part0016

P eople all over the world have been having psychic experiences—especially ESP experiences—since the very start of any sort of written historical record, and according to archeological evidence they’ve been attempting contact with spirits, divine and extraordinary sources of information since our beginnings. It was those and other experiences that made a number of scientists in the 19th century curious about applying the scientific method to understand just what was going on (detailed in the next chapter).

Over 130 years of research under laboratory conditions, field investigation, surveys, interviews, and even real-world attempts to apply ESP and PK by a relatively small group of scientists and others have provided a large body of data that ranges from strictly statistical experimental results to clear examples of application of psi under controlled conditions to purely anecdotal evidence. Over the past 50 years, the improvement in laboratory techniques and sophistication in research designs and the numerous meta-analyses of the scientific data has further established the robustness of the phenomenon. While some put forth a theory of “quantum consciousness” and spirituality as an explanation for psi phenomena, others seek the answer for its occurrence in some of the systems of the brain based on principles of classical physics.

Studying ESP, which comes primarily from people’s perceptions, requires understanding the range of the experiences and abilities reported. Applying ESP requires some understanding of how people have seemingly used ESP in the past, and the circumstances under which they seem to have the most success. If people have been experiencing and applying ESP throughout our existence, then studying accounts from ancient through more recent times to find patterns in the experiences and applications of ESP and support for their existence makes quite a bit of sense .

ESP itself is considered to be perception above or beyond normal sensory perception as currently defined. One of the issues in parapsychological work is that research on ESP may find that there is something very sensory about the flow of information, but not sensory as we understand the senses and perception today. More mainstream research on perception and information processing in the brain may also uncover such “new” senses, but also may not connect such new understanding to what people have called ESP abilities until that point in time.

ESP has been most often called the “sixth sense,” in reference to our “normal” five senses as most people understand them: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. However, mainstream science has redefined and expanded the concept of the senses to include behavioral abilities of balance and acceleration, temperature sensing, and kinesthetic sense. Senses of time and even rhythm have been identified. There is clear evidence that some birds, animals, and fish have a magnetic sense, and humans may as well. In other words, as we expand our understanding of how our bodies sense the environment, we may find that there’s nothing extrasensory about ESP at all. Or we may find that there is a different process than the senses that accounts for ESP.

In this chapter and the next, we’re going to do a little time-traveling to see how our modern ideas of ESP—and the research and applications—have evolved. More than that, these chapters give the foundation of the ESP Wars of the 20th and 21st centuries, foundations that were first built by ancient peoples and their shamanic and magical traditions. Given the nations involved in the ESP Wars we’re discussing, we’ll focus particularly on ideas and experiences in recorded history from the central Asian regions, the European perspectives of the Middle Ages and Renaissance Period, and the formation of the Theosophical Society and Spiritualism and their influence on the development of the Societies for Psychical Research in Europe, culminating in the contemporary scientific laboratory investigations into psi and the failed and successful attempts to apply ESP in espionage and warfare.

Both the descriptions of psychic experiences, as well as specific applications of ESP and PK can be found in historical records and literature going back thousands of years. Beliefs in magic and extraordinary powers go back even further than the written word, something we’re well aware of thanks to oral traditions, arts and artifacts. One of the terms most often associated with magic-users, practitioners of healing arts, or seers that are not in more mainstream religions is “Shaman”—a term taken from the Tungusic languages of eastern Siberia, specifically the Yakut—an especially appropriate origin given the Soviet/Russian side of the ESP Wars we’ll be discussing in this book.

Shamanism—or forms of it—is considered to be humanity’s most ancient and most universal religion and, at the same time, a healing system and a way to solve various life problems. The most fundamental elements of shamanic practice are altered states of consciousness and engaging in practices involving mythological archetypes. The history of various cultures—and specifically shamanic practices— suggests that there exists a deep internal connection between human spirituality and the manifestation of psychic abilities, which is consistent with similar statements by various religious and spiritual traditions. This link has remained strong over the centuries. Its existence across cultures is a pointer towards the universality of the concept of psychic abilities.

In altered states of consciousness, the shaman is said to acquire new powers and capacities such as clairvoyance and telepathy in order to address the problems confronting him. With his ability to see the “invisible,” the shaman becomes an intermediary between two worlds—the physical world of people and the world of spirits. More than that, the shaman is a warrior in battles with the unseen, a protector and healer, a spy master (with the spies being “spirits”), and more. In a world of scarce resources, ancient societies had to use any and all resources in their arsenal in order to survive, including otherworldly ones. Shamans and other seers and magic users would often use their abilities to determine where hunters might find the best game, where they might gather naturally-growing vegetation, and where and when to plant crops. Such practices continue to this day amongst indigenous peoples around the world and have their analogue in psychics who offer advice on investments, business, and agriculture.

One of the shaman’s primary missions was to fight in the “underworld” for the interests of his fellow tribesmen. Thus, one of his main challenges was to do battle with the invisible (an early ESP war). The Russian anthropologist S. I. Weinstein describes the battle of a very old and physically ailing Tuvan shaman with an evil spirit:1

One could feel that his suit and tambourine were too heavy for the old man, and the doubt whether Shonchur would be able to move around in this attire arose in my mind involuntarily… Suddenly the shaman… jumped up abruptly. He made several movements, which surprised me with their ease and freedom… he was nearly dancing… He covered himself with the tambourine as if it were a shield, and ran and jumped around the yurt with ease, chasing the evil spirit without opening his eyes, and, strangely enough, without brushing up against anyone present… He continued to jump, and finally overtook the enemy. The battle began. The enemies fell down and rolled around on the yurt floor. The shaman pressed his tambourine firmly down on the evil spirit.

The tambourine served not only as a musical instrument, but also as a weapon, and it was frequently the repository of the shaman’s vital power. There was a widespread belief among some native peoples in the East, such as a few Altai tribes of Central Asia, that if you destroy a tambourine, its shaman owner would also die.

Shamans have most often used their powers to help rather than harm people, and they did so while in altered states of consciousness. However, when conflicts arose between tribes, shamans were expected to ensure victory for their tribe by summoning the spirits for help for finding out what the enemy’s intentions were and/or and putting the hex on the enemy. I. M. Suslov, a Russian anthropologist, describes such an extrasensory shamanic battle during a traditional shamanic ritual called a kamlaniye, which he witnessed in Siberia in 1927. His account is based on the song that the shaman sang:

The shaman jumped to his feet. Then he summoned his best assistant spirits with a disturbing song. The bumumuki spirits controlled by the shaman turned into cows, horses, and reindeer and, somewhere in the darkness under the protection of the assistant spirits, they formed into a detachment. The detachment of avengers rushed toward the enemies. Leading the spirits was the soul of the shaman in the shape of a wolf, astride the rootstock of a young a larch….2

Being human themselves, shamans would sometimes succumb to ordinary human passions and leave their higher aspirations behind in favor of more mercenary aims. They’d endeavor to use their extrasensory abilities for acquiring power, riches, or revenge. In the modern anthropological literature, there are some descriptions of the personal battles between shamans, where the shamans who were battling for dominance faced one another in their full ritual garb, festooned with protective amulets. Looking each other straight in the eye they would begin their shamanic dancing and singing as they accompanied themselves on their tambourines. When they finished singing, they would lie down on the earth head by head, close their eyes, and plunge spiritually into other worlds or dimensions. From time to time their bodies would shudder, and rattles and groans would emanate from them, showing observers that a battle was being waged somewhere in far off space. The apparent battle could go on for many hours. The result reportedly was sometimes the death of one of the combatants.

Anthropologists researching Siberian shamanism have reported that when a shaman died during one of these battles, his disciples and children who were considered an integral part of him, often died as well—especially those under the age of three. Moreover, the disciples and children could die even before the shaman did; they were unable to survive the battle internally because their primary source of life force was destroyed in the spirit world. In some reported cases, the shaman would sacrifice his dependents in exchange for his own life. Examples of this occurrence have been found among the Nanai and Iglich peoples in the Amur River region of Central Asia even in the 20th century.

There are legends among the Yakuts and other Siberian peoples which describe numerous psychic battles between shamans. Similar accounts can be found in shamanic and other magical traditions all over the world, suggesting that the battles, the ESP Wars, in which shamans and similar individuals took part, were even more frequent than battles fought on a more physical basis. In modern times, we see examples of psychic battles on this scale in movies, TV, comic books and science fiction, fantasy and horror literature.

Siberian shamanism has one other curious connection to ESP not very widely known: the mysterious illness known as meryacheniye, which afflicted large groups of the populations of Siberia and the Far North until the 20th century. Sometimes this affliction erupted entirely spontaneously, but more often, it arose during shamanic rituals. In an altered state of consciousness, participants in shamanic rituals would imitate one another’s movements and unconditionally execute whatever commands they were given. Some physicians regard meryacheniye as an induced mass hysteria and have even used the term “mental plague” to describe it.

Similar psychological states have been observed in Western Europe and Asia during periods of outbreaks of religious fanaticism, but there are ways in which meryacheniye differs from them. Several authors have observed that people occasionally imitated one another’s movements without even seeing one another, evidence that some form of ESP might have been involved.

While meryacheniye was not well studied, based on accounts there is little doubt shamans and tribal leaders have at times tried to use meryacheniye for their own aims, including military ones. With total mind control, a shaman could easily turn his followers into an army. This may sound like something from a fantasy or horror novel, but we are talking about actual beliefs and local history of the region. Stories abound that such things actually happened.

Tales such as these reveal a certain universal pattern—in Jungian terms, the archetype of the “Warring Magicians.”

In many cultures and societies, the role of the shaman gradually changed or was taken over by all sorts of magicians, sorcerers, priests, oracles, prophets, and healers. Rulers, military leaders, and many others sought out these magicians and prophets, trying to secure their support whether to help or harm their own people or those they would conquer or defend against. It’s unlikely all—or perhaps even any majority—of these magicians’ possessed genuine psychic powers, but nearly all tried to exaggerate the glory of their “otherworldly” powers and their victories in extrasensory battles.

Sorcery, prophecy, and divination have been the constant companions of people throughout the ages. Written accounts of the use of magic and prophecy can be found in records of early cultures in Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, and China. Among those ancient peoples, the priests of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, ancient Aryans, Chinese, and Egyptians in particular sought secret knowledge. The modern word ‘magician’ derives from the ancient Persian word magush which represents “priest” in the Zoroastrian religion.

An account from the year 522 BCE narrates the rise in power of a magician who became the king of the vast Persian Empire, which stretched across a large part of the civilized world at that time. The inscription carved into the Behistun cliff near the city of Kermanshah, reads, “And the magician Gaumata took both Persia and other countries from Cambyses, invaded them, appropriated them, and became king. Not a single man—neither Persian nor Mede nor anyone from our clan—could take the kingdom away from the magician Gaumata.” However, his apparent extrasensory powers failed him in the fierce struggle for power, and the magician Gaumata was killed just half a year after he ascended to the throne.

The Warring Magicians archetype has been manifested in mythmaking, legends, and fairy tales that are so widely a part of folk culture, and can also be found in the texts of numerous religions. The following Biblical text is an example of the broad folk popularity of the Warring Magicians archetype in Ancient Egypt and Central Asia:

And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods (Exodus 7:10-12).

Since ancient times, there have been psychological techniques that appear to allow an individual to “turn on” ESP. Such techniques typically do put the individual in some altered state of consciousness, or occur in naturally occurring altered states such as sleep and dreaming.

Dreams are one area where the shaman or the individuals taking on that role would intervene, generally providing interpretation for guidance—though sometimes themselves being the dreamers with precognitive advice for those consulting them. As far back as the time of the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, we can find records of people working with dreams, interpreting them, and applying the interpretations or predictions to the workings of the society. Historical accounts from around the world provide us with examples of precognition in the form of dreams being used by those in power or wanting to grab power, whether the rulers or their advisors had the dreams themselves.

Other magicians spoke of communing with the spirits or the gods to gain insight into what the enemy might be doing, or what their own rulers ought to do next to ensure safety for their people or victory in a battle, war, or conquest. Some allowed the gods or spirits to speak directly through them, which we call “channeling.” In parts of the ancient world, temple oracles were often the means by which answers from the “gods” were delivered in response to the peoples questions. Priests were said to have obtained these answers through divination practices or human mediums, who may have acquired information via extrasensory channels. It is quite likely that the mediums were naturally psychically gifted, although some method of inducing altered states of consciousness was more often used .

One of the more famous “channelers” of divine sources in ancient times was the Oracle at the temple of the god Apollo at Delphi in Greece. From the 8th Century BCE and for the next 1200 years, citizens and rulers alike sought advice in Delphi. The Delphic Oracle spoke with the words of Apollo. The priestess, the Pythia, reportedly entered an altered state of consciousness with some sort of incense or smoke and would become the medium or channel through which divine wisdom would pass. According to some sources, young and easily hypnotized girls were chosen to serve as the Pythia to deliver oracles while in trance. Other sources claim that the smoke, which could have had psychoactive properties, put the Pythia into a clairvoyant or precognitive state. Although the spoken words were generally then interpreted by other priests and applied to the “client” or problem at hand, there are direct reports of the “psychicness” of the Pythia.

Probably the first clear remote viewing experiment in recorded history—and one of the most widely known military predictions of the past—occurred when King Croesus of the wealthy state of Lydia decided to test the Oracle’s powers before actually asking for the Pythia’s advice. The Pythia was to focus on an unknown target involving the king of Lydia and describe it. In trance, the Oracle described what she perceived—which apparently related to the ruler having some turtle soup—and surprised the king with her accuracy. That led him to ask the more essential military question.

The father of the aforementioned Cambyses, King Cyrus the Great, had founded the Persian Empire. King Croesus wanted to stop the growth of Persian power and began to prepare a military campaign against Cyrus. So, he asked the Oracle the traditional question of whether to wage war. The Oracle’s process left him with a statement: if Croesus attacked Persia, he would destroy a great kingdom. It also advised him to unite with the most powerful of the Greek states.

Although Croesus was already allied with the Egyptian Pharaoh and the King of Babylon, he followed the Oracle’s recommendation and made an alliance with Sparta. Now that he was confident of blessings from the gods, Croesus began the Persian campaign in 547 BCE. At first, he experienced success, which convinced him that the prophecy was correct. But his advance was hampered in central Anatolia. In the meantime, winter had come, and at that time, it was customary to disband armies for the winter. Reassured by the prophecy and his successes, Croesus followed the custom. However, Cyrus took advantage of Croesus, attacked him, and took him prisoner.

As it turned out, the great kingdom that Croesus would destroy would be his own.

An important lesson here is that if you are going to ask an oracle a question—especially an oracle presenting information that is subject to some degree of interpretation—you’d better be certain of the exact meaning of the question, and be as specific as possible. He was told about the defeat of a great army if he attacked the Persians, and assumed the enemy would lose. But the army that was defeated was his own.

Misinterpretation—or “reading into”—the advice given by a psychic advisor or channeler or diviner is a fundamental problem of the process. One might simply argue that for the Pythia to have predicted a great army would be defeated when asked about a military campaign was both easy and obvious since when two armies clash, usually one side will be defeated. But King Croesus, looking for confirmation that he would prove victorious, blinded himself to the nuances of her prediction. Like many people who visit psychics, he heard only what he wanted to hear.

While arguably the most famous of the Delphic prophecies, an even more striking example from history illustrates the issue of interpretation and misinterpretation.

The Roman Emperor Nero became aware of the warning given by the Pythia, “Beware of the 73rd year.” Nero decided that this prediction referred to his age, and because he was only a bit older than 30 at the time, it did not disturb him very much. However, within a year Nero lost his power as a result of a coup in which he was abandoned even by his own bodyguards. The loss of power lead to his suicide.

The misinterpretation? It turned out that the prediction referred to Galba, the ruler of Spain, who dethroned Nero and became emperor at the age of 73.

Throughout history, the question of interpreting the data obtained through extrasensory means has been one of the enigmas of parapsychology. There is no simple and unambiguous answer.

Aside from such prophecies, the ancient Greeks provided us with accounts of their philosophers who had other ESP abilities. The well-known philosopher and mystic Pythagoras (6th century BCE) was believed to be able to read the thoughts of those he conversed and debated with, and to see their past and future as well. According to one legend, Pythagoras received his training in these skills from Egyptian priests.

The secret Pythagorean doctrine of the magic of numbers was one of the most interesting attempts of the Greeks to connect rational thinking and logic with the mysterious irrational world of prophecies, magic rituals, and supernatural forces. The Eleusinian mysteries played a considerable role in this. The mysteries were actually highly revered ceremonies and rituals held in honor of the Greek Gods Demeter and Persephone, which almost all of the outstanding Greek philosophers took part in. It was believed that these mysteries opened up the world of spirituality and ESP to participants through altered states of consciousness. Thus, the Greeks can be considered a major connecting link between the magical world of the East and modern western culture, given the philosophical legacy that is at the heart of much of western culture and reasoning.

A well-known adage traditionally attributed to the ancient Greeks, but expressed on a grander scale in the spiritual traditions of India is, “Know yourself and you will know the world.” One of its meanings is to discover extrasensory abilities through which we can gain information about the universe.

These traditions developed long ago in the practice of yoga in India, and we can find detailed accounts in the ancient Indian epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which date back three to five thousand years. Patañjali presented the practices of the yogis in a systematic form in the Yoga-Sutras which are dated at about the 2nd century BCE.

In the Yoga Sutras, it’s noted that various ESP abilities or special powers called siddhis appear as a natural outcome of achieving a certain degree of psychophysical development. They develop after the practitioner reaches the stage of meditation, which is the sixth stage of the eight stages of Raja Yoga. This Indian tradition emphasizes the ethical aspects of psi abilities and cautions against the use of it for personal gain, as it recognizes the adverse consequences that may occur because of such abilities. Both the Mahabharata and Ramayana are full of descriptions of yogis who engage in practices of great austerity and mortification in order to acquire extrasensory powers.

We still don’t have reliable modern scientific research which can confirm the efficacy of yoga for the development of psychic abilities. However, there is some evidence to show that yoga enhances extrasensory powers, and the authors of this book have met people who have stated this based on their personal experience.

Part of the framework of such abilities in India involved concepts of vital energy; similar concepts were developed in ancient China, where it’s called Qi, sometimes written as Chi (both pronounced “chee”). Work with Qi currents that run through the body’s energy meridians (pathways for the energy) often led Chinese doctors and Taoist masters to manifest ESP and PK-related phenomena. There are many cases described in Chinese manuscripts, and of course, martial artists have made such claims for quite some time.

According to legend and traditional beliefs, Buddhist masters possessed psychic powers. Legend has it that when Tibetan king Trisong-Detsen invited the guru Padmasambhava to establish Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th century, he had to endure a multitude of psychic and spiritual battles with the deities of the local Bon religion.

The Tibetan yogi Milarepa Jetsun (1052-1135 CE) narrates his own interesting experience of ESP used for ulterior motives. Considering this story only as a myth, it is a representation of the function of the Jungian Warring Magicians archetype.

When Milarepa’s father died, his uncle and aunt seized all his property, including his house and land. They humiliated Milarepa, his mother and his sister, starved them, and forced them to do the hardest manual labor. His mother wanted Milarepa to study black magic in order to take revenge on his relatives. He found a lama with magic powers who trained Milarepa in the practice of destructive rituals. Milarepa recounts3 :

I struck a blow at my enemies on the wedding day of my uncle’s eldest son. All my uncle’s supporters were invited to the wedding feast. His sons and his bride and also the people who were hostile towards us had gathered. There were thirty-five people in all… I followed the instructions for seven days… And that very night the patron deities actually appeared with the bleeding heads and hearts of thirty-five people. They piled them in a heap and said, ‘Is this what you wanted as you continuously appealed to us these past days?’… [On the wedding day]… the stallions and mares tied below the house went berserk and began to thrash around and jostle one other. Several stallions broke loose… and eventually one of them hit the supporting column with such force that it broke, and the entire house came crashing down. Thirty-five people perished, including the bride and all of her uncle’s sons. The sky was filled with smoke and clouds of dust. The corpses of the men, women, children and animals who perished were intermingled with the house debris.

Milarepa’s mother publicly announced that this was her son’s magical revenge. Some of the villagers were horrified by what had been done and turned against her. And then at his mother’s request, Milarepa sent a hailstorm to their fields and destroyed their crops:

In the meantime, I placed the ritual device for unleashing my magical powers on a hillside facing the valley, and began casting spells, but not a single cloud appeared, not even one the size of a sparrow. I began invoking the names of the gods and retold the history of our misfortunes and described the cruelty of the neighbors and beat the earth with my garments and began to weep from despair. A dark, huge and heavy cloud suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and when it descended over the valley, the most powerful hailstorm began, leaving not a single sheaf in the fields. The hail fell three times and dug deep ravines in the hillsides. The loud wailing of hopeless and grief issued from the mouths of the villagers.

Afterwards, Milarepa bitterly regretted his deeds and soon became one of the renowned Buddhist devotees:

I felt deep remorse that I had done so much harm through black magic… I so longed to live the religious life that I even forgot to eat. I couldn’t find rest day or night, and was not even able to sleep.

With regard to testimonials on the use of magic and ESP, it’s important to keep in mind both the tendency to mythologize or make folklore that which people witness and may not completely understand—past and present—and the Jungian concept of synchronicity, or giving meaning and even cause and effect relationships to two purely coincidental events .

The traditions of the martial arts of Kung Fu and Tai-Chi are associated with the name of another Buddhist master, Bodhidharma (440-528 CE), who brought sacred Buddhist teachings to China from India. These teachings and traditions were further developed in places like the Shaolin monastery and led to a more meditative form of Buddhism that required some physical exercise that could keep balance in the body. In addition, the monks needed ways to defend themselves against attackers in the mountainous areas such as that around the monastery. Legend has it that the meditation, breathing, and energy exercises of the Shaolin evolved into Kung Fu.

The Shaolin monks and other Eastern martial arts schools developed and preserved the traditions over the course of 1500 years, and presuppose systematic work with energy (Qi) in the body (and outside) and with extrasensory abilities. They even include concepts and practices of energetic “non-contact” combat and self-defense, which modern secret services and military special forces have tried to add to their arsenals.

In medieval Japan, exercises that led to the development of extrasensory—or at least enhanced sensory—capacities were typical in training saboteur spies and scouts called ninjas (“nin”-secret, “ja” - a person). For instance, in order to develop night vision, children were reportedly placed for several days or even weeks in a cave into which daylight could barely penetrate, and the children would be forced to move deeper and deeper in darkness. When light was reduced to a minimum, they would acquire the ability to see in total darkness. This was partly related to training the sensitivity of the retina. However, we cannot rule out its use to develop the extrasensory power of clairvoyance or some form of “eye-less sight.” These abilities were reinforced through the systematic repetition of such trainings. The possession of these abilities very often (but not always) assisted in the individual’s inner development.

Back in the West in the first millennium CE and beyond, magic users and the extrasensory gifted were held in varying degrees of respect or contempt or even fear depending on the local cultural background and folklore, and how the Church had (or had not) taken hold. Still, rulers or other powerful men might sidestep any misgivings that resulted from their embracing of the Christian faith to gain insight into their enemies and their futures. ESP Wars and battles were still in the arsenal of the rich and powerful and the military, even if they had to hide their use of such weapons and spyware.

The Middle Ages brought a new attitude towards psychic abilities and experiences, and created a different kind of application of ESP in warfare. While previously, it was apparently gifted individuals involved in both sides of psychic conflicts, in the 16th century the Catholic Church and other denominations of Christianity declared effective war against people with ESP and/or PK on a mass scale, condemning innocents by the tens of thousands in the process: the witch-hunts were on !

The Church found itself in a very ambiguous position. On the one hand, both Jesus and many saints performed miracles that were, if true, extrasensory in nature. On the other hand, the Church tried in every possible way to deny that ordinary people possessed these abilities. Since it was impossible to deny the obvious, people with ESP were declared “Satan’s messengers” who operated “with all power and signs and lying wonders.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

The number of executions for sorcery and witchcraft before the 13th century was rather insignificant. It was only after Pope Innocent VIII’s “Sorcerer’s bill”, “Summis desiderantes” in 1484 that real witch-hunts became widespread, with a peak during the 16th and 17th centuries, and hundreds of thousands burned at the stake, hanged, or otherwise executed or imprisoned. It’s possible this began because of an exercise of political power (as with the Inquisition in Spain) or perhaps members of the Church actually feared individuals who possessed psychic abilities could see other dimensions of the universe and divinity and/or could see through the politics of the religion. Or perhaps they were jealous (or afraid) that such people might have had a real connection with the Divine.

During this period having psychic powers and being caught trying to demonstrate it virtually assured death. Perhaps after several generations, this might have altered the gene pool, though one cannot calculate the number of those executed who might have had more than the normal smattering of psychic experiences or abilities.

In fact, there were numerous reasons seemingly behind why people were accused. Actually demonstrating something psychic or practicing an occult or magical or folk healing art were reasons that undoubtedly accounted for only a small number of victims of the witch-hunts. Disbelieving in Church doctrine, or practicing a non-Christian religion at the very least often resulted in expulsion from a locale and at the worst led to being accused of witchcraft. Being old, infirm, maimed, orphaned, or ill put many in the “witch” category. Unmarried or widowed women who owned property coveted by others were accused in order to take that property, and in many cases, the accusation was used to remove political or even business rivals.

As it happens, the witch-hunts during the 16th and 17th centuries (perhaps ironically) coincided with the time of the Enlightenment, and a considerable number of the active “witch hunters” were actually “humanists”—educated philosophers, writers, lawyers and doctors. It seems to us that different factors are combined here, just as in any difficult social phenomenon. By the time, the witch-hunts petered out, the Catholic Church and some of the other denominations had already passed the peak of their political power.

One exercise of the power of the Church did indeed have to do with apparent psychic abilities, though this is not limited to only Christianity. There are numerous accounts in the Old Testament and the history of Judaism of the powers of prophets to provide the words of God to humanity, as shamans and other magic workers had done for thousands of years in communication with their gods or spirits. Some of the miracles of the Old Testament might be interpreted as the use of psychokinesis.

The history of early Christianity and the Catholic Church portrays miracles on the part of Jesus and many saints coming after him. Saints such as Gerald of Aurillac, Catherine of Siena, Nicholas of Torentino, Melangell of Wales, and Paola Frassinetti were all healers with apparently extraordinary powers. This tradition of canonizing healers has continued through until today.

Another sign or power that indicated the presence of the divine in a pious individual was (self) levitation. St. Teresa of Avila was one who reportedly levitated on occasion, including an incident where it occurred without her thought or desire.

The 17th century saint, Joseph of Cupertino, known today as the patron saint of pilots and astronauts, is the one saint in history who probably flew more often than Sally Field in the TV show The Flying Nun. His levitations reportedly began shortly after he became a priest. Not merely content to float above the ground, he was apparently able to fly even with others on his back. Sources vary as to how often he “flew” for witnesses, with some saying as many as over 100 times. It should also be noted that St. Joseph did much in the way of healing. That he was a priest was possibly why he was not accused of witchcraft; however, he did get in some trouble with the Inquisitors in Naples, who ended up sending him to a monastery.

The powers of the saints were not used, as far as we know, for warfare. However, on occasion war was at the heart of the situation in which the miracles seemed to happen. One such case is that of Saint Joan of Arc, and her story is a great one for analyzing the use of ESP in war.

Born in 1412, Joan had heard voices since childhood. These disembodied voices told her that her mission in life was to save her homeland. When she announced this mission, Joan was sent to the court of the French Dauphin (the heir apparent to the throne of France). After many interrogations, he informed those present that Joan shared a certain secret with him, that no one except God knew or could know, and that this was why he trusted her completely. It is assumed that Joan found out the Dauphin’s personal prayer telepathically and repeated it to him out loud word for word.

As a result, Joan was given an army and she went on to lead the French in several important victories during the Hundred Years War. One important victory was to break the siege of Orleans, the last barrier that kept the English from capturing all of France. The battle was reportedly won in a most incredible way. As some historians point out, the English made inexplicable mistakes and simply threw down their arms. Their course of action was so strange that it is easy to try to explain it with supernatural reasons, and these have been attributed to Joan of Arc.

Many people witnessed Joan’s gift of prophecy. She would casually say, “Wait, in three days we will take the city,” or “Be patient, in an hour you will win,” and what she said would come true. Ultimately, France retained its sovereignty. Still, apparently, the Church or simply politics got the best of her situation, and she was burnt at the stake as a witch in 1431 at the age of 19. The Catholic Church beatified her in 1902 and she was later canonized as a saint in 1920.

It is interesting to note that real precognition does not always result in real-world success. As a counterpoint to Joan of Arc’s case, we can look at an example from Russian medieval history.

Russian chronicles of the 17th century preserved a story of the scholarly monk Sylvester Medvedev, who hid the volkhv (clairvoyant sorcerer) Dmitrii Silin in his cell for three years. Volkhvs in ancient Russia were the successors of the pre-Christian, virtually shamanic traditions, and the Orthodox Church strongly opposed them. But the Orthodox monk Sylvester wanted to use Silin’s ESP powers to become Russia’s patriarch, and to also help his patron prince Vasilii Golitsyn become Tsar of Muscovy.

At the time, Golitsyn was the de facto head of the government while Tsarevna Sofia Alekseyevna acted as regent for her young brothers Ivan V and Peter I (later Peter the Great). Golitsyn’s attempt at a governmental coup and Medvedev’s dream of becoming patriarch ended in their executions. The volkhv Silin already knew this and told the conspirators about it, but it did not stop them.

Their legal case investigation4 stated:

And Sylvester Medvedev told him to look into the sun: how will Prince Golitsyn fare and will he be Tsar of Muscovy?… and would he, Sylvester become patriarch? And he, Silin, taking heed of Sylvester’s words, went to the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great and looked into the sun twice. And in the sun he saw that all the great princes wore their crowns on their heads as usual, but that prince Vasilii Golitsyn’s crown was dangling around his chest and all sides of him, and that he, the prince, stood there somberly and then walked around in circles; and that Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna was sad and troubled, and that Silvester was gloomy… And it seemed that he, Sylvester Medvedev, told Silin to go to prince Golitsyn. And the prince asked: would he be a great man in Muscovy? And Silin told him that he would not undertake it, and that it would not come to pass, that nothing would happen.

The age of Enlightenment, with its emphasis on science and reason, set ESP into the background for a time, while interest in magic and the supernatural remained. The focus was now on a rational understanding of psychic phenomena and what was called “supernatural” and developing theories to account for them.

The famous German doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), who had a medical practice in Vienna, became one of the foremost proponents of this time. Mesmer is, of course, whom “mesmerism”—which evolved into hypnosis—is named after.

Confronted with several difficult cases, Mesmer tried using strong magnets to treat his patients. He based this on Paracelsus’s ideas about influence of magnetic “fluids” on the body. Many of his patients recovered, which convinced Mesmer of the existence of “animal magnetism” by which a person can “be recharged” by the planets and can, in turn, charge other objects. Mesmer proclaimed his discovery and became very popular. However, conflicts with the other doctors and the academic world dogged him to the end of his life.

A host of later research in the ESP field arose from Mesmer’s work, particularly attempts to create accumulators of biological energy. Hypnosis was the active power of his healing process, even though it took a very long time for any official recognition of this method by members of the scientific and medical communities. Hypnosis was also one of the topics for study mentioned in the charter of the Society for Psychical Research when it formed in 1882.

Mesmer’s ideas were echoed in the works of the well-known German scientist and chemist Baron Karl von Reichenbach, the inventor of kerosene and paraffin. He speculated on the existence of certain “vital energy” which he named Odkraft that emanates from organic and inorganic bodies and can be perceived by very sensitive people. Reichenbach began to experiment with “odic energy” and published the results in highly reputable journals such as The Annals of Physics and Chemistry. His results were confirmed in independent experiments. Today we know this phenomenon by the term “biofield.”

On the psychic side of things, the 18th century Swedish scholar Emanuel Swedenborg experienced a spiritual renaissance late in life. Convinced he was receiving divine information, Swedenborg purportedly channeled information from angels (who may have been human souls in life) and God for a number of years. In addition, he evidenced remote viewing and telepathic abilities. His teachings had some effect on the development of spiritualism in the next century, which we discuss in the following chapter.

During this time period, there were psychically focused individuals in Russia as well. Eighteenth century Circassian monk Login Kochkaryov made predictions of Napoleon’s war with Russia and the First World War to General-Governor Pyotr Dmitrievich Yeropkin and to the Empress Catherine II in Moscow.

As the story goes, this strange wandering monk came to Moscow in January, 1789. As he was walking past the merchant Akhlopkov’s house, he suddenly ran up to it and began throwing handfuls of snow into the windows. The police arrived, and the man told them his name was Login Kochkaryov. He further told them he saw the house on fire and hurried to put out the fire. Kochkaryov was detained for disturbing the peace. The following day, however, the merchant’s house did catch fire .

The Moscow Governor-General Pyotr Dmitrievich Eropkin was then informed of the incident, and when Eropkin personally interrogated him, Kochkaryov predicted that Russia would be at war with Napoleon in 1812. The governor snidely expressed a desire to find out something about the near future. The monk immediately replied, “No later than tomorrow you can look forward to great unexpected joy.” The next day, to Eropkin’s considerable amazement, the Empress sent him the gift of a gold snuff box, encrusted with precious stones, with her portrait. This reward for devoted service was nearly the equivalent of a medal!

Then the governor sent Login Kochkaryov off to the Empress with this letter5 :

This man, despite his insight and wondrous gift of prophesying the future, can call into being disastrous consequences, for he has predicted that overwhelming hostile forces will invade Russia and capture Moscow, of which not a single stone will remain standing. This prediction can cause great mental agitation.

In St. Petersburg, Kochkaryov was subjected to “special” observation by local medics and other learned men. He had an audience with Empress Catherine II, after which she wrote to Eropkin:

Pyotr Dmitrievich, the man whom you sent, Kochkaryov, is very unusual. He also predicted to us that there would be a war in 1812 that would destroy Moscow, and that this war would end in our victory. He also predicted a war at the beginning of the 20th century involving many peoples.

Kochkaryov made further predictions to Catherine that there would be a long war in the Caucasus and that many Asian lands would be unified under the Russian Empire. The rest of what the seer told the Empress has remained a mystery because all other traces of the soothsayer have been lost. But it can be suggested that Russia’s calm reaction to the news of Napoleon’s invasion and the strategy to withdraw from active military operations could probably have been the result of the Russian imperial house knowing about the onset and the outcome of the war.

It’s important to note that alongside what we believe was real ESP phenomena have been cases of cheating, deception, and fraud. It’s sometimes difficult to say which label—real or fraud—to apply to every instance in records throughout recorded history. One such case, which occurred after the rise of Spiritualism in the West, is something that happened to Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia.

Fraud, yes—but certainly a somewhat comic example of the application of psychic advice to military decisions. Or so it was believed by the King.

In 1871, the King of Prussia was persuaded to join the Order of Gold Rosicrucians, secretly directed by his French “big brothers.” Later, when Prussia was at war with France, Friedrich Wilhelm was called away from a ball by a Rosicrucian password, and the ghost of his grandfather Friedrich II appeared in a dark hall before the king. “The grandfather’s ghost” advised Friedrich Wilhelm not to interfere in France’s affairs.

Impressed by this séance, the King never gave the order to attack Paris and stopped the Prussian army near Verdun. Due to the inexplicable indecision of the Prussian command, the badly organized and poorly trained French armies unexpectedly gained victory in the battle at Valmy.

That ghost was actually the French actor Fleury.

There was a quite a focus on messages and advice from spirits that came out of the influence of Spiritualism in the mid-1800s. Spiritualism was also key in the beginnings of the field of psychical research, and its successor parapsychology, and the popularization of psychic and spiritual powers in the West—leading to new attempts to bend ESP to war, and leading into our next chapter.