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STARGATE PROJECT

The STARGATE PROJECT was a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1977 at Fort Meade, Maryland. Its purpose was to investigate Psi phenomena, particularly Remote Viewing, for military and intelligence applications.

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The STARGATE PROJECT was a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1977 at Fort Meade, Maryland. Its purpose was to investigate psychic phenomena, particularly remote viewing, for military and intelligence applications. The project operated under various code names throughout its lifespan, including Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, Center Lane, Sun Streak, and Scanate. These names were used at different times and for different aspects of the project, but all fell under the umbrella of psychic research for military and intelligence purposes. The project sought to harness these abilities for intelligence gathering and military operations, eventually being declassified in 1995.

Overview

Remote Viewing is the claimed ability to gather information about distant or unseen targets using extrasensory perception or other paranormal means. The Stargate Project sought to harness this ability for intelligence gathering and military operations.

The Project

Foundations

The program was initiated by Skip Atwater, who had heard rumors of extensive Soviet psi research and the CIA's own involvement with SRI. Atwater proposed to Colonel Robert Keenan, then head of Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED), that they assemble a remote viewing team. This proposal was ultimately approved in 1977 by Major General Edmund Thompson and commanding officer Major Murray “Scotty” Watt, who were assigned with Atwater to lead the project. They were given a very small budget and initially operated from a room in building 4554 at Fort Meade, later moving to buildings 2560 and 2561 on Llewellyn Street to escape noise and gain more space.

The team reached out to SRI for guidance on selecting psychics. The original six soldier psychics, later narrowed to three full-time members, were Mel Riley, Joe McMoneagle, Ken Bell, Nancy Stern, Fernand Gauvin, and Hartleigh Trent. The project, thanks in part to its minuscule investment, had support from not only Major General Thompson, but also United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) commander William Rolya, Army Chief of Staff Edward Meyer, and Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander.

Initially codenamed Gondola Wish, the program began as an experimental, part-time unit. It faced early challenges, including being categorized as "human use experimentation," which required informed consent and oversight from the Army's human use review board. After initial promising results and high-level interest, the unit transitioned to an offensive psychic spying team, becoming known as Grill Flame in late 1978.

Successes

  • Chinese Nuclear Device (1979): In late summer 1979, Mel Riley and Joe McMoneagle remote viewed a new Chinese nuclear device at Lop Nor. They successfully agreed on the rough design, describing an "hourglass on its side" shape, which was later confirmed to be a critical design element by U.S. Air Force officials. They also determined that the device allegedly did not successfully detonate, a fact later confirmed by other intelligence sources, explaining why U.S. intelligence had failed to detect a nuclear explosion at the test site.1

  • Crashed U.S. Navy A-6 Aircraft (1979): Ken Bell was tasked with locating a crashed U.S. Navy A-6 aircraft. He accurately determined its general location, specifying it was a few hundred miles from Fort Meade on something called “bald.” The aircraft was later found in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia on a hill named “Bald Knob,” confirming Bell's remote viewing.1

  • Soviet Embassy Surveillance Bug (1980): Joe McMoneagle, tasked by the NSA, successfully detected the location of a USSR surveillance bug in a U.S. embassy. He accurately deduced the device’s position, the location of the soviet listening equipment across the street, and even perceived that an American team had detected the Russians and were counter-surveilling them. This demonstrated the program's ability to provide actionable intelligence.1

  • Soviet T-72 Tank Acquisition: Remote viewers, including Mel Riley, Hartleigh Trent, Ken Bell, and Joe McMoneagle, successfully tracked the acquisition of a Soviet T-72 tank by the U.S. government. McMoneagle even perceived a staged hijacking of the tank's transport ship, which was later confirmed to be a ruse to cover the general selling the tank.1

  • B-2 Stealth Bomber (Opsec Tasking): In a highly sensitive opsec tasking, Mel Riley remote-viewed a "strange batlike flying-wing shape" with a "bulbous cockpit" and fiber-optic control mechanisms. Years later, this was identified as the then-secret B-2 Stealth bomber, demonstrating the program's ability to penetrate highly classified projects and provide details that were unknown even to the tasking Air Force officials.1

  • KGB Agent Interrogation: Ken Bell and Mel Riley successfully remote-viewed a KGB "illegal" in South Africa who was resisting interrogation. Bell's "telepathic interrogation" revealed details about the agent's family and a hidden pocket calculator, which helped the FBI break an important counterintelligence case.1

  • Soviet Typhoon-Class Submarine (1979): Joe McMoneagle, known as "Viewer 518" to the NSC, provided highly accurate details about a new Soviet Typhoon-class submarine under construction at Severodvinsk. He described its massive size, double hull, canted missile tubes, and unique welding techniques, even predicting the Soviets would dynamite a channel to launch it. This information was later confirmed by satellite imagery, sparking debate within the NSC about the value of remote viewing.1

  • Skylab Crash Zone (1979): Joe McMoneagle accurately predicted the crash zone of Skylab, which reentered Earth's atmosphere over eastern Australia, blazing a trail westward and raining hot metal debris on western Australia and the Indian Ocean.1

Key Personnel and Connections

Military Figures

Civilian Researchers and Psychics

Government Officials and Liaisons

  • Richard Kennett - CIA analyst, key liaison and evaluator for psychic research programs
  • Norm Everheart - CIA technical operations specialist, chief coordinator for Grill Flame taskings from CIA's Operations Directorate
  • Jim Morris - CIA counterintelligence officer, sought RV assistance for KGB case
  • Ed Rogers - Chief of Staff D (later Office of SIGINT Operations) at CIA, skeptical of psychic intelligence
  • John McMahon - Deputy Director for Operations at CIA, head of OTS
  • Bill O'Donnell - CIA officer, inadvertently provided coordinates for Sugar Grove
  • Peter Maris - CIA physicist, tasked Price with Semipalatinsk viewing
  • Ken Kress - CIA engineer, initiated CIA's first psi research contract with SRI
  • Robert Gates - Young Soviet analyst on loan from CIA, skeptical of RV results
  • William Perry - President Carter's Defense R&D chief, later Secretary of Defense, influenced funding
  • Charlie Rose - U.S. Congressman, staunch supporter of Grill Flame
  • Jack Anderson - Journalist, reported on the existence of the program

Organizational Connections

Project Timeline and Notable Event

  1. 1970: CIA initiates SCANATE program in response to Soviet psychic research
  2. 1972: Stanford Research Institute (SRI) begins testing psychics, including Uri Geller
  3. 1976: Remote viewer Rosemary Smith allegedly locates a lost Soviet spy plane
  4. 1977: Stargate Project officially established
  5. 1979: Project psychics claim to identify Soviet weapons and technologies
  6. 1980: Failed Iran hostage rescue mission; remote viewers tasked extensively
  7. 1984: Existence of the program reported by journalist Jack Anderson
  8. 1985: Army funding terminated, program continues under DIA
  9. 1991: Most contracting transferred to SAIC under Edwin May
  10. 1995: CIA terminates and declassifies the project

Challenges and Controversies

  • Scientific Skepticism: The project faced significant skepticism from the mainstream scientific community, who often dismissed psi research as pseudoscience or fraud. Despite statistically significant results, the lack of tangible, repeatable real-world applications made it difficult to gain widespread scientific acceptance. The "Giggle Factor" within intelligence agencies also reflected this skepticism, hindering the program's operational integration.1

  • Human Use Experimentation Concerns: Due to the controversial history of programs like Project MKUltra, the Stargate Project was categorized as "human use experimentation." This required extensive informed consent and oversight, but also raised concerns about the psychological toll on remote viewers, who experienced mental fatigue, emotional fragility, and burnout from intense and monotonous taskings, particularly during the Iran hostage crisis.1

  • Disinformation and Misinformation: The field of psi research was often plagued by disinformation, such as the fabricated "Secret of the Nautilus" story, which, despite being false, significantly influenced Soviet psi research and contributed to the perception of a "psi gap." This made it challenging to discern genuine psychic phenomena from hoaxes or deliberate deception.1

  • Operational Limitations: While remote viewers achieved notable successes, their abilities had limitations. They struggled with perceiving numbers and letters accurately, and their perceptions could be influenced by their own imagination or prior knowledge. The effectiveness of remote viewing was also dependent on the nature of the target, with fixed, visually dramatic targets being easier to perceive than moving or abstract ones.1

  • Security Concerns: The accuracy of remote viewing, as demonstrated by incidents like the Sugar Grove viewing, raised significant security concerns within the Pentagon, leading to investigations into potential information leaks. The extreme secrecy surrounding the program was partly to protect it from Soviet eyes, but also to shield its supporters from public "mortification and embarrassment."1

Sources

  1. Schnabel, Jim. Remote Viewers. Dell, 1997. ↩

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