Remote viewing (RV) is a procedure developed by parapsychologists at the Stanford Research Institute to allegedly perform clairvoyance under controlled conditions. Somewhat similar to astral projection, the phenomenon involves a belief in the projection of consciousness to remote locations.
The scientific community in general does not accept the validity of supposedly paranormal phenomena such as remote viewing. No studies demonstrating the phenomenon have been published in reputable scientific journals.
Proponents' claims
Remote viewing allows a viewer to use his or her intuitive best guess abilities to "view", i.e. gather information on a target consisting of an object, place, person, etc., which is hidden from physical view of the viewer and typically separated from the viewer in space by some distance. The "view" is merely a personal impression experienced by the subject viewer, and is sometimes recorded by another person. This is similar to somebody recording another person's dream memories when first awakened. Classic remote viewing is done in real time, although smaller subsets of proponents claim the ability to cross the timeline either forward or backward (future or past) as well. Supporters claim that the existing experimental evidence supports the validity of these techniques.
Proponents argue that remote viewing is distinguished from other forms of clairvoyance in that it follows a specific experimental protocol (or some variant of it). The critical aspect common to these protocols, proponents contend, is that the viewer is blind to the target in the sense of being given no (or negligible) information regarding the target being viewed.
The original research, according to Russell Targ, the originator of this theory, is considered valid under accepted scientific method, and is currently at the level of a working theory, not yet considered fact or law of nature. One weakness of the method is it requires a subjective response from the subjects involved in the test. This is still considered acceptable as only the results are considered as the end product. The results have only reached the level of statistically significant, meaning it is beating the results of random outcome, but not yet a repeatable experiment without exception. Many accepted aspects of science, including such things as much of psychology, are at this level same level of working theory.
If seven objects, specifically selected to be as easily distinguished from each other as possible, are gathered from around a typical household, each associated with a number, and a test subject can draw a picture of one which can be matched to the real object by an objective third party assistant, thus matching a number to a randomly selected number, then this is considered a positive hit. How and why this works is not known or even proposed. While it is true it is very dependent on some subjects having greater ability than others, and the matching of a rough drawing to an object may seem not certain when the drawing and object are placed side by side, out of context of the experiment, the positive hit ratio under controlled and verifiable conditions still exists, according to Russell Targ and other proponents. The drawings need only be unique enough to be capable of making the distinction between objects such as a pencil, an orange, a teddy bear, and a can of soup.
And a good reference book is "Mastering Remote Viewing:(Remote Viewing, Third eye & Astral projection." by the author "Sapphire".
History
The process of remote viewing was first developed by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute at the behest of the CIA in 1972. The program -- initially codenamed Scanate -- apparently came as a response to Soviet research into psychic phenomena, on which the USSR was believed to have spent 60 million rubles in 1970. Initially, the project focused on a small number of individuals who appeared to show potential, most famously New York artist Ingo Swann.
The program went through a number of changes over the years, both in structure and in name. Later code names include Gondola Wish, Grill Flame, and in 1991, Star Gate. Over the course of twenty years, the United States spent $20 million on Star Gate and related projects. Over the course of its existence more than forty personnel worked on the project, including more than twenty remote viewers. Though the program was classified throughout its existence, columnist Jack Anderson wrote about it in the mid-1980s. Since 2003, documentation relating to the Scanate, Grill Flame, Gondola Wish and Centrelane programs has been mostly declassified (1% or less remains classified) and is available to the general public under the FOIA.
Concerns about the program's effectiveness led the CIA to contract the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to provide an evaluation. Their final report included an endorsement from statistician Jessica Utts, who found the government psychics' 15% success rate statistically significant; and a rebuttal from noted skeptic Ray Hyman, who pointed to flaws in the ways the experiments were conducted and results were tabulated. AIR's final recommendation to the CIA was to terminate the program, which it did in 1995. According to the CIA, ESP has never provided data used to guide intelligence operations.
Since the end of the government's involvement with Project Star Gate, remote viewing has entered the private sector. Companies such as PSI TECH claim to teach remote viewing procedures, and hundreds of books that detail remote viewing history and methods exist by various authors.
Remote Viewers
Ed Dames, remote viewer, associated with PSI TECH, Inc.
Courtney Brown, remote viewer and founder of the Farsight Institute
David Morehouse, remote viewer during Stargate program
Joseph McMoneagle, one of the early remote viewers
Lyn Buchanan, remote viewer
Pat Price one of the early remote viewers
Paul Smith, remote viewer credited with authoring/editing the original CRV training manual
Ingo Swann, one of the founders of remote viewing
Russel Targ, cofounder of the Stanford Research Institute's investigation into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s