During World War II, Puharich attended Northwestern University as a student in the Army Specialized Training Program. He earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and pre-medicine in 1943 and received his M.D. from the Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1947. His residency was completed at the Permanente Research Foundation in Oakland, California, where he specialized in internal medicine. From 1953 to 1955, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps; in this capacity, he was assigned as Chief, Outpatient Service, U.S. Army Dispensary, Army Chemical Center, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. By this time he was already presenting papers on the possible military usefulness of paranormal phenemona.