Thread: Remote Viewing interview with......

A short Interview with Paul Smith Military RV


Interview by: Torbjorn Sassersson [ 23-Dec-2004 ]
Paul Smith on the CIA release of the The Stargate Archive in 2004

Paul H. Smith served for seven years in the government's remote viewing program at Ft. Meade, MD (1983 to 1990). During 1984, he became one of only a handful of government personnel to be personally trained as coordinate remote viewers by Ingo Swann at SRI-International. Paul was the primary author of the government RV program's CRV training manual, and served as theory instructor for new CRV trainee personnel, as well as recruiting officer and unit security officer. He is credited with over a thousand training and operational remote viewing sessions during his time with the unit at Ft. Meade.

I N T E R V I E W

T. Sassersson: The CIA has recently released the most thorough research effort that have ever been done in the West scientifically proving the validity of the paranormal. Would you say this statement is an exaggeration? -and - Would you say the Stargate Archive once and for all proves ESP?

Paul Smith: I think that statement is an exaggeration from certain perspectives. First, it may well be the most extensive research done into ESP-related phenomena, though others may argue that JB Rhine's research might qualify for that.

Others might say the Soviets had more extensive research -- but since so little of what they did or didn't do is accessible, it's hard to know whether they can claim that or not. At the very least one could say that the Stargate Archive represents one of the most exhaustive bodies of scientific research into psi phenomena that has ever been done.

Now for the second part: It does not "prove" the 'validity' of the paranormal. I say this for several reasons.

First, a fairly trivial point -- Science is not like math. In science very little is ever actually "proved" -- at most you have strong evidence for or strong evidence against something. If a phenomenon has strong evidence supporting it, and it can be reasonably explained within an accepted theory, then it is considered to be real. Unfortunately, despite a great deal of evidence available in the archives, there is still no accepted theory within which Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) can be 'explained.'

Now for my second reason: The huge amount of material within the archives is of mixed quality. There is some very good RV work (hence evidence) contained in the archives. But there is some pretty poor stuff, as well.

A further problem is that much of the essential context is missing, such as tasking documentation, feedback, analyst notes, persons and agencies involved, etc. -- even, in some cases, what the intended target was.

Further, though there are many finished research reports from both Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and SAIC contained in the archives, the raw data is usually not included -- a frustrating and unforgivable lapse, in my opinion. Someone who is willing to believe in ESP would find much here to support that belief. But I don't think it is quite enough to push even a reasonable skeptic over the line to acceptance of psi.

T. Sassersson: Since the CIA released this information in October 2004 what has been the response in mainstream media in the US?


Paul Smith: Actually, the archives were made available to the general public around the end of May 2004. There has been a resounding lack of interest from the mainstream media. The reason for this is three-fold:

1) It has not been broadly circulated (despite my own efforts) that they are available;

2) the corpus is so massive the media wouldn't even know where to start with it, nor what most of the documents really meant. One exception is an article that appeared early last year in US News & World Report (which was published before the archives were generally available, but could be accessed at the National Archives in Maryland).

But the reason US News & World Report was able to sort that out was because the reporter faxed me a stack of documents and asked me what they were and what they meant! and,

3) the subject is one that the mainstream media is leery about approaching. (I might add that Aperture, the newsletter for the International Remote Viewing Association, did publish a long review written by me of the archives, illustrated by documents drawn from them.)

T. Sassersson: What have been the response of the government scientific community (the Universities) in the US?

Paul Smith: Same as above, only more so. The universities, by and large, have no idea the archives are out there, and largely wouldn't care about them anyway. The programs documented in the archives represent something that is considered to be far outside the prevailing paradigm. It will be interesting to see how my own university reacts in a year or two when I present my doctoral dissertation which will make use of much of this material.

T. Sassersson: How can one order the material and in what shape is it if ordered from Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc.? What's your price?

Paul Smith: RVIS, Inc. offers the archives on 7 CDs in a convenient plastic case. Because the disks shipped by the CIA were not completely full, we were able to reduce the overall number of disks. More importantly, included is a comprehensive 40-page guide to the archives that helps immensely in sorting out what is there and the context to make the 12,000 documents more understandable. Ordering information (and more details about the archives) is available on our website at www.rviewer.com (RVIS, Inc).

We sell them for USD 100 plus shipping and handling (about US$11 for Europe -- it varies by country)

T. Sassersson: How can one order the material and in what shape is it if ordered from CIA? What's their price?

Paul Smith: The archives are available from the CIA on 14 CDs , and come packed in a plastic mailing bag. No guide or explanation is included. Their price is USD 140.00 As of this writing, there is no information about the archive on the CIA website. The archive can be ordered from the Agency by sending a check made out to the US Treasurer, to:

Information and Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC, 20505

T. Sassersson: I hear you have a book coming out about the US military's "psychic espionage" program. Can you tell us about it?

Paul Smith: Yes, my book "Reading the Enemy's Mind" will be released in January. It's around 500 pages long, with photos, index, and an introduction by legendary investigative journalist Jack Anderson, who spent more than a decade trying to track down the Stargate program, only to have it land right in his lap!

The book uses my own experiences during my seven years as a military remote viewer as the core around which to build what those who have read it say is a fascinating account of the program from beginning to end. I include never-before-told stories, incidents, and details about remote viewing and the soldiers who were taught and then practiced it -- how it was done, who did it, why, and what became of it.

There's controversy, drama, and humor and many things even those who have been following the field for years do not yet know. The whole thing is heavily documented through hundreds of interviews with the people who were actually there, and through thousands of pages of documents some available in the archives, some that I obtained elsewhere.