---
category: Scientists & Researchers
created: 2026-09-22
relations:
- fn: 1
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Maimonides Medical Center]]'
- fn: 2
  role: director, Psychophysical Research Laboratories; ganzfeld meta-analyses
  type: contractor_to
  with: '[[Stanford Research Institute]]'
summary: Parapsychologist at Maimonides Medical Center and director of the Psychophysical
  Research Laboratories, whose ganzfeld meta-analyses were subcontracted by SRI's
  government-funded remote-viewing program.
tags:
- Person
- Parapsychology
- Ganzfeld
- SRI
- RemoteViewing
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Charles Honorton worked at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where in an experiment reported to the American Physical Society in February 1976 he and [Edwin May](/people/edwin-may/) had [Ingo Swann](/people/ingo-swann/) attempt to influence a noise-driven random generator.[^1] He later directed the Psychophysical Research Laboratories (PRL).[^2]

### SRI Subcontract

The report "Phenomenological Research and Analysis" of the [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/) program under May recorded: "we subcontracted with Mr. Charles Honorton, the director of PRL, to improve an earlier meta-analysis of the literature pertaining to characteristics of persons who might perform well in AC tasks"; "we asked Mr. Honorton to conduct a meta-analysis of the Ganzfeld literature to determine if there were meaningful differences between Ganzfeld studies with and without a sender"; and, "Because the results of the meta-analysis proved to be inconclusive, PRL was tasked to design a protocol for a definitive Ganzfeld study to understand the role of the sender in such experiments." Honorton's reports formed appendices B and C.[^2]

### The Ganzfeld Controversy

Honorton and the psychologist [Ray Hyman](/people/ray-hyman/) published "A joint communique: the psi ganzfeld controversy" in the *Journal of Parapsychology* in 1986. With [John Palmer](/people/john-palmer/) and [Jessica Utts](/people/jessica-utts/), Honorton wrote the [Parapsychological Association](/organizations/parapsychological-association/)'s reply to the National Research Council's 1988 report.[^3]

[^1]: May, Edwin C., and Charles Honorton. "A Dynamic PK Experiment with Ingo Swann," Maimonides Medical Center, abstract for the American Physical Society meeting of February 1976, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: SRI International, "Phenomenological Research and Analysis," CIA-RDP96-00787R000300230001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Palmer, John A., Charles Honorton and Jessica Utts. *Reply to the National Research Council Study on Parapsychology,* special report for the Board of Directors of the Parapsychological Association, CIA-RDP96-00789R002200420001-1, citing Hyman, R., and C. Honorton, "A joint communique: the psi ganzfeld controversy," *Journal of Parapsychology* 50 (1986), pp. 351-364. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.