The MERLIN Project

Futurist Paul Guercio is a co-founder, with Physicist Dr. George Hart of The MERLIN Project® Research Group. MERLIN is the first, scientifically-based forecasting technology that combines equations derived from celestial phenomena with past historical data and blends that information into a graphical time-line that accurately plots the chronology of future events. (Source: CNN, NPR)

Background

Physicist, Dr. George Hart first hears Futurist, Paul Guercio with Dr. David Brudnoy on WBZ Radio in Boston in October 1988 and is intrigued with Paul’s theory of “Time-Patterns” since it parallels his own extensive research as a highly respected theoretical physicist and inventor of the excimer laser.

In January 1989 Dr. Hart comes to Paul’s office for a professional consultation.  The consultation never took place and instead, the two researchers spent six hours comparing notes on time-related anomalies. The MERLIN Project evolved from a series of five meetings over the subsequent six months.

The MERLIN Project is officially born on July 4, 1989 after Dr. George Hart offers to design software built around Paul Guercio's Theory of Time.  A team of SDI (Star Wars) physicists is recruited to design the MERLIN Project software, which becomes known as TimeTrak.

First working copy of the MERLIN software (October 5, 1989) forecasts the imminent demise of the Soviet Union or alternately, World War III. Both Paul and Dr. Hart consider either scenario unlikely at best. Soviet Union collapses as the Berlin Wall comes down (November 5, 1989) and Eastern European Communism quickly disintegrates. The newly designed MERLIN software has proven to be a stunning success.

Over the next twelve months, beginning in January 1990, the tempo of the research with MERLIN increases in terms of the level of sophistication the software has achieved. In August 1990, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait and MERLIN forecasts a war, beginning in January 1991 and lasting only six weeks. This is considered an unlikely prospect at best in late summer of 1990.

Paul Guercio and Dr. George Hart unveil the MERLIN "Gulf War" forecast in October 1990 on a New York-based national call-in radio program with FOXNEWS commentator Alan Colmes. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald each do a series of articles on MERLIN and it's creators and their unlikely but very specific “Gulf War” prediction.

in December 1990 on the strength of their “Gulf War” forecast, all three of the major Boston TV stations do feature pieces on MERLIN and The Associated Press puts the MERLIN story on their national and international wire. It is subsequently picked up by newspapers and magazines around the world including the London-based Arabic newspaper AL HAYAT, which features the MERLIN story in their Science section. [No Arabic newspaper had ever run a story on the subject of forecasting the future, a talent previously reserved only to Allah.]

The GULF WAR commences on Jan. 16th and lasts almost precisely six weeks, marking another stunningly accurate forecast for the two researchers and their remarkable software. Broadcast and print stories about MERLIN begin appearing in such diverse publications as the German PM PERSPEKTIVE and USA TODAY.
 

In November 1991, the NBC Nightly News sends a news crew to Boston to tape a formal interview with Paul Guercio and Dr. Hart for use on the evening Tom Brokaw national telecast. During the taping, the MERLIN co-creators forecast a huge drop in the Stock Market, which immediately occurs the following day. In the meanwhile, ABC News NIGHTLINE hotly debates taping their own interview and National Public Radio broadcasts an hour-long national call-in show on MERLIN by satellite. NBC subsequently airs their taped interview, including the stunning Stock Market prediction which is widely seen and CNN's Larry King LIVE calls to arrange a segment on MERLIN.

CNN's Larry King LIVE features a segment on MERLIN in December 1991, which is seen in 210 countries with a viewing audience estimated to be 20-30 million worldwide. On that show, MERLIN forecasts an extraordinary and imminent career spurt for Larry. Barely two months later, Ross Perot single-handedly turns the King show into required viewing by utilizing a February 1992 interview with Larry to announce a dramatic 3rd Party Presidential bid. Between 1992 and 1996, the King show becomes the place to announce breaking-news of worldwide interest. MERLIN’s prescience continues unabated.

In March 1992, VANITY FAIR approaches the MERLIN team about doing an exclusive, long-form interview about the Project. Then Editor-in-Chief, Tina Brown requests that MERLIN “Timetraks” be done on herself and each of her Senior Editors. The “Timetraks” reveal a fact (then) known only to Tina and owner S. I. Newhouse; that she is about to have a “job change.” Within 90 days, it is announced publicly that Tina will become the new Editor-in-Chief of The NEW YORKER. The announcement becomes a publishing mega-story! Meanwhile, the MERLIN article is scheduled to appear (in Vanity Fair) the month following Tina’s jump to The New Yorker. Newly installed VF Editor Graydon Carter indelicately pulls the piece and a potpourri of other Brown-tenured articles.

In December 1992, the second of four CNN appearances on Larry King LIVE occurs and a multitude of feature segments air on several New England TV stations. Unbeknownst to Paul and Dr. Hart at the time, MERLIN's uncanny success has triggered the beginning of high-level intelligence surveillance by the Pentagon, culminating in the spring 1995 with a request by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a comprehensive "white paper" on the MERLIN technology that focused on plotting the timetable for potential incidents of future domestic terrorism.

The possibility of a "MERLIN book" is first discussed with a literary agent in January 1993 and the MERLIN team is approached by author Sidney Sheldon, offering the tempting prospect of a MERLIN-based novel. Sheldon is rumored to have considered a MERLINesque story line in a later novel.

January 1994 -- MERLIN has now become an annual outing on CNN, with Paul and Dr. Hart forecasting tough-times for Bill Clinton; he later lost both houses of Congress to the Republicans in the November 1994 election (first such loss in 40 years.) MERLIN also predicted that Bob Dole would be his opponent in the 1996 election, two full years before Dole even announced that he would seek the Republican nomination. On the same program, they also predicted unparalleled drama in the final years of the Clinton Administration (what would later be known as the ”Impeachment Scandals,”) four years before anyone ever heard of Monica Lewinsky.

The last of the initial CNN appearances in January 1994  ("TalkBack LIVE") was the most successful and drew the largest audience to that show since it’s inception. CNN President, Tom Johnson personally invited Paul to his office afterwards for an hour-long chat to discuss possible joint ventures (and to have a look at his own MERLIN TimeTrak®.) Paul told Johnson that, if Ted Turner were to sell the privately-held CNN, it would likely be in the next 6 – 12 months. Turner sold CNN to AOL/TimeWarner the following September, nine months later.

In April 1995, the MERLIN team receives a call from Lieutenant Colonel Mike Lenhert, who was attached to the Joint War Fighting Center of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff. They were informed that MERLIN had been under surveillance for three and a half years and were asked to prepare a comprehensive "white paper" on possible intelligence applications of the technology for his "flag officers." (They later find out that flag officers are two-star Generals and above.) They produced a 50 page report in July 1995 on MERLIN's intelligence capabilities, focusing on domestic terrorism. (The Oklahoma City bombing occurred later in the same month; they were initially contacted on April 19th.)

In the report, they elected to use the first World Trade Center bombing of Feb. 1993 as MERLIN’s "time-model." The resulting “Timetraks®” suggested that the next significant incidents of domestic terrorism were likely to occur in the period beginning in mid-summer1998, peaking in 1999 and 2000 and tapering off in the late fall of 2001, with a pronounced break in the trendline coming at the end of 2001 (Bin Laden hit the Trade Center again Sept. 11, 2001.) By employing this “time-model,” MERLIN had uncovered the likely window of opportunity for the second “hit” on the World Trade Center six years in advance.
 

Paul and Dr. Hart spent most of late 1995 through early 1997 working on a MERLIN book, tentatively titled "SURFING THE WAVES OF CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE," which was initially accepted for publication by the Viking Division of Penguin-Putnam in the spring of 1996. Then, curiously, the agent for the book, (publisher) Marty Greenburg, bowed out of the negotiations without explanation and a serious illness struck the Viking executive who had made the original offer. Since the initial advance was quite small, Paul and Dr. Hart shopped around for another offer without success. The MERLIN Team had invested almost 18 months in getting the book ready for publication, only to see their efforts fall away in the Spring of 1997.

What is even more curious, is what became of MERLIN’s extraordinary media exposure. In the 18 months that followed the submission of their Pentagon “white paper,” virtually every point of media contact evaporated. Producers of programs where they had been favored guests were replaced or were now unwilling to (even) return their phone calls. Press coverage, which was extensive and uniformly positive, dried up, as though someone had purposefully turned off the faucet. More likely, as later became evident, their high profile exposure and uncanny accuracy, combined with constant and unflattering forecasts of upcoming Clinton scandals and excesses, were perhaps a little more than the Clinton White House could tolerate. Like their friend and fellow traveler, Matt Drudge (MERLIN forecast Matt’s meteoric rise several years before he broke the Monica Lewinsky story,) they were effectively muzzled by strategic phone calls and the spectre of national security issues. Their personal lives and well being were also challenged (Paul was shot at (they missed) during this period; yes, there is a Police Report!) and their various employment and professional relationships were seriously compromised.

By the year 2000, it had become clear that MERLIN had been the target of a concerted effort, likely orchestrated by Administration loyalists, to be discredited and marginalized. If it hadn’t been for FOXNEWS commentator and long-time client (and friend) Alan Colmes, who continued to schedule regular, monthly appearances on his WEVD New York nightly call-in show and occasional local appearances on the Boston media, the MERLIN Project team would have virtually disappeared from the scene.

The 9/11 Al Qaeda terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon provided graphic and timely vindication to the MERLIN Project forecasts and it’s pioneering creators and the 2001 Inauguration of Republican George W. Bush ended a several years drought of their extensive media exposure.

In 2003, the MERLIN team is looking forward to a new book (currently under consideration with Penguin-Putnam,) a 24 hour, interactive website (http://www.merlinproject.com) and dramatic new forecasts. Stay tuned!

Management

Paul Guercio - Founder and Futurist

Paul Guercio is a nationally-respected futurist and a long-time student of traditional and esoteric predictive systems. His 30 years of research into the Psychical Sciences and subsequent collaboration with Dr. Hart directly resulted in the creation of the MERLIN Project. His clients include many prominent business people, politicians and celebrities.

He is a regular guest on CNN, NPR and other major news networks.

Email: paulguercio@onebox.com

George Hart, Ph.D. - Founder and Research Scientist

Dr. George Hart is an SDI (Star Wars) physicist who specializes in the application of supercomputers to the mathematical modeling of systems exhibiting extremely complex behavior. In 1992, he received the prestigious British RANK Prize for his work in laser technology (for) "..benefiting mankind, especially in eye surgery" for inventing the excimer laser.

Email: ghart23@aol.com

David K. Patterson, Ph.D. - Senior Systems Architect

Dr. David Patterson has over 25 years experience designing and implementing complex information systems. He was educated at the University of Toronto, with a Ph.D. degree in Biostatistics and Physical Anthropology.  He has had an interest in predictive modeling involving metaphysics and spirituality for many years. 

Email: dpatterson@runestones.com

   The MERLIN Project Research Group

   P.O. Box 1241 - Seabrook, NH 03874

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