---
born: 1931
category: Psychics & Remote Viewers
location: Prague, Czechoslovakia
summary: While the effective bit rate for this experiment was very low (about one
  word per day), it was considered an impressive proof-of-concept, suggesting that
  the claims made in the Nautilus story might not have been entirely farfetched.
tags:
- Person
- RemoteViewer
- Soviet
---

[Pavel Stepanek](/people/pavel-stepanek/) was a Czech psychic who participated in experiments conducted by researcher Milan Ryzl in the mid-1960s. These experiments aimed to demonstrate the transmission of [psi](/concepts/parapsychology/) data using error-correcting protocols, similar to those used in telecommunications. In one notable experiment, Stepanek repeatedly guessed bits in a randomly generated 50-bit sequence of ones and zeros. After several days and twenty thousand guesses, Ryzl, using a majority-vote error-correcting protocol, successfully reconstructed the entire 50-bit sequence.[^1]

While the effective bit rate for this experiment was very low (about one word per day), it was considered an impressive proof-of-concept, suggesting that the claims made in [the Nautilus story](/programs/the-nautilus-telepathy-project/) might not have been entirely farfetched. Stepanek's work contributed to the broader body of psi research being conducted in Czechoslovakia and the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/) during the Cold War.[^1]

---

[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.