Space is Gorgeous... and Complicated

Ingo’s Celestial Remote-Viewing Sessions

Across the 1970s and into the 1980s, Ingo conducted a series of remote-viewing sessions targeting celestial bodies, exploring whether consciousness could access locations far beyond Earth. These experiments, conducted under various research contexts, produced some of the most unusual and discussed transcripts of his career. His documented sessions include:

Jupiter (1973)

Mercury (1974)

The Moon (1975)

Mars (1975, 1976, and 1984)

Selections from these sessions are provided below, with additional materials available through Ingo’s archival collections at the University of West Georgia, which preserve his original transcripts, notes, and correspondence related to these projects.

For readers interested in how these sessions relate to the larger arc of Ingo’s life and research interests, particularly the intersection of consciousness, extraterrestrial environments, and human potential, see the note below on his book Penetration, where Ingo reflects on these experiences and their implications in a broader narrative.

A Psychic Trip to Jupiter

Under the direction of Drs. Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, Ingo undertook what he called "planetary probes." He did these while at SRI in concert with noted psychic Harold Sherman who was at his home in Arkansas at the time. These sessions were remote views of Jupiter (April 27, 1973) and Mercury (March 11, 1974). Targ, in his book Third Eye Spies, claims this was not as on whim as it may have appeared; hinting instead they were arranged for/by NASA.

Ingo for his part described the Jupiter session as follows:

In early April 1973, in an effort to emerge from the daily boredom of repetitive testing, I suggested that we once in a while do something far out, something that might reintroduce a sense of adventure, excitement, and enjoyment.

The planet Jupiter was literally far out. NASA had earlier launched Pioneer 10 and 11 to fly-by that planet, and information telemetered back by the two crafts would undergo technical analyses. Information from Pioneer 10 would commence in September 1973.

The only real difference between Jupiter as a "target," and mundane target objects in the next room, was its distance from Earth. But for me there was another difference. It would be exciting to try to extend one’s ESP to the planet, a form of remote viewing. Jupiter was more remote than the next room—and there might be a thrill of "traveling" in interplanetary space.

-- Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy

The Jupiter Probe: April 27, 1973

Ingo Swann’s Astonishing Remote Viewing of Jupiter: Predictions Confirmed by NASA

In April 1973, before any spacecraft had reached Jupiter, Ingo Swann’s remote viewing session described features that science had not yet established: a hydrogen mantle, water/ice crystals, radio-reflective crystal bands, tornado-like cyclones, magnetic auroras (“rainbows”), and even a planetary ring “inside the atmosphere,” dismissed by astronomers until Voyager revealed it in 1979. He also reported intense storms, a temperature inversion, high infrared emissions, orange-hued clouds, and a liquid composition with a dense core and towering “mountains” (likely massive cloud structures). Pioneer 10 and 11 (1973–1975) later confirmed six of these elements, while Voyager 1 and 2 (1979) validated the ring, cyclones, and atmospheric coloration. Ingo’s accounts, preserved in CIA FOIA archives and his book Penetration, anticipate key findings from NASA’s Planetary Data System with striking precision.

The Remarkable Prescience of Ingo Swann

On April 27, 1973, Ingo undertook his Jupiter session at the Stanford Research Institute under strict protocols. The session generated one page of sketches and two and a half pages of verbal observations, yielding thirteen distinct factors about Jupiter’s atmosphere and structure. At the time, planetary science depended almost entirely on ground-based telescopes and theoretical models, leaving many of these aspects uncertain or speculative. Ingo’s vivid impressions—later compared against spacecraft findings—showcase how remote viewing provided insights that seemed to bypass the limits of contemporary science. What makes his work especially notable is not just the accuracy of individual details, but the fact that features unconfirmed in 1973 later emerged from NASA’s Pioneer and Voyager missions. The following section explores each phenomenon he described, its scientific status at the time, and how later missions validated or expanded upon his visions.

1. Hydrogen Mantle

Before 1973: Scientists hypothesized that Jupiter, as a gas giant, had a thick hydrogen mantle transitioning from molecular to metallic hydrogen under high pressure, based on its low density and spectroscopic data. However, this was unconfirmed without in-situ measurements.

Ingo’s Vision: Ingo described a “hydrogen mantle” enveloping Jupiter, a deep structural layer distinct from the atmosphere, suggesting a significant hydrogen composition.
Confirmation: Pioneer 10 (September 1973) measured Jupiter’s magnetic field, indicating a metallic hydrogen layer driving a dynamo effect. Pioneer 11 (1975) refined this with gravitational data, confirming a mantle of molecular and metallic hydrogen comprising most of Jupiter’s mass. Ingo’s foresight matched these findings before they were empirically established.

2. Water/Ice Crystals in the Atmosphere

Before 1973: Ammonia ice was suspected in Jupiter’s upper clouds, and water vapor/ice was theorized in deeper layers based on solar composition models. However, no direct evidence existed due to limited spectroscopic capabilities.

Ingo’s Vision: He saw “trillions of silver needles, ice crystals” that were “not icy cold,” likely ammonia ice, and a “liquid like water” with “iceberg-like” structures, suggesting water-based fluids or clouds.

Confirmation: Pioneer 11 (1975) confirmed ammonia ice crystals in the upper clouds (bright zones and Great Red Spot) via infrared and ultraviolet data, with trace water vapor detected deeper down. These findings validated Ingo’s description of reflective, non-cold crystals and a water-like medium, unknown until Pioneer’s measurements.

3. Crystal Bands Reflecting Radio Probes

Before 1973: Jupiter’s banded cloud structure was visible, but their ability to reflect or scatter radio waves was unknown, as ground-based radio astronomy focused on magnetospheric emissions.

Ingo’s Vision: He described fast-moving crystal bands that “reflect radio probes” within a dynamic, layered atmosphere.

Confirmation: Pioneer 11’s radio occultation experiments (1975) showed ammonia and ammonium hydrosulfide crystal bands scattering radio signals, confirming their reflective properties. This was a novel discovery, aligning precisely with Ingo’s observation.

4. Storms and Wind

Before 1973: Jupiter’s cloud bands and Great Red Spot suggested storms and winds, but their dimensions and intensities were unquantified due to limited resolution from Earth.

Ingo’s Vision: He noted “storms, wind” with rapid motion and “very high” cloud formations, indicating intense atmospheric dynamics.

Confirmation: Analysis of Pioneer 10/11 data (1976) quantified jet stream winds at 100–150 m/s and confirmed the Great Red Spot as a massive anticyclonic storm (~20,000 km wide, 8 km high). The unexpected intensity of these winds matched Ingo’s emphasis on dynamic activity.

5. Something Like a Tornado

Before 1973: Tornado-like cyclones were undetected, as ground-based observations couldn’t resolve small-scale rotational features.

Ingo’s Vision: He described “something like a tornado,” suggesting localized, intense rotational structures within Jupiter’s storms.

Confirmation: Pioneer 10/11 (1976) revealed smaller vortices, with Voyager 1/2 (1979) confirming strong rotating cyclones (e.g., white ovals) with wind speeds up to 200 m/s. Ingo’s tornado analogy anticipated these findings.

6. High Infrared Reading

Before 1973: An infrared excess was suspected, indicating Jupiter emitted more heat than it received from the Sun, but precise measurements were lacking.

Ingo’s Vision: He reported a “high infrared reading,” suggesting significant heat emission from the atmosphere or interior.

Confirmation: Pioneer 10/11 (1974) measured a global infrared excess (2.5–3 W/m²) due to internal heat, with hotspots in atmospheric belts. Ingo’s observation aligned with this previously unquantified phenomenon.

7. Temperature Inversion

Before 1973: A stratospheric temperature inversion was hypothesized but unconfirmed, as ground-based data couldn’t resolve vertical temperature profiles.

Ingo’s Vision: He noted a warmer atmospheric layer, indicating a temperature inversion.

Confirmation: Pioneer 11 (1975) confirmed a stratospheric inversion, with temperatures rising from ~100 K to ~160 K due to solar absorption by aerosols. Ingo’s description was spot-on.

8. Cloud Color and Configuration

Before 1973: Jupiter’s clouds showed white, yellow, and orange hues, but their layered configuration and chromophore causes were speculative.

Ingo’s Vision: He described clouds with “colors like earth’s clouds but not so solid” (yellow, orange, white) in a layered configuration, including a “high mountain of clouds” (likely the Great Red Spot).

Confirmation: Voyager 1/2 (1979) confirmed ammonia clouds (white) at ~0.5–1 bar, ammonium hydrosulfide (orange/brown) at ~2–3 bar, and the Great Red Spot’s high-altitude structure, building on Pioneer’s initial data. Ingo’s layered, colorful description was validated.

9. Dominant Orange Color

Before 1973: Orange hues in belts and the Great Red Spot were observed but unexplained, with chromophores unidentified.

Ingo’s Vision: He noted a “dominant orange color” in cloud bands and storms.

Confirmation: Voyager 1/2 (1979) confirmed orange as a dominant hue in belts and the Great Red Spot, likely from ammonium hydrosulfide or photochemical hazes, corroborating Ingo’s observation.

10. Magnetic and Electromagnetic Auroras (“Rainbows”)

Before 1973: Auroras were suspected due to Jupiter’s magnetic field but undetected by ground-based telescopes.

Ingo’s Vision: He described “rainbows,” interpreted as magnetic and electromagnetic auroras, suggesting glowing phenomena.

Confirmation: Pioneer 11 (1975) detected ultraviolet auroral emissions at Jupiter’s poles, later visualized by Voyager and Hubble. Ingo’s “rainbows” matched this previously unconfirmed phenomenon.

11. Planetary Ring Inside the Atmosphere

Before 1973: A ring system was dismissed by scientists, with no evidence from ground-based observations.

Ingo’s Vision: He saw a “planetary RING inside the atmosphere,” closer to the planet than Saturn’s rings, within “crystallized atmospheric layers.”

Confirmation: Voyager 1 (1979) discovered a faint ring at ~1.8 Jupiter radii, near the upper atmosphere’s haze layers, validated by Voyager 2 and later missions. Ingo’s prediction was remarkable, as the ring was unknown and doubted until then.

12. Liquid Composition

Before 1973: Liquid hydrogen was theorized in Jupiter’s interior, and atmospheric water/ammonia liquids were hypothesized but undetected.

Ingo’s Vision: He noted a “liquid like water” with “iceberg-like” structures and a broader liquid composition, likely hydrogen.

Confirmation: Pioneer 10/11 (1973, 1976) confirmed a liquid hydrogen mantle and trace atmospheric water vapor, with possible ammonia-water liquids in deep clouds, aligning with Ingo’s insights.

13. Mountains and Solid Core

Before 1973: A dense core was hypothesized, but “mountains” (as surface features) were not considered for a gas giant.

Ingo’s Vision: He described “mountains” (likely high clouds like the Great Red Spot) and a “solid core.”

Confirmation: Pioneer’s gravitational data (1973–1974) suggested a dense core, refined by Voyager and Galileo (1995). Juno (2016–present) provided stronger evidence. “Mountains” likely refer to high-altitude clouds, confirmed by Pioneer/Voyager. While the core remains uncertain, Ingo’s description was partially validated.

Conclusion

Ingo Swann’s 1973 remote viewing of Jupiter stands as a striking case where intuitive perception appeared to outpace the reach of contemporary science. From sketches and verbal notes alone, he outlined thirteen atmospheric and structural features (many of them speculative or dismissed at the time) that later emerged in NASA’s data from the Pioneer and Voyager missions. The convergence between his raw impressions and empirical discovery highlights an extraordinary intersection of consciousness and science, inviting deeper inquiry into the potentials of perception itself.

For those interested in exploring further, NASA’s Planetary Data System offers mission archives, the CIA FOIA Reading Room holds Ingo’s original transcripts, and the University of West Georgia maintains his personal archives. Together, these sources provide a rare opportunity to study a moment where the boundaries of observation and intuition appeared to blur.

Sources:

- Swann, Ingo. Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy. 1998.

- CIA FOIA Reading Room, “Ingo Swann Jupiter Session, April 27, 1973.”

- NASA Planetary Data System, Atmospheres Node (pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu), Pioneer 10/11, Voyager 1/2 datasets.

- Science, “Pioneer 10: Jupiter Encounter” (1974), “Voyager 1: Jupiter” (1979).

- Journal of Geophysical Research, NASA Technical Reports Server (ntrs.nasa.gov).

A Psychic Trip to Mars

In 1975, with some modicum of interplanetary remote viewing success under our belts, Harold Sherman and I planned a Mars probe in advance of the first Viking touchdown. There were certain difficulties with regard to Mars which differed considerable from those of Jupiter and Mercury. A great deal was known about Martian conditions, and lest Harold and I merely repeat what was already known, we decided to read up on the planet and become "grounded" in existing knowledge about it. ...

It took about eight minutes to sight Mars psychically...I could hear myself talking, though, which was being recorded...When the experiment was over I was flabbergasted. But at that moment, the telephone rang. It was Harold Sherman calling from Arkansas.

Now, Harold Sherman was an easy-going, gentle person, with interior strengths to be sure. But I had never heard him shout. And this he now did. "Did you see what I saw!" he shouted. I was still somewhat in awe of what I had seen that I responded vaguely: "Well, if you mean what no one will believe, then yes!"

-- Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy

Updated Special Edition

Did Ingo’s 1975 Remote Viewing session of the Moon play a role in shaping or motivating his Mars Remote Viewing sessions that followed?

It may indeed be the case. In Penetration, Ingo states that he remote viewed the far side of the Moon at the request of a very real, flesh-and-blood “Mr. Axelrod,” and that he perceived structures, which he immediately recognized as non-human in origin. He even recorded his startled reaction: You mean am... I to assume this stuff is… not OURS? Not made on Earth?

One of the most intriguing details Ingo provides is astronomical. He specifies that during the session the Moon was full, setting in the west, and positioned opposite the Sun, which places the Earth between them. This configuration corresponds to a lunar eclipse. In 1975, the full Moon and a lunar eclipse occurred on Sunday, May 25th, a day when SRI’s offices would have been nearly empty. If this timing is correct, it offers a rare fixed point for dating the session.

There is also the question of whether this session took place at SRI or under some affiliated program. In a subtle but telling way, Ingo suggests that “Axelrod” was deeply familiar with SRI’s remote-viewing protocols. For example:

The session begins with Axelrod pressing a button on a tape recorder, an oddly low-tech detail for a group otherwise portrayed as highly advanced and secretive.
Later, Axelrod quickly closes manila folders—the same type used at SRI to conceal target coordinates.
The presence of two individuals, a director and a monitor, is consistent with SRI’s standard setup for sponsor-supported sessions.

These hints suggest not that Axelrod was an SRI employee, but that he understood the methodology intimately and may have had access to the program’s procedures and culture.

Returning to the Moon–Mars connection: Ingo makes it clear that he was prepared to discuss much broader themes, including the possibility of extraterrestrial seeding, ancient civilizations, and the relationship between structures on the Moon and structures on Mars. The abruptness of the “Hollow Moon” chapter and the disappearance of the original Mars chapter point to material that may have been considered too sensitive (or too speculative) to publish at the time.

Importantly, Ingo later conducted a more formal, extended Mars remote-viewing session with Harold Sherman, one that appears to have replaced or refined the missing chapter. This session occurred on June 14, 1975, just two weeks after the likely Moon session and immediately prior to NASA’s Viking launches to Mars. The timing suggests that someone wanted a clearer, more controlled record of what Ingo perceived, perhaps to guide what NASA should (or should not) look for on the Martian surface.

Have other trained military Remote Viewers reported the same lunar anomalies that Ingo saw during his session with “Axelrod”?

Ingo stated that a covert government-linked group believed there were artificial structures on the far side of the Moon, objects reportedly noticed on early lunar-orbiter imagery and quietly discussed by certain Apollo personnel, though no official confirmation ever surfaced. During his own Remote Viewing session, Ingo described seeing moving colored lights, roadways, and constructed forms such as domes, arches, and buildings, features he felt were unmistakably artificial.

Years later, one of Ingo’s military Remote Viewing students, Paul H. Smith, CPT, US Army (Retired as a Major), reported a strikingly parallel experience during his own training at SRI. In an interview with George Noory for Worker in the Light (2006), Smith revealed that he had once been given the same lunar coordinates Ingo had worked. According to Smith, his session produced nearly identical imagery: constructed forms, architectural shapes, and anomalous features on the lunar surface. Smith also stated that he shared his drawings and notes with Dr. Harold Puthoff, then director of SRI’s remote-viewing research, who found the overlap noteworthy.

What is the deeper story behind Ingo’s Giza Remote Viewing sessions, and how did they connect to SRI’s scientific research, unresolved anomalies, and the later Mars investigations?

Remote Viewing the Giza Plateau: Hidden Chambers, Historical Expeditions, and SRI Connections

The best surviving documentation of Ingo’s Remote Viewing work on hidden chambers beneath the Giza Plateau is preserved in his archives at the University of West Georgia. Portions of these sessions, including sketches, transcripts, and Ingo’s commentary, are also reprinted in eight martinis Issue 19 (2022), available here:

http://www.eightmartinis.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/eight_martinis_issue19_nov2022_downloadversion2.pdf

The 1973 Giza Expedition with Backster, Tompkins, and Berlitz

In 1973, after lecturing in Prague at the International Congress on Psychotronics, Ingo traveled to the Giza Plateau with Cleve Backster, known for his pioneering “primary perception” experiments. They were accompanied by:

Peter Tompkins, former OSS operative and later author of Secrets of the Great Pyramid.
Charles Berlitz, linguist, intelligence veteran, and author of The Bermuda Triangle.
A small circle of local contacts who enabled unusual access.

The group posed as tourists, but their real interest was to explore whether Remote Viewing (and Ingo’s onsite impressions) might point toward subsurface chambers or constructed anomalies beneath the Great Pyramid and around the Sphinx.

What they found, or felt they were close to finding, was occurring at the same time other scientific groups were quietly probing the Plateau for hidden structures.

Alvarez and the Berkeley Cosmic Ray Project

From the mid-1960s into the early 1970s, the Berkeley Cosmic Ray Project, led by Dr. Luis Alvarez, was scanning the Pyramid of Khafre using muons to detect voids. Alvarez was an extraordinary figure:

Nobel Prize–winning physicist.
Radar pioneer during WWII.
Member of the Manhattan Project.
Key innovator in particle physics and detector instrumentation.

And significantly, Alvarez had served on the CIA’s 1952 Robertson Panel (sometimes referred to as the “Robinson Group”), the scientific committee convened to evaluate UFO reports after numerous sightings. This connection places him within a small Cold War era network of physicists who were quietly briefed on anomalous phenomena. This is an intriguing backdrop, given his later interest in the pyramids and his puzzlement over anomalous data irregularities.

Despite five years of work, Alvarez’s scans did not confirm chambers. But Dr. Amr Goneid, one of his collaborators, noticed that their data appeared scrambled by a noninstrumental external influence, a pattern normal system noise could not explain.

By 1973, Alvarez concluded that muon technology had reached its limits. He contacted physicist Lambert Dolphin at SRI and suggested developing a ground-penetrating radar system to continue the search.

SRI Enters Giza: Ground-Penetrating Radar (1974)

According to Dolphin’s report “Geophysics and the Temple Mount,” Alvarez urged SRI to create a new instrument capable of scanning pyramids and tomb complexes. SRI engineers rapidly assembled a prototype radar system, tested it in a California coal mine, and then deployed it to Egypt in the spring of 1974. This marked the beginning of SRI’s long, though often quietly referenced, relationship with major archaeological and geophysical investigations at Giza.

Project T and a Return to Pyramid Questions (1976–1977)

In May 1976, Ingo joined SRI’s ARPA Tunnel Detection Technology Program, known internally as Project T, which focused on detecting tunnels in the Korean DMZ. The project continued until June 1977. During a Project T Remote Viewing session dated April 13, 1977, SRI researcher John Tanzi mentioned to Ingo that SRI had previously examined the Pyramid of Khafre in 1974–75 and encountered puzzling anomalies the team could not explain. Tanzi explicitly asked Ingo to “look into” the matter further and said he would share their internal report. This exchange shows that:

SRI’s pyramid work had produced unresolved findings.
Ingo was being asked to apply Remote Viewing to clarify a scientific anomaly already detected by instruments.

The 1978 A.R.E.–SRI–NSF Collaboration

By 1978, Dolphin sought new funding to continue Giza research. He obtained support from the Edgar Cayce Foundation / A.R.E., an organization deeply interested in locating the legendary Hall of Records. Dolphin later wrote: “In 1978, we received funding from A.R.E…. Hugh Lynn Cayce joined us in Egypt that year.”

During this collaboration, Ingo conducted two detailed remote-viewing sessions on January 31 and February 2, 1978. These targeted:

the Sphinx;
the Pyramid of Khafre; and
tunnels and voids beneath the Plateau.

Ingo identified chambers, tunnels, and anomalies beneath both pyramids and the Sphinx, some of which Dolphin confirmed immediately with radar. Drilling was initiated, and borehole cameras were inserted into several anomalies. Ingo’s 1978 notes even reference his earlier 1973 onsite impressions, creating a two-layered record of investigation: psychic and physical.

The Unresolved Sphinx Anomaly

In Mark Lehner’s detailed report, "The Edgar Cayce Foundation Egypt/Sphinx Project: A Special Report," he describes a striking discovery:

On SRI’s final day of fieldwork in 1978, a strong subsurface anomaly was detected inside a hollow masonry box attached to the Sphinx’s south side, using a more powerful acoustic technique called “immersion down-hole sounding.

Despite its intensity, this anomaly was never drilled. Serious disagreements erupted between SRI and another project patron, who controlled drilling operations. Within days, the entire effort shut down. SRI abruptly left Egypt. Given the level of investment and preparation, the sudden withdrawal has long raised questions, namely:

Did the anomaly reveal something controversial, or did competing agendas make further investigation impossible?

The Independent Mars Project (c. 1984–1986)

The Independent Mars Project, sometimes called the Independent Mars Mission, was a quiet, internally funded research initiative at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the mid-1980s. Although rarely discussed publicly, it is documented in several sources, including The Stargate Conspiracy, SRI-related publications, and material preserved in Ingo Swann’s archives.

Origins of the Project: After years working on subsurface imaging and archaeological applications, SRI physicist Lambert Dolphin developed an interest in extending remote-sensing methodologies to planetary targets. By 1984, he had already collaborated with Ingo on two major efforts:

Giza Plateau investigations (1973 and 1978), where Ingo’s Remote Viewing descriptions of underground chambers corresponded to anomalies Dolphin’s radar teams later confirmed.
Project T (Tunnel Detection Program) at SRI (1976–1977), where Ingo contributed remote sensing information that supported ARPA-funded research.

Dolphin’s professional relationship with Ingo (and their seemingly shared interest in planetary structure, archaeology, and anomalous features) made Ingo a natural candidate for a more unconventional undertaking.

Funding and Structure: The Independent Mars Project was supported through SRI’s internal President’s Fund, which allocated approximately $50,000 for exploratory research. This allowed Dolphin to assemble a small, flexible group that included:

Lambert Dolphin, principal investigator.
Richard C. Hoagland, external consultant familiar with NASA imaging.
Ingo Swann, primary Remote Viewer.
A small circle of SRI engineers and analysts who processed imaging and coordinate data.

The aim was to examine Martian surface anomalies, both through photographic analysis and psi-assisted perception, at a time when NASA’s Viking images were generating new debates about artificial structures on the planet.

Ingo’s Role: Within this framework, Ingo conducted a team Remote Viewing session (including Harold Sherman) targeting Mars. The team, independently of one another, described large-scale engineered structures, atmospheric remnants, enclosed spaces, and architectural forms.

The project never became formalized within SRI’s public research portfolio, but its session and notes appear in Sherman's archives.

How This Connects to Penetration: When Ingo describes working with Dolphin in his missing Mars chapter, he compresses years of collaborations into a brief narrative. What the book doesn’t detail explicitly (but the archival record confirms) is that:

He remote viewed Mars as part of an SRI inquiry, not as a personal side project.
Dolphin’s independent initiative matched the timing and content of Ingo’s Mars descriptions.
Ingo had already been working with Dolphin on Giza and underground-anomaly detection, so bringing him into a Mars-focused study was a natural extension.
The Mars work paralleled SRI’s broader technological and parapsychological research during the same era.

Thus, Penetration’s Mars chapter is the public-facing tip of a much deeper research history involving SRI, Dolphin, Ingo, and a continuation of inquiries that began in Egypt.

The 1984 Remote viewing of Mars

In 1979, NASA technicians Vincent DiPietro and Greg Molenaar discovered unusual landforms in Viking Orbiter photographs taken in 1976, most famously the “Face on Mars” in the Cydonia region. Their analysis, published in "Unusual Martian Surface Features," argued that some features showed geometric structure inconsistent with chance erosion. The planetary-science establishment reacted with hostility, dismissing the images as “light and shadow tricks” and discouraging further inquiry. The controversy nonetheless triggered quiet interest among independent researchers and several individuals at SRI.

By 1984, Lambert Dolphin, a physicist and geophysicist at SRI, already involved with Ingo in underground-anomaly work in Egypt, initiated what came to be known informally as the Independent Mars Mission, a small privately funded inquiry into Martian surface enigmas. As part of this effort, Dolphin asked Ingo to assemble a team of Remote Viewers to examine specific Cydonia coordinates.

On June 15, 1984, at 5:30 pm, five remote viewers independently worked the same set of Mars coordinates. Three are known today:

Ingo;
Harold Sherman; and
Thomas (Tom) McNear, CPT, US Army (Retired as a Lieutenant Colonel) , a member of the U.S. Army’s Remote Viewing unit.

Unbeknownst to them, exactly 24 days earlier (May 22, 1984) Army Remote Viewer, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Joseph (Joe) McMoneagle had been directed by his own program monitor to view ancient Mars. His now-declassified CIA/DoD transcript reveals descriptions that closely match what Ingo’s five-person team would report less than a month later.

What the 1984 Multi-Viewer Team Reported

Just as in the earlier 1975 Mars session, Ingo and Sherman again perceived:

towers and engineered structures;
interior chambers and enclosed spaces;
remnants of collapsed or buried buildings;
evidence of a former advanced civilization; and
two temporally distinct cultural phases: one ancient, one more recent.

These impressions were independently echoed by the other viewers, including McNear.

From the collective results, Ingo drew several key conclusions:

Human beings are inherently psychic, even under non-ideal conditions.
Group Remote Viewing can reveal overlapping, coherent descriptions, even among viewers of different backgrounds.
Distance (planetary or interplanetary) is not a barrier to psychic perception.
Remote Viewers described architectural details exceeding what is visible in Viking photographs, suggesting access to more than visual data.
If the structures perceived truly exist, they were not constructed by any known terrestrial civilization.
Therefore, humans may possess a latent ability to psychically “penetrate” extraterrestrial environments or intelligences.

McNear’s Reflections: In the Updated Special Edition of Penetration, McNear recalled how his understanding shifted years later:

Then in 2014, a year after Ingo’s passing, I was reading Joe McMoneagle’s book Mind Trek. In it, Joe recounts his remote viewing of Mars on 22 May 1984—24 days before Ingo’s five-person team. Joe speaks of the same entities, the same profound sense of loss, the same structures, the same inner chambers…to this day I am reluctant to discuss it, but if you want to know more, read Mind Trek.

McNear’s account highlights one of the most remarkable aspects of the event: two separate Remote Viewing groups describing strikingly similar Martian ruins within the same month, without either being aware of the other.

Note:

The various Mars Remote Viewing sessions described pyramid like structures and major geological disturbances. They also mention tall, thin figures having experienced environmental collapse. John Greenewald, Jr. (X handle: @blackvaultcom) fed this information into the AI image generator DALL-E, which then produced the two images detailing landscapes with pyramids and figures featured in this section.

CIA: Mars Exploration

McMoneagle's Mars RV Session has been declassified. A Link to the CIA page with the document is below.

The McMoneagle Mars Session PDF

Why the Pages on NHEs, UFOs/UAPS, and the Planets...

I join a very long list of those who have seen and experienced things they cannot prove happened...

Ingo divides Penetration into three parts. The first recounts his encounters with UFOs and non-human intelligences, including a controversial episode involving the Moon’s far side. The second explores the Hollow Moon idea. The third outlines his conviction that certain non-human entities actively suppress humanity’s natural telepathic capacities, because telepathy is the one faculty that would allow us to perceive them clearly. The updated edition includes his psychic probing work with Harold Sherman in the 1970s and a five-person team in the 1980s, both pointing toward a lost civilization on Mars.

Many readers ask whether the first part is factual. Ingo hinted that the narrative was intentionally stylized, built from real events but arranged in a way that concealed identities and circumstances. He placed a definition of “penetration” at the front of the book as a kind of key. As he wrote:

Some echelons of humans are at war with the Psi potentials of the human species because those echelons have motivations they would prefer never to be disclosed via Psi penetration.

His long correspondence with ancient astronaut theorist Raymond Drake helped shape this framework. Drake wrote of worlds overlapping through frequencies beyond ordinary perception. This is an idea that echoes throughout Penetration.

By 1994, when he began working on the manuscript under Project Moondrop (now archived at the University of West Georgia), Ingo intended it to summarize decades of conclusions. He believed that after World War II, fragments of advanced technology, originating from extra-dimensional intelligences, were inherited by competing political, military, and scientific groups. Some factions attempted to reverse-engineer or weaponize this material, others tried to understand its psychic interface, and still others maintained public silence or misdirection. Ingo positioned himself not as a believer in conspiracies but as someone who had simply seen too many convergences to ignore.

His Remote Viewing sessions led him to believe that Mars once sustained an advanced civilization whose destruction forced a small population to evacuate to Earth. Over time, they adapted genetically, merging with early human populations. This, in his view, placed humanity in long-term tension with the “others”: extra-dimensional intelligences already present on Earth but operating in a different frequency band.

This framework shaped his view of ancient history: that remnants of the Martian diaspora encoded knowledge in underground “libraries” beneath major monuments, mirroring structures he believed he perceived on Mars.

From here, Ingo turned to the question of apparitions. The Marian events at Tilly-sur-Seulles fascinated him because witnesses saw visions and experienced physical reactions they could not comprehend, and only years later, after the devastation of World War I, did the full symbolic meaning become clear. This convinced him that humanity often lacks a frame of reference for extraordinary phenomena.

It also led to an unsettling idea: that humanity may be receiving communications from what he called “warden-like” intelligences. These messages appear in forms tailored to each culture (saints, angels, beings of light, prophetic figures) and while they attract devotion, fear, or awe, they rarely lead to genuine psychological or spiritual development. Ingo wondered whether such encounters function like a loop: compelling, absorbing, and emotionally rich, but ultimately designed to keep humanity occupied rather than evolving its innate capacities.

Throughout the political, scientific, and psychic complexities surrounding his life, Ingo tried to focus on the messages themselves and how to communicate their implications without triggering suppression, disbelief, or personal risk. Late in life, he feared that he had not succeeded, that the consciousness shift he hoped for was slipping further away.

In his interview with Thomas Streicher, he offered: Everything is in my book. If you put the pieces together, you will come up with a story.

A story, he implied, that powerful interests prefer not to cohere. Portions of that story, the UFO encounters, the non-human intelligences, and the planetary explorations, appear across Penetration. They are offered not as dogma, but as pieces of the larger mosaic Ingo hoped future generations would eventually assemble: evidence that humanity is far more than we have been taught to believe.

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