How Future Knowledge Might Influence Remote Viewing

Remote viewing is a practice that claims to allow individuals to perceive distant locations, events, or information without the use of their physical senses. One of the most well-known figures in remote viewing is Joseph McMoneagle, a former member of the US military's Stargate Project, which investigated psychic phenomena during the Cold War.

In his 2000 book 'Remote Viewing Secrets: A Handbook,' Joseph makes an interesting, albeit hypothetical, comment...

This quote stood out to me while listening to the recently released audio version of the book, which became available on Audible in March 2024, narrated by Kevin Pierce.

The statement, which Joseph presents as a speculative thought rather than a firm belief, raises an intriguing question: what if remote viewing isn't about perceiving something in real time, but rather about gaining knowledge from a future verification of that information?

Joseph's hypothetical idea suggests that a remote viewer only "sees" something in the present because a future version of themselves has already received confirmation. This would mean that remote viewing is, in essence, an information loop, where the verification of a fact in the future is what allows the information to be accessed in the past.

This suggests that the knowledge being accessed is dependent on future validation rather than coming from an external or unknown source at the moment of viewing.

This concept is similar to ideas presented in the work of Dr. Daryl Bem, a Cornell University professor who spent eight years investigating claims of psychic abilities. His experiments suggested that future events could influence past cognition. One of his most famous studies involved university students who were given a list of words to memorise. They were later tested on their recall before, at a later point, being randomly assigned certain words to practice typing.

Daryl found that students had better recall of words they were asked to practice after the test, implying that future study sessions somehow influenced their initial memory. He described this as "anomalous retroactive influences on cognition," challenging mainstream science's understanding of time and causality.

In another experiment, volunteers were monitored for physiological responses while viewing randomised images, some designed to induce strong emotions, others erotic in nature. Daryl found that participants exhibited signs of physiological arousal before the emotionally charged images appeared - before the computer had even selected them.

Daryl argued that these findings suggested people could unconsciously anticipate future events, implying a subtle but measurable influence of the future on the past.

Joseph's passing speculation offers an interesting line of thought regarding the nature of time and perception, especially in the context of Daryl's experiments. If true, it would mean that remote viewing and precognition are not about peering into the unknown but rather receiving future confirmations of knowledge already validated.

While Joseph did not claim this to be a definitive explanation, and mainstream science remains skeptical of such claims, the implications of this idea - if proven - would dramatically change our understanding of time, consciousness, and human potential.