The Magician And the Think Tank

Sprawling over 70 acres of Menlo Park, Calif., the Stanford Research Institute is one of America's largest and best-known think tanks. Its staff of 2,600 highly trained specialists solves problems and does research in nearly every field of human endeavor for both Government and private industry. SRI also does highly classified research for the military, and has worked on counterinsurgency programs in Southeast Asia, explosives technology, chemical and bacteriological warfare and anti-ballistic-missile systems. For its services, SRI last year earned revenues of $70 million. Last week it became apparent that in addition to its other projects, the institute has been seriously investigating the so-called psychic powers of a questionable nightclub magician.

SRI is not alone in investigating psychic phenomena. Indeed, the persistence and growth of that search in an age of science is testimony to the vitality of the concept. But until psychic researchers produce something more than nebulous evidence, skeptics will continue to scoff.

That is precisely what they did when rumors began to emanate from Menlo Park last December. Two men, it seems, had been demonstrating strange and wondrous powers for SRI researchers. One of the men, a 25-year-old Israeli named Uri Geller, was apparently able to communicate by telepathy, detect and describe objects completely hidden from view, and distort metal implements with his psychic energy. The word among staff members was that SRI President Charles Anderson, who at first had opposed the project, changed his mind after witnessing demonstrations by Geller.

Later in December, an SRI physicist, Russell Targ, sent a letter to one of the foremost U.S. scientific journals proposing an article on the work of an SRI team engaged in psychic research. Targ said that the subjects with whom he had been working had effected physical changes in laboratory instruments without touching them. Presumably, Targ was referring to such changes as increases in magnetometer readings and the disturbance of electronic systems—all reported to TIME by a team member. The research subjects had also demonstrated remarkable perceptual skills, including telepathy. Working further with these men, Targ suggested, would enable SRI to understand psychical phenomena. Written on SRI stationery, the letter also bore the names of the other members of the investigating team: SRI Physicist Harold Puthoff, Kent State University Physics Professor William Franklin and former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

Mitchell, who has retired from the astronaut corps and set up his own foundation to investigate psychic phenomena, eagerly confirmed some of the rumors during an interview last month with TIME. "I can assure you," he said, "that from [Charles] Anderson down, SRI views Uri Geller as legitimate. They find the results valid and are ready to stand on them." Said President Anderson last week: "Mr. Mitchell does not speak for SRI, and indeed the statement is misleading. Mr. Geller was provided to us as a subject for experimentation. Measurements were made in our laboratories, and the work will stand on its merits."