Евгений Шубралов – Suggestion at a distance: theory, practice and philosophy (страница 10)

There could also be no conditional communication between the inductor and the guesser, since the questions of the former were always monotonous and without any special changes in the intonation of the voice, and there could be no question of any mechanical communication. The answers for the vast majority of subjects were given by the guesser correctly, and simple objects such as an orange, lemon, comb, rope, knife, toothpick, etc., were given quickly and confidently, while less ordinary objects were guessed, although also in the vast majority of cases accurately, but less quickly. Guessing some items even required a decent amount of time. Occasionally mistakes were made in this case; but these mistakes were almost immediately corrected after pointing out that the answer was incorrect on the part of the inductor. Sometimes errors indicated the subject only approximately, for example, instead of "notebook" the answer was "ticket", when then the inductor pointed out her mistake and demanded that the guesser think further, after some time she said correctly: "Book"; to the question: "Which one?" she answered: "The notebook." This was followed by questions about what was written in the book, and the inductor consistently forced the guesser to say at least two dozen entries that were made in this book, and all these entries were read relatively quickly and with punctual accuracy without even the slightest signs on the part of the inductor.

According to the general formulation of the case with guessing thoughts, there was obviously a lot of similarity with how Sophia Starker did her experiments. Unfortunately, I was deprived of the opportunity to do a number of experiments with the guesser under different conditions, I can only say that, being myself the closest observer of those demonstrations discussed above, I found absolutely nothing in them that could be recognized as a deception or trick. Nevertheless, in order to solve the question of mental suggestion, it is highly desirable not only to state the fact, but also to comprehensively study the conditions under which the experiments themselves are carried out.

If it is confirmed that in cases of this kind we are dealing with a real mental suggestion, then the explanation of the phenomena themselves by means of energy transfer from one person to another is imposed by itself. Be that as it may, we must not lose sight of the fact that the question of mental suggestion is gradually moving out of the realm of the mysterious and unknown, since with the development of the doctrine of the psyche as a manifestation of energy and with the discoveries of Blondlot and Charpentier about the rays emanating from the nervous tissue during its activity, the very possibility of mental suggestion becomes a phenomenon, not at all it does not contradict our basic scientific views. Bekhterev V. Psyche and life. 2nd ed. 1906. pp. 167-168.

In view of this, it is highly desirable that serious scientific figures cease to treat the study of the phenomena of mental suggestion with the disdain that, with small and well-known exceptions, manifested itself in their environment until

later.

1906

THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE

In his book devoted to the scientific interpretation of the so-called "mysterious phenomena" of the human psyche, L.L. Vasiliev has already had the opportunity to tell readers about verbal suggestion and about the amazing phenomena caused by suggestion. Repeated repetition of words: "Go to sleep, go to sleep! Sleep! Sleep deeper, more calmly!" the one who inspires manages to put some subjects into a hypnotic sleep. The features of this dream were studied in detail in our country by V.M.Bekhterev, and its physiological basis was revealed by the experiments of I.P.Pavlov, his teaching on higher nervous activity. In hypnotic sleep, suggestibility increases enormously. Thanks to this, hypnotists manage to verbally inspire a lot: various kinds of movements, certain actions, sometimes very complex; various sensations, illusions, even hallucinations; and moreover, it creates the opportunity to influence the physiological functions of the body with a word, seemingly not at all controlled by the will, the psyche of the subject. For example, to cause him an induced burn.

Some of these phenomena can be caused in a weakened form by verbal suggestion in sleep-deprived subjects, if only they have an increased "excess" suggestibility already in the waking state.

Such facts were to some extent known to Greek and Roman doctors, but centuries passed before hypnosis and suggestion were finally recognized and formed the content of a special science – hypnology.

In the same book, in the chapter devoted to the question of whether there is a brain radio, the author has already touched on the topic of this brochure: does suggestion necessarily have to be verbal, i.e. be caused by words understandable to the subject? Is it also possible to have a "wordless", "mental" suggestion, such as when the experimenter inspires something not with spoken words, but only with a mentally repeated order, sometimes at a considerable distance from the subject?

Mental suggestion belongs to such questions that for centuries have been capturing the attention of scientists, then thrown into the trash can of the pseudoscientific quest of the human mind (there have been quite a few of them in the history of science) then they come to the surface again, enriched with new observations, and again they are forgotten for many years.

In foreign countries, especially in the USA, England, France, Holland, India, Argentina, as well as in some socialist countries, great attention is paid to the study of this phenomenon. In capitalist states, there are institutes, laboratories, even university departments (for example, in Utrecht) engaged in the study of mental suggestion and other "parapsychic" phenomena related to it.

From time to time, information about sensational experiments and discoveries in the field of brain and psyche studies comes to us from abroad. For example, in December 1959 and February 1960, articles appeared in French popular science magazines describing a sensational experience allegedly conducted in the summer of 1959 aboard the American nuclear submarine Nautilus. The boat with the participant of the experiment (A) on it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 16 days. Another participant in the experiment (B), who stayed on the shore, twice a day, at a strictly defined time, mentally inspired the subject with one of the five figures: a circle, a square, a cross, a star, wavy lines.

Numerous cards with the image of these figures were automatically shuffled by a special device, which threw these cards one after another at regular intervals. At exactly the same time, subject A, at a distance of many hundreds of kilometers, through the thickness of seawater and the hermetically sealed metal skin of the boat, tried to perceive these mentally transmitted signals and wrote them down on paper. The experiment was conducted under conditions of apparently impeccable control over the participants of the experiment, lasted 16 days and gave a result more than 3 times higher than the result that could be expected according to probability theory: over 70% of correct answers instead of the expected 20%.

Of course, we have the right to believe or disbelieve such information coming from abroad, to recognize or not to recognize the phenomena of mental suggestion as an established fact, but complete denial and ignoring them can hardly be considered prudent. It is necessary to be aware of what has already been done and what is being done on this issue in capitalist countries, not to mention that it is necessary to give a correct, materialistic explanation to all this. That is why, at the Physiological Institute of Leningrad University in 1960, under the guidance of the author of these lines, the first laboratory in the Soviet Union was organized to study mental suggestion.

First of all, it was necessary to familiarize yourself with the extensive literature that has accumulated over the past two or three decades. To some extent, it was possible to do this and partially use the studied literature when writing this brochure.

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