US Government spent $20 million on psychics to spy on Soviet minds

By June Hargrove · August 10, 2026

US intelligence spent two decades using "empaths" to spy on Soviet minds in a secret effort that failed to rescue a kidnapped general or provide data to guide a single operation.

The United States government spent twenty years and roughly $20 million trying to see through walls, across oceans, and into the minds of its enemies. The catalyst was a fear of the unknown—specifically, the suspicion that the Soviet Union was winning a race in a field that science barely recognized. Between 1969 and 1971, intelligence sources concluded the Soviets were engaged in "psychotronic" research. By 1975, the estimate of Soviet spending on these programs had climbed to over 300 million rubles per year.

In the face of this spectral arms race, the American intelligence community didn't just observe; it mirrored. The resulting effort, known by a dizzying array of code names—SCANATE, SUN STREAK, GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, and finally STAR GATE—was an attempt to turn the "fringy" and the "speculative" into a viable intelligence tool.

60 Million Rubles

The initial response began in 1970 with SCANATE, funded by the CIA. By 1972, the work moved to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. The research was led by Harold Puthoff, a former NSA employee and a Scientologist, and Russell Targ. Their recruitment strategy didn't target traditional intelligence officers; instead, they looked for "gifted individuals."

Among these was Ingo Swann, a New York artist and an OT Level VII Scientologist. The FAS mirror of the program's records notes that many of the "empaths" at SRI were sourced from the Church of Scientology. These individuals weren't just being studied; they were being trained. The goal was explicit: to use these talents for "psychic warfare."

Buildings 2560 and 2561

By mid-1978, the effort evolved from lab research into a formalized operational collection project called GRILL FLAME. The operation moved to Fort Meade, Maryland, operating out of buildings 2560 and 2561. Here, under the umbrella of INSCOM's "Detachment G," a small army of soldiers and civilians believed to possess natural psychic abilities were tasked with gathering intelligence.

To standardize the process, Swann and Puthoff developed a set of instructions intended to allow anyone to be trained to produce detailed target data. The program employed three primary techniques: Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV), where viewers described what they "saw" at specific geographic coordinates; Extended Remote Viewing (ERV), a meditative hybrid; and Written Remote Viewing (WRV), which utilized automatic writing and channeling. The latter was introduced in 1988 but was regarded by some as less reliable.

The Batato and the Calculator

The program's proponents spoke of "eight martini" results—findings so mind-boggling that the staff reportedly needed eight martinis to recover from the shock. There were claims of stunning precision. In 1974, a viewer described a gantry and crane at the Soviet nuclear testing area at Semipalatinsk. In 1979, a viewer predicted the launch of a large Soviet submarine with 18-20 missile tubes; two such submarines were sighted 120 days later.

Then there were the smaller, more idiosyncratic claims. One viewer allegedly "saw" that a KGB colonel in South Africa was smuggling information using a pocket calculator with a hidden communications device. Another viewer claimed to have located a ship named Patua or Potua transporting chemicals from Tripoli; a ship named Batato was later reported to have performed a similar trip.

However, for every "hit," there was a void. When the Red Brigades kidnapped Brigadier General James L. Dozier in Italy in 1981, the psychics were tasked with finding him. Dozier was freed after 42 days, but the FAS records note this happened "apparently without help from the psychics." Instead, the recovery was attributed to "US State and Defense Department specialists" using electronic surveillance.

15 Percent Accuracy

Despite the support of Senator Claiborne Pell and Representative Charles Rose, the program began to fray. By the early 1990s, the records describe a unit plagued by "uneven management, poor unit morale, divisiveness within the organization, poor performance, and few accurate results."

In 1995, the CIA contracted the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct a retrospective review. The result was a scientific stalemate. Statistician Jessica Utts argued that a statistically significant effect had been demonstrated in the lab—noting that the government's psychics were accurate about 15 percent of the time. This was countered by psychologist Ray Hyman, a known debunker of psychic claims, who found the results unfavorable.

Ultimately, the budget for the supernatural was cut. The AIR final recommendation was to terminate STAR GATE. The CIA concluded that there was no case in which ESP had provided data used to guide intelligence operations.