It appears this was actually authorized by Congress. “ In the FY 1991 Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was identified as execut

It appears this was actually authorized by Congress. “ In the FY 1991 Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was identified as executive agent for initiating a new program to investigate parapsychological/ anomalous phenomena. A funding level of $2 million was authorized for DIA to undertake specific research and other activities relative to this activity. Objectives of this authorization were to enable a systematic and scientifically sound approach to the R&D effort, to permit wider and more systematic review of potential intelligence applications, and to assess foreign developments in this area.” It was taken serious enough to be funded for two decades starting in the 70s. Eventually it was terminated when the strategic pressure eased. AIR was commissioned to look at the research and says in this [1] “A three-component program involving basic research, operations, and foreign assessment has been in place for some time… beginning in the 1970s, it has conducted a program intended to investigate the application of one paranormal phenomenon — remote viewing, or the ability to describe locations one has not visited.” “The AIR review found that remote viewing produced occasional hits that were statistically better than chance, but it remains unclear whether the observed effects can unambiguously be attributed to paranormal phenomena, and the laboratory conditions under which effects were seen do not generalize to real intelligence problems. The information provided by remote viewing was judged vague and ambiguous, making it difficult or impossible for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy for actionable intelligence.” 1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180005-5.pdf https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R0002001...