Aum Gung Ganapathaye Namah

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa

Homage to The Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Parapsychology

A Collection of Articles, Notes and References

References

(Revised:  Thursday, June 28, 2007)

References Edited by

An Indian Tantric

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

- William Shakespeare

Copyright © 2002-2010 An Indian Tantric

The following educational writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes ONLY.

Should NOT be used for commercial, political or any other purposes.

(The following notes are subject to update and revision)

For free distribution only.
You may print copies of this work for free distribution.

You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computers and computer networks, provided that you charge no fees for its distribution or use.
Otherwise, all rights reserved.

8 "... Freely you received, freely give”.

            - Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 

1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,

7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.                                                                     

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.

9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”

            - 2 Timothy 3:1-9  :: New International Version (NIV)

 

6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

            - Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)

 

Therefore, I say:

Know your enemy and know yourself;

in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.

When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself,

your chances of winning or losing are equal.

If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,

you are sure to be defeated in every battle.

-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, c. 500bc

 

There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer. What are these two? The pursuit of desires and of the pleasure which springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit of pain and hardship, which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.

- The Blessed One, Lord Buddha

 

Contents

Color Code

A Brief Word on Copyright

References

Educational Copy of Some of the References

 

Color Code

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A Brief Word on Copyright

Many of the articles whose educational copies are given below are copyrighted by their respective authors as well as the respective publishers. Some contain messages of warning, as follows:

Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited

without the written consent of “so and so”.

According to the concept of “fair use” in US copyright Law,

The reproduction, redistribution and/or exploitation of any materials and/or content (data, text, images, marks or logos) for personal or commercial gain is not permitted. Provided the source is cited, personal, educational and non-commercial use (as defined by fair use in US copyright law) is permitted.

Moreover,

  • This is a religious educational website.
    • In the name of the Lord, with the invisible Lord as the witness.
  • No commercial/business/political use of the following material.
  • Just like student notes for research purposes, the writings of the other children of the Lord, are given as it is, with student highlights and coloring. Proper respects and due referencing are attributed to the relevant authors/publishers.

I believe that satisfies the conditions for copyright and non-plagiarism.

  • Also, from observation, any material published on the internet naturally gets read/copied even if conditions are maintained. If somebody is too strict with copyright and hold on to knowledge, then it is better not to publish “openly” onto the internet or put the article under “pay to refer” scheme.
  • I came across the articles “freely”. So I publish them freely with added student notes and review with due referencing to the parent link, without any personal monetary gain. My purpose is only to educate other children of the Lord on certain concepts, which I believe are beneficial for “Oneness”.

 

References

Some of the links may not be active (de-activated) due to various reasons, like removal of the concerned information from the source database. So an educational copy is also provided, along with the link.

If the link is active, do cross-check/validate/confirm the educational copy of the article provided along.

  1. If the link is not active, then try to procure a hard copy of the article, if possible, based on the reference citation provided, from a nearest library or where-ever, for cross-checking/validation/confirmation.

 

References

Alnor, William M. (Winter/Spring 1990) Christian Research Journal News Watch. Margarita, California:  Christian Research Institute. Page 5.

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0065a.html

Ebon, Martin. Amplified Mind Power Research In The Former Soviet Union.

http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/Ebon1.html

Kasten, Len. Psychic Discoveries Since The Cold War

http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue14/ar14psychic.html

Sharma, L K. (Friday, September 28, 2001) America Deploys Paranormal Psychic Power Against bin Laden. Bangalore, India: Deccan Herald, DH News Service.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/psywar.htm

Parapsychology and Self-Deception in Science

http://www.ramcconnell.com/selfdeception.htm

 

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Educational Copy of Some of the References

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

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Reference

Alnor, William M. (Winter/Spring 1990) Christian Research Journal News Watch. Margarita, California:  Christian Research Institute. Page 5.

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0065a.html

 

Christian Research Journal

News Watch

by William M. Alnor

 

from the Christian Research Journal, Winter/Spring 1990, page 5. The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller.

 

In the Soviet Union, a Growing Psychic-Occult Revival

A full-blown New Age occult revival is taking place in the Soviet Union. And, unlike the current Soviet practice of simply allowing citizens to more openly practice religion in the era of glasnost, this New Age-oriented revival is encouraged -- and at times sponsored -- by the Soviet government.

 

Although in recent months U.S. mission agencies have been allowed to ship as many Bibles as they want into Russia, and although Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pledged support in allowing free practice of religion in the country during his recent meeting with the pope, there is much evidence to suggest that New Age occultism is fast becoming the religion -- or pseudoscience -- of choice for the Russian people.

 

It is certainly true that in recent months many Western evangelists have been in Russia proclaiming the gospel to overflowing churches and halls. But it is also true that many Western New Age gurus and "holy men" have been in the Soviet Union proclaiming their message, and they too have often been successful at attracting converts. Increasingly, Russians have been showing up at Western New Age and occult fairs -- sometimes under the sponsorship of the government.

 

Most observers say the revival is partly due to the spiritual suppression imposed on the people since the 1917 Russian Revolution; leaders now realize that they cannot extinguish the personal quest for spiritual meaning.

 

Others say interest in the occult has been fanned by economics; such New Age themes as ESP, reincarnation, psychic healing, and UFOs sell papers and find a ready market in the Soviet citizenry. As an August 1989 Associated Press dispatch noted, the Russians have historically been taken by the occult and fantastic stories: "Since the days of the wild-eyed monk Rasputin, hypnotist and confidant at the court of the last czar, Russians have been intrigued by the occult and fantastic, and stories about UFOs, vanished planets and ESP have always had an eager audience."

 

Whatever the reasons, here are some of the facts surrounding the Soviet psychic revival:

 

The most popular man in the Soviet Union is not Gorbachev, according to an October 12 front page story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky, 50, a "psychotherapist" who conducts healing sessions and seances for audiences numbering in the millions on live Soviet television. In the past 18 months, Kashpirovsky has become so well-known in Russia that the government's foreign ministry office recently held a press conference to tout his abilities before the world's media. On October 11, 1989, the NBC Nightly News picked up the story and featured the psychic healer on U.S. national television.

 

According to the Inquirer, "Kashpirovsky has the nation in thrall." When he appears on national TV, "Soviet citizens drop everything. People halt work and leave dinner tables. The next morning, his eerie talent is the talk of rush-hour subways." Under the dark-haired man's "steely gaze and hypnotic voice, they say, tumors shrink, scars disappear and surgery is performed [sometimes live on national television] without anesthetic."

 

During the press conference, government officials treated reporters to several film clippings of Kashpirovsky's sessions. (Presently he does two regularly scheduled TV "seances" a month; additional appearances, live or taped, are broadcast every week or two.) In some of the clippings, people offered testimonials to his power, saying their tumors shrank, scars and birthmarks faded, and pains disappeared. The Inquirer went on to say that Kashpirovsky is close to "becoming a personality cult," as he received 20 bags of mail -- about 40,000 letters and telegrams -- from Russians during the preceding two weeks.

 

Kashpirovsky is careful to say his abilities are nonreligious.

Russia's second-best-known psychic healer, Alan Chumak, is on state-run television six days a week on a show called "120 Minutes." On this program the grey-haired mystic waves his hands on camera to cure viewers of whatever ails them, according to the previously mentioned Associated Press dispatch. The story went on to say Soviets with heart disease "are requested to watch" his show on Tuesdays. "On Fridays, Chumak will help viewers get rid of allergies. People with stomach bugs should tune in on other days." And if these people can't watch a show on their designated day, they are instructed to just leave the set on, "and a jar of water, juice or massage cream placed by the TV screen supposedly will be 'charged' by Chumak's gestures and can be used later for treatment."

 

The state, which has sponsored psychic research by the military for decades, is more than willing to sponsor the occult in other parts of Soviet society as well. Frequent articles on occultic themes and UFO activity have even been appearing recently in state-run newspapers like Pravda, and also in the one-million circulation daily newspaper Socialist Industry, a vehicle of the Communist Party's Central Committee. And James Oberg, writing in the January 1990 Omni magazine, said that in Moscow's Cosmos Pavilion, the Soviet Union's "museum" of relics from the dawn of Soviet space flight, one of the main and best attended exhibits is concerned with psychic powers and aliens.

 

Oberg also noted that in the era of glasnost, "a vigorous UFO culture [which often associates itself with the New Age movement] has blossomed across the USSR." According to an article in the December 1989 New Frontier magazine (which is one of the East Coast's leading New Age magazines), "for the first time in history, the Russian government authorized five scientists to attend a New Age conference in the West." In that gathering (called "Dialogue With the Universe"), which took place in October 1989 in Frankfort, Germany, the Soviets shared information on alleged recent UFO landings in Russia.

 

From the West, various New Age organizations have been making inroads into the Soviet Union for some time. One of the most involved -- since 1979 -- has been the Esalen Institute, a human potential group based in Big Sur, California. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, the Institute, which was founded in the 1960s, has moved beyond its earlier Soviet-American Exchange Program to become the sponsor of a number of political and scholarly programs that include scientific conferences and educational exchanges with the Soviet Union.

 

Politically, Esalen has clearly seized upon the opportunities created in the Soviet Union by Gorbachev's reforms to promote the transformation of both Russian society and the world -- a new era of unprecedented cooperation. "Gorbachev is clearly a transformative leader and his reforms are changing the very fabric of Soviet society," according to Esalen's 1988 "Director's Report to the Board." Another paper issued by the Esalen Institute states that the purpose of their Soviet program is to encourage "a broader understanding of human relations and human potential" that can eventually "improve international relations."

 

According to the 1990 Annual Directory Edition of the New Age Journal, other groups involved in New Age-oriented citizens diplomacy programs with the Soviets are the Citizens Exchange Council, the Earthstewards Network, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the Promoting Enduring Peace group, US/USSR Bridges for Peace, and Youth Ambassadors of America. The Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, helps underwrite some of Esalen's expenses for the Soviet exchange program (according to the Institute's "sponsored projects program" flier). It has offered a "bonus gift" for new members -- a book titled The Mind Race, which describes psychic advances in the Soviet Union.

 

One prominent Western mystic who is a disciple of Transcendental Meditation and is intensely involved with the Soviets is Deepak Chopra. Author of three New Age books -- including the recent Bantam best seller, Quantum Healing -- Chopra has recently been given the go-ahead to start several Ayurvedic (ancient Indian) medicine centers in Russia.

 

In an interview published in the September/October Starlite Times (one of New York City's leading New Age magazines), Chopra said he gave a presentation on Ayurveda and TM to the USSR's Institute for Preventative Medicine, which led to another presentation partially sponsored by the Academy of Sciences. Later, Chopra said, the Russian health minister invited him to make still another presentation -- and that ended with his signing a contract to teach medicine in the Soviet Union.

 

"The most exciting thing for me is the idea of completely influencing millions of people through Ayurveda in the USSR and the Eastern block countries," Chopra stated in the article.

 

All of these developments create difficulties for the fragile but fast-growing church in Russia. The Russian Christian Radio (RCR) organization of Estes Park, Colorado, reports that as a result of the occultism in the Soviet Union, many Christians -- especially new converts -- are severely affected by New Age thought. To combat this influence, the organization is trying to translate Christian apologetic materials into the Russian language.

 

Weapons Arrests and "Doomsday Talk" Shrouds Church Universal and Triumphant

Since early July, three high-ranking Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) members have been arrested on weapons offenses. In each case, the members were attempting to stockpile weapons in preparation for an anticipated nuclear holocaust.

 

One of those arrested was Edward Francis, the husband of sect leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Francis was sentenced on December 15, 1989 to one month in jail and three months' house detention for his role in a conspiracy to buy enough weapons and paramilitary supplies to arm a 200-member church army.

 

Law officials say they broke up the plot on July 7 when Vernon Hamilton, the former chief of the church's Cosmic Honor Guard (i.e., its security), was arrested in Spokane, Washington after purchasing weapons under a false name. He was apparently planning to ship them to the sect's 33,000-acre encampment in Park County, Montana. According to the December 10, 1989 Sunday Oregonian, police found "about $28,000 in cash and gold Krugerrands, 15 military-style assault rifles, two pistols, and 120,000 rounds of tracer and armor-piercing ammunition in [Hamilton's] pickup and a storage garage. Seven of the rifles were .50-caliber semiautomatic Barretts, which fire 6-inch cartridges that can penetrate light armor." He was sentenced to three years' probation for using false identification and fined $1,000. His weapons and money were confiscated.

 

Later, on October 13, CUT staff member Frank Black was arrested transporting two more Barrett semiautomatic weapons to Montana. Authorities say the purchase was illegal because Black had given a false address. Charges were later dropped against him, but his weapons were confiscated.

 

Although Mrs. Prophet and CUT officials claim they didn't have anything to do with the attempted weapons purchases, published reports -- and statements by Francis -- make clear that it was Mrs. Prophet's "revelations" of a coming nuclear war with the Soviet Union that incited the attempted purchases. In recent months, many sect members have been moving to the sect's compound in Paradise Valley, Montana (which is near the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park), where they have been busily engaged in building $300,000 bomb shelters and stockpiling large food supplies.

 

But in mid-November, the church succumbed to media pressure and gave reporters a tour of one of the underground shelters. Ten of them, capable of holding about 1,400 people, were nearing completion, according to the November 19, 1989 Seattle Times.

 

Mrs. Prophet, often referred to as "Guru Ma" by her estimated 150,000 followers, has had difficulty pinpointing the date of the supposed apocalypse. According to Mrs. Prophet's doomsday scenario, the U.S. will be victimized by an all-out Soviet nuclear attack, followed by an invasion. The two dates she is said to have associated with the event -- October 2, 1989 and December 31, 1989 -- have both failed.

 

According to published reports, Mrs. Prophet arrived at the October 2 doomsday date through "El Morya," one of many "ascended masters" (superhuman entities inhabiting a higher dimension) that are said to speak through her. When that date came and went, Mrs. Prophet said the prayers of sect members had postponed the event, and December 31 was the new date. But she added an immediate qualifier, according to the November 3 Billings Gazette: "Prophet emphasized she was not predicting war or any other catastrophe for that date -- it was just a deadline for preparedness."

 

All the talk of weapons and doomsday has further galvanized local residents against the sect; some have compared CUT's presence in the area to the building of Jonestown in Guyana, or Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. And recently the residents gained a new ally in their nearly decade-long battle with the sect: Moira Lewis, Prophet's 21-year-old daughter, who left CUT last year. Lewis has begun to publicly denounce her mother as a cult leader and has charged CUT with being a potentially dangerous organization that exercises mind control. On September 12, she appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey" show and debated her sister, Erin Prophet, 23, who has become a CUT spokeswoman.

 

CUT bought the 12,000-acre Forbes Ranch from recently deceased multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes in 1981, and in 1986 moved its headquarters there from Malibu, California. Meanwhile the church has purchased more land in Paradise Valley (see the Summer 1989 CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL for more details).

 

Rajneesh Dies of Heart Failure

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the self-proclaimed "rich man's guru" who once tried to take over a town in Oregon before being deported from the U.S. in 1985, died of a heart attack at age 58 in his native India on January 19.

 

Rajneesh came to the U.S. in 1981 and, the following year, established a commune and would-be city known as Rajneeshpurum near rural Antelope, Oregon. The commune grew rapidly and became home to about 4,000 of his followers. It was there that many scandalous stories emerged about the sect and its practices. To many, Rajneesh is best remembered for his collection of 93 personal Rolls Royces he kept at the commune.

 

After pleading guilty to two counts of immigration fraud, Rajneesh was deported and became an international pariah -- he was rejected from settling in Asia, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. He resettled in Poona, India in 1986 with a smaller number of his disciples -- new bizarre stories soon surfaced. In 1988 he changed his name to Gautama the Buddha, and in late 1989 again to Osho, or "enlightened one."

 

End of document, CRJ0065A.TXT (original CRI file name),

"News Watch"

release A, April 20, 1994

R. Poll, CRI

 

A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.

 

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

...

Christian Research Institute

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Reference

Ebon, Martin. Amplified Mind Power Research In The Former Soviet Union.

http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/Ebon1.html

 

Amplified Mind Power Research

In The Former Soviet Union

by Martin Ebon

 

NOTE OF INTRODUCTION

Martin Ebon is a well-known figure in parapsychology circles. From 1953 to 1965 he was administrative assistant of the Parapsychology Association in New York set up by the world-famous medium and clairvoyant, Eileen Garrett. While occupying this post, he had more than adequate opportunity to meet the outstanding personalities in psychical research and parapsychology. He traveled extensively on behalf of the Association's research endeavors. His lectures, reviews, research reports, articles in magazines, and his books (over sixty of them) all reflect serious treatment of the field. His expertise, historical and otherwise, of the official and unofficial aspects of the field is enormous.

 

There is another aspect of Martin, though, which in my opinion makes him one of a kind, for he is much more than just a parapsychologist. He speaks several languages, and is also a lifelong researcher/writer/analyst regarding political and scientific developments of Eastern European countries, the former Soviet Union, and post-Communist Russia. His expertise in this regard also extends to the People's Republic of China and Asia.

 

His credentials along these lines are impressive. Following service with the U.S. Office of War Information in World War II, he then worked on the staff of the Foreign Policy Association, and with the U.S. Information Agency during the Korean War. Traveling widely and in direct contact with many sources, he was ultimately called upon by many agencies to present briefings, and for many years acted as analyst/consultant in this regard. As a free-lance writer, his articles were broadly published inter alia the NEW YORK TIMES, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, and the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE. He lectured at universities on world affairs in general, but also specialized in tracking and examining the nature and directions of Russian and Soviet security services.

 

His deep interests in parapsychology, plus esteem of him as an exacting political journalist, made him a "natural" when official suspicions arose that the Soviet Union was engaging in mind-control and parapsychology research. For example, he was in Washington giving a briefing on telepathy to a top intelligence agency on 17 April 1961 when the ill-fated "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba was launched. Other sources and clues also establish the existence of official intelligence interest in "psi" matters at least a decade prior to 1971 when the American intelligence agencies were forced to acknowledge and attempt response to the possible threat potential of "psi" research in the Soviet Union - and which, among other effects, resulted in the Remote Viewing project at Stanford Research Institute in 1973.

 

In addition to Martin's many books on matters parapsychological, he published: WORLD COMMUNISM TODAY; MALENKOV: STALIN'S SUCCESSOR; a biography of ERNESTO ["Che"] GUEVARA; PSYCHIC WARFARE (1983); THE ANDROPOV FILE (a biography of the former head of the KGB); and THE SOVIET PROPAGANDA MACHINE (1987).

 

His most recent book is KGB: DEATH AND REBIRTH (1994), which examines and documents the evolution of the new Russian "KGB" after the old Soviet KGB was officially pronounced dead in October 1991. As the U.S. Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "We don't have illusions about the Russians. We understand that the intelligence service may have changed its name - but it has probably not changed its method of operation." [See Martin Ebon, RUSSIA'S NEW SPY NETWORK. THE AMERICAN LEGION, June 1995.]

 

In my long-term experience of him, Martin has never been pro or con political enthusiast of any kind. He has always been a non-emotional documentarian of the first water, aided by a dignified, penetrating mind and vast experience in world, European and East European affairs. He and I had often discussed the "gap" in American awareness regarding the nature of Soviet mind-research, a gap made enduring because of Western intelligence agency and media reluctance to fair open knowledge about that research or its evolutionary background.

 

Although it took some doing on my part, Martin finally agreed to provide this paper for this website after I impressed on him that no one else could, would or was qualified to do so for the sake of posterity. Of all the essays and papers in this biomind database, this one is of signal importance - for it provides the historical, causative link as to why the intelligence agencies, antipathetic to psi research, were eventually forced into responding.

 

This paper was to go beyond the Cold War years and into what has happened to the KGB-sponsored research since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reorganization in Russia. Unfortunately, Martin's wonderful wife tragically passed away after an illness, and he has since been unable to proceed. We have decided to put this much of the paper in the database, to be followed by a Part Two when Martin is again up to the exacting work needed to extend it beyond the Cold War years.

 

I must now take this opportunity to express my deepest and most enduring gratitude to Martin and his fabulous, equally knowledgeable wife, Chariklia Sophia Ebon (1921-1996), who put up with me for so many years since I first met them in 1971. Your friendship would have been more than enough. But your mentorship in all respects, and including so very many difficult situations and decisions I was forced to make, prevented me from making far more mistakes than I did. So, Martin and "Koutsie", you have deeply honored me with your countless kindnesses and often did so far beyond the call of duty.

 

­­ Ingo Swann

 

AMPLIFIED MIND-POWER RESEARCH IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

Soviet Cold War Biophysics and Biocommunications Research

By Martin Ebon

 

TOPICAL AREA: Developmental psi/Cold War psi warfare gap

 

KEY TERMS: Consciousness, psychic research, bio-physics, bio- communications, telepathy, mind enhancement, KGB, CIA, mind-boosting, amplified mind power

 

 

ABSTRACT: The background of the Soviet Cold War psi-research effort is summarized under the headings of: The Toth Incident; The American Fear of Psychic Warfare and the Credibility Gap; A Brief History of the Soviet Research Machine; The Novosibirsk Connection; The KGB Takes Control; Centers of USSR Psi Studies; Three Major Directions Within the Soviet Research Machine (Code by Telepathy, Boosting the Human Brain, Amplified Mind Power); Washington's Dilemma; Outline of 1952 CIA Project on ESP; Congressional Response, 1981.

 

*

 

THE TOTH INCIDENT

 

In Moscow on June 11, 1977, Los Angels Times correspondent Robert C. Toth was arrested and detained on a charge of illegally obtaining papers that disclosed "state secrets". The papers had been given to Toth by a Soviet scientist, Valery G. Petukhov.

Toth had first met the Russian biophysicist earlier in the year. While Petukhov seemed eager to show his scientific findings to Toth, the correspondent felt that his work was "only theory and far too complicated" for a newspaper story.

Toth reported that, as best as he could recall, Petukhov asserted that certain particles of living cells "are emitted" when such cells divide, that they can be "detected and measured and that these radiating particles can carry information." Their function could "explain the basis for telepathy" and related phenomena.

 

*

 

To Toth, Valery Petukhov seemed "like a serious scientist." According to a card he handed the reporter, he was Chief of the Laboratory of Bio-Physics at the State Control Institute of Medical and Biological Research.

He had been recommended to Toth by a dissent Soviet scientist who later emigrated. At their first meeting, the Los Angeles Times man told Petukhov that, once the scientists had proved this theory, he would be interested in writing about it.

 

*

 

Months passed. In mid-June 1977 Petukhov phoned Toth. The biophysicist told Toth that his experiments had succeeded. He planned to describe them in a formal scientific paper; but, as Soviet authorities would certainly refuse to publish his work, he wanted to translate the paper into English and give it to Toth for publication in the West.

At the rendezvous, Petukhov took a manuscript from his briefcase. It contained over twenty typewritten sheets, complete with charts and photos of charts. It looked like a complex, comprehensive scientific paper, well-documented, appropriately technical.

 

*

 

Toth never managed to get a real look at the paper; for it was at that moment a melodrama began, when a Soviet-made Fiat braked sharply at the curb.

The car was filled with five plainclothesmen who jumped out and quite unceremoniously pulled Toth inside.

Robert Toth's account stated: "Our car drove through red lights and down one-way streets the wrong way to a militia (police) station. My captors were firm and polite, offering me cigarettes.

I was ushered into a room with an inspector who declined my requests to phone the U.S. Embassy but said a Soviet Foreign Ministry official would be called."

 

*

 

In addition to the Foreign Ministry official and a KGB agent, a man named Sparkin, the police inspector summoned a senior researcher of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor I.M. Mikhailov. Mikhailov was asked to provide expert testimony on the paper Petukhov had given to Toth, which the police were now treating as "evidence."

Specifically, Professor Mikhailov stated: "The article beginning Petukhov, Valery G., from the word of `micro-organism self-radiation' to the words `by means of vacuum particles in space' states that within the content of living cells are particles . . . and these particles are grounds for discussing the fundamental problems of biology in the context of biology and parapsychology. There is also information about the uses of such particles. This material is secret and shows the kind of work done in some scientific institutes of our state."

 

*

 

It was this last sentence that raised the eyebrows among observers of Soviet parapsychological studies throughout the world.

Earlier, Moscow authorities on various levels had several times denied that parapsychology was being researched in the Soviet Union. A year before, Leningrad writer Vladimir Lvov had published an article in the leading French daily, LE MONDE, in which he asserted categorically: "The truth is simple: parapsychology is not accepted as a legitimate and official branch within Soviet science. No institute or center or research in the Soviet Union is devoted to telepathy, psychokinesis, etc."

Yet the Mikhailov testimony in the Toth incident directly contradicted the Lvov statement.

 

*

 

Professor Mikhailov's testimony on the Petukhov paper and Toth's police interrogation at the Pushkin Street Station lasted about two-and-a-half hours.

At last, a representative of the U.S. Embassy, Vice Consul Lawrence C. Napper, was permitted to come to the station. The reporter's account of his meeting with Petukhov was read aloud and translated into Russian. But Toth refused to sign a handwritten Russian version of it. The KGB man Sparkin then told him he was "free to go."

 

*

 

Toth's Moscow difficulties were not at an end.

The following Tuesday, Toth had a telephone call from another U.S. Embassy official, Theodore McNamara, who asked him to come to the embassy immediately. The matter, he added, was "serious." At McNamara's office, Napper and two other officials were waiting. They handed Toth a Soviet note that had been delivered a half hour earlier. It contained the following passages:

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is authorized to state the following to the American Embassy:

"On the 11th of June of this year Robert Charles Toth was apprehended at the moment of meeting a Soviet citizen, Petukhov Valery Georgiyevich, which took place under suspicious circumstances. When apprehended, the American journalist was found to have materials given to him by Petukhov, containing secret data.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs the American Embassy that in conformity with established procedure, Toth will be summoned for interrogation by the investigatory organs, in connection with which his departure from Moscow until the end of the investigation is not desired."

 

*

 

Within the hour, a polite KGB agent, wearing a flowered shirt and gray suit, arrived, asked Toth to identify himself, and told him to come to the State Security's Lefortovo center for interrogation. He was advised of Articles 108 and 109 of the Criminal code, and that he did not have diplomatic immunity.

After two days of confusing interrogation, Toth was told: "Parapsychology as a whole may not be secret information. But there could be fields of science within parapsychology that are secret. It is not for me, as it's a matter for experts, to say what is secret, and what the scientist has stated that the materials you received are a secret. And you received them under circumstances where your behavior and the information seems to be a breach of our law."

 

*

 

After the second interrogation Toth was told that he was no longer needed. The U.S. Embassy received confirmation from the Soviet Foreign Ministry. Toth and his family quickly arranged for a flight to the United States.

The Toth incident was reported world-wide, and the WASHINGTON POST and THE NEW YORK TIMES ran accounts of it.

The incident then passed into oblivion, and most were none the wiser. But intelligence analysts understood that Toth had gotten into his hand, if only for a few moments, one of the tips of the enormous iceberg of top secret Soviet research into psychic powers of the human mind.

 

THE AMERICAN FEAR OF PSYCHIC WARFARE

AND THE CREDIBILITY GAP

 

Some years before the Toth incident, American intelligence analysts had begun noticing a Soviet secret police (KGB) trend, shortly after 1967, indicating serious interest in what is called "parapsychology" in the West.

 

*

 

This trend began when the KGB's far-flung operations came under the direction of Yuri Andropov, named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in late 1982.

But even the KGB, for all of its experience, large staff, skills, and high-priority status, had not developed a clear-cut policy toward psychic experiments; conflicting attitudes within its leadership appeared to have caused erratic actions.

This was well illustrated when agents arrested Toth and thereby revealed that secret research was, in fact, taking place at government institutes.

 

*

 

U.S. government officials were jittery that research in parapsychology might cause them to be accused of spending public funds on science fiction projects.

When columnist Jack Anderson reported early in 1981 that a laboratory in the basement of the Pentagon was devoted to parapsychological experiments, his comments were heavy with ridicule and sarcasm.

 

*

 

Anderson's assistant, Ron McRae, alleged in an article on "Psychic Warfare" (in THE INVESTIGATOR, October 1981) that "the Pentagon is spending millions on parapsychology in a crash program to end Russia's psycho-superiority."

McRae, who was doing research for a book on U.S. government projects in psychic studies, said the U.S. Secret Service had "commissioned studies on ways to protect the President from the Kremlin's mind control."

He wrote that its agents, as well as CIA staffers, had been "required to take courses in mind control" at universities in the Washington area, to "prevent them," as he put it, "from falling under the spell of Soviet psychics."

Although such claims at the time bore earmarks of exaggeration, they were none the less indicative of intense American interest in psi warfare possibilities.

 

*

 

But American media accounts of psi warfare spread alarm and amusement, and an ideological battlefield erupted, not only in the United States, but in the Soviet Union also.

On the ideological battlefield of international Marxism, the controversy about parapsychology, by whatever name, had gone on for two decades; it showed no signs of abating.

 

*

 

Typical of those who regarded psychic studies as ideological heresy was Soviet mathematician-physicist Dr. Alexander Kitaygorodsky, who had categorized clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis as "supernatural" and thus outside "the domain of the natural sciences." Writing in the Moscow periodical NAUKA I RELIGIA (Science and Religion), an atheistic magazine, Dr. Kitaygorodsky stated as long ago as March 1966: "To me, there is no doubt whatever that those who relate such fairy tales are frauds, mystificators or, at best, grossly deceived. Men have believed in miracles for centuries, and for centuries there have existed charlatan and impostors, conscious or unconscious. And the struggle against such deception of the human mind has gone on for centuries, and in each century it has to begin anew."

 

*

 

But in the same magazine, science writer Leonid Fillipov took the opposite view and cited Marxist gospel to prove his point.

He asked: "Does Professor Kitaygorodsky seriously believe that the frontiers of physics have been reached?" He cited scientific breakthroughs in radioactivity, quantum theory, and lasers, and wrote: "What if telepathic phenomena conform to some new, as yet undiscovered laws which do not contradict already known rules governing electrons?" Fillipov added: "Rejecting a priori the possibilities of telepathy and other processes still unfamiliar to science amounts of rejecting Lenin's idea that, on any given level of scientific development, our knowledge of the work remains incomplete."

 

*

 

But beyond viewing-with-exaggerated-alarm, ridicule-cum-hyperbole and credibility gap lie the realities of psychic functions, for good or ill.

To obtain the correct perspective, let us keep in mind that parapsychology can play only a supporting role in the Soviet Union's or any other military-scientific complex.

It must, therefore, be seen as one element within a large and diffuse defensive-offensive research apparatus. Psychic elements might well be integrated into, rather than operating separately from, other scientific or military projects.

 

*

 

A major attraction for planners is the promise of financial and organizational shortcuts: Why engage in high-cost armaments, for example, if one or several psychics might influence personnel in the enemy's missile silos, as a DIA report suggested? The costs of military hardware are a heavy burden in national economies in the East as well as in the West -- and ESP is cheap.

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOVIET RESEARCH MACHINE

 

The origins of the Soviet research remain a mystery at best, mostly due to gaps in accessible documentation.

In any case, it would be clear that the research and attempted development of specific useful psi powers of mind proceeded at the start under severe ideological difficulties.

Thus it is not easily understandable how, and especially why, the Soviet research machine achieved the monumental extent it did by about 1977.

 

*

 

Soviet efforts to harness telepathy (mind-to-mind communication), telekinesis (better known as psychokinesis, the influence of the human mind on matter), or any other psychic ability, needed to overcome strong ideological objections from Marxist theoreticians.

Pragmatists, even those highly placed in scientific or government circles, needed to justify their hopes for psychic experiments in acceptable ideological terms.

Historically, Western parapsychology was rooted in nineteenth-century efforts to find scientific proof for such traditional religious beliefs such as life after death.

And as psychic phenomena retain the mysterious air of the unknown or unexplored, many Marxists accused Western parapsychologists of propagandizing religio-folkloric "superstition" -- and of advocating soft-headed "idealistic" concepts, in contrast to the strictly "materialistic" approach promulgated by Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin.

 

*

 

Such criticisms had been voiced, on and off, for some twenty years in the Soviet Union. During the life of Mao Zedong, Chinese communist ideologues even accused the Soviet Union and the United States of using parapsychology to foster "religion without the cross" in order to distract their citizenry form economic difficulties.

 

*

 

As we examine analyses of Soviet research, this continuing ideological conflict must be kept in mind. But there can be little doubt that the extent of the Soviet effort did become enormous.

In 1978, an American intelligence report was declassified and released, although it had originally been scheduled for declassification in December 1990.

 

*

 

The report was entitled "Controlled Offensive Intelligence Agency (DIA), Task Number T72-01-14.

In part it read: "The Soviet Union is well aware of the benefits and applications of parapsychology research. The term parapsychology denotes [in the Soviet Union] a multi-disciplinary field consisting of the sciences of bionics, biophysics, psychophysics, psychology, physiology and neuropsychology.

"Many scientist, U.S. and Soviet, feel that parapsychology can be harnessed to create conditions where one can alter or manipulate the minds of others. The major impetus behind the Soviet drive to harness the possible capabilities of telepathic communication, telekinetic and bionics are said to come from the Soviet military and the KGB [Committee of State Security; Secret Police]."

 

*

 

In continuing, the report of the Defense Intelligence Agency asserted that the Soviet Union enjoyed a "head start" in the field and had provided substantial financial backing. The report concluded that "Soviet knowledge in this field is superior to that of the U.S."

It noted that Soviet researchers had explored "detrimental effects of subliminal perception techniques" that might even be "targeted against the U.S. or allied personnel in nuclear missile silos" by "telepathic means."

 

*

 

The report stated: "The potential applications of focusing mental influences on an enemy through hypnotic telepathy have surely occurred to the Soviets . . . Control and manipulation of the human consciousness must be considered a primary goal."

 

*

 

At this point, the reader should again be cautioned that the ideological controversy about the study and use of psychic potentials in the USSR had created gaps in public knowledge that inevitably led to rumors and unverifiable claims.

"Hypnotic telepathy," of which the DIA report spoke, may well have been one of the target areas of Soviet research, but little current information on its status was available.

 

*

 

However, Russia had a long history of hypnosis studies in medicine, education, and psychiatry. Soviet literature reflected on-going and contemporary scientific interest in the stimulation of telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis, either by drugs or electronic means.

In the past, Russian researchers had experimented with telepathy-at-a-distance, a technique of intriguing potential.

 

THE EARLY ORIGINS

 

It was quite likely that the early origins of the Soviet research machine may have begun with the work of Bernard Bernardovich Kazhinsky, a student in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), in the state of Georgia boarding on the Black Sea. His interests apparently were triggered by a telepathic experience of his own.

 

*

 

In February, 1922, Kazhinsky was invited to address the All-Russian Congress of the Association of Naturalists, a top scientific organization perhaps equivalent to the American Institutes of Mental health today.

The topic of his lecture was HUMAN THOUGHT-ELECTRICITY, and he quickly published a book under the same title. Having been invited to address the All-Russian Congress, it would be clear that the Congress supported and funded Kazhensky's work, while his research thereafter apparently became classified.

By 1923, he had published his early findings in a book entitled THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE. This book attracted favorable attention among important brain researchers at the time.

 

*

 

More visible and easier to document was the work of Professor Leonid L. Vasiliev, later to become Chief of the Department of Physiology at the University of Leningrad.

Born in 1891, Vasiliev had been a student of Leningrad physiologist Vladimir M. Bekhterev who had established the Leningrad Brain Research Institute. His granddaughter, Natalia P. Bekhtereva, had joined the Institute in 1921, and ultimately became its director.

 

*

 

Vasiliev became a member of the Committee for the Study of Mental Suggestion the following year.

"Mental suggestion," or hypnosis, became central to his interest. In 1928, he visited Paris, as well as other Western European cities. Vasiliev spoke and wrote French fluently, and the Paris Institut Metapsychique International (IMI) remained his major contact with Western psychical research throughout his life.

 

*

 

Vasiliev established an ideological basis for the Soviet research in several books, lectures, and articles. His basic thesis was the experimental facts of telepathy, for example, should be examined from a physiological (or material) viewpoint, so that they could not be exploited by advocates of "religious superstition" (or an idealistic view-point). He was criticized as providing a pseudo-scientific framework for a return to idealism under the mantle of Marxist dialectical materialism.

 

*

 

His major and influential book BIOLOGICAL RADIO COMMUNICATION was published in Kiev by the Ukrainian Academy of Science in 1962.

Kazhinsky concluded that "experimental confirmation of the fact that communication between two people, separated by long distances, can be carried out through water, over air and across metal barrier by means of cerebral radiation in the course of thinking, and without conventional communication facilities."

He added: "One important feature of the above-mentioned experiment is worthy of attention. The electromagnetic waves accompanying the thought-formation process (visual perceptions) in the inductor's brain reached the cells of the indicatee's cortex after having traveled a long distance, not only in the air and through water but also through the hull of a submarine.

"This would justify the following conclusions: 1) these electromagnetic waves were propagated spheroidally, not in a narrow directed beam; 2) these waves penetrated though the submarine hull, which did not block them, that is, it did not act as a `Faraday cage'."

 

*

 

Kazhinsky noted that a radio receiver in the marine laboratory of the Soviet scientific research vessel VITYAZ had been unsuccessful in intercepting electric waves emitted in the water by the torpedo fish.

He added that: "the radio receivers in the submarine did not intercept these waves. This prompts the conclusion that some electromagnetic waves of a biological origin possess yet another, still unknown, characteristic which distinguishes them from conventional radio waves. It is possible that our ignorance of that particular characteristic impedes further development of research work in that field."

 

*

 

Vasiliev noted in another book EXPERIMENTS IN DISTANT INFLUENCE (which first appeared in Moscow in 1962) that while official denials of the shore-to-submarine experiment suggested "a certain caution," nevertheless "This experiment showed - and herein resides its principal value - that telepathic information can be transmitted without loss through a thickness of water, and through the sealed metal covering of a submarine - that is, through substances which greatly interfere with radio communication.

"Such materials completely absorb short waves and partly absorb medium waves, the latter being considerably attenuated, whereas the factor (still unknown to us) which transmits suggestion penetrates them without difficulties."

 

*

 

Many have claimed that the infamous NAUTILUS story of 1959 in the United States served as the major prod for Soviet bio-communications research.

However, by 1959, some four decades after the Soviet research had already begun, presumably their machine would not have needed such a prod.

The NAUTILUS was the world's first nuclear powered submarine, launched in 1954 and christened by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The NAUTILUS made its first voyage under the North Pole in 1958. Soon afterward, French accounts claimed that while the submarine was cruising deep in Arctic waters it received telepathic messages from a research center maintained by the Westinghouse Corporation at Friendship, Maryland. The U.S. Navy denied that such a test had ever taken place, or that it was otherwise engaged in telepathy experiments.

 

*

 

However, several sources in France appeared which claimed otherwise. My own efforts to obtain confirmation of the French reports were unsuccessful.

The reports held that such major U.S. corporations as Westinghouse, General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., and Bell Telephone in Boston had begun telepathy research in 1958.

The aim was to develop thought transmission by telepathy, to record and produce telepathic signals, and to determine the amplitude and frequencies on which telepathy operated.

 

*

 

According to the French sources, President Eisenhower had received a study prepared by the Rand Corporation of Los Angeles, a "think tank" under contract to the armed forces and other U.S. government agencies.

The report was said to recommend studying the use of telepathy to establish communication with submarines, particularly those cruising in waters under the Polar Ice Cap where radio communication channels were particularly difficult.

 

*

 

Westinghouse's Friendship Laboratory allegedly undertook just such an experiment with the U.S.S. NAUTILUS, linking one person on Land (the sender or inductor) with another person in the submarine (the receiver or inductee), while the vessel was submerged. Representatives of the U.S. Navy and Air Force were present during the experiment, according to the reports.

The original French reports fixed the starting date as July 25, 1959. The tests continued daily for a total of sixteen days. The person in charge was identified as Colonel William H. Bowers, director of the Biological Department of the Air Force research institute and the man who directed the experiments at Friendship.

Later accounts identified the sender or inductors as "Smith" a student at Duke University, who was confined in one of the Westinghouse laboratory's buildings during the experimental period.

 

*

 

The procedure was designed to have Smith transmit "visual impressions" twice daily at specified times.

Using methods developed by J. B. Rhine at the Parapsychology Laboratory, Duke University, Durham, N.C., a controlled timing device shuffled one thousand ESP cards in a revolving drum in such a manner as to drop five cards on a table, one at a time, at one-minute intervals. Smith pricked each card up as it came out of the drum, looked at it, and sought to memorize the image. At the same time, he drew a picture of the symbol (square, cross, star, wavy lines, or circle) on a piece of paper before him.

Each test thus produced a sheet of paper covered with five symbols. Smith sealed each paper into an envelope, which Col. Bowers locked into a cage.

 

*

 

At the same time, a Navy lieutenant, identified as "Jones," sat isolated in a stateroom on the NAUTILUS, functioning as the recipient of the images Smith sought to convey by telepathy.

Twice daily Jones drew five symbols on a sheet of paper, choosing from among the same symbols used by Smith. He placed the sheet inside an envelope, sealed it, and turned it over to his superior, Captain William R. Andersen.

The captain wrote the time and date of the experiment on the envelope and put it into a safe in his own cabin. During the sixteen-day experiment period, Jones saw no one else except for one sailor who brought him meals and performed other routine services.

 

*

 

The final segment of these events, as reported in France, began with the arrival of the NAUTILUS at Groton, its cruise completed.

The envelopes were removed from the commander's sage, sent by car under escort to the nearest military airfield, flown to Friendship Airport, near Baltimore, and then taken to Col. Bowers's laboratory. There the two sets of sheets were taken from their envelopes, dates and times matched with each other, and the results tabulated. In over 70 percent of the cases, the figures tallied: Jones had correctly "guessed" three-fourths of the images seen by Smith.

 

*

 

I was put off by these reports, particularly by the high score ascribed to these experimental subjects, and by their all-too-typical American names.

On the other hand, the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE had reported in November 8, 1958, that the Westinghouse Electric Corporation had begun to study ESP using specially designed apparatus.

Dr. Peter A. Castruccio, director of the company's newly organized Astronautic Institute, had spoken of the ESP studies as "very promising," with the caution that "a lot more work must be done before we can come up with anything practical."

 

*

 

I questioned W. D. Crawford, Staff Section, Air Arm Division of Westinghouse, on the project and he said that "while these studies have scientific value, any conclusion at this time would be premature and inconclusive."

These statements were published in the NEWSLETTER of the Parapsychology Foundation (January-February 1959), as was a report that Bell Telephone Laboratories had considered an ESP research project but had abandoned it.

 

*

 

The NAUTILUS story is often referred to as hoax, since the French and other sources remain unconfirmed. However, the telepathic part of the story might have added interest to the Soviet effort, already four decades long by 1958.

 

*

 

In any event, in Paris, a prominent member of the Institut Metapsychique International, Raphel Kherumain, collected articles on the NAUTILUS story and mailed them to his long-time professional friend, Leonid Vasiliev.

Whether of fact of hoax, the implications that the Americans MIGHT be conducting ESP experiments did enter into the ongoing monolithic research machine which influenced the lives of countless men and women, and caused expenditures which by 1983 were supposed to amount to $500 million annually.

 

THE NOVOSIBIRSK CONNECTION

 

Across the Ob River from Novosibirsk, a pioneer town in western Siberia, lies Academgorodok, or Science City. For some four years, its Institute of Automation and Electrometry maintained a research unit with the nondescript name of "Special Department No. 8."

The building that housed the department could only be entered if one knew the code, changed each week, that opened the main door's lock.

The "No. 8" operation was devoted to experiments in information transmission by bioenergetic means.

 

*

 

As part of its program, physicists sought to discover the nature of "psi particles," the elusive elements that some Soviet scientists regarded as essential to the function of such psychic techniques as biocommunication and bioenergetics.

Novosibirsk was a logical place for such advanced studies. Its Science City was developed, after World War II, with such single-mindedness that even the names of the streets and city squares reflect it nature. For example, one could take a bus down Thermophysics Street, get off at the corner of Calculators Street, and walk across Institute of Hydrodynamics Square. The city contained some forty research centers and housed tens of thousands of scientists and their families.

 

*

 

When the No. 8 project was established in 1966, some sixty researchers were brought to Science City from other parts of the USSR.

One of them, Dr. August Stern, provided an account of the department's operation after he migrated to France in 1977.

He told the NEW YORK TIMES that the project's director, a Soviet officer, Vitaly Perov, had shown special "deference to two visitors," presumably KGB officers, "who came in the early days" of the project "to check on the installations."

 

*

 

Theory and application of psi principles were part of the experiments. Stern dealt with aspects of theoretical physics, designed to solve the enigma of psychic energies flowing between living things.

 

*

 

The center's elaborate equipment, he said, had "cost many millions." In line with other Soviet experiments, the Novosibirsk center did such things as applying electric shocks to kittens to see whether their mother, three floors above, would react to their experience in a telepathic way.

This type of experiment was similar to a rumored test in which baby rabbits were taken down below sea level in a Russian submarine, the killed, while the mother rabbit remained ashore, her reactions monitored by measuring brain and heart functions.

 

*

 

Project No. 8 included telepathy-type distance experiments among people.

Inductors, or senders, were stimulated in one group of rooms, while recipients were placed elsewhere, their responses monitored on closed-circuit television.

The center also undertook the study of electromagnetic forces in person-to-person and mind-over-matter experiments. Among laboratory animals used in the project were monkeys.

 

*

 

Stern recalled further details: "There were also experiments with photon waves, in which frogs' eyes were used as a more sensitive measuring instrument than a machine.

Another experiment involved putting bacteria on two sides of a glass plate to see whether a fatal disease could be transmitted through the glass. It was reasoned that if this could be done, it would show that photons - light particles - accounted for some inexplicable forms of communication."

 

*

 

Stern did not succeed in the project he had been assigned, and which he regarded as a legitimate scientific challenge. In fact, the whole of No. 8 was dissolved in 1969, although it was much too early to achieve definitive results.

Stern concluded that the shut-down reflected "a change in attitude of power balance in the Kremlin." Presumably, Moscow authorities had decided on different administrative or research tactics in dealing with psychic studies.

 

*

 

Stern's recollections concerning photon waves have since been confirmed. Three researchers at Novosibirsk's Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and at the Institute of Automation and Electrometry (Siberian Section, USSR Academy of Science) are credited with undertaking the key experiment on the problem.

They were Vlail Kanachevy, Simon Shchurin, and Ludmilla Mikhailova. Their experiment, designed to establish photon communication between cells of living organisms, has been listed in the State Register of Discoveries by the Committee for Invention and Discoveries, which functioned under the USSR Council of Ministers.

An English translation of their paper appeared in the JOURNAL OF PARAPHYSICS (Vol. 7, No. 2, 1973) as "Report from Novosibirsk: Communication between Cells."

Their experiment indicated that cells could communicate illness, such as a virus infection, despite the fact the cells were physically separated.

The tests showed that when one group of cells was contaminated with a virus, the adjacent group - although separated by quartz glass - "caught the disease." When regular glass was used to separate the two cell groups, the non-contaminated cells remained healthy.

 

*

 

The experimenters linked their idea to the concept prominent in Soviet bioenergetics research: the existence of unknown communication channels in living cells for the transfer of information - "a language of waves and radiation," as Shchurin called it.

The medical researcher added these comments: "Why should information on all the processes of life be necessarily transmitted by chemical means, which are certainly not the most economical methods? After all, any chemical change is primarily an interaction of electrons, complicated formations that carry a reserve of energy. In colliding with a substance, they would either transfer this energy to it or radiate it in the form of photons, or light particles.

"Today there are no methods for studying the specific character of photon radiations, the constant normal radiation or normal cells. We decided to evade the ban imposed by physics by creating an artificial situation. We subjected cells taken from an organism to extreme effects to observe the character of radiations emitted by them, That the cell radiated photons was known. But perhaps the cell was able to perceive them, too? Our experiments provided the answers to this question."

 

*

 

The barrier of quartz glass permitted neither viruses nor chemical substances to travel between the two vessels inhabited by the cells. Yet, as Shchurin picturesquely put it, "the affected cells virtually cried out loud about the danger" when they were attacked by the virus, and "their cry freely penetrated the barrier of quartz glass which permitted ultra-violet waves to pass.

Something highly improbable happened. These waves were not only perceived by the neighboring cells, they also conveyed the sickness to the neighboring cells."

 

*

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Cross Reference

Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpathur_Narayana_Bhattathiri

 

Narayana's dear vyakarana guru, Achyuta Pisharati, was struck with paralysis. Unable to see his pain, by yogic strength and by way of Gurudakshina, Bhattathri is said to have taken the disease upon himself and relieved his guru.

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Cross Reference

The Narayaniyam of Narayana Bhattatiri

http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/mirrors/vv/literature/narayaniyam/naraint.html

 

The circumstances which led to the composition of the Narayaniyam by Bhattatiri in his   27th. year are as follows. His Guru in Sanskrit grammar, Achyuta Pisharoti, fell victim   to a severe attack of paralysis and suffered unbearable pain. Bhattatiri, the devoted   disciple that he was, could not bear the suffering of the Guru. He therefore fervently   prayed that the disease may be transferredº to him and his Guru freed of suffering. It happened as he wanted and soon, while Pisharoti recovered, the fell disease made   Bhattatiri a cripple.

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º Cross Reference

Sreebhagavathy Spiritual Publication. Vol III. Issue 1. October 2004 – March 2005. Perumbavoor, Kerala: Arsha Vidyapeedam.

 

How the process of transfer...overlapping...mapping...is done...in any case...according to the Hindu scriptures...is explained in detail...in Malayalam...

Written around 0901 p.m. Monday, March 05, 2007

Revised around 0904 p.m. Monday, March 05, 2007

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Although the No. 8 project was shut down and sections of it transferred to other cities, animal research in information transmission continued in Science City.

A Novosibirsk toxicologist, Dr. S. V. Speransky, discovered a form of telepathy between starving and normally nourished mice. He observed that impulses from hungry mice were transmitted in such a manner that the non-starving mice acted as if they, themselves, were famished.

The most complete account of the Speransky experiment appeared in PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN THE USSR (Part III), translated by Larissa Vilenskaya from the researcher's original manuscript.

 

*

 

As a toxicologist, Speransky's primary interest was the impact of poisons on living organisms; the mind-to-mind reaction among the mice was encountered accidentally. Speransky's "upper mice" lived on in the fourth-floor laboratory, while the "lower mice" were kept in the basement.

In some experiments, the upper mice were starved, in others, they were nourished. Out of the thirty experiments, results in twenty-seven were positive: Non-starving mice responded to the suffering of their "friends," who were several stories removed; in only three cases were the results negative.

 

*

 

Refining his methodology, Speransky engaged in additional series of experiments, varying sex, weight and other variables.

He found that the "biological significance of the rapid increase in weight if mice which received signals about starvation from their `friends' is clear: a danger of starvation has to give them an additional stimulus to be sated."

In other words, telepathy-like signals warned the non-starving mice that food was short, so they increased food consumption and storage within their bodies.

 

*

 

Speransky drew this conclusion: "Undoubtedly, mentioning that the transmission of information occurred beyond ordinary channels of perception will remind the reader of such notions as telepathy, extrasensory perception, and `biological radio-communication.' It is possible to suppose that the transmission of information about starvation pertains to this type of phenomenon? We think so, but cannot strictly affirm it at present. It is only clear that the transmission of information about starvation in conditions of our experiments goes beyond ordinary forms of interaction of animals. Therefore, we propose to call it extraordinary transmission of information."

 

*

 

Actually, related phenomena had been recorded by Western researchers. Sir Alister Hardy, Professor Emeritus of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford University, had considered the possibility that telepathic communication among animals might even affect evolution and adaptation.

In an essay on "Biology and ESP," Professor Hardy suggested that animal habits might be spread by "telepathic-like means," and that a "psychic pool of existence" might function among members of a species by some method "akin" to telepathy.

 

*

 

Speransky linked his findings about communication between mice to work done by Gulyaev with his auragram on humans, by Sergeyev in human brain activity, and by Presman on the influence of electromagnetic fields upon living organism. A. S. Presman's work, notably his book ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND LIFE (New York, 1970), is internationally known.

 

*

 

One rare positive reference to parapsychology-related work to appear in (what was) an East German publication was printed in NEUE DEUTSCHLAND, the East Berlin daily published by the Socialist Unity Party, May 15, 1982.

In an article on "Man, Animals and Magnetism," Professor Hans Weiss and Dr. Jurgen Hellebrand discussed the question of whether a correlation between electromagnetic fields and life processes does, in fact, exist. They found that the views of physicists, chemists, and biologists vary greatly.

 

*

 

They cited Presman's work, notably his references to the apparent ability of snails and birds to orient themselves through the earth's magnetic field. The two authors denounced popular claims for magnetic healing devices as "clearly humbug," but stated that in such fields as food production further basic research "may permit developments leading to practical applications."

 

*

 

As a leading research center, Novosibirsk was a natural contact point for long-distance experiments in telepathy. The top Soviet scientist, Professor Ippolite Kogan, arranged a long-distance test from his Bio-Communication Laboratory in Moscow to the Novosibirsk laboratory.

Kogan reported on this experiment, in absentia, to a meeting at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1969. The test concentrated on the telepathic transmission of the identity of various objects, with Yuri Kamensky in Moscow trying to communicate the images to Karl Nikolayev in Novosibirsk. The methods used corresponded to other long-distance tests.

 

*

 

However, Kogan noted that the recipient in the Siberian city, "did not have an assortment of items before him," as was arranged later during the Moscow-Kersh tests, so he "could not give specific names for the object he saw telepathically.

Kogan said that the Novosibirsk recipient was limited to listing "the characteristics" of each item, which restricted statistical analysis of the experimental results to "an approximation."

 

*

 

In one such test, the transmitting telepath in the Soviet capital was asked by supervising scientists "to suggest an object they had chosen randomly." Six segments of test were used to transmit images of six different objects. Half of these tests gave positive results.

 

THE KGB TAKES CONTROL

 

During the Cold War it became a commonplace observation that the Committee for State Security (KOMITET GOSUNDARSTVENNOI BEZPASTNOSTI, or KGB for short) permeated Soviet society at all levels.

Its role in psi research was, clearly, a minor aspect of KGB activity.

The KGB's uneasy role in psi research illustrated that it was not, and could not have been, a monolithic agency. Its sometimes contradictory aims, as well as its enormous domestic and international scope and diversity, made total efficiency impossible.

 

*

 

Western analyst have concluded that the KGB took control of Soviet studies in parapsychology no later than 1970.

More precisely, the agency appears to have taken a serious interest in the field during this period, and its involvement after that became more active and consistent.

 

*

 

The KGB's alternately benign and hostile attitude toward psychic studies is well illustrated by the rise, fall, and resurrection of the bioenergetics laboratory attached to Moscow's A. S. Popov Scientific-Technical Society for Radio Engineering, Electronics and Communication (known as NTORES, the acronym of its Russian name).

The original initiative for the Popov lab came from members of its Bionics Section in 1965, who suggested a series of telepathy experiments under the label "biological communication."

 

*

 

The new section met on October 11, 1965, and developed a three-point program:

(1) study and analysis of international literature on the subject;

(2) a synthesis of spontaneous telepathic phenomena previously observed; and

(3) a plan for laboratory-controlled telepathic experiments.

 

*

 

The resulting Laboratory for Bio-Information functioned on two levels, private and official. The core of the operation was a team of unpaid volunteers, who were permitted to work on premises leased by the Popov institute, and whose activity was "officially authorized."

The little band of parapsychology enthusiasts inside the Bio-Communication Laboratory was well aware that they operated under official scrutiny, that at least one KGB operative was a staff member and other regularly reported to the agency.

Much of their work was clearly visible, such as the long-distance telepathy experiments, but other studies were never published.

 

*

 

Among the unpublished studies was the work of Yuri Korabelnikov and Ludmilla Tishchenko-Korabelnikova, a husband-and-wife team who organized more than eight thousand clairvoyance tests.

They placed different geometric designs of numbers inside opaque envelopes. According to the group's compilations, the two psychics were able to name about 70 percent of the images correctly, compared to 20 percent expected by probability.

 

*

 

In addition to the existence of rival "idealistic" and "materialistic" cliques, there was a continuous effort on the part of publicity-conscious Edward Naumov to push for more research in psychokinesis, while the laboratory's director, Professor Kogan, favored telepathy experiments.

Barbara Ivanova, then employed as a government translator, engaged in a series of experiments that included remote-viewing and distant healing. Larissa Vilenskaya, impressed by the performances of Rosa Kuleshova, investigated dermo-optic vision and developed techniques for teaching this ability.

 

*

 

One of Ivanova's early students, Boris Ivanov, eventually denounced her as bringing an "idealist" taint to healing research. Ivanov himself specialized in "charging" water with "bio-energy," a technique that had long been examined by a Canadian researcher, Dr. Bernard Grad of McGill University, Montreal.

After Ivanov left the Popov laboratory to continue his studies at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a curtain of secrecy dropped over his work.

 

*

 

The KGB reorganized the Popov laboratory in 1978 along lines that favored military-oriented research.

The new unit, under the direction of academician Yuri Kobzarev, was established after three years of soul-searching.

Professor Kobzarev was considered by Moscow researchers as a sound scientist but, to the degree that this was possible within Soviet society, something of a "political innocent."

 

*

 

As such, he occupied the position of an academic figurehead for the new Laboratory for Bio-Electronics, while the day-to-day functions of the unit rested in the firm hands of his deputy, a KGB functionary who had been active within the old laboratory and was instrumental in its eventual dissolution.

 

*

 

Debates regarding "inhumane" projects often arose. Determined to avoid these, the authorities did not permit within the unit's secretariat, its council, or the laboratory team, the presence of anyone who might oppose "inhumane" projects.

 

*

 

To enforce this policy, a strict screening process was established, complete with "Rules for Admittance to Membership in the Central Public Laboratory for Bio-Electronics" (December 7, 1978).

The rules specified that all potential staff members had to be interviewed by the lab's directors, commit themselves in writing to adhere to the rules, file two passport-type portrait photographs, and submit a statement of three to four pages showing "familiarity with bio-electronic problems." The laboratory, in tern, established a file on each individual and issued an identity card.

 

*

 

Once admitted to the staff, members were forbidden to give lectures or publish papers "without the laboratory's prior permission." They were not permitted to "engage in any research concerning the structure, or the improved quality of biofields" outside the laboratory, without the prior permission of the Scientific-Technological Section.

 

*

 

In order to widen the geographic scope of bio-electronic research, Popov institutes in Leningrad, Kiev, Alma Ata, Kishinev, Taganrog, Minsk, and Tallin were urged to establish similar laboratories and engage psychics for experiments.

In addition to KGB guidance of the Bio-Electronics Laboratory, the military was well represented among its officers. The full extent and purpose of the military interests remains vague due to lack of documentation. The military presence, however, was known to be large.

 

*

 

Among eighteen members selected on October 31, 1978, two were senior scientists at the Soviet Ministry of Defense: Jan I. Koltunov and Nikolai A. Nosov; a third, Mikhail A. Sukhikh, was a Candidate of Military Sciences at the Ministry of Defense.

 

*

 

An appraisal of the KGB's role in Russian parapsychology must be acknowledge that the agency was an ever-present fact of Soviet life, rather than an omnisciently sinister force.

Thus, when we observe that the KGB slowly tightened its hold on psi studies, it simply means that - with a lot of backing and filling - it started to take the psychic potential seriously, examined it more closely, and began to guide its use toward serious application.

 

*

 

Evidence for this interest can be found in diverse areas.

When émigré August Stern reported on the carefully guarded operations of a laboratory in Novosibirsk, he made two significant references to the KGB's role in the operation of this unit in particular and in psi studies in general.

He expressed the belief that two visitors who had inspected the Novosibirsk installations during its early days were KGB men, and stated that experiments in Leningrad and Novosibirsk were later reported to have been combined into one Moscow laboratory, operated under KGB auspices.

 

*

 

Stern understood in 1974 that all psi tests had been curtailed, except for the "secret KGB laboratory," but when he was told that something "important" and "very dangerous" had been discovered in the course of these laboratory experiments, Stern said, "I never believed it. How can the KGB do effective research? They need real scientists."

Speaking from the elitist viewpoint of a scientists, Stern may well have underestimated the results that can be achieved under police pressure, if not guidance.

 

*

 

One American researcher stated bluntly: "The KGB simply discovered or decided that parapsychology phenomena are real, that they work, that all theoretical wrangling be damned, and that the only thing that counts are results - and they just went ahead, full steam, to get more reliable results to suit their "specific aims."

 

*

 

The pattern that emerged of the KGB's rule in Soviet psi research was one of increasing secrecy about actual research with the USSR, accompanied by fluctuating tolerance of encouragement of the exposure of peripheral, irrelevant, or even inaccurate information concerning Soviet studies.

Three stages in this process can be identified; they were influenced by the role and policies of Yuri A. Andropov, who held the post of KGB chairman from 1967 to 1982. On November 12, 1982, Andropov was named General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the country's top position, succeeding Brezhnev, who died a few days before.

 

*

 

The "golden age" of Soviet psi research, the first stage of its contemporary development, lasted through most of the 1960s.

It began with Professor Vasiliev's spirited advocacy of the research he had long proposed; it became obscured after Andropov took control of the KGB, which intruded more firmly into scientific activities, including the monitoring, supervision, and actual conducting of experiments.

 

*

 

From mid-1968 on, and quite noticeable by 1970, contact between Soviet psi researchers and their colleagues abroad began to dry up. By 1975, the Laboratory for Bio-Communication was disbanded.

Publication of findings by such authorities as Professor Kogan ceased, while rumors concerning secret KGB-operated laboratories circulated.

This was a period of transition, with new plans made, blueprints prepared, staff tentatively selected, some projects at least publicly abandoned, and other pursued in an exploratory, probing, and even confused manner.

 

*

 

The KGB's influence on scientific research generally had been uneven. While it had the task of assuring maximum ideological and political loyalty among scientists, it had to also encourage optimum productivity.

This called for a relatively open exchange of information, including a monitoring of scientific developments abroad. But the sheer volume of data in science and technology available openly - at meeting, in journals and books - in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan during any given day must have severely taxed the transmission and translation facilities available to Soviet science.

 

*

 

Even so, the skilled manpower needed to evaluate, analyze, and apply such data was limited. Soviet scholars found KGB censorship of incoming mail uneven and heavy-handed; publications were often simply stolen in transit and sold on a specialized black market.

 

*

 

Soviet science, arts, and literature experienced a "thaw" of several years during the regime of Nikita Khrushchev. When direction of the KGB was taken over by Andropov, controls over Soviet society were tightened; flexibility, unpredictability, and changes in policies thereafter characterized the agency's operations.

 

*

 

In 1975, foreign observers detected a distinct tightening-up of KGB and Communist Party control over the academy.

The weekly magazine U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORTS (March 1, 1967) described this development as "one of the most important Soviet internal changes since World War II."

 

 

The magazine quoted one analyst as saying "It is right up there with Stalin's death and the reversal of Khrushchev's reforms, because it destroys the only important island of independence left in the country."

 

CENTERS OF USSR PSI STUDIES

 

The limited information and massive disinformation available regarding the KGB takeover of Soviet psi research did not in itself contribute to an in-depth analysis of the Soviet psi research machine, especially when its large size was considered, along with the known extent of its multidiscliplinary activities.

For example, through privileged sources available to me, I was able to confirm by 1983, that the arms and functions of the machine were so extensive as to include all of the following twenty-nine research centers.

 

A. S. Popov All-Union Scientific and Technical Society of Radio Technology and Electrical Engineering, Moscow; Laboratory of Bio-Information, 1965-1975; Laboratory of Bio-Energetics, established 1978.

 

Scientific Research Institute of General and Educational Psychology, USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, Moscow.

 

Baumann Institute of Advanced Technology, Moscow; Laboratory of Dr. Wagner.

 

Institute of Energetics, Moscow; Laboratory of Dr. Sokolov.

 

Moscow State University; Laboratory of Prof. Kholodov.

 

State Instrument of Engineering College, Department of Physics, Moscow.

 

Moscow Institute of Aviation.

 

I. V. Pavlov Institute, Moscow.

 

Institute of Reflexology, Moscow.

 

Moscow University, Department of Theoretical Physics.

 

Department of Geology, Moscow State University.

 

Interdepartmental Commission for Coordination of Study on the Biophysical Effect, Moscow (dowsing research).

 

Adjunct Laboratory of Medical and Biological Problems, Moscow.

 

University of Leningrad, Laboratory on the Physiology of Labor; Department of Physiology, Laboratory of Biological Cybernetics.

 

A. A. Uktomskii Physiological Institute, Leningrad.

 

Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Department of Cybernetics.

 

University of Leningrad, Bekhterev Brain Institute.

 

Research Institute of Psychology, Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences.

 

Institute of Problems of Information Transmission of the USSR Academy of Science, Moscow.

 

Pulkovo Observatory, Leningrad.

 

Filatov Institute, Laboratory of the Physiology of Vision, Odessa.

 

Scientific-Industrial Unit "Quantum," Krasnodar.

 

State University of Georgia, Tbiblisi (Tiflis).

 

Kazakhstan State University, Alma Ata, Kazakhstan.

 

Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev.

 

Institute of Clinical Physiology, Kiev.

 

Scientific Research Institute of Biophysics, Department of Cybernetics, Puschino.

 

Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Kharkov.

 

Institute of Automation and Electricity, Special Department No. 8, Siberian Academy of Science (1965-1969), Novosibirsk.

 

Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Novosibirsk.

 

THREE MAJOR DIRECTIONS WITHIN

THE SOVIET RESEARCH MACHINE

 

Although the full extent of the discoveries and details of the Soviet research have remained shrouded in deep secrecy before and after the end of the Cold War, it has been possible to identify three major directions - CODE BY TELEPATHY; BOOSTING THE HUMAN BRAIN; and AMPLIFIED MIND POWER. These early alarmed American analysts, and partially account for the American responses.

 

CODE BY TELEPATHY

 

The most spectacular experiments undertaken by the Moscow Laboratory of Bio-Information used the Soviet Union's star telepathists -Yuri Kamensky, a biophysicist, and Karl Nikolayev, an actor.

The two men first discovered each other's capabilities in thought transference when they met socially. Even before the Popov research group arranged formal tests, their skills attracted a mixture of curiosity, awe, and doubt in Moscow society.

 

*

 

The first long-distance experiment took place in 1966, with Kamensky staying in Moscow, acting as sender of the telepathic signals, while Nikolayev served as receiver in Novosibirsk, the science research center in western Siberia. The Moscow daily KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA (July 9, 1966) reported that the experiment consisted of two types.

 

*

 

The first, modeled after tests pioneered in the United States by Dr. J. B. Rhine at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University, employed a deck of cards made up of five different geometric symbols: cross, circle, star, wavy lines, and square.

The newspaper account did not provide details on the experiment's design, nor did it publish specific results.

It concluded, however, that "the number of correct identifications of symbols was higher than correct random identifications, as computed according to the theory of probability."

The report said, "The reception of other symbols was disturbed by considerable associative interference," a condition that would be "reduced in the future."

 

*

 

The second experiment aimed at the transfer of images of concrete objects. The paper reported that Nikolayev, in Novosibirsk, "received quite clearly" the images of dumbbells and of a screwdriver sent from Moscow by Kamensky.

The Moscow paper commented: "It is quite possible that these results will equally disappoint the most ardent adherents of telepathy and its opponents.

The former, because no miracle occurred, because there were no perfect identifications.

The latter, because the experiment demonstrated the reality of the phenomenon and produced valuable data, both positive and negative, which pointed up the need for continued research."

 

*

 

A follow-up experiment, this time between Moscow and Leningrad, took place a year later. It was designed to harness the emotional content of crisis telepathy into a code transmission.

The Popov group set out to design an experiment that would (a) be suited to the skills of its telepathists, (b) utilize emotional elements, and (c) achieve specific information transmission.

 

*

 

The problem faced by the Moscow experimenters is a basic one in efforts to use psychic powers for practical purposes. In designing the Moscow-Leningrad experiment, they had to come up with an answer to the question: "How do you tame a telepathic flash; how do you transform a split-second impression into a meaningful message?"

 

*

 

The answer was provided by Dr. Genady Sergeyev, then a staff member of the A. A. Uktomskii Physiological Institute in Leningrad and senior experimenter with Nina Kulagina.

Sergeyev, who had been a World War II radio operator stationed in the Baltic region, decided that a short outburst of emotion might have sufficient impact to form the Morse Code equivalent of a letter of the alphabet.

 

*

 

The experimental design called for a message of aggressive emotion lasting fifteen or thirty seconds to act as the equivalent of a dot in Morse Code, while a message of forty-five seconds was to be the equivalent of a sash.

To generate sufficient violence, Kamensky was instructed to imagine that he was giving Mikolayev a severe beating, lasting wither the short of the long period.

 

*

 

The experiment did not assume that Nikolayev would experience the "code beating" consciously or intellectually.

Rather, it was designed to be registered by his brain and/or cardiovascular system.

To measure these effects of the telepathic transmission, Nikolayev sat alone in a soundproof test chamber in Leningrad University's physiology laboratory. His heart action was monitored by an electrocardiograph, while his brain function was recorded by an electroencephalograph.

 

BOOSTING THE HUMAN BRAIN

 

The work of Professor Ippolite M. Kogan, who directed the Bio-Communication Laboratory of the Popov Institute in Moscow until 1975, has disappeared into a fog of silence.

But either Kogan or his successors may well have continued this work,

The AiResearch Manufacturing Company, in its January 14, 1976 report to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, suggested that "further theoretic and experimental developments along the lines outlined by Kogan are continuing in the Soviet Union."

The report added: "Kogan posed to many interesting and challenging questions for himself and his colleagues not to have delved into them further. Based on the well-known predilection of Soviet physicists to solve difficult and challenging problems, and their excellent training in modern physics, the possibility that a team of Soviet physicists is at work to systematically uncover and learn the physical mechanisms of parapsychological events is highly probable."

 

*

 

The California research group used the term Novel Biophysical Information Transfer (NBIT) to label the telepathic aspects of psi when it stated "Had Kogan not presented such a clear and sound proposal six years ago, one might have wondered if Soviet physicists have any interest at all in novel biophysical information transfer (NBIT) mechanisms. Clearly, if one could find out where Kogan is working and what he is doing, this question would be answered."

 

*

 

But Kogan had not been heard from since his Moscow Bio-Information Laboratory was closed down in 1975, and he was not a member of the staff of the laboratory that replaced it three years later.

Kogan's background in the theory and practice of radio-electronics, together with his dramatic tests in long-distance telepathy, made his research particularly significant to studies in the transmission in Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) radio waves.

These research areas were of specific interest to shore-to-submarine communications. The AiResearch study made the following points:

"Assuming that the USSR started a special NBIT program sometime in 1970, by now they could have developed some sensitive instruments to detect, monitor and analyze VLF and ELF radiations for possible instrument content, as Kogan suggested should be done.

 

"Also, they must have been instrumental in developing sensors to monitor fluctuations in the human body's electric and magnetic fields, and they may have a team of scientists studying the properties of bio-organic molecules and their response to electromagnetic ELF/VLF radiation."

 

*

 

The report suggested that Soviet researchers were using electronic means for boosting telepathic communications. "The Russians may now be implementing the next logical step," it said, "namely to reinforce, enhance or aid NBIT in certain trained or gifted individuals after having discovered the basic communication carriers."

How could such enhanced telepathic or clairvoyant ability be utilized?

The most dramatic means possible, despite its science fiction connotations, is tuning in on people's minds.

 

*

 

Less precisely focused monitoring was well under way. The Soviet Union operated an elaborated an elaborate eavesdropping network, with several monitoring stations on the eastern seaboard of the United States, to record radio-telephone conversations among U.S. government agencies, private corporations, and individuals.

The monitoring of more intimate communications, even "thought reading," can be seen as an extrapolation from these undertakings - particularly if it can extend to the mind-reasoning of prominent decision-making officials.

 

*

 

It may be taken for granted that Moscow was interested, on a continuous basis, in monitoring extremely low frequency communications between U.S. navel command posts and submarines at sea, then in an experimental state. Tuning in on the mind processes and decisions of individuals, on ELF/VLF wavelengths, could have been hardly less tempting.

The AiResearch report noted: "If experiments which generate special ELF/VLF waves are being conducted, it may will travel across the world."

It added that these frequencies may be "undetectable by the usual relatively broadband frequency detectors," and commented: "It is rational to assume that the Soviets pursue the investigation of various physical methods that might serve novel biophysical information transmission mechanisms. Whether or not ELF/VLF mechanisms explain parapsychological events may be a moot question, if these mechanisms can be utilized for human information transfer."

 

*

 

In other words: If it works, who cares what you call it?

 

*

 

To discover the "carrier mechanism" of this capacity, the AiResearch team undertook what it called "a short speculative study" and decided that three methods were "compatible with current modern physics." These included:

(1) Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves;

(2) Neutrinos, based on the photon theory of neutrinos;

(3) Quantum-mechanical *****(UI - I think the sign is alpha???) waves, based on schizo-physical interpretation of basic QM [Quantum Mechanics] theory.

The report said that experiments in the United States and the Soviet Union in this field point to the ELF/VLF mechanisms, but "the other two possibilities cannot be ruled out."

 

*

 

Whether one uses such terms as NBIT, bio-communication, or the handy word telepathy, there is an awesome fascination in the prospect that a single mind may be monitored, or thought transference between two people intercepted, on an extremely low frequency receiver.

Medical electronics have perfected apparatus that come close to the frontier of such uses.

 

*

 

For years, Russian neurologists and psychologist had treated the human mind as little more than a complex electro-chemical apparatus. As such, they felt, it could function as the "recipient" of information or as an "inducer" of energies.

With skill, these faculties might be manipulated: made more sensitive, more powerful, more responsive to outside influence.

 

*

 

In his book entitled THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE, Kazhinsky had concluded that the human nervous system incorporates the elements of its own historic evolution.

He wrote: "Like all other parts of the living organism, nerve elements and nerve circuits perform adaptive and protective functions; that is, they adapt the organism to the influence of the environment, as well as to the influences of environmental factors.

"They have undergone changes and improvements for many thousands of years. Nature took care to equip all living matter with highly delicate nerve structures that have resulted in great improvement of all vital functions. Electromagnetic transmission of mental information over a distance is a vital function of the nervous system.

"This leads to a logically justified idea: the human central nervous system (including the brain) is a repository of highly sophisticated instruments of biological radio communication, in construction far superior to the latest instruments of technical radio communication.

"There may exist `living' instruments of technical biological communication still unknown to contemporary radio engineering. A thorough and original laboratory study of such `living' instruments may help us raise radio communication to an unprecedentedly high level, placing entirely new and vastly improved radio facilities at its disposal."

 

*

 

Kazhinsky disagreed with those who regarded the telepathic ability as a remnant from man's earlier stages of evolution.

Instead, he maintained that "the phenomenal capacity of a person to exert a mental influence over others from a distance is still in an embryonic stage."

He added: "Those who believe that this brain capacity is moribund, degenerating, etc., are wrong. On the contrary, it is the beginning of a new and higher stage of development of the human mind, on a new and firmer foundation, based on biological radio communication. This hypothesis is confirmed by a simple law of nature: the more a capacity is exercised, the keener it will become and the greater man's power over nature will be."

 

*

 

Kazhinsky's concepts were, in several ways, a prototype of some Soviet thinking in this field.

He notes the "insignificantly low energy emitted by the brain of the `biological radio transmitter' in the transference of sensations and experiences over distance."

He urged that efforts be made to develop instruments that can duplicate the `remarkably delicate and perfect natural instrument" that the brain represents in functioning as such a transmitter.

Kazhinsky bolstereds his arguments with a quotation from V. I. Lenin, "Sensation is the resulting effect of matter on our sensory organs." (MATERIALISM AND EMPIRIO-CRITICISM, Moscow, 1953).

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Personal Note

He urged that efforts be made to develop instruments that can duplicate the `remarkably delicate and perfect natural instrument" that the brain represents in functioning as such a transmitter.

There is a low cost option...to transform a man out there...into a superhuman...by making him a celibate for life...and train his mind...to elevate to higher levels...

In our world...we don’t have shortage of men...

You can train any number of men...that widely available cheap resource...especially with rampant unemployment...

But then you will have to throw away that materialist attitude...and take on...embrace...the spiritual attitude...to develop weapons of the mind...

Written around 0909 a.m. Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Revised around 1200 p.m. Tuesday, March 06, 2007

 

You may initially gun in...with high speed to develop such forbidden...formidable weapons...but the sad thing is...you can never use them...nor can any human...for the gods decide...

Written around 0913 a.m. Tuesday, March 06, 2007

 

For it will be like having a gun...with you...which if fired...will destroy the target...and its surroundings...as well as YOUR surroundings...including YOU...with recoil...

Action...reaction...

Written around 1203 p.m. Tuesday, March 06, 2007

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*

 

By 1961, Vasiliev's psychiatric colleague, Professor K.I. Platonov, was able to address a Kharkov meeting on telepathy and recall experiments he had conducted in 1924 at the All-Russian Congress of Psychoneurologists, Psychologists and Teachers in Leningrad.

Vasiliev, who was present during the original Congress, published Platonov's account in his book. During a meeting of the Congress's hypnological Section, a female subject, M., sat at the presidential table, facing the audience, while Platonov stood behind a blackboard that hid him from M., although he could be seen by the audience.

 

*

 

Platonov had told the audience earlier that, when he silently covered his face with his hands, he would try to put the subject to sleep hypnotically.

His report continued: "Having covered my face I formed a mental image of the subject M. falling asleep while talking to Prof. G. [who sat next to her on the dais]. I strenuously concentrated my attention on this for about one minute. The result was perfect: M. fell asleep within a few seconds. Awakening was effected in the same way. This was repeated several times."

 

*

 

Platonov's observations included the finding that, when he gave the subject the actual mental suggestion of saying "Go to sleep" or just "Sleep!" he didn't get any results. But when he wanted to conclude the experiment - he had positive results.

He noted that the subject woke up suddenly, "within a few seconds after I had started mentally visualizing her awakening." Platonov emphasized that the subject was "entirely unaware of the nature of the experiment."

 

*

 

Platonov said that his tests should prompt scientists to take these phenomena "extremely seriously."

He concluded that his findings give researchers "the right to search for means of finding a scientific, materialistic grounding, not only for the phenomena of telepathically inducing sleep, but for many other telepathic phenomena as well.

 

*

 

The crucial question was whether hypnosis/telepathy could influence men or women who were unaware of being targets.

Many cases had been reported, similar to Platonov's mental influence on the subject M., which seem to prove that the subject can be hypnotized while unaware of the experiments.

It is likely that the pioneer work done by Soviet scientists in this field has led to more intensive and wider studies.

 

*

 

Soviet long-distance telepathy experiments are a matter of record; we may assume that the "reinforcement" or "mind amplification" by hypnosis or drugs, of telepathic senders (inducers) and receivers had been attempted in all types of telepathy tests.

 

WASHINGTON'S DILEMMA

 

By 1969, the growing evidence that the Soviets were undertaking research into amplified mind power techniques led to the American dilemma of how to respond to the "psi situation."

The American science community was not predisposed to undertaking a significant step toward "psychic research," and many government and intelligence leaders feared ridicule.

 

*

 

But at the very least it had to be determined if there was any "potential threat" to American security if the Soviets had developed an array of amplified mind power techniques.

 

*

 

After what may have been a lot of soul searching, the CIA responded in 1973 by funding a classified exploratory project at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) placing it under the guidance of a physicist, Dr. H. E. Putoff.

For years, the CIA involvement remained vague. But in 1996, Puthoff published a report entitled CIA-INITIATED REMOTE VIEWING PROGRAM AT STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE (JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION Vol. 10, No. 1. pp 63-76, 1996.) [NOTE: this document can be found in Section IV of this site.]

 

*

 

Up until 1973, it was commonly understood that the American intelligence community had taken no interest in psychic research or ESP. But in 1981, the following document suggesting otherwise was declassified and released.

 

OUTLINE OF 1952 CIA PROJECT ON ESP

 

The following text, released by the Central Intelligence Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, deals with a twofold project designed to examine the potential use of extrasensory perception for "practical problems of intelligence."

The author of the memorandum outlined a project of at least three years in length and estimated the cost for its first year. The project was envisioned as aiming at reliability and repeatability among "exceptionally gifted individuals" and at the utilization of "scattered" ESP results through "statistical concentration."

Names, telephone numbers, and other items that might permit the identification of individuals or departments were deleted by the CIA at the time the document was released in 1981, and such deletions are noted in the text.

There are no indications whether the project was actually undertaken, nor is it clear whether the text is an interoffice memorandum between two agency officials or was addressed to a CIA official by a researcher working under a contract or grant outside the agency.

The memorandum is dated January 7, 1952, and its full text follows without quotes:

 

If, as now appears to us established beyond questions, there is in some persons a certain amount of capacity for extrasensory perception (ESP), this fact, and consequent developments leading from it, should have significance for professional intelligence service. Research on the problems of extrasensory perception (ESP), this fact, and consequent developments leading from it, should have significance for professional intelligence service. Research on the problems of extrasensory perception has been in the hands of a few very workers and has not been directed to the purpose here in mind, or to any practical application whatever. However, having established certain basic facts, now, after long and patient efforts and more resistance than assistance, it now appears that we are ready to consider practical application as a research problem in itself.

There are two main lines of research that hold specific promise and need further development with a view to application to the intelligence project. These two are by no means all that could be done to contribute to that end; rather, everything that adds anything to our understanding of what is taking place in ESP, is likely to give us advantage in the problems of use and control. Therefore, the Rockefeller-financed project of finding the personality correlates of ESP and the excursions into the question of ESP in animals, recently begun, as well as several major lines of inquiry, are all to the good.

The two special projects on investigation that ought to be pushed in the interest of the project under discussion are, first, the search for and development of exceptionally gifted individuals who can approximate perfect success in ESP test performance, and, second, in the statistical concentration of scattered ESP performance, so as to enable an ultimately perfect reliability and application.

We have something definite to go on in each case, and it is with this in mind that we are inclined to make a serious effort to push the research in the direction of reliable application to the practical problem of intelligence.

First, a word about the "special subject": On a number of occasions, through the years, several different scientific investigators have, under conditions of excellent control, obtained strikingly long runs of unbroken success from subjects in ESP tests. The conditions allowed no alternative. At least one of them occurred with the target cards and experimenter in one building and the subject several hundred yards away in another.

Due to the elusive, unconscious nature of ESP ability, these same subjects could not reliably repeat, and during the years of investigation under the conditions of extreme limitations with which the work has had to be done, it has not been possible to solve the problem of overcoming this difficulty and bringing the capacity under reliable control. We have recently learned of two persons definitely reported to be able to keep up their rate of almost unbroken success over much longer stretches of time. These investigations have been going on in scientific laboratories, and from reports in our hands we have no reason to question their reliability. We have not been able to bring the subjects here or extend our investigation to the laboratories concerned. It looks, however, as if in these two cases the problem of getting and maintaining control over the ESP function has been solved. If it has, the rest of the way to practical application seems to us a matter of engineering with no insuperable difficulties. Even if there is anything wrong with one or both of these cases, this more extended control must come eventually, we think, and we have had in mind many lines of research, designed to try to bring it [about].

I shall not enlarge on the practical and technological developments that would be followed in bringing a capacity, such as that demonstrated in these card tests, of getting information in a practical situation. It will be seen that if a subject under control test conditions can identify the order of a deck of cards, several hundred years away in another building, or can "identify" the thought of another person several hundred miles away, the adaptation to the practical requirements for obtaining secret information should not give serious difficulty.

The other practice on which research should be concentrated, we believe, is that of developing ways of using small percentages of success in such a way that reliable judgment can be made. While we are still exploring the advantages of this instrument of application, we have gone far enough to see how it is entirely possible and practical to use a small percentage of success, above that expected by chance alone, so as to concentrate the slight significance attaching to a given trial to the point where reliance can be placed upon the final application to the problem in hand. I believe you went into this matter thoroughly enough with [name of individual or unit deleted] that I will not need to review her the actual devices and procedures by which this concentration of reliability is brought about.

If we were to undertake to push this research as far and as fast as we can reasonably well do in the direction of practical application to the problems of intelligence, it would be necessary to be exceedingly careful about thorough cloaking of the undertaking. I should not want anyone here in the [word or words deleted], except [two names apparently deleted] and myself to know about it. We are all three cleared for security purposes to the level of "Secret." I would perhaps feel bound to have confidential discussion on the matter with [name or names apparently deleted]. Funds necessary for the support of the work would understandably carry no identification and raise no questions.

If there is no reason why there could not be, at any time it was justified, a renegotiation of additional needs that might arise that cannot be anticipated at this stage, I should prefer to proceed with some restraint in estimating what such a project would involve in the matter of funds. I shall estimate a research team of five persons working on this project primarily. There will be no careful line drawn. Three will be a great deal of exchange and, of course, no designation in the [several words deleted] a separate unit. For our purposes at the moment, however, the [deleted] can consider that such a test might consist of [names apparently deleted], a well-qualified statistician and two research workers qualified not only to handle groups of subjects but assist in the evaluative procedures as well. The total salary estimate for these five people would be between $22,500 and $25,000. In order to take advantage of mechanical aid in the statistical work and such other matters as traveling expenses, it would be advisable to add $5,000 as a conservative estimate. I think $30,000 would be well spent on the first year. It is almost anyone's guess as to what the next year would lead us into, but it would almost certainly be more and probably a great deal more. I doubt if it would be profitable to try to fix it at this time.

Frustrated as we have been by having to deal in short-term projects and the wastefulness of effort that accompanies the attempt to do long-term research projects on that basis, I am about ready to say that without pretty definite assurance of at least a three-year program I should not want to try to assemble the personnel, design and research program and put the overall effort into what is really a major undertaking like this.

Much as I feel the urgency of having our country have as much a lead as possible in this matter, I do not think it is advisable to undertake it unless there is a certain amount of confidence on both sides of the agreement, and these short-term grants-in-aid are, after all, usually measures of limited confidence.

I might add that, while the Russians have both officially and through their leading psychologists disapproved of our kind of work, as they would have to do because of the philosophy of Marxian materialism, I have seen at least one reference to the fact that they have done experiments on our lines, giving a materialist interpretation. If you can give me any information on this, I would appreciate it. Sometime we might discuss what the Nazis undertook to do ...

 

CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE, 1981

 

Between 1969 and 1981, classified documentation regarding the Soviet psi research efforts had become abundant - but never released into the public, which remained ignorant of the "threat situation."

Congressional leaders, however, were provided copies and extracts of the most sensitive documents.

The result was that in June 1981, the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives issued a staff report that called for "a serious assessment" of parapsychology research in the United States.

 

*

 

The report took note of "the potentially powerful and far-reaching implications of knowledge in this field" and observed that the Soviet Union "is widely acknowledged to be supporting such research at a far higher and more official level" than is the case in the United States.

 

*

 

The report submitted the following questions "for congressional consideration": "Is funding for such research adequate? What is the credibility of such research in the sciences, humanities, and religions? How does the public perceive the credibility of research in this field from both a subjective and objective point of view? What should the Federal role in such research be and what agencies are or should be involved in such research?"

 

*

 

These suggestions and questions were part of a comprehensive SURVEY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ISSUES, PRESENT AND FUTURE, commissioned by the committee.

 

*

 

In a section on "Research on the Physics of Consciousness (Parapsychology)," it defined the issue this way:

"Recent experiments in remote-viewing and other studies of parapsychology suggest that there exists an `interconnectiveness' of the human mind with other minds and with matter. This interconnectiveness would appear to be functional in nature and amplified by intent and emotion."

 

*

 

The report noted the history of studies in parapsychology generally, and in telepathy and psychokinesis specifically, and said: "Attempts in history to obtain insights into the ability of the human mind to function in as-yet misunderstood ways goes back thousands of years. Only recently, serious and scientifically based attempts have been made to understand and measure the functional nature of mind-mind and mind-matter interconnectiveness.

"Experiments on mind-mind interconnectiveness have yielded some encouraging results. Experiments in mind-matter interconnectiveness (psychokinesis) have yielded less compelling and more enigmatic results. The implications of these experiments is that the human mind may be able to obtain information independent of geography and time."

 

*

 

The report acknowledged there could be "no certainty as to what results will emerge from basic and exploratory research" now underway, so that its potential importance and "its implications for the United States and the world at large can only be speculated upon." It then listed several categories on which parapsychological studies might have an impact.

 

*

 

One of these categories had to do with national defense.

"In the area of national defense, there are obvious implications of one's ability to identify distant sites and affect sensitive instruments of other humans. A general recognition of the degree of interconnectiveness of mind could have far-reaching social and political implications for this Nation and the world."

 

*

 

The congressional report noted that studies in parapsychology had "received relatively low funding." It attributed this to the fact that "credibility and potential yield of such research is widely questioned, although less today than ever before."

It added: "Thus far, the quality of research that even the strongest proponent of such research believe is necessary has been lacking due in part to low funding."

 

*

 

Such cautious, obviously well informed appraisal of parapsychology on the part of a congressional body was unprecedented. Until then, Congress as a whole had not taken cognizance of ESP potentials in peace or war.

 

*

 

Only one of its members, Representative Charles Rose, Democrat of North Carolina and a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, had shown long-range interest in psychic studies generally and their warfare potentials in particular.

 

*

 

Agencies of the Federal government sporadically encouraged ESP research. But, given the ubiquitous nature of government concerns, such efforts often seemed no more than an expression of personal interests, the cautious involvement of "closet parapsychologists" at various levels in one or another agency.

Individuals and groups that might want to follow the ideas expressed by the staff report on science and technology were likely to be held back by fear of ridicule, wither from within Congress or in the Media.

 

*

 

As columnist Jack Anderson had phrased it, the Central Intelligence Agency had its "mouth watering" when it looked into Soviet research on remote-viewing.

Anderson wrote on March 20, 1981: "Who'd need a mole in the Kremlin is a psychic sitting at a desk in Washington could zoom-in mentally on a super-secret Soviet missile site or a Politburo meeting?"

 

*

 

One of Anderson's researchers, Ron McRae, was alerted to what he interpreted as serious armed forces interest in the psychic when he read Lt. Col. Alexander's article in MILITARY REVIEW, late in 1980.

McRae told another Washington writer, Randy Fitzgerald, the article had convinced him "there were people in the Pentagon who were really taking it seriously."

Anderson-McRae erroneously claimed that a psychic task force, budgeted at $6 million per year, had been established in the Pentagon "basement," and that the National Security Agency was examining the use of extrasensory perception in its code-breaking work.

 

*

 

Anderson's flippant terminology seemed designed to ridicule his findings or allegations.

He wrote of "wacky projects" that covered "ESP weapons that can brainwash or incapacitate enemy leaders by thought transfer, deliver nuclear bombs instantaneously thousands of miles away by psychic energy, or even create a protective `time warp' to make incoming Soviet missiles explode harmlessly in the past."

 

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Cross Reference

Atharvaveda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atharvaveda

 

The Hindus believe the mantras are highly powerful, the Atharvan Pariśiśhthas (appendices) themselves state that specific priests of the Mauda and Jalada schools should be avoided or strict discipline should be followed as per the rules and regulations set by the Atharva Veda. It is even stated that women associated with Atharvān may suffer from abortions if pregnant women remain while the chants for warfare are pronounced.

 

The Atharvaveda is considered by many to be a dark and mystic science, pertaining to the spirits and the afterlife. In the Mahabharatha, when the Pandavas are exiled to the forests for thirteen years, Bheema, being frustrated, suggests to Yudishthra that they consult the Atharvaveda, and "shrink time, and hereby compress thirteen years to thirteen days..."

...

The AV also informs us about warfare.

...

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He added: "The CIA, though historically less alarmist about the Red Menace than the Pentagon spooks are, also has been monitoring Soviet ESP research and pondering the possibility of less bizarre psychic weapons."

 

*

 

While the 1952 ESP project mentioned earlier may never have been undertaken, it seems certain that the Central Intelligence Agency did engage in psychic experiments.

One source of information on this subject is ex-CIA employee Victor Marchetti, who wrote several books based on his fourteen years with the agency.

 

*

 

Marchetti, who tended to be critical of the CIA's activities, has said that it once sought to establish mediumistic communication with the spirits of agents who had died.

He recalled that the agency's "scientific spooks" were "progressing into parapsychology, experimenting with mediums in efforts to contact dead agents, with psychics in attempts to divine the intentions of the Kremlin leadership and even with stranger phenomena."

 

*

 

Marchetti asserted that the CIA had tried to make contact, through a medium, with Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel in the Soviet Army who had been one of its most valuable contacts during his lifetime.

On May 11, 1963, Penkovsky appeared before the Soviet Supreme Court in Moscow, where he was declared guilty of treason and sentenced to be shot to death. As a colonel in the military intelligence branch of the Soviet Army, he had been assigned to artillery in a "civilian capacity."

Penkovsky was a member of the Soviet State Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Research Activities, with responsibilities in domestic and international technological liaison and development.

Penkovsky had been an agent for Western intelligence agencies, presumably British services as well as the CIA.

 

*

 

There is a simple kind of logic in trying to keep in touch with such a valuable agent, even after death.

It is speculative, of course, whether such contact can actually be established, whether spirit communication can be specific and reliable, could be checked against information from other sources, or merely used to fill gaps in existing data.

 

*

 

It may be regarded as imaginative rather than foolish to have tried to reach someone like Penkovsky through a medium (or several mediums, cross-checking any resulting information for correlations and deviations).

But the number of qualified mediums is limited; it would be difficult to keep such an assignment secret, even if the mediums concerned did not know whom they were expected to contact.

 

*

 

Marchetti said that, after Penkovsky had been executed, someone in the CIA had suggested: "Why don't we contact him?" and that this suggestion had led to the agency's becoming "involved with mediums." He said, "They began to contact our own dead agents, as well as dead agents from the other side."

 

*

 

If the project expanded beyond an attempt to get in touch with the spirit of Penkovsky, it may be assumed that at least some of the mediumistic messages had been satisfactory or at least promising to CIA staff members. "There is no indication that they have stopped," Marchetti said, "and no reason why they would."

At any rate, Marchetti's recollections suggest that the CIA had been alert to psychic potentials, no matter how unproved, in the service of intelligence-gathering.

 

WERE THE CIA EFFORTS JUSTIFIED?

 

The CIA was certainly justified in keeping an eye on Soviet studies.

References have earlier been made to a report on Soviet parapsychology commissioned by the Central Agency from the AiResearch Manufacturing Company of Torrance, California.

The research group's experts suggested that, in view of Soviet studies, the U.S. government should initiate developments in what it called Novel Biophysical Information Transfer Mechanisms (NBIT) that "are functional," although "they may have no relationship to common parapsychological phenomena."

 

*

 

The report (January 14, 1976) advised that such studies should be interdisciplinary, as this type of research "crosses so many widely different scientific disciplines."

The report noted that on Soviet researcher Professor Gennady Sergeyev of Leningrad, appeared to have perfected a mechanism capable of measuring human brain function from a distance of five meters. The report observed that Sergeyev's instrument was classified and that "no credible description of it is available - only allusions to its existence."

 

*

 

The AiResearch report traced reference to the Sergeyev device in Russian scientific literature, while noting that "there is reason to doubt the Russian claim."

It speculated that "it is possible that a sensitive electric or magnetic sensor, or some combination of the two, would detect electrical signals from a human body at a distance of five meters.

"Although it is unlikely that the output of such an instrument would be a direct measure of the EEG, it would provide information of interest to a police interrogator, such as the strength and rate of the heartbeat, the tensing and relaxation of ,muscles, the depth and rate of breathing, and perhaps the electrical properties of the skin. The uses to which the instrument would be put are reasons enough for official secrecy about its operating principles."

 

*

 

The report noted Sergeyev's professional competence, concluded its analysis with the assumption that Sergeyev's remote sensor "does exist: in some form, and examined the possible development of remote sensors by Soviet researchers, "following the indicated lines of investigation."

Where, the report asked, could Sergeyev's findings lead? It made this cautious forecast: "Perhaps the Russians have, in fact, developed such instruments; perhaps they are going to do so. Perhaps they have tried and have not been successful.

Possible sensor developments discussed in the following paragraphs are not meant to be exhaustive; rather, they are speculative and offered as examples of what may or might be:

"A tuneable antenna for detecting low-frequency, very-low-frequency, or extremely-low-frequency electromagnetic radiation could be used. The Russians believe both in mental telepathy and in a prosaic physical mechanism for it. The most probable mechanism is electromagnetic radiation.

"A tuneable antenna could be used in two types of experiments: trying to detect the radiation from the telepathic agent and trying to generate radiation of the right frequency to interfere with telepathic receptions.

"A neutrino detector may be used. Both the Russian Je. Parnov (NAUKA I RELIGIA, No. 3, pp. 44 to 49, 1966) and the American Martin Ruderfer (NEUTRINO THEORY OF EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION, in ABSTRACTS: 1st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PSYCHOTRONICS, Vol. 2, Prague, pp. 9 to 13, June 1973) have suggested neutrinos as the means of transmitting thought from one mind to another.

 

*

 

One of the collaborators of the present study, J. Eerkens, had a plausible hypothesis about the production and detection of neutrinos that could be experimentally tested by relatively modest expenditures for equipment and labor.

"A magnetic field or field gradient detector could be used. The Russians and other Eastern Europeans are greatly interested in dowsing, or finding ground water. A currently popular theory of dowsing is that the human body is sensitive to small changes (temporal and spatial) in the magnetic field of the earth, such as might be produced by water near the surface of the ground. If the human body can generate as well as sense magnetic fields, such a human magnetism might be the basis of some form of thought transference or psychokinesis."

 

*

 

In conclusion, the AiResearch study suggested five areas of research as "the most fruitful lines of investigation," as follows:

 

1. THE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF AWARENESS OF NBIT

 

This area includes such questions as what are the modes of awareness that facilitate NBIT? How to select and train individuals for high resolution and reliable performance? Which of the possible transmission mechanisms can humans utilize for NBIT?

 

2. TRANSMISSION MECHANISMS

 

This area includes such questions as what are possible NBIT transmission mechanisms? How is information transmitted from the source to the recipient?

 

3. THE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF HUMAN TRANSDUCER MECHANISMS

 

In this area, research would be conducted on physiology and biochemistry of reception and receptor mechanism.

 

4. STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENT

 

This area includes nonstationary analysis of random data, deviation from normally distributed data, and new developments in communication and information theory with respect to noisy channels.

 

5. DEVELOPMENT OF NON-CONTACT PHYSIOLOGY SENSORS

 

This area includes development of MEG, thermography, low- frequency electric field monitors, and other sensors.

 

Translated from its technical terminology, the report suggested to the CIA, or other U.S. government agencies, that the conditions under which telepathy and related capacities operate should be more fully explored.

Such a study would, of course, be designed to harness, control, boost, and direct telepathic and other psi abilities.

 

*

 

Among Washington's superstitious fears was concern over scathing criticism dispensed by Senator William Proxmire, Democrat from Wisconsin.

The monthly DISCOVER (February 1982), which was consistently skeptical of parapsychological claims, spoke of him as "one of the capital's most visible and colorful politicians, and certainly one of the wittiest."

It wrote: "An energetic foe of government waste and boondoggles, Proxmire is perhaps best known for his Golden Fleece of the Month Award, intended to publicize what the senator considers to be examples of foolish federal spending."

The magazine concluded that the senator at times displayed a "know-nothing attitude about science," but credited him with "being bright enough to know that scientific curiosity had been responsible for many of the civilization's greatest advances."

 

*

 

Imaginative research was given strong support by President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, when he advocated intensified studies in so-called "Star Wars" technology.

The President spoke of futuristic means, designed to "eliminate" nuclear weapons. Space-based lasers, particle-beam weapons, and similar devices were publicly discussed. Yet open-ended exploration of antinuclear weaponry might well include "mind amplification" and other psychic warfare elements.

Washington's dilemma over psi studies placed it firmly between the recommendations to the Committee on Science and Technology and the real or imagined wrath of Senator Proxmire. It was thus caught squarely between the two Big Cs: Courage and Caution.

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Reference

Kasten, Len. Psychic Discoveries Since The Cold War

http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue14/ar14psychic.html

 

PSYCHIC DISCOVERIES SINCE THE COLD WAR

by

Len Kasten

 

Index of Issue 14

 

In June of 1968 Sheila Ostrander, a Canadian, and Lynn Schroeder, an American, were invited to attend an international conference on ESP in Moscow. The invitation was from one of the most fervent missionaries of Soviet psi research, Edward Naumov, then 36. A few years earlier, when overt interest in such subjects could easily result in a long holiday in Siberia, such a conference would have been impossible. Then suddenly, in the mid-sixties, the doors of prohibition in Russia, under the Troika rulership, clanged open. Ostrander and Schroeder, encouraged but still doubting the turn of events, started writing to Soviet scientists and researchers. For three years, the letters and packages describing Soviet psi research poured in, culminating in Naumov's invitation to come and see for yourself.

 

They did, also visiting Bulgaria, but even before the conference had ended the suppression returned. The conference was closed down and Ostrander and Schroeder had to take refuge in Prague. Once again they were one step ahead of a Soviet crackdown, getting out of Prague only days before the Soviet tanks rolled in. During that brief lapse in Soviet repression came an epic book that opened the eyes of the world to the astounding breakthroughs in psychic research in the communist countries. That book, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, published in 1971, became an instant underground hit in New Age circles, and even though it never achieved best-seller status in the mainstream readership, it nevertheless has now become something of a classic.

 

Up to that point, all we had to go on was some very tentative research by Dr. Rhine at Duke University in the fifties. While some of Rhine's conclusions were positive and dramatic, the effect was blunted because the research results were couched in cautious, dry statistical terms, and consequently it was difficult to appreciate the real impact. But the publication of Psychic Discoveries made it all very real. The future of the human race became fantastic to contemplate, and at the same time very chilling. The authors suggested that while these discoveries could lead to a Utopia if properly utilized, they could also lead to a hell on earth if abused.

 

The authors have become world authorities on these subjects and are in great demand. Atlantis Rising was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview them at John White's 1997 UFO conference in New Haven, Connecticut. With publication of their new book by Marlowe & Company in New York (paperback), the pair is back in the public eye now. Basically an update of the original, the new volume bears the shortened title Psychic Discoveries. Publication of the new edition was primarily motivated by the flow of formerly top-secret information coming out of the Soviet Union since the end of the Cold War. The new book contains an abridged version of the old classic, and then a second part entitled Psychic Discoveries The Iron Curtain Lifted.

 

Far from idle since 1971, the authors published Supermemory (New York, Carroll and Graf) in 1991. This book, which evolved out of contacts and interests developed while researching the original Psychic Discoveries, bids to become a classic in its own right.

 

The revelations in all three books are nothing short of sensational, yet for over 25 years, the press and the public have barely noticed. Echoing the pattern found with the UFO phenomenon, some believe the situation may suggest a world cover-up. In fact, the authors told us that they have now recognized that UFO secrets and psi secrets seem inextricably linked. Uri Geller, after all, claimed to have obtained his powers from extraterrestrial sources. The new book includes a foreword by Geller in which he marvels that the press has taken little notice. He mentions a press conference in 1977 at which Stansfield Turner revealed that the CIA had a parapsychology program in place, and had found a man who could see through walls (Pat Price). The revelation created not even a ripple in the media!

 

Yet while the revelations in Psychic Discoveries did not get wide publicity, they were nevertheless revolutionary. The impact on society has yet to be fully appreciated. The discoveries of an obscure electrical repairman from the Black Sea city of Krasnodar were first revealed to the West in Psychic Discoveries. In classic Ostrander-Schroeder style, the drama surrounding the experimentation of Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina is brought to life. It was in this chapter where the terms energy body and bioplasmic body were first used, and the idea of the aura was first put forth. One of the most significant results was a new understanding of the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. A Russian surgeon, Dr. Mikhail Gaikin, showed the colored lights erupting from the body and appearing in the Kirlian photographs were actually coming from the seven hundred acupuncture points.

 

Before the publication of Psychic Discoveries, there had been several books written about the unique and strange dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza, speculating about their significance. But thanks to their side trip to Prague, Ostrander and Schroeder were the first to tell the world about pyramid power. It was there that they were introduced to Karel Drbal, a Czech radio and television engineer who had discovered that small pyramids of the same relative dimensions as the Great Pyramid could sharpen razor blades! The pyramidal shape apparently focuses cosmic energy when precisely aligned on the north-south axis, which can renew the crystalline structure of good-quality steel.

 

MIND WARS AND SOCIAL CONTROL

Without exception, all of the Soviet researchers interviewed hoped that these discoveries would be used only for good, but clearly recognized that many of them offered potential in intelligence and counter-intelligence, and that some could be used to make very destructive weapons and so did the CIA. Although we now know that U.S. intelligence agencies have been conducting clandestine, black-funded psychic experimentation for many years, there is considerable evidence that many of the top-secret government psi programs were triggered by Psychic Discoveries. Extensive U.S. programs to monitor the Soviet research started up about that time. The authors were invited to speak to the new Congressional Clearinghouse of the Future, and parts of the book were read into the Congressional Record by Congressman Al Gore, who later became the chairman of the committee, and who has maintained a high degree of interest in psychic matters. Apparently during the Cold War, both sides were in a no-holds-barred race to perfect psi weapons but, just as with space programs, they may now be cooperating.

 

From the original version of the book, the world first learned of an astonishing Soviet development the ability to control behavior and consciousness telepathically! In the chapter, entitled The Telepathic Knockout, the authors reported on experimentation dating from 1924 in which Soviet scientists successfully placed subjects in hypnotic trances and awakened them telepathically across thousands of miles. Once the connection was established, the subject's behavior could be manipulated by suggestion, just as in face-to-face. Typically, they can carry on conscious conversation and activity while in the trance. In the new book we learn that the CIA has picked up this ball and run with it.

 

But it was from the Czechoslovakians at the conference that the authors learned of a discovery that promises to ultimately make twentieth Century explosive weaponry seem as primitive as the horse and buggy the psychotronic generator. And while in Prague they met the inventor, Robert Pavilita, a design director for a large Czech textile plant. In a documentary film produced by a major Czech studio, the authors saw small, strange-looking metal objects that appeared to be designed by Picasso, arrayed on a table. They had no moving parts. In the film, Pavlita explained that the secret was in the form. The generators accumulate human energy, he said. Then they focus this energy to carry out various types of work. Pavlita and his daughter Janna charged the generators by gazing at them in a staring pattern. Once charged, they turned rotors, attracted nonmetallic particles, caused seedlings to grow larger plants, and purified polluted water. This human, psychic energy has had many names since ancient times, variously referred to as prana, chi, vital energy, animal magnetism, odic force, etheric force, orgone (Reich), and now bioplasmic and psychotronic energy. At Pavlita's home in Prague, the authors handled the devices and saw personal demonstrations by the inventor himself. But what happens when a psychotronic generator is pointed at a human? Pavlita's daughter volunteered to be a guinea pig. She became dizzy and lost her spatial orientation. The devices can also kill flies instantly.

 

In the new edition we learn that former KGB Major General Kalugin started talking in 1990. He claimed that Yuri Andropov gave orders to move full speed ahead with psychic warfare in the early 70s, and obtained funding of 500 million rubles. The Soviets then developed sophisticated Pavlita-type generators. Dr. Nikolai Khokhlov, a Russian CIA operative, uncovered over 20 heavily guarded, well-funded laboratories working on psychotronic devices for military use in the 70s. Some of this effort may have been cooperative with the U.S.

 

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

At least one U.S. psi program that we know of pre-dated the publication of Psychic Discoveries. In Supermemory, the authors reveal details of the CIA EDOM program. EDOM means Electronic Dissolution of Memory, and apparently this technique was perfected years ago. The CIA can zap long-term memory and turn someone into an amnesiac zombie by blocking the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and by electronically interfering with the bioplasmic body. Apparently, they routinely employ this technique to neutralize former top-secret operatives, just as in the movie Total Recall. This capability was developed under the MK-ULTRA program when they performed bizarre memory experiments on mental inmates, prisoners, and research volunteers in the 60s, before the program was halted by Congress in 1976.

 

Perhaps the most bizarre development in memory control was inspired by the multiple personality disorder. Also in Supermemory, we learn that the CIA can artificially seed multiple personalities in the same body, each with its own memory bank not accessible to the others. Gil Jensen, an Oakland, California, CIA doctor, claimed that he created a personality named Arlene Grant in the body of famous super-model Candy Jones in the 50s and 60s using hypnosis and memory-altering drugs. Grant was trained as a super-spy and given a complete memory history and top-secret information which Jones knew nothing about. Whenever Jones went on celebrity trips, Grant was summoned on the telephone through a series of electronic sounds, and carried out her spy missions. The primary personality can never reveal information from the secondary memory bank, even under torture, and therefore makes the perfect spy. This program is now called Radio-Hypnotic Intra-Cerebral Control and is apparently based on Soviet discoveries related to electromagnetic manipulation of the bioplasmic body.

 

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Cross Reference

Vastu Page 1

http://www.kanippayyur.com/VastuPage1.html

 

Literally, vastu is derived from the word “vas” meaning “to dwell” or “to reside”. Vastu is the dwelling place of mortals and immortals – mortals like human beings, animals, birds, plants and all other living things and immortals like gods, demigods, spirits etc. It is classified into 4 categories.

1. The earth (Bhumi), the habitat of all living beings,

2. The buildings (harmya) for different activities,

3. The vehicles (yana),

4. The seats (sayana)

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UFO SECRETS REVEALED

By far the most sensational revelations coming out of the post-Cold War Soviet Union are concerned with UFOs and the moon. In the new edition we learn that information from now-opened KGB files tells of widespread UFO sightings reported to the Soviet military in the years following the incredible Voronezh public landings in September 1989, which made headlines all over the world. Hundreds of adults and children saw the spacecraft landings and giant aliens and small robots moving freely about downtown Zavodsk Square in broad daylight. Thousands more saw giant discs hovering over the city's nuclear power plant. According to the KGB files, in March of the following year, over 100 military UFO observations were reported to the Air Defense Forces, and a 300 foot disc hovering over the headquarters of the Soviet Air Defense Command was reported in April. Also in the KGB files, according to the Hungarian Minister of Defense, George Keleti, a former colonel in the army, UFOs swarmed over Hungary at the same time as the Voronezh landings, and alien craft landed at military air bases all across the country. Keleti claimed that the four-foot robots actually attempted to climb into Hungarian MIGS and they repelled guards with ray guns! Then the ten foot humanoids became invisible when fired upon with machine guns. According to Psychic Discoveries, an avalanche of formerly concealed sightings, landings, close encounters, abductions and more have seeped out to the press and to newly formed UFO groups in Russia since 1990.

 

But the secrets eking out of the Soviet space programs are even more exciting. Soviet Air Force Colonel Marina Popovich showed photos of a fifteen-mile-long object flying near the Martian moon Phobos, taken by the Soviet probe Phobos-2, at a conference in San Francisco in 1989. Russia's Luna 9 moon probe, which landed in the Ocean of Storms on February 4, 1966, took some spectacular 3D photos over the Sea of Tranquility, which showed a group of spires that appeared to be obelisk-shaped, and were obviously artificial structures. Soviet space engineer Dr. Alexander Abramov subjected the photos to a complex mathematical analysis and concluded that they were archaeological ruins. Furthermore, he told the authors that the obelisks on the moon were arranged in exactly the same pattern as the pyramids of Giza, when placed on an abaka, an ancient Egyptian grid of 49 squares (see illustrations). Then Dr. S. Ivanov, one of Russia's most eminent scientists, published an analysis in the Soviet magazine Technology for Youth, claiming that the monuments were arranged according to definite geometric laws, and were evidently artificial structures of alien origin.

 

U.S. photos taken by Orbiter 2 on November 20, 1966 tended to confirm the Soviet findings. Dr. Ivan T. Sanderson, science editor of Argosy magazine, analyzed these photos and claimed that the tallest structure was about 15 stories high, and the smallest about the size of a fir tree. The authors later found out that NASA had classified hundreds of lunar photos and still refuses to release them.

 

We conclude with a succinct and eloquent summation of the situation by former astronaut Dr. Brian O'Leary, as quoted in Psychic Discoveries, The cosmic Watergate of UFO, alien, mind-control, genetic engineering, free-energy, antigravity propulsion, and other secrets will make Watergate and Irangate appear to be kindergarten exercisesƒBut, the truth will and must be known eventually.

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Reference

Sharma, L K. (Friday, September 28, 2001) America Deploys Paranormal Psychic Power Against bin Laden. Bangalore, India: Deccan Herald, DH News Service.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/psywar.htm

 

America Deploys Paranormal Psychic Power Against bin Laden

 

An unpublicised American weapon which can reach Osama bin Laden in his remote cave is ESP, extra sensory perception. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not list it when he referred to cruise missiles, camouflaged forces, bankers in pinstriped suits and computer geeks.

 

The last two are supposed to disrupt Osama bin Laden’s money supply through their version of electronic warfare. These plans merited the attention of the authoritative Defence Weekly. America's “psychic spies” have a record proven during the Cold War. Sitting in Washington, they could see a Soviet secret facility in Siberia. They succeeded where the high technology spy satellites and other electronic snooping devices had failed. It is through their X-ray eyes that the Pentagon first came to know about the top secret Typhoon submarine of the Soviet Union. The hidden submarine was sketched out with the power of human mind. The distance of thousands of miles between the seer and the object was no hurdle.

 

Their X-ray eyes were systematically used by the CIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency. The sketches provided by the “psychic spies” were accurate and they were able to see hidden defence equipment in many remote places, an abducted American military officer in Italy and even file titles in top secret facilities.

 

The remote viewing programme was not some Oriental hocus pocus run from the Himalayas. It was run from a Defence Intelligence Agency building on the outskirts of Washington. And it involved the Stanford Research Institute.

 

The secret of the psychic spies was let out by President Carter and then recorded by a TV documentary by the History Channel. The programme was terminated by Congress some years ago but at least one psychic spy is available. He runs a private company in association with his astrologer wife. He helps companies in divining precious minerals. The US had intensified paranormal research in the wake of reports that the Soviet Union was more advanced in the field.

 

The Soviet scientists had studied and demonstrated capabilities to alter mind and to move objects without touching.

 

• Story originally published by:

DH News Service via Deccan Herald, Bangalore / India | L K Sharma - Sep 29.01

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Reference

Parapsychology and Self-Deception in Science

http://www.ramcconnell.com/selfdeception.htm

 

Parapsychology and Self-Deception in Science

1983, 158 pages, 6" x 9",  ISBN: 0-9610232-2-8, $10.00

 

Chapter 1, titled "Escape From Reality, outlines this book, which was written in the spirit of the following excerpts:

"How important is scientific reality? How much are we willing to pay to know it ourselves and to have others know it? . . .

 

"Each of us creates an imaginary world as protection against its real counterpart, adding to it, piece by piece, over the years, until we have a comforting montage. In this process we ignore ideas that cause anxiety. We welcome the familiar and avoid the unknown. This description is as true in science as in the rest of life. Throughout our picture building we take care not to expose our innermost thoughts lest they be challenged. In this way we ensure our mental stability….

 

"How much is progress worth? Perhaps it comes down to a question of values. Are we willing, like Lady Godiva, to ride naked before our colleagues so that mankind may escape the toll of ignorance? Or do we treasure our privacy above our sense of professional fulfillment? As scientists are we engaged in a desperate search for reality, or are we members of a comfort-loving elite, paid by society to play puzzle games with nature? These are questions that might be asked of every scientist. They have a special relevance for parapsychology.

 

Chapter 2 is a paper by a distinguished physical scientist, C.K. Jen, who was born in 1906 in a remote village in North China, received his graduate training in the U.S., and was trapped in South China throughout World War II. At the time I knew him he was at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

 

On a lecture visit to the PRC prior to 1983, Dr. Jen, at the invitation of his host colleagues, had participated in three demonstrations of ESP involving a dozen young children, who successfully identified concealed Chinese ideographs with nearly 100% accuracy.

 

His son-in-law, Dr. Lewis Jacobson, was at that time a member of my faculty parapsychological advisory committee. Through him, I learned of Dr. Jen's parapsychological adventure and suggested that it be formally reported in the parapsychological literature.

 

When his paper was rejected for publication by the Parapsychological Foundation of New York because it was too spectacular to be believed, he graciously allowed it to be included in this book, which was then in preparation.

 

In the light of my professional relations with C.K. Jen and my personal relations with Lewis Jacobson and his wife, Dr Linda Jen Jacobson, the daughter of C.K. Jen, Dr. Jen's paper must, in my judgment, be accepted without reservation as establishing the widespread occurrence of high level ESP among Chinese children as described therein.

 

The importance of Dr. Jen's paper was magnified by a paper "Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China: 1979 - 1989" by Leping Zha and Tron McConnell (Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 85, 119 - 143, April 1991). Dr. Zha, a physicist, was educated in China and the USA. His principal industrial experience has been in magnetic resonance imaging. My son, Tron, with an active interest in parapsychology since 1972, provided editorial support.

 

This 1991 paper, with 59 references to Chinese research, begins with a review of ESP among children under the Chinese name "Exceptional Functions of the Human Body." The experimentation spread to educational and research centers in large cities. On the basis of more than 500 trained scholars from more than 100 centers, it was estimated that ESP could be evoked in about 50% of children from roughly age 6 to 12, above which this seemingly innate ability disappears.

 

The publicity associated with the child ESP drew critical attention, and, as a result, interest shifted to Qigong as performed by adult, highly trained "Qigong Masters" as a part of "Traditional Chinese Medicine." Qigong divides into two forms: "internal energy Qigong" (ESP) and "external energy Qigong" (PK). The demonstrated effects resulted in high governmental and scientific interest both favoring and opposing Qigong research. As a result of unseemly publicity surrounding this controversy, the Party ruled in 1982 that all publicity on this topic must cease.

 

From 1983 to 1986, research centered within the Institute of Space Medico-Engineering with spectacular results by Qigong Masters. Beginning in 1986, Qigong burst into public attention as a Chinese cultural activity despite the ban against publicity. This activity was carried on as a money-making activity by numerous self-proclaimed Qigong Masters until the Beijing events of June 1989. Dr. Zha closed his paper with a warning that fraud and commercialization would soon lead to an adverse reaction at a high political level.

 

On 29 November 2001, Dr Zha delivered a lecture titled "Review of History, Findings, and Implications of Research on Exceptional Functions of the Human Body" at a five-day conference in Hawaii addressed to a mixed-level audience on bridge building between science and alternative medicine.

 

In the hard copy draft available to me (26 pages in length), Dr Zha expanded and continued his 1991 report. The new material described the opposition to external energy Qigong after the Beijing events of June 1989. More recently, the government has forcefully prosecuted "Falun Qigong" practitioners who have encouraged a cult religious movement involving many thousands of adherents, some of whom would rather die than renounce their new religion.

 

The publication of Dr. Zha's 2001 report will be welcomed. Meanwhile, I am inclined to give credence to the report's delicately handled account of gross PK. My interest in this account is made possible by my knowledge of the experience of two professional scientists, well known to me, who, to their own initial dismay, have produced "Uri Geller spoon bending." In one instance the phenomenon was repeated in my presence.

 

Chapters 3-5. In 1955 with R.J. Snowdon and K.F. Powell, I published a tightly controlled dice experiment (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50, 269-275). Subsequently, assisted by T.K. Clark, I carried out an analysis of variance and an extended study of target-face distributions among the 167,000 thrown die faces. We prepared two papers whose findings we considered to be a major contribution to the literature of experimental psychokinesis. Chapter 3 discusses the rejection of these papers by the Journal of Parapsychology and The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. The papers themselves follow in Chapters 4 and 5. A condensation of these papers appears in Chapter 14 of my textbook Parapsychology in the Context of Science.

 

Chapter 6 tells in detail how my colleague, Dr. Thelma K. Clark, was required by an unfriendly faculty to spend 12 years earning an interdepartmental doctor of philosophy degree in biophysics and physiological psychology so that she might work with me in parapsychology. That the hurdles were high may be inferred from the following:

 

Based on rat brain surgery, her doctoral research led eventually to papers in Science, 190 (1975), 169-171, of which she was the senior author, and to papers in Behavioral and Neural Biology, 25(1979), 271-300, and in Brain Research, 202(1980), 429-443, of which she was the sole author.

 

The book closes in Chapter 7 with an invited lecture I gave in 1982 at Cambridge University on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the (British) Society for Psychical Research and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Parapsychological Association.

 

I titled the lecture "Parapsychology, the Wild Card in a Stacked Deck" As I summarized it then, "The runaway train of history is whistling down the track upon us. If we have not heard it, that is because we prefer not to listen." I made a number of predictions for the year 2000 (some of which have been fulfilled.)

 

In that lecture I regretted the false optimism of the Global 2000 Report to the President, published in 1980. I accused its authors of using a straight edge ruler to perform a miracle of loaves and fishes. (They had merely extrapolated grain and ocean yields from 1960, through 1975, to 2000.) As I saw it, the assumption implied by the 1980 report was that "God will send a space ship to carry our surplus population off to a new planet. To future historians this hope may be known as the white man's cargo cult."

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http://in.geocities.com/anindiantantric/parapsychology.html

 

Published on internet:  Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Revised:  Thursday, June 28, 2007

 

Information on the web site is given in good faith about a certain spiritual way of life, irrespective of any specific religion, in the belief that the information is not misused, misjudged or misunderstood. Persons using this information for whatever purpose must rely on their own skill, intelligence and judgment in its application. The webmaster does not accept any liability for harm or damage resulting from advice given in good faith on this website.

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“Thou belongest to That Which Is Undying, and not merely to time alone,” murmured the Sphinx, breaking its muteness at last. “Thou art eternal, and not merely of the vanishing flesh. The soul in man cannot be killed, cannot die. It waits, shroud-wrapped, in thy heart, as I waited, sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For there is One within thee, as in all men, that comes and stands at the bar and bears witness that there IS a God!

(Reference:  Brunton, Paul. (1962) A Search in Secret Egypt. (17th Impression) London, UK:  Rider & Company. Page:  35.)

Amen

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