Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis

by Annie Jacobsen

The definitive history of the military's decades-long investigation into mental powers and phenomena, from the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain and international bestseller Area 51.

This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances.

For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security. The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Now, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved. Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves.

Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work? How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter? What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue? PHENOMENA is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.

• ISBN10: 0316349356
• ISBN13: 9780316349352
• Publish Date: 22 February 2018 (first published 28 March 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 544
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Annie Jacobsen might just displace Mary Roach in my spooky nonfiction wheelhouse. And by that I mean, authors with whom I’d want to sit down and have long conversations over a pitcher of beer. Every one of her books is right up my alley. In this one, as she says herself in the afterword, the point is not to argue for the so-called paranormal nor against it, like most other books of its stripe. Instead, she reports on the people involved and the attempts at explanations that come to grief on the facts. Fascinating stuff here, and the last chapter with Ed Mitchell, he of the Apollo 14 walk on the moon, takes an unexpectedly poignant turn.

In ranking her books, I’d say Area 51, then this one, followed by Paperclip, with The Pentagon’s Brain to come. Whatever subject Jacobsen investigates next, I’m on board.