The 1972 Project SCANATE Evaluations: Declassified CIA Records on Ingo Swann’s Coordinate Remote Viewing

Origins of Project SCANATE

In the early 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initiated 'Project SCANATE' (Scan by Coordinate) to investigate reports of Soviet breakthroughs in parapsychology. The program was conducted at SRI International under the direction of physicists Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ. The primary subject was Ingo Swann, a New York-based artist who claimed to possess 'anomalous cognition' or remote viewing capabilities. The CIA sought to determine if such skills could be weaponized for clandestine intelligence gathering.

The Jupiter Probe Experiment

One of the most remarkable documented instances within the SCANATE files occurred on April 27, 1973. Before the Pioneer 10 spacecraft reached Jupiter, Swann was asked to 'remote view' the planet. In his session notes, which were later archived by the CIA, Swann described a ring around Jupiter—a feature that was not scientifically confirmed until the Voyager 1 mission in 1979. Swann also described specific atmospheric conditions and topographical features of the Jovian moons. While some of his observations were inaccurate, the mention of the ring structure caused significant internal debate among intelligence officers and SRI researchers regarding the validity of his psychic perceptions.

Intelligence Community Assessment

Declassified memos from the CIA’s Office of Research and Development indicate that Swann’s performance in 'coordinate remote viewing' (CRV) frequently exceeded statistical probability. In several 'blind' tests, Swann was able to accurately describe buildings, terrain, and even classified equipment at remote locations provided only as latitude and longitude coordinates. The success of these early evaluations led to the expansion of the program into 'Project Grill Flame' and eventually 'Star Gate.' The CIA documents describe the results as 'disturbing' and 'highly suggestive of an unrecognized human faculty.'

Legacy and Public Disclosure

The declassification of the SCANATE files in the late 1990s and 2000s provided the first official look into the government’s serious pursuit of psychic intelligence. While the program was eventually shuttered in 1995 due to inconsistent results for operational targeting, the historical records at the CIA's Electronic Reading Room and The Black Vault confirm that for over two decades, the U.S. intelligence community considered psychic phenomena a legitimate field of scientific and strategic inquiry.