Courtney Brown, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, has been denounced as a scam artist, ''definitely deluded'' and a virtual accomplice to suicide. The last barb came about because Brown helped spread the idea that the Hale-Bopp comet was accompanied by a mysterious spaceship, a notion that may have inspired 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group to kill themselves in March. Brown became convinced of this thanks to the controversial practice of ''remote viewing'' -- mental imaging practiced at great distances, which the Federal Government once researched in a defunct program called Stargate. Brown was told by his own team of remote viewers that a ship lurked behind the comet, and he spread this news on the airwaves and the Internet.
So how is Brown feeling about his research now? Just fine. ''I stood by those results,'' he says coolly. ''I still stand by them.'' He has also moved on to other predictions. He recently maintained that an unknown terrorist group was planning a nuclear attack in the U. S., but may have been foiled thanks to his warnings.
This is bizarre territory for a tenured professor, but Brown has managed to juggle his mainstream re-search in political science with his fringe pursuits. In 1995, convinced that remote viewing ''was real and could work,'' he founded the Farsight Institute, an independent outfit whose viewers claim, among other things, to have regular mental contact with extraterrestrials. Brown has, of course, become notorious at Emory, but his right to explore the outer limits looks safe. Brown remains unchastened. By the end of the year, he says, he hopes his Institute will receive new financing, possibly from the Government, which he cryptically hints may once again decide ''that the work we're doing has value.''
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