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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ninel Kulagina.md

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+---
+aliases:
+- Ninel Kulagina
+  - Nina Kulagina
+category: "Skeptics & Critics"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Skeptic
+summary: "Ninel Kulagina (1926–1990), also known as Nina Kulagina, was a celebrated Soviet psychic and a decorated World War II hero, having served as a front-line soldier and tank radio operator for the Red Army."
+born: 1926-07-30
+died: 1990-04-11
+location: "Leningrad, Soviet Union"
+---
+
+# Ninel Kulagina
+
+Ninel Kulagina (1926–1990), also known as Nina Kulagina, was a celebrated Soviet psychic and a decorated [[World War II]] hero, having served as a front-line soldier and tank radio operator for the [[Red Army]]. She gained international attention for her purported [[Psychokinesis|psychokinetic]] abilities, particularly her capacity to move matter with her mind[^1].
+
+Kulagina's abilities reportedly manifested in childhood, with objects spontaneously moving when she became angry. Starting in the mid-1960s, her psychokinetic feats became the subject of state-run television programs in the [[Soviet Union]], such as *Science Films* produced by Leningrad Studios. She was filmed moving objects sealed inside a glass aquarium, including metal salt shakers, matchsticks, and cigar canisters[^1].
+
+In the [[United States]], skeptics often dismissed her demonstrations as fraud. However, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and the [[Department of Defense]] were not as dismissive, especially after a classified film from March 10, 1970, at the Ukhtomskii Military Institute in Leningrad, showed Kulagina allegedly stopping a frog's heart with her mind. This film caused significant alarm within the American defense community[^1].
+
+The experiment, overseen by Soviet military doctor [[Genady Sergeyev]], involved Kulagina concentrating for about twenty minutes to stop a surgically removed frog's heart, which was still beating in Ringer's solution. Her physiological responses, including a heart rate of 240 and elevated blood pressure, were monitored. According to declassified documents, the heart activity ceased after approximately 7 minutes in the first experiment and 22 minutes in a second. She was also reportedly able to "reactivate" the heart[^1].
+
+Another experiment involved Kulagina attempting to increase the heart rate of a skeptical physician, which reportedly reached dangerous levels within minutes. While some U.S. analysts suspected a Soviet disinformation campaign, others, particularly from the Medical Intelligence Office of the [[U.S. Army]], considered the military applications of such abilities to be extremely important[^1].
+
+Kulagina's alleged abilities contributed to the [[Pentagon]]'s decision to launch a joint intelligence assessment of the "Soviet psychoenergetic threat," a term coined to encompass Soviet research into anomalous mental phenomena and [[Electromagnetic Weapons|electromagnetic weapons]] programs[^1]. Her work, along with that of [[H. S. Tsien]] in [[China]], highlighted the perceived need for the U.S. to invest in its own psychic research programs.
+
+### 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.