A Psychic Spy

From left: SRI researchers Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, retired police commissioner Pat Price, and CIA contract monitor Christopher Green in 1974 at an airport immediately after testing Price’s remote viewing capabilities from a glider. Photo courtesy of Russell Targ. Russell Targ is a preternatural brainiac who developed a government-funded psychic espionage program in the 70s. Using a process called remote viewing, he taught hundreds of ESP-inclined individuals to transcend time and space using only their minds so we could find out how the Commies were trying to kill us. It’s based on physical theories like nonlocality and quantum interconnectedness, but those things become as boring as Einstein’s sex life once you’re told that remote viewing allows strangers to fuck on the astral plane. Russell wouldn’t really elaborate on that part, but everything else we asked about was fair game. Vice: How did you first become interested in parapsychology and psychic endeavors?

Russell Targ: How did that initial seed blossom into a collaboration with Stanford University and the military?
The CIA took a particular interest in the program. They even sent some spooks over to train in remote viewing for intelligence purposes. That seems like a pretty legitimizing thing, but today you’d be hard-pressed to find any sort of official funding for something like this. Why is that the case?
What were some of the secrets you helped uncover?
Get the fuck out of here.
Have your remote travels ever led you to really weird, unearthly places?
Hey, if remote viewing is so accurate, why haven’t you guys figured out where Osama bin Laden is hiding?

We didn’t have the space to get into how Russell is legally blind yet somehow has a fucking motorcycle license, but you should read about it in his new book, . It’s out now.