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SOVIET AND CZECHSLOVAKIAN PARAPSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH
Document Type:
CREST
Collection:
STARGATE
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
C
Document Page Count:
72
Document Creation Date:
November 4, 2016
Document Release Date:
March 17, 2003
Sequence Number:
1
Case Number:
Publication Date:
September 1, 1975
Content Type:
RP
File:
Attachment Size
PDF icon CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2.pdf 5.37 MB
Body:
SG1 B Apff8yed F8F Release an F-- 1 3/04/18 :CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420061&T-18105-387-75 DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY SOVIET AND CZECHOSLOVAKIAN PARAPSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH (U) PREPARED BY U. S. ARMY MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE AND INFORMATION AGENCY, OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL SG1 B SG1 B Approved For Release 2083/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787'2000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 SG1B SOVIET AND CZECHOSLOVAKIAN PARAPSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH (U) Mr. Louis F. Maire III Major J. D. LaMothe, MSC DATE OF PUBLICATION September 1975 Information Cut-off Date 15 April 1975 SG1 B Approved For Release 2803/04/18 : CIA-RDIP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-1810S-387-75 September 1975 (U) The data were drawn from intelligence reports, scientific and techni- cal journals, books, magazines, newspapers, and personal communications. (U) Constructive criticism,. comments, or suggestions are encouraged and should be forwarded to the Defense Intelligence Agency, (ATTN: DT-1), Washington, DC 20301. iii (Reverse Blank) Approved For Release 2803/04/18 : CIA-RDP9p-00787R000500420001-2 SG1 B SG1 B SG1 B SG1 B Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-1810S-387-75 September 1975 Page No. Preface----------------------------------------------------------- iii EXTRASENSORY SECTION SECTION II SECTION III Part A Part B PERCEPTION (ESP)--------------------------- 1 BACKGROUND------------------------ ------ 1 TELEPATHY (ENERGY TRANSFER) IN ANIMALS---- 9 TELEPATHY (ENERGY TRANSFER) IN MAN--------- 15 Classical Theories and Experiments-------- 15 Current Soviet/Czech Theories and Research Objectives----------------------- 20 TELEPATHIC BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION-- ------ 29 Part A Basic Research--------------------------- 29 Part B Applied Research-------------------------- 29 PART II PSYCHOTRONIC GENERATOR RESEARCH------------------------- 33 PART III PSYCHOKINESIS RESEARCH---------------------------------- 41 PART IV OUT-OF-THE-BODY PHENOMENA------------------------------- 53 SECTION I REMOTE VIEWING---------------------------- 53 SECTION II THE APPORT TECHNIQUE---------------------- 55 PART V CONCLUSIONS--------------------------------------------- 57 PART VI TRENDS AND FORECASTS-------------------------- -------- 61 PART VII GAPS-------------------------------------------- ------ 63 APPENDIX - PERSONNEL AND FACILITIES------------------------------- 65 1. USSR - Affiliation Known----------------------------- 65 2. USSR - Affiliation Unknown --------------------------- 66 3. Czechoslovakia - Affiliation Known------------------- 66 4. Czechoslovakia - Affiliation Unknown---------------- 67 Approved For Release 20q SG1 B SG1 B Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 Page No. Selected Bibliography --------------------------- 69 Data Handling ----------------------------------------- 73 Distribution List----------------------------------------------- 75 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Comparison of US and Soviet Parapsychology Terms---- 3 Figure 2 Psychotronic Model of Man--------------------------- 23 Figure 3 Psychotronic Generator------------------------------ 35 Figure 4 Psychotronic Generator-------------------------`"--- 36 Figure 5 Psychotronic Generator------------------- ------ 37 Figure 6 Psychotronic Generator------------------------------ 38 Figure 7 Psychotronic Generator------------------------------ 39 Figure 8 Psychotronic Generator------------------------------ 48 Figure 9 Psychotronic Rotor---------------------------------- 52 Approved For Release 2103/04/18 : CIA-RDR96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 (U) During the past 25 years, Soviet and Czechoslovakian parapsychologists have reported that paranormal phenomena such as extrasensory perception (ESP), telepathy, and psychokinesis (PK) have been demonstrated under rigorously controlled laboratory conditions. Skeptics in both nations have attacked the study of such phenomena on both scientific and political - ideological grounds. Criticism based on political ideology has stemmed from the fact that much past research has been non-materialistic in the sense that results have not been reported in terms of contemporary conven- tional science. Thus the critics feel that parapsychology has fostered continued belief in mysticism, occultism, and religion. (U) In order to rebut the skeptics' contentions that psychic phenomena do not fit accepted scientific and political thought, Soviet and Czech sci- entists now argue that there are many well established "facts" which remain as anomalous to scientific paradigms as extrasensory perception (ESP). ESP refers to information which is not received via the usual senses, and as a general term, includes telepathy (the Soviet "biocommunication") and psychokinesis or PK (the Soviet "bioenergetics"). Communist parapsycho- logists argue that after decades of research, conventional science still has no satisfactory neurophysiological explanation of memory, nor is there any appropriate model for explaining how raw data impinging on man's senses are transformed into a conscious experience. They also point to the dema- terialized character of contemporary physics, a science filled with such bizarre components as advance potential (waves of electrons perceived be- fore they are generated), tunneling effects (electrons penetrating barriers which, by the laws of probability, should be impenetrable), and tachyons (particles traveling faster than light, and thus implying the possibility of a backward flow of time). In short, they conclude that "hard" science no longer offers a secure rationale for the denial of the possibility of any noncausal event. Approved For Release 200q/04/18: CIA-RDP96-0071 SG1 B 87R000500420001-2 SG1 B SG1B Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 STAT DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP) (U) Parapsychology is a field involving research on the informational and energetic possibilities of the psychic and biophysical activities of living organisms. Parapsychology investigates the complex of phenomena relating to the interaction of living organisms with each other and with the surrounding environment without the mediation of the known sense organs or of presently identified energy transfer mechanisms. Western parapsychologists refer to this complex of phenomena as extrasensory perception (ESP) and psi phenomena.) (U) The Soviets prefer the term biocommunications instead of parapsychol- ogy, psi phenomena, or ESP. Other Soviet terms which are equivalent to the term parapsychology include psychophysiology, psychotronics, psycho- energetics, and biophysical effects. The Soviet term biocommunications can be further subdivided into two general classifications: bioinforma- tion and bioenergetics. Bioinformation includes paranormal events between living organisms (telepathy, precognition) and events between living organisms and the inanimate world. Bioenergetics denotes activities such as biological locator and indicator techniques (dowsing), bioenergetic therapy using electromagnetic (EM) fields, and psychokinesis, or the in- fluence of bioenergy on matter. Definitions of the term biocommunica- tions, bioinformation, and bioenergetics are as follows: BASIC TYPES OF BIOCOMMUNICATION PHENOMENA (U) A branch of science involved with the human capability of obtain- ing information from other than the normal senses and the ability to respond to or reasonably interpret such information. Bio- communications, also synonymous with parapsychology, is, however, distinct from other sciences in that it is primarily concerned with determining the nature of a definite group of natural phenomena controlled by laws which are not based on any presently known energetic influence. Approved For Release 200 104118 - CIA-RDP96 00A7F 0500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 Those phenomena associated with the obtaining of information through means other than the normal sensory channels, e.g. - through extrasensory perception (ESP). There are several forms of ESP, including" a. Telepathy, transmission, or "reading" of thoughts, refers to the extrasensory reception of information about the mental processes of others. b. Proscopy or precognition is a form of ESP which, under certain circumstances, involves crossing the barrier of time to obtain information about future events. c. Paragnosia or clairvoyance refers to the extrasen- sory reception of information about objective events in the outer world. TYPE II: Bioenergetics Bioenergetics involves phenomena associated with the production of objectively detectable effects through means other than known energetic influences. Seemingly incredible effects have been reported, such as the movement of distant objects without any detectable use of physical force (psychokinesis or telekinesis), antigravitational effects, transformations of energy, electro- magnetic effects arising without adequate physical cause, and chemical reactions and biological processes occurring through mental concentration. (U) A comparison of US and Soviet parapsychology terms is given in Figure 1. Approved For Release 2p03/04/18 : CIA-RgP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 P DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 Fig. 1 Comparison of US and Soviet Parapsychology Terms (U) US Soviet Parapsychology PSI Phenomena ESP Equals Biocommunications Psychophysiology Psychotronics Psychoenergetics ,Biophysical Effects A. Bioinformation B. Bioenergetics Telepathy Precognition Equals Bioinformation Dowsing Equals Bioenergetics Psychokinesis ) (U) In recent years, Czechoslovakian parapsychologists have begun using the term "psychotronics" in reference to all aspects of their paranormal phenomena research. They define psychotronics as the study of those borderline phenomena and signs of human existence that have a psycho- somatic base, but manifest themselves in such a way that they more or less exceed the framework of this base. Such phenomena include auto- suggestion, hypnosis, telepathy, psychokinesis, and other paranormal effects and phenomena. The Czech term does not encompass the study of stigmata, levitation, etc., since these are considered to be hallucinatory states or processes and, as such, areas of investigation and treatment more appropriate for psychology or psychiatry.3 In general, however, the Czech science of psychotronics includes the study of all phenomena presently being investigated by Soviet and Western parapsychologists. STAT Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-181PS-387-75 September 1975 (U) Current Soviet and Czech parapsychological terms and objectives have evolved in a climate of fluctuating political pressure. Scientists in pre-revolutionary Russia studied parapsychology as did later such Soviet scientists as V.M. Bekhterev, A.G. Ivanov=Smolensky, and B.B. Kazhinsky in the twenties and thirties.4 In 1924, A.V. Lunakharsky, Commissar for Education, took the initiative in forming a Soviet Committee for Psychical Research. As a result of Academician V.M. Bekhterev's enthusiasm for the subject, extensive work was financed at the University of Leningrad Insti- tute for Brain Research. L.L. Vasilev, a former student of Bekhterev's demonstrated to his own satisfaction that telepathic influence at a dis tance may indeed occur. Work flourished throughout the thirties with research being reported in the literature in 1934, 1936, and 1937. After 1937 further experiments in the field of parapsychology were forbidden. During Stalin's time, the study of paranormal phenomena was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to undermine the doctrines of materialism. Tele- pathy was treated as a mystical and antisocial superstition and nothing further was heard of parapsychology in: the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Then, as a result of French newspaper articles, rumors began to circulate that American researchers had disproved the "brain-radio" theory as a result of ship-to-shore telepathy experiments involving the US atomic submarine Nautilus. The Nautilus "experiments" probably were mythical, but the claims had one tangible consequence: the Soviet authorities per- mittedVasilev, then Professor of Physiology and holder of the Order of Lenin, to publish his own earlier work in which decades previously he had proven to his own satisfaction that radio-type brain waves did not mediate telepathy. Vasilev was also allowed to open a unit for the study of parapsychology at the Institute for Brain Research. His work first reached the West with an English translation of his monograph "Experiments in Mental Suggestion" in 1963. The result was instant international interest. Numerous Western researchers traveled to the Soviet Union and found a fair amount of activity. and interest in the paranormal, although the research approaches were frequently different from those in the West. Soviet workers tended to be far more preoccupied with whole-body physical and biological effects rather than with the "mental" phenomena with which Western researchers had long been preoccupied. (U) Some of the first parapsychologists to visit the Soviet Union after the publication of Vasilev's work described the differences in atmosphere pervading two conferences in 1963 and 1968. During the first, free and cordial exchange of views was possible; the second was overshadowed by an article in Pravda attacking parapsychology which largely wrecked the formal plans for the program. Most of the Soviets declined. to speak, Western visitors were pressed to deliver impromptu lectures, and the House of Friendship in Moscow withdrew its invitation to hold further meetings or allow films to be shown there. From this time onwards, with certain STAT Approved For Release 200P/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-g0787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 STAT DST-18105-387-75 September 1975 4 fluctuations, official hostility towards parapsychology increased in the Soviet Union. For example, Soviet authorities took the strongest possible exception to a best-seller in the West, Ostrander and Schroeder's "Psychhic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain."5 Edward K. Naumov, then Director of the Institute of Technical Parapsychology, Moscow,6 was cited throughout as the journalists' guide and mentor. Unfortunately, the Voice of America beamed a radio program into the Soviet Union discussing the Schroeder and Ostrander book, a broadcast that was construed as a politically motivated attack using parapsychology as a weapon. Apart from this episode, it is not entirely clear why Soviet officialdom should have taken such fierce exception to a frankly popular, sensational, and rather chaotic book, which was not taken seriously by many Western scientists. The most plausible interpretation seems that the Soviets were worried that they might be believed by the world's scientific community to be self-proclaimed champions and leaders of parapsychology. In fact, Soviet scientists are just as divi- ded among themselves concerning parapsychology as scientists elsewhere and since 1972, a number of openly critical publications concerning parapsy- chology research have appeared in the Soviet Union. A few examples of such open attacks follow. (U) In 1972, V.M. Bleykher (a reputable Soviet neurophysiologist) pub- lished a book titled "Parapsychology - Science or Superstition." In an annotation to this book (and, in fact, as the lead paragraph) Bleykher stated, "this book is designed (sic) to debunk parapsychology." The book began with such arcane and archaic topics as phrenology (headbump reading) and ended with a chapter prefaced by a cartoon showing a broom sweeping the Russian word "parapsychology," out of the picture. The entire bias of the book was to make a direct link between 19th century "spiritualism" and 20th century parapsychology. (U) In 1973, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda (Alma-ata) carried an article by Doctor of Medical Science V. Podachin, titled "Careful: Paramedicine.!" In his article, Podachin openly attacked "unproven telepathic trans- mission of information over distances from one person to another on the basis of their neuropsychic states," and criticized parapsychologists "for claiming to obtain results that are completely unrelated to the cause-and-effect principle." (U) In October 1973 a long and detailed paper entitled "Parapsychology: Fiction or Reality?" was published in Questions of Philosophy, an official publication of the Soviet Academy of Pedogogical Sciences, by four eminent members of the Moscow Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, V.P. Zinchenko, A.N. Leontiev, B.F. Lomov, and A.R. Luria. They explicitly set out "to express the viewpoint of the USSR Society of Psychologists STAT Approved For Release 2003/04/18 :.CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2 DST-181OS-387-75 September 1975 towards parapsychology." "Obviously," they wrote, "some so-called para- psychological phenomena do happen; however, the main obstacle to the acceptance of their existence is ignorance of the basis of their opera- tion." It is not clear from this paper just which parapsychological phenomena "obviously do happen;" the only ones which the authors unam- biguouslysupported as authentic were Kirlian photography (radiation field pho,togrpahy by means of which the biological energy fields of plants and animals may be visualized) and "dermal-optical vision" (the alleged ability to see colors through opaque shielding by touch alone). Paradoxically, Kirlian photography is probably based on known forms of energy, while dermal-optical vision has no known basis in fact. A large portion of the paper was in fact devoted to a denunciation of "militant parapsychologists," popular credulity, fraudulent practices, physicists who quite unnecessarily change their jobs to investigate paranormal phenomena, sensationalistic journalists, and institutions such as the Institute for Technical Parapsychology (which was cited by name). Ap- parently, the objective of the paper was to discredit as myth any idea of a "parapsychological movement" in the Soviet Union, and to insure that the science of parapsychology should not continue to emerge. To quote the authors, "there is no need for parapsychology to exist as a separate discipline." (U) There is additional evidence that the official attitude toward parapsychology in the Soviet Union may have changed. In the 1960's, Moscow parapsychologist Edward K. Naumov was recognized internationally as the unofficial Soviet spokesman for the science. In March of 1974, Naumov was arrested and sentenced to two years hard labor. In January chologist Larissa Vilenskaya, who had previously bee