Overview

Lyn Buchanan represents a bridge between classified military remote viewing operations and the public scientific and applied research communities. His career spans from early military service in computer systems and linguistics to operational remote viewing in one of the US government’s most sensitive intelligence programs, and subsequently to civilian instruction, data analysis, and the development of computational tools for understanding remote viewing performance and error patterns.

Buchanan’s work is significant for several reasons. First, as a trained operational remote viewer in the Stargate and Grill Flame programs, he brings direct experience with the protocols, training regimens, and real-world intelligence applications that defined the military remote viewing effort. Second, following the 1995 declassification of the program, he became instrumental in translating classified methodology into structured civilian training systems (particularly the Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) framework) that have been adopted by researchers, instructors, and applied practitioners worldwide. Third, through Problems > Solutions > Innovations, he has assembled and analyzed what is described as the most complete dataset on real-world remote viewing applications, providing empirical grounding for claims about the technology’s practical utility and limitations.

Life and career

Buchanan’s career began in military technical fields before his involvement in remote viewing. He started as a military computer expert specializing in the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules guided missile systems. This early technical background established the systems-engineering and computational expertise that would later inform his approach to remote viewing training and error analysis.

After leaving military service, Buchanan pursued advanced education in the behavioral and cognitive sciences. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics, and a Master of Arts degree in Linguistic Psychology. These credentials reflected an emerging interest in the cognitive and linguistic dimensions of human perception and communication, domains directly relevant to understanding how remote viewers encode, process, and report information about distant targets.

In 1974, Buchanan re-entered military service, this time as a military linguist. He specialized in German, Russian, and Spanish, and was assigned to a four-year posting at the US Intelligence Field Station in Augsburg, Germany. This assignment placed him within the broader intelligence community and provided exposure to signals intelligence, cryptography, and the operational demands of real-world intelligence work.

Following his assignment in Germany, Buchanan was transferred to the remote viewing unit at Ft. Meade, Maryland, the operational headquarters of what would become known as the Stargate program (earlier phases called Grill Flame). At Ft. Meade, he served as a core operational remote viewer, Database Manager, and Unit Trainer. In these roles, he participated in the development and refinement of remote viewing protocols, maintained records of viewing sessions and outcomes, and contributed to the training of new remote viewers entering the program. His combination of technical expertise, linguistic training, and operational experience made him valuable both as a viewer and as someone who could help systematize and document the methodology.

The declassification of the US government’s remote viewing program in 1995 marked a turning point in Buchanan’s career. With the program’s existence and basic operational details now public, he transitioned from classified military work to civilian instruction, research, and applied consulting. He became a leading public instructor in Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), the structured training methodology that emerged from Ingo Swann’s foundational protocol development within the military program. Through CRV instruction, Buchanan has trained civilian remote viewers and contributed to the dissemination of the methodology to researchers and practitioners outside the military context.

In parallel with his teaching activities, Buchanan founded Problems > Solutions > Innovations (PSI), a data analysis organization dedicated to studying real-world applications of remote viewing technology. PSI has assembled what is described as the most comprehensive database of remote viewing applications, including case studies, outcome data, and performance metrics from civilian, law enforcement, and investigative contexts. This dataset provides empirical material for evaluating the practical utility and limitations of remote viewing in applied settings.

Research and methodology

Buchanan’s research and methodological contributions center on three interconnected areas: the systematization and teaching of Controlled Remote Viewing, the computational analysis of remote viewing performance, and the empirical documentation of real-world applications.

Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) training and instruction. Buchanan teaches and has helped refine the Controlled Remote Viewing methodology, a structured approach to remote viewing training derived from Ingo Swann’s protocol development within the military program. CRV is characterized by a staged progression through increasingly complex viewing tasks, with explicit protocols for how viewers should structure their perceptual reports, manage analytical overlay (the intrusion of conscious reasoning into intuitive perception), and develop consistency and accuracy over time. As a trainer, Buchanan has worked to make this methodology accessible to civilian students while maintaining the rigor and systematic structure that defined military training.

Computational analysis of viewer performance. One of Buchanan’s distinctive contributions has been the development of computerized analysis techniques for remote viewing data. He has created methods for identifying, categorizing, and predicting viewer error rates, a crucial step toward understanding the factors that influence remote viewing accuracy and the sources of failure in viewing tasks.¹ These techniques move beyond anecdotal assessment of viewing success or failure toward quantitative, systematic evaluation of performance patterns.

Buchanan has also designed and implemented computer programs and training systems intended to enhance the results of organized CRV efforts and to guide students through specific areas of CRV training.¹ These tools represent an attempt to standardize and optimize the training process, reducing variability in instruction and providing objective feedback to students about their progress and areas requiring further development.

Real-world applications and data collection. Through Problems > Solutions > Innovations, Buchanan has focused on documenting and analyzing remote viewing applications in civilian, law enforcement, and investigative contexts. The PSI database is described as possessing the most complete body of data on real-world applications of remote viewing.¹ This empirical focus on applied outcomes (rather than laboratory experiments alone) reflects a pragmatic interest in whether and under what conditions remote viewing produces actionable intelligence or useful information in operational settings.

Buchanan’s work in this area addresses a persistent gap in remote viewing research: while laboratory studies have examined the statistical significance of remote viewing effects under controlled conditions, questions remain about the consistency, reliability, and practical utility of remote viewing in real-world investigative and intelligence applications. By assembling and analyzing outcome data from actual applications, Buchanan’s research contributes to answering these questions empirically.

Participation in multi-disciplinary dialog. Buchanan has also engaged with broader scientific and scholarly communities interested in nonlocal phenomena and consciousness-related anomalies. He participated in a multi-disciplinary colloquium on placebo, experimenter expectation, and interference phenomena in subconscious information flow, bringing the perspective of operational remote viewing to discussions involving physicists, neuroscientists, and consciousness researchers.¹ This participation reflects an effort to situate remote viewing within broader frameworks of nonlocal bio-communication and mind-matter interaction, rather than treating it as an isolated phenomenon.

Influence and reception

Buchanan’s influence operates across several distinct communities: the remote viewing practitioner and instructor community, the parapsychology and anomalous cognition research community, and applied investigative and intelligence professionals.

Within the remote viewing community, Buchanan is recognized as a leading authority on Controlled Remote Viewing methodology and training. His status as a former operational remote viewer in the classified military program, combined with his subsequent role as a civilian instructor and systematizer of CRV protocols, has made him a central figure in the transmission of remote viewing knowledge from the military context to civilian practitioners and researchers. His training materials, instructional approaches, and refinements to CRV methodology have influenced how remote viewing is taught and practiced outside the military.

In the parapsychology and anomalous cognition research community, Buchanan’s work on computational analysis of remote viewing performance and his assembly of the PSI database have contributed to efforts to move remote viewing research toward more rigorous, quantitative assessment of performance patterns and error sources. His participation in peer-reviewed scientific forums and multi-disciplinary colloquia has helped establish remote viewing as a topic worthy of serious scientific engagement, rather than dismissing it as merely anecdotal or speculative.

For applied investigators and law enforcement professionals, Buchanan’s work through Problems > Solutions > Innovations has provided both training in remote viewing methodology and empirical documentation of cases in which remote viewing has been applied to investigative problems. This has created a bridge between the academic and scientific study of remote viewing and its practical application in real-world contexts where information about distant or hidden targets is needed.

Buchanan’s memoir, The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a ‘Psychic Spy’ for the U.S. Military, published in 2003 and reissued in 2009, has also been influential in bringing the history and methodology of the military remote viewing program to a general audience.² The book provides an insider’s account of the Stargate and Grill Flame programs, the training and operational protocols used, and the real-world intelligence applications attempted. As one of the few detailed first-person accounts by a core operational remote viewer, it has become a standard reference for understanding the history and practice of military remote viewing.

More broadly, Buchanan represents a model of knowledge transfer from classified to unclassified contexts. The declassification of the remote viewing program in 1995 created an opportunity for former military remote viewers to bring their expertise and experience into the public domain. Buchanan’s transition from operational remote viewer to civilian instructor, researcher, and data analyst exemplifies how classified methodologies and practices can be adapted, refined, and subjected to systematic empirical evaluation once they enter the open scientific and professional communities. His work demonstrates that remote viewing, once removed from the secrecy and compartmentalization of military intelligence, can be studied, taught, and applied using the tools and standards of civilian science and professional practice.