---
alias:
- Gale Committee
- Gale Report
category: Intelligence Scandal
created: 2026-09-21
end: 1980-01
location: Washington, D.C.
start: 1979
summary: An eight-member Army review under Manfred Gale, reporting in December 1979,
  which found remote viewing unproved and its programs poorly documented, while a
  majority of five allowed INSCOM's operational work to continue under oversight.
tags:
- Event
- GaleCommittee
- GrillFlame
- RemoteViewing
- ScientificReview
- Army
updated: 2026-09-21
---

The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by Manfred Gale and known in the program as the Gale Committee, reported in December 1979 on the Army's parapsychology work: the [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/) remote-viewing research, the psychokinesis contract of the Missile Intelligence Command, the replication trials of the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, and the [INSCOM](/organizations/united-states-army-intelligence-and-security-command/) unit at [Fort Meade](/places/fort-meade/) ([Grill Flame](/programs/stargate-project/)). Its chapters covered a chronology, "Parapsychology in Perspective," an assessment of Warsaw Pact activity, "suggested parapsychological mechanisms," and the SRI experiments, with annexes on each Army activity.[^1]

### Findings

"RV research and investigations thus far have not proved the existence of the phenomena and have not conclusively established any parametric dependencies. Many of the anecdotal events reported to this Committee as potential evidence of the existence of RV do not adequately sustain their claim under careful scrutiny. A few of the examples are subjectively spectacular, but lack of scientific procedures precludes their consideration as scientific evidence of the phenomena. On balance, the Committee has indeed been persuaded that there is some probability that effects attributed to the RV phenomena exist under unexplained circumstances and in conjunction with particular individuals. However, to date, the experimental techniques have not been adequate to document such effects." Of the programs: "Inadequate documentation and failure to apply adequate controls are the most frequent causes which limit the credibility that can be given to reports of 'success' attributed to RV applications. In the judgment of the Committee, sole dependence on SRI-like protocols to resolve the RV issue will not be fruitful," and "operational programs, that by their very existence assume the reality of RV as given, may inadvertently establish the assumption in other communities that RV is real."[^1]

### Recommendations

Work to demonstrate the existence of remote viewing and psychokinesis "should be supported if a credible approach were to emerge; however, it may be preferable to do this in some other agency other than DOD in order to more readily conduct the work in an open forum." Research to characterize the phenomena "should not be sponsored until existence is established." On operations "the Committee was divided," and "the majority (5 out of 8) believed that operationally-oriented RV activities aimed at determining the empirical value of RV to intelligence (like those at INSCOM) should continue," provided the work "be monitored by an oversight committee that can review the work for its adequacy and guard against self-fulfilling prophecy" and that "dependence on SRI approach should be phased out."[^1]

### The Reply

The Defense Department's Grill Flame working group, under [Jack Vorona](/people/jack-vorona/) of DIA, had asked in November 1979 to see the report "prior to it being given to any other party or group." Vorona's reply supported the finding that "unexplained observations of human capabilities to generate data of potential utility to intelligence have been documented" and "strongly" disagreed with the recommendation to end the Missile Intelligence Command and AMSAA work, "based on a misinterpretation of these programs"; the "condemnation" of the SRI approach "is not understood or acceptable without further explanation"; and "many of the difficulties in the report, especially those of fact and incompleteness, could have been avoided if the report had been collectively reviewed in draft, rather than allowing only individual inputs." On February 6, 1980, the under secretary of defense, [William Perry](/people/william-perry/), restricted the use of Program 6 funds, since it was "not appropriate for Army to fund technology programs aimed at scientific demonstration of parapsychology."[^1][^2]

[^1]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5; Vorona, J., "Comments on 'Report By: The GRILLFLAME Scientific Evaluation Committee,'" memorandum of the Grill Flame Working Group, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300060001-2. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Chapters 1 and 4 to 9 and the annexes were not read.
[^2]: Defense Intelligence Agency, minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee, November 27, 1979 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1) and January 10, 1980 (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1); US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8; the scan's table columns are reflowed by OCR and some dates are uncertain. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.