When Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina (1926-1990) unexpectedly discovered amazing abilities in herself, she could not even imagine what consequences this would cause, what kind of torment she would experience. Some called her a miracle of nature, spoke of a phenomenon that lies beyond our knowledge, others called her a swindler and a charlatan.

Ninel Sergeevna recalled how it all began. It happened in the hospital. Lying in bed after a major operation, she suddenly discovered that she could, by touch, without looking, accurately determine the color of the threads that she held in her hands.

However, to be more precise, December 1963 should be considered the beginning, when the news spread throughout our country about the extraordinary abilities of a previously unknown young woman, a resident of the Urals, Roza Kuleshova, who, blindfolded, could read text with her fingers, distinguish colors and " see" drawings.

It was then that Ninel Kulagina announced to her loved ones that she could do that too. Home experiments have begun. With a tight bandage over her eyes, she easily determined the color of sheets of paper painted with watercolors. It was the same with a set of colored pencils. After such experiments, there was not even a shadow of a doubt that “vision” with fingers exists, and Ninel Kulagina has this gift to the fullest.

Of course, experiments were also carried out with blind reading of texts. First, texts were taken from large print, then with a smaller one. Not immediately, but Ninel Sergeevna mastered this skill quite quickly. Further more. It turned out that she can determine color and read printed text not only with her fingers, but also with her toes, as well as with her elbow, chin and even the sole of her foot! They tried to put multi-colored scraps of paper into black, completely opaque envelopes and carried out experiments in complete darkness. The result was also positive.

Event in science

Ninel Kulagina could not explain her abilities with any physical or physiological theories. At that time, she was undergoing treatment with the candidate of medical sciences S. G. Fainberg. Ninel Kulagina decided to tell him about her strange abilities. From Feinberg about Ninel Kulagina and her miraculous gift learned professor of Leningrad state university Leonid Leonidovich Vasiliev - the founder of telepathic research in our country. Back in the 20s of the last century, under the guidance of Academician V. M. Bekhterev himself, at the Institute of the Brain, he began to investigate the mysterious phenomena of the human psyche.

In January 1964, a conference of doctors and scientists (neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicists) was held in Leningrad, at which a message was first heard about the paranormal abilities of Ninel Kulagina. On that day, the small hall in which the conference was held was filled to overflowing with those who wanted to see a wonderful woman.

Professor Vasiliev, who opened the meeting, spoke. And then Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina demonstrated the experiments of "skin vision" and her other mysterious abilities in front of the audience.

Needless to say, the great impression that these experiments made. It is no coincidence that Professor Vasiliev said then: - We were present at a real scientific event. And he added that in his long research work he had not yet met such paranormal abilities as Kulagina's.

Telekinetic power of Ninel Kulagina

This conference dramatically changed the life of Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina. She was invited to the parapsychological laboratory of Professor Vasiliev. She was offered to participate in scientific experiments and was even enrolled in the laboratory staff. It seemed that everything worked out for Ninel Kulagina in the best possible way.

"Skin vision", as it soon became clear, was not yet the most striking example of Kulagina's mysterious gift. It turned out that she also has the ability to a more amazing phenomenon - telekinesis, that is, non-contact movement of objects!

At first, Ninel Kulagina herself did not know about this, but once Professor Vasilyev suggested that she might well have such an ability. And Kulagina decided, in secret from everyone, to move the envelope lying on the table without touching it.

The first experiments were unsuccessful. Later, she wrote that at that time she simply did not yet know how to induce in herself the state necessary for the manifestation of telekinesis. But at one fine moment, the envelope trembled, turned, slowly crawled forward and, reaching the edge of the table, fell to the floor! In the future, Kulagina managed to move matches, cigarettes, an engagement ring, a watch and other small items across the table.
Upon learning of this, Professor Vasiliev immediately summoned Ninel Kulagina to the laboratory. It was in the spring of 1964. That day, Kulagina demonstrated telekinesis for the first time in front of the laboratory staff. Vasilyev then warned Ninel Sergeevna not to tell anyone about the telekinesis experiments. And there was every reason for this - attacks began on the study of parapsychological phenomena.

Mysterious burn

Even in Vasiliev's laboratory, there were people who doubted the reliability of Ninel Kulagina's experiments. Rumors spread that she was just fooling a gullible scientist, that objects move with the help of the thinnest invisible threads. Suspicions did not disappear even after Ninel Kulagina successfully demonstrated telekinesis with objects covered with a transparent plexiglass cap.

The attacks became especially bitter after Professor Vasiliev died in 1967 and his laboratory was closed. Meanwhile, Ninel Kulagina's abilities continued to develop. She could already turn the compass needle without touching it with her hands. And again - distrust. Scientists from the Institute of Metrology named after D. I. Mendeleev, where Kulagina conducted this experiment, refused to sign the official act! We decided to play it safe - what if this is a hoax?

And Ninel Sergeevna, meanwhile, discovered in herself another amazing ability. She discovered that with the help of self-hypnosis she could cause a burn on her skin! Moreover, Kulagina could demonstrate a similar effect on the skin of another person, and at a distance of up to two meters!

The variety of parapsychological abilities of this woman amazed people. Another gift of hers manifested itself in the exposure of photographic materials packed in opaque envelopes!

Effect unknown to science

Ninel Sergeevna heard about what this could be from a Czechoslovak scientist, Dr. Zdenek Reidak, who came to Leningrad in 1968. But Kulagina wanted not only to illuminate the film, but to cause on it the appearance of any geometric shapes. She also managed to capture a cross, a circle, a stripe and even some letters on film. Experiments on "psy-photography" Ninel Kulagina demonstrated at the Institute of Neurosurgery named after A. L. Polenov. The experiments were carefully controlled - she even took off all her home clothes and put on a hospital one.

“This experience,” Kulagina’s husband recalled, “demanded a lot of strength and health from Ninel.” And although there were skeptics, the scientific commission had no choice but to sign a protocol on the existence of an "effect unknown to science."

All these demonstrations and experiments were accompanied in those years by a noisy coven of obscurantists in newspapers and magazines, who did not hesitate to insult the wonderful woman. In 1987, Ninel Kulagina even had to sue one of these slanderers and insulters.

She won the case, but at too high a price. Her health was badly damaged. The reason for this was not only the huge nervous overload during the experiments, but also the persecution that accompanied the unique woman all the time. Ninel Kulagina suffered a heart attack and did not live long after that. On April 11, 1990, at the age of only 65, she died, left unsolved and completely unappreciated.

Gennady Chernenko

Ninel Kulagina: the solution to the phenomenon

From the book by Alexander Taratorin "The non-fictional history of psychics in Russia": ... the trickle of our history began in St. Petersburg-Leningrad. An amazing woman lived there, Nelli Sergeevna Kulagina. She moved objects with her hands. Tired after the sessions, blushed, the pressure increased. They filmed her, tried to figure out how she does it, but in vain ...

From an interview with academician Yu. B. Kobzarev, "Psychics - myth or reality?" - "Question mark" 10/89:
... the incident that spoiled our mood just happened during experiments with a laser. One of the young observers stated (and then one or two more participants joined him) that he saw a thread and even a small object tied to it and lowered by Kulagina into the cylinder through a hole in its wall. I do not believe that Ninel Sergeevna tried to deceive the experimenters. She didn't need it! Another experiment with a striking result added little to what had already been established with complete certainty. At the same time, I do not question the honesty of the experimenters who saw the thread.
Yes, they saw the thread, but there was no thread! It is known that Indian fakirs are capable of causing amazing, unnatural visions in quite large groups of people. There are cases of mass hallucinations among those praying in the church. I myself once experienced a visual hallucination suggested to me by a hypnotist. Having rolled a ruble into a ball, he made me see a hundred-ruble bill, quickly unrolling the ball and rolling it again. There were other cases that convinced me that you can both see and hear something that is not really there ... Self-hypnosis took place, and the experimenters saw the strings, because they believed that it was impossible to do without them ...

As comments to the above excerpts, Alexei Mikhailovich Ivanitsky, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member, answers questions. Russian Academy Sciences, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Higher Nervous Activity of a Human at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Back in the 60s, he participated in research on the abilities of N. S. Kulagina.

Club of Skeptics: The newspaper "Novye Izvestia" for July 28, 2006 mentions your story:
“In one of the leading psychiatric clinics in the country in the late 60s, we studied people who allegedly have telekinesis, that is, the ability to mentally move objects. One woman moved a pen cap across the table in front of everyone. No matter how many experiments we set, she still moved. This fact then even got into the press. However, after looking closely, we determined from the film that the woman imperceptibly threw on the table a pre-prepared thin nylon thread, on which knots were twisted. One of the ends of the thread was fixed on the stomach. Skillfully moving it, she moved the cap a little on the table. Since then, all sorts of experiments to detect telekinesis, telepathy and other supernatural abilities cause me only skepticism. "
What is the name of this woman, please?

Alexei Mikhailovich Ivanitsky: Ninel Kulagina.

KS: Did you determine only from the film that Ninel Kulagina was engaged in a hoax?

AMI: Of course not. During the change of linen (in the psychiatric clinic where she was lying) on ​​the belt of her dressing gown we found nylon threads with knots twisted on them.

KS: How did Kulagina react when you found the threads on her?

AMI: She gave a childish explanation: "usually I can, but now I'm tired, and you ask: move the cap, but how can I move it?"

KS: I came across information about "the thinnest synthetic threads, invisible to the naked eye, from a defense factory." Where did Ninel Kulagina get her threads?

AMI: She pulled the threads from the ribbons with which they tie a bow for girls. What kind of defense enterprises are there ... The threads were visible if you look closely.

KS: Did you put her in conditions where she couldn't do magic?

AMI: Without strings, she didn't even try to do anything, saying: "You yourself know everything now."

KS: Did Ninel Kulagina show other phenomena?

AMI: She was still moving the compass needle. Moreover, she had a bandage on her finger - she said that she had injured her finger. We asked her to remove the bandage - it turned out that a magnetic compass needle was hidden under the bandage. In short, the tricks were so primitive that there was nothing to talk about.

KS: Mikhail Buyanov, the famous psychotherapist, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda on January 18, 2007, denied the abilities of Messing, Hanussen, Vanga and Juna, but he surprisingly said this about Kulagin:
“Once I watched the well-known unique Ninel Kulagina move the compass needle. But no one has figured out how she did it yet. Skeptics say that she held small magnets between her fingers. didn't get caught." AMI: Just got caught.

KS: Have you researched any other people with psychic abilities?

AMI: We also studied Juna Davitashvili, but we did not find any psychic abilities in her. But it seemed to me that Juna sincerely believed in her extraordinary abilities. She very willingly went to their demonstration, but for some reason nothing worked.

KS: Have you watched the program "Battle of Psychics"?

AMI: No, I didn't. And don't trust psychic reports that aren't based on scientifically controlled trials. Never before has a scientifically controlled test shown that people have any paranormal abilities.

Quote corrected by A. M. Ivanitsky - in the newspaper, instead of a thread, "hair" was incorrectly written.

Interviewed by Mikhail Leitus
© Club of Skeptics, 2007

Soviet ideology did not recognize mysticism and metaphysics, but allowed belief in the paranormal abilities of individuals.

Phenomenon from Leningrad

Belief in paranormal (or extrasensory) abilities originated in the 19th century. In Bolshevik Russia, for a long time, they did not pay attention to the circles of researchers of the “astral” and the public appearances of mediums, however, “ cultural revolution”, started by Joseph Stalin, put them outside the law.

Therefore, beginning in the 1930s, occult practices began to dress up in the garb of science. Many scientists and even entire institutes dealt with the issues of telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, hypnosis, clairvoyance, etc. In most cases, the self-styled "uniques" were found to be either swindlers or crazy. However, from time to time, real nuggets came across among them.

In 1962, Soviet researchers were attracted Rosa Kuleshova. An illiterate woman suffering from epilepsy demonstrated "skin vision", that is, the ability to read texts of any complexity with a single touch - not only with her fingers, but also with her elbow, feet, through an impenetrable partition or a tight envelope.

In December 1963, a Leningrad housewife accidentally heard about the "Kuleshova effect" Ninel Kulagina(before Mikhailov's marriage).

She decided to tell the experts about her own phenomenon. She had a difficult fate: she went to war as a girl, served as a radio operator in tank troops and was seriously wounded. Ninel was awarded various awards, including the Order Patriotic War II degree. In peacetime, she was on the council of veterans of the 268th division.

According to Ninel Kulagina, she inherited unusual abilities from her mother. From childhood, she noticed that she was able to move objects when she was angry, that is, she was a psychokinetic.

Ninel herself had to resort to meditation to remotely influence things, so she was not always able to demonstrate her abilities. Nevertheless, she managed to convince the scientific world that she deserves attention, and the study of the "K phenomenon" (as Kulagina's gift was called in the press) began with full seriousness.

Miracle or scam?

For the first time, the unusual abilities of Ninel Kulagina were announced at a special conference held on January 10, 1964 in Leningrad. The psychophysiologist Leonid Vasiliev, a leading Soviet specialist in telepathy and paranormal human abilities, who took part in its organization, highly appreciated the experiments carried out then, called them a “scientific event” and admitted that in 30 years of his activity he had not seen anything like it.

Kulagina regulated her own pulse rate, rotated the compass needle, read the text in a magazine with her fingers, and burned strangers with the touch of her hand.

At the end of the same month, Kulagin was sent for a comprehensive examination to the Leningrad Psychoneurological Institute named after V.M. Bekhterev. The results were disappointing: experts did not find any hereditary "abnormalities" in the woman's body. Moreover, she was unable to reproduce any of the experiments presented at the conference, so she was declared a swindler.

A year later, Kulagina appeared in court on charges of fraud: she allegedly collected money from citizens who wanted to purchase scarce furniture, and lured them out of more than seven thousand rubles. Most likely, the woman really acted as an intermediary in one of the many shady schemes for the distribution of consumer goods, but she preferred to plead guilty under the article “Fraud”, since a much more serious term was relied on for a crime as part of an organized group.

Despite the petition of scientists led by Vasiliev, who were eager to continue studying the "K phenomenon", the court delivered a guilty verdict, and Kulagina went to a colony for two years.

It seemed that the star of Leningrad-psychokinetics had sunk forever, but in March 1968, articles appeared again, where she appeared under her maiden name - Mikhailova. At the same time, a new series of experiments, during which Ninel Sergeevna demonstrated her abilities, as the journalist Lev Kolodny claimed, was carried out by specialists from the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology named after D.I. Mendeleev.

The directorate of the institute issued a refutation, but a small popular science film was made about Kulagina, which attracted the interest of foreign specialists. The Czechoslovak scientist Zdeněk Reidak was the first to meet her. The observation of the “K phenomenon” made a great impression on him - he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to study the physiological changes that occur in the body of Ninel Sergeevna during psychokinesis sessions.

Lost Talent

Various institutes began to invite Kulagin to their laboratories to conduct experiments. She moved objects at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, influenced liquids within the walls of the Institute chemical physics, read texts with the back of her head at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics.

Phenomenon K was received in different ways. Someone recognized its reality, someone was looking for a catch. For example, Kulagina's ability to rotate a compass needle at a distance was explained by the fact that she hides magnets on her body; the movement of objects such as a box of matches or a ping-pong ball - by manual dexterity and special threads that are not visible to an outside observer.

However, each time Ninel Sergeevna demonstrated new unexpected effects, leading scientists to astonishment: for example, she illuminated a photographic film in a tight envelope or changed the acidity of water in a closed vessel with a glance.

The controversy didn't stop. To dot the "i", Academician Yuri Kobzarev contributed to a series of experiments in a special laboratory created under the roof of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics. They were carried out during 1981-1982 with amazing results. It was established for certain that a strong electric field arises around the hands of Ninel Kulagina.

According to Yu. B. Kobzarev, among the recorded phenomena associated with Kulagina were the following:

1. moving small objects, such as a piece of sugar or a matchbox;
2. rotation of the compass needle;
3. touching another person's hand with one's hand can cause severe burns;
4. hand scattering of the laser beam;
5. change in acidity (pH) of water;
6. exposure to a photographic film placed in a closed bag (flare).

At the end of 1987, Ninel Kulagina appealed to the People's Court of the Dzerzhinsky District of Moscow, accusing the editors of the magazine Man and Law of disseminating slanderous information degrading her honor and dignity. In fact, the court had to establish the authenticity of the paranormal abilities that the plaintiff demonstrated. In January 1988, unexpectedly for many, he made a decision obliging the magazine to publish a retraction. The process went down in history under the name "The Case of Telekinesis".

Laboratory employee Alexander Taratorin recalled:

“It was possible to find out that small droplets of histamine are sprayed out of her palm, possibly through the sweat glands. While escaping, it forms a charged aerosol, which explains all the observed effects.

The injected droplets caused clicks in the microphone, they changed the dielectric constant of the medium, scattering the laser beam, corroding the skin ... We did not succeed in understanding the physiological mechanism of such injection, it really was a physiological phenomenon.

Ninel Kulagina began to enjoy the fame of a psychic, and with the skills of a folk healer. Her ability to warm the skin was perceived as a medical method. It is known that the famous conductor Maxim Shostakovich, actor Innokenty Smoktunovsky, figure skaters Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova turned to her for help.

On April 11, 1990, Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina died at the age of 63, and the nature of the “K phenomenon” remained undiscovered. Probably, she was let down by her desire to please the researchers: she had a unique gift, but she tried to demonstrate it even in situations where it could not work, which caused a natural distrust of the phenomenon. As a result, today scientists refuse to discuss experiments involving Kulagina.

Anton PERVUSHIN, magazine "Mysteries of history. Secrets of the USSR" No. 3, 2017

Far from every magician or psychic can boast of moving objects with the help of the power of thought for nothing. But Ninel Kulagina could, and the range of her paranormal abilities was quite wide. Of course, they caused conflicting feelings among the public. Someone admired the “magical” gift of a woman, someone fell into a stupor after her sessions, and some did not believe in her unique abilities at all. Is it really Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina? How many years did it take scientists to analyze her unique gift? A whole twenty! During this period of time, the popularity of the “Russian pearl” of parapsychology leaked far beyond the borders of the USSR. In the late 60s, an expert in the field of psychic abilities came from Czechoslovakia specifically in order to see with my own eyes and study the phenomenon of Ninel Kulagina.

Subsequently, he will write: "Her unique gift is hidden in the bowels of her unique physiology."

Curriculum vitae

Ninel Kulagina - native northern capital. She was born on July 30, 1926. Already in adolescence the girl joined the ranks of the Red Army, and when the Great Patriotic War broke out, she got into the tank troops as a radio operator. Ninel Kulagina, whose biography did not start the way the girl would like, was repeatedly wounded in battle and by 1945 proudly bore the rank of sergeant. The war made the owner of unusual abilities disabled, but this did not stop her from starting a family and giving birth to a son.

How it all started

Ninel Kulagina stated that for the first time she felt an unusual gift, inherited, in her opinion, from her mother, when objects began to randomly move around her - this happened if she was in a bad mood.

To activate her unique gift, she needed a certain time for meditation, which helped to get all extraneous thoughts out of her head.

Once, when 1963 was coming to an end, a woman listened to a radio program in which they talked about a girl with “unusual abilities”, as if she could see with her fingers (distinguish colors, read text). And then Ninel Kulagina told her husband that she also had the same gift as the girl, remembering how she took a spool of thread of the right color out of the box by touch. The husband was initially skeptical of his wife's claim, but she convinced him that she had the ability to feel with her fingers.

Confirmation of telekinetic abilities

In order for telekinesis to take place, Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina had to fully concentrate, which was not always easy for her. The fact is that during meditation, she began to experience sharp pains in the spine, and her eyes experienced serious discomfort. In addition, the quality of paranormal abilities was negatively affected by a thunderstorm.

However, scientists needed serious, and most importantly, real evidence that Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina was not an ordinary person. In the spring of 1970, an experiment took place in one of the laboratories of the Scientific and Technical Society for Instrument Engineering, the purpose of which was to test the unique abilities of a woman. Kulagina, by telekinesis, affected the frog's heart, separated from the body. The results were amazing: she was able to change the pulse and completely stop the work of the heart muscle.

Glory and recognition

Rumors about the unusual abilities of a woman began to spread very quickly in the scientific community. The experiments of Ninel Kulagina, filmed in black and white film, were transferred abroad. These materials plunged foreign scientists into a real shock. Some bluntly stated that at last mankind managed to obtain proof that telekinesis is a real phenomenon.

Development of a unique gift

Not paying much attention to the sudden collapse of fame, Kulagina continued to develop her gift.

She trained hard and soon already knew how to lift small objects up, as well as influence the compass needle. Moreover, she learned to revive withered plants, change the chemical structure of water and expose film through a thick envelope. Scientists were perplexed when Ninel Sergeevna could cause a severe burn on human skin with one glance.

Payment for the gift

However, the more complex her experiments were, the more serious her health problems became. The experiments took away from the Russian "pearl of parapsychology" a huge amount of not only physical, but also mental strength. As a rule, after them, the woman was tormented by terrible headaches and discomfort in the occipital part of the spine. In addition, in one session she could lose up to 800 grams of weight: her pulse instantly quickened, and her blood pressure became very high. However, no ailments could calm the desire to unravel the nature of his unique gift. Together with her husband, Ninel Sergeevna beat the thresholds of about three dozen laboratories at state institutes.

Some employees did not hide their skepticism at the sight of this ordinary woman. It was they who claimed that Ninel Kulagina is a charlatan who just wants to become famous throughout the country. However, when they failed to prove it, they signed with their own hands in their impotence.

Criticism

Both Soviet and foreign scientists did not believe in the unique gift of a parapsychologist. In particular, representatives of the fund did not believe in the ability of Kulagina. And the Italian specialist in the field of psychology, Massimo Polidorogo, even stated that careful preparation and an uncontrolled environment in the room where the experiments took place create favorable conditions for volumetric cheating. What could Ninel Kulagina oppose to such attacks? Exposure is the only goal set by those who did not want to recognize the unique gift of the Russian “pearl of parapsychology”. Of course, it was unpleasant for her to work in conditions where she was not believed.

And yet she learned to tune into the right mood, even when her name was bowed down by skeptics of all stripes. Some of them boldly declared that all the experiments of Ninel Sergeevna were ordinary "sleight of hand and no fraud."

And the popularizer of science and writer Lvov V.E. became the author of a publication in the Pravda newspaper, where he publicly stated that Kulagina was the most common swindler who performed another trick using a banal magnet attached to her body. He also reported that Ninel Sergeevna was taken into custody for one of the tricks with five thousand rubles. In order not to be unfounded, he cites the fact of a parapsychologist's examination, which was carried out at the V. M. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute. Its results were approved by authoritative experts in the field of psychiatry, who agreed that Kulagina was a charlatan who did not have psychic abilities.

Health problems

Of course, the uncontrolled spending of her gift could not but affect the state of health of Ninel Sergeevna.

She spent a lot of energy to demonstrate to others her extraordinary abilities. Were there enough resources to compensate for this amount of energy expended? It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. Doctors warned her that experiments in parapsychology could end in a fatal outcome, but the woman continued her experiments. As a result, Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina (age 64) died. Many later said that the unusual experiments ruined her life and seriously shortened it. Undoubtedly, Ninel Kulagina passed away early. The cause of death is a heart attack. She was given a magnificent funeral.

Conclusion

Until now, heated discussions have not subsided over whether Kulagina is a parapsychologist or not. After her death, the desire to learn the secrets of psychic abilities in society increased significantly, and the study of the “K phenomenon” and her “colleagues” served as a serious impetus to this trend. Currently scientific work in the field of parapsychology, they are labeled “Particularly relevant”. Both the military and politicians are showing increased interest in this topic. It is possible that by the end of her life, Ninel Sergeevna seriously regretted that one winter evening she confessed to her husband that she was able to "feel with her fingers." One way or another, but the fact remains: the “K phenomenon” made it possible to make sensational discoveries in the field of parapsychology and singled out new points of contact between the world of matter and the world of energy.

Ninel Sergeevna Kulagina(also known as Nelya Mikhailova) (July 30, 1926 - April 1990) - a woman who was alleged to have demonstrated telekinesis and other anomalous abilities, which were studied at several research institutes for more than 20 years.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Awards
• 3
  • 3.1 Criticism
• 4 Interesting Facts
• 5 See also
• 6 Literature

Biography

She was born on July 30, 1926 in Leningrad. At the age of 14 she joined the Red Army, and during the Great Patriotic War from April 1941 to June 1946 she served as a radio operator in tank troops. She was wounded several times and received a group II disability. She was a member of the council of a veteran of the 268th division.

In 1966, Kulagina was convicted of fraud by the Kirov District People's Court of Leningrad. The Prosecutor of Leningrad, State Councilor of Justice of the 3rd rank S. E. Solovyov and journalist M. N. Medvedev note on this occasion that the reason was that “ she presented herself as a person who could help in acquiring furniture from the back door, and in a short time she collected more than seven thousand rubles».

Awards

• Order of the Patriotic War II degree
• Medal "For Military Merit"
• Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad"

Research on the “Kulagina Phenomenon”

She gained international fame in the 1960s when her abilities began to be explored. In the newspaper TVNZ” dated August 16, 1981, in the article “For weeding in the biofield” there is the following information:

At one time, journalists talked about Roza Kuleshova, who had skin vision. After reading about her, another woman, Ninel Kulagina, decided to show herself to people. Together with E. Naumov, a well-known collector of such information on such phenomena, with a group of physicists from the Lebedev Physical Institute, they organized the arrival of Kulagina in Moscow for 4 days, researched at the department headed by Khokhlov at Moscow State University

Kulagina claimed to be the first to discover the abilities she believed she had inherited from her mother when she realized that objects moved randomly around her when she was angry. She said that in order for the abilities to manifest, it took some time for meditation to clear her mind of all thoughts. Kulagina said that at the time when she concentrated, she experienced pain in the spine, and her vision was blurred. It was noted that thunderstorms prevented her from carrying out telekinetic actions. Perhaps the most famous experiment involving Kulagina was carried out on March 10, 1970 in a Leningrad laboratory with the participation of the head of the technical parapsychology section at the Scientific and Technical Society for Instrument Engineering, psychophysiologist and mathematician Gennady Sergeev. According to eyewitness reports, in the course of experiments captured on film, Kulagina psychokinetically affected the frog's heart, separated from the body: first, she changed the pulse in both directions, then stopped the heart.

In 1968, black-and-white films made in the USSR documenting her experiments were presented to Western experts and caused a sensation, at least among parapsychologists, some of whom were quick to announce that they had obtained decisive proof of the reality of psychokinesis. According to reports from the Soviet Union, 40 scientists took part in Kulagina's research, of which two were Nobel laureates. Larry Kettlekamp claims that Mikhailova was caught on videotape separating broken eggs, which had previously been immersed in water, into whites and yolks. During the experiment, all physical changes were recorded to her, including the acceleration and change in the heartbeat, brain waves and electrical magnetic field. In order to prevent external electromagnetic impulses from interfering, she was placed inside a metal cage, where she allegedly showed the ability to remove the marked match from a pile of others lying under a glass cap.

According to Yu. B. Kobzarev, the experiments that were initially carried out by academicians Kikoin, Gulyaev, Kobzarev, served as an impetus for the creation of a laboratory of radioelectronic methods for studying biological objects, headed by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences E. E. Godik. According to Godik, the laboratory’s work plan included the task of “dealing with” the psychics who became active in the USSR at that time, among whom was N. S. Kulagina.

According to Yu. B. Kobzarev, among the recorded phenomena associated with Kulagina were the following:

• moving small objects, such as a piece of sugar or a matchbox;
• rotation of the compass needle;
• touching another person's hand with one's hand can cause severe burns;
• hand scattering of the laser beam;
• change in acidity (pH) of water;
• exposure to a photographic film placed in a closed bag (flare).

According to Yu. B. Kobzarev, studies carried out at the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IRE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1981-1982 established that there was a strong electric field around her hands, and a sensitive microphone installed near her hands recorded short ultrasonic impulses.

Laboratory employee A. Taratorin writes in his memoirs:

it was possible to find out that small droplets of histamine are sprayed out of her palm, possibly through the sweat glands. While escaping, it forms a charged aerosol, which explains all the observed effects. The injected droplets caused clicks in the microphone, they changed the dielectric constant of the medium, scattering the laser beam, corroding the skin (the famous “burn”), and finally, they “sit down” on the object, charging it. ... We did not manage to understand the physiological mechanism of such squirting; it really was a physiological phenomenon.

October 27, 2010 at the Physical Institute. P. N. Lebedev RAS hosted a presentation of the book by E. E. Godik (since 1993 in the USA) - “The Mystery of Psychics: What Physicists Have Seen” about experiments that have been carried out for more than 10 years at the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Criticism

Many people and organizations, like the James Randi Foundation and the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Pseudoscience Claims. (CICAP) are skeptical about telekinesis. So Italian psychologist, journalist and writer, co-founder and executive director of CICAP Massimo Polidoro. wrote that the lengthy preparation and uncontrolled environment in the room (like in a hotel room), where experiments were conducted with the participation of Kulagina, leave a wide field for obvious cheating.

Magicians and skeptics argued that everything done by Kulagina can be repeated with simple sleight of hand, using well-hidden and disguised threads, small pieces of magnetized metal or mirrors; In addition, opinions were expressed that, in the context of cold war Soviet Union had an obvious interest in falsifying and exaggerating the results of research for propaganda purposes in order to win the "psychological race", like the space race and the arms race.

The writer and popularizer of science V. E. Lvov in his article in the newspaper Pravda accused Kulagin of fraud. He wrote that she performed one of her tricks with a magnet hidden on her body. The article also reported that Kulagina was arrested for deceiving the public with five thousand rubles. And also cites as evidence the examination of Kulagina at the Leningrad Psychoneurological Institute named after V. M. Bekhterev, which “ concluded with a sixteen-page protocol and a press release signed by six leading psychiatrists and physiologists of higher nervous activity" and " scientific workers of the institute easily uncovered the tricks and machinations used by Kulagina in her demonstrations of "telepathy" and "clairvoyance"". From the text of the message of Leningradskaya Pravda it followed that " It was a common deception. An experienced swindler managed to commit another scam ...". In addition, Lvov cites the data of the commission of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Metrology named after D. I. Mendeleev (VNIIM named after D. I. Mendeleev), which, under the chairmanship of Dr. technical sciences, Professor S. V. Gorbatsevich in May 1965 established that: “ N. S. Kulagina refused the proposal to repeat the experiments on moving objects in a sealed glass vessel ...» « It was proposed to repeat the experiments in a closed vessel made at VNIIM ... which would make it possible to exclude the possibility of moving objects with invisible threads, etc. ... Kulagina's repeated attempts did not give positive results»… « Experiments with clocks and scales did not give positive results ..."He also refers to the protocol of the visit to Kulagina's apartment of the head of the laboratory of magnetic measurements of VNIIM Studentsov and senior engineer Skrynnikov, entitled "Report on the visit of Kulagina N. in order to identify physical reasons that allow Kulagina to turn and rotate the magnetic needle" from which it follows that the visitors " I was surprised by the equipment of the apartment with magnetic devices: a topographic compass, a marine (floating) compass, a horseshoe magnet and a more powerful magnet of another form ...". They are " we began to study the state of the magnetic field ... At the same time, we positioned the pointer device in such a way that Kulagina could not see it. They put the probe on the edge of the table ... They suggested that Kulagina stand up and turn, standing, around the horizontal axis". After that, hidden under the clothes " a well-defined dipole (that is, a piece of a magnet or a coil with current) and then they started look for where she hid the magnet". As a result, they found that " below the belt or at the hips there is a permanent magnetic dipole, the magnetic moment of which is completely independent of the mental state of the subject ...". Lvov notes that when Kulagin was asked not to move her "waist and hips", " there were no deviations of the arrow (in the magnetometer)". In addition, the authors of the protocol noted that “ Kulagina's husband and she herself all the time offered to show us the movement of various bodies' and show ' cigar case movement", and during the observation it was noticed that" Kulagina stretches the tablecloth just in the place where the object is located”, and after the physicists established control over the left hand of the subject, psychokinesis ceased to manifest itself.

The Pravda newspaper, in its issue of June 24, 1968, criticized Kulagina as follows: After leaving prison, the swindler again settled in Leningrad and ... succeeded in the mysterious field of fooling people who are fond of parapsychology ... How could some editorial offices occupy a fair amount of space in their newspapers with exaggerated tricks presented in the form of a scientific sensation? ... After all, our press is always and in everything called to illuminate the achievements and searches of science with perfect knowledge of the matter, with deep, exacting thoughtfulness, objectivity and insight ...»

American mathematician, writer, popularizer of science, one of the founders of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Martin Gardner called Kulagin " beautiful, plump, dark-eyed little charlatan" (eng. pretty plump dark eyed little charlatan ), who was twice caught using tricks when moving items.

Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. M. Ivanitsky, according to him, took part in the 1960s in the study of Kulagina's phenomena. In 2006, his memoirs were published in the Novye Izvestia newspaper:

One woman was moving a pen cap across the table in front of everyone. No matter how many experiments we set, she still moved ... However, after looking closely, we determined from the film that the woman imperceptibly threw on the table a long hair torn off in advance, on which knots were twisted. One of the ends of the hair was fixed on the stomach. Skillfully moving it, she moved the cap a little on the table.

A little later, in the course of a conversation published on the website of the Skeptics Club, A. M. Ivanitsky clarified that the newspaper had written incorrectly about hair, in the version he corrected, it was about nylon threads. Ivanitsky notes that Kulagina's hoax was discovered " during the change of linen (in the psychiatric clinic where she was lying) on ​​the belt of her dressing gown, we found nylon threads with knots twisted on them.", and also indicates that " Without threads, she did not try to do anything, saying: “you yourself now know everything”". And in the experiment with the impact on the compass needle, Kulagina used a magnet hidden under a bandage on her finger. Ivanitsky also refuted the statement of the psychotherapist M. I. Buyanov, who in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda on January 18, 2007 stated that “ Once I watched as the famous unique Ninel Kulagina moved the compass needle. But how she did it, no one has yet figured out. Skeptics say she held small magnets between her fingers. But her abilities were tested by famous scientists and she was never caught on magic tricks.', pointing out that: Just got caught.»

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences E. B. Aleksandrov characterizes Kulagin as “ well-known swindler"And believes, despite the fact that she was repeatedly convicted of fraud, and those who investigated her abilities did not find anything unusual, she is still" subsequently ... fooled the settled simpletons at LITMO».

• The phenomenon of Ninel Kulagina is described in one of the episodes of the American film Scarecrows.

Literature

in Russian

• Alexandrov E. B. Problems of the expansion of pseudoscience // In defense of science. - M .: Nauka, 2006. - No. 1. - S. 8-16.(copy)
• Anufrieva, Anna; Gavrilov, Vladimir Sixth Sense // Novye Izvestia. - 28.07.2006.
• Dulnev G. N., Volchenko V. N., Vasilyeva G. N., Gorshkov E. S., Krylov K. I., Kulagin V. V., Meshkovsky I. K., Shvartsman A. G. Study of the K-phenomenon // Parapsychology and psychophysics. - M .: Fund of parapsychology named after L. L. Vasiliev, 1992. - No. 5. - S. 35-51. - ISSN 0869-3323 .
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in other languages

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• Ebon, Martin Psychic Warfare: Threat Or Illusion?. - McGraw-Hill Education, 1983. - ISBN 0-07-018860-2.
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• Kettlekamp, ​​Larry Investigating Psychics: Five Life Histories. - New York: William Morrow & Company, 1977. - P. 16-17.
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• Kurtz, Paul A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. - Prometheus Books, 1985. - ISBN 0-87975-300-5.
• Mishlove, Jeffrey The Roots of Consciousness: Psychic Liberation Through History, Science, and Experience. - Random House, 1975. - ISBN 0-394-73115-8.
• Moss, Thelma . The Body Electric. - J. P. Tarcher, 1979.
• Parodi, Angelo Science and Spirit: What Physics Reveals about Mystical Belief . - Pleasant Mount Press, 2005. - ISBN 0-9767489-3-2.
• Planner, Felix superstition. - Cassell, 1980. - ISBN 0-304-30691-6.
• Polidoro, Massimo Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims. - Prometheus Books, 2003. - ISBN 1-59102-086-7.
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• Randall, John L Parapsychology and the Nature of Life. - Souvenir Press, 1975. - ISBN 0-285-62177-7.
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