Magic.

This is coolbert:

I stand corrected on several points of mine from a previous post, the review of the movie, "Hero".

An informant of mine tells me that electric eels generate electricity in their own bodies by muscular contractions that they of course can control. NOT through chemical reactions. I would anticipate that those "adepts" that are also able to generate electricity in their own bodies probably are using muscle contractions as well!! However, I would not preclude the possibility of adepts being able to control body chemicals in some sort of fashion so as to also generate electricity!!

With regard to "mind clouding", qualification is also required.

One "adept" that was supposedly able to "mind cloud" was the psychic Wolf Messing [Messing seems to be a pre-cursor to Uri Geller].

A renowned psychic in Europe in the years prior to World War Two, Messing, a Jew, fled to the Soviet Union where he came to the attention of Stalin. Supposedly, under the tutelage of Messing, entire generations of Soviet psychics were trained, these "adepts" possessing what were believed to be formidable "powers".

U.S. experts interested in psychic phenomenon during the Cold War used to constantly stress their belief that the Soviets did have a considerable advantage over the U.S. in the area of psychic abilities, psychic abilities that could be used for military purposes [remote viewing and mind control]. Soviet psychics were said to be gifted and had been trained in the hundreds or thousands!!

With hindsight, these claims have to be taken with a grain of salt.

On a visit to Russia, the magician "The Amazing Randi" investigated the "powers" of psychics supposedly to be found in the remnants of the old Soviet Union.

This investigation proved to be very disappointing. Self-proclaimed Russian psychics are nothing more than imitations of similar charlatans and con-artists found all over the world. "Psychics" who have learned a few simple magic tricks and are able to fool the uninitiated with "claims" of "powers".

Evidently, the psychic gap is analogous to other "gaps" that existed in the minds of American experts all during the Cold War. Such gaps as the so-called bomber-gap, the missile-gap, the titanium welding gap [useful in the fabricating of hulls for submarines] and other areas of expertise where the Soviets were said to possess definite and alarming advantages over the U.S.

[once again, persons in the U.S. who should have known better regarding "capabilities" of the Soviets were dead wrong. During the Cold War, appreciations of the Soviet Union were made by U.S. intelligence agencies that in many cases fell far short of what actually was. This includes the various "gaps", as mentioned above. "Gaps" that either did not exist or were much overstated!!]

[James Randi is a professional magician who belongs to an organization that investigates [debunks] psychic phenomenon and the claims of persons who profess to have "powers". There is a standing offers of a large cash prize to anyone that can demonstrate their "powers" under controlled conditions. Literally dozens of persons have tried to demonstrate their "powers", none being able to meet the agreed upon criteria [this would include a teenage girl who was said to be able to see through solid objects, a woman who could predict in advance what a card drawn from a shuffled deck would be, and a man who tried to make a snow white dove materialize in a light proof box!!!]].

My apologies are in order!!

coolbert.