The Stanford Research Institute played a pivotal role in Project Stargate, a secretive U.S. government initiative launched in 1977 to explore psychic phenomena for intelligence gathering. Based in Menlo Park, California, SRI was contracted by the Defense Intelligence Agency to conduct experiments on remote viewing, a technique aiming to perceive distant or hidden targets through extrasensory perception. Researchers like Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ led the effort, working with remote viewers such as Ingo Swann and Pat Price to test the phenomenon under controlled conditions, often attempting to describe targets identified only by coordinates.

An interesting report concerning Project Stargate published in the Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies, a periodical issued by the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.