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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ingo Swann | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingo_Swann | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:25:50.545854+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Magnetometer psychokinesis tests == When Swann arrived at SRI, Harold Puthoff decided he would first be tested for PK. On June 6, 1972, the two men visited Dr. Arthur Heberd and his quark detector, a magnetometer, at the Varian Physics Building. The well-shielded magnetometer had a small magnetic probe in a vault five feet beneath the floor. The oscillation ran silently for about an hour, tracing a stable pattern on the chart recorder. Puthoff asked Swann if he could affect the magnetometer's magnetic field. Swann said he focused his attention on the interior of the magnetometer and was getting nothing. Then, there are different versions of the following events. Puthoff states that after about a five-second delay, Heberd says it was a ten- to fifteen-minute delay, the frequency of the trace recorder oscillation doubled for about 30 seconds, reportedly a common occurrence due to variations in the shared helium line to the laboratory. Heberd continued, and when the curve burped, Swann asked, "Is that what I am supposed to do?" Swann said he responded, "Is that an effect?" According to Heberd, Swann crossed the room, taking his attention away from the chart recorder. Swann said he took his mind off the machine and was sketching. Others watched the recorder to see if the irregularity would be repeated, and it was. Puthoff asked Swann, "Did you do that too?" Swann said he again responded, "Is that an effect?" According to Puthoff, Swann said he was then tired and couldn't "hold it any longer" and let go. The chart recorder pattern returned to normal. More supportive sources say that Heberd supports Puthoff's version, and in the second instance, Heberd suggested he would be more impressed if Swann could stop the field change altogether. Heberd denies he told James Randi that he never suggested it. Swann recalled he heard, "Can you do that again?" from Puthoff. Swann said his feats frightened some doctoral candidates, claiming that two "virtually ran" from the room and one collided with a "totally visible" structure support. Puthoff writes Dr. Heberd suggested that the equipment must be wrong. The following day, it was certain the magnetometer was malfunctioning. "The equipment was behaving erratically; it was not possible to obtain a stable background signal for calibration." Therefore, the experiment was not repeated. Swann related this SNAFU in his book, Remote Viewing: The Real Story. In his CIA report, paranormal expert Dr. Kenneth A. Kress does not record anything about Heberd's malfunctioning suggestions. Kress writes, "These variations were never seen before or after this visit." Though Swann was to spend a year at SRI, in their book, Targ and Puthoff present no further data and, Swann did not mention he was involved in any other PK experiments with the magnetometer than those that occurred and were recorded on June 6, 1972. Immediately after, Puthoff wrote a brief paper in a draft form. Rather than publishing the results in a scientific journal inviting peer review, this paper was circulated hand to hand throughout research and academic institutions across the US, and Puthoff accepted invitations to speak. This paper caught the attention of the CIA and two agents paid a visit to Hal Puthoff at SRI and also met Swann. Later this paper was published as a part of a conference proceedings.
== Early Coordinate Remote Viewing experiments == Targ and Puthoff write about their pilot experiments, "We couldn't overlook the possibility that perhaps Ingo knew the geographical features of the Earth and their approximate latitude and longitude. (It is Swann who suggests these Coordinate Remote Viewing tests, not the experimenters. He is in control.) "Or it was possible that we were inadvertently cueing the subject (Swann), since we as experimenters knew what the answers were." Soon, Targ and Puthoff performed more experiments with Swann, and the controls were tightened to eliminate the possibility of error. This time Swann was given the latitude and longitude of ten targets, in the end there would be ten runs, for a total of 100. Only the evaluations of the ten targets from the tenth run, the last, were disclosed. The results of the targets from the previous ninety (runs 1–9) are ignored. Swann had seven hits for the tenth run, two neutral and one miss. The experiments came to a close. Targ and Puthoff were positive: "Something was happening, but they are not clear what it is." (This method of selecting a small number of "guesses" from a larger, sometimes never disclosed larger number, is known as the free response method in remote viewing but could be called cherry picking.) According to Swann and Stanford Research International, his RV was correct probably 95% of the time. His personally trained students' RV were 85% correct, 85% of the time. See: Stargate Project
== Swann's descriptions of Jupiter == Swann proposed a study to Targ and Puthoff. At first, they resisted, for the resulting descriptions would be impossible to verify. Yet, on the evening of 27 April 1973, Targ and Puthoff recorded Swann's remote viewing session of the planet Jupiter and Jupiter's moons, before the Voyager probe's visit there in 1979. Swann asked for 30 minutes of silence. Swann said his ability to see Jupiter took about three and a half minutes. In the session, he made several reports on the physical features of Jupiter, such as its atmosphere and the surface of its core. Swann claimed to see bands of crystals in the atmosphere, which he likened to clouds and possibly like the rings of Saturn. The Voyager probe later confirmed the existence of the rings of Jupiter, although these rings are not in the planet's atmosphere. However, Swann's claim that crystals are present in the atmosphere is supported by observations by NASA's Galileo spacecraft of clouds of ammonia ice crystals in the northwest corner of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The following is Swann's version of his statements from 1995, 22 years after the 1973 experiments: