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Questions for Dr. Russell Targ?!

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Christopher O'Brien

Christopher O'Brien

Back in the Saddle Aginn
Staff member
I'm happy and proud to announce that I've finally landed the ever-elusive Dr. Russell Targ to be a guest on the Paracast. For those who don't know, Targ and Hal Putoff led the team at Stanford Research Institute that created the "remote viewing" protocols in the early '70s about which many stories have arisen. I don't know of any other "paranormaL"-themed show that he has appeared on and we are extremely lucky to have him scheduled for a taping session on March 5. He has a new book out The Reality of ESP: A Physicist's Proof of Psychic Abilities that perhaps works in our favor. The title says it all. Skeptics take note: data may finally be overwhelming the mystery and those pesky debunkers of this realm should take notes. Read it and weep Moody, Randi, Nichol, Shermer et.al.!

So, here's your chance to quiz one of history's most important figures in the scientific research of the paranormal. I can't wait for this one! :D
 
Hi,
Dr Targ, thank you for being with us today, I just wanted to ask if you had read The Men Who Stare at Goats?

I also wanted to hear your response to the suggestion that the success of RV projects for the US government were an overblown imaginative smokescreen and attempt at muddying waters so not to compromise the mole leaks from the USSR which worked in tandem with other assorted UFO hoohaa as part of a greater project of media manipulation and control to spook the russians and protect US assets and secret technology.

cheers
 
Whatever there's time for and fits. Thanks!

1. Since Stanford Research Institute split from Stanford University to distance itself from DARPA, did the funding of your program by U.S. intelligence agencies create any complications?

2. Did your funding come from a central point, or did Army Intelligence, the CIA, and the DIA provide independent sourcing? Were there any conflicts between these agencies regarding funding, procedures, or other issues?

3. Beyond funding, how much interaction did you have with intelligence personnel? Were any of the organizations easier or harder to work with?

4. Back at Stanford University, Philip Zimbardo received funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for at least one of his projects. Did the ONR have any involvement with your program?

5. Do you believe that all government involvement with RV research ended with the termination of Stargate?
 
Were you present when Ingo Swann allegedly interacted with a magnetometer, entombed under the Varian Physics Building? Would you please explain the experiment, along with the findings?
Could you speak to the assertion that Dr. Heberd suggested that the magnetometer was malfunctioning at the time of the experiment?

Uri Geller has been a lighting rod used by skeptics in order to decry the existence of PSI in general. Are you under the impression that he possessed, what you would consider, as a genuine ability, or is it possible that he may have been simply a magician, as it has been alleged by skeptics? If a clever magician, how could he have possibly fooled everyone?

At some point, the defense department took over the Coordinate Remote Viewing program. It has been suggested that the move was premature, as the program needed further refinement. What additional work, (if any), would you consider, as to have been needed?

It has been suggested that experiments in PSI are seemingly ambiguous, and non repeatable. If there is evidence to the contrary, why hasn’t the empirical science community acknowledged this?

Was there ever one single event, or experiment conducted, in which you were convinced at the outcome, that some humans do in fact possess a sixth sense?

After many decades of research, what is your impression of time, space, matter, and how they may relate to human consciousness?
 
Q.1Dr Russell Targ you have mention in other interviews about a ESP app which is available for free and how as the response been to it?

Q.2Dr Russell Targ while you were working for the US Military in Remote Viewers teams did you ever get USO incidents while remote viewing for Soviets Subs Targets during the Cold War ? Also were they hostile?

Q.3Dr Russell Targ did the US Military Remote Viewing ever assisted other allied states in sending your remote viewers to set up similar organisations during the Cold War?

Q.4Dr Russell Targ were at any time was the Remote Viewers encounter poltergeist incidents during targeting assignments? Also what's your thoughts on near death experiences?
 
Q1: What do you know about Major Ed Dames? His "techniques" & protocols? His actual experience/knowledge?

Q2: Cutting through all of the Internet-driven hype, what are the realistic capabilities of "remote viewing"? It's practical limits?

Q3: Can you share *any* verifiable operational successes?

Q4: Can you explain, in unambiguous terms, how Remote Viewing works? How does one RV?
 
What was your process of going public with your interest in ESP research? Did you meet with resistance beyond your expectations? Do you think this is less difficult for scientists today?

Why is it that the psychics who are most visible in the media (like TV or newspaper astrologers or people like Sylvia Browne or James van Praagh) seem to be dead wrong in their predictions and "visions"most of the time? I guess what they are trying to do is some form of Remote Viewing?

What do you think about the idea that psi abilities work better in an environment that is more accepting than sceptical? Was there any evidence for this in your Remote Viewing experiments? Did you try RV with experimenters or subjects who were highly sceptical?

Do you think Uri Geller still possesses the abilities he demonstrated under controlled conditions in the SRI tests? Are these abilities reliable at all? Do they deteriorate over time?

Was there really no way Geller could have cheated? Were you suspicious of him at any time?

What do you think about the idea that evolution might have dumbed down Psi abilities so that we can function in our daily lives? Was there evidence that the more outstandig RV talents had to "shut off" parts of their perception to function normally in their daily life?

Do you think it would be possible to bring all the different consciousness related disciplines together (parapsychologists, NDE, Psi, medium and reincarnation researchers, Remote Viewers etc.) for one big event or press conference to present the evidence for a "deeper consciousness reality" to a world-wide audience?

Why is it called "Project Stargate"? I can't find a real explanation for that. The movie (which was rather cheesy IMO and doesn't seem to have any connection plot-wise) didn't hit theaters until the very end of the project and the name sounds too far-fetched for a random code name.
 
Welcome to the Paracast and I already hope you can return some day soon. 2 questions.

1. Do you think plants feel pain?
2. Back in 1979 a friend said he was going to "hate" one of my beloved house plants to death. He "hated on it" everyday for 2 weeks and it did in fact slowly die... out of over 200 well taken care of house plants I had, this one up and died on me. Do you think it is possible my friend hated it to death or do you think it was a coincidence?
 
When project stargate was shut down in 1995 (allegedly due to failing to produce useful intelligence information) was it really shut down? Or do you believe it has morphed into something else (possibly sinister) within the intelligence community? If so, why do you think that you've been allowed to lecture and write about remote viewing?

Also, are you aware of Persinger's study in 2002 that indicated positive remote viewing results, as well as the published results of his work with the allegely psychic Sean Harribance?
 
A few possible Q's for Dr. Targ, mostly from the sceptical angle:

- The wikipedia about SRI's remote viewing suggests that the project was halted because nothing came of it. Is that correct information or incorrect official information, or merely scientifically cautious information? SRI International - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- Can mental diciplin give you a mental space (e.g. during meditation) where you are so mentally aware that you can sense things from memory which you didn't know you remembered, or you didn't know you knew? And thus mistake internal information/thoughts for being external? I guess we all know the intense sensations and feelings we can get from e.g. smells we knew in childhood, and especially in semi-dreamstates like when waking up. It can feel almost like travelling back in time for a few intense moments. Are those moments comparable to taking part in supposed remote viewing sessions?

- In your opinion, what theories are available that might explain the reality of remote viewing? Entanglement? I can barely see how that could work with my superficial knowledge of entanglement and remote viewing, still, it's hard to imagine how you'd direct any thoughts to a location you didn't even know beforehand? Or would 'entangled brains' allow for you to see what others see? How would you know what brains to tap into? It seems you would have to 'ask' and get a 'response' involving a depth of symbolic information that I can't really grasp being transmitted in an entirely physical sense. Are there other theories that make more sense in a scientific and physical sense?

- How has the Bhuddist/Hindu view of the world influenced your approach to the topic? Or did the remote-viewing come before any spiritual matters? Are you hoping to prove your spirituality to yourself, prove that with spiritual dicipline you may become, literally, an all-seeing eye?

- Were you influenced by the fictional The Teachings of Don Juan by Castenada? How did you come upon the whole topic, witchcraft or 'the 60ies'? :D

- What are you hoping to accomplish with your publications? I imagine that things like Distant Mental Influence could be dangerous tools. Are you sure you want to propagate these tools, if you believe they actually work?
 
Dr. Targ,
With regard to Remote Viewing and UFO's, Jim Marrs book "Alien Agenda" dives into the muddied water surrounding the remote viewers ability to "target" UFO's as well as alien beings possibly on other planets. Paraphrasing a paragraph from his book he says the locating of UFO's by remote viewers is one of the US government's darkest secrets. Are you able to shed any light on this "dark secret" or is this just a fascinating story that shouldn't be looked at to find answers rather than looked at as another layer in the ever muddy world of Ufology.
 
Chris, et al @ The Paracast

THANK YOU!! This is HUGE!!!!

Q: DR. Targ, in a hypothetical sense, where do you ultimately "see" the affirmed faculty of human/organic contained remote viewing as taking us? In the same sense that basic computers gave us a stage one exterior artificial material working construct of the most basic aspects of the human mind, do you see such the real possibility an exterior technological construct that enables a non temporally leashed navigation of space?

Case in point: April 27, 1973 Ingo Swann remote views planet Jupiter. 10 years later via hard and verified scientific evidence garnered by mechanical space probes ,we find out that not only was MR. Swann "there", but the accuracy of his measurements and geological remote reporting were spot on and hypothetically surpass the accessible details made available via the space probes themselves.

Q: Do you think it's feasible that we will see a working equivalent technology, this being in historical parallel to the basic development of the computer itself, that facilitates the same type of non temporal space/time navigation achieved by Ingo Swann's organically contained faculties, by means of combining the 3 part hypothetical interfacial relationship of AI, human beings, and consciousness field reference?

To DR. Targ: I, and countless others cannot begin to effectively thank you enough, for your level of sincere sacrifice and dedication that you have exerted in the face of both ridicule and immense empirical resistance, so that we all might be brought many steps closer to the forefront of the ultimate frontier of potential, the human mind.
 
Ingo Swann claimed to remote view alien structures on the moon and alien creatures with psi faculties while working for an unknown gov't agency. His book about these events claimed that not only were there aliens in disguise on this planet but that secret agencies were well aware of these and were using psi powers as part of their own investigation into these offworlders. Do you place any personal stock in these claims and if so why have we not heard more about remote viewing in the past decade, or any other substantiating claims to confirm either aliens in our midst or that remote viewing has the ability to produce reliable results?
 
Hey, congrats on getting Mr. Targ on the show, Chris. I can't wait for it either!

Here's a retarded question:

Was the 70's-era video game (upright quarter-eating machine) "Targ" in some way related to you?
Much better questions above!
 
Questions:

1. Being a scientist I would never ask you 'what you believe in,' but from all your years of research is there anything you feel you have strong evidence for that would go against current mainstream scientific thinking?

2. Did your research into Remote Viewing lead you to look at any other areas of research that is shunned by the scientific establishment?

3. Have you any experience of coming up against colleagues in academia that would dismiss RV'ing without even looking at any data whatsoever?
 
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