Vasilier, Dr. Leonid l.

Vasilier, Dr. Leonid l. (1891–1966)

Dr. Leonid Vasiliar was a psychical research pioneer in the Soviet Union. He was Chairman of Physiology at Leningrad University. In April 1960, he addressed a meeting of top Soviet scientists and told them that it was essential to research extrasensory perception, since the United States was testing telepathy on their submarines, as detailed in their Nautilus experiments. He said, “The discovery of the energy underlying ESP will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy.” Within a year, Vasilier became head of a special parapsychology Laboratory at Leningrad University.

Vasilier had begun experimenting with ESP in the 1930s under the Stalin regime, running hundreds of tests trying to “think people into action.” For example, he would concentrate on making a person cross or uncross his legs. The results were too successful to be attributed to chance. He commented, “Out of thirteen tasks telepathically commanded, six were carried out with total accuracy; there are doubts about three; four weren’t carried out.” He also tried to mentally influence a person’s body to feel well rather than sick and had some amazing results with a twenty-nine year old patient in a Leningrad hospital. For years she had suffered hysterical paralysis of the left side but, working with Vasilier and Dr. V. N. Finne, moved her paralyzed arm and leg from mental suggestions alone. These experiments were described in his 1962 book Experiments in Mental Suggestion. One of the most successful of Vasilier’s experiments took place in a room that precluded the existence of electromagnetic radiation, thus eliminating any possible physical communication. Some of his experiments involved subjects who were several hundred miles away. One of Vasilier’s test subjects was Nelya Mikhailova, the psychic who became known for her ability to “see” colors with her fingers.

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