STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE

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Body:  RELEASE DATE:   For immediate release
 CONTACTS:
 Ronald I. Deutsch, Ext. 3754
 Home: (415) 326-8773
 Elizabeth deAtley, Ext. 3450
 Home: (415) 329-0545
 Stan DeVaughn, Ext. 3034
 Home: (415) 322-3342
 Menlo Park, Calif. --Two California scientists reported today
 on experiments with subjects who demonstrate an ability to perceive
 information not presented to any known sense and blocked from ordinary
 perception.
 In a research paper on paranormal phenomena, Dr. Harold Puthoff
 and Russell Targ, physicists at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), presented
 evidence for the existence of a channel through which information about a
 remote location can be obtained.
 "Our observation of the phenomena leads us to conclude that experiments
 in the so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted, and
 it is our hope that other laboratories will initiate additional research to
 attempt to replicate these findings, " they said.
 The scientists said one of their objectives was to resolve under
 conditions "as unambiguous as possible the basic issue of whether a certain
 class of paranormal perception phenomena exists.
 "At all times we took measures to prevent sensory leakage and to
 prevent deception, whether intentional or unintentional, " they said.
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 The results, which covered research from October, 1972 to March,
 1974, were published in the current issue of NATURE, the British journal.
 The scientists described experiments in which:
 --Uri Geller, an Israeli subject, reproduced target pictures drawn
 by experimenters at remote locations while Geller was in an electrically-
 shielded room.
 --Pat Price, a former California police commissioner, perceived
 remote outdoor scenes many miles from their physical location in experiments
 in which neither the subject nor the experimenters knew the location in advance.
 -?-Brain wave recordings (EEGs) were made of subjects isolated in a
 room in an effort to determine whether physiological measurements could be
 made of a remote stimuli.  The stimuli was a flashing light in another room.
 "It may be that remote perceptual ability is widely distributed in the
 general population, " Targ and Puthoff speculated, "but because the perception
 is generally below an individual's level of awareness, it is repressed or not
 noticed. "
 In the experiments with Geller, he was asked to reproduce 13 drawings
 over a week-long period while physically separated from his experimenters in
 a shielded room.  Geller was not told who made the drawing, who selected
 it for him to reproduce or about its method of selection.
 The researchers said that only after Geller's isolation--in a double-
 walled steel room that was acoustically, visually and electrically shielded
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 from them--was a target picture randomly chosen and drawn.  It was
 never discussed by the experimenters after being drawn or brought near Geller.
 All but two of the experiments were conducted with Geller in the
 shielded room, with the drawings in adjacent rooms ranging from four meters
 to 475 meters from him.  In other experiments, the drawings were made
 inside the shielded room with Geller in adjacent locations.
 Examples of drawings Geller was asked to reproduce included a
 firecracker, a cluster of grapes, a devil, a horse, the solar system, a tree
 and an envelope.
 Two SRI researchers- -not otherwise associated with the research--
 were submitted Geller's reproductions for judging on a "blind" basis.  They
 matched the target data to the response data with no errors, a chance probability
 of better than one in a million per judge.
 In a second series of experiments with Geller involving 100 target
 pictures of everyday objects, he was not successful.  The object was to
 determine whether direct perception of envelope contents was possible without
 some person knowing which target picture Geller was attempting to reproduce.
 The pictures were drawn by an SRI artist, sealed by other SRI
 personnel in double envelopes containing black cardboard.  They were randomly
 divided into groups of 20 for use in experiments that lasted three days.
 Each day Geller passed or declined to associate any envelope with a
 drawing he had made.  Both Geller and the researchers agreed that in those
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 cases in which he made drawings, the results did not depart significantly
 from what would be expected by chance.
 In another experiment with Geller, he was asked to "guess" the face of
 a die shaken in a closed steel box.  The box was vigorously shaken by one of
 the experimenters and placed on a table.  The position of the die was not
 known to the researchers.
 Geller provided the correct answer eight times, the researchers said.
 The probability that this could have occurred by chance was about one in a
 million.  The experiment was performed ten times but Geller declined to respond
 two times, saying his perception was not clear.
 Targ and Puthoff have noted the widespread publicity Geller has
 received based on reports that he can bend metal by paranormal means.  They
 said their research with him did not confirm this ability.
 "Although metal bending by Geller has been observed in our laboratory,
 we have not been able to combine such observations with adequately controlled
 experiments to obtain data sufficient to support the paranormal hypothesis. "
 Encouraged by remote viewing experiments with earlier subjects, Targ
 and Puthoff reported on nine remote-viewing experiments that were conducted
 with Price as a subject.  The SRI team chose natural sites in the San Francisco
 Bay Area on a double-blind basis, while Price, who remained at SRI in Menlo
 Park, California, was asked to describe the location and whatever activities
 were going on there.
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 "Several descriptions yielded significantly correct data pertaining
 to and descriptive of the target location, " Targ and Puthoff said.
 While one SRI experimenter was closeted with Price, a second
 experimenter would obtain a target location from an individual in SRI management
 not otherwise associated with the research.  The targets--chosen from among
 100 in the area--were clearly differentiated from each other and within 30
 minutes driving time from SRI.
 The team that had chosen the target proceeded to the location without
 communicating with the subject.  The experimenter remaining behind with
 Price was not told of the location and questioned the subject, who described
 his impressions of the location on a tape recorder.
 "To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the remote-
 viewing experiment, the experimental results were subjected to independent
 judging on a blind basis by five SRI scientists who were not otherwise associated
 with the research, " the scientists said.  "The judges were asked to match the
 nine locations, which they independently visited, against the typed manuscripts
 of the tape-recorded narratives of the remote viewer. "
 The panel of judges, by a plurality vote, correctly matched six of the
 nine descriptions and locations, Targ and Puthoff reported.  The probability
 that this could have occurred by chance is one in a billion.
 "Although Price's descriptions contain inaccuracies, " Targ and Puthoff
 said, "'the descriptions are sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to
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 differentiate among the various targets to the degree indicated. "
 In a pilot study with six subjects, the scientists sought to determine
 whether brain wave recordings (EEGs) could be used as an indicator of
 information transfer between a subject and a remote flashing light.  The study
 was based on the hypothesis that perception may take place below the level
 of personal awareness.
 "It was assumed that the application of a remote stimuli would result
 in responses similar to those obtained under conditions of direct stimulation, "
 said Targ and Puthoff.  "For example, when normal subjects are stimulated
 with a flashing light their EEG typically shows a decrease in the amplitude
 of the resting rhythm and a driving of the brain waves at the frequency of the
 flashes.
 "We hypothesized that if we stimulated one subject in this manner
 (a sender), the EEG of another subject in a remote room with no flash present
 (a receiver), might show changes in alpha activity, and possibly EEG driving
 similar to that of the sender.
 The researchers reported they worked initially with six volunteer
 subjects but eventually concentrated on one subject who responded most
 dramatically.  They then measured the subject's EEG for three days, gathering
 data from seven sets of 36 trials each with the subject, who was in an opaque,
 acoustically and electrically-shielded room seven meters away from the sender.
 Targ and Puthoff reported that while five of the subjects performed
 at chance levels, the sixth showed consistent and signficiant EEG changes
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 associated with the presence of the remote stimuli under conditions of sensory
 shielding.
 "We hypothesize that the protocol described here may prove to be
 useful as a screening procedure for latent remote perceptual ability in the
 general population, " they said.
 The researchers said that the channel through which information can
 be received about a remote location appears to be "imperfect, " containing
 noise along with the signal.  They said that while a signal-to-noise ratio
 cannot yet be determined, the channel nonetheless permits functioning at a
 useful level of information transfer.
 Targ and Puthoff said the research constitutes "a first step" toward
 the goal of uncovering patterns of cause-effect relationships that lend them-
 selves to analysis and hypothesis in the forms with which are familiar in
 scientific study.
 "We have established under known conditions, " they said, "a data
 base from which departures as a function of physical and psychological
 variables can be studied in future work. "
 The research was sponsored by The Foundation for Parasensory
 Investigation of New York City and the Institute of Noetic Sciences of Palo
 Alto, California.
 Stanford Research Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization
 that performs contract research for worldwide clients in government,
 business and industry.
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