Psi Gap

The "Psi Gap" was a perceived disparity in psychic research capabilities between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This concept gained prominence following reports of extensive Soviet and Eastern European psi research, particularly after the sensational 1960 article "The Secret of the Nautilus", which Leonid Vasiliev cited in 1960 in arguing for Soviet psi research and which the 1972 DIA report says stimulated Soviet parapsychology research.¹²³

The 1972 Controlled Offensive Behavior - USSR report by the DIA explicitly warned of a "devastating 'psi gap,'" stating that "Soviet knowledge in this field is superior to that of the West." This alarmist assessment, which outlined potential military applications of psi such as telepathic communication and psychokinesis, contributed to the U.S. intelligence community's increased interest in and funding of its own psi research, including the Stargate Project, in an effort to catch up with perceived Soviet advancements.¹

The 1975 DIA study described rumors of ship-to-shore experiments with the Nautilus and said the "experiments" "probably were mythical," while noting that the claims had "one tangible consequence" for Soviet research.⁴