California - A retired California state worker who claims he was interrogated by the CIA because of his psychic abilities is suing the spy agency to prove he's not making it up.

Phillip Mosier, 70, has spent most of his life savings trying to get the CIA to admit its agents questioned him in the summer of 1966 because he had stumbled upon a secret government program aimed at using telepathy as a tool for espionage.

"I don't care if I look foolish," Mosier says. "I'm telling the story the way it is, the way it happened."

Using the pen name Philip Chabot, Mosier wrote a book in 2008 about the alleged program he says was called Operation Blue Light.

Mosier said he was forced to publish the book himself because he couldn't prove what he said was true.

"Editors are like, 'we need another source. One other source for this story, right?' And there isn't another source for this story. I'm the only source for this story," Mosier said.

Mosier began his quest for answers by filing his own Freedom of Information Act requests, but said the agency was unresponsive.

Phillip Mosier
© News10.netPhillip Mosier.
Four years ago he hired a lawyer and so far has spent nearly $150,000 in legal fees.

Mosier began using his real name when discussing the experience after his attorney filed a federal lawsuit last December claiming the CIA was improperly withholding agency records.

In its response to the lawsuit, the CIA admitted that it once had a file on Mosier, but said the file was destroyed in 1996 and the contents are unknown.

Mosier believes the CIA isn't telling him everything it knows and has intentionally limited its search for documents in the name of national security.

The lawsuit asks Judge Morrison England, Jr., a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of California, to order the CIA to be more forthcoming, while the CIA is seeking a summary dismissal of the lawsuit.

England is expected to rule by the end of the year.