Background
Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves reception of information not gained through the recognized senses and not inferred from experience. The term was coined by German psychical researcher, Rudolf Tischner, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance, and their trans-temporal operation as precognition or retrocognition. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct or hunch. The term implies acquisition of information by means external to the basic limiting assumptions of science, such as that organisms can only receive information from the past to the present.
Below are relevent documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Declassified Documents
United States Army
Research on Technical Applications of Extreme Values, 1 April 1962 [22 Pages, 4.84MB]
United States Air Force
Air Force Denial of ESP Records, April 01, 2015 [2 Pages, 0.2MB] – I filed a FOIA request to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for records relating to ESP. In the course of processing that request, the DIA found USAF records and forwarded them to that agency for review and release to me. This letter was sent, and states that they are classified and unable to be released.
Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Denial of ESP Records, September 24, 2014 [2 Pages, 0.2MB] – I filed a FOIA request to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for records relating to ESP. In the course of processing that request, the DIA found CIA records and forwarded them to that agency for review and release to me. This letter was sent, and states that they are classified and unable to be released.
Years after the above denial of ALL ESP records, The Black Vault filed a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) to try again and get access to CIA documents on ESP.
I was able to pry a single document out, totaling four pages, which talks about ESP research. This is available below. However, the remaining unknown number of pages (one additional document, according to the letter), were still withheld and denied.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ESP Records, Released November 2020 [6 Pages, 1.5MB]
Other Documents
Extra-Sensory Perception, Final Report, 10 July 1953 [22 Pages, 4.84MB]
Testing for Extrasensory Perception with a Machine, May 9, 1953 [38 Pages, 2.2MB] – Parapsychology, of which extrasensory perception (ESP) is a branch, is not transitory. Since reports of apparently significant ESP performances are increasing in number, it becomes more important to use the most rigorous of experimental techniques in testing the ESP hypothesis. A design of a scientifically rigorous experiment in ESP is presented as an acceptable model for work in this field. This report covers the design of an objective test of three modes of ESP, pretest considerations and planning, final testing, and results obtained using the specially designed testing and recording machine, the VERITAC. Finally, a statistical analysis of the results and a discussion of statistical considerations are presented.