The 1972 CIA Evaluation of Project SCANATE: Declassified Documentation of Coordinate Remote Viewing Research

Origins of Project SCANATE\n\nIn the early 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became increasingly concerned with Soviet research into 'psychotronic' weapons and paranormal phenomena. To determine if human consciousness could be weaponized or used for intelligence gathering, the CIA contracted the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. The initial phase, codenamed SCANATE (Scanning by Coordinates), focused on the abilities of Ingo Swann, a New York-based artist who claimed to be able to perceive distant locations through mental focus alone. The program was overseen by physicists Dr. Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, who designed protocols to ensure scientific rigor and prevent conventional data leakage.\n\n## The Jupiter Flyby and Controlled Testing\n\nOne of the most remarkable and controversial aspects of the SCANATE files involves Swann's attempt to 'remote view' the planet Jupiter in 1973, prior to the arrival of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Declassified CIA logs detail Swann's descriptions of a ring system around the planet—a feature not widely accepted by mainstream astronomy at the time but later confirmed by space probes. While skeptics point to lucky guessing, the CIA's internal assessment focused on his ability to describe specific geographic coordinates on Earth. In one series of tests, Swann was given latitude and longitude coordinates and asked to describe the target. The declassified report (CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110003-2) states that Swann's descriptions of distant secret facilities were accurate enough to warrant significant further funding.\n\n## Institutional Legacy\n\nProject SCANATE served as the foundational proof-of-concept for what would later evolve into Project GONDOLA WISH, SUN STREAK, and finally the STAR GATE program. The documents released via the CIA's CREST database reveal that the agency was deeply divided over the results. Some analysts viewed the successes as statistically significant and inexplicable by chance, while others maintained that the protocols were flawed. Despite the internal friction, the declassified record confirms that the U.S. government maintained an active interest in 'psycho-energetic' applications for over two decades. The 1972 files provide a rare glimpse into the intersection of Cold War espionage and the limits of human perception, documenting a period when the highest levels of American intelligence took the paranormal seriously as a matter of national security.