41 !Nv zV iC,~ Wl;ir-ovecl For Release IARTT ri 9 ZW .-I win;Aent M, U7. ",,4- t " j N N.- zT- Or la 00.420*0171--l, 7~ Approved For Release 2000/08/11 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO030042001 -7 77- j '~04 Nk. SP "zl-Y 'V 'J~' A - !r -1 -1 -4 - - k IS Nz 'Ail 77 ~e '4t It" w , 6~~i~ Y.§ r - . - ISA m t mp x" IW 04 -44'0~ I ~ ŪR A Cw RM, WAN _4w: ~)_Af ~-71r' V 4' 1.2 OMNApproved For Release 2000/08/11 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300420017-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300420017-1 4, A -* 0 HC 9S P CHINA SYC SANAN Is an ancient form of energy providing China's children with the miracle of second sight? BY MARCELLO TRUZZI Eleven-year-old Tang Yu and his friend Chen Xiaoming were on their way home from school in the remote mountain village of Dazhu County when they be- gan to wrestle. Tang brushed against Chen's coat pocket, the story goes, and had the sudden vision of two Chinese symbols. He described the vivid symbols to Chen, who pulled a package of Flying Wild Goose cigarettes from his pocket. The label on the side of Ahe package, the boys reported, consisted of the two symbols Tang Yu had "seen." Tang Yu was reluctant to share his discovery with Tang Kem- ing, his fifty-year-old peasant father. He knew his claim would sound like a lie. Instead, he began to play guessing games with the villagers. He asked them to write random characters on pieces of paper, crumple the paper into balls, and let him hold each ball in turn next to his ear. Tang then guessed the mes- sage within; his guesses, it was said, always proved right. Word of the boy spread beyond his small town to all of the Sichuan province in central China. Soon the region's science commission and its bureau of ed- ucation and culture had asked to examine Tang, and research- ers there confirmed his ability to identify words and colors on small wads of paper held to his ear. News reporters and awe- struck officials of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee quickly backed those results, and on March 11, 1979, this remarkable tale was published in the Sichuan Daily, Thus began what to- day is viewed-. by both those in China and the West-as either a major breakthrough in parapsychology or a remarkable out- break of fraud and pathological science. Indeed, over the subsequent few months, as news of Tang's abilities spread throughout the People's Republic, more than ten other psychic children were supposedly discovered in Bei- PAINTING BY KEIKA NAKAJIMA Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300420017-1 jing,AnARPFR1A9AtF9FJW"A~, 200WOR/intdrtCeWRWS6-00792FIOMOMOf)ifn4ccessfuI in China Boasting These ancient myths, derivedThe result, in May 1981, a from the first was the Second Sci- skill that Chinese researchers had by few centuries of the millennium,ence Symposium on the Extraordinary now have set the named extraordinary functions of the human tone for Chinese folkloreFunction of the Human Body. body, and beliefs ever According to these children claimed to do far since. But despite this reports arriving at my more rich tradition, the Michigan office, that than read v.,ith their ears. They could, [I Marxist takeover in 1949 conference was spectacular. iey put a clamp on be- A special said, decipher hidden i'nessages with their lief in the supernatural.physics roscarch learn fingers, China's official crit- from the High En- palms, scalps, abdomens, feet, armpits, ics, in fact, denounced ergy Institute announced and parapsychology as that children with buttocks. One nine-year-old girl even SUperstilious and mysticalEHF could expose film in claimed nonsense, label- lightproof con- she could road messages by touching ing it "religion without lainers. When engaged in the the cross." They even such activity, crumpled paper with the end of accused the United Statesmoreover, the children her and the Soviet seemed to emit light pigtail. Reports Union of vigorously promotingquanta and electrical waves began psychic phe- that could be coming in about children with nomena to distract their picked up with special powers citizens from the biodotectors, A group of telepathy, clairvoyance, X-ray vision, world's true crises. from the Beijing Teacher and Training Institute psychokinesis. The typical child was A softer line didn't emergeannounced that their young between until early 1980, charges could the ages of nine and fourteen, but around the time of the cause an operating radio a Nature Journal con- transmitter to dis- few were as young as four or as old as twenty-five; ference. In a story on appear from one room and and "sorcery, witchcraft, show up in an- it was estimated by Feng Hua, and fortune-telling," other. Yet another group a The Beijing Review claimed that a traditional Chinese physician, that there conceded that "so long Iwelve-year-old girl could were as these activities use psychokine- about 2,000 such gifted children within do not affect the politicalsis to move the hands of the and productive ac- a watch. Chinese population of 1 billion. By tivities of the collective,The stories seemed to go early the government will on forever. But 1980 these remarkable children had not prevent them by administrativethe most remarkable news made means." to come from that their way to the pages of China's prestigious In other words, accordingmeeting was the deep involvement Nature,lournal. to astute China of Oian And that Febru- ary watcher Martin Ebon, the Xue Son, known in China the government was as the Father of the surge of interest prompted Nature Journal Missile. Before returning to to China in 1955, sponsor.a huge conference-the First Gian had been the Goddard Science Professor of Jet Symposium on the Exlraordi- nary Propulsion at Caltech and Function the director of the of the Human Body-for par- ticipants rocket section of the U.S. from National Defense more than 20 colleges and medical Scientific Board. Th8nks schools. iiPA group from to Oian, by 1980 The proceedings were filmed China had successfully by launched 12 satel- the Shanghai Science and Edu- cation the Beijing Teacher Traininglites and fired an intercontinental Studio, ballistic and the film, called Do You Believe Institute announced missile 10,000 kilometers. /1?, His work, in fact, was shown over national televi- sion would soon make China the to third nation to millions of Chinese. As that its young charges send men into space. publicity could mounted, interest spread be- yond cause an Ciian, however, had recently the become a mainland to Hong bong, Japan, and passionate leader in the Taiwan. operating radio transmitterfield of EHF And to And to it didn't take long for the news enthralled scientists, to his support made a pique the interest of parapsycholo- gists disappear from one tremendous difference. throughout "Every day we have the West. Because West- ern room and show pp in another'~new discoveries," he told researchers his followers. "This are less inclined to associ- ate reminds us of the atmosphere such when Ein- abilities with the body, though, they relabeled stein's theories of relativity the and quantum supposed phenomenon ex- ceptional mechanics were introduced human onto the stage functions (EHF). I somponom~ of modern science." first learned of EHF from a Los Angeles Times Invoking the name of Einstein article. was oddly Chinese scientists were "baf- fled admitting that perhaps appropriate, for those by some of the phe- in China likened Oian's studies of children who can'see'ob- jects nomena could be "scientificallyinfluence to Einstein's hidden observed, influence in backing in boxes- read Chinese char- acters traced, controlled, recorded,the atom bomb during World tucked manipulated, War 11. The uncle; their armpits, and identify or provoked." Chinese great space-scientigt-turned-EHF-enthusi- colors scientists would be without using their eyes." As a allowed to prove what ast, in fact, had reportedly sociologist was superstition and secured the pri- of science at Eastern Michigan University what was not. vate support of Prime Minister and Zhao Ziyang director of the independent Center Given the go-ahead, a and the public approval for number of Chinese of the renowned Scientific Anomalies Research, I was scientists leapt to action.Chairman Hu Yao Bang. anxious Researchers Chen to investigate further. Through my center's many informants,Shouliang and He Muyan. The reports, coming mostly I was able to of Beijing Univer- from Defense si obtain a steady stream of sity, studied two sisters-WangDepartment translatiQn-s Chinese articles Cliang, thir- and the journal P: I translated by the American teen, and Wang Bin, eleven.Research, seemed to get qQyQLpmCnt. This In a series of more incredible d6c-umentation, eight tests, the girls by the day. So early in often placed paper with Chi- 1981, 1 was thrilled to terribly vague in its detail nese symbols under their get a call from my friend and armpits; in 109 Stanley Krippner, usually opaquely translated by computers, subsequent tests, the dean of the graduate school demonstrated messages were sealed at the Saybrook that Chinese sci- entists in special envelopes. Institute, in San Francisco. were According to scien- serious about something that seemed tists testing the girls, Krippner, best known for quite the subjects scored his work on te- preposterous. Before correctly about 85 percentlepathy during dreams, beginning of the time-and is one of the most an active investigation of they did not cheat. respected-and skeptical-- my -parapsycholo- own, I decided to try to glean a bit of understanding In another experiment, gists in the United States. from conducted by Xu His trips to the the past. Paranormal in- cidents, Xinfang and his group Soviet bloc have produced I at Anhui Normal Uni- a fount of infor- soon learned, were a significant part versity, a boy and a girlmation on psychic research of said to have EHF there; so it was China's mythology In one ancient parable, reportedly guessed not no wonder that in light for only hidden mes- of recent reports, he instance, a mystic named Kang Gang-Zi sages but also the color was planning a trip to was of the pencil used China. reputed to have seen and heard to write each message. As it turned out, Krippner without The scientists said had planned his using his eyes or ears. In an- other the children scored correctlytwo-week tour with the legend, 91 percent of help of an efferves- two mediums were called upon to the time, but the subjectscent Chinese woman named identify could not identify Shuyin L. Mar, the grave of a princess; they are said their targets in total of the Savant Association, to darkness. in Arlington, Vir- have given an accurate, clairvoyant Y80aiftarakintPeforell T inia. Mar was firmly convinced DJ that EHF was en descrAmb 000%11fjp~ t,g80j1gw_oJ h IffA r e CA - OD0300420017-1 I - -00792R An I d4 PXqYA9TQTuRq~9s1pe AQQPtQWlilir;cgWnPr-~9$iQD.792RWM2QOir 7 there we found l l eg, -a machine that produced ourselves in' the meager e the qi energy artilli- three-room apart- Krippner's group to meet with China's most con-irrotted El--IF rescaicherscially. she had. she said,ment of three children and their treas- already used it to said to possess EHF ured child savants cure her paiientS of cancerThey claimed they could paralysis. high psychically break Kr,ppner told me that blood pressure, and hearta match or needle scaled he hrid already in- disease. in a small con- vited physicist Harold After three days of such tainer. And of course Pulhoff, of SRI Inler- discussion, we they could intuit mes- riatioria!, physicians were allowed to meet the sages on crumpled paper J. Tashof Bernton and savants. The chil- through the Kenneth Zirinsky. Los dren--four young girls-enleredchannels of their skin. Angeles psychologist the hotel, Thelma Moss. some gradUatekicking off what scorned With 25 of us sitting students from like a three-ring cir- in the small front room, Sa/Lfook: and others. cus. Fifty researchers the mother conducted the But he was still in need were mi!ling around, test herself, using of someone like me, an and we were all so exciteda method that was amazingly utter skeptic trained that we started crude. She as a magician ---a professionalour tests right there merely held up playing who knew just in the lobby First the cards and asked the how sleight of hand couldChinese researchers gave children to identify them. be used to simu- the girls folded Now, any chcating late ESP I accepted his pieces of paper marked child could have scored invitation gratefully, with symbols, Then hit after hit, but to delighted by the chance they were given canistersmy surprise, these children to get a firsthand that we had filled got every an- look at China's newest and scaled in the United swer wrong, and that included craze. States. In both in- the youngest We left that October, stances, they were to girl, who at one point arriving in Beijing on guess the contents actually left the room the eighteenth. The thingwithin. But our experimentsand took the target card that struck me most were foiled by with her. was the looseness of things.the chaos. Even Mar. our Our next target was Shanghai. The airport was translator, seemed We left on nearly empty, practicallyto complicate the situation.a shuddering turboprop a mausoleum. And She was so set filled with a con- our lodgings, named the on seeing the girls succeedvention of Americans from Friendship Hotel in that it was hard the Midwest, and honor of the once-great to trust what -she did. en route we prayed for bond between China And while we were survival. We did, of and the Soviet Union, trying to impose tighter course, touch down, only was a strange amal- controls, she was to find that our gam of the Iwo cultures. jabbering away in Chinese.troubles had barely begun. It was a monstrous, For all we knew, Soviet-like structure, We had planned a series something you might of meetings with find in the middle of the Nature Journal staff, Moscow, but with a Chi- Shanghai Univer- nese roof. The elaborate sity professors interested inner lobby had a in EHF, and faculty carpet patterned with at the Science and Technology little peace doves, and Association. the rooms had large mattresses But when we got to our atop mas- l60igong masters hotel, we learned l d i h d b sive Russian beds. In , . deference to the Chi- een cance e that the meet a ngs nese, there was an impressivewas told, were capable While we were in Xian, Oriental gar- of it seems, Yu Guang den out back. extraordinary Yuan, vice-chairman of the Chinese Acad- It was in the conference emy of Sciences and vice-director room of the of the In- Friendship that we had physical feats, includingstitute of Marxism, Leninism, our first series of the and Thoughts meetings with the Chinese.ability to emerge of Mao Tse-tung, had attacked The resident lu- parapsy- ' minaries, mostly from s Beijing Medical Col- unscathed when struck chology in the press. on the Writing in the People " lege, Beijing -University, non- and the Chinese Daily, he denounced EHF research as Academy of Sciences, firstchest with sense and superstition." explained the re- His article specifi- lationship between EHF 4~ tally criticized He Chongyan, and qi (chee). the blade of a sword publisher of ' According to the researchers,. s main con- qi is psychic Nature Journal and one of Mar energy that runs through tacts in China, Moreover, the body, just as he organized a blood runs through the committee called the EHF arteries and veins. Investigation and The pathways through which Liaison Unit. Its purpose: qi travels are Noma= to expose clecep- essentially points of tion in claims of the high electrical conduc- paranormal. tivity; when the pathwaysshe may have been revealingWith the purge of the are in repair and the answers. Cultural Revolution the qi is I lowing smoothly,When we finally did move fresh in everyone's mind, an individual stays into the confer- EHF researchers healthy and strong. Acupunctureence room for a formal felt compelled to fade needles, demonstration, it into the woodwork. the scientists said, stimulatehardly mattered. The childrenNonetheless, some of the the main qi were so fidg- more enthusiastic channels. And a breathingety and restless, they made quiet visits to our exercise called couldn't help but ma- hotel. Of specific qigong (chee-gong) preventsnipulate the wads of paper:interest were the claims the channels any skilled con- of a husband-and- from getting clogged. jurer would have been wife team named Zhu Romlong able to use that and Zhu Yi- As for EHF, why, childrentechnique to take a peek.yi, both of Nature Journal. reading mes- They said that sages with their armpits Despite the chance for children with EHF emitted are simply tapping cheating, though, infrared radiation, a little-explored tactilethe girls didn't score unusual brain waves, and sense: They are a single hit. Finally, magnetic signals. gleaning messages throughKrippner stood a few yardsThese same children reported the skin, which away from them a flashing of is laced with channels and drew a big red star, the target image on the and energized by the perhaps the most forehead before it power of qi. pervasive symbol in all hit. The Zhus also told of China, Then he us about a four-and- I told the researchers folded his paper, handed a-half-year-old who could that as far as I could it over, and one solve complex see, qi might not exist girl got the answer right.math problems but only and qigong might be when his father was nothing more than a ChineseLater on, I took him aside.in the room. And they version of "Stan, why did mentioned another ordinary aerobics. you do that?" I asked. young boy who "peered" "The girls probably inside the womb But the Chinese persisted.saw your red pen. And of a pregnant woman, only People known it would have been to announce that as qigong masters, I was simple for them to trace the fetus had no head. told, were capable the movement of According to the Zhus, of extraordinary physicalyour hand." that diagnosis proved feats, including the correct. ability to emerge unscathed"Of course I realized These incredible tales when struck on the problems," went on and on, until the bare chest with a Krippner said. "But the I realized that the Zhus huge stone slab or the girls and our hosts had little scientific or blade of a sword. Moreover,seemed so embarrassed. conceptual sophistication. I was told. out I was just trying That evening, of 3,100 chronically ill to end the session on nonetheless, we all went. patients practicing a friendly note." to the Zhus EHF qigong from three to fiveIt was on that friendly demonstration. There I years, 25 percent note that we left for found four young sa- recovered completely, Xian, the Chinese city vants, three girls and 44 percent showed best known for the life- one boy, primly seated marked improvement, and size terra-cotta army on a sofa. Once again, 22 percent now being unearthed their goal was to read # or the #Xob4 ~ej armpits. F showed .a1e_L~&Fp6yNg1eQdrge ~06r& t 01a,-111 #4 A001170V 6911TIS ' 80-Ab 'AWY920 AV 66 OMNI , , AppTy from many laboralonclis s1( Margulis s ideas. she began vindication. receiving Plaudits scionfisis as Lewis Slulillien Jay Gould. Calls her 1981 book T id Cc-// Evolution "an indtispul of science a vol lurn oul, onc, Oay hence, to be tem " , ell- symbiosis theory seems to .,.,ard acceptance. And in 1983, ,~r-.Ied to the National Academy of e research "establishment." It's gults is tempering her views It's scientific community seems to doser to her notion that in evolu- I.sis may be as important as - She's concerned, because her ~metimes misinterpreted. at it gets Pollyannaish," she says. )n versus cooperation- these ,,,,)cial meaning. But it's not really either red in tooth and claw or for the good of groups. These -~adequate to describe the ge .)olic, and behavioral interactions -lisms.". and son Dorion have written a .1-d The Expanding Microcosm )oks). "By survival of the fittest," "Darwin referred not to large predatory habits but to the pro- leave more offspring. The tat door who pops a new baby every .1~hs is more'tit,'more adapted, by ian the childless aunt, no matter otherwise socially powerful the be. Whether each indulges in Is and wins or loses is irrelevant. fecund in evolution, and compe always the name of the game," can lead in strange directions. is composed of only 10 billion s but 100 billion bacterial cells. ,Ljlis regards as "fittest" is per- ''mals and plants, and the planet .1 she says. "But kill off microbes ks the earth will be just as sterile CREDITS Cathfo. Leigh Kennedy, John Muth, John 'S. NASA, page 20, Gottfried HeInwein. page -sshoku, paie 26, Earth satellite Corp.. pa ,man R Light Dot/Photo Researchers: page rO .! Rogers/Eilack Star, page 31 top, The Beltmann ige 3`1 bottom, James bugar'Black Star, page KrasemanniPeter Arnold. page 33 lop, &Len 33 bottom. Dan McCoy'Rainbow. pag 34. Magnum, page 35 bottom. VDavid charf/ 36 top, Ray Ell:s'Photo Researchers~ pa? Din RotmarVPe1er Arnold. page 40, Manfred ~vnold, page 49, Jarries SeliTholo Research Y,chaet Abbey'Pholo Reseatchem page 54 jp page 54 bottom. Cosirno. Page 55 top, age 55 middle, MiCheal Simpson' page 55 page 56 lop. DanlmDrrill Page 56 Dick Frank Studios. Inc Cl ent The Garrell pa?e 56 bottom, Dan Mofrill Pa 7 lop, .,I age 5 middle, Pete Turnef page 5rb5 om, - D- page 58 top. Gene Colcman page So 7nson page 58 bottom, Rottefl M Kloeocierf S page 50 top, Ron K--ba,,. page 59 middle. ,g page 59 bottom, Charles J Cirr,co page Loiriesy of Roland Wdke~son Ao,ems,ng. an Catherine page 86 top, mo,* SIAI Ar r, bottom, kc 1984 hf~a Claws. page 87 top, oage 87 bottom. Latty Pa)ibeck~ page 88 A,ChiveS page es botiom, The Be!lmann .12, Chris Newber: page 116, NASA Science pages 116. 117. Sul,van StKhos ,~F~SXr4rlff 00/08/11 : CIA-RD I DY P;,~, I bf, first time in two weeks I saw these children score several hits But with Mrs Zhu some- 1~rncs blDckiog our view of them. these fidg- eting youngsters had ample opportunity to cheat Moreover. one girl given a specially sca!ed container prepared by us returned it with the seal undone. As the trip drew to an end, those in our group agreed that we had seen no convinc- ing evidence of EHF When we confronted our Chinese colleagues with these findings, they insisted that we were basing our judg- ment on mere demonstrations as opposed to valid laboratory experiments. Of course, children under pressure could cheat some- times, they claimed. But that did not mean that all children cheated all the time. "Our new research aborts the possibility of trick- ery." He Chongyan told us. "it concentrates on mechanisms and explanations." We'replied that until we could replicate these experiments in the West. we would have to give them low evidential weight. Though much has happened since we left China. that is still where we stand. On February 24, 1982. China's Academy of Sciences sponsored a public hearing on EHF Reported cases were analyzed, and in an extensive review. experts concluded that the great majority of them were unfounded. The following day. Peop/e's Daily summa- rized the criticisms and reviewed the past several years of reports, It too concluded that there was no evidence for the claims. Though the attempt to discredit EHF has been partially successful, matters remain far from resolved. As China's official English- language publication. China Peconstfucts, put it, "The debate goes on. and experimen- tation continues regarding what has be- come a highly emotional issue." Soon after the Chinese Academy of Sci- ences issued its decree, for instance, Chen Hsin, vice-director of the Institute of Aero- space Medico-Engineering, and Mei Lei, vice-director of the Space Life-Science Commission, attended a joint meeting of the Parapsychoiogical Association and the So- ciety for Psychical Research, in Cambridge, England. There they described their interest in using EHF for communication in space and told us that qigong was now part of their as- tronauts' training program. They also out lined the current state of Chinese parapsy- chological experimentation, claiming ex- traordinary controls against fraud. "Under strictly controlled experimental conditions," they said, "the authenticity of recognizing characters with the ears was verified. The rate of absolutely correct iden- tificalions, was greater than eighty percent." These claims so far exceed those of most Western parapsychologists that even those who have little doubt about the existence of ESP and psychokinesis say the reports seem too good to be true. Psychologist John Be- log- loff a past president of the Parapsycho i 96-007WRQQQ3A"2AW"Jt11dren to the West for testing. Thus far, thal, has not happened. Accord- Ing to Paul Doing, author of The Four Major Mysteries of Mainland China, the Commu- nist party, angered by the constant wran- gles, ordered parapsychologists to conduct their research quietly They vivanled no pa- pets, no TV shows, and no more fights. Still, the rumors persist. Dong's sources say that thousands of psychic children have recently come out of the wood'.vork. And these newly discovered children, no longer content just to read messages with their armpits, now congregate in groups, where leaders help them use qi to break boards. According to a newspaper report from late 1984, Dr. Lin Hosheng, of Shanghai's Insti- tute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, can al- legedly use qi energy to move a ball and make a man whirl back and forth. Whether EHF is real or whether we are wit- nessing an extraordinary episode in collec- tive error, sociologists of science have much to learn from these remarkable events. If EHF turns out to be a reality, the obvious question will be why it took so long for sci- entists to become convinced, One answer might come from my colleague Ron Wes- trum, a sociologist of science at Eastern Michigan University Westrum has spent years studying what he calls hidden events- phenomena once denied by orthodox sci- ence but today accepted as real. As late as the nineteenth century, for instance, scien- tists vehemently declared that meteorites could not have originated in space. Today we know that they do. It is possible that EHF falls into a similar category. It is, of course, far more likely that EHF will be rejected, forcing us to ask why so many scientists currently accept it as valid. One reason may be that Chinese science is a rel- atively closed system, isolated from the rest of the world by a language barrier and ide- ological pressures. As psychologist Irving Janis points out in Victims of Groupthink: The Psychological Study of Foreign Policy De- cisions and Fiascoes, closed systems and strong ties between people tend to produce and to maintain conformity. Given China's in- sulation from the West, its ancient intellec- tual traditions, and its dependence on key scientific leaders like Qian, the EHF phe- nomenon seems understandable. But as in- teraction between China and the West in- creases, more critical appraisal may be given to the EHF studies now available. Most philosophers of science would agree that there is no sharp line separating sci ence from pseudoscience. The reality of EHF may be highly improbable, but science can not tell us that it is absolutely impossible. As Carl Sagan says, the best antidote for pseu closcience is more and better science. Only further controlled demonstrations will dem onstrate whether EHF is real or nonsense. if EHF is valid after all, the payoff would be immense. As professor Dong Taihe, of Zhe jiang University, observes, 'A whole new branch of science could just be waiting to RD066-007bV'ZK ffilftedenftftA *no ~bbdp-CL' Da 0017-1 I'FbfsRL 4 ft 3'0642