#2513 - Dean Radin

Episode of The Joe Rogan Experience · June 11, 2026 · 2 h 44 min

Parapsychologist Dean Radin tells Joe Rogan about his career from Bell Labs and the Stargate program to psi genetics, spoon bending, consciousness and a nasal RNA dementia therapy.

Summary

Dean Radin, chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, recounted a career that moved from violin and electrical engineering to experimental psychology, Bell Labs, the classified Stargate remote-viewing research program at SRI International, Princeton, the University of Edinburgh, UNLV, Paul Allen's Interval Research and finally IONS. He argued that controlled experiments over 150 years have produced strong evidence for telepathy, precognition and presentiment, and described remote-viewing successes, a casino data analysis linking jackpots to the full moon, and accounts from submarine commanders of telepathic dreams.

Radin described his Psygenes studies, claiming controls rather than psychics carried an intron mutation that he linked to populations' exposure to Christianity and the Inquisition's killing of alleged witches, and a second study finding 212 SNPs correlated with psychic experiences. He recounted bending the bowl of a spoon without apparent force at a spoon-bending party and related it to the role of motivation in traditional magic, and outlined a dual-aspect monist view of mind and matter drawn from Carl Jung.

Radin also discussed Cognigenics, his company developing an intranasal RNA-interference treatment down-regulating 5-HT2A receptors for dementia, which he said improved memory and reduced anxiety in rodents and calmed aggressive monkeys. Rogan and Radin considered the ethics of enhancing psychic ability, the societal effects of AI and smartphones, lost ancient civilizations, elongated skulls, and Hal Puthoff's ultra-terrestrial hypothesis for UAPs. Radin closed with a synchronicity story about discovering a secret psi laboratory next door to his Boundary Institute office.

Chapters

  1. 0:03

    Background and the road to noetic sciences

    Radin describes his Gilbert syndrome, violin and bluegrass fiddling, engineering and psychology training, and the founding of IONS by Edgar Mitchell, while Rogan argues psychic phenomena deserve study.

  2. 20:21

    Bell Labs and the Stargate program

    Radin explains how a Parapsychological Association talk led to an invitation to join classified remote-viewing research at SRI International.

  3. 25:09

    Princeton, meta-analysis and presentiment

    Radin describes interdisciplinary work at Princeton, neural networks detecting intention in random number generators, and developing the presentiment experiment.

  4. 53:50

    Las Vegas, Interval Research and return to IONS

    Radin recounts casino data linking jackpots to the full moon, his work at Paul Allen's Interval Research, and joining IONS.

  5. 59:30

    Remote viewing successes and military intuition

    Radin recounts a map dowser locating a crashed bomber, submarine commanders' telepathic dream stories, and the secrecy of special access programs.

  6. 1:11:14

    Psygenes and the Inquisition

    Radin describes a genetic study of psychics and argues the Inquisition pruned psychic traits from Christian populations, with discussion of levitating saints and yogic flying.

  7. 1:18:47

    Spoon bending and the mechanics of magic

    Radin shows the spoon he says he bent without force and ties the experience to intense motivation in magical practice.

  8. 1:31:52

    Consciousness and reality

    Radin outlines dual-aspect monism, idealism among quantum physics founders, and spiritual traditions' warnings about psychic powers.

  9. 1:41:58

    Cognigenics and a nasal dementia therapy

    Radin describes an intranasal RNA-interference treatment targeting 5-HT2A receptors, animal results, and a psilocybin dementia case study.

  10. 2:02:52

    Society, hive minds and AI

    The two discuss how telepathic enhancement might transform society, the TV series Pluribus, AI hallucinations and attention spans.

  11. 2:16:14

    Lost civilizations and ultra-terrestrials

    Rogan and Radin discuss non-linear human history, convergent evolution, elongated skulls and the idea that UAPs come from an ancient earthly civilization.

  12. 2:31:26

    The PsyQuest synchronicity

    Radin tells of discovering a hidden psi lab next door whose founder had been using Yoga Nidra to draw him there.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

  • Dean Radin

    Radin asserts that 150 years of controlled research have produced very strong evidence that telepathy exists.

    “we're now 150 years past that. And we have very, very strong evidence that telepathy does exist”

    Listen from 15:48 · Telepathy

  • Dean Radin

    Radin says informed skeptics now either cannot identify a flaw or refuse to examine the evidence, which he calls unscientific.

    “the second response, which is more recent now, is we're not even going to look at the evidence because we know it's impossible”

    Listen from 16:56 · Telepathy

  • Joe Rogan

    Rogan argues intelligence agencies would not have invested so heavily in remote viewing if it had never produced results.

    “Why would they invest that much time in something where there's no evidence whatsoever and they've never achieved positive results?”

    Listen from 17:19 · Remote viewing

  • Dean Radin

    Radin says Stargate researchers found no consistent trait predicting remote-viewing ability other than talent and openness to experience.

    “People who are open to experience and willing to try new things – They, in general, tend to do better”

    Listen from 25:37 · Remote viewing

  • Dean Radin

    Radin reports that in his presentiment experiments, skin conductance changed about one and a half seconds before a randomly selected emotional picture appeared.

    “one and a half seconds before the picture is selected, if it's emotional, you start to become emotional. If it's calm, you remain calm”

    Listen from 40:28 · Presentiment

  • Dean Radin

    Radin says his analysis of casino data showed more frequent and larger jackpots within a day of the full moon.

    “found that jackpots happened more often and payouts happened larger, and table games did better between plus or minus one day from the full moon”

    Listen from 55:48

  • Dean Radin

    Radin recounts that a map dowser located a crashed bomber in Africa to within a couple of kilometers.

    “She puts a mark on the map and says, I think it's there. And so they go there, and they find it within a couple of kilometers of that spot”

    Listen from 1:01:22 · Remote viewing

  • Linked moment · 1:06:27Skip to 1:06:27 using a listen link in the info box.

    Dean Radin

    Radin says the senior military officers he has lectured to are fully receptive to psychic research.

    “Mostly I've talked to officers, like up to generals and admirals and a few levels below that. They are all completely on board”

    Listen from 1:06:27 · Telepathy

  • Dean Radin

    Radin argues that psychic abilities imply that nothing can be kept secret, which he believes contributes to stigma and disinformation around the topic.

    “the whole thing about remote viewing and telepathy and all that stuff, there are no secrets. With the right talented people, nothing can be shielded”

    Listen from 1:10:30 · Stargate Project

  • Dean Radin

    Radin argues that the Inquisition systematically killed people with psychic abilities, leaving a genetic trace in populations exposed to Christianity.

    “the Inquisition had systematically looked for people over hundreds of years who had these abilities, and then they killed them”

    Listen from 1:12:25 · Inquisition

  • Dean Radin

    Radin reports that his second genetic study found 212 SNPs correlated with psychic experiences, one at million-to-one odds.

    “212 correlated with these psychic experiences, one of which correlated with a probability of a million to one”

    Listen from 1:29:57 · Psygenes study

  • Dean Radin

    Radin claims nearly all founders of quantum mechanics were idealists who held that everything is ultimately consciousness.

    “It turns out that almost all of the founders of quantum mechanics were idealists”

    Listen from 1:37:25 · Consciousness

  • Dean Radin

    Radin says Cognigenics has developed an intranasal RNA-interference delivery method that reaches the brain.

    “we've developed an intranasal delivery method for RNA interference. You shove it up the nose, you snort it up the nose, it gets into the brain”

    Listen from 1:42:50 · Cognigenics

  • Dean Radin

    Radin reports that the treatment doubled memory performance and nearly eliminated anxiety in mice and rats.

    “A normal mouse will get 100% improvement in memory. Exactly at the same time, they'll get an almost 100% reduction in anxiety”

    Listen from 1:45:18 · Cognigenics

  • Dean Radin

    Radin expects the nasal treatment will require a prescription and not be sold over the counter.

    “It probably will not ever be OTC. You're not going to be able to buy this at the drugstore”

    Listen from 1:47:31 · Cognigenics

  • Dean Radin

    Radin relays Sadhguru's warning that enhanced telepathy would be dangerous because it could be used to inject thoughts and control people.

    “we normally think of being telepathic as receiving other people's thoughts. But it's actually a two-way street. You can then inject thoughts and control people”

    Listen from 1:56:27 · Telepathy

  • Dean Radin

    Radin says AI coding tools have made his scientific work much easier, though users need a knowledge base to challenge its errors.

    “I can say as a scientist that AI is making my job much, much, much easier”

    Listen from 2:09:21 · Artificial intelligence

  • Joe Rogan

    Rogan says he is not pessimistic about technology and believes society will sort out its problems despite a struggle.

    “I'm not a dooms guy when it comes to technology. I have a feeling we're going to sort it out”

    Listen from 2:14:56 · Artificial intelligence

  • Dean Radin

    Radin favors Hal Puthoff's ultra-terrestrial hypothesis that UAP-related beings come from an advanced ancient earthly civilization.

    “I'm a fan of Hal Puthoff's ultra-terrestrial idea that these are not from the future, they're from the past”

    Listen from 2:19:08 · Unidentified flying objects and government disclosure

People

In the conversation

  • Joe RoganAmerican comedian and host of The Joe Rogan Experience
  • Dean RadinParapsychology researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences who advised Mossbridge early in her career

Discussed

  • Edgar MitchellApollo 14 astronaut who founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences
  • Hal PuthoffPhysicist featured in The Age of Disclosure
  • Ed MayPhysicist who directed the Stargate research program after 1985
  • Russell TargPhysicist and co-founder of SRI remote-viewing research
  • Joseph McMoneagleArmy remote viewer in the Stargate program
  • Ingo SwannArtist and remote viewer associated with SRI research
  • Robert BigelowBusinessman who funded Radin's UNLV lab
  • Paul AllenMicrosoft co-founder who funded Interval Research
  • Jimmy CarterFormer U.S. president said to have been briefed on UFOs
  • Garry NolanStanford professor who has analyzed materials said to come from crash sites
  • Carl JungSwiss psychiatrist whose idea that every dream figure is the dreamer shaped Lamott's reading of her Havana dream
  • SadhguruIndian guru whom Radin consulted about psychic powers
  • Joseph of CupertinoCatholic saint reputed to levitate
  • Teresa of ÁvilaSpanish mystic who described her levitations
  • Julia MossbridgeAmerican cognitive neuroscientist, author, and founder of Applied Love Labs who studies precognition and telepathy

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From the publisher

Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Associate Distinguished Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and co-founder and chairman of the neuroengineering company Cognigenics. His latest book is “The Science of Magic: How the Mind Weaves the Fabric of Reality.”www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/750262/the-science-of-magic-by-dean-radin-phd/www.deanradin.com Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Switch today at https://www.Visible.com for just 25/mo. Or Save $10 on your first month of Visible+ Pro with code ROGAN. This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on September 29, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.