TOP SOVIET PSYCHOLOGISTS CALL FOR SERIOUS RESEARCH IN PARAPSYCHOLOGY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): NSA-RDP96X00790R000100010048-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 1, 2011
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: April 5, 1974
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100010048-5(b)( )
~a)(3)
iuieiice and
ieuliiiology
items of interest in the
fields of science and
technology
Top Soviet Psychologists Call For
Serious Research I n Parapsychology (U)
In a paper entitled "Parapsychology: Fiction or Reality,
V. P. Zinchenko, A. N. Leont'yev, B. F. Lomov, and A. R. Luriya
indicate that many Soviet parapsychologists are engineers, mathe-
maticians, and physicists rather than biologists or psychologists.
In addition, many parapsychologists have gravitated to medical,
physiological, and psychological posts for which they are unqualified.
Although qualified in their own field but lacking qualifications in
scientific psychology, these are people who have succeeded in ob-
serving only "astonishing" psychological phenomena, or they have
become the victims of charlatans. In the opinion of the authors the
attention of serious scientific organizations will aid in revealing the
true nature of parapsychological phenomena, close the door to
charlatans, and disperse the myths about the existence of a "para-
psychological movement" in the USSR.
This paper probably signals the entry of Soviet academic
psychologists into the field of paranormal research. It is also the
first attempt by leading Soviet psychologists to caution against the
sensational results of ill-conceived parapsychological experiments
lacking stringent experimental controls. The authors are of the
opinion that the secret and mystic aspects of such concepts as psychQ-
tronics, "bioinformation transfer, " psychokinesis, hypnotism, and
yoga are inappropriate as a basis for combining all these concepts
into a single special field when their only common denominator is
the fact that they are unexplainable phenomena. They do not discount
the existence of such phenomena and indicate that rigorous scientific
research must be applied to achieve truly adequate explanations.
(CIA)
(C L
WIR 14/74 5 Apr 74
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100010048-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100010048-5
(b)(3)
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100010048-5