Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Coordinate / Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV)
To obtain accurate impressions of a remote, unseen ‘target’ using only a coordinate or reference, via a fixed multi-stage protocol.
CRV in 5 lines: Work blind — given only a coded reference, not the target. Move through fixed stages: reflexive ideogram, then raw sensory data, then sketches, then meaning. Record impressions before interpreting; bracket every analytic guess. Don’t force; take breaks. Get feedback and score strictly. Treat all output as unverified intuition, never as fact.
What it is
Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV) is a structured protocol for trying to perceive information about a person, place, object, or event that is hidden from ordinary senses — separated by distance, shielding, or even time — using only a “target reference” (originally a set of geographic coordinates, later an arbitrary random number).
The viewer works “blind”: they don’t know what the target is, and ideally neither does the person guiding them (double-blind). The claimed channel is some form of non-local perception (The Inner Creates the Outer, mind reaching beyond the body/brain).
What distinguishes CRV from loose “psychic” guessing is its rigid stage structure: the viewer is trained to move through fixed phases, recording raw sensory impressions and ideogram sketches before any interpretation, specifically to delay the analytical mind that contaminates impressions with imagination and expectation.
It operationalizes disciplined attention and witness-observation (Life Is a Dream, The Inner Creates the Outer) applied to an alleged informational signal (Life Is a Dream).
The Method
The SRI/Swann CRV protocol is taught as a sequence of numbered stages, each adding a layer of detail. A faithful description:
- Set up blind conditions. The viewer is given only an encrypted reference (coordinates or a random number) standing in for the target. The viewer must not be told, and ideally cannot infer, what it is. A monitor may guide but should also be blind to the answer.
- Stage 1 — the ideogram. On hearing/seeing the coordinate, the viewer makes a quick, reflexive pen stroke (an “ideogram”) and probes it for basic gestalt: is it land, water, structure, life-form, motion? The doctrine is that the first, fastest reaction carries “signal” before the analytic mind (“Analytic Overlay,” AOL) interferes.
- Stage 2 — sensory data. The viewer reports raw sensory impressions: colours, textures, temperatures, sounds, smells, tastes. No nouns or guesses yet — just qualities.
- Stage 3 — dimensional / sketch. The viewer begins rough sketching of the target’s dimensions and spatial relationships.
- Stages 4-6 — analytic, conceptual, and modelling phases. The viewer is allowed to integrate impressions into qualitative data (functions, purpose, intangibles), label and bracket “AOL” (imagination/guess) when it intrudes, and finally build a fuller model or 3D sketch of the site.
- Bracket and continue, never force. Throughout, the viewer notes and sets aside Analytic Overlay (the mind’s tendency to leap to “it’s the Eiffel Tower”), takes breaks when overloaded, and stays with raw perception. The structure itself is the method — it is designed to keep the conscious mind out of the way.
- Feedback. Afterward (in training) the true target is revealed for comparison and learning. (Sourcing note: stage descriptions follow the SRI CRV manual and Swann’s published accounts; specifics vary across later teachers — Paul H. Smith, Lyn Buchanan, and others systematised their own versions.)
Source & Lineage
CRV was developed in the 1970s-80s at Stanford Research Institute (SRI International) by artist and psychic claimant Ingo Swann working with physicist Harold E.
Puthoff (with Russell Targ as a key collaborator on the broader remote-viewing research). Swann is credited as the originator of the coordinate protocol and conducted what is described as the first remote-viewing experiment at SRI in 1972.
The work was funded over two decades by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other U.S. agencies under code names culminating in “Star Gate.” Swann later relabelled “coordinate” as “controlled” remote viewing.
The program was declassified and terminated in 1995 after a CIA-commissioned review (the American Institutes for Research / Mosteller report, with assessments by Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman). → (parapsychology figures).
Downstream civilian schools (Smith, Buchanan, McMoneagle’s writings) descend directly from this.
The Traditions' versions
The underlying claim — the mind can perceive beyond the immediate senses — recurs widely, though CRV’s signature is its bureaucratic, staged rigor: - Scrying / clairvoyance — crystal-gazing, mirror-gazing (Randolph’s volantia/mirror scrying) seek images of distant or hidden things.
- Shamanic journeying — travelling in non-ordinary reality to gather information.
- Astral projection / OBE targets — Buhlman/Muldoon use intended targets to verify out-of-body perception.
- Mental travel — Mouni Sadhu’s exercise of projecting attention to a distant place.
- Dowsing / map dowsing — using ideomotor responses to “locate” hidden targets.
Common refinements
Treating impressions as facts. The cardinal error. CRV output is unverified; acting on it (medical, financial, safety decisions) is dangerous.
- Not running blind. Without genuine double-blind conditions, “hits” are just leakage and cueing. The blind protocol is the whole point.
- Skipping the bracketing of AOL. Letting the analytic mind name the target early collapses the exercise into guessing.
- Generous self-scoring. Counting “it felt watery and there was water somewhere” as a hit is how vague data inflates. Score strictly, blind, ideally by an independent judge.
- Forcing the signal. Strain produces more imagination, not more accuracy. The training emphasises relaxed, light contact and taking breaks.