Looking through a box of old cassette tapes, I stumbled upon a long interview I did way back in 1982 – till now, forgotten. It was with Professor Milan Ryzl, who was visiting Bern on a lecture tour of Europe.

Milan Ryzl was born in the old communist Czechoslovakia. He left the-then Soviet satellite state and defected to the United States back in the 1960’s. This was because of the work he was doing into what could have been used for military and intelligence services in the old Soviet Union. After being granted asylum, he settled in California where he taught at John F. Kennedy University.

Professor Ryzl, who died in 2011, was an internationally known parapsychologist and the author of several books on the subject, mainly in German. One concerned Parapsychology as a political weapon, and another was about so-called “near death experiences” and the afterlife.

The interview begins with Professor Ryzl explaining how he got interested in this field.

Please note that since this interview was recorded, it has been confirmed that the United States and the USSR/Russia had/have programs to use parapsychological techniques for military and espionage purposes. The American program is referred to as “remote viewing”, and is known to be active.

This recording was originally made as a low-quality backup. Unfortunately, the original, high-quality recording has been lost. We have done our best to improve the sound of this surviving backup recording, and trust you will excuse the relatively poor quality, which we are presenting here due to the value of its content.

Bob Zanotti

February 2025