The Red Thread Files
UFO / UAP · Consciousness
1945–2026621 entities437 of 1390 connections sourced138 documents held
The Red Thread Files
Document · memo

Office of Research and Development and Office of Technical Service Paranormal Perception Research Project

What this is

That the Office of Technical Service was put forward, jointly with the Office of Research and Development, as funder and monitor of a paranormal perception research project at Stanford Research Institute.

That an Office of Technical Service project preceded this one and reported paranormal perception phenomena.

That the recommendation was approved over the signature of the Director of Central Intelligence.

3 passages read  ·  4 pages held  ·  the rest is not described

Open the document at cia.gov/readingroom →

3 passages read

“It is recommended that a research and development investigation of paranormal perception phenomena be initiated with Stanford Research Institute (SRI). A proposal for such an investigation is attached. Since this is a tightly directed advanced research project, it is further recommended that the effort be jointly funded and monitored by the Office of Research and Development and the Office of Technical Service.”
PDF p. 1 · CREST CIA-RDP79-00999A000300100028-1  ·  visual, rendered at 170 dpi and read as an image

The next sentence names a Project Officer whose name is redacted. The estimated cost is printed as $149,555 and is legible on this copy; it is illegible on the draft.

“A previous OTS project, summarized in the attached proposal, indicated the existence of paranormal perception phenomena.”
PDF p. 1 · CREST CIA-RDP79-00999A000300100028-1  ·  visual, rendered at 170 dpi and read as an image

- THE PREVIOUS PROJECT IS NOT NAMED, HERE OR ANYWHERE IN THIS FILE. This sentence must not be read as identifying it.

“APPROVED: W.E. Colby, Director”
printed p. 3 · PDF p. 3 · CREST CIA-RDP79-00999A000300100028-1  ·  visual, rendered at 170 dpi and read as an image

The handwritten signature above the printed name reads as W E Colby. Carl E. Duckett, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, is printed above the approval block with a redaction box over the space above his name. The date line beside the signature carries a stamp that is NOT legible at 600 dpi and no date is taken from it.

Where no sheet is shown, the quote was still read off the page, rendered from the file we hold. A page image has not been prepared for the web for that page yet.

What this document is used for, page by page

Every claim on this map that rests on this document, and every claim tested against it and deliberately not used — in the order you would meet them reading the file itself. Where the check was written down, our wording is followed by the document’s own sentence, so you can hold the two side by side. 7 of 8 name a page. 1 was tested here and not used.

Printed page 33 claims
W.E. ColbyStanford Research Institute approved the recommendation that a paranormal perception research project be initiated with it
we read this page
W.E. ColbyOffice of Technical Service approved the recommendation that made it a joint funder of the SRI project
we read this page
Carl E. DuckettW.E. Colby the memorandum carrying his name as Deputy Director for Science and Technology was approved over Colby's signature
we read this page
PDF page 14 claims
Office of Technical ServiceStanford Research Institute jointly funded and monitored its paranormal perception research project with the Office of Research and Development
we read this page
Office of Research and DevelopmentStanford Research Institute jointly funded and monitored its paranormal perception research project with the Office of Technical Service
we read this page
Office of Technical ServiceOffice of Research and Development named together as the joint funders and monitors of the SRI paranormal perception research project
we read this page
we read this page
No page named1 claim — the document is named, the page is not
MK-ULTRAStanford Research Institute the CIA technical-services lineage that funded SRI's psi program had earlier run it
On the page
A previous OTS project, summarized in the attached proposal, indicated the existence of paranormal perception phenomena.
considered, not used
Why this was not used. THE DOCUMENT THIS LINK ASKED FOR ARRIVED AND DID NOT SETTLE IT. This bind used to say "What would settle this link is the Office of Technical Service's own record of the SRI funding decision, which this corpus does not hold." The operator supplied it on 25 August 2026. THREE LEGS, ONE STANDS. (1) That OTS funded SRI's paranormal perception research is ESTABLISHED - paragraph 1 recommends the work "be jointly funded and monitored by the Office of Research and Development and the Office of Technical Service", approved over W.E. Colby's signature. (2) That the same lineage had earlier run MK-ULTRA is NOT ESTABLISHED: no page of the eleven names MK-ULTRA at all. (3) That TSD and OTS are one organisation renamed is NOT ESTABLISHED: nothing in these documents says it. What paragraph 3 does say is "A previous OTS project, summarized in the attached proposal, indicated the existence of paranormal perception phenomena." - an earlier OTS paranormal project, CONFIRMED AND NOT NAMED. So this is now a refusal rather than an absence: we hold the record, we read it, and it does not say this. The narrower claim these documents DO fully support - that ORD and OTS jointly funded and monitored paranormal perception research at SRI on a recommendation approved by the DCI - is not this claim and belongs between its own two ends. WHAT WOULD SETTLE LEGS 2 AND 3, NAMED 2 September 2026: the 1977 Senate joint hearing "Project MKULTRA, The CIA's Program of Research in Behavioral Modification" (Select Committee on Intelligence and Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, 3 August 1977) - a GPO publication of the same class as the four UAP hearings this project holds and reads. It is the public record of the programme itself: its office, its dates, its director, and its subprojects. Nothing this corpus currently holds can source MK-ULTRA at all - the only file about it is an abandoned Intellipedia wiki page whose own caution reads "FINDING AID ONLY ... no link on this map should rest on it", and a one-page commercial television transcript with third-party rights. Until that hearing is held here, MK-ULTRA stays off the front-page timeline, because every other block in that column is a documented programme and this one would be an assertion in the same shape.