“Edgar D. Mitchell, who became the sixth man to walk on the moon ..[ ] Heading home, Commander Mitchell secretly conducted an experiment in extrasensory perception – thought transference – while his fellow astronauts were asleep. He concentrated on symbols in a set of cards he had brought with him in the hope that four people he had selected back on Earth could read his thoughts and determine what those drawings were.”
N.Y. Times Int., Feb 8th 2016
The Hague, April 18, 2016
Living in Moscow I hit upon some information which throws an alternative light on the experiments cited in commanders Mitchell’s necrology.
In the early years of Soviet space research investigators found a report from around 1915 which gave a semblance of prove extrasensory communication was real.
The story in the report was simple but stunning. A very old man without a birth certificate and an absurd estimation of his own age, was proven to know details of the Napoleonic war which he could certainly not know if he had not been present. His story that he had been enlisted when 15 was dismissed. He was a Russian man, so stories about extreme old people from the Caucasus did not apply, if even believed.
When Ms. Jeanne Calment died at 122 years of age in 1997, it was proven that the old man could have been reliable, but that was to late for the Russian useless investment. And nobody laid the link between her death in France and the secrets of the Russian space program.
Convinced they had the necessary proof of a method to cut the time factor out of interstellar communication, the Russian Space agency went on a large and well funded program to develop practically useful extrasensory methods for communication in their space program. It was financed for many years.
I am convinced Nasa and CIA knew about it. And American astronauts probably heard some rumors So I am not convinced a navy commander would do some unscripted work while on mission. I consider it more plausible that NASA did not want to look silly with hocus spokes experiments and limited the people in the loop to the very minimum and did not take institutional responsibility.
Before the funding stopped, the Russians had funny experiments, such as training people to read with their fingertips. Not on Braille but on plain printed paper. How that could help to speed up interstellar communication I never understood.