by Bonnie Butcher
On November 5 the University of West Georgia Psychology Department hosted their annual lecture series in honor of the late Dr. Bill Roll and his contributions to parapsychological research. Dr. Edwin May gave a presentation on his work with the psychic spy program funded by the United States government for over 20 years, commonly known as “Stargate.” Psychic spy Joe McMoneagle also presented, who worked alongside Dr. May.
Dr. Edwin May, left, and Joe McMoneagle, right.
Dr. May began his career in low energy, experimental nuclear physics before becoming interested in parapsychological phenomena in 1975. While involved with the government’s 22-year project in parapsychological research, he presided over 70 percent of the funding and 85 percent of the data collection. The U.S. government closed down this program in 1995.
The Russians and Americans were spying on each other with remote viewing from 1972-1995. Remote viewing is the ability to remotely perceive information about a person, place, event, or object that you have absolutely no access to through any other means except via the mind.
This program underwent many name changes over the years, but Stargate is the name most people recognize.
“The primary reason we were doing this is so we could spy and collect intelligence,” Dr. May said.
This provided them with the responsibility of integrating what they learned into the broader intelligence community during the Cold War. It was understood that if we could spy on the Russians, then they could spy on us. This idea scared most people, and Stargate took on the task of foreign threat assessment.
Another aspect of the program was the research charter, working to make the project better and protect the information. The information had to be collected in the best possible way, then reviewed and decided whether it was any good or not.
Dr. May explained that the scientific oversight committee they worked alongside was made primarily of skeptics.
“An entrance requirement was that you had to be a skeptic, but an open-minded skeptic,” Dr. May said.
“We had sufficient resources to form a critical mass of people. On my watch, we had two million dollars a year funding, which allowed us to make tremendous scientific progress because we had the resources the hire the best possible people.”
To give the audience an example of remote viewing, Dr. May shared a video from a program called “Put to the Test,” which aired on ABC national television. The $300,000 half hour segment presented real time remote viewing.
Joe McMoneagle was featured in the video, demonstrating his compelling psychic abilities. He was shown travelling to Houston for the first time and being able to draw and recreate a location that he had never seen before in real life. He had no prior knowledge of the location, and he was able to recreate the images with convincing accuracy.
“Joe is the only experiment participant who has attained full membership in the Parapsychological Association,” Dr. May said. “It is indeed an honor; he is an equal researcher to any of us. I couldn’t do my job if he was not as insightful as he is to his internal experiences.”
While working on the Stargate project, Joe was given a target of a new building in the north of the Soviet Union.
“I was asked to describe what was happening on the roof of this building,” Joe said. “The image I had was two very large cylinders being welded together, missile tubes, a unique drive system, and all of this was taking place next to a submarine.”
In response to Joe’s findings, an admiral didn’t believe there was a submarine being built in the building, because it was 1000 meters from the sea. Seven days later, the submarine was launched and Joe’s image was proven correct. This submarine would later be the model of the popular movie, “The Hunt for Red October.” Dr. May and Joe will be going to Moscow in December to film on this boat.
On an ABC Nightline news piece, former CIA Director Robert Gates stated that there was no evidence of actual intelligence from remote viewing. As Dr. May said in his presentation, “They flat out lied.” In 1984, 85 percent out of 700 missions showed strong evidences of remote viewing. Of that 85 percent, nearly 50 percent of them produced actual intelligence.
This program demonstrated high interest, but not all of it was positive.
“Often, people tried to criticize the business,” Dr. May stated. “If it weren’t for a few heroes I cannot name, which drives me crazy, they put their careers on the line to protect this extremely interesting program.”
After the presentation, the crowd was given an opportunity for inquiry. One person asked Joe what he thinks of the path of psychic abilities among people in today’s world.
“In the old days, there were more sensitive people than today,” Joe said. “I think we grew a whole extra layer of brain just to do processing and that’s gotten in the way of psychic functioning. I think its going away and not actually evolving into. I’m a throwback.”
Dr. May was president of the Parapsychological Association in 1997 and served often on its board of directors. They granted him the Outstanding Achievement Award in 1996 and the Outstanding Career Achievement Award in 2007. Currently, Dr. May is the executive director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, which now resides within the Laboratories for Fundamental Research.
The annual lecture series is hosted in honor of the late Dr. Bill Roll, a renowned parapsychologist and psychology professor at UWG, and his contributions to parapsychological research.
UWG psychology professor Dr. Chris Aanstoos spoke briefly in remembrance of Dr. Roll.
“Bill revised the field of parapsychology,” Dr. Aanstoos said. “He brought it out of the laboratory and into the world of the living.”
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