Nina Kulagina

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Nina Kulagina

Nina Kulagina, Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina (aka Nelya Mikhailova) (1926 – 1990) was a Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n woman who reportedly had great psychic

Psychic

The word psychic refers to a proposed ability to perception information hidden from the senses through what is described as extrasensory perception, or to those people said to have such abilities....
powers, particularly in psychokinesis

Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy....
. Academic research of her phenomenon was conducted in the USSR for the last twenty years of her life.

gina, who was born in 1927, joined the Red Army

Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
at 14, entering its tank regiment during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, but she was a housewife at the time that her alleged psychic abilities were studied and she entered international discourse in the 1960s.

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Encyclopedia

Nina Kulagina, Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina (aka Nelya Mikhailova) (1926 – 1990) was a Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n woman who reportedly had great psychic

Psychic

Psychokinesis

Biography

Kulagina, who was born in 1927, joined the Red Army

Red Army

World War II

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
, silent black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white is a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses....
films of her appearing to move objects on a table in front of her without touching them, were produced. These films were allegedly made under controlled conditions for Soviet authorities and caused excitement for many psychic researchers around the world, some of whom believed that they represented clear evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena. According to reports from the Soviet Union, forty scientists, two of whom were Nobel

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
laureates, studied Kulagina. In Investigating Psychics, Larry Kettlekamp reports that Mikhailova was filmed separating broken eggs that had been submerged in water, moving apart the whites and yolks, during which event such physical changes were recorded as accelerated and altered heartbeat, brain waves and electromagnetic field

Electromagnetic field

The electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by electric charge. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field....
. To ensure that external electromagnetic impulses did not interfere, she was placed inside of a metal cage while she demonstrated her ability to remove a marked matchstick from a pile of matchsticks under a glass dome.

Kulagina later indicated that she first recognized her ability, which she believed she had inherited from her mother, when she realized that items spontaneously moved around her when she was angry. Subsequently, she worked to develop the ability to move items of her own volition. Kulagina said that in order to manifest the effect, she required a period of meditation

Meditation

Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness....
to clear her mind of all thoughts. When she had obtained the focus required, she reported a sharp pain in her spine

Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column of 24 vertebrae, the sacrum, intervertebral discs, and the coccyx situated in the dorsum aspect of the torso, separated by spinal discs....
and the blurring of her eyesight. Reportedly, storm

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's Celestial body atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather....
s interfered with her ability to perform psychokinetic acts.

One of Kulagina most celebrated experiments took place in a Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
laboratory on 10 March 1970. Having initially studied the ability to move inanimate objects, scientists were curious to see if Nina's abilities extended to cells

Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
, tissues

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function....
, and organs

Organ (anatomy)

In biology, an organ is a biological tissue that performs a specific function or group of functions. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues....
. Sergeyev was one of many scientists present when Nina attempted to use her energy to stop the beating of a frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . The name frog derives from Old English language frogga, , cognate with Sanskrit plava , probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European language praw = "to jump"....
's heart floating in solution. He said that she focused intently on the heart and apparently made it beat faster, then slower, and using extreme intent of thought, stopped it.

In the late 1970s, a near fatal heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when the Blood flow to part of the heart is interrupted. This is most commonly due to occlusion of a coronary artery following the rupture of a Vulnerable plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids and white blood cells in the wall of an artery....
forced Kulagina to scale back her activities. According to a report produced by Dr. Zverev, her heartbeat was irregular, she had high blood sugar

Blood sugar

Blood sugar concentration, or glucose level, refers to the amount of glucose present in a mammal's blood. Normally, the blood glucose level is maintained at a Reference_ranges_for_blood_tests#Electrolytes_and_Metabolites between about 4 and 6 mM ....
, and her endocrine system

Endocrine system

The endocrine system is a system of small organs that involve the release of extracellular signaling molecules known as hormones. The endocrine system is instrumental in regulating metabolism, human development , and tissue and also plays a part in determining Mood ....
was disturbed. Over the long term, she suffered from pains in her arms and legs, could not coordinate properly, and experienced dizziness

Dizziness

Dizziness describes a number of subjective symptoms, which the patient may describe as feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, giddiness, confusion, disorientation or loss of balance....
. The report said that these symptoms were the result of her paranormal exertions, and limited her ability to demonstrate psychokinesis under controlled conditions.

Criticism

Many skeptical individuals and organizations, such as the James Randi Educational Foundation

James Randi Educational Foundation

The James Randi Educational Foundation is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magic and Scientific skepticism James Randi....
and the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims on the Paranormal (CICAP) express strong skepticism regarding the truth of these claims. It is noted that the long preparation times and uncontrolled environments (such as hotel rooms) in which the experiments took place left much potential for trickery. Skeptics have argued that many of Kulagina's feats could easily be performed by one practiced in sleight of hand

Sleight of hand

Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or l?ger de main , is the set of techniques used by a magic ian to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
, through means such as cleverly concealed or disguised threads, small pieces of magnetic metal, or mirrors. They further point to the fact that no sleight of hand experts appear to have ever been present during experiments, and that the Cold War

Cold War

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
had an obvious motive for falsifying or exaggerating results in the potential propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to Objectivity providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience....
value in appearing to win a "Psi Race" analogous to the concurrent Space Race

Space Race

File:Space race1.jpgThe Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975....
or arms race

Arms race

The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for real or apparent military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation....
.

External links

Comprehensive Biography of Nina Kulagina
Magicians and parapsychologists describe mundane methods