When The Government Explored Psychic Abilities For Espionage
Psychic Wars?
This report was prepared by the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General's Medical Intelligence Office in July 1972. It explores Soviet research into methods of influencing or altering human behavior, which includes psychological, psychiatric, and parapsychological techniques. It discusses various aspects of Soviet research on human vulnerability, focusing on areas like hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and parapsychology, with potential military applications. This document was published in 1972 but declassified in December 1990.
This document comprises of 10 parts, this blog discusses Part 2 “PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SOVIET UNION”
CONCERN OF ASTRAL PROJECTION AND ESP
America was worried about Soviets using psychic abilities for spying and stealing sensitive information and documents, lead them to work on Project stargate, a program for psychic spying, I’ve written about it in my previous article.
What is Astral projection?
It is an out-of-body experience (OBE) or a spiritual practice to leave the physical body intentionally while asleep or meditating, to travel in a non-physical realm called the astral plane. experiencing an "out-of-body experience" (OBE) through a subtle body known as the astral body.
What is ESP (Extrasensory Perception)?
It is the ability to perceive information without using the five senses. It's also known as a sixth sense. Telepathy, clairvoyance is an example of ESP.
EXPERIMENTS
Part 2 of the document discusses 3 psychic experiments
1. US NAVY USES ESP ON ATOMIC SUB
The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first nuclear-powered submarine. It famously became the first submarine to travel beneath the North Pole in 1958, an event known as "Operation Sunshine."
An article in the French magazine "Constellation" titled "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" by Jacques Bergier, reported that ESP tests had been conducted on the USS Nautilus. The experiment supposedly involved a sailor on the submarine sending telepathic messages to a technician on land, with claims of about 75% success, according to the article.
2. VASILIEV’S TELEPATHY EXPERIMENTS
Vasiliev's primary area of study was what he termed "mental suggestion" or telepathy. His experiments aimed to explore whether thoughts or mental suggestions could be transmitted from one person to another without physical means.
Many of his experiments involved subjects in states of hypnosis or deep relaxation. He believed these conditions enhanced the likelihood of telepathic communication. One series of experiments focused on suggesting motor actions (like arm movements) to subjects. For example, he would try to mentally suggest to a subject to lift an arm, and the subject would comply without any verbal or physical cue. Another set of experiments involved suggesting visual images or sensations, where subjects would report seeing or feeling something that was only thought of by Vasiliev. "Mysterious Phenomena of the Human Psyche" (1959) and "Experiments in Mental Suggestion" (1963) are two of his notable books where he detailed his research.
3. EDGAR MITCHELL: THE APOLLO ESP EXPERIMENTS
The document mentions Soviets training their cosmonauts in telepathy. Edgar Mitchell, the 6th man to walk on the moon carried out an ESP experiment during the Apollo 14 flight to the moon.
THE EXPERIMENT
“My experiment involved four transmission sessions during rest periods programmed into the flight. The well-known experiment in the laboratory was to use cards with the five Zener symbols, but the actual cards aren’t important. It was easier for me to use random number tables than carry the physical cards. Instead, all I did was to generate four tables of 25 random numbers just using the numbers 1 to 5. Then I randomly assigned a Zener symbol to each number. For each transmission, I would then check the particular table of random numbers and think about the corresponding symbol for 15 seconds. Each transmission took about 6 minutes. I did this when I was ready to go to sleep at night. We had sleeping bag hammocks that we would put underneath the couches. Two of us would go to sleep in a hammock while the other one would be on watch. I would do the experiment before going into my sleeping bag.”
Mitchell expresses frustration with how the media and scientific community at large misunderstand or misrepresent parapsychological data. He believes that if these phenomena were studied in any other field of science, they would have been accepted due to the overwhelming evidence, but the lack of a proper theoretical model within traditional science has hindered acceptance.
In an interview by Sheree Scarborough for the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Mitchell talks about the experiment. Transcript here.
(This issue of Journal of Parapsychology is very hard to find, if you know where I can find it DM me here or on X. Thank you.)
Edgar Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) parapsychological research institute to study consciousness and human potential in 1973.
“That's when I started the Institute for Noetic Sciences, was to figure out what in the world was this all about. And I'd had enough psychic experience at that point to know that science is dead wrong on this issue. That was real” - Edgar Mitchell
Private Lunar ESP: An Interview with Edgar Mitchell. Fia Backström and Edgar Mitchell: https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/5/backstrom_mitchell.php
The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds. Link to the pdf of the book here
APPORT TECHNIQUE
Concern of soviet spies stealing document through psychic means, specifically using the “apport” technique.
What did Sir William Crookes know about the spirit world?
Sir William Crookes (born 1832, London-died 1919, London) was a British chemist and physicist. He discovered Thallium in 1861. He also discovered plasma in 1879 using an assembly that is today known as a “Crookes tube”. He had ties to Helena Blavatsky (mystic and occultist) through their involvement in the Theosophical Society and their mutual interest in spiritualism and psychic phenomena. I will write about famous figures and their connection to mystery schools in the future.
KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTOGRAPHING THE HUMAN AURA
Photograph of the Human Aura:
Semyon and his wife Valentino Kirlian described their photography as a method of making visible the usually invisible energy properties of the subject photographed using a known electrical phenomenon.
In 1968, Russian scientist Viktor Inyushin introduced the term 'bio-plasma body' to describe what he perceived as emanations from living subjects. He explained to research scientist Dr. Thelma Moss that he envisioned this 'bio-plasma' to be similar to aura or the astral body.
Scientists and practitioners also theorize that Kirlian photography has a role in detecting cancer and other devastating diseases in early stages as illnesses show up in advance in the “Bio-plasma” aura, before they manifest in the human body.
Visit this website to learn more on Krilian photography: https://www.fullspectrum.org.uk/index.php/kirlian-explained/
NINA KULAGINA
Nina kulagina was a Russian woman who reported had psychic power, she could move objects with her mind, magnetize things, and affect internal organs & organic tissues. Many scientists tested her powers. In one experiment Kulagina allegedly stopped the beating heart of a frog through mental concentration in a controlled laboratory setting. During the Cold War, Kulagina's abilities were of interest not only for scientific inquiry but also for potential military applications, her abilities ignited a fear in U.S to keep up with the paranormal race.
CONCERNS HIGHLIGHTED
It is believed that these concerns lead to the creation of Project Stargate.
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