The conventional wisdom has long been that sensitive military technologies – developed and paid for with your tax dollars -are 10 to 20 years ahead of similar technologies commonly available in the civilian sector.

            Sometimes, as in the case of the Internet, which was first developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) scientists, the technology becomes declassified and ‘trickles down’ to the public.

            Occasionally, the reverse happens, as in 2000 when the Defense Department essentially bailed out the Iridium Satellite consortium that provided sat phone coverage globally to the most remote areas of the earth.  In this case the military wanted to adapt existing civilian technology to their own use.

            That brings us to remote viewing, a protocol developed with secret government funding.  But remote viewing is just a dry, techno-term for clairvoyance, a technology utilized globally by civilians long before there was such an entity called the United States of America.  The U.S. military and intelligence community used remote viewing as a data collection tool during the Cold War.

            Our military remote viewers were psychic spies.  And while clairvoyance was nothing new, the scientifically rigorous protocols that evolved from the secret programs put a new twist on an old tool.

            Such secrets can’t be kept forever.  I started hearing about these American psychic spies in the early eighties and was inspired to write a screenplay that was filmed and released in the U.S. under the title “Blink of an Eye.”  I believe it’s the first depiction of American military ‘psychic warriors.’  My novel, Unseen Forces featured a heroine who was a U.S. military remote viewer and an undercover operator, a true warrior/monk in the modern sense: a skilled soldier who was also a spiritual adept.

            At the International Remote Viewers Association conference in Las Vegas I got to meet and mingle with some of the heavyweights in the field, such as Russell Targ, Paul Smith, Lyn Buchanan, Skip Atwater, Dr, Dean Radin, Col. John Alexander, Stephen Schwartz and many others.

            Many of the RV vets have joined or formed private enterprises that render services to their former Defense Department clients and/or teach laypeople like you and me how to remote view, the government way.  And some of these RVers are focusing their talents, not on locating terrorists or tracking the Chinese submarine fleet, but on winning horse races, calling spins of the roulette wheel, and investing in the stock market.  The technology has trickled down and is ours but for the taking of a class.

Some of the famous names associated with the secret military RV units have gone public with their attempts to use the protocol to prosper in money-making endeavors.  Results, apparently, have been impressive. 

            Russell Targ, a gentle giant in person and a giant in the RV world, conducted a  workshop called “Intuitive Investing: Remote Viewing & Applications to Financial Markets.”  One of the stated purposes is to teach students how to become a more “intuitive” investor.  Fifteen hundred bucks got you a seat — one thousand of which went toward actual investing.  Nothing like jumping in and getting your feet wet.

            While I’m not an advocate of gambling,  I do advocate seizing opportunities.  Remote viewing, like other modalities, can be used in wide ranging ways to improve our lives outside the financial arena.