Writer and physicist Russell Targ discussed his new memoir Do You See What I See?, which chronicles his tale as a visually impaired scientist who helped create the Remote Viewing program at SRI, and offers info on how to separate the psychic signal from mental noise. He learned remote viewing (RV) from the legendary psychic Ingo Swann, and in turn, he and Hal Puthoff taught these skills to a group of Army Intelligence officers in the 1970's. Running for over twenty years, the CIA's RV unit revealed information on such topics as Chinese atomic bombs, armed hostages in Iran, and lost planes in Africa, he detailed.

Yet in 1995, the CIA cancelled and declassified the program, claiming that with the end of the Cold War, America no longer had the kind of enemies that warranted using RV, Targ explained. He speculated that fundamentalist elements in the CIA/gov’t. may have exerted pressure to get rid of the program. RV can be used for financial gain-- his team at one point had success in predicting silver futures, he noted.

He described his "psychic UFO adventure" where in a meditation he perceived seeing bodies under something that resembled hair dryers. The late psychic Pat Price confirmed the vision, but warned him that it was a "theta trap"— a Scientology term referring to something that could take over your mind. Targ also shared memories of his brother-in-law, the renowned chess player, Bobby Fischer.

Goldfish Tricks

First half-hour guest Dean Pomerleau talked about how he trained his goldfish, Comet, to perform tricks. Using a system of food rewards, he was able to teach Comet to feed off his fingertips, swim through hoops, play fetch, and other games. Check out this video to see Comet in action:

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Wednesday May 07, 2008