Thursday, October 28, 2010

Carter's weird science

Jimmy Carter sits in the Oval Office, Jan. 1, 1977.Even with all of the press coverage of Jimmy Carter's latest book, "White House Diary," a strange and interesting nugget of history went ignored: Carter, as president, was enthralled by and impressed with the Central Intelligence Agency's use of parapsychology in intelligence gathering (the field and practice of parapsychology explores various psychic abilities).

Consider this entry in Carter's diary, from April 11, 1979:

"CIA briefing on unhappiness of King Hussein of Jordan [about agreements between Israel and Egypt], Idi Amin's government about to fall, and that a plane had crashed in Zambia. An American parapsychologist had been able to pinpoint the site of the crash. We've had several reports of this parapsychology working; one discovered the map coordinates of a site and accurately described a camouflaged missile test site. Both we and the Soviets use these parapsychologists on occasion to help us with sensitive intelligence matters, and the results are unbelievable."

(Carter alluded to another discussion about parapsychology in the White House situation room on May 8, 1980).

Writing in the present day, the former president reflected back on that entry in the book.

"The proven results of these exchanges between our intelligence services and parapsychologists raise some of the most intriguing and unanswerable questions of my presidency,” Carter notes in “Diary.” “They defy logic, but the facts are undeniable."

via Carter's weird science - PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK.

Because no one would lie to a president about methods....

1 comment:

Ann said...

So, the parapsych program was terminated in the CIA, but the article ends saying,

"It’s unlikely that parapsychology will return to the CIA.

It doesn't have a great reputation, ... That's partially due to such silly programs as 'Ghost Hunting' and 'Paranormal Activity.' They don't help legitimize something as a genuine science. ... It becomes very politically difficult to fund things under those circumstances."

The breadth of propaganda is truly amazing.

Look at Dean Radin's website, which is open to all, and read the comments from critics, crypto-skeptics and out-right skeptics of parapsychological research, and see how he deals with them. Read how he confronts the renowned debunker, James Randi. It's quite educational.