CIA Scientist Behind the Secret Government Psychic Spy Program | Dale E. Graff of STARGATE Project (Episode 166)

CIA Scientist Behind the Secret Government Psychic Spy Program | Dale E. Graff of the STARGATE Project (Episode 166)

What happens when the U.S. government secretly studies psychic abilities for intelligence gathering and finds results serious enough to fund for decades?

In this episode of WTF Just Happened?!: All About the Afterlife. No Woo., Dale E. Graff, physicist, intelligence analyst, and former chief of the now-declassified STARGATE Project shares a rare, firsthand account of the U.S. government’s psychic spy and remote viewing program.

STARGATE was a classified effort that explored remote viewing, precognition, and psi phenomena as tools for intelligence and national security during the Cold War. Dale explains how these abilities were tested, applied, and evaluated inside the intelligence community and why the program ultimately challenged conventional scientific assumptions about consciousness, time, and perception.

The conversation explores how remote viewing was used to locate missing aircraft, fugitives, and sensitive targets; how dream-state psi and waking intuition played roles in intelligence work; and what skeptics often misunderstand about the program’s outcomes. Dale also reflects on why STARGATE was shut down, what the official reviews left out, and what decades of psi research may suggest about human potential and survival of consciousness beyond death.

This episode is especially relevant for listeners interested in government secrecy, consciousness research, remote viewing, ESP, near-death and near-life phenomena, and the scientific study of intuition.


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What We Cover in This Episode

  • What the STARGATE Project really was—and what it wasn’t

  • How remote viewing was used in U.S. intelligence operations

  • Dream-state psi vs. waking-state intuition

  • Precognition and the nature of time

  • Why STARGATE was shut down and how it was evaluated

  • Scientific skepticism, bias, and missing data

  • What psi research suggests about consciousness and survival

About the Guest

Dale E. Graff is a researcher, writer, and speaker with degrees in aeronautical engineering and physics. He served for decades as a civilian physicist with the U.S. Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division and the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he became chief of the Advanced Concepts Office and director of the STARGATE psychic spy and remote viewing unit at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Dale coined the name STARGATE to reflect an expanded view of human potential and consciousness. He also managed remote viewing research at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and participated in high-level intelligence missions during the Cold War. He is the author of Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness and River Dreams, which chronicle his evolution from scientific skeptic to researcher of psi phenomena.

Follow Dale E Graff: Website

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