Latest news with #ProjectSunStreak
Forbes
29-03-2025
- General
- Forbes
Psychics, CIA And Ark Of The Covenant Collide In Declassified Document
Replica of the Ark of the Covenant, a gold-covered wooden chest described in the Book of Exodus as ... More containing the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images) If you believe Hollywood, the fabled Ark of the Covenant was hidden away in an ancient abandoned city in Egypt until Indiana Jones found it in 1936. If that sounds far-fetched, wait until you hear about how an agency of the United States government used a psychic to feel out the location of the Ark in the 1980s. It's a true story, according to declassified documents. The Ark of the Covenant is a legendary chest said to hold the tablets with the Ten Commandments. The Ark is mentioned in Exodus in the Bible where it's described as being made of wood overlaid with pure gold. Cherubic figures face one another on the top. It's been an object of fascination into modern times. The Ark's existence hasn't been proven, much less its location found if it does exist. That didn't stop the US government from investigating it as part of a 1980s project meant to harness psychic powers. A Project Sun Streak session in 1988 involved a purported psychic describing the location and appearance of the Ark of the Covenant using the powers of the mind. The CIA first published the declassified Project Sun Streak document concerning the Ark in 2000, so it's not fresh news. It seems to have reemerged into the spotlight thanks to social media chatter. While the CIA is connected to the document's publication, the Defense Intelligence Agency, a group tasked with military intelligence work, oversaw Project Sun Streak in the 1980s. 'Project Sun Streak deals with the use of psychoenergetics in the collection of intelligence information,' a declassified DIA overview explained. One of the project's main tasks involved the 'purely mental collection of information.' The government's psychic programs experimented with extrasensory perception, telepathy and remote viewing—the alleged ability to gather information about distant objects without actually seeing or interacting with them. Remote viewing was the technique employed in the search for the Ark. The supposed psychic subject was given coordinates and then asked to describe a target there. A session typically consisted of a remote viewer and an interviewer or monitor who guided the process. The session summary for the Ark includes the subject's description of the target as a container with another container inside. 'The target is fashioned of wood, gold and silver,' the document said. The target was said to be located in the Middle East with mosque domes nearby. 'The target is hidden—underground, dark and wet were all aspects of the location of the target,' it said. The test subject said the object had the purpose of bringing people together and was connected to 'ceremony, memory, homage, the resurrection' with an aspect of spirituality. The target was supposedly protected and could only be opened by those authorized to do so. 'Individuals opening the container by prying or striking are destroyed by the container's protectors through the use of a power unknown to us,' the summary read. A crude illustration in the document shows a single winged figure, though it looks more like a bird than a cherub. The document on the Ark of the Covenant session included this illustration of winged figure. This all reads like an exciting piece of fiction involving a legendary object, hidden away and guarded by strange forces. The notes from the session are packed with single words like 'forbidden,' 'terror, ' death,' 'burning' and 'wealth.' The Indiana Jones movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' came out in 1981, years prior to the remote viewing session. The movie's infamous face-melting scene was triggered by the opening of the Ark of the Covenant. All of those words could easily apply to the movie, though there's no indication of any connection between the film and the remote viewing experiment. Project Sun Streak and its predecessor programs attempted to glean information about more than religious artifacts. They were also meant to tease out information on Soviet facilities at a time when the Cold War was still going strong. The project's early origins came about as a response to reports of Soviet experiments in psychokinesis, the claimed ability to move objects with your mind. Think Eleven from 'Stranger Things.' Government experiments took place through the 1970s and 1980s under different umbrellas. Sun Streak formally appeared in the mid-80s with a focus on remote viewing. The DIA highlighted remote viewing's passive (undetectable) nature and low cost as benefits of the technique. Sun Streak operators hoped to train professional intelligence personnel in the use of remote viewing. It seems the US government never managed to train a bevy of psychic intelligence officers. By 2000, the CIA deemed Project Sun Streak fit to declassify. You can now read the documents online. It's fun to dip your toes into the strange happenings of Project Sun Streak, but what's not proven is the existence or location of the Ark of the Covenant. Former CIA intelligence officer and former CIA deputy chief historian Nicholas Dujmovic is familiar with the DIA project's existence, but has seen no hint of the government actually tracking down the relic. 'The recurring idea that we are searching for, or have found, the Ark of the Covenant, or Noah's Ark, or any other ark, makes little sense, and I saw no evidence whatsoever of this sort of thing in my 26 years at CIA,' he says over email. We might as well go with the fictional Indiana Jones explanation for now: the Ark of the Covenant is now tucked away in a government storage facility where it can't melt any faces.
Express Tribune
27-03-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
Declassified CIA files suggest Ark of the Covenant may have been located
Listen to article A recently resurfaced CIA document from 1988 suggests the U.S. government may have located the biblical Ark of the Covenant using psychic intelligence techniques under a secret Cold War-era program. The report is linked to Project Sun Streak, a classified U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency initiative that attempted to gather information on distant targets using "remote viewers" — individuals trained to perceive unseen or far-off locations. One such test involved a psychic, identified as Remote Viewer No. 032, who was given target coordinates without being told the nature of the object. The viewer reportedly described a coffin-like container made of wood, gold, and silver — adorned with winged figures — that strongly resembles descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant from biblical texts. 'The target is a container… fashioned of wood, gold and silver… decorated with a six-winged angel,' the report reads. The viewer claimed the object was buried underground in the Middle East, in a region where people spoke Arabic. They also described surrounding architecture resembling white mosque domes and individuals dressed in white garments. Perhaps most striking is the claim that the artifact is 'protected by entities' who will 'destroy' any unauthorized attempt to open it. The report adds that the Ark 'can only be opened when the time is deemed correct,' and that it carries a 'spiritual and historical significance far beyond what we now know.' The CIA declassified the document in 2000, but it has recently gained attention after being featured on the Ninjas are Butterflies podcast. Host Josh Hooper said he was skeptical until he located the file on the official CIA website. The remote viewer's notes include sketches of a domed white structure, eight figures labeled 'mummies,' and a creature with wings and claws labeled 'seradin.' While no physical evidence of the Ark has been found, theories about its location have persisted for centuries. Some believe it vanished during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC; others claim it was taken to Ethiopia. Despite the sensational claims, historians and archaeologists remain cautious. Experts emphasize that remote viewing lacks scientific validation and that no verifiable proof of the Ark's existence has emerged.
