The bizarre case of Ninel Kulagina
Friday, 21 September 2007
By J.M. Sinclair
Psychokinesis, or the ability to manipulate objects with the mind, is a notoriously difficult to prove ability. Most famously Uri Geller achieved fame in the 1970's with his seemingly amazing ability to bend spoons with nothing other than the power of his mind. Early on in his career, a number of scientists concluded that Geller does indeed posses psychic and psychokinetic abilities, however controversy over Geller's power developed after a number of stage magician's, most recently Criss Angel, claimed that Geller's abilities are simple stage magic tricks. Whichever is the case, Geller remains the most public individual claiming to have these powers.
More obscurely, and more defiant against attempts to debunk, is the case of Ninel Kulagina. A female soldier in the Soviet Red Army, Kulagina found that whenever she became angry poltergeist activity would manifest in the room around her. After some time, she began to sense that the force that was responsible for the moving objects came from within her, rather than from a spirit. With practice, she learned how to focus her power and move objects at will. Soviet Scientist Edward Naumov was among the first to test her claims by spreading a box of matches on a table. Straining to the point of shivering, Ninel spread her hands over the matches and within seconds the matches moved to the corner of the table in a cluster, and fell to the floor one by one.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T6H0TBIuEFA -Great video showcasing a few "talents"
Ninel was then tested by Dr. Genady Sergeyev, who made more than 60 films of Ninel exhibiting her psychokinetic abilities. These films range from Ninel manipulating a broken egg in a tank of water, seperating the yolk and the white and moving each to opposite sides of the tank. Ninel was standing several feet from the tank at the time. In another experiment, a beating frog's heart suspended in a solution was sped up and then stopped by Ninel, demonstrating that her abilities extended beyond moving inanimate objects to the manipulation of living cells.
Sergeyev measured an apparently quite strong electrostatic field surrounding Kulagina, and during the egg experiment, that field was found to have a four cycle per second pulse when the yolk and white were in movement. Further, Kulagina was found to be under severe physical and emotional stress during the movement. Sergeyev concluded that she had the ability to magnetize objects, even objects that were non-magnetic, and draw them toward herself, or alternately repel them away.
Using her powers took a serious toll on Kulagina. She reported that she knew when the power would come by a sharp pain in her spine and blurred vision. In the late 1970's Kulagina suffered a near-fatal heart attack that may have been linked to her psychokinetic abilities. Medical examinations showed that she suffered from an irregular hearbeat, problems with her endocrine system and some symptoms of diabetes. She suffered pains in her extremities and had coordination problems and dizzyness, all linked by soviet researchers to the use of her psychokinetic abilities. She curtailed her psychic activies after the late 70's and died in 1990.
Criticism from skeptics of Kulagina seems to rest on shaky ground. They claim that the soviet scientist's experiments were far from being done in a controlled environment, and that sleight of hand could account for her abilities. How sleight of hand could be responsible for the seperation of egg yolks and whites in a tank of water several feet away from the manipulator doesn't seem to have been adequately addressed. Further, skeptics have claimed that the Soviet's had a motive to fake the whole thing to compete with US Government studies on psychic phenomena. Strangely, this is a conspiracy theory spun by the skeptics, which is obviously problematic in itself.
Whether or not the Soviet Union faked Kulagina, or if she really did have profound psychokinetic abilities remains a mystery.
Flying Firemen The National Library of France (BnF) has an amazing collection of prints from 1910 which depict life in the year 2000. They are credited to Villemard.
There's speculation that they were included with "foodstuffs" of the era, much like the German postcards we looked at back in April.
Car Shoes The Barber The Avenue of the Opera A Curiosity
I wonder if the "curiosity" referred to is the horse as an uncommon means of transportation, or the extinction of all animals as referenced in the 1900 Ladies' Home Journal article we looked at a while back. The Electric Train From Paris to Beijing A Rescue Speak to the Caretaker
This image clearly takes its inspiration from another French futurist, Albert Robida, and his book The Twentieth Century. Sentinel Advanced in the Helicopter Cyclist Scouts Phonographic Message One For the Road Lady In Her Bathroom Heating With Radium Hearing The Newspaper Correspondence Cinema Cars of War Building Site At School A Festival of Flowers A Chemical Dinner
It's amazing how long the idea of synthetic food has been with us. Before starting this blog I had assumed that the idea started with the Jetsons. Airship On The Long Course The Tailor Flying Police
U.S. Astronauts reveal encounters with apparent Extraterrestrials and UFOs Edited by Peter Tremblay Rumors have persisted for years that the astronauts -- nearly all of whom are military officers susceptible to being silenced under orders -- may have seen something more on the Moon than rocks and dust. According to transcripts of the technical debriefing following the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins told of an encounter with a large cylindrical UFO even before reaching the Moon," U.S. investigative journalist and researcher Jim Marrs documents Mr. Aldrin further officially presented his encounters with apparent Extraterrestrials on CNN's Larry King Show. Jim Marrs further presents that Mr. Aldrin said, "The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was one day out or pretty close to the Moon. It had a sizable dimension to it". Aldrin said the Apollo crew at first thought the object was the Saturn 4 booster rocket (S-IVB); but, he added, "We called the ground and were told the S-IVB was 6,000 miles away." Mr. Aldrin described the UFO as a cylinder, while Armstrong said it was "really two rings" Two connected rings". Collins also said it appeared to be a hollow, tumbling cylinder. He added, "It was a hollow cylinder. But then you could change the focus on the sextant and it would be replaced by this open-book shape. It was really weird." Even more strange was the experience of Mr. Aldrin and Mr. Armstrong, after they reached the Moon. According to an Associated Press story of July 20, 1969 published in the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, the astronauts sighted eerie lights inside a crater near the point on the Moon where their lunar lander was due to touch down the next day. On their first sweep around the Moon, Armstrong described a mysterious bright light on the inner wall of the crater Aristarchus, located north of their flight path. "It seems to have a slight amount of florescence to it. The area in the crater is quite bright," he reported. "That area is definitely brighter than anything else I can see. There doesn't appear to be any color involved in it. It looks like an eerie sight," confirmed Aldrin. Two astronauts who appear to have broken ranks are Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper. On The Oprah Winfrey Show on 19 July 1991, Mitchell hinted that all information regarding UFOs has not been released, saying, "I do believe that there is a lot more known about extraterrestrial investigation than is available to the public right now [and] has been for a long time... It's a long, long story. It goes back to World War II when all of that happened, and is highly classified stuff." On Dateline NBC in 1996, Mitchell was even more candid. "I have no firsthand experience, but I have had the opportunity to meet with people from three countries who in the course of their official duties claim to have had personal firsthand encounter experiences... with Extraterrestrials," he said. Jim Marrs says that "Mitchell flatly stated that some advanced military craft use technology derived from alien spacecraft that have been collected by the U.S. Government." Cooper, in a letter read during a 1978 meeting at the United Nations to discuss UFOs, stated, "...I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet form other planets, which are obviously a little more advanced than we are here on Earth." Also that year, Mr. Cooper wrote a letter to the ambassador of the Mission of Grenada to the United Nations supporting a UN initiative to study UFOs. In his letter, Cooper stated that astronauts "are very reluctant even to discuss UFOs due to the great numbers of people who have indiscriminately sold fake stories and forged documents, abusing their names and reputations without hesitation. Those few astronauts who have continued to participate in the UFO field have had to do so very cautiously. There are several of us who do believe in UFOs and who have had occasion to see a UFO on the ground, or from an airplane." Cooper's mention of a "UFO on the ground. apparently was a reference to his own experience at Edwards Air Force Base on May 2, 1957. In 1993, Cooper gave this account of the incident: "I had a crew that was filming an installation of a precision landing system we were installing out on the dry lake bed, and they were there with stills and movies, and filmed the whole installation and they came running in to tell me that this UFO, a little saucer, had come down right over them, put down three gear, and landed about 50 yards from them, and as they proceeded to go on over to get a closer shot of it, it lifted up, put the gear in, and disappeared in a rapid rate of speed. "And so I had to follow my directions as a military... I had to look up the regulations on who I was to call to report this, which I did, and they ordered me to immediately have the film developed, put it in a pouch, and send them by the commanding general's plane to Washington, which I did. And that was the last I've ever heard of the film." It is interesting to note indicates Mr. Marrs that, "despite the continued protests that there is no government secrecy regarding UFOs, there is no public report on this incident. Although the event was listed in the Project Blue Book index, a full report and clear photos are suspiciously absent." Yet Mr. Cooper, who reported the UFO landing, was selected as a Mercury astronaut only two years later. In a 1996 interview, Mr. Cooper said he discounts any conventional explanation for his experience. Asked his thoughts on UFOs, the astronaut said, "Well, I figured it was somebody coming from some distant place to visit us." Steve Omar, another investigative journalist and researcher, indicates that J. Allen Hynek (who investigated U.F.O.s for the U.S. Air Force), Major Donald Keyhoe, Timothy Good (in his book Above Top Secret) suggest secrecy about UFOs and Extraterrestrials. One unquestionably absolute expert we may want to consult is Christopher Kraft, who was Director of the NASA tracking base in Houston during the Apollo Moon missions, when he revealed the following conversation “after” he left his work at NASA: - ASTRONAUTS NElL ARMSTRONG and BUZZ ALDRIN speaking from the Moon: “Those are giant things. No, no, no .... this is not an optical illusion. No one is going to believe this!” - MISSION CONTROL (HOUSTON CENTER): “What...what...what? What the hell is happening? What’s wrong with you?” - ASTRONAUTS: “They’re here under the surface.” - MISSION CONTROL: “What’s there? Emission interrupted... interference control calling Apollo II.” - ASTRONAUTS: “We saw some visitors. They were there for awhile, observing the instruments.” - MISSION CONTROL: ”Repeat your last information.” - ASTRONAUTS: “I say that there were other spaceships. They’re lined up on the other side of the crater.” - MISSION CONTROL: “Repeat...repeat!” - ASTRONAUTS: “Let us sound this orbita ..... In 625 to 5... automatic relay connected... My hands are shaking so badly I can’t do anything. Film it? God, if these damned cameras have picked up anything... what then?” - MISSION CONTROL: “Have you picked up anything?” - ASTRONAUTS: “I didn’t have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film.” - MISSION CONTROL: “Control, control here. Are you on your way? Is the uproar with the U.F.O.s. over? - ASTRONAUTS: “They’ve landed there. There they are and they are watching us.” - MISSION CONTROL: “The mirrors, the mirrors...have you set them up?” > - ASTRONAUTS: “Yes, they’re in the right place. But whoever made those space ships surely can come tomorrow and remove them. Over and out.” There is an unconfirmed report, also documented by Steve Omar, that when Buzz Aldrin opened the door after landing on the Moon, he immediately saw a transparent etherical being staring at him outside. Welcome to the Moon?? Allegedly, NASA Director Kraft added that there was a public and a secret private A.S.A. radio frequency between Moon and Mission Control and that the conversation above took place during a mysterious two minute interruption in public transmissions. To prove it is the truth, hundreds of independent CIVILIAN radio operators with powerful VHF equipment separately reported hearing the AME spaceship report from the Apollo moon-walkers! "Soviet radio operators also picked it up and published it in Moscow. Another mysterious radio message from the Moon was broadcast on French public television only one time before it was censored AFTER it leaked out. That transmission appeared to be a mysterious clearly spoken ALIEN LANGUAGE," further reports Steve Omar. The famous French historian and author Robbert Charroux published the transmission which has been suppressed in the U.S. It came from U.S. astronaut Worden who transmitted it to NASA, and expert linguists have been unable to translate the message.
Beethoven can help crops grow more quickly
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 30/08/2007
The Prince of Wales may have been right all along: research showing plants respond to sound waves suggest that those who have derided Prince Charles for talking to his plants may have spoken too soon. Audio: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata| |  | Ludwig von Beethoven
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South Korean scientists, who played classical pieces including Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in rice fields, say they have identified plant genes that can "hear". Plants are known to respond to light, wind, and soil nutrients. Some gardeners believe flowers can be revitalised by music. The researchers, whose work is highlighted in this week's New Scientist, say their discovery could in future enable farmers to switch specific plant genes on and off - potentially making crops flower at certain times or grow more quickly. Mi-Jeong Jeong of the National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology in Suwon, South Korea, and colleagues began their research by playing 14 different classical pieces to rice plants. |
They monitored gene expression in the plants - the process by which their DNA code is translated into instructions for biological processes such as growth. They found that sounds at specific frequencies - 125Hz and 250Hz - made genes rbcS and Ald more active, whereas sound waves at 50HZ made their less active. As both are known to respond to light, they repeated the experiments in the dark and concluded the sound was causing the effect. The researchers speculated that the production of chemicals that lead to the genetic changes they observed could be harnessed to activate other specific genes that could trigger the flowering of crops. Other scientists were more sceptical. Martin Parry, of the Institute for Arable Crops Research-Rothamsted in Harpenden, said factors such as wind might drown out the effects of the sound. Philip Wigge of the John Innes Centre in Norwich said he did not trust the results of the study, saying too few samples had been analysed.
The Man to Contact
 Summary (Aug 27, 2007): In the field of astrobiology, few people have had a bigger influence than Frank Drake. In this interview, he discusses his famous Drake Equation, alien messages, and the search for alien life.
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The Man to ContactIn the field of astrobiology, few people have had a bigger influence than Frank Drake. In 1960, he conducted the first radio Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He formulated the “Drake Equation,” which set the standard for the search for alien life in our galaxy, providing scientific rigor to a field of inquiry that previously had been derided as pure science fiction.
 | | Frank Drake writes out his formula for estimating alien life in the galaxy, the Drake Equation. | Drake, along with Carl Sagan, designed plaques that were carried on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft. The Pioneer plaques depicted symbolic messages for any aliens the spacecraft might encounter as they travel outside our solar system. Drake also worked with Sagan on the Voyager Golden Record. Containing sounds and images of life on Earth, the record was sent on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft.
Besides pursuing his interest in alien life, over the course of his career Drake conducted radio studies of the planets in our solar system, discovering the radiation belt of Jupiter and showing that Venus had a very high surface temperature. He also studied pulsars, neutron stars that spin rapidly and thus send out flashes of electromagnetic energy much like a lighthouse beacon. Drake was the director of the Arecibo Radio Telescope Observatory for 12 years, and taught at Cornell University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Now retired from teaching, he runs the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute.
“There are currently two scientific programs at the SETI Institute,” says Drake, “one for radio SETI and one for astrobiology. I tell people that the first program deals with radio and optical searches, and then I take care of the rest of the universe.”
Frank Drake sat down with Astrobiology Magazine’s Leslie Mullen to discuss sending a message to the aliens from Arecibo, the Drake Equation, and the search for alien life.
 | | The Arecibo message was composed of the digital bits "one" and "zero". A "one" was represented by an “on” radio pulse; a "zero" was represented by an "off" radio pulse. (The message starts: 0000000000101010100....). This picture was generated by arranging the 1679 bits into 23 columns of 73 rows, 23 and 73 being the two prime numbers, which, when multiplied together, equal 1679. A box representing a “one” is black, while a box representing “zero” is white. | Astrobiology Magazine (AM): In 1974 you sent a message from the Arecibo radio telescope into space. What was the message composed of entirely?
Frank Drake (FD): It had a number system. It had a group of five numbers which were the atomic numbers of the five elements in DNA. And then there were actual schematics of the DNA molecule itself, with the bases and the deoxyribose frame. There was a sketch of the solar system. There was a diagram of a telescope focusing rays to a point, with the size of the Arecibo telescope given because that’s what sent the message, and that indicated the maximum level of intelligent technology on Earth. There was a sketch of a human being, our population was given, and planet three in the solar system sketch was displaced towards the human to indicate that’s where we lived.
AM: Did Carl Sagan collaborate with you on designing the message?
FD: Carl Sagan wasn’t part of that, actually. It was constructed by several of the scientists on the staff at Arecibo, but mainly by me. But Carl Sagan did play a role after it was constructed. I took him to lunch one day and presented him with the message already decoded. I asked, “Can you understand this?” This was a test to see if the message was understandable to a very knowledgeable Earth scientist. We eventually learned that nobody could interpret all of the message; each scientist only could interpret the part relevant to their discipline. So Carl got the numbers right and the planetary system right, but he didn’t get the DNA chemistry.
AM: The message was sent to the globular cluster Messier 13. Was that to increase the odds of someone receiving the message, because more planets should be in that area of so many stars?
FD: That’s right. The message would come to the maximum number of stars.
AM: I’ve heard that life may be less likely in globular clusters because of the intense gravitational forces and high radiation environment.
FD: That’s true, although more important is the lower abundance of the chemical elements of life there. It would have been better to send the message to the galactic center, but the Arecibo telescope can’t point towards to the center of the galaxy because of its mechanical limitations. The dish is fixed in the ground, and it can’t look south of minus 2 degrees. If we could send the message again we’d send it from a telescope that could point to the center of the galaxy. There’s a 100-meter telescope at Green Bank that could do that.
AM: How long will it take the Arecibo message to reach the globular cluster?
FD: 25,000 years. We sent it in 1974, so it’s 33 light years out.
AM: Has it reached any stars at all during that time?
FD: No. It’ll come to 30 stars along the way, but it hasn’t reached any of them yet.
AM: Your “Drake Equation” sets constraints on the possible number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. I see the equation as establishing which questions scientists should ask in the search for alien life.
FD: That’s a good way to look at it, as a table of contents of what we have to study.
AM: Do you feel much progress has been made in filling in the values of the equation?
 | The disk of our Milky Way Galaxy is home to hot nebulae, cold dust, and billions of stars. This disk can be seen from a dark location on Earth as a band of diffuse light across the sky. The Galactic Center is visible as the thickest part of the disk.
Photo Credit: Serge Brunier. |
FD: Oh, enormous progress has been made. Most important was the detection of the extrasolar planetary systems. Before, we had theories but no direct knowledge. There’s also been increased understanding on the origins of life, showing it may be an easy process. We’ve also improved our understanding of what makes a planet habitable, and how many habitable planets there might be.
AM: The extrasolar planets found so far are thought to be not habitable.
FD: But they may be. Determining habitability is complicated. In our own solar system we’ve found a potentially habitable planet in Jupiter’s satellite Europa, which is outside the solar system’s habitable zone based on, as we now know, an oversimplified theory. I think the habitable zone actually extends out almost to infinity from a star, because, if a planet has an insulating layer, it can have temperatures suitable for liquid water. In the case of Europa, that insulating layer is ice. On Jupiter there are layers in the atmosphere at room temperature, and also on Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. For those planets, the insulating layer is gas. In the case of Mars, the insulating layer is probably soil. There could well be life deep under the surface. So when there’s an insulating layer, a planet can be much farther from the star and still be warm enough.
AM: Do you think a lot of the models searching for life are too limiting?
FD: Yes, very much. Some of the models take no account for the fact that a greenhouse effect can cause the habitable zone to be much farther out from the star. We could put Venus much farther from the Sun, and with its massive atmosphere it would have liquid water on the surface. Of course, there’s the habitable zone for any kind of life, and a habitable zone for intelligent creatures. They’re probably not the same. Microbial life is going to be everywhere, but intelligent life won’t be as widespread.
AM: What do you think of the idea that life, once it does get started on a planet, will inevitably advance to higher complexity, even if it’s not in forms we may recognize?
FD: Sure, Darwinian evolution will proceed.
AM: Although we have no evidence for intelligent life in our own solar system other than Earth.
FD: But that’s meaningless. Probably every planet can produce more than one intelligent species eventually. But they do it at different rates. So on every suitable planet in very many planetary systems, there may be many intelligent species about to appear, but one is always first. And the first one looks around and says, “We’re the only smart ones!” It is the only way it can be, and this is greatly misunderstood. This inevitable situation does not say that a planet can produce only one intelligent species. This fact says nothing about the probability of intelligent life or the possible eventual number of intelligent civilizations.
 | Jupiter's moon Europa is thought to be one of the most likely abodes for microscopic life in our solar system.
Photo Credit: NASA |
AM: Have you ever felt the need to make any changes to the Drake Equation over the past 47 years?
FD: No. I do get letters all the time suggesting we should add more factors, like the role of politicians. But all of that is a part of the already existing factors, so there’s been no need to change it. It’s held up well. The numbers may change, but not the equation itself. One rapidly changing factor in the equation is the typical number of planets in the habitable zone. Well, that number is changing all over the place, but that just reflects a healthy march of science towards the real truth.
AM: There are a number of missions in the near future that could have an impact on your equation. Are there any in particular you are looking forward to?
FD: A mission to Europa. I think that’s the best chance of finding life elsewhere in the solar system, if they can drill through the ice. But that mission doesn’t exist yet.
AM: Is there anything in the science of astrobiology in general that strikes you as being particularly interesting?
FD: Subsurface life on Mars is important to explore, and that’s relatively easy. Also, searching for potential life on Titan, but that’s more problematic because it’s so cold there.
AM: What about in the field of SETI?
FD: The funds are drying up. SETI has always been dependent on private gifts, and those have become very limited. The price of SETI is not a lot, only a few million dollars a year. People ask me, “How long will it take for you to succeed?” I say, “It all depends on how much money people give.”
AM: Success depends on more than money, though. Dan Werthimer, who runs the SETI@Home project, says the success of that project is highly dependent on how much computer processing they can get done. They need millions more volunteer computers crunching the numbers, analyzing the data.
FD: Dan’s statement is very true. A lot of people think SETI has failed, but we just haven’t looked at nearly enough stars or radio frequencies in different ways. The signals may not be there all the time, and we may have to look at the same star in different frequencies over and over in order to be listening at the right time.
AM: Listening at the right time, at the right star that has a planet with life at the same point of evolution as us – the chance of that seems so small.
 | | The Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. SETI's Project Phoenix conducted observations here from February to June of 1995. |
FD: Small, yes, but we live in a galaxy very rich in stars suitable for life. My estimate is we’ll find existing intelligent life in one in ten million stars.
AM: Speaking of listening at the right time, what are your thoughts about the “Wow signal” received by the Big Ear telescope at Ohio State University in 1977?
FD: It’s an unsolved mystery. It could have been an alien signal, or it could have been a human signal inadvertently picked up, or something else, perhaps an equipment failure. Hundreds of people have looked for that signal over the years, but it’s never been repeated.
There have been some other tantalizing candidate signals. The long Harvard search of Horowitz and Sagan observed more than thirty signals that had the earmark of an extraterrestrial signal. The SETI@Home program has observed more than a hundred such signals. Both of these programs are automated, though, so no one was there at the time to do immediate follow-up observations. Researchers later tried to detect these signals, but, as with the Wow signal, they’ve been unsuccessful. So the origin of these signals is an open question.
Project Phoenix of the SETI Institute also has found many good candidates, but that program could immediately determine the origin of the signal and all of them turned out to be of human origin. It may be that all the potential signals detected so far were generated by humans. But for now they remain a mystery, and that gives hope to those of us who search for alien signals. |
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four_eyes_mcgee's journal
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![A Pastafarian depiction of the creation of the universe sent in an open letter to the Kansas School Board. It includes the Monster, a tree-covered mountain, and a midgit [sic].](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FSM_himself.jpg)
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