Remote viewing & UFOs : Stargate, Galactic Federation + the Aviary (CIA index + 92,010 PDF pages)

The personal journals of prominent ufologist Jacques Vallee include a note that Hal Puthoff (see Section H2 below) mentioned to Vallee in 1972 a forthcoming experiment with Uri Geller and proposed that Vallee scan the sky in case something usual showed up. An entry in those journals for 12 November 1972 records that Vallee did watch a cloud-covered sky on a day when Geller was being tested at SRI, but Vallee only noted a few airplanes and bird but no anomaly. Upon Geller’s instruction, Puthoff subsequently told Puthoff about Geller’s claims to have seen UFOs and to have been contacted by their occupants, with Geller believing that he had been chosen to demonstrate certain powers (see the entry for 20 November 1972).

Interestingly, several of the remote viewing documents released by the CIA discuss what cover story (if any) to adopt should be adopted if the CIA approached Uri Geller. For example, the author of one internal CIA memo dated 30 March 1973 refers to meeting with it being “tentatively agreed” during a visit to SRI that should the author ever have to meet “G or S” (i.e. Uri Geller or Ingo Swann) them “I’d pose as a former govt employee & now SRI consultant in DC for govt contracts”:
www.isaackoi.com...

Similarly, a CIA document] discusses the possibility of pretending to be NIH officials. See para 3 on the third page of this PDF:
www.isaackoi.com...



Jim Schnabel’s book “Remote Viewers” states that according to Puharich, Geller:

“believed himself to be some kind of space-age prophet; specifically, he claimed that his powers came from a huge flying saucer-shaped computer, ‘Spectra’, somewhere out there in Earth’s gravitational field. Spectra was in turn controlled by a distant, bureaucratic entity named Hoova, a sort of ethereal governor of planet Earth”.

A footnote added “Geller disavowed these beliefs years later, blaming them on regression hypnosis sessions Puharich had performed on him”.

In his book “My Story”, Uri Geller wrote about a tape recorded hypnosis session in which a “flat, mechanical, almost computer‐like voice coming through” Geller talked about energies were “coming from a spacecraft which it even gave a name: ‘Spectra’”. The voice “said it was from a planet thousands of light years away and that it would help us work for world peace”. Geller wrote that he “had never thought much about UFOs, but my interest in them was rising after hearing the tapes”. After hearing the tape, out on the Sinai:

when I’d been entertaining the troops, I asked the commander to let Andrija and me go out on the desert in a jeep. … For no reason at all, I felt we might be able to see something of this strange spacecraft. Andrija and I did see a red, disc-shaped light that we thought was following us; oddly, the soldiers with us didn’t see it. I was confident that it was a spacecraft and felt sure we could get a picture of one if we kept trying. But cameras were not allowed in the military area, so we would have to wait until another day to try.

This desert sighting was also discussed by Andrija Puharich in his book “Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller” (in Chapter 4). Puharich’s account included the following:

Just before 10 P.M. we were driving past an open area that looked like a dump, surrounded by new high-rise apartments. Suddenly I commanded Uri to stop. All three of us simultaneously heard a sound like one cricket continuously chirping. Uri stopped the car. I led the way toward the dump, and we climbed up an embankment that looked like a levee. As we reached the top, we all saw, in the direction of the chirping sound, a blue stroboscopic light pulsing at about three flashes per second. We kept walking toward the blue light and the cricket sound, over a wet muddy area freshly bulldozed. We stopped about a hundred yards from the source of the light and sound and whispered to one another.

Uri forbade Iris and me to take another step forward. He said, "Only I am allowed to approach it." I asked if it was permissible to take a movie film. Uri said, "Go ahead and shoot but don't move." Uri then moved forward alone and disappeared from view as he went down into a hollow. I started to take a movie of this strange night scene, knowing that I would be lucky if I could record the blue light. Then Iris began to tremble and cry next to me, so I stopped filming to give her support. As I held an arm around her, I saw the luminous dial of my watch glowing in the night. I thought it said 10 P.M.

In his book “My Story”, Uri Geller also wrote about taking several shots of a UFO while on a Lufthansa jet on a flight to Germany when his Nikon camera suddenly “rose up and simply stopped in the air in front of me”. Geller saw nothing out of the window, but took several shots anyway “on the off chance that the levitation of the camera meant something”. He later told Hal Puthoff about the incident “and he had it developed in a lab he trusted”. According to Uri Geller:

I told Hal Puthoff about it, and he had it developed in a lab he trusted.

Several of the shots showed clear, unmistakable UFOs; one is printed in this book. I didn't need proof that it was genuine, but we I took the transparency to a professional photographer at SRI. He measured the window frame and made a lot of calculations. He concluded there was no way the picture could have been fa ked.

Uri Geller’s website includes the following photograph with a caption stating : “The photograph I took through the window of the Lufthansa jet after my camera had levitated in front of me. As I was shooting the picture I saw nothing outside.”

Uri Geller’s website also includes the following photograph with a caption stating “John Lennon and I talking about UFOs”.



Uri Geller has discussed his conversation about UFOs with John Lennon several times, including in the BBC documentary referred to below and in an article on the website of The Telegraph in which Uri Geller detailed the relevant conversation with John Lennon:

“You believe in this stuff, right?” he asked me. “Well, you ain’t f---in’ gonna believe this.

“About six months ago, I was asleep in my bed, with Yoko, at home, in the Dakota Building. And suddenly, I wasn’t asleep. Because there was this blazing light round the door. It was shining through the cracks and the keyhole, like someone was out there with searchlights, or the apartment was on fire.

“That was what I thought — intruders, or fire. I leapt out of bed, and Yoko wasn’t awake at all, she was lying there like a stone, and I pulled open the door. There were these four people out there.”

“Fans?” I asked him.

“Well they didn’t want my f---in’ autograph. They were, like, little. Bug-like. Big bug eyes and little bug mouths and they were scuttling at me like roaches.”

In 2013, a BBC documentary, “The Secret Life of Uri Geller - Psychic Spy?” featured Uri Geller and several of the other individuals mentioned in this article – including Hal Puhtoff (see Section H2 below), Christopher 'Kit' Green (see Section H3 below) and Russell Targ (see Section H14 below). That documentary is embedded below:





Helpfully, a page on Uri Geller’s website gives a link and password enabling you to watch “the full 1.5 hour version” of that BBC documentary, directed by Vikram Jayanti (although unfortunately I have not yet found a way to download that longer version, which contains interesting additional footage).

Uri Geller interacts with fans on his Facebook page. The material there has included several references to UFOs, including an item by Geller directly discussing The Aviary (which appears to be a revised version of something Geller wrote in The London Times on 1 July 1 1998).

The Aviary is an informal network of senior government and military officials in America who share a fascination with UFOs. Its 12 members, so the conspiracy theory goes, are dedicated to creating a smokescreen around CIA misuse of extra-terrestrial technology.

All very X-Files - but I can confirm these 12 do exist, and their long-standing obsession with alien science is genuine. I worked closely with Hal Puthoff, for instance, whose Aviary codename was allegedly 'Owl'. Puthoff's Institute for Advanced Research in Austin, Texas, claims to be extracting energy from vacuums - is this a technique derived from captured UFOs?

Ron Pandolfi, the Aviary's 'Pelican', could have been involved in ET disinformation? - after all he headed the CIA's Weird Desk, which fields UFO sightings and inquiries from the public. Many of Pandolfi's statements directly contradict facts I know to be accurate? But no one should expect a secret service man to tell the whole truth, the whole time (wink emoticon).

Geller has not, so far as I know, identified the “many” statements by Ron Pandolfi which “directly contradict” facts he (allegedly) knows to be accurate. Ron Pandolfi is discussed below, in Section H4 below.

Section G5 : Ingo Swann – Penetration and barely covered alien bosoms

Ingo Swann was an artist and self-proclaimed psychic. Swann helped develop the process of remote viewing at the Stanford Research Institute. He is discussed in a number of the CIA documents relating to UFOs (including some of the documents already quoted above in Section G4 relating to Uri Geller).

Swann wrote a curious book called “Penetration” about “The question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy”, which purports to be an autobiography. That book included material on well-paid alleged attempts to remote view an alien base on the moon upon the instructions of a “mysterious Mr Axelrod”. “Mr Axelrod” allegedly introduced himself by saying “I am Axelrod, which is not my real name, of course…”. The book also includes (in Chapter 7) details of an (alleged…) encounter between Swann and a female alien in a large Hollywood supermarket. The relevant female alien apparently a “ravishing woman” who was “notable not so much for her excessive female physical endowments, but by the fact that they were barely covered”. The presence of strange twins dressed in black, coupled with a “psychic alert” confirmed to Swann “that the woman WAS an ET”. Upon returning to a companion in the parking lot, Swann reportedly asked his companion about the extraterrestrial woman, who replied in a bored way that there are a lot of extraterrestrial “here in La-La Land”.



In relation to the interaction with “Mr Axelrod”, I note that Richard Dolan recently discussed at 33 minutes 50 seconds into the “Where Did the Road Go” podcast on 13 June 2015 a conversation with Russell Targ of SRI about attempts in the early 1980s to remote view the far side of the moon looking for extraterrestrials (but he did not know if they found them).

Swann can be seen discussing some of these matters in the video below.



Ingo Swann is well known for attempting to remote view Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. His family has claimed that Ingo Swann’s “findings in his well-known Jupiter probe were later confirmed by Voyager’s own tour of the planet in 1979”. They have quoted astronaut Edgar Mitchell saying in the National Enquirer, “It took Mariner 10 months to get to Mercury – but Mr. Swann was able to project his consciousness there in an instant. Mr. Swann’s findings – weeks before we received the Mariner 10 data – were incredibly accurate.”

However, prominent UFO skeptic Robert Sheaffer has highlighted Carl Sagan’s view of the relevant remote viewing findings regarding Jupiter:

The Enquirer reporter interviewed the most famous UFOlogist in the world, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, who said "These are things that Mr. Swann couldn't have guessed or read about. His impressions of Mercury and Jupiter cannot be dismissed... I was fascinated by the Jupiter findings of Pioneer 10 when I compared them with Mr. Swann's. His impressions of Jupiter, along with his experience with Mercury, most certainly point the way to more experimentation."
…
However, another astronomer looked at the results of Swann's psychic space travel, and came to a very different conclusion: Carl Sagan. Philip J. Klass sent Sagan a copy of this National Enquirer article … He calls the results "dreadful - sort of vague remembrances of sixth-grade general science." In the "little book" to which he refers, Sagan writes of "two courageous American mystics" who made an "astral projection" trip to Jupiter. "If their reports had been submitted in my elementary astronomy course, they would have received grades of ‘D’ .... they were filled with the most obvious misunderstandings both about Jupiter and about Pioneer 10."

Sagan’s reply (helpfully made available online by Robert Sheaffer) is embedded below for ease of reference:

Section G6 : Joe McMoneagle – UFO sighting in 1965

Joe McMoneagle was among the first of those recruited for the US Army’s remote viewing project.

He wrote a book entitled “Mind Trek” about remote viewing. That book includes (in Chapter 21) an account of a UFO experience McMoneagle claims to have had in October 1965. McMoneagle claims he had “a classic UFO experience” while stationed in the Bahamas on a Tuesday night in October of 1965 at approximately 1:15 a.m. He states in his book:

The entire area lit up like high noon. Very bright light. So bright that you would expect it to hurt your eyes, but it didn't. I looked for the light and found it directly over my head. It was coming from a large circular discus-shaped object. It appeared to be approximately three hundred feet across and hovering four or five hundred feet above my head.

I remember thinking I should be hearing some kind of noise, but it was absolutely silent. In fact there was no sound at all, no wind noise, no night crickets, no frogs, nothing. It was moving in quick stop-and-start jumps, a hundred yards at a time, from due west to due east. After six or seven starts and stops, it shot over the horizon and everything went back to normal darkness.

The following morning I had what felt like a severe sunburn on my front side and face and gritty eyes, and I felt as though I had a case of the flu. I stayed in bed for most of the day. I didn't feel right again for almost a week. My friend suffered the same effects. We agreed never to speak of it with anyone because we liked being in the Bahamas.

As noted above in Section F5, Joseph McMoneagle was the remote viewer in the session on 22 May 1984 attempting to remote view Mars 1 million years BC.

Joseph McMoneagle had given various presentations about remote viewing, including at the MUFON Symposium in 2011 embedded below (in which he discussed aliens from 24 minutes 30 seconds to 26 minutes into his presentation). He said he had worked “a lot of possible alien targets” and could go into a lot of “very specific technology” of the drives on alien spaceships. (Unfortunately, he did not do so, nor am I aware of him obtaining any relevant patent or publishing any relevant paper in a peer reviewed science journal).



Joseph McMoneagle also discussed UFOS in an interview by Alejandro Rojas on Open Minds Radio in 2011:



Many of the people posting on Joe McMoneagle’s Facebook page are clearly interested in UFOs as well as remote viewing (often combining the two topics).

Section G7 : Lyn Buchanan

Lyn Buchanan was a remote viewer for the US military. He now has a website which offers remote viewing courses and services.

As noted in Section F1 above, Lyn Buchanan was the remote viewer during the session on 14 July 1986 looking into the Rendlesham Forest incident.

Lyn Buchanan has given presentations at various UFO conferences. He is referred to in Jon Ronson’s book “The Men Who Stare at Goats” as a “legendary figure on the UFO circuit” (at page 108 of the Picador paperback edition).

Lyn Buchanan has discussed his belief that he was subject to an alien abduction in the 1960s. For example, an article by Jack Brewer on The UFO Trail blog in 2011 details Lyn Buchanan that during his time in the CRV Buchanan recovered memories of an alien abduction. Jack Brewer’s article quotes Lyn Buchanan as stating:

“When I was a student minister in East Texas, back in the '60s, I was moving from one parsonage to another (Methodist ministers move from church assignment to church assignment every few years or so). My family had already moved to the new parsonage, and I was cleaning out the old one, getting it ready for the incoming minister. It was late at night and I was tired, so I put a pallet down on the floor and laid down to take a nap before driving to the new house. The parsonage was WAY out in the country, about a half mile from the nearest road, so it was totally isolated. About that time, I heard something land in the back yard. I tried to get up to see what it was, but was frozen. I thought that it could be a 'flying saucer,' and decided that I could go out back and take a picture of the ground the next morning to prove it. But right then, I couldn't move. Then, I heard some 'people' coming around the house to the front. The next thing I knew, it was morning and I was wandering around the house in a total daze. When I finally came to my senses, I picked up the pallet, threw it into the UHaul and drove away. From that time on, I kept having the feeling that I had forgotten something.”

Jack Brewer’s article also refers to Lyn Buchanan’s claim that he discussed the memories with others in the remote viewing unit, whose remote viewing of the occurrence “confirmed it”. Lyn Buchanan claimed that a unit member reported him to "the powers that be", resulting in him being approached by “the men in black”. Jack Brewer quotes Lyn Buchanan as claiming that he got confirmation from the men in black that “it was true” and about a year later “got further and more complete confirmation”. Unfortunately, the relevant article does not contain any details of that alleged “more complete confirmation” nor (as with much else in Lyn Buchanan’s story) is any evidence presented to support the relevant claims.

Section G8 : Courtney Brown : Hale-Bopp and Heaven’s Gate

Courtney Brown was not involved in the official remote viewing projects established by the military and intelligence agencies in the USA so I will not deal with him at any length in this item about the remote viewing documents released by the CIA. However, his role in relation to remote viewing and the UFO community is sufficiently significant and controversial that I will briefly refer to a few relevant matters and resources.

Jon Ronson’s entertaining book “The Men Who Stare at Goats” contains repeated reference to Courtney Brown. As detailed in that book, Courtney Brown was trained by Ed Dames (Ronson page 109) and Courtney Brown’s favourite targets included aliens and mythical beasts (Ronson page 109).

Courtney Brown is probably best known for his connection to the mass suicide of members of Heaven’s Gate. appeared on the Art Bell show and discussed a Martian civilization (Ronson page 110-113). On the Art Bell show on 14 November 1996, Courtney Brown discussed the Hale-Bopp comet and an alleged companion, which he claimed had been revealed by remote viewing to be a metallic object full of aliens (Ronson page 114-119). The Heaven’s Gate website included a link to Art Bell’s website (Ronson page 120) and some have linked the mass suicide of members of Heaven’s Gateto the Art Bell broadcast. Following the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide, Courtney Brown was subsequently banned by Art Bell from ever appearing on his show again (Ronson page 122).

The controversy regarding the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide is covered in numerous articles and books. I will not go into detail on it here. An interesting article by Thomas Genoni entitled “Art Bell, Heaven’s Gate, and Journalistic Integrity” appeared in the Skeptical Inquirer in 1997. It includes the following:

What about the possibility that thirty-nine people ended their lives in part because of Bell’s promotion of false information? Bell doubts the cult members incorporated the “companion UFO” story into their mass suicide decision. He says that in the weeks following the Courtney Brown debacle, the “entire fraud was heavily exposed” and that the revelations all occurred two months before the Rancho Santa Fe suicides. And in a further attempt to paint himself as just another innocent reporter at the mercy of his sources, Bell asserted that “the media had it totally, utterly wrong” in their initial reports of the numbers and ages of suicide victims, as if to compare his show’s unsubstantiated and pretentious banter about a massive, comet-trailing alien craft to the act of gathering details during a breaking, tragic news story. Most important for Bell, though, is that the Heaven’s Gate members appeared to have been aware of the Hale-Bopp UFO debunking. The first line of their now infamous Web site reads:

“Whether Hale-Bopp has a ‘companion' or not is irrelevant from our perspective.”

However, the cult’s Internet link to the Art Bell homepage also indicates it’s likely they first heard about an approaching spaceship during Bell’s two-month-long UFO escapade.

Courtney Brown has made available his books “Cosmic Voyage” and “Cosmic Explorers” (both about remote viewing and extraterrestrials) as free downloads on his website. Both books contain rather wild tales of two alien civilisations - the Martians and the Greys. The Martians are said to be struggling to survive on their nearly dead planet and in hidden retreats on Earth, following an ancient natural catastrophe on their own world. The Greys are said to be have nearly destroyed themselves by wanton abuse of their environment and now seek to enhance their own evolution.



In his book “Why People Believe Weird Things”, Michael Shermer commented as follows:

The claims in Brown's two books are nothing short of spectacularly weird. Through his numerous SRV sessions he says he has spoken with Jesus and Buddha (both, apparently, are advanced aliens), visited other inhabited planets, time traveled to Mars back when it was fully inhabited by intelligent ETs, and has even determined that aliens are living among us—one group in particular resides underground in New Mexico.

Interestingly, the discussions of these books on Courtney Brown’s own website implies that Courtney Brown himself considers that the books are not to be taken too seriously (or at least not warranted as being absolutely factually accurate). He refers to these books being “speculative” nonfiction books that “certainly appear outrageous at first glance”, commenting that “Maybe they are”. He calls on readers to “Forget the censors. Be curious. This is fun!”.

OP - this is a very well put together thread. I have not read the entire, but have scimmed over the majority.
I am saving this for tomorrow night when i can dedicate a few hours to this rabbit hole

Section G9 : Livermore group – Tiny UFO

While a considerable number of presentations about remote viewing include references to attempts to remote view UFO and/or a civilisation on Mars, few of those presentations refer to some of the weirder links between ufology and studies of remote viewing and the paranormal. For example, Jim Schnabel’s book “Remote Viewers” refers to an episode during 1974 and 1975 involving several employees of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory working on experiments with Uri Geller. This episode reportedly included a security office named Ron Robertson and a physicist named Peter Crane and about half a dozen other scientists and engineers. Jim Schnabel’s account of the relevant episode includes the following (at page 165 of the Dell paperback edition):

“... Peter Crane and some of the others in the Livermore group quickly found themselves involved in more strangeness than they could handle. ... They all would be in a laboratory together, setting up some equipment, or one of the fellows and his wife and children would be at home, just sitting around, when suddenly there in the middle of the room would be a weird, hovering, almost comically stereo-typical image of a flying saucer. It was always about eight inches across, in a grey, fuzzy monochrome, as if it were some kind of hologram...”

Similarly, there is rarely much discussion of some of the weirder material in relation to various members of the Aviary (including, just by way of example, Kit Green – see Section H3 below). It appears to be viewed as bad form to either refer to this material or ask those involved about relevant reports, possibly because it may be seen as undermining their credibility and/or the credibility of ufology or remote viewing. The general lack of discussion of some of these issues may simply be the result of a perfectly understandable desire to get some information from members of the Aviary results in potentially awkward questions being omitted in order to avoid offending those involved...

Section G10 : Mel Riley - Mars

I have already referred to various remote viewing documents released by the CIA in which Mel Riley was the remote viewer. Those documents included a document from 27 April 1987 relating to an attempt to target Mars, a document detailing another attempt, on 10 July 1987, to remote view Mars, again with Mel Riley as the remote viewer and a remote viewing session document entitled "GALACTIC FEDERATION HEADQUARTERS (TRAINING)".

Mel Riley discussed remote viewing in the documentary “The Real X Files: America's Psychic Spies” written and narrated by Jim Schnabel referred to above (including the opening anecdote at

Section G11 : Paul Smith – Mars

I referred to Paul Smith in Section D2 above. I will not duplicate that material in this section.

Section H : The UFO Connection - Overlapping interest of researchers

To understand some elements of Ufology and the characters involved in it, it is useful to look at material relating to remote viewing projects undertaken by the CIA, NSA, DIA and US Army. This is particular the case in relation to the so-called “Aviary”.

The nature of the so-called “Aviary” is extremely controversial.

The term “the Aviary” is used to refer to various individuals (most of whom were members of the military or intelligence community) that had contact with ufologist William ("Bill") Moore in the 1980s to whom Bill Moore gave bird "codenames", such as “Falcon”.

As mentioned in the Introduction above, conspiracy theories relating to “the Aviary” are extremely varied and contradictory. For example, "the Aviary" has been described by Jon King in his book "Cosmic Top Secret" (1998) as "a kind of latter-day Majestic-12 working group", suggesting that the Aviary exists to control information about UFOs. Some other researchers have suggested that the Aviary spread disinformation and hoaxes about UFOs. One online article goes considerably further, asserting that members of the Aviary have:

“reportedly participated in MILABS operations — black operations by rogue military-intelligence units that stalk, harrass, terrorize, kidnap, drug, gang-rape and mind-rape innocent civilians, using hypnotic mind-control programming to implant a false post-hypnotic ‘memory’ that the episode was an “alien abduction.”"

Various conspiracy theories relating to “the Aviary”, and allegations as to its membership, can also be found in numerous articles online – e.g. in material collated on the Bibliotecapleyades website here, here and here.

However, other researchers have suggested "the Aviary" was basically just a group of people (several of whom had jobs in the military/intelligence sphere) with an informal interest in UFO research.

The fun and games begin when you try to work out WHY those people were in contact with Bill Moore and the extent (and nature) of their interactions with one another:

(1) Some people think that these people were just individuals with a personal interest in parapsychology/UFOs/remote viewing/spoonbending etc, while

(2) Some others view "the Aviary" as akin to an MJ-12 group i.e. in possession of "THE TRUTH" about alien visitations and are:
(a) seeking to keep that knowledge from the public by spreading disinformation, or
(b) seeking to release that information to the public, slowly (so as to avoid a social/political/economic/religious crisis)
(b) seeking to test how the public would react to the release of information if they choose to release it.

(3) Still others argue that the members of the Aviary have no secret knowledge of (or real interest in) aliens and only participate in the ufo community for professional reasons completely distinct from any concern in extraterrestrials, e.g.
(a) to encourage belief in UFOs to hide secret projects and/or
(b) to test how novel ideas can be spread and/or
(c) as part of counter-intelligence operations and/or
(d) to get inspiration for non-lethal technologies and/or
(e) numerous other speculated reasons...

(4) Yet others imply that some or all members of the Aviary have no secret knowledge of (or real interest in) aliens and only participate in the ufo community:
(a) to make money,
(b) for the amusement value of it all.

If you plug "the Aviary" into Google in combination with Moore's name (possibly adding Richard Doty) you'll find LOTS of different views on the above - much of it nonsense and/or written in a rather irritating style (e.g. referring to everyone by a pseudonym BUT giving enough details of the relevant individual to make it obvious who the person is).

Hours of fun for all the family.

Oh, and ATS has links to several members of the Aviary...

The nature of “The Aviary” and the role played by its various members within ufology, particularly Bill Moore and Richard Doty, has been (and remains) highly controversial – featuring in (or being relevant to) a whole host of books. Towards the top of any list of the books that I would recommend in relation to "The Aviary" (and/or Richard Doty and/or Bill Moore) would be the following two books (even though I don't agree with all the views expressed even in these recommended books...):

(1) Mark Pilkington's book "Mirage Men" (and the related documentary of the same name). If you have any interest in ufology and haven’t read this book and watched the documentary, I strongly recommend that you remedy this failure immediately. Basically, I found it : (a) contained a very large element of speculation - much of which I did not agree with, but was also (b) extremely interesting and entertaining. I just wish it was two or three times as long to allow many of the issues to be addressed in greater depth - but this may not have been ideal for a commercial publication aimed at a wider audience... Mark Pilkington’s book would have probably come top of a list of the most thought provoking UFO books I'd read in the year or two before that book. One of my problems with the book is that it seems to discount too easily the idea that some of those mentioned in the book weren't motivated simply by a desire to have a laugh at the expense of other people or for financial gain. In particular, information sourced from Bill Moore seems to be accepted to a surprising degree in the "Mirage Men" book/documentary and, for that matter, in Greg Bishop's book "Project Beta"

(2) Greg Bishop's book "Project Beta" – which has a heavy focus on the Doty/Moore/Bennewitz saga.


Other relevant books include:

(a) Several books written by various people that allegedly were involved in the Aviary, including John Alexander's relatively recent book "UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities" and his less relevant book "Future War", plus Dale Graff's "Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness" and "Mind Reach" by Targ and Hal Puthoff. Sadly, few (if any) of the books by members of the Aviary fully address issues relating to the Aviary. Of course, the fact that those involved in the UFO Working Group and the Aviary have said little about those groups is one of the reasons for so much nonsense circulating about them. Conspiracy theorists, like nature, abhor a vacuum. I’ve wondered whether the reluctance of some of those involved to give a clear factual account of relevant matters is intended by at least some of them to imbue themselves with an aura of mystery.

(b) Jon Ronson’s amusing book “The men who stare at goats” is a fun, light introduction to several of the relevant cast of characters.

(c) Jim Schnabel's "Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies" is almost as amusing as Jon Ronson’s book but includes MUCH more detail about the individuals involved in remote viewing (including various members of the Aviary) and the work they did. This book stands out for its portraits of relevant personalities. I’d also recommend Schnabel's books on crop circles and alien abductions.

(d) Howard Blum’s “Out There”, being one of the earlier books to discuss the UFO Working Group. This book was written at a time when few details were publicly known and very few of those involved had discussed the UFO Working Group. (Even today, few of them have given many details). Thus, Blum had relatively little material available to him in order to produce an accurate factual account about the UFO Working Group. This may explain at least some of the many factual inaccuracies in the book. Also, with the benefit of access to the documents on official remote viewing projects it appears that Blum may have confused some issues regarding UFO projects with the remote viewing projects. However, some of the mistakes (e.g. referring to Condon as the head of Project Blue Book or the book “The Philadelphia Experiment” as a novel) are rather less easy to explain in these ways. John Alexander has put the matter far more bluntly in his book “UFOs : Myths, Conspiracies and Realities”, stating that most of Blum’s book “is pure poppycock”. Len Stringfield stated (in his Status Report VI) that Howard Blum’s book is “loaded with errors” with “many dozens of errors, little evidence”. Jerome Clark (in an editorial in the IUR journal for September/October 1990) wrote that Blum’s book was “a major disappointment” and that it was “filled with errors, bloating with padding”. In the same issue of the IUR journal, Mark Rodeghier wrote a review of Blum’s book in which Rodeghier made the comment (which, sadly, could be applied to many UFO books…) that “the reader cannot fail to be underwhelmed by the book’s claims compared to to its performance”. A book review in the MUFON Journal by Dennis Stacy gave reasons for the view that Blum’s book “is marred by a number of factual and suppositional errors that indicate either sloppy research on Mr Blum’s part, simple inattention to detail, or a headlong rush into print, or perhaps all three” (see the MUFON Journal, September 1990, pages 15-16). In a discussion of Blum’s “Out There” on the UFO Updates email discussion List in August 1997 Stanton Friedman commented that the book is “loaded with false information, false reasoning, and lots of fiction”. Several prominent UFO skeptics shared the dim view expressed by most of the UFO community concerning Blum’s book. For example, a book review by Philip J Klass mentioned that he counted 25 factual errors in relation to him in the five pages in which Blum discussed Klass. Klass concluded his book review by stating by stating that “Out There” could “more accurately be titled ‘Spaced Out’” (see the book review entitled “Examining Another UFO ‘True Story’’' in the Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 15 Issue 2, Winter 1991, pages 181-183). Despite the number of negative comments made about the book, I must say that there are a number of items which were revealed in that book apparently for the first time which do check out – so (despite all of its flaws) it clearly wasn’t the complete fabrication which some comments suggested.

(e) Robert Collins’s book “Exempt from Disclosure”, which is intriguing in its account of some issues relating to The Aviary, but that book would have benefitted from some serious editing. Much greater clarity as to evidence and sources would have been highly desirable, particularly if the more sensational aspects of that book had survived a rigorous editing process.

(f) Gary Bekkum's "Spies, Lies and Polygraph Tape" is another book that includes some intriguing material. However, like Robert Collins’ book, Bekkum’s book would have benefited from more editing, greater clarity as to sources and a more critical analysis of some of the material reported.

(g) Grant Cameron’s interesting book, which unfortunately left me with more questions than answers.

Some useful online resources in relation to the Aviary include:

(1) A thread here on ATS started by The Gut. I don’t agree with some of the conclusions reached by The Gut in that thread, but it presents some interesting material (and some equally interesting questions).

(2) Links and comments presented on the Bibliotecapleyades website, particularly on this page and on this page.

(3) Links and some information presented on the (sadly) defunct UFOmind website. (I remember that website fondly. It was a very useful resource...).

I have split my discussion of certain that have played significant roles in both ufology and remote viewing into the following sub-sections. The discussion of these individuals is merely intended to provide some relevant resources and does not answer (or, for that matter, even set out) all the questions that arise in relation to their involvement and connections in relation to ufology. As explained in the Postscript below, these basic introductions and resources are intended to form the basis for discussions with some of these individuals.

Section H1 : Jacques Vallee (SRI, "Aviary", NIDS)

Section H2 : Hal Puthoff (NSA, SRI, "Aviary", NIDS, UFO Working Group)

Section H3 : Kit Green (CIA, "Aviary", UFO Working Group)

Section H4 : Ron Pandolfi (CIA, "Aviary", UFO Working Group)

Section H5 : John Alexander (US Army, "Aviary", PSI-TECH, NIDS, UFO Working Group)

Section H6 : Dale Graff (DIA, "Aviary")

Section H7 : C B Scott Jones (US Navy, "Aviary")

Section H8 : Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III (US Army, PSI-TECH)

Section H9 : Robert Wood (McDonnell Douglas, UFO Working Group)

Section H10 : Edgar Mitchell (Astronaut, NIDS)

Section H11 : Robert Bigelow (NIDS)

Section H12 : Jim Marrs (Researcher/author)

Section H13 : Jim Schnabel (Researcher/author)

Section H14 : Russell Targ (SRI)

Section H1 : Jacques Vallee (SRI, "Aviary”, NIDS)

Jacques Vallee is extremely well known within UFO community, having written some of the most highly respected books on UFOs. The French scientist “Claude Lacombe” in Spielberg’s movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was based on Vallee.

Some of those involved in ufology are, however, not familiar with Vallee’s connections with remote viewing or the remote viewing community.

Vallee worked at SRI when various other individuals there (including Hal Puthoff – see Section H2 below) were working on a remote viewing project funded by the CIA. Vallee became informally involved in that project and has been credited by Ingo Swann for suggesting the approach that led to the Coordinate Remote Viewing protocol adopted in the US government’s remote viewing projects.

Vallee can be seen discussing his involvement with remote viewing in his speech on the “Software of Consciousness” to the IRVA conference (i.e. the “International Remote Viewing Association” conference) in 2007, following an introduction by Paul Smith. He explained in that presentation that he had always been interested in parapsychology and joined the Palo Alto Research Group to examine parapsychology in around 1970. He met Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ there. He then joined SRI to work in a computer lab (not on remote viewing). When Puthoff and Targ began work at SRI on psychic functioning and remote viewing, they brought in Ingo Swann as a consultant. Vallee worked in the same building and used to have lunch with Swann, who was also interested in UFOs, and they discussed potential remote viewing methodologies. Vallee discusses (at about 17 minutes 38 seconds into the video) that fact that many of those involved in remote viewing used to answer a question about how the became aware of their abilities by referring to a UFO sighting they had.



Jacques Vallee briefly also referred to remote viewing in the Coast to Coast interview embedded below, including at 4 minutes 50 seconds onwards. He refers to himself as an “interested observer” in relation to remote viewing, which is a modest description of his role (in a field where, as with ufology, modesty is rather an unusual characteristic...).

In the first two volumes of his personal journals (i.e. Jacques Vallee’s books “Forbidden Science” Volumes 1 and 2) refer to Hal Puthoff (see Section H2 below) a few dozen times, including mentioned how Vallee met him at a lecture Vallee gave at the Palo Alto Research Group and Puthoff invited Valllee to Puthoff’s lab. More interesting to me personally are the various entries in Vallee’s journals to discussions with Puthoff regarding UFOs. Those entries include one for 7 October 1972 about Puthoff mentioning that a former colleague of Puthoff at the NSA had told Puthoff that a fresh study of UFOs was secretly under way in the government. An entry for the following week (on 15 October 1972) refers to a discussion between Vallee and Puthoff about Puthoff’s “Washington contacts”. Vallee commented in his journal that “the risk in approaching them is to get caught in weird games; I will have to stay on my guard”. Puthoff subsequently put Vallee in touch with Howell McConnell (an individual at the NSA that I will eventually cover in a long thread about the NSA and UFOs…). An entry for 21 February 1973 notes that Puthoff had come back from a trip to Washington and had spoken to (unnamed) Government officials in a position to discover the true state of affairs” about UFOs. Vallee states that they told Puthoff that people who recently saw strange objects in the sky in the Southwest had only been watching classified prototypes. However, they reportedly also conceded to Puthoff that there were “true” saucers. Puthoff told Vallee that his high-level contacts walked around with UFO books in their briefcases, particularly Vallee’s books. Vallee stated in his journal that he found this “depressing”, commenting “Doesn't that imply that they know less than I do?”. Entries for 2 November 1973 and 17 November 1973 both record claims by Puthoff that he had identified the leader of a CIA group that monitored the UFO field.

Vallee subsequently met with Kit Green (see Section H3 below) of the CIA, then a “dynamic bespectacled young man“ that “exudes optimism and refreshing humor”. Vallee’s journal entry for 11 February 1974 records a meeting he had with Kit Green, in which Kit Green apparently displayed more knowledge of the first case discussed (the Pascagoula case) than the experts that had claimed to analyse it. Vallee states that he most important thing he learned was that “Green had counterparts in every branch of the Executive” and they “mainly operated ‘out of personal interest’ with the blessing of higher-level managers”. Vallee further noted that “They occasionally exchanged data, but he claimed little was done with it”. Vallee asked Kit Green if they must be a secret effort somewhere, to which Kit Green finally agreed but stated that “in my group we’ve wondered if it wasn’t being run within private industry”. Vallee noted in his journal that he could not tell Hynek about the meeting with Kit Green of the CIA because Puthoff had placed Vallee under strict secrecy. Vallee subsequently had repeated contact with Kit Green regarding UFOs. Vallee’s journals contain more references to Kit Green than to, say, Hal Puthoff. Some of the relevant entries are rather interesting. For example, Vallee’s journals include an entry on 18 May 1974 referring to a meeting in which Kit Green reportedly said he had his people “looking deep within the Air Force and we can’t find anyone who’ll talk to us!”. Kit reportedly asked “Where do they hide the f##king project, if there’s one?”. A later entry (on 16 June 1974) refers to a meeting with Kit Green and other officials which “sounded exciting” to Vallee, until “we sat down in the bar area and I realized they were all space cadets, talking about pedestrian research worthy of the old NICAP”. Vallee referred to the discussions as “another waste of time”, although he wondered if it was “a fake research project as a cover for their newest gadgets. Another of the various entries relating to discussions with Kit Green, this time dated 10 December 1974, refers to a discussion in which Kit Green reportedly “reluctantly” confirmed that there was a group of 15 engineers in the Midwest (which Vallee assumed was McDonnell in St Louis) that was secretly doing UFO research for the CIA under cover of “aeronautical research”. By April 1975, Kit Green was contacting various other ufologists. Vallee’s journal comments, in an entry dated 26 April 1985, “Kit is now talking to every ufologist worth his salt”. Hal and Vallee agreed that Kit Green simply didn’t have the right access (see entry dated 2 October 1975). Despite that conclusion, Vallee and Kit Green continued to discuss UFOs for years afterwards. An entry dated 22 May 1978 commented that Kit Green was in “close contact with most of the UFO groups, so his interest is only confidential among the uninformed”.

As noted above in relation to Uri Geller (see Section G4 above) Vallee included a note in his journals that Hal Puthoff (see Section H2 below) mentioned to Vallee in 1972 a forthcoming experiment at SRI involving Uri Geller. Puthoff proposed that Vallee scan the sky in case something usual showed up. An entry in those journals for 12 November 1972 records that Vallee did watch a cloud-covered sky on a day when Geller was being tested at SRI, but Vallee only noted a few airplanes and bird but no anomaly. Upon Geller’s instruction, Puthoff subsequently told Puthoff about Geller’s claims to have seens UFOs and to have been contacted by their occupants, with Geller believing that he had been chosen to demonstrate certain powers (see the entry for 20 November 1972).

As mentioned above in relation to Pat Price (see Section G1 above), Volume 2 of Jacques Vallee’s “Forbidden Science” that Vallee went to La Javie on a mountain road that stopped a few miles from a point that Pat Price had indicated to Vallee (as a result of Pat Price’s remote viewing) as a possible location for a UFO base. Vallee notes that “local people scoff at the idea of an undiscovered cave in the vicinity” (see entry for 31 July 1974).