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'''Russell Targ''' (born April 11, 1934) is an American ], ] and author,<ref name="Gale">{{cite book |chapterurl= http://www.answers.com/topic/russell-targ |title= Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology |chapter= Russell Targ |website= ] |publisher= ] |accessdate= 2014-04-15 |last= |first=}}</ref> best known for his research in the ] of ]. '''Russell Targ''' (born April 11, 1934) is an American ], ] and author,<ref name="Gale">{{cite book |chapterurl= http://www.answers.com/topic/russell-targ |title= Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology |chapter= Russell Targ |website= ] |publisher= ] |accessdate= 2014-04-15 |last= |first=}}</ref> best known for his research in ].


Targ originally became known for early work in ] and ]. He then joined Stanford Research Institute (now ]) in 1972 where he and ] coined the term "remote viewing" for the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using parapsychological means. Remote viewing is now regarded as pseudoscience, and Targ's work has been criticized for lack of rigor. Targ originally became known for early work in ] and ]. He then joined Stanford Research Institute (now ]) in 1972 where he and ] coined the term "remote viewing" for the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using parapsychological means. Remote viewing is now regarded as pseudoscience, and Targ's work has been criticized for lack of rigor.

Revision as of 11:30, 13 May 2014

Russell Targ
Russell Targ
Born (1934-04-11) April 11, 1934 (age 90)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)physicist, parapsychologist and author
Known forRemote viewing

Russell Targ (born April 11, 1934) is an American physicist, parapsychologist and author, best known for his research in remote viewing.

Targ originally became known for early work in lasers and laser applications. He then joined Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in 1972 where he and Harold Puthoff coined the term "remote viewing" for the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using parapsychological means. Remote viewing is now regarded as pseudoscience, and Targ's work has been criticized for lack of rigor.

Biography

Targ was born in Chicago. He is the son of publisher William Targ. Russell was married to Joan Fischer Targ (sister of world chess champion Bobby Fischer), who died in 1998. Russell and Joan had a daughter, Elisabeth Targ, who was a psychiatrist, and two sons Alexander, a physician, and Nicholas, an attorney. In 2003, Targ married artist Patricia Kathleen Phillips.

Targ was introduced to the paranormal by his father who had published the work of Erich von Däniken.

Targ received a Bachelor of Science in physics from Queens College in 1954 and did graduate work in physics at Columbia University. From 1986 to 1998 Targ worked in electro-optics as a senior staff scientist at the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.

Targ who is legally blind is an avid motorcyclist and has published a memoir on his experiences as a "blind biker".

Laser research

Russell Targ originally became known in the laser research community. He contributed to the development of frequency modulation mode-locking laser (FM laser) and coined the term "super-mode" used to describe FM laser operation. The paper he co-authored "Kilowatt CO2 gas‐transport laser" was the first to describe the operation of a 1000 watt continuous wave laser (CW laser). Targ continued to work in laser research into the 1990s developing windshear sensing lidar for use in aviation.

Remote viewing

In 1972 Targ joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), (now SRI International), a program founded by Harold E. Puthoff, as a senior research physicist where the two conducted research into psychic abilities and their operational use for the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and Army Intelligence. These abilities are referred to collectively as "remote viewing". Targ and Puthoff both expressed the belief that Uri Geller, retired police commissioner Pat Price and artist Ingo Swann all had genuine psychic abilities. They published their findings in Nature and the Proceedings of the IEEE. Targ left SRI in 1982. The program was declassified and abandoned in 1995 after the American Institutes for Research found that the program failed to provide any useful intelligence. David Marks concluded, "evidence for the operational value of remote viewing does not exist, even after more than two decades of research." A report by the United States National Research Council (NRC) concluded, "there should remain little doubt that the Targ-Puthoff studies are fatally flawed".

Targ and Puthoff stated that their studies of Geller at the SRI demonstrated that Geller had genuine psychic powers, though flaws were found with the controls in the experiments and Geller was caught using sleight of hand on many other occasions. According to Terence Hines:

Geller turned out to be nothing more than a magician using sleight of hand and considerable personal charm to fool his admirers. The tests at SRI turned out to have been run under conditions that can best be described as chaotic. Few limits were placed on Geller’s behavior, and he was more or less in control of the procedures used to test him. Further, the results of the tests were incorrectly reported in Targ and Puthoff’s Nature paper.

The psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann attempted to replicate Targ and Puthoff’s remote viewing experiments. In a series of thirty-five studies, they were unable to replicate the results so they investigated the procedure of the original experiments. Marks and Kammann discovered that the notes given to the judges in Targ and Puthoff's experiments contained clues as to which order they were carried out, such as referring to yesterday's two targets, or they had the date of the session written at the top of the page. They concluded that these clues were the reason for the experiment's high hit rates. Terence Hines has written:

Examination of the few actual transcripts published by Targ and Puthoff show that just such clues were present. To find out if the unpublished transcripts contained cues, Marks and Kammann wrote to Targ and Puthoff requesting copies. It is almost unheard of for a scientist to refuse to provide his data for independent examination when asked, but Targ and Puthoff consistently refused to allow Marks and Kammann to see copies of the transcripts. Marks and Kammann were, however, able to obtain copies of the transcripts from the judge who used them. The transcripts were found to contain a wealth of cues.

It was revealed that subjects were able to match the transcripts to the correct locations using only the cues provided. When these cues were eliminated the results fell to a chance level. Marks was able to achieve 100 percent accuracy without visiting any of the sites himself but by using cues. James Randi has written controlled tests by several other researchers, eliminating several sources of cuing and extraneous evidence present in the original tests, produced negative results. Students were also able to solve Puthoff and Targ's locations from the clues that had inadvertently been included in the transcripts.

Marks and Kamman concluded: "Until remote viewing can be confirmed in conditions which prevent sensory cueing the conclusions of Targ and Puthoff remain an unsubstantiated hypothesis." In 1980, Charles Tart claimed that a rejudging of the transcripts from one of Targ and Puthoff’s experiments revealed an above-chance result. Targ and Puthoff again refused to provide copies of the transcripts and it was not until July 1985 that they were made available for study when it was discovered they still contained sensory cues. Marks and Christopher Scott (1986) wrote "considering the importance for the remote viewing hypothesis of adequate cue removal, Tart’s failure to perform this basic task seems beyond comprehension. As previously concluded, remote viewing has not been demonstrated in the experiments conducted by Puthoff and Targ, only the repeated failure of the investigators to remove sensory cues."

Simon Hoggart and Mike Hutchinson described Targ as willing to believe and his research "for the most part, a sorry study in the range of human credulity."

The project, also encompassing the work of such consulting "consciousness researchers" as the artist/writer Ingo Swann and Military Intelligence Corps chief warrant officer Joseph McMoneagle, continued with funding from the US intelligence community until Targ and Puthoff left SRI in the mid-1980s, by which time it was determined that the studies had never yielded any useful results.

There is no credible scientific evidence that remote viewing works, and the continued study of remote viewing is regarded as pseudoscience.

Works

Books authored

  • Targ, Russell (2004). Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing and Transformation of Consciousness. San Francisco: New World Library. ISBN 9781577314134. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Targ, Russell (2010). Do You See What I See: Memoirs of a Blind Biker. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads. ISBN 9781571746306. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Targ, Russell (2012). The Reality of ESP: A Physicist's Proof of Psychic Abilities. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. ISBN 9780835608848. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)

Books co-authored

Journal articles

On lasers

On remote viewing

On precognition

  • Targ, R.; Katra, J. (1995). "Viewing the future: A pilot study with an error detecting protocol". Journal of Scientific Exploration. 9: 367–80. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |authormask1= ignored (|author-mask1= suggested) (help)
  • Rauscher, E.A.; Targ, R. (20–22 June 2006). "Investigation of a complex space-time metric to describe precognition of the future". AIP Conference Proceedings. Frontiers of Time: Retrocausation - Experiment and Theory. Vol. 863. San Diego, CA. pp. 121–46. doi:10.1063/1.2388752. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |authormask2= ignored (|author-mask2= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)

Notes

  1. Martin Bridgstock wrote in Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal, "The explanation used by Marks and Kammann clearly involves the use of Occam's razor. Marks and Kammann argued that the 'cues' - clues to the order in which sites had been visited - provided sufficient information for the results, without any recourse to extrasensory perception. Indeed Marks himself was able to achieve 100 per cent accuracy in allocating some transcripts to sites without visiting any of the sites himself, purely on the ground basis of the cues. From Occam's razor, it follows that if a straightforward natural explanation exists, there is no need for the spectacular paranormal explanation: Targ and Puthoff's claims are not justified."

References

  1. ^ "Russell Targ". Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Gale. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |website= ignored (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  2. Gardner, Martin (March–April 2001). "Notes of a fringe-watcher: Distant healing and Elisabeth Targ". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 25.2. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  3. Marks, David; Kammann, Richard (1980). The Psychology of the Psychic (2nd ed.). Prometheus. p. 67. ISBN 9781573927987.
  4. Targ 2010.
  5. "Do You See What I See?". Internet Bookwatch. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 2014-05-03 – via HighBeam Research. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  6. Laser Focus. 1978. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. Electronics. 20 September 1965. p. 101. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. Laser Focus with Fiberoptic Communications. Vol. 1. 1965. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. Harris & Targ 1964.
  10. Tiffany, Targ & Foster 1969.
  11. Targ, Russell (27 May 2008). "Do You See What I See: Memoirs of a Blind Biker". Reality Sandwich (book excerpt). Retrieved 2014-05-09.
  12. Targ, R.; Kavaya, M.J.; Huffaker, R.M.; Bowles, R.L. (1991). "Coherent lidar airborne windshear sensor: Performance evaluation". Applied Optics. 30 (15): 2013–26. doi:10.1364/AO.30.002013.
  13. Targ, R.; Steakley, B.C.; Hawley, J.G.; Ames, L.L.; Forney, P.; Swanson, D.; Stone, R.; Otto, R.G.; Zarifis, V.; Brockman, P.; Calloway, R.S.; Klein, S.H.; Robinson, P.A. (1996). "Coherent lidar airborne wind sensor II: Flight test results at 2 µm and 10 µm". Applied Optics. 35 (36): 7117–27. doi:10.1364/AO.35.007117. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |displayauthors= ignored (|display-authors= suggested) (help)
  14. Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2010). Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred. University of Chicago Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780226453866.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  15. Targ & Puthoff 1977.
  16. Targ & Puthoff 1974.
  17. Puthoff & Targ 1976.
  18. Anderson, Ian (22 November 1984). "Strange case of the psychic spy". New Scientist. Vol. 104, no. 1431. pp. 3-4 – via Google Books.
  19. Mumford, Michael D.; Rose, Andrew M.; Goslin, David A. (29 September 1995). An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications (PDF). American Institutes for Research.
  20. ^ Waller, Douglas (11 December 1995). "The vision thing: Ten years and $20 million later, The Pentagon discovers that psychics are unreliable spies". Time. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  21. Marks & Kammann 1980, p. 78.
  22. Alcock, James E.; Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance: Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences Education: National Research Council (NRC) (1988). "Part VI. Parapsychological Techniques". Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques, Background Papers (Complete Set). Washington, DC: National Academies Press. p. 57 .
  23. Randi, James (1982). The Truth About Uri Geller. Prometheus. ISBN 9780879751999.
  24. Hines, Terence (2003). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Prometheus. p. 126. ISBN 9781615920853.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  25. Marks, D.; Kammann, R. (17 August 1978). "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments". Letters to Nature. Nature. 274: 680–1. doi:10.1038/274680a0.
  26. Marks, D. (9 July 1981). "Sensory cues invalidate remote viewing experiments". Matters Arising. Nature. 292: 177. doi:10.1038/292177a0.
  27. ^ Hines 2003, pp. 135-6.
  28. Marks & Kamann 1980, Ch. 3: The Targ-Puthoff Effect Explained. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMarks_&_Kamann1980 (help)
  29. Alcock 1988, p. 50 .
  30. Bridgstock, Martin (2009). Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal. Cambridge University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9781139482547.
  31. Randi, James (2007) . "Remote viewing". An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (online ed.). James Randi Educational Foundation . {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  32. Hansel, Charles Edward Mark (1980). ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Reevaluation. Science and the Paranormal. Prometheus. p. 293. ISBN 9780879751197.
  33. Tart, Puthoff & Targ 1980.
  34. Alcock 1988, p. 52 .
  35. ^ Marks, D.; Scott, C. (6 February 1986). "Remote viewing exposed". Correspondence. Nature. 319 (6053): 444. doi:10.1038/319444a0. PMID 3945330.
  36. Hoggart, Simon; Hutchinson, Mike (1995). Bizarre Beliefs. Richard Cohen Books. p. 151. ISBN 9781573921565.
  37. Scott, C. (29 July 1982). "No 'remote viewing'". Correspondence. Nature. 298 (5873): 414. doi:10.1038/298414c0.
  38. Marks & Kammann 1980, p. 59 (2000 ed.) ISBN 1573927988.
  39. Wiseman, R.; Milton, J. (1999). "Experiment one of the SAIC remote viewing program: A critical reevaluation" (PDF). Journal of Parapsychology. 62 (4): 297–308. Retrieved 2008-06-26 – via richardwiseman.com.
  40. Shermer, Michael (2001). The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense. Oxford University Press. pp. 8-10. ISBN 9780198032724.

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