CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080034-7

Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080034-7
GAINS IN ESP STUDIES
BY SOVIET DOUBTED
American Specialists See No
Evidence of Any Development
Not Already Known in U. S.
By BOYCE RENSBERGER
Indications that the Soviet Union is
Joing a serious research in parapsychol-
Egy have fascinated and worried some
mericans for years. As a result of the
mage of Soviet science as a "monolithic"
institution dedicated to serve the goals
of the Communist Party, some people
fear that the Russians see such research
(s leading to some effective method of
"thought control" or "psychological war-
fare."
"The Menninger Foundationhas suggest-
ed that it may be a good idea for Amer-
ican scientists to learn all they can about
parapsychology, also known as pacho-
tronics, before the Russians get the up-
per hand. The foundation itself is en-
raged in such studies ..
Destpite the fears, the best indications
are that although the Russians are in-
ded pursuing parapsychology research,
much of it under military auspices, they
have not discovered or developed any-
Thing that American researchers do not
Falready know. And that is little Indeed.
Som Soviet research has been pub-
·lished in literature available to Western-
"ers, including such books as "Mysterious
"Phenomena of the Human Psyche," "Sug-
gestion from a Distance," and "Experi-
mental Studies in Mental Suggestion."
"Research on parapsychology is widely
publicized in the domestic Soviet press.
Researchers have participated in inter-
national conferences and contributed
papers to international books.
Same Skepticism as in U. S.
From one such paper-in a report of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization on the "para-
«sciences") -- it appears that parapsycho-
logists in the Soviet Union and Eastern
"Europe face as much skepticism in their
"Countries as do Americans.
1
Zdenék Rejdák, a Czechoslovak re-
searcher, author of several books and in
19774 president of the International As-
*sociation for Psychotronic Research, sald
three years ago that the goal is to de-
velop methods so that experiments can
be replicated just as is the standard in
the rest of science.
R. A. McConnell, a professor of bio-
physics at the University of Pittsburgh
and a founder of the Parapsychological
Association, has attempted to survey
Soviet research in the field. He has cor-
responded with Soviet researchers and
read much of their published work, He
said in an interview that he knows of no
evidence that they have hit on anything
American scientists do not know about.
"In fact," he said, "from some of the
approaches they're taking, I don't think
they have a good grasp of the essence.
of the phenomenon."
Interest in Electrical Emanations
He was referring to Soviet interest in
electrical and radio emaantions of the
human body and brain. Such emaantions
exist but are extremely weak-an elec-
troencephalograph picks them up-and
decades of attempts by Western scien-
Lists to make sense of them have yielded
nothing that appears remotely like
thought transmission.
Kirlian photography, a phenomenon
discovered in the Soviet Union, is among
these interests. Under certain conditions,
the human body and other things have a
certain amount of high frequency elec-
trical current that, like mocroscopic
sparks, will discharge on a piece of film
when it is touched. When developed, the
film shows images corresponding to the
shape of the finger or whatever.
It is said that faith healers generate
such electricity when doing their thing
and that the "life force emanations"
from sick people are different from those
of the healthy. The Russians have sought
to adapt this to medicine through bio-
nergotherapy.
The Soviet interest in parapsychology
is in keeping with the interests of Soviet
researchers in other fields that are con-
sidered of marginal interest in the West.
They are looking for their version of
the abominable snowman and "lost stone
age tribes."
Soviet interest in this parapsychology
has been criticized and ridiculed by
Chinese scientists as an example of the
decay of Soviet ideological resolve. The
Chinese consider such research quackery
and pseudoscience. Chinese researchers,
writing the journal Scientia Sinica, have
said the Soviet belief in ESP denes the
fundamental Marxst principle that con-
sciousness is a true reflection of the
objective world.
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080034-7