Modern psychological science and physicists do not recognize the existence of paranormal abilities or forms of perception. The US National Science Foundation and the RAS Commission on Combating Pseudoscience classify extrasensory perception as pseudoscientific delusion. The James Randi Educational Foundation has been operating in the United States since 1996, which promises $ 1 million for the demonstration of paranormal abilities in a scientific experiment. Nobody managed to get the prize. In Russia, since 2015, there has been a similar award named after Harry Houdini, which offers 1 million rubles for the demonstration of paranormal abilities. But even here there is no one to pay it.
There are no official statistics showing how often Russian police officers turn to psychics for help. But interest in "non-traditional methods of investigation" among Soviet and Russian investigators and police officers appeared long ago, back in the late 1980s. And in 1993, the Main Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia reported some "positive examples of involving psychics in solving crimes": in 45 regions of the Russian Federation, police officers at least once turned to psychics, in 20 regions they systematically collaborated with clairvoyants, in 8 regions relatives turned to psychics victims, and the information received was transferred to the authorities. But in none of those cases did the psychics help the police.
Most often, psychics are involved in the investigation of cases related to the search for the missing or their bodies.
In 2018, the investigative bodies of the Russian Federation received 13,683 complaints about the disappearance of minors. In the first half of 2019, there were 8,383 such requests. The disappearance of a person, especially a child, is an incident that always resonates; a huge number of volunteers and caring people are involved in the search. There are quite a few among them who sincerely believe in their extraordinary superpowers.
Clairvoyants begin to "attack" the child's parents, search engines, fill up with comments local communities, where the coordinates of the missing appear, says the coordinator of the search team "Lisa Alert South" Maxim Maksimenko. Some go directly to the police department, which is looking for. But, says Maksimenko, he never met police officers who would take the visions of psychics seriously.
However, the police themselves do not exclude the help of "other forces". “In recent years, the police are increasingly turning to psychics for help. Confidence in clairvoyants, as well as in everything unconventional, has increased, which was facilitated by television programs, for example, "The Battle of Psychics", - said a former employee of the Investigative Committee for the Omsk region, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Kozlov in an interview with the TV channel "Present Time", which is a joint media project " Radio Liberty "and" Voice of America ".
But neither the police nor the statistics have yet confirmed that such assistance seriously helps in solving crimes.
In 1999, the colonel of the medical service, professor Leonid Grimak told in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda about an amazing case in the Stavropol Territory, where senior sergeant M. solved 16 crimes thanks to his psychic abilities. The man allegedly only needed to look at the suspect to begin to reproduce the circumstances of the crime, usually a burglary. True, when the sergeant was brought to Moscow, he could not help in solving more complex cases. “Apparently, from time to time he fell into some borderline states. It was no longer possible to repeat the success - moreover, he lost his mind, “- said the colonel. After a trip to Moscow, senior sergeant M. was hospitalized with signs of acute mental illness. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and fired from the organs. Later, a well-known forensic scientist contacted the sergeant,Nikolay Kitaev, PhD in Law. And then it turned out that the policeman obtained the testimonies of the suspects not with the help of psychic abilities, but thanks to dubious and even illegal methods of interrogation.
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In May 2012, 10-year-old Danila Belykh disappeared on his way to school in the village of Bolshaya Kuzminka, Lipetsk Region. A month later, a UAZ policeman drove up to his house, from which three men in civilian clothes and two policemen got out. They asked the owners for shovels and began to dig the ground near the house, explaining that this was an order from Interior Ministry Colonel Sergei Popov. He, in turn, received a tip from the clairvoyant Svetlana Proskuryakova: the psychic said that the boy should be looked for near the house. But the child's body was not there. More than seven years have passed since Danila disappeared, and he was never found. Whether he is alive is unknown. There is not a single piece of evidence in the 20 volumes of the case.
In March 2009, a 10-year-old schoolgirl Liza Tishkina disappeared in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region. Investigators call this case non-standard - her disappearance is unlike any other stories of missing children. Operatives even worked out the version that the girl could have been kidnapped for filming in "adult films". We also went to Moscow to the Psychic Center. The clairvoyants indicated the exact place near the river where the girl's corpse is supposedly located. The entire indicated area was combed down to a millimeter, but nothing was found. Psychics from the Mikhail Vinogradov Center looked for Lisa four times and each time they said differently.
In the very center of Vinogradov, Present Vremya was informed that investigators turn to them for help on a weekly basis, noting that if their work was ineffective, they would not be contacted. Usually, the staff of the Center are asked to establish the circumstances of the death or crime. Often these are "hangs", when all versions have already been worked out, and the crime has not been solved.
But the coordinator of “Liza Alert South” Maxim Maksimenko has never met a psychic in his practice who would really show the place where to look for the missing. “I would carry this person in my arms. Seriously, if one comes along, I'll shake his hand. But in my experience I have never met such a magician, says Maksimenko.
Nevertheless, articles and interviews regularly appear in the regional media, which talk about the successful experience of cooperation between psychics and investigators.
In Omsk, according to Vladislav Brazhnikov, deputy head of the Omsk Department of the Investigative Committee, psychics helped to investigate the murder of 17-year-old Yulia Petrenko, committed in January 2013: “The information received from psychics was used to put forward investigative versions, one of which was later confirmed.”
In the Tambov region, with the help of psychics, it was possible to solve the murder of a school teacher. Sergei Zerin, an employee of the Main Department of Criminalistics of the ICR, said that “the investigators had no leads at all, and the psychics showed that the criminal was her former student … Two weeks later, the killer was arrested. He confessed everything."
Both the investigators and the clairvoyants themselves say that cases of police turning to "non-traditional methods of investigation" are usually not formalized. But there are exceptions, says Mikhail Lidin, co-founder of the Harry Houdini Prize, exposer of psychics. “The clairvoyant is given a certificate for helping in some business, and then with this certificate he begins to serve the population for money. True, it is not entirely clear what kind of work is behind this diploma. There is a certificate, some kind of seal and even a signature of a real employee, but there is zero reliable evidence,”says Lidin.
By November 2014, the body of the missing 19-year-old Maria Glinkina was found in Nizhny Novgorod. Local media reported that the girl's body was found allegedly thanks to the "tips" of psychics. Later it turned out that the clairvoyants did not indicate a specific place where the girl's body was hidden, but said that she should be looked for in some basement. Investigators said that such places are already checked in the first place, since criminals often hide the bodies of victims in secluded rooms and in abandoned buildings.
There are quite frequent cases when psychics not only do not help to investigate crimes, but also confuse the participants in the search for victims.
In 2004, in the Moscow region, a whole company of four summer residents mysteriously disappeared, including a cadet of the Customs Academy. Psychics put forward two mutually exclusive versions: according to one of them, young people were killed, and according to the other, they were kidnapped and taken into slavery in the Caucasus. And 9 years later, a Zhiguli car was found in a pond in the village of Sychevo, Volokolamsk district, in the cabin of which there were the half-rotted corpses of those four summer residents.
During the search for a 12-year-old resident of Asbestos, Dasha Burdina, who disappeared in October 2011, there was a similar situation. To work out everything, even the most fantastic versions, the search participants turned to fortune-tellers and psychics. Some said that the girl was alive, the second claimed that she was dead. All pointed out different places where the child or his body could be. As a result, the traditional methods of conducting the investigation proved that Dasha was killed by her stepfather, who had already been convicted before.
Psychics also made a mistake during the investigation into the murder of an 8-year-old resident of Naberezhnye Chelny Vasilisa Galitsyna. They unanimously claimed that the girl was alive. Subsequently, it turned out that the girl was raped and stabbed to death by a citizen of Uzbekistan Farrukh Tashbaev, who worked in an advertising agency. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In early 2013, a 21-year-old student, Ekaterina Petukhova, was searched in Novosibirsk. In despair, her mother turned for help to the “most powerful witch in Siberia” - the finalist of the “Battle of Psychics” Elena Golunova. But the investigators themselves found the body - the girl was beaten to death by a jealous boyfriend.
In October 2011, during the investigation into the murder of 12-year-old Lena Polunina in Novokuznetsk, three clairvoyants unanimously announced that the girl would be found alive, but the prophets were wrong. The schoolgirl was found raped and stabbed to death in the basement of one of the houses. Lena's killer Stepan Shelomanov received a life sentence.
They also resorted to the help of psychics during the search for the missing ex-keyboardist of the Time Machine group Alexander Zaitsev. Two of the six clairvoyants who participated in the "Battle of Psychics" program assured that the musician was alive: although the kidnappers cut his throat, the wound was not fatal. Both psychics also "saw" that Zaitsev "lives in a remote village." However, in the end, Zaitsev was found dead and with traces of a violent death.
However, sometimes psychics manage to "get to the point". For example, Pavel Lyundishev, a participant of the "Battle of Psychics" program, in November 2011 predicted the discovery of the decapitated corpse of Alexander Pyatnichko, president of the largest Crimean motorcycle club "Ostrovityane" Two days before the appearance of information about this terrible find, the psychic sent reporters an SMS message with the following content: “He will be found today! Dead, I'm sure I see it, in the ground, with stinking mud. He's headless! They will find it in the village “.
Also in 2011, investigators turned to psychics for help, investigating the mysterious death of the 16-year-old daughter of Lukoil's top manager Victoria Teslyuk.
Experts note that the growth of the country's citizens' faith in psychics indicates the difficult state of society. They go to psychics in the most difficult moments of life. A person needs to hear that everything will change for the better, because with such knowledge it is easier to overcome difficulties.
During periods of economic, social and political crises, there are more appeals to psychics. And TV is happy to serve this interest, feeding it.
