A person is inclined to believe in miracles. And if a need arises, then, according to the laws of the market, there will be those who are always ready to satisfy it. Once upon a time such people were invited to the court of great rulers, listened to their advice, and in some places they even deified and sacrificed them. In the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the New Age, they were declared employees of the agency of Satan and burned at the stake. Then they simply stopped believing in them, but not for long. M24.ru columnist Alexei Baikov tells about the Soviet history of psychics.
A new surge of interest in people with abilities, let's say delicately, going beyond the scope of human perception, for some reason happened precisely in the 20th century, when mankind mastered flying into the air and in space, subdued the energy of the atom, learned to cure the most terrible diseases, created a computer and encircled the entire globe with the Internet.
It is unlikely that this phenomenon can be easily attributed to the shock of revolutions, world wars and concentration camps. Even before 1914, the imperial court, and with it almost the entire high society, was carried away by spiritualistic seances with rotating tables, healers and other spirituality. About Rasputin, who influenced the appointment of ministers, can now be read even in a school textbook; other magic friends of Nicholas II are less known to the general public: the Tibetan doctor Badmaev, the "blessed" Kolyaba Kozelsky and the French fortuneteller Papus. The intelligentsia tried to keep up with the elite, and our entire Silver Age is thoroughly saturated with “dark mysticism”. Valery Bryusov studied the treatises of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and the Grimoire of Honorius, and Andrei Bely arranged magical duels with him, Alexei Tolstoy was interested in the writings of Swedenborg,the others turned the tables a little and read Madame Blavatsky.
And then the Soviet government came and banned all magicians along with the Lord God. But by that time hypnosis had already been scientifically substantiated (and was used in full swing in the newfangled psychoanalysis), so the producers of miracles also decided to go into science. Fortunately, just in the mid-1920s, the German psychiatrist Hans Berger discovered the ability of the brain to emit electrical waves at a frequency of 8 to 12 Hz and became one of the fathers of electroencephalography. And since there are some waves, then, for sure, there will be those who are able to transmit and receive them. Well, and at the same time to influence by the effort of thought on the surrounding material world. Berger's discovery at once made the whole "devilry" understandable and explainable, because almost every house already had a radio, and what, one wonders,a man worse than some tin trumpet with lamps? A new scientific explanation for magic and spiritism has finally been found.
In the 1920s, there was a real boom in freak science in the USSR. That was the time when an entire aircraft plant could stop production for several days in order to prove to a keen engineer in practice the impossibility of creating a perpetual motion machine. When, for the sake of the experiments of Professor Bogdanov, who tried to achieve rejuvenation of the body through blood transfusion, a whole institute was built in Moscow. As a result, we inherited his developments, which saved hundreds of thousands of lives during the war, and Bulgakov's novel "Heart of a Dog", which veiledly ridiculed this very theory of rejuvenation along with the works of another mad scientist, Dr. Ivanov, who was trying to create a hybrid of a man with a monkey using direct insemination.
The main goal of all these experiments, funny from our point of view, was the same. Somewhere far ahead, a bright communist future loomed, but what kind of person would a person be by this time? And while some were looking for an answer in eugenics and blood transfusion, others were trying to turn homo sapiens into a psychocratic psychic.
In October 1926 - just at the same time as the Institute of Blood and Ivanov's experiments on monkeys at the Leningrad Institute of the Brain, the Experimental Commission on Hypnology and Biophysics was established, under the leadership, no less, of Vladimir Bekhterev himself. A year before that in Moscow, the group T. V. Gurstein and V. S. Kulebakina set up a series of experiments on practical telepathy, and the "thought waves" tried to immediately transmit as much as 55 kilometers.
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In particular, one of the subjects was able to convey the phrase: “I am pleased to sit here,” which she was able to accept and repeat, albeit in a somewhat abbreviated form: “I am pleased to sit. In Leningrad, they tried to repeat this experiment by putting a person in a shielding "Faraday cage". It turned out that it was impossible to accept the “signal” in this way, and this fact was considered sufficient confirmation of Berger's theory of the electromagnetic nature of extrasensory perception. At the same time, a new term was born - "biological radio communication".
In Moscow, the famous trainer Durov, together with a whole galaxy of professors: Chizhevsky, Kazhinsky, Leontovich, Kozhevnikov and the same Bekhterev, set up experiments on telepathic suggestion to dogs. Durov, with the power of his thoughts, gave the experimental dog Mars a variety of orders: bring a notebook, take the necessary book from a pile with his teeth, bark so many times … for professors command with a flick of the fingers.
Work on "biological radio communications" went on with varying success before the war and continued after its end. For example, here is an excellent short article illustrating the state of parapsychological science of the 30s with a description of experiments and techniques: T. V. Gurshtein. On the question of human electromagnetic radiation. Its main conclusion later formed the basis for the concept of the notorious "psychotronic weapon": "Consequently, a person has some kind of oscillatory system that can be excited with the help of an electromagnetic energy generator."
At the same time, in the Laboratory of Biophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, under the leadership of Professor Turlygin, experiments were carried out to study the physical nature of telepathy by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense. Purely practical methods were also developed, for example, at the same time they seriously engaged in dowsing, that is, the search for underground water sources using frames made of twigs and "bioenergy".
But what about the state and the party ideological apparatus, which in the USSR have always been the supreme arbiters, including in scientific disputes? The authorities treated everything paranormal according to the principle of "one step forward - two steps back", that is, we study it carefully, but especially do not encourage it. For example, in 1950 the physicist Mitkevich made a successful report on mathematical and machine methods in the study of telepathy and other phenomena. And in 1955, in the dictionary of foreign words, an article on telepathy began with the phrase: "an anti-scientific idealistic fiction about the supernatural ability to perceive phenomena." On the other hand, in 1959, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article by B. B. Kazhinsky's "Broadcast of Thoughts", thanks to which a massive interest in everything supernatural has reawakened. And so on.
But, as they say, it's time to remember about people:
Wolf Messing (1899-1974)
Perhaps the most famous Soviet psychic and hypnotist. His official biography is full of miracles. Born in Poland, into a Jewish family, he suffered from sleepwalking since childhood. His father wanted the boy to become a rabbi, and persuaded him to study in Yeshibot, but Wolf desperately resisted. Then Messing Sr. persuaded some passer-by to portray the "voice of God." Later, having already studied for two years at a theological school, Wolf met this man and, thanks to his phenomenal memory, recognized his voice. It was then that his "epiphany" happened.
Deeply offended, Messing decides to abandon the yeshibot and flee to Berlin. Right on the train, for the first time, he managed to apply his new abilities in practice: he did not have money for a ticket, and when the conductor entered the carriage, Messing simply showed him an empty piece of paper of a suitable size. In Germany he worked in circuses and freak shows, honing his skills. During a tour of Austria in 1915, he met with Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, and conducted experiments with them on extrasensory perception. Freud mentally gave orders: to bring this or that book, to pull three hairs out of Einstein's mustache, or to ask the scientist to play the violin, and Messing telepathically accepted and executed them. Not knowing how to drive, he successfully steered blindfolded, taking telepathic commands from a professional chauffeur sitting next to him.
When World War II broke out, Messing fled from Poland to the USSR. Here he acts as an artist with "psychological experiences", and at the same time turns amazing tricks: he walks into Stalin's office past all the guards, receives 10,000 rubles from the State Bank on a blank sheet of paper and makes amazing predictions. In 1943, from the stage of the Novosibirsk Opera House, he announced the date of the end of the war. Helped the police in solving crimes. He was awarded the title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR". According to a legend widespread in near-psychic circles, he died, feeling in the hall of a person "stronger" than himself.
OPINION OF SKEPTICS:
The phenomenon of Messing is explained very simply, thanks to his truly unique memory and observation, he managed to make himself a kind of "lie detector" of natural origin. He noticed the slightest nuances of human reactions like facial expressions or finger movements and deciphered these "messages". Plus the use of "decoys" during performances, typical for such numbers. Everything else in his biography and book is creative fiction.
Moreover, Albert Einstein never had an apartment in Vienna and in 1915 he lived in Germany, not Austria. There are no documents confirming Messing's meetings with Stalin. For example, Messing could hypnotize the cashier of the State Bank, but the procedure for issuing cash to individuals at that time was arranged so that his sheet of paper had to go through an accountant, two auditors and another cashier. Messing simply could not see these people and give them any orders. In the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there is no information about the regular involvement of Messing in investigations.
Roza Kuleshova (1940-1978)
The owner of a unique gift - skin-optical perception, in other words, could read the text invisible to her eyes by any part of the skin. Her abilities were manifested in her childhood, when she tried to learn to read like the blind, without having at hand books in Braille. She performed at the circus. She became the heroine of the famous Soviet documentary about parapsychology "Seven Steps Beyond the Horizon" (1968).
“In one experiment, she was asked to recognize the name of a magazine lying under the table. The girl touched the publication with her bare foot and said: “Young designer”. And after a moment she corrected herself: "No," Model constructor! " The word modeler was unfamiliar to her. In the same way, she put her elbows on mail envelopes, banknotes, on sheets of tear-off calendars, and always determined exactly what it was."
OPINION OF SKEPTICS:
All these tricks have long been known to professional illusionists.
Ninel Kulagina (1926-1990)
She is the owner of a unique telekinetic gift. She moved objects, deflected the compass needle, could press the scales with an invisible "force" of 30 grams, scattered laser beams with her hands, and her touch left marks on the skin like a burn. From a distance, she made it beat, and then stopped the heart of the experimental frog, separated from the body, revived the withered flowers. She emitted ultrasound. Many eminent academicians studied the Kulagina phenomenon: Kikoin, Gulyaev, Kobzarev, sometimes Kapitsa himself was present during these experiments.
Her biography was almost like that of Messing: she fought, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree, medals "For Military Merit" and "For the Defense of Leningrad". In 1966, she was tried for fraud: "she presented herself as a person who could help in purchasing furniture from the back door, and gained over seven thousand rubles in a short time." By the way, her name is Ninel - it's Lenin on the contrary.
OPINION OF SKEPTICS:
Kulagina has been successfully fooling scientists for many years, since she was a very talented illusionist by nature. For her tricks, she used the finest strong threads, which she pulled from the girls' ribbons made of acetate silk that had become fashionable at that time. She rejected the arrow of the compass with the help of a magnet hidden under a bandage on her finger or on the body; if the conditions were “inappropriate,” Kulagina refused to demonstrate her abilities.
Tofik Dadashev (1947 -)
According to the mysterious "First World Congress on Psychotronics", he remains the most powerful medium living on Earth. I realized my abilities as a child: I was always aware of how much money my mother had in her wallet, where the candies were hidden, and so on. In 1966, while passing through Moscow, I read in "Vecherka" an announcement that a certain institute was looking for people with unusual abilities to study. Passed 12 tests out of 16 and became an employee of this institution. Since 1969, he worked at Mosconcert and performed throughout the country with "psychological experiences":
“Anyone could leave the hall. He wrote down his assignment, a piece of paper was put in an envelope, sealed and left on the table in the middle of the stage. Then Dadashev began his sacred rite: “Concentrate! Think about the assignment! “Tofiq leads the person out of the room, takes a notebook out of his pocket, opens and reads the phone number. The envelope is opened. “I just gave my friend my new office phone number. Find him. 16th row, 25th place. Book in the side pocket of the jacket. Page with the letter "C". Read the last issue."
Dadashev helped the chess player Kasparov with psychological "pumping" before especially difficult matches and predicted the strategy of his opponents. He collaborated with the police and the KGB, found missing things. In 1989 he helped Alpha to neutralize the terrorist S. Skok, who had captured a Tu-134 at the Baku airport, having found out by telepathy that there was no bomb on board.
In 1987 he predicted the coming to power of Yeltsin. In 1989, he predicted to dissident Abulfaz Elchibey that he would become the second president of independent Azerbaijan, but that he would only stay in power for one year. Advised Russian politicians and the KVN team "Boys from Baku". In 1998, he organized the "Psi-Ex" center in Baku, since 2000 its branch has been operating in Moscow.
OPINION OF SKEPTICS:
the same "lie detector" with a rich and half-fictional biography like Wolf Messing, nothing supernatural.
Juna Davitashvili (1949-2015)
The Assyrian Queen, astrologer, healer and the first psychic officially registered in the USSR. So much has already been written about her that it is not worth repeating, and in connection with her death they will write even more, so let's go straight to the opinion of skeptics:
Juna's phenomenon in the ability to make a biography from the material at hand. Having inherited an apartment on the Arbat, she turned it into a party "flat", where many Soviet VIPs gathered. Then, in conversations with other people, she claimed that the guests were her patients. So, by means of network marketing, Juna gained the reputation of a "healer". Of course, there is no reliable information or evidence that she was summoned to treat Brezhnev and Raikin. Experiments carried out on her showed a complete absence of any paranormal abilities. Juna was a great masseuse, but nothing more.
The great psychotronic scam
If we are to write the history of Soviet psychics and parascientific research, then of course it is impossible to ignore this final chapter of it.
In his essay "How I Was a Psychic" science fiction writer Oleg Divov wrote: “Among the 'victims' there were people from various strata of society, although the technical intelligentsia clearly prevailed, and quite often alongside the experience of working in 'closed' enterprises. And all of them in unison assured that over the past few years the reptile KGB agents (sometimes the police, but much less often) had conducted illegal experiments on remote control of consciousness on them. With the help of some mysterious equipment, people were turned into robots."
It was at the end of the 80s, when "anomalous" journalism, now finally becoming a marginal genre, was still in its infancy, and publications about yeti, UFOs and psychics got into even the most serious publications. And on July 4, 1991, right on the eve of the State Emergency Committee, a resolution of the USSR Armed Forces Committee on Science and Technology "On the vicious practice of financing pseudoscientific research from state sources" thundered over the country. In not the easiest times for the country, the researchers of "spinor and torsion fields" managed to draw 23 million rubles for their projects only through the Ministry of Defense, and in total (according to unverified data) - about 500 million rubles.
What actually happened? In the early 80s, a group of researchers led by A. Akimov announced that on the basis of the general theory of relativity they were able to derive the so-called "fifth type of interaction" generated by the spin of particles and "angular momenta of rotation of macro-objects."
Creation of generators based on this principle could make it possible to have an almost unlimited impact on the consciousness of people at a distance. At the request of the customer, one person or a whole crowd can be turned into idiots, bloodthirsty berserkers, or into obedient zombies. At the same time, such generators could generate a kind of "D-radiation" capable of weeding out weeds, turning copper into gold, improving engines and generally benefiting the national economy. Since similar studies were already carried out in the 60s in the USA - the famous MK-Ultra program, during which they not only fed the experimental hippies with LSD, but also guessed Zerner's cards while sitting inside a submerged submarine - the officials from the "defense", of course, freaked out and grabbed their wallet.
Initially, Akimov's group was "patronized" by the KGB. However, the experts from the Lubyanka rejected the venture almost immediately: "The research results cannot be recognized as methodologically correct and reliable." Then Akimov presented a report to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and there they grabbed hold of "psychotronics" with their hands and feet. In 1989, having received the money, Akimov created his own Center for non-traditional technologies "Vent", where he was finally able to fully develop. Of course, all his research did not yield significant results, so in 1991 the "torsionists" were deprived of funding and expelled to where they belonged: to parascience, to ufologists and other Bigfoot seekers.
They tried to get out of this swamp throughout the 90s selling "axion field generators" to everyone for $ 230 apiece. This whole story turned out to be an excellent plot for a fantasy novel, which was used by the same Oleg Divov, who became famous thanks to the "Zombie Trail" trilogy.
Finally, we decided to ask a couple of questions to another science fiction writer - Eduard Gevorgyan. In the late 80s, being an employee of the journal "Science and Religion", he created a group for the study of paranormal phenomena at the editorial office, but he did not find anything surprising:
What exactly was your work with psychics?
- At the editorial office, I created a group where I invited magicians, scientists, journalists, etc. Different people came, there were business trips, but nothing supernatural was found. As a rule, "sleight of hand and no fraud".
Did you manage to reliably identify at least one psychic who can honestly pass all imaginable tests in any situation? Or do you have questions and complaints about everyone like Kulagina?
- With Ninela Kulagina, everything was quite transparent: elementary magnets under the skirt on the leg, and you can move objects, and how to attach a steel needle or something similar to a light non-magnetic material, any magician will tell you. I was at the trial of Kulagina against the magazine "Chelovek i zakon" and talked to her defenders from some institute, and so, they did not check her for magnets.
Back in my school years, I attended a performance by Wolf Messing - there was normal work with the vasomotor plus decoys. The appearance of a man from the auditorium in tarpaulin boots and a kosovorotka in the hall of the Yerevan Opera, where tickets were distributed exclusively by pull, caused the audience to laugh.
All other psychics like Tofig Dadashev are also from the same area of "artists of the original genre" …
Was there a "state order" after the war and what exactly?
- We tried to do some work in the defense industry. The usual pulling of funds by cross methods: the Americans complained that the Soviets were ahead of them and demanded money for development, ours did not lag behind either. Closer to the end of the USSR, modern "mudslips" began to revolve around our gerontocrats, healing and revitalizing … There was little sense from them, nothing but self-promotion.
What was the “Juna phenomenon”?
- Chumak and similar water loaders worked exclusively on the psychotherapeutic effect, which gave non-zero statistics, since they broadcast through the box for millions. Unlike these mass entertainers, Juna worked for VIPs, and they, as a rule, are rather superstitious in everyday life. Then word of mouth made her advertisements.
Alexey Baikov