Overview

Edwin C. May is a physicist whose career spans four decades of anomalous cognition research, from early work in the 1970s at SRI International through the classified government remote viewing program and into theoretical and experimental work at his own laboratory. His primary contributions fall into three areas: (1) methodological advancement in remote viewing analysis and evaluation; (2) the development of Decision Augmentation Theory, a unifying theoretical framework for psi phenomena; and (3) systematic investigation of target properties, particularly entropy, as intrinsic factors affecting anomalous cognition performance.

May’s work is distinguished by a commitment to rigorous quantification and statistical analysis. Rather than treating psi as a binary phenomenon (present or absent), he developed mathematical and computational tools to measure and predict the strength of anomalous cognition effects under varying experimental conditions. His theoretical work shifted the conceptual foundation of psi research away from force-based models of mental influence toward informational and decision-theoretic frameworks.

Life and career

May entered parapsychology research in the mid-1970s at SRI International, where he joined the remote viewing program led by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff. His early work included collaborative studies on remote viewing methodology and EEG correlates of anomalous cognition. In 1976, he participated in experiments investigating psychokinetic effects with the remote viewer Ingo Swann and contributed to studies of volitional control in psychokinetic tasks.¹²¹³¹⁴

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, May worked on the classified remote viewing program sponsored by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and Joint Services. He contributed to foundational reports on the state of remote viewing research and participated in the development of specialized orientation techniques for target acquisition.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ In 1984, he authored a technical report on database management systems for organizing remote viewing experimental data, reflecting the growing computational sophistication of the program.¹⁸

In 1985, May succeeded Targ and Puthoff as director of the remote viewing research program when it transitioned from SRI International to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He held this position until 1995, overseeing the continuation and expansion of operational remote viewing research and analysis. During this decade, he led the development of advanced analytical techniques and contributed to comprehensive reviews of the program’s findings.¹⁹

After the formal closure of the government program in 1995, May founded Laboratories for Fundamental Research (LFR), where he continued independent research on anomalous cognition, random number generator experiments, and the physiological correlates of psi phenomena. At LFR, he expanded his theoretical work and conducted experiments investigating precognition, presentiment, and the relationship between target properties and psi performance.

Research

Remote viewing analysis and methodology

May’s methodological contributions to remote viewing research centered on improving the analysis and evaluation of viewer responses. In collaboration with statistician Jessica Utts and colleagues, he developed fuzzy set technology as a tool for analyzing remote viewing data.² Fuzzy set methods allowed researchers to quantify the degree to which a viewer’s description matched target characteristics, moving beyond binary hit/miss scoring to a continuous measure of correspondence. This approach increased sensitivity to partial or ambiguous matches that traditional methods might discard.

He also contributed to the formalization of remote viewing evaluation techniques, which were documented in technical reports and conference proceedings.²⁰ These techniques addressed practical challenges in assessing whether a viewer’s description of a remote location or object was accurate, including methods for handling feedback, controlling for sensory leakage, and managing the statistical properties of large experimental datasets.

Decision Augmentation Theory

May’s most significant theoretical contribution is Decision Augmentation Theory (DAT), developed in collaboration with Jessica Utts and Stephen Spottiswoode. DAT proposes that anomalous cognition and psychokinesis operate through a common mechanism: the unconscious selection of outcomes that favor the agent’s goals or intentions.¹

In the context of random number generator (RNG) experiments, DAT suggests that apparent psychokinetic effects (deviations from randomness in the output of an RNG) do not result from direct mental force on the device. Instead, the agent unconsciously selects or “augments” decisions about when to engage with the RNG, or how to interpret its output, in ways that produce goal-congruent results. This reframing dissolves the conceptual problem of how mental intention could physically influence a quantum or electronic system: the influence is informational and decision-based, not mechanical.²¹

DAT has been applied to interpret data from decades of RNG experiments, providing a unified account of why psi effects in such experiments are typically small but statistically significant across large datasets.²²²³ The theory also explains why effect sizes vary with experimental conditions, participant motivation, and feedback mechanisms, all factors that would influence decision-making processes.

Target entropy and anomalous cognition

Beginning in the mid-1990s, May investigated whether intrinsic properties of targets (specifically their informational complexity or entropy) affect the likelihood and strength of anomalous cognition. Shannon entropy, a measure from information theory, quantifies the degree of randomness or unpredictability in a signal or image. May hypothesized that targets with higher entropy (more complex, less predictable images) might be more accessible to anomalous cognition than low-entropy targets (simple, highly predictable images).⁴

In subsequent work, he and his colleagues constructed a target pool and database specifically designed to vary entropy systematically, enabling controlled investigation of this relationship.²⁴ Analysis of anomalous cognition experiments using this pool revealed a significant correlation between target entropy and the magnitude of anomalous cognition effects.⁵ This finding suggests that psi does not access targets uniformly; rather, it preferentially accesses high-entropy, information-rich targets. The result has implications for understanding the sensory or informational basis of anomalous cognition and for optimizing experimental design.

Precognition and presentiment

May’s later work increasingly focused on precognition as a fundamental mechanism underlying apparent psi phenomena. He proposed that precognition (direct access to future information) may be the only genuine form of psi, with other anomalous cognition phenomena (such as remote viewing of distant locations) reducible to precognitive access to the future state of the agent’s own decision-making or knowledge.⁷

In collaboration with Samir Marwaha, he developed the Multiphasic Model of Precognition, which proposes that precognitive information is processed through multiple stages and may be subject to temporal constraints and decay.²⁵ This model provides a framework for understanding why precognitive effects are often weak and variable, and why they may be enhanced under certain experimental conditions.

May also investigated physiological correlates of precognition, particularly the phenomenon of prestimulus response in the autonomic nervous system. In a collaboration with Stephen Spottiswoode, he conducted experiments in which participants’ skin conductance (a measure of autonomic arousal) was recorded before and after the presentation of emotionally arousing or neutral stimuli. The stimuli were selected randomly only at the moment of presentation, so the participant could not have known in advance which stimulus would appear. Despite this, the researchers found a significant differential skin conductance response in the prestimulus period, with greater arousal preceding emotionally arousing stimuli.⁶ This result suggests that the autonomic nervous system may respond to future events seconds before they occur, consistent with a precognitive mechanism.

International collaboration and Soviet research

In the early 1990s, following the opening of the Soviet Union, May undertook a systematic survey of anomalous mental phenomena research in Russia and the former Soviet republics. In collaboration with Larissa Vilenskaya, he visited research institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities, documenting the methodologies and findings of Soviet researchers who had conducted decades of work on psychokinesis and bio-PK largely unknown to Western scientists.¹⁰¹¹

These surveys revealed a broad and sustained research effort across prestigious institutions, including Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences, investigating mental influence on physical systems (microcalorimeters, electronic noise generators), biological systems (plant growth, animal behavior, human physiology), and biochemical systems. While the quality and rigor of the research varied, May documented that some Soviet laboratories had developed sophisticated experimental protocols and had reported statistically significant effects. His work made this body of research accessible to the Western parapsychological community and contributed to a more complete historical understanding of global psi research.

Government program documentation

In the years following the declassification and public acknowledgment of the U.S. government remote viewing program (known as Stargate), May worked to document and analyze the program’s history, operations, and findings. In collaboration with Samir Marwaha, he compiled and edited comprehensive volumes of declassified reports and analyses, providing researchers and the public with detailed accounts of the operational remote viewing work conducted from 1972 to 1995.⁸⁹ He also authored historical and analytical papers examining the program’s methodology, results, and significance.²⁶

Additionally, May published a detailed response to critical re-evaluations of the SAIC remote viewing program conducted by external reviewers, defending the methodological rigor of the research and addressing specific technical critiques.²⁷²⁸ This work contributed to ongoing scholarly debate about the validity and interpretation of government-sponsored psi research.

Influence and reception

May’s contributions to parapsychology have been substantial and multifaceted. His methodological innovations in remote viewing analysis, particularly the application of fuzzy set technology and entropy-based target characterization, have influenced how researchers design and analyze anomalous cognition experiments. The target entropy hypothesis, in particular, has stimulated further research and has been incorporated into experimental protocols at multiple laboratories.

Decision Augmentation Theory has become a widely cited theoretical framework in parapsychology, offering a coherent explanation for why psi effects in RNG experiments are small but statistically robust across large datasets. The theory has been influential in shifting the conceptual focus of psi research from force-based models (mental influence as a physical force) to informational and decision-theoretic models, aligning parapsychology more closely with contemporary physics and information science.

May’s work on precognition and presentiment has contributed to growing interest in these phenomena as potentially fundamental aspects of psi. His physiological investigations of prestimulus response have inspired similar studies by other researchers and have raised questions about the temporal structure of consciousness and the nature of causality in biological systems.

His historical and documentary work on the government remote viewing program has been important for establishing a reliable, detailed record of classified research. By making declassified materials accessible and providing scholarly analysis, he has enabled more informed public and academic discussion of the program’s significance and limitations.

May’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Parapsychology, the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and the Journal of Consciousness Studies. He has also contributed to books and edited volumes on parapsychology and anomalous cognition. His work continues to be cited in contemporary parapsychological research and in interdisciplinary discussions of consciousness, decision-making, and the foundations of physics.