NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040019-4

Approved For Release 2008/04/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040019-4
Sam 19 Jan 77
Parapsychology called
object of Soviet study
Paris (NYT)- An emigre Soviet physi-
cist says that the Soviet Union has been
doing secret work in parapsychology, with
what appear to be military and police pur-
poses.
A French scientist and former intelli-
gence agent, Jacques Bergier. has written
a book saying that extrasensory percep-
tion. one of the theories studied by parap-
sychology. may be used in espionage,
thought control, surveillance and as a
weapon.
The Soviet emigre, August Stern, is a
son of Dr Mikhail Stern, an endocrinolo-
"gist who was imprisoned before being al-
lowed to leave the Soviet Union in March.
August Stern spent several years in a se-
cret Siberian laboratory in the late 1960's
trying to find a physical basis for psychic
energy or "psi particles," as they are
called.
Soviet concern on the issue was demon-
Strated in the case of Robert C. Toth, a
correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.
who was interrogated in Moscow by the
KGB. the security police, and was accused.
of having received "state secrets" about
parapsychology He was allowed to leave
the country after protests by the U.S. gov-
ernment.
The incident had the earmarks of an
entrapment. in the view of diplomats and
others. There is no sign that the 25-page
document on parapsychology handed to
him on the street just before he was seized
contained important information. Howey-
er, there is a record of Soviet sensitivity
and August Stern's information indicates
that parapsychology is a matter of con-
cern to the authorities.
Mr. Stern, who now lives in Paris, said
he was told before leaving the Soviet
Union two years ago that an even more se-
cret laboratory than the one be knew in
Siberia had been set up in Moscow under
the direction of the KGB.
Parapsychology covers four specific
fields of nonphysical phenomena. They are
telepathy (transmission of thought with-
out use of the senses), extrasensory per-
ception, telekinesis (transmission of mo-
tion without any evident use of physical
energy) and clairvoyance (the ability to
see distant or future events without physi-
cal intervention).
At one time in the late 1950's and early
1960's, the U.S. Navy and the Stanford Re-
search Institute did experiments in telepa-
thy to see whether it could provide an un-
detectable means of communicating with
submarines. So far as is known, the ex-
periments failed. But word of them
reached Moscow and apparently provoked
high-level interest in the subject.
In June, 1975, Leonid I. Brezhnev, the
Soviet leader, urged the United States to
agree on a ban of research and develop-
ment of new kinds of weapons "more ter-
rible" than anything the world has known.
There is no evidence that Mr. Brezhnev
was referring to something in the field of
parapsychology. But it is a possibility.
Approved For Release 2008/04/01 : NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040019-4
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