Uri Geller

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A Phenomenon of CIA Interest  

Long before the NBC TV reality show "Phenomenon," featuring psychic Uri Geller and illusionist Criss Angel, there was the CIA. Although it happened many years ago in a land that today seems far, far away -- the early 1970s -- it remains a tale of great significance for our time.
This page was last updated 08/29/2011 02:03:41 AM -0000
(STARpod.org) -- Long before the NBC TV reality show "Phenomenon," featuring psychic Uri Geller and illusionist Criss Angel, there was the CIA.

Although it happened many years ago in a land that today seems far, far away -- the early 1970s -- it remains a tale of great significance for our time.

Uri Geller attracted the attention of the CIA at a time when the depth of Russian and Soviet satellite interests in all things paranormal sent a chill up the collective spine of the Intelligence Community.

Today there are signs that the Intelligence Community remains engaged in exploring psychic phenomena for use by "psychic spies" -- either to collect intelligence, or to bait and switch the enemy as a counter-intelligence ploy, as part of the war on terror.
U.K. based author Jon Ronson told the tale of Uri Geller's "reactivation" by a mysterious man named "Ron," shortly after the events of 9/11.STARstream Research confirmed the existence of "Ron," a senior intelligence official, named Dr. Ronald S. Pandolfi, and his interest in exotic phenomena.

When we contacted Ron, he directly denied the use of psychics by the present -day intelligence community. This appears to contradict other information provided by multiple independent sources to STARstream Research, including confirmation from another UK based psychic, Chris Robinson, suggesting that DIA and NSA continued to explore psychic remote viewing following 9/11.
Declassified official US government records prove that psychics were being used for intelligence collection in the STAR GATE program until 1995. Declassified UK MoD files prove that the British Ministry of Defence was also exploring psychic phenomena shortly after 9/11.

Investigative journalist and author Gus Russo, who is better known for digging away at the conspiratorial aspects of the JFK assassination plot for PBS and ABC than for exploring the world of the paranormal, was told by a source familiar with the National Security Agency that NSA was currently using highly trained psychics, called remote viewers, to gather intelligence. The alleged program is said to operate at the deepest level of secrecy at the agency. It is possible that the CIA killed the STAR GATE program to protect a next-generation project that was secretly underway at NSA. It was later learned that Chris Robinson was working with Thomas Drake, the former senior NSA official who had been under indictment by the US Justice Department for his whistle-blowing against government waste and mismanagement at NSA. The most serious charges against Drake were later dropped in favor of a plea agreement to unauthorized use of a government computer system. The extent of Drake's involvement with paranormal intelligence collection, and any official involvement by NSA, remain unknown.

In the 1970s, the idea that paranormal phenomena might actually represent a serious threat to the United States was taken quite seriously. In the western world, Uri Geller was at the center of the phenomenon.

The CIA, and a handful of other government agencies, narrowed the paranormal field down to two possible areas of immediate interest: psychokinesis, the alleged ability of the mind to affect matter directly, and clairvoyance, the alleged ability of the mind to perceive distant persons, places or things. To overcome the so-called "giggle factor" of embarrassment associated with the paranormal in the scientific community, the intelligence community would later identify the field as Anomalous Mental Phenomena, or AMP. Early work with Geller and others lead to numerous paranormal programs.

A once-secret 1973 CIA memo states "Since, as matters now stand, apparently nothing more is to be done with GELLER and since we can ill afford to ignore the powers which he allegedly has and which SWANN does not share, [Ingo Swann, another famous psychic tested by CIA] the following possibility might be explored."

The importance of Uri Geller to the CIA cannot be understated. He represented an immediately accessible test subject at a time when films of Soviet psychics moving matter with their minds had been obtained by the western world. Concerns were raised that anyone capable of affecting material objects might also be capable of initiating the detonator of a nuclear weapon.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the memo is the picture it paints of the the modus operandi of the spy agency.
The memo continued:

Telling SRI (sincerely, by the way) [the Stanford Research Institute, where tests of Uri Geller's powers were taking place] that we have no intention of easing them out and that they will have full access to the data and first option re publication, we persuade them to use their good offices with GELLER in the following manner. They tell him that, in order to get the kind of money necessary for prolonged research, they showed their data and film on a highly selective basis to officials in the USG [U.S. Government]. While all expressed interest (and many incredulity) only one group had both the vision and the courage and the means to pursue the matter -- and they urge GELLER to at least listen to the proposition they wish to make. If he asks who they represent SRI finesses the matter by telling him that the representatives, themselves, would rather explain their status.
NOTE: Alternatively, with appropriate backstopping, we could pass ourselves off as NIH officials -- see below) SRI then provides the introduction to GELLER and we try to convince him to accept a contract as our consultant for a two or three month period -- renewable if both parties concur. If we don't pose as NIH officials and if he insists on knowing who we are, we tell him -- but only after enough low-key and sympathetic exposure to permit him, at least, to judge us objectively. If we pose as NIH, the rationale for our interest is simple -- straight basic research. If we drop cover, the rationale is simply that, in addition to our scientific interest in understanding the phenomena, we are concerned about the potentialities for its use in the wrong hands against the interests of humanity as a whole; we have a defensive responsibility in that regard and solicit his help in meeting it. In other words, we virtually level with him. As matters now stand we have little to loose and, handled adeptly, we might get a reasonably cooperative response. If so, we arrange for him to be ensconced in an NIH clinic (under alias if he prefers) and ensure that the conditions (privacy, security, yet freedom of movement for G who will live and sleep there but be free to leave outside 'office' hours) are optimum from his and our points of view. We then conduct the experiments designed for him and have him examined by an array of NIH specialists. In this context, while we probably have to keep the regimen as un-threatening and unpainful as possible, it would be of great value if we could obtain blood / metabolic / other indices both when he is 'high' (performing well) and when he is in a normal state. If consistent traces lead to biochemical suggestions, the whole matter of both identification and enhancement in others (drug-wise for example) might be short-circuited. All of us experience in less dramatic ways 'on' and 'off' states -- with minor cycles being measured in hours or days and major ones measured sometimes in years. When we are 'on' we 'click,' feel 'fit,' are on top of things and we are perceived by others as being 'effective,' 'dynamic,' 'magnetic,' etc. It seems reasonable to assume that similar or analogous cycles are operative in the 'psi' arena -- and that (as with us) the underlying causes are physical / chemical, as well as environmental and psychological.