SOVIETS WINNING THE 'MIND' RACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120056-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: July 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120056-0
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WASHINGTON POST
17 July 1985
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
Soviets Winning the `Mind' Race
There are new developments on the
psychic-warfare front: The Soviets are
outspending us by at least 70-to-1 in occult
research.
Most scientists take a dim view of such
self-proclaimed, parapsychological practitioners as
mind readers and psychic spoon-benders.
We've reported in the past on such ludicrous
concepts as the "antimissile time-warp machine."
The Pentagon once considered developing this
contraption to blast incoming missiles into a
prehistoric era.
For years the Pentagon psychic warriors were
allowed to pursue any will-o'-the-wisp that flew by,
with annual budgets reportedly as high as $6
million. No weapons were ever developed-of
course-and now the budget has dwindled to less
than $1 million, for exploration of potential
capabilities of the human mind.
The Kremlin has been working overtime to open
a military "psycho-gap." The latest top-secret
Central Intelligence Agency review of Soviet
efforts in parapsychology estimate that it would
take $500 million to $1 billion for the United States
to catch up. Operating at much lower labor costs,
the Soviets are probably spending $70 million to
$80 million a year, but possibly as much as $350
million.
The delightful irony of the Soviets'
parapsychology extravagance is that it began as a
response to the perceived threat of U.S. progress
in the art. Several years ago, the French reported
that U.S. psychics had communicated with the
nuclear submarine Nautilus via mental telepathy.
This gave Soviet scientists the ammunition to lobby
for research funds-even though the reports were
later exposed as a hoax.
Western scientists may chuckle, but the Soviets
take their psychic-warfare experiments seriously.
In 1977, a Los Angeles Times reporter in Moscow
was arrested by the KGB and charged with
obtaining a secret state document that revealed the
existence of parapsychological research at several
laboratories in the Soviet Union.
The CIA estimates that research is being
conducted in'at Ieast two dozen labs in 10 Soviet
cities 14 in Moscow alone. The experiments range
from "dowsing" for minerals to testing "remote
psychological monitors" to measure heartbeat and
breathing rates of persons thousands of miles away.
From there, according to intelligence reports,
Soviet scientists hope to be able to affect the
heartbeat and respiration of faraway victims, much
in the manner of witch doctors. The Soviets have
even claimed, secretly, that several experiments
were successful, with targets nearly suffering heart
attacks or suffocation.
How serious does U.S. intelligence take all this?
In 1972, the e tense Intelligence Agency said the
Soviets might one day be able to learn the contents
of secret U.S. documents by psychic techniques,
make U.S. weapons malfunction by negative
thinking and even brainwash or disable American
leaders by willpower,
A 1978 CIA study, which cost $100 000 was
more cautious, but it still warned that the Soviets
may have tested and deployed second- or
third-generation psychic weapons
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120056-0