlike traditional sensory perception, this technique seeks impressions of locations, objects, or events without relying on the five physical senses. Supporters view it as a disciplined method of accessing hidden information, while skeptics often consider it a form of psychic phenomena without scientific proof.
The concept of remote viewing has been explored in both spiritual and experimental settings, where researchers and practitioners alike have tested whether the human mind can access information beyond normal perception. Reports of successful sessions describe participants sketching landscapes, describing structures, or identifying key features of a location they have never physically visited.
The process follows a multi-stage protocol. A typical remote viewing session begins with relaxation or meditation to quiet mental distractions, followed by setting a clear intention to connect with the chosen target. During the session, the viewer records raw sensory impressions, such as shapes, textures, sounds, or temperatures, before attempting to interpret them. Patience, consistent training, and repeated sessions are considered essential for refining accuracy and building confidence in the results.
Stanford Research and the Origins of Remote Viewing
Remote viewing moved to formal study in the early 1970s when physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff began experiments at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in California. Their work sought to determine whether the human mind could obtain information about distant places or objects without ordinary sensory input, a concept they referred to as “remote perception.”
At SRI, trained participants known as remote viewers attempted to describe hidden or distant target sites, locations, objects, or events, while shielded from all conventional cues. Sessions followed a controlled protocol in which viewers recorded mental impressions such as shapes, textures, and spatial relationships. According to reports, some results produced descriptions accurate enough to be statistically significant beyond chance, sparking interest from military and intelligence agencies.
This research eventually attracted funding from the U.S. government, including the CIA and the Department of Defense, under programs like the now-declassified Stargate Project. These initiatives explored whether remote viewing could aid intelligence gathering during the Cold War and led to decades of classified testing. While the studies generated intriguing data, critics highlighted issues with experimental controls and the often vague nature of the information obtained. Today, despite Targ’s continued advocacy and writings on the subject, mainstream science generally regards remote viewing as pseudoscience, noting that no reproducible evidence confirms it as a reliable phenomenon.
Understanding the Difference Between Clairvoyance and Remote Viewing
Clairvoyance and remote viewing are psychic abilities used to obtain information beyond the physical senses, yet their goals and methods differ in key ways. Clairvoyance is the ability to receive spontaneous or intentional visual impressions about people, places, or events outside normal sensory range. It can arise as a natural gift or be developed through training, allowing a person to perceive images, colors, symbols, or entire scenes that appear within the mind’s eye.
Remote viewing, by contrast, is a carefully structured form of remote perception designed to describe details of a distant target site without physical access. This skill follows a defined protocol to collect accurate and verifiable data. During a remote viewing session, the viewer records raw sensory impressions, such as shapes, sounds, textures, or spatial relationships, while using systematic methods to reduce conscious analysis and outside influence.
The range of information also differs. Clairvoyants may receive broad, symbolic visions or intuitive messages that require interpretation, including insights about a person’s emotions, potential future events, or abstract themes. Remote viewers, on the other hand, focus on describing specific, tangible characteristics of the target, such as geographic features, structural elements, or measurable details that can later be checked against reality.
Although both practices claim access to knowledge beyond the five senses, clairvoyance remains more subjective and open-ended, while remote viewing emphasizes repeatable steps and data that can be compared to actual outcomes. These distinctions give each practice its own set of applications and training approaches, offering different pathways for exploring extrasensory perception.
How to Remote ViewÂ
Remote viewing is presented as a disciplined way to gather information about a distant target site through focused mental perception. Rather than waiting for spontaneous visions, a remote viewer follows structured steps to capture sensory impressions and record them for later verification. Training focuses on relaxing the body, calming the mind, and developing the ability to notice subtle impressions without letting analysis interfere.
Mental Preparation and Focus
Begin by creating a quiet environment where you can relax and settle your thoughts. Deep breathing or meditation reduces mental noise and strengthens concentration. Practitioners set a clear intent to perceive details about the target while keeping thoughts neutral. This focused state supports the reception of impressions that might otherwise be missed.
The Viewing Process
During a remote viewing session, a monitor or assistant may provide a neutral cue for the hidden target. Quickly note the first impressions—colors, shapes, sounds, or temperatures—without naming the object or trying to interpret it. Recording these raw perceptions before analysis helps preserve data that can later be matched to the target. Treat each sensation as information, even if it seems random.
Development and Refinement
Consistent practice strengthens accuracy and detail in remote viewing work. After each session, compare your notes with the actual target to identify patterns and improve precision. Over time, this routine builds confidence and reliability while helping you expand from basic impressions to more complex sensory details.
Beginner Practice Exercise
Developing remote viewing requires practice and a systematic approach. Here is a simple exercise you can do to start training this skill:
- Select Targets: Ask a friend or family member to choose 5–10 varied images from magazines, such as landscapes, people, or objects.
- Prepare the Envelopes: Have your assistant place each image face down in a sealed envelope and keep the contents secret.
- Calm Your Mind: Find a quiet spot, close your eyes, and breathe deeply to reduce distractions.
- Set the Stage: Write down the date, time, and any distracting thoughts to clear your mind before you begin.
- Describe the Target: Without opening the envelope, write down the first basic impressions that arise, textures, colors, patterns, movements, without judgment or analysis.
- Draw a Sketch: Create a rough sketch of the shapes or structures you sensed. Artistic skill is not important; focus on capturing the essence of the impressions.
- Get Feedback: Open the envelope and compare your notes and sketch with the actual image. Reflect on similarities and differences to learn from the session.
This foundational exercise provides immediate feedback and helps develop the mental discipline that supports more advanced techniques. By repeating the process and reviewing your notes after every session, you begin to recognize subtle patterns, sharpen your attention to small sensory details, and train your mind to capture impressions before analysis sets in. Over time, these habits create the steady focus and self-awareness needed to attempt longer sessions, more complex target sites, and the structured protocols used by experienced remote viewers.
Can Everyone Develop Remote Viewing?
Remote viewing is a skill that most people can learn and improve with steady practice. While a few individuals may show natural sensitivity from the start, consistent training is what allows the majority of students to strengthen their abilities over time. Progress depends less on innate “psychic powers” and more on patience, focus, and regular sessions that teach the mind to notice subtle impressions.
Key factors that support development include:
- Regular practice: Short, frequent sessions help train attention and reduce mental noise.
- Strong concentration: The ability to maintain a quiet, alert mind is critical for receiving accurate impressions.
- Open mindset: Curiosity and a willingness to record even faint or unexpected impressions prevent early filtering.
- Structured methods: Following a step-by-step protocol or guided training provides consistent feedback and measurable improvement.
- Patience and perseverance: Results may start small, but skill grows as the mind learns to separate fleeting thoughts from genuine target information.
Spiritual Benefits of Developing Remote Viewing
Remote viewing is more than a method for gathering impressions about a distant target site. Practicing it over time can transform the way you experience the world and your inner self. Training as a remote viewer calls for quiet focus, disciplined attention, and regular sessions, and these habits naturally foster deeper awareness and a stronger sense of connection. Many people find that the mental discipline required for remote viewing work carries over into everyday life, creating benefits that go far beyond the sessions themselves.
Below are some of the most frequently reported spiritual and personal gains:
- Spiritual connection: Regular practice encourages a stronger bond with the universe and with your own inner life. This deeper connection can spark insight into personal purpose and the larger patterns of existence.
- Expanded awareness: Reaching for information beyond ordinary senses stretches perception and helps you recognize the interdependence of all things. Over time, many viewers describe a heightened sensitivity to subtle patterns in daily life.
- Sharper intuition: Recording and reviewing impressions during a remote viewing session strengthens subtle perception. Many practitioners notice clearer gut feelings and more confidence when making important choices.
- Relaxation and balance: The quiet, focused state required for each session naturally promotes deep relaxation. This meditative practice can reduce stress and support steady emotional balance.
- Personal growth: Working with remote viewing often reveals self-imposed limits. Meeting those challenges builds patience, resilience, and a broader perspective on the capabilities of the human mind.
Myths and Facts About the Art of Remote Viewing
Remote viewing has always carried an air of mystery, which makes it easy for rumors and misconceptions to spread. Sorting myth from reality helps anyone interested in the practice approach it with realistic expectations and a clear understanding of what this remote perception technique can and cannot do.
Remote Viewing Myths
- For psychics only: Many believe that only gifted psychics or psychic mediums can succeed as remote viewers. In truth, structured training protocols show that people without any prior extrasensory experience can learn the process.
- Dangerous to the mind: Some worry that remote viewing might cause mental harm or invite negative forces. When practiced with proper guidance, it is no more harmful than meditation or focused visualization.
- Unlimited access: A frequent claim is that a skilled viewer can observe anything, anywhere, at any time. In practice, sessions often yield partial impressions, symbolic fragments, or ambiguous details rather than unlimited surveillance.
- Guaranteed accuracy: Movies and sensational reports sometimes suggest that trained viewers always describe a target site with perfect precision. In reality, even experienced practitioners have sessions where impressions are vague, contradictory, or incorrect.
- Proof of supernatural powers: Supporters sometimes frame successful sessions as unquestionable evidence of psychic powers. Skeptics counter that hits can stem from coincidence, selective memory, or subconscious pattern recognition, so results remain open to debate.
Remote Viewing Facts
- Requires steady practice: Consistent training, patience, and honest feedback are essential. Progress comes from refining mental discipline and learning to separate subtle impressions from imagination.
- Documented research history: Programs at institutions like the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and government projects such as Stargate show that the topic has been tested under controlled conditions, even though the scientific community remains divided on its validity.
- Not infallible: A single session may contain both accurate and inaccurate details. Statistical studies have found results better than chance in some cases, but no protocol eliminates human error or subjective interpretation.
- Often labeled a pseudoscience: Despite decades of experiments, remote viewing lacks a mechanism recognized by mainstream science. Researchers describe it as a form of extrasensory perception (ESP), but its status remains unproven and controversial.
The Continuing Debate Around Remote Viewing
Remote viewing remains a topic that straddles the line between curiosity, research, and controversy. Decades after the early experiments at SRI and the CIA’s Stargate Project, interest in the practice continues in spiritual circles, private training groups, and online communities. Supporters point to statistically significant studies and personal experiences as evidence that the human mind may have abilities beyond ordinary senses. Skeptics view those same results as chance, methodological flaws, or creative interpretation rather than proof of genuine psychic phenomena.
Whether approached as a meditative discipline, a tool for exploring consciousness, or simply a historical curiosity, remote viewing invites people to test the limits of perception for themselves. Practicing relaxation, careful observation, and structured feedback can strengthen focus and intuition even if no “psychic spy” skills emerge. By understanding the myths, research history, and training methods, readers can decide how much of this psychic phenomenon feels meaningful while maintaining a grounded perspective on what remains unverified.
