As one might guess, the focus of the research was to determine if it is possible, using “psychic” means, to gather information about distant locations: in sum, psychic spying. Swann had already shown success with what he called “remote viewing,” meaning description of places at a great distance.

One day Swann got the idea that he might be able to “view” a site if he were given only the latitude and longitude of the site. This sounded ridiculous, because everyone knew that latitude and longitude is an entirely arbitrary, man-made system for defining locations on the surface of the Earth. How could the viewer make the connection?

But Swann insisted on testing the idea, and several days later he was presented with a series of ten sites, each defined only by its latitude and longitude. These were laboriously worked out by a secretary at the research project, using an Atlas of the world.

To everyone’s surprise, the system worked. Swann was able to correctly describe seven out of ten sites on the first test. On one of the sites, Swann’s result was entirely incorrect, but he insisted that they go back and check the coordinate again. It proved to have been wrongly transcribed by the secretary. The place indicated by the coordinates Swann used matched his description!

This discovery -- the use of geographical coordinates to define the target --was the foundation of the Swann system. It also suited the CIA, because for most Soviet targets of interest all they knew for sure was the location of the site.

The Ideogram

In the course of practicing viewing by coordinates, Swann and his colleagues noticed that immediately after writing down the coordinates he would make a quick mark on the paper. This was apparently an automatic, unconscious movement of the pen, and had no obvious meaning. But after a while it became clear that these scribbles were part of the process, and the first response of the viewer to the coordinate.

Further research showed that these scribbles were in fact a very highly compressed evocation of the nature of the site located at the place defined by the coordinates. In other words, the initial scribble showed, in highly compressed form, whether the target was man-made or natural, for example.

Careful examination of Swann’s sketches also showed a progression from the initial scribble to a series of descriptions of color, temperature, texture and other similar characteristics of the site that one would find using the normal physical senses. Then there would begin a series of sketches, first two-dimensional, then three-dimensional.       Continued on page 3