A True Government Psi Story
by Dale E. Graff

COMMENTS ON STARGATE AND MOVIE “MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS”

When the movie, “The Men Who Stare at Goats” was released I became caught up in the publicity generated by the movie. This publicity resulted from the movie’s liberal portrayal of Stargate, the US government’s program in research and applications of a mental ability referred to as remote viewing (RV). In the “Goats” movie some of the action is based on the Stargate activities.

Remote viewing can be considered as an aspect of extrasensory perception (ESP) and relates to our natural psychic (or psi) capabilities. I was involved in various aspects of RV research and applications as a physicist in the intelligence community for over 20 years, at one time serving as Director of the Stargate unit located at Fort. Meade, MD.

My initial reaction to some of the scenarios in the movie was disappointment, even disgust. For example, there is a “LSD crazy” episode. In real life, all Stargate personnel had to be drug free. Only natural relaxing techniques were used to achieve a remote viewing state as approved through Department of Defense regulations. Some of the scenes were reasonably accurate. One practice RV episode using concealed pictures was similar to some of our projects and the objective of locating missing people was accurate. One of the incidents particularly meaningful to me was the reference to how Soviet research in ESP led to the initial contracts for RV research. Actually, it was my uncovering of Soviet ESP research in 1975 that provided rationale for the Department of Defense investigations into remote viewing and was the primary reason for my early involvement in the Stargate activities.

Since the movie was released, I have found that despite theatrical distortions it has an overall positive effect on the views about Stargate and remote viewing. The movie raises awareness of the phenomenon and that it was taken seriously in government research and intelligence areas. The movie generated responses among individuals seeking knowledge of Stargate but primarily about psi in general.

Of course there are those who do not support the reality of psi / RV. It appears that this resistance is lessening due to increase in media presentations on psi / RV topics and quantum physics concepts that seem to support the potential of psi, such as non-locality and entanglement.

I continue to facilitate workshops on The Art of Psi: Explorations into ESP, Remote Viewing and Precognitive Dreaming, and some of these resulted directly from the Goats movie. Through newspaper interviews and seminars I promote the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and illustrate how dreams, including psi and precognitive dreams are a natural aspect of our lives and are a benefit to everyone. I explain that there was more to Stargate than remote viewing, and that dreams or dream-like states were included in the protocol.

Some aspects of the Stargate program have an indirect link with movie, Inception. There were occasions during Stargate when some individuals used dreams or dream-like states for accessing psi information. Some of these states resembled lucid dreams. We labeled these experiences as “extended remote viewing” or “intensive site interaction” to correctly indicate the continuity of the psi spectrum. I refer to this psi continuity as Conscious State Psi (CSP) and Dream State Psi (DSP).

Media production may present confusing or even erroneous concepts about the phenomenon that we study dreams, psi, psi dreams, remote viewing. But they do offer the opportunity for us to provide corrective perspectives to the general public. All we need to do is respond to these challenges as learning and instructional opportunities.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTERNET
1. www.dalegraff.com   Dale E. Graff
2. www.scientificexploration.org  Society for Scientific Exploration
3. www.rhineonline.blogspot.com  Rhine Research Center
Transcript of interview with Dale Graff as printed in Baltimore Sun
4. www.irva.org  International Remote Viewing Association

PUBLICATIONS
1. Atwater, F. Holmes, Captain of my Ship, Master of my Soul: Living with
Guidance, Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 2009.
2. Buchanan, Lyn, The Seventh Sense, Paraview, NY, 2003.
3. Dossey, Larry, The Power of Premonitions, Dutton, NY, 2009.
4. Graff, Dale, E., Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness, Element Books, Inc.
Boston, MA, 1998.
5. Graff, Dale, E., RIVER DREAMS, Element Books, Inc. Boston, MA, 2000.
6. Graff, Dale, E., Explorations in Precognitive Dreaming, Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2007, 21(4) pages 707-722. (available online).
7. Jahn, Robert & Donne, Brenda, Margins of Reality; The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1987.
8. May, Ed, General Alexi Savin, General Boris Ratnikov, ESP Wars,
Paraview, NY, 2010.
9. Puthoff, Harold & Targ, Russell, Mind Reach, Delacorte Press, 1977.
10. Smith, Paul, Reading the Enemy’s Mind, Tom Toherty Associates, NY, NY, 2005.

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INTERVIEW

I was in Baltimore, MD on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 as part of a small group who previewed the movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats. After the movie, I was interviewed by The Baltimore Sun newspaper reporter and movie critic, Michael Sragow, for my views and comments on the movie and to provide background on the Stargate program. He planned to write an article on this movie and on interviews with myself and possibly others present who had information on Stargate and other aspects of the movie.

The Movie: It is what I expected; a mix of factual information with considerable distortion, including situations that were not true. The movie blended two scenarios: (1) the visionary First Earth Battalion as conceived by author Jim Channon and the Stargate program, although the term, Stargate, was not used in the movie. The result was an odd mix of martial arts, new age philosophies, human potential movement concepts, shamanism and military use of remote viewing (RV). The RV part had some aspects that were correct, such as how Soviet ESP research helped initiate the US government RV effort and how some RV research and training aspects were conducted (describing the content of a concealed picture). But the rest of the story shifted away from reality and became a search-run-chase-shoot-fight series of chaotic scenes. The setting for the movie appeared to be at Ft. Bragg, a desert area and somewhere in Iraq. Some of the activities such as how RV is activated and a later drug use scene are fabrications that could have been left out of the movie. The mind-over-goat scene presents a totally unrealistic and incorrect perspective of psi/RV and, unfortunately, may become a lasting image.

As a movie intended to entertain, it did achieve that objective. I enjoyed it and will see it again when it plays in this area. The “spoofing” both for the new age aspects and the military RV part, was mostly unbelievable and I did not feel bothered by the obvious distortions. Movie viewers will very likely see it as a typical media production and be amused by it. It is only those who were knowledgeable of either the book by Jim Channon or those of in the Stargate program that might feel troubled. However, I did not react negatively to the movie and felt that the movie might actually help initiate constructive dialogue among the public about something within ourselves, a hidden potential, that can be uncovered. I can only hope that the erroneous negative portrayals of psi/RV, especially as presented in the “mind-over-goat” scene do not become the only message taken from the movie.

The Interview: I was the only one present who had any connection with the Stargate program. No one was present who could discuss Jim Channon’s new earth battalion vision book. There was one individual present who had been with the National Security Agencey (NSA) at Ft. Meade, MD with some indirect information about Stargate. He was interviewed briefly but his recollections were not used in the resulting article.

I provided a brief history of Stargate and the early RV research at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and cited a few projects (he wanted the “exotic” ones). He was very interested in why and how I became involved in RV and Stargate. I very clearly explained where the movie significantly distorted RV and Stargate, and hoped that he would acknowledge these distortions and false presentation in his article. I left a few photos from Stargate with him to be in the article. The interview may have been a bit risky since I was not sure if it would be presented realistically or track the spoofing theme of the movie. I expected the article to have two aspects: a critique of the movie and information on the Stargate program with focus on my personal involvement. Baltimore’s proximity to FT. Meade, MD raises interest in the story due to the Stargate- Ft. Meade connection.

I regret that others familiar with Stargate were not present. I would have preferred to share the interview and hear of their views about the movie.

Prior to the movie viewing I had prepared a few comments on what I expected about the Stargate aspect of the movie. These are below. Now that I have seen the movie, I believe that they are appropriate.

COMMENTS

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

My first reaction when I heard about The Men who stare at Goats was to ignore it. Why take the time to sit through another distorted presentation of our natural psi or remote viewing potentials? But now that I have seen the movie, I have a different reaction. It reminded me of the need for humility when exploring our psi potential. I saw beyond the goats and realized that a topic considered mysterious, even off-limits, was brought down to earth. Even though presented in a comical fashion, I could see that this movie is a door opener that can lead to constructive dialogue and better understanding of the potentials within each of us. It is my hope that this movie will actually contribute to the ongoing spirit and accomplishments of the Stargate endeavor.

This movie is a satire of a natural ability but the movie goes to unnatural extremes to create comedy.

The negative side of this movie is that it distorts the phenomenon into ridicule.

The positive side of the move is that it creates awareness within the viewing public of the basic phenomenon.

I coined the name, Stargate, to symbolize an innovative effort in expanding the
range of human potential.

ADDENDUM:

On Sunday, November 1, 2009, the article written by Michael Sragow was published in The Baltimore Sun, beginning on the front page of the Arts and Entertainment Section. I was pleased with the article as he presented an objective and balanced perspective of the movie and my interview.

I was amused by one sentence in the article where he referred to me as a “subtle joker.” In order to keep the interview on a not-too-serious tone, I included a few relevant pun-like remarks. Here is one of them:

He asked me to comment on some of the Stargate operational projects and was especially interested in the Unit’s drug interdiction activities at coastal areas. When he asked me what remote viewers do for such tasks, I replied, “You should know by now. They stare at boats!”