The IMP 6 spacecraft was able to make measurements in the distant dayside cusp during substorms when the cusp was located slightly equatorward of its normal location and the geomagnetic dipole was tilted in the appropriate direction. High time resolution data from the magnetic field, plasma, energetic particle, and VLF wave experiments yield support for both reconnection and diffusion as methods of particle entry to the magnetosphere. The support for reconnection is indirect evidence from particles which flow down cusp field lines near the noon meridian. This evidence (1) indicates an acceleration process to explain enhancements of 400 to 600-km/s protons above their magnetosheath intensities and (2) suggests convection of field lines over the polar cap as a means of explaining the lack of low-energy protons near the low-latitude boundary of the cusp. Support for diffusion comes from indications of turbulent flows and fluctuating magnetic fields near the outer boundary of the entry layer. Magnetic field fluctuations below the proton gyrofrequency increase at larger radial distances and higher latitudes within the cusp. Perturbation vector ΔB↘ is perpendicular to B↘ in the lower &bgr; plasma at lower altitudes but is more randomly oriented in the higher &bgr; plasmas of the distant cusp. Ion cylotron waves are frequently seen in the entry layer and outer cusp. An abrupt change in the intensity of both whistler waves and electrostatic waves near half-integral multiples of the electron gyrofrequency seems to be characteristic of the outer boundary of the cusp. This boundary does not seem to be a standing shock.