Eric Walker's "Sixth Sense" Remark

In 1990 Eric Walker, the former Penn State president, was reportedly asked about recovered craft and bodies and changed the subject to extrasensory perception. The remark became the founding anecdote of the idea that the UFO secret is tied to consciousness. It is known only from the accounts of the researchers who questioned him.

What was said

Grant Cameron gives the fullest version. By his account, Walker broke off "in the middle of one of these interviews in 1990," while the talk was about hardware and bodies, to ask: "How good is your sixth sense? How much do you know about ESP?" He added that unless you knew about it and how to use it, "you will not be taken in" [S1]. A 2016 radio summary of Cameron's story dates it to 1980 rather than 1990 [S2], so the year itself should be read as approximate.

A second version is credited to Armen Victorian (Henry Azadehdel). It survives as an "alleged transcript" cited in a UAP timeline appended to 2024 House Oversight testimony. In it, entry to a "control group" requires knowing about a "seventh sense" [S3]. The underlying Victorian interview has not been located.

Reading it carefully

The two versions do not match. One says "sixth sense," the other "seventh." One says "taken in," the other "control group." Yet they now circulate as a single quote. On YouTube the remark is often restated as a rule that you had to know ESP to join the legacy UFO programs. Neither teller's retrievable account says that. It is later commentary. No documented link between Walker and psi or remote-viewing research has been found [S4]. The remark sits beside a separate 1990 episode, in which Walker angrily refused to discuss UFOs with CIA veteran Kit Green [S3].

Sources

[S1] "Grant Cameron — The UFO ESP Link" | Skeptiko #179 URL: https://skeptiko.com/grant-cameron-ufo-sightings-and-extended-consciousness Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: Cameron's account and wording of the 1990 remark

[S2] Coast to Coast AM show notes, 26 June 2016 URL: https://www.coasttocoastam.com/alternate/amp/show/2016-06-26-show Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: same story dated 1980

[S3] Michael Shellenberger, written testimony to House Oversight, 13 Nov 2024 URL: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Wstate-ShellenbergerM-20241113.pdf Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: Victorian "seventh sense" version; Green "neither confirm nor deny"

[S4] "CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing at Stanford Research Institute" | H. Puthoff URL: https://www.newdualism.org/papers/H.Puthoff/CIA-Initiated%20Remote%20Viewing%20At%20Stanford%20Research%20Institute.htm Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: SRI remote-viewing personnel; Walker not among them

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