Nina Kulagina
🏛️ Official record
Leningrad military physiology lab · Sergeyev et al. · USSR, Leningrad · 1960s–1970s
A housewife was filmed by Soviet scientists moving matches and a compass; on 10 March 1970 she reportedly stopped an isolated frog’s heart in the lab, with physiologist Sergeyev recording anomalous EEG and heart-rate changes.
VerdictFilming conditions can’t rule out fine threads, magnets and static; the West couldn’t replicate it — still the most famous PK footage.
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Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
🎓 Academic research
Princeton University · Dean of Engineering Robert Jahn · USA, Princeton · 1979–2007
Operators tried to bias a random event generator by intention; over 12 years ~2.5M trials showed a bias matching intent — a few extra bits per 10,000, hugely significant but tiny.
VerdictA 2000 German-US three-lab replication (PortREG) failed; the lab closed in 2007.
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Zhang Baosheng & Institute 507
🏛️ Official record
Defence-commission Institute 507 · China Somatic Science Society · China, Beijing · 1983–1995
Benxi youth Zhang was formally hired by Institute 507 in 1983 and reputedly could pass pills through sealed bottles, retrieve objects at a distance and burn things by intent, performing for top officials. On 21 May 1988 He Zuoxiu and Lin Zixin caught him switching and hiding objects; ‘Superman Zhang Baosheng’s Waterloo’ appeared in 1995.
VerdictChina’s most famous state-linked PK case — ultimately debunked.
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The Rosenheim law-office ‘haunting’
🎓 Academic research
Freiburg IGPP’s Hans Bender · Max Planck physicists Karger & Zicha · German post & Siemens · Germany, Bavaria · 1967
Lamps swung, phones auto-dialled the speaking clock, a copier leaked; post and power engineers measured unexplained current pulses, and events happened only when a 19-year-old clerk was present.
VerdictPhysicists wrote that ‘some phenomena can’t be explained by known physics’; everything stopped after she left — sceptics suspect pranks plus misread instruments.
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The Enfield poltergeist
📜 On record
Britain’s SPR · Grosse & Playfair · UK, London · 1977–1979
Around two girls in a single-parent home, furniture moved, knocks sounded and a deep male voice spoke; a policeman signed a statement about a chair sliding on its own, and the BBC and press covered it heavily.
VerdictThe girls later admitted some was faked; still Britain’s most famous ‘poltergeist’ case, adapted into many films.
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Palladino séances & the Curies
📜 On record
Institut Général Psychologique Paris · Pierre & Marie Curie, Nobelist Richet present · SPR 1908 Naples report · France · Italy · 1905–1908
Naples medium Palladino ‘moved’ tables and curtains at Paris séances the Curies attended repeatedly; in 1908 three SPR sceptics observed her in Naples and reported ‘inexplicable’ effects.
VerdictShe was repeatedly caught cheating with hands and feet (Columbia 1910); the ‘partly genuine’ debate persists.
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Rhine dice PK experiments
🎓 Academic research
Duke University · USA · 1934–1943
Subjects tried to influence machine-thrown dice; first published in 1943.
VerdictThe effect shrank as experimental rigour increased.
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Global Consciousness Project (GCP)
🎓 Academic research
Princeton’s Roger Nelson (a PEAR offshoot) · ~70 nodes worldwide · 1998–present
A global network of RNGs runs continuously; researchers claim the data deviated around major events like 9/11.
VerdictCriticised for post-hoc selection of events and statistical windows.
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Sun Chulin & Shen Jinchuan (China University of Geosciences somatic-science institute)
🎓 Academic research
China Univ of Geosciences (Wuhan), Shen Jinchuan · American Journal of Chinese Medicine 2000, Journal of Scientific Exploration 2010 · China, Wuhan · 1987–2000s
Sun Chulin, a Wuhan library clerk born in 1957, became Shen Jinchuan’s main research subject from the late 1980s, recorded performing dozens of ‘functions’: bending coins and ‘drilling’ holes in them by intent, ‘reviving’ dead seeds such as roasted peanuts so they sprouted and rooted several cm within ~20 minutes, thoughtography (images onto film), retrieving objects at a distance, etc. Shen published on ‘qi-projected seed germination that altered germination-related genes’ in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine (2000).
VerdictNever accepted by the mainstream under controlled, independently reproducible conditions; critics note the videos were edited and the key ‘process’ is never observable (only results). The psi craze was ruled pseudoscience by the late 1990s. See this archive’s Sun Chulin dossier.
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