Soviet scientists allegedly tested telepathy to communicate with submarines

A 1975 Defense Intelligence Agency document describes a 1956 Soviet experiment conducted by scientist Pavel Naumov to investigate potential telepathic links between animals.

To explore whether a biological connection between a mother and its offspring could persist over long distances, researchers kept a mother rabbit in a land-based laboratory while her newborns were taken aboard a submerged Soviet Navy submarine. Researchers monitored the mother's brain activity via electrodes while the young rabbits were killed one by one on the vessel. Naumov claimed that the mother's brain readings showed changes corresponding to the deaths of the offspring, which was interpreted as a possible telepathic connection.

The experiment was reportedly motivated by the Cold War challenge of communicating with submarines that remained underwater for extended periods. Because seawater absorbs radio energy quickly, finding alternative signaling methods was a priority for both the Soviet Union and the United States. However, the intelligence document provided no evidence confirming that the recorded responses were actually caused by telepathy.