Lifting a Star Wars X-wing fighter out of a swamp bog
through the use of one’s mind is a demonstration of telekinesis.
Of course in the movie it was done with a crane, but is
telekinesis a reality?
Telekinesis, or psychokinesis as it is also known, is the
power to affect material objects by the power of the mind. That
is, pushing, pulling, twisting, lifting or otherwise moving a
physical object simply by willing it to move. Now if the truth
be known, who among us hasn’t tried to do this especially when
something we want is just barely beyond our reach. We have
dropped a tool while working on a car, and by Murphy’s Law, it
has bounced to the exact geometric center under the automobile
just beyond our reach. We stretch out our hand as we literally
try to exert a magnetic field from our fingertips in hope of
snagging the tool. The vision of Luke Skywalker’s light saber
returning to his grasp flashes in our mind. Or we painfully
stretch our arm behind a heavy piece of furniture trying to
reach a power plug we want to unplug. We literally imagine our
hand has an invisible extension that will somehow reach that
extra three inches that allows us to pull the plug.
Do we have any hope in these situations? Well, the
evidence tells us that telekinesis is a real phenomenon.
Unfortunately, the evidence also tells us that many who claim to
have telekinetic ability are faking it.
In a number of cases telekinesis appears to be the
explanation for actions attributed to poltergeists. In these
instances the actions of a poltergeist (i.e., a non-material
manifestation that moves physical objects) often are connected
with the unconscious activity of people under extreme stress or
major changes in hormonal activity (teenagers). In such
instances it appears that the subconscious mind is somehow
triggered into performing feats that cannot be readily
duplicated by the same person in the conscious state. One such
person, Stanislawa Tomczyk, who was born in Poland, had
spontaneous poltergeist activity occur around her. Under
hypnosis in the early 1900s she also was able to demonstrate
levitations that were examined at very close range. So, it
appears that an altered state of consciousness either triggers
or allows this capability to be manifest in certain individuals.
However, is telekinetic ability more widespread than we might
think?
Uri Geller is a well known “psychic” who often demonstrates
spoon bending and other telekinetic abilities. Geller’s
abilities are not without question, but it’s not his abilities
or lack of them that was the major factor during a British radio
show in 1973. After demonstrating key bending to the
astonishment of the host, Geller invited the listening audience
to participate by trying to perform telekinetic activities
themselves. Within minutes, phone calls began coming into the
radio station from listeners all over the United Kingdom
reporting that knives, forks, spoons, keys and nails began to
bend and twist spontaneously. Watches and clocks that had not
run in years began to work. The widespread result surprised
everyone including Geller. Could it be that we self-limit our
ability to directly affect objects with our minds? If so, would
someone who is somewhat out of control be more likely to display
telekinetic capability.
During the late 1950’s and 1960 one such man was Ted
Serios. Ted was noted for being able to produce images on film
that did not match anything within the room in which the
photographs were taken. Typically when such images were
produced Ted was very drunk, cursing madly and sometimes even
running around half naked. Even with this behavior, Ted’s
psychic pictures seldom happened until this activity had been
on-going for hours. There were even people with scientific
backgrounds who, at the time, attested to the pictures being
clearly of psychic origin. However, things are not always as
they seem.
I remember one of the last times I heard about Ted Serios
was during the broadcast of a TV show about the paranormal in
which a TV video of one of Ted’s psychic pictures was shown.
One second the video was showing the normal room, and the next
second there was a picture of something else which clearly was
not in the room. It was amazing. Unfortunately, what was more
amazing was the thing the TV video neglected to mention
especially since it was the same thing earlier articles about
Ted also failed to mention. They all neglected to mention and
never showed Ted’s “gizmo” that was connected to him producing
the pictures.
Ted’s “gizmo” seemed innocent enough. It was a short black
empty paper tube. Ted would place this paper tube in front of
the camera whenever he was trying to produce psychic pictures.
Sometime it worked and sometimes it didn’t, but Ted never
produced any pictures without it. Then one day Ted slipped and
someone briefly caught sight of something within the tube.
Someone else also noted there was something a little odd about
the position of Ted’s hands from time to time. It didn’t take
long to put two and two together.
Ted’s empty paper “gizmo” was used to occasionally secret a
small optical device which he did with a little sleight of hand.
The optical device itself was likely a novelty key chain gadget
that could often be seen advertised in the back of magazines at
the time. It amounted to a lens, a short tube and a
transparency at the other end. It allowed for the viewing of a
scantily clad woman when held right up to the eye. By simply
changing the transparency and holding the gadget up to the lens
of a camera a picture is made of the transparency. How this
works is illustrated at http://www.niler.com/es9.html .
To produce his “psychic” pictures Ted simply carried on
with his usual antics for a time until he was quite sure people
were not paying such close attention. Then he would slip the
device into his “gizmo”, a picture would be taken, and he would
return the device to its hiding place while the picture was
being developed all while cursing, jumping around and generally
behaving as a raving drunk.
One very fundamental question is whether or not the human
brain simply has enough power to move heavy objects. The
typical brain actually consumes approximately 20 watts. Imagine
how much usefulness you would get from the energy of a 20 watt
light bulb and you begin to “see” (pun intended) how much useful
energy we have here. It is amazing what the human brain is
capable of doing with so little power. However, we should not
be too quick to judge the size of the power available to the
human brain just as Yoda points out we should not be too quick
to judge his capability by his size.
Every day of the week infinitesimal amounts of energy are
used to fill our homes with entertainment. A very strong TV
signal at the input to a television amounts to 0.01 microwatts
or about 1/200,000,000,000th as much as the power consumed by
our brain. So, how is it possible for such a small amount of
power to produce such a big effect (filling our home with moving
pictures and sound)? It is accomplished by letting the small
amount of power (the TV signal) control a much bigger source of
power (the power available to the TV coming in through the AC
outlets of our home). Could telekinesis work in the same way?
The key here is that indeed there is power that pervades
the universe but which seems to be just beyond our grasp. This
is what is referred to often as zero point energy. This is the
background energy that is literally everywhere but is difficult
to tap. We also know from certain poltergeist situations that
the human mind does seem to be taping into some form of
significant energy. So, perhaps the mind is capable of
accessing, controlling, modulating, or in someway directing the
flow of zero point energy. If so, what might the limit be?
And God said let there be light and there was light.
