Psychokinesis is the term generally used for a person’s ability to move objects , create energy materializations and determine the outcome of events through invisible means. If we are to believe that such events can occur, than we must also believe that their are many forces in this world that are beyond our scientific understanding. Are these paranormal abilities, produced through an act of the mind, the body, a spirit or, are they simply a hoax? One way or another, enough skeptics and believers have devoted their lives to understanding these seemingly unexplainable phenomena, and it is the aim of this paper to shed some light on the bizarre forces which are hidden behind the veil of darkness known as ignorance.
To better understand the reasons behind these logic defying acts, let us take a look at the history and the study of psychokinesis. Even in the earliest recorded history of man, we find that many reports of possible psychokinetic phenomena are explained simply as magic, or miracles, especially in the Book of Acts of The New Testament. The actual scientific study of these phenomena did not begin until the nineteenth century when science began to explain the hidden workings of the universe, that were since then attributed to spirits. Here is where we find the study of Psychokinesis, somewhere in between the spiritual and the scientific.
The roots of the study of psychokinesis began in 1848 with a case known as the “Hydesville Rappings”. These incidents began in Hydesville, New York, when a family found their house to be haunted by rapping on the walls, floors, and furniture. The two daughters in the family, Kate and Margaret Fox, began to talk to back at these strange noises. At first in jest, but then in all seriousness when they received coherent responses. The two girls and the haunting became known throughout America. Soon the haunting stopped, but the Fox sisters discovered that they could produce these rapping sounds on command, along with table levitations. Kate and Margaret, became the first physical mediums, and soon toured the country giving seances and demonstrations. They believed these phenomena were caused by the spirits of the dead, and thus created a new religious movement known as spiritualism.
In 1882, about thirty years after spiritualism had spread to England, the Society for Psychical Research was founded, with another branch springing up in America soon after in 1885(located on 5 west 73rd street). These societies were mainly composed of skeptic’s interested in the truth behind spiritualism and its growing popularity.
One of the first and most famous medium to undergo scientific scrutiny was Daniel Dunglas Home. Home was able to perform many displays of psychokineses, including levitations of himself and other objects in the room, materializations of luminous vapors, limbs and bodies, touches, temperature change, raps, the playing of an accordion that was nowhere near him, immunity to fire, and of course raps. He became very well known in his lifetime, as he was one of a small number of mediums who performed under well lit conditions, and even found himself displaying his talents for Napoleon.
It was the renowned scientist William Crookes, founder of the Chemical News, and fellow of the Royal Society, who in 1871 decided to put Home’s unique abilities under the microscope. Crookes attended many seances with Home before bringing him before the experimental conditions of a laboratory. Once there, Home’s abilities became immediately clear. One experiment done involved an accordion caged in copper mesh, which Home was able to play from a sizable distance without any difficulty. The other experiments involved a board with weights designed to measure the psychic force Home could exert. He was able to move the weight’s from several feet away, as well as while his hand was submerged in a vessel of water on the apparatus. Crookes published the results of these findings, along with his experiences during seances with Home in the July and October 1871 issues of The Quarterly Journal of Science, as well as the October 1874 issue.
The next great medium to appear under the scrutiny of science was Eusapia Palladino, who was known for her levitations, psychic winds, the materialization of hands which the sitters could interact with, and making imprints into putty several feet away from her. all observed under well lit conditions with her hands and legs held by sitters on either side of her. She showed the most physical stress during her seances, including muscle spasms, nausea, significant weight loss, and even orgasms.These events were well documented by Cesare Lombroso, (a psychiatrist and anthropologist who switched his field to psychical research after his interaction with Eusapia in 1891) among others.
The accounts of Lombroso and others including Noble Prize winning physiologist, Charles Richet, caused Cambridge University to take interest of Eusapia, and in 1895 she was brought there for study. Things took a turn for the worse for Eusapia when scientists Henry Sedgewick, Alice Johnson, F.W.H. Myers and Richard Hodgson began to study her seances at Cambridge.Hodgson who was a skeptic from the start was holding one of her arms during a seance, and claimed hat when his grip relaxed she had tried to move her hand about, and fake the phenomena.
This claim, as incriminating as it may have been, did little to dissuade other researchers from studying Eusapia. Even if she had had the use of her hand, it could not have accounted for all of her displays of psychokinesis presented to various scientists. Professor Bottazzi furthered the study of Eusapia with the advent of new technology found at the end of the nineteenth century. One test discovered that Eusapia could set off an electroscope, proving an ability of hers to send out an electric frequency.
Harry Price was a major asset to the scientific understanding and proving of psychokinesis. He performed the majority of his work with the mediums Stella Cranshaw and Rudi Schneider. Price’s largest breakthrough’s in studying the psychic phenomena of these two mediums came in the form of his telekinetoscope, a device which could only be activated through psychokinesis, because the activation key was in a liquid bubble in a jar that would pop if physical contact was made with it. He also created a type of motion sensors to be placed on all members of a seances hands and feet, preventing the sitters from moving beyond certain boundaries.
Under these conditions Price observe Stella Cranshaw, levitate and smash tables midair, change the temperature of the room up to twenty degrees,and describe an advertisement in a newspaper that would not be printed for over a month. He also worked with the young Rudi Schneider who would perform various phenomena under the guise of a spirit named Olga.
In 1930 Rudi left Price to work with Dr. Eugene Osty in Paris, where some very interesting discoveries were made. Dr. Osty developed motion sensitive lasers that would set off a camera if crossed and catch the medium cheating. But when Rudi was caught by the camera the photographs showed that he was still under the restraints of the sitters on either side of him. Dr. Osty decided a force invisible to the eye must be passing through the beams. He then hooked the beams up to a bell which during the next seance rang off and on for periods up to and over a minute during the phenomena. Dr. Osty then rigged the beams so that their oscillation by the force could be measured, through this he could also determine the density, volume and duration of the force.
Rudi would hyperventilate during his sittings, from 120 to 300 times a minute. When Dr. Osty, examined the oscillation of the beams, he discovered that they were exactly double Rudi’s rate of respiration, drawing a direct correlation between psychokinesis and the mediums body.
J.B. Rhine of Duke University was probably the most famous researcher of psychic phenomena, working more with extra sensory perception rather than psychokinesis. He also used normal people in his experiments rather than mediums. His tests involved mind reading using cards with symbols on them, predicting the outcome of rolled dice, and making dice land on a certain face. Through his research he claimed that one in five people have extra sensory perception.
Nina Kulagina was an amazingly powerful russian psychic, who came to be known in the 1960’s. She first witnessed her own powers when objects in her house started moving on their own in a poltergeist like manner, only she soon found that she was moving them unconsciously. Later while recovering in a hospital from a nervous breakdown she had suffered more examples of her talent arose when while sewing she found that she could pick the right color thread from her sewing bag without looking. Scientists from the Leningrad institute were notified and soon the range of her ability became clear. Not only could she move small objects using her mind, through walls or not, but she could make images appear on photo paper, start fires, leave burn marks on skin by simply touching them, separate an egg yolk from the white and most frighteningly speed up slow down and stop the heartbeat of a frog.
Unfortunately Nina’s displays of psychic powers left her weak and eventual lead to the heart attack which would end her life in 1990.
The most famous psychic we have today is the spoon bending, and self help book writing Uri Geller. Geller regardless of his intentions, has used his psychic abilities, if he actually has any, to bend spoons, break spoons, fix watches and promote himself and his wares. By selling himself like this I believe he has done the most to set back any beliefs one might have had about psychic phenomena. The psychics of the past were not greedy or out for fame, they simply displayed their talents primarily free of charge, to friends interested parties and most importantly scientists. If Geller has any abilities, he eliminates most peoples belief in them by using them for greedy motives, so we find ourselves in an age sorely lacking in psychic phenomena.
Now that we have a basic knowledge of the history and range of psychokinesis, perhaps we can delve deeper into possible explanations. Could psychokinesis actually be caused by the spirits of the dead? This seems unlikely, even though spiritualism is based on this principal, we can see that haunting are more than -6- likely an act of our own unconscious psychokinesis. Let us look at the Fox sisters case, they believed that they were being haunted until they realized they could control the manifestations of these haunting. Events like poltergeists and the stopping of clocks when relatives dies can also be seen as caused by our own psychokinesis, if not by a more rational explanation. Nina Kalugina experienced a poltergeist as well, that is until, like the Fox sisters, she realized that she could control the phenomena.
Then what about materializations experienced in a seance, if these are not spirits, then what are they? This seems like a good time to bring up the relationship of man’s physical body and psychokinesis. It seems that with most cases of psychokinesis, there is a physical if not entirely tangible physical force or bioplasm involved. This bioplasm can be observed in materializations where a medium can create visible, even luminescent matter seemingly out of nothing, it can also be seen in the experiments of Dr. Osty who detected the force emanating from Rudi Schneider, and would pose as some explanation for many of the other abilities displayed by mediums.
This bioplasm has two possible sources of origin, one is from within the medium, and the other is from an exterior force, and there are arguments for both cases. We know that many mediums experience strange physical changes when engaging in psychokinesis. Kalugina and Palladino each were recorded as losing close to four pounds after a seance. They both would be physically ill after, and Palladino would have muscle spasms and orgasms during her feats. Perhaps the biggest argument for the link between the body and psychokinesis comes from Rudi Schneider, who’s breath rate directly affect the oscillation caused in the -7- motion sensors by his psychokinesis.
The idea that the bioplasm could be energy from the medium’s surroundings holds slightly less evidence, but it could be potentially argued. Let us take Stella Cranshaw for example. During her seances, the temperature was recorded as lowering often up to twenty degrees. The atmosphere of your average room is alive with energy, cooling a cubic foot of air only one degree creates fifteen-foot pounds of energy (the energy could move a fifteen pound object one foot). So, if energy is being drawn from the environment, then it would make sense for the temperature to lower. This phenomena can also be observed during the experiments on the psychic Ingo Swann, who was asked to raise or lower the temperature in a piece of graphite. When Swann would do this, other pieces of graphite in the experimental area would alter in temperature conversely to the piece being manipulated. If we believe that psychokinesis stems from energy either from within or outside of a mediums body, then does the mind control that energy, or is it the mind itself that is creating all of this phenomena. When we are born we believe that we can control the world around us with our thoughts, but as we have further interaction within the world, we find that this is not the case… or is it. If you have ever hoped, prayed or wished for a change in your situation, then you are assuming that your thoughts can alter the world around you. It is a terrifying idea that people would be able to do this, yet it happens everyday. Imagine throwing a dart, does the dart hitting the target come from an actual physical skill? It seems to me that the accuracy and aim comes from the mind willing the dart to land in a chosen target.
Then of course there is clairvoyance, many people experience visions of events before they take place. Rhine’s tests on extra sensory perception seem so foolproof that it is hard to believe that it is just luck. Then of course there is unconscious psychokinesis, like that experienced by most mediums when they just become aware of their abilities, or as seen in the psychokinesis of Home or Palladino, the objects affected by the mediums are often continue to be affected despite the mediums absence. So, how does the mind, body and psychokinesis fit together? Is it purely in the mind? This would make sense, given that most mediums go into trances while performing their psychokinesis. Perhaps it is purely a function of the body, as we have seen the physical affects on the bodies of mediums. Or could it be, as J.B. Rhine believed, that psychokinesis is the energy that holds mind, body and brain together, and translates our thoughts into action.
Bibliography
1. Braude, Stephen E.,The Limits of Influence, Routledge and Kegan Paul, New York, 1986
2. Rogo, Scott D., Minds and Motion, Taplinger Publishing Co., New York, 1978
3. Smythies, J.R., Science and ESP, Humanities Press, New York, 1967