Among the most marvelous, most frighteningand certainly most unbelievable possibilities suggested by psychic folkloreis that human beings may be able to exert an observable influence uponthe physical world -- simply through the power of conscious intention;or unconscious intention, or; by some accounts, through the assistanceof spiritual intelligences; or as a result of a mysterious principle knownas synchronicity. Some scholars -- such as Stephen Braude,professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland -- take such reportsvery seriously, claiming that no honest person can examine the case studyreports and easily dismiss them.
Professor Stephen Braude
I have spent more than five yearscarefully studying the non-experimental evidence of parapsychology -- infact, just that portion of it which is most contemptuously and adamantlydismissed by those academics....I started with the expectation that thereceived wisdom would be supported, and that my belief in the relativeworthlessness of the material would merely be better-informed. Butthe evidence bowled me over. The more I learned about it, the weakerthe traditional skeptical counter-hypotheses seemed, and the more clearlyI realized to which extent skepticism may be fueled by ignorance. I was forced to confront the fact that I could find no decent reasons fordoubting a great deal of strange testimony. It became clear to methat the primary source of my reluctance to embrace the evidence was mydiscomfort with it. I knew that I had to accept the evidence, orelse admit that my avowed philosophical commitment to the truth was a sham.Skeptics (as well as most psi researchers)adamantly insist that it is absurd to give any credence to such reportsuntil they meet the highest scientific standards. (Ironically, whywould anyone bother to expend the large amounts of time and money requiredfor meticulous scientific testing of such claims unless they were to givesome credence to the non-scientific accounts?)I am hardly comfortable about announcingto my academic colleagues that I believe, for example, that accordianscan float in mid-air playing melodies, or that hands may materialize, moveobjects, and then dissolve or disappear....But I have reached my recentconclusions only after satisfying myself that no reasonsable options remain.
An interesting insight into the psychologicaldynamics of such events is provided by the great Swiss psychiatrist CarlG. Jung -- who developed the concept of synchronicity as an acausalexplanatory principle. In 1909, Jung visited his mentor Sigmund Freudin Vienna, and at one point asked him his opinion of psychic phenomena. Although Freud later changed his mind on the subject, at that time he dismissedthe likelihood that such events could occur. Jung narrates an uncannyincident that occurred in the course of this conversation.
While Freud was going on in thisway, I had a curious sensation. It was as if my diaphragm was madeof iron and becoming red-hot -- a glowing vault. And at that momentthere was such a loud report in the bookcase, which stood right next tous, that we both started up in alarm, fearing the thing was going to toppleover us. I said to Freud: "There, that is an example of a so-calledcatalytic exteriorisation phenomenon."The theme of mistrust characterizes the entirehistory of macro-psychokinetic claims. It is probably fair to statethat no one, since Jesus Christ, has ever made such claims and been trusted(and there are many who distrust the supposed miracles of Christ). Furthermore, although mistrust may well blind us against considering vitalpossibilities, it is clearly warrantged by the simple fact that numerouscases of fraud have been exposed in this area."Oh come," he explained. "That issheer bosh."
"It is not," I replied. "You aremistaken, Herr Professor. And to prove my point I now predict thatin a moment there will be another loud report!" Sure enough, no soonerhad I said the words than the same detonation went off in the bookcase.
To this day I do not know what gave methis certainty. But I knew beyond a doubt that the report would comeagain. Freud only stared aghast at me. I do not know what wasin his mind, or what his look meant. In any case, this incident arousedhis mistrust of me, and I had the feeling that I had done something againsthim. I never afterwards discussed the incident with him.
Perhaps, at a deeper level, both the fraudand the mistrust which it justifiably produces are part of an underlyingprotective mechanism developed within the collective unconscious (touse a Jungian term) of humanity. For, given our present level ofethical development, what awesome horrors might be wreak upon ourselvesif we were able to harness psychokinesis in a disciplined manner? There are reasons to think that, if psychokinesis is real, it is a Pandora'sbox that is best left unopened by humankind -- even if the price for thisis our ignorance.
I personally feel comfortable with ourlack of progress in this area. As a result of personal experiencesthat I shall recount, I accept the possibility of large-scale psychokinesis. I am also convinced that our planetary culture must demonstrate a willingnessto solve the obvious problems of hunger, pollution, political inequalityand war before we will be capable of responsibly wielding the full powerof our own minds. The following examples provide some hints as towhat that full power might possibly entail.
D. D. Home -- The Greatest Medium Who EverLived
D. D. Home
Perhaps the greatest ostensible physicalmedium who has ever lived was Daniel Dunglas Home. He was born in1833 near Edinburgh, Scotland. However, at an early age he went toNew England to live with his aunt who adopted him. At the age ofseventeen he had a vision of the death of his mother, which was soon verified. After that time the household was frequently disturbed with loud raps andmoving furniture. Declaring that he had introduced the devil to thehousehold, his aunt threw him out. He began living with his friendsand giving seances for them.
Among those who were convinced of his abilitiesin this early period were Judge John Edmunds of the New York State SupremeCourt and Robert Hare, an ameritus professor of chemistry at the Universityof Pennsylvania.
Home never accepted any payments for hisseances. He exhibited religious reverence for the powers and knowledgethat manifested through him along with a scientific curiosity to seek rationalexplanations. He did, however, accept presents from his wealthy patrons. Napoleon III of France provided for his only sister. Czar Alexanderof Russia sponsored his marriage. He conducted seances with the kingsof Bavaria and Wurtemburg as well as William I of Germany and assortednobility throughout Europe. Noted literati also consulted with him.
To Lord Bulwer Lytton's satisfaction, Homecalled up the spirit that influenced him to write his famous occult novel,Zanoni.Heconducted a seance for the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husbandRobert. Although his wife protested, Robert Browning insisted thatHome was a fraud and wrote a long poem called "Mr. Sludge, the Medium,"describing an exposure that never took place. In fact, throughouthis long career, Home was never caught in any verifiable deceptions --although there were some apparant close calls.
In 1868, Home conducted experiments withCromwell Varley, chief engineer of the Atlantic Cable Company and afterwardsbefore members of the London Dialectical Society, who held fifty seanceswith him at which thirty persons were present. Their report, publishedin 1871, attested to the observation of sounds and vibrations, the movementsof heavy objects not touched by any person, and well-executed pieces ofmusic coming from instruments not manipulated by any visible agency, aswell as the appearance of hands and faces that did not belong to any tangiblehuman being, but that nevertheless seemed alive and mobile. Thisreport inspired Sir William Crookes to investigate Home for himself.
Crookes conducted two very ingenious experimentswith Home in which he tested alterations in the weight of objects and theplaying of tunes upon musical instruments under conditions rendering humancontact with the keys impossible. For the first experiment, Crookesdeveloped a simple apparatus measuring the changes in weight of a mahoganyboard.
One end of the board rested ona firm table, whilst the other end was supported by a spring balance hangingfrom a substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted with a self-registeringindex, in such a manner that it would record the maximum weight indicatedby the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted so that the mahogany boardwas horizontal, its foot resting flat on the support. In this positionits weight was three pounds, as marked by the pointed of the balance.Crookes and eight other observers includingSir WIlliam Huggins, a physicist and member of the Royal Society, observedHome lightly place his fingertips on the end of the board and watched theregister desccend as low as nine pounds. Crookes noted that, sinceHome's fingers did not cross the fulcrum, any tactile pressure he mighthave exerted would have been in opposition to the force that caused theother end of the board to move down. This experiment was conductedmany times. On some occasions, Home never even touched the board:he merely placed his hands three inches over it. In other experiments,Crookes used a recording device to make a permanent record of the fluctuationsin the weight. This was done to confute the argument that he himselfwas a victim of hallucinations.
In order to test the stories about musicbeing played on the instrument, Crookes designed a cage in which to placean accordion he purchased specifically for these experiments (see illustration). The cage would just slip under a table, allowing Home to grasp the instrumenton the end opposite the keys, between the thumb and the middle finger. Again many witnesses were present:
Mr. Home, still holding the accordionin the usual manner in the cage, his feet being held by those next to him,and his other hand resting on the table, we heard distinct and separatenotes sounded in succession, and then a simple air was played. Assuch a result could only have been produced by the various keys of theinstrument being acted upon in harmonious succession, this was consideredby those present to be a crucial experiment. But the sequel was stillmore striking, for Mr. Home then removed his hand altogether from the accordion,taking it quite out of the cage, and placed it in the hand of the personnext to him. The instrument then continued to play, no person touchingit and no hand being near it.Crookes submitted his experimental papersto the Royal Society in order to encourage a large-scale investigationof the phenomena, which he felt were caused by a psychic force. However,the secretary of the society rejected his papers and refused to witnesshis experiments.
Crookes also testified to having seen manyother phenomena with Home, including levitation of Home's body, levitationof objects, handling of hot coals, luminous lights, and apparitions.
Home himself bitterly resented any fraudor deception. In his book, Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism,written in 1878, he took an aggressive stance against phony mediums oreven those who were unwilling to cooperate with scientists. Unlikemost mediums, Home was always willing to be tested under well-lit and closelysupervised conditions.
Sir William Crookes' Researches
Sir William Crookes
Despite the rejection of his psychicalresearch by the scientific establishment, Crookes asserted the validityof his work throughout his life. In 1913, he was elected president of theRoyal Society, but unfortunately he had by then long since abandoned hisexperimental work with mediums and found it wise not to discuss his workoften in public. The phenomena that Crookes reported have been beyondthe experience of almost all researchers before or since his time. Often his experimental reports were inadequate by contemporary standardssince he simply assumed that his own word was sufficient to establish generalacceptance of a phenomenon. We cannot hastily conclude that Crookeswas deluded or duped, for he was at the height of his intellectual creativityat the time he conducted this research. In the words of his friend,Sir Oliver Lodge, "It is almost as difficult to resist the testimony asit is to accept the things testified." His most amazing experimentswere conducted with a medium named Florence Cook.
Cook's ostensible ability to materializethe forms of various spirits had caused a stir among spiritualists. The most notable spirit to appear identified herself as Katie King, thedaughter, in a former life, of the buccaneer Henry Morgan.
The phenomena of spirit materializationhad actually attracted public attention a few years earlier through a Mrs.Samuel Guppy, the protegee of Alfred Russell Wallace, a prominent spiritualistwho was also noted as one of the discoverers with Charles Darwin of thetheory of evolution. Mrs. Guppy introduced into her work the useof a tightly sealed cabinet in which she was placed in order to build upsufficient "power" for the construction of a spirit form which could thenstand the scrutiny of the light outside the cabinet. The cabinetalso provided, of course, an ideal opportunity for subterfuge on the partof the medium, which was undoubtedly taken advantage of on many occasions,for rarely were any medium and her spirit seen together at the same time.
Crookes attended seances with FlorenceCook for a period of over three years and studied her intensively for severalmonths in a laboratory in his own home. He also made numerous observationsof Katie King and took more than forty photographs of her. On severaloccasions he had the opportunity of seeing both Florence and her spirit,Miss King, at the same time and even of photographing them together. Katie appeared quite solidly before the guests at the seance, sometimesstaying and conversing with them for a s long as two hours. Crookeseven reports having embraced and kissed her. At other times she seemsto have vanished instantaneously and soundlessly. It is difficultto believe that an accomplice could have continued such an intimate masquerade,in Crookes own home, for several months without detection. He givesseveral reasons why he feels Florence Cook could not have committed fraud:
During the last six months, MissCook has been a frequent visitor at my house, remaining sometimes a weekat a time. She brings nothing with her but a little handbag, notlocked; during the day she is constantly in the presence of Mrs. Crookes,myself, or some other member of my family, and, not sleeping by herself,there is absolutely no opportunity for any preparation....I prepare andarrange my library myself as the dark cabinet, and usually, after MissCook has been dining and conversing with us, and scarcely out of our sightfor a minute, she walks direct into the cabinet, and I, at her request,lock its second door, and keep possession of the key all through the seance.Crookes also indicates that Miss Cook waswilling to submit to any test he wished to impose. Ironically enough,on two occasions, in 1872 and in 1880, individuals claimed to have exposedFlorence Cook fraudulently masquerading as her spirit.Katie's height varies; in my house I haveseen her six inches taller than Miss Cook. Last night, with barefeet and not "tip-toeing," she was four and a half inches taller than MissCook. Katie's neck was bare last night; the skin was perfectly smoothto touch and sight, whilst on Miss Cook's neck is a large blister, whichunder similar circumstances is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. Katie's complexion is very fair while that of Miss Cook is very dark. Katie's fingers are much longer than Miss Cook's, and her face is alsolarger.
It is not unreasonable to suggest any ofseveral contradictory hypotheses: (1) that Crookes himself may have beendeluded or enchanted by Florence Cook, (2) that while Crookes himself didobserve genuine phenomena, Cook sometimes lost her abilities and resortedto fraud, (3) that the alleged exposures were not genuine, or (4) thatCrooke's accounts were fraudulent. Psychical phenomena have alwayshad an ironic and paradoxical nature, and Crookes' experimental methodologywas certainly not sufficient to answer all of the questions one might liketo ask.
It is so difficult to maintain that a manof Crookes' scientific caliber could have been taken in by cheap tricks,some of his critics have assumed that he himself was in on the fraud. They have claimed that Crookes had been involved in a romantic affair withFlorence Cook, and that he testified to her phenomena in order to shieldher reputation and hide his own emotional entanglement with her. However, even if it were so, other matters would remain quite unresolved. If Crookes was involved with Miss Cook, who was only fifteen years oldat the time, this hypothesis cannot account for the phenomena he reportedwith both Home and Miss Fox. Nor does it begin to explain the researchon the same phenomena reported by a number of other eminent scientists. Nevertheless, the accusation of experimenter fraud still continues to hauntpsychical researchers, and will continue to do so as long as people arereinforced in their expectation of fraud by periodic publicly exposed episodes.
Marthe Beraud
Another extraordinary physical medium whoseectoplasmic materializations were observed and photographed by many investigatorswas Marthe Beraud. Nobel laureate physiologist Charles Richet describedthe production of a phantom, called Bien Boa, under experimental conditionsthat he felt negated the possibility of theatrical props or accomplices:
Ostensible EctoplasmicBien Boa Materialization
He seemed so much alive that,as we could hear his breathing, I took a flask of baryta water to see ifhis breath would show carbon dioxide. The experiment succeeded. I did not lose sight of the flask from the moment I put it into the handsof Bien Boa who seemed to float in the air on the left of the curtain ata height greater than Marthe could have been even if standing up...A comical incident occurred at this point. When we saw the baryta show white (which incidentally shows that the lightwas good), we cried "Bravo." Bien Boa then vanished, but reappearedthree times, opening and closing the curtain and bowing like an actor whoreceives applause.
However striking this was, another experimentseems to me even more evidential: Everything being arranged as usual....aftera long wait I saw close to me, in front of the curtain which had not beenmoved, a white vapour, hardly sixteen inches distant. It was likea white veil or handkerchief on the floor; it rose up still more, enlarged,and grew into a human form, a short bearded man dressed in a turban andwhile mantle, who moved, limping slightly, from right to left before thecurtain. On coming close to General Noel, he sank down abruptly tothe floor with a clicking noise like a falling skeleton, flattening outin front of the curtain. Three or four minutes later...he reappearedrising in a straight line from the floor, born from the floor, so to say,and falling back on it with the same clicking noise.
The only un-metapsychic explanation possibleseemed to be a trap-door opening and shutting: but there was no trap door,as I verified the next morning and as attested by the architect.
Several photographs were taken....The softnessand vaporous outline of the hands are curious; likewise the veil surroundingthe phantom has indeterminate outlines....A thick, black, artificial-lookingbeard covers the mouth and chin....Bien Boa would seem to be a bust onlyfloating in space in front of Marthe, whose bodice can be seen. Lowdown, between the curtain and Marthe's black skirt, there seem to be twosmall whitish rod-like supports to the phantom form.
Paraffin Hands
The most impressive evidence for ectoplasmicmaterializations comes from the molds of "spirit hands" made in paraffin. Richet reports his careful studies:
[Gustav] Geley and I took theprecaution of introducing, unknown to any other person, a small quantityof chelesterin in the bath of melted paraffin wax placed before the mediumduring the seance. This substance is insoluble in paraffin withoutdiscolouring it, but on adding sulphuric acid it takes a deep violet-redtint; so that we could be absolutely certain that any moulds obtained shouldbe by the paraffin provided by ourselves....The plaster casts from these molds includinga cast of intertwining hands are still available for inspection at theMetapsychic Institute in Paris. A physiologist of the first order,Richet sums up his research on ectoplasmic materializations:During the seance the medium's hands werefirmly held by Geley and myself on the right and on the left, so that hecould not liberate either hand. A first mould was obtained of a child'shand, then a second of both hands, right and left; a third came of a child'sfoot. The creases in the skin and veins were visible on the plastercasts made from the moulds.
By reason of the narrowness of the wristthese moulds could not be obtained from living hands, for the whole handwould have to be withdrawn through the narrow opening at the wrist. Professional modellers secure their results by threads attached to thehand, which are pulled through the plaster. In the moulds here consideredthere was nothing of the sort; they were produced by a materializationfollowed by dematerialization, for this latter was necessary to disengagethe hand from the paraffin "glove."
There is ample proof that experimentalmaterialization (ectoplasmic) should take definite rank as a scientificfact. Assuredly we do not understand it. It is very absurd,if a truth can be absurd.Spiritualists have blamed me for usingthis word "absurd"; and have not been able to understand that to admitthe reality of these phenomena was to me an actual pain; but to ask a physiologist,a physicist, or a chemist to admit that a form that has circulation ofthe blood, warmth, and muscles, that exhales carbonic acid, has weight,speaks, and thinks, can issues from a human body is to ask of him an intellectualeffort that is really painful.
Yes, it is absurd; but not matter itis true.
Eusapia Palladino
Eusapia Palladino
One of the most extraordinary physicalmediums in the history of psychical research was Eusapia Palladino, a roughpeasant woman from Naples. She came to the attention of the learnedworld through seances held with the eminent Italian sociologist CesareLombroso. These seances continues to be held in Italy until 1894when the French physiologist Charles Richet invited her to his privateisland to attend seances with Frederick Myers and Sir Oliver Lodge as wellas J. Ochorowicz, a Polish researcher. It was Richet's belief hewould be able to prevent Eusapia from using props or accomplices whileshe was on the island. The group witnessed most of the phenomenathat had been previously reported: levitations, grasps, touches, lights,materializations, raps, curtains billowing, scents, and music. Atall times the researchers were holding Eusapia's hands and feet.
The following excerpts are from the publishedaccount of one of these sessions:
Richet held both arms and onehand of E., while M. held both feet and her other arm. R. then felta hand move her his head and rest on his mouth for some second, duringwhich he spoke to us with his voice muffled. The round table nowapproached. R.'s head was stroked from behind....The round tablecontinued to approach in violent jerks....A small cigar box fell on ourtable, and a sound was heard in the air as of something rattling....A coveredwire of the electric battery came on to the table and wrapped itself aroundR.'s and E.'s heads, and was pulled till E. called out....The accordionwhich was on the round table got on the floor somehow, and began to playsingle notes. Bellier [Richet's secretary] counted 26 of them; andthen ceased counting. While the accordion played, E.'s fingers mademovements in the hands of both M. and L. in accord with the notes as ifshe was playing them with difficulty....Eusapia being well held, Myersheard a noise on the round table at his side, and turning to look saw awhite object detach itself from the table and move slowly through the clearspace between his own and Eusapia's head....Lodge now saw the object comingpast Myer's head and settling on the table. It was the lamp-shadecoming white side first....The "chalet" [music box] which was on the roundtable now began to play, and then visibly approached, being seen by bothMyers and Lodge coming through the air, and settled on our table againstMyers' chest....During the latter half of the sitting, Eusapia had takenone of Myers' fingers and drawn some scrawls with it outside Richet's flanneljacket, which was buttoned up to his neck. Myers said, "She is usingme to write on you," and it was thought no more of. But after theseance, when undressing, Richet found on his white shirt front, underneathboth flannel jacket and high white waistcoat, a clear blue scrawl: andhe came at once to bedrooms to show it.Myers, Lodge and Richet were convinced ofthe genuineness of the phenomena that they reported and soon arranged forEusapia to repeat her performance before SPR members in Cambridge. Again a number of phenomena were noted. Protuberances observed comingout of Eusapia's body and the billowing of curtains were particularly hardto explain away. However, at Hodgson's insistence the Cambridge grouprelaxed their controls over Eusapia's hands and feet to see if she wouldcheat if given an opportunity. Under these conditions, Eusapia conductedseveral seances producing nothing but fraudulent phenomena, whereupon Hodgsoninsistged that none of her other phenomena could be trusted. Otherinvestigators acknowledged that she would cheat if given a chance, butthat nevertheless, under controlled conditions she did produce authenticphenomena.
The SPR maintained a firm policy of rebuffingthe phenomena of any mediums who have ever been found guilty of systematicfraud. Members were urged to ignore any future reports of experimentswith Eusapia.
Reports concerning Eusapia, however, continuedto flow in. In 1897, the noted French astronomer Camilla Flammarionreported on a series of seances in which "spirit" impressions were madein wet putty. Flammarion gives us a description of the event:
I sit at the right hand of Eusapia,who rests her head upon my left shoulder, and whose right hand I am holding. M. de Fontanay is at her left, and has taken great care not to let go ofthe other hand. The tray of putty, weighing nine pounds, has beenplaced upon a chair, twenty inches behind the curtain, consequently behindEusapia. She cannot touch it without turning around, and we haveher entirely in our own power, our feet on hers. Now the chair uponwhich was the tray of putty has drawn aside the hangings, or portieres,and moved forward to a point above the head of the medium, who remainedseated and held down by us; moved itself also over our heads, the chairto rest upon the head of my neighbor Mme. Blech, and the tray to rest softlyin the hands of M. Blech, who is sitting at the end of the table. At this moment Eusapia rises, declaring that she sees upon the table anothertable and a bust, and cries out, "E Fatto" ("It is done"). It wasnot at this time, surely, that she would have been able to place her faceupon the cake, for it was at the other end of the table. Nor wasit before this, for it would have been necessary to take the chair in onehand and the cake with the other, and she did not stir from her place. The explanation, as can be seen, is very difficult indeed.Finally, in 1909, the SPR did publish a reportof another series of seances with Eusapia conducted by a group of experimentersknown for their exposure of other fraudulent mediums the Hon. EverardFielding, Hereward Carrington, and W. W. Baggally. They observeda number of levitations and materializations under good lighting conditions. These seances occurred in the middle room of a three-room hotel suite theyhad rented for the purpose in order to rule out the possibility of confederates. Their account is quite detailed and thorough, having been dictated minuteby minute to a professional stenographer. They were favorably impressedwith what they had observed. However, the following year Eusapia'sabilities, whatever they were, seem to have faded and it was simply toolate to conduct further research with her.Let us admit, however, that the fact isso extraordinary that a doubt remains in our mind, because the medium rosefrom her chair almost at the critical moment. And yet her face wasimmediately kissed by Mme. Blech, who perceived no odor of the putty.
Psychic Photography
One interesting technique for measuringpsychokinesis is thought-photography. Claims of spirit photographs,where extra faces appear on developed film, go back as far as the historyof photography itself. Some have even claimed to photograph actualhuman thoughtforms. Photography of this sort almost inevitably provokedaccusations of fraud that were difficult to disprove. In 1910, Dr.Tomokichi Fukurai, a professor of literature at the Imperial Universityof Tokyo, conducted a series of experiments in thoughtography. Thepublication of his findings aroused such hostility among Japanese scientiststhat he was forced to resign his position. He then continued hiswork at a Buddhist university associated with a temple of the esotericShingen sect of Buddhism on top of Mt. Koya. His works were translatedinto English in 1931 in a book titled Spirit and Mysterious World. Although it showed a carefully planned scientific investigation, even thepsychical researchers of the time were not ready to deal with this typeof data, embedded as it was in Buddhist philosophy.
It was not until the late 1950s that aclaim for psychic photography was taken seriously by researchers. The special gift for creating these photographs was discovered in Ted Serios,a Chicago Bellhop who had little formal education. The phenomenabegan when Serios allowed a friend to hypnotize him just to pass away thetime. Serios claimed to be able to describe the locations of buriedtreasure. The friend then suggested that he concentrate on makingphotographs of the locations when he pointed a camera at a blank wall andtriggered the shutter. They did not find buried treasure, but totheir amazement, actual images appeared on the Polaroid prints of thingsthat were not visible in the room.
The phenomena came to the attention ofmembers of the Illinois Society for Psychic Research who eventually persuadeda Denver psychiatrist, Dr. Jule Eisenbud, to observe one of Ted's demonstrations. After a long string of failures, Serios managed to produce a striking successfor Eisenbud, who, although he had engaged in previous psychical explorationwith the context of psychoanalysis, was unprepared for phenomena of thissort. After a sleepless night, he invited Serios to Denver for furtherstudy. Eisenbud spend two years conducting well-controlled studieswith Serios. He was quite aware of the history of fraud and gullibilityin research of this sort and claims that he took every precaution to guardagainst it. He book, The World of Ted Serios, published in1966, contains the results obtained from his examinations.
The way in which Ted's mind ostensiblyshaped the pictures was sometimes quite remarkable. In one session,in front of several witnesses, Ted first tried to reproduce images of themedieval town of Rothenburg. Then the experimenters asked him totry to reproduce an image of the old Opera House in Central City, Colorado. Serios agreed, and then asked the experimenters if they would like a compositeof both images. The results are extraordinary. The photographshows a striking resemblence to the livery stable across from the old OperaHouse. However, instead of the brick masonry, the image shows a kindof embedded rock characteristic of the buildings in the medieval town.
The large photograph shown is an enlargementof a Polaroid "thoughtograph" of the Denver Hilton Hotel. Eisenbudheld the camera, which as pointed at Serios' forehead. Ted, at thetime, was trying to produce an image of the Chicago Hilton ("I missed,damn it.") Eisenbud claimed that this image could only have been made witha lens different from that of the Polaroid 100, from an angle well up inthe air, between the tree tops. This suggests that the thoughtographsare associated with out-of-body or traveling clairvoyant states.
Eisenbud's book is noted for detailed observation,but even more remarkable is the penetrating study of this anomalous phenomenaand the reaction to it of scientists and educators. To Eisenbud,the photographic manifestations seemed to follow a pattern pointing tothe active operation of the animistic powers known to ancient people:
As to building blocks for a theoreticalstructure that might bridge the gulf on other fronts between the mentaland physical,...I can't think of a better place to begin than right whereTed is (and hopefully where others like him will be). For in a studyof images and imagery of this sort and in phenomenon like dreams, hallucinations,and apparitions, which prove not less remarkable and even more familiarthan Ted's image we are confronted by various organized entities withone leg in the world of reality and one leg in that extraordinary worldwe ordinarily term appearance.Adequate understanding of the Serios phenomenacan only be obtained through detailed study of the experimental reports. During the following years, studies were also conducted by researchersat the Division of Parapsychology of the University of Virginia MedicalSchool. These researchers failed to detect any signs of fraud intheir cooperative subject, and they successfully obtained numerous strikingphotographs. While they were calling for further study of this puzzlingphenomena, Serios' abilities began to fade and he has remained less activefor the past thirty years. However, as of this writing, in November2000, reports continue to come in of researchers who are obtaining somephotographic evidence with Serios.
Skeptics claim that Ted Serios was definitelyexposed by Charlie Reynolds and David Eisendrath, both amateur magiciansand professional photographers. They presented their account in aPopularPhotography piece (October 1967) based on one weekend with Serios andthe psychiatrist Jule Eisenbud, whose book, The World of Ted Serios,had sparked their ire.
However, the November 1967 issue of PopularPhotography published Eisenbud's response letter:
I hereby state that if,before any competent jury of scientific investigators, photographers andconjurers, any chosen by them can in any normal way or combination of waysduplicate, under similar conditions, the range of phenomena produced byTed, I shall (1) abjure all further work with Ted, (2) buy up and publiclyburn all available copies of The World of Ted Serios, (3) take a full-pagead in Popular Photography in order to be represented photographically wearinga dunce cap, and (4) spend my spare time for the rest of my life sellingdoor-to-door subscriptions to this amazing magazine. No time limitis stipulated.An article in Fate, August 1974, revealedthat only one magician had responded to this delectable invitation. The Amazing James Randi couldn't resist the bait, but on learning of theconditions he backed out. According to Randi, one of the conditionswas that he perform in a state of alcoholic intoxication, as Serios hadtypically done. As a non-drinker, Randi found this condition unacceptable.
Nina Kulagina
Nina Kulagina
Meanwhile, in the former Soviet Union,researchers claimed to have discovered a woman, Nina Kulagina, who couldexert a psychokinetic influence upon static objects. In 1968, Westernresearchers attending a conference in Moscow were shown a film of her inaction. This film, which has since been seen many times in the UnitedStates, shows Kulagina apparently moving small objects, without touchingthem, across a table top. The Russians claimed that this woman, alsoknown as Nelya Mikhailova, had been studied by some forty scientists, includingtwo Nobel laureates. They also reported that, like Serios, MadameKulagina was able to cause images to appear on photographic film. The communist scientists, who were by no means inclined to take a spiritualisticworld view, felt that they had encountered a new force in nature. Very thorough studies of the electrical fields around her body as wellas the electrical potentials in her brain were conducted by Dr. GenadySergeyev, a well-known physiologist working in a Leningrad military laboratory. Exceptionally strong voltages and other unusual effects were observed:
There is a large gradient betweenthe electrical characteristics in the forward part of Mikhailova's brainversus the back part of the brain (fifty to one), whereas in the averageperson the gradient is four to one. The usual force field aroundMikhailova's body is ten times weaker than the magnetic field of the earth.Detailed physiological studies of this sortwith outstanding psychics are so rare they raise more questions than theyanswer. Kulagina has received a certain amount of adverse publicity. However, since 1968, several groups of western researchers have had opportunitiesto test her under differing circumstances. In most cases, their reportsattest to the authenticity of her psychokinetic abilities.During PK, her pulse rises to 240 per minute. There is activation of deeper levels of the occipital lobe and reticularformation. This enhances polarization in the brain between frontand back, says Sergeyev. When the gradient between front and backof the brain reaches a certain level, and there is most intense activityin the occipital lobe, radiation of electrostatic and electromagnetic fieldsare detected by the force field detectors four yeard from the body....Heartbeat,brain waves, and force field fluctuations are in ratio. The fieldsaround the PK medium are stronger further away than close to the head. Mikhailova appears to focus these force field waves in a specific area.
Her mediumship has led to a strain on herhealth leading to a heart attack, and her doctors have suggested that shelimit this type of activity. The former Soviets, however, are reportedto have found others who have developed talents for psychokinesis, andare also researching ways to train this ability in normal individuals. The training begins with long hours practicing to move the needle of acompass.
Uri Geller
The most unusual psychokinetic effectscurrently being reported by scientists are associated with the Israelipsychic Uri Geller. Dr. Andrija Puharich, a physician known for histheoretical efforts to grasp the physics and physiology of psychic phenomena,as well as for his previously mentioned researches into psychic healing,in August of 1971, encountered Geller in Israel, where he arranged to conductan extensive series of experiments with him. Eventually he broughtUri to the United States where his research continued and where he negotiatedfor further testing at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. It was at a symposium I organized in Berkeley, sponsored by KPFA-FM atthe University of California, that Andrija Puharich made the first publicpresentation of experimental research with Uri Geller.
Andrija Puharich, MD
Puharich carefully went over his investigationswith Geller, indicating the conditions under which he had observed Gellerbend and break metal objects, erase magnetic tape, make things disappearand reappear elsewhere, and cause the hands of a clock to change time. He also discussed how his sessions with Geller led him to believe thatthere was some other intelligent form of energy working through Geller,possibly from an extra-terrestrial or extra-dimensional source.
The following week, the controversy overGeller deepened as Time magazine published a story claiming thatGeller was a fake. Physicists Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ ofStanford Research Institute (now SRI International) also presented a paperabout their research with Geller at a physics colloquium at Columbia University.
The SRI scientists primarily emphasizedthe telepathic studies they had done with Geller. However, they didreport on two significant psychokinetic experiments with Uri:
A precision laboratory balancewas placed under a Bell jar. The balance had a one-gram mass placedon its pan before it was covered. A chart recorder then continuouslymonitored the weight applied to the pan of the balance. On severaloccasions Uri caused the balance to respond as those a force were appliedto the pan. The displacement represented forces from 1.0 to 1.5 grams. These effects were 10 to 100 times larger than could be produced by strikingthe Bell jar or the table or jumping on the floor. In tests followingthe experimental run, attempts were made to replicate Geller's resultsusing magnets and static electricity. Controlled runs of day-longoperation were obtained. In no case did the researchers obtain artifactswhich resembled the signals Geller had produced.Subsequent to the presentation of the abovereport, the SRI researchers backed away from the Bell jar study claim,having been convinced that the result could have resulted from artifacts. The lesson of this incident is that time is indeed necessary to sift throughand evaluate experimental claims in the area of psychokinesis. Simplybecause a claim is presented in a scientific format, one cannot assumethat it will ultimately withstand the test of scrutiny.
On several occasions, a group of nearlyeighteen scientists, organized by me and Dr. Joel Friedman of the philosophydepartment at the University of California, Davis, met with Geller andobserved a wide variety of unusual phenomena in his presence. However,none of them occurred under conditions of sufficient control for us tofeel confident about publishing the results.
One of our researchers, Saul-Paul Sirag(author of the material in the Appendix to this book), conducted an experimentwith Geller in which Saul-Paul unexpectedly handed Geller a bean sproutand asked him to "make the movie run backwards." Uri closed his fistover the sprout and when he opened his hand some thirty seconds later therewas no longer a sprout, but a whole solid mung bean. This effect,if verified by further replication, seems to indicate a psychokinetic influenceinvolving time.
Another study the Berkeley research groupconducted was a follow-up survey of the reactions of individuals who hadwitnessed Geller's performances. Many people reported experiencingunusual visual or telepathic phenomena and several reported that, afterwatching Geller's demonstrations, they also were able to produce variouspsychokinetic effects. On occasions when I have broadcast radio interviewswith Uri, dozens of listeners have reported psychokinetic phenomena intheir own homes.
Perhaps even more remarkable, thousandsof individuals in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark,Holland and Japan have reported that they can also use PK to bend spoonsafter having only seen Geller on television. Ironically, the samesocial phenomena seems to occur when skeptics, masquerading as psychicsmake similar radio and television appearances.
In a letter published in the April 10,1975, issue of Nature, J. B. Hasted, D. J. Bohm, E. W. Bastin, andB. O'Regan report on the apparent partial dematerialization of a singlecrystal of vanadium carbide, encapsulated in plastic. The authorsclaimed that "there is no known way of producing this effect within theclosed capsule and no possibility of substitution." The letter stressedthe need for scientists to remain open-minded toward such extraordinaryphenomena and to pay attention to psychological variables that can affectexperiments. The crystal disappearance was not regarded as conclusiveevidence as the authors did not actually observe or measure the changeas it occurred. Nevertheless, they claimed to have "significant workin progress."
At a conference on The Physics of ParanormalPhenomena held in Tarrytown, New York, it was estimated that psychokineticmetal-bending has ben witnessed in at least sixty different people.
Metallurgic analyses have been made ofseveral objects bent or fractured by Geller. In many instances, theresults were not different from those of similar objects broken by thescientistsx as controls. In some instances, fatigue fractures wereobserved, even though the metal was new (i.e., key blanks) and was bentwithout the application of known physical stress.
Perhaps the most interesting finding relatedto a platinum ring that spontaneously developed a fissure in Geller's presence although he was not touching it. This ring was analyzed by physicistWilbur Franklin with a scanning electron microscope. He claimed thatadjacent areas of the ring indicated totally different conditions resembling(1) fracture at a very low temperature, such as with liquid nitrogen, (2)distortion as if by a mechanical shear, and (3) melting at a very hightemperature. Although the ring was fractured at room temperatures,conditions (1) and (3) were observed at locations only one hundredth ofan inch apart. Franklin pointed out there was no known method toduplicate such findings at room temperature and that such findings wereextremely difficult to fabricate even by known laboratory techniques.
Poltergeist Cases
An altogether different line of PK investigationhas been poltergeist research. The word poltergeist is German andmeans a noisy and rattling spirit. Modern investigators, however,view the poltergeist as a spontaneous, unconscious, recurring psychokineticphenomena centering around a person, usually an adolescent simmering withrepressed feelings of anger. Unable to vent these feelings in a normalfashion, he manifests them through psychic means.
William G. Roll
William G. Roll, of the Psychical ResearchFoundation (affiliated with West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia),is one of the foremost American researchers of poltergeist phenomena. One typical case occurred in a Miami warehouse full of glasses, ashtrays,plates and novelties. The disturbance, which involved more than twohundred incidences, took place in January 1967. Police officers,insurance agents, a magicians and others were unable to explain it. Roll describes his approach:
Julio with a Dice TossingMachine
It soon became clear that theincidents were concentrated around one employee, Julio, a nineteen-year-oldshipping clerk. Certain areas of the large warehouse room where thedisturbances took place were more frequently affected than others and thesebecame the focus of the investigation. The investigators designedcertain parts as target areas and placed objects in them hoping that theobjects would be affected while Julio and the other employees were underobservation.In several cases this is precisely what didhappen. Julio was brought to the Psychical Research Foundation (thenlocated in Durham, North Carolina) for further testing which revealed hisstrong feelings of hostility, especially towards parental figures, whichhe could not express openly and from which he felt personally detached. PK tests with a dice throwing machine produced suggestive results withJulio. In addition there was a poltergeist disturbance of a vasein a hallway in the laboratory while Julio was standing with the researchersseveral feet away. Within recent decades there have been about thirtywell-documented poltergeist cases.
Matthew Manning
Matthew Manning
Perhaps the most intriguing "poltergeistperson" to be studied so far is Matthew Manning, who since 1966, at theage of eleven, has been the center of various psychokinetic outbreaks. Dr. A. R. G. Owen, former Cambridge mathematician and geneticist, who authoredperhaps the most comprehensive book on poltergeists, claiming that Manning"is probably the most gifted psychic in the western world."
In addition to typical psychokinetic outbreaks,Matthew has shown an apparent ability to communicate with spirits via automaticwriting and drawing. Although his schoolmaster claims that he hasnever shown any particular drawing talent, he is able to reproduce withoutany apparent effort or concentration detailed and precise works of artin the style of deceased masters such as Durer, Picasso, Beardsley, andMatisse. Automatic writing has been produced in languages with whichManning was unfamiliar. Often verified information, and even psychicdiagnoses, come through in this way. Thus the phenomena contain thekinds of evidence we might really associate with spirit phenomena.
Particularly since the public demonstrationsof Uri Geller, Manning has exhibited intentional psychokinetic effectsamenable to scientific testing. When tested by Nobel laureate physicistBrian Josephson in Cavandish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Matthewdemonstrated an unusual spinning effect over a compass needle. Ironically,when further instrumentation was used to record magnetic changes in thevicinity of the compass, the needle of the compass would only remain stationary. Nevertheless, the instruments did detect magnetic changes. Jusephsonmaintains that until further data is collected, his results will stillhave to be labeled "inconclusive."
In other tests, conducted at the New HorizonsResearch Foundation in Toronto, Manning was able to demonstrate metal-bending,on demand, which was actually recorded on motion picture film. Severaltests were conducted that recorded physiological measures such as muscletension and brain waves during psychokinetic activity.
No unusual muscular activity was noted. However, rather profound changes were seen in the electrical activity ofthe brain which have been described by Dr. Joel Whitton as a ramp function(actually a rather pictorial description of the chart printout). The ramp functions appeared similar to the EEG patterns in a patient sufferingfrom an overdose of a hallucinatory drug and is suspected to stem fromthe older and deeper areas of the brain.
These findings led the Toronto scientiststo speculate on neurophysiological psi interrelationships. Dr. Whittonconducted a small-scale investigation with a number of known psychics todetermine if they had any common childhood experiences. The answerwas quite fascinating for the one experience that all of the psychicshad suffered in common was a severe electric shock before the age of ten. Although Matthew Manning did not recall such an incident, his mother informedthe scientists that she had been so severely shocked three weeks beforeMatthew was born she was afraid she would lose him.
This line of research seems to have implicationsfor psychical research. Perhaps the increasing number of childrenwho can now ostensibly demonstrate PK is associated with the greater numberof electronic gadgets in modern homes with the correspondingly increasedprobability of electric shocks. However, even if further inquiryin this direction proves revealing, it will still fail to account for anothertype of poltergeist case also documented by the Toronto group.
Philip the Ghost
One most exciting PK case of the poltergeistvariety actually did not involve a real ghost, or an individual, but animaginary spirit named Philip. This unusual situation developed inToronto as a group of members of the local Society for Psychical Researchdecided to meet regularly in an effort to conjure an apparition they created. They invented the character of Philip, an aristocratic Englishman who diedof a tragic remorse during the seventeenth century. Every week foran entire year the group met for meditation, concentrating on Philip'sstory, in an attempt to manifest an apparition.
There was no success, but in the summerof 1973 they learned about similar efforts made in England since 1964 byBatcheldor, Brookes-Smith, and Hunt. The British approach had beendirected toward producing the physical phenomena of the old type seancesof the Victorian era. Instead of quiet meditation, they created anatmosphere of jollity, together with singing songs, telling jokes, andexhortations to the table to obey the sitter's commands. Consequently,the Toronto group decided to take this approach.
Extraordinary things began to happen: Thetable began to produce raps that became louder and more obvious as timewent on. Using one rap for yes and two for no, the table was actuallyable to answer questions and recreate the personality of Philip. Occasionally, however, the answers were out of character for Philip.
These raps occurred in a fair amount oflight, with all the participants' hands in view on the table. Thethickly carpeted floor generally prevented foot-tapping. At leastfour members, of the original group of eight, were necessary to producethis phenomenon. However, no single person was found to be essential. Eventually the table began to move around the room at great speed withno one touching it. On one occasion, the table completely flippedover.
These phenomena continued for some timeand have been duplicated by other groups who have learned how to unlocktheir own hidden PK abilities. All efforts at investigation haveso far been unable to detect fraud and a two-hour film has even been madedocumenting these occurrences.
This imaginary communicator, created bya group consciousness, seems to suggest that other alleged spirits, ghosts,entities, and perhaps even flying saucers also originate from within us.
On several occasions the Philip group hasbeen able to produce psychokinetic phenomena for live television audiencesin Toronto. Indications were, in fact, that the large audience aidedin the production of more dramatic phenomena. Reports state thatthere were two other groups within the Toronto Society for Psychical Researchalso able to produce spirit-like psychokinetic phenomena.
One of these, the "Lillith group" has concocteda fictitious ghost story as the focus on their concentration. Likethe Philip story, it has all the proper dramatic elements of romance andtragedy. Learning from he Philip group, the Lillith group was ableto enter into the jovial atmosphere conducive to phenomena without spendingtime on meditations or visualizations. The phenomena they producedhave been quite striking, including table levitations said to be more impressivethan those caused by the original group. The Lillith group also attemptedto produce voices on magnetic recording tape with encouraging results.
During the annual Christmas party of theToronto SPR, a large group of individuals were able to spontaneously developpsychokinetic table-rapping. Somebody asked the "spirit" if it wereSanta Claus and from then on the responses continued as if it were oldSaint Nick himself rapping. Since then a third Toronto group hasdeveloped psychokinetic table rapping, this time ostensibly coming froma Charles Dickens character, the "Artful Dodger."
Since the metal-bending demonstrationsof Uri Geller and Matthew Manning in Toronto, the Philip group has alsoshown some success in this direction. In one instance, a metal medallion,which was particularly bent during the group session, continued to bendafter the group departed until it completely crumpled.
Perhaps the most significant developmentin the Philip story is the qualitative acoustic measurement of psychokinetictable rapping. Normal raps on the table used in the Philip sessionproduced a sound that typically lasted for about half a second. Onthe other hand, many of the raps produced by Philip were shown to lastonly 0.16 sec. This was true in spite of the similarities in loudness andfrequency of the raps.
Further research along these lines mayprovide a clearer notion of how the sounds are produced. Although,it would seem likely that once a clear understanding of the phenomena isgained the quality of the raps themselves will change.
Ted Owens The "PK Man"
Ted Owens
Earlier in the discussion of UFOs, I presentedsome material suggesting that Ted Owens, now deceased, had an ability tocreate various large-scale effects through telepathic communication with"space intelligences." Owens, himself, vacillated as to whether theseeffects were due to his own PK abilities or to the intervention of beingsfrom another dimension.
Owens learned about psychokinesis in thelate 1940s, when, as a Duke University student (after having served inthe Navy during the war) he was a clerical assistant in the ParapsychologyLaboratory under the direction of J. B. and Louisa Rhine. He claimedthat he discovered that it was just as easy, in terms of mental effort,to produce large-scale psychokinetic effects as it was to produce small-scaleevents such as with Rhine's dice experiments (which will be discussed inSection III). Before he died, he expressed his hope that this "discovery"would, one day, be termed the "Owens Effect." Here are some examples:
Lightning Strikes
A letter from he Ted Owens files datedAugust 12, 1967, addressed "To Whom It May Concern" and signed by CharlesJay of Morton, Pennsylvania, reads:
Several weeks [ago] I took myfriend, Kenneth Batch, over to Philadelphia to visit Ted Owens. Itwas a rainy day, and we had heard of Ted Owens' ability to make lightningstrike...so we asked Ted Owens to give us a demonstration of his so-calledpower...by having...lightning strike in given areas we would designate.
The three of us went out ontoa balcony outside of Ted Owens' apartment...and my friend and I asked TedOwens to have lightning strike at or near the top of the City Hall. In the ensuing period of time there were three massive strokes of lightningin that exact direction. And those were the only three bolts thatstruck in the entire sky...just where Ted Owens had pointed his hand.Recently, I interviewed Charles Jay who confirmedthat the events transpired thirty years ago as described. His testimonialis not an isolated incident. I interviewed an attorney, Sidney Margulies,a partner in a Philadelphia law firm where Owens worked as a typist in1967. Although my interviews were ten years (and then again thirtyyears) after the event, this lawyer vividly remembered the afternoon hechallenged Owens to influence lightning.To test this, we then asked Ted Owens tomake lightning strike in an entirely different portion of the sky. He pointed his hand...and the lightning appeared in that different area,exactly where we had asked it to appear. No other bolts appearedanywhere in the sky at any time during our experiments, except exactlywhere Ted Owens pointed his hand.
My friend and I were in complete agreementthat the experiment was a complete success.
It was an overcast day in May of 1967. There was neither rain nor lightning. The law firm was located inan office tower overlooking the Camden bridge. The attorney, Margulies,challenged Owens to make lightning strike the bridge on the spot. Owens pointed his hand at the bridge and seemed to concentrate. Withinminutes a bolt of lightning struck the bridge. According to attorneyMargulies, it was the only bolt of lightning at the time. His signedaffidavit is in my files.
Weather Control
On February 12, 1974, Owens wrote a letterto Ed Busch, of radio station WFAA in Dallas, Texas. Owens, who hadappeared on Busch's radio program the week before, made a claim:
If you recall, on the program itselfyou requested that I make it snow instantly, and your colleague wantedheat. All right....[I] will cause freakish weather and, of course,heat. Normal summer heat coming up, should be amplified tremendously,perhaps to break a record. You will have great storms, lightningattacks, etc. But into this will be the intelligence not to causedeath or injury to Texas people, but to show how I...can control the weatheranyplace in the world.
On February 16, 1974, newspaper clippingsrecord that an earthquake centered in the Texas panhandle shook parts ofTexas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The tremor registered between 4.0 and4.5 on the Richter scale. On March 20, 1974, a storm developed overTexas and moved rapidly to the northeast. By the time it arrivedin Georgia, winds reached up to a hundred miles per hour. A meteorologistwith the National Weather Service said, "It's the strongest wind I've everseen in the continental United States."
Ed Busch wrote a statement testifying tothese and other events, dated May 7, 1974. He stated:
Owens sent me a letter, statingthat he...would produce a "major demonstration" of weather control overTexas. Following Owens' letter Texas was struck by an earthquake,4.5 on the Richter scale. Then Texas was struck by high winds andtornados. Then Texas had the coldest weather ever in its history. Then Texas was hit with hot winds that destroyed half the Texas wheat crop.Dozens of similar "demonstrations" appearin my records. One of them occurred in the San Francisco Bay areain early 1976 and was the cause of my learning about Owens' remarkableclaims. On January 30, 1976, Owens sent the following letter to HaroldPuthoff and Russell Targ at SRI International, a giant research organizationlocated in Menlo Park, California, just south of San Francisco:I am submitting this statement of factto Owens at his request. It is true and accurate to the best of myknowledge. Whether Owens had any connection with the above weatherphenomena, I do not know; perhaps it was mere coincidence.
Last night over TV the eveningnews showed a stricken California. No water. "The worst droughtin 72 years." "Only three times in the entire history of the Stateof California...has such a drought appeared." Crops are dead anddying...and the animals are in pitiful condition.A UPI clipping from February 1, 1976, confirmsOwens' statement about the drought:Now I, Ted Owens, PK Man...will changeall of that. Within the next 90 days from the time of this letter...Iwill pour and pour and pour rains onto the State of California...untilit is swimming in water, and the dangerous drought is completely over. There will be storm after storm, lightning attack after lightning attack,and high winds...
The cost of a California winter-droughthas mounted to about $310.5 million....Ten more days of drought could precipitatean emergency in the livestock industry. But there is little moisturein sight.However, by February 6, 1976, the headlineschanged:
San Francisco Snowed by a Record Snowfall
The biggest snowfall in exactly89 years hit the city and surrounding areas...The storm also featured lightningand sleet. A giant television tower on Mt. San Bruno, south of SanFrancisco, was hit by lightning about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday knocking severalTV stations off the air.The following news clip was sent to Owensby Puthoff and Targ, who had received Owens' prediction only one day earlier. From the Palo Alto Times, Thursday, February 5, 1976.
Rare Snowfall Ends Drought on Peninsula
The unexpected and unfamiliarweather was at odds with a forecast Wednesday that the dry spell wouldcontinue in the Bay Area....Not since the morning of January 21, 1962,have Mid-peninsulans awakened to find their homes blanketed with snow.The Oakland Tribune of February 5, 1976, statedthat the storm brought with it:
...nearly every phenomenon inthe weatherman's book throughout the Bay Area....Snow, hail, sleet, lightrain, thunder and lightning hit the Bay Area after weeks of dry, balmyweather....Varying amounts of rain fell upon the lower two-thirds of thestate....In northwestern California there are gale warnings.On February 10, a UPI story stated:
The rainy season continued inCalifornia for the sixth consecutive day. Some mountainous regionsof the state have received 6 to 8 inches of rain and coastal areas havemeasured 3 to 4 inches.UFO sightings, power blackouts and fireballswere also reported during this period.
The Owens case is extremely complex, involvingmore than a hundred ostensible macro-PK events, synchronicities, UFO appearances,poltergeist-type phenomena, as well as apparitions and appearances of monster-likecreatures. It was further complicated by Owens' own colorful personalitywhich was far from saintly and far from conducive to thoughtful scholarlyexploration. In addition, many of his seeming demonstrations involveddeaths and accidents. If Owens' supposed powers were real, they weresometimes very dangerous. This situation alone led several researchersto reject any possibility of seriously studying or testing Owens' claims.
My years of involvement with the Owenscase suggest to me that humanity is far from ready to confront the possibilityof large-scale PK phenomena of this sort. On the other hand, if suchabilities are possible, it is not wise to neglect their study.
References
. Stephen E. Braude, The Limits of Influence:Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1986, pp. ix-xii.
. Carl G. Jung, Memories, Dreams andReflections. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963, p. 152.
. Charles Richet, op. cit., pp.407-8.
. Sir William Crookes, "Experimental Investigationof a New Force," Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., p. 24.
. Ibid., p. 26.
. D. D. Home, op. cit.
. Sir William Crookes, "The Last of KatieKing," in Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., p. 138. A poignant, yet comical, story.
. Sir William Crookes, "Spirit Forms,"in Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., pp. 135-6.
. Harry Price, Fifty Years of PsychicalResearch. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1939.
. Charles Richet, op. cit., pp.506-8.
. Ibid., p. 543.
. Ibid., pp. 543-4.
. Soji Otani, "Past and Present Situationof Parapsychology in Japan," Parapsychology Today: A Geographic View,pp. 34-5.
. J. Gaither Pratt, ESP Research Today. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1973, pp. 108-9. An insider'sview of developments in psychic research.
. Jule Eisenbud, The World of Ted Serios. New York: William Morrow, 1967, p. 332.
. J. Gaither Pratt, op. cit., p.114.
. Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder,PsychicDiscoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Prentice-Hall,1969, p. 84.
. Ibid., pp. 60-1.
. Ibid., p. 407.
. J. Gaither Pratt and H. H. J. Keil, "First-handObservations of Nina S. Kulagina Suggestive of PK Upon Static Objects,"Parapsychological Association Convention, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1973.
. H. H. J. Keil and Jarl Fahler, "NinaS. Kulagina: A strong Case for PK Involving Directly Observable Movementsof Objects Recorded on Cine Film," Parapsychological Association Convention,New York, 1974.
. Montague Ullman, "Report on Nina Kulagina,"Parapsychological Association Convention, 1973.
. Benson Herbert, "Report on Nina Kulagina,"Journalof Paraphysics, 1970, Nos. 1, 3, 5.
. Lecture presented by Stanley Krippnerat the University of California, Davis, 1973.
. Andrija Puharich, Beyond Telepathy. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
. Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, "Experimentswith Uri Geller," Parapsychological Association Convention, 1973.
. H. H. J. Keil and Scott Hill, "Mini-GellerPK Cases," Parapsychological Association Convention, 1974.
. Uri Geller, My Story. New York: Praeger, 1975. Geller's own account of his worldwide spoon-bendingstir.
. A. R. G. Owen, "Editorial," New Horizons,2(1), April 1975, p. 1.
. Wilbur Franklin, "Fracture Surface PhysicsIndicating Teleneural Interaction," New Horizons, 2(1), April 1975,p. 813.
. W. G. Roll, "Poltergeists," in RichardCavendish (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Unexplained. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1974, p. 200.
. Ibid.
. A. R. G. Owen, Can We Explain thePoltergeist? New York: Taplinger, 1964.
. Matthew Manning, The Link. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.
. Matthew Manning: Study of A Psychic. This movie, made on location in England, shows how Matthew, an Englishschoolboy, developed ostensible powers of clairvoyance and psychokinesisand brought them under voluntary control. The film has been availablefrom George Ritter Films Limited, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
. Peter Bander, "Introduction," TheLink. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975.
. Brian Josephson, "Possible RelationsBetween Psychic Fields and Conventional Physics," and "Possible Connectionsbetween Psychic Phenomena and Quantum Mechanics," New Horizons, 1(5),January 1975.
. A. R. G. Owen, "A Preliminary Reporton Matthew Manning's Physical Phenomena," New Horizons, 1(4), July1974, 172-3.
. Joel L. Whitton, "Ramp Functions' inEEG Power Spectra during Actual or Attempted Paranormal Events," NewHorizons, July 1974, pp. 173-186.
. Iris M. Owen and Margaret H. Sparrow,"Generation of Paranormal Physical Phenomena in Connection with an ImaginaryCommunicator," New Horizons, 1(3), January 1974, pp. 6-13.
. K. J. Batcheldor, "Report on a Case ofTable Levitation and Associated Phenomena," Journal of the Society forPsychical Research, 43(729), September 1966, pp. 339-356.
. C. Brookes-Smith, "Data-tape RecordedExperimental PK Phenomena," Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,47(756), June 1973, pp. 68-9.
. Philip, The Imaginary Ghost. This film has been available for rent or purchase from George Ritter FilmsLimited in Toronto, Canada.
. Iris M. Owen, "Philip's Story Continued,"NewHorizons, 2(1), April 1975.
. Joel L. Whitten, "Qualitative Time-DomainAnalysis of Acoustic Envelopes in Psychokinetic Table Rappings," NewHorizons, April 1975.
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