Stephan Schwartz

photo of Stephan Schwartz

Stephan A Schwartz is an American consciousness researcher, future trends analyst and author. His experimental research focuses on remote viewing, which he has used to make significant discoveries in the field of archaeology. Schwartz is especially concerned with the means of creating social transformation and is founder and editor of the Schwartz Report, a website containing fact-based articles on environmental, social and political matters.

Life and Early Experiences

Schwartz’s father was an anaesthesiologist, his mother a nurse. Schwartz credits their lack of interest in religion and strong commitment to medical science, especially consciousness, for giving him ‘an open-minded sense of consciousness as a thing unto itself’.1

As a twelve-year-old he was sometimes allowed to observe surgeries inside the operating room. On one occasion an emergency arose during an operation on a teenage girl; on regaining consciousness she told Schwartz’s father that she had risen above her body and then, finding no one would listen to her, went to the nurses’ station where she observed a doctor flirting with one of the nurses. She also said she crossed the city to observe her grandmother.2  Her descriptions were found to be correct in numerous details. Schwartz heard his father relate this account to medical colleagues, many of whom responded with similar stories.

Schwartz had another apparently-paranormal experience when, having served a tour in the US Army as a conscript, he was visiting Williamsburg, Virginia, where his mother’s family had lived since the 1600s. Walking in a colonial-era street at night he encountered a man dressed in period costume, who entered a house by walking through the closed front door. A local historian traced the address to an ancestor of Schwartz, whose portrait he recognized as the ghost.

Aged 24, Schwartz experienced a spiritual crisis which led him to realize that so far he had lived by shallow values, and lacked a meaningful inner life. At this time he was introduced to the work of the healing psychic Edgar Cayce and reviewed some of Cayce’s readings on a visit to the Association of Research and Enlightenment (ARE) in Virginia Beach. Many of these impressed him, in particular one which contained ancient information that was unknown to historians at the time of the reading but that was verified eleven years later through the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Schwartz remained at ARE for five years, studying the Cayce readings and the major texts of all religious faiths, also the works of Rudolf Steiner, Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey and other spiritual thought leaders. He was interested in the experiences in what he terms the ‘nonlocal’ consciousness of each tradition’s founder. He familiarized himself with parapsychology, particularly the work of JB Rhine and Ian Stevenson. He was impressed by the archival diligence of Cayce’s lifelong secretary Gladys Davis, an influence he carried into his own work.

Schwartz attended two healings by the Shoshone shaman Rolling Thunder, watching as he appeared to draw out the misty form of a wolf from an injured boy, whose wound healed immediately. Rolling Thunder’s work especially convinced Schwartz that his way forward was experimental, paving the way to his parapsychological achievements. He writes, ‘I began comparing the findings of modern science with what I already understood to be empirically developed sciences like shamanism and the enduring spiritual traditions; all of which recognize, when you strip away the dogma, that consciousness is the fundamental’.3  

In 1971, Schwartz began working for the American government, writing speeches for President Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and US Navy commanders.4 He was one of a small group that transformed the American armed forces from ‘a racist, elitist, gender discriminating conscription force into an all-volunteer meritocracy’.5 Disillusioned by the Watergate scandal, he left to pursue a career in consciousness research and dissemination to the public, which he continues to this day.

Schwartz has received the Parapsychological Association’s ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ for 2017.6 For other honours, see ‘Awards’ below.

Stephan Schwartz married his first wife, Hayden Oliver Gates in 1981, and was widowed in 2001. His second and current wife is Ronlyn Arnatt. He has a daughter, Katherine Rowland Schwartz, and a step-daughter, Lea Meyers.

Early Experimental Work

In Schwartz’s first experiments with remote viewing, or ‘distant viewing’ as he termed it then, he laid out a 12x12 foot square grid in his backyard, buried an object and persuaded volunteers to try to psychically determine which of the 144 squares held the object and what it was. Results were statistically significant in both respects. This was the start of the remote viewing protocol he continues to use.

In the early 1970s, some parapsychologists argued that psi might be an electromagnetic phenomenon. This was largely disproved by the Soviet parapsychologist Leonard Vasiliev, who established experimentally that psychics could obtain veridical information while shielded in Faraday cages and deep caves, which blocked electromagnetic transmission. Schwartz reasoned that if psi worked electromagnetically it must be at extremely low frequencies (ELF) of 300 Hz or less, which he knew from his naval experience could penetrate deep below the surface of the ocean. Denied the use of a submarine, Schwartz put this inquiry on hold, but was encouraged to discover, by reading a 1974 paper by Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff about remote viewing research at the Stanford Research Institute7 that others were thinking along the same lines.  

Schwartz turned to studying oracular and shamanic rituals, which involve what he terms ‘a state of intentioned consciousness’, to try to find the optimal conditions for a person to have an experience of nonlocal consciousness. He realized that archaeology would be an ideal testing-ground for remote viewing because it involved truly blind targets.

He started by researching whether anyone had tried psychic archaeology previously, compiling his results in a 1978 book, The Secret Vaults of Time. It covers previous twentieth-century digs that had been aided by insights gained psychically, some by the Canadian George McMullen, with whom Schwartz himself would eventually work.

In 1976, Schwartz collaborated with an archaeologist to try to trace an idol and archaeological sites in Mexico. Schwartz reports that the remote viewing aspect worked but the fieldwork, which he did not direct, was incomplete and gave poor feedback.8

Later that year, Schwartz was given access to a research submersible, which he used to undertake his ‘Project Deep Quest’ in collaboration with psychics Ingo Swann and Hella Hammid. In a filmed experiment, each was given a chart of 1,500 square miles of ocean to scan by remote viewing; both independently located a shipwreck and artifacts that would be found near it, in the same spot, and accurately. Swann and Hammid succeeded in remote viewing target scenes on land from the submersible, at a depth that made ELF transmission highly unlikely. Both tests disproved the theory that psi is an electromagnetic phenomenon.9 ‘Deep Quest’, Schwartz writes, ‘set the pattern for the archaeological research I would do over the next two decades’.

The Alexandria Project

Schwartz’s next project is his best known: psychic archaeology tests in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, which he chose for its importance to the intellectual heritage of the West.10 He secured funding and began assembling a research team in the fall of 1978. To try to enhance the accuracy of the remote viewing, he used fifteen psychics, both experienced and beginners, to obtain consensus findings. Each was given a map and asked to look for the lost tomb of the ancient conqueror Alexander the Great and the remains of the Library of Alexandria, the ancient world’s leading bibliographic collection, which had been destroyed by Christians in the early Christian era.

Three common areas were pinpointed by the viewers, including one linked in city folklore to Alexander’s resting place, the Nebi Daniel mosque in central Alexandria. Several psychics also said they sensed something significant in the waters of the city’s East Harbour.

Schwartz chose Hella Hammid and George McMullen to travel to Alexandria for onsite viewing. They pinpointed and explored several important sites, discovering many correspondences between their intuitions and known histories. Both were drawn to the Nebi Daniel mosque; McMullen felt certain that Alexander’s tomb, broken up but still identifiable, lay about 25 feet below it, although he also believed no human remains were there. However, an attempted excavation was interrupted for lack of government permissions and remains uncompleted.

Greater success was achieved at Marea, a buried city about 43 kilometres from Alexandria, where McMullen staked out ground under which he had viewed the ruins of a building. Excavation proved both psychics’ viewing correct on many points and more accurate than electronic sensing, which had been tried earlier and found nothing.11

Egyptian officials were impressed by these results and now supported underwater exploration in the East Harbour. Based on information provided by psychics, Schwartz and his dive crew found statues and ruins of major importance, including palaces built by Mark Antony and Cleopatra and the remains of a massive building that appeared to have been the ancient lighthouse of Pharos. Schwartz published these findings,12 but the project was at first sensationalized and then attacked by the media through quotes from sceptics. It was ignored by the academic community, which refused to publish Schwartz’s papers. In the mid-1990s, a French-Egyptian archaeological team claimed credit for discovering the ruins.

Other Archaeological Explorations

Schwartz’s other expeditions of this type include:

  • 1984: Lake Erie, location of the wreck of the cargo vessel Dean Richmond
  • 1985: St. Ann’s Bay in Jamaica, where the remains of Columbus’s last two ships were known to lie (a field survey showed finds only where the psychic team had specified)13
  • 1987-88: Grand Bahamas Banks, location of the Brig Leander and 18 other wreck sites14

Other Parapsychological Research

Schwartz, assisted by OMNI Magazine and the newspaper Los Angeles Weekly, performed a large-scale international test of precognition in which tens of thousands of people participated.15 He concluded that people who are ‘open-minded, tolerant, and creative’ are most successful as psychics.16

An early informal experiment showed that people tasting two glasses of wine routinely preferred the one on which meditators had focused good intentions rather than the control. Schwartz subsequently obtained significant results in a test of whether healing intention could change the molecular structure of water as measured by infrared spectrophotometry.17

Schwartz’s current research is inspired by the threat posed by climate change. It studies how nonlocal consciousness affects social systems and how individuals and small groups can influence the course of history. He views climate change as a problem soluble only through post-materialist science.18

Schwartz Report

Schwartz is founder and editor of the Schwartz Report website, which he describes as ‘an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming’, offering regular articles to ‘warn readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values’. He writes: ‘Our country now stands at a crossroads; indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles.’

Awards

  • Certificate of Commendation, Department of the Navy 1973
  • 2016 Nautilus Book Award for Social Change for The 8 Laws of Change
  • Recipient of the 2017 Parapsychological Association Outstanding Contribution Award
  • OOOM Magazine (Germany), named one of ‘The 100 Most Inspiring People in the World,’ 2018
  • Albert Nelson Marquis Award for Outstanding Contributions, 2018
  • Book Excellence Award for Literary Excellence, 2018, for the novel Awakening

Academic and Research Appointments

  • BIAL Fundaçao (BIAL Foundation) Fellow (2006-2010, 2019-present)
  • Fellow of the William James Center for Consciousness Studies, Sofia University (2018)
  • Distinguished Consulting Faculty, Saybrook University (2014 to present)
  • Senior Samueli Fellow for Brain, Mind and Healing, Samueli Institute. (2010-2013)
  • Scholar-in-Residence, Atlantic University (2007-2008)
  • Research Associate, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory of the Laboratories for Fundamental Research (1997 to present)
  • Executive Director, Rhine Research Center (2005 to 2006)
  • Public Spokesperson, Parapsychological Association (1996 to present)
  • Chairman and Research Director of The Mobius Society, (1977-1992)
  • Visiting Professor at John F. Kennedy University (1981-1983)
  • Senior Fellow of the Philosophical Research Society (1976-1979)

Scholarly Editorships

Works

(See here for a comprehensive list)

Non-Fiction Books

  • The 8 Laws of Change: How to Be an Agent of Personal and Social Transformation (2015). Rochester, Vermont, USA: Inner Traditions Bear & Co.
  • Opening to the Infinite (2007). Budha, Texas, USA: Nemoseen Press.
  • Mind Rover: Explorations with Remote Viewing (2001), Budha, Texas, USA: Nemoseen Press.
  • The Alexandria Project (1983). New York: Delacorte. [Revised and reissued 2000. New York: The Author’s Guild.]
  • The Secret Vaults of Time: Psychic Archaeology and the Quest for Man's Beginnings  (1978). New York: Grosset & Dunlap. [Revised and reissued 2000, New York: The Author’s Guild; selected for the Classics of Consciousness Series edited by Russell Targ (2005), Charlottesville, Virginia, USA: Hampton Roads.]

Novels

  • The Amish Girl (2019). Langley, Washington, USA: Greenwood Press.
  • The Vision: A Novel of Time and Consciousness (2018). Langley, Washington, USA: Greenwood Press.
  • Awakening: A Novel of Aliens and Consciousness (2017).  Langley, Washington, USA: Greenwood Press.

Academic Journals

Schwartz has written extensively for peer-reviewed academic journals on research in exceptional human performance, and research in social values, social outcomes, social transformation and future trend analysis. Publications include Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing; Subtle Energies (journal of the International Society for Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine), Research in Parapsychology and Journal of Parapsychology.  See here for a full list.

YouTube Videos

Interviews with Jeffrey Mishlove (New Thinking Allowed):

Film, Video, DVDs and CDs

  • A Feast of Stars (producer, writer, director, Nemoseen Media and Storydome Productions, 2012)
  • Looking into Your Future (producer, presenter, Nemoseen Media, 2008)
  • Meditation (producer, presenter, Nemoseen Media, 2008)
  • Hamonic Healing (producer, presenter, Nemoseen Media, 2008)
  • Remote Viewing: The Gold Standard Course (producer and writer, Nemoseen Media, 2004)
  • Remote Viewing Through Time and Space (producer and writer, Nemoseen Media, 2004)
  • Traveling Through Time and Space (producer and writer, 2004)
  • Remote Viewing (producer, writer, and narrator, Nemoseen Media, 2003)
  • Before the Beginning (producer, writer, and narrator, Nemoseen Media, 2003)
  • Healing (producer, writer, and narrator, Nemoseen Media, 2003)
  • 2050 (producer, writer, and narrator, Nemoseen Media, 2003)
  • Mind Over Matter (MCA/Universal series, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1991)
  • Interspecies Communications (MCA/Universal, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1991)
  • Crop Circles (MCA/Universal, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1991)
  • Psychic Detectives (MCA/Universal, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1991)
  • Healing (MCA/Universal, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1991)
  • Psychic Detectives (ABC network prime time special, executive producer and writer, Clearlight Productions, 1989)

Forthcoming Works

Schwartz has been working for many years on a precognitive remote viewing project in which he has asked thousands of viewers to take a psychic look into humanity's future. He is currently detailing the findings in a forthcoming book entitled 2060: Vision of the Future. A YouTube video in which Schwartz explains the project in an interview with parapsychologist Jeffrey Mishlove on Mishlove’s ‘New Thinking Allowed’ YouTube channel can be seen here.

Further Information

For comprehensive information about Stephan Schwartz and his work, see his curriculum vitae here and visit his website: stephanaschwartz.com .

KM Wehrstein

Literature

Parapsychological Association (2017). 2017 Outstanding Contribution Award Winner: Stephan A. Schwartz. [Web page.]

Schwartz, S.A. (n.d.).  Adventures in Consciousness.  Book chapter, Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Science: in press.

Schwartz, S.A. (n.d.) Stephan A. Schwartz: Curriculum Vitae.

Schwartz, S.A. (1978). Two application-oriented experiments employing a submarine involving novel remote viewing protocols, one testing the ELF hypothesis. Invited paper, American Society for Psychical Research, New York.

Schwartz, S.A. (1983, 2001, 2013). The Alexandria Project. Nemoseen Media. [Originally published by Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede.]

Schwartz, S. (1980). The Marea probe: An experiment in applied parapsychology involving the location, reconstruction, and excavation of a byzantine structure - Marea, Egypt. Invited paper, annual meetings of the American Research Center in Egypt, De Young Museum, 14 April 1980.

Schwartz, S. with Side-scan Sonar Survey by Harold E. Edgerton (1980). A preliminary survey of the eastern harbour, Alexandria, Egypt combining both technological and extended sensing exploration. Annual meetings of the Society for Underwater Archaeology, 11 January 1980.

Schwartz, S.A. with De Mattei, R.J. (1982). The Mobius Psi-Q Test: Preliminary findings. In Research in Parapsychology, ed. by W.G. Roll, J. Beloff, & R. White (1983), Metuchen, New Jersey, USA & London: Scarecrow, 103-5.

Schwartz, S. & De Mattei, R. (1987). The Caravel project. In Research in Parapsychology, ed. by D.H. Weiner & R.D. Nelson. Metuchen, New Jersey, USA & London: Scarecrow, 100-101.

Schwartz, S.A. & De Mattei, R., with independent archaeological evaluation by Roger Smith (Institute for Nautical Archaeology) (2019). Remote viewing and the search for Columbus' lost caravels. Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19, 113-30. [Originally presented at the Conference on Underwater Archaeology/Society of Historic Archaeology Annual Meetings (1987).

Schwartz, S.A. & De Mattei, R. (1989). The discovery of an American brig: Fieldwork involving applied archaeological remote viewing, including a comparison with side scan sonar and satellite imagery. Proceedings. Conference on Underwater Archaeology/Society of Historic Archaeology Annual Meetings.

Schwartz, S.A., De Mattei, R., Brame, E., & Spottiswoode, J (1986). Infrared spectra alteration in water proximate to the palms of therapeutic practitioners. In Research in Parapsychology, ed. by D.H. Weiner & R.D. Nelson (1987), Metuchen, New Jersey, USA & London: Scarecrow, 24-9.

Targ, R. & Puthoff, H. (1974). Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding. Nature, October 1974.

 

Endnotes

  • 1. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness, in press. All information in this section and the next is drawn from this source unless otherwise noted.
  • 2. Schwartz (1983).
  • 3. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.
  • 4. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.
  • 5. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.
  • 6. Parapsychological Association (2017).
  • 7. Targ & Puthoff (1974).
  • 8. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.
  • 9. Schwartz (1978).
  • 10. Schwartz (1983). All information in this section is drawn from this source unless otherwise noted.
  • 11. For the full report, see Schwartz (1980).
  • 12. For full report see: Schwartz & Edgerton (1980).
  • 13. See Schwartz & De Mattei (1987) and Schwartz, De Mattei, Smith (1987).
  • 14. See Schwartz & De Mattei (1989).
  • 15. For preliminary report, see Schwartz & De Mattei (1982), 103-5.
  • 16. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.
  • 17. For full report, see Schwartz, De Mattei, Brame & Spottiswoode (1986), 24-29.
  • 18. Schwartz, Adventures in Consciousness.