Monday, December 11, 1995
Major Dames wants to set the record straight regarding U.S. Government involvement in remote viewing. He supplies further information in response to recent press reports, most of which merely scratched the surface of the topic. The CIA evaluation of remote viewing dealt only with results achieved in controlled, unclassified research environments. Here are some additional historic facts, provided by Major Dames:
Omitted from the Nightline discussion was any mention of the actual DoD (Department of Defense) operational unit. STARGATE bore no resemblance to its progenitor Army psychic spy unit, which operated as a classified entity for more than a decade (1977-1988). STARGATE consisted of three individuals, only one of which was a professional military remote viewer. The other two individuals (both female) were tarot card readers and channelers, employed by DIA since 1987. One maintained a very intimate relationship with a certain member of the U.S. Congress. The original unit consisted of between 6-8 commissioned MI (military intelligence) officers. No civilian researcher ever had access to this unit. Through his limited contact with the unclassified research, Ray Hyman unwittingly became a "Judas Goat," helping to keep the Soviets (and, for operational security reasons, the American taxpayers), in the dark about both the existence of the unit and, more importantly, its effectiveness.
The remote viewing program had three aspects, each of which received separate Department of the Army funding. These were:
- The operational unit (classified).
- A medical evaluation program, to determine effects of RV on trainees (classified).
- A remote viewing R&D program — the proverbial "tip of the iceberg" (unclassified).
The Army operational unit had been continuously employed, since 1978, in support of actual missions, first for DoD, later for the entire national intelligence community, particularly in cases where all other intelligence penetration attempts had failed, or were not available. GRILL FLAME, (which was listed on the INSCOM books as "Detachment G"), had consisted of soldiers and a few civilians who possessed varying degrees of natural psychic ability. These operatives utilized altered states to achieve (varying degrees) of target contact.
Major Dames had been both an electronic warfare officer and scientific and technical intelligence officer, from 1981-83. During that time, he was one of GRILL FLAME's primary "customers" for its product. In 1983, Ingo Swann, under the direction of Dr. Harold Puthoff at SRI, realized a breakthrough, i.e., he developed an accurate model of how the collective unconscious communicates (target) information to conscious awareness. Swann believed that the ability to remote view, like language, is an innate faculty — a birthright — but must be learned to be effective. Swann's model provided a rigid set of instructions which theoretically allowed anyone to actually be trained to produce accurate, detailed target data. To test the model, the Army sent Major Dames and five others to Swann as a prototype trainee group.
The results were more than anyone, even Swann, had anticipated. In six months, Major Dames' team members were producing psychically derived data with more consistency and accuracy than the most renown natural (untrained) psychics alive. In late 1983, the team parted company with Swann. As the new operations and training officer for the unit, (now designated CENTER LANE), Dames took a "let's see what this baby can do" approach, replacing the unit's former intelligence collection methodology with the breakthrough technique.
With the increased military rigor and discipline, combined with a team approach and countless hours of applying the new tool against a wide range of operational and training targets, the techniques became dependable enough to be used in support of life-or-death missions, or special operations in which the application of deadly (military) force was authorized.
In 1986, the Army passed the highly controversial unit to DIA. SUN STREAK (ferreted away in DIA's Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate as DT-S), was a bastard element. This is because DIA is an analytical agency — it has no charter to collect intelligence!
Because of this formal prohibition, Major Dames' focus shifted almost entirely to developing and teaching advanced remote viewing training techniques to the team. But, as a displaced operations officer, he began slipping in numerous operational missions right under the nose of Dale Graff, a civilian who had been assigned by DIA to administratively oversee the unit. Dames continued to go outside of authorized channels to pass "PSIINT" (psychic intelligence) to former clients in the intelligence community and classified research community, particularly to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Biological Threat Analysis Center, (which Major Dames had helped establish during a prior assignment, by supplying the U.S. President and NSC with proof that the Soviets had clandestinely developed a new generation of biochemical warfare agents).
By 1989, Dale Graff had replaced all of the trained military professionals with psychics virtually taken "off the street," thus rendering the project ineffective for intelligence collection purposes — but highly entertaining for certain civilian officials who came to visit DIA's "witches" to obtain personal psychic "readings."
All of the evolved, enabling remote viewing expertise and knowledge now resides in the civilian sector, where Dames' company, PSI TECH, continues to teach the techniques and employ this powerful tool in commercial operations
