If you experience something such as astral projection, you may be interested in confirming or debunking the existence of remote viewing which is the protocol based practice of getting impressions of people, events, places in the past and future in an unusual way, remotely. Once associated with Cold War intelligence programs and fringe speculation, it is now being revisited through modern experimental frameworks.
You can voluntarily join an experimental research project organized by parapsychological institutes all over the world. Both sceptics and believers can make a meaningful contribution to science.
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What Is It
Within such projects, participants perform standardized tasks aimed at testing the ability to receive information about remote objects, events, or locations without using the common senses.
The practice was formally developed in the 1970s during the Cold War, when the U.S. government funded research into anomalous cognition under programs later known collectively as the Stargate Project. Conducted at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), the work involved physicists, psychologists, and intelligence agencies exploring whether individuals could reliably describe distant locations, objects, or events without sensory access.
Researchers such as Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, alongside prominent viewers like Ingo Swann, developed structured protocols designed to reduce guesswork and bias. These protocols emphasized blind targeting, repeatability, and statistical analysis — principles that still shape modern remote viewing research today. Today, volunteering in such projects extends this legacy into the civilian domain.
By contributing time and attention to controlled experiments, participants help generate data that can be analyzed across large groups, supporting a more transparent and critical examination of claims about remote perception.
Why Is This Relevant
Remote viewing research is gaining relevance for several reasons.
First, interest in consciousness has expanded beyond traditional academic silos. Scientists increasingly acknowledge that subjective experience — attention, intuition, internal perception — plays a role in cognition that is not fully understood.
Second, modern technology has transformed how experiments are conducted. Digital platforms now allow researchers to analyze results statistically in near-real time and address long-standing criticisms of earlier parapsychological research, particularly around transparency, replication, and selective reporting.
Third, public curiosity has shifted. Practices once dismissed as fringe are being reevaluated through evidence-based frameworks. Meditation, mindfulness, and neurofeedback followed a similar trajectory.
What Are the Benefits
For volunteers, the appeal is not necessarily about proving psychic ability. Many report other motivations.
One is self-observation.
Another benefit is participation in genuine research. This appeals to participants who want clarity rather than belief reinforcement.
Finally, volunteering offers a low-risk way to engage with an unusual research question while maintaining critical distance. Participants are not required to adopt any worldview; they simply contribute data.
From a research perspective, volunteer participation is essential.
Large and diverse participant pools allow researchers to compare performance across experience levels, cognitive styles, and cultural backgrounds. This diversity helps distinguish individual effects from systematic trends.
Volunteers also help test the limits of protocols themselves. When results fail to exceed chance, researchers gain insight into methodological weaknesses or psychological confounds. Negative results are as informative as positive ones.
Over time, this approach helps separate subjective experience from empirically supported findings — a distinction that has historically been blurred in discussions of remote viewing.
What Organizations Are Involved?
There are several organizations and communities that actively promote, research, and run projects in this field. These groups share resources, host experiments, organize meetings, and often allow interested people to participate by registering on their websites.
- IRVA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the study and practice of remote viewing. Its Research Unit (IRU) invites members to propose and join collaborative RV research projects. Current research updates and opportunities are posted on the IRVA website.
- The Farsight Institute conducts structured remote viewing experiments and documents results. It focuses on controlled protocols and transparent reporting. The institute publishes ongoing research and offers learning resources. Some participation options and detailed materials may require registration or subscription.
- PSI Unit is a German‑based organization that supports remote viewing research and education. It offers seminars, online events, and informational resources. Active projects and community events are listed on their platform.
- Other RV communities like Bulgarian Remote Viewing Society in Europe & other RV groups. In online communities (e.g., Reddit’s r/remoteviewing), enthusiasts occasionally request volunteers for informal remote viewing research or reports, inviting people of all experience levels to participate or provide data. These are grassroots calls and not always official research, but they show community‑driven participation.
Note: While these organizations are not part of mainstream academic research, they actively foster exploration, experimentation, and community engagement in the field.
