Remote viewing · 12 MIN READ · 8 SOURCE QUOTES
Analytical overlay: impression or interpretation?
Analytical overlay, shortened to AOL, is the remote-viewing term for the moment the mind turns a raw impression into a conclusion. A viewer perceives something black, yellow, fuzzy and buzzing, and the thought arrives: bumblebee. The first four words are data. The fifth is an interpretation, and it may be wrong. Viewers trained in controlled remote viewing, also called coordinate remote viewing, and teachers such as Skip Atwater at the Monroe Institute treat naming, guessing and explaining as a constant hazard. The discipline is to report what you perceive without saying what it is.
The problem is easy to state and hard to beat. Joe McMoneagle says he had 24 straight failures at Fort Meade, after five first-place matches in six sessions at SRI, because his ego got involved. Lyn Buchanan describes training in which a student who says water is told not to use nouns but to describe it. The Stargate-era DIA protocol built the same worry into its procedures, with a restrictive reporting format, a plain viewing chamber and a tightly limited monitor script, all meant to cut what it calls imaginative, environmental and monitor overlays.
Monroe taught a close cousin of this discipline. In a 1990 talk he told his audience to throw the urge to analyze into a mental box, slam the lid, and pull it back out when the time was right. Overlay differs in one way that matters for evaluation: a viewer often cannot tell, mid-session, whether a label is overlay or signal. In 1996 McMoneagle wrote that in eighteen years he had yet to meet a viewer who knows when he or she is on target, with a couple of exceptions tied to specific targets. That is why viewers lean on structure, a monitor who does not know the target, and feedback afterward.
Analytical overlay is the mind naming what it perceives; viewers learn to record the raw data first and treat every label as unproven.
Key points
The step from description to name
Overlay is not a different kind of thought from perception; it is the next thought. A practitioner on the Third Eye Drops podcast says the creative brain fills in blanks naturally, and gives the standard example: something black, yellow, fuzzy and buzzing, then the quick thought that it is a bumblebee. That counts as AOL because it may not be a bumblebee at all. The rule is to write down the data and not worry about what it is. The label can still turn out right, but during the session it is a guess, not a perception.
Describe, do not name: the trainee's drill
Lyn Buchanan, an Army remote viewer, says the habit is built in training. A trainee who says water is told not to use nouns and to describe it: taste it, say how cold it is, whether it is wavy or smooth, big or small. Earlier, he says, trainees spend hours drawing quick marks, called ideograms, as someone calls out words such as water, man-made and structure, until, he says, the hand starts the mark before the word is called. In his example the trainee reports water and some kind of structure, and the envelope holds a boat on the ocean.
McMoneagle's version: the ego steps back in
McMoneagle's word for overlay is the ego. He says beginners often nail their first target because the ego mind backs away. Then it steps back in, decides it knows what is going on and takes charge, and the failures begin. From his 25th target onward, he says, it was a battle with the ego, fought every session by putting it away and staying noncommittal. In 2012 he told Skip Atwater the start felt different: he thought the instruction was to invent answers, until his egotistical side realized what was happening and tried to take control.
How the DIA protocol designed out overlay
The Stargate-era DIA protocol describes controlled remote viewing as an effort to control the factors that introduce noise into a session. A restrictive reporting format is meant to minimize imaginative overlays, a featureless acoustic-tiled viewing chamber environmental overlays, and a strictly limited monitor script monitor overlays. It also holds that taskings should be minimal, such as a request to describe the site and activity, because the more a viewer is told, the more the viewer tends to theorize.
The monitor can add overlay too
The protocol applies the same worry to the person sitting with the viewer. A monitor must have no knowledge of the target, a condition it calls double blind, so the monitor cannot lead the viewer. It warns of a strong tendency to pick and choose information according to the monitor's mental set and preconceptions, and says interpretation carries an ever-present possibility of misinterpretation.
Skip Atwater: report it, let the analyst assemble it
Atwater, who ran operations and training for the Army unit for ten years and later taught the Institute's remote viewing seminars, describes the skill as describing perceptions without attaching meaning, which in the business is called analytical overlay. His example is the inner commentary of wondering what something could be, which will not produce successful results. The viewer reports; putting things together is the analyst's job. Because the method's structure is understood, including what the signal line and AOL mean, he says an analyst can read a session and follow the pathway the viewer took.
Monroe's box and the Explorer sessions
Monroe also asked his audiences to set the analytical mind aside. In an October 1990 talk he told the audience to throw the urge to analyze into a mental box and shut the lid, and that it could be pulled back out when the time was right. In the Explorer archive, the reporter's summary of session 91 of the IMEC channeled sessions, dated July 12, 1985, calls its early part a good overview of remote viewing as described today, and equates the guidance that the mental body tends to intrude and take over with analytical overlay.
Why a viewer cannot police it alone
Even experienced viewers say they cannot always tell overlay from signal as it happens. McMoneagle wrote in 1996 that in eighteen years he had yet to meet a viewer who knows when he or she is on target, with a couple of exceptions based on specifics of targets. In an interview posted in 2025 he said the problem is sharpest when a target has no checkable answer, as with one labeled Mars, 1 million BC: how would you know whether you got something valid or invented it? His answer is feedback. Whether a label was overlay or signal is judged against the target afterward.
In their own words
Quotes are checked word for word against the recordings and documents they come from. Bracketed words correct transcription errors; “…” marks an omission.
“We call those analytical overlay. So, you know, if I have something that is black, yellow and fuzzy and buzzing, I'm … quick to think, 'Oh, it's a bumblebee,' but that would be an AOL, because maybe it isn't. All you got to do is just write down the data you're getting. Don't worry about what it is.”
“It had to do with an ability to relax, focus one's intention, and the ability to describe the perceptions you're having without attaching meaning, or what we call in the business analytical overlay. If in your head [you're] asking questions, 'Gee, I wonder what that is. Mom, what could that be?' that's not going to produce successful remote viewing results. You have to report out what you're perceiving, unattached to the meaning of what those things are. That's the job of an analyst to put things together.”
“Okay, describe the water. Well, it's water. No, don't use nouns. Describe it. Taste it. Oh, tastes salty. You know, still haven't looked at the feedback.”
“I think it's because when somebody first starts, they nail it, because the ego mind, the ego-driven part of the mind—'I don't know what's going on here. I'm going to back away and see what happens.' And they nail it. Almost everybody nails the first target they get. Then they step back in. The ego says, 'Now I know what's going on. I'm in charge.' And you have failures.”
“It was like, okay, they want me to kind of invent answers here. You know, sit here and whatever comes in my head, just make it up. But it seemed like when I started doing that, that was what they wanted. And, of course, then when my egotistical side realized what was going on, it wanted to take control, and … everything kind of went south after that.”
“The basic components of CRV consist of: (1) repeated site-address (coordinate) presentation, with quick-reaction response by the remote viewer, coupled with a restrictive format for reporting perceived information, which minimizes imaginative overlays; (2) the use of a specially designed, acoustic-tiled, relatively featureless, homogeneously colored 'viewing chamber,' which minimizes environmental overlays; (3) the adoption of a strictly prescribed, limited monitor patter, which minimizes monitor overlays.”
“Just fill that security repository box clear full. Just dump stuff in it. It is [a] very good device to do this, incidentally. Pro tem, throw your desire to analyze in for the moment. You can always yank it back out when the appropriate time is. And then you will. But just throw that—leave the curiosity here, and take the analytical part and dump it in the box, and slam the lid down.”
“Early part of this tape is a really good overview of remote viewing, as it is often described today, including reporting observations versus analyzing and the importance [of] imaging rather than interpretation, and the importance of intent.”
Important things to consider
A label is not automatically wrong
A name can turn out right, and an analyst eventually has to name things. The training is about order: record the perception first, mark any guess as a guess, and keep the two apart so an evaluator can see which was which. Atwater's division of labor, with the viewer reporting and the analyst assembling, is the cleanest statement of the idea.
Watch for inner questions
Atwater's example of overlay is a running commentary: gee, I wonder what that is, what could that be. A sudden noun, a thought like it must be a bumblebee, or a question about what something is can each signal that the analytical mind has taken over.
Gateway imagery and remote-viewing discipline differ
Gateway exercises such as the Energy Conversion Box use imagery as a tool, while remote-viewing teachers discourage imagining during a session, and one practitioner keeps the eyes open for that reason. If you practice both, treat them as different tasks with different rules.
Expect it to return
McMoneagle's failures came after a very strong start, and he describes the ego as a battle fought every session, not a problem solved once. A single good session is not evidence that overlay is under control, and a run of misses is not evidence that it cannot be managed. He says the lasting remedy is habit.
A week shows the pattern, not mastery
Atwater told the Institute's first remote viewing practicum that he could teach participants about remote viewing but could not train expert viewers within a week. The value of the week, the Hemi-Sync Journal says, was experiencing feedback and gauging what further practice might produce. Early sessions are a way to meet your own overlay habits, not a measure of talent.
Flag a suspected overlay at the time
A suspected overlay noted in the session record before anyone knows the target is useful information to an evaluator. Deciding after the reveal that a miss must have been overlay explains nothing. Keep the original notes unaltered and add comments separately.
What is and is not established
Analytical overlay is a training concept described by the people who teach and use it. No outside measure shows how much overlay a given report contains; the only test is whether a report, judged blind against the real target, matches it. How that judging was done, and what its critics made of it, is covered on the feedback page.
Common questions
What is analytical overlay (AOL) in remote viewing?
Analytical overlay is the mind's habit of adding an interpretation, a name or a guess on top of a raw perception. Remote viewers use the term for the moment when something black, yellow, fuzzy and buzzing becomes a bumblebee in the viewer's head. The label may be right, but it is not data, so viewers are trained to record perceptions first and report them without attaching meaning. Skip Atwater, who ran operations and training for the Army remote viewing unit and later taught the Institute's remote viewing seminars, describes the skill in just those terms. Other voices call the same problem the ego or, in the DIA protocol, imaginative overlay.
How do remote viewers recognize when they are doing it?
By the arrival of a name, an explanation or an inner question where a description should be. Skip Atwater's example is the internal commentary of wondering what something is and what it could be. A practitioner's example is the quick jump from a color-and-sound description to bumblebee. Lyn Buchanan's training catches the same move from the outside: a trainee who says water is told not to use nouns. There is a caution. Joe McMoneagle wrote in 1996 that in eighteen years he had yet to meet a viewer who knows when he or she is on target, so the real check comes when the report is judged against the target.
What do remote viewers do when analytical overlay shows up?
They go back to plain description and keep the guess out of the data. Practitioners describe writing down what you are getting without worrying about what it is, describing taste, temperature, texture and size instead of naming the object, and reporting perceptions unattached to meaning so an analyst can assemble them later. Joe McMoneagle says every session requires putting the ego away and staying noncommittal, and that the lasting fix is habit: trusting the system and going with it. Monroe's version, in a 1990 talk, was to put the analytical part in a mental box, slam the lid, and retrieve it later.
Is analytical overlay the same as imagination?
They overlap but are not identical. Overlay is the explaining, naming and deducing mind; imagination is the image-making mind. Remote-viewing teachers discourage both during a session. One practitioner says viewers are discouraged from imagining things, and that keeping the eyes open helps because closed eyes invite imagination. Joe McMoneagle's early experience adds a wrinkle: he first thought the instruction was to invent answers, to say whatever came into his head, and that worked until his egotistical side realized what was happening and tried to take control.
Do expert viewers still struggle with analytical overlay?
According to Joe McMoneagle, yes. He says that after five first-place matches in six sessions at SRI he had 24 straight failures at Fort Meade, and he blames the ego: beginners often nail the first target because the ego mind backs away, then it steps back in and takes charge. From his 25th target on, he says, each session was a battle with the ego. In 1996 he wrote that the best laboratory viewers run about 50/50 on or off target.
How can I practice telling an impression from an interpretation?
Use the structure the sources describe. Have a partner choose a target you cannot know, such as a picture sealed in an opaque envelope. Write down only what you perceive in sensory terms, such as color, temperature, texture, motion and size, and treat any name that pops up as a guess to be flagged, not as data. Keep your partner blind to the target so they cannot steer you, and compare only after your notes are finished. The Institute's practicum used sealed pictures, judges and decoy photos.
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