The Bureaucracy of Psychoenergetics

By Miriam Adler · August 6, 2026

A declassified mission statement reveals the Defense Intelligence Agency's clinical approach to institutionalizing remote viewing for intelligence collection.

The document is a one-page mission statement, clinical and devoid of flourish. It does not argue for the existence of the paranormal, nor does it offer anecdotes of success. Instead, it treats the extraction of information via the mind as a standard logistical challenge. The objective is stated plainly: "To establish a program using psychoenergetics for intelligence applications."

In the lexicon of this file, the broad field of psychoenergetics is narrowed down to a specific tool: "REMOTE VIEWING." For the authors of this document, remote viewing—the purported ability to perceive distant or unseen targets—was not a matter of faith or mysticism, but a utility to be harnessed, standardized, and integrated into the intelligence community's existing architecture.

The Pipeline of Perception

The mission statement outlines a three-tiered approach to operationalizing this capability. The government was not merely interested in whether remote viewing worked; they were interested in how to scale it.

First, the program sought the creation of a "training program in REMOTE VIEWING utilizing selected INSCOM personnel." By involving the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), the program moved out of the realm of theoretical research and into the realm of military personnel management. The goal was to identify individuals with the requisite aptitude and subject them to a formalized training regimen.

Second, the document calls for "establishing procedures for intelligence collection techniques utilizing REMOTE VIEWING." This represents the transition from training to application. The program aimed to move beyond raw ability and develop a methodology—a set of repeatable steps that could ensure the data collected was consistent and usable.

Finally, the mission statement describes the need for "establishing a mechanism for responding to intelligence collection requirements (tasking) using REMOTE VIEWING." This is perhaps the most telling detail of the document. "Tasking" is the language of the intelligence trade. It refers to the process where a consumer of intelligence (such as a policymaker or a field commander) identifies a gap in knowledge, and the intelligence agency assigns a specific asset to fill that gap. By creating a tasking mechanism, the program intended to place remote viewers on the same operational plane as satellites, human spies, or signals intercepts.

Chain of Command and Control

The administrative markers on the page provide the necessary context for who held the leash. The document was "CLASSIFIED BY: Director, DIA." The Defense Intelligence Agency, tasked with providing military intelligence to the Department of Defense, was the authorizing body.

Of particular note is the classification marking "(S/ORCON)." In the world of government records, ORCON stands for "Originator Controlled." This is a restrictive handling caveat. It means that the agency that created the document—in this case, the DIA—retained total control over its dissemination. Even other agencies with the appropriate clearance level could not share the document without the express permission of the originator. This suggests a high level of sensitivity, not necessarily regarding the "secret" of remote viewing itself, but regarding the specific operational details of the program.

Where the Record Ends

As a records question, the document is a map of intent, not a report of results. It tells us exactly what the program intended to build: a training pipeline, a collection methodology, and a tasking system. It establishes that the DIA viewed "psychoenergetics" as a viable field for intelligence applications.

However, the mission statement stops short of confirming if these goals were achieved. It does not list the number of INSCOM personnel who were trained, the accuracy of the collection techniques, or the specific intelligence requirements that were tasked to the viewers. There are no lists of targets, no reports of successful "hits," and no admissions of failure.

We are left with the skeletal structure of an ambition. The document describes a world where the boundary between the mind and the target was treated as a technical hurdle to be overcome by proper training and administrative procedures. It was approved for release on April 2, 2001, ending a period of secrecy that lasted from the program's inception until the turn of the century. The file proves that the government attempted to systematize the impossible; it does not prove that they succeeded.