PARAPSYCHOLOGY CALLED OBJECT OF SOVIET STUDY

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040019-4
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 4, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 1, 2008
Sequence Number: 
19
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
January 19, 1977
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040019-4.pdf54.9 KB
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Approved For Release 2008/04/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100040019-4 Parapsychology called object of Soviet study Paris (-NYT)-An emigre Soviet physi- cist says that the Soviet Union has been doing secret work in parapsychology, with what appear to be military and police pur- poses. A French scientist and former intelli- gence agent. Jacques Bergier. has written a book saying that extrasensory percep- tion. one. of the theories studied by parap- sychology. may be used in espionage; thought control, surveillance and as a weapon. The Soviet emigre, August Stern, is a son of Dr Mikhail Stern, an endocrinolo- gist who was imprisoned before being al- lowed to leave the Soviet Union in March. August Stern spent several years in a se- cret Siberian laboratory in the late 1960's trying to find a physical basis for psychic energy. or "psi particles," as they are called. Sovietconcern on the issue was demon- strated in the case of Robert C. Toth, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. who was interrogated in Moscow by the KGB, the security police, and was accused- of having received "state secrets" about parapsychology He was allowed to leave the country after protests by the U :S. gov- ernment. The incident had the earmarks of an entrapment. in the view of diplomats and others. There is no sign that the 25-page document on parapsychology handed to him on the street just before be was seized contained important information. Howev- er; there is a record of Soviet sensitivity and August Stern's information indicates that parapsychology is a matter of con- cern to the authorities. Mr. Stern, who now lives in Paris, said he was told before leaving the Soviet Union two years ago that an even more se- cret laboratory than the one he knew in Siberia had been set up in Moscow under the direction of the KGB. Parapsychology covers four specific fields of nonphysical phenomena. They are telepathy 1transmission of thought with- out use of the senses), extrasensory per- ception, telekinesis (transmission of mo- tion without any evident use of physical energy) and clairvoyance (the ability to see distant or future events without physi- cal intervention). At one time in the late 195(Ys and early 1960's, the U.S. Navy and the Stanfoed Re- sarch Institute did experiments in telepa- thy to see whether it could provide an un- detectable means of communicating with submarines. So far as is !mown, the ex- periments failed. But word of them reached Moscow and apparently provoked high-level interest in the subject. In June, 1975, Leonid L Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, urged the United States to agree on a ban of research and develop, ment of new kinds of weapons "more ter- rible" than anything the world has known. There is no evidence that Mr. Brezhnev was referring to something in the field of parapsychology. But it is a possibility. Approved For Release 2008/04/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100040019-4