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However, Russia had a long history of hypnosis studies in med- icine, education and psychiatry. Soviet literature reflected ongo- ing and contemporary scientific interest in the stimulation of telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, either by drugs or elec- tronic means. In the past, Russian researchers had experimented with telepathy at a distance—a technique of intriguing potential. However, Russia had a long history of hypnosis studies in med- cerebral radiation in the course of thinking, and without conven- icine, education and psychiatry. Soviet literature reflected ongo- tional communication facilities." ing and contemporary scientific interest in the stimulation of He added: "One important feature of the above-mentioned telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, either by drugs or elec- experiment is worthy of attention. The electromagnetic waves tronic means. In the past, Russian researchers had experimented accompanying the thought-formation process (visual perceptions) with telepathy at a distance—a technique of intriguing potential. in the inductor's brain reached the cells of the inductee's cortex after having travelled a long distance, not only in the air and SOVIET PSYCHIC RESEARCH ORIGINS through water but also through the hull of a submarine. This It is quite likely that the Soviet research machine may have would justify the following conclusions: 1) these electromagnetic originated with the work of Bernard Bernardovich Kazhinsky, a waves were propagated spheroidally, not in a narrow directed student in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) in the state of Georgia, bordering on beam; 2) these waves penetrated though the submarine hull, the Black Sea. His interests apparently were triggered by a tele- which did not block them; that is, it did not act as a 'Faraday pathic experience of his own. cage’." In February 1922, Kazhinsky was invited to address the All- Kazhinsky noted that a radio receiver in the marine laboratory Russian Congress of the Association of Naturalists, a top scientif- of the Soviet scientific research vessel Vityaz had been unsuccess- ic organisation perhaps equivalent to the American Institutes of ful in intercepting electric waves emitted in the water by the tor- Mental Health today. The topic of his lecture was "Human pedo fish. He added: "...the radio receivers in the submarine did Thought-Electricity", and he quickly published a book under the not intercept these waves. This prompts the conclusion that some same title. electromagnetic waves of a biological origin It would be clear, with Kazhinsky having possess yet another, still unknown, charac- been invited to address the All-Russian teristic which distinguishes them from con- Congress, that the Congress supported and ventional radio waves. It is possible that our funded Kazhinsky's research work, which ignorance of that particular characteristic thereafter apparently became classified. By impedes further development of research 1923, he had published his early findings in a "This prompts the work in that field." book entitled Thought Transference. This l . h Vasiliev noted in another book, book attracted favourable attention among conclusion that some Experiments in Distant Influence (which important brain researchers at the time. electromagnetic waves first appeared in Moscow in 1962), that More visible and easier to document was . . os while official denials of the shore-to-subma- the work of Professor Leonid L. Vasiliev, of a biological origin rine experiment suggested "a certain cau- later to become Chief of the Department of possess yet another, tion", nevertheless: "This experiment Physiology at the University of Leningrad. Born in 1891, Vasiliev had been a stu- dent of Leningrad physiologist Vladimir M. Bekhterev, who had estab- lished the Leningrad Brain Research Institute. His granddaughter, Natalia P. Bekhtereva, joined the Institute in 1921 and ultimately became its director. Vasiliev became a member of the Committee for the Study of Mental Suggestion the following year. "Mental suggestion", or hypnosis, became cen- tral to his interest. In 1928, he visited Paris as well as other Western European cities. Vasiliev spoke and wrote French fluently, and the Paris EXPERIMENTS BY US Institut Métapsychique International (IMI) remained his major | CORPORATIONS & MILITARY contact with Western psychical research throughout his life. Many have claimed that the infamous USS Nautilus story of Vasiliev established an ideological basis for the Soviet research 1959 in the United States served as the major prod for Soviet bio- in several books, lectures and articles. His basic thesis was that communications research. However, by 1959, some four decades showed—and herein resides its principal value—that telepathic information can be transmitted without loss through a thickness of water and through the sealed metal covering of a submarine; that is, through substances which greatly interfere with radio communi- cation. Such materials completely absorb short waves and partly absorb medium waves, the latter being consid- erably attenuated, whereas the factor (still unknown to us) which transmits suggestion penetrates them without difficulties." still unknown, characteristic which distinguishes them from conventional radio waves.” the experimental facts of telepathy, for example, should be exam- after the Soviet research had already begun, presumably their ined from a physiological (or material) viewpoint, so that they machine would not have needed such a prod. could not be exploited by advocates of "religious superstition" (or The Nautilus was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, an idealistic viewpoint). He was criticised as providing a pseudo- launched in 1954 and christened by First Lady Mamie scientific framework for a return to idealism under the mantle of | Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Marxist dialectical materialism. Nautilus made its first voyage under the North Pole in 1958. His major and influential book, Biological Radio Soon afterwards, French accounts claimed that while the subma- Communication, was published in Kiev by the Ukrainian rine was cruising deep in Arctic waters it received telepathic mes- Academy of Science in 1962. Kazhinsky concluded that he had sages from a research centre maintained by the Westinghouse "experimental confirmation of the fact that communication Corporation at Friendship, Maryland. The US Navy denied that between two people, separated by long distances, can be carried such a test had ever taken place or that it was otherwise engaged out through water, over air and across a metal barrier by means of _ in telepathy experiments. "This prompts the conclusion that some electromagnetic waves of a biological origin possess yet another, still unknown, characteristic which waves." 44 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2001 conventional radio www.nexusmagazine.com