Hedge funds? Yes but before than that, armies would use RV to get targets, secrets, etc. There are plenty of wars around the world and a lot of money involved.

Or certain knowledge is just not available for anyone. No matter how much power and money you have. There are a lot of areas that are buried underneath technology, while it is an innate ability to certain individuals. Most people do not really understand how their gadgets work or what they are capable of beyond what is advertised....

There just as much completely unrelated to the incident in that as there is related.

Also, what guarantee is there that whomever created that document didn't just date it two days prior to acquire more funding for doing spooky things?

This is so shocking, considering the similarities.

Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.

Interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing.

What does the first pdf mean?

(And does it remind anyone else of an ee cummings poem or is it just me)

Also it would be very easy to proof that it really works. Instead they remain vague. They remind me of the dropship sales boys, that mainly sell courses on how to dropship instead of dropshipping themselves.

If you find a believer they will worship you with no hard questions.

There is a regain of interest in these topics. See what's happening here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GATEresearch/

> TLDR? Goat-staring is real?

The movie was based on the work of a journalist investigating the topic and wrote a non-fiction book on the subject.

"real" in that the program existed and research was done? Yes.

"real" in that remote viewing and psychic powers actually exist? No.

The CIA researched a ton of "mind-control" techniques under MKULTRA too but that doesn't mean they can control your mind.

The government has programs to research UFOs but that doesn't mean aliens are buzzing our skies and kidnapping our cattle.

I think what we're really seeing here is just money laundering and confirmation bias.

The CIA has been this way since basically its inception. It's where a bunch of lead-lined brains are given unreasonable budgets and discretion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directorate_of_Science_and_Tec...

How do we know if something is "mumbo jumbo" until we actually check and verify it?

Another element that is ignored in all of this is: How much of this is really intended to be genuine research? The CIA is an intelligence agency, and misdirection is part of counter-intelligence.

Putting legitimate resources into a phony cause could be an effective way of leading an enemy astray, if you know they are intercepting or replicating the same research you're doing (or if you happen to " leak " details to them).

It's perfectly rational to allocate a bit of money towards investigating unlikely phenomenon. In this case, it started around the 70s and it was believed that the Soviet Union was also doing research into paranormal effects, so even if people were skeptical it seems prudent to allocate funds and research if there's anything there.

The benefits of hindsight. I'm sure in 30 odd years someone will be making the same comments about our current hoaxes.

Congratulations, you're the new head of the Department of War. It's Day 1 in your new role.

An admiral walks in and sits down and tells you that he'd like some money to research some unidentified aircraft that are buzzing US Navy pilots. Shaped like "tic tacs", that seem to defy physical laws - they accelerate incredibly fast and seem to be able to move between air and water without damaging their structure, even at high-speed. They've been caught on camera multiple times, and pilots don't know what to make of them.

You ask what is this "mumbo jumbo", and whether he is "serious". He points out to you that if these aircraft are Russian or Chinese in origin, given there is no defence against them, they pose a major threat to national security and your refusal to take them seriously will not bode well for you in the annals of time if they do turn out to be a threat.

You agree to funding a small program to research further.

Then an Army General walks in. He wants $2m for a program to research "remote viewing" and "psychokinesis". You sit in awe as he explains: multiple independent laboratories have been able to conduct experiments that show Extra-Sensory Perception, Remote Viewing and Psychokinesis may be real despite not being explained by any current physical model. There is intelligence to suggest that Chinese and Russian militaries are investing in these techniques and the US military is not able to defend against them if they're real and exploited by adversaries, or for the USA to exploit them either, because they have no understanding of them.

You hand wave it away as "mumbo jumbo" and state this is not the work of "serious people". You demand a physical model to explain it before you invest.

You are reminded that there is no single physical model that explains the entirety of how an aircraft wing works, or how anaesthetics work, and that the only way such models are created is through scientific investigation. If after spending the $2m they're able to show such claims are baseless, that is a null result that has value in that it shows the Russians and Chinese are also not a threat to US National Security.

You are reminded that such techniques may pose a major threat to national security and your refusal to take them seriously will not bode well for you in the annals of time if they do turn out to be a threat.

You agree to funding a small program to research further.

And on it goes. It's Occam's razor - if you commit to the scientific method, you have to commit to it. If you are concerned there is a science and technology that others have and you don't, you need to figure out if there is value in you being able to obtain that science or technology, even if it sounds like "mumbo jumbo" today.

These weren't idiots, they weren't corrupt, they were asking for tiny slithers of money to figure out if Western Civilisation was about to collapse into the hands of a few people who asked more questions.

I'm not sure it's changed that much. Look at the work around the em drive. Or fusion power for that matter. I'm not saying we shouldn't be researching fusion, but all the fusion "startups" are essentially jokes, or more charitably, monuments to the unwarranted hubris of investment capital.

> By all means, the 90s was a different time epistemologically

We're in an age when vaccines are treated as the enemy and the us health secretary believes paracetamol causes autism.

>falsely claimed there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq during the American invasion in 2003

This was due to malice not ignorance/incompetence.