Chinese Research Suggesting the Reality of Clairvoyance and Mind-Over-Matter

Around page 376 of the book here, you get a discussion of Chinese research into "Extraordinary Human Body Function" or EHBF, which was largely research into clairvoyance, telepathy and mind-over-matter. 

The CIA document you can read here (and also here) is a translation of a Chinese 1984 parapsychology publication, one entitled "Research in Human Paranormal Capabilities." There are some very fascinating parts. 

On page 4 we have a claim that a particular person could read Chinese characters with his ears. We read this:

"Today is a very important and very memorable date, it is the anniversary of the first publication in the 'Sichuan Daily' of Tang Yu's paranormal capability to distinguish Chinese characters with his ear. This is a very important event in modern China."

The parapsychology term used for this ability is "transposition of the senses." The history of psychical research has many well-documented examples, some of which are listed in my series of posts here.  On page 53 of the same document, we read about tests done on children to see whether they could recognize the color of cards (and symbols on cards) that were placed in their outer ear. This is a test of one type of transposition of the senses. We read this about the testing procedure:

" Propaganda cards printed in various colors with number four type were cut into cards of two to five characters each to form a sampling pool. They were then folded in half and rolled into cylinders. Then tweezers were used to place these deep in the student's left or right outer ear deep enough that the students could not dig them out with their little fingers. Since the cylinders were springy, they opened up to press themselves to the walls of the ear canal, making them difficult to remove."

I do not recommend that anyone ever try this at home as a test procedure.  As my mother would often tell me, "Never stick anything in your ear smaller than your elbow." The only exception is manufactured things specifically designed to be placed in ears, such as earplugs.

On page 53 we read this about the results from a subject:

"On the morning of the 18th of July, at 8:30, 31 minutes after the test began, eleven year old Han nationality student, XIXY X( )X( ) correctly answered the test card. It was verified that the characters, color, and color of the paper were all correct. After 40 minutes, thirteen year old Tibetan Student Xun Wen (X) also correctly recognized the characters and color of paper in his ear. This was the first occasion of psychic abilities being induced in children in Tibet. Results of the three day test show that among these subjects of the survey (nine to fifteen years old) the occurrence of ('recognizing characters by ear') was about 40%."

On page 13 of the same document we read this claim about clairvoyance in two children:

"He reported on the results of psychic testing of two psychic children during last summer vacation and this spring vacation by himself together with Comrades Chen Bao-Liang, Liu Yi-Cheng, Yang Jian-Hua with the cooperation of Comrades Luo Cheng-Lie and Liu Gui-Lin of the Qufu Normal College in Shandong. Contents of the test were the ability to see something on the other side of a wall or in another building and the ability to make out messages. The procedures of the testing were very strict, the results were positive and repeatable under specific conditions."

A claim like this is too vague to have much of any value as evidence, and I present it merely to contrast it with the next example, which gives us a very precise account of exactly what went on in a test of clairvoyance which seems to have been a stunning success. We read this on page 22:

"In the 'Joint Experiment Report on the Reality of Human Psychic Functions' there were records of tests carried out on 'Z's ability to do 'psychic writing.'  The author of this article took part in making up the samples. The test at that time was to take a blank sheet of paper which the tester would sign, roll it up into a tube around a ball point pen, and fold back both ends. This would be placed on the table in front of the person being tested with three people watching at the same time. 'Z' was only allowed to pick up the tube and smell it. Then he had to put it back on the desk. He was not allowed to open the tube. Then 'Z' was given a fountain pen and another blank sheet of paper. After 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper and stated that he had written the same thing on the piece of paper rolled up around the ball point pen, the observers opened the rolled paper. It was discovered that what 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper with a fountain pen was also written of the signed sheet of paper in ball point pen. The style of the characters was also very similar. To do further testing to determine if Z''s psychic writing could break through the barriers of space, this experiment used a sealed envelope. "

There then follows a more explicit discussion of what exactly went on, an account that lists the exact names of the observers, and lists the date and time as 4:30 in the afternoon of January 22, 1983. The test words written down in the rolled up sheet of paper were "How are you? Thank you teacher." The  words written by "Z" were exactly the same: "How are you? Thank you teacher."

After  this more detailed account of the successful test of clairvoyant abilities, on page 24 we read this:

"The entire experiment lasted less than one hour. None of the observers ever left the area. 'Z', the person being tested, remained seated in his original position while performing the psychic writing. The entire desk was within the observers' field of vision. None of the four observers noticed 'Z'  doing anything suspicious. This was the third time this experiment was carried out. The former two occasions had similar results." 

As evidence for clairvoyance, the reported results seem very good. The main deficiency is the failure to report the real name of the person identified as 'Z.'  The report has appeared about one year after the observation date. But the report has so many details written so precisely that we can be rather sure it is based on notes  of what occurred written at the time. 

On page 27 and the following pages we have a report claiming tests showed a "psychic ability" of someone to break into two a needle that had been put in a sealed matchbox.  Unfortunately, the account is not explicit enough to qualify as good evidence. We are told that the tested subject could touch the sealed matchbox, but we lack a description of whether there were precautions to prevent the subject from using both of his hands to break the needle. 

On page 54 of the document, we read about tests of mind-over-matter. We read this:

"Because of what happened with the above experiment, beginning on the 25th, we change to a 'psychic movement' test, where we placed knotted twine, an open lock, a small bolt with the nut off, or a watch in a cardboard box which we sealed with tape. The children were allowed to attempt to untie the knot on the string, lock the lock, put the nut on the bolt, and set the watch. This was successful. The 11 year old Tibetan girl, Tsering Jwolka, on her first attempt, set the watch ahead one hour and forty seven minutes. On her second attempt she set the watch ahead six hours and twenty minutes. This test was repeated many times and successful each time. This caused quite a stir in Zedang village, and rumors started spreading around."

On the next page of the document (page 55) we read this astonishing account of child subjects displaying mind-over-matter trying to make changes in objects in a sealed cardboard box, apparently through mind-over-matter, without breaking the seals:

"The first subject was Tsering Jwolka, a twelve year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she successfully set a watch ahead 30 minutes, then she set it backwards 37 minutes. On the second test she closed a lock in six minutes. On the third test she opened the lock in four minutes, on the the fourth test she closed the lock again in two minutes. 

The second subject was Nima, a 13 year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she threaded a nut on a bolt in 30 minutes. On the second test she unknotted a string in ten minutes. On the third test she opened a lock in four minutes. 

The third test subject was 11 year Han nationality girl, Liu... On the first test she opened a lock in 39 minutes. In the second test she unscrewed a nut from a bolt in 30 minutes, and in the third test she was unsuccessful in attempting to knot a string. 

The fourth subject was 10 year old Han nationality girl, Xu (X). In the first test she was unsuccessful in knotting a string after 30 minutes. In the second test she unknotted a string in three minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 27 minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. 

The fifth subject was ten year old Han nationality girl, Chen (X) (X). her first test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. In the second test she opened a lock in 22 minutes. In the third test she was unsuccessful in threading a nut on a bolt after 30 minutes. In 

The sixth subject was nine year old Han nationality boy, Chen (X). In his first test he unknotted a string in 30 minutes. In his second test he threaded a nut on a bolt in seven minutes. His third test was to be unscrewing the nut from the bolt. This was not attempted. 

In all of these tests, the test object was in a cardboard box. The cardboard box was sealed with tape. A special symbol was marked along the edge of the tape."

On page 66 we have a first-hand report which sounds like one of many cases of medical clairvoyance, in which a clairvoyant is able to mysteriously see inside the human body.  The reported results are very impressive. The main deficiency from an evidence standpoint is that the narrator is not identified. We read this:

" 'X-ray vision' is one form of manifestation of the human psychic function. This kind of vision is not really 'X-ray' vision, but is where the psychic uses his eyes to inspect the inner structure of the human body, does a comparison of normal and abnormal, and thus comes up with a diagnosis. Therefore, in this article I will talk a little about what I have learned from experience through many years of diagnosing diseases through 'X-ray vision' into the human body so others may use it for reference. I am a nurse in a hospital. Thus it is very convenient for me to do diagnosis through 'X-ray vision'. "

The author provides the table below, which indicates a very high success rate. 

We read some case accounts by the author in which claims are made of successful diagnosis through clairvoyance.  No one who has carefully studied the 19th century reports of clairvoyance (often written by doctors) will be very surprised by this part of the Chinese document. In the 19th century it was very often reported that in a state of hypnosis some clairvoyants would be able to see into the human body, and make many a correct diagnosis about medical problems that the unaided human eye could not see. 

After hearing of such wonders, we should remember why we should not be surprised to hear of mysterious powers of the human mind. The reason is that a human mind is something utterly beyond the understanding of physical science.  The most basic powers of the human mind (such as learning, instant recall of relevant information, recognition, imagination, insight and the persistence of memories for decades) are powers utterly beyond any credible explanation by neuroscientists, who offer nothing but vacuous jargon-laden hand-waving when asked to explain such powers.  No learned information has ever been found in a brain through the microscopic examination of brain tissue. Nothing in a brain bears the slightest resemblance to any system for permanently storing or instantly retrieving learned information. We know the type of things that allow the permanent storage and instant retrieval of information in physical systems: things such as components for writing information, components for reading information,  stable and easily navigable writing surfaces,  sorting, addresses and indexes. The brain has no such things. No scientist has any credible theory of how any of the very many types of things that humans remember could be encoded as brain states or synapse states. Because we lack any credible neural explanation for the basic powers of human minds, there is no credibility in trying to exclude accounts of mysterious powers of minds by saying "a brain could not do that." Almost every human mind does every day many things that brains could never do. 

The latest result of an ESP test is the result reported on page 62 of the year 2025 document here. It is a test of 240 participants conducted at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland's largest university), by two professors. The researchers used the long-successful Ganzfeld protocol, which for many years has produced results of around 30% to 32%,  well above the result expected by chance (only 25%).  The tests were done in a "ganzfeld laboratory" in a "quiet and secure basement room of a university building," in the years 2023 and 2024. We read that "Seventy-two hits were obtained out of 240 sessions, a 30% hit-rate," a success well above the result expected by chance, only 25%.

More Reports of Paranormal Abilities of Chinese Children:

In my 2020 post "EHF: Reports of Chinese Kids With Paranormal Powers," I discussed many reports of paranormal phenomena involving children in China. Let me now discuss some additional reports I have since discovered,  also involving children in China. 

In the 1983 book Parapsychology and Self Deception in Science edited by R.A. McConnell, we have a Chapter 2 entitled "Some Demonstrations of Extraocular Image in China" by C. K. Jen. C. K. Jen had very distinguished credentials, having received a PhD in physics from Harvard, before serving for years as a physics professor in China, and then serving many years as a university science researcher in the United States, eventually being appointed in 1967 as a Professor of Chemical Physics at Johns Hopkins University.  

The observations reported by C. K. Jen (dating from the early 1980's) are very noteworthy. Jen reports an example of a type of phenomenon that has been widely reported, a phenomenon known as transposition of the senses. Transposition of the senses is when some person seems to have sensory capabilities associated with some part of the body normally not associated with such capabilities. For example, a person reporting transposition of the senses may report being able to read with his fingertips while blindfolded. Or he may report being able to see (when blindfolded) some object that is placed on the middle of his stomach. Or he may report being able to see the characteristics of an object when the object is placed near his ear.  Reports such as these appear again and again in the literature of parapsychology. By using the link here (and continuing to press the Older Posts button at the bottom right), you can read seven previous posts I wrote that discussed evidence for transposition of the senses. 

C. K. Jen reports what he calls "extraocular image," involving people getting images from something other than use of their eyes. He states, "In late 1980 and early 1981 when we were there [in China], both the interest and activity in extraocular image had already grown to large proportions on a nationwide scale." Jen reports on page 10 that he was surprised to see that a nine-year-old Chinese boy could apparently identify words hidden from his sight that had been written on well-folded or crumpled paper. 

On page 11 Jen reports an experiment or demonstration at the University of Science and Technology on November 30, 1980.  We read this report of a test of four "demonstrators" consisting of three young girls and one young boy, between age 9 and 11:

"Mr. Jia had his aides  prepare over one hundred samples, each consisting of a piece of paper, on which either a Chinese word or an English letter was written in color (red, blue or black). Each sample was folded many times into a small pad, either sealed at the folding edge with a touch of glue or completely sealed. In any case, the writing inside each sample was not visible to the eye....Mr. Jia asked me to be the chief referee, with my wife and one friend as assistant referees, all sitting in the front row directly facing the demonstraters. We saw an usher carrying a big place of randomly placed samples up to the demonstrators and let each of them take a sample at will. Each demonstrator put the picked sample between his or her palms. In less than a minute or two the three girls indicated that they already got their answers. Mr. Jia announced to them each of the should write on the sample envelope the word and its color they 'saw.' These unopened samples were handed over to me and I then let them be opened one-by-one in front of us (three referees) and have the contents be compared between the inside and the outside."

Jen reports that three of the four answered correctly, naming the right word, with only one failing.  On a second round under the same conditions, the same three children correctly named each of the concealed words.  In addition, several novice volunteers added to the round's participants gave answers that were mostly limited (such as naming a first letter), but which were all correct, with one of the novices correctly naming the word. Interviewing the three children who seemed to be so successful, Jen was told by them that after holding the wrapped up paper for a minute or so, an image of the answer appeared in their "mind's eye."

On pages 13-14 Jen reports of tests of a ten-year-old student named Yu Po. Twice Jen's wife prepared a sealed wax ball or container with a word hidden inside it. Within about 30 seconds Yu Po correctly named the letter. The third time a colleague of Jen prepared a wax ball with a word hidden inside. Yu Po quickly named the word correctly. 

On pages 14-15, after reviewing various far-fetched possibilities involving fraud, and after considering the very young ages of the children apparently displaying such skills, Jen says this:

"Having gone over all the imagined possibilities of fraud on a specific EOI [extraocular image or ESP] demonstration we witnessed, we found none of the suspicions well founded. I am left with no better alternative than to assume the observed phenomena were indeed real.  In a broad sense, I have no reason at all to suppose any of the three demonstrations we eye-witnessed was in any way fraudulent. In the same vein, we heard that virtually hundreds of demonstrations or experiments on EOI [extraocular image or ESP] involving young children have been conducted all over China during the past two years and, in general, the results were about the same as ours. If most, if not all, of these acts are fraudulent, then one would have to assume that multitudes of Chinese people are freely joined in a widespread act of conspiracy and deception. Such an assumption would be utterly unthinkable." 

Jen made such a conclusion apparently with no knowledge of previous reports of this type in other lands. A thorough study of parapsychology would have revealed countless cases of very similar successes stretching back nearly two centuries, such as the countless public exhibitions in which Alexis Didier or Adolphe Didier displayed similar successes in clairvoyance (as discussed here, here   and here). (For an interesting discussion of Alexis Didier read pages 234-238 of Jeffrey Kripal's Authors of the Impossible, in which he discusses a 500-page 2003 work by Meheust exhaustively documenting the evidence for Didier's clairvoyance.) The abilities described in Jen's paper were very similar to other reports I mention below, which come from various countries during the past two centuries. 

In a postscript to Jen's paper, McConnell states that "in August 1980, Dr. Lee C. Teng of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia, Illinois, made a lecture stop at the Institute for Modern Physics" in China, and that he and his son "were invited by his hosts to participate in an ESP experiment with the 12-year-old son of an Institute librarian." The boy successfully identified a word written in a folded up piece of paper inserted in his ear, and "successfully reproduced both Chinese characters and physics terminology in English, although he could speak no English." Reading this account in a letter to a parapsychology journal, McConnell phoned Teng and confirmed that Teng was its author. 

In a CIA archive there was an undated British newspaper report which can be read here. Matching the reports given above, we read, "The Chinese say that more than 80 children and one adult have shown this power in tests by reading messages folded and concealed in containers of various materials." For example, we are told that nine-year-old Jiang Yan "correctly described a drawing on a piece of paper which had been folded and inserted into a glove which was then wrapped around her wrist." We are also told that 11-year-old Zheng Hong "could read words on a paper slipped under his foot."

In another document in a CIA archive, dating from about 1979, American physicist H. E. Puthoff states this:

 "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 Ye, was able to read written material placed in physical contact with his ears...In May, 1970, reports began to surface from all over China that children elsewhere were duplicating this feat."

Later in the same document we read this:

"A 12-year-old boy, Tang Yu, in Dazu County, Sichuan Province, had been discovered to be able to 'recognize the characters (Chinese ideograms) with his ears...Subsequently, more than ten teenagers who also had had this kind of function were discovered one after another."

A bit later in the document we read a list of stringent test conditions, and then read this:

"Under these experimental conditions, some subjects whose functions were stronger were tested with dozens of specimens. The rate of absolutely correct identification was more than 80 percent, which indicated that one of the special inductive functions, the so called 'recognizing characters with the ears,' existed objectively. Scientists in Beijing University further found  in experiments that among over 70 children, approximately 10 old, there was a considerable proportion of subjects who had the special inductive function of 'recognizing characters with the ears.'  " 

The researcher Si-Chen Lee long studied Taiwanese children who might have an ability to read with their fingers, and he reported very substantial success. He reports this:

"Some people are able to read images by using their fingers rather than their eyes. After nine years of investigation, we confirmed that children between 6 and 13 years old can be trained in finger-reading. An earlier report suggested that finger reading can be developed in a high percent of children (~40%) with training (S. L. Chen et al 1989). More than 21% of the children in our studies developed statistically significant finger-reading capability (p < 0.05) after attending finger-reading training classes for two hours daily over four days."

We read of this technique to test children:

"During each finger-reading trial, children placed a hand in a cloth sleeve, as shown in Figure 1. These are standard, light-proof sleeves that are used to handle photographic negatives. The children had the two cuffs tightly tied around their forearms. The samples were randomly chosen by the experimenter, clenched in his fist, and put into the bag through the zipper on the other side. Since all of the two-digit numbers were printed by laser printer, there were no palpable depressions on either side of the paper."

Children and the cloth sleeves used for the tests

Lee reports that of 27 children test in the year 2000, 5 were able to score at a high statistical significance of p < .001, and that of 37 children tested in the year 2001, 6 were able to score at  high statistical significance of p < .001. On page 17 of the document here, Lee reports an interesting effect in which children reported highly unusual "mind's eye" activity when touching unseen pieces of paper with religious meaning. 

Below are similar accounts from outside of China. On page 170 the book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder has a chapter on the topic of "Eyeless Sight." We read of Rosa Kuleshova, who developed an ability to read or detect colors while blindfolded, merely by touching reading material or objects with her hands. Kuleshova held up very well to a long series of scientific tests. The same phenomenon was reported decades earlier in France, by Jules Romains in his book Eyeless Sight (discussed here). A 19th-century work states this: " Although  blind,  this  girl  can  read  by  passing  her  fingers  over  the  printed or  written  page,  and  can  describe  persons  whose  pictures  were  handed  to  her."

An edition of the EdgeScience magazine (#47) published by the Society for Scientific Exploration has an article "Seeing Without Eyes" (page 9) which discusses evidence for clairvoyance like that gathered by Romains. It mentions work by Carol Ann Liaros in the 1970's, saying, "Liaros discovered that blind people could see the images on black-and-white photos (and could see the photos when they were turned over, face-down, and even their reallife colors)."  We read about many other examples of ESP and clairvoyance similar to that reported by Romains, most occurring in recent decades. 

A long article in the June 12, 1964 Life magazine was entitled "Seeing Color With the Fingers." It reported a great number of observations very similar to those reported by Romains.  You can read the article here, by scrolling down to page 102.  In 1964 Life magazine was as mainstream and respectable as the New York Times, and had been a trusted mainstream source for decades.  Just as there is now a gigantic New York Times building in New York City, an equal-sized skyscraper was once called the Time-Life building.  

In the Life magazine article of June 12, 1964, we read a very long account of Rosa Kuleshova's paranormal ability and how it was demonstrated in a long series of tests with different Soviet scientists. Below is an excerpt:

"Rosa, securely blindfolded, could read headlines in newspaper and magazines, and the large type in children's books, just as rapidly as if her eyes were open. She could read ordinary newspaper type, too - more slowly, but still correctly. She was able to describe illustrations in popular publications like Ogonyok and Krokodil as well as on cigaret packages and postage stamps. And she had no trouble at all singling out black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue and green samples of colored papers, colored pencils, aniline dyes, as well as cotton threads and fabrics."

The phenomenon has sometimes been called dermo-optical perception. The 19th-century literature on hypnosis contains many similar accounts of such an ability occurring during hypnosis. The term "transposition of the senses" was often used to describe the ability. A nineteenth century work by William Gregory (a chemistry professor at the very prestigious University of Edinburgh) describes this phenomenon on page 148:

"I have not hitherto noticed, save in passing, a phenomenon which occasionally presents itself, but which is not by any means uniformly present in a marked form; I mean, transference of the senses to some special part of the body.... But it sometimes happens, that the power of seeing, not the ordinary sense of sight, but the clairvoyant power, is located in some special part. It has been observed to be located in the pit of the stomach, in the tips of the fingers, in the occiput as well as in the forehead, or on the top of the head, and in one case which I heard of from a scientific gentleman who tested it, in the soles of the feet. The books and journals which treat of Animal Magnetism teem with similar facts; and the head, hand, and epigastrium, seem to be the usually selected parts, probably from the proximity to the brain in the first, the great development of the nerves of touch in the second, and the presence of the great sympathetic plexus of nerves in the third. The fact itself is beyond all doubt, and it is quite unnecessary to accumulate cases. In one form or other, the power of dispensing with the eyes, and yet perceiving color, &c. quite plainly, is found in every good subject. The same thing frequently happens with hearing. Thus E.  when on her travelling state or stage, is utterly deaf to all sounds, save those which are addressed to her by speaking with the mouth in contact with the tips of her fingers. This fact I have myself verified. I believe she would not hear a pistol fired at her ear, in that state."

On the page here an author quotes a press report of him separating while blindfolded face-down cards held by someone else into two packs, one with only black cards (clubs and spades) and the other pack with only red cards (diamonds and hearts).  The author then goes on to a long description of far more remarkable feats performed at a public exhibition by an Eastern mystic. 

A paper in the April 1991 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research discusses parapsychology research in China between 1979 and 1989, and discusses three periods: a period between 1979 and 1982 of excited interest in paranormal abilities; a period in the years after 1982 of dampened activity caused by a May 1982 Communist party ruling discouraging research into paranormal abilities; then  renewed research activity between 1987 and 1989, with much of the research taking place under an umbrella of qigong research that involves studying a mysterious bodily energy source that might be applicable to health. 

A long paper "The Rise and Fall of Qigong" picks up the narrative into the 1990's. We hear of  years of qigong research in China around 1988 that seemed to include very many reports of dramatic paranormal activity in China, with the research being presented as part of way of thinking claimed to be consistent with the ruling party's ideology.  According to the paper there then arose in China in the early 1990's a Falun Gong movement which had a more religious approach, one that was very interested in qigong, but  less interested in scientific parapsychology. After the Falun Gong movement gained a very massive following in China, the Chinese government started to discourage it and eventually tried to suppress it beginning around 1999.  This may have resulted in a downturn in study of parapsychology in China. It seems that documenting the paranormal within China has been rather an on/off affair, with activity levels largely dependent on approval signals from the government, which have varied from year to year.  In the paper the "fall of qigong" is depicted as a kind of political and social affair, rather than anyone disproving claims about qigong. 

Despite such ups and downs, it seems that parapsychology research involving children is still occurring in China. In the paper "21 Century Some Real Testable Phenomena of Parapsychology in China," Yi-Fang Chang of the Department of Physics, Yunnan University, Kunming, China discusses some noteworthy research, stating this:

"In the summers of 2012 to 2017, we trained the potential of fifty-two blind children in Kunming. We mainly combine traditional Chinese culture and adopt the method of guiding blind children into a quiet and focused state, then these trained blind children have some effect. A blind child X-N Jin of these children is particularly prominent. He can not only accurately recognize the dozens of poker points and colors in a kraft paper envelope, and identify all cards, but also accurately identify single-sided graphics, even double-sided multi-color graphics. Sometimes he can conduct successful PK [psychokinesis]."

In the paper we read this:

"In 1982, the China Somatic Science Society (CSSS), an organization Zhang Zhenhuan had founded to study extraordinary powers, invited a charismatic qigong healer named Zhang Baosheng (1960-2018) to Beijing. Zhang Baosheng was one of the first healers to propose the idea of a 'cosmic field'—a network of energy in which participation (usually through qigong practice) brought about extraordinary powers or even miracles. Zhang Zhenhuan had Zhang Baosheng demonstrate his extraordinary powers to the group, which included passing cigarettes through solid objects and making objects disappear. The CSSS also confirmed his extraordinary power  through experiments. Yet neither side stopped there. In fact, Zhang Baosheng actually travelled  into the Zhongnanhai compound, where all the top Party officials lived, and healed the Party members themselves." 

One of the authors of a paper makes this startling report of observing Zhang Baosheng (1960-2018):

"In his early personal experience with Zhang Baosheng, gained over months of close observation, the senior author found that, as with other major psychics under loose control, Zhang was able to perform numerous incredible feats. Most of these involved apparent PK [psychokinesis], and many were done in the way the senior author or others requested, with the targets seemingly chosen at random. For example, Zhang caused objects, such as someone’s photo identification card or personal name stamp, to move to another room which Zhang had not entered, or caused a torn personal letter to be restored to a single piece."

An article in the Psi Encylopedia says this about Zhang Baosheng:

"Beginning in the mid 1970s, Zhang Baosheng began demonstrating ostensibly paranormal abilities such as movement of objects and telepathy. In 1982, a local group of scientists brought him to the attention of Beijing scientists at the Institute of Space-Medico Engineering (ISME) where he was heavily investigated: Zhang’s main experiment involved moving small objects in and out of glass tubes. In one well-controlled demonstration, specially marked pieces of paper were treated with a chemical and placed inside a tube. The tube was melted in order to constrict it midway. Cotton buds were placed in the top half having been soaked in a chemical that reacts with the chemical on the treated paper. After five minutes of close scrutiny by four investigators, the paper was found to be lying outside the tube, which nevertheless remained intact. There was evidence of a chemical reaction on the cotton buds, suggesting that the papers had passed through the cotton. In other experiments, Zhang psychokinetically extracted live insects out of the tubes, and on one occasion, a pill was filmed exiting the tube."

In a 2007 paper a Russian scientist reports quite a few specific details about observations of similar abilities in the famed mind-over-matter wonder Ninel Kulagina (the same as Nina Kulagina).

Postscript: An article in Edge Science discusses evidence for anomalous qigong energy effects.

Spooky Stuff Soviet-Style

The book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder is a fascinating account of paranormal events and parapsychology in countries of the Warsaw Pact, mainly the Soviet Union. Among the most interesting accounts is the tale of Wolf Messing, a Soviet psychic who is all but unknown in the West, but who was apparently very famous for many years in the Soviet Union. 

On page 43 we hear that Messing was summoned by Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union. We are told Stalin had heard of Messing's reputed ability to influence minds in some paranormal manner. He commanded that Messing go to a bank and try to perform a bank robbery by mentally commanding a bank teller to give him money. Messing claims that he went to the bank, handed the teller a blank sheet of paper, and then mentally commanded the teller to give Messing 100,000 rubles.  Messing says the teller complied, and that after Messing showed two witnesses that the money had been successfully extracted, he returned the money to the bank teller (who had a heart attack upon realizing he had given away such a large amount of money).  

On page 44 we are told Messing passed another experiment designed by Stalin: being able to enter Stalin's dacha without a pass and without permission (which is rather like some unauthorized visitor strolling into the Oval Office of the White House).  Messing says that he telepathically suggested to the guards that he was Beria, the head of the secret police, who frequently visited Stalin's dacha. 

It seems to be a well-established fact that Messing was given permission to tour the Soviet Union with an act that was mainly based on demonstrations of telepathy, and that such an act was wildly successful for many years, making Messing a "household name" in the Soviet Union.  Typically Messing would ask random people in the audience to write down some command they wanted Messing to do, with the sealed instructions being delivered to some "jury" selected by the audience.  The people writing down the instructions would think of their instruction, and Messing would be remarkably successful in performing what they had wished, having never seen their written instructions.  Messing had previously performed such demonstrations in many different countries. 

On page 104 we read a chapter discussing many examples of so-called "telepathic knockouts." During such events it would appear that a person was put into a state of deep sleep or unconsciousness solely because of the mental suggestion of some other person.  We read, "The ability to put people to sleep and wake them up telepathically from a distance of a few yards to over a thousand miles became the most thoroughly tested and perfected contribution of the Soviets to international parapsychology." After reading of countless successful experiments of such an effect, we read of such a test being successful at a distance of a thousand miles.  At a scheduled time, one scientist mentally commanded a subject a thousand miles away to fall asleep. We are told, "A thousand miles away Ivanova lost consciousness on schedule as she talked to Dr. Doubrovsky."  Since electromagnetic waves diminish with distance, the test seemed to prove that ESP does not work by some transmission of electromagnetic waves. 

While such accounts are shocking to the average person in the West, they may not shock careful scholars of the very deep topic of hypnotic phenomena and trance phenomena.  It was often claimed by hypnotists that a person could be put into a hypnotic trance purely by the hypnotist's mental suggestion. First, some verbal technique or physical technique such as hand movements might be used to put someone into a hypnotic state. A hypnotist would sometimes report that after such a thing had succeeded, it would later be possible to almost instantly put the subject into a hypnotic state, purely by a mental command of the hypnotist (which might or might not be accompanied by a purposeful stare). 

On page 117 we hear a leading Soviet ESP researcher (Leonid Vasiliev) state he has gathered hundreds of "reliable cases" of spontaneous telepathy.  On the same page we have an account by a mother who says she saw the face of her son (at a distant location),  only to have the apparition vanish. She said she knew that her son had died. She later found out her son had died "at this very time." 

On the next page we hear of a similar occurrence. A Russian composer and conductor named Anton Rubinstein made a pact with his student William Nichia, that whichever died first would try to appear to the other one, to show his survival. Six years later Nichia saw an apparition of Rubinstein, and found out the next day that Rubinstein had suddenly died, apparently on the same day the apparition was seen. 

Anton Rubinstein

These are just additional examples of a phenomenon often reported in the West: that of someone seeing an apparition of a person he did not know had died, and later finding out that the person had died on the same day. You can read of hundreds of such cases by reading my posts below:

An Apparition Was Their Death Notice

25 Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

25 More Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

Yet Another 25 Who Were “Ghost-Told” of a Death

Scientific American's Very Lame "Ghost Explanations"

They Also Were "Ghost Told" of a Death

More Accounts of Veridical Apparitions

Even More Cases of Veridical Apparitions

When Apparitions Serve as Announcements

Still More Cases of Veridical Apparitions

When Apparitions Act as News Bulletins

They Too Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

On page 170 the book has a chapter on the topic of "Eyeless Sight." We read of Rosa Kuleshova, who developed an ability to read or detect colors while blindfolded, merely by touching reading material or objects with her hands. Kuleshova held up very well to a long series of scientific tests. The same phenomenon was reported decades earlier in France, by Jules Romains in his book Eyeless Sight (discussed here). A 19th-century work states this: " Although  blind,  this  girl  can  read  by  passing  her  fingers  over  the  printed or  written  page,  and  can  describe  persons  whose  pictures  were  handed  to  her."

An edition of the EdgeScience magazine (#47) published by the Society for Scientific Exploration has an article "Seeing Without Eyes" (page 9) which discusses evidence for clairvoyance like that gathered by Romains. It mentions work by Carol Ann Liaros in the 1970's, saying, "Liaros discovered that blind people could see the images on black-and-white photos (and could see the photos when they were turned over, face-down, and even their reallife colors)."  We read about many other examples of ESP and clairvoyance similar to that reported by Romains, most occurring in recent decades. 

A long article in the June 12, 1964 Life magazine was entitled "Seeing Color With the Fingers." It reported a great number of observations very similar to those reported by Romains.  You can read the article here, by scrolling down to page 102.  In 1964 Life magazine was as mainstream and respectable as the New York Times, and had been a trusted mainstream source for decades.  Just as there is now a gigantic New York Times building in New York City, an equally sized skyscraper was once called the Time-Life building.  

In the Life magazine article of June 12, 1964, we read a very long account of Rosa Kuleshova's paranormal ability and how it was demonstrated in a long series of tests with different Soviet scientists. Below is an excerpt:

"Rosa, securely blindfolded, could read headlines in newspaper and magazines, and the large type in children's books, just as rapidly as if her eyes were open. She could read ordinary newspaper type, too - more slowly, but still correctly. She was able to describe illustrations in popular publications like Ogonyok and Krokodil as well as on cigaret packages and postage stamps. And she had no trouble at all singling out black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue and green samples of colored papers, colored pencils, aniline dyes, as well as cotton threads and fabrics."

The phenomenon has sometimes been called dermo-optical perception. The 19th-century literature on hypnosis contains many similar accounts of such an ability occurring during hypnosis. The term "transposition of the senses" was often used to describe the ability. A nineteenth century work by William Gregory (a chemistry professor at the very prestigious University of Edinburgh) describes this phenomenon on page 148:

"I have not hitherto noticed, save in passing, a phenomenon which occasionally presents itself, but which is not by any means uniformly present in a marked form; I mean, transference of the senses to some special part of the body.... But it sometimes happens, that the power of seeing, not the ordinary sense of sight, but the clairvoyant power, is located in some special part. It has been observed to be located in the pit of the stomach, in the tips of the fingers, in the occiput as well as in the forehead, or on the top of the head, and in one case which I heard of from a scientific gentleman who tested it, in the soles of the feet. The books and journals which treat of Animal Magnetism teem with similar facts; and the head, hand, and epigastrium, seem to be the usually selected parts, probably from the proximity to the brain in the first, the great development of the nerves of touch in the second, and the presence of the great sympathetic plexus of nerves in the third. The fact itself is beyond all doubt, and it is quite unnecessary to accumulate cases. In one form or other, the power of dispensing with the eyes, and yet perceiving color, &c. quite plainly, is found in every good subject. The same thing frequently happens with hearing. Thus E.  when on her travelling state or stage, is utterly deaf to all sounds, save those which are addressed to her by speaking with the mouth in contact with the tips of her fingers. This fact I have myself verified. I believe she would not hear a pistol fired at her ear, in that state."

Going back to the Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain book, we read on page 173 of previous accounts of abilities similar to Rosa Kuleshova's. For example: 

• A Russian Journal of Neuropsychological Medicine had described a case similar to that of Kuleshova; 
• Leonid Vasiliev had got a hypnotized man to be able to read the newspaper Pravda with his hands only; 
• A Dr. Novomeisky had found that with a half hour of practice, every sixth person could distinguish two colors only by touching them.  

One of the most sensational cases discussed in the book is the case of Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina, who was sometimes referred to under the pseudonym of Nelya Mikhailova, and also referred to as Nina Kulagina.  The book starts telling the story of Nelya/Nina in a chapter entitled "Have the Soviets Found the Secret of Mind Over Matter?' I will use the name Nelya that is used in the text of the book. We are told of scientists and film-makers gathering to test Nelya. After a long period of intense concentration by Nelya, they filmed a compass needle spinning in front of Nelya, along with the whole compass spinning.  They also filmed a number of matches mysteriously moving below her outstretched hand, along with a matchbox.  You can see some of the footage here.  A transparent plexiglass cube with one face removed was placed over some objects on a table,  and Nelya was tested under such a setup which should have ruled out any fakery. The objects within the cube still moved. 

We are told this:

"Nelya's discovery of her new talents soon led her to one of the greatest physiologists in Russia, Dr. Leonid Vasiliev. Dr. Vasiliev carried out painstaking tests of her ability and had her demonstrate her paranormal ability before scores of scientists. In 1964 a special conference of scientists was called to observe Mikhailova's demonstration and, according to the January issue of Smena, it was a success."

On page 81 we read an eyewitness report by a Dr. Rejdak (published in a newspaper) in which he discusses observing Nelya thoroughly in 1968 during successful tests of psychokinesis, in which there mysteriously moved a compass needle, the entire compass, a gold ring, glass objects, a cigarette, a matchbox and twenty matches.  Rejdak says he shredded the cigarette, and found nothing unusual in it. He also says the matchbox and the matches were provided by him, and that Nelya had no chance to prepare them in any way.  The movement of such non-metallic objects cannot be explained by hidden magnets. Rejdak says, "Tests with special instruments failed to show any indication whatever of magnets or any concealed object."

Skeptics try to discredit Nelya by pointing out that she was charged with a crime by Soviet authorities. But the crime was merely selling money on the black market, an offense almost as common during the Soviet Union as speeding is in the West.  Such an offense does nothing to discredit the reports about her psychokinetic abilities. 

In the 1977 book "Advances in Parapsychological Research" we read on page 116 the following written by CUNY psychology professor Gertrude R. Schmeidler (which  uses PK to mean psychokinesis or mind-over-matter):

"Since 1968 special interest has attached to a middle-aged Soviet woman, Nina Kulagina, who seems able to make small objects move by PK. Movies show her near but not touching objects on a table before her, and then shows the objects moving as she sits tensely and makes small hand movements. Both Soviet and Western scientists have tested her under more of less formal conditions and have confirmed the effect. A full summary (Keil, Ullman, Herbert, and Pratt, 1976)  of these reports indicates that there is good reason to accept them as authentic PK. Typical of the most striking changes is a series of observations on objects that would not be influenced by concealed magnets, such as a cigarette. The investigator brings in the objects, puts them on a table sometimes covered with a cloth, and sometimes covers the assembly, for example, with a small transparent dome. Observers tell of -- and film records show -- movement of one or several adjacent objects, typically in jerks, over a few centimeters. The movements are sometimes bizarre: an upright cigarette, for example, stayed upright as it moved." 

The case of Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina (aka Nina Kulagina aka Nelya Mikhailova) is sometimes dismissed on the grounds that no other person has shown such abilities. But similar abilities have been reported from subjects in the West, in India, and also subjects in China (as described here).  Many exclude ideas such as mind-over-matter on an impossibility basis, claiming there is no way that a brain could produce such an effect.  But there are very many reasons (including many neuroscience reasons) for rejecting the claim that the human mind is mainly the product of the brain, so we need not assume that our minds are mainly the product of our brains.  Once we have got on the right track, by realizing that our minds are some mysterious reality that cannot be explained by the contents of brains, then the door of possibilities becomes unlocked, and swings wide open.  We know the kind of limitations a mind would have if it were merely the product of a brain. We know very little about the limitations of our minds under the assumption that we are souls that arose nonphysically. 

These reports of dramatic parapsychology successes in the Soviet Union are corroborated by "a Department of Defense Intelligence Document prepared by the Foreign Technology Division, Air Force Systems Command and approved by Assistant Vice Directorate for Science and Technical Intelligence of the Defense Intelligence Agency."  The document was entitled "PARAPHYSICS R&D-WARSAW PACT." Paraphysics is a term similar to parapsychology.  You can read about the results in that document by reading my post here. The document discusses results similar to the results discussed in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder.

Let me cite an experiment in England similar to results reported above. A paper called "Consciousness and the Physical World" available at the Cornell physics paper server is a record of a 1978 symposium. The paper includes essays by a variety of authors, most of whom parrot the same old talking points of materialism, many of them misconceptions. But within the long paper you will be surprised to read some evidence for psychokinesis, similar to that discussed above. We read the following statement on page 163 by Suzanne Padfield:

"For the purpose of aiding scientific understanding, I have in the past demonstrated some psychokinetic effects under controlled conditions.Most of these experiments took place at the Paraphysical Laboratory, Downton, Wiltshire, with Dr. Benson Herbert, and the principal experiment involved a piece of apparatus known as a light mobile system. This apparatus consisted of a single strand of polyester fibre, the polymer known as polyethylene terephthalate, 25 cm long and 16 microns in diameter (chosen for its high tensile strength and low electrical and thermal conductivity because of its low moisture content). A straw beam 8 cm long was attached to one end of the fibre by means of sealing wax and the other end attached by the same means to a cork which fitted tightly into the neck of a large glass bottle in which the straw became suspended horizontally. The straw was balanced by two differently coloured pieces of plasticine, one at either end, and the sides of the bottle marked with vertical lines, enabling the angle of rotation of the straw to be observed accurately.

The system was placed on a vibration-free surface in a room free from disturbances and left for 24 hours, being monitored during that time to ensure that none of the known factors which might produce an effect on the straw beam were in operation. At the selected time for the experiment (no detectable movement of the beam, i.e. less than half a degree movement,  having been recorded for 24 hours) I would enter the room quietly and stand 5 or 6 ft away from the system. I always wore a visor to reduce effects of heat radiation from my face and electrostatic charge from my hair.‘ I would then commence to 'direct' the beam a certain number of degrees towards or away from me, either by free choice, having stated the number of degrees of rotation and direction beforehand, or at the command of the experimenter who was also present in the room but only near enough to the system to allow accurate observation, usually 10-12 ft. The experiment was successful about 70 per cent of the time and the straw beam would rotate the required number of degrees and remain still until a further direction or degree of rotation was chosen. A series of up to fifteen runs of psychokinetic influences could be accomplished during one experimental period with successful deflections of the beam from 5 to 90 degrees, fatigue usually deciding when the period would end. This particular experiment was carried out almost weekly for a period of nine years, and various refinements were made at different times."

The same person describes success with psychometry, stating this on page 165:

"In the case of psychometry I am aware of a feeling of scanning the past events of the object I am holding and am aware of sequences or memory tracks, some of which become actual events and others which existed only as possible events. Both are explored and the actual events are singled out and emphasized in the same way as one might retrieve a memory trace."

Postscript: The page here gives a quite lengthy and thorough rebuttal of skeptical speculations that Nina Kulagina used magnets and wires. As discussed above, the mysterious movements of objects near Kulagina were often of non-metallic objects that could not respond to a magnet. We can only imagine how careless observers would have to be to fail to observe a tested subject using wires to move some object on a table in front of the subject. Instead of being tested by such "most careless observers ever," all indications above are that Kulagina was successfully tested by very careful observers looking out for signs of fraud.