: a Lowe ‘ ® 1977. The New York Times Company - , InPa ‘ 7) $F “ : ae home PARIS, June 18—An emigre Soviet physicist says that the Soviet Union has been doing secret work in parapsycholo- gy, for what appear’ to be military and’ police purposes, _ : The Soviet emigre, August Stern, who now lives in Paris, spent three years in a secret Siberian laboratory in the late 1960's trying to find a physical basis for psychic energy, or “psi particles,” as they arecalled.s.° os _ Moscow's interest. in, the subject was demonstrated in the case of Robert C. _ Toth, a correspondent of The Los Angeles | Times, who was interrogated this week in Moscow. by the K.G.B., the security. police, and was accused of having re ceived, “state secrets" about parapsy- chology. He was allowed to leave for home after protests by the United States Government’ *~* 0 - [In Washington, officials said the in- telligence community was aware of. Soviet research in parapsychology, but added that American specialists did not believe the Russians had made any unusual discoveries. One official said Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080032-9 | Emigte Tells of Research in Soviet 0). By FLORA LEWIS 2° 807, ~ 8A | gpectal tovThe New York Times <7 te gr - some Soviet work: appeared aimed at developing . psychological warfare | methods]: 2 55. © fee The Toth incident "had the earmarks of an entrapment, in the view of some” diplomats. There is no sign that the 25- ‘ page document on parapsychology hand- ed to him on the street just before he) was seized contained important informa-' tion. However; there is a record of Soviet sensitivity and. August Stern’s informa- tion indicates that parapsychology is aj matter of concern to the authorities: | ‘Mr, Stern is a son of Dr. Mikhail Stern, an endocrinologist who was imprisoned | before being allowed to. leave the Soviet. Union in- March. August Stern said he was told before leaving the Soviet Union two years ago that an even more secret laboratory than the one he knew in Sibe- ria had been set up in Moscow under) the direction of the K.G.B. Df A French scientist and former intelli-' gence agent, Jacques Bergier, has written: a book saying that extrasensory percep- : Continued on Page 20, Column’ 1” _ - ao | _ — NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 197 Continued From Page 1 " tion, one of the theories studied by parap- _ sychology, may be used in espionage, ¢bought control, surveillance and as a form of weapon. -.. - we Parapsychology covers four specific fields of nonphysical phenomena. They are telepathy (transmission of thought without, use of the senses), extrasensory perception, telekinesis (transmission of motion without any evident use of physi-'- cal energy) and clairvoyance (the ability to see distant or future events without’ physical intervention). - Most scientists remain skeptical that such phenomena actually exist, but there. are researchers throughout the world dedicated to proving and, if possible, ex- plaining them. _— So mo. Formal, officially subsidized Soviet re "search in the field has gone on for years, sometimes publicly vaunted and at other times denounced and even denied. ‘U.S. Navy Was Interested in 1950's Atone time in the late 1950’s and early 1960's, the United States Navy and the Stanford Research Institute did _experi- ments.in telepathy to see whether it could provide an undetectable means of com- municating with submarines, So far as 4s known, the experiments failed. But owrd of them reached Moscow. and appar- ently provoked high-level interest in the subject. Lot -¢ $1.00 beyon d SO-mile zone from New York City. Higher in air delivery cities. Rebert C. Toth, Los Angeles Times correspondent, in London yesterday. «
[o>] t N In 1975 some Soviet parapsychologists Qwere persecuted and the whole subject _ owas publicly attacked. Eduard Naumov, ° ooa researcher with no evident connection Owith the military or police, was triedon @;, charge of accepting fees for lectures : Olpihout permission, and was sentenced. “two years in labor camp. His col- eagues were dismissed from their jobs cand otherwise harassed. At the trial, Q¢much was made of the fact that he had Rcontacts with Western parapsychologists. © Later, on June 13, 1975, Leonid L M-Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, urged the ' Ounited States to agree on a ban of r-* Qsearch and development of new. kinds of cOweapons “more terrible” than anything Othe world has known. American arms , O-control negotiators have tried to find out Ofrom their Soviet counterparts what he Ohad in mind, but they have not learned Uanything more than that he meant “some SAkind of rays,” according to United States Qofficials.. ++. Vaseillating Treatment Noted tO At first, American intelligence thought. “ihe might have been referring to laser 9 beams, or some way of focusing cosmic- =e but they no longer believe this to = @ the case. They say that they are baf- ed by the reference. _ qi There is no evidence that. Mr.Brezhney qas referring to something in the field of parapsychology. But it is a possibility that has occurred to some observers, es- pecially because of the vascillating treat- ment of parapsychologists, the evident involvement of the K.G.B. with the sub- ject, and what some regard as a tradition- re) al Russian interest in mysticism. L After his initial detention a week ago, Mr. Toth was reported to have quoted F- Strom a statement made by an employee | ® of thé Academy of Sciences who had been called by the authorities to examine the documents in his possession, The state- ent referred to “psi particles” and said “thig material is secret and shows the tific institutes of our state.” , Last year, the Paris newspaper Le Monde published a letter by a Russian i named Vladimir Lvov denouncing a previ- | ous letter by a French professor, Henri Gastaut, and denying that parapsycholo-’ gy research was officially supported in, | kind of work done in some closed scien- the Soviet Union. .- 4. Emigre Reports on Soviet Research in Parapsychology f Mr. Lvov was identified by Le Monde | as a “Soviet scientific writer in Lenin- grad,” but Western sources said they be- lieved he was connected with the K.G.B.. The French professor had simply men-. tioned, in the course of a plea for support : of parapsychology research, that the Rus- | sians were engaged in it. The reply, titled “Myths and Realities in the Soviet Union,” and published on Aug. 4, 1976, Mr. Lvov said: ; “The truth is simple. There is no parap- sychology as a legitimate and officially |, recognized branch of Soviet science. No institute or scientific research center in the U.S. S. R. is occupied with telepathy, psychokinesis, etc. But there are a few groups of amateurs... wholook into the ‘paranormal’ with the aid of some journalists without scruples of scientific exactitude.” Yet, soon after the trial of Mr. Naumov, the Soviet parapsychologist, a report to | -The Times of London said the Soviet | Academy of Pedagogical Sciences had de- | clared the study of psychic phenomena a subject fit for scientific study, and therefore not a permissable field for unof- ficial researchers. : Mr. Stern’s reminiscenses of the labora- tory where he worked and the way it was finally shut down only add to the public record. The laboratory was in No- vosibirsk’s Science City, a complex be- longing to the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences. It was in a separate building, and the door could be opened only by a coded lock with the code changed every week. It was known as ‘Special Department No. 8” and was re | ferred to-as a branch of the Institute of Automation and Electrometry. : Headed by a Navy Officer The head was Vitaly Perov, a navy offi- | cer, who opened it in 1966, Mr. Stern said. <%e recalled that Mr. Perov showed deference to two visitors who came in the early days to check on theinstalla- tion. Mr. Stern believed the visitors to be K.G.B. men: >. THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1977 Workers were recruited from around the | country until there were about 60 persons . at the laboratory. The scientists among them were given virtually unlimited funds» for elaborate equipment. “It cost many| millions,” Mr. Stern said. His own work was in theoretical physics. His view was that there might be an orderly system ‘in which all kinds of energy could be. charted, similar to Mendeleyev’s periodic itable of chemical elements. As a result o fthe periodic table, which originally left some blank spaces, unknown elements system. if such a chart could be discovered for energy, Mr. Stern thought, it, too, might be found to have blank spaces that might lead to physical identification of : particles to explain the mystery of psy- chic energy, the “psi particles.” He worked for two years and found: nothing. Other experiments at the labora~ tory involved applying electric shocks to; newly-born kittens to see whether their mothers, three floors upstairs, registered any reaction’ through some mental con- nection: television surveillante of people in a room to see whether they responded +o attempts by others several rooms away) to send them telepathic orders; studies involving monkeys and electromagnetic|! fields. mo | _ There were also experiments with) ‘photon waves, in which frogs’ eyes were yused as a more sensitive measuring in- Istrument than a machine. One involved | putting bacteria on two sides of a glass | plate to see whether a fatal disease could | be transmitted through the glass, It was reasoned that if this could be done, it} would show that photons—light particles :_-were accounted for some inexplicable forms of communication. Suddenly, in 1969, the laboratory was shut down. Mr. Stern said he did not know the reason and did not think it was really. the team’s lack of success or the poor quality of its science, as official- ly suggested at the time, but a change i of attitude or power balance in the Krem- orM ili —_— | tary Uses 1 1 ( | Leningrad Project Was Canceledo> i _ He was back in Moscow by thene\He heard that the military, and particu@@ly the navy, was conducting parapsychdfgey research in Leningrad. - A friend of his, a Leningrad scieggst| named Gennadi Sergeyev, told hin€he 'was receiving permission and fund@to open anew laboratory and offered -2im _a job. But the project was canceled. ' “Later, friends teld Mr. Stern thatephe ;work done in Novosibirsk and plafyfed iin Leningrad had been combined in amew laboratory in Moscow under the ausgides : of the K.G.B. He never learned any Mere}: about it.- whe an By the time he left in 1974, he Was! told that all parapsychology work Qad been curtailed except for the s ret K.G.B. laboratory. He said he had rd}: rumors that something “important, &éry dangerous” had been discovered, butjhe commented: .. . “I never believed it. How can the KrenB. do effective research? They need Ghal scientists.” : Ee ah His experience in Novosibirsk had @gn- vinced him that many researchers @xith official sponsorship were poorly quagwed or even cuacks and their. claims qepid not be substantiated. His’ own res h papers were confiscated ‘before he @mi- grated. - - ogee : Approved For Release 0