Such episodes, according to Mr. McRae, are part of a ''30-year record of psychic research in the C.I.A., the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, NASA, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.'' Mr. McRae, a former reporter for Jack Anderson, the columnist, says his research indicates that the Pentagon has spent about $6 million annually on psychic research in recent years, including studies of whether the human mind can send and receive radio waves of extremely low frequency.

Lieut. Gen. Daniel O. Graham of the Army, retired, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an interview that the $6 million figure sounded too high, but he acknowledged that the military had spent considerable sums on psychic research. ''There's enough suggestive evidence around so that you want to keep your eyes open,'' he said.

Whatever the amount of money, Mr. McRae says tracking it is difficult because of Government secrecy. The Central Intelligence Agency conveys some money for psychic research though private institutions, according to Mr. McRae, who cites one agency memorandum warning that the funds should ''carry no identification and raise no questions.'' In the Pentagon's reports, it avoids the word ''psychic'' and relies instead on euphemisms such as ''novel biological information transfer systems,'' according to Mr. McRae.

In one recent case, he says, a Navy official with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist repeatedly visited a professional psychic over the course of 11 months. Showing the woman top-secret photographs and charts, he had her try to predict the position of Soviet submarines off the East Coast. And she was not alone. Mr. McRae said that the Navy has employed at least 34 psychics, an assertion that the Navy denies. Mr. McRae says he based his information on Government documents and interviews.

All of those who say that the military is engaged in psychic research contend it stems largely from fear that Soviet psychic breakthroughs might mean the American armed forces could be quietly put out of commission. Specialists from the Central Intelligence Agency are said to have recently visited one of the nation's top parapsychologists to elicit information on whether psychics could jam computers.

Jimmy Carter was worried about the Soviet threat in 1976 before he was inaugurated President, according to Mr. McRae, and had a private audience with Uri Geller. The Israeli mentalist told him that the Soviet Union screened all children for paranormal powers. In 1977, Mr. McRae says, Mr. Carter ordered a high-level review of Soviet psychic research. The secret report, completed in 1978, found no evidence of a massive ''psycho-warfare'' project such as Mr. Geller had warned of, but it did find definite Soviet interest. White House officials in office during the Carter Administration say either that they had no knowledge of such Presidential concern or that they can neither confirm nor deny that it existed.

The Russian side of the parapsychology story is emphasized in ''Psychic Warfare,'' by Martin Ebon, published this fall by McGraw-Hill. Mr. Ebon says the Soviet Union was goaded into action in 1960 by false reports that the United States Navy conducted telepathy experiments to try to keep in touch with the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, as it cruised under the Arctic icecap.