Do You See What I See?: Memoirs of a Blind Biker

by Russell Targ

Russell Targ has been visually handicapped since childhood and yet he has performed groundbreaking research in lasers and optics and participated in recently declassified, NASA-sponsored work in "remote viewing.” He is grounded in the world of science and yet co-created the Cold War spy program that became the real X-Files—the CIA- and NASA-sponsored work in “remote viewing” that has only recently been declassified. Targ's memoir also reads like a cultural history of the last half of the twentieth century. He meets and befriends—and tells wonderful anecdotes about—such people as Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand, and Alan Alda, among others, including his brother-in-law, chess champion Bobby Fisher. Do You See What I See? is the remarkable story of a visually impaired physicist who sees beyond perception to help readers find meaning and joy.

Genres: Science, Memoir, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published May 23, 2008

About the author

Russell Targ was born in Chicago on April 11, 1934. He is an American physicist and author, ESP researcher and pioneer in the earliest development of the laser.

Targ received a Bachelor of Science in physics from Queens College in 1954 and did graduate work in physics at Columbia University. He received two National Aeronautics and Space Administration awards for inventions and contributions in lasers and laser communications.

Targ is also an editor, publisher, songwriter, producer and teacher. In 1997 he retired from Lockheed Martin as a project manager and senior staff scientist, where he developed laser technology for airborne detection of wind shear and air turbulence. He has published more than a hundred papers on lasers, plasma physics, laser applications, electro-optics, and psychical research.

At the Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s and 1980s, Targ and his colleague Harold E. Puthoff co-founded a 23-year, $25-million program of research into psychic abilities and their operational use for the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and Army Intelligence. These abilities are referred to collectively as "remote viewing". Targ and Puthoff both expressed the belief that Uri Geller, retired police commissioner Pat Price and artist Ingo Swann all had genuine psychic abilities. They published their findings in Nature and the Proceedings of the IEEE. From 1972 to 1995 the program was classified SECRET and compartmentalized with Limited Access. That is to say, the program was not only classified, but every single person who was informed about the program had to personally sign a so-called bigot list, to acknowledge that they had been exposed to the program data.

Targ's autobiography, Do You See What I See: Memoirs of a Blind Biker, was published in 2008, and describes his life as a scientist and legally blind motorcyclist.

Targ lectures worldwide on remote viewing. He now resides in Palo Alto, California with his second wife, Patricia.

Targ's website presents videos demonstrating remote viewing at: www.espresearch.com.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book:

The reference to Zelig in the book's description is apropos, and I was glad to find it wasn't marketing bull manure. There are lots of great stories here from a guy at the top of his game, and really nothing with which you could take issue. Targ's not selling any ideas here that you have to buy; the research and evidence from his career are presented in other publications.

For me, "Do You See What I See?" was a fabulous book with many surprises. Not the least of which were these two, paraphrasing from Targ's writing: 1.) You're not your business card or personal story, and 2.) he believes that our species has evolved as far as it's going to, and now our business is about consciousness. To have seen a man who used to be all about military RV write such a thing is cause for pause and reflection. Although Targ wasn't an enlisted man, the massive organizations for which he worked literally wear their jobs and ranks in full view on their sleeves.

There are also pleasant, personal anecdotes from Targ's earliest life, while he grew-up marinated in the environment of famous authors who worked with his publishing father. He drops thoughtful, funny and surprising one-liners with some regularity. Probably my favorite was, "Indeed, at this stage of my life, I am much more interested in questioning answers, than my previous specialty of answering questions." Having been afflicted with that attitude most of my life, his writing feels like that of a kindred soul.

The style of this book is rambling, through Targ's stream of awareness. Since eidetic memory isn't one of my skills, I'll go back and revisit the sections which spoke to me. This is obviously not a textbook so one shouldn't expect it read like one. There are many sections which I found touching or amusing, especially Chapter 14. If you'd enjoy "sitting by a master" and hearing them hold forth about real life experience, with real mistakes and triumphs, this would be a lovely read for you. Although I do get the feeling Targ would deflect the label "master."

My Introduction to Targ:

What interested me about Russell Targ's work is *who* he is, because that has informed and directed his now legendary work. Targ is one of the men who initiated the remote viewing (RV) programs for the U.S. military. The RV programs eventually led to colorful or dark fictions like those contained in the movies, The Men Who Stare at Goats or Suspect Zero. So this book has been my pleasant introduction to Targ's compendium of personal and professional experience. Happily but unexpectedly, I had found myself on a June Sunday standing next to Targ in a sparsely-populated conference hallway of an organization he co-founded, the International Remote Viewing Association. He and Paul Elder (Eyes of an Angel) were examining and photographing a drawing Paul made of an object Targ uses for RV.

I was interested in asking Targ a question about a project on which I'm working; to my pleasant surprise he invited me to sit with him at lunch. Targ was polite, direct and had droll humor in conversation. He even asked my opinion of one of IRVA's seemingly failed presenters. If you've co-founded the organization at which the presentation takes place, you're allowed that latitude. I hadn't seen the presentation, so I had the good fortune to answer that I couldn't have an opinion about it.

I asked Targ why he got into remote viewing and was simply interested in what intrigues him. In the years I've known one of Targ's beloved friends, Stephan A. Schwartz, I hadn't delved into Targ's now legendary work because I didn't always agree with the uses to which the work was put. So I intended this published bio to be my first look at what Targ thinks about himself and his work.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are memoirs that inspire and biographies that make you question common perception. Do You See What I See? is something more than both of these things.

In this book, the author shares his life, his exploits, and his insights. Here is a man born with very limited sight and prosopagnosia (a condition which causes face-blindness or the inability to recognize faces). That he learns to read, studies physics, becomes a top researcher in laser technology is fascinating. That his journey also leads him to an interest in ESP, working on remote viewing for the CIA, and a study of common perception versus illusion is beyond anything I could have expected. Oh, his brother-in-law was the late Bobby Fischer and he legally rides a motorcycle.

Do You See What I See? made me feel like I was having an extended personal conversation with the author. The work isn’t set up chronologically but I think in this case that works to this story’s advantage. It gives the work a casual feeling while at the same time gradually opening up the reader to a different perspective, perhaps even an entirely different way of thinking.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 3.5 but there were some wonderful little gems that made me lean more towards 4 than 3. He is very eccentric and very funny, but he was scattered at times and some stories were completely random.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this title because of Russell's association with the others who were involved with Remote Viewing in the seventies. He was also instrumental in laser physics, which was what he was formally educated in. His has been an interesting life. And the people he has met along the way reads like a who's who. Really just a fun read.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir of a fascinating, apparently brilliant person who was once part of the Ayn Rand circle, a physicist, researcher, writer, worked on lasers, worked for NASA, believes in ESP and other paranormal stuff, studies buddhism. Has/is leading a very interesting life, all while being vision impaired from birth.

"If you want to REALLY suffer, try personalizing everything." (from introduction, page xx).

"Generally, freedom appears when we finally become unbearably bored with the repetition of the story of our suffering." (from introduction, page xxi).

[Mike S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to learn more about Russell Targ, because he was a player in the development of remote viewing (RV), a subject that fascinates me. The book is okay, it's a bit rambling in that it is not written in chronological order, and it's sometimes hard to tell who he's in a love relationship with. But his experiences with RV, psychics, gurus, and meditation are fascinating if you're interested in those subjects. Russell is extremely honest and shares what has worked to help him deal with depression, suffering, loss, and unhappiness.

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

rough read, very disjointed. Not the inspiring story I was hoping for.