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Nina Kulagina, Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina (, born Ninel Mikhaylova) (30 July 1926 – 11 April 1990) was a Russian woman who claimed to have psychic powers, particularly in psychokinesis. Academic research of her phenomenon was conducted in the USSR for the last 20 years of her life.
Kulagina was suspected of utilizing hidden and Invisible thread to perform her feats.Planer, Felix (1980). Superstition. Cassell. pp. 230-234. She was caught cheating on more than one occasion according to the authors of several books and publications.Levy, Joel. (2002). K.I.S.S Guide to the Unexplained. DK Publishing. p. 44. "Tricks were employed by Russian housewife and psychic Ninel Kulagina, who was caught using invisible thread to lift tennis balls and hidden magnets to move saltshakers."Mike Dash. (1997). Borderlands. William Heinemann Ltd. "The Russian psychic Ninel Kulagina, who in the 1960s, produced effects very similar to those of Tomczyk - moving a salt cellar and levitating a table tennis ball - was eventually caught by Soviet parapsychologists using concealed magnets and invisible thread to effect her tricks."Kravitz, Jerome; Hillabrant, Walter. (1977). The Future is Now: Readings in Introductory Psychology. F. E. Peacock Publishers. p. 301. Quoting Martin Gardner: "Ninel has been caught cheating more than once by Soviet Establishment scientists." In 1987, Kulagina sued and won a partial victory in a defamation case brought against a Soviet government magazine that had accused her of fraud.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "This Russian woman’s psychic powers ignited a paranormal arms race between the U.S. and the USSR". timeline.com. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "The phenomenon of Ninel Kulagina: questions and answers". skepticsociety.ru. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
Kulagina claimed 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. Kulagina said that in order to manifest the effect, she required a period of meditation to clear her mind of all thoughts. When she had obtained the focus required, she reported a sharp pain in her vertebral column and the blurring of her eyesight. Reportedly, interfered with her ability to perform psychokinetic acts.
One of Kulagina's most celebrated experiments took place in a Saint Petersburg laboratory on 10 March 1970. Having initially studied the ability to move inanimate objects, scientists were curious to see if Kulagina's abilities extended to cells, tissues, and organs. Sergeyev was one of many scientists present when Kulagina attempted to use her energy to stop the beating of a frog'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.Thelma Moss (1979). The Body Electric. J. P. Tarcher. p. 79.
In the 1960s, Russian journalist Vladimir Lvov published an article in Pravda which accused Kulagina of fraud. Lvov wrote that she performed one of her tricks by concealing a magnet on her body. The article also reported that Kulagina had been arrested for cheating the public out of five thousand . Science writer Martin Gardner described Kulagina as a "pretty, plump, dark eyed little charlatan" who had been caught using tricks to move objects.Martin Gardner (1983). Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. Oxford University Press. p. 244. According to Gardner, she was "caught cheating more than once by Soviet Establishment scientists."
In 1986, the magazine Man and Law published by the Soviet Ministry of Justice accused Kulagina of fraud. Kulagina sued the magazine journalists for defamation and won a partial victory on the suit a year later. The court ruled that the journalists did not have direct evidence of fraud. Kulagina was not present at the trial. The Russian Skeptic Society have noted that the trial's conclusion "does not say anything about whether Kulagina has been confirmed to have anomalous abilities".
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