Leonid L. Vasilev was a leading Russian [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]] researcher who played a significant role in the [[Soviet Union]]'s efforts to investigate [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. He is noted for his statements in April 1960, where he claimed that Soviet scientists had conducted extensive, unreported investigations into telepathy under the Stalin regime, predating American efforts[^1]. Vasilev asserted that the publication of articles like [[Jacques Bergier]]'s "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" and "The Secret of the Nautilus" in French journals stimulated Soviet parapsychology research. He used these reports to advocate for increased Soviet investment in the field, stating, "Today the American Navy is testing telepathy on their atomic submarines. Soviet scientists conducted a great many successful telepathy tests over a quarter of a century ago. It’s urgent that we throw off our prejudices. We must plunge into the exploration of this vital field"[^1]. In a 1963 Kremlin edict, the Soviet minister of defense, R. J. Malinosky, declared [[Telepathy]] to be science- and technology-based, leading to the creation of the Special Laboratory for Biocommunications Phenomena at the University of Leningrad, with Vasilev in charge. The laboratory's goals included establishing "scientific proof of telepathic communications" and identifying the nature of the brain energy that produces it. Vasilev proclaimed that "The discovery of the energy underlying telepathic communication will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy"[^1]. Vasilev's work contributed to the Soviet nomenclature around ESP being rewritten to sound technical, severing ties with its occult past. Mental telepathy became "long-distance biological signal transmission," and [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] was termed "non-ionizing, in particular electromagnetic, emissions from humans"[^1]. ### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.