Soviet Psychic Science

[Cyphermage]

One of the big allegedly psychic things I remember from my youth, was a best-selling book in the early 1970's written by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, titled "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain."

These two individuals became quite the talk show dilettantes, and claimed, during their travels behind the Iron Curtain, to have uncovered a plethora of examples of Soviet psychic science.

They had film of some woman moving objects inside a transparent box, allegedly through psychic means, and also tales of a science called "Psychotronics" which permitted the construction of various machines which accumulated and directed psychic energy.

This act played well to the fears of a Cold War world, which could easily be made to fear that the Russians were ahead of us in psychic research and military applications.

I was just wondering if, 35 years later, every claim in the book has been thoroughly debunked, and if anyone knows what the authors are doing today.

[fuelair]

I am so sorry to have to tell they are still around and selling the stinking, runny sRule8t as a program. www.superlearning (go to www.dogpile.com and enter either name or superlearning - hit Fetch and a steaming load of cRule8p wil plop over your eyeballs. Sorry if I seem slightly skeptical -oh, wait a minute.............

[Cyphermage]

I am so sorry to have to tell they are still around and selling the stinking, runny sRule8t as a program. www.superlearning (go to www.dogpile.com and enter either name or superlearning - hit Fetch and a steaming load of cRule8p wil plop over your eyeballs. Sorry if I seem slightly skeptical -oh, wait a minute.............

Thanks. That was very interesting. Superlearning appears to be a personal development tool. Have they completely abandoned the psychic powers and psychic machines stuff?

Saying you can improve someone's memory, success, or health through mental tricks and affirmations isn't really something that's easily testable. Probably a less risky way to separate people from their money than claiming you can bend spoons, or shoot down aircraft with psychic energy beams.

They seem to have discovered a little niche which flies under the radar of organized skepticism.

[westphalia]

It is good to know, however, that the Soviets did as bad a job as we did of allocating money strategically during the Cold War.

Son of a gun - the communists are wasteful spenders, too.

[blutoski]

It is good to know, however, that the Soviets did as bad a job as we did of allocating money strategically during the Cold War.

Son of a gun - the communists are wasteful spenders, too.


I have a feeling a lot of this was bullhockey on both sides. They'd "leak" information about secret psi-commandos, hoping that the other side would take the bait and waste money exploring the ridiculous. Then, the other side would "leak" that their project was more advanced. Meanwhile, the budget was probably entirely dedicated to orchaestrating these fake leaks.

The downside is that these misinformation projects spun off urban legends, establishing a baseline of plausibility, and here we are with pricks like Uri Geller leveraging it by claiming he was a psychic saboteur.