Remote viewing ideograms
An ideogram is the very first thing a viewer produces — a spontaneous pen stroke made the moment a target coordinate is received. Before analysis, before imagination, the moving pen encodes the target's dominant quality.
Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) defines six basic ideogram categories. Learning to recognize and decode each one is a foundational skill for any serious viewer.
What is an ideogram?
In Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), an ideogram is an automatic mark made with pen on paper at the very start of a session. The viewer writes the target coordinate, then immediately moves the pen across the page in one continuous, unpremeditated stroke.
The stroke is not drawn — it is allowed to happen. The goal is to let the motion bypass the conscious mind entirely. What emerges is a gestalt: the dominant quality of the target encoded in the shape and feel of the pen's path.
After making the ideogram, the viewer decodes it by asking one question: what did that motion feel like? The physical sensation of the stroke — rough, smooth, flowing, sharp, round — maps directly onto target categories.
Key principle: The ideogram is not a picture of the target. A wavy stroke for "water" does not look like an ocean — it feels like water. The decoding process works through kinesthetic sensation, not visual recognition.
The 6 basic ideograms
Each stroke shape and its corresponding target category.
Land
Represents terrain, earth, ground, or any large natural landscape. The dominant quality is solid and flat.
Motion: A single, nearly flat horizontal stroke. The pen moves left to right with almost no deviation — the flatness itself is the signal.
Water
Represents bodies of water, flowing liquid, or anything with a fluid, undulating quality. The feel is soft, yielding, and rhythmic.
Motion: A sinusoidal stroke with pronounced, even waves. The pen rises and falls in smooth arcs — the rhythm is more regular and deeper than the land stroke.
Structure (manmade)
Represents man-made constructions: buildings, bridges, walls, or any built object. The feel is hard, angular, and deliberate.
Motion: A right-angle stroke — the pen travels horizontally then turns sharply downward. The corner is the key feature, signaling geometry that does not occur in nature.
Structure (natural)
Represents naturally formed structures with shape and height — hills, arches, caves, dunes. The feel is curved, solid, and organic rather than flat.
Motion: A single smooth arch — the pen rises in a curve and descends symmetrically. Unlike the angular manmade stroke, this curve has no corners.
Lifeform
Represents a living being or organic life form — a person, animal, or other biological entity. The feel is alive, present, and self-contained.
Motion: A single looping stroke that crosses itself once, like a lasso. The pen sweeps up, arches over, comes back down, crosses the entry stroke, and tails off — one loop, not two.
Energetic
Represents intense energy, movement, or force — anything with a powerful, chaotic, or highly dynamic quality. The feel is active, uncontained, and forceful.
Motion: An overlapping tangle of loops — the pen spirals and doubles back repeatedly. The stroke has no clean start or end, conveying something that cannot be resolved into a simple shape.
Decoding an ideogram
After making the stroke, the viewer works through a short decoding sequence. The process is deliberate and repeatable, not intuitive.
Label the motion
Write down the physical quality of the stroke: flat, wavy, jagged, rounded, explosive, angular. Use purely kinesthetic words.
Identify the category
Match the motion label to one of the six basic categories. A flat stroke points to land. A wavy stroke points to water. A right-angle or arch points to structure. A looping crossing stroke points to lifeform. Overlapping tangles point to energetic.
State the "A" and "B" qualities
In CRV terminology, "A" is the physical feel of the stroke; "B" is the decoded meaning. Writing both keeps the analytical and perceptual tracks separate.
Move into Stage 2
With the gestalt established, the viewer proceeds to Stage 2 to record sensory data — textures, temperatures, colors, sounds — without referencing the ideogram again.
Common mistakes with ideograms
New viewers tend to make a few consistent errors when working with ideograms. Knowing them in advance helps.
Drawing instead of moving
The ideogram is a spontaneous motion, not an illustration. Pausing to think about the shape ruins it. If you catch yourself deciding what to draw, start the stroke over.
Over-decoding
An ideogram tells you one thing: the gestalt category. It does not tell you the specific target. Attempting to extract detailed information from the stroke invites analytical overlay and contaminates later stages.
Fitting the stroke to expectations
If you produce a rounded ideogram but want it to mean "structure," you will unconsciously decode it as structure. Trust the stroke. The kinesthetic feel overrides the visual shape.
Ignoring mixed ideograms
Targets often have more than one dominant quality. A waterfall target might produce a stroke that starts wavy and ends in a sharp drop. Experienced viewers read compound strokes as compound categories: water + structure natural, or lifeform + energetic.
Related topics
What is remote viewing?
A complete introduction to the CRV protocol
Target coordinates
How random reference numbers identify targets
Writing tasking descriptions
How to write unbiased tasking instructions
Displacement
When a viewer accurately describes the wrong target
Stargate Project
The CIA and DIA program where CRV was developed
Psi research
Scientific studies on psychic phenomena
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