---
alias:
- Harry L. Snyder
category: Scientists & Researchers
created: 2026-09-22
location: Blacksburg, Virginia
summary: Virginia Tech professor of industrial engineering whose 1979 critical evaluation
  of remote-viewing research is held by the CIA, and who then sat on the Army's Gale
  Committee in place of Ray Hyman.
tags:
- Person
- HarrySnyder
- GrillFlame
- RemoteViewing
- VirginiaTech
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Harry L. Snyder, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at Virginia Tech, and Arlene G. Snyder, working as Systemetrics, Inc., of Blacksburg, Virginia, delivered "Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing," Report RV-79-1, the final technical report under contract 77F104420, on June 1, 1979, in two parts. Its purposes were to "summarize all known controlled experimental research in remote viewing, at SRI and elsewhere," to "evaluate this research in terms of the appropriateness of its methodology and conclusions," and to "recommend experimental or procedural safeguards and protocols"; "this report does not, deliberately, address the question 'Is remote viewing a real phenomenon or ability?'" The sponsor is not named in the text. Both parts were released by the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/).[^1]

### The Report

The report's chronology of the [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/) work ran from [Hal Puthoff](/people/hal-puthoff/)'s arrival in 1971 and [Ingo Swann](/people/ingo-swann/)'s first visit in June 1972 to [Pat Price](/people/pat-price/)'s call of June 4, 1973, and his departure in June 1974, keyed to the subject numbers of SRI's publications (S1 Price, S2 [Duane Elgin](/people/duane-elgin/), S3 Swann, S4 [Hella Hammid](/people/hella-hammid/), S6 [Marshall Pease](/people/marshall-pease/), S8 [Phyllis Cole](/people/phyllis-cole/)). Of the SCANATE island target: "the coordinates of this target were given by a scientist (unnamed) challenging the SRI work. Puthoff gave Swann the coordinates... Response indicated an island, which was confirmed by experimenter. [Thus, experimenter knew nature of target prior to subject's response.]" Of a target at the Sylvania laser laboratory: "[Russell Targ](/people/russell-targ/), who selected the coordinates, had also worked for Sylvania. After five years of research effort together, it is difficult to believe that some sort of information did not flow between the two experimenters, and therefore, this target can hardly be considered 'double-blind.'" Of the West Virginia site: "It is alleged, although unverified by the authors, that Price had once worked for the organization that had control over that particular site." Of the judging of the alphabet-letter experiments: "Puthoff did the judging in this experiment"; the chosen judge "did significantly better, at odds of 500:1, than the backup judges. No reason for this difference (or acknowledgement of its existence) is given by the authors"; and [Arthur Hastings](/people/arthur-hastings/) "is an SRI employee, perhaps an SRI scientist, certainly a consultant, and also a coauthor. In addition, we understand (R. Hyman, personal communication) that he is a professional magician and the sole judge used in the latter SRI local target studies." Of Targ: "That this type of behavior is used is not unremarkable considering that Targ was an accomplished amateur magician," followed by Targ's own pages on "sleights" and "illusions" from Mind-Reach. Of a published transcript set against the computer log: "'RUSSEL... I SAW A TREE ON YOUR LEFT IN A BRICK PLAZA - IT SEEMED TO BE IN FRONT OF A WRONG BUTTON - BUILDING YOU WERE ENTERING' has become 'A brick plaza seemed to be in front of a building you were entering.'" Of an airport drawing: "Where was the drawing made? Was it drawn by Russell Targ? When was it made? How does it happen that the vantage point of the subject's sketch corresponds so well to the (previously taken?) photograph of the airport from an airplane window." Of the unpublished trials: "'We have carried out more than one hundred experiments of this sort, most of them successful, as determined by independent judging.' (Mind-Reach, pp. 9-10) If so, one might assume that these total results would be published. As of this writing, we cannot account for 100 such experiments." Its summary found that "research reports are of behavioral data, yet are not presented with sufficient, rigorous experimental detail," that "conflicting, inaccurate reporting of experimental 'facts' detracts from the acceptability of the results," and that "methodological weaknesses in the local target and long-distance U.S. target procedures provide alternate (i.e., nonparanormal) possibilities of explanation."[^1]

Part 2 reviewed twelve other studies, among them Bisaha and Dunne in [Chicago](/places/chicago/), Hastings and Hurt, Karnes and Susman in Denver (with Puthoff's letter to them of March 28, 1978: "We have found remote viewing to be extremely sensitive to the feedback parameters"), Rauscher, Sarfatti and others, [Charles Tart](/people/charles-tart/), and Vallee, Hastings and Askevold; took Puthoff's paper "Potential Criticisms and Responses" ("It is well done, although our reservations tend to disagree with some of his 'responses'"), finding "the 7000+ experiments run with Swann" unreported, "the authors use the term 'double-blind' frequently. Yet, they are quite naive as to the behavioral science meaning of this term," and "the authors have 'in five years of self- and other criticism, not found a way to fault either the experimental protocols or the conclusions derived therefrom.' We do not agree"; and set out a protocol under headings from target pool to reporting: the pool "selected by someone not involved with the experiment and unknown to the experimenters, investigators, subjects, or judges," an investigator who "remains 'hands off,'" judges who "should not be magicians, consultants to the project, coauthors, fellow researchers, etc.," and "for geographical-coordinate scanning" a list "greater than 5000" of "worldwide targets of interest." "If all figures are accepted without question, on balance the fidelity of the remote viewing channel appears to be of limited intelligence value, however that conclusion may be totally premature due to the insufficient methodologies used." Appendix B reproduced Puthoff's own protocol "as described in a written communication from H. Puthoff to a sponsor in late 1977." The section "Overall Summary of SRI Studies to Date" was circulated separately within the Army's Grill Flame files, and the report of the Army's [Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee](/events/grill-flame-scientific-evaluation-committee/) of December 1979 reproduces the Snyders' chapter on SRI, their nine criticisms and replies, and their protocol as its chapter 9 and annexes 8 to 10, unsigned.[^1][^2]

### The Gale Committee

On July 17, 1979, the Under Secretary of the Army's office told [Manfred Gale](/people/manfred-gale/): "Reference the 'few additional experts,' Dr. [Orlansky](/people/jesse-orlansky/) has accepted. Dr. Snyder of VPI has been asked in place of Dr. [Hyman](/people/ray-hyman/) - at this time he has not accepted the invitation." The panel roster listed "Dr. Harry Snyder, Systemetrics, Inc. (VA Polytechnical Institute), P.O. Drawer S, Blacksburg." He sent Gale revisions of "pages 7 and 8 of my previous report" and "comments as per your request on the AMSAA effort, based upon our visit of 28 September" (the committee's own visit log puts AMSAA on November 6), "for our final wrapup." On November 19, 1979, he wrote to Gale on "what was obviously a minority viewpoint on the need for further, better, more-controlled R&D on RV. I find myself still in favor of recommending such": "Everything we are taught in scientific inquiry, in both the physical and the behavioral sciences, suggests that such a phenomenon cannot and should not exist. Nonetheless, I believe there is enough anecdotal 'evidence' to prevent our disregarding its possibility of existence"; "the major argument AGAINST seems to be the combination of notoriety, disbelief, incredulity, and loss of scientific reputation of the proponents. (I can certainly identify with the latter.) Cost has really very little to do with it... To hide behind the cost cloak is, I think, convenient but invalid"; "I'm willing to stick my neck out, perhaps too far"; "while I would certainly agree with Jesse that no unequivocal scientific evidence for the existence of RV is available, we deal in a probabilistic world. My subjective impression of the probabilities of the existence of RV is that p (existence) is greater than zero." His postscript: "If we choose not to recommend further work, how would we explain a possible positive result on the shipbuilding details to be evaluated on 1/1/80?" An unsigned paper of "Findings," "Recommendations" and "Estimated Costs" in the same file, matching the "Findings and Recommendations" he said he attached, held that "RV research conducted to date lacks the necessary scientific control needed to demonstrate conclusively the existence of the phenomenon," listed as its first anecdotal support "Scale accuracy in PNUTS," recommended terminating "efforts at MICOM, AMSAA, and FTD" and establishing "at the national level (e.g., NSC), a coordinated program," and estimated the research at "$3 million" a year with a professional staff of twenty.[^2]

[^1]: Snyder, Harry L., and Arlene G. Snyder. *Summary and Critical Evaluation of Research in Remote Viewing,* Report RV-79-1, final technical report, contract 77F104420, Systemetrics, Inc., Blacksburg, Virginia, June 1, 1979, parts 1 and 2, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100440001-9 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000100260003-2. The sponsor of the contract is not named in the report. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: "Grill Flame Review Panel Members," undated roster, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230008-7; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; K. Lytle, Major, Military Assistant, memorandum for Mr. Gale, Advisor for RDA Analysis, ODCSRDA, "Briefing for Dr. Ruth Davis and Mr. Nealsen," August 8, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230013-1; Snyder to Gale, undated (catalogued May 11, 1979, but referring to October and a visit of September 28), CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230038-4, and November 19, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230042-9; "Findings," "Recommendations," "Estimated Costs," unsigned, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230043-8; SSO Meade to SSO ACSI DA, "Grill Flame DoD Science Evaluation Team Report," LTC Watt, November 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230047-4. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Whether the Blacksburg professor on the roster and the Systemetrics author are one man is taken from the roster's own parenthesis.