Quantifying the Cognitive and Neurobiological Processes Underlying Remote Viewing Practice

Remote viewing (RV) is a structured mental practice in which individuals attempt to perceive or describe distant or hidden targets using non-ordinary cognition.Since the 1970s, practitioners have reported subjective experiences of altered perception during RV sessions, yet the psychological and neurobiological processes underlying these reported experiences remain poorly understood.This registered report describes a multi-method investigation examining the relationships between psychological traits-including emotional intelligence, absorption, interoceptive awareness, and mindfulness-and RV performance, operationalized as target identification accuracy (the proportion of sessions in which a practitioner's description is correctly matched to the intended target by quantified by Social RV).In Aim 1, we will analyze data from over 3,000 Social RV sessions combined with a comprehensive psychological assessment battery to test which cognitive and emotional traits associate with target identification accuracy.Participants will be offered either a full assessment battery (~60 minutes) or a brief battery (~30 minutes) to maximize enrollment while maintaining measurement depth.In Aim 2, we will compare cognitive and emotional profiles of RV practitioners to 195 participants from the Shamatha Project Vipassana meditation retreat to identify shared and distinct characteristics between these practices, both of which involve deliberate alterations in attentional and perceptual states.In Aim 3, we will conduct portable EEG and fNIRS neuroimaging in 50 RV practitioners to characterize neural activity associated with the RV state.We hypothesize that absorption, interoceptive awareness, and emotional intelligence significantly predict target identification accuracy; that RV and meditation practitioners show overlapping but distinct cognitive-emotional profiles; and that the RV state engages brain networks supporting sustained attention, interoceptive processing, and emotional regulation.By characterizing the cognitive and neurobiological correlates of this practice, this study aims to advance understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie RV experiences and inform potential translational applications.