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AMPLIFIED MIND POWER RESEARCH IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AMPLIFIED MIND POWER RESEARCH FORMER SOVIET UNION IN THE Soviet advances in biophysics and biocommunications research forced the Americans to set up their own "crash program" in parapsychology during the Cold War era. Part 1 of 3 [Editor's Note: This article refers to research studies involving animals. We wish to advise readers that we at NEXUS do not condone or support the validity, efficacy or morality of animal experimentation or vivisection.] THE TOTH INCIDENT n Moscow on 11 June 1977, Los Angeles Times correspondent Robert C. Toth was arrested and detained on a charge of illegally obtaining papers which disclosed "state secrets". The papers had been given to Toth by a Soviet scientist, Valery G. Petukhov. Toth had first met the Russian biophysicist earlier in the year. While Petukhov seemed eager to show his scientific findings to Toth, the correspondent felt that his work was "only theory and far too complicated" for a newspaper story. Toth reported that, as best as he could recall, Petukhov asserted that certain particles of living cells "are emitted" when such cells divide, that they can be "detected and measured and that these radiating particles can carry information". Their function could "explain the basis for telepathy" and related phenomena. To Toth, Valery Petukhov seemed "like a serious scientist". According to a card he handed the reporter, he was Chief of the Laboratory of Bio-Physics at the State Control Institute of Medical and Biological Research. He had been recommended to Toth by a dissident Soviet scientist who later emigrated. At their first meeting, the Los Angeles Times man told Petukhov that once the scientists had proved this theory he would be inter- ested in writing about it. Months passed. In mid-June 1977, Petukhov phoned Toth. The biophysicist told Toth that his experiments had succeeded. He planned to describe them in a formal scientific paper; but, as Soviet authorities would certainly refuse to publish his work, he wanted to translate the paper into English and give it to Toth for publication in the West. At the ren- dezvous, Petukhov took a manuscript from his briefcase. It contained over 20 typewritten sheets, complete with charts and photos of charts. It looked like a complex, comprehen- sive scientific paper, well-documented, appropriately technical. Toth never managed to get a real look at the paper; for it was at that moment that a melodrama began, when a Soviet-made Fiat braked sharply at the kerb. The car was filled with five plainclothesmen who jumped out and quite unceremoniously pulled Toth inside. Robert Toth's account stated: "Our car drove through red lights and down one-way streets the wrong way to a militia [police] station. My captors were firm and polite, offer- ing me cigarettes. I was ushered into a room with an inspector who declined my requests to phone the US Embassy but said a Soviet Foreign Ministry official would be called." In addition to the Foreign Ministry official and a KGB agent, a man named Sparkin, the police inspector summoned a senior researcher of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor I. M. Mikhailov. Mikhailov was asked to provide expert testimony on the paper Petukhov had given to Toth, which the police were now treating as "evidence". Specifically, Professor Mikhailov stated: "The article beginning Petukhov, Valery G., from the words 'micro-organism self-radiation’ to the words 'by means of vacuum particles in space’, states that within the content of living cells are particles...and these particles are grounds for discussing the fundamental problems of biology in the context of biology and parapsychology. There is also information about the uses of such particles. This material is secret and shows the kind of work done in some scientific institutes of our state." This last sentence raised eyebrows among observers of Soviet parapsychological studies throughout the world. Earlier, Moscow authorities on various levels had denied several by Martin Ebon © 1996 From the website: www.biomindsuperpowers.com/ Pages/Ebon1.html From the website: www.biomindsuperpowers.com/ Pages/Ebon1.html JUNE — JULY 2001 NEXUS = 41 by Martin Ebon © 1996 www.nexusmagazine.com