Project Grill Flame

Project Grill Flame was a late-1970s U.S. Army and Defense Intelligence Agency remote-viewing program that investigated whether claimed parapsychological abilities could be trained, evaluated, and applied to intelligence problems.¹ In declassified program language, Grill Flame was part of a broader "psychoenergetics" effort to assess possible U.S. applications of parapsychology and to judge whether Soviet or East Bloc work in the same area posed a threat.¹

The program grew out of earlier intelligence-sponsored research at SRI International, where a continuous effort had begun in 1972 with SRI as a major contractor and multiple sponsors including CIA, Air Force Foreign Technology Division, Army elements, and DIA.¹ Grill Flame did not begin as a UAP program, but it belongs in anomalous-phenomena history because it shows a formal intelligence pathway for evaluating extraordinary human-performance claims, with classified tasking, human-subject review, contractor research, operational reports, and later declassification.²³

  Origin and Army Context

Army interest sharpened in 1978. In April, the Commander of Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command approved Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity involvement in remote-viewing work, and in May AMSAA transferred $100,000 to the Air Force Foreign Technology Division for SRI to continue work on military applications.⁴ In July 1978, the unclassified nickname GRILL FLAME was issued to replace open references to Army parapsychology work, and DIA guidance later required Grill Flame records to be handled as SECRET ORCON material.⁴

AMSAA also created an in-house effort. Its project officer appointed a project manager in July 1978, and AMSAA began conducting remote-viewing sessions in August 1978.⁴ By October 1978, Army Intelligence and Security Command had been verbally tasked through Army intelligence channels to explore remote viewing with selected INSCOM personnel who would be trained by SRI International.⁵

INSCOM's first progress report identifies Major Murray B. Watt as the INSCOM project manager, appointed on 27 October 1978, and describes the new work as a program using parapsychological phenomena for intelligence applications.⁵ The same record is careful about internal distribution, stating that progress reports were for key personnel with a need to know rather than broad command circulation.⁵

  Goals

Grill Flame had three overlapping goals. The first was threat assessment: determine whether Soviet and East Bloc parapsychology research represented a meaningful military or intelligence capability.¹ The second was applied collection: test whether remote viewers could produce information about foreign intelligence or counterintelligence targets when conventional collection was limited, slow, or unavailable.⁶ The third was research management: create procedures, training, oversight, and contractor relationships that could separate experimental results from operational claims.⁷⁸

The program used the term remote viewing for attempts to perceive characteristics of a target distant in space or time from the viewer.⁸ In practice, target tasking could include places, activities, facilities, or intelligence questions, and the outputs usually combined verbal descriptions, sketches, and later analyst interpretation.⁸²

  SRI, DIA, and Joint-Service Structure

SRI International remained central to the research and training context. A Grill Flame overview describes the SRI effort as the continuous contractor base for U.S. psychoenergetics work from 1972 onward and lists a sequence of sponsors before the joint DIA-managed program of the early 1980s.¹ That arrangement helped turn a loose set of experiments into a more formal DoD intelligence program, even though responsibilities shifted repeatedly among Army, DIA, and other sponsors.¹⁹

By 1980, a joint-services integrated program was being set up under DIA management for external contracts, while INSCOM maintained an in-house applications effort.¹ A 1982 Army decision memorandum described INSCOM Grill Flame as investigating and applying remote viewing in support of foreign intelligence and U.S. counterintelligence requirements, with DIA and INSCOM both purchasing private contractor support.⁶

The program also had unusual oversight burdens. Declassified records show attention to human-use questions, informed participation, Army General Counsel review, Surgeon General review, and Procedure 18 responsibilities under DoD intelligence oversight rules.⁶⁹ That administrative trail matters because it places Grill Flame closer to a controlled intelligence experiment than to a purely informal paranormal interest group.⁷⁶

  Experiments and Operations

Grill Flame records distinguish between research, training, and operational applications, but the boundaries were not always clean. AMSAA's Phase I report describes early sessions, interactions with SRI personnel, lessons learned, and classification rules for Army remote-viewing work.⁴ INSCOM's project protocol then standardized sponsored remote-viewing sessions, including tasking, session controls, recording, and reporting procedures.⁸

The operational side was small. Later INSCOM chronologies say 251 personnel were considered, 117 interviewed, and six selected for SRI remote-viewing training.⁹ The same historical overview records the first operational remote-viewing session on 4 September 1979 as an operations-security support mission intended to simulate hostile intelligence collection and assess U.S. vulnerability.⁹

Some internal records credit Grill Flame or successor activity with useful episodes, including an A-6E aircraft search and descriptions of foreign facilities.⁹² Those claims should be read cautiously. The records are historically important evidence of what program personnel believed or reported, but later independent evaluation found that operational remote-viewing reports tended to be broad, inconsistent, and dependent on subjective interpretation.²

  Scientific Evaluation

The Army convened a Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee to review parapsychological research, investigations, and applications within DoD and the intelligence community.⁷ Its membership was drawn from fields including psychiatry, biostatistics, psychology, physics, engineering, and operations research, with a stated attempt to avoid members who entered with fixed views for or against the topic.⁷

That committee structure shows the central tension of Grill Flame: sponsors wanted disciplined methods, but the phenomenon under study was controversial and difficult to convert into repeatable intelligence practice.⁷² The 1995 American Institutes for Research review later separated laboratory questions from operational value, noting that some laboratory results were statistically interesting while also concluding that the program had not demonstrated reliable, actionable intelligence utility.²

  Transition to Later Programs

Grill Flame did not end in a clean public closure. At the end of fiscal year 1982, INSCOM terminated formal involvement with Grill Flame after congressional budget action curtailed Army psychoenergetics funding in the National Foreign Intelligence Program.⁹ INSCOM then continued related work with other funds under the provisional compartmented nickname CENTER LANE, with Secretary of the Army approval for continued Army participation issued on 1 September 1983.⁹

The line continued to move. A 1986 SUN STREAK annual report summarizes the later sequence as a 1984 memorandum of agreement between DIA and INSCOM, the 1985 transfer of CENTER LANE to DIA, and the restoration of National Foreign Intelligence Program funding in 1986.¹⁰ DIA's SUN STREAK mission was explicitly framed as operational intelligence applications using remote viewing, and the broader lineage eventually became associated with Project Stargate.¹⁰²

  Declassification and Historical Relevance

Grill Flame became public mainly through the larger STAR GATE declassification record. A CIA final response explains that, after a 1995 congressional mandate, CIA collected CIA and Department of Defense records on parapsychological phenomena, mainly remote viewing, and reviewed them for declassification.³ The resulting STAR GATE Collection includes records under related names such as STAR GATE, GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, SUN STREAK, STUNT PILOT, PHOENIX, and SCANATE.³

The historical significance of Grill Flame is therefore not proof that remote viewing worked as claimed. Its significance is that U.S. intelligence agencies built a documented program around an anomalous claim, tested it against Cold War intelligence needs, routed it through legal and medical oversight, and preserved enough records for later review.⁶²³ The AIR evaluation's bottom line was skeptical of intelligence utility: end users reported that remote-viewing material did not supply the concrete, specific information needed for actionable intelligence, even though reviewers disagreed about how to interpret some laboratory statistics.²

  Timeline

  References

  References

1. CIA Reading Room, "Project Grill Flame," CIA-RDP96-00788R001800060001-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001800060001-7 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. CIA Reading Room, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications," CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180006-4. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00791r000200180006-4 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. CIA Reading Room, "Star Gate Final Response," Document 0001299750. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0001299750 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. CIA Reading Room, "Project Grill Flame AMSAA Phase I Efforts," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100080005-8. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100080005-8 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. CIA Reading Room, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100070001-3 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. CIA Reading Room, "Grill Flame Decision Memorandum," CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. CIA Reading Room, "The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee Report," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230056-4. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230056-4 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. CIA Reading Room, "INSCOM Grill Flame Project Protocol," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440061-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100440061-6 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. CIA Reading Room, "INSCOM Center Lane Project," CIA-RDP96-00788R001500090010-7. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001500090010-7 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

10. CIA Reading Room, "Sun Streak Annual Report 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001000010001-0. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001000010001-0 ↩ ↩² ↩³