---
alias:
- Ruth M. Davis
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-09-22
location: Washington, D.C.
summary: Deputy under secretary of defense for research and advanced technology who
  in 1978 set the managerial questions for the Pentagon's remote-viewing oversight
  and in 1979 widened the Gale Committee's mandate to the whole department.
tags:
- Person
- RuthDavis
- Pentagon
- GrillFlame
- RemoteViewing
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Ruth M. Davis was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology) in 1978 and 1979. On October 25, 1978, Representative [Charlie Rose](/people/charlie-rose/), chairman of the evaluation subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to her that he had "recently had occasion to become acquainted with some interesting research involving paranormal phenomena, specifically that relating to remote viewing," that "we have a strong obligation also to learn what Soviet research is underway," and that "I would therefore like to see the Department of Defense undertake those efforts deemed necessary and appropriate to investigate remote viewing and other related phenomena." On November 20, 1978, ahead of a [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) meeting on the subject set for November 28, she sent [Jack Vorona](/people/jack-vorona/) eight "topics or issues that appear to me to demand immediate attention from the oversight groups you will establish": "a clear cut statement of objectives sought by the Intelligence Community"; "a rationale for continued exploration of remote viewing phenomena, e.g., in terms of understanding the impact of success by others on U.S. vulnerabilities"; "the scientific status of remote viewing experiments treating such issues as the apparent non-reproducibility of results, the lack of documented and/or accepted scientific protocols, the seeming lack of consistent criteria for accepting and treating subjects"; measures of progress "developed by other than the current experimenters" that "ensure that the magicians' processes of deception, feedback to subjects, etc. are not inadvertantly allowed"; evaluation "by other than the experimenters"; "a past, present and future funding profile justifiable in terms of DoD objectives"; "a stark clear statement of events, data, etc. that will justify termination of continued funding of the project"; and "the related legal issues of individual privacy, controlled surveillance, etc." "As you know, I have had highlighted to me both the potential afforded by success in remote viewing as well as the current scientific skepticism about the ongoing activity." Copies went to [Walter LaBerge](/people/walter-laberge/), Jill Wine-Volner and Major General [Edmund Thompson](/people/edmund-thompson/).[^1]

She sat on the Grill Flame steering committee at its first meeting on February 13, 1979, with the service intelligence chiefs, LaBerge and Vorona, and "in early July 1979, Dr. Ruth Davis recommended that because of the special interest of the Secretary of Defense, that the Committee review the total DOD posture and report directly to the GRILL FLAME Oversight Committee," which set the mandate of the [Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee](/events/grill-flame-scientific-evaluation-committee/).[^2]

[^1]: Davis, Ruth M., Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research and Advanced Technology), memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to Davis, October 25, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500240017-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: *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.