Within the sterile, windowless offices of the Pentagon and the CIA, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain was not dismissed. It was read with intense, paranoid scrutiny. Intelligence analysts realized that if the Soviets were indeed mastering the mechanics of the human mind, the United States was facing a massive "psychic gap."
"We have to write the book," Lynn said firmly, sitting down opposite Sheila. "Not a sensationalized tabloid piece, but a serious, documented account of what we saw. We lay out the science. We name the researchers. We show the West that while we are building bigger missiles, the East is unlocking the untapped power of the human brain." Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder - Psychic Disc...
Armed with press credentials, boundless curiosity, and a healthy dose of nerve, the two women had navigated the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the Eastern Bloc. They had visited hidden laboratories in Moscow, Leningrad, Prague, and Sofia. They had sat in cramped offices with chain-smoking scientists who looked more like gray accountants than pioneers of the impossible. And what they found had shaken them to their core. Within the sterile, windowless offices of the Pentagon
Slowly, the chaos of their notes began to take a powerful, cohesive shape. They wrote about the blind Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga, whose predictions were so accurate the government put her on the official payroll. They detailed the extraordinary telekinetic abilities of Nina Kulagina, who could move objects and stop a frog's heartbeat using nothing but her mind, verified under strict laboratory conditions. They described the "biophysical effect"—the use of dowsing rods by Soviet geologists to find oil and gold, turning ancient folklore into state-sponsored industry. "Not a sensationalized tabloid piece, but a serious,