As president he was enthralled by the CIA's use of parapsychology in intelligence gathering. | Photo by AP Photo Close

Even with all of the press coverage of Jimmy Carter's latest book, "White House Diary," a strange and interesting nugget of history went ignored: Carter, as president, was enthralled by and impressed with the Central Intelligence Agency's use of parapsychology in intelligence gathering (the field and practice of parapsychology explores various psychic abilities).

Consider this entry in Carter's diary, from April 11, 1979:

"CIA briefing on unhappiness of King Hussein of Jordan [about agreements between Israel and Egypt], Idi Amin's government about to fall, and that a plane had crashed in Zambia. An American parapsychologist had been able to pinpoint the site of the crash. We've had several reports of this parapsychology working; one discovered the map coordinates of a site and accurately described a camouflaged missile test site. Both we and the Soviets use these parapsychologists on occasion to help us with sensitive intelligence matters, and the results are unbelievable."

(Carter alluded to another discussion about parapsychology in the White House situation room on May 8, 1980).

Writing in the present day, the former president reflected back on that entry in the book.

"The proven results of these exchanges between our intelligence services and parapsychologists raise some of the most intriguing and unanswerable questions of my presidency,” Carter notes in “Diary.” “They defy logic, but the facts are undeniable."

Mind-reading as intelligence-gathering? Sure, it was the 70s. Yet parapsychology's new-age reputation doesn't quite square with the historical and enduring stereotype of the CIA as filled with tight-lipped men-in-black. And when reached for comment by POLITICO, the CIA made it abundantly clear that they don't do that anymore.

"Absolutely not," said Paula Weiss, a media spokesman from the CIA's Office of Public Affairs.

But parapsychology advocates and scholars say that Carter’s amazement hardly makes him a space cadet. Researchers in the field lament the fact that the practice has been dropped.

"I absolutely am of the opinion that it's something that should be considered when you don't have other forms of intelligence," said Boston University professor Robert Schoch, author of "The Parapsychology Revolution." "As I see it, the reason that the government — at least ostensibly — stopped using such things was not because it wasn't functioning, not because it wasn't supplying good intelligence — in some cases, not every case, but that's the way with all intelligence — but because of the sort of political and social stigma surrounding it. There is a lot of misuse and nonsense surrounding parapsychology."