Project Gateway is, in John Kiriakou’s account, the CIA’s astral-projection and remote-viewing effort — a component of the broader MK-Ultra program that ran from 1952 to 1975, distinct from the later Project Stargate, which Kiriakou dismissed as “so out there.”[1] He says it grew out of a fabricated source who told the CIA the Russians were experimenting with ESP, astral projection and mind reading, prompting a panic to catch up. In fact, Kiriakou says, the Russians were doing no such thing — though the Chinese were, unknown to the agency at the time.[2][3]
Kiriakou says the program — associated with the Monroe Institute’s “Gateway” effort — was, to his understanding, wound down in the 1970s after millions of dollars produced no results; he says he never personally encountered it during his own career.[4] He argues that any secret ongoing remote-viewing program would inevitably leak, since the CIA’s internal social scene — its softball league, LGBTQ organization, or quilting club — is where classified rumors travel: “everyone knows” eventually, whether in the hallway, the cafeteria, or the bar.[5]