FOIAWEAR — DOWSING / SUN STREAK Project 8808 Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 041 — DOWSING

In 1988 a US Army remote-viewing unit set out to find a missing officer by dowsing — with a pendulum — over six maps.

The unit was PROJECT SUN STREAK, the programme that carried the work begun under GRILL FLAME. Its session reports are headed with the warning “INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED” and handled “VIA SKEET CHANNELS ONLY.”

On 25 February 1988, in Project 8808, Session 3, the tasking was blunt: “Determine the present location of LTC Higgins.” (LTC William R. Higgins, USMC, was at that time being held hostage in Lebanon.) The viewer — identified in the report only as VIEWER IDENTIFIER: 003 — chose dowsing as the method.

The protocol is described in the document itself. Six area map sheets were dowsed in turn, “none were dowsed more than once.” Out of sight of the viewer, the monitor placed index marks on a clear acetate overlay, using different index points for each map sheet, and then, at the viewer’s request, “randomly oriented the acetate overlay and placed it on the table in front of the viewer.” A break was taken after every attempt, to let the monitor work out the coordinates and prepare the next overlay.

Three of the six sheets produced a null result. The other three gave, roughly:

33°58′N / 35°23′E
33°33′N / 35°20′E
33°07′N / 35°22′E

All three sit on the Lebanese coast. The report’s own aside on the result is the best line in the file: “(The longitude agreement—within 3 minutes—is uncanny).” The session ran from 1218 to 1346. Two of the three points, the report notes, “are on or near land.” Because the methodology “has not yet been validated by this office,” the monitor closes with the line “the monitor cannot place a confidence level on the session results” — signed off by a captain, USA.

The method was still in use three years later. A session sheet dated 23 OCT 91 (Session 02, RV #018) records the same work on a different target, dowsed three times, zooming each pass: first on “a very large map of the DELMARVA area”, then on “a second map which was an enlargement of the suspected area dowsed on the first map”, then on “a third map which was an enlargement of the suspected area dowsed on the second.” The conclusion: “the target plane and person appear to be located in the water of the bay/inlet area just to the northeast of Selby Beach, MD, and just south of Annapolis.”

The form fields on that sheet are worth the read on their own. Session start 1322, stop 1325 — three minutes. Aids/Distractions (PIs): “Full, Angry.” Pre-session hunches (AVs): “Low & Middle of map.” The viewer’s own estimate: “Low.”

The artwork is a stylised survey chart — the dowsing sheet itself, with its acetate overlay laid over it off-square and marked in grease pencil, the pendulum hanging over the overlay, and the dowsed points plotted in red along the coast.

Offered in eleven garment colours, printed as two different plates rather than one image re-toned. On the dark garments (Black, Graphite, Espresso, Navy, Pepper) the chart prints as it was drawn, cream sheet and all. On the light garments (White, Ivory, Butter, Chalky Mint, Light Green, Blossom) the same chart is drawn again as a three-ink screen plate for pale cloth — heavy black line work, cross-hatched and stippled water, a deep slate acetate overlay, and the grease-pencil cross and plotted points in red.

The QR code on the front opens the released document itself — RV Session Report, Project 8808, Session 3, Methodology: Dowsing, Viewer Identifier 003, CIA-RDP96-00789R003400990001-6, released 15 May 2003: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r003400990001-6

Note: quotations above are taken verbatim from the released documents. Redactions, OCR artefacts, classification markings and the original form layout are not reproduced. This is a tribute to the historical record, not an official publication.

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

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