Project Stargate: The CIA's $20 Million Psychic Spy Program
Project Stargate was a classified U.S. government program that spent roughly $20 million researching whether psychic "remote viewing" could gather intelligence, running from the mid-1970s until it was declassified and terminated in 1995 1. Funded by the CIA and later the Defense Intelligence Agency, it employed people who claimed to perceive distant, hidden locations — Soviet bases, hostage sites, missile installations — using only their minds, from windowless rooms at Fort Meade, Maryland 2. When it was shut down in 1995, an independent review concluded that remote viewing had never produced reliable, actionable intelligence 1. What makes Stargate remarkable is not whether it worked, but that it was real, authorized at high levels, and is now documented in tens of thousands of declassified pages 3.
What Was Project Stargate?
Project Stargate was a secret U.S. program that investigated and operationally used "remote viewing" — the claimed ability to perceive distant or unseen targets through extrasensory perception — for intelligence purposes 1. It was a joint effort involving the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and a research component at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) 2. Over its lifetime the program cost an estimated $20 million in taxpayer funds 1. The government's interest was driven by a Cold War fear: intelligence in 1972 suggested the Soviet Union was investing heavily in its own psychic research, and U.S. officials did not want to fall behind 2.
How Did the Program Begin?
The research began in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, where physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff received initial CIA funding to test whether psychic phenomena could be used for intelligence 1. The term "remote viewing" itself was coined in December 1971 by the artist and self-described psychic Ingo Swann 1. By the late 1970s the effort had been formalized into a military intelligence unit based at Fort Meade, Maryland 2. Over the years the program operated under a series of code names — including GONDOLA WISH, GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, and SUN STREAK — before the umbrella name STARGATE was adopted 2.
How Did Remote Viewing Work?
In a typical session, a remote viewer sat in a quiet room and attempted to describe a location or object identified only by coordinates or a sealed reference, without being told what the target was 2. Viewers produced sketches and written impressions, which analysts then compared against known intelligence 2. The program employed a small number of operators over its lifetime, including well-known figures such as Joseph McMoneagle, Pat Price, and Ingo Swann 3. Supporters cited striking apparent successes; skeptics noted that most sessions produced vague, inconsistent, or unverifiable results 1.
Did Project Stargate Actually Work?
This remains the central dispute. In 1995 the American Institutes for Research (AIR) was commissioned to evaluate the program, assigning statistician Jessica Utts and psychologist Ray Hyman to review the data 2. Their conclusions diverged sharply: Utts judged that the statistical effect was real and replicable, while Hyman concluded the results did not meet scientific standards and could not be separated from chance and methodological flaws 2. The CIA sided with the skeptical assessment 1. Its official conclusion was that remote viewing had produced no demonstrated operational intelligence value, and the program was terminated 1.
Why Was Project Stargate Declassified?
By the mid-1990s the Cold War had ended and the CIA was formally reviewing the program's usefulness 1. Following the 1995 evaluation, the agency declassified Project Stargate and released a large body of records documenting more than two decades of psychic research 3. The declassification is what sets Stargate apart from a typical conspiracy theory: rather than a secret the government denied, it was a program that sounded like fiction, ran for roughly two decades, and was then publicly documented in detail 3.
What Was Project Stargate's Legacy?
Stargate stands as one of the strangest verified entries in the U.S. declassified record — a government that funded psychic espionage for years and then published the files 3. The program popularized the term "remote viewing" and inspired lasting public fascination, including books and films loosely based on it 1. Whether any of its results were genuinely paranormal is still argued; that the program existed, was authorized, and cost about $20 million is not 1. It endures as a case study in how far Cold War anxiety pushed the intelligence community toward the unconventional 2.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Project Stargate cost? The program cost an estimated $20 million in taxpayer funds over its lifetime 1.
When was Project Stargate declassified? It was declassified and terminated in 1995 1.
Where was Project Stargate based? Its operational unit was based at Fort Meade, Maryland, with research conducted at the Stanford Research Institute 2.
What is remote viewing? It is the claimed ability to perceive distant or hidden targets using extrasensory perception, which the program tested for intelligence use 1.
Did the CIA conclude remote viewing worked? No. The CIA's official conclusion was that remote viewing produced no reliable, actionable intelligence 1.