Reporting and Formal Record Keeping
The big question here is "what's necessary?"
The rule about record keeping for research or formal studies is: keep everything. Every note, page—printed or written, every logbook, every audio or videotape, even the materials that you've totally screwed up, you keep, all appropriately labeled and filed away. In fact, you should label everything in any single category sequentially, like; audio Tape 1, 2, and 3; Logbook A, B, or C; Experimenter's Personal Diary, Edition One, Edition Two, etc. The interior pages of the logbook should be numbered and glued in, so you can easily see if pages have been removed or added later. There should be dated file records for when all the materials were made, who was present, what it pertained to, why, and if possible the expected results as well as the actual results. If you can, you should have these items initialed.
Sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But, when it comes to making claims, it is the only thing that will suffice scientifically, or in a court of law. If you have to argue discovery, you'll be glad you kept it all. If you have to defend your work against a public challenge, you'll be glad you did. If you have to defend your good name (and working in the paranormal that will always be a reality), you'll be glad that you did. But, most importantly, when you want to go back months or even years later and study the data, to see where you might have made a mistake in your thinking, or to gain insight for a possible modification to your method, it will be right there staring you in the eye. If you trust your memory, I tell you it will fail.
Record Keeping for a Typical Experiment
The experimental notebook should be firmly bound and you should not be able to remove pages from it, or add to them. It should have all the pages numbered somewhere in sequential order. These can be in Roman numerals, Arabic, written out, alphabetic; it doesn't matter as long as they have some noted sequence or unbroken chain to them. The notebook should be clearly labeled as belonging to you, or whoever is tasked with keeping the record. Notebooks are always kept in ink, not pencil. In most scientific areas, notebooks are required to be time/dated, and initialed by a second party at the end of the workday. That's all that's required.
I have my own preferences for notebooks when I'm tasked with doing something formal. I always keep my notes in black ink, as it makes better copies. I keep my notebooks labeled sequentially, Book One, Book Two, etc., although I seldom use more than a single book for any specific experiment in which I'm required to keep one. At the beginning of each day, I write down the specific date and note the location(s), as they may change. Along the left side of the page I usually enter the time for each entry or paragraph, drawing, etc. My notebooks are lined like graph paper sometimes, and sometimes like writing paper. As graph paper, they are usually quarter inch squares of light blue lines. This helps me graphically when I have to draw something to scale, or in relationship to other objects, it helps me create columns for data, or section off one element of data from another.
For a specific experiment, I list where it's taking place, the pertinent start/stop dates, and times. I list who is present and what their specific jobs are relating to the experiment, what is going to take place in the experiment (both expected as well as observed). I might make notes about how it unfolds, or details about what happens (my observations), and why the experiment is being performed. If I'm the viewer, I will usually do the remote viewing separately from the notebook, only because it is registered and filed separately.
Any videos, audiotapes, or other materials pertinent to a formal experiment should be numbered in some way that identifies them specifically to that experiment. These should be formally logged and a separate record of their existence maintained. These should be appropriately controlled and stored according to their individual requirements. These should be referenced with their control or file identifications in the notebook.
A major word of caution is required. It's okay to keep your records on a computer, but these should be in addition to the hard file in the notebook. If these are relied upon in lieu of the hard notebook record, then there are a number of additional requirements that need to be met.
Computer records should always be backed up and the backup copies should be maintained in a separate facility from where the computers are located. This probably should be a safety deposit box at a bank, or within a fire-rated safe somewhere off premises. These backups should be done on a day-to-day basis. Remember, this is a permanent record, so do not rotate the tapes, as you might do with operational software backup tapes.
Computer files should probably be copied and copies maintained by both the originator as well as a witness. The witness should not allow access to their copies of the tapes, except when they may be required in a court of law, or to validate or confirm material and statements in support of the research. As good as the equipment is today, there is always a risk that materials kept on computer media may suffer from the same hazards as notebooks. They can be lost, destroyed, or stolen. So, adequate security should be provided for.
Since we are concerned with even the handwritten notes in formal experiments, and nothing is deliberately destroyed, there are no requirements with regard to protecting trash or discarded materials.
Record Keeping for Applications
Ideally, it probably should be the same as for formal experiments, but that's usually asking too much from someone who might be operating with a single assistant, or with minimal resources. Most of the really good remote viewers I know are buried up to their eyeballs in requests for support (mostly from non-paying clients, I would add), and they just don't have time to do all the work this would entail. (It's one of the major factors in science that drives overhead through the roof. In a lab, record-keeping alone is sometimes a two-person job, something that no one outside the lab ever considers when they see the expense sheet.)
When doing an applications type of target, you don't have to keep any information other than the basics. The following is what I would consider the minimum for an applications type of target:
1: Requestor's information: that is name, address, phone numbers, contact information, specific tasking or requirement for information, any guidance sheets, materials, or facsimiles they sent pertinent to the task at hand.
2: Actual targeting information that was used to point the viewer in the right direction. How it was given to the viewer, specifically what was said or presented, any questions or inquiries that might have been shared with the viewer while s/he was working on the target.
3: What the viewer produced. This would be the only place where I would say you should keep everything. Normally, I put what I produce in a manila envelope and write the actual targeting number on the outside. The targeting number is the randomly chosen alpha/numeric identification number my wife usually writes on the outside of the targeting envelope. This then becomes the common referral number for anything pertinent to that customer or their specific remote viewing request.
4: At the end of the project, I usually do a summary sheet, which lists anything else that is not to be found in the other material that I might consider important. This might also contain small facts or comments relative to observations I might have made while doing the project; like difficulties I might have had with the target, unique features about the viewing that bring understanding or conclusions about remote viewing I might not have had prior, even random thoughts that have no apparent value, simply because I don't trust my memory, or they seemed important at the time.
5: Everyone who participated in the applications effort should be noted. Sometimes this proves of value when you need to later check a point, or try to recreate the circumstances within which something was determined.
I always provide my customer with interim and final reports on their targets. Interim reports usually aren't required unless you are re-visiting the same target, or in some way tracking an event or situation that covers a period of time, over which the customer wants to know the progress. Remember, any communications between the customer and the remote viewer is forbidden between the time the targeting materials have been passed to the viewer and the final report is mailed. So, coordinating changes in targeting based on interim reports needs to be made between the customer and someone else, not the viewer.
All my interim, as well as final reports, will include whatever drawings I have made and a detailed narrative of what I've explored. Sometimes I will deliberately cull parts or sections of the drawings if it's my perception that they would be confusing or misleading to the customer, based on the narrative. But, this is very rare. In most cases, I will use a considerable number of footnotes to try to explain why or how something might have been entering my consciousness. (For instance, sometimes it is difficult to know a group of passengers was on a bus, a train, or a plane.) I find that cautionary notes about not jumping to conclusions, or being careful in interpreting data, go a long way toward helping the customer to understand the value of remote viewing data and how or where it should be incorporated with other forms of data.
I try to keep the records of what I do for the same time limit as required for taxes—a period of six to seven years. After that, I glean whatever I might feel is important from them from a scientific or historical standpoint and then destroy them.
Security
In applications types of targeting, some things should be done to guarantee and protect one’s customer – both their reputation and the content of their interests. Minimal rules which I would suggest:
1: Use the alpha/numeric target identification-number to cross-correlate all materials, but split the materials up into different files. Maintain the different files in different file cabinets, safes, or locations.
2: Shred or otherwise make unreadable, all materials, storage media, or other sources of information identifiably connected to a specific customer, which you are going to throw away, or otherwise discard. It is surprising how many companies and corporations leave themselves totally open to victimization, simply by not shredding papers they are discarding.
3: Very proprietary, close-hold, or sensitive corporate materials either passed to you by a customer, or produced on behalf of a customer should be encrypted if stored in computer media; or, as a minimum, be stored within an approved safe or security container. If it's fireproof, that's even better.
4: On completion of a project, all materials that are no longer necessary to your own operation should either be returned to the customer through secure means, or should (with their permission) be destroyed.
5: While you are doing something for a customer, the same degree of security should be provided to their materials as you would give to something you wouldn't want shared outside your own office. Lock the work away at night, don't take the work home with you, do not leave it lying about in a brief case, or at a friend's house.
6: When transmitting information, always take care that you use whatever mode of transmission is necessary to protect the degree of sensitivity required. A rule of thumb that I've always used: if loss of the information could be life-threatening, or be devastating to a company or individual, hand deliver it. If it could really do severe damage, then use registered mail. If it would prove embarrassing to an individual or corporation, then use certified, receipt required; and in all other cases, regular First Class Mail. Always address it specifically to an individual, preferably the one who is coordinating the targeting.
7: Never discuss the target over a cell phone. Discuss it as little as possible over a regular phone. Use a fax if you have to. Break it up into sections over e-mail. Using the same criteria as above, if disclosure could be sensitive or devastating to your company, then never use e-mail. Never use a phone or the fax. Only communicate in person, or through certified or registered mail.
There are also physical security concerns, but these are too diverse to be addressed specifically within this book. Usually, you can let common sense prevail. When in doubt, it's best to err on the safe side.