i

Captain of My Ship^
Master of My Soul

F. Holmes Atw
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Copley Square
Boston MA 02116
 "I had a few minutes yesterday and picked up
Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul started . . .

reading and now I've finished it! A deep spiritu-

. . .

al quest —one we can all go on — in the midst of cre-

ating a secret psychic spy program for the
government? That's what you'll learn about, and be
inspired by, in this fascinating autobiography. This is

a must-read for anyone interested in ESP, remote

viewing, or the way spirit can be found in modem
life."

Charles T. Tart, Ph.D.

Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
 Digitized
[ by tlie Internet Arcliive
in 2015

https://archive.org/details/captainofmyshipmOOfhol
Captain of My Ship^
Master of My Soul

Living with Guidance

F. Holmes Atwater

simply realizing
All That Is."
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this
work in any form whatsoever, without permission
in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages
in connection with a review.

Cover design by Kelly O'Neil, KSO Design

Digital imagery © copyright 2001 PhotoDisc, Inc.

For information write:

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road
Chariottesville, VA 22902
 This book is dedicated
to the ONE I love.

"Life is not something physical

and death something spiritual.

Substantive reality is inclusive.

God is really big!

The secret to remembering

your true identity is

simply realizing
AH That Is."
 Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

Introduction xv
BY JOSEPH W. MCMONEAGLE

Foreword xix
BY dean RADIN, PH.D.

Pant One:

Child, Soldier, Counterspy

Chapter One— 1
The Awakening

Chapter Two— 19
Special Agent

Chapter Three— 43
Igniting Grill Fl^me

Chapter Four — SB
Remote-Viewing Training and Operations
 Part Two:
Scientist, Explorer. Spiritual "I

Chapter Five— 1 sy
Monroe World—The New La.nd of Hemi-Sync

Chapter Six— 1B1

Through the Flavor Straw

Author's Note 213

Afterword 215
by paul h. smith

References . 219
Index 221
 Acknowledgments

I have not written or published this book without the help of

others. Two of the most important are my wife, Fay Atwater, and
friend (mentor, editor, and publisher) Frank DeMarco of the
Hampton Roads Publishing Company.
Joe McMoneagle, Paul H. Smith, and my sister, Sunny Gates,
with whom I collaborated, helped me accurately recall portions of
my spirit journey that are quickly receding into the distant past.
My dear friend Miriandra Rota kindly reviewed previous iterations
of this manuscript, supported my determination, and provided a
great deal of spiritual insight.
Bob Monroe and the staff of The Monroe Institute exemplify

the evolving human spirit expressed throughout this manuscript.

Thank you all for your help and service to humanity.
And I would acknowledge gratitude to my parents from
beyond the grave and all other nonphysical assistance provided in
the writing and publishing of this book. I would, except that being
one with God, the I Am of it all, the concept of being separate
from such "spiritual" realms is, by definition, not possible. There
are not "physical" and "spiritual" realities, worlds, or realms but
Oneness. So thank you, God— ^which would include me and by

ix
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

extension "others" mentioned above, which there can t be

there is nothing outside of or other than God I Am.
Okay, I acknowledge it. I wrote this book.
 Preface

Over twenty years ago, I met Dr. Charles T. Tart, professor emer-
itus, at a conference in California and then later at SRI Interna-
tional in conjunction with the U.S. government remote -viewing
program. Through the years I have enjoyed reading his books on
consciousness and parapsychology. You can check out his website at
http://www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/.
One day during lunch, on a visit to Menlo Park, California, I asked
Dr. Tarthow he found the time to write books, given his fascinating and
very busy life. He said that there always seemed to be time when it was
necessary. "Life," he said, "just seemed to arrange itself —making time
available for writing." When I pressed him for a more personal answer,
he said, "There comes a moment, or perhaps someplace outside of nor-
mal waking consciousness, when a voice inside me says stop, write this

down." We both sat in silence for a few minutes, he wondering why he

had shared such a personal side of himself and I wondering if I would
ever hear such a voice. I did and this book is what I wrote down.
The story tells a spirit journey, a particular life span. Some would say
that we pass from spirit into the physical at birth and conversely pass
from the physical world into spirit at death. I say that we never pass /rom
the spirit, that our reverie of the world around us is just that. The phys-
ical world is only a silhouette, a shadow without substance. Everyday life

xi
 Captain OF My Ship, Master of My Soul

is a mere reflection of spirit experienced as an intention to become

aware of AM That Is. Spirit does not journey through (nonexistent)
space/time but across the vastness of knowledge itself, a dimensionless
realm of AH That Is. We are always spiritual beings, even when having a
physical experience. Our spiritual selves, enlightened souls, share con-
currently what we experience in the physical world with AU That Is (also

known as God).
Well, perhaps I should just get on with the story.

During a time not so long ago, our culture teetered on the brink
of an apocalypse with that of the former Soviet Union. I grew up
and lived through these troubled times, this era of looming self-

annihilation called the Cold War In elementary school, we hid under

our classroom desks during duck-and- cover exercises so that we might
survive the coming nuclear holocaust. History bears witness to the

fact that we did not destroy ourselves and that after the war we have
experienced an evolutionary psychic shift in Western culture.

In the midst of a world in conflict over material gain during the

height of the Cold War, a military remote -viewing surveillance pro-
gram emerged — as if to balance the insanity of it all. Because of this

program, now known to the world by the code name Star Gate,
numerous military and civilian government personnel, highly placed
members of Congress, and, without naming names, a few in the exec-
utive branch discovered that we are not bound by the confines of our
physical perceptions —we are, in fact, more than our physical bodies.
The cultural impact of this realization continues to grow as more and
more people uncover the details of the government- sponsored work
in remote viewing.
For me, all this began with a childhood filled with extraordinary
spiritual experiences that led me to a military career as a clairvoyant
counterspy. Guided by spirit from within to initiate a unique military
remote -viewing surveillance program originally called Grill Flame, I

recruited and trained an elite cadre of professional remote viewers for

the U.S. government.
Guided again by spirit, I new life in Virginia after retiring
entered a
from the military. I joined The Monroe Institute, a well-known
research and education organization. Using the Institute's facilities, I

xii
 F. Holmes Atwater

followed my spiritual yearnings and was able to explore a realm of

knowledge seemingly beyond the confines of my physical body. Since

then, working in the Bob Monroe Research Lab, I have published tech-
nical research on methods for expanding consciousness and, working
with the staff at the Institute, assisted thousands of others to realize
their own true spiritual identity.

As a middle -aged adult, I now live in a culture busily reconnect-

ing with its spiritual roots as envisioned by our founding fathers.
Through this book, I know that you too will realize your own guided
spirit journey through life and your true nature as you always have and
always will.

xiii
 Introduction
BY JOSEPH W. MCMONEAGLE

Skip Atwater came into my life back in August of 1978. I was

a chief warrant officer assigned to the Emitter Location and Iden-
tification (ELI) Office, at the Headquarters for Intelligence and
Security, U.S. Army, Arlington, Virginia. At the time it was impos-
sible to tell his rank, since he was serving in a part of army intelli-

gence where they don't usually wear uniforms.

Our initial introduction to one another consisted of meeting in
an empty office on the third floor, where he showed me a folder

containing numerous newspaper clippings about psychics. The

newspaper clippings ranged in believability from the skeptical to
the incredulous. In retrospect, I have to admit, that because of the
subject matter, I was very concerned about the stability of the man
sitting across from me and was uncomfortable with the questions
he was asking. This initial assessment proved to be entirely wrong.
Subsequently, it was through his efforts that I would be recruited
into the army's secret, psychic- spy unit. Star Gate, as Remote
Viewer #001.
I was very honored when Skip came to me and asked if I would
introduce his book Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul. Since
we have been friends for 23 years you would think this an easy task,

XV
 Captain OF My Ship, Master of My Soul

but it isn't. This is primarily because his book isn't an easy book to
describe in its entirety. First, it's a complex history of a human
being who is probably one of the most metaphysically attuned
individuals I know. It is a story about his life's journey, a journey in
which he has operated on a day-to-day basis, almost entirely on
faith.

How many times have you heard someone say: "You have to
have faith that it will work out," or, "Have faith, trust in God," or,

"Faith moves mountains"? Well, how many of us truly operate that

way? My guess is not many. Or, at least that is not our primary focus.
I can tell you that Skip Atw^ater is one of the few human beings I've

ever metwho operates only that way.. He not only believes that faith
can move mountains, but lives his life with an expectation that it
will. And, around Skip, you will see mountains move.
What makes Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul unique is

that it chronicles his life from childhood to present, with a focus

on how and why he has learned to live his life with such expecta-
tion, such a tremendous faith in its ultimate outcome. This isn't a
cool story you'll find yourself half-believing. It is a heroic story,

filled with incredible demonstrations of faith embedded within the

everyday problems of life and living.

In childhood. Skip was taught that we ". . . never pass from the
spirit" into the physical, such as at birth. He goes on to say: "We
are always spiritual beings, even when having a physical experi-
ence." He clearly came to understand this even as a child. He
shares with us how he managed to integrate these kinds of under-
standings into his daily actions, and how they affected his life.

Skip enlisted in the army in 1968, with an expectation that he

would never be confronted with the moral issue of taking a life, a
laughable expectation for anyone aware of the ongoing situation in
Southeast Asia at the time, but for Skip, a simple act of faith.

Skip's simple acts of faith constitute a teaching and learning expe-

rience, which we can all benefit from.
A significant portion of the book is dedicated to the reasons
behind the establishment of the army's secret, psychic- spy program,
and how it was done. These are highly original and unique insights.

xvi
 F. Holmes Atwater

since they come directly from one of the individuals most involved
in the initiation of the Star Gate project. As far as army involve-
ment, Skip could be considered one of the originating fathers in its

deployment. While Skip would be one of the first to say that it was
a team effort and took the involvement of dozens of people to make
it work, one can readily see his "acts of faith" deeply interwoven
within the pattern or framework of its being. Skip speaks with

authority here, since he was not only the project's first, but its only
operations and training officer (O&TO) from 1977 to 1987.
As the 0<SlTO, Skip's acceptance and integration of a meta-
physical structure to physical reality were key elements that
enabled the remote -viewing project to succeed as well as it did. He
may not have known at the time, but he certainly intuited, that
the role of expectation in the success of remote viewing was also a
key element. Since expectation was so well integrated within his
consciousness and physical experience, it automatically became a

part of the remote viewers' reahty, at least for those under his con-
trol —mine included. A great deal of his effort as O&TO of the
unit infused within me the kind of remote -viewing expertise that I

display today.
Using remote viewing to target UFOs is seen by many as hav-
ing negative connotations and best avoided. Skip has an interesting
perspective on this, which is probably one of the best in the field.

He is open to certain uses of remote viewing, but cautions about the

care that should be exercised in the selection of which protocols
should be used. Since he is probably one of the most effective users
of remote viewing in its history, one would do well to pay attention
to his concerns and follow the kinds of guidance he provides freely

within his book. His experience with the application of remote

viewing to real-world problems is exceptionally deep.
At the end of his army career. Skip moved to rural Virginia and
became a researcher at The Monroe Institute (TMI). This is the
world-renowned institute founded by Robert Monroe, author of
Journeys Out of the Body, the first and now classic introduction to

out of the body experiences (OBEs). This was a natural move

given Skip's metaphysical focus. Early in the book he explains how

xvii
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

he was first introduced to Bob Monroe, and Hemi-Sync, a method

that aids in the exploration of altered states of consciousness. This
is the juicy part of the read for me. He goes into some detail regard-
ing how he thinks Hemi-Sync actually works within the brain and
what its effects might be —more so than I have read in many other
articles on this subject. He describes some of his experiences while
attending a Gateway Voyage seminar at the Institute, and surprises
us with his humble acceptance of things he "never really seriously

considered" before. But, this should surprise no one who knows

Skip. That is simply the way he is. He accepts things as they
appear in his life, he has an expectation that whatever he experi-
ences will be of value and bring him something necessary to his
existence. And he does this effortlessly, which of course is proba-
bly the most profound aspect about this book.
We've all met someone who claims to have had a particular
kind of experience, and in nearly every case they've treated that
experience as something exceptional or special. We've also met
people who, as we say in the army, can't walk their talk. Skip walks
his talk and always has. He's created a life filled with metaphysical
experience and has successfully integrated these experiences. In
his life there is always something expected, there is always some-
thing special, and he always lives what he believes.
I've been connected with the paranormal for almost half of my
lifetime, and I have read an enormous amount of applicable litera-

ture, but this is one of the best examples of how to integrate one's
personal experience. A reader could look at this as a practical guide
on how to lead a metaphysical life. Skip Atwater definitely lives his

talk. If you are looking for ground-floor examples of how inner guid-
ance can improve your life or bring focus to your existence, then I

strongly recommend you take the phone off the hook and settle in

for awhile, because it will be hard to put down. But don't just read
it, go out and experience it for yourself This is a beautiful book that
comes straight from Skip Atwater's heart. For everyone who might
read this book and benefit from it, thank you. Skip.

Joseph W. McMoneagle, CW2, USA Ret.

Author, Remote Viewing Secrets

xviii
 Foreword
BY DEAN RADIN, PH.D.

Some ideas are so paradigm shattering, so unsettling, and so

inconceivable, that they remain hidden in plain sight for many
years. One such idea is that we can sometimes perceive objects and
events beyond the reach of the ordinary senses, unbound by the
usual constraints of space and time. This idea, called clairvoyance
or, in modern guise, "remote viewing," has persisted throughout
history and is known in all cultures.
Until recently, whenever the topic of remote viewing was
raised it was typically cast into one of three forms: The religiously

inclined saw it as either divine or blasphemous, the entertainment

industry used it as an attention-getting plot element, and many
scientists considered belief in it as an indicator of mass delusion, or
worse. Indeed, many scientists considered remote viewing nonsen-
sical because such phenomena could not exist in the common

sense world of local, isolated objects, forces, and fields. Few scien-
tists imagined that remote viewing (or psychic phenomena in gen-

eral) was actually a reflection, in human experiential terms, of a

new, more comprehensive view of reality. Today, physics has

revealed a deeply interconnected, nonlocal universe where at
some level everything really is connected to everything else. In
such a reality, remote viewing not only can, but must exist.

xix
 Captain of My Ship, ^^ASTER of My Soul

Books on nonlocality and interconnectedness are now prolif-

erating, there is a restlessness in fundamental physics, and previ-

ously unthinkable visions of reality are becoming thinkable. Skip

Atwater's book plays an important role in the jigsaw puzzle strug-
gling to take shape, and it serves as a powerful indicator of how
closewe are to a radical shift in our understanding of who and
what we are. The fact is that not long ago, while the scientific
mainstream was busy ridiculing the mere possibility of remote
viewing, Captain Atwater and others were actively using it in

highly classified intelligence gathering programs.

I was one of a few scientists who were quietly working on the
research side of those secret programs, trying to understand the
basic phenomena and to find ways of improving them. It was an
enormously stimulating job. We regularly observed so-called
"impossible" psychic phenomena under rigorously controlled labo-
ratory conditions, but unfortunately, because the program was
classified, we could not discuss our results openly. As a result, I was
sometimes amused but more often frustrated when dealing with
skeptics who vigorously argued that the phenomena we were
studying on a daily basis didn't exist. For many years, my colleagues
and I had to wait quietly on the sidelines, knowing that some day
the world, or at least a subset of confirmed skeptics, was in for a big
shock. They would learn that human beings were capable of far, far
more than science textbooks admitted.
I looked forward to the day when the existence of the classified
remote -viewing programs would be formally acknowledged,
because I knew that this revelation would slowly stimulate a seri-

ous reconsideration of our assumptions about what human beings

are, and what we are capable of As it turned out, I only had to wait
about ten years.
Now we are beginning to read the personal accounts of indi-
viduals involved in the U.S. government's remote -viewing efforts.
We'll eventually see similar books published by individuals who
were our research and operations counterparts from other coun-
tries. The existence of these books is one reason that we're begin-
ning to see significant changes in mainstream scientific opinion

XX
 F. Holmes Atwater

about psychic phenomena. Today, only uninformed, hardcore

skeptics still argue that these effects are impossible. In contrast,
informed skeptics are reluctantly admitting that scientific studies

have confirmed the existence of "anomalous" effects that no one

can explain. In another decade or two, as more of the stories are

told, and especially as more of the scientific research is published,

the reality of these phenomena will begin to sink in. And then our
ideas about reality itself will begin to change.
Skip Atwater's book is a key chapter in this very important,

still-unfolding story. It illuminates a piece of history that until very

recently has been shrouded in mystery and intrigue. I trust you'll

be as thrilled to read it as I was.

Dean Radin, Ph.D.

Boundary Institute

xxi
 Pant One:

Child, Soldier, Counterspy

 Chapter One

The Awakening

In the spring of 1977, I was just getting started in the U.S.

Army's secret counterintelligence remote -viewing operations at

Fort Meade, Maryland. Seeking information on organizations and

techniques that could benefit our military goals, I got in touch with
The Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences. Because of the secrecy
surrounding my military mission, I could not reveal the true nature
of my inquiry at the Institute. I didn't conceal the fact that I was a
military intelligence officer but stated simply that I had read Bob
Monroe's book, Journey's Out of the Body, and was curious about his

research and facilities and whether others could be taught his

techniques. I was asked to leave a phone number. I asked to meet

and Bob Monroe. And in a day or two, much to my sur-
talk with
prise, Mr. Monroe himself called back and provided me with direc-

tions from my base of operations in the Washington, D.C., area to

Whistlefield Farm, a 432-acre estate — his Virginia home.
As I drove around the Washington, D.C., Capital Beltway, west
on Interstate 66, and south on U.S. somehow knew I was
29, I

headed for another of life's grand adventures. As I drove deeper

1
 CaptaiKi of My Ship, Master of My Soul

into the rural Virginia countryside, my thoughts drifted between

expectations and daydreams. I wondered about this man. Others
had written of their so-called out-of-body experiences, but Monroe's
work was somehow different. Monroe went beyond reporting the
trivialities of extra- corporeal visits to friends, neighbors, and distant
places in the world. He wrote of visiting other dimensions or, as he
put it, other locales —realms beyond the physical world reminis-
cent of my childhood understanding of a "spiritual" domain repre-
sentative of our true nature. Of course, such thoughts extended
beyond my official interest in Monroe and the possible application
of his techniques for military remote viewing.
The farther south I traveled on U.S. 29, the more I noticed the
oncoming spring. Trees seemed fuller, greener, and some filled with
blossoms. I stopped at a roadside fast-food restaurant for a cup of
coffee. The waitress spoke with a placid southern accent that some-
how graced the experience of springtime itself As I drove south and
west of Charlottesville, the homes changed from apartments, town-
houses, and real- estate efficient tract houses to rural single -family
dwellings surrounded by proportional parcels of open land.
Beyond these modest homes there were working farms, hay-
fields, and grazing livestock until I approached the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Here, the homes reflected an entirely different cul-
ture — or at least economic class. These Virginia estates, with their
manicured lawns and carefully landscaped properties, had their

own names. Apparently this longstanding tradition still persisted

here in rural Virginia, something I hadn't noticed along the greater
Baltimore -Washington corridor. As I whizzed by these elegant
homes at fifty-five miles an hour, I kept reviewing the driving
instructions Bob Monroe had given me and wondering what I

would when I finally reached my destination.

find
The Whistlefield Farm homestead stretched across a broad,
open meadow in a receding valley hidden in the foothills of Vir-

ginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. It was quite elegant, containing a

main house and several outbuildings, including barns for hay,
horses, and tractors, a huge, glass greenhouse, and guest quarters,
which the family referred to as the Owl House. Near the property

2
 F. Holmes Atwater

entrance was a building with the office and lab facilities for The
Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences.
When I approached the house, Nancy Monroe, Bob's wife, met
me at the door. Clearly, Nancy was a southern belle. Wearing a
beautiful print dress, tasteful jewelry, and fresh nail polish, she

exuded a gracious, ladylike manner. She spoke with a gentle,

southern accent, a leisurely segue from word to word that mysteri-

ously focused one's attention and stirred the Her fires of the soul.
eyes sparkled from within, as though an inner bright light, a know-
ingness, was somehow leaking out. With a broad smile, Nancy wel-
comed me into the house and guided me through various rooms
and out to a small patio where Mr. Monroe was waiting. This
screened'in patio area was part of the house and perhaps a step or
two below the main floor level.

Mr. Monroe, sitting on a divan in the patio, wore sweatpants,

suspenders, slippers, and a partially unbuttoned, coffee -stained
shirt. His appearance presented an interesting departure from
Nancy's. As he brushed cigarette ashes off his shirt, he looked up
and calmly said, "Well, hello." No southern accent here. No pre-
tentious social niceties either. I thought — as a first impression

that perhaps he was more interested in who he was "out-of-body"

rather than what I might think of him or how might perceive him
I

in the physical.

I introduced myself, telling him that I had read his book and was
fascinated with his work. Nancy graciously offered me some iced tea,
then withdrew quietly into the main house and left us alone to talk.
Thinking back, this was very typical and quite appropriate — for a

proper, southern lady raised in the mid-twentieth century.

Bob spoke freely and openly about his book and his personal
experiences. At times, an occasional glance from his penetrating
blue eyes seemed as though he was seeing beyond my overt mili-
tary persona and speaking directly to my soul. I felt uneasy about
this, somewhat vulnerable, as the official purpose of my visit was

considered classified.

Bob asked me to walk around outside with him in the sun-

warmed spring air so that we might enjoy the picturesque and

3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

fragrant spring blossoms. He showed me the greenhouse and the

gardens, and we eventually settled down to continue our talk on a
grassy slope near his laboratory and offices. Sitting there at the
base of a flowering fruit tree, I found myself thinking about my own
out'of'body experiences that I remembered from childhood. Bob
encouraged me to share my thoughts with him.
I started by telling Bob about my earliest remembered out-of-

body event, which had to do with the fact that I was a bed-wetter
until I old. I don't remember my parents or my
was about ten years
sisters me or teasing me about bed-wetting. They
ever ridiculing
would casually remind me to go to the bathroom before going to
bed. If I had an accident at night, I just told my mom, who would
tell me to take a shower or bath and she would change my bed or

ask me to put my bedding in the laundry so it could be washed.

Even though I was not criticized at home, there was talk at school

about bed-wetting and I knew enough to keep this bed-wetting

thing a secret.
As I grew up, I began to have fewer
and fewer bed-wetting incidents, but each
time it happened it made me angrier. I

became more and more frustrated. I didn't

like wetting my bed and I didn't like that

funny, brown, rubber mat Mom always

put under my sheets to protect the mat-
tress. One final time, I woke up wet,
yelled out in frustration, and began to cry.

Momcame running into my room

and asked what was the matter I showed
her my wet pajamas, sheets, and blankets
Skippy
and began to scream at her, "I went to
the bathroom. I went to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom."
She told me to calm down and tell her exactly what had happened.
I told her that I knew I needed to go to the bathroom and I went
in there and sat on the toilet. But when I started to pee, I woke up
in my bed and was I all wet. Standing there in my wet pajamas, my
crying subsided, only to be replaced with fitful anger.

A
 F. Holmes Atwater

Mom reached out to me and gently put her hand on my shoul-

der, smiled, and said simply, "Oh!" I wiped away my tears and
asked her what had happened to me. She said that when I went
into the bathroom I must have forgotten to take my body with me.
I asked her what she meant, and she explained that I only spend
part of the time in my body and when I had gone into the
that
bathroom I probably just went without it. Somehow, this made
sense to me and I never did wet the bed again.
Bob smiled and asked if this was the only time that I remem-
bered being out ofmy body. "No," said, and went on to tell him I

that aftermy mom had told me about being apart from my physi-
cal body when I wet my bed, I began to pay attention to what hap-

pened when I went to sleep at night. 1 noticed that I attended

some kind of "night school" with others whom I recognized. If I

didn't focus too much on this "night school," I could travel out-of-
body and go play with neighborhood friends.

When 1 got a little older, these nightly sojourns changed. I vis-

ited school friends and approached people, girls especially, outside

the confines of an adolescent social structure that severely limited
my interactions with the opposite sex.
I became particularly interested in a blue -eyed girl with curly,
auburn hair named Kathy. I found out where Kathy lived by fol-

lowing the school bus to her stop and then casually riding by on my
bike while she walked to her house. She lived farther from school
than I did but in a familiar area. At the time, I had a paper route
and delivered the town paper throughout her neighborhood.
From then on, I could always find her house when I traveled
out-of-body. Late at night, I would float in the air outside her
house and hope that she would come out. A couple of times, I

drifted through the house trying to find her. I never did.

1 went on to tell Bob that as 1 moved deeper into my teenage

years and fantasized about living apart from parental oversight, 1

began to have nocturnal out-of-body sojourns to a particular house

in a forested area. 1 explained to Bob that I would always approach
the house from an altitude and was able to see it surrounded by
trees on a forest- covered mountainside. As I swooped down to

5
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

ground level and moved closer to the front of the house, I noticed
that it had board-patterned siding (i.e., not stucco or cement
blocks) and was nestled into the woods.
Through the years, I visited this location over and over again. On
several occasions, I drifted into the house and discovered that it had
an antique 'looking desk downstairs at the foot of the staircase.

There was also a greenhouse attached to the side of the house. I

thought I saw two small sets of stairs leading to the greenhouse from
the main structure. At the time I was telling Bob of this out-of-body
experience, I didn't realize that the structure I was describing was
to become my future home, a house I would build myself.
Having taken considerable time telling Bob about these and
some other childhood out-of-body experiences, I felt I had said

enough and wanted to get on to the purpose for my visit, which,

because of military secrecy, I could not fully disclose. I started
thinking about how I could turn the conversation.
We sat in silence, which felt awkward to me, for a minute or
two. Then Bob began to explain that he had developed a sound
technology, a stimulus that allowed people to have experiences
under laboratory conditions —experiences that were similar to
what he had written about in his book and to those I had been
talking about myself. He said that many of these people could talk
about or report their experiences while they were happening.
I couldn't imagine how this could be done, given the memory of
my own childhood out-of-body experiences. I asked how it was pos-
sible, and Bob replied, "Well, kid, I guess we'll just have to show
you." And with that. Bob invited me into his laborator\' and offices.

We had not yet visited this building, and I had been wonder-
ing why he had not taken me there during our walk around the
property. As we worked our way up the slope toward the building,
I thought, "Maybe he's going to show me an out-of-body experi-
ment in progress. There must be an ongoing experiment in the lab

and he's going to let me observe."

As we entered the building, I said a polite hello to the recep-

tionist and followed Bob down a hall, passing a room with a lot of
recording equipment, switching panels, and audio-mixing boards.

6
 R Holmes Atwater

We turned into a small room with a bed. Bob told me to lie down
in the bed and he would play some sounds for me. I was startled by
his suggestion and looked quickly around the room.
It was a plain, very plain, room without windows or any regu-
lar furniture. The bed did not stick out into the room but was
seemingly built into the wall. It was recessed back into the wall sur-

face so that it did not take up any floor space in the rather small
room. I moved toward the bed and asked hesitantly, "Do you want
me to lie here?" He told me to lie down and put on the stereo
headphones that were on the pillow.

As I complied, I asked what kinds of sounds I would be hear-

ing. He said that he would first play some music for me so that I

would be comfortable. As I reclined with the headphones on, I

noticed something hanging down in front of my face. I asked what

this was. He told me not to worry about it, that it was a micro-

phone so that he would be able to hear me room

in the other

meaning, I guessed, the room with all the equipment we had

passed going down the hallway. He asked me if I was comfortable,
then turned out the lights in the room and closed the door.
Within a minute or so, I heard music through the headphones.
This wasn't music that I had heard before and I thought it rather
strange. (I learned later that the music was from a composer
named Tomida, who became well known for his baroque, new-age
music.) I relaxed a bit, and after a while the music faded into the
sound of waves crashing on the beach.
Bob, speaking through my headphones, said, "This is the
sound of surf. It represents the natural power of sound and is a
symbol here at the Institute." I liked the surf sound. It reminded
me of the beach and of happy times in California, where I grew up.
I imagined the waves crashing up on the sand and receding back
into the sea, and I thought I could even hear the popping hiss of
bubbles in the beach sand when the water receded.
The sound of the crashing waves faded, leaving a warm hiss

reminiscent of the gentle whoosh of bubbly foam as it soaks into

the beach sand. I waited, thinking there might be another wave,
and I began to experience an unusual auditory sensation, a slow.

-7
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

rhythmic pulse. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It seemed

to be in the background, behind or underneath the warm, hissing
noise. At one point, I was sure that the pulsing was actually com-
ing from inside my own head.
But I quickly forgot about the sound and my thoughts began to
drift — until I noticed that the bed seemed to be moving up toward
the ceiling. The sensation of movement was unmistakable, but I

couldn't hear the mechanism working to raise the bed. This was
really interesting.

I assumed that Mr. Monroe had control of the bed from the
room with all the equipment. I thought the mechanism must be
like the hydraulic lift that mechanics use on cars when they do an
oil change. But I still couldn't hear an air compressor or any other
mechanical noise. I wondered how such a device could have been
installed at a private residence and thought maybe someday I

could have such a device in my garage. As these random thoughts

dissipated, I discovered that I was traveling.

My kinesthetic sense of motion (like the feeling you get when

flying in an airplane) was accompanied by a strange visual percep-

tion. I seemed to be moving through a white tube or tunnel, its

walls lined with crystalline forms. My impression was that I must

have been flying down the middle of a Flavor Straw. ^
I was going
quite fast. In Star Trek terms, I would estimate my speed at about
warp seven.
Bob's voice came to me over the earphones. "What's happening?"
"I seem to be going somewhere."
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know."
By this time, I had forgotten all about the room and the strange
bed. My journey through this passageway continued for what seemed
to be a long while. Eventually, I sensed that I was coming to the end
of the Flavor Straw and I arched my back, following the upswing
curve of the tube. Above me, I could see a vast, open, white area.

! remembered Flavor Straws from when I was a kid. They were straws with fla-

vored sugar crystals inside, which flavored the milk, water, or whatever I had.

a
 F. Holmes Atwater

Just as I began to exit the tube, my perspective switched, and

suddenly I was standing in the boundless white space watching
myself emerge from the end of the Flavor Straw. At almost the
same moment, knowingness, a revelation, filled my mind. I had
come all this way, only to discover that I was already there.
Realizing this, I must have exclaimed, "OhI" or something sim-
ilar, because Bob immediately spoke to me through my head-
phones, asking, "What happened?" His voice startled me. I had
forgotten all about him. For a moment, I thought he must be in
this white space with me somewhere. I regained my composure and
answered by saying, "I'll have to tell you later."

I explored this white space for some time, but today I do not
consciously remember much of what I found there. I am sure it was
meaningful in some way, but I cannot recall the particulars.

Bob startled me again. He said that it was time to get some

lunch and that we should finish up. The very concept of lunch
seemed strange to me in the vast white space. But then he changed
the sound patterns, and I became aware of being back in the room
in the building in the Virginia countryside. I felt myselt, or perhaps

the bed, being lowered back down. Again, the sense of motion was
obvious, but it was very gentle, and I couldn't perceive any
mechanical noise or vibration. I wondered how a hydraulic lift

could be so smooth.
The lights came on in the room and I felt disoriented. For a
moment, I couldn't quite figure out where I was.Then Bob came
into the room and started urging me to get up and move out into
the sunshine. I sat up, turned, swung my legs over the edge of the
bed, and rested my feet on the floor. I bent over and raised the
blanket that was draped over the edge of the bed and looked under
the bed. There was no lift mechanism, just a floor. The bed frame
was actually rather crudely built out of two-by-four framing lumber
and a sheet of plywood.
Seeing me bent over, Bob asked if I had dropped my wallet or
watch on the floor. I looked up at him and told him that I hadn't.
Again, he urged me to stand and walk outside. As we went down
the hall toward the exit, he kept asking me what I wanted to eat

9
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

for lunch. At the time, his voice seemed loud and somewhat
annoying. I told him that it didn't matter to me. Secretly, in my
mind I was thinking that if I could get a six-pack of whatever had
happened to me, I would take that for lunch.
just

We ate at a restaurant a few miles from Whistlefield on top of

the Blue Ridge Mountains. Bob explained that I had experienced
a sound technology he had developed and patented. He called this

technology Hemi-Sync' because the two halves of the brain

worked together, or in synchrony, to enable the auditory beating or
pulsing I had experienced. He said that many people had been able
to experience a wide range of expanded states of consciousness
with this technology. When I told him about the sensation of ris-
ing up to the ceiling, he smiled and assured me that the bed did not
move. Recognizing only then what had really happened to me, I

asked if everybody had out-of-body experiences with this Hemi-

Sync sound. He said that not everybody remembers or reports such
experiences and that the Hemi-Sync sounds only encourage a
"mind awake —body asleep" state, not necessarily an out-of-body
experience. He said that the experiences people have in this state

depended on their intent and motivation and can be limited by

their fears and belief systems.

At the time, I didn t understand all he was saying and I won-

deredwhy I had floated out-of-body so easily. I asked Bob if the
Hemi-Sync sounds he had used with me in the laboratory were
special in any way. He said that the sounds weren't special and that
he suspected that I would be able to get out-of-body rather easily
based on what I had told him about my childhood experiences. He
went on, "From what you told me, you must have been in contact
with or guided by something greater than your physical body for
some time now. Surely, you have a sense of self that is greater than
your physical body? Children intuitively know this until such
awareness is subdued by social conditioning. Apparently this

knowing, this awareness, of a greater self was not discouraged dur-

ing your upbringing."

Hemi-Sync is a registered trademark of Interstate Industries, Inc.

1
 F. Holmes Atwater

I understood what Bob was talking about. We all grow up

thinking, believing, and knowing that in whatever the circum-
stance we find ourselves, it's normal. Poor folks don't think of
themselves as poor. They see themselves as normal. Children in
horribly dysfunctional families establish a comfort zone of normal-
ity in such relationships and strive to recreate similar family units

for themselves in adulthood. Heterosexuals think of themselves as

normal and measure others' lifestyles by their own reference frame.
Until some authority from outside tells us there is something
wrong, or different, or strange about our family or us, we grow up
under the illusion that we are normal.

I knew my family and myself as normal, regular just like ever>'-

body else. I still know that to be true today as a middle-aged adult.

But, in the intervening years between then and now, there were
mindful reflections, some re-membering (as in realizing wholeness
again), and this awakening out-of-body experience at thirty years

old with Bob Monroe was helpful, too.

As Bob said at lunch that day, I had a sense of self greater than
my physical body, some form of Guidance, greater than my physi-
cal, ego -centered self. But just what is this thing called Guidance
anyway?
It seems to me that we use the word Guidance as a convenient
way to express a notion that is perhaps somewhat beyond a com-
prehensive, verbal explanation. The term Guidance seems to con-

vey the notion that something outside of ourselves is providing sage

advice. But let's not get bogged down in this quagmire, as I suspect
that Guidance is metaphoric for something else altogether.

The word trip, as in "LSD trip," says to us that one doesn't really

go anywhere yet experiences the world All That Is — differently.

This voyage, this journey through earthly life, is a real trip. So if what
we are experiencing —electromagnetic physical reality, earthly life

is actually a trip of sorts, then who, what, where, and when are we?
This question, of course, has been posed before in other words
and in other ways. But the answer is always the same. We are, have
always been, and always will be one with God. The illusion of time
and space simply provides for a sea of experience. Realizing this, it

1 1
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

is easy to see that Guidance does not come from outside us, for
there is nothing "outside" of All That Is —God. This whole notion
of my true spiritual identity has its earthly root in my "normal"
childhood, in both my family life and religious education.

For several years, the family was very active in the Unity
church. Dad helped build a new chapel, and when the construc-
tion was finished the family attended church regularly (should I

say religiously?). I went to Sunday school and learned Bible stories.

My sisters were involved with the church too. I learned later that
my parents, who were very spiritual but not particularly religious,
got the family involved with the Unity church expressly to provide
us a religious education and some exposure to organized religions.

As it turned out, the religious teachings provided a supportive

environment, a language framework in which to express and learn
things beyond the accepted boundaries of everyday life.

Throughout childhood, we had a wide range of family pets.

Dad built a barn and for a time my sister Sandy had a burro named
Eleanor for a pet. Over the years, I remember having various dogs,
cats, fish, desert turtles, and ducks.
Inevitably, animals died. When this would happen, Mom
would usually com.ment within a day or two that she had seen or
communicated with the pet that had died. Mom would casually say
something like, "I saw [name of dead pet] in the hall. He told me
that he was fine and we shouldn't worry about him anymore."
These sorts of comments fit well with the concepts being taught
every Sunday in church.
My religious education focused on the importance of a spiritual
existence beyond our perception of the physical. The church
taught that this spiritual existence was the "real" everlasting reality.

What we see around us, as our physical world, constitutes the

ephemeral and limited. The act of birth itself positions most of us
to view the apparent world through a monocle, a lens through
which only the physical world can be perceived. Death frees us
from this finite perspective.

Physical existence should not be taken lightly or thought of as

unimportant, however. Some would say that we pass from spirit or

12
 F. Holmes Atwater

the spiritual realm into the physical at birth and conversely pass
from the physical world into spirit at death. However, I was taught,
and it is my own experience, that we never pass from the spirit. We
are always spiritual beings, even when having a physical experi-

ence. Our spiritual selves experience what we experience in the

physical world. The Sunday school teachings sought to encourage

orienting one's perspective from the spiritual and, therefore, seeing
the physical world through spiritual eyes, so to speak.
The family listened to Mom report meetings with dead pets
and, later, dead grandparents. This all seemed \ er>' reasonable to
me, given my formal religious education. But at home this other
nonphysical world was not referred to as holy. There was no men-
tion of heaven or God or Christ or some other religious icon. It was
just accepted as a matter of fact that the "real" world included
more than what we could discern with our ti\ e physical senses.

As I got older, the family left the Unity church, and as I

approached my teens I was dragged along to the Science of Mind

church every Sunday. There was no more Sunday school, Bible
classes, or socializing with other kids. I usually sat through the
service politely. I wasn't particularly interested in what the minis-
ter had to say, but I did enjoy looking at all the people who showed
up. As far as I was concerned, the biggest attraction ot the Science
of Mind church was that the actor Lloyd Bridges, the star of the
Sea Hunt television series, went there. Every Sunday, I would look
for him standing around outside the church just before or after the

service. Another attraction was that we always went out to lunch

after church.
After my sisters had grown up and left home, I was an only
child and Dad's successful dental practice meant that the family
was financially secure. There was more discretionary money for
going out to eat. This was the late fifties; going out to eat was a
meaningful family experience.
One particular Sunday, during the service at the Science of
Mind church, the minister caught my ear with something he was
saying about taking personal responsibility. As I looked up at him,
I noticed what appeared to be a blue light-bubble surrounding his

13
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

head and shoulders. This was not a spotlight; as he leaned or

moved slightly to the right or left the bubble seemed to follow him.
I watched this "light" for several minutes until I turned to my
mom and asked, "What that blue light around the minister?"
is

Mom whispered to me, "That's called his aura. Til tell you about it

at lunch. You can pick the restaurant today." She raised her index
finger to her lips and whispered, "Be quiet for now so that every-
body can hear what he is saying." I looked back at the minister and
watched the blue bubble for the rest of the service.

And lunch? I don't remember where we went or if Mom told

me anything about the minister's aura. What I do remember, look-
ing back fifty years, is that such subjects were addressed casually,
as if to communicate, "Everybody knows that." Such an attitude
left no reason to question or to doubt the veracity of such parental
guidance.
There was something else, too. The church- oriented religious

education of my youth seemed to focus on a spiritual aspect of us,

usually talked about relative to a life -after- death existence, and a

physical aspect involved with life, as we know it here on Earth.
The doctrine of the church did not emphasize a distinction
between these two expressions, but, as a practical matter, the
church teachings did. At home, there was less separation between
these two perspectives. Expectation and realization of a whole
being came from a family life, a behavior, treatment of one anoth-
er, conversations, and an identification with a spiritual self who
was, as the expression goes, in this world but not of it.

The teachings of the church would lead one to believe that we

are physical creatures that have a soul or a spirit and that these
aspects of self are somehow separate. At home, we were taught to
realize (to make real) that we are always and always will be spirit
and sometimes have physical experiences. These physical experi-
ences never disconnect us from who we really are. Of course, when
I was ten or twelve years old, I didn't understand all this. I thought
my parents were really dumb and old-fashioned.
Relatives and close friends of my parents spoke of spiritual
things as well. My father was raised as a Christian Scientist, and so

14
 F. Holmes Atwater

the concept that healing was connected to the greater spiritual

reality beyond the physical filtered into family thinking. my
Oddly,
father, his father, and his grandfather were all dentists. And I

remember going to doctors and getting medical treatment. I don't

remember any talk about spiritual healing. I think behavior spoke
of healing (and perhaps getting injured or getting sick in the first

place) as being a personal responsibility.

Recently, a friend of the family for more than fift>^ years said

that the one thing she remembered was my mother healing the
burned hands of our housekeeper. As the story goes, our house-
keeper burned her hands in a stove accident and yelled to my
mother, "Mrs. Atwater, Mrs. Atwater, come help me! Please come
help me!" Mom came immediately and calmly held the house-
keeper's hands in her own until the pain disappeared. From that
day forward, the housekeeper told everybody how Mrs. Atwater
had healed her hands. I was just a toddler at the time.

Until recently, neither my sister nor I recalled this stor>' that

was so clear in the memory of our family friend. But such things
were just normal around our house. I grew up seeing miracles as

normal, regular, and happening to us just like ever^'body else. I tell

people I grew up in a metaphysical or metaphysically oriented fam-

ily.Some people say, "Oh," or, "Isn't that wonderful." Others ask,
"What do you mean.^" And to them, reply with memories and lit- I

tle stories, like the following, of my "normal" childhood.

One of my childhood chores was trimming the ivy that cas-

caded over a rock wall bordering the driveway. I remember clearly
one particular Saturday when I wanted to play with my neighbor-
hood friend, Mike. Before I could go play, I had to finish cutting
back the ivy.

On this particular Saturday, my forearms broke out in a rash as

I worked on the I showed my dad and told him that I couldn't
ivy.

cut the ivy. He me straight out that I had done this to myself
told
because I wanted so much to go play with Mike. "Who, me, Dad?
No, really, I want to finish my chores, but can't," was my retort. I

Calmly, without a change in facial expression, he told me to go

in the house and tell Mom what had happened. I found Mom and

15
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

showed her my arms. She asked what had happened and I told her,

"My arms broke out in a rash while I was cutting the ivy because I

want to go down to Mike's house." Oops! I waited to see if she had

heard what I said.

She asked if my arms had ever done this before when I cut the
ivy. I answered, "No, never." She told me to wash up with soap and
water and go back outside. When I got back outside. Dad was
trimming back the ivy.

I said, "I'll do that; it's my chore."

He said, "Not today. Today you had better go see Mike. The
ivy will grow back and you can trim it when it does. Today with
Mike will never come again." And with that bit of wisdom, he sent
me off to play. Dad was right. The ivy did grow back, and I

trimmed it many times after that one Saturday. I don't remember

what happened to the rash on my arms, but I'll bet it didn't both-

er me at all while I was playing with Mike.

As a child, what I took away from such family experiences was
that you might go to a doctor to set a broken leg or repair an inter-
nal organ but healing —whatever that was —became the responsi-
bility of one's true spiritual identit>^
Another example of the "normalcy" of my upbringing took
place on the first days of kindergarten. Mom made a point of
showing me that parents brought kids to school and picked them
up in cars that were different than ours. We had an Oldsmobile
station wagon, circa mid-1950s. The Oldsmobile had a distinctive,
exterior visor over the windshield. This was in the days before tint-

ed glass. My mother's point was to ensure that I didn't get into the
wrong car and get kidnapped or something.
I recall this car so distinctively because one day when Mom
picked me up from kindergarten, she made a U-turn from the curb
in front of the school. I went flying out of the door, propelled by
the centrifugal force of the turning car. Cars didn't have seat belts
back then and the passenger side door had not closed properly. I

remember looking desperately into Mom's eyes as I flew out of the

car. I somehow never hit the ground, though. I remained suspend-
ed in midair until Mom stopped the car, and I then gently floated

1B
 F. Holmes Atwater

back into my seat. She asked if I was okay and remarked that we
should be more careful. At the time, it didn't occur to me to ques-

tion why I had not been hurt. And neither Worn nor I thought
anything strange of my momentar\' suspended state.

Throughout her lite, Mom would occasionally say, "You \vi\\

always be taken care of" She never mentioned who would be doing
this, although today I think she must have been referring to my
true spiritual identity. I suppose the kindergarten suspended-in-
midair incident must be the earliest memory- I have of the validity

of her prophetic reminder.

When I was older, my sister told me that Mom always talked
about herself and her high school girlfriends practicing levitation
in the school g\'m. Mom said that she and her friends would stand
around in a circle, and the person in the center ot the circle would
lie on the floor The rest of them would "imagine her being lifted

into the air," and she would be.

As a teenager, I became more than just interested in cars. My

first car, a 1940 Chevy coupe, was given to me on my sixteenth
birthday. I eventually sold the Chex^ coupe for sevent>'-five dollars

and bought my Uncle Willie's 1954 Ford sedan for one hundred
dollars. Uncle Gene gave me an old 292'Thunderbird engine, and
I went to work building a muscle car. I had the 292 punched out
to three hundred cubic inches, installed new pistons, a three-
quarters-race camshaft, dual four-barrel carburetors, dual exhaust,
an aluminum fl\^vheel, and a three -speed manual transmission
with a hea\7-dut>' clutch.
I was seriously ready for San Fernando Boulevard in 1964.
Within two years, I went through twenrs'- seven transmissions by
dumping the clutch. I could get used transmissions at the junk-
yard for about twenty- dollars. It got to the point where I could
change out the transmission in that car in less than thirt>' min-
utes, and I never missed a Saturday night. I eventually went to a
Muncie four- speed with Hurst linkage, which resolved the trans-
mission replacement problem.
The point here is that throughout all this I became aware that
I had an uncanny ability- with mechanical things. All I had to do

1 V
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

was just think about or focus my attention on the car and I would
be able to see inside it. The first time this happened was with the
U'joint on the 1940 Chevy. I could see worn or broken parts,
movement, oil flowing, etc. I began to believe that when people
took their cars to a mechanic, the mechanic was skilled in doing
what seemed to come natural to me. I soon learned this wasn't true

at all. Most mechanics did not have this ability.

Ten years hence, scientists would come to call this process
remote viewingy a perceptual technique based on an innate human
ability to mentally perceive and describe things separated or
blocked by distance, shielding, or even time. That brings me back
to my visit with Bob Monroe and that point in my military career
when I was involved with remote viewing. What spiritual forces
had guided me to this point in time? Had this divine intercession

been limited to my childhood or had it always been with me, hid-

den in the shadows of my everyday life?
 Chapter Two

Special Agent

At the end of the first semester o\ niv third vear m colles^e, the
draft board discovered that I had not been attendins;^ classes.

"Greetings," the first Une ot the dratt notice read. I u a^ ordered to

appear for a physical exam to ensure mv eliL;ibilirv tor inilitan'

service.

What a load ot crap! I had just been ottered a promotion at

work. Well, there was only one thin^ to do it I was going to a\'oid

the draft. I needed to j(Mn the army. (Wait a minute I Who came
up with that? Another expression ot Guidance.')

That very day, I walked into the army recruiting office and
asked about joining up. The sergeant, a tall Adonis in uniform,

explained to me that there were a number ot excellent jobs and

outstanding opportunities within the army and that if I was quali-
fied I could select a position for which I would be trained and
eventually serve. The easiest positions to get were the ones with
the most vacancies, the ones the army needed the most, e.g.,

medics and infantrymen —who would most certainly be sent

immediately to Vietnam.

1 3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

An incredible calmness came over me as picked up one of the I

small booklets from the display rack. On the back cover in bold,
blue letters, centered below an official-looking golden insignia
were the words "Army Intelligence." Below these words, it simply
said in small-font, black type, "for those who are qualified."
Without looking at the pages in the booklet, I showed the back
cover to the recruiting sergeant and asked, "What about this?"

The sergeant replied by asking me how old I was, had I been to col-
lege, and had I ever been in trouble with the law. I explained that
I had two years of college and had never been arrested. He told me
that, due to army regulations, he couldn't interview me for a posi-
tion with Army Intelligence but that he could set up an appoint-
ment for me if I was interested.
Looking the poster-boy recruiting sergeant straight in the eye
and pointing to the back cover of the booklet, I spoke softly, as if

I were repeating words being whispered somehow directly into my

mind about a course of action perhaps charted long ago, "This is
what I am here for." And with that one utterance, my childhood
was over, a youth that had been filled with "normal" experiences,
psychic and spiritual realities I did not yet appreciate.
I joined the U.S. Army on the delayed- entry program, to delay

my army training cycle so that I would be twenty- one when I grad-

uated from Advanced Individual Training, or AIT. The minimum
age requirement for training to become a counterintelligence spe-
cial agent was twenty- one.
Before I left for basic training in February 1968, 1 had what was
probably my first adult conversation with my mother. Sitting at the
round, oak table in the kitchen, I told Mom that I was having sec-
ond thoughts about joining the army because I didn't think I could
actually shoot anyone. Without bringing up moral issues of killing.
Mom told me that in life I would be presented with many circum-
stances that would temper my soul and that if shooting someone
was not in my best interests such a circumstance would not
emerge. It never did. Oh . . . she also reminded me once again that
I would always be taken care of
On a different note, the last thing the recruiting sergeant said

2Q
 F. Holmes Atwater

to me before I left for basic training was helpful to me over the next
two months and, as it turned out, over the rest of my entire mili-
tary career. This veteran sergeant told me that basic training was
all about learning what it was like to be a soldier and that I would
never forget the experience. These were important words for me
before I entered the elite intelligence community. Whatever I did
in the intelligence field, it was important to remember the intensity',

the devotion of the combat soldier. Perhaps this well- seasoned

recruiting sergeant was divinely guided to touch base with me in

this way just at this moment in my life.

Basic Training

On February 14, 1968, 1 became Private Frederick H. Atwater

and I raised my right hand in an oath of allegiance to America and
a promise to obey the orders ot mv military- superiors. boarded I a

bus in downtown Los Angeles bound tor Fort Ord, California

and the next twenty years of my life.

This was the Vietnam era, and the drill sergeants at Fort Ord
were hardened combat veterans. The lieutenants, on the other
hand, had been in the army all day lorig and offered little leadership
for the new recruits. They looked good though, in their starched

uniforms and shiny black helmet liners. I quickly recognized basic

training for what it was. My reaction (as in "perform an act that had
served me well before") to the trials and tribulations of basic train-

ing was to become invisible, and the first confirmation of the ad\'an-
tages of invisibility happened within hours of arrival at Fort Ord.
A drill sergeant in a freshly starched uniform, highly polished
boots, and wearing a Smokey- the -Bear hat strutted into the bar-
racks and demanded to know if any of the new recruits had a
license to drive. He said that he needed at least two privates for

special duty. Several lanky kids raised their hands and were subse-
quently instructed to step forward. Standing with his hands on his
hips, the drill sergeant looked over the group of recruits who, hav-
ing just had all their hair cut off, were no longer seen by him as

individuals but as soldiers. He picked out four qualified volunteers

21
 Captain of My Ship, /VUster of My Soul

(they had raised their hands) and ordered them to get brooms out
of the closet and drive them around the floor of the barracks.
From my invisible venue, basic training was relatively unevent-
ful Early-morning physical training, called PT, was accompanied
by the compulsory- dirge, "More PT, drill sergeanti" Each day's

training —
became a simple routine well, almost ever\' day's train-
ing. It seemed Guidance was once again with me. But there were
some trying times.
The visit to the gas chamber scared the shit out of everyone.
Once your training company had "done the gas chamber," you were
considered an authority^ on such life -and- death matters. There
were always stories about the gas chamber shared bv brave sur-
vivors. A couple of days before we went into the gas chamber, a sol-

dier in the company in the barracks next door yelled out his window
that they had just done the gas chamber and that only three people
in the whole company had died. Keep in mind that nobody reallv

dies m the gas chamber; they only wish they could to escape the
misery. But naive kids becoming soldiers don't find this out until

they too have done the gas chamber. There is nothing like an expe-
rience of CS gas to convince everyone to treasure a gas mask.
For me, the most meaningful part of the whole basic training
experience actually happened after I graduated. Shortly before
graduation, I was hospitalized with a URI, the ER\i-\ (Easily

Remembered Military Acromm) for an upper respiratory infec-

tion, otherwise known as pneumonia (a rather pejorative medical
expression the army didn't like to use). Because of this, I was
unable to proceed on my travel orders to AIT at Fort Holibird,
Maryland, the army's intelligence training center.
I was placed in what was known as holdover status for several

weeks. During this time, I was an asset of the same training com-
pany —B Company, First Battalion, First Brigade — that had been
the home of my fellow basic trainees. Except for me, all of my com-
patriots had moved on to their respective AIT schools.
This proved to be a beneficial experience, which I now see as
having been guided. A new group of recruits arrived in the company
and I became an assistant to the drill instructor. I was no longer

22
 F. Holmes Atwater

addressed like the other recruits as "trainee" but as "Private Atwa-

ter." The new recruits looked to me for assistance and some assur-

ance that they would survive basic training. I showed them how to

roll their socks, set up their footlockers, and make their beds com-
pliant with the drill sergeant's standards (so tight that a quarter

would bounce off the wool blanket).

As the days of my holdover status at Fort Ord turned into
weeks, I occasionally visited with the clerks, soldiers like myself,
who worked in the orderly room and asked it there was any word
on my reassignment orders. There never was. I eventually request-
ed to speak to the first sergeant, a pock-taced X'ictnam veteran
with a know-it-all attitude when it came to privates. I asked him
what had been done to find out about my orders. He said, withtuir

the slightest lilt in his voice, "Nothing, nothing at all."

He went on to tell me that his office's only responsibility was

the earlier paperwork associated \\ irh nn bcmL: in rhc hospital. 1

asked him if there was anything I could do tind out .ibout iny

orders. He told me the only thing 1 was supposed to do was to wait

. . . to wait for the army. Although he didn't laugh out loud, I sus-

pect that I was the brunt of his NCO-Club jokes over a beer or two
later that evening.

When the first sergeant dismissed mc, I realized that mv ques-

tioning the first sergeant had been prompted by divine Guidance.
Being who he was, the first sergeant didn't recognize this and
thought he was just talking to Private Atwater. Respecting his per-

spective, I could see he was right. There was little that Private
Atwater could do in this situation. But deep inside, beyond the
limitations of my lowly militar>' rank, I knew there was much that
could be done.
One Thursday meaning, I was instructed to escort a newly
assigned recruit to an office in another area of Fort Ord for a

scheduled appointment of some kind. I was to wait for the recruit

and escort him back to the company area when he was through.
When I was assigned this duty, I remembered that before I left

home for basic training, the army intelligence people in Los Ange-
les gave me their office telephone number to call should I have any

23
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

questions. So while the recruit was busy with his appointment, I

found a payphone and called that number. I explained that I had

been in the hospital when my class graduated from basic training
and that my assignment orders to Fort Holibird had been canceled
or "returned," as the clerk in the orderly room had said.

The army intelligence people seemed to feel that my orders

shouldn't have been canceled and that the basic training company
should have sent me on my way when I got out of the hospital.
They gave me a telephone number in the Pentagon and told me to

ask for the sergeant major (I forget his name) who was in charge of

assignments for all enlisted personnel in Army Intelligence. I was

to explain what had happened and ask what I should do.
The minute I hung up the phone, I placed a call to the Penta-
gon number and asked to speak to the sergeant major. Very polite-
ly, knowing that he probably didn't get many calls from privates, I

introduced myself as Private Atwater calling from Fort Ord, Cali-

fornia. The sergeant major replied, "Yes, Private Atwater, what can
I do for you?"

A bit startled by the seemingly warm response, I described my

situation and told him that the Los Angeles office had suggested
that I call. He said, "You did the right thing, Private." He asked me
to confirm that I had completed basic training and I assured him
that I had, reiterating that my present job was an assistant drill

instructor. He then asked me my name for him and

to spell him tell

my service number. I complied. He put me on hold for three or four

minutes, then came back on the line.

"I have your file here, Private Atwater," he said. "We'd better
get you on to Fort Holibird as soon as possible." He told me to
return to my company as instructed; he would see what he could
do from He ended by saying, "Thank you for calling me,
his end.

Private Atwater."
Well, that put a smile on my face. I found the recruit I had
been escorting and marched him back to the company area. By the
time we got back to the company, the morning was gone. Drill ser-
geants in their starched fatigues were outside the mess hall, harass-
ing the usual line of haggard and hungry trainees before lunch. I

24
 F. Holmes Atwater

delivered the recruit to his platoon and went into the mess hall to
get some chow.
I had just finished eating when the company clerk came
through the door and said loudly, "Private Atwater, the company
commander wants to see you right now!" I asked if he knew why
and he said, "You know why. Just get into the orderly room right
now." Everybody around me turned and gave me one ot those

you're 'in-trouble -now kind of looks. Confident that Guidance

had been working in my favor, I headed for the commander's
office.

As I walked into the orderly room, the nervous clerks looked

up from their desks. Their eyes followed me as I approached the
first sergeant. The first sergeant's eyes met mine and before I could
utter an official- sounding "Reporting as ordered. First Sergeant,"
he told me to take a seat and that the company commander would
see me in a minute.

Just as I sat down, the commander came out of his office and
headed directly for the first sergeant's desk. Before the captain

could speak, the first sergeant gestured toward me and I stood to

attention just as the captain's eyes met mine. "Oh, Private Atwa-
ter, come into my office," he said as he executed a military about-
face and walked quickly back through his door and stepped
behind his desk. Remembering my best militar>' etiquette, I
glanced at the first sergeant and marched courteously into the
captain's office.

Just as he sat in his chair and glanced up at me, I stood at

attention in front of his desk, saluted, and said, "Private Atwater
reporting, Sir." He returned the salute, ordered me to stand at ease,
and said (I think in one big breath), "Atwater, I just got a call from
battalion headquarters. They said someone in the Pentagon wants
you on an airplane to Fort Holibird tomorrow. You will be on that
plane, Atwater. It is my job to see that happens. Pack your things
and the first sergeant will drive you to the airport at 0530 hours
tomorrow morning. Do you understand. Private?"
"Yes, Sir."

"Dismissed," he barked. I came to attention, saluted, executed

25
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

an about-face, and marched out of his office. With each step I

knew that I was not alone in moving into the next adventure of
life. As my mom had said, I would always be taken care of There

was something more to all this than was apparent to my so-called

five senses at the time. Bob Monroe would ask me years later,
"Surely, you have a sense of self that is greater than your physical
body?"

Becoming a Special Agent

I flew into Washington National Airport and checked with the
military liaison there about getting to Fort Holibird. As it turned
out, there was an army shuttle bus that went directly from the air-

port to the base. I arrived at my new post late on Friday afternoon.

The staff was very well organized, and I was assigned a barracks
based on a class cycle. Because this was 1968 in the midst of the

Vietnam War, the intelligence school ran classes through as fast as

they could, and I joined a class group starting the following Monday.
Many, if not all, experiences at Fort Holibird must have been
the result of divine Guidance. Such experiences were to have a
profound effect on my course in life. I was, unknowingly, being
equipped to deal with future situations in life from a perspective of
confidence and knowledge.
Classes at Fort Holibird consisted of about thirty soldiers, most
of whom were privates. Some specialists and sergeants who were
transferring into intelligence from another military occupational
specialty were sometimes included. The ranking soldier became
class leader. I immediately noticed the caliber of my classmates.
People from all walks of life went through basic training. But at the
Army Intelligence School, the general population was carefully
screened. I learned later that, for the most part, loyalty, integrity,
discretion, morals, and character were apt descriptors for all of us

who aspired to be U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agents.

Back in that era, a special agent was trained in several aspects
of physical security, document security (techniques for the pro-
tection of classified material), and personnel security, which

2B
 F. Holmes Atwoter

amounted to controlling who had access to sensitive material.

The duties of the special agent included a wide range of counter-
intelligence activities, including the conduct of personnel back-
ground investigations, security inspections and surveys,
counterespionage and counter- sabotage investigations and activi-
ties — and, in Vietnam, battlefield counterintelligence measures.
The intelligence school had three months to prepare us for

entry into this eUte world of intelligence operatives. I thought the

school did a great job, considering the demands of Vietnam for

qualified soldiers of all specialties. I especially appreciated the

methods used to teach us how to interview character reterences tor

those requiring background checks for security- clearances. I never

guessed, though, that these techniques would become useful years
in the future when I would be working with remote viewers, and
later with out-of-body voyagers at The Monroe Institute.

The Fort Holibird intelligence school employed actors to play

various characters typified over the years as the usual kind of peo-
ple one may encounter during the conduct of background investi-

gations. On stage in front of our classmates, we interviewed "Mr.

Jones" about "Johnny Smith" who had recentk' joined the army.
Mr. Jones played a neighbor, ex-employer, or perhaps a high school
teacher or college professor who had some knowledge of the sup-
posed subject of a background investigation.
The actors helped the students along when they needed it and
gave them a hard time when a point was to be made. As this was
done on stage in front of our classmates, it provided some per-
formance anxiety but also allowed classmates to learn along with

the one on stage.

As an example of a learning point, one of the last items to be

covered in a background interview is to obtain a recommendation
from the interviewee. If we asked the actor, "Would you recom-
mend Johnny Smith for a position of trust and responsibility with
the army?" the actor would reply, "Well, if anybody asked me, I

might." As a student, the first time we heard this rejoinder we were

puzzled. But we all soon learned that there was one, and only one,
correct way to ask the original question. The special agent must

27
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

ask, "Do you recommend Johnny Smith for a position of trust and
responsibility with the army?"

Another questioning technique the actors taught was not to

ask multiple -choice or double questions that would suggest an
answer. For example, asking something like, "Did Johnny ever get
into trouble with the police, or was he a pretty good kid?" would
be inappropriate. The actors would simply answer back, "Yes."

Sitting there red-faced on stage in front of our classmates, we

suddenly realized that either Johnny had been in trouble with the
police or perhaps not. We
know from the actor's answer. If
didn't

this was the first time in the hot seat, we were likely to get our-

selves in more trouble by asking, "What kind of trouble did he

have with the police?" to which the actor would reply, "I don't

know. I didn't say that he did."

Confident that we'd figured out the situation, we would con-
tinue, "Well, would you say then that he was a pretty good kid?" "I

might," the actor would retort, "if anybody would ask me." So
there we were, special agents in training, embarrassed in front of
our classmates and reduced once again to asking what we should
have in the first place, "Did Johnny ever get into trouble with the
police?" "No." "Do you consider Johnny to be a pretty good kid?"
"Yes." And so on . . .

I admit that I played these games with my kids as they were

growing up. I hope they learned to think before opening their
mouths as I did back so many years ago. These same skills would
prove valuable to me far beyond the confines of my job as a coun-
terintelligence special agent.

One particular event, in retrospect, revealed that I was indeed on

the right course, following Guidance. We were about two weeks from
graduation and we had begun to review what we had learned. We
now had an overall picture in our minds of the scope and duties of
the counterintelligence special agent of the late 1960s, which includ-
ed physical security, document security, and personnel security.

From this perspective, I stood up in class one day and asked

about the television pictures taken from space of the surface of the
moon, pictures that I had seen on the nightly news broadcast.

SB
 F. Holmes Atwater

Specifically, I asked if such cameras were in Earth orbit taking pic-

tures of the surface of the Earth, and if they were, what were we as

counterinteUigence specialists to do to guard against hostile

exploitation of such pictures? It seemed obvious to me that infor-
mation from such pictures would be of immense intelligence value,
and nothing had been said in class so far about this threat.

A hush filled the classroom as I finished my question. The

instructor that day, a young captain, looked me square in the eyes

and said in a stern voice, "Private Atwater, sit down. Do not dis-
cuss or ask such questions ever again. The purpose ot this class is

to review the material covered in this course. Do you understand.'"

"Yes, Sir," I answered, and sat down.
When the class was dismissed, the instructor told me to remain
in the classroom for a few minutes. I thought that 1 was in trouble

for insubordination because I had asked a question not co\'ered in

his lesson plan. Once he and were I ak)nc in the classroom, he tt^ld

me that the subject I had asked about was a form of special intel-
ligence so highly classified that it was actually illegal to discuss it

in the school building. I was told that since I didn't ha\'e the nec-

essary security clearances or an appropriate need to know, I should

avoid discussing the subject.
I asked when such discussions might be appropriate, and he
told me that conceivably during my career as a special agent I

would get an assignment where I would he invoK'ed with this kind

of work. He reminded me not to discuss "the subject" again and
dismissed me. But this same inquisitive nature concerning extraor-
dinary intelligence -collection methods would lead me later in life

into the world of military remote viewing.

First Assignment
As young privates, and some seasoned sergeants, about ready
to graduate from AIT, we wondered if we too would be sent to
Vietnam when we became special agents for what was then called
the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency. Classes graduated every week
and it seemed to us that about half the classes were sent directly to

23
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Vietnam and the other half got assigned various places around the
world. One good friend was assigned to Pasadena, California, his

hometown. I envied him and his assignment. I too would have

liked to have been assigned back to my hometown for the duration
of my enlistment. After all, the only thing I thought I knew was
that I had joined the army to avoid getting drafted and sent to

Vietnam.
Wrapped up in the intensity of the moment, I forgot (lost con-
sciousness of the fact) that, as my mother had said so long ago, I
would always be taken care of. When my assignment orders came
through, they were not for Vietnam but another exotic land called
Alabama.
Alabama in 1968 was a strange place for a boy raised in the
1950s and 1960s in white, upper-middle- class Glendale, Califor-
nia. This was the land of the burgeoning movement and
civil rights

marches on Washington, D.C., and some guy named Martin

Luther King, Jr. On the brighter side, it wasn't Vietnam.
Fort McClellan —and Anniston, Alabama—turned out to be a
blessing. I was on course. Guidance was with me. I met my first wife,

Joan, a clerk in the Women's Army Corp. (Women had not yet been
integrated into the "regular" army.) Joan grew up in a military fam-
ily, her father being in the Air Force, and had three brothers who
were also in the service. My beautiful bride and I wed in the post

chapel in a small ceremony attended by our friends from Fort

McClellan but without our families. Our loving marriage thrived for
twenty years and was blessed with three wonderful children. Some-
times, very little beyond my wife and family seemed important, but
in the larger scheme of things I knew there was more.
As a counterintelligence special agent in Alabama, I discovered
through experience how to conduct investigations, research and
cite army security regulations, participate in a bureaucracy, talk to
and elicit information from people, and work in an office environ-
ment with others. But I soon found I was being ever so gently com-
pelled by a spiritual wisdom from within to proceed on course.
I was involved in two fender-bender car accidents in my
assigned government vehicle at Fort McClellan. Perhaps they were

3Q
 F. Holmes Atwater

not accidents as such but incidents manifested by spirit for a greater

cause. My administrative punishment for being invoh-ed in these
accidents in a government vehicle was office dut>' for two weeks.
For several days, I worked the Teletype machine, which was
high-class rapid electronic communications for the late 1960s, in the

headquarters building. One day, a notice came in requesting names

of special agents interested in training to be electronic -surveillance
technicians. 1 immediately returned the message, pressing the Send
key and providing the name Corporal Frederick H. Atwater
Several days later, a similar request for names ot special agents

came over the Teletype. This time they wanted volunteers for lan-
guage school. Acceptance for language training would require
worldwide reassignment based on '*the needs of the army" for foreign-

language -speaking counterintelligence agents. 1 pressed the Send

key again and volunteered for Spanish language training. Within
a month, 1 got orders to begin training on m\ first request as an
electronic-surveillance technician. Language training would tollow.

Back to School
Right after getting married, I left Fort McClcllan tor Redstone
Arsenal, Alabama, for training in basic electronics, the tirst phase
of my training in electronic surveillance. Joan left the ser\'ice and
joined me at Redstone Arsenal about a month after the wedding.
(In the 1960s, women could be released trom military service when
they married.) While at Redstone, 1 got my first real promotion,
that is, based on work performance and not just on length of serv-
ice or attendance at school. 1 was now Sergeant Atwater.
Before we were to leave Redstone Arsenal to continue my
training in electronic surveillance, I received orders to attend
Spanish language school in Washington, D.C., upon completion of
my training in electronic surveillance. After language school, 1 was
to be assigned to the 470th Military' Intelligence Group in the
Panama Canal Zone.
We left Redstone Arsenal for Fort Holibird, Mar>'land, for
technical intelligence training in electronic surveillance, and Joan

31
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

found a job at a comer eatery near the fort. We lived in the rent-

ed upstairs rooms of a house near a steel mill in Sparrows Point,

Maryland. Joan was soon pregnant with my first Somewhere
son.

around this same time, I saw man's first walk on the moon on a
ten-inch, black-and-white portable television that had been a
high- school graduation present from my parents. When I finished
my electronic surveillance courses, we moved to Alexandria, Vir-

ginia, for six months of Spanish language training.

So for six hours a day, two other special agents and Joan and I

attended language school in Alexandria. (Spouses of service mem-

bers were encouraged to attend, for free, to support the learning
environment.) This was a very difficult time for me. It was ver>^

hard for me to learn a foreign language. Military and government

language schools immersed students in a foreign language envi-
ronment six hours a day. In this case, the Spanish instructor didn't
speak any English. Joan learned her nightly dialogs easily, but it

took me hours and hours. Additionally, Washington, D.C., is a

horribly expensive place to assign a junior enlisted service member.
There was a year-long waiting list for housing, and the Spanish
language school only lasted a little over six months, so I had to get
an extra job at night as a checkout clerk at the local pharmacy so
we could pay the rent on the small apartment.
As difficult a period as this was, the Spanish that I did learn
stayed with me for life. My ability to speak Spanish has been essen-
tial to a number of my life experiences. I think there was a bigger
plan all along. When we graduated from language school, Joan's
pregnancy was nearly to term and I had to go on ahead to Panama
while she stayed with her parents in Topeka, Kansas.

Second Assignment
When the plane door opened in Panama, it seemed like I had
landed in a sauna. This was seriously different from the snowy
winter I had just experienced in Washington, D.C. The personnel
officer at the 470th MI Group, Fort Amador, Canal Zone, was
happy to see that I was not only a Spanish linguist but also an

32
 F. Holmes Atwater

electronic- surveillance technician. They were in need of a tech

specialist in their lab, and I was immediately sent to see the warrant
officer in charge. I really liked the lab environment, the people who
worked there, and the work involved. I didn't know, consciously
anyway, that nearly twenty years later I would wind up in an inter-

estingly similar lab environment at The Monroe Institute.

Because there was a six-month wait for housing in the Canal

Zone, I decided to rent an apartment in Panama City so that Joan
and my new son, Fred Jr., could join me. (I first saw my son at age
three months when Joan brought him to Panama.) At night, we
could hear gunfire in the neighborhood, and one afternoon I saw
somebody staggering down the street with a knite in his stomach.
Fortunately, we didn't have to stay in Panama City too long. About
two months after Joan and Fred Jr. arrived, we were assigned gov-

ernment housing on Fort Amador. I could easily walk to work, and

from our living room windows there was a great view of Panama
Bay. Special Agent Atwater had it made.
Life on Fort Amador with Joan, Fred, and eventually Michelle
(born in the Canal Zone) was wonderful. I had regular work hours
with a challenging and interesting job. The cost ot living was rea-
sonable for an enlisted service member. When Michelle was a lit-

tle older, we hired a housekeeper, and Joan took some college

classes and eventually was hired by U.S. Na\ v Intelligence. We
made lots of friends and socialized with other couples weekly. I

traveled occasionally to other Central American and South

American countries to check for bugging devices in various mili-

tary assistance groups or to teach, in Spanish, for the School of

the Americas. While working in the lab at the 470th, I was able
to learn intelligence photography in addition to my electronic-
surveillance certification and was awarded a notation of that spe-
cialty in my 201 File (my official personnel record).
The counterintelligence side of technical surveillance involves
guessing how a hostile intelligence service would bug or wiretap or
photograph classified discussions or material. Much of the work has
to do with physically searching, either by visual or instrumented
inspection. However, the agents' concepts of where to search and

33
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

what to look for depend on their experience, their knowledge of

the enemy's capabilities, and a great deal of intuitive insight.
I found that intuitive insight was my forte. My out-of-body
experiences as a young child and remote viewing or intuitive
insights as a teenager taught me to trust other ways of knowing.
When searching a building for a bugging device, I simply expand-
ed my awareness to include the entirety of the structure and look
for —remote view? —such a device within my very self or the
awareness of myself as the structure. I would then focus the tech-
nical resources at my disposal toward suspicious areas. If I was
concerned about photographic penetration of an office area, I

would simply visualize angles that extended beyond the confines of

target area. (Good architects can do something similar by imagin-
ing a structure from many angles, both inside and out.)
This is not as strange or difficult as it may seem. For example,
when you are walking you are aware of the sense of you as being
your physical body. When you get into a car to drive, your aware-
ness automatically expands until what you think of as you extends
from bumper to bumper. You become aware, to some extent, of this
new you quite naturally. As you move down the street with some
speed, you become aware of a zone beyond the limits of the front

bumper of the car, a sort of an out-of-car experience. Whether

around a car or a building (or ostensibly the universe) this expand-
ed awareness of you provides cognitive access to data within the
specified environs. I define this investigative form of intuitive
insight, therefore, as a simple act of self-examination. All one has
to do is expand one's awareness beyond the confines of the physi-
cal body and extend it throughout the structure under inspection.
I have also used this concept of intuitive insight as a special
agent working outside the world of technical intelligence. During
interviews and interrogations, I expanded my awareness to include
the persona of the other individual. This simple act of intimacy
makes deception very difficult because an awareness of my own
intuitive insight reveals the thoughts and feelings within the unity.
Presumably, such unity always exists. This is what we do when we
make love to one another.

3A
 F. Holmes Atwater

The words "expand awareness" are semantically burdensome

here. It is less a matter of a verb like "expand" than akin to pur-
posefully — consciously? — taking up a perspective encompassing a
greater wholeness. Once this viewpoint is realized ("real-ized," as

in made real through personal experience), knowledge of this

greater wholeness becomes available. I guess some who knew me

back then thought my ideas were weird, but I thought of myself as
a very special agent. I had a sense of myself a spiritual identity-,

that was greater than my physical body.

When my enlistment contract was up, and 1 had to decide

whether to leave the army, an assessment of my situation revealed

that I was married with two children, 1 didn't have a college

degree, and I didn't have a skill that would be marketable in the

civilian world, as far as I knew. The Army Recruiting Command

was telling me that if I reenlisted for six years, they would gi\'e me
a nine 'thousand-dollar bonus. In 1971, nine thousand dollars
sounded like a lot of money. My marriage, my tamiK , m\ work — inv

whole life —seemed to be going okay, so I reenlLsted for six vear^. It

was smooth, easy, unfettered by confusion or stress; 1 was on course.

As my assignment in Panama neared an end, the quiet voice
from within began to whisper of the adventures to come. This was
important, because one part ot me (Sergeant Atwater) had the
urge to maintain the status quo, to say to God, "Hey, stop right
here; this is great; I'll stay with this for the rest of my life." I had a

good marriage, wonderful children, good friends, and fmancial

security. I was even driving a red convertible with white -leather

seats and a white top —and it was paid for.

Life in Panama was so pleasant. But the impulse from within to

move on was greater.

Back to College
A few months after I reenlisted, the U.S. Congress passed a
new military-appropriations bill allocating funds to pay for the
higher education of military personnel. In their thinking, the vari-
ous problems of the conscription military' were due to insufficient

35
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

numbers of college -educated service members. (Somehow the

insanity of Vietnam didn't compute. Never mind.) I applied to
have the army pay my tuition and full salary for a year while I fin-

ished a baccalaureate degree. "Sure," the army said, "Congress

gave us lots of money for that." So I received reassignment orders
that gave me nine days to get out of Panama, take some holiday
leave, and matriculate at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. I

could hardly believe it. The army was all right. Of course, I was in

the intelligence community, wearing civilian clothes, and not in

Vietnam shooting at people who shoot back. The war, by the way,
was winding down by this time (1972), and it looked like I had
successfully avoided the Vietnam fiasco.

Joan, the kids, and I celebrated Thanksgiving in California

with my family and Christmas in Kansas with Joan's. We bought a
split-level, three -bedroom house in a nice neighborhood in

Omaha, and I started school at the university in January 1973. The

year in Nebraska went by quickly and effortlessly. I was on course.
1 received my college diploma before I could settle down and think
of myself as living in the Midwest. The year passed so swiftly that
it truly was just a "ticket punch" as they say. You need a college
degree? You got one.

Third Assignment

A couple of months before graduation, I received notification

that after completing the program, I was to be reassigned to South
Korea for an unaccompanied short-tour of duty.
The house we had bought for $24,000 sold for $27,500, and I
moved the family out to California and set them up in an apart-
ment near my parents. After many sorrowful good-byes and with
some trepidation, I boarded a plane and headed for Asia shortly
after Christmas. I trusted my internal wisdom. I knew I would
always be taken care of, and this was surely just another reach to
sail on the course of my life.

When I got to South Korea, I was taken to the headquarters of

the Military Intelligence Group. The first question put to me when

3B
 F. Holmes Atwater

I arrived was, "Do you plan to bring your family over?" This was
the first time such a possibility had ever been presented. Without
understanding the ramifications of my answer, I said that I didn't

think so. "In that case," said the personnel NCO (noncommis-
sioned officer), "we'll send you up to the demilitarized zone with
the Second Infantry Division. They have the highest priority' tor

available personnel right now." (Translated, that means that the

first sergeant of the intelligence unit there had been in his ottice all

day bugging him.)

Within minutes, I was sitting in a jeep with the tirst sergeant of
the Second Military Intelligence Detachment (xMlD) on mv way to

Camp Casey, South Korea. There was no consideration ot my

technical qualifications, previous assignments, or experience as a
special agent. I was simply the next warm body in countn,' and des-
tined by circumstances (so I thought at the time) to go north to
the demilitarized zone.
As we drove northward tbrough the countryside and countless
villages, the first sergeant, an overweight, worn-out soldier, spc^ke

very little. He did explain that the Second MID had its own fenced
compound on Camp Casey apart trom the rest ot the Second
Infantry Division, which was headquartered there. He spoke in a
gravely voice and told me that ho had only two months left on his

short-tour and was boking torward to getting back to "rhc world"

and his family. He hoped to retire soon.
We finally approached Camp Casey. Driving north, a wall on
the right side of the road separated the military' post from the adja-
cent village on the left. There were several gates in the wall guard-

ed by military police, both U.S. Army and South Korean. Passing

by a couple of gates, the first sergeant indicated that ours was far-

ther up the road.

Within a couple of minutes, he slowed the jeep and beeped the
horn as we turned into an opening in the wall. Dutifully, a South
Korean guard quickly opened the gate and motioned us into the
compound of pale -green Quonset huts. We parked in a line of

jeeps, and the first sergeant told me that I would be assigned my

own jeep to use while I was in country.

3V
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

South Korea has been an "occupied country" since the '50s.

The overbearing presence of the U.S. military has taken its toll on
the indigenous people and their culture. Nearly all the people alive
in South Korea today as we move into the twenty-first century
know their homeland only in its Americanized form. The attitude
of U.S. soldiers is not so much a dedication to duty but a desire to
simply survive the year so that they can get back to "the world"
and their lives.

This attitude mirrors feelings related by Vietnam veterans.

There is a plastic sense of camaraderie amongst the soldiers, an
ever-present odor of "we are not really here in this place," or "this
is not the real world," as if they are saying that their hearts and
minds are elsewhere. Are these amibassadors of Americanism seen
then as zombies by the South Korean people?
This attitude of unreality gives many U.S. soldiers the freedom
to abandon cultural values and behaviors that would otherwise be
precious to them. In South Korea, prostitution has been legalized
and is monitored by the local government. "Working girls" are

given regular medical exams and treatment when necessar>^

Drunkenness and debauchery in the village next to Camp Casey
provide an off-duty escape for the infantry soldiers of the Second
Infantry Division.
During the day, the bars are quiet and merchants bid welcome
and offer bargains for the American dollar. Some soldiers have
made arrangements to live within the community and "rent" a wife
for the length of their tour. Such practices have become common-
place after fifty years of U.S. military occupation.
When I was introduced to the commander of the Second MID,
he asked me to tell him about my previous military assignments.
He had my 201 File in front of him but said that he wanted me to
describe my impressions, my likes and dislikes about my previous
assignments, and what I wanted to do while I was in South Korea.
I liked his casual yet genuine approach. Unlike the administration
in Seoul, he was genuinely interested in his soldiers.

Since I had a great deal of experience with security inspections

of various types, I emphasized those special-agent abilities in my

3B
 F. Holmes Atwater

review of military assignments. He noted that I had a college

degree and suggested that I talk with the staff at the Army Educa-
tion Center. When he was finished interviewing me, he called the
operations NCO, a disgruntled sergeant in crumpled clothes, into
his office and told him quite matter-of-factly, 'This is Special
Agent Atwater Put him in charge of security- surveys and inspec-
tions. Get in touch with the inspector general (IG) and tell him
that we have a security specialist for his team whenever he is need-
ed. See that Atwater gets to the Army Education Center, as they
will need him." And with that, both the operations NCO and I

were dismissed. I found an empty bunk in one ot the Quonset huts,

and I was home for the next twelve months.

The commander's insistence that 1 visit the education center
led to a part-time job. They were in need ot teachers to support

university extension programs offered to niilitarv personnel. I was

hired to teach after-duty for the Los Angeles Cit>' College exten-
sion program. I taught psychology, abnormal psycholog>', and crim-
inology. So, by day I was Special Agent Atwater, and after duty I

was a college teacher at the education center 1 was able to make

enough extra money that my entire militar>' salary w ent back home
to Joan and the kids in California.

My special agent duties required me to visit various military

posts in the northern part of South Korea to conduct counterin-
telligence security inspections and surveys, background investiga-
tions, counterespionage investigations, and participate in Broken
Arrow (lost nuclear weapon) exercises and pro\ ide support to the

IG Team.
I wasn't sure why, exactly. Guidance arranged for me to be in
Korea, but I had a lot of fun between my Second MID security
inspection duties and being a member of the IG Team.
When I visited an army unit as a member of the Second MID

for a courtesy inspection, no formal report was filed through com-

mand channels, and I would tell them that I was there to help
them prepare for their annual inspection by the IG. In Korea,
nobody usually stays in a unit more than one year, so no one knows
what to expect from an annual IG visit.

39
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Special Agent Atwater in Korea

During my courtesy inspection, I stressed how much their

"passing the IG" depended on my guidelines. Later, when the IG

Team arrived, there I would be, wearing an official Inspector Gen-

eral armband designating me as the team's Counterintelligence
and Security' Specialist. I would just smile and ask them if they had
done ever^'thing that I had suggested during my Second MID cour-
tesy visit. Then we would all sit down and have a big laugh.
After eight months in South Korea, I took thirty days' leave to
move Joan and the kids from California to Arizona in preparation
for my next assignment at the Army Intelligence School, which
had been moved from Fort Holibird, Mar>4and, to Fort Huachuca,
Arizona. This leave was a tough call because it meant returning to
South Korea to finish my tour and separating from my family again
after the move. Tougher still was the fact that my kids did not rec-
ognize me when met up with them in California.
I

I was a stranger to my own children after having not seen them

for eight months. Talk about heart-wrenching emotional pain. But,
it all worked out. I got the family moved and they were waiting for
me at Fort Huachuca when I returned from South Korea nearly
four months later. As it turned out, getting the assignment to Fort

AO
 F. Holmes Atwater

Huachuca at that exact point in time seemed to be the reason

behind the Korea assignment.

Fourth Assignment
At Fort Huachuca, I came off "civilian clothes status" and wore
a regular military uniform for the first time since language school in
1970. Special Agent Atwater became Staff Sergeant Atwater. The
assignment turned out to be a pivotal point in my militar>' career
and my life. It was as though I was somehow destined or guided to

this a long time before I consciously realized what was happening.

The assignment got started with the inevitable "what should we do
with the new guy" interview that had with a short, balding man I

wearing glasses, who was named Mr. Spaeth.

Mr. Spaeth was an experienced intelligence operati\ e trom the
days of the Cuban missile crisis who, after military- retirement,

became a civilian instructor at the Army Intelligence School. He

had been around a while and had worked his way up to a supervi-

sory position in the section dedicated to teaching document con-

trol and accountability and personnel security in\ estigations. I was
sent to talk to him about working in his section.

When I sat down to talk to him, he had my 201 File in front of

him on a desk in a very small office. He looked up at me over his
glasses and asked, "What are you doing here, Sergeant Atwater?"
He looked back down at my tile and casually tlipped through sev-
eral pages as I began to think about my answer.
Quite unexpectedly, an answer to his question emerged from
deep within me. "I have two college degrees. I have taught college
classes. I have had eight years of experience conducting counter-
intelligence security inspections and surveys, including technical
surveillance types, and I have worked on an inspector general team
doing the same. I know all the army and Department of Defense
security regulations and can quote from them verbatim. In your
language, Mr. Spaeth, my shit doesn't stink. I am here to teach
document control and accountability for you."

This spontaneous utterance from within had been seemingly

41
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

pent-up for some time waiting for this particular moment. I began
to think about the possible consequences of what I had said and
what Mr. Spaeth might do.
Without the slightest hesitation, gasp, glance, or gesture, he
closed my 201 File, looked over his glasses at me again, and said,

"Report to Lieutenant Ray in Room 201 down the hall. Tell him
you're his new document control and accountability instructor."
Just then, the phone rang and Mr. Spaeth turned away from
me and began to talk. Feeling uncomfortable in the room while he
was on the phone, I got up and left. Over the next two years, I got
to know Mr. Spaeth and we became great friends. As it turns out,
he might have been one of my instructors back at Fort Holibird.

Before I met Lieutenant Ray, I was introduced to the Section

Chief, Captain AUard. I sized up Allard as a noncareer officer. I

told him that I had spoken to Mr. Spaeth and had been instructed
to inform a Lieutenant Ray that I would be teaching document
control and accountability. "Fine," Allard said as he began to
introduce me to the other NCOs in the section.

Allard left us to chat. I asked about this Lieutenant Ray who I

was supposed to meet. I was concerned about working for a lieu-

tenant who had been in the army all day long whereas 1 had several
years of experience as a counterintelligence special agent and was up
for promotion to sergeant first class, a senior NCO. All of my fellow
NCOs smiled and assured me that everything would be all right.

They said that Lieutenant Ray had served previously as special

agent for a number of years and then gone to Officer Candidate

School (OCS) to get his commission. This was his first assignment
since OCS and they were all impressed with his professionalism.
They showed me to an office cubicle that was to be mine and told
me to go home for the day. They said that I should come back
around 0900 the next day so I could meet with Lieutenant Ray,
who would be busy teaching classes until then.
The next day, I returned to the office and found Lieutenant
Ray in the cubicle next to mine. He looked very distinguished sit-
ting there smoking a pipe and looking through some documents on
his desk. Before I could say anything, he stood up, stuck out his

42
 F. Holmes Atwater

hand, gesturing for a handshake, and said, "Sergeant Atwater, Tm

Lieutenant Ray. I've been looking over your personnel file and have
been wondering what you're doing here. You have a fine military'

record, a good deal of experience as a special agent, and two college

degrees. Why are you here? Why haven't you gone to OCS?"
"Well, Sir," I said. "I wanted to teach, to share what I have
experienced with those just entering the field."

"All right. But you really should go to OCS. We'll talk about it

later." He excused himself and went off to teach another class.

I was impressed. Ray spoke his mind, didn't dilly-dally around

with any small talk, and took his military dut>' seriously. He was my
kind of guy, and I hoped I would do well working for him. I didn't

know then that we would become life -long friends and he would
play a major role in my future in remote viewing.
As a next step, I attended a how-to-be-a-teacher course,
where I learned to develop and write lesson plans, to use multime-
dia training aids, and to give presentations, all of which has paid
off in my present position some thirty years hence. As soon as I was
qualified as a military instructor, I began to teach document con-
trol and accountability classes, trading oft with Lieutenant Ray.
As time passed, we became friends within the limitations of the
military fraternization rules. Nearly every day, at least three or four

times a week, whenever I saw Lieutenant Ray, he would say,

"Sergeant Atwater, what are you doing here.^ I thought I told you
to go to OCS." I would courteously reply, "Sir, I haven't gone yet.
I'm still teaching classes for you."
About the same time that Lieutenant Ray got promoted and
started calling himself First Lieutenant Ray, I met Staff Sergeant
Cowart, who had also been assigned as an instructor to our section.
We had kids of similar ages and quickly became friends. It was then
that I first was introduced to a scientific perspective of psychic
ability —remote viewing.
Rob Cowart and I discovered a book, Mind-Reach, Scientists

Look at Psychic Ability, by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff (1977).

We both read this book through the eyes of counterintelligence
specialists concerned about hostile intelligence collection abihties.

A3
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

We saw the psychic ability to remote view as documented in

this book as a possible threat to national security. Tactical and
strategic military advantage could be compromised through this

process. The perceptual phenomenon or experience of remote

viewing was not strange to me, but this nomenclature "remote
viewing" was. I was somewhat startled to find that two scientists

had written about something that I had taken for granted all my
life.

Rob and I talked about remote viewing for hours and won-
dered if anybody in our own military intelligence community was
interested. I thought back to my early Fort Holibird days when I

had hinted at the idea of satellite photography and was told never
to discuss such highly classified subjects outside specially designat-

ed secure areas. Was this remote viewing the same sort of thing?

Rob and I wondered and wondered. On the other hand, how could
it be classified if this book by these two scientists was available to
the public? We wondered some more. Neither Rob nor I had stum-
bled across anything like this in our work as special agents.
During the Fort Huachuca assignment, family life was great.

Joan blessed me with a second son, James. I was able to be in the

delivery room and see him come into our world. Birth —what a
wonderful event!
Housing on Fort Huachuca was great and, all things being
good, we soon settled in as a family after the Korea separation. As
an instructor at the school, I worked regular hours and was able to
be with the family a great deal.
I attended graduate school in the evenings and studied Coun-
seling Psychology, a master's program offered by the extension
campus of the University of Northern Colorado. The course of my
life slowly emerged from the foggy future with each day that
passed. I was once again being taken care of
At First Lieutenant Ray's continued insistence, I finally put in
my application to go to OCS. Lieutenant Colonel Webb, a senior
officer at the school, informed me of my acceptance to the pro-
gram. Webb and I had met several times. He came into my classes
several times, as he did with all instructors to monitor their

AA
 F. Holmes Atwater

performance. I had also visited with him at several office and

school social occasions.
When I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Webb in his office, we
exchanged salutes and he invited me to sit down. He told me that

my application to attend OCS had been approved by "the brass"

and he wanted to talk to me personally before I left Fort Huachu-
ca for OSC at Fort Benning, Georgia. He told me that his last job

had been in the Pentagon in the assignments branch for intelli-

gence personnel.
Webb said that he had been watching me and admired my pro-
fessionalism during my assignment to the Army Intelligence
School. Finally he said, "Sergeant Atwater, keep your nose clean at
OCS and if you're commissioned as an intelligence officer, 1 w ill

see to it that you get whatever assignment you want." And w ith

that he dismissed me.

This is what is known in the militar>' as "grandfathering." It

was important to get a senior officer to look after you and your
assignments, to help you to be in the right place at the right time
maximizing your career potential. Lieutenant Colonel Webb had
just adopted me.

Back to School Again

In the summer of 1976, we moved to Fort Benning. Joan and
the kids were in post housing, but I lived in the barracks with more
than two hundred other officer candidates. While I was away in
training, my youngest child, James, got very sick and nearly died of
meningitis, the first of many serious medical challenges he has had
in his life. My father died in November of 1976, and I was granted
a few days of compassionate leave to be with the family in Glen-
dale, California. The traditional holiday season also came in the
middle of my OCS training cycle, which provided for some leave
time and a break in the training.
By this time in my life, I had been in the army nearly nine years
and I knew the system in and out. Many of my fellow officer can-
didates spent hours studying army regulations and policies. An

45
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

academic study, combined with the stresses imposed by our TAC

officers, was trying for most. For me, OCS was a snap and I gradu-
ated tenth in a class of over two hundred.
Only two candidates received commissions into the Intelli-

gence Corps. I was one of them, and I was on my way to the Offi-
cer Basic Course at Fort Huachuca with assignment orders in hand
to eventually report to Fort Bliss, Texas. More importantly, I was
on my way back to Lieutenant Colonel Webb, an angel from God,
who had promised me my assignment of choice.
Having me attend the Officer Basic Course at Fort Huachuca
was ridiculous. I could have taught nearly all the classes. But when
I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Webb with a smile on my face, I
was once again "being taken care of," as my mother had said so
long ago.
"Well, Lieutenant Atwater," he said, with emphasis on the
"Lieutenant." "Where do you want to go?" Handing him the book
Mind'Reachy I said, "Sir, I don't know exactly, but I do know that
what is presented in this book represents a threat to our national
security and I would like to be assigned someplace where I can do
something about that."
"Let me look at this book tonight. Check with my secretary
and get an appointment with me tomorrow."
"Yes, Sir." We exchanged salutes and I left his office.

The next afternoon as I entered his office, he rose from behind

his desk before I could report to him in the prescribed military
manner. He handed me the book and said, "I've never heard of
anything like this remote viewing stuff. But if what these scientists

say is true, then you are exactly right. This is a threat to our
national security."
"Yes, Sir," I replied.

"If anything like this is going on, it will be documented in the

Pentagon. I'm going to have you assigned to the Pentagon Coun-
terintelligence Force. As a lieutenant, you will be a team chief and
will have access to all areas of the Pentagon. No door will be
locked to you. You will have the highest security clearances. It will

be up to you to find this project, if it exists."

AG
 F. Holmes Atwater

"Thank you, Sir," I said. He walked me to his office door and

we parted without exchanging salutes. I wish we had saluted. I

think this may have been the last time I saw him. I heard some
time later that he took ill and died. Anyway, a few days later, I

received a change of orders. My Fort Bliss assignment was can-

celed, and I was to report to the Pentagon upon graduation from
the Officer's Basic Course at Fort Huachuca.
Joan and I talked about the assignment to the Pentagon. On
the surface, an assignment to Washington, D.C., seemed better
than Fort Bliss, Texas. But we had lived in the D.C. area when we
went to language school. The cost of living was very high and there
was no military housing. As a young lieutenant with three chil-
dren, I was going to have trouble making ends meet.
We talked about looking for a place to live in Manassas, Vir-
ginia, several miles west of Washington, D.C, where the cost of
housing was more reasonable. I would have long commutes every
day but at least we might be able to afford living there. On the very
day we were to leave for Washington, serendipity, divine Guid-
ance, or whatever, intervened. I was "taken care of" once again.

A Change of Assignment
As we were packing our VW bus and pop -up trailer for the trip
from Arizona to Washington, D.C, I got a phone message telling

me to call the 902nd Military Intelligence Group of the newly

formed U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
(INSCOM) at Fort Meade, Maryland, about my assignment. I left

Joan with the kids and the packing job and went back on post
(Fort Huachuca) to call Fort Meade.
INSCOM informed me that my assignment orders had been
changed again (not through Lieutenant Colonel Webb's influence)
and that I was now to report to Fort Meade for duty to the Systems
Exploitation Detachment (SED). They were in need of experi-
enced intelligence officers, and when the personnel officer at

headquarters of INSCOM reviewed my personnel file she felt I, as

an experienced counterintelligence special agent, would be better

47
 —
Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

suited to an assignment with SED at Fort Meade than the Pentagon

Counterintelligence Force in Washington, D.C. I was assured that
there would be written orders waiting for me when I arrived. I

acknowledged the verbal change in my orders and told them that I

would report as soon as I could move my family across the country.
When I hung up the phone, my mind began to race. Fort
Meade would be great. We would have family housing. No longer
were we facing financial ruin. I couldn't wait to tell Joan and the
kids the good news.
As we drove across country, camping every night at a KOA
with our pop-up, we talked about our new life, schools for the kids,
on-post housing, family medical care at a military hospital, and the
post exchange and commissary, all of which were military benefits
we would have missed if we had had to live in Manassas. We also
—
had friends the Compton family, who we knew from Panama
who were assigned to Fort Meade.
Overcome with gratitude, I forgot about my assignment
request and my desire to find out about any remote -viewing proj-

ects documented in the secret corridors of the Pentagon. We were

on our way to a new life. But I was on course, as I always had been
all along. I was going to be able to personally experience the reality

of remote viewing in a way I would have never guessed. Later, I

would come to understand the true spiritual implications of remote

viewing beyond its use as an intelligence surveillance tool.

AB
 Chapter Three

Igniting Grill Flame

Fort Meade lies about halfway between Washington, D.C.,

and Baltimore, Maryland, just off the Baltimore -Washington
Parkway. We found ourselves
in the middle of rush-hour
traffic on the 1-495 Capital
Beltway north of Washington,
D.C., late on a Friday after-
noon. Joan and I and the three
kids had been on the road a
couple of weeks in our VW bus
pulling our pop -up trailer. We
were all tired, stressed by the
day's drive and the cacophony
of the beltway traffic. But less

than thirty minutes away was

Fort Meade and what would
Captain Atwater
our home for the next ten
years (although we didn't know that at the time)

AB
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Our on post was the quarters of Chief Warrant Offi'

first stop
cer Grover Compton, who had been my military supervisor in the
lab in Panama. We had kids in the same age range and our families
had become friends. When he had returned from Panama en route
to Fort Meade, he and his family had stopped by to visit us in Fort

Huachuca. Now we were assigned to Fort Meade and our old

friends were there to meet us.

Grover told me there was an abundance of three -bedroom,

company-grade housing and there probably wouldn't be a long
list. We spent the weekend at the guest house on post, and
waiting
on Monday Grover showed me where the 902nd Headquarters,
Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), building was
located. My orders were waiting, just as had been promised. (To get
military housing for my family, I needed written orders officially

assigning me to Fort Meade.) I was told to take as much time as I

needed to get my family settled and then report to Major Keenan,

Commander of the Systems Exploitation Detachment or SED.
I went over to Post Housing immediately. Grover was right. I

was offered a choice of two different neighborhoods and three dif-

ferent sets of quarters. I selected a townhouse on Buckner Avenue

because it had more square footage of living space, was close to
work, and was nearest to all the usual military facilities like the
commissary, the post Exchange, the bank, etc. The townhouse had
an unfinished basement, which I completed and, at first, became a

playroom for the kids. Later, as the kids grew, it became our mas-
ter bedroom and the kids each had their own bedroom upstairs.

By the end of the week, the family was beginning to get set-
tled and I sought out Major Keenan, who turned out to be a gruff,

battlefield- commissioned officer, proud to have been from the era

of the old brown- shoe army. I found that the SED worked "behind
the green door" and I would need a special identification badge
depicting my Top Secret code -word security clearance to gain
access. This work area was one of those "special places" the instruc-
tor back at Fort Holibird some ten years ago had talked about.
Highly classified information drove the work product here.
Keenan told me that I was to become a member of a SAVE Team.

SO
 F. Holmes Atwater

The acronym SAVE meant Sensitive Activity Vulnerability Esti-

mate, ril explain a little bit about all this so that you will under-
stand later how the remote -viewing surveillance issue fits.

This was the day and age of OPSEC — Operations Security

when commanders were expected to do more than just safeguard
their classified material. Due to the increased sophistication of

intelligence collection methods, military commanders were

required to take measures to protect all critical aspects of their
operational capabilities. (Remember my interesting questions
about satellite photography back in the Fort Holibird days!)
An inspection by a SAVE Team was the ultimate survey of a

command's OPSEC status. Once a verifiable threat (a proven

hostile -intelligence effort against an installation or organization)
was identified, a SAVE Team targeted the installation or organiza-
tion using sophisticated U.S. intelligence assets, thereby testing the
vulnerability of the surveyed facility to hostile intelligence meth-
ods. The entire array of photo intelligence (PHOTINT), signal
intelligence (SIGINT), and human intelligence (HUMINT) was
employed against a designated army facility or command to give a
complete OPSEC profile.

Getting back to the story, I spent a couple of weeks meeting

and visiting with people around the office. I wasn't assigned a desk
or cubicle, so I just shuffled around from place to place. My peers
were sizing me up to see how I might be best utilized within the

unit. Because of my teaching background and the fact that 1 was a

brand-new lieutenant, one of my first jobs was to brief visitors on
the overall mission and functions of SED. For me, it was just a typ-

ical lieutenant- type duty.

Finally, one day Major Keenan ceremoniously told me that it

was about time that I got my own desk. The open floor space in

this area of the building had been divided into individual work
areas, or cubicles, with movable partitions. He walked me over to
a cubicle with a typical, gray office desk, a safe, a typewriter (this
was in the days before office workers had desktop computers) and ,

a couple of chairs. Keenan said that this had been Lieutenant

Colonel Skotzko's desk back in the days when the unit worked

51
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

directly for General Thompson, the army's Assistant Chief of Staff

for Intelligence (ACSI), and I would need to clean it out and make
it my own.
This gesture, giving me my own workspace, was symbolic of my
office. Keenan could have found me unsuit-
acceptance within the
SED job and had me reassigned elsewhere with
able for the
INSCOM. The SED personnel were an elite assemblage of army
intelligence professionals, and I had been accepted by them in less

than a month.

The Discovery
I looked through the drawers of the desk in my new work area
and found old pens and pencils, rubber stamps for marking classi-

fied documents, dated memos, old notebooks, and assorted left-

over paraphernalia.
Next, I turned my attention to the safe and began to look
through the drawers. As I pulled open each heavy drawer, I found
empty folders and file hangers. The file folders were still labeled
and marked with security classifications, but the documents they
once contained. Lieutenant Colonel Skotzko's work, had since
been moved or destroyed. There were four essentially empty draw-
ers until I came to the fifth, the bottom drawer.
There, in the bottom drawer, were three Department of
Defense classified documents. Two of the reports detailed various
aspects of Soviet interest in parapsychology, and the third was
about remote viewing at SRI-International.
I had put the whole remote -viewing thing out of my mind back in

Fort Huachuca when my orders to the Pentagon were changed. And

yet, here I was thumbing through two classified documents about
Soviet parapsychology research and another prepared by Puthoff and
Targ, the authors of that book I had read back at Fort Huachuca!
The two classified documents about Soviet parapsychology
came from the Medical Intelligence Office of the Army Surgeon
General. Apparently, in the early 1970s somebody considered the
Office of the Surgeon General a competent authority in the area

52
 F. Holmes Atwater

of parapsychology and assigned their intelligence resources as the

lead agency on this issue.

One of the classified documents was published in 1972 and

was called Controlled Offensive Behavior — U.S.S.R. The document
focused on the concept that the Soviets were interested in modi-
fying human behavior through the use of telepathy or telekinesis.
This wasn't exactly the same as remote viewing as described by
Puthoff and Targ, but it was in the ballpark.
What got my attention was that the document said that
parapsychology research in the Soviet Union was probably being
conducted at more than twenty separate institutions with an
operating budget of more than twenty- one million dollars per year.
In 1972, twenty-one million dollars was a lot of money and the
principal source of their funding was from the KGB, what was then
the Soviet equivalent of our CIA. If the Soviet KGB was spending
this kind of cash, they were either being very foolish or they were
having some promising results from their research efforts.

The other classified document from the same Medical Intelli-

gence Office, published in 1975, detailed Soviet and Czechoslova-

kian parapsychology research. The report was divided into two
sections. The Bioinformation section concerned things like telepa-
thy, precognition, and clairvoyance (all of which sounded a lot like
remote viewing to me). The Bioenergetics section talked about psy-
chokinesis and telekinesis.^
The third classified document from the safe drawer was called
Project SCANATE. It told about classified U.S. Government remote
viewing research, conducted mostly by the Stanford Research Insti-

tute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. This convincing report

demonstrated the ability of remote -viewing surveillance to acquire
and report information of interest to the intelligence community.
The Project SCANATE report has not been declassified as have
the Medical Intelligence Office documents, but for years I have had

Both of these Medical IntelUgence Office documents have been redacted and
declassified and are available under the Freedom of Information Act. Copies are
included on the CD-ROM accompanying this book.

53
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

an unclassified draft of the report and I have included a copy of it

on the CD 'ROM accompanying this book.

The authors of the Project SCANATE report were the
same researchers, Puthoff and Targ, who had written the book
Mind-Reach, which had earlier fascinated Rob Cowart and myself
Without any conscious effort on my part, I had been guided to this
moment of discovery all along, even when I felt as though only
"earthly" forces were controlling my military career.
I told Major Keenan that I had found three classified docu-
ments in the safe in my cubicle and described their subject matter.

He said that Lieutenant Colonel Skotzko had been looking into

remote viewing for General Thompson. Keenan said that General
Thompson thought that there might be something to this phe-
nomenon of remote viewing and took the subject quite seriously.
Keenan asked if I knew anything about remote viewing and I
told him that I did. He instructed me to keep the documents in my
safe since 1 was familiar with the concept. He also told me that
Staff Sergeant Riley, a photo interpreter assigned to SED, had an
interest in this area as well. I had met Sergeant Riley before but
until this moment didn't know of his interest in remote viewing.
Riley impressed me as a professional soldier who was an expert in
his field and who took great pride in his accomplishments.

So, for the next couple of weeks, I read and reread the docu-
ments I had found in the bottom drawer. I thought back to the days
at Fort Huachuca when Rob Cowart and I talked about the coun-
terintelligence implications of remote viewing. In my mind, I

replayed the scenario with Lieutenant Colonel Webb and how I

had showed him the remote -viewing book written by the

researchers Puthoff and Targ.
I wondered how and why my orders had been changed from the
Pentagon assignment to the SED at Fort Meade. I couldn't tell my
wife about finding these documents because of my security oath,
and I didn't know Sergeant Riley well enough yet. So there was no
one with whom I could discuss this twist of fate, this serendipitous
happenstance. Most interestingly, the loop wasn't quite closed yet.

5^
 F. Holmes Atwater

The Request
The U.S. Army Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alaba-
Missile

ma, had formally requested OPSEC support, and several members of

SED were selected to go to Alabama to answer the request. Since I

was the junior officer in the unit, it was decided that this would be a
good opportunity for me to learn, hands-on, about OPSEC support.

I was invited go along to observe and play a small role.

The missile command was concerned about security because

much of their testing involved ground-to-air missile telemetry, the
radio signals that guide a ground-fired missile to an airborne target.
They wanted to know the actual hostile -intelligence threat posed
and what OPSEC measures should be taken to counter this threat.
Much of the data supporting our recommendations was assem-
bled prior to visiting Redstone Arsenal. The on-site visit to the
missile command was to better understand ground operations,
interview personnel about security procedures, and occasionally
challenge those security procedures.
For example, if we were told during the official tour inspection
that only personnel wearing a certain type of security badge could
enter into an area, we might come back (uninvited) that night or
the next day and see if we could penetrate their security without a
badge or with an obviously bogus one.
When we completed the on-site phase of the survey, we sat

down to provide the command with an exit briefing, to be followed

later by a formal, written report. I sat quietly as the senior mem-
bers of our SED entourage talked of the threat posed by Soviet
satellites, which passed over Redstone Arsenal at regular intervals.

The OPSEC solution was to schedule critical telemetry tests dur-

ing periods of time when the satellites were in orbit over a differ-
ent part of the planet.
We also discussed the threat posed by Soviet ships in the
Gulf of Mexico that could intercept telemetry signals. We told
them that the missile command's OPSEC office could be pro-
vided with information about Soviet ships and which ones were
known hostile -intelligence assets.

55
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Human agents presented an additional threat, because Red-

stone Arsenal offered a NASA display for tourists. We informed
the missile command that U.S. Immigration could provide the
declared travel plans of foreign visitors. By matching this informa-
tion with a list of names provided by classified sources of known
hostile 'intelligence agents, their OPSEC officer could develop a
system to alert personnel when known hostile agents were in the
immediate area.

The exit briefing contained many more details and several sug-
gestions for OPSEC, counterintelligence, and physical security
measures common to nearly every survey. Just before we all got up
from the conference table, one of the project managers sitting

directly across from me said, "I appreciate all that you have told us,

but how are we supposed to protect ourselves from thisV He pulled

a book out of his briefcase and slid it across the table to me. I

reached out for the book, wondering what he could be asking

about. It was Mind-Reachl
As I held the book in my hand, staring at the title, the missile
command OPSEC officer at the head of the table abruptly asked,
"What's this all about?" The project manager had surprised him,
and I could tell from the sound of his voice that he was befuddled.
A hush fell over the room; I turned to address the OPSEC offi-
cer's question and spoke slowly and deliberately, the words coming
from somewhere deep inside me, "He is worried about the threat
posed by remote viewing, a human perceptual ability being inves-
tigated under classified government contracts at the prestigious

Stanford Research Institute. He wants to know what OPSEC

measures we recommend to counter this threat. This subject is

beyond the scope of this survey and today's briefing. I will have to
get back to you later on this. Sir."

For those few, brief moments, I commanded the attention of

everyone in the room. I handed the book back to the project man-
ager and he put it back in his briefcase. I glanced over to the SED
team leader and nodded. "Well," he said, as he turned to the
OPSEC officer and offered a departing handshake, "I guess we'll be
in touch with you later."

56
 F. Holmes Atwater

Dumbfounded, the OPSEC officer smiled and thanked us for

our time and effort. We departed Redstone Arsenal without any
further mention of remote viewing or the curious incident during
the exit briefing.
On the trip back to Fort Meade, I couldn't stop thinking about
all that had been happening. Less than three months prior to this

Alabama trip, I had been asking Lieutenant Colonel Webb, back at

Fort Huachuca, for an assignment involving the security threat

posed by remote viewing. Even when he had arranged for me to be

assigned to the Pentagon, I was unexplainably redirected to Fort

Meade and the SED. Just a couple of weeks prior to this OPSEC sur-
vey, I had discovered the secret remote -viewing documents in my
safe. This was amazing. A warm smile filled my face. I was on course.
I to offend the senior member of the SED team
didn't want
that Alabama by going over his head, so I first asked
had gone to

him if I should tell Major Keenan about the remote -viewing ques-
tion that had come up in the exit briefing. He told me he was glad
to have me do it because he didn't know what to say.

The following week, I asked for a meeting with Keenan to tell

him about the exit briefing at Redstone Arsenal. Since Keenan was
familiar with the secret remote -viewing documents that I held in
my safe, I felt comfortable bringing up the subject with him.
I had been in Major Keenan's office before, and his desk abutted
a small conference table so that he could have several staff mem-
bers in his office at the same time. As I entered his office carrying
an armful of documents and a yellow legal pad, he said cordially,

"What can I do for you. Lieutenant?" I set the papers on the small
conference table and began to explain that during the exit briefing
at Redstone Arsenal an unusual OPSEC request was made.
Keenan invited me to sit down and tell him more. And, rather
than sitting behind his desk, he joined me at the conference table.
This gesture indicated a willingness to talk as peers. Had he gone
around behind his desk as "the boss," the discussion that followed
might have had a different flavor altogether.
I started off slowly, explaining how well things had gone in
Alabama and that I was sure the U.S. Army Missile Command
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

would be very appreciative of INSCOM and the efforts of SED. I

also thanked him for sending me along so that I could learn the
"how to" of OPSEC support provided by SED. I casually told him
that at the end of the exit briefing one of the project managers had
asked for OPSEC recommendations to protect themselves from
hostile surveillance by remote viewing.
As I was talking, I leafed through the documents I had set on
the small conference table, and with perfect timing, just as I fin-

ished speaking, I fanned out the secret remote -viewing documents

from my safe on the table in front of us.

"What did you tell him?" asked Major Keenan as he glanced at

the documents ("evidence") on the table before him. I explained

that I told the missile command OPSEC officer that the concerns
of his project manager about remote viewing were genuine but that
his query was beyond the scope of the present survey.
"Good," said Keenan. "But how are you going to answer his

question. Lieutenant?"
"Yes, Sir," I said. "I know his question needs to be answered,
and that's why I asked to meet with you."

The Plan
I explained that we needed to determine
first if hostile

exploitation of the remote -viewing phenomenon posed a probable

threat. It was obvious from open-source material (newspapers,
magazines, books, etc.) and published classified documents that
remote viewing constituted a possible threat but that until we could
demonstrate its probable exploitation by hostile intelligence, there
was no need to address the concept of countermeasures.
Keenan smiled and said, "You've been thinking about this,

haven't you. Lieutenant?" He asked what I planned to do next. I

told him that I needed to see if there were more, or more up-to-
date, classified documents on remote viewing, and that I needed to
check to see if there were any outstanding Intelligence Collection
Requirements (ICRs) for the hostile exploitation of remote viewing.

(The CIA compiled a list of ICRs, as they were called back then.

5S
 F. Holmes Atwater

to address the identified needs of the intelligence community. This

list sometimes chartered specific agencies to obtain the informa-

tion, but many ICRs invited contributions from any appropriate

organization.)
I explained that if I could demonstrate the probable exploitation
of this unique, human perceptual ability by hostile intelligence serv-
ices, we had an obligation to address countermeasures with our
OPSEC expertise and policy. Keenan brought our short meeting to
a close by saying, "You're probably right. Lieutenant. Find out what
you can and get back to me when you've got something substantial."
"Yes, Sir." I picked up my papers and left his office.
My course had been set — in more ways than I was aware. The
classified documents that I had listed the publishing offices, and it

took little effort to query those offices for updated material.

In my search, I found another secret document prepared by the
Air Force Systems Command, Foreign Technology' Division,
Wright- Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and published by the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). This document was called
Paraphysics R & D— Warsaw Pact."^ This was a very comprehensive
review on the state of the parapsychology research in the Soviet
Union and Warsaw-Pact countries. It detailed personnel involved
in the research, institutions, and funding.
I reviewed the classified ICRs and found that the air force was
responding to a list of requirements for information on remote -viewing
and psychic phenomena. I discovered that there was a civilian
employee atDIA by the name of Jim Salyer who was the point of
contact with DIA on this subject, among other things. Jim was a
somewhat standoffish fellow, but he had been involved with DIA's
remote -viewing interests for some time. lie was the first government
official that I met who knew what was going on in this field.
When I asked about the work at SRI by Puthoff and Targ, Mr.
Salyer explained that in response to outstanding ICRs published by

This document has also been redacted and declassified and is available under
the Freedom of Information Act. A copy is included on the CD-ROM accompa-
nying this book.

53
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

the CIA, information about Soviet remote -viewing experiments,

and those of other nations as well, had been collected. He said
that in the case of intelligence information about foreign remote-
viewing experiments, one way to determine the probable truth of
the information was to replicate the reported experiments.
Salyer said that this was the basis for the government-funded
remote -viewing research at SRI. They were reproducing the exper-
iments to see if the reported successes in remote viewing by Sovi-
et and other foreign research facilities were valid. From time to
time, the CIA itself would task SRI's remote viewers against the
CIA's own foreign targets of interest. Some of those "test" results
have been published elsewhere.
I learned from Mr. Salyer that an air force civilian employee by
the name of Dale Graff was the point of contact at Air Force Sys-
tems Command, Foreign Technology Division. Dale was the prin-
cipal author of Paraphysics R & D —
Warsaw Pact. Before leaving
DIA, I asked Mr. Salyer how to get in touch with Dale and he pro-
vided the necessary contact information.
I took a trip out to Wright- Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio to
meet Dale Graff Dale was a soft-spoken, mid-level civilian
employee whose intellect far exceeded his job assignment. He had
been investigating remote viewing on his own for years. He was
genuinely interested in my inquiry^ and candidly reviewed the
material about foreign research on remote viewing and other psy-
chic phenomena with me without holding anything back.
It was clear from what Dale showed me that, as far as the Sovi-

et Union was concerned, the principlal-funding source for this

research was the KGB. The presumption was that the KGB was
investigating remote -viewing surveillance as a possible source of
intelligence information.
Coupling this hypothesis with the remote -viewing success in
the government-funded SRI research, it looked to me as though I

had found evidence to demonstrate the probable exploitation of

remote viewing by hostile intelligence services.

As I made inquiries around the intelligence community, I

found others who agreed with me. But how was I going to

BO
 F. Holmes Atwater

explain all this to Major Keenan? If he understood the OPSEC

implications of what I had discovered, then what would he have
me do next? I decided the best course of action would be to ask the
authoritative Mr. Salyer from the DIA if he would come to Fort
Meade and brief Keenan.
Within in a week, Mr. Salyer, Major Keenan, and I were sitting

around that small conference table in Keenan's office. Salyer

explained that the U.S. Government had been following remote-
viewing research for some time but only recently had taken an
increased interest when evidence of KGB funding of the Soviet
effort came to light.

He reviewed the efforts of SRI to replicate Soviet experiments

and showed us some results. I confirmed, for discussion purposes,

that researchers Puthoff and Targ, the authors of Mind-Reach, were
the ones under government contract. Salyer showed several startling
examples in which SRI's remote viewers had correctly described
strategic military facilities in the Soviet Union. The implication for

OPSEC was vividly clear. If KGB remote viewers were targeted

against U.S. facilities, similar results could be expected.
The DIA briefing lasted about forty-five minutes and after

courteous handshakes all around, Mr. Salyer and I left Major

Keenan's office. I walked Salyer to the door and thanked him for

the briefing. Watching him descend the stairs on his way out of the
building, I wasn't sure if this would be the end of my involvement
with military remote viewing or perhaps the beginning of an even
deeper participation. As I was returning to my desk, Keenan
leaned out of his office doorway and said, "Lieutenant Atwater, be
in my office at 0900 hours tomorrow morning."
The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual. I thought the
briefing had gone well. Rather than me. Lieutenant Atwater, the
junior officer, telling my commander that I had found evidence
that remote viewing constituted a probable threat to national
security, an official representative of the DIA had presented the
argument for me.
In pursuit of this evidence, I had made several contacts within

the Department of Defense (DOD) and in turn revealed to them

B1
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

that INSCOM had an interest in the security impUcations of

remote viewing. At the same time, my fellow officers and co-
workers in SED saw that not only was I busy with some "special
project" but that I was getting an unexpected amount of attention
from the boss: This junior lieutenant, this new guy on board,
seemed to be moving pretty fast. Why did Keenan want to see me?
Why did he announce from his doorway, in a voice that everyone
in the office could hear, I was to meet with him the next morning?
From my office cubicle, I kept a watchful eye on the coat rack
outside Major Keenan's office until I saw that his braided, field-

grade officer's hat sat on the shelf above the hangars. Once I could
see his hat, 1 knew he was in his office. At 0900, 1 showed up at the

doorway outside Keenan's office with a yellow legal pad in hand,

looking as much as I could like I was interested but not anxious to
hear what he had to say to me. "Lieutenant Atwater," he said,

"come in and have a seat." As I sat down at the small conference

table, he went around behind his desk and assumed a command-
ing position.
"Would you like some coffee?"
"No, thank you," 1 replied. In this dance, the junior officer was
not expected to accept the coffee. The offer was just setting the

social dynamics for the meeting.

"I want to thank you for the meeting with Mr. Salyer yester-
day. 1 was impressed."
"Yes, Sir," 1 replied cautiously.
"But you still haven't answered my question."
"Sir?"

In a rather stern voice, he said, "I asked you what you were
going to tell the missile command down at Redstone Arsenal.
They asked what they could do to protect themselves, their mili-
tary operations, from remote -viewing surveillance."
"Yes, Sir, that's correct," I continued, "and as I told you before,
it seemed to me that in keeping with the SED mission, our first

step was to determine if remote viewing presented a probable

threat."

"And with yesterday's DIA briefing it would appear that it is."

B2
 F. Holmes Atwater

"Yes, Sir," I went on. "In keeping with SED's way of providing
OPSEC support, our next step would be to use remote -viewing
surveillance on the missile command ourselves to demonstrate its

vulnerability to this form of hostile -intelligence collection to the

commander, U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal,
Alabama."
"And how do you propose we do that. Lieutenant?"

"Well, Sir, at SRI they have some remote viewers who would
seem to be capable of performing such a task, but there is a prob-

lem with using them."

"What do you mean? What problem?"
"It would seem to me. Sir, that for us here at SED the issue is

larger than just the missile command in Alabama. If remote viewing

is in fact a hostile -intelligence threat, then the OPSEC posture of all
army installations, operations, and assorted facilities are vulnerable."
"What are you saying, Lieutenant?"

"Sir, the remote viewers at SRI are basically research subjects,

and they work as independent consultants or subcontractors to
SRI. They do not have the appropriate security clearances or the
proverbial need-to-know for much of the sensitive classified infor-
mation at the missile command or other army facilities. And if we
genuinely see remote viewing as a probable threat, we will need to
include it in our OPSEC vulnerability estimates for many of the
army commands for which we provide service."
"Yes. I see what you mean. Lieutenant," he said slowly. "The
SRI remote viewers wouldn't have security clearances for any of
that." Coming out from behind his desk, he sat down at the small

conference table across from me and asked, "So what are we going
to do now?" I leaned back in my chair and glanced down at the blank,
yellow legal pad on the table in front of me. As my eyes slowly rose to

meet his, my mind raced for an answer to his question.

"Major Keenan," I said carefully, "we need to train some of our
own people — intelligence professionals with appropriate security
clearances — to be remote viewers." In the back of my mind, I

thought this sounded pretty good. I continued, "Once trained,

these assets could be used repeatedly to provide remote viewing in

63
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

support of SED's OPSEC- support mission. Just as we use other

intelligence -surveillance assets such as satellites, communications
intercepts, and facility penetration agents to demonstrate OPSEC
vulnerabilities to army commanders, we could use these trained
remote viewers to demonstrate vulnerabilities to this unique form
of surveillance."
A pensive stillness filled the room as Keenan gathered his

thoughts. "Lieutenant Atwater," he announced, "you're right!" And

then he asked, "How do we train our people to be remote viewers?"
I didn't know exactly how to answer his question. How do you

train someone to do something that to me seemed a natural apti-

tude? And yet, that's what training was all about, bringing out or
developing natural aptitudes. You can't train people to play the
piano, for example, unless they have some inherent aptitude.
Maybe remote viewing worked the same way. But how could I

identify people with this natural aptitude? I would want to select

people for training who had some chance of being successful. I

would want to have several people trained so I would have backup

and multiple sources. As my thoughts raced on, very little objec-
tive time passed back at the small conference table. The wisdom
from within that was always with me emerged and I answered
Keenan's question.
"Sir," I said with authority, "I'll need to check with the
researchers at SRI in Menlo Park and several other organizations
about available training programs. We may be able to train personnel
with these organizations initially with an eventual goal of in-house
training. we need to decide or determine our responsibil-
But first,

ity and commitment to remote -viewing surveillance as an issue ot

national security."
"That," Major Keenan said, "will be a decision for General Smith,
Deputy Commander, INSCOM." Keenan spoke slowly as he thought
it through, "This area of inquiry is beyond the scope of our planned
budget, and the deputy commander must approve any expenditures
on new projects. If he were to approve our looking into this, it

would, in turn, be setting policy — official authority for INSCOM to

consider the OPSEC ramifications of remote -viewing surveillance."
 F. Holmes Atwater

He stood up. "Lieutenant, prepare a briefing for General Smith

during his visit next week. Work up a travel budget for yourself

covering the rest of the fiscal year. Prepare a document for Gener-
al Smith's signature, providing us the authority to train our per-
sonnel in remote viewing. Make sure you review with General
Smith the threat information covered in Mr. Salyer's visit."

I rose from my chair and stood across the table from Keenan
and obediently responded, "Yes, Sir." He smiled and extended his
arm, inviting a handshake, a gentleman's agreement that we were
taking the appropriate action. I took his hand and smiled back. He
gestured, tossing his head toward the door and "Now get out
said,

of here. Lieutenant, and get to work." I picked up my yellow legal

pad and headed out of his office and back to my own cubicle.
I spent the next several days preparing to brief General Smith.
When the briefing schedule for the office was posted, my fellow
intelligence officers in SED began to come around my work area,

curious about the posted subject "Remote Viewing" and teasing me

about briefing the deputy commander.
General Smith was a short, skinny, feisty old man with what
was left of his silver hair cut very short. The only thing command-
ing about his appearance were the stars on his shoulders, which
looked a little too big for him to be carrying around.

It seemed the general had a reputation. Officers and NCOs

would spend day after day collecting backup documentation,
preparing lecture notes and graphics, and rehearsing their presen-
tations. When the day and the hour would finally arrive for them
to stand in front of General Smith —we him Snuff/ Smith
called in
honor of the cartoon character — they would march smartly into
the conference room ready to dazzle him. More often than not, as
soon as they announced the subject of their briefing, the general
would say something along the lines of, "I know all about that.

Don't waste my time. Get out of here."

I had witnessed this myself several times. My peers were
teasing me about General Smith's eccentricities and were sure
that I would be immediately and summarily dismissed when my
time came.

B5
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

It appeared to me that the general, because of his position, did

in fact get briefings from a number of different offices, and many
times subjects would overlap. He also did not want to appear as
uninformed or ignorant to his junior officers. The rumor was that
General Smith had been passed over for promotion and was on his

way out and had been assigned the deputy commander position as
a way of easing him into retirement.

The Approval
I knew that when my time finally came, if I was on course with
my spiritual journey through life, my briefing the deputy com-
mander would best serve those interests. As the moment
approached, I stood in the hall outside the conference room with
my fellow intelligence officers, and one by one we were called in

turn to brief the general on a variety of subjects.

My name came up early on the list, so I didn't have to wait very
long. I didn't bring any graphics or briefing notes, but I did carry
the classified remote -viewing documents in case the general asked

for them.
In an attempt to bolster my professional deportment and
knowledge of the subject matter, I made sure that those in the
conference room saw that I was carrying several officially pub-
lished classified documents. (I was fighting the alhday-in-the-
army-lieutenant factor here.) documents on theI set the
conference table next to the podium and when my eyes met the
general's, I smiled and attempted to establish some rapport by ask-

ing, "Are you enjoying your briefings this morning, General.^"

"Get on with it, Lieutenant," he barked.

"Yes, Sir," I said. "This briefing concerns a subject about which
you have not been kept fully informed."
Major Keenan glanced at the general to see his reaction.
Snuffy (whoops, I mean General Smith) didn't bark again, so I con-
tinued. "More importantly, Sir, this is a decision briefing. We here
at SED are soliciting a policy decision from you as deputy com-
mander affecting the future of Army OPSEC procedures,

BB
 F. Holmes Atwater

INSCOM's support responsibilities, and, from a larger perspective,

a broad range of national defense issues."
He held up his hand, motioning me to stop, and turned to

Keenan, "What's this all about. Major?"

Keenan replied, "Lieutenant Atwater has had ten years of
experience as a counterintelligence special agent and has unique
knowledge of this particular topic. I have asked him to bring you
up to speed on this subject so you can sign off on our action plan."
As I stood there waiting. General Smith shuffled through the
papers on the heavy, mahogany conference table in front of him.

When he finally found the briefing schedule, he took a moment to

peruse it and then looked up at me and said, "Lieutenant Atwater, tell

me about remote viewing. This sounds like it's going to be interesting."

Well, there I was. I hadn't been thrown out. I stood there in a
secure conference room before General Smith, the Deputy Com-
mander of INSCOM, prepared to tell him about remote viewing.
It had only been a few months since I had mentioned to Lieu-

tenant Colonel Webb, back at Fort Huachuca, that I wanted to be

involved with remote viewing and its obvious impact on national
intelligence and security issues. It had been less than a year since
Staff Sergeant Rob Cowart and I had last discussed and mused over
the counterintelligence ramifications of remote viewing.
Somehow I knew this was another one of those pivotal times
in my life. There was a sense, an overwhelming feeling, that all my

previous life focused on this one moment and that in the future
this briefing would be thought of as crucial in tracing the history of
army remote -viewing operations.
Deep inside, I knew somehow that years into the future there was
to be a history of army remote -viewing operations. This experience,
this outside-of-time knowingness, filled me with self-confidence. So
without trepidation or even the slightest inkling of a doubt about
my future, I told General Smith about remote viewing.
"Remote viewing," I began, "is a natural, perceptual faculty
defined as the human ability to describe locations, activities, or

objects using the power of the mind without the use of our con-
ventional senses."

BV
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

"What do you mean, Lieutenant? Give me an example."

"Yes, Sir. If Major Keenan, for example, were asked as an
intelligence officer to describe the current activities at a particu-
lar Soviet weapons depot, he would probably want to review cur-
rent intercept traffic and look at any overhead satellite

surveillance that might be on file. If activity at the depot was con-

sidered a particularly critical target, perhaps having been identi-
fied as an indicator of hostile intentions, there might even be
some HUMINT (informants or agents paid by U.S. intelligence)
available as well.
"Still another way for him to find out about the current activ-
ities at this supposed Soviet weapons depot would be through
remote viewing. An experienced remote viewer might be able to
accurately describe, by mental means alone, elements or goings-on
at this Soviet depot. These descriptions could provide corrobora-
tive or additional information to intelligence analysts."

"Is this remote viewing some sort of mental telepathy sort of

thing?"
I went on, adjusting my comments to address his question.
"The concept of telepathy implies some sort of mind-to-mind
exchange of information. Remote viewing, as presently under-
stood, would appear to be different. If, by way of example here, we
were able to contact a Soviet soldier at this supposed weapons
depot by means of telepathy, any intelligence provided through
such contact would be limited to that soldier's knowledge of the
site. It would seem that remote viewing does not have this limita-

tion. An experienced, reliable remote viewer could describe

aspects of the depot, perspectives and activities beyond the con-
fines or perceptions of personnel located there."

"But, Lieutenant, is such a thing possible?" he asked as he

leaned forward in his chair.
"Yes, Sir, it is," Keenan interrupted and then pointed at me.
"You only have a few minutes with the general, so move along,
Atwater."
"Yes, Sir," I replied. Structuring my remaining time, I contin-
ued, "General, I will be discussing four topics of interest to you.

BS
 F. Holmes Atwater

First, scientific evaluation and proof of remote viewing; second,

KGB funding of Soviet research, which implies hostile intelligence

exploitation of the phenomenon; third, INSCOM's OPSEC

responsibilities; and finally. Major Keenan's proposed course of
action for SED. Our purpose here is to get your approval for this

proposed course of action."

"I don't have time for all that, Lieutenant. Do those documents
there on the table in front of you cover all that stuff, the scientific
proof, and the Soviet activities and all that?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes, Sir, with the exception of our proposed course of action,"

I said slowly and pensively.
"Well," he barked, "what do you propose to do about all this?"

Cautiously, I continued, "During a recent survey at the missile

command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama ..."

"Yes," he snarled, "I know where the U.S. Army Missile Com-
mand is."

"Sir," I raised my voice and looked directly at him, "the missile

command has officially asked us here at INSCOM what OPSEC
measures should be taken to counter the threat of Soviet remote-
viewing surveillance."
"Oh." He turned toward Major Keenan. "What are we going
to do about this. Major?"
Keenan gestured toward me with a nod and said with a go-get-
'em wink, "Tell him. Lieutenant. Tell him what we are going to do,
and get the general's signature on that budget document you
brought with you."
General Smith turned and looked me right in the eye as I told
him what we would do. "SED will train professional intelligence

personnel with high-level security clearances, people like those

here in the conference room right now, in this remote -viewing
skill. Once trained, these trusted personnel will be able to provide
remote -viewing descriptions of U.S. Army installations and com-
mands. These descriptions will provide us with an accurate means
to assess OPSEC vulnerabilities to hostile remote -viewing surveil-

lance of these same organizations.

"It is our opinion. General Smith, that this issue is of vital

BS
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

importance to national security and that INSCOM has a responsibil-

ity to provide the appropriate OPSEC support to U.S. Army activi-

ties. Further, because Major Keenan's detachment, SED, is the lead

element in INSCOM's OPSEC effort, it is the logical and appro-
priate national-level organization to head this operation."

"This sounds like a good idea," the general said, "but how are

you going to train these folks?"

With that, I picked up the budget request I brought with me

and, avoiding his direct question, replied, "Since this training
clearly falls outside the parameters of this fiscal year's budget, you
as deputy commander need to approve this course of action."
"How much are we talking about?" he asked, as I walked out
from behind the podium to hand him the SED remote -viewing
action plan, cloaked as a budget request.
"Just a couple of thousand to cover travel expenses until the
end of the fiscal year," I said casually.
Having handed him the budget request, I returned to the podi-
um, turned, and began to speak, "If we . .
."
and he cut me off mid-

sentence. "Here's your approval. Lieutenant," he said, while

handing the budget request to Keenan. The general had apparently
signed it while I was returning to the podium. Looking at Keenan,
he asked, "What's next. Major?" Keenan looked up at me and
gruffly ordered, "Atwater, tell Captain Cole out in the hall he's

next with his briefing on personnel security issues."

"Yes, Sir," I replied and without another word picked up my doc-
uments. As I headed out of the conference room, Keenan passed me
the remote -viewing action plan that the general had signed.
As I left the conference room, I could see Captain Cole wait-
ing patiently in the hall. him and told him that Major
I smiled at
Keenan said he was up next. After Cole went into the conference
room, everyone else waiting wanted to know how it went for me. I
just smiled and waved the signed budget authorization and action

plan in the air.

As I walked back to my cubicle, I began to realize how fast

things were moving and how far I had come in just the several
weeks since I got assigned to Fort Meade. My plan was to use the
 F. Holmes Atwater

funds the general had just authorized to visit SRI and other organi-
zations and come up with a training plan to teach professional intel-

ligence personnel remote viewing. Working with the DIA, I arranged

a visit with Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ at SRI in Menlo Park.

Meeting the Scientists

As the airplane sped its way to California, my thoughts mean-
dered through the many official business trips I had taken over the
years. I looked around the plane, eavesdropping on my fellow pas-
sengers. I wondered how we all came together on this flight.
A business man; a college student returning home; a family on
vacation; the stewardess with the tired feet —did they have any
idea that right next to them was an intelligence officer developing
a psychic- training program for government personnel? What
would they think if they knew? Would they be proud that their
government was acting quite responsibly to defend their constitu-

tionally guaranteed freedoms?

These were rhetorical questions for, to reduce the probability

that hostile intelligence services would find out about our OPSEC
activities and implement countermeasures, what I was doing had
been classified Secret and designated as an official Special Access
Program (SAP) with a code -word caveat. (The first code name
was Grill Flame. Over the years, it changed several times, and
when it was declassified in 1995, the project was called Star Gate.)
During the flight, I amused myself by reading the Jane Roberts
book The Further Education of Over soul Seven. I could never com-

pletely understand the original Seth books but the series of Over-
soul Seven books were in a story format and I really liked them.
Much of Further Education describes adventures in nonphysical
realms and how malleable these worlds are based on our precon-
ceived expectations. According to the book, even other entities
are robbed of their own true form and show themselves to us based
on our expectations of how they should appear.
This understanding made me feel ashamed. How disrespectful
and impertinent! In the middle of Chapter Nineteen, I put the

71
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

book down on my lap and bowed my head in silent prayer. "God,

when I die, please let me have the wisdom to allow others to be
who they really are and not lay my expectations upon them."
Suddenly Guidance spoke with a voice in my head, a loud,
booming voice, like when the voice of God is portrayed in the
movies. "What do you think is happening now?"
I opened my eyes and looked around the cabin to see if any-
body else had heard. It was cool. Everything was okay. I was the
only one who had heard the voice. And then my embarrassment
returned. Apparently, I didn't have to die to begin working on this.

How many beings had I encountered throughout my life, seeing

them only through the eyes of my own expectations, not allowing
them to be who they really were? Divine expressions of God I Am,
angels all! And I was on my way to meet two more.
I signed in at the security- control desk at SRI, and the
receptionist called upstairs with notification of my arrival. Tall,

lanky Russell Targ, with his bushy hair and thick glasses, came
downstairs to meet me. He looked every bit like the mad scientist

one might expect to be involved in psychic research. Over the

years, we were to become friends, but this first encounter, my first

impression of him, would not be described in my official trip report

to Major Keenan.
Upstairs, I met Dr. Hal Puthoff, a soft- spoken man filled with
wisdom too great to be confined in his small stature. Dr. Puthoff
introduced me to other members
With perfect
of the office staff
timing, an SRI vice president happened by the office to meet me.
To him, I was the new government guy with money and he want-
ed to make sure he met me. After the formalities, Puthoff, Targ,
and I adjourned to a small conference room and I began to explain
what I was doing there.
The idea of training someone to do remote viewing interested
both Puthoff and Targ. Most of their work had been done with "nat-
urals," people who brought their inherent psychic talent into the
laboratory environment. They said, however, that in their experi-
ence almost everyone could do remote viewing. They knew this

because Targ would routinely guide visitors to the lab through a

72
 F. Holmes Atwater

remote -viewing exercise as the ultimate demonstration of what they

were studying. I was not to be subject to such an illustration, as I

didn't need convincing that remote viewing was a real phenomenon.

Hoping to discover some sort of screening mechanism that I

could use with intelligence personnel to identify remote -viewing

candidates, I asked if they had identified any personality traits or
temperament types that seemed to take to remote viewing.
Puthoff and Targ were reluctant at first to approach the issue
in this way. They were physicists, not psychologists. They insisted
that the best screening mechanism would be a performance test

and evaluation through the use of the established, tried-and-true

remote -viewing protocol documented in their book.
I asked how many people they could test in a few months. They
guessed that they could test three people over a period of four to six

months. So I asked if they had identified any personality traits that

I might use to find candidates for such testing. Having put the ques-
tion to them in this manner, they told me that there were perhaps
six traits that seemed to be characteristic of good remote viewers.

1 . They felt that candidates should be at least open to the

idea of remote viewing.

2. Candidates should have an artistic talent and be capable

of using this talent to describe their remote-viewing
impressions.

3. People who were highly regarded by their coworkers and

supervisors did better at remote viewing than those who
were not. The implication was that "office outcasts" or
"weird guys" did not make good remote viewers.
4. Individuals who had the ability to in-flow data, or absorb
a great deal of information without being compelled to
form tentative or spurious conclusions, scored higher with-
in the strict confines of scientific remote-viewing protocols.

5. Candidates should be highly motivated volunteers rather

than be "ordered" or "assigned" to do remote viewing.

6. Potential remote viewers should be able to quiet their

minds and focus their attention on the task at hand, setting
aside the mental noise of daily trials and tribulations.

"73
 CAPTAIN..OF My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

They insisted that even if I was able to identify soldiers with

these traits, they would want to interview the candidates, and even
under these conditions, there was no guarantee that these people
would be able to do remote viewing or be trained. I found this

comment amusing in light of Targ's previous claims that almost

everybody who tries remote viewing has some success.
Thinking back, I imagine they thought I would select as remote
viewers some highly skilled, snake -eating special forces types who
had been kept away in some secret guerrilla- training camp because
they could no longer function in society. Whatever they were
thinking, their bottom line was that the only way to determine
someone's remote -viewing ability (or trainability) was through
some sort of performance test to identify particular aptitudes.

On the flight back from California, I began to develop a plan

of action to present to Major Keenan. It seemed to me that SED

would have to interview several dozen people to find a few that fit

the criteria outlined by SRI, and the candidates would need to be

available for special duty with SED. The greater Washington, D.C.,
area contained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of militar^-^ and civil-

ian intelligence professionals within INSCOM. With the endorse-

ment of the INSCOM commander, there would definitely be

sufficient resources from which to draw.

Puthoff and Targ had tentatively agreed to accept a contract to
train (they preferred the term "evaluate") a few selected army per-
sonnel in remote viewing. I decided that I would recommend to
Major Keenan that SED screen a number of INSCOM personnel
and establish a contractual relationship with SRI to train them.
I also thought that because SRI's "evaluation" method was
fully documented in Mind-Reach, SED could, with a little effort,

complement the SRI contract and do our own remote -viewing

skills testing and evaluation.^
As the plane sped eastward, I took out a yellow legal pad from my
briefcase and drafted a trip report and a list of recommended actions.

This process is detailed in the article, "Remote- Viewing Replication: Evaluated

by Concept Analysis," by Russell Targ, published in The Journal of Parapsy-
chology, vol. 58, September 1994.

-7A
 F. Holmes Atwater

Further Approval
When I returned to my office at Fort Meade, I typed up my
report and routed it to Major Keenan. I didn't hear anything from
him for more than two weeks, so I busied myself with other duties.
Unknown to me, Keenan had been told by the INSCOM com-
mander to brief General Thompson at the Pentagon about SED's
remote -viewing endeavor. General Thompson, the ACSI, had a

personal interest in remote viewing and was the one who had orig-

inally interested Lieutenant Colonel Skotzko (the guy whose desk

I took over)
General Thompson agreed with the recommendations in my
report and encouraged Major Keenan to continue SED's efforts

within INSCOM. At some point in the chain of command (I don't

know where) , the decision was made to consolidate the INSCOM
remote -viewing program under one office. When Keenan finally

called me into his office, he told me that my recommendations had

been approved and informed me that I was to work with a Major
Watt, a veteran intelligence officer, to carry out this project.
The remote -viewing effort would operate as a separate unit

called Detachment G, with its own operating budget. From this

budget, we would fund travel expenses, contracts with SRI, and
whatever else became necessary. Major Watt would be my direct
supervisor, and together we would conduct INSCOM's remote
viewing program. At the time, being unaware of all that had gone
on up the chain- of- command, I thought this was all Major
Keenan's idea.
Major Murray Watt —Scotty to his friends —was an extremely
professional military officer. He had a great deal of experience in
intelligence work but didn't know anything about remote viewing.
So I was to be the remote -viewing "expert" and Watt the one who
knew his way around the bureaucracy of the intelligence commu-
nity and could ensure we stayed on track with the military coun-
terintelligence focus of our mission.
Major Watt handled the administration of Detachment G and
represented the unit to the brass and numerous other intelligence
agencies and offices. He was perfect for the job. I was responsible

75
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

for the remote -viewing activities of the unit. We were assigned our
own office down the hall from SED, and as the weeks passed, Watt
worked on formalizing a contract with SRI.
Together we came up with a plan to screen INSCOM person-
nel assigned throughout southern Maryland, northern Virginia,
and Washington, D.C. Since we didn't want to reveal our plans to
train a cadre of remote viewers, we decided to use a ruse.

Our plan was to tell we questioned, as well as their

those
supervisors and commanders, that we were conducting a survey for
the commander, INSCOM, asking INSCOM personnel for their
opinions on the idea of police using psychics to help in criminal
investigations and whether they thought psychically derived infor-

mation might be of assistance to the military-intelligence commu-

nity. We collected several newspaper clippings about the police use
of psychics and took the articles with us to the interviews.

Recruiting

Our first step was to contact INSCOM unit commanders and

office supervisors. We toldthem about our survey and asked
them to suggest personnel for us to interview. We told them we
were looking for opinions from those who were most respected by
their coworkers and were likely to speak openly to us about our
survey.
Based on their recommendations, we began our interviews. As
we spoke with INSCOM personnel, we gently elicited information
regarding the six criteria provided by Puthoff and Targ. At first.
Major Watt and I conducted the interviews together, and when we
gained some confidence that we knew what we were doing, we
interviewed separately then met later to discuss our findings. Alto-
gether we interviewed between one hundred and one hundred
twenty-five INSCOM personnel.
When one of us felt favorably about someone that we had
interviewed, we reviewed his personnel file, and then the other
would reinterview that person to double -check the finding. By
comparing notes and accepting each other's recommendations, we

VB
 F. Holmes Atwater

decided that between twenty and thirty of the people we inter-

viewed seemed to meet the criteria outlined by Puthoff and Targ.

We went back to the supervisors and commanders of the qual-
ified interviewees to determine which of these personnel would be
available for special duty with Detachment G. We were able to
identify twelve military and civilian INSCOM personnel who
could be freed up for extra duty.
We then contacted each of these individuals and asked them
to meet us in the secure conference room at Fort Meade. We did
not tell them individually that there would be others at the meet-
ing. We only told them that we wanted to do a follow-up interview.

On the day they arrived, they all sat around the conference table
before the meeting started, sort of wondering what they were doing
there.

The job fell to me to tell them what was going on. As I rose
from my seat to address them, I looked thoughtfully at each. I told

them we hadn't been completely truthful when Major Watt and I

had spoken with them before. I held up a copy of Mind-Reach and
told them about visiting SRI and talking with Puthoff and Targ. I
showed them the classified remote -viewing documents I had and
reviewed the hostile threat perspective published by the air force.

I went on to explain that Detachment G was forming a cadre of

remote viewers and that we were recruiting volunteers to be
trained as remote viewers. I told them that, based on our initial

interviews with them, we felt they might be interested.

Several of them asked questions about the materials I present-
ed and what I meant by "volunteers to be trained as remote view-
ers." I answered the questions about SRI and the classified studies

but sidestepped the training questions. When the discussion set-

tled down, I asked, "Based on what I have told you up to this point,

do any of you want to volunteer for special duty with Detachment

G?" All twelve answered in the affirmative. It was time for Major
Watt to take over.
"Before we can continue," he began, "I must ask you all to sign
a security oath regarding this program." Major Watt explained that
the Special Access Program had been given an official code name

"7 "7
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

and that only those read- on to the program were allowed to dis-

cuss the project. By signing the Special Access Program security

oath as we others had, the volunteers agreed to these conditions.

All of the volunteers were professional intelligence personnel
and were famiUar with code -named projects, so this process was
not entirely new for them. Major Watt and I answered various

questions that came up concerning Detachment G while they were

signing their security oaths. After all the paperwork was complet-
ed, we took a coffee break, and during the break the volunteers
talked among themselves, finding out where each other worked
and sharing stories about what they had told Watt or myself dur-
ing their interviews.
When we resumed, Major Watt turned the agenda back over
to me. I told the group that Detachment G had a contractual rela-
tionship with SRI and that Puthoff and Targ would be coming to

Fort Meade to select several of Menlo Park for

them to go to
training. I explained that others were to be trained at Fort Meade

using the methods that had been developed at SRI. I showed

them some examples from Mind-Reach and the classified docu-
ments I had. Then I described a typical SRI remote -viewing sce-
nario as follows:

A remote viewer and an interviewer sit alone in a room

at a prearranged time. The interviewer prompts the remote
viewer to describe a remote site unknown to either of them
while a third person is visiting the site. The third person is
assigned a random target location selected from a list of near-
by While the interviewer and the remote viewer are
targets.

not told the target location, the remote viewer is nevertheless

asked to draw and describe impressions of the target being
visited by the third party. Because both the viewer and inter-

viewer are unwitting, the interviewer can ask questions about

the viewer's mental perceptions and help clarify descriptive
elements. After the remote-viewing period is over, all the
descriptive data are collected and both the viewer and inter-
viewer are taken to the target site. While visiting the site, the
viewer's descriptions are compared with apparent surround-
ings and the activities of the third person during the viewing

VB
 F. Holmes Atwater

period. Similarities, differences, and missing or distorted per-

ceptions are discussed. During this post-viewing visit to the
target site, the viewer presumably learns to improve descrip-
tions of the remote- viewing experience.

At this point, I reminded the Detachment G volunteers that

what was of interest to INSCOM was the degree to which the
remote -viewing process could be used by hostile intelligence agen-
cies as a surveillance method to compromise our own security.

In the classified documents I had shown to them were exam-

ples of SRI remote viewers describing Soviet military sites. So the
question wasn't so much if remote viewing could compromise our
security, but the severity and depth of such a compromise. Our
mission was not to replicate the scientific work of SRI but to assess
the strategic and tactical impact of remote -viewing surveillance on
the operational security of the army.
Major Watt ended the meeting by welcoming the volunteers to

their special duty with Detachment G. He told them that they

would be notified when the SRI scientists were coming to Fort
Meade. He provided them with our Detachment G office phone
number, recommended they buy themselves their own copy of
Mind-Reach, and sent them back to their respective "regular" jobs
in INSCOM.
It had been less than a year since I had reported for duty to
Fort Meade and I seemed to be floating downstream, effortlessly

drifting toward a future that I had envisioned in my discussions

with Rob Cowart not so very long ago. It seemed that everything
that had happened in my life up to this point had been preparing
me for what was happening now.
This concept that there was some plan or purpose to my life

was not new to me. But, in the days in the Panama Canal Zone,
when life seemed so complete, I had never thought I would some-
day be training a cadre of military remote viewers. So perhaps fore-
knowledge of my course through life was meant to remain below
my threshold of awareness. I wondered if some greater part of me,
my true spiritual identity, had known all along what was happen-
ing.

V3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Several weeks passed before Puthoff and Targ came to Fort

Meade. As Major Watt had been negotiating a contract with them

to train our volunteers, he had been discussing the concept of
training three. When we told them we had identified twelve peo-

ple forthem to meet, they were a bit overwhelmed. They thought

that we wanted them to train all twelve, and everybody sort of
panicked, but they agreed to come to Fort Meade without resolv-
ing this "numbers" issue.
Our twelve volunteers met as a group with Puthoff and Targ
early in 1979. After a group introduction and discussion, the sci-
entists interviewed each of the volunteers individually. As each
completed their interview. Major Watt and I thanked them and
sent them back to their respective INSCOM jobs with an assuring
"We'll be in touch."
After Puthoff and Targ had finished interviewing all the can-
didates, Major Watt suggested that we go to lunch. During lunch,
we avoided talking about the remote -viewing project and took
advantage of the time to get to know each other better. We
learned, for example, that Dr. Puthoff had been in the navy and
had been assigned to Fort Meade for a short time. He even point-
ed out the neighborhood where he had lived. This getting to
know one another was just what was needed to further our after-
lunch discussions.
When we returned to the office. Major Watt and I wanted to
know what Puthoff and Targ thought of our volunteers. They, on
the other hand, were somewhat focused on generating a lucrative

contract to support their work. I say somewhat focused because they

started the afternoon discussion rather sheepishly by explaining that

in their opinion all the candidates looked fine and they were hard-
pressed to pick only three out of the twelve. I think this must have
been Watt's strategy all along ... if they became enamored with our
people they would be more flexible on their contract terms.
It was understood by all of us that, while Watt and I used the
words "training remote viewers," the SRI scientists felt that what
they offered was more akin to an ability or talent assessment. They
weren't so sure anyone could be trained to do remote viewing.

SO
 F. Holmes Atwater

The contract would, most assuredly, say training, as this was a

palatable concept —government personnel were trained to do many
things —but none had ever been evaluated for a psychic talent. Watt
and I always told our volunteers they were being trained to be remote
viewers, even though that might not have been the case in fact.

So impossible was it for Puthoff and Targ to reduce our twelve

candidates to three, they proposed that the contract include two
phases. The first phase would involve working with six candidates
to determine the best three performers of those six. The second
phase would involve in-depth work with those three candidates
who showed the most promise.
Major Watt asked about costs and they said that there would
be no increase in amounts previously discussed. I asked if they had
six candidates in mind. They said that they did. Watt glanced over
at me to see if I thought their proposal was okay, and I inconspic-
uously nodded my approval.
Watt stood up, extended his hand, and announced, "Gentle-
men, your proposal is acceptable. We have a deal." Puthoff took
his hand and smiled. Contracts would have to be signed later, of
we were essentially on our way to SRI and
course, but at this point
remote -viewing history. (At some point, Stanford Research Insti-
tute changed its name to SRI International to distance itself from
Stanford University. The name change didn't have anything to do
with its involvement in remote viewing, and I continue to refer to
the institution as SRI when in fact at some point its proper name
became SRI International.)

The Training

Military duty is a balance between operations and training. If

you are a tank driver and there isn't an ongoing military battle, you
occupy your time training for that eventuality. When there isn't an
ongoing ground war, the foot soldier trains for one. Besides physi-
cal training to keep their bodies in shape and personal weapons
training, military personnel spend hours rehearsing tactics, prac-

ticing maneuvers, and planning operations.

S1
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Detachment G was no different. As the unit's operations and

training officer, I was responsible for . . . well, here it is copied from
my official Officer Efficiency Report, DA Form 68-7:
Operations Officer for an INSCOM special access, sen-
sitive intelligence collection program. Responsible to plan,
schedule and implement individual collection requirements
and prepare intelligence reports based upon information
obtained. Training Officer for division personnel. Responsi-
ble to organize and execute the division training program;
conduct specialized training to enhance individual capabili-
ties and integrate new collection techniques into the current
program; maintain an expertise in state-of-the-art technology.
Member of the Military Intelligence Excepted Career Pro-
gram [nickname: Great Skills].

It was my responsibility, then, to develop and implement a

remote -viewing training program for Detachment G. Through
the months, I had been reading up on different remote -viewing
programs at various organizations. When I talked with Puthoff
and Targ about specific remote -viewing techniques, as opposed
to scientific remote -viewing protocols, they told me that they
pretty much let the individual remote viewers do whatever they
wanted to during the perceptual process. If viewers wanted to lie

down or meditate, that was perfectly acceptable. One of their

viewers had some "lucky socks" that she liked to wear while
remote viewing.
The Puthoff and Targ perspective was basically this: viewers
should be encouraged to sketch or draw elements of the target site

and provide short, perhaps one- to three -word, descriptions of

their perceptions. Their personal habits or ceremonies were of lit-

tle relevance. Stated another way, based on their observations of

performance verses results, they didn't feel there was any behavior,
special state of consciousness, or physical or mental preparedness
particularly conducive or enhancing to remote viewing.
Another highly respected researcher, William G. Braud from
the University of Houston, Texas, theorized a "PSI-conducive
syndrome," or set of circumstances that seemed to be related to

B2
 F. Holmes Atwater

increased psychic performance. These circumstances involved

such things as percipients being physically relaxed, receptive, and
attuned to internal perceptual processes, an environment of
reduced raucous sensory stimulus, and a psychic task of some rel-

evant importance. These concepts seemed to "fill in the blanks"

not addressed by the physicists at SRI.^

Charles Honorton and his colleagues at the Psychophysical
Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, offered another
point of view. Operating within the concept that psychic or remote-
viewing information presents itself below the threshold of conscious
awareness and is therefore overwhelmed by physical sensation, they

postulated that neutralizing the physical senses would help this

lower-amplitude mental information bubble up into awareness.
Further, remote -viewing experiments had shown that spurious
sensory data often contaminated remote -viewing descriptions.
For instance, elements within decorative pictures on the walls of
the remote -viewing room sometimes showed up in the viewer's

target descriptions. By neutralizing such sensory data, valid

remote -viewing information was expected to increase — an
improved signal-to-noise ratio, so to speak.

Honortons neutralization process was called the Ganzfeld

(German for "whole field") technique. Translucent acetate hemi-
spheres (Ping-Pong ball halves) were put over the remote viewer's
eyes, and headphones were placed over the White noise wasears.

played through the headphones. Eyes remained open when wear-

ing the translucent eye shields, and a bright red light was shown
through the shields, which provided a homogeneous visual field.
Tactile stimulation was reduced by having the remote viewer
recline in a comfortable chair and do relaxation exercise to reduce
muscular tension.
Operating within this Ganzfeld environment, the remote viewer
was then cued to perceive the selected target, which of course was
unknown to the viewer. The viewer remained in the Ganzfeld setting

See the article, "PSI Conducive States," by William G. Braud, published in the
Journal of Communication (1975).

S3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

for about thirty minutes, reporting via a microphone any perceptions

of the target. According to my review of the literature, forty-two
Ganzfeld studies conducted by investigators in ten laboratories
reported average hit rates of about thirt^'-five percent with a chance
expectation, based on judging criteria, of twenty-five percent. The
statistical probability of getting a thirty-five percent hit rate across
forty-two studies was highly significant, greater than a billion to one.^
The idea of quieting the mind to become aware of subtle cog-
nitive processes was not limited to Honorton and the Ganzfeld
researchers. This idea was the cornerstone of many traditional
eastern meditation techniques. It seemed to me that the ability to
quiet one's prosaic thoughts and focus one's attention might have
a great deal to do with successful remote viewing.
My own "remote viewing" experience was more akin to an intu-
itive process — direct knowledge coupled with introspective observa-
tion. This stream of consciousness united two distinct experiences.
In the first case, immersed within some task or curiosity, I moved
through an adventure, seeking only to achieve a particular goal. In

the second case, I became aware of my own mental content, notic-

ing my own thoughts about what was happening to me.
The content of the second- case observation differed from that
of the first-case adventure. In the first-case adventure, my goal-
oriented intention aligned my perceptual venues. It was a form of
pure knowing unencumbered by the need to conform the data per-
ceived to conventional wisdom.
My intention in the second case was to make some sense out
of what was happening and to validate or place my perceptions
within an acceptable social framework. The content of the second-
case experience became the "past-lived" pure experience colored
by outside thoughts, memories, and emotional opinion.
Seemingly incorrect remote -viewing information may be the
result of reporting the second- case experience along with its inher-

The complete history of Ganzfeld research was summarized by Daryl J. Bem

and Charles Honorton in the January 1994 issue of the Psychological Bulletin
of the American Psychological Association.

BA
 F. Holmes Atwater

ent overlay. (These inaccuracies can be reduced through the use

of a mediator or coach to help the remote viewer objectify the
direct knowledge of the first- case experience.)
Bringing together what I learned from Puthoff and Targ and
other respected scientists, a review of the pertinent literature, and
my own personal experience, a generic framework for training
began to emerge. From this perspective, I began to develop what
became the army's remote -viewing training program.
If successful, trained remote viewers would be able to assess
the strategic and tactical impact of remote -viewing surveillance on
the operational security of the army. But, as I would eventually
realize, this whole episode in my life would generate waves of
change throughout our culture for decades to come.

<\

B5
 Chapter Four

Remote-Viewing Training
and Operations

What somewhat cumbersome detailing of what

follows is a
became the army's remote -viewing training and operations pro-
gram. If you are more interested in the overall meaning all this
had and less interested in the specific details, then perhaps you
should flip forward a few pages to the section called The Training
Begins. Because of my personal involvement in this government-
sanctioned project, I felt obligated to provide a complete and
informative account. So, here goes.

Technical Background
Remote viewing can be divided into categories or behaviors
(relaxing, connecting, listening, becoming aware, and reporting)
that can be reinforced using conventional learning techniques.

Relaxing

The first behavior is letting go and turning inward. Remote view-

ing appears to be dependent on an "interior state" or perceptual

SB
 R Holmes Atwater

viewpoint. In a sense, the remote viewer discovers information

from within rather than from sensory sources.
This reorientation can sometimes be brought about deliberately
by modifying body posture, or exhibiting certain physical gestures,
or by regulating one's breathing. This state may also be accessed

through deliberately modifying ongoing mental activity, like will'

fully visualizing a favorite tranquil scene. Conversely, this remote-

viewing state may resist deliberate provocation. One can't try to

release or use effort to "let go." It is something one simply and vol-
untarily allows to happen.

Once obtained, this letting go and turning inward state

changes one's perception of the body space and produces certain
alterations in thinking processes. While remote viewing, the view-
er may have sensations of being unified or whole, while at the same
time expanding to the point where the sense of body or personal
space disappears.
In the letting go and turning inward state, mental calmness
replaces cognitive activity and the mind seems to slow down.
This transformation results in setting aside conceptual rambling
and replacing it with bodily or kinesthetic experience. These char-
acteristics of the letting go and turning inward remote -viewing
state are common also to so-called borderline or twilight states of

consciousness.
Some remote viewers seem to know when they have achieved
this receptive state of consciousness and know how to maintain or
perpetuate this state, perhaps by adjusting their body position or
checking their breathing.
From a training perspective, then, teaching people to allow
themselves access to this interior state of knowing should enhance
the overall remote -viewing behavior. Such training is available in
a number of disciplines. I simply needed to restructure existing for-
mats and set up modeling and reinforcement scenarios, as a sports

coach or music teacher might do. Some of this was evident in SRI's
remote -viewing protocol, but their interest was in results -oriented
testing and evaluation. They never thought about what they were
doing from a teaching perspective.

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 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

So, for the initial training, I provided the remote -viewing

recruits with reading materials and practical exercises designed to

enhance their ability to relax their minds and bodies and focus their

attention on internal perceptual processes. When they reported

appropriate feelings, sensations, and perceptions, I reinforced this
behavior with verbal appreciation, a smile, and gestures of praise.

Connecting
The second behavior characteristic of remote viewing is a res-
onance phase, during which the viewer contacts the "information of
interest," which may be a physical object, a particular activity, or a

location. Sometimes remote viewers seem to be able to align them-

selves with personal questions, the emotional or mental states of
others, health issues, or even scientific and technical dilemmas.
The actual nature of the information, the space/time relation to
the viewer, and the sensorial vocabulary available define the con-
nection. For the most part, the process of connecting appears to
emerge from the unconscious, and different viewers experience
variations of the connection process. Some bring the information
into the interior mental space freed during the opening preparation
process. Other viewers extend their perceptual windows across the
"distance" between them and the information of interest until a
unity is achieved. Still other remote viewers perceive themselves
harmonizing or synchronizing with the information of interest.
Teaching the connection behavior is simply a matter of attend-
ing to the preferences of each individual trainee and coaching them
along until they begin to trust in themselves and their own process.
Imagine for a moment teaching (coaching) children how to "con-
nect" with the soccer ball during play. First, you just place the ball

at their feet and tell them to kick it. The better they do, the more
you reward and praise them for their performance. You might sug-
gest a pointed toe or a bent knee, but for the most part you simply
give them the opportunity to practice "connecting" with the ball.
Next, you gently roll the ball to them and again ask them to kick it.

Then you get them to approach the ball as it is rolling toward them

SB
 F. Holmes Atwater

and kick it again. So the coach's job here is to present a variety of

opportunities for them to "connect" with the ball.

Their first-person experience of "connecting" will be based on

both what you suggest to them and on previous experiences. You
might tell them as a matter of course to visualize their foot striking
the ball. Some players will take well to this internal process. Oth-
ers may prefer to see themselves becoming one with the ball and
rocketing off to a distant field position.
In remote -viewing training, it is appropriate to teach this con-
necting process by starting off with a number of very tangible expe-
riences similar to the original SRI protocol. The remote viewer
meets an individual and later is asked to "resonate" with and
describe that person's location. This is a very tangible concept, eas-
ily imagined by the trainee. The remote viewer can imagine being
one with the person at the designated site of interest, think about
observing the person's activities at the site, or even expand aware-
ness to the point of becoming the site — its description therefore
becomes a matter of self-discovery.
The teacher or coach praises evidence of strong connections
with the target and the trainee internalizes the processes that are
successful. Another tangible connecting experience that can be
offered is to have a remote viewer describe a picture concealed in
an envelope. As the viewer develops confidence, less tangible con-
necting experiences are offered.
Geographic coordinates representing global positions can be
provided to the viewer with the expectation that the viewer access
and describe relevant information about that location. The
teacher/coach similarly reinforces behavior- evidencing resonance
with the site of interest. When the viewer further internalizes
those processes that yield accurate target descriptions, even more
abstract cueing can be used to initiate the connection process.

Listening

The third behavior characteristic of remote viewing is a listen-

ing stage, during which remote viewers find themselves in a state of

B9
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

interior calm, listening very closely to their own sensations. This

stage of the process may involve different sensory modes and

attention states.
The information desired by a remote viewer appears at first to

express its essence within the habit-limited sensory process of the

physical body. Initially, the remote viewer may experience only
sensory elements. Different viewers characteristically perceive and
respond to information differently. Some of us operate in a visual
context ("I see what you mean"), some with an auditory codicil ("I

hear what you are saying"), and still others perceive and respond
kinesthetically ("I feel you are right"). There are interpersonal-
communications schools based on these principles; one can learn
to interrelate on all three dimensions.
The remote viewer's focus of attention may be internal or
external or even panoramic, not focused on any special aspect.

Unlike focused attention that attends to a particular element and

is narrow and rigid, the remote viewer's attention is open, ambient,
without any precise intention. It is more a waiting patiently with-
out expectation, a receptive state without looking for or grasping
at anything. During the listening stage, the viewer peacefully wel-

comes the arrival —the awareness—of information about the site

of interest, which launches the fourth behavior characteristic of

remote viewing.
In teaching this listening stage, it is important to remember
that at this point the viewer is not expected to report perceptions,
a "second-case" experience which occurs sometime later. So in

coaching the listening stage, we told viewers to experience without

describing or reporting, to simply observe the experience they have
in response to cueing. After a few minutes of silence, trainees were
asked to describe not their perceptions of the cued information but
their experience of observing. At first they might have had a ten-
dency to describe the cued information, but through gentle coach-
ing they could be guided to explain and identify with the
experience of "listening" with an open mind to their own percep-
tual processes.

go
 F. Holmes Atwater

Becoming Aware
The fourth behavior characteristic of remote viewing is actually

becoming aware of information. This phase includes the moment just

before the awareness, the awareness itself, and the brief period fol-

lowing the awareness.

There comes a moment, just preceding the emergence of infor-
mational awareness, during which remote viewers experience an
emptiness or disorienting moment of confusion, as though the
mind was released from the confines of the physical dimension.
Following this void of physicalness, information appears in aware-
ness. This can be internal images, feelings, sounds, words, tastes

and smells, thoughts without words, etc. A feeling of surety and a

sense of meaning usually accompany the emergence of this infor-

mation into consciousness.

i

At the moment of awareness, the remote viewer's internal

state is passive. Preconceived concepts, rules, learned knowledge,

memory, and premeditation are suspended. The sensation of being

an individual separate from what is perceived vanishes.
Because research has shown that psychic perceptions can
influence our behavior before reaching the threshold of awareness,
it is assumed that remote -viewing information is always available,
even if not realized. Many perceptions are on the boundaries of
awareness and do not always emerge in a complete or understand-
able form. One's first awareness may be an indistinct image or a
vague sensation. As one practices bringing on internal calmness
and listening with an open mind, remote -viewing awareness will

develop, and one will be better able to discriminate among the sen-
sations perceived.
In the brief period after awareness, remote viewers can adopt
several interior attitudes. They can repress the sensation or
grasp the sensation by attaching it to emotions or by binding it

to interior dialogue that will distort it and disturb "listening," or,

worse, they could seek to recognize the sensation, understand it, and
interpret it. All these cognitive processes have the effect of "fixing
up" these possibly indistinct or vague impressions and putting an
end to the flow of information awareness. Optimally, the remote

91
 —
Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

viewer quietly accepts the awareness and confidently and patiently

lets it blossom and take form without analyzing or interpreting it.

Teaching this unique awareness phase involves monitoring the

cognitive processes of trainees and reinforcing those that support
accurate recovery of information of interest (site data). Viewers

must be coached to maintain an open mind, and their reactions to

their perceptions must be measured, to ensure that they do not

adopt an attitude that distorts or terminates the information flow.
Students should be encouraged to write down in essay form

their cognitive content during this awareness phase. These writings

should not be about the site of interest — the cued information
but about the internal mentation processes of the viewer while
becoming aware of these data. The teacher/coach can use these
written accounts to assess and reinforce appropriate behavior.
Remote viewers should be encouraged to let inklings become
stable, and then gently deepen the "contact" (see the connection
phase above) without forcing, until the inkling takes form. When
objectified (see below), correct descriptions will tend to further
resolve the impression and further involve the viewer with the
information of interest.

Reporting
The fifth behavior characteristic of remote viewing is describ-

ing or reporting information perceived while "connected." This

behavior constitutes a second-case experience of the actual aware-
ness phase of remote viewing and is sometimes called objectifying.
It involves skillfully conveying potentially valid intersubjective
perceptions from the mental realm of awareness into the physical,
objective world. The remote viewer trainee must learn precise
strategies to translate impressions into communicable form with-
out engaging habitual interpretation, analysis, or blocking behav-
ior. Ideally, remote -viewing data represent direct knowledge,
untiltered by an intermediary reasoning process.
When remote viewers set aside their representations, beliefs,

judgments, and preconceived notions about the information of

92
 F. Holmes Atwater

interest,^ and begin speaking slowly from a quiet place inside,

where they become more and more connected with the first- case

experience of the information of interest, site descriptions become

precious insights.
An experienced interviewer can be very helpful during the
process of objectifying. The interviewer's job requires sensitivity to
the remote viewer's phrasing, body language, and subtle, some-
times unconscious, behaviors. The most effective interviewers are

themselves experienced intuitives capable of empathetic apprecia-

tion of the remote viewer's perspective.
The role of the teacher/coach and interviewer intertwine dur-
ing this process. So teaching remote viewers to objectify their

impressions necessarily involves mastery of appropriate interview-

ing techniques.'^ The teacher/interviewer/coach (monitor) helps
the remote viewers unfold their first- case act, through verbaliza-
tion and drawing, by posing questions that elicit more information
than the viewers realize or suppose that they know. The monitor
attends to their phrasing, body language, and subtle behaviors
above and beyond what is being said — and then uses this informa-
tion to refocus or redirect the remote viewer.
Becoming aware (the fourth behavior discussed above) and
being able to objectify (as in verbalize and/or draw) are distinctly dif-

ferent behaviors. The intent to objectify information subordinates, to

some degree, the intent to acquire information. Viewers must be
taught to maintain a delicate balance between the first- case experi-
ence of awareness and the second- case experience of objectifying.
During objectification, there are indications, certain micro
behaviors exhibited by the remote viewers, which indicate to the
interviewer that they are accessing first- case experience information.

My somewhat redundant use of "information of interest" rather than "designat-

ed target" or "remote-viewing site" is meant to convey that, whatever a remote

viewer is asked to describe or engage, it would seem that the viewer connects
with data in a non-space/time pool of information.
A detailed account of the interviewing skills necessary is beyond the scope of
this writing. Suffice it to say that my previous special agent training at Fort
Holibird, Maryland, came in very handy.

93
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

A loss of eye 'to -eye contact, with the viewer looking off into empti-
ness, a break in the speech pattern of the viewer, or even the use of
present'tense instead of past-tense verbs can all be indications of
first' case experience reporting rather than interpretation or analysis.
A slowing down of the rhythm of verbalization can be an indi'
cation that the remote viewers are not simply reciting previous
knowledge in reaction to perception but are accurately reporting

aspects of their first- case experiences.

Remote viewers often resort to the use of abstract descriptions

(metaphors, similes, conditional judgments, etc.) rather than

sticking to a precise description of the perceived information. Such
use of abstracts indicates cognitive interpretation, analysis, and/or
integration rather than direct experiential knowledge gained as a
result of the first- case remote -viewing experience.
The interview provides, firstly, a sequence of moments during
which remote viewers silently relive an aspect of their first- case expe-
rience. Secondly, the interview provides subsequent time periods

during which remote viewers objectify these moments (describing

them verbally and/or with drawings) while at the same time main-
taining a mental connection to the information of interest.
The monitor encourages the remote viewers to describe their
experiences using an Ericksonian style of questioning — referring to
the American psychotherapist Milton Erickson, whose technique
is characterized by indirect suggestion instead of the more tradi'

tional, authoritarian approach. This allows the remote viewer to

clarify first' case experience without inducing content or influenc'
ing the choice of words or descriptions used by the viewer. It is dif'

ficult, if not impossible, for some remote viewers to remain within

their first'Case experience and simultaneously objectify this as a
second'Case experience.
If remote viewers lose this connection — this psychic link — to
the site, they can be reimmersed into the first'Case experience
through the use of autO'Cueing techniques or through monitor
cueing. A productive interview can then resume.
In the end, learning remote viewing involves the trainees not in
learning progressively accumulating knowledge but in giving up old
 F. Holmes Atwater

habits of representation, categorization, abstraction, and identifica-

tion. They soon realize that their awareness extends beyond their
physical bodies and/or the sum of their sensory neural activity.

The Training Begins

Focusing on the above -outlined remote -viewing behaviors

(relaxing, connecting, listening, becoming aware, and reporting), I

began training our recruits at Fort Meade months before they went
out to SRI. All recruit remote viewers experienced several of these
initial remote -viewing exercises, as we felt that the remote viewers
who had been selected to go to SRI would benefit from the prac-
tice, while those recruits who had not been selected would have an
opportunity to demonstrate their ability and be part of the project.
This effort also gave me a chance to hone my skills as a

remote -viewing interviewer/coach. Major Watt was able to see

firsthand that professional intelligence personnel were able to
remote view if placed in a conducive environment.
Using the initial "out-bounder" protocol common to the
remote viewing done at SRI, Major Watt would randomly select a

target envelope from a target pool of sites within a thirty-minute

drive of Fort Meade. When one of the remote viewers and I would
enter the viewing room, Watt would drive away, opening the
sealed envelope only when he was some distance from the office.
In the envelope was the name of the designated target site and
driving instructions to get there. Back in the office, sequestered in
the viewing room, I would stay with the remote viewer while
preparing for the exercise.
In these first months of the project, remote viewers usually used
the time while Watt was driving to the target site to practice getting
into a state of consciousness conducive to remote viewing. Each of
them had a slightly different method for doing this. I coached and
encouraged their various physical relaxation and mental clearing
techniques. At the appropriate, designated time, I would prompt the
remote viewer to focus attention on Watt's location. This was the cue
for the remote viewer to "connect" with the information of interest.

95
 -

Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

The room usually fell silent for a few moments while the
remote viewer turned inward and listened intently for some emerg-
ing perception. If after a few minutes the remote viewer didn't
seem to be connected with the information of interest, I would
prompt the viewer again to focus attention on Watt's location.

Once the remote viewer became aware of data emerging into

consciousness as evidenced by micro behaviors (eye movements,
spontaneous gestures, etc.) and verbal utterances, I changed my
prompting slightly and directed the viewer to "describe" Watt's
location. This was the cue for the remote viewer to enter the
second' case objectification experience. I coached and encouraged
short, nonanalytic comments concerning the information of inter-
est. If the viewers lost contact with the site, I would simply prompt
them to focus once again on Watt's location.
Some remote viewers liked to draw while describing Watt's
location; others preferred to complete the verbal interview first.

Viewers who waited until after the interview to draw seemed to

have a more defined second- case experience. When viewers wait-
ed to draw until after the interview, I simply went over my notes
with them, directing their objectification by saying something like,

"You described a brick wall at the site. Draw that wall for me,
showing where it is located." Although this drawing activity
seemed to me to be an experience "here" (in the office) rather than
"there" (at the target site), remote viewers seemed able to describe
more information of interest during this drawing experience. (SRI,
too, encouraged drawing as a valuable component of the remote
viewing process.) This advantage seemed to have two dimensions.
In the first place, raw remote -viewing impressions may be
"right-brain," or nonverbal, perceptions emerging more easily into

awareness as a gestalt and easily objectified through drawing and

autonomic involvement. Second, once completed, a drawing could
be used to cue the remote viewer to describe in more detail select-
ed aspects of the site.

For example, in the notional wall drawing in the illustration

above, I could point to one side of the wall and direct the remote
viewer to describe that specific area. Such direction would prompt

36
 R Holmes Atwater

the viewer to once again connect with the target and the newly des-
ignated information of interest, listen for some emerging percep-
tion, become aware of site data, and then objectify those insights.

After the viewing session, the viewer and the interviewer were
taken to the designated site to compare the remote -viewing
descriptions with the "ground- truth" perceptions of the site (infor-
mation of interest)

SRI Training
In May we started sending remote -viewing candidates
1979,
out to Menlo Park. They were told that they were being sent for
remote -viewing training. They were not told that this was to be an
evaluation and that only three of them would return to SRI for in-
depth work. (We didn't want to add to any performance anxiety
they might already be experiencing.)
Each candidate spent one week in Menlo Park conducting
remote -viewing trials, and an independent analyst judged the tri-

als using a complexly structured evaluation method called "blind

differential discrimination."

As the weeks went by and each candidate returned from

Menlo Park, Major Watt and I debriefed them, curious about how
well they had done and what they thought of the experience.
The article, "Remote -Viewing Replication: Evaluated By Con-
cept Analysis," by Russell Targ, published in The Journal of Para-
psychology Vol. 58,
, September 1994, is a detailed reporting of the
performance of the six Detachment G remote -viewing recruits.

Their identities were not provided in the article so as to protect

their anonymity.

Targ's article, and SRI's 1979 report, stated that four of the six
candidates evidenced superb remote -viewing abilities, producing
independently significant remote -viewing results. The two other
candidates showed some evidence for good remote -viewing skills,

even though their individual series of target- site descriptions did

not reach statistical significance.

While the six volunteers cycled through the first SRI evaluation.

BV
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

we continued training practice at Fort Meade. During this time,

natural attrition reduced the numbers of volunteers. Some volun-

teers had taken well to the remote -viewing process, while others
were less successful or were attracted to other professional pur-
suits. I don't think any were particularly disillusioned about their
own remote -viewing abilities. The higher-performing recruits were
culled from the original volunteer list, and a core cadre of army
remote viewers began to form.
We stayed focused on our mission. We had been charged with
training professional intelligence personnel to do remote viewing.
Once trained, they were to provide remote -viewing descriptions of
U.S. Army installations and commands all over the world, in an
attempt to assess OPSEC vulnerabilities to hostile remote -viewing
surveillance. SED and Detachment G felt that this effort was of
vital importance to national security.
Major Watt and I, in consult with Puthoff and Targ, needed to
decide which of the six original recruits would return to SRI for
further testing and evaluation (training). Watt and I wanted SRI
input on which recruits they thought would develop dependable
remote -viewing skills. We also wanted to get the three perma-
nently reassigned to Detachment G at Fort Meade. As it turned
out, there was overwhelming agreement among all parties, and the
three best recruits were selected.
The official report of results of this second-phase training/
evaluation at SRI has not been declassified. However, SRI's efforts
at that time moved beyond the basic out-bounder protocol into
alternate cueing methodologies, different types or styles of targets,
and the evaluation of enhanced remote -viewing skills.

The basic out-bounder protocol involved sending a person

known to the remote viewer to a randomly selected nearby location.
Alternate cueing methodologies included, but were not limited to,

cueing by geographic coordinates" and sealed-envelope exercises.

'°
It is said that Ingo Swann first introduced the idea of cueing a remote viewer by
using latitude and longitude geographic coordinates. The expression CRV or
"coordinate remote viewing" emerged when Ingo was working with SRI. I was
recently informed that Ingo prefers the expression "controlled remote viewing."

3B
 F. Holmes Atwater

The out'bounder protocol was used as an initial screening tool

and training methodology to enhance viewer confidence. It had
little applications potential, however. Coordinate remote viewing
(CRV) could be applied directly to our OPSEC mission. To initiate

connection with the information of interest in CRV, the inter-

viewer simply cued the remote viewer by reciting the latitude and
longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds of the designated site.

In the early days before Ingo Swann's specialized training, some

remote viewers would write the coordinates down, while others
seemed to pay little or no attention to the enumeration. It was
occasionally necessary to read the coordinates again at some point
during the session if the viewer lost contact with the site.

We assembled a target pool of interesting and distinguishable

sites (mountains, lakes, cities, factories, bridges, etc.) and deter-
mined the latitude and longitude coordinates. We prepared folders
containing pictures or other information about the site and wrote
the geographic coordinates of the site on the folder. When time
came to conduct a remote -viewing session, one of the target fold-

ers was selected at random.

Within the SRI protocol, the interviewer/monitor was then
provided with only the designated geographic coordinates. Once
the remote -viewing session began, the viewer was cued with those
coordinates as described above. The session progressed in much
the same manner as before, with some viewers reporting verbally,
others sketching or drawing, and still others combining these two
methods of objectifying their perceptions.

Since it was impractical to take the viewer to the designated loca-

tion after the viewing session, as had been done under the out-
bounder protocol, the contents of the target folder — pictures, verbal

descriptions, etc. —were provided as a learning-feedback instrument.

If the latitude and longitude coordinates designated an island

or something like the Grand Canyon, or even the Eiffel Tower,
this form of feedback worked well. But suppose, for example, the

coordinates designated a volcano. The feedback folder might con-

tain pictures from National Geographic magazine showing the vol-
cano erupting some twenty years ago. Although the assumed

9S
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Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

intent of the session would be to have the remote viewers access

and describe information of interest on the day of the viewing
i.e., the present, an inactive volcano —everything about the feed-
back folder encouraged (rewarded) the remote viewing description
of an erupting volcano.
So, if during the remote -viewing session the viewer describes
an erupting volcano, what data are being accessed and objectified?

What information packet has the viewer connected to? Do remote

viewers subconsciously realize that the mountain they are describ-
ing is a volcano? And do they embellish descriptions with the erup-
tion scenario in an ill-fated attempt to accurately convey their
impressions?
Rather than remote viewing the coordinate -cued volcano itself,

do the viewers time -displace into their imminent feedback event

only a few minutes away, and thereby describe the pictures in the
folder? Or, has the eruption of the volcano "imprinted" or "signa-
tured" in some way the very nature of the volcano and caused a
retrocognitive remote -viewing time -displacement to the past?
Such a meaningful past event may attract (displace) the atten-
tion of the remote viewer across time. And if time displacements
are possible with remote viewing, perhaps the eruption objectified
by the remote viewer describes a future eruption.
Obviously, cueing must include a time dimension, a time
stamp (so to speak) resonant with the information of interest
which one intends the remote viewer describe. Rather than seeing
these issues as problematic, I thought of them as supportive and
helpful in moving toward operational use of remote viewing.
We used a learning-feedback instrument to encourage self-

confidence. (However, it is important to note that decades of sci-

entific remote -viewing research suggest that even the most skilled

remote viewers are generally unable to consciously distinguish

"good" sessions from "bad" ones.)
But in the operational use of remote viewing, feedback was not
always available. So training that led remote viewers to remote view
their own (future) feedback would have been of little value in oper-
ational remote viewing. When I worked with the remote viewers, I
 F. Holmes Atwater

carefully controlled their learning-feedback using the usual behav-

iorist techniques to reduce their dependence on it and encourage
remote -viewing contact with the information of interest in the
operational setting.
For those viewers who couldn't move beyond remote viewing
their own feedback, I slowly extended the time interval between
the session and the feedback. If they could maintain their profi-
ciency when feedback was delayed a week or two or even a month
or more, they became excellent candidates for associative remote
viewing or forecasting operations for which feedback could be pro-
vided. From an OPSEC perspective, a forecasting operation might
be structured something like the following:

The remote-viewing task is to describe the surface-to-air

missile test being conducted on Tuesday of next week. A
complete report that will detail the results of the test will be
made available one week following the test. The viewer is

given as cueing only the appropriate geographic coordinates.

The viewer is not told anything about the test or the nature of
the task at hand and after the session is informed that feed-
back on [some specified date].
will be provided
In this case, a "time stamp" is omitted, as the actual tar-
get expected to be described by the viewer is her own future
feedback. So, composing the feedback folder becomes criti-
cal to the success of the operation. Good pictures, accurate
descriptions, etc., all contribute to —and become— the infor-
mation of interest in the mission.
There are three probable test results: (1) The test may be
canceled or postponed, (2) the test may be a mishap, with the
missile failing to hit the airborne target, and (3) the test may be
successful, with the missile hitting and destroying the airborne
target. The details of any of these possible results need to be
included in the feedback envelope for the remote viewer.
It is implicitly understood that conventional space/time
does not bind the remote- viewing process. But this scenario
is not so much a demonstration that remote viewing can col-
lect information from the future, or can predict future events,
as it is an operationally engineered method for obtaining the
most information about the event.

101
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

During this second-phase training/evaluation at SRI, another

form of cueing was used that is best described under the generic
concept of "sealed- envelope exercises." We constructed a target
pool similar to the CRV target pool, except that we omitted geo-
graphic coordinate designations from the folders. Then the inter-

viewer randomly selected a sealed envelope from the target pool

and cued the viewer by saying, "Describe the target specified in

this envelope."
As you might imagine, this could lead to issues similar to the
ones discussed above. What is the intent of the session? Is the
intent to remote view the contents of the envelope or the place or
event suggested by the contents of the envelope? Does the view-
er's intent differ from that of the interviewer? Is the viewer's
unconscious intent to "do well" so he remote views his future feed-
back —the opening of the envelope moments after the session?

Some sealed- envelope exercises obviously described the con-

tents of the envelope. I remember one case where the viewer
described a motorcycle on a bed. In the envelope was a page torn
from a magazine and folded in half On one side of the page was an
advertisement and picture of a bedroom suite and on the other
side of the page an advertisement and picture of a motorcycle.
In other cases, it was obvious that the picture in the envelope
directed the remote viewer to describe something else. For exam-
ple, the picture in the sealed envelope might be of a marketplace
in a village in a third- world country. During the remote -viewing
session, the viewer describes a lake. When the envelope is opened
for feedback, both the interviewer and the remote viewer initially

assess the session as a miss.

Weeks later, it is discovered that the picture in the envelope

was taken from National Geographic and is over twenty-five years
old. Further investigation reveals that the article published (but

not included in the folder) along with the picture was about a dam
that was being built that would eventually flood the village. Recent
pictures of the area reveal that the whole area is now a lake, with
the population long since relocated. So what happened here? The
possibilities are numerous.

1 02
 F. Holmes Atwater

Back at Fort Meade, I found training the remote viewers with

the sealed' envelope protocol to be a valuable technique directly
applicable to later operational implementation. From an OPSEC
perspective, I could put a picture of a weapons system — a tank, for

example — in a sealed envelope and ask the remote viewer to

describe the object shown in the sealed envelope.

If I wanted to, I could add a date stamp to my cueing or wait

to see what the viewer described. If the viewer accurately
described the tank in the photographic setting, I had a pretty good
idea that he was describing the contents of the sealed envelope
rather than being directed by the picture and the intent of the ses-
sion. If this happened, I would tell the remote viewer that he was
doing well and would then ask him to describe the object not at
the time of the photograph but at some other designated date (like

maybe during a critical test of the tank's armor). Once the viewer
had connected well with the information of interest, this slight
detour in time prompted by my date cueing was of little conse-
quence and was easily achieved.

I kept track of which viewers did well with this sealed-

envelope cueing. Eventually, I put pictures of people in the sealed
envelopes and cued the remote viewers by saying, "In the envelope
is a picture of a person. Describe their location to me."
For those remote viewers who did well with this, I went even fur-
ther. I found it was sometimes possible to write specific instructions

on a three -by-five index card and then put that card in a sealed

envelope. The instructions on the card were straightforward, e.g.,

describe the location of Army Aircraft Number 3 ITY on 4 July 1979.

All I would have to do is cue the remote viewer at the beginning of
the session by saying, "Describe target specified in the envelope."
The viewer, of course, had no idea what was in the envelope. It

could have been a picture of a missile, an island in the ocean, a float

in the Pasadena Rose Parade, or one of my three -by-five index cards.
This methodology prevented front loading (telling the viewer some-
thing about the target before the session) when there was no other
way to approach a problem. In my experience, only a select few
remote viewers ever reached this level of confidence and expertise.

103
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

During the second-phase training/evaluation at SRI, our

remote viewers were tested for their ability to access other types of

targets. Most of the work to this point was concerned with remote
viewing ground locations like mountains, lakes, bridges, skyscrap-
ers, factories, airports, etc. As part of their assessment process, SRI
wanted to find out if the viewers who seemed to be doing so well
could do as well with other types of targets.
The Ganzfeld research used slide photographs as targets, and
SRI wanted to tr>^ something similar with army remote viewers. A
number mounted on a slide
of pictures (the target pool) were
carousel projector located in a locked room some distance from the
remote -\aewing room. Before a session, a random number desig-
nated which slide was to be the target. (It's important to say that
it doesn't really matter if you randomly pick the target before or
after the viewing session. The target is the target, and time is not
relevant to the remote viewing process.)
Several types of cueing phrases were tried. The interv^iewer
might say to the viewer, "Tell me about the slide you will see when
we go downstairs after the session." This particular phrasing tend-
ed to encourage the viewer to connect with his own feedback
(which can be operationally advantageous or not, depending on
what one is trying to find out). An alternative might be to say,
"Describe the picture being projected on the screen right now."
Another t>'pe of target of interest to SRI involved letters and
words. If the remote viewers could describe objects and activities,
could they "read" information blocked by time, distance, or shield-
ing? In this type of session, words were randomly selected though
a complex, multilevel system.
In an office in another building, the letters making up these
words were inscribed on cards and prominently displayed. The
viewers knew they were attempting to read a word displayed in a
designated place. They were cued to tr>' to connect with the des-
ignated area and describe the prominently displayed words.
This provided some intriguing information about remote view-
ing. When words were accurately reported, it was easy to assume
that the viewer had connected with individual letters and put

104
 F. Holmes Atwater

them together to form the words. (I won't even get into a possible
telepathic explanation here.) To test this concept, the SRI
researchers mixed up the letters of the word when they put it up
for display. For example, if the randomly selected word was "cat-

tle," the scientist put the letters T-E-L-C-T-A written on cards on

display in the room. But the remote viewers still reported the cor-
rect word, cattle, not the jumbled letters.

So can a remote viewer read? Maybe. But I find it easier to say

that a remote viewer can "describe" information about written

material.
The other thing done during the second-phase training/evalu-
ation at SRI was a sort of skill evaluation. Why did some remote
viewers do better than others at some tasks? Were specific talents

related to previous experiences in life? This was of immense oper-

ational interest to us at Fort Meade. If we were going to remote
view a nuclear weapons facility, would it be beneficial to train a
nuclear physicist to do the remote viewing?
One of our remote viewers, by way of example, seemed to

have a superb ability to orient perceptions with relation to the

compass directions. (Perhaps this was because he had worked as a

radio direction-finding specialist during the Vietnam era, or per-

haps this was an innate talent.) This talent carried over into his
remote viewing to a degree I have never seen in another remote
viewer.
Once he connected with a target, he could describe what was
to the north, south, east, and west of the site. I could even instruct
him to move by distance and direction: "Move three miles south-
east of your location and describe." We eventually worked so well
together that all I had to say to him was, "Work the compass." He
would proceed to accurately describe what was around him (his
perceptual remote -viewing perspective) in all directions.
The official report of the second-phase training/evaluation at
SRI detailing the results of the research remains classified under
code -word caveat. But I hope I have provided some explanation of
the SRI work without disclosing classified information.
Back at Fort Meade, we too moved beyond the basic out-bounder

105
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

protocol into alternate cueing methods and different types of tar-

gets. Part of my job became to determine the operational capabili-

ties and limitations of remote viewing, to identify and develop

individual skills, and to evaluate the accuracy of remote viewing
on unique targets.

As the weeks turned into months, and into years, I began to

establish a knowledge base. I knew what kinds of intelligence tasks
could be accomplished by remote viewing and which remote view-
ers could best accomplish them. Some remote viewers were better
with technical sites like nuclear facilities, munitions factories, or

specific pieces of equipment. Others seemed to have a better track

record with sites like train stations or a missile firing, where the
detection of movement was important. And still others did very
well with "people targets" —describing human activity at a site or

making telepathic contact with people at designated locations.

Operational Remote Viewing

The Fort Meade remote viewers' first operational mission,
which took place on September 4, 1979, was not an OPSEC mis-
sion. Instead, the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelli-

gence for the Army requested that we help locate a downed U.S.
aircraft. Of course, neither the interviewer (myself) nor the remote
viewer had any idea where in the world the plane might have gone
missing. But in just one remote -viewing session we were able to
provide the name of a major terrain feature later identified as the
name of a mountain into which the aircraft had crashed, and we
provided a map location "guess" that proved to be within fifteen
miles of the actual site of the crash.
I remain bound by my original secrecy oath and cannot dis-
close much about operational missions. (For interesting insights, I

would suggest Jim Schnabel's book Remote Viewers: The Secret His-
tory of Americas Psychic Spies, published by Dell.) Because of secu-
rity restrictions, I am unable to provide the names of the various
agencies that requested remote -viewing information or the nature
of the requests themselves. But as I examine the official logbook of

10B
 F. Holmes Atwater

all the operational missions conducted while I was with the Fort
Meade remote -viewing unit, I see that in 1979 we completed
seven operational missions, which required a number of remote-
viewing sessions, and during my tour of duty with the unit I con-
ducted 122 operational missions consisting of many hundreds of
separate remote -viewing sessions with a number of individual
remote viewers.
SRI used a standard of blind differential discrimination to judge

remote -viewing efforts. We at Fort Meade simply asked the tasking

agencies to tell us if the information provided was of intelligence
value. But by the nature of intelligence work, this sometimes
involved difficulties. Many times, remote viewers provided accu-
rate descriptions of areas of interest, but those descriptions were
not necessarily o* value.
For example, if a tasking agency wanted to determine if a certain

type of aircraft was located at a designated airfield, we would cue the

remote viewer with the geographic coordinates of that airfield. Since
the viewer had no overt idea that she was targeted against an air-

field, a remote viewing session that described an airfield provided

some evidence that the viewer had "connected" with the target

area. But if the session provided no information that could confirm

or refute the presence of the suspected aircraft, the session would be
rated by the tasking agency as having no intelligence value, the

viewer not having connected with the information of interest.

Let's look a little more closely at the issue. Imagine that

you're given a camera and a roll of film and told to take pictures
of a certain building. You go out to the neighborhood, taking a
few snapshots along the way. You find the address, and you begin
to photograph the building. The person who told you to take the
pictures actually wants to know if there is a red car parked in front
of the building but didn't want you to know this. Not knowing the
client's special interest, you take some nice pictures of the building
from as many angles as you think appropriate. After you're
through, you take some more pictures of the neighborhood,
including the cars in front of the building.
Now, when you take the pictures back, your client thumbs

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Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

through them rapidly, tossing most of them aside. Some are good
pictures of the building but of no intelligence value. Some are not
of the building at all. A few pictures, however, clearly show the red
car parked in front of the building and, as luck would have it, one
of your extra pictures is of the car itself
In the same manner, certain remote -viewing missions provided
information of intelligence value. Some were quite spectacular, and
special military commendations were awarded to the remote view-
ers. Others were great examples of remote viewing but provided lit-

tle or no information of direct intelligence value. Still other sessions

were complete misses, demonstrating that remote viewing is,

among other things, constrained by individual differences. Even the

best baseball sluggers only get a hit about thirty percent of the time
they are at bat. That's what "batting 300" means.
This idea of intelligence value went to the core of our OPSEC
evaluation of the remote -viewing surveillance technique. In fact, we
had been chartered to determine if hostile exploitation of remote
viewing surveillance was a threat to national security. According to
the official logbook, during my tour of duty as the operations and
training officer, forty^-seven percent of the operational projects I con-
ducted were rated by the tasking agency as being of intelligence

value. (Again, due to continued security restrictions, I cannot

describe the detailed results of specific operations.)

Special Considerations

The use of remote viewing as an intelligence surveillance tool

carries with it some special considerations. In working with human
sources over the years, the intelligence community has established
a rating system to attest to the bona fides of an individual human
source and the authenticity of the information provided.
The bona fides of the source is rated by letter from A to F,

with A meaning that the source is absolutely reliable (has always

been correct in the past). The relatively low rating of E signifies

that the source is nearly always unreliable (has always or nearly

always been wrong in the past, though even an unreliable source

1 OB
 F. Holmes Atwater

may occasionally provide accurate information) The lowest source

.

rating of F signifies that the source is of unknown reliability (e.g.,

perhaps a first-time or unevaluated source)
The authenticity of the information provided is rated by a
number from 1 to 6, with 1 indicating that the information pro-
vided is almost certainly true because it has been corroborated by
other significant or reliable information. A 5 signifies that the

information is almost certainly wrong, often because other, certifi-

ably correct information contradicts it. The lowest level of authen-

ticity rating is a 6, indicating that the probable veracity of the
information provided by the source is unknown or unconfirmed by
any other source but that no information discrediting it is known,
either. Information obtained from a U.S. intelligence agent who
has always been accurate in the past, reporting something that is

substantiated by other sources would be rated A-1, whereas infor-

mation reported by a known liar that the moon is made of green
cheese would be rated E-5.
It's entirely possible to have source/information ratings of A-5,
E-1, C-2, etc. A rating of F-6 would mean essentially that a source
of unknown veracity has provided information that can, at this
point, neither be confirmed nor denied. An analyst would take a
wait-and-see attitude with this sort of information, with hopes that
further intelligence from other sources would either corroborate or
reject the F-6 information.

The human- source rating system long used by the intelligence

community is of little value when dealing with remote viewers.
Throughout history, all of the serious scientific inquiry into remote
viewing has demonstrated its veracity. These same investigations
have, however, repeatedly indicated that the human behavioral
mechanism behind remote viewing is neither understood nor reli-

able and, therefore, that the information reported by a remote

viewer is characteristically undependable.
The information stream objectified by a remote viewer can be
erroneous or valid or a mixture of both. The remote viewers them-
selves are of little help in determining which. From the perspective
of a behavioral model, remote viewing would seem to have two

109
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

principal dimensions. First, can the remote viewer acquire the tar-
get, and second, how well can the remote viewer become aware of
the target and describe information of interest about the target?
Ken Kress of the CIA developed an operational protocol with
two characterization methods to deal with these dimensions.
Before the remote -viewing session, Ken would select a few obvious
features, which, if described by the remote viewer, would show that
he or she had at least some contact with the designated site. For
example, if the intelligence mission was to describe the construc-
tion of a new ballistic missile and the remote viewer began by
objectifying factory buildings and smokestacks known to be at the

site, there was some level of confidence that the remote viewer was
able to establish contact.
During the session, a quality characterization was accom-
plished by periodically asking the remote viewer to describe specif-
ic known features of the site. The accuracy of these "audit"
descriptions would be used to estimate the quality of the unverifi-
able remote -viewing information. Through application of this
operational protocol, remote -viewing data became intelligence
information.
Some time later, SRI became sensitive to the operational reli-
ability issue and developed a simple, straightforward calibration
system. Their view was that remote viewers were either "on" or
"off" and that they had good days and bad days like anyone else.

To provide the intelligence customer with some level of confi-

dence about the remote -viewing information, viewers were given a

randomly selected training target both before and after the opera-

tional target. If they did well with both the verifiable training targets,

the assumption was that the information provided about the oper-
ational target was probably accurate to some degree. This calibra-

tion system was also helpful in building a sense of suret>^ for the
remote viewer. If the viewers did well on the training targets, they
could, in effect, walk away from the operational mission with a
sense of contributing even if they could not be given feedback on
the operational site.

I always felt that remote viewing was modulated by many of

1 1
 F. Holmes Atwater

the same factors that affect other human abilities. An individual's

expertise, based on previous practice, contributes to the ability to

remote view. Psychological and sociological factors as well as

meteorological and solar/geophysical conditions all affect the per-

formance of remote viewers. Simply stated, one's focus of attention,

a headache, lack of sleep, mood, personality traits, motivation,

expectation, state of consciousness, etc., all affect the ability to

remote view. With so many variables at work, it would be inap-

propriate to depend on a single factor such as mood or even previ-
ous experience to estimate the reliability of a remote viewer's
information when reporting to a consumer.
Remote viewing is multifaceted, interactive, nonlinear, and
dynamic. A complex systems approach is the only way to under-

stand remote -viewing performance. By observing a number of con-

ditions (psychological, physical, physiological, and environmental
data) during training sessions and then matching these up with
successful performance, I was eventually able to establish profiles

which could be used to rate the dependability of remote -viewing

sessions. (An excellent article by Dean I. Radin, Ph.D., "Towards
a Complex Systems Model of PSI Performance," Subtle Energies and
Energy Medicine Journal, vol. 7, no. 1 [1996]: 35-69, describes the
use of 149 relevant variables divided into eight categories —mood,
personality, beliefs, meteorology, solar/geophysical, abnormal
behavior, PSI performance, and composite factors — used in an
artificial neural network to successfully predict PSI performance.)
I also found that we could increase the probability that we
could respond to intelligence requirements with information of
value by using multiple remote viewers. Knowing that the best
remote viewers don't always provide accurate information, I devel-
oped operational scenarios employing several remote viewers
against the same requirements.
Working as a team, we were able to produce results more fre-
quently than ifwe had used just one remote viewer. If a baseball
team had to depend on just one player to get all the runs in a game,
it would be hard-pressed, especially since the best sluggers only get
a hit thirty percent of the time. Working as a team, however, it has

111
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

a much better chance of getting a number of scoring runs and win-

ning the game.
Earlier in this chapter, I explained that military duty is a balance
between operations and When there isn't an ongoing military
training.

operation, the troops train for one. When the remote viewers weren't

involved in an operational tasking, they were rehearsing —-practicing

with dozens and, in some cases, hundreds of training sessions.

Training More Personnel

The number of operational activities slowed down from time
to time as the unit began to experience the normal attrition of any
military organization. Military personnel began to move on to

other assignments. Unit commanders changed several times. Efforts

were made to retain the most qualified remote viewers, but some
wanted to move on because they felt that their careers would stag-

nate and they would not be able to compete with their contempo-
raries for promotions if they stayed. We were only able to keep one
of the original remote viewers with the unit over the years, and one
other returned to the unit after a European tour of duty.
We needed to recruit and train new remote viewers and continue
operational missions. We went out to the Army Intelligence School
at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and recruited two graduates of the Offi-

cer's Advanced Course. These new recruits were scheduled to attend

an external training program developed under contract with SRI. This
training program was based, for the most part, on theoretical concepts

set forth by Ingo Swann, a renowned remote viewer.

Ingo's training program was somewhat different from previous
efforts. Although it had been thoroughly evaluated and was theo-
retically sound, it was widely criticized. Even SRI had a number of
detractors of Ingo's training program. I thought that Ingo's program
held promise, and I looked forward to seeing how our new recruits

would perform. Ingo called his technique Coordinate Remote

Viewing, as this cueing technique somewhat represented his calling
card. It was intended for individuals who had little or no prior expe-

rience or understanding of the remote -viewing phenomena.

1 1 2
 F. Holmes Atwater

What follows is a somewhat cumbersome explanation of Ingo's

training program. If you are uninterested in the specific details of

this program, then perhaps you should flip forward a few pages to
the section called "Training with Challenge Targets." Again,
because of my personal involvement in this, I felt obligated to pro-
vide a comprehensive account.

Coordinate Remote Viewing

Ingo Swann defined Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV) as the

process of remote viewing using longitude and latitude geographic

coordinates for cueing. As I noted before, nowadays Ingo prefers
the expression Controlled Remote Viewing, as the fundamental
structure is not dependent on the use of geographic coordinates.
Paul H. Smith, who now teaches remote viewing professionally,
and the other Ingo trainees in the unit put together the Coordinate
Remote Viewing Manual which was published by the Defense Intel-

ligence Agency on May 1, 1986. The manual adhered as closely as

possible to what Ingo Swann delivered when working with trainees
one-on-one. When Ingo reviewed the manual, he complimented
Paul and his colleagues on producing "such a comprehensive and
accurate document."
In Ingo's opinion, remote viewing is the process of detecting
and decoding a "signal line" that provides information about what
he called a "Matrix" of information about persons, places, things,
or events. Note that this is somewhat different from the conven-
tional concept that a remote viewer somehow "travels to" or "sees"
the target location or information of interest. In Ingo's theory, the
remote viewer contacts the signal line of the Matrix, not the phys-
ical site itself. He feels that the remote -viewing session consists of
the remote viewer's contact with the signal line as well as the
interaction between the viewer and the interviewer/monitor.
In this CRV technique, the monitor and remote viewer sit at

On the companion CD-ROM included with this book there is an interactive file

illustrating the CRV process.

113
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Skip with Paul H. Smith (right)

opposite ends of a table. The monitor cues and guides the remote
viewer through a carefully structured CRV process divided into
discreet, progressive stages. Each stage deals with different and
more detailed aspects of the designated target. Each stage builds
on the information in the previous stage in a natural progression.
From the CRV Manual:

The Matrix has been described as a huge, nonmaterial,

highly structured, mentally accessible "framework" of infor-
mation containing all data pertaining to everything in both
the physical and nonphysical universe. . . . The Matrix is

open to and comprises all conscious entities as well as infor-

mation relating to everything else living or nonliving by
accepted human definition. It is this informational framework
from which the data encoded on the signal line originates.
This Matrix can be envisioned as a vast, three-dimensional,
geometric arrangement of dots, each dot representing a dis-
crete information bit. Each geographic location on the Earth
has a segment of the Matrix corresponding exactly to the
nature of the physical location. When the viewer is prompted
by coordinate or other targeting methodology, he accesses the
signal line for data derived from the Matrix. By successfully
acquiring (detecting) this information from the signal line,

then coherently decoding it through his conscious awareness

11^
 F. Holmes Atwater

and faculties, he makes it available for analysis and further

exploitation by himself or others.
Remote viewing is made possible through the agency of a
hypothetical "signal line." In a manner roughly analogous to

standard radio propagation theory, this signal line is a carrier

wave, which is inductively modulated by its intercourse with
information, and may be detected and decoded by a remote
viewer. The signal line radiates in many different frequencies,
and its impact on the viewer's perceptive faculties is controlled
through a phenomenon known as "aperture." Essentially, when
the remote viewer first detects the signal line in Stage I, it man-
ifests itself as a sharp, rapid influx of signal energy — repre-
senting large gestalts of information. In this situation, we
therefore speak of a "narrow" aperture, since only a very nar-
row portion of the signal line is allowed to access the con-
sciousness. In later stages involving longer, slower, more
enduring waves, the aperture is spoken of as being "wider."

Under a subcontract to Ingo Swann, SRI agreed to train our two

new recruits in the first four stages of Inge's program. This "basic"
training took place in Menlo Park and eventually in New York. The

training lasted several months and consisted of two -week sessions

with Ingo, followed by two weeks of practice at Fort Meade. Since

practice continued at Fort Meade, the CRV methodology was effec-
tively transferred to us. Our goal was to eventually be able to train
this technique in-house. Before describing Ingo's stages, it is neces-
sary to explain a little bit more about his remote -viewing theories.
Ingo felt that a remote viewer's first contact with the signal
line is unconscious and stimulates the autonomic nervous system.
The signal line is thus expressed as a reflexive nervous response of
the muscles controlled by the autonomic nervous system. At the
same time, the signal passes into the edges of awareness.
In Stage I, the remote viewer takes advantage of this initial con-
tact by objectifying a spontaneous graphic expression of the target's

major gestalt, called the ideogram. The remote viewer describes the
ideogram in writing in terms of its "feeling/motion" and one's first

analytic response to the signal line. This description represents the

remote viewer's first elementary awareness of the target.

115
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Ingo felt this process of emerging awareness carries with it cer-

tain inherent behaviors. So valuable were his thoughts on this that

they are worth repeating here from the CRV Manual:

. . . the normal waking consciousness poses certain prob-
lems for remote viewing, occasioned largely because of the
linear, analytic thought processes which are societally
enhanced and ingrained from our earliest stages of cognitive
development. While extremely useful in a society relying
heavily on quantitative data and technological development,
such analytic thinking hampers remote viewing by the man-
ufacture of what is known as "analytic overlay," or AOL. As
the signal line surges up across the limen and into the thresh-
old areas of consciousness, the mind's conscious analytic
process feels duty-bound to assign coherence to what at first

blush seems virtually incomprehensible data coming from an

unaccustomed source. It must, in other words, make a "logi-
cal" assessment based on the impressions being received.
Essentially, the mind jumps to one or a number of instanta-
neous conclusions about the incoming information without
waiting for sufficient information to make an accurate judg-
ment. This process is completely reflexive and happens even
when not desired by the individual involved. Instead of
allowing wholistic [sic] "right-brain" processes (through
which the signal line apparently manifests itself) to assemble
a complete and accurate concept, untrained "left-brain" based
analytic processes seize upon whatever bit of information
seems most familiar and forms an AOL construct based on it.

The manual continues with an example of what Ingo was

describing:

... a viewer has been given the coordinates to a large, steel

girder bridge. A flash of a complex, metal, manmade structure

may impinge on the liminary regions of the viewer's mind but
so briefly that no coherent response can be made to it. The con-
scious mind, working at a much greater speed than the viewer
expects, perceives bits and pieces such as angles, riveted gird-
ers, and a sense of being "roofed over" and paved, whereupon
it suggests to the physical awareness of the viewer that the site

1 1B
 F. Holmes Atwater

is The "image" is of
the outside of a large sports stadium.
course wrong but composed of factual elements,
is at least

though these have been combined by the viewer's overeager

analytical processes to form an erroneous conclusion.

In his training, Ingo acted as monitor and knew the target to

be described as he read the geographic coordinates, longitude and
latitude, to the remote viewer. There are numerous objections to
having the monitor knowledgeable, but Ingo felt that during train-
ing it was vital to guide the remote -viewing process during the
early stages. He attempted to do this without leading the remote
viewer's descriptions by providing very limited feedback. As the
remote viewer scrawled the ideogram and described it, the moni-
tor provided limited, very controlled feedback words indicating to
the viewer that he was responding appropriately to the signal line.

A remote viewer could take the coordinate cue several times until

perceptions solidified. Once the Stage -I perception seemed com-

plete, the remote viewer moved on sequentially within structure to
Stage II, signal-line data relevant to physical sensory input.

Speaking of structure, here is what the manual says:

Structure is the key to usable remote-viewing technolo-

gy. It is through proper structure-discipline that mental noise

is suppressed and signal line information allowed to emerge
cleanly. As expressed by one early student, "Structure! Con-
tent be damned!" is the universal motto of the remote view-
er. As long as proper structure is maintained, information
obtained may be relied on. If the viewer starts speculating
about content —wondering "what it is" —he will begin to
depart from proper structure, and analytic overlay will
inevitably result. One of the primary duties of both monitor
and viewer is to ensure the viewer maintains proper structure,
taking information in the correct sequence, at the correct
stage, and in the proper manner.

Stage II, in Ingo Swann's CRV structure, is described as

equivalent to the sensory experience remote viewers would have
if they were physically present at the designated target site. This
signal-line information, which centers on the five physical senses,

117
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

usually rises into awareness as small groups of sensory-rich words:

light color, rough, bumpy texture, pungent odor, etc.

The signal line is thought to come into awareness more slowly

in Stage II and provides the remote viewer with a more intimate
contact with the site. During training, the monitor provides posi-
tive, very specific feedback when the viewer correctly objectifies
sensory aspects of the target.
For example:

Viewer. Green, cool. Monitor: Correct.

Viewer: Loud. Monitor: Correct.
Viewer: Feels funny. Monitor: Can't feedback.
Viewer: Tastes fresh. Monitor: Probably correct.
Viewer: Moving, flowing. Monitor: Correct.

As the Stage -II perceptions mature, dimensional elements

begin to emerge from the unconscious into awareness. Remote
viewers begin to objectify in structure dimensional words relating
the concepts of vertical, horizontal, angularity, volume (space),
and mass. They use words like big, long, high, etc.

As dimensional characteristics are objectified, a threshold is

reached for the transition into Stage III. This further decoding of
the signal line and awareness (Stage III) is usually accompanied by
aesthetic impact. The concept of aesthetic impact is related to a
plethora of information impacting the unconscious and provoking
a subjective emotional response. Objectifying aesthetic impact is

an important, if not critical, factor in reducing subsequent analyt-

ic overlay.
Drawings and sketches are the structure for Swann's Stage -III
CRV. True dimensional aspects of the site are expressed in this
stage. Stage-II dimensional elements, expressed as words, repre-
sent individual portions of the site whereas Stage -III sketches and
drawings represent a composite of inherent site aspects.

Initially, remote viewers are not usually aware of their own per-

ceptual perspective or relationship to the site. This suggests that

during the initial objectification of Stage -III perceptions the remote
viewers are not consciously aware of all the dimensional relation-
ships of various site components. The viewers rely on various tools

1 1 B
 F. Holmes Atwater

outlined in Swann's training to organize the increased information

perceived in Stage III.

Again from the manual:

With the expansion of the aperture and after dissipation

of AI, the viewer is prepared to make representation of the

site dimensional aspects with pen on paper. A sketch is a rap-
idly executed general idea of the site. In some cases it may be
highly representational of the actual physical appearance of
the site, yet in other cases only portions of the site appear.
The observed accuracy of aesthetic qualities of a sketch are
not particularly important. The main function of the sketch is

to stimulate further intimate contact with the signal line while

continuing to aid in the suppression of the viewer's subjective
analytic mental functioning. Sketches are distinguished from
drawings by the convention that drawings are more deliber-
ate, detailed representations and are therefore subject to far
greater analytic (and therefore AOL-producing) interpreta-
tion in their execution.

With the successful objectification of Stage -III perceptions,

the remote viewer's contact with the site expands, and she
becomes aware of an enormous amount of information. A Stage-
IV objectification structure is implemented to facilitate and guide
the viewer's focusing of perceptions on details of the site.

In Swann's view, this array is a more complete and detailed

decoding of the signal line. The viewer objectifies Stage -IV
responses, usually as single -word concepts, under designated head-
ings or categories within columns in the structured array. These
columns are labeled:

S2 for Stage-II sensory perceptions;

D for dimensional Stage-II perceptions;
AI for aesthetic impact;

EI for emotional impact (perceived emotions or feelings of peo-

ple at the site or of the remote viewer);
rfor tangible aspects of the site (solid or "touchable" objects or
characteristics of the site, e.g., cars, foliage, buildings, odors,
noises);

113
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

/ for intangible site aspects (abstract qualities such as purposes,

categorizations, e.g., "foreign," "medical," "church," "museum,"

"library," etc.);

AOL and AOUS for analytical overlay that coincidentally

matches site data.

As in Stage II, the viewer seems to become aware of this infor-

mation in clusters. Within the discipline of Swann's CRV structure,

these clusters are objectified in the Stage IV array generally left- to-

right and top -to -bottom with some degree of vertical spacing

between individual clusters. A complete understanding of the CRV

structure is, therefore, critical in interpreting objectified site data.

In Stage -IV CRV, the remote viewer can exercise some degree
of control over the order of information entering awareness and
subsequently objectified. By placing his pen in a particular column
in the array (S2-D-AI-EI-7-I-AOL-AOL/S), the viewer can
effectively prompt or, in the words of the manual, "induce the sig-

nal line to provide information pertinent to the column selected."

In the Stage -IV process, awareness of site information expands
rapidly and care must be taken to accurately objectify the data as
they come. If the flow of information (awareness) slows, viewers
can encourage further contact with —and awareness of—the site

by placing their pen in the "EI" array column to further stimulate,

in the words of the manual, "signal line activity and acquisition."
With the completion of Stage -IV CRV training with Ingo
Swann, our new recruits had completed "basic" training and were
integrated into operational missions. In between our operational jobs,
we continued training practice with a variety of targets and cross-

trained other remote viewers we had recruited using an in-house ver-

sion of Swann's "basic" CRV technique. Four additional people were
recruited and matriculated into "basic" training with Swann.

Training with Challenge Targets

As part of my responsibilities as operations and training officer,

I was charged with determining the operational capabilities and

1 20
 F. Holmes Atwater

limitations of remote viewing, identifying and developing individual

remote -viewing skills, and testing and evaluating the accuracy of
remote viewing on unique targets.

Completion of the formalized training was not the end of

remote -viewing training for members of the unit. As with any
other military training program, it was necessary to hone their

skills and to stretch their capabilities. The viewers needed practice

with complex targets rather than the lakes, islands, mountains, or
bridges typical of "basic" training. They needed to be tasked with

the responsibility of collecting specific information. So what if they

could remote view a football field? From an intelligence perspec-
—
we needed specific information like, was there a terrorist
tive,

bomb in the stadium?

The Natural History Museum in San Francisco is an example
of a challenge target I used for such training. If viewers were skilled
enough to acquire and describe the building and further classify

the building as being open to the public or as a tourist attraction,

they were then asked to explore the building further. Within the
building, the challenge began.

The inside of the building was arranged as a spiral walking tour

through historical panoramas. As viewers began to objectify their
findings, many would become disoriented and begin to lose confi-
dence in their contact with the site. With practice and in con-
junction with careful interviewing techniques, remote viewers
eventually learned to control their focus of attention to specific
tasking and not become mired in the complexity of the overall site.
Some remote viewers became so skilled that, when viewing
the Natural History Museum challenge target, I could task them
to describe a specific display by cueing something like, "Describe
#A-125," as though the display's designation was a coordinate
within the museum. Such training paralleled operational tasks, as
when remote viewers were directed to describe specific rooms
within a foreign embassy or a designated area within a weapons
factory.

Occasionally, during this challenge -target training, I used tar-

gets that had to do with extraterrestrials or unidentified flying

121
 -

Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

objects (UFOs).'^ Since, by protocol, the remote viewers never

knew when I would use one of these targets, they were blind as to
what they were remote viewing. None of these controversial chal-
lenge targets were ever directed or approved by higher military
authority. I was the operations and training officer and the sole

authority on the use of these as training targets. The information

resulting from these training sessions was never officially reported
and, presumably, has been destroyed in the years since the project
was closed.
The controversy surrounding the use of remote viewing for
exploring these topics is worth mentioning. From some scientists'

perspective, such targets are a detriment to acceptance of remote

viewing. Their view seems to be that comparing a viewer's descrip-
tion with an observable object or location will eventually lead to
an understanding of the phenomena and its acceptance as a valid
human perceptual ability. With UFO targets there is hardly ever
anything to compare with a remote viewer's description. Addi-
tionally, any association with the UFO phenomena may be seen by
some as pejorative and, therefore, best avoided.

Alternatively, more adventuresome folks feel that, since remote

viewing surveillance is unbound by the constraints of time and space
(as we understand them), it is the ideal technique for exploring the
extraterrestrial and UFO realm. How^ever, several of these people
have become overzealous and have forgotten that the information
stream objectified by a remote viewer can be erroneous or valid or a
mixture of both. Remote viewers themselves are of little help in
determining which. Therefore, without some sort of protocol to
determine if the remote viewer acquired the target and, if so, how
well she described information of interest about the target, such
remote viewing sessions may amount to nothing but folly.

My feeling is that the use of remote -viewing surveillance as a

corroborative information source concerning UFO reports is

appropriate. If a thousand people in Phoenix, Arizona, report see-

Included on the CD-ROM accompanying this book is an example of this type of

challenge targeting.

1 22
 R Holmes Atwater

ing a UFO on a certain date, as has happened, it seems logical to

find out if local radar detected anything or if there is any photo-

graphic evidence of such a sighting (which there was). It also

seems logical to me that remote -viewing surveillance of that par-

ticular space -time coordinate, carefully tasked with appropriate
"blinding" protocols, would provide further information of inter-

est. Enough said.

Advanced Training

As the weeks and months turned into years and our remote
viewers continued to develop their own expertise, we wanted to

provide our adept viewers with some form of advanced training.

Ingo further developed his training methodology and offered two

additional stages within his CRV technique. One of the two per-
sonnel who originally attended his "basic" training was sent off to

New York for Stage -V and Stage -VI training with Ingo.
Stage -V CRV does not rely on a direct link to the "signal line"
(what I would call further contact with the site) but access to infor-
mation theoretically "in the brain and autonomic nervous system,"
available below the liminal threshold. Swann hypothesizes that this

information is deposited in earlier stages when the signal line pass-

es through the system and "imprints" data on the brain by causing

cognitrons, or neural- cell assembly, to form through the rearrange-

ment of the brain's neuronal clusters.

The remote viewer, through prompting, can access information

"stored" in a cognitron. When properly prompted, the Stage V
information emerging into awareness consists of the subelements
that together form the complete cognitron objectified during ear-
lier CRV Stages. From the CRV Manual:
... the concept "religious" may be represented by one
complete cognitron (cluster of neurons); each neuron would
store a subelement of that cognitron. Hence, the cognitron for
"religious" could have neurons storing data for the following
elements: "quiet," "incense," "harmonious chanting," "bowed
heads," "robes," "candles," "dimly lit," "reverence," "worship,"

123
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

"respect," etc. If attention is paid to what underlies the con-

cept of "religious" as it is originally evoked in Stage IV, the

subelements, which may themselves provide valuable infor-

mation far beyond their collective meaning of "religious,"
may be broken out and assembled.

These Stage -V subelements of previously perceived data are

called emanations, as Swann felt that these concepts literally issued

from or flowed forth or were actually emitted by subliminally
known aspects of the site. Training the remote viewer to bring this
information above the liminal threshold and objectify it was again
a matter of proper structure. Stage -V structure consists of dividing

the possible types of emanations obtainable into four categories:

Objects, Attributes, Subjects, and Topics.
The viewer prompts the release of subliminally held informa-
tion by saying and writing the previously objectified lower-Stage
concept, e.g., the "I" (Stage-IV Intangible) "religious," and under
that writes the name of a Stage -V Category, e.g., "Objects," and
below that writes the word "Emanations," followed by a simple
question mark (?). Using the "religious" example from above, the
Stage -V objectified structure might look something like the chart
on the following page.
The word "Emanations" represents the subelements of the
"religious" cognitron that emerged from below the liminal thresh-
old (in Stage IV) as a collective concept for these subelements.
Swann theorized that the overall cognitron- concept possesses
the combined neural energy of its components and therefore easily

passes into the awareness of the remote viewer. This assumes that
the individual subelements themselves do not have sufficient
impetus to break through the liminal barrier into the conscious-
ness of the viewer and must be invoked intentionally.
The operational value of Stage -V CRV is obvious. Once ren-
dered to its subelements and details, earlier-stage perceptions pro-
duce a wealth of additional information of use to the intelligence
analyst. In the above example, the "religious" perception might be
enough to testify to the validity of remote viewing. But Stage V
goes far beyond this simple proof, providing useful information of

1 2^
 F. Holmes Atwater

STAGE V STRUCTURE (EXAMPLE)

Possible Types of Emanations for the Word "RELIGIOUS"

religious
Objects
Emanations?

robes
candles
incense
religious
Attributes
Emanations?

quiet
dimly lit
echoing
large
religious
Subjects
Emanations?

worship
reverence
respect
harmonious chanting
religious
Topics
Emanations?

mass
Catholic
priest
communion

potential intelligence value. It's easy to imagine how Stage -V CRV

could be used in a strategic or tactical intelligence remote -viewing
surveillance mission.
With Stage 'VI CRY three -dimensional modeling of the site is pos-
sible. Conceptually, Stage VI is a continuation of the objectification of
the site's physical characteristics begun in Stage III. In practice, how-
ever, it is commonly implemented to objectify the interrelationship of

125
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

"T" (Stage 'IV Tangibles) elements at the site. The kinesthetic

interaction with the site in Stage VI both facilitates the assessment
of relative temporal and spatial dimensional elements of the site

and effectively focuses the remote viewer's attention to specific

locales.

In training and practice, the remote viewer establishes a struc-

tured array identical to the one in Stage IV The array sheet is

labeled "Stage VI" for record keeping purposes and to indicate that
the array pertains to a specific site locale in space/time rather than
the entire site, which would be a Stage -IV array.
The remote viewer also has easy access to modeling material
(usually clay). Cueing on Stage TV "T" elements, the viewer con-
structs three-dimensional models and records information per-
ceived from the "signal line" in the columns on the prepared
Stage -VI array sheet. During the Stage -VI CRV process, the
remote viewer must focus awareness on the "signal line," not the
model. The model does not have to be an accurate rendering. The
manual emphasizes, "It is the objectified information resulting
from the modeling that is important."

Alternative Advanced Training

Rather than CRV, other members of the unit adopted a more

meditative -based style of remote viewing. I coined the acronym
ERV. (Army people love to make up acronyms.) ERV stood for
Extended Remote Viewing, because the remote -viewing sessions
took longer to conduct.
As good as these remote viewers were, they expressed an interest
in receiving some form of "advanced" training. From a manage-
ment position, I too wanted to see if their remote -viewing skills

could be enhanced. Since the foundation of their remote -viewing

behavior was based on the notion of achieving a special state of
consciousness conducive to the detection and acquisition of site-

relevant data — the proverbial information of interest — I recom-

mend Hemi-Sync training from The Monroe Institute. Aside from
any out-of-body expectations imbued by Robert Monroe's books.

1 26
 F. Holmes Atwater

the Hemi'Sync training process offered a pragmatic, scientific-

based method of teaching people to access levels of cortical arous-

al supportive of a variety of focus states of consciousness.
With practice, a graduate could willfully and reliably enter a

propitious level of cortical arousal without the aid of the Hemi-

Sync sound technology. I hoped that our remote viewers could be
trained to access arousal levels conducive to the five behaviors I

had outlined years earlier, based on what I had learned from

Puthoff and Targ, other research labs, a review of the pertinent lit-

erature, and my own personal remote -viewing experiences.

As the years passed, I learned a great deal from the SRI scien-
tists, their remote viewers, and Ingo Swann himself, and from work-
ing with our own cadre of army remote viewers. It all reinforced my
original thoughts about the five basic behaviors of remote viewing:
relaxing, connecting, listening, becoming aware, and reporting. If

the viewers could develop their expertise in these behavior skills,

chances were that their remote viewing would improve. Yes, they
would have good days and bad days and a variety of factors would
surely influence their performance, but any "advanced" training
supportive of these basic behaviors seemed appropriate for the
ERVers, and The Monroe Institute offered such training.

Hemi-Sync and Remote Viewing

We contracted privately with Robert Monroework with Joe
to
McMoneagle, our best ERVer, for ten nonconsecutive weeks over
a period of one year. Joe discussed his training with Monroe in his
first book. Mind Trek.
Joe, a beefy man with hardly any neck, was a first-rate military
officer when I recruited him for the unit and since then had estab-
lished himself as our most accomplished remote viewer.
During these training sessions, Monroe worked one -on- one
with Joe, experimenting with him and teaching him how to access
different levels of arousal. The recipe for this training involved sev-
eral identifiable processes.

First was learning how to physically relax.

1
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Monroe coached a
relaxation process direct-
ing Joe's focus of atten-
tion to various parts of
his body, encouraging
him to tell these areas of

his body to "relax, let go,

sleep." Next, Monroe

coached him to attend

to his breathing, to slow

his respiration and to

imagine that his breath
represented the flow of
Joe McMoneagle life-energy. Monroe
then suggested that he set his intent for this session through a
process of affirmation.
Once these first three ingredients were solidified, Monroe
coached Joe to focus his attention on his internal world or, stated
another way, become aware of his own mental realm without the
"noise" of the physical senses. The final ingredient in this training

recipe was the addition of Hemi-Sync, an audio technolog>^ capable

of altering one's state of consciousness or first-person experience
by altering the brain's cortical level of arousal. Properly applied,
this recipe would enable Joe to orally report and/or journal his per-
ceptions. This Monroe formula seemed to me very similar in many
aspects to the behaviors that I had identified as conducive to the
remote -viewing process.
Each training week, I conducted an audit remote -viewing ses-

sion to try to determine any improvement in Joe's remote -viewing

performance. During these sessions, we were able to monitor phys-
iological changes from electrodes placed on Joe's fingers. A couple
of these "audit" sessions proved to be some of the most demon-
strative training sessions I had the privilege of conducting with Joe.
During one of these, I decided to use coordinates ot some unusual
structures on the planet Mars that Puthoff had provided. Joe
reclined with headphones in a soundproofed room in the lab at

12S
 ,

F. Holmes Atwater

The Monroe Institute, and Bob Monroe and I sat in the adjacent

control room.^^
In preparation for this exercise, I had written, "The planet
Mars, one million years B.C." on a standard three -by-five index

card, sealed it in a small, opaque envelope, and asked Bob to put

the envelope in his breast pocket. Bob (and, of course, Joe) did not
know what I had written on the index card. I kept the list of spe-
cific coordinates (unseen by either Bob or Joe) provided by Puthoff
with me. When Joe finished his cool-down period, I directed Joe to
focus by saying, "Using the information in the envelope ..." and
then read him the first Martian coordinate. Bob adjusted Joe's
Hemi'Sync patterns.

Joe seemed very deep (slowed respiration; slurred speech;

incomplete sentences) — a good sign. He usually did well when he
really got into the process. When he began to describe an "arid cli-

mate" in "some distant place," I knew he was probably on target. I

reviewed the list of Martian coordinates provided by Puthoff and

directed Joe to "move" from his present location to the next set of
coordinates on the list.

Of course, if he had started off by describing an aircraft carri-

er, a factory, a person having coffee, or some other irrelevant

locale, I would have figured that the session was a bust and would
not have continued with the Martian coordinates.
When directed to focus on the time period designated in the
sealed envelope, Joe reported the "aftereffect of a major geologic
problem." When asked to move to a time before the geologic prob-
lem (perhaps thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of years)
he reported a "total difference" in the terrain. He also found a
"shadow" of "very large" people. Joe went on to explain that by
"shadow" he meant that they weren't there anymore. Once again
I asked Joe to move back in time — to the period when the people
were still there (again, perhaps thousands or tens or hundreds of

I have included the unedited audio recording of this unique remote-viewing ses-
sion on the CD-ROM accompanying this book. Martian reconnaissance imagery
in the presentation shows the sites Joe described — at least in terms of the twen-
tieth century.

129
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

thousands of years). Joe described "very large people" who were

"wearing very strange clothes."
As it turned out, Joe described eight different coordinate-
designated locations on Mars. When Joe began to describe the
unusual structures on Mars, Bob did not know if Joe was on target;

he askedme what was happening. As he continued to adjust the

Hemi-Sync sound patterns, he asked repeatedly about Joe's
descriptions. I gestured, "Wait," several times until I finally turned
to Bob and winked while saying simply, "Joe is on Mars."
Bob listened carefully to Joe's intriguing descriptions of an
ancient race of "very large people" and a cataclysmic disaster that
caused them to abandon their home. At one point, Joe was in tele-
pathic contact with one of the Martians. During this deep-contact
period, Joe's skin-potential voltage (measured from finger elec-
trodes) reversed polarity — crossing the zero or null point — indi-

cating a discrete shift in perception.

After the session. Bob and I debriefed Joe before revealing the
contents of the sealed envelope. Joe reiterated his feelings of hav-
ing been "a long way off" and that this session was very different
than his previous remote -viewing experiences. Joe did a great job
during this audit session. Again, his comments on this unique
remote viewing are in his book Mind Trek.

The importance of this remote viewing for Joe McMoneagle

(and the rest of us) extends far beyond the implications it may

have for the exploration of the planet Mars in the twenty-first cen-

tury. What I'm iterating here relates to what this session did for Joe
back in 1984. He was able to extend his consciousness across mil-
lions of miles and millions of years (in terms of space/time reality).

This must have had a tremendous impact on Joe's concept of self

He not only experienced his consciousness extending beyond the
confines of his physical body but also reaching across our solar sys-
tem, spanning millennia, and bonding (telepathically.^) with
another being. Who is this guy named Joe McMoneagle? And if he
is an example of our true nature, who are we?
The final results of this Hemi-Sync training cannot be
explained in terms of better or higher-resolution remote viewing.

1 30
 F. Holmes Atwater

Hemi'Sync training did not necessarily improve the overall remote-

viewing quality but rather the reliability of the remote viewer. The
training provided remote viewers with a dependable tool that they
could use to access beneficial states of cortical arousal, states con-
ducive to relaxing physically and mentally, to connecting with the
target, to listening quietly to internal perceptual processes, to

becoming aware of the information of interest, and to accurately

reporting (objectifying) such information. (When asked, Joe simply

says that the process helps him relax or prepare himself)

Joe McMoneagle retired from military service shortly after

completing the Hemi-Sync training. No other remote viewers were
ever trained personally by Robert Monroe. I felt that the Gateway
Voyage, a Hemi-Sync training program for the public, offered a suf-
ficient orientation to the Hemi-Sync process at a greatly reduced

cost. But of the several remote viewers with an affinity for the ERV
process that were selected and attended the Gateway Voyage pro-
gram, none ever did quite as well as Joe, who admittedly was a
superb remote viewer even without the Hemi-Sync training. In
terms of reliability or dependability, perhaps the prolonged ten
weeks of Hemi-Sync training was better after all.

Closing the Remote-Viewing Chapter of My Life

In June 1987, I relinquished my position as operations and

training officer of the Star Gate remote -viewing program. It had
been some ten years since I had shown Lieutenant Colonel Webb
the book Mind-Reach and had asked for a military assignment in
remote viewing. I stayed on with the unit as an advisor until
December, when I went on terminal leave and moved to Virginia.
I retired from military service in February of 1988. My personal
experience with military remote -viewing surveillance had objec-
tively demonstrated the validity of a process I had been experienc-
ing throughout my life. There was a greater cultural impact too.
Through Star Gate, two presidents, members of the National
Security Council, CIA, FBI, etc., and numerous military and
civilian government personnel discovered that what we know and

131
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

experience is not bound by the confines of our physical percep-

tions. Our ver\' being extends beyond the physical body in a ver>^
real way. The impact of this realization continues to grow as more
and more people are uncovering the details of the government-
sponsored work in remote viewing.
Today, hundreds of people are learning how to do remote view-
ing through a variety of techniques. The International Remote
Viewing Association (see website at IRVA.org), organized by
selected scientists and practitioners, encourages scientifically

sound research, provides ethical standards, and offers overview

educational information to the public. This widespread interest in
a consciousness-expanding discipline reflects a basic realization by

individuals of their own true spiritual identit>^ and a cultural desire

for reconnecting with the spiritual foundation of humanity.
These implications have not gone unnoticed by me. In retire-

ment, I headed to The Monroe Institute, where I would once again

adventure "through the Flavor Straw" to my own awareness as I

had done so many years before. I was on course.

Looking Back, an Epilogue

My experiences with remote viewing have become past-life

experiences, a part of life rapidly becoming "remember-when"

stories imprinted in the retreating memories of my mind.
Over the years, as I have talked with people about remote
viewing, some have reacted with indignant disapproval, others
with skepticism, and others with enthusiasm. Some are seriously
interested and wish to get to the bottom of it (whatever that
means). These varying reactions seem to be the result of differing
educational backgrounds, of spiritual or peak experiences in their
own lives, of their level of openness to new information, etc.
In the course of their lives, people don't necessarily maintain
one certain concept of the world (or opinion about remote view-
ing). Experience changes and shapes ways of thinking, our very
concept of reality. Over the years, some with whom I have spoken
have changed.

132
 F. Holmes Atwater

Those with a materialistic perspective disregard the notion of

remote viewing because of the incapacity of proving objective mech-

anisms responsible for the observed effects. Those representing this

perspective deem remote viewing impossible from the They

start.

therefore search for causes that might explain the phenomena. They
suppose deceit, sleight of hand, or mistakes by the experimenter.
A physicalist perspective holds remote viewing to be possible as
either conscious or unconscious mental processes in the living

human being. Extra-dimensional considerations of the phenomena

are discarded as being speculative. Numerous protocols are
invoked to demonstrate the efficacy of remote viewing. Statistical

models, behavioral profiles, double -blind cueing, analytical tech-

niques, etc., are the calling cards of these "true believers."
The spiritualistic (not meaning holy) approach is open to
the possibility that remote viewing represents our own multidi-
mensional nature and that reality more than our physical
is

senses tell us. I have found that many who publicly avow a
physicalist perspective are closet spiritualists, especially the
ones who are psychically experiential themselves. This group
endeavors to improve remote -viewing methods and techniques
with the aim of getting better and more frequent "hits" demon-
strating their abilities.

Additionally, these particular "true believers" want to develop

different applications for remote viewing, i.e., remote medical diag-
nosis and healing or early warning of imminent danger of future
events. In their enthusiasm, this group is easily seduced into putting
aside due caution and a critical view of themselves. They neglect to
test the validity of individual remote -viewing sessions and run the
risk of getting tangled in dependence and an irrational belief in
their own remote -viewing skills. Some consider trivialities or con-
tradictory absurdities to be the "ultimate truth" and may even
announce the said "truths" as doctrine. In so doing, the legitimate
endeavors for responsible remote viewing may be discredited.
An ethical or conscientious approach to all this takes into

account the reasonable aspects of all the above approaches. The

materialistic perspective advocates guarding against deceit and

133
 -

Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

trickery by unscrupulous practitioners. (Of course, some would say

that any government involvement is unscrupulous by definition.)
The physicalist approach points out that our unconscious
minds may be a repository for remote -viewing information and
that careful scientific investigation of the phenomenon may help
us understand our boundless perceptual abilities.
The spiritualistic viewpoint suggests that reality itself is greater
than we know and that we truly are more than our physical bodies.
Is remote viewing real? Those who research the field may come

to convince themselves of its veracity based on the accumulating

scientific evidence of the psychic phenomena. Psychologically,
however, these well-meaning truth seekers remain protected by a
defense mechanism. They can always escape back into their old
belief systems under the guise that all the research is bogus and
that it couldn't possibly be true.
I, however, do not have the luxury of this psychological safe
haven. I was the operations officer for the Star Gate remote
viewing unit. I controlled the protocols and information overtly
available to the remote viewers. I knoWj because I was there, that

there was no fraud. Remote viewing is real. It works.

To me, the value of remote viewing lies not in so-called prac-
tical applications like performing services for business, industry,
government, and science; or aiding in the recovery of lost children,
assisting the FBI on kidnap cases, or helping to fight terrorism; or

even contacting UFOs or spiritual beings. The value of remote

viewing rests with the experience itself

Remote viewing is like stopping to smell the flowers, drinking

a goblet of fine vintage wine, or making Through experience,
love.
we become who we are. Through remote viewing, we realize (make
real) the true nature of ourselves as sentient beings.
If remote viewing is going to be part of my future, it will be to
serve in some way to promote increased first-person experiences of
remote viewing and the discovery of who we are as human beings
and the meaning that has for humankind.

134
 Part Two:

Scientist, Explorer, Spiritual T

 —

Chapter Five

Monroe World
The New Land of Hemi-Sync

In 1986, a couple of years before I retired from the army, I

began building a house near Nellysford, Virginia, very close toThe

Monroe Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by Bob Mon-
roe. In the intervening years since we first met in 1977, Bob had
been softly suggesting that I could join the staff of the Institute. He
never made a direct offer but rather hinted that there might be a
position available if I was so disposed. This open door, coupled
with my own internal Guidance, led me in the direction of The
Monroe Institute as army retirement neared.
Family life on Fort Meade had been great. The kids had rotat'

ed in turn through the elementary, middle, and high schools.

There were school bands and recitals, after- school sports, a broken
arm, and a bicycle accident that led to a few knocked- out teeth.
When all the kids were old enough to go to school, in the mid-
eighties, Joan had gotten a job.

Those were the burgeoning days of computers in the work-

place,and Joan had landed a position with a growing company.
She had become a valuable company asset and slowly had become

137
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

more and more interested in her work and less interested in home
hfe. I began to feel uncomfortable with the marriage as time
passed. Perhaps I was jealous or felt abandoned, as she seemingly
lost interest in family life. As military retirement approached, our

lives drifted farther apart.

As I explained before, I relinquished my position as operations

and training officer for the remote -viewing unit in the summer of
1987. I went on terminal leave from the army and left Fort Meade
in December 1987, and we moved into the new house I had built

in Virginia. I was officially retired from the army in February 1988.

Shortly after we moved to Virginia, Joan and I separated. She
moved back to her job in Maryland. The separation led to an ami-
cable divorce after being married twenty years. Although we have
both remarried, we remain friends. She has since advanced her
career and become an information systems manager for a large

retail chain. She has my respect and gratitude for all the affection

we shared during our twenty-year marriage and for our three beau-
tiful children. I will always love her.

A New Careen
Retiring from the army and moving to Virginia without a specif-

ic job offer might seem like a risky thing to do. But I had grown to

trust Guidance as expressed through gentle feelings and a sense of

divine -right- action. It was not as though I heard a booming voice say,

"Retire from the army, move to Virginia, and get a job at The Mon-
roe Institute." I just knew in my heart it was the right thing to do.

An understanding of the technology time window is important

here. In the mid- to late -eighties, desktop office computers began
to change the workplace forever. Personal ownership of a comput-
er, a concept shared by only the most forward-looking entrepre-
neurs, became possible. I took to this new computer era with great
enthusiasm. I bought a home computer and learned how to oper-

ate a variety of systems and to write my own applications programs.

My electronics training from earlier years helped too. Guidance
obviously had more on my agenda at the time than clandestine
technical surveillance devices.

1 38
 F. Holmes Atwater

This new age of technology made widespread application of

computerized electroencephalography, popularly referred to as
"brain mapping," a reality. I found a fledgling company in Col-
orado called Lexicor Medical Technology that had developed a
24' channel, computerized EEC recording and analysis instrument.

This remarkable 'for-itS' time system worked in conjunction with

the latest in desktop computers — an IBM- compatible 286 with a

20'megabyte hard drive and 8 megabytes of RAM. I realize that

such figures sound ridiculous by today's standards, but back then it

was state-of-the-art.
Bob Monroe and I discussed the possibility of getting such a
device for the Institute and using it to measure brainwave changes
in people listening to Hemi-Sync. Ever since my experience
"through the Flavor Straw" back in 1977, I had been curious.
What was it about Hemi-Sync that made this journey possible, and
how was it that Bob ever came up with this sound technology?
Bob had told me at the time that my specific experience was
the result of my metaphysical upbringing and my intent. But my
curiosity went further. Do the Hemi-Sync sounds alter brain activ-

ity and consciousness?

Bob assured me that this was probably true but there was no
objective evidence to demonstrate such changes. But now, with
the advent of desktop computers, such measurements would be
possible outside a multimillion-dollar medical diagnostic facility.
Bob sent me to Colorado to check out the Lexicor device.
During this same period of time (I still did not have a new job
after my army retirement), I programmed my home computer,
which was equipped with a stereo sound card, to produce complex
binaural beats — the stuff of Hemi-Sync. I packed up my computer
and took it to Bob to show him how computers could be used to
produce his Hemi-Sync sounds. He was skeptical at first; then he
asked me to "dial in" a few different binaural-beat patterns.
The short version of the rest of the story is that I did not leave
with my computer. Bob was truly amazed. For years, he had been
mixing together many layers of sounds from analog tape through a
multi- channel audio mixing board. This method took hours and

133
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

hours of work. With a computer, such mixing became obsolete as

such combinations could simply be programmed into the sound

card.
When came I back from Colorado and explained to Bob how
the Lexicor device worked and what it would reveal, I recom-
mended that he get one for the Institute. He asked me if I could
operate it and the computer we would need to buy. I assured him
that I could. It was only then, in June of 1988, that Bob actually
offered me a job at the Institute.
After a provisional ninety-day hire, during which I set up and
began to use the Lexicor, Bob offered me the position of research
director at the Institute in September 1988. He was in fact invit-

ing me to join him in a scientific journey on a course charted to

discover the why and how of Hemi-Sync.
The rest of this chapter describes the journey from Bob's intu-
itive foundation in the 1950s and 1960s to the rapidly evolving
field of neuroscience at the dawn of the twent>^-first centurs' and
our current understanding of the Hemi-Sync process.

In the Beginning
Originally, Bob was interested in sleep -learning and wanted to
develop a way to prolong those lighter stages of sleep wherein most
sleep-learning seemed to occur. He experienced his first conscious
out-of-body escapade only after many Hemi-Sync sleep-learning
experiments.
Ever since the late 1950s, first Bob Monroe and then the Insti-
tute have been identifying propitious states of consciousness and
developing various Hemi-Sync signals to induce them. The
process of developing effective Hemi-Sync binaural beats has been
as complex as the functions of the brain itself

Under laboratory conditions, Bob Monroe originally tested

many subjects for their subjective and objective responses to bin-
aural beats, and recorded the effect on them ot each binaural beat
frequency. Then binaural beats were mixed and subjects' respons-
es were again recorded.
After many months — years in some cases — test results began

1 AO
 F. Holmes Atwater

to show population-wide singular responses to specific mixes of

binaural beats, which laid the foundation for what are now called
Hemi'Sync focus levels. The Hemi-Sync technology was eventu-
ally patented/^
Bob tried to describe Hemi-Sync as an auditory-guidance sys-

tem that uses sound pulses to somehow entrain beneficial brain-

wave states. He said that Hemi-Sync seemed to be able to

heighten selected awareness and performance levels while creating
a relaxed state.
But could this be true? And if it was, how did all this work?
Could sound pulses somehow entrain the electrical activity of the

brain? Resonant entrainment of oscillating systems is a well-

understood principle in the physical sciences —but was it the

mechanism behind Hemi-Sync?
Although Bob found that Hemi-Sync, actually the well-
recognized phenomena of binaural beating, enables focused states

of consciousness and, for some, provokes the realization that they

are more than their physical bodies, little was known about the
mechanism — the so-called neural underpinnings of the process.
In the early years, it was assumed that the mechanism behind
the consciousness-altering effects of binaural beats was somehow
related to the frequency-following response. It was postulated that
prolonged exposure to binaural-beat stimuli influenced brainwaves
to the point of altering ongoing EEG through entrainment of the
perceived rhythmic pulsing.
Since an auditory, frequency-following response could be
measured at the brain's cortex, it was theorized that such entrain-
ment imposed some sort of pattern on the nonlinear, stochastic
resonance of brainwaves by means of the frequency beating of the
auditory stimulus. Some erroneously called this "entrainment of
the frequency-following response." This of course makes little

sense, because a "response" is, by definition, a reaction to some-

thing and not in itself causative.

"*
a. Patent Number: 3884218; Issue Year: 1975
b. Patent Number: 5213562; Issue Year: 1993
c. Patent Number: 5356368; Issue Year: 1994

141
 .

Captain of My Ship, /VUster of My Soul

The Bob Monroe Research Lab

Even before I became the research director, I was fascinated
with the concept that Hemi-Sync altered consciousness. I assumed
this meant that the sound patterns somehow changed brainwaves.
At first, I thought that Bob must have based the Hemi-Sync fre-

quencies on his own brainwave states. So I began searching for

some documentation of Bob's brainwave state during his out-of-

body adventures.
I found it in the International Journal of Parapsychology and the
Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association. The Journal article
reported a study of Bob Monroe's brainwave state during two brief,

self- induced out-of-body experiences. The recorded brainwave

state resembled Stage One sleep, but Charles T Tart, the principal
investigator, reported that this identification was somewhat
ambiguous because of exceptionally high variability in Bob's brain-

wave patterns.^'

The Proceedings article said that Bob also reported two brief
out-of-body experiences.^^ He had awakened within a few seconds
after each one, which allowed for correlation of physiological

recordings with the experience. Brainwave patterns immediately

prior to and continuous through the first experience were roughly
classified as a borderline or hypnagogic state, a brainwave pattern
containing bits of slowed alpha rhythm (indicative of drowsiness)
and theta activity (a normal sleeping pattern)
This pattern persisted through the time period Bob reported as
his first out-of-body experience and was accompanied by a sudden
fall of systolic blood pressure lasting seven seconds, the estimated
length of the out-of-body experience. The second out-of-body
experience appeared to have been accompanied by similar brain-
wave patterns.
The two studies of Bob's out-of-body experiences showed that

" "A Second Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-the-Body Experiences in a

Gifted Subject." International Journal of Parapsychology 9 (1967): 251-258.

W. Roll. R. Morris and J. Morris, eds. "A Further Psychophysiological Study of
Out-of-the-Body Experiences in a Gifted Subject, Robert A. Monroe," Pro-
ceedings of the Parapsychological Association, 6 Nov. 1969: 43-44.

1 42
 F. Holmes Atwater

his escapades seemed to occur in conjunction with a prolonged

and deliberately produced hypnagogic state (Stage One sleep).

Such sustained states are not normally seen in the laboratory.

Additionally, the preponderance of theta rhythms and the occa-
sional, slowed alpha showed an intriguing parallel with brainwave

states reported for advanced Zen masters during meditation. (The

major achievement of these two studies was to demonstrate that
the out-of-body experience can occur in a laboratory setting and is

thus amenable to scientific investigation.)

So Bob based the Hemi-Sync frequencies on his own
if

brainwaves, hypnagogic theta with reduced alpha would be the

logical place to start. When I asked Bob about this, he laughed

and said that there was probably something to all this but that
he had started developing Hemi-Sync long before he had had his

first (conscious) out-of-body experience or had his brainwaves

measured.

Early Understandings

If a tuning fork designed to produce a frequency of 440 Hz is

struck so as to cause it to oscillate, and is then brought into the

vicinity of another 440 Hz tuning fork, the second fork will begin
to oscillate. The first tuning fork is said to have entrained the sec-
ond, or caused it to resonate.
For one oscillating system to be capable of entraining anoth-
er, the second system must be capable of achieving the same
oscillating frequency. A 440 Hz tuning fork will not entrain a
300 Hz tuning fork because the second tuning fork will not
vibrate at 440 Hz. Also, for one oscillating system to be capable
of entraining another, the first system must have sufficient
power or amplitude to overcome the homeostasis (stable state)
of the second, and the first must be at a constant or fixed fre-
quency. The tuning fork is an ideal example because it produces
an oscillation of constant frequency and amplitude called a
standing wave.
I postulated that the physics of entrainment applied to brain-
waves as well. The electrochemical activity of the brain results in

143
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

the production of electromagnetic waveforms (brainwaves) that

change frequencies based on neural activity within the brain and
can be objectively measured with sensitive equipment, the EEC
I wondered if Hemi-Sync could actually change this activity.

It seemed to me that caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol could alter

brainwave activity. The senses of vision, touch, and hearing also

provide easy access to the neural functions of the brain. Each of

these senses responds to waveform activity within the surrounding

environment and transmits information to the brain. Do the senses

of sight, touch, and hearing, by their very nature, provide a fertile

medium for entrainment of brainwaves? A strobe light flashing at

10 Hz will entrain occipital brainwaves to its frequency. Could the
sound technology Bob Monroe called Hemi-Sync entrain the brain
in the same way?
The strobe -entrainment effect involves only one of the sensor>'

channels. The sense of kinesthetic touch is another. In one inter-

esting experiment, I found a researcher had set up a standing wave
of a desired frequency in a waterbed. The resultant tactile signals
were seemingly effective in entraining the subject's brainwaves to
the selected frequency.
In the case of Hemi-Sync, is the sense of hearing providing the
neural avenues by which entrainment signals can be introduced
into the electromagnetic cranial environment? Brainwave
researchers had measured a low- amplitude, frequency-following
response to binaural beating, but this volume -conducted reflec-
tion of the stimulus beating does not represent ongoing or domi-
nant brainwave activity. I needed to learn more about
brainwaves.
There is a popular notion that one can tell what a person is

thinking by measuring brainwave patterns. This is like sa\'ing that

one can tell what information is in a computer by simply measur-

ing voltages present at various points, which of course is impossi-
ble. A more realistic analogy- would be the telephone.
A telephone has three states of consciousness: State one is

standby — the telephone sits waiting to be used. State two is

ringing — telephone
the is actively soliciting attention. State three is
 F. Holmes Atwoter

talking — the telephone is being used. All of these states of con-

sciousness of the telephone can be determined by measuring the
line voltage of the telephone wires. Direct access to the telephone
itself is not needed in order to know what it is doing.
If 48 volts of direct current are present on the wires, the phone
is in state one, or standby; if 100 volts of alternating current, the
phone is in state two, or ringing. When there is a modulated 10-
volt direct current on the phone wires, the telephone is in state

three, or talking (being used).

These telephone states of consciousness, so to speak, are dis-

crete in that the telephone cannot be in more than one state at a

time. It is waiting, ringing, or talking. But measuring line voltage

and determining that the telephone is in state three (talking) does

not reveal what is being said over the telephone.

The same is true of brainwaves. Measuring brainwave frequen-
cies and associative patterns and detecting REM sleep (dreaming)
does not reveal the dream content. Only by awakening the subject
and asking for a description of the dream can the experimenter dis-

cover this.

Brainwaves themselves exemplify arousal levels. They repre-

sent the electrochemical environment through which perceived
reality is manifest. They do not reveal subjective or cognitive expe-
riential content.

Recent Comprehension
My research into the literature revealed that the human abil-

ity to hear a binaural beat appears to be the result of evolution-

ary adaptation. Many species can detect binaural beats: The
frequencies at which the beats can be detected depend upon the
size of the cranium. In the human, binaural beats of up to 20 Hz
can be perceived when carrier tones are below approximately
1500 Hz.^'

The sensation of hearing binaural beats occurs when two

" Carrier tones are the two sounds played via stereo presentation, one to each ear,
that produce binaural beating.

145
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

coherent sounds of nearly similar frequencies are presented, one to

each ear, and the brain detects phase differences between these
sounds. In an open environment, this phase difference would pro-
vide directional information to the listener, but when presented
with stereo headphones or speakers the brain integrates the two
signals, producing the binaural beat. From the available literature,

I discovered that binaural beats originate in the brainstem within

the contralateral audio -processing regions of the brain called the
superior olivary nuclei. Binaural beating is perceived as a fluctuat-
ing rhythm at the frequency of the difference between the stereo
(left and right) auditory inputs.

This auditory sensation is neurologically routed to the reticu-

lar formation in the brainstem and simultaneously volume con-
ducted to the cortex where it can be objectively measured as the

frequency-following response. As I stated earlier, this does not

necessarily indicate a change in ongoing brainwave activity. A
complete understanding of all this was going to require some
research on my part.

Hemi-Sync and Brain Function

I thought that an understanding of a possible neurological
mechanism was important as foundation for the observed effec-
tiveness of Hemi-Sync technology. I wanted to replicate the
frequency-following response studies of other researchers to be
sure, for myself, that binaural beats did in fact produce this EEG
anomaly. This would also provide me a journey into the realm of
academic research, a place I had seemingly not been before.
Hearing- acuity researchers had defined the "frequency-follow-
ing response" as a brainwave -frequency response (measured by
EEG) that corresponds to the frequency of an auditory stimulus.
Previous hearing-acuity research had demonstrated a frequency-
following response to binaural beating —proof that the sensation of
binaural beating has a neurological efficacy.
However, a frequency-following response to binaural beats in

brainwave frequency ranges usually associated with reported

altered states of consciousness (e.g., theta states) had not, at this
 F. Holmes Atwater

point, been objectively demonstrated using appropriate evoked-

potential EEG protocols.
I thought that further study of frequency-following response
would be vital in understanding the obvious effectiveness of the
Hemi'Sync process and maybe would even lead me to a possible

neurological mechanism.

The Frequency-Following Response Study

Following is a detailed description of an experimental procedure.

It's pretty interesting and underscores the seriousness of purpose

behind the work at The Monroe Institute, but you can flip forward
a few pages to the "Meaningful Results" section if you want.'^
It would have been easy to use an EEG machine to collect

brainwave data while I had someone listen to Hemi-Sync. A sim-

ple evoked-potential data analysis would show if Hemi-Sync
engendered a classic frequency-following response. But the task
was bigger than I had imagined.
By using just one subject and one binaural-beat frequency, I

couldn't be sure that results weren't due to chance. I needed to use

several subjects and at least a couple of different binaural beats. I

finally wound up with seven subjects and a small experiment

designed to objectively verify a frequency-following response to
both theta and beta binaural-beat stimuli through the use of an
appropriate evoked-potential protocol.
The study was designed to determine if a 7 Hz (theta) binaur-
al beat would result in a 7 Hz frequency-following response in the
brain, and if a 16 Hz (beta) binaural beat would engender a 16 Hz
response. I chose these frequencies because they were similar to
the frequencies usually embedded within Hemi-Sync patterns.
In order to see if the binaural beating stimulated a frequency-
following response, I had to compare EEG recordings taken while

Evoked-potential studies use time-domain averaging of a number of EEG

responses to mathematically isolate and identify stimuli that would otherwise be
overwhelmed by ongoing brainwave activity.

An academic version of the frequency-following response study is provided on

the companion CD-ROM.

1 A-y
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

listening to the beating with some other condition. Silence could

be one (baseline) condition, but I also thought it would be inter-

esting to see the effect of using a nonbeating (placebo) sound.

In more scientific terms, the hypothesis of the study was that
subjects exposed to a binaurahbeat stimulus would evidence
increases in amplitude of time -domain averaged EEG in frequen-

cies matching that binaural-beat stimulus (the frequency-following

response) when compared to a silence -baseline condition.
Additionally, I expected an elevation in overall EEG ampli-
tude (an arousal response, not a frequency-following response) in
the case of a nonbeating stimulus (placebo) and the alternative
binaural-beat stimulus.
This may seem pretty complex, but if my hypothesis proved
valid, I would be able to see significant increases in 7 Hz and 16 Hz
EEG amplitudes during comparable binaural-beat stimuli periods,
as compared to the silence -baseline condition. And this result

would, of course, imply the development of a frequency-following

response to binaural-beat stimuli.
In order to be sure that I got reliable results in the study, I

decided to use both male and female subjects who had no prior

experience listening to Hemi-Sync. I wanted to ensure that they

wouldn't be simply exhibiting some form of conditioned response
due to prior experience.
Also, to control for subject expectation, the two-second exper-
imental stimuli periods (7 Hz, 16 Hz, and a nonbeating tone) were
arranged in an eighteen- episode Latin- square protocol, which
arranges the stimuli so that the subject cannot predict what the
next stimulus will be based on previous exposure.
In order to automate the whole process and take the
experimenter (me) out of the loop, I used a computer to present
the audio stimuli. I constructed a series of sound files that provid-
ed the various stimuli. Each sound file was automatically played in
the Latin- square sequence through a stereo sound card to the sub-
jects' in-ear stereo headphones.
To isolate the subjects from intrusive stimuli, they were tested
in the booth in the Institute lab, which is an isolated, double -wall.

1 -48
 -

F. Holmes Atwater

soundproofed, and electrically shielded chamber. During the evalu-

ation, subjects lay comfortably on a waterbed. To aid in the reduc-
tion of eye -movement artifact, a small, soft fabric bag filled with
rice was placed over the closed eyes of the subjects. EEG recordings
were made during the entire Latin- square protocol outlined above.
So, I had been careful to ensure this frequency-following
response study was conducted with some due diligence. But what
would the results show?
I found that subjects exposed to binaural-beat stimuli evi-

denced time-domain averaged EEG increases in frequencies

matching binaural-beat stimuli when compared to the silence
baseline condition. Some elevation in EEG amplitudes in compar-
ison to the silence -baseline condition was also seen in reaction to

both the placebo stimulus and the alternative binaural-beat stim-

ulus. All results were as set forth in the study's hypothesis.

There was no reliable evidence of a 16 Hz frequency-following

response. Increases in 16 Hz time-domain averaged EEG ampli-
tudes during the 16 Hz binaural-beat stimulus periods over the
silence -baseline condition were statistically nonsignificant when
the increases in EEG during the placebo and the 7 Hz binaural-beat
stimuli were considered.
However, statistically significant (p < .05) increases in 7 Hz
EEG amplitudes were demonstrated during the 7 Hz stimulus con-
dition, which provided evidence of a 7 Hz frequency-following
response during the 7 Hz binaural-beat stimulus periods even when
the increases in EEG during the placebo and 16 Hz binaural-beat
stimuli were considered in the statistical evaluation.

The following graphs show the anticipated arousal response to the

placebo stimulus and the alternative binaural-beat stimulus as well as
substantial EEG amplitude increases in the appropriate binaural-beat
stimuli periods over the silence -baseline condition.

Meaningful Results

With this small study, I had objectively demonstrated a

frequency-following response to binaural beats in brainwave

1 43
 Captain of My Shir Master of My Soul

16 Hz Response

020

0.18

016

0.14

0.12

o 0.10
u
1
0.08

0.06

004

0 02

0 00
Silence Baseline 16 Hz Stimulus 7 Hz Stilus Placebo

frequency ranges associated with discrete theta states ot con-

sciousness — the stuff of Hemi'S^Tic. This was a critical step in

vaUdating previous hearing- acuity' research. This study also

proved to me, personally, that binaural beats did in fact have a
neurological impact.
But this only proved an auditor^^ frequency-following response. It

did not demonstrate that binaural beats ha\'e an abilirs' to somehow

7 Hz Response

Si*nce Baseline 7 Hz StinxjkiS 16HzStimulUK Ptac«6o

1 50
 .

F. Holmes Atwater

engender psychophysiological state changes, alterations in ongoing

brainwave activity.

As I said before, decades ago it was assumed that the mecha-

nism behind the consciousness-altering effects of binaural beats
was somehow related to the frequency-following response, 1 wrote
and spoke of this myself many times. However, at that point in my
research, it was hard to even speculate that the very low-amplitude
brainwave activity (represented by the frequency-following
response) could in some electromagnetic inductive way modify
ongoing brainwave activity. On the other hand, the mere presence
of a frequency-following response to the binaural beats of the
Hemi-Sync process in this study provided valuable evidence of the

neurological impact of this stimulus.

Through further literature review, 1 found that there is no
neurological effect-mechanism to support the notion that
"entrainment" of binaural beating is responsible for alterations in
brainwave arousal. The EEG signal strength of the measured audi-
tory frequency-following response is extremely low, much too low
to represent an overall ongoing brainwave state. Nevertheless, the
frequency-following response to binaural beats remains an impor-
tant aspect in understanding their potential state -changing
effects.

Demonstrating the presence of a frequency-following response

to the binaural beats in the theta range using evoked-potential

EEG protocols provided me with some evidence of the neurologi-

cal impact of the Hemi-Sync stimulus. So, what mechanism
is the
behind the observed changes in overall brainwave activity? With
more recent research, I have taken a deeper look into the proba-
ble neurological mechanism involved in changing cortical arousal
(ongoing brainwaves)

Neurology and Hemi-Sync

This is a rather in-depth look at brain activity as it relates to

Hemi-Sync. You might want to flip forward a few pages to the sec-
tion called "Altering Consciousness with Hemi-Sync."

151
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Through further study of the available literature, I found out

that ongoing brainwave activity is regulated by the brain's extend-
ed reticular- thalamic activation system. The neural -reticular for-
mation is composed of a large, net-like diffuse area of the
brainstem. The word reticular actually means "net-like."

The reticular activating system interprets and reacts to infor-

mation from internal stimuli like feelings, attitudes, and beliefs as

well as external sensory stimuli (like Hemi-Sync sound) by re ac-

tively regulating arousal states, the focus of attention, and levels of

awareness. How we interpret, respond, and react to information,

then, is managed by the brain's reticular formation stimulating the
thalamus and cortex, and brainwave states of arousal.
So it seemed to me that in order to alter arousal states, atten-
tional focus, and levels of awareness, it was necessary to provide
some sort of information input to the reticular activating system.

And therein appears to reside the neurological mechanism for the

powerful consciousness-altering effects of Hemi-Sync.

If I understood the scientific literature, it would appear that
Hemi-Sync provides information —the complex, brainwave -like
pattern — that engenders cortical adaptation. The reticular acti-
vating system distinguishes the unique binaural-beac waveform
arising within the brainstem as brainwave pattern information. If

internal stimuli, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and external sensory

stimuli are not in conflict with this information (an internal, even
unconscious, fear may be a source of conflict, for example), the
reticular activating system seems to alter cortical arousal states to

match the Hemi-Sync stimulus as a natural adaptive function.

In effect, as time passes the reticular activating system moni-
tors the internal and external environment and arousal states,

attentional focus, and levels of awareness to determine, from

moment to moment, the most suitable way to deal with existing
conditions. As long as no conflicts develop, the reticular naturally
continues aligning the listener's brainwave activity with the infor-
mation in the Hemi-Sync sound field.

The true mechanism, therefore, behind Hemi-Sync's ability to

alter cortical arousal and consciousness is not brainwave "entrain-

1 52
 F. Holmes Atwater

ment" but adaptation to auditory stimulation of the reticular. This

understanding of a neurological mechanism as foundation for the

observed effectiveness of the Hemi-Sync technology was so impor-
tant that I wanted to study this process further. Ever since my
adventure "through the Flavor Straw," I had been seeking to dis-

cover a practical explanation of how Hemi-Sync works.

Altering Consciousness with Hemi-Sync

Our state of consciousness can be described as a balance of
cortical arousal level and subjective content. The reticular acti-

vating system in the brainstem is responsible for maintaining

appropriate levels of arousal in the cortex as well as other special-
ized areas of the brain. And the subjective content (presumably,
intracortical intercourse) of our experiences is dependent upon an
individual's experience level, one's social-psychological condition-

ing, cognitive skills, and neurological development. I began to

grasp an understanding of the power of Hemi-Sync.
The Hemi-Sync sound technology engenders the auditory sen-
sation of binaural beating, and this rhythmic waveform can be
objectively measured as a frequency-following response, providing

evidence that it manifests within the brain.

Since this waveform is neurologically routed to the reticular
formation and since the reticular activating system governs corti-
cal brainwave amplitudes, Hemi-Sync binaural beats (through the
mechanism of the reticular) thereby induce alterations in brain-
wave amplitudes or the arousal side of the consciousness equation.
From this understanding, Hemi-Sync focus levels (Focus 10, Focus
12, etc.) become levels of brainwave arousal.
I have read numerous anecdotal reports of state changes
(alterations in consciousness) encouraged by various low-frequency
binaural beats. Listening to selected binaural beats seems to pro-
mote propitious states of consciousness in a variety of applications.
It has been reported that binaural beating has different effects
depending on the frequency of the binaural-beat stimulation.
I read that binaural beats in the delta (1 to 4 Hz) and theta (4

1 53
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

to 8 Hz) ranges are associated with reports of creativity, sensory

integration, relaxed or meditative states, or as an aid to falling

asleep. Binaural beats in the beta frequencies (typically 16 to 24

Hz) are associated with reports of increased concentration or alert-

ness and enhanced-memory function.

Independent research has associated Hemi-Sync with changes
in arousal leading to sensory integration, alpha biofeedback, relax-
ation, meditation, stress reduction, and pain management. I have
read research reports linking Hemi-Sync with improved sleep,
health care, enriched learning environments, enhanced memory,
creativity, treatment of children with developmental disabilities,

the facilitation of attention, and so-called peak experiences.

Further research validates Hemi-Sync's use in the enhance-
ment of hypnotizability, treatment of alcoholic depression, the pro-
motion of vigilance, performance and mood, increased intuition,
improved reliability in remote viewing, telepathy, and out-of-body
experience.
I found several free -running EEG studies that suggest that bin-
aural beats may induce alterations in cortical arousal (ongoing
brainwaves) and consciousness states. But I needed to do my own
research. The only way I would know for sure how Hemi-Sync
works was to find out for myself —something Bob Monroe had
insisted on years ago.

Hemi-Sync and Brainwave Arousal

I decided to do two free -running EEG studies.^^ In the first

study, I measured the neural accommodation (changes in ongoing

or overall brainwave activity) associated with complex binaural-
beat stimuli. In the second study, based on the same protocol, I

measured changes in ongoing brainwave activity associated with

placebo stimuli. By comparing the results of these two studies, I

hoped to be able to validate the power of Hemi-Sync to alter con-

sciousness.

An academic version of this report is provided on the companion CD-ROM.

1 54
 F. Holmes Atwater

As before, you can flip forward a few pages and see what I

found out.
The hypothesis in the first study was that listening to Hemi-
Sync for several minutes would modify ongoing brainwave activi-

ty in the direction of the binaural beat stimuli. That is, increasing

the amplitude of delta-frequency binaurahbeat stimuli while
decreasing the amplitude of alpha-frequency binaural-beat stimuli
would result in comparable changes in arousal as measured by
free -running EEG.
I wanted to mimic existing, commercially available Hemi-Sync
recordings, so the experimental binaural-beat stimuli consisted of
mixed sinusoidal tones producing complex frequency patterns
(waveforms) changing over a period of forty-five minutes. 1 first

recorded brainwaves during a no-stimulus baseline condition.

Next, I recorded brainwaves for each subject during six periods for

the forty-five -minute sequence of changing binaural beats condi-

tion. Finally, I made an EEG recording during a no -stimulus post-
baseline condition (figure 1).

I rejected the data from two of the subjects due to excessive

movement artifact and used the remaining eighteen subjects'

records for analysis. To determine statistical validity of the data, 1

90-Second EEG Recordings

Figure 1

155
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Occipital EEG Recordings - Stimulus Condition

Multiple Comparison - Dunnett's Analysis
38%'

36%

34%

32% Five of six stimulus conditions were signiflcantiy lower than the baselines.

30%
O
UJ 28%

a 2£%
<
24%

22%

20%

18%

16%

J'

9" ^"^ 9"

Figure 2
CD EEG Recordings — Alpha Binaural Beat Stimulus

conducted a multiple comparison procedure following a one-way

analysis of variance (ANOVA), Dunnett's Test, which compared
the combined baselines (before and after) as a control mean with
the binaural'beat stimulus periods. This analysis showed the reduc-
tions in the percentages of occipital alpha during stimuli conditions

were significant (individually, p<.05, and together, p<.001) during

five of six stimulus periods compared to baselines (figure 2).
Statistical analysis of the data also showed the increases in the
percentages of central delta during stimuli conditions were significant

Central EEG Recordings - Stimulus Condition

Multiple Comparison - Dunnett's Analysis

Four of six stimulus conditions were

significantly higher than the baselines.

OM so% i
p<

Figure 3 I EEC Recordings - Delta Binaural Beat Stimulus

1 56
 -

F. Holmes Atwater

(individually, p<.05, and together, p<.001) during four of six

stimulus periods compared to baselines (figure 3).

So, the results of this first study showed changes in brainwave

activity during the stimulus periods when compared to the baseline

recordings both with increased central delta and decreased occip-

ital alpha. These decreases in alpha amplitudes, coupled with
increasing delta activity, indicated reduced cortical arousal. The
mounting changes over the time of the test and the course of the
stimuli suggest a deepening trend of progressive relaxation and
falling asleep.

A basic question raised by this first study was the role of Hemi-
Sync stimulation in solely or directly causing the brainwave
changes observed. Several of the subjects had had considerable pre-
vious experience with Hemi-Sync. Could it be that these subjects
were naturally adept at altering levels of arousal or had acquired
this abihty through repeated Hemi-Sync practice? The deepening
trend over time also suggests the need to take into consideration
naturally occurring, progressive state changes associated with
falling asleep. I designed a second study to address these concerns.
The hypothesis of the second study was that listening to
monotonous tones (a placebo stimuli without binaural beats) for
several minutes would result in habituation of the stimuli and a
slowing of ongoing brainwave activity and a progressive state of
relaxation.
The placebo stimuli consisted of the same sinusoidal tones
used in the first study, except that they did not produce binaural
beating. As in the first study, the volunteer subjects experienced a
no -stimulus baseline condition during which a ninety- second EEC
recording was taken. Next, each one listened to the same forty-five
minute sequence of changing tones during which six 90- second
EEG recordings were taken at regular intervals. To reduce the
influence of expectation, subjects were again blind as to the char-
acter of the tones. Finally, during a no-stimulus post-baseline con-
dition, a ninety- second EEG recording was made.
A multiple comparison procedure following a one-way
ANOVA (Dunnett's Test) comparing the combined baselines

157
 .

Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Occipital EEG Recordings - Control Condition

Muttiple Comparison - Dunnett's Analysis

Figure 4 a eeg Recordings

as a control mean with the placebo stimuU periods showed
nonsignificant reductions in the percentages of occipital alpha
during stimuli conditions compared to baselines (figure 4)
Statistical analysis showed the nonsignificant increases in the

percentages of central delta during stimuli conditions compared to

baselines (figure 5). The results of this second study, unlike the
first, did not significantly distinguish occipital alpha and central
delta brainwave activity during the placebo stimulus periods from
the baselines.

Central EEG Recordings - Control Condition

Multiple Comparison - Dunnett's Analysis

Figure 5 EEC Recordings

1 5B
 R Holmes Atwater

The hypothesis of this placebo study expected observed decreas-

es in alpha amplitudes coupled with increasing delta activity as a
reaction to listening to monotonous tones. These changes, howev-
er, were not statistically significant, meaning that they could be
expected to have happened by chance alone.

Meaningful Results

Together, these studies demonstrate that Hemi-Sync has a

direct effect on brainwave activity, involving the interaction of

binaural-beat stimulation with the basic rest-activity cycle, other

sensory stimulation, and higher- order memory or attentional process-
es under the scrutiny of the reticular formation. All of these systems

cooperate to maintain our homeostasis and optimal performance.

Our natural state -changing mechanisms, ultradian rhythms,
individual differences, prior experience, and beliefs all contribute

to the effects of and response to Hemi-Sync. But for me the bot-

tom line, so to speak, was that these two studies provided statisti-

cal observations demonstrating changes in cortical arousal in

response to Hemi-Sync. I had my proof.

Ever since my adventure "through the Flavor Straw," I had

been wondering how Hemi-Sync worked. These studies showed
me that the power of Hemi-Sync to provide an environment con-
ducive to personal explorations beyond our physical senses was
real, not snake oil, or self-fulfilling prophecy, or just wishful think-
ing, but real — real, that is, at least in terms of modern neurology.
But did this mean that the binaural beats of the Hemi-Sync
process constituted an irresistible force that could really put the
whammy on you, so to speak? No! And I think Bob Monroe
explained it best:

Hemi-Sync is like music. Imagine yourself out for an

evening for dinner and dance. There you are, sitting at your
table, having a cocktail, when the band strikes up a tune.
Observing the couples around you, you see that some are
getting up to dance, while others remain engrossed in their
intimate conversations.

153
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

You you are tapping your foot to the beat of

notice that
the music and your companion has stopped talking and is Hs-
tening intently to the familiar tune. The waiter suddenly
appears, and your attention and response to the music fall

away you focus your attention on savory menu items.

as
What this all means is that music, like Hemi-Sync, only
provides an inviting environment conducive to shifting your
experience. The band music did not force or compel couples
to dance. And Hemi-Sync cannot force or compel you in any
way. Only you can change you. Your response to Hemi-Sync
depends on you. If you willingly participate with the music,
your experiences will be limited only by your own skill,

expectations, and behefs.

So was it Hemi-Sync that made my experience "through the

Flavor Straw" back in 1977 possible? Or was it, as Bob had told me
back then, that my experience was the result of my metaphysical
upbringing and my intent? The answer to both questions is yes.

Listening to Hemi-Sync apparently has the advantage of altering

brainwave arousal, but one's subjective or cognitive experience of

this shift is dependent upon one's beliefs, social-psychological con-
ditioning, mental abilities or skills, intent, and perhaps even one's
personal spiritual path or agenda.

1 BO
 Chapter Six

Through the Flavor Straw

I never forgot my reawakening experience "through the Flavor

Straw" back in 1977 when I felt myself being gently pushed up and
out of my body, away from familiar surroundings (understand-
ings?), toward an eventual awareness of boundless white and the
revelation that I am. This boundless-white realization was outside
the limitations of the usual space -time orientation. So, while my
senses told me that I rose out of my body and traveled some dis-
tance to a place where I found out that my spiritual self was ever-
present, my voyage was actually one of revelation.
While I uncovered the neural underpinnings behind the Hemi-
Sync process, I availed myself of the opportunity to use Hemi-Sync
in realization of my own conscious being. I began by attending a
Gateway Voyage program in 1978 at a retreat center in Richmond,
Virginia. This was before any of the buildings or facilities of what is

now The Monroe Institute existed (at least in the electromagnetic

space/time continuum as we understand it).

1B1
 -

— Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul -

The Hemi-Sync Progranns

Gateway Voyage

Gateway Voyage is the Institute's basic, prerequisite program

designed to provide the participant with tools to enable the devel-
opment and exploration of human consciousness. The program I
attended in Richmond was not nearly as comprehensive as the
current program presented by the Institute.
In Richmond, we listened to a series of progressive, audio
guidance exercises recorded on cassette tapes using the Hemi-
Sync technology. We also had group discussions and informal
lectures —and, not least, free time for interaction with other par-
ticipants.

Memorable for me was one tape experience during which I

had a great adventure, and when it came back to

was finished I

my body and noticed that everything was very quiet. I didn't want
to disturb the other participants, so I just rested quietly and wait-
ed for the trainers' instructions. After a while, I wondered if the
tape experience was over, because I couldn't hear anything in my
headphones.
Very slowly, I opened one eye and peeked to see if everybody
else was still on tape. To my surprise, everybody was in the next
room discussing their experiences. I was alone. I sat up, took off my
headphones, and wandered in to join my fellow participants.
They all looked at me. The trainer explained that since a com-
mon fear that many had expressed was worry over what would
happen if they got out-of-body and didn't come back when the
tape ended, I had been used as an illustration that there was noth-
ing to fear — that I would come back when the time was right.

I enjoyed the program so much I couldn't wait to do another

once the new facilities on the new land opened. Two years later, I
went to another Gateway Voyage program for still more great expe-
riences.

On the second or third day of the program, we did an exercise

1 B2
 F. Holmes Atwater

called Five Questions. The idea of the exercise was to enter into
Focus 12.^' Once in Focus 12, the prerecorded voice of Bob Mon-
roe would present five questions for the listeners to ask themselves
in their own minds.
We were not told the questions before the exercise. We were
told that the answers would most likely not be perceived as spoken
or written words, but probably would be in the form of a series of

pictures, or a sense of feeling or knowing, or — in their prime

form —some sort of first-person experience. It would be up to us to

translate such nonverbal communication into time/space words

and physical pictures.

The questions presented during the exercise were:

1. Who am I?

2. Where and who was before entered I I this physical being?

3. What is my purpose for this existence in physical-matter

reality?

4. What action can I now take to best serve this purpose?

5. What is the content of the most important message that I

can receive and understand at this point in my existence?

As I asked myself question two in Focus 12, my intellect inter-

preted the question to be about a past life. The question could

have just as easily been interpreted to be about a spiritual existence

just prior to this physical life. But having understood the question
as I did, my intent was to find out who I might have been in an ear-

lier lifetime.

I had never really seriously considered the idea of my reincar-

nation. But in Focus 12 the question did not seem unusual, and I

was willing to experience whatever — regardless of whether I

^'
During the three Gateway Voyage programs I attended, participants experienced
various focused states of consciousness. Bob Monroe coined the following
labels to provide a structure for novice explorers of these realms of conscious-
ness:Focus 10, a "mind awake-body asleep" state; Focus 12, a state enabling
expanded awareness of nonphysical perceptions; Focus 15, during which per-
ceptions are expanded beyond time and place; and Focus 21, which provides
access to other reality systems.

1 B3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

believed in the concept of reincarnation or not. When I was

prompted by the voice of Bob Monroe during the exercise to ask,

"Where and who was I before I entered this physical being?" I sent
this question into the core of my being and awaited a reply.
Almost before I could finish asking, I saw a picture of a beard-

ed man on a ship. I was told, as the expression goes, or came to

know or experience or remember, that this was in the 1800s and
that I was the captain of this ship. 1 was dressed in dark- colored

woolen clothing and wearing a cap. 1 had a black, medium-length

beard and was slender. The ship was sinking and, as captain, 1 had
seen to the safety of my crew and was dutifully going down with the
ship. As I pondered this vision, wondering what else 1 could learn,
Bob Monroe's voice broached the next question and 1 complied.
After the exercise, the participants returned to the conference
room to discuss our tape experience. It wasn't until then that I

realized the implications of my experience. As I shared my ship's

captain experience with the others, I began to remember, in the

back of my mind, the origin of my nickname. This remembering

was peculiar, because it was as though someone else was telling the

ship's captain story while I occupied myself with the memory of my

nickname.
Years ago my parents had explained to me that I had been
given the nickname Skipper because they were seriously into
recreational boating during my infancy, and I had become the
"skipper" of the family boat, which was actually named SKIPPER.
My needs and desires as an infant became paramount, and all fam-
ily activities focused on my welfare. In nautical terms, 1 was the
captain, the skipper.
As a part of me continued telling the Focus 12 ship's -captain

experience, more memories began whirling around in the back of

my mind. Just at the point in the story where my mouth was talk-

ing about "going down with the ship," I began to wonder if drown-
ing was a traumatic experience. This immediately brought a
memory of snorkeling at the age of twelve or thirteen. I failed a

snorkeling class at the YMCA because I had passed out under

water. The instructor had told me that I was different from other

1 BA
 F. Holmes Atwater

people because I did not know, by means of a panic response, when

I needed to take a breath. The instructor said that he flunked me
out of the class for my own safety.
A similar incident occurred in a friend's swimming pool when
I was sixteen. My parents told me after that incident that I should
never try scuba diving or any underwater sports. My mom told me
that "normal" people, when holding their breath, know when it is

time to take a breath because they are overcome by an unrelenting

need to take a breath and will do whatever is necessary to satisfy
that need. I don't experience these feelings.
The memory of all this seemed to answer my wondering about
drowning being a traumatic event in the ship's-captain experience.

That other part of me finished telling the story to the group,

and I raised my eyes, allowing the group back into my awareness.
Several others told of their Focus 12 experiences in the Five Ques-
tions exercise. Then someone asked me, "Captain Atwater, did you
see anyone else on the ship with you?"
He addressed me as captain out of respect for my military rank,

but before I could answer his question, my thoughts flashed

through the composite of what was happening — the past-life

vision, my nickname Skipper, not drowning, and the respected

captain. I finally answered the question, "No, I didn't see anyone
else." But the underlying importance of his utterance did not
escape me. I remain thankful for his question today. Guidance can
seemingly come from all of God's angels.
Although my most memorable experience in this Gateway
Voyage was the Focus 12 Five Questions exercise, others have
their peak or most meaningful experiences in Focus 21. In the con-
ference room after the Introduction to Focus 21 exercise, one par-
ticipant started describing his experience by saying, "I went up
through the colors and began to visualize a scene with people or
beings in white robes. I was so excited! This was Focus 21. Sever-
al of these robed beings came forward in turn, presented to me a
largeopen book with the open pages facing me. It was obvious that
they wanted me to see what was in the book, but I pushed them
aside because I was so excited about being in Focus 21. I didn't

1 B5
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

want to miss . ..." He stopped mid- sentence and a bewildered look

came over his face.

It moment in the conference room that he

wasn't until that
realized what had happened. He was so anxious not to miss any-
thing in Focus 21 that he pushed aside the information being
offered to him. The lesson here is one of willingness, openness, and
acceptance rather than a goal- oriented demanding or controlling
attitude based on ego-relevant expectations.

Guidelines

The theme of the six- day Guidelines program, which I have

attended twice, is to assist the individual in learning methods
through which conscious contact (a unity- experience in the form
of communication) can be established with one's Total Self — or
Inner Self Helper (ISH), or Guidance, or Non-Physical Friends, or
Universal Consciousness.
Remembering the elation of their Gateway Voyage experi-
ences, many come to Guidelines filled with expectations. But this
is an entirely different program with a consciousness horizon far

beyond those of the Gateway Voyage. Once the participant realizes

this, they open to what the program has to offer.

Working primarily in Focus 21, the program encourages the

practical application of communications with one's true nature.
With practice, I learned to quickly and directly access whatever
information I needed. The goal is to make such lines of commu-
nication as direct and natural as possible. During a business
meeting, for example, one can calmly and serenely access the com-
munication skills learned and apply them within the context of the
situation.
Also included is direct training relating to the out-of-body
state and to the use of healing energy for oneself and others. I had
my own personalized session during the program in a specially
designed isolation chamber in the lab, which is where my travels

"through the Flavor Straw" continued, which I'll get to in just a

bit.

1 BB
 —
F. Holmes Atwater

Lifeline

During the six- day Lifeline program, I gained familiarity with

both Focus 22, where humans still in the physical have partial con-

sciousness, remembered as dreams, delirium, and patterns induced

through chemicals, and with Focus 23, a level inhabited by
humans who have recently exited physical existence and have not
adapted to such change.
From there I experienced Focus 24, 25, and 26 — the Belief

System territories where those who have exited the physical are
residing in a particular belief system. I then went on to Focus 27
the Reception Center, Way Station, or Park, representing a process
designed to ease the trauma and shock of the transition out of
physical reality and assist in evaluating options for the next steps
in growth and development.
I became familiar with these levels and then offered assistance
to those I met in these realms. I also helped those I met come to
know they survived physical death by inviting them to accompany
me to Focus 27. Some call these activities rescues.

During several of the exercises, I kept passing by a guy in

Focus 25 who seemed to be repairing a sink drain. After seeing him
on a few exercises, I finally stopped and asked him what he was
doing. He said that he had to get the sink fixed because there was
an electrical short and somebody might get hurt. I wondered if a
rescue was in order.

I asked him if he wanted to take a break and come with me for

a while. He said he would, and I moved off toward my favorite place

in Focus 27. He followed, and when we arrived he began looking
around the kitchen and noticed that, although there was illumi-
nation, there were no light fixtures or light switches. I asked him
what he thought about that and if he liked the idea. He said he
thought it was just fine and began to relax a bit.
I told him I wanted him to meet someone who would show him
many other wondrous things. I asked if he would like to do that.

He nodded his head, and I turned to the waiting Guide and ges-
tured willingness and receptivity. My new friend glanced toward
the Guide as though he had not noticed him before and smiled as

1 BV
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

if greeting an old friend. They joined hands and became what I can
only describe as a ball of soft light. This radiant oneness seemed to
dance to music — a melody I could not hear — as it expanded
beyond my perception.

Exploration 2y
Exploration 27, which I attended twice, is a series of planned
visits to Focus 27 to obtain information, data, and direct experi-
ences related to this different nonphysical world. I experienced the
unique energy field of Focus 27, had opportunities for extended
communication with the residents there, and developed relation-

ships that provided useful information. The program included

explorations for the retrieval of historical data regarding Focus 27,
including the investigation of artifacts.
A. J. Honeycutt, Bob Monroe's stepson and a stalwart example
of thirty- something manhood, was one of my fellow participants in
the second Exploration 27 program I attended. Beneath his sculp-
tured physique and brusque mannerisms, A.J. hid a depth of
understanding. You could see it in his eyes. He had his mother's
eyes, the eyes of Nancy Penn Monroe.
During the program, in the
state of consciousness called
Focus 27, A. J. visited a nonphys-
ical version of the Roberts
Mountain Retreat. He began
looking around and found familiar

cirticles, pictures, and knick-

knacks in all their proper places.

In what he perceived as the

kitchen area, he started thinking
about small repairs that were nec-
AJ. Honeycutt essary. To his astonishment, he
found that this nonphysical ver-
sion of the Roberts Mountain Retreat needed no repairs.

A.J. explained all this to us in the conference room after his

experience. It illustrates that these nonphysical realms are not

1 BS
 R Holmes Atwater

objective realities but convenient projections of our own idealized

expectations. It is probably more practical not to think about places
in nonphysical realms but rather processes.

In Focus 27, the Roberts Mountain Retreat process might

include methods and practices for experiencing aspects of All That
Is beyond the Earth-life system. We overlay these experiences on
mental projections of physical matter reality in an attempt (many
times unsuccessfully) to mentally integrate meaningfulness.
I also explored beyond Focus 27, into previously uncharted ter-

ritories referred to as Focus 34/35. At this level it is nearly impos-

sible to relate experiences in human terms. Metaphorically, I found
myself inside a great oneness, which appeared to me as a crystal

geode.The message here was that just as the geode is one thing
made up of many individual crystalline forms which are dependent
on each other to create the unity of the geode form, so too is

humanity one thing made up of each of us and by which humanity

itself is defined.
If you can't get your mind around that, you'll just have to visit

Focus 34/35 and "find out for yourself," as Bob Monroe would say.

Heartline

The six- day Heartline program came into being as a result of

Laurie Monroe's experience of the universal love energy commu-
nicated through her from Bob and Nancy Monroe.
Laurie, Bob's daughter, was about eight years old when he
began having the consciousness-expanding experiences described
in his hook Journeys Out of the Body. As a child, Bob's out-of-body
stories amused Laurie, for she herself experienced such adventures
regularly, as many children do. Together, she and Bob grew to
understand the greater spiritual implications of the out-of-body

experience.
Laurie played an active role in the early years of Hemi-Sync
research and development. Being a part of all of this through the
years must surely have been her chosen course, her divinely
appointed purpose in life. Today, a heart- centered Laurie dedicates
herself to continuing the work of her father, to maintaining a local

1B9
 —
CAPTAiN OF My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

parent organization, and to establishing a global network so that

people all over the world can experience the Hemi-Sync technolo-
gy. She truly believes that the Hemi-Sync process will bring to

humankind a knowing that we are more than our physical bodies

and that in this knowing, life itself will be enriched here and beyond.
Heartline offers

new approaches for

removing the obstacles

to love's expression in

everyday life, as well as

methods for exploring

deeper levels of Self
for discovering one's
true self' essence. This
highly interactive expe-
riential process uses a
variety of exercises

Skip with Laurie Monroe ^^^""^ P^°g^^™

tapes.

For me, however, Heartline represented something special,

for I read Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch dur-
ing this wonder-filled weeklong retreat. Neale's forthright trea-
tises, or, as he put it, an uncommon dialogue, touched me deeply.
With each turn of a page, my heart filled with emotion and my
eyes wept. Here in this book were the truths, the principles by
which I had been living, and amazingly someone else knew these
things.
As I read through chapter after chapter, I kept asking myself in
the back of my mind, "Who is this guy, this Neale Walsch, and
how does he know all this stuff? Is this really a conversation with
God?" Ultimately, I guess, I wondered if my contact with Guidance
was in fact a conversation with God too. The truth never changes;
it is and always will be. Thank you, Neale.
I attended the Heartline program because I was serious about
looking within. For me, Heartline was about realizing heart space:
self-love, self-trust, and nonjudgmental acceptance. It was about

1 vo
 F. Holmes Atwater

allowing, understanding, and moving beyond feelings into the

transcendental.
As humanity moves into knowing that we are indeed more
than our physical bodies, so, too, do we need to understand that

we are more than our emotional bodies, our personalities. To

accomplish this, it is necessary to explore those areas within us
that hold us back from self-trust and self-acceptance. The Heart-
line program teaches a willingness to let go of the energetic shields
we hold to protect ourselves from (falsely perceived) threats.
Heartline is not about renouncing the rational self Instead, it

is an invitation to that part of oneself to open, allow, and welcome

the heart, the feeling connection, to come into balance. In this
way, humanity can move into a greater wholeness and expanded
awareness of its true spiritual identity.

The Heartline affirmation is:

I am in touch with the source of all life and I am open to

receive all energy from this source. My purpose is to know
and be love. My intent is to know the fullness of life, the joy
of life, and the love that I am. I deeply desire to know, to be,
to understand, to experience, and to express the love that I

am and the absolute good that I bring forth. I ask that the
light of the source surround me, enfold me, and embrace me.
I ask that the love energy flow through me now. From this
day forward, I am better able to be the love that am and to
I

know that I have no limitations. For I am this energy I am —

love. And because I am love, I live each moment of this day
in heartfelt gratitude and deep, abiding appreciation for All
That Is.

In the Lab
When I was hired to work in the lab back in June 1988, it

marked a significant shift in direction for research at The Monroe

Institute. Never before had anyone been employed at the Institute

to do quantitative inquiry into brainwave states engendered by

Hemi-Sync. Unpaid volunteers running an extended version of the
Explorer Program conducted the ongoing lab effort.

171
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Explorer Program
The program involved the use of experienced Hemi-Sync users
in the exploration of what Bob called locales —other dimensional
Bob had been experimenting with this concept for a
realities.

number of years, and by the time I arrived on the scene, Dr. Rita
Warren and her husband, Martin Warren, were running the lab
and the Explorer Program.

Martin and Rita Warren

Rita, a brilliant, highly educated woman and retired university

professor, applied her intellect and education to the task at hand

with the expected precision. But there was something more. Rita's
compassion for humanity and respect for every spirit- soul with
whom she worked established a standard of excellence for work in
the lab renowned to this day. Martin Warren, "the miracle man,"
referred to himself as a lifelong student of The Course in Miracles. To
me, he was not the student but the teacher, the shining example,
the model for living one's life by the principles of everyday miracles.
Bob Monroe was fond of saying that Hemi-Sync should pro-
vide "something of value." In vigorous pursuit of this concept, he
developed a set of questions that Rita and Martin were to ask every

explorer. The questions pertained to such things as how to solve

the energy crisis (remember the gas lines of the 1970s), cures for

chronic diseases, and the ultimate nature of reality.

1 V2.
 F. Holmes Atwater

But things at the Institute were changing fast. With the advent
of the Guidelines program, Bob wanted to provide ever>' partici-

pant the opportunity' to experience a personalized session in the

isolation booth in the lab. Bob asked Dr. Darlene Miller, a retired

clinical psychologist who worked in the Programs Division at the

Institute, to develop a format for these sessions.

Darlene and the Warrens had been close friends for a number of
years, and a collaboration of these "experts in the held" was bound
to yield a perfect solu-

tion. The Warrens .

brought to the table

their years of experi-

ence with the explor-

ers. And Darlene had
her work with pro-
gram participants, a^
career as psycholo-'
gist, and an inner
spirit wisdom evi-

denced in her sott-

spoken ways to contribute. Her every- carefully chosen word seems

to be lovingly nurtured before it is allowed to grace the listener.

Over the years, the questions posed to the explorers (Bob's list)

never yielded any consistent answers or reliable solutions. The

explorers, however, found something of value for themselves in the
Hemi-Sync booth sessions in the lab. In their explorations of con-
sciousness, they found themselves — their true nature as spiritual
beings. For those with a deeper interest, I recommend the book
Cosmic Journeys by Rosalind A. McKnight, one of Bob's original
colleague-explorers.
Darlene decided that the personalized sessions that Bob
wanted to include in the Guidelines program should be intend-
ed to produce something ot value tor each participant by allow-
ing them to explore their own With Bob's
personal resources.
approval of Darlene's plan, she and I got together and estab-
lished a structure for doing individualized Hemi-Sync exercises.

1 V3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Darlene labeled this the Personal Resources Exploration Pro-

gram, or PREP

PREP Sessions
Participants and graduates of the Guidelines program are eligi-

ble to participate in the PRER a personalized session conducted in a

specially designed, secluded cubical in the lab at the Institute or,

more recently, at Roberts Mountain Retreat. Hemi-S>Tic frequencies

and verbal guidance provided by a trained facilitator (monitor)

support them throughout this unique experience.

Before PREP sessions, the participant and the monitor discuss
the intent of the session and plan an agenda appropriate to the
participant's goals. Sometimes people go into a session with goals
and expectations. Sometimes these goals are achieved and expec-
tations are fulfilled, but most of the time what is realized (as in,
"made real") is something entirely different, of greater importance
than can be imagined.
The use of physiological monitoring is especially beneficial to
facilitation of PREP sessions. The monitor can tell when the par-
ticipants are relaxed, when they "move" from experience to expe-
rience, and when to ask questions about the experience.
Participants get a complete report of their physiological changes
during their session at the end.
I am one of the monitors for PREP sessions at the Institute.
Over the years, I have assisted hundreds of participants to shift

their conscious perspective and explore a realm of knowledge

seemingly available beyond the limitations of their physical senses.
The affinity I have for this process comes from several sources.
My original training as a counterintelligence special agent intro-

duced disciplined interviewing techniques. Later, I monitored thou-

sands of remote -viewing sessions over the decade I spent in the Star
Gate program. My own psychic experiences provided an empathetic
understanding of the challenge posed when asked to objectify,
describe, or report nonphysical experiences. But most importantly,
above all else, is my profound respect —my gratitude for being cho-
sen to enjoin these participants in the realization of spirit.

174
 F. Holmes Atwater

For the most part, participants come to a PREP session under

the impression that the session is exclusively for them. After all, it

is called the Personal Resource Exploration Program. For me, how-

ever, these sessions are unity experiences, times when the delusion
of separateness from spirit fades and the silhouettes and shadows
of darkness vanish in the light of knowingness — in the realization

of AH That Is.

Many times, these experiences are seemingly ver\' personal for

the individual. I say "seemingly" because, for the most part, the

reported information may represent a truth for all humanity and is

not all that personal or unique to that individual. To illustrate, Jim

Szpajcher gave me permission to share a transcript of one of his
booth sessions.

PREP Session Transcript

Before Exploration 27 Program
November B, 1 39S
Time: 15:00 hours
Monitor: Skip Atwater
Subject: Jim Szpajcher
Elapsed Time: VG minutes

(Resonant tuning)
(Pause)
Skip: Remember your resonant energy balloon and your affir-

mation, beginning, "I am more than my physical body, " and

move on gently to Focus 1 0. using the method you've leaimed.
(Pause)
Jim: I'm in Focus 10 now. The energy that call "Blue" is here. I

I'm going to ask it what need to learn today in Focus 0.

I 1

Skip: Very good.

(Pause)
Jim: I'm being shown a group of my, hmm, people from my I-
There. There's a lot of them that know already, sitting
I

out amongst these trees, kind of in a woods or an orchard,

or something. They're all just grinning and talking to each

other,and I'm being shown that they are with me today.

They're very laid-back. The message that I'm getting is
that they are with me whenever need them I to be.

1 75
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

I've approached the three soldiers, military types, some of

my past: the Airman, Jaques, the French soldier, and

Hank, the Confederate soldier. I'm aisking them, "What is

there that need to learn today? and if they have any-
1 '

thing for me.

[Note from Jim: in some of the hypnotic regression work I've

done, I have "memories" of having lived from 1920 to 1942,

being killed in World War II as a bombardier in the Royal

Canadian Air Force. I also have "memories" of being a young
French soldier who, at the age of sixteen, died in 1812, in the
battle of Borodino before Moscow. And have "memories"
I of
having lived from about 1 840 to about 1 905, surviving the U.S.
Civil War, then going west to ranch and farm in Oklahoma.]
The message that I'm getting is that I shouldn't take it too
seriously, this business of military lifetimes, that war is an
accelerated, speeded up style of experiencing life. And it's

a way to cram a lot of experience into a short period of

time. It's important to learn the lessons but not to get hung
up on the emotions.
I'm thanking them and moving back with the rest of the
group. They're waving at me as if to say "Hi," and I'm
ready to go to Focus 2 now. 1

Skip: Very good. Using the method you've learned, expand

once again to Focus 12.
(Pause)
Jim: I'm in 12 now, in a small darkened room that's like a small
amphitheater, and I have before me my There
three of I

group, the ones that I consider to be members of my Ex-

Com [Executive Committee].
There are three individuals here. There's the one that I

call Caesar, the one that I call Chin, and the one that I call

Princess. The message that I'm getting is that what we are

doing is important, in terms of my progress, and there's a
lot of work left to do.
(Jim laughs.)
Jim: So, they're telling me to lighten up and not be so serious.
Skip: Lighten up; to get enlightened?
Jim: Um-Hmm. I get the impression that they are finished with
me today, so I'm ready to move on to 15.
Skip: Very good. Open your heart, and from your heart expand

176
 F. Holmes Atwater

into Focus 1 5. Affirming, and stating from your heart your

willingness to learn, to know, to understand, to experience,
and to love.

(Pause)
Jim: I'm in now. The energy that call "Blue" has changed
1 5 1

into Rex,my "guide-dog," which is how recognize him. I

We're walking along through a panorama of stars. Looking

at, in the distance . . . basically the creation of gaJaixies,
looking back into time.
[Note from Jim: Rex showed up initially as a blue energy dunng
my Guidelines program when 1 asked to meet my IShl (Inner
Self Helper). When 1 threw a rote at the energy to display
itself to me in a way would 1 understand, a German shepherd
dog ran up to me. When tried to understand why my ISH I

was showing up as a pet dog, he appeared at my left knee with

a seeing-eye dog harness and later gave his name as Rex.]
*
(Pause)
Jim: I'm watching a slow-motion movie of the development of
the universe right now. I'm getting the impression thai it s

important to watch the galaxies as they are developing,

and as time is moving on, the understanding that I'm get-

ting is that everything is important. The job that 1 do, as

small as it is in the whole scheme of things, is important,
'cause it all fits in somewhere. It's like I'm getting a mes-
sage that there is a plan, and we all have our roles to play in it.

(Pause)
Jim: Rex has got up, and he's . . . looks like he's walking over
to 2 1 , so I guess I'll follow him along.
Skip: Very good. Once again, through the colors, into the free
dom of the White.
(Pause)
Jim: I'm in 2 1 now, and Rex and I are moving over to a ... it

looks like a crystal city hanging in the void. There's a big

building that looks like a cathedral. It's all transparent crys-
tal. I'm walking into it and sitting down. There are rows
of benches, or pews. It's very restfijl. I'll stop for a minute
and absorb some of the energy.
Skip: Yes.Welcome and express your gratitude.
(Pause)
Jim: One of the members of my Ex-Com, the guide that I refer

1 VV
 Captain OF My Ship, Master of My Soul

to as Chin, who looks like an ancient Chinese sage, has

walked out and satdown beside me. Almost like an act of
companionship. And the three of us, P\ex, Chin, and
myself, are looking around at the beautiful, prismatic col-

ors that seem to light up within the walls of this crystal

building; cathedral-like.
The message I'm getting from Chin is that the way to
learn, and the way to acquire, is to go and experience
things as often as 1 need to. To learn and understand
them. To go out, and not be afraid of making mistakes but
to repeat the lessons as often as I need to, to learn. And
this should be done in a spirit of happiness. He smiles at
me. Now he's walking away. Rex and 1 are just going to
pop over to my cave in 2 and pick up some energy.
1

[Note from Jim: in my visits to Focus 21,1 have found a little cave
with a fire in the middle, which is like a small campfire. This
represents a small part of all the light energy which is available
to me, and I have often visualized absorbing light energy from
the fire while moving through Focus 21.]
I'm ready to move on to the park in 27.
Skip: All right. We'll move, first passing through 23, for a brief
stop in 25. Pass through 23 for a brief stop in 25.
Jim: Okey-dokey.
Skip: hiere, in the belief-system realities of Focus 25, take a look
around and see if there is anything for you here, before
moving on.
(Pause)
Jim: The view that I have here in 25 is of thousands and thou
sands of bubbles suspended in a light-green light, almost
like bubbles in a light-green water. And 1 see myself mov-
ing amongst them. I'm checking out to see if any of them
have any attraction to me, or me to them.
An arm has reached out to me and dragged me into a bubble.
I'm in a Stone Age, caveman-style area with people
dressed in skins. It looks like a group of people that, if they
were North American Indians, I would call it the Happy
Hunting Grounds, but this pre-dates them. This is very
old. The fellow that drew me in is introducing me to sev-

eral others of his friends and acquaintances there. They

are welcoming me. The landscape is fairly rolling. It looks

1 VB
 F. Holmes Atwater

like early spring, because there are no leaves on the trees

yet, but the grass is greening up nicely. These people look

happy. The group that I'm with right now is all males.
They are showing me to a small campFire. where some of
them have been working on arrowheads and speatrheads.
(Time elapsed to this point: 45 minutes)
It's like they know that they've passed on and they are try-

ing to work hard to get ready for their next life, for their
next go-around, by learning how to make tools. It's inter-
esting. I never quite thought of that approach before, from
that time period.

Skip: You might like to ask Guidance why it is that you've been
brought to this world.
Jim: I've thrown the question out as to why was I attracted to
here. And I feel a very strong resonance with one of the
men. I have the impression that he and I are associated in

the same IThere. He's greeting me like a very close

friend. I feel that he's familiar but he seems to respond to

me a lot closer than I am to him. He's )ust giving me a

great big bear hug.
I'm getting a time from him. It looks like he's in a time that's
about ten or twelve thousand years ago. I'm trying to get

a sense of where. All right, 1 get the impression of either

north-central North America or north-central Europe,
after the glaciers left. Both of them look as reasonable
places. His skin is fair, so I'm getting the impression that it's

north-central Europe. Hmmm. I'm being shown an area

that would correspond to Romania, Hungary, some-
where in that area. He's inviting me to )oin him, but I m
telling him that I can't stay there, that 1 have to move on
to other places.
[Note from Jim: I got the name "Crock " or "Groc " for him. After-
ward, Skip pointed out that Robert Heinlein had used that
word in Stranger In A Strange Land to mean knowledge or
enlightenment, as in "I grok that."]
Skip: Does he understand the concept of other places?
Jim: He seems to, because he's saying that we will meet again.
He's giving me a very clear impression that he feels he
needs to be where he is, right now.
Skip: And so be it.

1 VG
 —
Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Jim: Vm thanking him, and acknowledging him with gratitude,

for introducing himself to me. I tell him that I will remem-
ber him and perhaps seek him out again. He's smiling and
waving at me. Rex and 1 are leaving, and we've just
stepped out of that thought-bubble. That was a bit of a
surprise, that one.

Skip: Hmm. Interesting concept of making tools for the next life.

Some cultures bury their dead with food and tools for the

journey, and here we find a culture who is preparing for

the next life by making tools.

Jim: seemed very much more sophisticated than

Yes, they 1

would have initially given them credit for. These people

weren't dummies. But they had a very fixed belief system
and they what they were doing was the right
felt that
way. And them all credit for their approach. Espe-
1 give
cially the one who seems to have been part of my link. I'm

floating through the bubbles again here in 25. I've gone

into one —
hmmm. This looks like a medieval style of an
existence. There's a bunch of knights standing around in
armor, with horses. It looks like there's a town faar, a pag-
eant of some sort. There are ladies here, damsels, all
dressed up in their long-gowned finery. There's a festival
on in this town.
(Pause)
Jim: Hmm. This knight that has greeted me, and there's a lady
in a long, blue gown, a light blue gown. They tell me
he's welcoming me to his place, to their place, there. I

have an impression that this one of my personas as well.

is

The lady that's on his arm seems to be his mate, of some

sort. She's very friendly to me. I'm wondenng if she isn't

some persona of my wife's.

[Note from Jim: got the names Michael and Anna, and when
I

Anna greeted me, she held my hands in her hands, looked into
my eyes, smiling, and said, 'It's nice to see you agaiin. " She had
a twinkle in her eyes, like she knew something that I had for-

gotten. I got a very strong echo of my wife when I looked in her

eyes. I felt certain that she is a member of my wife's 1-There.]
There's a castle on the edge of town. It's not very large.
It looks like one of the older styles that was used as a
secure hold, as opposed to a palace of some sort. The

1BO
 F. Holmes Atwater

time period in this thought-bubble seems to be in the late

fall, after the harvest has been brought in. They seem to

be holding some sort of Thanksgiving-style, harvest-type

festivities. These people seem to be aware that they've

paissed on. I'm looking for any semblance of a church, or

anything. 1 see a stone, small country church with a spire
on it, but it doesn't seem to play a major role in the exis-
tence of these people right now. It's like a big outdoor
banquet. There's food on the tables, fruit, meat.
This fellow in armor is blond. I'm getting an impression of
northern Europe, or northern England — not as far as Scot-
land, but somewhere in northern England or northern
Europe, from a period about 700 to 800 years ago, 1 200
or 1300 A.D.
Ijust asked if they wanted to go somewhere else, the man

and the woman, and they laughed like it was one of the
funniest things they had heard in a long time. They are
where they want to be right now, so I'm thanking them
for showing me their place. Rex and I are going to leave
that thought-bubble.

(Pause)
Jim: There's a fellow who's showing up. I've seen this guy before.
[Note from Jim: I had a brief glimpse of him at the end of a tape
during my Guidelines program. He showed up for about three
seconds, striding purposely toward me, then Bob Monroe's
voice had interrupted and called us to go back to C- 1 , and I

lost the image. This time he showed up in Focus 25, outside

a "thought-bubble," in the light green of the Focus level, as if

he was trying to track me down before I got away.]

He looks like he's a tall. Viking-type person, with a cape
of some animal skin. Marching toward me. He has a mes-
sage for me. I'm trying to listen to see what it is. He's
telling me that He is Me, that he is part of me.
[Note from Jim: At this point, this man had grabbed me by the
shoulders with both hands, and was forcefully looking into my
eyes, saying, "I am you. I am you. / am you!"]
He's big. He appears to me to be over six feet tall and
looks to be in his early twenties, very strong-looking, very
vigorous, very fit, very capable. And he's telling me that
it's important that I not forget that he is me.

1 S1
 —
Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

I've got my hands on his shoulders, acknowledging him as

me, as part of me.
I'm asking for a name, but the name I'm getting is "Wolf,"
and don't know if it relates to the animal, or if that's his
I

name, or if that's his persona, but it seems to fit, all of that,

somehow.
I'm asking him if he wants to take me to where he is from,
in that area, or if he wants to come with me. He's taking
me with him, to a village.

[Note from Jim: At this point, we had entered his thought-bubble.]

Hmm. The buildings seem to be made out of, basically,

wood frames, covered in animal skins, like tents of some

sort. Not like the American teepee but as rounded huts,

not quite as big as the yurts that the Mongols had, but
skin-covered, huts. There are maybe twenty of these in
his village. There are children and women, other men.
This is his place, he's telling me. He's a member here.
He tells me I should come back and visit. Hmm. I'm get-
ting the impression that he has done something almost like
vision quests, and has seen me, and come looking for me.
He has been chasing after me for some time. I'm thanking
him, acknowledging him and giving him gratitude. I'm
telling him that I'm thankRil to have met him and that I will

remember him, that we will visit again. Rex and I are leav-
ing that thought-bubble.
I'm going to move onto Focus 27 now.
Skip: Yes, very good.
(Pause)
Jim: I'm in 27, at the park. There's a man in a toga. An older
man, balding. There are several others with him, but he's
coming toward me. He's welcoming me to the park.
Hmm. And he's also telling me that this week coming up
he'll have a chance to show me around Focus 27, and

that he's looking forward to this week coming up.

There's a group of people from my There surrounding I

him, and they are all gnnning and smiling. My Roman guy
I'm getting the name "Claudius, ' I don't know if that's his

real name but it's the first name that my mind

popped into

when 1 thought of how to address him. They are all grinning

and laughing. They're saying, "Welcome to Focus 27."

1B2
 .

F. Holmes Atwater

[Note from Jim: At this point, I protested to them that I had been
to Focus 27 before.]
"You just think that you've been here before." They're
laughing. The understanding that I'm getting is that this

coming week will introduce me to Focus 27 Proper.

That's quite a reception. 1 wasn't planning on that one.
[Note from Jim: was booked for Exploration 27 November
1 7th
to 13th, which was starting the next day.]
Skip: Did you smile back and say "Thank you ?
Jim: Absolutely. Yes, indeed. Thanks, guys. They're waving at
me now. They're heading off back into some other build-
ings. They are telling me that I'll see them again. So, I

think I'll start my way down now.

back
Skip: Yes, very good. Moving back down through 25.
Jim: I'm in 25. I'll head for 2 1

Skip: Move slowly, making sure of your touchstones quite well.

Moving from 25 down to 2 1 , passing through 23.
Jim: I'm in my cave in 2 1 , by the fire. Rex is gnnning at me, as
much German shepherd can. I'm absorbing some ener-
as a

gy. I'm ready to work my way back down again from there.

Skip: All right. Just hold on here, and we'll move slowly once

again. We'll move back to the point where we began.

Follow the sounds, slowly, easily, back to the point where
we began. Back to level 10, back to Focus 10.

(Pause)
Jim: I'm in Focus 10. My Blue energy is back in front of my eyes.
Skip: Very good. Anchor on the Blue energy. Anchor in Focus
10. Now, counting back. Counting back to Focus 1 : nine,
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Open
your eyes.Can you see the light in the room there?
Jim: (Deep breath) Yes.
Skip: All right. Very good. Move your arms, move your legs,
wiggle your toes. Everything still connected down there?
Jim: So far.
Skip: (With humor in voice) Good. That's a real good sign.

Jim: Umm-Hmm.
Skip: Now if you'll just relax for just a minute, I'll be right in to

get those electrodes off your fingers. Just relax, and I'll be
right there.

Jim: Excellent.

1S3
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Persona! Explorations through the Flavor Straw

When I first met Bob Monroe, I was in search of training tech-

niques for the army's remote -viewing unit, and I had seemingly

thousands of questions I wanted to ask Bob about Hemi-Sync. But

as we had lunch on that springtime afternoon so long ago, I was
also curious about the boundless white space I had visited during

my "Flavor Straw" experience. When I asked Bob about this, he

told me that the only way for me to know was to find out for myself

(a comment he provided to many). In other words, I needed to

explore this areaon my own and not depend on what others may
have to say about it.

It seemed to me that PREP sessions in the isolation booth

would be ideal for explorations "through the Flavor Straw." While
I have been the monitor for others (the purpose of my italicized

emphasis here will become apparent later) hundreds of times since

I became research director at the Institute, dozens of times I have
been the explorer in the booth —expanding my conscious aware-
ness into the knowingness of All That Is.

During these growth periods in my life, Teena Anderson,

my colleague in the lab, was also my counselor and confidant.
A motto at the Institute is, "I am more than my physical
body." Teena, however, professes strongly that she is not her
physical body. This spirit-centered being monitored my PREP
sessions.
In preparation for one of these sessions, Teena and I talked
about the fact that for some time I had been having mental visions,

dreams, or experiences that I recognized as recurring mental

visions, or trips, from my childhood. I was wondering why these
episodes were once again drifting into my consciousness. had I also

been having stomach problems ever since I retired from the army,
and I was seeking some insight into possible metaphysical causes of
these symptoms. I set learning about these topics as my goal for a
PREP session on April 11, 1989."

An audio recording and transcript are available on the CD-ROM accompanying

this book.

1B-4
 .

F. Holmes Atwater

My questions about recurring visions from my youth seemed to

be answered with an explanation of a "calendar of time" and the

fact that these events aren't always coexistent from a temporal per-
spective. Apparently, events of our perceived past are not fixed
and can be altered by present
activities and the future present as

well. My awareness of this happen-

ing was experienced as recurring
visions of what I perceive as the
temporal past but in realit>' are as

yet uncompleted events. All that

exists is the present. What we call

the past is information (as in, in-

formation, not solid). What we call

the future forms by the laws ot

Teena Anderson
probability, intent-consciousness.
and present activities (which, of course, becomes part of the past
in-formation a moment from now)
During the session, I was reminded (put into my right-mind)
that the question of purpose doesn't make sense. I also realized

that, rather than using "who, what, why, when, or how," I should
simply say in my mind "explain," to solicit the answers to ques-
tions I (or an aspect of myself) may have. Apparently, the use of
the interrogatives limits the response by confining the answer
provided to the boundaries of a belief that we are somehow sep-
arate from this knowledge. "Explain," on the other hand, simply
means to make obvious what is already known and imposes no
belief limitations.
When I sought answers concerning my colitis, I uncovered an
aspective expression of myself that appeared to me as a black bird.

Guidance offered this black bird and its nest-tending concerns as a

metaphor. The black bird was concerned about losing its identity
as a nest tender and principal family caregiver when its offspring
outgrew the confines of the nest and their dependency. The nest-
tender personality or aspect was, in a sense, facing death —and
wasn't facing this transition comfortably.

1S5
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

I was unable to resolve the issues surrounding Nest Tender

during this session because my bladder filled up to the point of
physical discomfort and I couldn't continue with the session. This
them^e, however, continued for several years in many sessions.

Just two weeks later, I had the opportunity to do another PREP

session. Before the session, Teena and I discussed the nest-tender
aspect from my previous session. During the session, something
wonderful happened. 1 discovered another aspect of myself that I

have come to know as "the Flower." An unusual energy pattern

also made itself known. It flooded my consciousness and spoke
with a voice of its own while I remained in the background, mind-
ful of all that was happening."
The nest- tender metaphor appeared as a mouse, and the sug-
gestion was that Nest Tender was sleeping. I was told that offspring
activity (children) and spousal influences contribute to upsetting
Nest Tender. But my attention was quickly drawn away from this

line of inquiry.

I began to focus on realizing (making real) an alternate aspect

or personality within me, the Flower. In the days previous to this
session, I had been discussing the idea of totem symbolism as a

viable expression of life's patterns. During the session, this notion

emerged and I began my search for an alternate aspective expres-
sion or animal totem that was appropriate.
My analytical approach was abruptly set aside and I found
myself releasing the issue to Guidance, a la Florence Scovel Shinn.""*
It was then that I discovered the Flower. Part of this wonderful dis-
covery included experiencing a new form of communication. My

An audio recording and transcript are available on the CD-ROM accompanying

this book.
Widely known in the first half of the twentieth century as an artist and illustra-

tor, metaphysician, and lecturer, Florence Scovel Shinn helped thousands

through her great work of healing. She once advocated an affirmation that went
something like this: "I turn this problem over to the Christ within, and I go free."

Florence explained that turning issues over to this Guidance within was actual-
ly gifting in much the same way that a child, taking troublesome problems to a
parent, does not burden the parent by asking for help. Rather, the parent is grate-
ful for the opportunity to assist the child and sees the opportunity as a gift from
the child.

1BB
 F. Holmes Atwater

thoughts and words separated, and I began to hear myself speaking

in a rather unusual voice. I was fully aware of what was happening.

The experience did not frighten me.
During prior sessions, I had been noticing various kinesthetic
sensations, tickling, and pressure in various places, especially in my
nose. The rhetoric that I heard during programs at the Institute

involved the concept of controlling these kinds of vibrations or feel-

ings. Before this booth session, Teena and I had decided that control
could be identified with ego and that perhaps expressing willingness
to experience these sensations might be more appropriate.
We had talked about ego being afraid of the unknown —of
whatever it could not control. So, when I began to have these
kinesthetic sensations during the session, I silently welcomed the
feelings and the experience. I invited the tickling and the vibra-

tions and expressed my genuine gratitude for the event. In retro-

spect, I think these expressions of acceptance are what led to the

experience of the unusual energy voice from within.
The essence of being a flower appealed to me. This aspective
expression was not based on relationships with others either by
judgment or expectation. The flower reaches for the light and in so

doing demonstrates to all the elegance of its beauty. The flower

centers its consciousness not on its stem and roots but on the blos-

som, on the radiation of its beauty and in sharing that beauty with
all that come to it. So, in effect, even when the plant dies, its beau-
ty, its consciousness, lives on in the joy that it has shared.
I was reminded too that, beyond expressing the flower essence
within me, I could seek out the flowemess in all around me. The
session ended with a bit of knowing beyond all of this, which may
have been a hint of things to come. Guidance seemed to be affirm-
ing the appropriateness of me focusing on becoming the flower
while at the same time reminding me that there is a greater expres-
sion that one might call the garden. This hint came at the end of
the session and at the time I didn't fully appreciate its value.
I now think Guidance was reminding me that to perceive one's
self as a sole flower reinforces the illusion of separateness. Aware-
ness of one's identity as the whole garden realizes (makes real) our

1 BV
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

true nature. Does that make God the gardener? Or is there no sep-
arateness there either?
This whole session was capped by a very interesting experi-
ence. Without disclosing the contents of my session, I had made an
audiocassette copy of the narrative and sent the tape to Fay, my
fiancee, in North Carolina. Unknown to me, this beautiful woman
had sent the following little story to me on the same day. Our cor-

respondence crossed in the mail. Here's the story she sent:

Suppose you'd known for a long time that you were a

weed. When you were just a little sprout, before anyone had
told you you were a weed, you'd known something of
that
what flowers feel like. And as you grew, you felt you'd like it
better if you were a flower. But you learned to be satisfied
living as a weed nonetheless —
most of the time. You learned
to bend a little so as not to take up too much sun, and to eat
and drink and breathe not quite so much so as not to take too
much nourishment from the flowers around you. It's only in
spring, when the flowers start to bloom, that it's hard to be
weed-hke. Then, when the warm breeze comes, you feel a
stirring, a hope, a wish for just a taste of blooming, but you
can't of course because you're a weed.
Now suppose that one day a lovely creature walks into
your field looking for flowers. And suppose she walks
straight up to you and says, "What a strange and lovely
flower this is hidden from the light!" For a moment you
would not believe her. But oh, you would want to. So you
might begin softly to look and feel around yourself. And what
ifyou discovered that this had all been a silly mistake — that
you were not a weed, but a flower after all.
Well, that's what it feels like. A little sad that I spent so
much time as a weed when I didn't have to. A little in shock.
A little exposed. Excited, in a quiet way, to discover what I'm
all about. I don't know much about being a flower, yet. But
it's me, and I love it, and I'm giving it all I've got.
Author Unknown

The story was accompanied by a drawing of a flower looking at

a reflection of itself as a weed, not realizing its true nature because

of the image of itself that it saw.

1 BB
 .

F. Holmes Atwater

After we received our respective mailings, Fay and I were aston-

ished by the serendipity. It brought us closer together (as if we were
ever really separate in the first place)

I thought long and hard about this session and the circum-
stances surrounding it. Even today, Fay and I speak fondly of the
memories it has left with us. A month later, I did another PREP
session that turned out to be a major breakthrough.
Teena and I had discussed my intent for this next session, as we
had done for the previous work. I wanted to ask Guidance about
Fay, to explain thisnew and wondrous relationship to me.
I met Fay when she came to the Institute on a Saturday morn-

ing for a prearranged tour of the facilities. The minute I saw her, I
thought I recognized her. As the tour progressed, we wound up in
the lab. Fay and I were standing in the doorway of the isolation
booth while I explained the soundproofing, the floatation bed, and
the physiological monitoring. I gradually became aware of the rest

of the world fading away. Within just a few seconds, Fay and I were
seemingly alone.
Although my mouth kept spewing out the construction details
and technical attributes of the booth, I was alert to the fact that

things were not at all as they seemed. As Dorothy said in The Wiz-
ard of Oz, "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." This
strange place we fell into seemed to extend beyond all space and
time. It was truly the proverbial forever. Just as gently as it had
come over us, it was gone. We looked at each other and, without
speaking, joined the others on the Institute tour.

The next significant activity was lunch. We ordered takeout

and got some croissant sandwiches with dill-flavored potato salad
from the Blue Ridge Pig, a local rustic cafe in Nellysford. Several
Institute staff members and those taking the tour sat around the
lunch table, socializing and getting to know one another. Fay start-
ed talking about moving out to Seattle to work for Lou Tice and
his Investment in Excellence program. It seemed that this move
was inevitable.
I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was so beautiful. I longed
for the taste of her lips on mine. Unexpectedly, I heard myself

1B3
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

thinking, "Why are you leaving me now that I have found you,
after so long?" Fay looked at me and blushed with embarrassment,
then looked away. She must have heard my thoughts.
After lunch, I asked my fellow staff members at the Institute if

I had said anything unusual at lunch. They reported that I had not.
Fortunately, Fay canceled her plans to move to Seattle, and our
relationship quickly blossomed. But I still wanted to ask Guidance
about Fay. Who was she? What was the overpowering attraction?
It was something greater, deeper, and more profound than sex.

What could it be?

I also wanted to understand more about this unusual energy
voice that spoke the truth from somewhere inside my heart. The
energy-voice experience had touched me deeply. It was intensely
personal. I felt as though I was exposing myself, the true me with-
out any social masks behind which I could safely hide. Teena and
I talked about using affirmations of willingness to encourage more
contact with the energy voice.
My trust in Teena, my monitor, was vital. And my bride-to-be,
Fay, with whom shared these adventures, was perhaps finding out
I

more about me than she had imagined."

In answer to my questions about Fay, I found myself in what
appeared to be a bedroom scene. At the time, I thought this was
too silly and too filled with sexual innuendo to be real. But then I

was shown a heart-shaped pillow and told that this symbolized Fay
as the epitome of the expression "a heart of gold." (Later, during
a visit to Fay's house in North Carolina, I was intrigued to find out
that she indeed had a heart-shaped pillow with white lace on her
bed.)
I consider this session a breakthrough because of the intensity
of the experience with the energy voice. The experience was very
physical. I experienced the unconditional love of my total self. I

found out more about the flower aspect, the garden, and tending
the garden. And I discovered that asking to understand is a rather
narrow concept.

An audio recording and transcript are available on the CD-ROM accompanying

this book.

1 SO
 F. Holmes Atwater

Guidance me not to limit myself (by asking to understand)

told

but to express my willingness to experience love in so doing I will —

come to know All That Is. What is valuable is experience, and Fay
with her heart of gold was to be just such an experience.
As the months passed, I continued my explorations of reality
through personal experience. In the summer of 1989, a close friend
of Fay's shared her worries about her son Adrian. She told Fay that
his dream was to be a military officer after he graduated from col-

lege, but that he kept reinjuring his hand or arm, resulting in

numerous doctors' appointments and physical therapy sessions.

Adrian's parents worried that when he took the physical exam for

military officers he would be rejected. Fay had been telling her

friend about my work at The Monroe Institute, and Adrians
mother wondered if I could do anything to help him.
Fay asked me if, while I was guiding someone through experi-
ences in the isolation booth at the lab, 1 could ask about Adrian.
But most of the folks that I worked with in the lab were having per-
sonal growth experiences and were unaccustomed to responding to
questions about others. Occasionally, I did monitor and question
adept explorers on a wide range of topics, but 1 was reluctant to
bring a personal agenda into my workplace. I felt that 1 would be
misusing my position at the Institute, not to mention that people
were paying for lab sessions for their own benefit. Without telling

Fay of my concerns, I suggested that it would be helpful to have a

picture of Adrian and that I needed to be assured that I had his

parents' permission to look into his condition. A picture was pro-

vided and permission was granted.
I set the problem aside for several weeks. Now and then. Fay
wanted to know if I had asked anyone about Adrian. 1 told her that
I hadn't but, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to tell her I was
uncomfortable asking anyone about Adrian, given my position and
responsibilities. 1 tried to evade her inquiries by implying that there
hadn't been anyone with sufficient talent in the lab recently or that,
after all, there probably wasn't anything anyone could do. On my
birthday, August thirtieth, in 1989, she asked again, and I listened
to myself tell her that I felt I should probably do the session myself.

131
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

I was startled to hear myself say this. Throughout my life, I

have always been very PSI- experiential and encouraged the same
in others, but the idea of doing a remote medicinal investigation
seemed somehow beyond my expertise. I had no medical training,

and my extensive extracorporeal experiences had always focused

on personal issues. With soft- spoken authority, something inside
me whispered an assurance: This was something I was to do. On
August 31, 1989, I met with Teena and prepared myself for a ses-
sion in the isolation booth in the lab at the Institute.
As I held Adrian's picture, Teena and I talked about how I

might focus my intent on investigating the issues surrounding

Adrian's injuries and perhaps how I might be of some help. We
decided that I should use the affirmation of willingness to become
one with Adrian, so that by becoming one with him I would then
know him and the issues surrounding his injuries. In practical
terms, this meant that as I moved into an altered state of con-
sciousness I would hold foremost in my mind the assertion that I

was eager to become one with Adrian.

I settled into the warm waterbed in the isolation booth, and
Teena hooked up my fingers to the physiological monitoring
devices. When the lights in the booth were turned off and the
soothing Hemi-Sync sounds began, I drifted away.'^
Later I called Fay and described the session to her. I was con-
cerned about giving the audiocassette recording of the session to
Fay's friend, not knowing if the information would be useful. Also,
I had never revealed my personal PSI activities to this friend. As it

turned out, I didn't need to worry. When Fay told Adrian's moth-
er that I had described him washing a black car, she said that Adri-
an had a black car, a graduation gift, which he washed frequently
and meticulously. And Adrian's mother immediately recognized
the vintage 1950s kitchen that I had described as the grandmoth-
er's kitchen.
Cautiously, Fay told her that Adrian had been influenced by a
maternal authority figure and was perpetuating his injury as a way

^*
An audio recording and transcript are available on the CD-ROM accompanying
this book.

132
 F. Holmes Atwater

of protecting himself from ridicule in case he was unable to live up

to the expectations of others.
Adrian's mother realized exactly what had been happening.
Adrian had been away at college in the same city as his grand-
mother and was expected to make regular visits, during which he
was subjected to taunting sarcasm about where he was headed in
life. Throughout Adrian's childhood, his grandmother had con-
stantly modeled an aristocratic aloofness, never letting anyone in
the family forget that they would never achieve an equivalent sta-
tus in life.

Without telling Adrian about my session, his parents told him

that he shouldn't feel obligated to visit his grandmother's house
anymore. They also told him that they wanted him to be happy in
life and choose for himself whatever he wanted to do. Regardless
of all the family planning about joining the military, they didn't
want him to feel pressured (and keep injuring himself) if he really

didn't want to be an officer. Adrian told his parents that he really

did want to be an officer and that he had made up his mind to join
the military. Adrian's mother thanked Fay for the information.
When Fay and 1 married on April 14, 1990, Adrian came to
the wedding and I met him in the flesh for the first time. Fay and
I have continued as family friends with Adrian's parents over the
years. We have never spoken about this episode of our relationship.
Today Adrian has completed his military service, having been
a very successful and respected military officer. He has a wife and
children and is entering an ambitious civilian career. He has out-
grown his need to follow the expectations of others, and his proud
parents applaud his every achievement.
Even though I don't think Adrian's parents ever told him
about my session, perhaps someday Adrian and I will see each
other again and talk about our unusual liaison so many years ago.
More than a year later I did still another session in the booth
that exemplified a typical booth session, like others had experi-
enced, filled with knowledge and revelation. By this time, I had
encountered the energy voice many times and was close to becom-
ing one with the source, the voice itself.

193
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Before the session, Teena and I talked about my intent and my

goal for the session. Having done so many PREP sessions, I had
learned that, rather than detailing some ego -based narrow goal, it

was best to go into a session with the intent of being open to expe-
rience whatever was most beneficial. That's what 1 did. During the
session, the energy voice intervened only slightly. It was as though
I was becoming more attuned to its knowledge and my regular
voice spoke the truth.
My favorite part of this session was experiencing the freedom
of not clinging. I had a fear of letting go of things around me, a fear

of loss of all that I thought I had worked for throughout my life.

Metaphorically, if one wants to reach out and grab more, one is

forced by circumstance to loosen one's grip on whatever one

already has.
Confronted with this seeming dilemma, I turned to Guidance.
Seen through the eyes of Guidance, there is no dilemma: . . one
always has everything and there is no more or less and so there is

no reason to fear loss of what cannot be lost." Metaphorically

again, the only thing one loses when releasing one's grip to receive
more is the burden, the perceived millstone of personal possession.
When I reflected on the deeper significance of all this as it per-
tains to my exploration of reality through personal experience, I

was reminded (was put back into my right-mind) that affirming

willingness to receive is inappropriate because we already have;
willingness to learn is inappropriate because we already know; will-
ingness to be is inappropriate because we already are. What it all

comes down to is the spiritual I Am.

Another PREP session served to remind me (so I wouldn't be
out of my mind, so to speak) of the limitations of our physical-
world perceptions, which I call the "Other" session.
The energy voice had been coming through during my PREP
sessions with some regularity, and I cherished this experience,
feeling that it was deeply personal. In a very private talk with
Teena, I spoke softly with her about the personal nature of this

" An audio recording and transcript are available on the CD-ROM accompanying
this book.

1 BA
 F. Holmes Atwater

experience for me and of how strange I thought it was that people

who had similar experiences shared such an intensely personal
event in public.
I clutched my hand to my chest and tears welled up in my eyes
as I spoke of how personal, how spiritually moving this energy
voice experience was for me. Wisely, Teena suggested that the next
time I did a PREP session, I ask Guidance (meaning the energy
voice) about my feelings and the concept surrounding people shar-
ing this experience in public.
During my next PREP session, I set this subject before Guid-
ance by placing the intent foremost in my thinking. As I moved
into Focus 12, 1 reviewed the deep appreciation I had for the ener-

gy voice and how very personal this experience was for me.
I then requested that Guidance explain how it was that some
people having similar experiences could do so in a public forum and
allow others, people in the audience, to communicate with the ener-
gy voice. I added a sidebar to this request by expressing up front that
I felt such a notion for me seemed ludicrous, even blasphemous.
I waited several minutes for an explanation but got nothing. I

wondered if I had made myself clear, if I had structured my intent

properly. Teena suggested that I ask again. I repeated my request
to Guidance. "Explain how people having energy-voice experi-
ences can do so in a public forum and allow other people to com-
municate with the energy voice, given the extreme personal nature
of the experience."
Again I waited several minutes, but the only reply I got was, "We
don't understand.'' Since I had learned in earlier PREP sessions that

the word "understand" is not generally within the vocabulary of

Guidance — conceptually. Guidance cannot not understand — I knew
that this reply meant that my query was unintelligible. Teena sug-
gested that I ask even again, and so once more I repeated my request.
"Explain how people having energy-voice experiences can do so
in a public forum and allow others in attendance to communicate
with the energy voice, given the extreme personal nature of the
experience. Explain how they share with other people this deeply
spiritual reverie."

195
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Guidance replied, "What is an otherV

Well, that did it. I was dumbfounded, amazed by my own limiting
viewpoint and my naivete. Accompanying these four words was a
huge message. From the perspective of Guidance —the level of

reality through which Guidance operates —there is no concept of

other. At this level, all is one.
So, from a practical standpoint, when an audience member asks

a question, the energy voice doesn't perceive such a question as com-

ing from a separate individual, as there is no such thing as separate-

ness. My realization (what was made real) was that my concerns

about sharing my experience in public were based on my limited
viewpoint in seeing myself as separate from (nonexistent) others.
In one sense I am an individual, but I as an individual can
never be separate from the family of man. In the same manner, by
definition nothing can be separate from creation. If it exists, it's

God's work. All is one.

Throughout the following year, I did a number of additional
PREP sessions in the lab at the Institute. The energy voice showed
up only occasionally to clarify my interpretations of experiences I

was having. I seemed to be integrating the knowledge of the ener-

gy voice. I was realizing (becoming aware of the realness) my true
spiritual identity.

These and other PREP sessions have helped me find answers to

many questions. Sometimes our human earthly orientation limits
our perceptions, but these sessions allowed me to explore a greater
spiritual reality my physical body. By Sep-
beyond the confines of
tember of 1991, 1 PREP sessions filled with
began having wonderful
the usual wisdom but without the semblance of my friend, the ener-

gy voice. But in more recent years, my PREP-session exploration

of reality has taken on different dimensions.
My sister Sue died in June 1996, and even though her passing
was the expected result of a long-term illness, it impacted me more
than the deaths of my parents. On some level, we expect our par-
ents to die. When siblings die, it's different.

An audio recording and transcript of a typical session without the energy voice
are available on the CD-ROM accompanying this book.

1 9B
 F. Holmes Atwater

I had come to know through out-of-body experience and spir-

itual insight that what we call death is but a transition from one
realm to another. I see birth and death as doorways through which
we, as spiritual beings, pass from experience to experience. So I see
death not as a tragedy but as a welcome release from the confines
of the physical body.
Nonetheless, a few days after my sister's death, I sensed a whis-
per of soft-spoken authority from within. It was a call to action,

understated but of profound, compelling strength. I was told to use

the skills that I had mastered in the Lifeline program at the Insti-

tute to help my sister.

Teena no longer worked at the Institute, and it had been a long

time since I had done a PREP session in the booth. Rut there was
no doubt about what I was being called to do. 1 asked Mark Cento,
the Hemi-Sync audio engineer and my colleague, to act as moni-
tor on this PREP session.

The impact of this session was so meaningful that it justifies

'^

including the full transcript here.

PREP Session Transcript

Recorded June 1 996
[Note that italic print within the quoted text indicates
energy voice communication]

Skip: [I see] a tall, seven-year-old, blond girl with curly hair sit

tingon a long wooden bench with. um. dark-wood finish.

[It] me of a bench that might be outside of like a
reminds
courtroom or something, you know. Like a long park-
bench type but solid wood with sides that come up and
[a] welhsanded and finished. And there's a ... presume I

it's my child sisten uh, on the bench there. [The image is]

nice, full, rich in color.

[Note from Skip: Even before the formal beginning of the session,
seemed to be getting information about my
I sister.]

Mark: Do you feel like staying with this image a bit, or would you
like to move to Resonant Tuning?

An audio recording is available on the CD-ROM accompanying this book.

1
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Skip: I'll just kind of watch this and let you go ahead and con-
tinue your cross fade and [I'm] going to just melt into this

a little bit.

Mark: Okay.
Skip: [it's] just kind of an indication to me that there's something
waiting for me, so . . . I'll just proceed slowly. [I've

changed from] feeling like I was sunk down way deep in

the waterbed to being more like floating on top of the

waterbed now.
Mark: Would you like to begin your Resonant Tuning at this point?
Skip: Sure, that's great.
(Resonant Tuning and the subsequent pause were not recorded.)
[Note from Skip: 1 phased out-of-body and found myself traveling
somewhere.]
Skip: Got here through an image of a reddish-brown pyramid.
And flew around it to an archway door [and] sailed
I

through the archway door into a tunnel matrix which led

to outside. And I'm in this outside area which first is a, a,

a park. And can hear children playing and [1 can] see

I

flowers and, uh, swings and kids and things.

[Note from Skip: phased back to my body in the booth, feeling a
I

need to report my adventure.]

And then was going somewhere down country roads and
1

bushes in an outside area. And then thought I'd I better stop

and describe this. So let me continue with that. Kinesthetic
cally, this feels more like [Focus] 5 than [Focus] 1 1 0. But let

me, let me let go for a minute and I'll be back.

(Pause)
[Note from Skip: 1 easily moved back to my sister and began to
describe my perceptions.]
[I see a] golden, curly-haired, seven-year-old child on a
mahogany bench. And it has . . . this mahogany bench is

ornate and has side panels on it that are decorative and shiny
mahogany. That is a continuing perception, as though she's
just sitting in the background. This other place that 1 have
gone to ... I was confused as to whether was going I to that

place [again] but that seems to be separate, like a sidebar, like

that's still there waiting. [I'm going now to] this other place.
I went from the recreational grassy area in the pairk with the
swings and the playful kids and the flowers.

13B
 F. Holmes Atwater

Now . . . and [now] I'm

approaching what seems to be
a classroom kind of a thing
with antiquey [sic] wrought-
ironish [sic] school desk-type
things but it's in an outside
area, like an outside camp, like

you go to camp in the summer.

So It's like this outside class-
room. Let me check it out [and
see] what's going to go on
here.
(Pause)
[There's a lot] going on at

My sister Suzan once here. [I'm] having a little

bit of difficulty getting any con-

tinuity here. School-type seats. Wrought-iron, ornate
backs; ornate, shiny, black, wrought-iron backs to the
seats but with those kind of desk things in front of you like

you have in a school where the lid hinges up. I . . . it's

really a weak visual.between being behind

I keep shifting

them, being over them, and sitting in them too. don't 1

know if they're empty or not.

[While all this is happening I'm also perceiving that] there's
something going on about fish and then there's an Amen-
can Indian bracelet with feathers on the bracelet.
[They're]not . . . it's decorated with feathers but the feath-
ers are silver, you know, like they make Indian jewelry
with silver stuff. But they're . . . the little decorations are,
are decorations of feathers but they 're made of silver. And
there's something also with fish.

Mark: Keeping mind the images that have been presented to

in

you, would you like to move forward to perhaps ask

Guidance what this is for?
Skip: Yeah, that's a good, good idea. Let me ask [Guidance]
what in the hell I'm doing here anyway.
(Pause)
[Guidance provided an answer to my question.]
1 think I'msupposed to show the little girl [that saw] sit- I

ting on the bench this place. And I'm supposed to bring

1 S3
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

her to That this is where she's supposed to go

this place.

and on the bench back wherever and I'm sup-

she's sitting
posed to bring her to this place because she's supposed to
be [or] come here to this kind of campground classroom.
Mark: Take a moment to go ahead and do that, and I'll wait for you.
Skip: Okay. I'm getting a lot of kinesthetics too. Um, like lots of
rolling, spiraling, rolling around, and lots of body kines-
thetic stuff here. [It's] a real roller-coaster ride here. Let

me go find the little girl again [and I'll] sit down and talk

to her and see if she wants to go to this other place. I think

I had better move up in focus level here.
Mark: Okay. Just simply be guided to where you need to be going.
Skip: Cool.
(Pause)
I feel pressure, like swimming under water pressure.
[Like] when you can feel the pressure around you.
There; now that's being relieved. Um . . . um . . . that's

better. [I'm having] muscle twitching and jerking. [It's a]

familiar energy to me. Again, [I] don't feel like I'm in the
waterbed. [I] feel like I'm laying on a flat piece of ply-
wood. [There's] lots of jerking happening. [I] feel like a
real jerk, ais they say. [There's] something shatking me up.
(Sigh)
Mark: As you relax into the feeling, focus once again on the
young girl. (Mumble)
[Note from Skip: I phased out-of-body and the energy voice of the
past immediately began to speak.]
Skip: I have . . . She's on the bench over there. She s morphing
into different aspects. She's not only the little girl. She's
more a, than . . . than . . . than . . . than. (Gasp) V\^ere
did she go? Okay, she's . . . Let me see if she wants to go
to the other place. Um, I'm back now.
[Note fi-om Skip: Just as quickly, I was back in the booth, reporting.]
Um, she seems to be a little bit afraid of me when I

approach her, and she becomes different things. Like she

is trying to hide or something behind these different
things. Let me . . . I'm going to go over to her again, sit

[down], and presume that it is my child sister and call her

by her name and see what happens.
(Pause)

200
 F. Holmes Atwater

[Note from Skip: Once again, I found myself out-of-body with my

sister and the energy voice began to speak intermittently. My
sister agreed to go with me. Together, we flew into the pyra-
mid, through the tunnel, out into the park, and over to the
class area.]

Now a, a spiritual being not a girl or an animaJ, but a spirit

tual being and and and we w/7/ now go fo, fo . . . ro . . . .

(Long pause)
We're, we're now . . . we're now. She's sitting in. she s

sitting in the chair in front of . . . I'm standing behind her

in the class now. She 's there in the cla . . . cla . . . class-

room, no room, class outside class. She's m the chair . . .

chair. She's . . . she's in the chair. (Swallow) She's, she s

in the chair in that class place now. And 1 don't know

what else is going on here. Let me see if I'm supposed to
do something else now. (Sigh)
[Note from Skip: phased back to my body in the booth and
I

became aware of the physical world.]

Oh, I'm back in the booth now. okay. I've got a bladder
now. Okay. Oh, hear the [Hemi Sync] tones now. okay.
I

Ugh. Okay, let me relax again and see, see what the situ-
ation is here.
(Pause)
[Note from Skip: IGuidance if there was something else
aisked

that I should know do and was given a a visual metaphor

or ]

Um. I'm watching [in my mind] somebody with a . 1

don't know what you call it. It's one of those The . .

vision have is a folded paper. When you're a kid, you

I

fold up paper in ... to make this foursquare kind of a

mouth thing. And you open and close two different it

ways and then you're supposed to ask a question and

thenit tells you your fortune or something. And you open
and unfold the answer or something. don't know what I

that's all about. I guess I'll ask.

(Short pause)
Some bizarre answer like ... just heaird myself say a bizarre I

answer. The message back from Guidance is that this little

thing is a symbolic [sic] of The answers that you find . . .

depend on the choices that you make. And then heard 1

myself say [that] this is a bizarre answer and Guidance kind

201
 Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

of laughed at me and says [sic], ''That's what I'm trying to

tell you."
[Note from Skip: I think Guidance was saying that it was for to me to
decide if there was more for me in this experience with my sister]
So this little thing about you manipulate this thing with . . .

your fingers and then you open it up [means that] the

answers you get depend on the choices you make.
Okay, I'm going to go and find that pyramid and go check
on my sister again.

[Note from Skip: I easily phased out-of-body and flew back

through the pyramid to the class area and my sister. could 1

feel the energy of the energy voice with me but the strange-
sounding voice only leaked in a couple of times.]
There it is. It's got a flag on top of it now. [I'm going]
around through the side, down through the tunnel, out to
the playground, down the road, the classroom. / get the
impression. I'm right on the edge here. I'm going to try and
stay on this side of the edge.
I get the impression that she's okay in this place. She's not
expressed as a child-self here. She's more of a total being
here now. And by total being I mean she appears like an
adult being now instead of a child being. And I keep say-
ing [in my mind], "Well what's this class about."
And the answer is, "This isn't for you."
And [I'm] trying to say, "Well, what's the matter, can't 1

find out too?" And it's like, it's not that it's a secret, it's just

not; it's just not for me. It's not like ... to say I don't need
the information that she's dealing with. That would be
one way of saying it. But it's like [if] Iwalked into some
college campus and walked into a, a class on nuclear
physics would know right away, well
1 this isn't for me.
I think I'll go down the hall and find out something more
interesting. It's like I'm just not aligned with whatever she's
trying to process in this class act . . . Whoop.
Uh, uh . . . It's really hau"d to stay on this side. It's . . . she's,

she's . . . It's not for me. There's no other explanation. Let

me ask [Guidance] if there's anything else need to do right
I

now for her

(Pause)
The message is to remember this place, this classroom

202
 F. Holmes Atwater

place [to which] I brought her. Remember this place. So

let me look around. Okay.
Mark: Are you feeling the need move beyond
to ? (Mumble) . . .

Skip: No. I'm feeling the need to come back because my blad-
der is filling up.
Mark: Okay.
Skip: So ... I think I can get back to this place here. I know how
to get down through the pyramid and, and through the
portal and down the tunnel into the outside and then
down the road to the right, over the stream to where the
classroom area is. I can get back here again. 1 know
wherethis is. If that's what they meant by remember.
The bed is getting soft again.
Mark: If you'll count with me and come on back now.
Skip: Okay.
Mark: I'm simply going to fade out the [Hlemi Sync] tones.
Skip: Cool.

I felt good about this rescue mission. It ga\'e me a sense of

well-being and peace. I had helped Sue find her way beyond a

plateau and on to an expanded experience ot growth and devel-

opment. The experience was so real for me that 1 had no doubts
whatsoever that I had visited the realms beyond death's door-
way.
But I wondered about the pyramid I had seen. It hadn't
emerged in the way of the symbolic pictures that are common to

some of my explorations. I remembered a seemingly physical ori-

entation as I flew around the pyramid and down into a tunnel.

This seemed very real — physical—but I had never experienced

such a scenario. As time passed, I forgot about the pyramid and
the tunnel underneath leading to another world.
Two years later, though, the mystery deepened.
In August 1998, Beyond Productions, an Australian company
working under contract for the Discovery Channel, invited me to
help make a documentary about ancient Knowing of my
rituals.

work with sound and consciousness at The Monroe Institute,

they asked me to electronically monitor the brainwaves of some-
one reenacting an ancient ritual, in hopes that I would be able to

203
 —
Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

produce data —changes in brainwave patterns —objectively

demonstrating changes in consciousness related to the rituals.

As background: Ancient cultures used sound and music

music, rhythmic drumming, chanting — in religious ceremonies

and to promote psychological and physical health. Pythagoras,

Plato, and Aristotle thought that sound and music had special
properties. Renowned classical and romantic composers viewed
music as a powerful means of influencing consciousness and cul-
ture itself. And the idea that auditory stimulation can affect moods
and consciousness is widely accepted today.
Beyond Productions wanted me to accompany its film crew
into a cave beneath the Sun Pyramid in Mexico. At the time of the
request, I didn't remember the pyramid scenario in the PREP ses-
sion I did to help my sister, and I didn't think about the parallels

until months later. Sitting here at the keyboard describing these

events, I realize that all this was Guidance, sailing through life's

adventures, navigating each moment, and keeping me on course

within God's well- charted journey.
The Sun Pyramid, which was extensively excavated in the first

decade of the twentieth century, is part of the ancient city of Teoti-

huacan, Mexico. Originally, it was approximately 215 by 215
meters at the base and about 63 meters high. It was enlarged later

to a final size of 225 meters along each side. Its importance is indi-

cated by its central location within the ancient city.

In 1971, archaeologists discovered a cave under the pyramid.
Artifacts revealed that the cave was used for rituals focused on the
netherworld and that musical instruments were used during such
ritual activities. Ritual practitioners listened to the sound waves
resonating from the walls of the cave and believed that this gave
them window to the world beyond death. (Some scholars believe
a

that the Sun Pyramid was constructed over the cave to take
advantage of its special characteristics during these rituals.) The
public is not generally allowed into the ritual cave, so I felt privi-

leged to be asked to participate in this experiment.

I did measure the brainwaves of one of the four ritual partici-
pants and was able to record significant changes relating to the

20^
 F. Holmes Atwater

conduct of the ritual. This adventure was eventually aired on The

Learning Channel in September 1999. But more importantly for
me personally was the fact that I was able to physically replicate
part of the journey I had taken when I had helped my sister. Here
I was, going underneath a pyramid, passing through a tunnel into
a cave that reportedly was a gateway to the netherworld.
Months later, I realized that this physical experience answered
my concerns about the pyramid in my out-of-body rescue ot my sis-

ter. The pyramid in my PREP session experience had been real,

although not made of physical matter. Perhaps ancient seers

encouraged the building of pyramids as passages to the spiritual

realms — the crude, physically constructed pyramid torms being

symbolic —based on their own out-of-body experiences.
My exploration of reality through personal experience, my trav-

els "through the Flavor Straw," rekindled so many years ago with
Bob Monroe, continues today. I enjoy attending the Institute pro-
grams and occasionally doing a PREP session in the booth in the lab.

Through life's process, I have realized the rhetoric of my child-

hood. We are never separate from spirit. Things are not physical or
spiritual. We are, always. We sometimes have physical experiences.
I realize, therefore, it is not especially necessary to enter a focus-
level state to commune with my spiritual self I am that being and
all it takes is a simple shift in perspective to access all that I AM.
My ventures "through the Flavor Straw" have helped answer
some of those persistent questions that were originally presented in

the Gateway Voyage program. Who am I? Where and who was I

before I entered this physical being? What is my purpose for this exis-
tence in physical-matter reality? What action can I now take to best
serve this purpose? What is the content of the most important mes-
sage that I can receive and understand at this point in my existence?
At this point, the answers seem to be:

1. 1 am a spiritual being.

2. 1 am and always will be more than this physical body — I am

a spiritual being.

3. My purpose here is to experience the awareness of All That Is.

205
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

4. There is nothing I can do that does not best serve this purpose.

5. The most important message for me (seemingly) changes

from day to day. If I had to come up with the message for
today, as I'm sitting here at my keyboard, it would be, "All is

love." Coupled with previous insight, this yields "I AM =

Love," or simply, "I am love." Cool.

The Out-of-Body Experience

Many who have read or heard of Bob Monroe's three books
naturally associate The Monroe Institute with the out-of-body

experience. These same enthusiasts assume that The Monroe

Institute teaches people how to get out of their bodies, so to speak.
And these same people think that the Bob Monroe Research Lab
does out-of-body research, whatever that is. These assumptions are
misplaced, but I do feel it is appropriate for me to comment on
what has come to be called the out-of-body experience.
Over the years, Bob Monroe and I quietly discussed his out-of-
body experiences in personal conversations away from public
scrutiny. Years ago, Bob wrote about encountering a faraday cage
while in the out-of-body state. He wrote that he was unable to
penetrate the walls or get inside. When I asked him about this, he
said that in later years he tried again and found that he was easily

able to pass into and through the faraday cage.

^^^^^^ Bob explained that his first

encounter with the faraday cage

was limited by his belief system.

He believed, based on his earth-

ly knowledge, that a faraday cage

was impenetrable and that belief

was so strong it carried over into

his out-of-body experience.
Learning to overcome his beliefs

enabled Bob to explore far

beyond the often-narrow con-

Bob Monroe fines of Earth-life expectations.

20B
 F. Holmes Atwater

In another private conversation with Bob, I asked him about

the concept of an astral body or second body apart from the phys-
ical body we occupy in the waking state. Bob smiled and said that

he realized that in his books he left the impression that when out-
of-bodywe retain a bodily form very similar to our physical facade.
He went on to say that he no longer experienced himself in that

way, that he thought of himself "more like a spot or point of light."

Based on Bob's experience, he felt that the notion of a second
body was a habit or carryover perception from the Earth-life sys-

tem of beliefs. To him, the humanoid form was simply "local traf-

fic" on the interstate. Our true form includes humanness and

more, much more than we can know if we limit our beliefs to the
Earth-life system.

The very concept of an out-of-body experience suggests that we

survive physical death. Couple this with a deep-seated common
yearning, a nostalgia for something that seemingly eludes us, a
heartfelt longing to return "home" or perhaps to our true identity,

and it is easy to imagine the possibility that when we eventually

die, each of us will travel out-of-body to our point ot origin in a
spiritual domain. This is indeed an intriguing notion.
The out-of-body experience (this side of dying) has often been
viewed as something that happens to us. Many wonder why some
people seem to have such experiences while others do not. Is it

possible to learn how to have an out-of-body experience' What

can be done to prepare for or encourage the experienced*
The manner in which the out-of-body state is imagined actu-
ally limits the experience. What is needed is a whole new under-
standing about ourselves (and human consciousness) that will
allow us to realize who we really are and recognize the validity' of
our experiences.
There no magic key. There is no magic pill, no magic incan-
is

tation, and no magic Hemi-Sync frequency that will bring about

an out-of-body experience. The only thing that will bring about
the out-of-body experience is your own personal growth and your
own personal processing so that your view of eality will change.
Once your view of reality changes when your perceptions —
2oy
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

change — ^you will be consciously aware of your out-of-body experi-

ences and even more.
I am really saying that you are having these experiences
already. But because you have compartmentalized your conscious-
ness, you are seemingly unaware; you do not realize what is already
happening. You need to change your perceptions of reality so that
you can begin to recognize the true nature of your existence. This

realization is inevitable. You can begin working on it now or sim-

ply wait until your body wears out or is fatally injured and you
leave it behind. Even then the delusion of separateness remains
available.

Find your personal truth. Throw away the ideas and opinions of
others that seem strange to you. The only opinion that counts is
the one that you hold. Be honest with yourself
Examine your inner beliefs. Think about who you really are. Are
you the car you drive or the house you occupy? Are you the clothes
you wear? Are you the day's hairdo? Are you just your body — or is

there something more that entices you?

Embrace humanity. See yourself as one with all, without the
perceived barriers of race, religion, sex, or economic level. Go
within and embrace the feelings of those around you. Empathize
with the pain and suffering and rejoice at the joy and love. Marvel
at the wonder of an emerging perception of reality that was here
waiting for you all along.
Confront your fears. In regard to the out-of-body experience, ask
yourself, "What am I afraid of?" If you don't get an answer, realize

that many fears are unconscious. Use your fear as a reminder (to put
you back in your right-mind, so to speak) that you have forgotten
who you really are. All fear is based on the notion that you are not
a divine expression of God I Am, which, of course, is baloney.
Integrate your consciousness. If you are not recognizing your true
nature, you may have compartmentalized your consciousness into
just one expression of you, your body. As a result, you believe your

mind is in your head and that all there is to your divine essence is
your physical body. This is your reality. It's all you have to go on.
Well, I've got news for you. It's all a matter of perspective. You
 —
F. Holmes Atwater

can begin to realize these other parts or expressions of yourself by

first looking for them in others. Smile.

Claim your power. Elect yourself president of all you survey. You
are the only one in charge of your own perceptions.
An out'of'body experience isn't something that happens to you.
It's just another way of being, an alternative available so that you
might know, might recognize who you really are. The true out-of-

body experience you seek includes the realization that you are and
always have been and always will be greater than your physical body
in both physical life and beyond. This being the case. Guidance
your spiritual self —has always been and will always be one with you.
Life is not something physical and death something spiritual.

Substantive reality is inclusive. God is really big! The secret to

remembering your true identity is simply realizing All That Is.

Realizing All That Is

Imagine that you have the opportunity to recognize a realm

greater than earthly life, a spiritual reality that has been there all

along, even though you may not have been fully aware of it. Death
provides such an opportunity, but I'm not suggesting here that you
keel over midsentence.
Instead, pretend that you have died and seen your way through
the many diversions of such a wondrous experience. You once
again become aware of the oneness, a profound awareness you
have experienced so many times before.
For imaginary purposes, make believe that after the death
process you find yourself sitting around something like a campfire.
Actually, you are the campfire, but for this little story to work
you'll have to pretend that you are sitting around in a circle with
all other enlightened souls.
All souls always have been and always will be sitting around
the campfire. All are enlightened souls aware that they are there;
they know the warmth from the light of the flame and don't per-
ceive themselves to be separate from it.

Continuing the story, there you are, existing in the light of God
and consciously recognizing All That Is. You are actually the whole

209
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

campfire scene, the flame, the souls, the camaraderie — in the

sense that the campfire is a phenomenon rather than an object. But

for the purposes of illustration, think of yourself as an enlightened
soul sitting around the circle. Gaze upon your fellow souls and
once again realize the oneness of your being together there as you
have always been. Okay, have you got it?

The flame from the campfire illuminates All That Is. In the
presence of the light, souls see clearly. Beyond the circle of souls

there is a forest. It too is part of All That Is. Interestingly, you

notice that the light casts shadows of the enlightened souls into
the forest.
A shadow, of course, has no substance. Yet the light of the iri-

descent flame creates these dancing silhouettes from the oneness

of souls. Or is it the souls themselves who create their own silhou-
ettes, shadow puppets of their aspirations?
The closer you are to the light, metaphorically speaking (real-

izing you are truly one with the light), the more distinct and more
defined your silhouette —the more it seems very different than the
light and separate from your true identity. If you assume a position
some distance from the light (in truth, this is not possible, but you
can imagine such a circumstance), the more diffuse your shadow
and the less clear is your perception of who you really are.

Remember that the shadows themselves have no real sub-

stance. They are something akin to intellectual hypotheses, won-
derings of God, "what ifs" in a preexisting realm of All That Is. The
silhouettes are soul caricatures produced by the light. They are
strangely nonsubstance and yet a part of All That Is.

At our imagined spiritual campfire gathering, the way of know-

ing is the realization of oneness! Through this realization we come

to know All That Is. Of course, in our non- space/time spiritual

reality, we always have and always will know All TJiat Is. But let's

get back to the storyline.

Recognizing that in the light of All That Is there are shadows,
you begin to think about what you know while staring at one of the
silhouettes seemingly dancing about in the forest beyond the circle

of souls. Can you experience this shadowy realm?

210
 F. Holmes Atwater

In the literal blink of an eye, you remember that you can

momentarily experience the shadow, the nonsubstance part of All
That Is, For when you blink, the light of All That Is slips ever so
briefly from consciousness and you become aware of the shadow
aspect.
In our physical bodies, an eye blink is a very quick event. So
accustomed are we to blinking that we hardly notice it or think of
it as a momentary loss of awareness of the surrounding visual field.

Of course, the whole idea of moviemaking is based on this physio-

logical behavior. Singular still pictures are shown by a movie pro-

jector with a shutter that "blinks" so rapidly that we experience
smooth, "moving pictures," as they are so appropriately called.
If a blink is so quick in the physical world, think how fast it

would be in the non-space/time spiritual domain. It would literally

take "no time" at all, as though you never even did it, which is why
I'm explaining all this within the venue of this storyline.
You recognize that in spirit you are already aware of all this.

But right now, within this thing you call your lifetime, you are in
the middle of a blink. You have closed your spiritual eyes to the
light of All That Is and you are experiencing one (or more) of those
shadow puppets dancing in the forest beyond the circle of souls

basking in the light of God.

In a very short time, the blink will be over and you will remem-
ber the campfirey where you have always been and always will be.
In fact, since a blink takes "no time" at all in spiritual terms, you
already realize this.

So there you are, existing in the light of God and consciously

recognizing All That Is. You gaze upon your fellow souls and once
again realize the unity of your being. The flame from the campfire
lights up All That Is, including the forest beyond the circle of souls.
The light creates dancing silhouettes in the forest. You know All
That Is and, because there is no space/time, you never blinked. You
have always known All That Is, and you always will.

You realize that, during the time that you never blinked, a mere
shadow of your soul was mysteriously unaware of the world of sub-
stance, of All That Is. This wisp of consciousness thought that it

21 1
 —
Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

was alone, separate somehow from All That Is. So convincing was
this illusion that this aspect thought of itself as "real" and "physi-
cal," even though it was just a silhouette without substance. This
"you" spent a great deal of time collecting imaginary "material"
goods and believing that someday it would die —whatever that is.

There were moments, however, little remiinders of All That Is,

while all this was happening. Because you realize All That Is as you
always have, even this wisp of yourself experienced such knowingness
(Guidance). Overwhelmed as this "you" was by its perceived life

circumstances, these experiences of All That Is seemed like mes-

sages or communication (Guidance) from outside yourself. But this

cannot be, as there is nothing outside of All That Is.

You realize now, as you always have and always will, that when
these shadowy profiles dancing in the forest glimpse All That Is, it

serves as a marvelous reminder of the fact that they are but divine
expressions of God I Am. The light of God shines through these
window- experiences of All That Is, illuminating all shadows and
unif/ing the separateness of a silhouetted existence. Guidance
opportunities to recognize who you really are. These are the
moments (in "no time"), even while blinking into physical life,

when the spiritual world of substance, true reality, prevails.

ril leave you with this:

Open your heart. And with an open heart, speak the truth.
Say to yourself from your heart, "I reveal the truth and realize
that I Am."
Put a smile on your face and carry love in your heart.
Show the world you know that you are a divine expression of
God I Am.
See you around the campfire.

212
 Author's Note

I am immensely interested in realizing the evolution of

consciousness — the inevitable awakening of the human spirit,

God I Am. Sharing our experiences with one another, "re-

membering" who and what we are, promotes this realization.
You can share your experiences with me via e-mail through
my website, www.skipatwater.com, or by writing me in care of
the publisher. Better yet, please say hello the next time you
see me at a convention or seminar.
I also want the
communication we've had through this
book who don't have a computer and
to continue. Readers
cannot view the CD-ROM that comes with this book should
find an agreeable friend with a computer. I have put some of

the material onto videotape as well. You can order these

videotapes online using a credit card at www.skipatwater.com
or by phone at 1-877-692-7999 (US) or (214) 757-7900,
Mondays through Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern time. A
company called CDStreet.com will process your order.

213
 The Monroe Institute

62 Roberts Mountain Road

Faber,VA 22938
1-434-361-1252
www.monroeinstitute.org

Monroe Products
PO Box 505
Lovingston, VA 22949
1-800-541-2488
www.Hemi-Sync.com
 Afterword
BY PAUL H. SMITH

Some people just turn up in the right place, at the right time,
with the right preparation to make a difference in the world. I'm
not talking here about those figureheads of change, the ones you
see staring out of the cover of People magazine, who end up sitting
on couches on late -night talk shows, the people who are ranked on
all the social A-lists in big cities and let you know about it. Instead,

I mean someone more humble in person and circumstances, yet

perhaps more important —one of those class of people whom Fate,

or God, or the Universal All (take your pick) seems to have singled
out, molded, and then plugged into a critical node to serve as a
change -agent, a catalyst. These kinds of people work quietly and
mostly anonymously behind the scenes in those places where new
ideas and determined humans combine in a way that can, condi-
tions being right, eventually shift the world onto a whole new tack.
The world seldom learns who these unsung world- changers are,
and even the effects they cause sometime take years to be felt. But
without them the world would be a poorer, duller place.
Every so often, though, one of them gets to tell his story. E
Holmes "Skip" Atwater is one of the lucky ones, and his story is

compelling.

21 5
 Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

I first met Skip when I moved my family next door to

in 1983,
his in the row-house quarters where we both lived while stationed

at the home of army spies, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. I

knew him as Fred back then, and I was struck by how easy going
he was in an otherwise frantic environment of career-minded intel-

ligence officers working in the high- stakes game of international

espionage. Instead of a uniform like the rest of us, he always wore
civilian clothes, which piqued my curiosity.

Three months later I found out that he was, like others on Ft.

Meade, a spy-master of sorts. Only instead of electronic eaves-

droppers or secret agents. Skip worked with army psychic spies.

And before I knew it, I was one of them. For five years, besides

being my neighbor and friend, he was my mentor, my trainer, my

tasker, and my sounding board. Together with the rest of our
friends and colleagues in the military remote -viewing unit, we dis-

covered that there was much more to the universe —and to human
beings —than we had ever before imagined.
And, I we did help change the world,
think, if only just a lit-

tle. It look much

doesn't —the world like it yet is a big place, with
a lot of inertia, and it takes awhile before a little push shows up as

a significant movement. But thanks largely to the groundwork

Skip helped lay in a series of government remote -viewing pro-
grams with odd sounding names like Gondola Wish and Grill

Flame and Center Lane and Sun Streak, things now are starting
to happen.
It is tempting to think that if Skip hadn't been in the right
place at the right time, remote viewing as an operational intelli-

gence discipline might never have been tried. I don't think that
would be true, since at the time there were strong forces moving
in that direction, and if Skip hadn't been there, someone else
would have filled the vacuum. But luckily for the rest of us. Skip
was there, properly prepared, and willing. He got to be the
"pointy- end of the spear," as we sometimes called it in the army.
The behind-the-scenes forces that were at work coalesced around
him; he gathered people who had the talent needed to make the
whole thing work (no one could have done it alone, and Skip

21B
 -

F. Holmes Atwater

would be the first to admit he shares credit with many others);

and he eagerly turned to his assigned mission.

Here is where the preparation part came in. In the field of the
paranormal it is easy to get carried away, to start "believing too
much," to grow egotistical and a little megalomaniacal. It has hap-
pened to lots of folks and is not a pretty sight. Where someone else

might have been irresistibly tempted to sky off into fantasy, chas-

ing down phantoms and imagining powers that were not real.
Skip's life experiences came together to help him resist that temp-
tation and act as a speed brake to keep himself and the rest ot us

under control. He served both as ground and anchor. We specu-

lated on some pretty wild things while assigned to be official gov-
ernment remote viewers. And some pretty wild things happened.
But Skip kept us honest. Though he was willing to experi-
ment — carefully —he also knew the value of strict protocols and
the importance of keeping us planted firmly in the here-and-now
when we were doing real-world projects that involved mentally
going elsewhere or elsewhen.
Today, Skip remains unassuming to a fault. He bears no resem-
blance to the self-promoters and media hogs of the "pop" remote
viewing culture — folks who had a much smaller role to play in the
remote -viewing saga than did Skip, yet who tr>' all the harder to
grab the limelight for themselves.
Skip's story is unassuming, too —which is not to say it isn't

exciting, thoughtful, and mind- expanding. But he doesn't go out of

his way to toot his own horn, and he presents incredible things in
a gentle way that will no doubt be lost on those who are jaded by
the chaotic, sound-bite sensationalism of media excess — those
who have forgotten how to slow down long enough to think. The
rest of us will find Skip's book a breath of fresh air, and a doorway
to an endless universe of nothing but possibility —the human
mind.

Paul H. Smith, retired army intelligence officer and remote viewer

President, Remote Viewing Instructional Services Inc.

2iy
 References

Bern, Daryl J. and Charles Honorton. 1994. Psychological Bul-

letin. American Psychological Association (January).
Braud, William G. 1975. "PSl Conducive States." Journal of
Communication: 142-152.
McMoneagle, Joseph. 1993. Mind Trek: Exploring Conscious-

ness,Time, and Space through Remote Viewing. Norfolk:

Hampton Roads Publishing Company.
Monroe, Robert A. 1971. Journeys Out of the Body. Garden
City: Doubleday.

Radin, Dean I., Ph.D. 1996. "Towards a Complex Systems

Model of PSI Performance." Subtle Energies and Energy
Medicine Journal 7, no. 1: 35-69.
Roll, W., R. Morris, and J. Morris, eds. 1969. 'A Further Psy-
chophysiological Study of Out-of-the-Body Experiences in a
Gifted Subject, Robert A. Monroe." Proceedings of the Para-
psychological Association 6 (November): 43^4.
Schnabel, Jim. 1997. Remote Viewers: The Secret History of
America 's Psychic Spies. New York: Dell.
Targ, Russell, and Harold E. Puthoff. 1977. Mind-Reach: Sci-

entists Look at Psychic Ability. New York: Delacorte Press/E.

Friede.
Targ, Russell. 1994. "Remote-Viewing Replication: Evaluated
by Concept Analysis." The Journal of Parapsychology 58
(September).

213
 ,

Index

A
aesthetic impact, in remote viewing, meets Robert Monroe, 1-4, 6-10
118-19 PREP sessions of, 184-206
Allard, Captain, 42 religious education of, 12-16
analytic overlay, 116, 117 remote viewing plan ot, 58-81
Anderson, Teena, 184, 185, 187, See also specific military assigtxmeiMs

190, 192, 195 Atwater, Fay, 188, 189-90

aperture, 114-15 Atwater, Joan, 30, 31-33, 36, 44,
Aristotle, 204 137-38
army intelligence Atwater, Suzan, 197
Detachment G, 75-85 PREP session about, 197-203
Ft. Meade operations, 106-7 aura, 14

Operations Security (OPSEC), awareness (remote viewing behavior)

51,55-56 91-92, 127
remote viewing programs, 220
remote viewing training, 95-106
B
remote viewing videos, 213-14 behavior(s)
SAVE Team, 51 modifying, 53
"Skip" Atwater's training in, of remote viewing, 86-95, 127
26-29 beliefs, examining, 208
Star Gate, 131-32
xii, 71, Bem, Daryl J., 84n7
value of information, 107-11 Beyond Productions, documentary
Army Surgeon General Office, for, 203-4
52-53 binaural beats, 139, 141, 145-46
astral body, 207 frequency-following response
Atwater, F. Holmes ("Skip") study, 147-51
childhood OBEs of, 4-6 See also Hemi-Sync
early military experiences of, Bioenergetics (report), 53
19-35 Bioinformation (report), 53
and Gateway Voyage program, birth, nature of, 12, 197
162-65 Bob Monroe Research Lab, 142-43,
joins Monroe Institute, 139-40 206
mechanical ability of, 16-18 See also The Monroe Institute (TMI)

221
 , ,

Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

brain cueing methodologies, 98-103

and binaural beats, 145-46 and Coordinate Remote Viewing,
electrochemical activity of, 112-20
143-45 cultures, ancient, and sound, 203-4
and frequency-following response
study, 147-51
and Hemi'Sync, xvii-xviii, 10,
death
126-27, 139-41, 151-60 nature of, 12-13, 197, 209-12
and remote viewing impressions, and out-of-body experiences, 207
96, 116-17, 123-26 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Braud, William G., 82-83 59
breathing, and remote viewing, 87 and Coordinate Remote Viewing
Bridges, Lloyd, 13 Manual, 113

c Detachment G, 75-76, 81-85

recruiting for, 76-81
145n 17
carrier tones, training for, 95-106
Center Lane, 220 drawing, in remote viewing, 96-97,
Christian Scientist, 15 118-19
clairvoyance, xix, 53 Dunnett's Test, 155-56, 157-58
See also remote viewing
Cold War, xiii
E
Compton, Grover, 50 electroencephalography, 139
computers, use of, 139-40 electronic surveillance
connecting (remote viewing behav- and 33-35
intuition,
ior), 88-89, 127 31-32
training in,
consciousness emanations, 124-25
focus levels of, 162-63, 163n21, entrainment, 143-44
165-69 Erickson, Milton, 94
oneness of, 209-12 Exploration 27 program, 168-69
and out-of-body experiences, Explorer program, 172-74
207-9 Extended Remote Viewing (ERV)
and remote viewing, 87, 89-90, 126-31
91-92, 115-16, 130
states of, and Hemi-Sync, F
126-27, 140-41, 146-47,
fears, confronting, 208
149-50, 153-54
Controlled Offensive Behavior — feedback, in remote viewing, 99-102
Five Questions (exercise), 163-65
U.SS.R. (report), 53
flower, experience of, 186, 187-88
Controlled Remote Viewing, 113
focus levels, of consciousness,
Conversations with God (Walsch),
163-69
170
Jim Szpajcher's PREP transcript,
Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV),
175-83
99-100, 112-20, 123-26
See also specific TMl programs
Cosmic Journeys (McKnight), 173
Fort Amador, assignment to, 33-35
Cowart, Rob, 43-44, 54

222
 1 ,

F. Holmes Atwater

Fort Benning, assignment to, 45 and brain activity, 146-53,

Fort Holibird, training at, 26-29 154-60
Fort Huachuca, assignment to, development of, 139-43
41-45, 46 and frequency-following response
Fort McClellan, assignment to, study, 147-51
30-31 programs, 162-83
Fort Meade and remote viewing, 1 26-3
assignment to, 47-48, 49-50 and states of consciousness,
remote viewing operations at, 153-54
106-7 Honeycutt, A.J., 168-69
Fort Ord, training at, 21-26 Honorton, Charles, 83, 84n7
frequency-following response study, human intelligence (HUMINT), 51,
146, 147-51 68
Further Education of Oversoul Seven, humanit>', oneness of, 208, 209-12
The (Roberts), 71
I

G ideogram, 1 15
Ganzfeld technique, 83-84 Inner Self Helper (ISH). 166. 177
Gateway Voyage program, 131, Intelligence Collection Require-
161-66 ments (ICRs), 58-59
geographic coordinates intelligence work
and Coordinate Remote Viewing, methods of, 51
112-20 ratmgs of, 108-9
for cueing, 98-100 value of information, 107-8, 110
God, oneness with, xii, 12, 209-12 See also army intelligence
Gondola Wish, 220 International Remote Viewmg Asso-
government ciation, 132
remote viewing programs of, xii, intuition
220 and remote viewing, 84
See also army intelligence use of, 33-35
Graff, Dale, 60
Grill Flame, xiii, 71, 220
J
See also Detachment G Journeys Out of the Body (Monroe)
Guidance, 11, 195-96, 209, 212 xvii, 1
Guidelines program, 166

H K
Keenan, Major, 50, 51-52, 54
healing
and remote viewing planning,
early experiences of, 15-16
57-59, 61-65, 66-70
and Guidelines program, 166 KGB, and parapsychology, 53, 60
hearing, and binaural beats, 145-46
Kress, Ken, 110
Heartline program, 169-71
Heinlein, Robert, 179 L
Hemi'Sync, xvii-xviii, 10
language, training in, 31-32

223
 , 1

Captain of My Ship, AAaster of My Soul

Lexicor Medical Technology, 139 nervous system, autonomic, 115,

Lifeline program, 167-68 123
listening (remote viewing behavior) neurology. See brain
89-90, 127
loss, fear of, 194
o
love, experience of, 190-91, 206 objectifying (remote viewing behav-

M ior), 92-95, 127

oneness, realization of, 209-12
Mars, remote viewing of, 128-30, Operations Security (OPSEC), 51
214-15 at Redstone Arsenal, 55-56
Matrix, 113, 114-15 other, concept of, 194-96
McKnight, Rosalind A., 173 out-bounder protocol, 95, 98-99
McMoneagle, Joseph W., 127-31, 214 out-of-body experiences (OBEs),
meets "Skip" Atwater, xv 206-9
xvii, 2,

military and Hemi-Sync programs,

early experiences in, 19-26 162-83
intelligence training in, 26-35 Robert Monroe's, 142-43
See also army intelligence; specif- "Skip" Atwater's, 4-6, 7-9,
ic assignments 162-65, 184-203
Miller, Darlene,173-74
Mind'ReacK Scientists Look at Psychic
P
Ability (Targ & PuthofO, 43, 46, Panama, assignment to, 32-35
56, 74 Paraphysics R&D- Warsaw Pact
MindTrek (McMoneagle), 127, 130 (report), 59
Monroe, Laurie, 169-70 parapsychology, Soviet research in,
Monroe, Nancy, 3 52-53, 59-60
Monroe, Robert, xvii, 137 Pentagon Counterintelligence Force,
and Hemi'Sync, 139-43, 159-60 assignment to, 46-47
and Joe McMoneagle, 127-31 Personal Resources Exploration Pro-
meets "Skip" Atwater, 1-11 gram (PREP), 174
and out'of'body experiences, Jim Szajcher's experiences,
206-7 175-83
The Monroe Institute (TMI), "Skip" Atwater's experiences,
xii-xiii, xvii, 1, 206 184-206
frequency-following response photo intelligence (PHOTINT), 51
study at, 147-51 Plato, 204
programs of, 162--83
posture, and remote viewing, 87
"Skip" Atwater joins, 137-40 precognition, 53
music Price, Pat, 214
and OBEs, 7-8 Project SCANATE (report), 53-54
use of, 203-4 psychic ability

N factors affecting,
increasing, 82-85
1 1

Natural History Museum (challenge See also remote viewing

target), 121 psychokinesis, 53
 1 ,, , 1

F. Holmes Atwater

PuthofF, Harold, 43, 54, 59, 61 Roberts, Jane, 71

and remote viewing training, 7 1 Roberts Mountain Retreat, 168-69,
72-74, 79-81, 82 174
203-5
pyramid, experience
Pythagoras, 204
of,
s
R Salyer, Jim,
Schnabel, Jim, 106
59-61

Radin, Dean I., xx. 111 Science of Mind, 13-14

Ray, Lieutenant, 42-43 "sealed-envelope exercises," 102-3
reading, and remote viewing, 104-5 self

reality, perception of, 207-8 and Guidelines program, 166

Redstone Arsenal, 3 and Heartline program, 1 70-7
OPSEC support at, 55-56 sense of, in remote viewing, 91,
reincarnation, 163-65, 176 130
relaxing (remote viewing behavior) spiritual nature of, xii, xvi,

86-88 10-15, 190-91, 205-6,

Remote Viewers: The Secret History of 208-12
Americas Psychic Spies (Schn- senses, in remote viewing, 117-18
abel), 106 Sensitive Activity Vulnerabilit>- Esti-
remote viewing, xii, xv, xvii, xix-xxi, mate (SAVE) Team, 51
18, 43-44, 54, 78 separateness, illusion of, 187-88,
behaviors of, 86-95, 127 196, 208, 209-12
Coordinate Remote Viewing, Shinn, Florence Scovel, 186n24
112, 113-20, 123-26 signal intelligence (SIGINT), 51
cueing methodologies of, 98-103 signal line. See Coordinate Remote
110-11
factors affecting, Viewing (CRV)
and Ganzfeld technique, 83-84 sketches, in remote viewing, 119
and Hemi'Sync, 126-31 skills, and remote viewing, 105-6
military operations in, 1, 106-8, Skotzko, Lieutenant Colonel, 51-52, 54
220 Smith, General, 64-66
personality traits 73-74
for, and remote viewing briefing,
planning for, 58-70, 74-76 66-70
reactions to, 132-34 Smith, Paul H., 113, 219-21
at SRI, 53-54, 59-60, 63, 72-73, soul, nature of, 209-12
78 sound
training for, 76-85, 95-98, and OBEs, 7-8, 10
104-6, 120-21 ritualistic use of, 203-4
and UFOs, xvii, 121-23 See also Hemi-Sync
videos on, 213-15 South Korea, assignment to, 36-41
"Remote -Viewing Replication: Eval- Soviet Union
uated by Concept Analysis" Cold War with, xii

(Targ),74n5,97 research in parapsychology,

reporting (remote viewing behavior) 52-53, 59-60
92-95, 127 surveillance of Redstone Arse-
Riley, Mel, 54,214 nal, 55-56

225
 1 1 ,

Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul

Spaeth, Mr., 41-42 U.S. Army Intelligence and Security

Special Access Program (SAP) , 7 Command (INSCOM), 47
Stanford Research Institute (SRI),
53_54, 59_60, 63, 72-73, 78
w
remote viewing training at, 61, Walsch, Neale Donald, 170
97-98, 104-5 Warren, Martin, 172-73
Star Gate, xii, xv, xvi-xvii, 7 Warren, Rita, 172-73
effect of, 131-32 Watt, Murray, 75
Stranger In A Strange Land (Hein- and remote viewing training,
lein), 179 95-97
structure, in remote viewing, Webb, Lieutenant Colonel, 44-45,
117-18, 124 46, 54
Sun Pyramid, 204 Whistlefield Farm, 1, 2-3
Sun Streak, 220 words, and remote viewing, 104-5
Swann, Ingo, 98nlO, 99, 214 world, nature of, xi-xii, 12-13
and Coordinate Remote Viewing,
112-20, 123-26
Systems Exploitation Detachment
(SED), 47-48, 50-51
Szpajcher, Jim, PREP transcript of,

175-83

T
Targ, Russell, 43, 54, 59, 61, 97
and remote viewing training, 7 1

72-74, 79-81, 82
Tart, Charles T, xi, 142
telekinesis, 53
telepathy, 53, 68
Thompson, General, 52, 54, 75
time
perception of, 185
and remote viewing, 99-101, 104
Tomida, 7
"Towards a Complex Systems Model
of PSI Performance" (Radin),
111
truth, personal, 208

u
UFOs, and remote viewing, xvii,
121-23, 214
Unity church, 12-13
U.S. Army Intelligence Agency, 29

226
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 Have you ever looked back, awestruck at the infinite number of seemingly
random choices and events that led you to where you are— and more
importantly, 1/1//70 you are?

In this book, F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater— who, as an army lieutenant, took

the initiative that resulted in the creation of the remote-viewing intelligence

program now known as STARGATE— looks at the "coincidences" that led him
from childhood out-of-body explorations to army counter-intelligence
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'ed In this volume a tu nuivi GunidniHiy.

four declassified government documents pertaining to remote-

viewing programs

audio recordings (with transcripts) of actual remote-viewing sessions

three slide presentations on remote-viewing workshops

seven audio recordings of Atwater's altered-state explorations
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a gallery of personal photos and video clips

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