Where and when did psychotronic investigation begin? There is no concrete answer to this question because aspects of the psychotronic art and science have existed as long as man himself. At the dawn of such investigations psychotronics and natural science were mutually inclusive. The high priests, the philosophers, the astrologers, and the soothsayers were also the scientists. When the prophets of old worked their "miracles," when Moses parted the Red Sea with a touch of his staff; when Christ walked upon the water, healed the sick, and raised the dead —all were practicing psychotronics.

Psychotronics was part of religion until religion became dogmatic. Where absolute truth was proclaimed and belief was considered knowledge, there was no place for those who sought for higher awareness. There was no alternative but to break off from established religion. Thereafter, psychotronics expressed itself very strongly within magic, witchcraft and alchemy. This trend of affairs continued, in the Western world, until the 16th Century when investigators such as Copernicus and Galileo began developing the scientific method, which ultimately led to the discipline of physical science as it is known today.

In the Eastern world, focusing primarily on China, the development of psychotronics followed quite a different path. Acupuncture has been practiced in China for more than five thousand years, long before Western civilization had its birth. Those who practiced this art believed that a subtle energy, intimately associated with the processes of life, flowed with great intensity along specific pathways in the human body and that this flow could be influenced by inserting needles into the various points of the body where this energy enters and exits.

The Chinese believe that this living energy has two poles—the positive referred to as Yang, and the negative called Yin. Since the scientific method did not exist when acupuncture was developed, and since the Chinese firmly believe that this energy is influenced by mental processes, acupuncture fits firmly into the domain of psychotronics.

The actual origins of the concept of a subtle energy, more refined than electricity, is lost in history. However, certain documents which were found in India and Tibet indicate that this concept was passed down from a great civilization which existed on Earth previous to recorded history and which was destroyed around fifteen thousand B.C. Apparently, these ancient peoples referred to this living energy as vril.

Physical science relies entirely upon gathering facts through experiment, forming an hypothesis based on those facts, and then testing the hypothesis until it can be confirmed as a law of nature. Psychotronics, on the other hand, does not reject the technique of physical science, but considers it to be only one road to knowledge among many. There is no known scientific instrument which can directly detect the vril. Consequently, its secrets can only be unlocked through psychotronics.

Psychotronics began to become an organized discipline in the West when the Society for Psychical Research was established in London in 1882 (Jane Oppenheim, 1986). Many of the 19th Century's most famous scientists joined this Society. Among them were such noted scientific giants as Lord Rayleigh, J. J. Thomson, William Crookes, and Sir Oliver Lodge.

In 1922, Sir Oliver Lodge wrote an article presenting his views on psychic science (J. Arthur Thomson, 1922), which were strongly influenced by his belief in the ether. The concept of an ether is experiencing a great revival at the present time, so it is of interest to consider the following quote from this 1922 article: United States Psychotronics Association

"Some of us are beginning to suspect that these psychical entities are able to utilize the properties of the ether, too—that intangible and elusive medium which fills all space—and if that turn out to be so, we know that this vehicle or medium is much more perfect, less obstructive, and more likely to be permanent, than any form of ordinary matter can be.

"For in such a medium as ether, there is no wearing out, no decay, no waste or dissipation of energy such as is inevitable when work is done by ponderable and molecularly constituted matter
—that matter about which chemists and natural philosophers have ascertained so many and such fascinating qualities.

"Physicists, chemists, and biologists have arrived at a point in the analysis of matter which opens up a vista of apparently illimitable scope. Our existing scientific knowledge places no ban on supernormal phenomena; rather, it suggests the probability of discoveries in quite novel directions."

It appears that to Sir Oliver Lodge, psychotronics was merely an extension of physical science. Even though the term psychotronics has been constantly used in this article, it was not coined until the 19th Century—when it appears to have originated with the Soviets, who began very active research in the late 1950's in an area they referred to as psychoenergetics (Krippner, Rubin, 1974). To the Soviets, however, psychotronics was merely a subset of psychoenergetics. In America today, the term psychotronics is being used to include all phenomena I which the Soviets referred to as "psychoenergetics."

One might define the area of psychotronics as that domain of human inquiry which includes the study of all phenomena that are created by the direct interaction of the living force, vril, with the ether medium. Here, the term vril is far more inclusive than the term "bioplasma" which is only a certain expression of the vril. To the psychotronic investigator, thoughts are things, and they lie at the foundation of all phenomena, physical and non-physical.

The development of psychotronics in the United States is of recent origin. In December, 1969, the American Association for the Advancement of Science formally admitted the Parapsychological Association into its ranks. Thus the of study of paranormal phenomena can henceforth be pursued with some official sanction, a blessing which has been hard to win.

Prior to 1972, if one was asked about the state of psychic research in the United States, about all that would s come to mind would be the work of Dr. J. B. Rhine at Duke University which began in the 1935 time frame. Indeed, until the early 1970's, work in psychotronics was kept alive in the United States only by a very few devoted scientists and laymen receiving little or no support, official or otherwise. Even today, support for such work is difficult to obtain. However, there is now a much larger number of dedicated researchers painfully advancing the state of the art.

The initial impulse which started serious development of psychotronics in the United States was the publication of the book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (Ostrander & Schroeder, 1970). This book stimulated private researchers in the United States to organize and attempt to reproduce Soviet work in psychotronics. Ken Johnson and Howard Burgess nearly simultaneously reproduced the Kirlian camera in early 1971. Controversy still surrounds this device which is reported to be able to detect the living "bioplasma field" around the human body by causing a high voltage electrical corona to interact with it, an effect which reminds one of the interaction of iron filings with a magnetic field.

On November 15, 1971, the American Society for Psychical Research held a symposium on " Advances in Psychical Research" in the Soviet Union. Dr. Pratt had just returned from a visit to the Soviet Union and gave a report on the many startling psychotronic experiments he had witnessed there. At the conclusion of the formal talks, a panel discussion was held with the panel consisting of the following members: Dr. J. G. Pratt, Parapsychologist, University of Virginia; Dr. Bernard Aaronson, Psychologist, Princeton University; Dr. Lyman Fretwell, Physicist, Bell Laboratories, Whippany, New Jersey and Dr. Gary Gruber, Physicist, Hofstra University, New York City.

In the audience of this symposium was Max Toth, an American pioneer in psychotronics, and of Czechoslovakian heritage. He later met with Dr. Zdenek Rejdak, a Czechoslovakian researcher associated with the Department for Psychotronic Investigation, affiliated with the Czechoslovakian Society for Applied Cybernetics, not long after the New York symposium. It was the collaboration between these two men which laid the foundation for the historic Prague Conference—perhaps the most significant event to occur in the entire history of psychotronics.

The Prague Conference

This unique conference was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in June of 1973. The basis for all of the recent advances in psychotronics was laid at this event, and international cooperation in this field of research was at a level never obtained before or since. Nearly every country which was performing psychotronic research to a significant degree was represented. Approximately
fifty-two of more than 250 total attendees were Americans.

Only five Soviets took official part in the Conference, but more than two dozen submitted papers. The most important Soviet researchers, such as Vikton Adamenko, Viktor Inushin and Semyon Kirlian did not appear in person; however, some of the Americans who visited Moscow later were able to meet and talk with Viktor Adamenko and his wife.

Czechoslovakia, of course, was heavily represented by the most noted researchers alive today such as Julius Krmessky, who has been investigating and demonstrating the radiation of bioplasmic energy from the human body; and Robert Pavlita, a very important Czech inventor who had developed material devices which are capable of concentrating and manipulating the bioplasmic or vril energy to a degree powerful enough to actually run small motors.

Pavlita demonstrated at the Conference—without any doubt—that bioplasmic energy was polarized. His daughter projected her bioplasmic energy into various devices which were designed to produce specific physical effects such as motor action, precipitation of solutes from solution, stimulating or destroying plant growth, and the killing of insects.

Pavlita told of an accident which occurred during his experimentation when his daughter was partially paralyzed and her life placed in great danger by being exposed to a negative form of bioplasmic energy. He had to work feverishly without stopping for over two days in order to build a device which would reverse the negative effects produced by the one which did the damage. As a result of this experimentation, Pavlita found that he could build devices of sufficient scale that they could project enough negative energy to kill human beings.

[The Spring/Summer 1988 issue of Artifex (published by Archeus Project 2402 University Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55114), carried an article titled "Experimental Investigation of Biologically Induced Magnetic Anomalies," by G. Egely and G. Vertesy. The authors worked with Robert Pavlita, who has apparently effected various magnetic anomalies by means of "concentration and a small metal device." Ed. note]


United States Psychotronics Association

Brazil was represented by Dr. Brenio Onetto-Bachler, a professor of parapsychology at the University of Chile; Canada was represented by Dr. and Mrs. Duncan Blewett, both psychologists at the University of Saskatchewan, where they developed a mathematical formula for "psychic energy" which explains its characteristics and dynamics. Also from Canada came Dr. Edward Mann, who lectured on experimentation with orgone blankets.

After the lecture of Dr. Alexander Grigorievich Bakirov, a professor of mineralogy at the Polytechnical Institute in the Siberian City of Tomsk, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the Soviets had a deep interest in dowsing, one of the oldest psychotronic practices. He represented the Soviet Interdepartmental Commission for the Study of the Bio-Physical Effect, and stated that he and other Soviet dowsers have used various kinds of dowsing instruments to locate bodies of ore as deep as 3000 feet below the Earth's surface and to make geological maps.

He said that they have worked both on foot and from helicopters traveling at 200 kilometers per hour at a height of more than 200 meters have ground. He believed that in the USSR the dowsing technique had been perfected to such an extent that it rivaled all existing scientific prospecting methods, and is certainly far less expensive than any other conceivable detector.

One surprise at the Conference was the presence of the noted Soviet psychic Tofik Oadashev, who - without question—exercised genuine psychic capability. Oadashev is a highly developed telepath. From a crowd of more than 300 persons he arbitrarily selected a woman to help him carry out his demonstration. She was asked to choose another person from the crowd but not to inform anyone present—especially Oadashev—whom she had chosen. Oadashev was then tightly blindfolded and hooded with a thick, dark material.

He proceeded to walk through the crowd with the chosen woman following three to four meters behind him. He asked that she send him mental commands to aid in finding the person that she had mentally selected. After about five minutes of effort, Oadashev located the individual whom he believed had been chosen by the assistant and brought the individual on stage. He then asked if this was the person she had chosen and she answered that it was. Needless to say, the crowd was astonished at this feat of telepathy. Oadashev has been written up in the Soviet press and Soviet scientists have tested him repeatedly and verified his authenticity.

The Conference was divided into six working sections; however, the one devoted to psychotronics and physics was by far the most popular. In this section, my talk on "Consciousness and Theoretical Physics" followed that of Julius Krmessky. Or. Yurii Andreyevich Kholodov, a Soviet biophysicist, reported on the extensive work he was doing concerning the effects of electromagnetic fields on the central nervous system. Without a doubt, the Soviets are the world authorities in this field of research and they have learned to use some of the knowledge they have obtained to perform feats as yet unknown in the West.

For example, a side effect of a device built to aid them in espionage was the increase in the white blood cell count of workers in the American embassy. It appears that the American Intelligence Community still has no real understanding of the nature of this device or its purpose, only that it somehow utilizes electromagnetic energy, in a special form, which adversely affects the human body.

Dr. Alexander Oubrov gave a stimulating talk on his new theory of "biogravity" which he believes can explain the mysterious solid and liquid phase changes that occur in living cells. He referred to startling experiments which have been performed at the institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Novo-Sibirsk which indicate that cells themselves can converse by coding messages in the form of a special electromagnetic ray with frequencies in the ultraviolet.

It was found that cell structures which were dying communicated the death signals to other cells of the same type which in turn began to die as they frantically attempted to re-adapt themselves in a manner that would United States Psychotronics Association make them more resistant to that which was killing them. Here also lies the essence of a very terrible weapon which the Russians may have already perfected and tested. It is possible that such a weapon was tested in Afghanistan in 1981 when, after an attack from Soviet helicopters, several resistance fighters died instantly and their bodies did not decay for more than 30 days.

Apparently every cell, bacterium and virus in the body had been instantly killed. If such a weapon exists, it would not be continuously used in order to avoid compromising it to the West. However, it should be remembered that in January, 1960, Khrushchev announced to the Presidium that a new, fantastic weapon was in development—so powerful that if it was used without restraint it could wipe out all life on Earth. He was not talking about the nuclear bomb or conventional biological weapons.

All space is saturated with energies which are doubtless electrical in their ultimate energies or very closely allied to electrical action. The relation of matter to energy and energy to matter then becomes the potential of the universe, one continuous series of oscillations, oscillating to and fro like a great pendulum across the Universe.’

There are a number of photographs of T. Henry Moray which show him demonstrating his ‘Radiant Energy Device’ in the 1920s and 30s. Many of the images show a glowing array of 35 light bulbs and a clothes pressing iron—estimated to be a total load of 3000 watts. What was particularly remarkable to those who witnessed the device, was that it appeared to achieve this without any conventional power source. Instead, Moray claimed, it operated by capturing the ‘radiant energy’ of the universe via an antenna and then, through a series of complex detection and oscillation circuitry, turned this into a usable, stabilised power supply.

Dozens of highly-respected scientists, attorneys and politicians—including Secretaries of State —who witnessed and carried out detailed and extensive examinations of the Radiant Energy Device were unable to discover any batteries, hidden wires or other external inputs. Neither was the machine’s power output ever found to be explicable by electromagnetic induction from electric power lines.

Some witnesses made sworn statements, testifying that the machine ran continuously for periods of three or four days. Many were utterly convinced that this new technology spelled the end of one era and the start of a new golden age of ‘free’ electrical power. There were others, though, who opposed Moray’s invention, and—if the Moray family is correct—were willing to kill to make their point.