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Psychic Discoveries behind the iron Curtain -  Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder

The film projectors churred and at long last we viewed the elusive Mikhailova PK film…..  Mrs. Mikhailova was seated at a large, round, white table in front of a lace-curtained window. The Russians said she had already been physically examined by a medical doctor, who had even had her x-rayed to make sure there were no hidden objects or magnets concealed on her person, nor any fragments of shrapnel lodged in her body from her war injury. He found none.

The five-man film crew, scientists, and reporters moved in closer.

Naumov placed on the table in front of Nelya a compass on a wristband, a vertical cigarette, a Pen top, a small metal cylinder like a saltshaker, and a matchbox picturing a lunar spaceship –a figurative version of outer space confronting "inner space."

The objects gleamed against the pale table like a still life by Dali, poised on the edge of the supernatural.

Mikhailova's dark eyes concentrated on the compass-the easiest object to warm up on. PK is easier with rotating objects, say western researchers, with clocks and compasses there's no static friction.

It sometimes takes Mikhailova two to four hours to rev up her supernormal powers, Naumov mentioned in his commentary as we watched the silent film. Nelya held her long fingers parallel to the table about six inches above the compass and began to move her hands in a circular motion. The strain etched the dimples deep in her cheeks. Twenty minutes passed. Her pulse raced to 250 beats a minute.

She moved her head from side to side gazing intently at the compass needle. Her hands moved as though she were con ducting some unseen orchestra. And then, as if the atoms in the compass needle were tuned in to her, the needle shivered. Slowly it began to spin counter-clockwise, turning like the second hand of a clock. Then the entire compass, plastic case, leather strap, and all, began to whirl.

As the entire compass spun like a carousel, the lines under Mikhailova's eyes darkened and the wrinkles on her forehead deepened with the intense strain. She fell back exhausted.

"How much power she has depends on weather conditions, too," Naumov told us. "Her PK power diminishes in stormy weather."