Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

The U.S. Army in 1987 asked the national Research council to review the state of parapsychological research. The nRc committee advised the Army to monitor parapsychological research in the United States and in the Soviet Union and to spend money in support of parapsychological research. The committee also admitted that for some categories of parapsychological experiments it could not provide alternatives to explanations involving paranormal influence. One of the committee members was the skeptical dr. Ray Hyman, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, who later said: “Parapsychologists should be rejoicing. This was the first government committee that said their work should be taken seriously” ( Chronicle of Higher education , September 14, 1988, p. A5; in Radin 1997, p. 4).

Macro Psychokinetic effects

Although much of the recent work in parapsychology has focused on micro-psychokinetic effects and remote viewing, some experimental work in macro-psychokinetic phenomena, like that conducted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has continued. Richard Broughton has discussed some of these cases in his book Parapsychology: the Controversial Science (1991), from which I will take two examples, one from Russia and the other from china. Both of these cases involve experiments conducted and reported by professional scientists. I shall also include here a particularly well documented poltergeist case, involving movements of objects by a variety of witnesses.

In Moscow, in June 1968, Soviet bloc scientists such as dr. Zdenek Rejdak from czechoslovakia, showed films of experiments with the Russian medium nina Kulagina, giving Western scientists their first look at her abilities. Broughton (1991, p. 144) stated: “One film excerpt shows her moving a cigar tube standing upright on a playing card inside a closed, clear plastic case . . . Other film excerpts show Kulagina selectively moving one or two matchsticks among several scattered on a table as well as moving several objects simultaneously in different directions. Soviet investigations of Kulagina were extensive. Besides studies by Soviet scientists openly interested in psychic phenomena, Kulagina was also investigated by committees and individuals from impartial scientific and medical institutes. The investigations appear to be quite competent regarding the elimination of fraud. Typically Kulagina was searched for magnets, strings, and other paraphernalia that might be used to simulate PK. for one series of filmed investigations she was examined by a physician and X-rayed for hidden magnets or traces of shrapnel from a war wound that could possibly act as a magnet. Often she was required to move nonmagnetic objects in sealed containers to eliminate magnetism or concealed threads as explanations.”

In October of 1970, Kulagina was tested in St. Petersburg, Russia, by Gaither Pratt, who at the time was with the division of Parapsychology at the University of virginia at charlottesville in the United States. He was accompanied by an associate, champe Ransom. Also present were Kulagina’s husband, a marine engineer, and two scientists, Genady Sergeyev, a physiologist who had been studying Kulagina, and Konstantin Ivanenko, a mathematician (Broughton 1991, p. 141). The meeting took place in a hotel room. Pratt and Ransom had with them some objects that could be used for tests, including a compass and a box of matches. Sergeyev placed them on a table in front of Kulagina, and then asked the group to step away from the table for a few minutes while Kulagina got herself into the proper mood. from a short distance, Pratt watched as Kulagina stretched her hands out over the objects. The matchbox moved towards her several inches. She put it back to its original position in the center of the table, and repeated the performance. The matchbox again moved toward her. She then declared herself ready to begin (Broughton1991, p. 142).

One of the experiments involved a small nonmagnetic cylinder. Pratt filmed it with a home movie camera. Broughton (1991, pp. 142–143) wrote: “As Pratt set up the camera, Ransom spread a patch of aquarium gravel in the center of the table, placed the nonmagnetic cylinder upright in the midst of the gravel, and inverted a tall glass over it. Kulagina concentrated, Pratt filmed, and within moments the cylinder began tracing a path through the gravel. When the perimeter of the glass seemed to restrict the cylinder’s movement, Ransom lifted it and Kulagina again concentrated. Again the upright cylinder plowed a path through the gravel as the camera rolled.”

In April 1973, Benson Herbert, a British physicist, and his colleague Manfred cassirer performed experiments with Kulagina in a temporary laboratory, set up in his room in a St. Petersburg hotel. Broughton (1991, p. 145) stated: “The centerpiece of this impromptu lab was a hydrometer, a glass-bulb-and-tube device used for measuring specific gravity, that floated upright in a saline solution. The entire system was surrounded by an electrically grounded screen. Herbert had hoped Kulagina might be able to depress the hydrometer, thus giving him a means of measuring the amount of psychic ‘force’ being used.” Kulagina was somewhat ill at the time, and did not feel like making any attempts. Still, she was able to induce some small movements of the hydrometer. Exhausted from this effort, she sat down in a chair about three or four feet from the apparatus. from the chair, she focused her attention on the hydrometer. Broughton (1991, p. 145) stated: “Slowly she raised her arms in the direction of the apparatus.Within moments the previously motionless hydrometer floated in a straight line to the far side of the vessel. After resting there for about two minutes, it then retraced its path and continued to the near side. All of this took place under the close watch of the two British investigators, who were able to confirm there were no strings or hidden wires between Kulagina and the device several feet away.” In the same session, Kulagina tried to rotate the needle of a compass, with some slight success. Herbert then saw the entire compass rotate counterclockwise about 45 degrees. “Over the next minute,” said Broughton (1991, p. 145), “as Herbert ran his fingers over and under the table looking for threads and Kulagina sat motionless, the compass case did a zigzag dance about the table.”

Between 1978 and 1984, Kulagina was investigated by physicists and other scientists in St. Petersburg at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Optics and in Moscow at the Research Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics as well as at the Baumann Higher School of Technology. The purpose of the research was not to verify her psychokinetic abilities (as these were taken as demonstrated), but to discover a biophysical force capable of explaining them. “In other experiments,” said Broughton (1991, p. 145), “Kulagina reportedly decreased the intensity of a laser beam by affecting the physical properties of the gas through which it passed.”

Zhang Baosheng was born in Bengxi city, in Liaoning province on china’s northern coast. Local researchers learned of his paranormal abilities in 1976. chinese scientists had for some time been studying paranormal phenomena under the name of “exceptional functions of the human body” (Broughton 1991, p. 166). Interest in this research became very strong in the late 1970s, causing a negative reaction from some scientists and communist Party officials. In April 1982, the Party’s national committee of Science decided to resolve the dispute by inviting supporters of exceptional functions of the human body (EfHB) research and their critics to conduct joint experiments with leading psychics. Zhang was brought to Beijing and produced good results during these tests, which many other psychics failed (Broughton 1991, p. 166). for the next couple of years, Zhang was studied by researchers in several Beijing laboratories. during this period, much of the work with Zhang was done by Lin Shuhuang, a professor in the physics department of Beijing Teachers’ college, who had also been involved in the April 1982 tests. nineteen researchers conducted experiments under Lin in the period from december 1982 to May 1983.