Leonid Vasiliev
Father of Soviet parapsychology
Timeline - Vasiliev in the record
6 events from the Ivanov's Ghost archive.
Leonid Vasiliev is born in Pskov Governorate.
Vasiliev joins Bekhterev's brain institute in Petrograd and takes over its physiology laboratory in 1923, continuing the 'mental suggestion' research.
Vasiliev begins systematic experiments in mental suggestion at a distance, using hypnosis and electromagnetic shielding.
A group for parapsychological experiments forms inside Vasiliev's laboratory at Leningrad University, the nearest thing to an institutional home Soviet ESP research had. Only one source dates it as early as 1960.
Vasiliev's scientific volume claims telepathic suggestion crosses shielding and distance undiminished; it appears in English in 1963 as 'Experiments in Mental Suggestion'.
Vasiliev dies in Leningrad in 1966, aged 74, the acknowledged father of Soviet parapsychology. The sources give only the year, and one library catalogue has 1965.
The research file for this dossier holds 7 verified source entries, 7 of them distinct works. The sources page lists every one of them with what it covers, how it was reached, and the sharpest point at which this page and its sources come apart.