Can a Target Be Chosen Later?

Introduction

Some remote-viewing experiments deliberately chose the target only after the viewing session had been completed. This design changes the central claim being tested. Instead of asking whether a participant can describe a hidden object or location that already exists, it asks whether the participant can describe information that will only later become the designated target. Within parapsychology this is usually interpreted as a test of precognition rather than ordinary remote perception. Critics, however, argue that such designs introduce new interpretive problems, particularly concerning feedback, judging procedures and the possibility that viewers appear to describe a different image from the one ultimately designated as correct. These disputes are commonly grouped under the idea of displacement.[National Security Archive+2CIA]nsarchive2.gwu.eduNational Security ArchiveAn Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and…March 13, 2015 — by MD Mumford · 1995 · Cited by 76 — Targets a…Published: March 13, 2015

How future-selected targets change the claim

Traditional remote-viewing studies typically assign a target before the session begins, even if neither the participant nor the monitor knows what it is. Future-target protocols instead postpone target selection until after the transcript has been recorded, with randomisation occurring later. The intention is to eliminate any possibility that the viewer obtained information through ordinary sensory leakage about a pre-existing target.

This seemingly small procedural change has major theoretical consequences. If successful results were obtained under rigorous controls, they could no longer be explained as perception of an already existing hidden photograph or location. Instead, proponents argue that the experiment would point towards information apparently linked to a future event—usually the moment when the participant receives feedback or when the target is formally selected.[NECTAR]nectar.northampton.ac.ukPerformance at a Precognitive Remote Viewing Task, with and…by C Roe · 2020 · Cited by 30 — An initial exploratory experiment (R…

Later remote-viewing variants, including some precognitive and associative remote-viewing protocols, explicitly adopted this logic. Participants were instructed to describe the image they would later be shown as feedback, rather than an image already waiting in an envelope. In this framework, the future feedback session becomes the reference point for judging accuracy rather than the time at which the viewing occurred.[Koestler Parapsychology Unit]koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.ukKoestler Parapsychology UnitAssociative remote viewing projects: Assessing rater…by DL KATZ · 2021 · Cited by 10 — Each target photo i…

Why feedback complicates interpretation

Future-target experiments make the feedback stage unusually important. In many protocols, participants eventually see the correct photograph or visit the target site after judging has finished. Supporters argue that this future encounter may somehow provide the information apparently accessed during the earlier viewing session.

That interpretation creates several methodological questions.

• What is being perceived? Is the participant describing the future feedback experience rather than the physical target itself?
• When does the relevant information exist? If target assignment occurs after the session, conventional explanations based on hidden sensory information become less applicable, but questions about causality become more prominent.
• How should unsuccessful trials be interpreted? If viewers sometimes describe images shown during feedback but not designated as the correct target, the theory becomes difficult to distinguish from flexible post hoc explanation.[NECTAR+2National Security Archive]nectar.northampton.ac.ukPerformance at a Precognitive Remote Viewing Task, with and…by C Roe · 2020 · Cited by 30 — An initial exploratory experiment (R…

These issues have been discussed throughout the evaluation of the U.S. government’s remote-viewing programme. Even reviewers who disagreed strongly about whether anomalous effects existed agreed that strict separation between target handling, judging and feedback was essential to avoid contamination and ambiguous interpretation. Recommendations included rigorous randomisation, independent judging and preventing anyone with target knowledge from influencing the judging process.[National Security Archive]nsarchive2.gwu.eduNational Security ArchiveAn Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and…March 13, 2015 — by MD Mumford · 1995 · Cited by 76 — Targets a…Published: March 13, 2015

Why decoy photographs create displacement disputes

Most free-response remote-viewing experiments use target pools. After the participant completes a transcript, judges compare it against the correct target together with several decoy photographs.

Displacement refers to the recurring claim that a transcript appears to fit one of the decoys—or occasionally another target from the experiment—better than the officially correct image. Rather than viewing this simply as an incorrect response, some remote-viewing researchers have suggested that the participant may have accessed the “wrong” target through an anomalous process.

Several forms of displacement have been proposed in the literature:

• Single-trial displacement, where the transcript matches a decoy photograph included in the judging set.
• Temporal displacement, where descriptions appear to resemble a target from a different trial or a later session.
• Feedback displacement, where participants seem to describe information associated with later judging or feedback rather than the intended target.[Academia]academia.eduThis is a sender is unnecessary for extrasensory perception to thought to occurRemote Viewing: A 1974- 2022 Systematic Review and…January 1, 2023 — Researchers found that in “decoy” sets, which he coined “…Published: January 1, 2023

Although displacement is frequently discussed within parapsychology, attempts to establish it as a distinct phenomenon have produced mixed results. Experimental investigations have generally not demonstrated a consistent, independently replicated displacement effect that clearly exceeds what would be expected from coincidence, flexible interpretation or similarities among photographs in a target pool.[Academia]academia.eduThis is a sender is unnecessary for extrasensory perception to thought to occurRemote Viewing: A 1974- 2022 Systematic Review and…January 1, 2023 — Researchers found that in “decoy” sets, which he coined “…Published: January 1, 2023

Why critics remain unconvinced

Future-selected targets were partly introduced to remove one criticism—that participants might somehow obtain information about a target that already existed. However, critics argue that the redesign substitutes one set of methodological questions for another rather than resolving the broader scientific dispute.

Several concerns recur across sceptical evaluations:

• Subjective matching. Remote-viewing transcripts often contain broad descriptions such as shapes, movement, water or structures that can plausibly fit multiple photographs.
• Selective interpretation. If an apparent match to a decoy is later reinterpreted as evidence of displacement rather than counted as a miss, the hypothesis becomes harder to falsify.
• Multiple comparison problems. Large target pools and many possible decoys increase the chance that some photograph will appear to fit a transcript by coincidence.
• Replication. Claims involving future targets and displacement have generally proved more difficult to reproduce consistently across independent laboratories than proponents argue is necessary for scientific acceptance.[PMC+3National Security Archive+3CIA]nsarchive2.gwu.eduNational Security ArchiveAn Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and…March 13, 2015 — by MD Mumford · 1995 · Cited by 76 — Targets a…Published: March 13, 2015

These concerns explain why methodological discussions often focus as much on judging procedures as on the viewing sessions themselves.

What future-target studies contribute

Future-selected target designs occupy a distinctive place within remote-viewing research because they deliberately shift the hypothesis from hidden perception towards precognition. They also illustrate how experimental design influences interpretation. A successful result in a conventional hidden-target experiment and a successful result in a future-target experiment are not testing exactly the same claim.

At the same time, the reliance on later feedback introduces interpretive challenges that remain unresolved. Displacement hypotheses attempt to explain why transcripts sometimes seem to correspond better to decoys or other targets than to the designated one, but these explanations remain controversial because they are difficult to distinguish from ordinary judging ambiguity. Consequently, future-target experiments continue to be discussed less as decisive demonstrations than as examples of how changing the timing of target selection alters both the theoretical claim and the methodological debate surrounding remote-viewing research.[National Security Archive+2NECTAR]nsarchive2.gwu.eduNational Security ArchiveAn Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and…March 13, 2015 — by MD Mumford · 1995 · Cited by 76 — Targets a…Published: March 13, 2015

Amazon book picks

Further Reading

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The Reality of ESP: A Physicist's Proof of Psychic Abilities

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The conscious universe

By Dean I. Radin, Radin

First published 1997. Subjects: Parapsychology, Case studies, Cas, Études de, Paranormale verschijnselen, Parapsychologie.

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Limitless Mind

By Russell Targ

First published 2004. Subjects: Remote viewing (Parapsychology), Extrasensory perception, Spiritual life, Peace of mind.

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By Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer

First published 2007. Subjects: Psychology, Nonfiction, Cognition, Parapsychology, Subconsciousness.

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Endnotes

1. Source: cia.gov
Link:https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200070001-9.pdf

2. Source: nectar.northampton.ac.uk
Link:https://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/13569/1/Roe_etal_JoP_2020_Performance_at_a_Precognitive_Remote_Viewing_Task_with_and_without_Ganzfeld_Stimulation_Three_Experiments.pdf

3. Source: cia.gov
Link:https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180005-5.pdf

4. Source: academia.edu
Title: This is a sender is unnecessary for extrasensory perception to thought to occur
Link:https://www.academia.edu/108445581/Remote_Viewing_A_1974_2022_Systematic_Review_and_Meta_Analysis

Published: January 1, 2023

5. Source: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Title: PMCFollow‐up on the U.S
Link:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10275521/

6. Source: cia.gov
Link:https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002200210001-4.pdf

7. Source: nsarchive2.gwu.edu
Link:https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB438/docs/doc_57.pdf

Published: March 13, 2015

8. Source: koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.uk
Link:https://www.koestler-parapsychology.psy.ed.ac.uk/Documents/KPU_1034_Published_Results.pdf

Additional References

9. Source: semanticscholar.org
Link:https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-Assessment-of-the-Evidence-for-Psychic-Utts/3f64d1c2520cbd3082fe2dfa5eab9bd66eaa6b0d

10. Source: reddit.com
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/HighStrangeness/comments/14x6pu0/the_cias_remote_viewing_documents_are_confusing/

11. Source: reddit.com
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/remoteviewing/comments/1lt63k0/what_is_really_going_on_in_remote_viewingone_idea/

12. Source: documents.theblackvault.com
Link:https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/remoteviewing/rvevaluation.pdf

13. Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333228024_An_Assessment_of_the_Evidence_for_Psychic_Functioning

14. Source: researchgate.net
Title: 369604750 Remote Viewing a 1974 2022 systematic review and [meta analysis]({{ ‘meta-analysis/’ | relative_url }})
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369604750_Remote_Viewing_a_1974-2022_systematic_review_and_meta-analysis

15. Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267684161_Remote_Viewing_the_Future_with_a_Tasking_Temporal_Outbounder

16. Source: ucdavis.edu
Title: psychic spying research produces credible evidence
Link:https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/psychic-spying-research-produces-credible-evidence

17. Source: youtube.com
Title: Ex-CIA Scientist Created a Test To Find Out If You’re Psychic
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edWrufOe55Q

18. Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvtournament/posts/2160404991474200/