My title might indeed have invoked a few eye-rolls with the mixture of cargo-cult pseudoscience, all carefully wrapped up with a religious woo bow tie, and then encapsulated with a mention of the CIA, but hold fire on that, because there is something real in play here.
So what have we got and where does it come from?
We have tabloid headlines like this (from late March) …
CIA found the Ark of the Covenant by using psychics, declassified files claim
‘Remote viewer #32’ allegedly uncovered the gold-plated chest believed to house the Ten Commandments
But wait, isn’t this the plot line from Spielberg’s 1981 Oscar-winning Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Yes it literally is, and yes it really did win 5 Oscars.
However, a more appropriate question to ponder over is to wonder why they would publish such an article. Well OK, beyond generating clicks, is there any actual substance to this?
The story claims …
Declassified CIA documents claim that the mystical Ark of the Covenant was located by a psychic decades ago in the Middle East as part of one of the intelligence agency’s experimental, secret projects in the 1980s.
So where does the story come from, what is the alpha source?
It was the NY Post that started it all on March 26, and so the other tabloids are simply “me too” copies that also ran with it.
The interesting twist here is that the basis for it all really is a recently released CIA document that dates to 1988.
To be specific, this CIA document …
What is going on here?
What you have is a description of what is termed “Remote Viewing”. The intelligence community has over the years dabbled with lots of weird stuff.
Now just before we go any further let’s make one thing crystal clear – Remote Viewing is pseudoscientific BS. At the time they also knew this, but somebody still thought “Hey, let’s give it a go and see if there is anything to it“.
If the self-proclaimed “psychics” really could successfully do remote viewing then they could not ignore the possibility of having it as an intelligence advantage. So they reached out to these scammers (oops sorry, I mean “psychics” … well no, I was right the first time there) and got them in for tests.
What was channeled in the session described was basically extracted more or less directly from the 1981 movie …
The target is hidden underground … the target is protected by entities and can only be opened by those authorised to do so … Individuals opening the container by prying or striking are destroyed by the containers protectors through the use of a power unknown to us …
FFS … that is the script.
No they did not locate an actual ark, all they got was a fantasy from viewer (scam artist) #32, and yes, I suspect the real reason they quickly classified it was simply to hide their embarrassment and crass stupidity for allowing themselves to be conned so easily.
It eventually gets declassified, and was released recently with a slew of documents, hence the interns at various tabloids poured over all those recent releases looking for juicy scooby snacks like this that would generate clicks for them. The combination of CIA + Remote Viewing + Ark of the Covenant was indeed a hit, so the NY Post sexed it up a bit and then ran with it.
Now here is an interesting twist – it’s not new. The was actually declassified over 25 years ago and so this has been in circulation before. In today’s age of social-media it gained far more traction when re-released.
So is it actually true, did they really do stuff like this back then?
Yes, they really did
If you would like to watch a movie that gives you a far better idea of what was actually going on then I can highly recommend the 2009 movie titled The Men Who Stare at Goats (IMDB gives it 6.2/10). That movie in turn is based on Jon Ronson’s non-fiction book of the same name. Within it the journalist Jon Ronson documents the wild and utterly whacky efforts by the US army in the 1970s and 80s to tap into the paranormal and thus enhance their intelligence gathering abilities.
Often we assume that those in charge are rational, and often that is simply not the case. Humans are prone to believing lots of crazy stuff and so those in the military and intelligence services are just as prone as the rest of us to buying into crazy absurd ideas.
As for the movie itself, here is a trailer …
While the movie itself was done as a comedy, the twist is that the basis for it is wholly factual, there really were people who believed this stuff and did such stuff. Much of the crazy stuff in the movie actually happened.
Here is Mr Ronson telling the story behind it all and interviews the real people involved …
For a bit more context, what was going on then was what was known as the Stargate project.
It was a project started in 1977 at Fort Meade to …
investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications.
… hence was mostly focused on remote viewing.
It was tiny, operated out of an old leaky wooden barracks, and only had at most about 15-20 people involved.
It took them roughly 20 years to work out that it was a total waste of time and resources.
20 years?
Well yes, it was a classic boondoggle
A few hopefully obvious Points of Clarity
I most probably don’t need to explain the following, but let’s briefly cover it off anyway.
The Ark of the Covenant
I’m guessing I don’t need to describe it in any detail because you know what it was supposed to be (a box that contained the ten commandments given to Moses). There is what the bible claims, and also what mythology describes, and then there is what we actually know.
So what do we know?
There was no one true ark, but most probably various examples of religious arks in use at various times.
The bible concept is in all probability a carry over from earlier cultures. For example Egyptian barques – the Egyptians were known to place written covenants beneath the feet of statues.
We do also know that Moses himself never existed.
Remove Viewing
The claim is that some “gifted” people can use their psychic abilities to sense remote objects.
Some tests claim to have produced positive results, but the moment you put in place proper scientific controls, it suddenly stops working. It’s all nonsense, it always was, and still is, but despite the lack of credible evidence, people will still be prone to being conned into thinking it is real.
So what should you do when faced with such stuff?
Doubt is your very best friend, nurture a loving relationship with this true companion.
When faced with claims of something extraordinary then your best most effective strategy is to doubt until there is reasonable credible verifiable evidence that confirms it. That’s especially true these days when faced with literally anything said by anybody who represents or simply cheers for the current administration. I’d personally be shocked if they said anything that was factual.
If you believe until it is debunked, then you will end up believing lots of wild whacky weird stuff. If however you maintain doubt until it is confirmed, that that truly is your best bet for gaining a good grasp upon reality.
In other words, Doubting Thomas turns out to be the actual hero of the story. The need for that snippet being placed into the Bible was to try and make a case for believing despite no evidence being best, but that truly is a very bad life strategy, it is a road that leads to embracing myths as fact, and rejecting facts as myth.