Professor Vasiliev, a Soviet parapsychologist, reviews what he knows of world research in psychic materialism and indicates recent Russian advances. Much of his work is taken up with the rational explanations of things otherwise miscredited to the psyche. He debunks powers of prophecy and insight attributed to sleep and dreams and is far more interested in biocybernetics. This is the activity of making machines function by mental power or stimulus, and is apparently most useful in medicine and computer systems. Vasiliev, who is a sort of dreamy realist, reveals no technical secrets but does state that Russian scientists have developed an artificial hand that works by mental and not muscular direction. In a related field he shows the valuable uses of hypnotism and autosuggestion in psychiatry and education. Needless to say, God, the soul, immortality, etc. are concepts he thinks medieval. His book is mainly a teasing survey but claims that the Russians are ahead in inner space too.