30 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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aliases:
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- Jacques Bergier
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category: "Authors & Journalists"
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tags:
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- Person
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- Journalist
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- Author
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summary: "Jacques Bergier was a journalist, former French resistance spy, and author with strong ties to the intelligence community and an interest in the supernatural."
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born: 1912-08-21
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died: 1978-11-23
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location: "Odessa, Ukraine"
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---
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Jacques Bergier was a journalist, former French resistance spy, and author with strong ties to the intelligence community and an interest in the supernatural. He is known for bringing secret government [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] programs to public attention[^1].
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In December 1959, Bergier published an article in the French magazine *Constellation* titled "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War." The article reported that ESP tests had been conducted aboard the [[USS Nautilus]], the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, in 1958. The purpose of the experiment was to determine if long-distance telepathic communication could be achieved through barriers like thousands of miles of seawater, thick polar ice, and the metal walls of a submarine[^1].
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According to Bergier, the ESP experiment involved simple sender-receiver trials using [[Zener Cards]]. He identified [[William H. Bowers]], director of the Biological Department of the Air Force Research Institute, as the man overseeing the joint-service ESP experiment. Bergier's story claimed that the sender and receiver communicated telepathically over a sixteen-day period starting on July 25, 1958[^1].
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An expanded version of his story, "The Secret of the Nautilus," was published in France's top science journal, *Science et Vie*, in February 1960. While no authors were identified, editor [[Gérald Messadié]] stated that multiple sources had confirmed the story. [[J. B. Rhine]] of the [[Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory]] was identified as the civilian scientist assigned to the project, with reports of "about 75% of the telepathic tries are said to have been successful"[^1].
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Whether Bergier's story was true or fabricated remains a debate, but it had real-world consequences. The Soviets used the news story to their strategic advantage, with [[Leonid Vasiliev|Leonid L. Vasilev]], Russia's leading ESP researcher, claiming that Soviet parapsychology research was stimulated by the *Nautilus* reports[^1].
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### Publications
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* "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" (*Constellation*, 1959)
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* *Morning of the Magicians* (co-authored with Louis Pauwels)
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
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