Early ESP Research and J.B. Rhine

The US spent millions trying to create psychic spies, but this remote viewing pseudoscience never came into focus. Nick Pell explains on Skeptical Sunday!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1304

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• The U.S. government spent millions over two decades on Project Stargate — a real program aimed at training psychic spies to "see" enemy secrets through meditation — and the CIA ultimately concluded that no remote viewing report ever provided actionable intelligence.
• Early ESP research by J.B. Rhine at Duke produced seemingly positive results, but none of his studies were ever reliably replicated — including a Princeton trial of over 25,000 attempts with 132 subjects that found zero evidence of extrasensory perception.
• Project Stargate wasn't a fringe side project — it was a sprawling effort across multiple military and intelligence programs that ran from the Cold War era all the way until 1995, partly spurred by reports that the Soviets were spending $125 million annually on similar research.
• After Stargate shut down, many of its former participants went commercial — selling remote viewing courses ranging from $79 to nearly $3,000 — proving that even debunked pseudoscience can become a profitable cottage industry.
• The biggest takeaway here is a genuinely useful life skill: knowing even the most basic scientific principles — like demanding replication and questioning methodology — can help you cut through junk science and spot quackery before it costs you time, money, or good judgment.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know!

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