Overview

Paul H. Smith represents a rare bridge between classified military parapsychology and public anomalistics research. As a seven-year participant in Project Star Gate (the US Army’s operational remote viewing program) he occupied a position of direct access to one of the most significant institutional investments in psi research conducted by a Western government. Unlike many remote viewers who remained anonymous or emerged only after declassification, Smith has been instrumental in translating the operational protocols and theoretical frameworks of military remote viewing into civilian educational and research contexts.

His career trajectory reflects a deliberate shift from operational secrecy to public transparency. After his service in the Stargate program, Smith founded RVIS to train civilians in the same remote viewing methodologies that had been refined through years of military application. This transition was not merely commercial; it represented a philosophical commitment to democratizing access to anomalous cognition training and research. His leadership roles within the International Remote Viewing Association further positioned him as a custodian of methodological standards and a voice for the legitimacy of remote viewing as a teachable skill.

Smith’s scholarly contributions extend beyond practitioner literature. His engagement with the Journal of Scientific Exploration, both as a reviewer of contemporary anomalistics work and as a commentator on the intersection of psi research and broader scientific discourse, situates him within the formal academic infrastructure of parapsychology and frontier science. His recent review of Louis Elizondo’s Imminent demonstrates his continued involvement in evaluating narratives about government UAP programs and their historical connections to remote viewing research.¹

Life and career

Smith’s entry into parapsychology occurred through military channels rather than academic ones. He was recruited into the US Army’s operational remote viewing program during the Cold War, when the military sought to develop psychic espionage capabilities as a counterintelligence asset. His seven-year tenure in the Stargate program placed him among a small cohort of individuals trained and deployed as operational remote viewers, tasked with gathering intelligence on foreign targets using anomalous cognition rather than conventional surveillance.

The Stargate program itself was the final institutional iteration of a longer history of military remote viewing research. It succeeded earlier programs known as Grill Flame and Sun Streak, each representing successive refinements of operational protocols and training methodologies. Smith’s participation in Stargate meant he was trained in the most mature version of the military’s remote viewing system, incorporating decades of accumulated operational experience and methodological development.

A critical element of Smith’s training was his direct instruction by Ingo Swann, the originator of Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV). Swann had developed the CRV protocol in the 1970s as a systematic, teachable method for inducing and controlling remote viewing experiences. Unlike earlier, more intuitive approaches to remote viewing, CRV provided a structured framework with defined stages, feedback mechanisms, and quality-control procedures. Smith’s direct apprenticeship under Swann gave him access to the theoretical rationale and practical subtleties of the protocol that were not always captured in written documentation.

Following his military service, Smith made the deliberate choice to transition from classified operational work to public education and advocacy. He founded Remote Viewing Instructional Services (RVIS) to offer civilian training in remote viewing protocols. This represented a significant departure from the secrecy that had characterized his military career. Rather than remaining silent about his experience, Smith became a public figure in the remote viewing community, willing to discuss his background and to teach the methodologies he had learned.

Smith’s leadership within the International Remote Viewing Association reflected his commitment to standardizing and legitimizing remote viewing practice. As a two-time president of IRVA, he worked to establish consistent training standards, promote rigorous methodology, and foster dialog between remote viewing practitioners and the broader scientific community. His roles within IRVA positioned him as a custodian of the field’s integrity and a voice for the advancement of remote viewing research.

Research and training

Smith’s primary contribution to parapsychology has been methodological and pedagogical rather than empirical. His development and publication of the Coordinate Remote Viewing training manual represents his most significant technical contribution to the field.³ This manual systematized the CRV protocol, translating the operational procedures used in military remote viewing into a format suitable for civilian instruction. The manual provided detailed step-by-step guidance for trainees, including the theoretical foundations of the protocol, the stages of a remote viewing session, feedback procedures, and quality-assurance mechanisms.

The CRV protocol itself, as taught by Smith, operates through a series of defined stages. In the initial stages, the remote viewer works with a numerical coordinate, a set of numbers that designates a target location or object unknown to the viewer. Through structured mental procedures, the viewer attempts to perceive information about the target, beginning with simple sensory impressions and progressing to more complex analytical and interpretive work. The protocol incorporates feedback mechanisms that allow the viewer to refine their perceptions and to distinguish between accurate target information and mental noise or imagination.

Smith’s published works on remote viewing serve both historical and instructional purposes. Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate, America’s Psychic Espionage Program provides an insider’s account of the military remote viewing program, documenting its operational history, the individuals involved, and the types of intelligence missions undertaken.² This work is significant not only as a historical record but also as a source of methodological detail. By describing actual operational remote viewing sessions and their outcomes, Smith offers readers insight into how the protocol functioned in practice and what kinds of information remote viewers were able to access.

The Essential Guide to Remote Viewing: The Secret Military Remote Perception Skill Anyone Can Learn takes a more pedagogical approach, presenting remote viewing as a teachable skill accessible to the general public.⁴ This work reflects Smith’s philosophy that remote viewing should not remain the exclusive domain of military and intelligence agencies, but should be available to civilians interested in exploring anomalous cognition. The guide combines practical instruction with theoretical background, offering readers both the “how” and the “why” of remote viewing methodology.

Smith’s engagement with the Journal of Scientific Exploration extends his influence into the formal academic literature of parapsychology and anomalistics. His review of Damien Broderick’s Psience Fiction: The Paranormal in Science Fiction Literature demonstrates his scholarly engagement with the intersection of psi research and cultural representation.⁵ In this review, Smith engages with Broderick’s analysis of how paranormal phenomena, particularly psi abilities, have been represented in science fiction literature and how those representations relate to actual psi research. This work situates Smith within a broader intellectual conversation about the cultural significance of parapsychology and the ways in which scientific anomalies are imagined and discussed in popular culture.

More recently, Smith has contributed to the Journal of Scientific Exploration with a review of Louis Elizondo’s Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs.¹ This review is particularly significant because it connects Smith’s expertise in military remote viewing programs to contemporary discussions of government UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) research. In his review, Smith notes Elizondo’s account of Gene Lessman, a veteran of the Star Gate remote viewing program, who recruited Elizondo into a classified Army intelligence program and informally taught him remote viewing. Smith’s commentary on this narrative demonstrates his continued engagement with the intersection of remote viewing history and contemporary government anomalistics research.

The review also illustrates Smith’s role as a scholarly interpreter of military parapsychology. By contextualizing Elizondo’s account within his own knowledge of the Stargate program, Smith provides readers with informed perspective on the historical connections between remote viewing research and other government investigations into anomalous phenomena. His observation that Elizondo’s potential recruitment into Star Gate was forestalled by the program’s cancellation by CIA leadership reflects the kind of insider knowledge that Smith brings to discussions of military psi research.

Influence and reception

Smith’s influence within the remote viewing community has been substantial and multifaceted. As a trainer through RVIS, he has directly shaped the practice of remote viewing among hundreds of civilians. His training programs have established standards for protocol adherence and quality control that have been adopted by other remote viewing schools and practitioners. The Coordinate Remote Viewing training manual he published has become a foundational text in civilian remote viewing education, referenced by practitioners and trainers worldwide.

His leadership within the International Remote Viewing Association has positioned him as a voice for the field’s legitimacy and scientific rigor. By advocating for standardized training, methodological consistency, and engagement with academic parapsychology, Smith has worked to elevate remote viewing from the status of a fringe practice to that of a systematic methodology worthy of serious study. His presidency of IRVA provided him with a platform to promote these values and to foster dialog between remote viewing practitioners and the broader scientific community.

Smith’s published works have reached audiences beyond the remote viewing community. Reading the Enemy’s Mind has been widely read by individuals interested in the history of military intelligence, Cold War espionage, and government parapsychology research. By providing an insider’s account of the Stargate program, Smith has contributed to public understanding of one of the most significant institutional investments in psi research. His willingness to discuss classified programs and to provide detailed accounts of operational remote viewing has made him a valuable source for historians and researchers studying the government’s engagement with parapsychology.

The reception of Smith’s work within academic parapsychology has been respectful, though the field itself remains marginal within mainstream science. His contributions to the Journal of Scientific Exploration have been published in a peer-reviewed venue that, while not mainstream, is recognized within the anomalistics community as a legitimate forum for scholarly discussion. His reviews and commentaries have been cited by other researchers and have contributed to ongoing conversations about the relationship between psi research and broader scientific and cultural discourse.

Smith’s engagement with contemporary government UAP research, as evidenced by his review of Elizondo’s Imminent, has positioned him as a bridge between the historical remote viewing programs of the Cold War and contemporary discussions of government anomalistics research. His insider knowledge of the Stargate program and his continued scholarly engagement with anomalistics literature make him a valuable resource for understanding the continuities and discontinuities between past and present government investigations into anomalous phenomena.

The broader reception of Smith’s work reflects the complex status of remote viewing within contemporary culture. On one hand, remote viewing has achieved a degree of popular recognition and has attracted a dedicated community of practitioners and researchers. On the other hand, it remains scientifically controversial, with mainstream science maintaining skepticism about the reality of remote viewing effects. Smith’s work has contributed to the legitimacy of remote viewing within its own community while also serving as a resource for those seeking to understand the history and methodology of military psi research.