There is a direct link between Ingo’s work as an artist and his research in remote viewing, parapsychology, consciousness exploration and bioenergetics, clearly described by Martin Ebon in the quarterly journal Spiritual Frontiers: “It was when Ingo started to make drawings of his psychic visions that he discovered a very basic kind of ESP system that lies within us in undeveloped form. It is this system and the process of using it that became the foundation of Ingo’s lifelong research.”
This lifelong research as a “guinea pig” or what he called, an experimental subject in a parapsychology lab, saw him involved in a number of research projects. His driving goal in all of this was to show that these abilities can be validated through established and peer reviewed scientific methods.
The repository of much of that research is the University of West Georgia, Ingram Library, Special Collections, which specializes in Parapsychology and Humanistic Psychology. Notable among the existing Collections are the papers and records of Dr. William Roll, project director of the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University and Ingo’s dear friend.
Of primary significance is the preservation there of Ingo's SRI research files, a treasure trove of information on the history and development of remote viewing. One set of SRI files contains records on all the first RV test subjects, including Tom McNear and Ingo himself, with transcripts, sessions and memos about the sessions, and the emerging understanding of the process of locating and developing the ESP core. Another set of files holds the many documents and memos Ingo created while at SRI, including requests, memos to file and general correspondence.
As part of Ingo’s personal research, he conducted remote viewing sessions targeting the planet Jupiter and its surrounding moons, Mars and Mercury. The findings in his well-known Jupiter probe were later confirmed by Voyager’s own tour of the planet in 1979. Edgar Mitchell, who made his historic moon voyage in 1971, said in the National Enquirer, “It took Mariner 10 months to get to Mercury – but Mr. Swann was able to project his consciousness there in an instant. Mr. Swann’s findings – weeks before we received the Mariner 10 data – were incredibly accurate.” The files, containing all of the remote viewing sessions, slide presentations and speeches he created to document the results, along with a binder containing the data supporting his findings are part of the Ingram Library’s Special Collections.
The research at SRI was aided by hundreds of scientific and other documents that provided significant insights and information. Ingo did not want those contributions to be forgotten. He kept reference files of journals, papers and articles from the 19th- and 20th- century, covering any information that pertained to the phenomena being researched. The files represent an invaluable history.
A descriptive summary of the Ingo Swann collection at the University of West Georgia can be found at http://uwg.galileo.usg.edu/uwg/view?docId=ead/MS-0060-ead.xml
For more information about the Ingo Swann collection, please contact Blynne Olivieri, head of Special Collections at special@westga.edu or 678-839-5455.
