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‘December 1982 INVESTIGATIONS INTO “EXTRAORDINARY HUMAN BODY FUNCTION" IN CHINA Information about studies of psychic func- tioning in China have been previously published in Psi Research. We continue this discussion by publishing materials presented at the Invited Speakers from the People’s Republic of China session of the Society for Psychical Research/ Parapsychological Association Conference which was held at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, August 16-20, 1982. Although some points of these materials have been discussed our earlier publications, we wish to provide our readers with yet a more detailed overview. ~— Ed. Report on Investigations into "Extraordinary Human Body Function" in the People’s Republic of China H. E. Puthoff, PhD Radio Physics Laboratory SRI International Menlo Park, California Although interest in exceptional human functioning has historically been part of China’s tradition, recent widespread interest was triggered by a report in the March 11, 1979, Sichuan Daily. In that report it was claimed that a young boy, 12-year old Tang Yu, was able to read written material placed in physical contact with his ears. Although this claim was soon being criticized as unscientific in e.g., The People’s Daily in May, 1979, reports began to surface from all over China that children elsewhere were duplicating this feat. These reports caught the attention of scientists, many of whom assumed that some form of rudimentary biological function was at cause, since the early reports typically involved "reading" through the skin. Thus the initial approach to the phenomenon appears to parallel in many respects the earlier work of Jules Romains on "eyeless sight” [1] and similar Soviet investigations into so-called Approved For Release 2o00ro8itt Approved For:Release.2000/08/11 : December 1982 PSI RESEARCH CIA-RDP96-00792R000300420002-7 "germo-optic perception" [2]. From this beginning, such functioning in China goes under a rubric which -Eranslates as Extraordinary Human Body Function (EHBF); this phrase has now been broadened to include the entire range of phenomena that in the West are called "psi," since it was not long before the reading of Chinese characters, numbers, etc., extended to experiments involving non-contact forms of the phenomena (e.g., use of sealed containers, long distances, etc.). As a result of growing scientific interest, in February 1980 a conference on parapsychology was held in Shanghai, sponsored by one of China’s major monthly scientific journals, Nature (Ziran Zazhl). Participants from over 20 colleges and research institutes were in attendance, along with 14 children purported to possess EHBF skills, which they demonstrated at the conference. As a result of these demonstrations a number of observers returned to their institutes to set up research programs, and rigorous investigations began in earnest. These efforts led toa second conference on the subject in May 1981, held in Chongqing, and a continuing series of papers published in Ziran Zazhi, some of which have been translated and are available in English [3,4]. As in the West, such research activities, conferences and reports are not without controversy. Some criticism of methodology and reporting has appeared in the literature [5], and in October 1981 the State Sclence Commission set up a special group to study the phenomena, some of whose reports have cited cases in which the possibility of deception could not be ruled out. Nonetheless, vigorous research efforts are continuing in a number of university and research institutes, and a National Society of Human Body Science is in the process of being formed. October of 1981 was also the month in which a group of American and Canadian scientists, physicians and educators, including the author, had an opportunity to visit the People’s Republic of China, specifically for the purpose of meeting with Chinese researchers working in the EHBF area. The tour, organized by Dr. Stanley Krippner, took us to the cities of Beijing (Peking), Xian and Shanghai, where we met some of the “EHBF children," aad talked to a number of : CIA-RDP96-00792R000300420002-7