Russell Targ

Russell Targ is a physicist who, in the early 1970s, joined Hal Puthoff at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) to lead the remote viewing research program. He was a laser physicist who had previously worked at Sylvania Corporation, which manufactured televisions and lightbulbs. The ivory tower atmosphere of SRI seemed to suit him better, as he was described as the "very picture of the intense scientist, the thinker disengaged from prosaic reality." He had a "frizzy and wavy mass of red-brown hair" and a deep, monotonal voice that conveyed a sense of authority. He wore extraordinarily thick, eye-magnifying glasses. His sister had married the chess master Bobby Fischer, and it was easy to imagine some of Fischer's "neurotic cerebrality" had rubbed off on him. He had apparently been having spontaneous psychic experiences since he was a child, which contributed to his interest in the field.¹

Targ was responsible for many of the early experiments at SRI, including the development of an ESP "teaching" machine, a primitive computer designed to give subjects feedback on their psychic guesses. He often clashed with Ingo Swann over the use of this machine, as Swann found it to be a "depressing remnant of old-time parapsychology." He also conducted experiments with other psychics, including Pat Price and Uri Geller, and explored various psi phenomena such as psychokinesis and telepathy. He was instrumental in developing and refining remote viewing protocols, including "outbound remote viewing" and "coordinate remote viewing" (CRV).¹

As a monitor in remote viewing sessions, Targ would prompt psychics with questions and record their impressions. He was involved in the testing of Uri Geller, and while often suspecting sleight of hand due to Geller's hyperkinetic style, he was also impressed by Geller's genuine abilities. He and Puthoff would sometimes search the laboratory rafters and acoustic tiles for hidden audio or video bugs after Geller's sessions, though they never found anything.¹

Despite the personality conflicts and the controversial nature of the research, Targ was a key figure in the remote viewing program. He was the co-author, with Hal Puthoff, of a number of influential papers on remote viewing, including a 1974 article in Nature and a 1976 article in the Proceedings of the IEEE. He eventually became convinced of the reality of remote viewing, even conducting his own informal experiments. He was present during many of Price's most impressive remote viewing feats, including the glider experiment where Price accurately perceived the numbers Kennett was carrying and the "ankh" around his neck, and the precognitive viewing of the Redwood City Marina and the Rinconada Park water tanks.¹