Secrets of a Russian psychic - truth behind Alla Vinogradova's psychokinetic ability

Is there a rational explanation for Alla Vinogradova's extraordinary ability to move objects without touching them? A research study was conducted and an interesting and counterintuitive explanation found. However, in the process it was also found that closer cooperation with serious parapsychology is needed.

For years, psychic research in the USSR, owing to the aura of secrecy that surrounded it, has been regarded as some kind of myth. It was being said, for example, that the Russians were far ahead in parapsychological discoveries and that the West had better invest lots of money in the field to avoid a "psi-gap." The sparse information that reached the West hinted to extraordinary faculties being scientific. ally demonstrated by amazing psychics. During the early 1960s, interest in Soviet paranormal claims was first aroused by newspaper articles describing the astonishing abilities of Rosa Kuleshova, a twenty-two-year-old Russian girl who apparently could read print while blindfolded (Time, January 25, 1963; Life, June 12, 1964). However, the loose conditions in which Rosa operated allowed for very easy methods of deception to be used (Gardner 1981).

In 1968, films showing Nina Kulagina apparently moving objects with her mind (psychokinesis, or PK) were viewed at the First Moscow International Conference on Parapsychology and were also observed by some Western scientists. Finally, the general public became aware of the varied work in parapsychology carried out in the USSR with the publication of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder's Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (1970), followed by various other similar publications on the subject.

Many films of Russian psychics at work have now been seen on Western TV shows and documentaries. The most popular are those that show apparent PK in action. We have seen, then, Nina Kulagina apparently moving compass needles and light objects, Boris Ermolaev "levitating" small objects, and Alia Vinogradova willing round objects to roll on flat surfaces.

Russian PK Stars

As for Nina Kulagina, the conditions under which she operated were far from acceptable by basic scientific standards. Tests were frequently carried out at her own home or in hotel rooms; no tight controls were ever applied, owing in part to the fact that a demonstration might take several hours of preparation (i.e., concentration by Nina), which, of course, was no guarantee of success. Also, when watching these films, anybody who has a background in magic cannot avoid the feeling that she is using standard conjuring techniques: magnets hidden on her body to move the compass needle; threads or thin hair to move objects across the table; small mirrors concealed in her hand to read signs with numbers and letters being held behind her. Unfortunately, no expert in conjuring techniques was ever present at Kulagina's demonstrations.

Boris Ermolaev, a Russian film director, became relatively famous during the 1970s for his apparent ability to suspend objects in midair by concentrating on them. Ermolaev didn't perform on stage but showed his demonstrations "only to serious scientists of his own choosing or to close friends" (italics mine, Gris and Dick 1986). He and others were tested by Professor Venyamin Pushkin, who stated: "The experiments were conducted under the strictest controls, and no devices of any kind were used" (ibid.). However, in a 1992 World of Discovery documentary called "Secrets of the Russian Psychics," Ermolaev's method was finally revealed. He used to sit on a chair and then place the objects to be suspended between his knees; unfortunately for him, the light conditions when the documentary crew was filming were probably not what he was accustomed to. That's how the TV crew was able to capture a fine thread fixed at both his knees to which he attached the objects; the whole unmasking procedure was filmed and shown during the documentary.

Alla Vinogradova is another story.

Vinogradova's Moving Objects

A child psychologist and teacher, wife of Russian psi-researcher Victor Adamenko, Alia Vinogradova saw in 1969 a film of Kulagina in action and suspected that she too could move objects without touching them. In fact, trained by Adamenko, she discovered she could really move objects placed on transparent surfaces. Films of her demonstrations were shot in the early 1970s, and recently the previously mentioned World of Discovery documentary on Russian psychics had an interesting section devoted to her. Here she was presented as she is today, still demonstrating the same abilities for the camera. She took such objects as cigarettes, aluminum cigar tubes, and pens and put them on a Plexiglass plate suspended between two chairs; in such conditions she was able to make them rotate, roll, and move just by having her hand approach, but never touch, them. The demonstration was quite puzzling. It did appear very natural and repeatable and it seemed that the usual tricks (like secretly blowing on the surface to have the object move thanks to the air current thus created) were unlikely.