Remote Viewing 101
Coming to a high school near you

Imagine the following scenario: your teenage son or daughter has mastered a psychic defense tool developed by the government. One night while they're scanning their classmates, they come across a plot that one of them is going to blow up the school. They report it to the principal, and sure enough, that's what those vile little turds had planned. Now, your child won't just get honor roll credits, they'll be getting telephone congrats from Prez Bill himself.

See also...
... by Robert Phoenix
... in the Whoa! section
... from January 11, 2000

Sound far-fetched? Not if Psi-Tech's Major Ed Dames has anything to say about it. Dames, who used to work as a Technical Remote Viewer in the Army's "Operation Grill-Flame" project, has founded "Operation Guiding Light," a project of Psi-Tech which will distribute Dames' Technical Remote Viewing video series to high schools for free. Psi-Tech's Vice President and media spokesperson Joni Dourif said that Dames "wanted to make the tapes available after the Littleton incident with the hopes of preventing future tragedies."

Remote Viewing was created during the '70s by Ingo Swann, a government-hired psychic. Swann did the majority of the training at Palo Alto's famed Stanford Research Institute. Among others who filtered through the program along with Dames was the enigmatic spoon-bender Uri Geller.

Dames is also known to many of Art Bell's late-night audience as "Doctor Doom" for his foreboding prophecies. He originally got the nickname when he worked for the Pentagon describing the detailed intricacies of how newly developed weapons would kill their victims. He initially offered the six-tape series to the masses two years ago, and thanks to his numerous appearances on Bell's Coast-To-Coast AM, has sold over 200,000 copies.

The good doctor's charitable attempts to groom young psychics however has not been fully embraced by the high school administrators of America. Upon contacting each of the schools listed on Psi-Tech's homepage, only three out of the seven were aware of the tapes in their system and none had used it in the classroom. However, Tony Kopcych, a science teacher and former Naval Intelligence officer at Kinney High in Cordova California, is working on a format to integrate the program by January. He wants to use the tapes to "help his students focus and enhance their learning."

Parker, Colorado's Chaparral High librarian, Carol Sehnert, was familiar with the tapes, but not with Dames and Psi-Tech. The parent of a student donated the tapes to the library. When told about the origin of the tapes, she said, "Oh we wouldn't put that out here to the students. This is a very conservative community"."

Other educators have also voiced ethical concerns. Holly Gates, a librarian at Pahoa High in Hawaii requested the tapes, but on further review has decided to postpone bringing them into the curriculum. Gates fears that "students would use the tapes to get answers to tests or to blackmail teachers." When asked about Gates' misgivings, Douriflaughed and said, "Even though teenagers are highly impressionable, after they've used the tapes, their consciousness has expanded as well … they make better choices." She added, "It's like someone who practices martial arts, once they get good at it, they only use it if they have to."

Dames has his detractors: most notably, Dave Morehouse, another former Army Remote Viewer, and author of Psychic Warrior. Others from Operation Grill-Flame have spoken out against Dames' methods and his wish to make the Remote Viewing techniques available to the public.

Perhaps his most controversial moment came when Courtney Brown, a former Remote Viewing student and a professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, began to teach Remote Viewing and went public with his predictions. Brown discussed his psychic view of the comet Hale-Bopp on Arthur Bell's program, and was later cited as the impetus behind the Heaven's Gate mass suicide. Dames and Brown were already at odds and the Hale-Bopp fiasco only increased their animosity. Bell quickly distanced himself from Brown, while adopting Dames as a semi-regular guest and one of his resident seers.

When asked about Dames' reputation for his dire predictions, Kinney High's Tony Kopcych said that he didn't mind. He opined, "The way the world's population is going, it looks bleak anyway."

Robert Phoenix is about to make his silver screen debut opposite Charlize Theron in The Bo Belinksy Story.