In Brief

• The Facts:

  • Ingo Swann, one of the most successful remote viewers out of the Stanford Research Institute/CIA program describes a strange encounter with "the men in black."

  • He was taken to a remote location and witnessed a UFO event, in hopes that he'd be able to describe what was happening.

• Reflect On:

  Why have "paranormal" abilities been used, studied and developed at the highest levels of government yet remain unacknowledged and ridiculed within the mainstream?

Remote viewing is the ability to describe a remote geographical location, in detail, regardless of one’s present location and proximity to the place or object that they are describing. The phenomenon is indeed real, so real that it was used by the U.S. intelligence community to “spy” on others, albeit in a psychic manner.

The program was used successfully to locate hostages, lost planes, view into the military bases of another country to see what they were developing technologically, and much more. The program was initiated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the methods and techniques were taught to military and civilian personnel at SRI International at Stanford university.

According to conversations I’ve had with former Army personnel who were involved in the program, as well as the testimony of multiple civilian remote viewers in the program, like Lyn Buchanan, it was also used to investigate the UFO phenomenon. There is no mention of this in the field, but there is a document showing that a remote viewer was tasked to look into a possible “galactic federation” headquarters on Earth, whatever that means.

Dr. Jessica Utts, a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Irvine worked with the government on these programs. According to her,

I got convinced by the good science that I saw being done. And in fact I will say as a statistician I’ve consulted in a lot of different areas of science; the methodology and the controls on these experiments are tighter than any other area of science where I’ve worked.

The program ran for approximately 25 years and was declassified in 1995, although much of what was discovered within the program about these “paranormal” abilities and what else they were used for probably remains classified.

Dr. Harold E. Puthoff, who was the director of the program explains in a paper published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration published in 1996,

To summarize, over the years, the back-and-forth criticisms of protocols, refinement of methods, and successful replication of this type of remote viewing in independent laboratories has yielded considerable scientific evidence for the reality of the (remote viewing) phenomenon. Adding to the strength of these results was the discovery that a growing number of individuals could be found to demonstrate high-quality remote viewing , often to their own surprise…The development of this capability at SRI has evolved to the point where visiting CIA personnel with no previous exposure to such concepts have performed well under controlled laboratory conditions.

Dr. Harold E. Puthoff. “CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing Program At Stanford Research Institute.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, 1996.

Ingo Swann (1933-2013)

A man by the name of Ingo Swann was one of the most successful and talented remote viewers in the program . He was able to view a ring around Jupiter before astronomers had any idea that it existed. This took place before the first ever flyby of Jupiter by NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which confirmed that the ring did actually exist. These results were published in the study cited above.

What was not published in the literature after it was declassified were Swann’s experiences in the world of intelligence. He did, however, write a book called Penetration where he detailed some of his experiences, and many of them dealt with UFOs as well as supposed extraterrestrials.

In his book he describes a gentlemen who he calls Mr. Axelrod, a secretive government agent obviously belonging to some intelligence agency.

The Story

One day, this man (Axelrod) entered into the secured facility at Stanford, which was not an easy thing to do. He obviously had access and the security clearance to do so. You have to remember, at the time this was happening it was a very classified and sensitive U.S. government project. He found Swann and persuaded him to leave with him.

Axelrod was accompanied by two twins who were very tall and mysterious. They dressed in the typical ‘cloak and dagger’ intelligence agency outfit. This is not uncommon, “men in black” type figures have often been described in this manner, and twins are not unusual.

Swann described them as “two blond haired, blue eyed, military looking assistants.”

The four of them flew to the west coast where Swann believed it to be the Alaskan wilderness, although he wasn’t certain and was told that it’s best he did not know.

They were flying in a learjet and found an area deep in the forest which seemed to be for their own use. They trekked a very long time.

Richard Dolan, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the topic of UFOs, describes the incident well in his book, UFOs & The National Security State, The Cover -Up Exposed 1973-1991, so I will quote it from here on in starting on page 154:

“They came to a small lake, and Axelrod said that as dawn approached, Swann would be able to see “it” through the pines. ‘We now wait and hope we are lucky. Say nothing, do not make any noise…they detect heat, noise, motion like mad.” 

“Dawn arrived, and Swann saw a fog developing over the lake. This went on for five minutes, until the fog developed a luminous neon-blue color. Then, according to Swann, the color changed to an “angry purple” Axelrod and one of the twins each placed a hand firmly on Swann’s shoulders while “a network of purple, red, and yellow lightning bolts shot in all crazy directions through the ‘cloud.’ Swann said he would have jumped if the two had not held him down. He saw an object, almost transparent at first, but then “solidly visible over the lake.” It was triangular or diamond-shaped, growing in size.”

“Swann, in terror and amazement, heard a strong wind moving past, rustling the pine trees so much that some cones and branches fell on them.  The object then began to shoot out ‘ruby red laster-like beams’ as it continued to grow even more in size while maintaining its position on the lake. Very quietly, one of the twins said, ‘Shit! They’re enveloping the area. They’re going to spot us.”

“As Swann later recalled the event, some of the red laser beams from the object were ‘blasting’ pine trees, and he could hear low frequency pulsations. Axelrod whispered to Swann that the beams were probably honing in on deer or other forest creatures, as they sense biological body heat. ‘They’re sure to hone in on us,’ he told Swann. Just then, one of the twins literally lifted and dragged Swann away, but not before Swann noticed the water of the lake surging upward, ‘like a waterfall going upward, as if being sucked into the ‘machine.’” 

“The four ran quickly and at great length, sustaining minor cuts and bruises. Eventually they stopped, breathing hard, and waited for more than thirty minutes, until one of the twins said all was clear.”

“Axelrod then asked Swann whether he could ‘sense’ anything form the craft.”

At this point it’s quite obvious why Swann was taken from his position and role at Stanford Research Institute and into this situation. It seemed that these ‘government’ agents believed Swann could provide some detail about what was happening here and help the government with their research and interest in UFOs.

“Swann burst out laughing. ‘You’re completely nuts, Axel! I have to be calm, cool, collected and in good shape to sense anything.’ But Swann offered the insight that the craft was ‘a drone of some kind, unmanned, controlled from somewhere else.” Axelrod asked him what it was doing there, to which Swann replied ‘Well, for chrissakes! It was thirsty! Taking on water, obviously. Someone, somewhere needs water…so I suppose they just come and get it. You don’t need to be a psychic to see that.’ Essentially, said Swann, ‘they’ treated Earth as the neighbourhood supermarket.’

“Before taking Swann back, Axelrod said, ‘I shouldn’t tell you, but our mission will be disbanded shortly and the work picked up by others, because of strategic security reasons involved…’ ‘Others,’ said Swann, ‘who will not mix in with psychics, I take it.’ ‘You got it,’ Axelrod replied. Swann last saw Axelrod at the San Jose Airport, and never heard from him again.”