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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
November 6, 1983, Sunday, AM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 1112 words
HEADLINE: Study Cites Soviet Progress on Mind Weapons
BYLINE: By BARTON REPPERT, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
  13ODY:
The Soviet Union has achieved "significant progress" toward developing
mind-control weapons, according to a U.S. Army study disclosed in a new book
focusing on military uses of psychic phenomena.
Author Martin Ebon contends that mind-altering effects or "remote monitoring
of brain wave activity" are among possible reasons behind the Soviet microwave
bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
"Soviet scientists view the brain as an apparatus available for probing and
manipulation," Ebon says. "They are well aware that perfected techniques in ESP
and other phenomena would make effective wartime strategies."
Publication of Ebon's book, "Psychic Warfare: Threat or Illusion?" comes amid
increased interest in parapsychology research on Capitol Hill as well as within
the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.
A report prepared recently by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of
the Library of Congress, concluded that "psi phenomena" could be applied in
fields such as education, medicine, geological exploration, and business
management.
Mind-control techniques also may prove useful for "military intelligence and
police work" along with "crime, persuasion, mischief and disinformation," it
said.
Psi phenomena include various forms of extrasensory perception, for example
telepathy and "remote viewing" of distant locations. Another form is
"psychokinesis," the ability to move or bend solid objects with the mind.
Critics of parapsychology, however, charge that much of the research on those
effects is either scientifically unsound or fraudulent. Other skeptics argue
that even if the phenomena exist, they are too weak and unpredictable to have
military value.
congressional supporters of psi research include Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I.,
ranking Democrat an the Senate Foreign Relations committee. He said he had
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discussed the parapsychology field with Soviet researchers during a visit to the
Soviet union in August.
"I personally have never experienced or seen a psychic event," Pell said in a
recent interview. "But it seems to me there have been adequate scientific
articles written that would indicate that they do occur."
The 1981 Army study, quoted at length in Ebon's book, analyzed the potential
impact of psychic warfare tactics, as well as other battlefield factors, on the
stamina and performance of U.S. artillery forces.
It used the word "psychotronics" to describe the "projection or transmission
of mental energy by individual or collective mental discipline and control, or
by an energy-emitting device a kind of mind jammer.,,
The report cited "the significant amount of research that has been completed
by Warsaw Pact countries during the past decade in the area of psychic
phenomena, of which psychotronics is one element."
"The Soviet Union, in particular, appears to have made significant progress
toward developing psychotronic weapons," said the Army study, entitled "Fire
Support Mission Area Analysis."
To counter that potential threat, it said, the United States should develop
special defensive tactics and begin to explore the use of its own mind-control
weapons.
The Central Intelligence Agency scaled down its involvement with psychic
research during the mid-1970s, when the agency was under intense criticism and
scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
But a U.S. government official familiar with the parapsychology field, who
spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said that currently "there
seems to be somewhat renewed interest at the CIA in psi phenomena, particularly
(psychokinetic) metal-bending."
Pentagon units said to be interested in psychic research include the Defense
Intelligence Agency and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Pell headed a delegation of nine Senate Democrats who met with President Yuri
V. Andropov and other Kremlin officials during their Aug. 17-21 visit to Moscow.
In his private discussions with Soviet parapsychologists, Pell said he had
been unable to get a "firm handle" on the overall scope of scientific resources
Moscow is devoting to this area. "I was just there for too short a time to go
into anything in any depth," he said.
The senator said he has been particularly impressed by psychokinesis and
remote-viewing research being conducted by Robert G. Jahn, dean of the School of
Engineering-Applied Science at Princeton University.
Jahn's laboratory has carried out an intensive series of about 300
remote-perception trials, over geographical distances of up to 11,000 miles.
Also, the Princeton researchers are studying possible psychokinetic effects on
batches of 9,000 plastic spheres tumbling through a "random mechanical
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cascade."
The Congressional Research Service report said Soviet annual spending on psi
research has been "speculated to amount to tens of millions of dollars."
By contrast, total funding for parapsychology studies in the United States
"probably does not greatly exceed $500,0001, a year currently, with most of the
money coming from foundations and other private sources, it said.
The study, prepared by Christopher H. Dodge of CRS' Science Policy Research
Division, said recent experimental results suggest that some mind-control
phenomena can be repeated "fairly reliably, if less than ideally," under
controlled conditions.
The CRS report was criticized by Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, a group which is
skeptical about parapsychology.
"In no sense is this an adequate account of the status of research because
the whole parapsychological area is rife with controversy," said Kurt~, a
philosphy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
He said that "this particularly focuses on the issue of replication. It is
very difficult to find experiments in which you get results in other
laboratories it's very elusive."
Ebon, a New York-based professional writer specializing in Soviet affairs,
asserted in his book that there was already considerable "circumstantial
evidence" pointing to the Soviet KGB's "unorthodox use of electronic means" in
an effort to influence human behavior.
Speculation over possible purposes behind the Soviet microwave bombardment of
the Moscow embassy believed to have begun as early as 1953 has centered
largely on use of the beams for eavesdropping or to try to jam U.S. electronic
intelligence-gathering equipment.
However, Ebon said that "another hypothesis is Soviet use of radiation to
effect mind-changes in embassy personnel."
An additional possibility, he wrote, is that the beams may have been "used to
'read minds' by tuning microwaves to the level of brain waves."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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