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20 June 1961
CEL
SOVIET RESEARCH ON ESP AND THOUGHT TRANSMISSION
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FOREWORD
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This publication was prepared under contract
by the UNITED STATES JOINT FUALICATIONS RE-
SEARCH SERVICE, a federal government organi-
zation established to service the translation
and research needs of the various government
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3.
SOVIET RESEARCH ON ESP AND THOUGHT TRANSMISSION
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Following is a translation of selected
articles from a symposium entitled
"Peredacha mysli -- vozmozhna li ona?"
(Thought Transmission -- Is It Possible?)
in Znanive-sila (Knowledge - Power) No 12,
Moscow, 1960, pp 18-23.
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WHAT SOVIET SCIENTISTS THINK ABOUT THIS
THOUGHT TRANSMISSION -- IS IT POSSIBLE?
This year we have started a new section in our magazine.
We have told about the research of scientists abroad in the
field of biometerology and have published the comments of
our scientists.
"What Soviet Scientists Think About This" -- so have
we entitled the new section. And immediately readers'
letters began to pour in, letters with questions, sugges-
tions to comment on other writings in the foreign press.
This is what the Head Scientist of the Institute of Power
Engineering and Automation of the Academy of Sciences,
UzSSR V. I. Us writes to us.
"The French magazine ' Science et vie,' in a 1960 edi-
tion, published an article on experiments on thought trans-
mission through space conducted by Americans aboard the sub-
marine 'Nautilus, ' Should these reports be considered of
scientific significance, and if so, what research do we
perform in this field?
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It seems to me that these questions may be of interest
to a wide group of readers, and we therefore consider it
worth while to publish answers to them in your new section
"What Soviet Scientists Think About This. "
We have approached E. A. Asratyan, Associate Member of
the Academy of Sciences, USSR; D. A. Biryukov, and L. L.
Vasil'yev, Associate Members of the Academy of Medical
Sciences, USSR; P. I. Gulyayev, Doctor of Biological Scien-
ces; Professor M. N. Livanov; and other Soviet scientists.
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Our correspondent has visited Leningrad where a group
of our scientists is studying this problem. We are pub-
lishing below an abbreviated translation of reports in the
French press, G. Anfilov's correspondence from Leningrad,
and the comments of Soviet scientists.
L
Translator's note: the translation from the French
magazine is omitted in this English version
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MEETINGS WITH THE UNKNOWN
by Glen Anfilov
First Meeting
This meeting was held in Leningrad this year in June,
in one of the Physiology Chair offices at Leningrad Univ-
ersity.
Physiologists and Biophysicists got together on one
of their regular seminars, an ordinary one, in no way
unusual. A few guests were present. The head of the
Chair, Professor Leonid Leonidovich Vasil'yev, Associate
Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, gave the floor
to the first speaker, one of the coworkers at the labo-
ratory.
Her unusual account to which in my opinion the audience
reacted rather casually with routine businesslike atten-
tion, is briefly retold below.
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In 1930, Upton Sinclair, an American writer, pub-
lished a book entitled Mental Radio in which he spoke of
experiments in thought transmission through space which
were conducted with the assistance of the writer's wife
Mary Sinclair. Later, the facts described in the book
caught the attention of a psychologist by the name of
Prince, who as he says, checked upon the authenticity of
Sinclair's writings through documents, reports of witnesses,
and participants; and then discussed the results of his
investigations in a paper, which now was scientific in char-
acter (at least in its external form), entitled "Upton
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Sinclair's Experiments on Telepathy."
If we are to believe Prince, we find the following
sequence of events.
Soon after her wedding, on an automobile ride, Mary
"sensed" the presence in her home of a certain B. who
lived far away, had never visited her before, and was
actually found there at that time.
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In 1916, Mary was suddenly alarmed about Jack London
(who was her husband's friend) . Precisely at this time,
Jack committed suicide.
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And now the third case. One evening Upton and Mary
were sitting in their living room. Upton was reading,
Mary was day dreaming and scribbling on a piece of paper.
When she looked down, she saw that subconsciously she had
drawn some kind of flowers. "What are you reading about?"
Mary asked her husband, who answered: "About flowers."
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After these events the couple decided to set up exper-
iments on the mental suggestion of drawings.
Mary and her husband conducted the first series of
experiments with her sister's husband, Robert Irwin.
Mary was in her room, Irwin in his home thirty miles
away. At a given preset time, Irwin would make a simple,
completely arbitrary drawing, think about it and Mary would
try to catch his order, and reconstitute what had been
drawn. In a number of cases "mental transmission" was
rather successful. Here are some examples of successful
tests.
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Irwin's
Mary Sinclair's
Drawings
Drawings
(cheir)
BLains
.4
H
G
3X
that
grawing
JE LOT A
TTOwe
Smshe out
(vatch).
Gas & glass ..
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( scissors
Mary Sinclair and Robert Irwin wrote a report on
their experiments, and their signatures on that document
were notarized.
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Then Upton Sinclair joined the experiments.
This time the mental transmission of drawings was
conducted within the house -- from one room to another.
Out of seven tests, three turned out more or less success!
ful. Here are the drawings:
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Upton Sinclair's
mary Sinclair's"
.
.. Drawings
ex
airs
bat
Ehe elove
an eye
Mary writes
"Profile"
The next series of experiments was performed by
Sinclair's secretary, the one after by the writer
himself again, and the next by a Professor William
McDouggal. There were fewer and fewer successful tests.
Gradually Mary's abilities subsided and finally dis-
appeared altogether.
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Prince tried to repeat Sinclair's experiments with
ten women picked at random. He had no success.
How did Mary behave while receiving silent sugges-
tions? In the book, Mary tells about this. Before the
seances she underwent special training, learning to
bring herself into a state of, as the doctors call,
selfhypnosis. According to her, reception is particu-
larly successful "on the verge of sleep" and is ex-
pressed in visual images arising in the consciousness
while falling asleep.
... End of report. As is customary in scientific
seminars, the audience ask questions, whereupon Pro-
fessor Vasil'ev thanks the speaker and offers
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additional comments on what was said.
It turns out that not a few such "parapsychological"
investigations have been carried out. There is nothing
new in the "mental Radio" of the Sinclairs. Also typical
are both the experimental set up, and the percentage of
correct guesses. Professor Vassil'yev notes the importance
of a rigid control of the reliability of such experiments,
and of their mathematical treatment. It is precisely to.
this that is devoted the second report by Professor Pavel
Viktorovich Trent'yev, an enthusiast of the application of
precise science methods to biology.
It is hardly worth while to dwell on the details of his
rather complex report. The blackboard becomes covered with
a pattern of mathematical symbols. He deals with the laws
of the theory of probability, the taking into account of
chance coincidences in remote montal suggestion, with the
detection of unscrupulousness and collusion among the par-
ticipants in an experiment, with arguments on this subject ...
The discussion is very serious, profound, truly sci-
entific.
Meanwhile I am listening in disbelief. I cannot
believe! This is too improbable. '
Indeed, the very word: "telepathy" has long ago become
synonimous with charlatanism and black magic. How can a
new term, "parapsychology, " rescue it !? The piling up of
chance coincidences, hallucinatory delirium here are
apparently the true sources of this "science." I do not
conceal my doubts, and express them to Professor Vasil yev
after the seminar. The Professor smiles.
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"There was a time when hypnosis was considered impos-
sible and contrary to nature.
Now hypnosis is used as a
treatment.
. ..
This is not yet an answer. As if few phenomena had been
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proven in debates! Hypnosis has been explained, understood,
while parapsychology ...
"Yes, agrees Vasil'yev, parapsychological phenomena
have not yet been explained. But does it follow from
here that they are unexplainable? They must be deciphered,
that's all. Some time in past, sight was a mystery, later
it was explained. In my memory, some not unintelligent
people "did not believe" in radio ... The brain's activity
is material processes. And there is nothing supernatural
in the fact that these processes may be accompanied by
some material radiations, let them be weak, usually im-
percentible, but under certain conditions capable of
affecting another brain. What is impossible in this?
A strict materialistic, truly scientific approach will
here also solve the mystery underlying these processes ...
"To be sure, this work is not easy, adds Vasil'yev.
Everything that is associated with this problem has been
overgrown with the dense. bristle of idealism and mysticism.
Here dwelled and still dwell a great many outright crooks
and falsifiers who chatter about "the incomprehensible
soul" and other nonsense. In addition to premeditated
fact-fudging, there occurs unconscious deceit and self-
deceit. I perfectly understand the position of serious
scientists who come out against spiritism, a pseudosci-
entific swindle. And it is logical that parapsychology
has difficult access to the great, "official" science.
However, an experiment is an experiment. Biological
remote communication yields to experimental detection.
The most convincing experiments of this typo have probably
been performed in our country in the period from 1932 to
1937.
In order to get acquainted with these investigations,
Leonid Leonidovich invites me to his lecture at the
Leningrad House of Scientists. I follow his advice, and
... receive still another portion of the surprising.
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Second Meeting
June 15, 1960. The auditorium of the Leningrad House
of Scientists is full. Biologists, physicians, physicists,
radio engineers, and spesialists in the field of automa -.
tion, cybernetics, and communication are attending a leo-
ture with the appealing theme "Concerning the Problem of
Cerebral Electromagnetic Radiation: "
The lecturer begins by mentioning the sensational
American attempt of telepathic communication with a sub-
marine. ( Even if the articles concerned with this are.
nothing but imagination, in his opinion the facts des-
cribed are in no contradiction with previous experiments.
In particular, mental transmission through a water layer
and the metallic walls of a submarine is in excellent
accord with experiments conducted by Soviet scientists in
the past.
"As a very young man, says "Vasil'yev, I came to the
laboratory of Vladimir Mikhaylovich Bekhterev, and met
Academician Petr Petrovich Lazarev. They were both very
much interested in experiments in the field of mental
suggestion and had communicated this passion to their
students. Even in the early thirties, after Bekhterev's
death, I had recruited a staff of coworkers with whom I
began an extensive series of experiments on remote mental
suggestion at the Bekhterev Institute of the Brain.
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Vasil'yev mentions the names of participants in this
research, and speaks of the purpose and program of the
investigations.
First of all, different modes of mental suggestion
were verified. One of the women tested, just as Mary
Sinclair, reproduced "suggested" drawings. For example,
. she perceived the symbol " 5 " drawn by Vasil'yev as
" Q"; " y " as " ." ", which are very much alike. In
other experiments, the subjects reproduced gestures which
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wore suggested to them without words nor gestures. The
most interesting and valuable experiments, however, turned
out to be experiments in the mental putting to sleep and
awakening of the subjects.
In 1932, women extremely sensitive to suggestion were
found, two of them mentally ill, and a third one healthy.
Very readily they could be put into ordinary hypnotic sleep.
It was decided to verify whether hypnotic sleep could be
induced remotely, without the media of hearing and sight.
The experiments began. The subject was placed in a
room specially provided for her, sometimes together with
the observer who entertained her with conversation. In the
neighboring isolated room sat the recorder watching over
the instruments, and in the following room (behind two more
Walls) sat the hypnologist. The observer did not know the
programming of the experiments. Only the hypnologist knew
it, but even he did not follow a predetermined plan, but
rather one which was being improvised or selected at random
( by means of a roulette) on the spot.
At some moment the hypnologist would attempt mental
sleep induction. The subject would fall asleep. Not
seeing or hearing the hypnologist she would obey his silent
order sent through three walls!
The fact of sleep induction was recorded by instruments,
from changes in electrical potential between the upper and
the lower side of the hand (this quantity is different
when a person is awake and asleep). A simpler method was
also used; the subject would continuously squeeze and un-
squeeze a rubber bulb connected to a pneumatic automatic
recorder which was charging a seesaw line on a paper roll.
As soon as the woman fell asleep, her hand stopped, ceasing
to press the bulb, and the seesaw line became straight.
Sometimes the subject would "resist" a perceived suggestion,
fighting sleep. But this would immediately affect the
character of the graph.
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Now the subject is asleep. Let some time interval
elapse, and the hypnologist attempts mental awakening.
The subject wakes up, or at least "tries" to wake up. This
is charted on the automatic recorder roll. : Even if the
. first awakening attempt fails, a few secsaws appear on the
roll. Hence, even in this case the hypnologist's sugges-
tion is perceived!
The pattern of mental "remote" suggestion was most
vividly apparent in the first experiments when the sub-
jects did not yet know what was going on. After a few
series of experiments, the phenomenon of selfhypnosis went
into effect; the subjects developed a conditioned reflex,
. and they fell into hypnotic sleep without suggestion under
the sole influence of the "soporofic" atmosphere. But here
also the experimentors found a way of verifying the phenom-
enon open to question; by means of remote suggestion sleep
induction under selfhypnosis could be speeded up two- or
even three-fold.
Here is another curious fact. When the subjects became
acquainted more closely with the hypnologists, and vice
versa, an amazing propensity for selective remote sugges-
tion became evident. Of the three subjects being together,
a given hypnologist would be capable of putting to sleep
some particular one. Say subject F. would be put into
hypnotic sleep while subjects I. and S. would remain awake.
Moreover, the subject which had been in a state of hypnotio.
sleep knew precisely which of the three hypnologists partic-
ipating in the experiments had put her asleep .; she would
always answer the observer's inquiry precisely right by
naming the hypnologist.
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: . Professor Vasil'yev describes the sequence of the
experiments, demonstrates the laboratory plan, tables of
results, and the results of the mathematical treatment.
Finally, he begins his account of the most exciting period
of experiments, namely of the attempt to determine the
physical nature of the mysterious "something" which is
transmitted from the hypnologist to the subject through
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stone wallsi
What is the nature of this something.
"All we thought of was radio waves, says Vasil'yev.
We could not conceive of anything but radio waves. This
hypothesis appeared to be the only plausible one. Electric
currents pulsate in the brain, and any alternating current
generates an electromagnetic field, i.e., radio waves.
Well then, it is very simple to baricade oneself
against radio waves by placing a metallic envelope - a
screen - between the hypnologist and the subject. Radio
waves would not pass through metal, and mental suggestion
would cease.
A screen was built. First from tin foil, then a more
massive one from thick lead plates. It was a cabin into
which the hypnologist was to shut himself. The lid of the
cabin was so constructed that it was to be lowered upon a
mercury-filled groove. No radio emission could pass
through this structure; the physicists participating in
the experiments had carefully checked the reliability of
the screening. A spacious metallic chamber was set up
for the subjects as well.
The screens are ready. The experiments are resumed.
What effect has the screen?
None! It is as if there were no screen! All is as
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before.
Just as before, the subjects fall asleep, selfhypnosis
is speeded up, and slective sleep induction takes place.
This means that no radio waves go from the hypnologist
to the subject? What then?
"We were astonished, says Vasil'yev.
We ourselves
were hypnotized by the unexpected result.
The results of the investigation appeared so strange
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that the authors refrained from their publication. Only
now, almost a quarter of a century later, was it decided to
divulge them and present them to science's judgment. And
at the same time, to start a series of experiments on a
new, more modern basis ...
The audience reacted to Vasil'yev's lecture in differ-
ent ways. Some were astonished, some delighted, and some
surprised. There were also sceptics. After the lecture the
hall and lobby were buzzing like a beehive. I saw no
indifferent ones ...
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THE SEARCH FOR CEREBRAL RADIO
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In Leningrad a book by P. I. Gulyayev, Doctor of
Biological Sciences, "Electrical Processes in the Human
Cerebral Meninges" was published recently. In this book
there is a chapter entitled "Cerebral Electromagnetic
Radiation" which describes how investigations were conducted
of the remote transmission of mental suggestions. Here are'
several curious facts which are given in this chapter.
The problem of the electromagnetic field of the brain
is frequently associated with the problem of the transmis-
sion of mental suggestion and of the effect of one brain
upon another independently of the sense organs. This con-
nection is thrust upon us by the habit of thinking with
the use of known technical models. In technology, the
electromagnetic field is widely used in information transfer.
If such a field exists in the brain, then naturally there
arises the concept that it is precisely the electromagnetic
field that transmits mental suggestion.
In 1922, Academician P. P. Lazarev suggested the
existence of a cerebral electromagnetic field with a wave-
length of the order of 30 thousand kilometers, and he
associated this field with the transference of mental sug-
gestion.
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From 1925 to 1941, the Italian neurologist Caccamalli,
in cooperation with physicists of the Marconi laboratory,
conducted an experimental investigation to prove the
existence of a cerebral electromagnetic field. Caccamalli
concluded that the brain emits wavelengths. meter, decimeter,
and centimeter ranges.
In the same years, Zauerbuch and Schuman
Lspelling not
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verified. Trans. note_/
reported that they had discovered
an electromagnetic field in the vicinity of contracting
human and animal muscles. The field was detected by means
of a metallic disc connected by way of a three-tube amplif-
ier with a string galvanometer. The frequency of the
recorded rhythms was of the order of 50 hertz, that is to
say was equal to the frequency of the muscle currents.
Subsequently, neither the experiments of Zauerbuch and
Schuman, nor Caccamalli's experiments were confirmed.
B. B. Kazhinskiy (1922) thought that mental suggestion
is carried out by the electromagnetic field of the human
brain. S. Ya. Turlygin (1942) after experimenting with the
: mental suggestion of sleep arrived at the conclusion that
the brain sets up millimeter wavelengths which are precisely
those that carry mental suggestion. In 1948, B. V.
Krayukhin raised the question of the possibility of elec-
trical induction in the tissues of a live organism. On the
basis of his experiments he successfully solved this problem.
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But the experiments of Turlygin and Kazhinskiy are not
convincing and were experimentally disproved.
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First of all, the physicist V. Arkad'yev showed
mathematically in 1942 that the intensity of the magnetic
field of a brain is too small to be able to remotely excite
another brain. It is well-known that in the self-excitation
of a brain by its own currents, which is observed in epilep-
tic attacks, for instance, the voltage of these exciting
currents is about 1 volt. On the other hand, the field
intensity of the emission is of the order of 10"
volt
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according to Arkad'yev's calculations. Accordingly, this
intensity is so low that there can not possibly be any
remote excitation of another brain. Thus, Arkad'yev's
calculation indicates that a cerebral electromagnetic field
exists but that its intensity is so small as to be insuf-
ficient to affect another brain.
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Second of all, L. L. Vasil'yev's experiments conduc-
ted as early as 1932, while they confirm the fact of
mental suggestion, disprove the electromagnetic field's
participation in the carrying of this suggestion.
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P. I. Gulyayev
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Electrical Proces-
ses in the Human
Cortex
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NEW EXPERIMENTS ARE NECESSARY
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By E. A. Astratyan,
Associate Member of the Academy of Sciences, USSR.
The problem of thought transmission through space has
lately been attracting more and more notice not only from
numerous scientists abroad but from our Soviet scientists
.
as well.
In itself, the problem of thought transmission through
space is very complicated and full of contradictions. The
scientists working on the solution of this problem are not
yet in a position to present to science such facts as would
unequivocally confirm the existence of this phenomenon.
Among the few exceptions to this belongs the case of the
submarine "Nautilus" described in the foreign literature,
which was retold above. By the way, the possibility is
not excluded that not all that was reported about this fact
is indeed true. In order to be fully certain about the
reality of this phenomenon, many more experiments and
theoretical proofs will be required.
On the other hand, certain data are known which prevent
us from categorically denying the existence of the very
problem and of the necessity of its further study.
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THOUGHT TRANSMISSION IS IMPOSSIBLE
by D. A. Biryukov,
Associate Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences
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We are witnessing how telepathy (i.e. the belief in
. the possibility of thought transmission through space)
which had been banished from scientific consideration as
early as the last century is again acquiring advocates
now under a new name -- parapsychology or bioelectronics.
Attempts "to prove" the reality of "telepathic commu-
nication" are often based on the rhythmic oscillations of
cerebral biocurrents. It is precisely in these currents
that a number of advocates of parapsychology see the pos-
sibility of a cerebral, mental radiation, and hence of
thought transmission.
But if this is true, if thought transmission exists,
then our thinking should be first of all reflected in bio-
currents set up in the brain. There are no scientific
data favoring this hypothesis.
First of all, we should remind the reader that bio-
currents are not the specific product of corebral activity
exclusively. Biocurrents are set up everywhere where there
is vital activity, in muscles, glands, even in green
leaves. In addition, biocurrents do not differ in prin-
ciple from thermal oscillations, from the numerous biochem-
ical changes which accompany any vital activity, including
cerebral activity. This is precisely why variations in
cerebral potentials never cease. Even when a person sleeps,
at which time, as is known, conscious activity dwindles to
nothing, biocurrents change in form only.
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Further. Thinking is closely associated with language,
there is no wordless thinking. On the other hand the speech
of people of different nationalities is completely different.
However, we know of no "national" symptoms, in the cerebral
biocurrent pattern, and there can be none. Hence, neither
is this approach to the determination of how thought is
expressed in cerebral biocurrents scientific.
.
At present, physiologists cannot yet determine without
error from a curve of cerebral biocurrents, which of these
biocurrents correspond to excitation, and which to inhibi-
tion. If such is the state of affairs for elementary pro-
cesses of the cerebral activity, how can we seriously expect
biocurrents to express thought? It is not by chance,
evidently, that most thought transmission "experiments" are
not based on the actual suggestion of thoughts, but on the
suggestion of graphic images.
This is what Karl Bruk / Spelling not verified. Trans-
lator's note / was doing in 1925 when he forced a person
very far from him to reproduce shaded drawings. This also
applies to the experiments conducted aboard an American sub-
marine which have recently stirred up so much censation.
In these experiments images of so-called Zener / Spelling
not verified. Translator's note_/ cards were transmitted
(circles, crosses, rectangles, etc).
The perception of such images by man, or by the higher
animals is not different in principle. The higher forms of
thinking are accessible only to man who possesses language.
Therefore, experiments with the guessing of Zener cards
cannot be accepted as a proof of thought transmission over
space, either. As far as the old observations of V. M.
Bekhterev and A. L. Durov of "mental" suggestions to animals
are concerned, they are not scientifically reliable.
It is no wonder that the advocates of the experiments
aboard the submarine stress the necessity of a number of
conditions that are absolutely necessary for the realization
of thought transmission. Among such conditions belongs, for
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example, the specific selection of a couple of participants
in the experiment. The experiment will be successful in
one direction only, the switching of positions by the par-
ticipants of the experiment precludes the possibility of
"transmission."
I do not have the opportunity to prove the nonscientific
nature of these conditions and I am mentioning them merely
as an example of the fact that we are dealing here more with
chance, coincidence, than with an actual phenomenon. All
such and similar "experimental" conditions are necessary to
explain failures.
I have far from considered fully the objections to
·
parapsychology. The physical side of the problem gives rise
to just as many questions. Do cerebral biocurrents, say,
possess sufficient strength to be a source of influence of
one brain upon another?
Calculations show that the electromagnetic waves which
are produced by cerebral biocurrents in essence and charac-
ter, for all practical purposes, do not emit beyond the
skull. Their emission would require that a transmitting
antenna several tens of thousands kilometers long be inside
the skull. It is in this sense, by the way, that the founder
of cibernetics, N. Viner / Spelling not verified. Transla-
tor's note / answered a question on telepathy at a lecture
which he was giving during his stay in our country.
Thus, we conclude on the one hand that biocurrents in
no way express the meaning of mental activity; and on the
other hand that in magnitude and character biocurrents are
incapable of remote effect.
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The tendency to "substantiate" telepathy without
reference to cerebral biocurrents is likewise devoid of
scientific foundation. Advocates of parapsychology are
forced to resort to the aid of some unknown modes of commu-
nication, to invent what has never and nowhere been found.
We have dwelled upon certain factual data, in the main
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because the remarks that have recently appeared in the
French popular press on the remote suggestion of the above-
mentioned images of Zener cards were very favorable
received by very many a reader.
At the same time; I am deeply convinced that the prob-
lem of parapsychology has no right to a scientific formula-
tion if this problem is evaluated in the plane of methodo-
logy. I shall allow myself to mention but one basic. prin-
ciple of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy on the unity and
, continuity of the psychic and the physiological. Thought
is a property of the brain matter and is inseparable from
. it.' From this point of view the formulation of the problem
of the separability of thought from the brain, and thought
transmission are eliminated. To contradict this would mean
to return to the positions of the vulgar materialists of
the last century who thought that, similarly to the secre-
tion of bile by the liver, thought is secreted by the brain.
As may be seen from this very short account, parapsy-
chology is devoid of scientific foundations. There remains
only faith in it.
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THE "PSI PHENOMENON" IS A REALITY
by P. I. Gulyayev, Doctor of Biological Sciences
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Nonsensical are the assertions that we find in the
foreign press concerning the fact that the American inves-
tigators "started from zero." Individual cases of direct
thought transmission from one person to another have already
been known for thousands of years. But it is only very
recently that on succeeded in proving this fact with sci-
entific reliability and conclusiveness, after having elin-
inated from among the experimental conditions any possibility
of error, of conscious or subconscious deceit or selfdeceit.
This function of the brain was given the conventional desig-
nation of the "psi phenomenon."
Let us immediately make the reservation that the "mind
reading" which is sometimes demonstrated on stage has no
relationship to this phenomenon. These experiments are
based on ideomotor acts by virtue of which a deaf-and-blind,
for example, may determine a person's state of mind --
alarm, worry, or depression -- from his or her hand.
Characteristic of the new phenomenon is exceptional
weakness, near clusiveness. Here, so far, physical instru-
ments have not been applicable, and the only indicator of
the existence of this phenomenon has been man's brain.
This "instrument, " however, is capricious and not entirely
reliable.
·
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There is nothing astonishing in the fact itself that
the "psi phenomenon" is relatively rarely observed. Every-
one knows that there exists a pressure of light. But try
to prove this experimentally under laboratory conditions.
You will see that such an experiment requires great skill.
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Despite the fact that light pressure really exists, it. is
almost never taken into account in any physical experiments
on the usual scale. Only on the cosmic scale where there
arise conditions for its manifestation, does light pressure
. create the magnificent spectacle of "shooting stars" or
. cometa.
If there were no connection between the "transmitter"
and the "receiver, " then in telepathy, cards would be
matched by chance only. The mean number of such chance
matches may be calculated from the theory of probability.
For five cards selected at random, the mean number of coin-
cidences is 20 percent of the number of experiments. The
chance matching of 70 percent of the choices for five cards
is, according to the theory of probability, for all prao-
tical purposes, an impossibility; the chance occurence of
such a phenomenon is possible only once in a billion or more
experiments.
In the experiments described, however, 70 cards out of
a hundred are successfully guessed. Hence, it may be con-
cluded that between the transmitter and the receiver there
is in fact established some form of communication. The
remaining possibility is that the theory of probability
itself, from the formulas of which the number of chance
coincidence is calculated, is incorrect. Inasmuch as there
is no reason to doubt the latter theory we must admit that
the first hypothesis is valid.
How is thought transmission realized?
I shall stress that when the expression "thought
transmission" is used we do not mean that thought is trans-
mitted directly from one brain to another. We have in mind
the transmission of certain information on the thought, not
of the thought itself. Indeed, when we converse we also
transmit information about our thought to one another. In
this case a specific air vibration serves as the thought
carrier.
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So far we do not know what is the carrier of thought
information when thought is transmitted through space.
At any rate it appears to me that it is not at all
necessary to bring in the electromagnetic field as the cause.
Indeed, we far from know all the properties of brain neurons.
Just as the atom is inexhaustible, so is the neuron inex-
haustible in its properties. Possibly, there exists some
physical field, new to science, that is related to neuron
activity. . This new, perfectly valid, and of course mate-
rialistic viewpoint may help us in the future to explain
the phenomenon of thought transmission.
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AN OPEN QUESTION
by N. N. Livanov, Professor.
The possibility of the remote transmission of certain
states from one person to another still remains an open
question at present. Despite individual reports favoring
such a possibility, science is not yet in possession of
sufficiently reliable facts -- regularly reproducible
facts that would give a scientific basis to this problem.
The only point of agreement of the majority of the scien-
tiats is apparently that one should not regard the possi-
bility of transmission as being below one's dignity, but
should gather and scientifically work up all related facts.
..
Most frequently, cases are offered as proof. of the
existence of "thought transmission" through space, in which
some person felt something at the same time as an event
affecting that person in fact took place. We shall not
doubt the existence of such coincidences. However, it
should be taken into account that similar sensations might
have been felt by the person in question many times without
coinciding with real events. In these cases, these sensa-
tions were forgotten, but should there have occurred but one
such coincidence, it was remembered for life to be retold
to the surrounding people. Phenomena thus become selected
in a one-sided manner, and such a selection may easily lead
to the wrong conclusions. This is why a strictly scientific
approach is necessary for the evaluation of such facts.
Even the simplest sensation is based on a most complex
mosaic of excited and inhibited nerve cells located in
various regions of the brain, and first of all in the
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cerebral meninges. In order that the brain of a second
person receive at least somewhat similar sensations, it is
necessary that all this tremendously complex mosaic of
states be transmitted to a great number of corresponding
brain cells in a second person. Such a selective trans-
mission is very slightly probable.
.
ʻ
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Conditions have arisen under which not only we have
no scientific approach to the analysis of "transmission"
mechanisms, but so far do not even know of any material
phenomena which could be applied to the explanation of
this phenomenon in the future.
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BIOELECTRONICS DOES NOT EXIST
by L. P. Krayzmer, Candidate of Technical Sciences.
The basic and indisputable principle of the material-
istic philosophy is the fact that thinking, consciousness,
sensations, emotions, and other phenomena of the human
psychism are the highest product of matter organized in a
particular way. The whole psychic activity is the result
of cerebral physiological activity that is accompanied by
various physical and chemical processes. These processes
are very complicated and their fundamentals are still far
from clear to investigators.
However, the impetuous development of science in
general; and, in particular, the application of accurate
and precise experimental methods of physiological investiga-
tions, and of thorough mathematical treatment to experimental
results, give reason to hope that in the future we shall
know exactly precisely what physico-chemical changes under-
lie cerebral psychic activity; we shall then learn to recog-
nige the codes in which are ciphered ideas, concepts,
images, in short all the information processed by the brain.
To argue the contrary would mean to defend the view-
point of the incomprehensibility of the physiological
foundations of the higher nervous activity; this is ob-
viously contrary to the spirit of Marxist-Leninist phil-
.
osophy. Hence, with time, there will arise the possibility
by means of special instruments to "retrieve information"
as it is processed in the brain.
However, the practical realization of such investiga-
tions and of instrumental mind reading is associated with
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such difficulties as will not be overcome not only in the
next decades, but within the bounds of the forseeable future
development of science. The analysis of encephalograms, of
thermal, electromagnetic, or any other external radiations
of the brain can only give an idea of the activity of the
entire mass or considerable sections of the brain; such an
analysis does not make it possible to determine what is
going on in each of the 10 to 15 billion of individual nerve
cells. The introduction of any kind of electrodes into
these billions of neurons without upsetting their normal
activity appears phantastie to say the least, from the tech-
nical standpoint.
.
·
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Therefore even the use of the most accurate instruments
for mind reading by direct contact with a person is not
likely to be possible even in the future. It is all the
more difficult to assume the possibility of the realization
of thought or sensation transmission from one person to
. another across considerable distances, although in prin-
oiple this is not contrary to the doctrine of the material
basis of psychic phenomena. However, we do not know such
material information carriers (fields, waves, particles,
etc.) which would make it possible for persons to act di-
rectly the role of "transmitter" and "receiver" at the
' terminals of some sort of "parapsychic communication
channel."
The advocates of the idea of the possibility of such
.communication consider to be inconsistent the arguments
concerning the absence of the proper information carriers.
They call for research in new types of fields of radiation
and for work toward the development of a theory which would
explain the parapsychic transmission phenomena that are
sporadically described in the literature. To be sure, the
purpose of science is the search for an explanation for
·
every observation, phenomenon, or experiment. However, all
reports concerning observations in this domain are so con-
tradiotory, subjective, and nonreproducible that, first of
all, there arises valid doubt on the existence of the phen-
omena themselves. Indeod, the reliability of any observation
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may only be confirmed by the fact that by reproducing the
original conditions we repeatedly observe the same phen-
omenon. In the present case, no such reliability criterion
is found.
It is known that often an impure, " "incorrect" exper-
imental set up in biology or physics lead to half-baked
and invalid conclusions. Therefore, as long as the reli-
ability of the phenomenon itself is not proven (and with a
rigid and objective approach, the existence of thought .
transmission is not likely to be proven) there is no sense
in spending the time and energy of scientists in a search
of physical explanations for this phenomenon.
One is tempted to say to the parapsychologists,
"Prove, first of all, that the phenomenon that you describe
does take place, and then only start looking for its
explanation. Meanwhile, your speculations and theories are
difficult to differentiate from idealistic mysticism."
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BIOLOGICAL RADIO IS AN ECHO FROM THE PAST
by' L. L. Vasil'yev,
Associate Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences
The finding of a factual basis for the reality of
mental (silent) suggestion, and especially the determination
of the psychological, physiological, and physical nature
of this relatively rarely encountered phenomenon are among
the most complex and methodically difficult problems of
psychoneurology. Attempts scientifically to establish
this phenomenon, and as much as possible experimentally to
master it were begun as early as the .eighteen eighties by
the most eminent scientists of those times. Subsequently,
the number of articles in print devoted to that problem was
growing abroad year after year, and at present has reached
several thousand articles.
This does not mean, however, that mental suggestion
has gained general acceptance among scientists. Not at
all. Arguments for and against continue today.
We shall try and approach this problem from a differ-
ent standpoint. Evolution has provided animals and man
with three remote (capable of perceiving through space)
sense organs. We communicate through space by means of
sight and hearing, and animals by means of smell as well.
What could telepathic communication add to this if it
existed? What biological significance could it have?
What biological significance could it have? For animals
telepathy would have about the same significance as radio
has for modern man, which far excells the natural means. of
communication by way of remote sense organs and verbal
speech. Biologically this would be fully justified.
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There are in fact signs that certain animals possess
natural "biological radio. " One example of such radio
communication may be, for example, the following mysterious
phenomenon. The Soviet entomologist I. A. Fabri studied
this phenomenon for six years in one species of night
butterflies. With the coming of summer evenings, an unfer-
tilized female was placed into a wire cage on the balcony
of a country house in the woods located within five kilom-
eters of two big villages. Thirty minutes had not elapsed
as males began to fly to her. In three evenings, 64 males
of this butterfly species, which is rare in our country,
had been caught. Some of these males were labeled with
paint, carried 6 to 8 kilometers away from the house, and
. freed there. The males were coming back. Given the relat-
ively slow hovering flight peculiar to these butterflies,
the insects covered this distance in 40 to 45 minutes. For
them to do so, they had to select the shortest straight
path toward the female, and to work their muscles strenu-
ously. It follows that the female can call the male in some
unknown way.
The malos felt the appeal in the forest arca traversed,
in completely calm weather, and even with a slight breeze
headwind to the scent given off by the female. It turned
out that the organs which perceive the "call agent" in the
male were the antennas. Males whose antennes had been cut
would not perceive the female's call and fly to her.
V
What is this "call agent"? Of the two possibilities,
scent or electromagnetic signals, preference should be
given to the one which is capable of acting against head-
wind, i.e., to electromagnetic waves. However, a number of
experimente forces one to doubt even the latter hypothesis.
This problem has not been solved so far and will require
special investigations.
Other examples of "biological communication" in the
animal kingdom may be given, which are hardly ttributable
to the effect of remote sense organs.
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If such phenomena in animals are in fact a type of
primitive radio, we shall have to admit that certain insects
are endowed with this ability more than human beings are.
In the butterfly, the call of the male by the female is an
important vital act which contributes toward the preserva-
tion of the species. In humans, spontaneous "biological
radio communication" has sometimes the character of an
appeal for help, but most often that of information concern-
ing the important experiences of a close relative, or
friend. This, too, may have a certain vital significance,
although for modern humans such communication plays no
biological role. Such is the regular evolution process.
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v
The impression is formed that the parapsychic "talent"
' is not a progressing phenomenon in the evolution process,
but rather a rudimentary capacity which has survived in man
from his zoological ancestors and which is reactivated in
certain persons with nervous or psychic deficiencies as a
peculiar form of atavism. We find our best subjects for
experiments in mental suggestion among psychoneurotics.
This is well-known.
One of the French magazines published an article that
confirms what was just said. The author of the article
describes in detail displays of such susceptibility in his
mentally deficient brother. At the age of 47, he has the
mental development of an 18-month child, is not capable of
coherent speech, and will sluggishly pronounce separate
words only. This does not prevent him from being suscep-
tible to complex mental suggestions. The article gives
24 examples of cases when, with surprising speed and accu-
: racy (with no distorsions whatsoever), he pronounced words
and scientific terms unknown to him at the very moment
when they were conceived in the mind of the persons present.
The absence in this case of the distorsions that are usually
so frequent, is explained by the author of the article by
the fact that the slightly developed intellect was not
capable to control and change the perceptione received.
This sounds like the truth.
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The study of the biological role and nature of para-
psychic phenomena must become a full-fledged branch of
soience. With this purpose in mind, we shall multiply
experiments with the profound conviction that thousands,
tens of thousands of experiments worked up by mathematical
methods will sooner or later prone to one and all the
reality of mental suggestion, or will refute it just as
indubitably.
At any rate, the study of this interesting phenomenon
widens our conception of living nature, and this alone makes
it indispensable.
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EXPERIMENTS MUST BE ACCURATE
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by I. Klyatskin, Doctor of Technical Sciences.
Many successful thought transmission experiments may
be explained by conditioned reflexes. For example, two
people who have long lived together often guess one another's
thoughts from a hardly noticeable change in facial expres-
sion or gesture and cannot even explain how this happens.
In addition we have no objective indicators for the
recording of that form of matter motion which could be the
basis of telepathy. People play the part of transmitters
and receivers. Private relationships between them, their
striving for the success of the experiment often lead to
subjective errors even if these people are quite conscien-
tious. It is indeed so easy to take one's wishes for
granted!
It is no wonder that experimental results are often
mutually contradictory. Some people, for instance, main-
tain that telepathy is possible only within the limits of
the visible, other consider that space is no limiting fac-
tor. Some people maintain that a metallic screen fully
excludes the possibility of mental communication, others
argue that screening plays no part.
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In order to solve the problem of whether or not the
thought transmission phenomenon exists, and on what phys-
ical phenomenon it is based, strictly scientific experim-
ental setup is necessary with the participation of soien-
tists of various specialties, and fastidious criticism of
of the results obtained is required. Any do-it-yourself
efforts will result only in confusion, and will not solve
this interesting problem.
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FROM THE EDITOR
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As you have seen, scientists are still arguing not only
about the nature of this interesting, in many respects puz-
zling phenomenon, but about whether it exists at all. To be
sure, there hardly is evidence for the complete denial of
this phenomenon. Possibly, the amazing phenomenon exists,
but if so it was not discovered recently, not in the exper-
iments aboard the "Nautilus. " The American investigators
have not at all "started from zero," as the Western press
reported. Individual cases of transmission by means of
"biological radio" have long been described. We have had
the opportunity of acquanting ourselves with these descrip-
tions.
The sensation abroad about this "extraordinary dis-
covery" which has such an equally "extraordinary potential
is not justified. All our scientists agree that the gift
of "thought transmission" is extremely rarely found, if at
all, and that it is found mostly in people with a disturbed
nervous system, sometimes, in people that are simply sick.
In this sense, the suggestion of Professor L. L.
Vasil'yev is of much interest. He thinks that the so rarely
observed capacity of the brain to perceive information
from another brain through space is not progressing, but
rather is degenerating; this he regards as being fully jus-
tified from the standpoint of biology.
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The question may arise: is it indeed worth while to
carry on investigations, to argue, to disprove old explana-
tions, and to search for new ones? Yes, it is! But this
should definitely be done on a strictly scientifio basis,
starting from materialistic positions, and sweeping aside
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020026-8

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020026-8
all that is false and sensational. By deciphering still not
understood physiological and psychic phenomena that occur
in our organism, we derive a more profound knowledge of the
living nature, and of its greatest and most complex creation
-- man.
END
.
.
1431
..
. .
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020026-8