Moscow mysteries - Investigative Files

Still the largest country in the world, Russia retains over 76 percent of the area of the former USSR, which collapsed in 1991. The collapse, along with the suspension of activities of the Communist Party, increased glasnost ("openness") in the new federal republic. With personal freedoms, however, has come a rise in pseudoscientific and magical expression.

I became increasingly aware of this through the visits of Russian notables to the Center for Inquiry--International: Valerii Kuvakin (professor of philosophy at Moscow State University), Edward Kruglyakov (a distinguished physicist at Novosibirsk, Siberia), and Yurif Chornyi (Scientific Secretary, Institute for Scientific Information, Russian Academy of Sciences). Subsequently I was one of several CSICOP speakers at an international congress, "Science, Antiscience, and the Paranormal," held in Moscow (October 3--5, 2001) and cosponsored by the Russian Academy of Sciences. [Several articles from that conference appear in this issue.-- Editor.] There I learned more about the newfound glasnost toward all things mysterious. I stayed on for several more days in order to investigate some of these.

Pyramid Power

Pyramids are springing up across the Russian landscape. These are a modern expression of a craze fostered by Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, one that involved "the secrets of the pyramids." Citing the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt--"one of the seven wonders of the world and one of the strangest works of architecture in existence"--the authors touted claims that small cardboard models of the Cheops pyramid could preserve food (especially "mummify meat"), relieve headaches, sharpen razor blades, and possibly perform other wonders (Ostrander and Schroeder 1970, 366--376).

The specific claims came from a Czechoslovakian radio engineer, Karel Drbal, who obtained Czech patent 91304 for the Cheops Pyramid Razor-Blade Sharpener. It supposedly generated some unknown and mysterious "energy." Unfortunately, subsequent tests of the claims failed to substantiate them. Pyramids preserved organic matter no better than did containers of other shapes; nor did placing razor blades in pyramids restore their sharpness, despite the subjective judgments of people fooled by their own expectations (Hines 1988).

Nevertheless, boosted by claims that pyramid power was unleashed "behind the iron curtain," the pyramid craze flourished in the United States. One company marketed a kit with eight wooden sticks that, glued in place, formed a pyramidal frame. Even without being covered (with paper or foil, for example), this could allegedly retard food spoilage, remove the bitterness from coffee, impart a mellower taste to wine, sharpen razor blades, perk up houseplants, and perform other wonders--according to the kit's guide book which claims, "The Pyramid is a geometric focusing lens of cosmic energy" (Kerrell and Goggin 1974).

A similar wire-frame "magic pyramid" was made to be worn on the head (and so looked rather like a dunce cap) in order to concentrate the wearer's alleged psychic or healing powers (Randi 1982). Larger frames were available for one to sit inside in the lotus position as a means of improving meditation, or to place over the bed to gain enhanced vitality (Kerrell and Goggin 1974, 6-7). There were even pyramidshaped doghouses that supposedly rid their occupants of fleas (Hines 1988).

The pyramid craze lasted through the 1970s (Ranch 1995, 194) then declined, although it has never entirely gone away. New Age merchants still offer small gemstone pyramids that focus the "energy" of the particular stone (e.g., tigereye for enhancement of "psychic abilities") as well as a plastic "Wishing Pyramid" (into which is placed a paper with one's wish written thereon), and other items.

In Russia, pyramid power is on the rise--almost literally: I was able to visit a pyramid that towered forty-four meters (about 144.4 feet or some twelve stories). Built in 1999 by Alexander Golod, it is the tallest of about twenty such pyramids intended for alleged scientific and medical purposes. I was taken to the site--about 38 kilometers northwest of Moscow--by Valerii Kuvakin (who also translated various interviews), together with his wife, Uliya Senchihina (see figure 1). (Valerii heads the Center for Inquiry-Moscow.)

Although resembling a stone structure from the outside, from the interior the pyramid is seen to be constructed of translucent plexiglas panels over a wood framework. It was closed when we arrived but a custodian consented to let us in and show us around. The pyramid was largely empty, although off to one side were cases of bottled water that were supposedly being energized for curative purposes.

A rope-cordoned central area--where the pyramid power is supposedly most concentrated--contained some crystal spheres that were also being "energized." Despite being warned that the energy there was so intense that someone with a large "biofield" (or "aura")--such as I supposedly have--could lose consciousness, I ducked under the rope to dare the awesome power. I stood there for a time (while Valerii photographed me, barely containing his amusement, and while we continued our conversation with the custodian), but I felt no effect whatsoever.