Approved For Release 2001/03/26 CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0200080034-7
              W
              @GAINS IN ESP STUDIES
              '4'
              Ll 1)
              SOVIET DOURID U
              erican Specialists See No
              Cvidence of Any Development
              Not Already Known in U.S.
                   By BOYCE RFNSS GER
              indications that the' $2401t Union fis
              ing a serious research in parapsychoi.
                   have fascinated And Worried some
                   ericans for Ytars. As a' .result Of the
                   Of Soviet science as's ,monollWc,,
                   ffiltitution dedicated to serve the goals
                   ()I the Communist @ Party. some peoplg
                   r that the-Russians see ouch rese,arch
                   a in
              is le d 9 to some effective method of
              f0ought control" or "Psychological war.
              :"The menninger Foundationhas suggest,
                        that it MAY be 9 XORd Idea for Amer.
                   %pn scientists to Jearn @Jl they can about
                   OrallsYc)10109Y, also known as pacho
                   tr9nics, before the Russians get the, up.
                   ,iw hand. -The foundai Ion itself is on..
                   n s"'
              41 h S'udies.,
                        ite the fears, t#v best Indications
                   e that 'althou the Russians are In
                   4ed pursuing p&r4p@y
                   @holoxy research
              much of it under.milit4y Auspices, 'they,
              J&ve not discovered or developed "y,
              ,*Wng that American re"Parcher
              & do, xot
              Qready know, And that Is IOU* Indee
                        d,
              SOM Sovict rusearch hai been pub.
              Ili-shed In literature sovaillible to Western.
              "'ers, including
              I Ruch books as "Mysterious
              &henomena of the Hura" Psyche 00 a-Su
              @gestion from a Distance, )p and "-Ex
              Vental $tudies in ment&I Sugges on.o.
              ,Research o4 para
                   TsYchOI09t, b widely
              @pAblicized In the . or4fttic oviot pmt.
              Uesearchers have padicjpated in inter,
              -31ational conferences' and contributed
              PaPers to international books.
              Same Skeptleisni as in 11. S.
                   From one such paper-in a report of
              ibe United Nations Lducational, Scientific
              ,grid Cultural Organization on the "para-
              kiences")-AL appears that parapsycho-
                        gists in the Soviet Union and Eastern
                   urope face as much skepticism in their
                   ,0untries as do Americans.
                   Zden6k PoIdAk, a Czechoslovak re-
              ,searcher, author of several books and In
              419774 presidt;nt of the International As-
              1,soclati
                   on for Psychotronic Re-search, said
              Ahree 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-
                   ith soviet re Isearchers and
              responded w
              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 * Electrical Emanations
                   He was referr to Soviet interest In
              electrical and ria,1110 emnantions of the
              buman body'aod brain. Such ernaautions
              Wdst but arg extremely weak-an elec-
              troencephalograph picks them up-and
              decades of attempts by Western sclen-
              Wits to ma_kIe sen,so of 1hem have yielded
              JiDthing Wit apr&ars remotely like
              t1lought transmission.
                   )(Iflian' photograp@y', a phenomenon
              discovered In W Soviet Union, is among
              thes@ interests. Under certain conditions,
              the human bod,y and other things have a
              certain amount of high frequency elec-
              trol current that, like mocroscopic
              sparks, will discMrge on a piece of fil.rn
              when It is touched. When developed, the
              film show Images chrresponding 0 the
              shokpe of the finger or'whatever.
                   U,is Wd that faith heralers generate
              such electrielty when doing their thing
              and that the "life force em4nations"
              from sick people are different fromthose
              of the healthy. The Russians have sought
              toJAdapt this to medicine through Wo-
              vqgotherapy.
                   the Soviet interest In parapsycholopy
              Is In keeping with the interests of Soviet
              researchers In otber'flelds that are coin-
              sidered of marginal interest in the West.
              They are looking for their version of
              the abominable snowman and "loot. stont
              Age tribes,"
                   Soviet interest in this parapsychology
              bas been criticized rind ridiculed by
              Chinese scientists as an example of the
              decay of Soviet ideological resolve. The
              Chinese consider s@cb research quackery
              and pseudosclence. Chinese researchers,
              writin the journal -Scientia Sinica, have
              slid Soviet belief in ESP denes the
              fundamental Marxst principle that c6n.
              sciousness' is a true reflection of the
              objective world.
              Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0200080034-7