Russell Targ, physicist and co-founder of the Stanford Research Institute remote viewing program in the 1970s, shared insights into the history, practice, and potential of remote viewing (RV). He described RV as "a universal psychic ability to perceive and describe events, places, or objects distant in space or time," and recounted how the technique became the focus of a 23-year U.S. government intelligence program. According to Targ, the effort began after he and Hal Puthoff persuaded CIA Director of Intelligence John McMahon that remote viewing could serve as a valuable intelligence-gathering tool.
Among the early demonstrations, Targ highlighted retired police commissioner Pat Price, who was tasked with psychically describing a Soviet submarine construction site. Targ said Price's observations were later confirmed through spy satellite imagery. He also discussed claims that remote viewing has been used to forecast silver prices and suggested the phenomenon may offer insights into the nature of consciousness and reality. Citing researcher Douglas Dean, Targ noted studies indicating that highly successful business professionals tend to perform better on ESP tests than the general population.
The conversation also explored Targ's experiments in psychic medical diagnosis, during which he said diseased organs appeared to "light up" in his mind. He argued that psychic phenomena point to a non-local universe in which consciousness extends beyond the physical body, and remarked that reports of UFOs frequently emerge during remote viewing sessions.