Remote viewing is the ability to perceive people, places, events, and objects remotely by directing the conscious mind to a destination provided by specified coordinates. The modern process of remote viewing was initially developed by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute at the request of the CIA in 1972.

Remote viewing is the ability to perceive people, places, events, and objects remotely by directing the conscious mind to a destination provided by specified coordinates. The modern process of remote viewing was initially developed by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute at the request of the CIA in 1972.

Code-named Scangate, the classified program developed as a response to Soviet research into psychic phenomena. The Soviet Union was believed at the time to have spent 60 million roubles on psychic research. The project focused on a very small group of individuals who showed psychic potential.

During the early testing of the group, NY artist, Ingo Swann was able to accurately describe the features of a uniquely-designed magnetometer buried six feet beneath a concrete floor. He also demonstrated the ability to affect the output signal of the magnetometer device.

Swann soon became bored with the scientific repetition of experiments and suggested that he could travel psychically to other places on the planet. After some initial reluctance, this was attempted, and proven to be successful. Ingo Swann and other viewers, including Pat Price, were provided with latitude and longitude coordinates, and they attempted to view the geographical location at those coordinates. Ingo Swann and Pat Price proved to be remarkably accurate at this technique.

Further rigorous testing of Swann, Price, photographer Hella Hamid and others at SRI convinced Targ and Puthoff that remote viewing was not just an ability to be enjoyed by certain psychics but that anyone accomplish it. The remote viewing program went through a number of changes over the years in structure as well in name. Later code names include Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, and in 1991, Star Gate.

Over the course of twenty years, the United States spent $20 million on Star Gate and related projects. Over the course of its existence more than forty personnel worked on the project, including more than twenty remote viewers.

Concerns about the program's effectiveness led the CIA to contract the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to provide an evaluation. Their final report included an endorsement from statistician Jessica Utts, who found the government psychics' 15% success rate statistically significant; and a rebuttal from noted sceptics Ray Hyman, who pointed to flaws in the ways the experiments were conducted and results tabulated.

AIR's final recommendation to the CIA was to terminate the program, which it did in 1995. According to the CIA, Remote Viewing has never provided data used to guide intelligence operations.