CIA-RDP96-00792R000400430012-4

Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400430012-4
09-Jun-90
page 1
Parapsychology in the People's Republic of China:
1979 - 1989
Leping Zha1 & Tron McConnell
ABSTRACT: The senior author, a graduate student of physics in the U.S.A., provides from his
personal involvement, an informal history of the parapsychology movement in the People's
Republic of China (P.R.C.) over the last decade. From 1979 to 1982, research into ESP (and PK)
among children swept through China. This research upon what was called "exceptional functions
of the human body" (EFHB), gave rise to a sizable literature and to commitments, pro and con,
among scientists. Two protagonists emerged to carry the battle to the highest political forum.
The opponent of EFHB was an eminent social scientist and vice-chairman of the Chinese
Academy of Science. The proponent was a physicist regarded internationally as "the father of
Chinese space technology." After a public debate in the press, ending in a collaborative test of
the country's best-known psychics, the Communist Party ruled that both sides must cease public
discussion but that unsupported research could proceed quietly. From 1983 to 1986, interest
shifted to gifted adult psychics. Research was conducted partly at major universities but
primarily under defense-related auspices in Beijing, where gross PK effects were reported.
Meanwhile, privately circulated publications fanned civilian research interest in parapsychology
under the ancient rubrics of "qigong" and "Traditional Chinese Medicine." In 1987 a set of
seminal PK experiments was reported in the Acta Biophysica Sinica from Qinghua University.
From 1987 to 1989 interest in qigong grew until, according to news reports, there were 20 million
participants, including top leaders of the Communist Party. Restraints on research were quietly
lifted. Official approval was granted to a "China Society of Somatic Science" for the study of
EFHB. The space scientist mentioned earlier was made responsible for coordinating all of
Chinese science. The favoring of parapsychology has apparently persisted despite the Beijing
events of the Spring of 1989. Meanwhile, a divergence of the popular qigong movement and
scientific EFHB research has begun. The greater prevalence and strength of psi effects reported
from the P.R.C., as compared to laboratory experience in the West, raises a question as to the role
of the West's Cartesian cultural heritage in determining empirical reality.
1In accordance with Chinese custom, Chinese family names precede given names in this paper except in the
author's by-line, where the U.S.A. custom of family-name-last is followed to facilitate indexing.
Mr. Zha is currently studying for a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He
received a B.S. in physics from Wuhan University in P. R. China in 1982 and an M.S. from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1988. Between 1979 and 1986 he participated in parapsychological research activities at Wuhan University, Beijing
Teachers College, and elsewhere.
Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400430012-4