The 1973 Project SCANATE Remote Viewing: Declassified CIA Documentation of the Jupiter Probe

The CIA and SRI Partnership\n\nIn the early 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initiated a series of studies into parapsychological phenomena, specifically targeting the potential for 'remote viewing' to gather intelligence on distant or inaccessible locations. Known as Project SCANATE (Scan by Coordinate), this phase of the research was conducted at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, under the direction of physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff. One of the most significant trials involved Ingo Swann, a prominent psychic researcher and artist.\n\n## The Jupiter Experiment\n\nOn April 27, 1973, Swann was asked to 'view' the planet Jupiter, a target chosen because the Pioneer 10 spacecraft was still months away from its flyby and could provide future verification of his findings. During the session, which is documented in declassified STAR GATE logs, Swann described a set of rings surrounding the gas giant. At the time, conventional scientific wisdom held that only Saturn possessed a ring system. Swann's sketches and verbal descriptions also included details of the planet's atmospheric turbulence and specific colorations that were later corroborated by Voyager missions.\n\n## Declassified Records and Scientific Critique\n\nThe Black Vault's archive of Project STAR GATE documents includes the internal CIA evaluation of the SCANATE Jupiter session. The report notes that while some of Swann's descriptions were vague, his specific mention of a 'ring' was highly anomalous and statistically significant. Critics, including some internal CIA reviewers, argued that Swann might have inferred the rings based on scientific speculation, yet the precision of his other atmospheric observations remained a point of contention. The Jupiter experiment served as a catalyst for the expansion of the program into Project GONDOLA WISH and eventually Project STAR GATE, which received government funding for over two decades. The declassified files, released in the late 1990s and early 2000s, continue to be a primary source for academic studies into the intersection of government intelligence and anomalous mental phenomena.