So currently I’m reading: “Phenomena” by Annie Jacobsen.
I have to say it is really well done and bursting with information!
It really is amazing just how in depth our government went with psychical research - and even more amazing the spectacular results that they got.
Of course, there are some well known players, like Ingo Swann, Russel Targ, and Uri Geller that are discussed.
There were definitive studies and tests done that proved to our own CIA and DARPA (which was still ARPA then), that ESP, telekinesis, remote viewing, thought implantation, etc. were proven beyond a shadow of doubt - yet, that information was both unintentionally and intentionally discredited to the public at large.
The bulk of the information in this book is from declassified military and CIA documents.
Including moving a shielded magnetometer set up over at Stanford University.
"The "magnetometer" at Stanford was actually a quark detector, the first of its kind, still unique in 1972, and had been constructed at very great expense and with copious work in an effort to capture the passage through it of one of those sub-particles.
The whole of this contraption was encased in an aluminum container and insulating copper canister.
As well, it was in a supercooled, hence superconducting shield.
The centerpiece inside the detector was a Josephson junction and which would "detect" any variation magnetic flux in the supercooled equipment.
The whole of this was buried in solid concrete some five feet down in the floor beneath our feet.”
The only fluctuations made over a series of days were made by Swann attempting to move the plates inside mentally.
This experiment was set up to prove the existence of telekinesis, or accompanying PSI activity - and it made believers out of those who scoffed at the idea of PSI existing.
The US government confirmed that PSI exists via disclosed documents...but basically wanted it for national security, assassination, and spying purposes...not really to understand how it functions - which was the purpose of most scientists working there at SRI and Stanford.
Several of the researchers actually quit the program as the cognitive dissonance was too much for them to handle...some scientists at the Livermore National Laboratory even reported dreams after being around the psychics that convinced several to stop developing new types of nukes and work elsewhere - as if being told from somewhere else it was not a worthy pursuit to continue and develop.
Interesting stuff.
Of course...always taken with a grain of salt.
Highly recommend this one!
The definitive history of the military's decades-long investigation into mental powers and phenomena, from the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain.
This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances.
For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security.
The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Now, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved.
Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves.
Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work?
How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter?
What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue?
Phenomena is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.
I have to say it is really well done and bursting with information!
It really is amazing just how in depth our government went with psychical research - and even more amazing the spectacular results that they got.
Of course, there are some well known players, like Ingo Swann, Russel Targ, and Uri Geller that are discussed.
There were definitive studies and tests done that proved to our own CIA and DARPA (which was still ARPA then), that ESP, telekinesis, remote viewing, thought implantation, etc. were proven beyond a shadow of doubt - yet, that information was both unintentionally and intentionally discredited to the public at large.
The bulk of the information in this book is from declassified military and CIA documents.
Including moving a shielded magnetometer set up over at Stanford University.
"The "magnetometer" at Stanford was actually a quark detector, the first of its kind, still unique in 1972, and had been constructed at very great expense and with copious work in an effort to capture the passage through it of one of those sub-particles.
The whole of this contraption was encased in an aluminum container and insulating copper canister.
As well, it was in a supercooled, hence superconducting shield.
The centerpiece inside the detector was a Josephson junction and which would "detect" any variation magnetic flux in the supercooled equipment.
The whole of this was buried in solid concrete some five feet down in the floor beneath our feet.”
The only fluctuations made over a series of days were made by Swann attempting to move the plates inside mentally.
This experiment was set up to prove the existence of telekinesis, or accompanying PSI activity - and it made believers out of those who scoffed at the idea of PSI existing.
The US government confirmed that PSI exists via disclosed documents...but basically wanted it for national security, assassination, and spying purposes...not really to understand how it functions - which was the purpose of most scientists working there at SRI and Stanford.
Several of the researchers actually quit the program as the cognitive dissonance was too much for them to handle...some scientists at the Livermore National Laboratory even reported dreams after being around the psychics that convinced several to stop developing new types of nukes and work elsewhere - as if being told from somewhere else it was not a worthy pursuit to continue and develop.
Interesting stuff.
Of course...always taken with a grain of salt.
Highly recommend this one!
Five stars!
This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances.
For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security.
The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Now, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved.
Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves.
Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work?
How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter?
What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue?
Phenomena is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.
