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The New York Times
@ 1977. The New York Times Company
- NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1977 -
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Emigre Tells of Research in Soviet
In Parapsychology for Military Use
By FLORA LEWIS
Special to The New York Times
PARIS, June 18-An emigre Soviet
physicist says that the Soviet Union has
been doing secret work in parapsycholo-
gy, for what appear to be military and
police purposes.,
4
The Soviet emigre, August Stern, who
now lives in Paris, spent three years in
a secret Siberian laboratory in the late
1960's trying to find a physical basis for
psychic energy, or "psi particles," as they
are called .:
Moscow's interest in the subject was
demonstrated in the case of Robert C.
Toth, a correspondent of The Los Angeles
Times, who was interrogated this week
in Moscow by the K.G.B., the security.
police, and was accused of having re-
ceived. "state secrets" about parapsy-
chology. He was allowed to leave for
home after protests by the United States
Government.
[In Washington, officials said the in-
telligence community was aware of
Soviet research in parapsychology, but
added that American specialists did not
believe the Russians had made any
unusual discoveries. One official said
some Soviet work- appeared aimed at
developing . psychological
warfare
methods.]:
The Toth incident" had the earmarks
of an entrapment, in the view of some
diplomats. There is no sign that the 25-
page document on parapsychology hand-
ed to him on the street just before he
was seized contained important informa-
tion. However, there is a record of Soviet
sensitivity and. August Stern's informa-
tion indicates that parapsychology is a
| matter of concern to the authorities.
Mr. Stern is a son of Dr. Mikhail Stern,
an endocrinologist who was imprisoned
before being allowed to leave the Soviet
Union in March. August Stern said he
was told before leaving the Soviet Union
two years ago that an even more secret
laboratory than the one he knew in Sibe-
ria had been set up in Moscow under
the direction of the K.G.B.
A French scientist and former intelli-
gence agent, Jacques Bergier, has written
a book saying that extrasensory percep-
Continued on Page 20, Column' 1 ;
Continued From Page 1
tion, one of the theories studied by parap-
sychology, may be used in espionage,
thought control, surveillance and as a
form of weapon.
Parapsychology covers four specific
fields of nonphysical phenomena. They
are telepathy (transmission of thought
without use of the senses), extrasensory
perception, telekinesis (transmission of
motion without any evident use of physi-
cal energy) and clairvoyance (the ability
to see distant or future events without
physical intervention).
Most scientists remain skeptical that
such phenomena actually exist, but there .
are researchers throughout the world
dedicated to proving and, if possible, ex-
plaining them.
Formal, officially subsidized Soviet re-
search in the field has gone on for years,
sometimes publicly vaunted and at other
times denounced and even denied.
U.S. Navy Was Interested in 1950's
At one time in the late 1950's and early
1960's, the United States Navy and the
Stanford Research Institute did experi-
ments in telepathy to see whether it could
provide an undetectable means of com-
municating with submarines. So far as
is known, the experiments failed. But
owrd of them reached Moscow and appar-
ently provoked high-level interest in the
subject.
Associated Press
Robert C. Toth, Los Angeles Times
correspondent, in London yesterday.
.-
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080032-9

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1977
Emigre Reports on Soviet Research in Parapsychology for Military Uses
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080032-9
In 1975 some Soviet parapsychologists
were persecuted and the whole subject
was publicly attacked. Eduard Naumov,
oa researcher with no evident connection
Swith the military or police, was triedon
a charge of accepting fees for lectures
chout permission, and was sentenced
to two years in labor camp. His col-
leagues were dismissed from their jobs
Band otherwise harassed. At the trial,
Ymuch was made of the fact that he had
contacts with Western parapsychologists.
Later, on June 13, 1975, Leonid I.
Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, urged the
United States to agree on a ban of r-
search and development of new kinds of
weapons "more terrible" than anything
the world has known. American arms
control negotiators have tried to find out
from their Soviet counterparts what he
Chad in mind, but they have not learned
anything more than that he meant "some
kind of rays," according to United States
officials.
Vascillating Treatment Noted
At first, American intelligence thought.
he might have been referring to laser
beams, or some way of focusing cosmic
rays, but they no longer believe this to
be the case. They say that they are baf-
fled by the reference.
There is no evidence that Mr.Brezhnev
,was referring to something in the field
of parapsychology. But it is a possibility
that has occurred to some observers, es-
pecially because of the vascillating treat-
ment of parapsychologists, the evident
involvement of the K.G.B. with the sub-
ect, and what some regard as a tradition-
al Russian interest in mysticism.
After his initial detention a week ago,
Mr. Toth was reported to have quoted
from a statement made by an employee
of the Academy of Sciences who had been
called by the authorities to examine the
documents in his possession. The state-
_ment referred to "psi particles" and said
"this material is secret and shows the !
kind of work done in some closed scien-
tific institutes of our state."
Last year, the Paris newspaper Le
Monde published a letter by a Russian
named Vladimir Lvov denouncing a previ-
ous letter by a French professor, Henri
Gastaut, and denying that parapsycholo-
gy research was officially supported in,
the Soviet Union.
Mr. Lvov was identified by Le Monde
as a "Soviet scientific writer in Lenin-
grad," but Western sources said they be-
lieved he was connected with the K.G.B.
The French professor had simply men-
tioned, in the course of a plea for support
of parapsychology research, that the Rus-
sians were engaged in it.
The reply, titled "Myths and Realities
in the Soviet Union," and published on
Aug. 4, 1976, Mr. Lvov said:
"The truth is simple. There is no parap-
sychology as a legitimate and officially
recognized branch of Soviet science. No
institute or scientific research center in
the U. S. S. R. is occupied with telepathy,
psychokinesis, etc. But there are a few
groups of amateurs. . . who look into
the 'paranormal' with the aid of some
journalists without scruples of scientific
exactitude."
Yet, soon after the trial of Mr. Naumov,
the Soviet parapsychologist, a report to
The Times of London said the Soviet
Academy of Pedagogical Sciences had de-
clared the study of psychic phenomena
a subject fit for scientific study, and
therefore not a permissable field for unof-
ficial researchers.
Mr. Stern's reminiscenses of the labora-
tory where he worked and the way it
was finally shut down only add to the
public record. The laboratory was in No-
vosibirsk's Science City, a complex be-
longing to the Siberian branch of the
Academy of Sciences. It was in a separate
building, and the door could be opened
only by a coded lock with the code
changed every week. It was known as
"Special Department No. 8" and was re
ferred to as a branch of the Institute
of Automation and Electrometry.
Headed by a Navy Officer
The head was Vitaly Perov, a navy offi-
cer, who opened it in 1966, Mr. Stern
said. ¿ Te recalled that Mr. Perov showed
deference to two visitors who came in
the early days to check on theinstalla-
tion. Mr. Stern believed the visitors to
be K.G.B. men.
Workers were recruited from around the
country until there were about 60 persons
at the laboratory. The scientists among
them were given virtually unlimited funds
for elaborate equipment. "It cost many
millions," Mr. Stern said. His own work
was in theoretical physics. His view was
that there might be an orderly system
in which all kinds of energy could be
charted, similar to Mendeleyev's periodic
table of chemical elements. As a result
o fthe periodic table, which originally left
some blank spaces, unknown elements
system.
If such a chart could be discovered
for energy, Mr. Stern thought, it, too,
might be found to have blank spaces that
might lead to physical identification of
particles to explain the mystery of psy-
chic energy, the "psi particles."
He worked for two years and found :
nothing. Other experiments at the labora-
tory involved applying electric shocks to
newly-born kittens to see whether their
mothers, three floors upstairs, registered
any reaction through some mental con-
nection; television surveillance of people
in a room to see whether they responded
to attempts by others several rooms away
to send them telepathic orders; studies
involving monkeys and electromagnetic
fields.
There were also experiments with
photon waves, in which frogs' eyes were
used as a more sensitive measuring in-
strument than a machine. One 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
'-were accounted for some inexplicable
forms of communication.
Suddenly, in 1969, the laboratory was
shut down. Mr. Stern said he did not
know the reason and did not think it
was really. the team's lack of success or
the poor quality of its science, as official-
ly suggested at the time, but a change
of attitude or power balance in the Krem-
lin.
Leningrad Project Was Canceledo.
He was back in Moscow by then He
heard that the military, and particularly
the navy, was conducting parapsycho Egy
research in Leningrad.
A friend of his, a Leningrad scientist
named Gennadi Sergeyev, told hinChe
was receiving permission and fundeto
open anew laboratory and offered Gum
a job. But the project was canceled.
Later, friends told Mr. Stern thatche
work done in Novosibirsk and planzed
in Leningrad had been combined in amew
laboratory in Moscow under the auspoes
of the K.G.B. He never learned any more
about it .-
By the time he left in 1974, he was
told that all parapsychology work Qad
been curtailed except for the secret
K.G.B. laboratory. He said he had heard
rumors that something "important,
dangerous" had been discovered, but he
commented:
"I never believed it. How can the K.G.B.
do effective research? They need Geal
scientists."
His experience in Novosibirsk had con-
vinced him that many researchers (with
official sponsorship were poorly qualved
or even quacks and their claims could
not be substantiated. His own research
papers were confiscated before he uni-
grated.
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CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080032-9