---
category: Psychics & Remote Viewers
summary: Kogan, like many Soviet researchers, hypothesized that psi was a low-frequency
  radio system built into human brains.
tags:
- Person
- RemoteViewer
- Soviet
updated: 2026-09-22
---

I. M. Kogan was a [Soviet](/places/soviet-union/) electrical engineer and parapsychologist who approached psi research from a communications perspective. Unlike some other Soviet researchers, his work was considered relatively serious by Western intelligence agencies.[^1]

Kogan, like many Soviet researchers, hypothesized that psi was a low-frequency radio system built into human brains. He conducted experiments to characterize psi data transmission, concluding that it could transmit about 0.1 "bit" of information per second within a laboratory, decreasing to 0.005 bits per second over six hundred miles.[^1]

His work gained further attention when it suddenly disappeared from public view around 1969, coinciding with reports that the KGB had begun to fund and direct his laboratory at the Popov Society. This suggested a heightened interest from Soviet intelligence in the practical applications of psi.[^1]

A [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) briefing on "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," given to the Air Force in July 1987, dated Kogan's work to 1965 and about 1975 under the headings "communication," "symbols, digits," "long distance (3,000 km)," "information access," "screening for talented people," "hypnosis not used" and a "low frequency electromagnetic hypothesis."[^2]

[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Henry E. Shinol, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analyses, Headquarters USAF, to the Defense Intelligence Agency, "Soviet Parapsychology Research Briefing," June 12, 1987, and cover note of July 14, 1987, with paper briefing slides "Soviet Activities in Psychoenergetics," CIA-RDP96-00789R002600320001-8 to -004-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.