The girl with X-Ray eyes - Natasha Demkina

”It takes me too much time to explain and specify everything that I can see. Sometimes I can see diseases at their early stages, when neither patients nor their doctors have any slightest suspicions about them. That is why we had problems with American scientists,” Natasha says.






       One hundred and ten years ago, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen announced his discovery of an invisible form of radiation that could make photographs of bones and organs inside a living human body. At first, many scientists called the discovery of "X-rays" a hoax, but when the skeptics put Roentgen's claims to the test, they quickly were convinced about one of the greatest discoveries in science and medicine. Indeed, just six years after his discovery, Roentgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics.

       Now comes a teenage girl from Saransk, Russia, who claims to have X-ray-like vision, which lets her see inside of human bodies, to make diagnoses that often are more accurate than those of doctors. First widely hailed in Russia as "the girl with X-ray eyes," 17-year-old Natasha Demkina has a growing following of patients, doctors, journalists, and others who are convinced her powers are real.

     During the test in Japan, Natasha was able to see that one of the patients had a prosthetic knee. Another patient had asymmetrically placed internal organs. Natasha easily diagnosed early stages of pregnancy and even a pathology of the fetus with a female patient. She diagnosed a rare undulating spinal curvature with a male patient. When Japanese doctors compared Natasha's drawing of the curvature with the X-ray photograph, they could see that the photo and the drawing were absolutely identical. When Natasha was finished with her seven patients, Japanese doctors could not help bursting into applause. However, it was only the first stage of the trial.

     Natasha Demkina was offered to diagnose the disease of an old rottweiler. The girl was afraid to approach the unmuzzled animal, but the doctor told her that she had to look at the dog's paws. Five minutes later the girl pointed at the animal's right back leg, in which she saw a prosthetic device.

The Japanese scientists did not believe the girl, when she told them that she could also see diseases on people's photographs. When she was presented a small, passport-sized photo of a person, she quickly diagnosed liver cancer with the person on the picture.

Test by CSMMH (Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health) :

     Based on preliminary research by CSMMH, they suspected Natasha may be using a remarkably simple but convincing technique called "cold reading," which is commonly used by psychics, astrologers, and other fortune tellers.Similarly, Natasha scans her patients from head to toe and describes a long list of abnormalities she says she sees.
      Andrew A. Skolnick, the Executive Director of the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health tells this about her 
 "When she gave me a reading, preciously few organs passed the inspection:. My neck vertebrae were too tight, too close. The bronchial tubes of my lungs had phlegm. The muscle on the left side of my heart is a bit weak and the valve closes late . The mucosa of my stomach is abnormal. A segment of my liver was enlarged and I was suffering poor bile circulation. The head of my pancreas is increased and abnormally dark (although not seriously). My duodenum has a little scar. My prostate gland has a nodule and is inflamed. My right kidney has "sand," while my left kidney's urethra is enlarged. In other words, I should forget about ever again signing an organ donor card."

             CSMMH designed a simple test that would eliminate the possibility of using cold reading to fish for correct information and to prevent Natasha from making diagnoses that could not be disproved without an autopsy. We recruited six volunteers, who each had adifferent medical condition visible on X-rays, plus a "normal" subject who had none of the six target conditions. Natasha was handed six test cards, each with a description of a target medical condition, in English and Russian. We also provided her with anatomical drawings to make sure she understood exactly what to look for and where to look.

    The target conditions were: a removed appendix, a removed lower section of the esophagus, metal staples left in the chest after surgery; an artificial hip joint; a surgically removed upper section of the left lung; and a metal plate covering a removed section of the skull.

      Natasha claims she can see abnormalities down to the cellular level and her mother says her readings are 100 percent accurate. So the test -- which required her to match at least five of the target medical conditions to the correct subjects -- should have been a breeze. She didn't have to scan their entire bodies for unknown conditions. She was told exactly what to look for and exactly where to look. Yet, it took her more than fours to complete the test and she only matched four of the conditions correctly -- a score that everyone prior to the test had agreed upon would not justify further testing.

Natasha's most dramatic misdiagnosis was her failure to see a large metal plate covering a missing section of skull in a man who had a large brain tumor removed. Instead, sheindicatedthat she "saw"ametal plate and missing skull section in a man who had a removed appendix but normal skull.

This is one of the six test cards that were used to assess Natasha’s ability to see abnormalities within the subject’s bodies. In English and in Russian, the card directed Natasha to identify the number of the subject who doesn't have an appendix. Natasha answered subject number 2 -- a woman who still has her appendix. Natasha protested during the test that appendixes can grow back after an appendectomy. When told this isn't possible, she insisted that they do grow back in Russia. Photo credit: Andrew A. Skolnick

Natasha Demkina supporters widely site this “diagnostic” drawing of a “sarcoidosis granuloma” as evidence of her remarkable X-ray vision. Yale Rosen, M.D., a leading expert on sarcoidosis granuloma, however, disagrees. Frame from the Discovery Channel program The Girl with X-ray Eyes. Copyright 2004 Discovery Channel.

The Discovery Channel has broadcasted the program as The Girl with X-ray Eyes.

here is the video.