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{{short description|Influencing of objects without physical interaction}} | |||
{{Paranormal |state=collapsed |image=Medium-Eva-Carriere-1912.jpg |caption=The ] Eva Carrière photographed in 1912 with a light appearing between her hands.}} | |||
{{Redirect|Psychokinesis|the film|Psychokinesis (film)|other uses|Telekinesis (disambiguation)}} | |||
The term '''psychokinesis''' (from the ] ''ψυχή'', "psyche", meaning ''mind, soul, heart, or breath''; and ''κίνησις'', "kinesis", meaning ''motion''; literally "movement from the mind"),<ref> | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}} | |||
{{cite book | |||
] | |||
| year = 2001 | |||
{{Paranormal|state=collapsed}} | |||
| title = Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary | |||
'''Telekinesis''' ({{Etymology|grc|τηλε-|far off||-κίνησις|motion}}<ref>{{Cite OED|telekinesis|9521134478}}</ref>) is a purported ] allowing an individual to influence a ] without physical interaction.<ref name="Xiong">{{cite book|last=Xiong|first=Jesse Hong|title=The Outline of Parapsychology|year=2010|publisher=University Press of America|location=Lanham|isbn=978-0761849452|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uhzvq3NjWFcC&q=psychokinesis&pg=PA141|page=141|edition=Revised|access-date=24 July 2015}}</ref><ref name="introduction">{{cite book|last=Irwin|first=Harvey J.|title=An Introduction to Parapsychology|year=2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786451388|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3EzxyOufbgC&q=psychokinesis&pg=PA94|pages=94–112|access-date=24 July 2015}}</ref> Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been criticized for lack of proper ] and ].<ref name="skepdic1" /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Girden|first1=Edward|title=A review of psychokinesis (PK).|journal=Psychological Bulletin|date=1962|volume=59|issue=5|pages=353–388|doi=10.1037/h0048209|pmid=13898904}}</ref><ref name="Girden">{{cite book|last1=Kurtz|first1=Paul|title=A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology|date=1985|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879753009|pages=129–146}}</ref><ref name="Humphrey">{{cite book|last=Humphrey|first=Nicholas K.|title=Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief|pages=160–217|publisher=Chatto & Windus|year=1995|isbn=9780701159634}}</ref> There is no reliable evidence that telekinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as ].<ref name="skepdic1">{{cite web|url=http://www.skepdic.com/psychokinesis.html |title=Psychokinesis (PK) |publisher=The Skeptic's Dictionary |date=2014-01-15 |access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref><ref>] (1983). ''Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Volume 6: Epistemology & Methodology II: Understanding the World''. Springer. p. 226. "Despite being several thousand years old, and having attracted a large number of researchers over the past hundred years, we owe no single firm finding to parapsychology: no hard data on telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or psychokinesis."</ref><ref name="Vyse">{{cite book|last1=Vyse|first1=Stuart|title=Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780195136340|page=129|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGysXzdTxo0C|access-date=11 December 2015|quote=ost scientists, both psychologists and physicists, agree that it has yet to be convincingly demonstrated.}}</ref><ref name="Hyman">{{cite book|last1=Sternberg|first1=Robert J.|last2=Roediger III|first2=Henry J.|last3=Halpern|first3=Diane F.|title=Critical Thinking in Psychology|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521608343|pages=216–231|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mA9NPAgWR0C|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> | |||
| publisher = Random House Reference | |||
| location = Boston, Massachusetts USA | |||
| page = p. 1560 | |||
| isbn = 0-375-42599-3 | |||
| quote = psycho-, a combining form representing '']e'' in compound words. ... (Gk, comb. form of ''psyche'' breath, spirit, soul, mind; akin to ''psycheim'' to blow). | |||
}}</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 1994 | |||
| title = The New Oxford American Dictionary | |||
| publisher = Oxford University Press | |||
| location = New York City | |||
| page = p. 1367 | |||
| isbn = 0-19-517077-6 | |||
| quote = psycho. comb. ] relating to the mind or psychology: ...from Greek ''psukhe'' breath, soul, mind. | |||
}}</ref> also known as '''telekinesis'''<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061720 | |||
| title = Encyclopedia Britannica online: psychokinesis | |||
| accessmonthday = July 16 | accessyear=2006 | |||
}}</ref> (] ''{{polytonic|τῆλε}}'' + ''{{polytonic|κίνησις}}'', literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, denotes the purported ability of the mind to influence matter, time, space, or energy by means outside the currently known ].<ref name=parapsych_glossary>{{cite web | |||
| url = http://parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html | |||
| title = Parapsychological Association, glossary of key words frequently used in parapsychology | |||
| accessmonthday = December 20 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> It has been called the most powerful of psychic powers, essentially the power of a god.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Kaku, Michio | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = 2008 | |||
| title = Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the Worlds of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel | |||
| publisher = Doubleday | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 89 | |||
| isbn = 978-0-385-52069-0 | |||
| quote = Of all the powers ascribed to ESP, psychokinesis—or mind over matter, or the ability to move objects by thinking about them—is by far the most powerful, essentially the power of a deity. | |||
}}The book has a 15-page chapter titled ''Psychokinesis''. ] is an American professor of theoretical physics.</ref> | |||
Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object,<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?query=psychokinesis&action= Search+OMD | |||
| title = On-Line Medical Dictionary: psychokinesis | |||
| accessmonthday = July 16 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> or influencing the output of a ].<ref name=parapsych_glossary/><ref> | |||
{{cite book | author = Jeffers, Stanley | |||
| year = May/June 2007, Vol. 31, Issue 3 | |||
| title = "PEAR Lab Closes, Ending Decades of Psychic Research," Skeptical Inquirer | |||
| publisher = Committee for Skeptical Inquiry | |||
| location = Amherst, New York, USA | |||
| page = p. 16 | |||
| quote = Much of the work of the PEAR group has employed 'random event generators' (REGs), which are essentially electronic random number generators whose ' operators' are invited by dint of their own intentionality, to bias in such a way, that the mean of the random number distribution would be either higher or lower than it would be in the absence of their intentional efforts...}}</ref><ref name=faqfile1> {{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.parapsych.org/faq_file1.html | |||
| title = Parapsychological Association FAQ | |||
| accessdate = 2007-07-02 | |||
|date=1995 | |||
| publisher = Parapsychological Association}}</ref> | |||
The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is an aspect of ]. Some paranormal researchers believe that psychokinesis exists and deserves further study, pointing to experimental results such as those done using random number generators.<ref>http://parapsych.org/faq_file3.html#20 FAQ on the Parapsychological Association's website, Retrieved October 5, 2007</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://parapsych.org/faq_file2.html#12 | |||
| title = Parapsychological Association FAQs - discussion of random number generator experiments. | |||
| accessmonthday = August 13 | accessyear=2007}}</ref> Skeptics contend that psychokinesis does not really exist, and that claims that it does are based on ], fraud, delusion, statistical manipulation of scientific data, or other naturally explainable phenomena.<ref name=Carroll>{{cite web | |||
| last = Carroll | |||
| first = Robert Todd | |||
| title = psychokinesis (PK) | |||
| work = Skepdic.com | |||
| publisher = The Skeptics Dictionary | |||
|date=2005 | |||
| url = http://skepdic.com/kinesis.html | |||
| accessdate = 2007-10-05}}</ref> | |||
Psychokinesis is popular in some entertainment movies and television programs featuring paranormal, fantasy, religious, and horror themes; written fiction; and computer games. | |||
== |
==Reception== | ||
=== |
===Evaluation=== | ||
There is a broad scientific consensus that telekinetic research has not produced a reliable demonstration of the phenomenon.<ref name="Girden"/><ref name="Humphrey"/><ref name="Vyse"/><ref name="Frazier"/>{{rp|149–161}}<ref name="Gilovich">{{cite book|last1=Gilovich|first1=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Golivich|title=How We Know What Isn't So|date=1993|publisher=Free Press|location=New York|isbn=9780029117064|pages=160, 169, 174–175|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LURGkHCPAJEC|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="Park">{{cite book|last1=Park|first1=Robert L.|author-link=Robert L. Park|title=Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780198604433|pages=198–200|edition=Reprint|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xzCK6-Kqs6QC|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> | |||
[[Image:Edouard-Isidore-Buguet-PK-spirit-photographer.jpg|thumb|right|Spirit photography hoaxer Édouard Isidore Buguet<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/1003occult.html | |||
| title = New exhibit looks at occult photography | |||
| author = Hajela, Deepti | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = October 3, 2005 | |||
| accessmonthday = January 19 | accessyear=2008 | |||
| format = html | |||
| work = Associated Press story | |||
| pages = | |||
| quote = | |||
}}</ref> (1840-1901) of France demonstrates telekinesis in this 1875 photograph titled ''Fluidic Effect''.]] | |||
The term "Telekinesis" was coined in 1890 by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | author = Myers, Frederic William Henry | |||
| year = December 1890 | |||
| title = Proceedings | |||
| publisher = the journal of the Society for Psychical Research | |||
| location = London, England | |||
| quote=For the alleged movements without contact... M. A. Aksakof's new word 'telekinetic' seems to me the best attainable.}} Note: this quote as a cited reference can also be found in the multivolume "The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition", 1989, Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, ISBN 0-19-861229-X."</ref><ref>{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=telekinesis | |||
| title = Online Etymology Dictionary | |||
| accessmonthday = January 20 | accessyear=2007 | |||
| quote = Telekinesis. 1890, said to have been coined by Alexander N. Aksakof (1832-1903) Imperial Councilor to the Czar... Translates Ger. 'Fernwirkung.'}} </ref> The term "Psychokinesis" was coined in 1914<ref> | |||
{{cite book | year = 2005 | |||
| title = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition | |||
| publisher = Merriam-Webster, Incorporated | |||
| location = Springfield, Massachusetts, USA | |||
| page = p. 1004 | |||
| isbn = 0-87779-809-5 | |||
| quote = Psychokinesis (1914)....}}</ref> by American author-publisher Henry Holt in his book ''On the Cosmic Relations''<ref> {{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.parapsychology.org/dynamic/060100.html | |||
| title = Parapsychology Foundation "Basic terms in Parapsychology" | |||
| accessmonthday = December 22 | accessyear=2006}}</ref><ref> {{cite book | |||
|last= Holt | |||
|first= Henry | |||
|authorlink= Henry Holt | |||
|title=On the Cosmic Relations | |||
|origyear= 1914 | |||
|url= http://books.google.com/books/pdf/On_the_Cosmic_Relations.pdf?id=Kts0AAAAMAAJ&output=pdf&sig=wjwlmxTPn5b4UPGjqjaxcyEGE0o | |||
|format= PDF | |||
|accessdate= 2007-12-13 | |||
|publisher= Houghton Mifflin | |||
|location= Cambridge}}</ref> and adopted by his friend, American parapsychologist ] in 1934 in connection with experiments to determine if a person could influence the outcome of falling dice.<ref name=Spence> | |||
{{cite book | author = Spence, Lewis | |||
| year = 1920 | |||
| title = Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology | |||
| publisher = Kessinger Publishing (reprint publisher) | |||
| page = pp. 752-753, 879, 912, 933 | |||
| isbn = 0-7661-2817-2}}</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html#p | |||
| title = Parapsychological Association - Glossary: PK/Psychokinesis | |||
| accessmonthday = July 19 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> Both terms have been described by other names, such as "remote influencing", "distant influencing"<ref>, | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.lfr.org/LFR/csl/library/Fsu1.pdf | |||
| title = Overview of Current Parapsychology Research in the Former Soviet Union, Introduction | |||
| coauthors = May, Edwin C., Ph.D and Vilenskaya, Larissa | |||
| year = 1992 | |||
| accessmonthday = July 3 | accessyear=2007 | |||
| format = PDF | |||
| work = Subtle Energies Volume 3, Number 3 | |||
| pages = 1 | |||
| quote = AMP research programs in the Soviet Union have primarily focused on experimental studies in 'distant influence' on animate an inanimate systems; i.e., psychokinesis (PK) and bio-PK.}}</ref> "remote mental influence", "distant mental influence",<ref name=Broughton> | |||
{{cite book | author = Broughton, Richard S. | |||
| year = 1991 | |||
| title = Parapsychology: The Controversial Science | |||
| publisher = Ballantine Books | |||
| location = New York | |||
| pages = pp. 35, 75-79, 149, 161-162, 329-330 | |||
| isbn = 0-345-35638-1 }}</ref> "directed conscious intention", " anomalous perturbation",<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.lfr.org/LFR/csl/library/Fsu1.pdf | |||
| title = Overview of Current Parapsychology Research in the Former Soviet Union, Abstract | |||
| coauthors = May, Edwin C., Ph.D and Vilenskaya, Larissa | |||
| year = 1992 | |||
| accessmonthday = July 3 | accessyear=2007 | |||
| format = PDF | |||
| work = Subtle Energies Volume 3, Number 3 | |||
| pages = 1 | |||
| quote = The authors primarily discuss experiments in anomalous perturbation (often referred to as psychokinesis—PK and bio- which have been the main focus of AMP research programs in the Soviet Union.}}</ref> and "mind over matter."<ref name=Berger> | |||
{{cite book | author = Berger, Arthur S. | |||
| coauthors = Berger, Joyce | |||
| year = 1991 | |||
| title = The Encyclopedia of Parapsychological and Psychical Research | |||
| publisher = Paragon House | |||
| location = New York | |||
| pages = pp. 326, 341, 430 | |||
| isbn = 1-55778-043-9 }}</ref> Originally telekinesis was coined to refer to the movement of objects thought to be caused by ]s of deceased persons, mischievous ]s, ], ]s, or other ] forces.<ref name=Berger/> Later when speculation increased that humans might be the source of the witnessed phenomena (that which was not caused by fraudulent mediums)<ref> | |||
{{cite book | origyear = 1970 | |||
|year = 1995 | |||
| title = Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown | |||
| publisher = Marshall Cavendish Corporation | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 2442 | |||
| isbn = 1-85435-731-X | |||
| quote = Spiritualism aroused violent antagonism and criticism concentrating particularly on the physical phenomena occurring at seances, which opponents claimed were faked.}}</ref> and could possibly cause movement without any connection to a ] setting, such as in a darkened ] room, psychokinesis was added to the lexicon, this distinction has been made to differentiate between the earlier use of the term telekinesis.<ref name=Berger/> Eventually, psychokinesis was the preferred term by the parapsychological community (and still is) and it was suggested that telekinesis become obsolete.<ref name=Spence/> Popular culture, however, such as movies, television, and literature, over the years preferred telekinesis to describe the paranormal movement of objects likely due to the word's resemblance to other terms, such as telepathy, teleportation, telephone and television. | |||
A panel commissioned in 1988 by the ] to study paranormal claims concluded that:<ref name="Gilovich"/><blockquote>despite a 130-year record of scientific research on such matters, our committee could find no scientific justification for the existence of phenomena such as extrasensory perception, mental telepathy or "mind over matter" exercises{{nbsp}}... Evaluation of a large body of the best available evidence simply does not support the contention that these phenomena exist.</blockquote>In 1984, the ], at the request of the US Army Research Institute, formed a scientific panel to assess the best evidence for telekinesis. Part of its purpose was to investigate military applications of telekinesis, for example to remotely jam or disrupt enemy weaponry. The panel heard from a variety of military staff who believed in telekinesis and made visits to the ] and two other laboratories that had claimed positive results from micro-telekinesis experiments. The panel criticized macro-telekinesis experiments for being open to deception by conjurors, and said that virtually all micro-telekinesis experiments "depart from good scientific practice in a variety of ways". Their conclusion, published in a 1987 report, was that there was no scientific evidence for the existence of telekinesis.<ref name="Frazier"/>{{rp|149–161}} | |||
===Modern usage=== | |||
As research entered the modern era, it became clear that many different, but related, abilities could be attributed to the wider description of psychokinesis and telekinesis is now regarded as one of the specialties of PK. In the 2004 U.S. Air Force-sponsored research report ''Teleportation Physics Study'', the physicist-author Eric Davis, PhD, described the classification of PK and TK by writing that "telekinesis is a form of PK."<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/teleport.pdf | |||
| title = ''Teleportation Physics Study'' | |||
| author = Davis, Eric; physicist, Ph.D, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, 2004 | |||
| accessmonthday = July 19 | accessyear=2006 | |||
| page = p. 55 | |||
| quote = Telekinesis is a form of PK, which describes the movement of stationary objects without the use of any known physical force.}}</ref> Psychokinesis, then, is the general term that can be used to describe a variety of complex mental force phenomena (including object movement) and telekinesis is used to refer only to the movement of objects, however tiny (a grain of salt or air molecules to create wind)<ref name=Guiley> | |||
{{cite book | author = Guiley, Rosemary Ellen | |||
| year = 1991 | |||
| title = Encyclopedia of the Strange, Mystical & Unexplained | |||
| publisher = Gramercy Books | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = pp. 454, 456, 478, 609 | |||
| isbn = 0-517-16278-4}}</ref> or large (an automobile, building, or bridge). Hypothetically, a person could have very profound telekinetic ability, but not be able to produce any of the additional effects found in psychokinesis, such as softening the metal of a spoon to allow its bending with minimal physical force. Conversely, someone who has succeeded in psychokinetically softening metal once or a number of times may exhibit no telekinetic ability to move objects. | |||
] included telekinesis in a long list of "offerings of pseudoscience and superstition" which "it would be foolish to accept ... without solid scientific data".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sagan|first1=Carl|title=The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark|date=1996|publisher=Headline|location=New York|isbn=9780747277453|pages=208–212|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYo7PgAACAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> Nobel Prize laureate ] advocated a similar position.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Feynman|first1=Richard P.|author-link=Richard Feynman|title=The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist|date=1999|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=9780140276350|pages=68–71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AdGBQwAACAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> | |||
==Measurement and observation== | |||
] | |||
] researchers describe two basic types of measurable and observable psychokinetic and telekinetic effects in experimental laboratory research and in case reports occurring outside of the ].<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://library.thinkquest.org/C0120993/glossaryfull.html | |||
| title = Library.ThinkQuest.org - Glossary: Macro PK and Micro PK | |||
| accessmonthday = October 14 | accessyear=2006}}</ref><ref name=Berger/><ref name=Broughton/> Micro-PK (also micro-TK) is a very small effect, such as the manipulation of molecules, atoms,<ref name=Broughton/> subatomic particles,<ref name=Broughton/> etc., that can only be observed with scientific equipment. The words are abbreviations for micro-psychokinesis, micropsychokinesis<ref name=Guiley/> and micro-telekinesis, microtelekinesis. Macro-PK (also macro-TK) is a large-scale effect that can be seen with the unaided eye. The adjective phrases "microscopic-scale," "macroscopic- scale," "small-scale," and "large-scale" may also be used; for example, "a small-scale PK effect." | |||
Felix Planer, a professor of ], has written that if telekinesis were real then it would be easy to demonstrate by getting subjects to depress a scale on a sensitive balance, raise the temperature of a waterbath which could be measured with an accuracy of a hundredth of a degree ], or affect an element in an electrical circuit such as a resistor, which could be monitored to better than a millionth of an ampere.<ref name="Planer">{{cite book|last=Planer|first=Felix E.|title=Superstition|date=1988|publisher=Cassell|location=London|isbn=978-0304306916|page=242}}</ref> Planer writes that such experiments are extremely sensitive and easy to monitor but are not utilized by parapsychologists as they "do not hold out the remotest hope of demonstrating even a minute trace of " because the alleged phenomenon is non-existent. Planer has written that parapsychologists have to fall back on studies that involve only statistics that are unrepeatable, owing their results to poor experimental methods, recording mistakes and faulty statistical mathematics.<ref name="Planer"/> | |||
===Spontaneous effects=== | |||
Spontaneous movements of objects and other unexplained effects have been reported, and many parapsychologists believe there are possibly forms of psychokinesis/telekinesis.<ref name=Berger/><ref name=Spence/> Parapsychologist ] coined the term "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK) in 1958.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | author = Roll, William G. | |||
| coauthors = Pratt, J. G. | |||
| year = 1958 | |||
| title = The Seaford Disturbances | |||
| publisher = Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 2, | |||
| pages = pp. 79-124 }}</ref><ref> {{cite web | |||
| url = http://parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html#r | |||
| title = Parapsychological Association - Glossary: "RSPK" | |||
| accessmonthday = January 5 | accessyear=2007}}</ref> The sudden movement of objects without deliberate intention in the presence or vicinity of one or more witnesses is thought by some to be related to as-yet-unknown PK/TK processes of the subconscious mind.<ref name=Guiley/> Researchers use the term "PK agent," especially in spontaneous cases, to describe someone who is suspected of being the source of the PK action.<ref name=Guiley/><ref> | |||
{{cite book | author = Pratt, J. G. | |||
| coauthors = Stevenson, Ian | |||
| year = Vol. 70, January 1976 | |||
| title = An Instance of Possible Metal-Bending Indirectly Related to Uri Geller | |||
| publisher = The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research | |||
| quote = As far as I can say, no one in the apartment that night would take credit for being the responsible PK agent.}}</ref> Outbreaks of spontaneous movements or other effects, such as in a private home, and especially those involving violent or physiological effects, such as objects hitting people or scratches or other marks on the body, are sometimes investigated as ] cases.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | year = 1990 | |||
| title = Mysteries of the Unexplained | |||
| publisher = Readers Digest Association | |||
| page = p. 181 | |||
| isbn = 0-89577-146-2 | |||
| quote = Attempting to understand the forces at work, researchers in parapsychology have hypothesized that the poltergeist's feats in moving objects (which are seen to fly in violation of the laws of gravity, gliding, rising, and turning corners) are examples of psychokinesis, or PK—the ability to influence inanimate objects by mind power.}}</ref> | |||
According to Planer, "All research in medicine and other sciences would become illusionary, if the existence of had to be taken seriously; for no experiment could be relied upon to furnish objective results, since all measurements would become falsified to a greater or lesser degree, according to his ability, by the experimenter's wishes." Planer concluded that the concept of telekinesis is absurd and has no scientific basis.<ref>{{cite book|last=Planer|first=Felix E.|title=Superstition|date=1988|publisher=Cassell|location=London|isbn=978-0304306916|page=254}}</ref> | |||
==Umbrella term== | |||
Psychokinesis is the ] under which are various related speciality abilities. Such abilities include: | |||
*Telekinesis; movement of matter (micro and macro; move, lift, agitate, vibrate, spin, bend, break, or impact) | |||
:*Speed up or slow down the naturally occurring ] in matter to alter temperature,<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author =Kakalios, James | |||
| year = 2005 | |||
| title = The Physics of Superheores | |||
| publisher = Gotham Books/Penguin Group, Inc. | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 133 | |||
| isbn = 1-592-40146-5 | |||
| quote = Knowing that all matter is composed of atoms, we now recognize that when an object is "hot," the ] of the constituent atoms is large, while when an object is 'cold,' the kinetic energy of the atoms is lower.}}</ref> possibly to the point of ignition if combustible (also known as ] and ] respectively).<ref name=Genzmer> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Genzmer, Herbert | |||
| coauthors = Hellenbrand, Ulrich | |||
| year = 2007 | |||
| title = Mysteries of the World: Unexplained Wonders and Mysterious Phenomena | |||
| publisher = Parragon Books Ltd | |||
| location = Bath, United Kingdom | |||
| page = p. 194 | |||
| isbn = 978-1-4054-9022-1 | |||
| chapter = Psychokinesis}} </ref> | |||
:*Aerokinesis, the telekinetic subspecialty of being able to control the movement of air molecules specifically.<ref name=Genzmer/> | |||
:*Self ] (including flying).<ref name=MindOverMatter/> | |||
*Object ] (including ]).<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 2001 | |||
| title = Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary | |||
| publisher = Random House Reference | |||
| location = New York | |||
| isbn = 0-375-42599-3 | |||
| quote = Psychokinesis...deform inanimate objects, as metal spoons}}</ref> | |||
*Influencing events.<ref name=MindOverMatter> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 1988 | |||
| title = Mind Over Matter (volume of Mysteries of the Unknown encyclopedia series) | |||
| publisher = Time-Life Books | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = pp. 7-8, 27, 82, 85 | |||
| isbn = 0-8094-6336-9}}</ref> | |||
*Biological healing.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Hathaway, Michael R. | |||
| year = 2003 | |||
| title = The Everything Psychic Book | |||
| publisher = Adams Media / F+W Publications Company | |||
| location = Avon, Massachusetts, USA | |||
| pages = pp. 139, 271 | |||
| isbn = 1-58062-969-5 | |||
| chapter = Glossary | |||
| quote = Psychokinesis. The ability to levitate, move objects, heal, and manipulate psychic energy...Psychokinesis is the ability to...create healing.}}</ref> | |||
*] (disappearing and reappearing elsewhere).<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 2004 | |||
| title = Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition | |||
| publisher = Merriam-Webster, Incorporated | |||
| location = Springfield, Massachusetts, USA | |||
| page = p. 1284 | |||
| isbn = 0-87779-809-5 | |||
| quote=Teleportation. The act or process of moving an object or person by psychokinesis.}}</ref><ref name=Guiley/><ref name=MindOverMatter/> | |||
*Phasing through matter.<ref name=MindOverMatter/> | |||
*] of matter.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Colman, Andrew M. | |||
| year = 2001 | |||
| title = Dictionary of Psychology | |||
| publisher = Oxford University Press | |||
| location = Oxford, England, UK | |||
| page = p. 599 | |||
| isbn = 0-19-866211-4 | |||
| quote = Psychokinesis. The movement or change of physical objects by mental processes}}</ref><ref name=MindOverMatter/> | |||
*].<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 1995 | |||
| title = Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown | |||
| publisher = Marshall Cavendish Corporation | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 2354 | |||
| isbn = 1-85435-731-X | |||
| quote = Shape-shifting. The idea that it is possible, in certain circumstances, for men to change their natural bodily form... Sorcerers also, and some great heroes, were believed to have the same power, by virtue of magical knowledge or some innate quality; and so, though more rarely, were a few otherwise ordinary people who acquired the gift through possession of a charm or the performance of a ritual act.}} </ref> | |||
*Energy shield (]).<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://skepdic.com/refuge/funk3.html | |||
| title = Mass Media Funk | |||
| work = The Skeptic's Dictionary | |||
| accessmonthday = February 27 | accessyear=2007 | |||
| quote = Those who practice TT believe they are able to move 'energy,' some sort of psychic force field or chi which they believe permeates the body and surrounding aura.}}</ref> | |||
*Control of magnetism.<ref name=MindOverMatter/> | |||
*Control of photons (light waves/particles).<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Bersani, F. | |||
| coauthors = Martelli, A. | |||
| year = 1983 | |||
| title = Psychoenergetics: The Journal of Psychophysical Systems | |||
| publisher = Gordon and Breach Science Publishers | |||
| location = United Kingdom | |||
| pages = pp. 99-128 | |||
| qutoe = The effects observed range from the typical bending of metal objects, such as spoons, keys, bars, etc., to strange effects like light flashes and teleportation.}}</ref> | |||
*] projection (a physically perceived person, animal, creature, object, ghostly entity, etc., created in the mind and projected into three-dimensional space and observable by others; for thought images allegedly placed on film, see ]).<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = McCoy, Edain | |||
| year = 2006 | |||
| title = Astral Projection for beginners | |||
| publisher = Llewllyn Publications | |||
| location = Woodbury, Minnesota | |||
| page = p. 207 | |||
| isbn = 1-56718-625-4 | |||
| quote = Creative visualization is the practice of mentally envisioning a desired outcome, infusing it with personal energy, and then releasing it to the cosmos so that it can grow to manifest in the physical. While all that sounds unduly complicated, what it boils down to is that it creates a thoughtform on the astral plane that, with proper effort, can be brought into the physical world.}}</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| year = 1995 | |||
| title = Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown | publisher = Marshall Cavendish Corporation | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 2679 | |||
| isbn = 1-85435-731-X | |||
| quote = The evocation of a ''tulpa'', an entity created entirely by an act of the imagination, was described by Alexandra David-Néel in her book '' Magic and Mystery in Tibet'' (1929).}}</ref> | |||
Telekinesis hypotheses have also been considered in a number of contexts outside parapsychological experiments. ] has written that a general objection against the claim for the existence of telekinesis is that, if it were a real process, its effects would be expected to manifest in situations in everyday life; but no such effects have been observed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hansel|first=C.E.M.|title=ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Reevaluation|url=https://archive.org/details/espparapsycholog00hans|url-access=registration|date=1980|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879751197|pages=|edition=1st}}</ref> | |||
==Notable claimants of psychokinetic or telekinetic ability== | |||
*] (1946 – ), the Israeli famous for his ] demonstrations, allegedly by PK.<ref name=Berger/> | |||
*] (1926 – 1990), alleged Soviet psychic of the late 1960s and early 1970s.<ref name=Berger/> | |||
*], an American medical laboratory technician who allegedly was able to repeatedly demonstrate telekinetic movement of small objects beginning in the 1970s, in the first reported instance spontaneously, and then with practice by intense conscious intention. She said her inspiration for making the attempt was in viewing the black-and-white films of Nina Kulagina performing similar feats.<ref name=MindOverMatter/> Some of the items Parise reportedly caused movement in were a plastic pill container, compass needle, and pieces of aluminum foil (the latter two under a ] filmed by a magician).<ref name=Broughton/> During the height of her fame in the early 1970s , the ''National Enquirer'' tabloid newspaper in the United States, then printed in all black and white, featured her in a large photo on its cover seated at a table attempting to perform telekinesis with the headline: "First American to Move Objects with the Mind." Parise eventually retired from performing telekinesis due to the physical stress on her body.<ref name=Broughton/> | |||
*] (alternate spelling: Eusapia Paladino; 1854 - 1918) was an Italian medium who allegedly could cause objects to move during seances and was endorsed by world famous magician ] (1869 – 1936), who witnessed her levitation of a table.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Muldoon, Sylvan | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = 1947 | |||
| title = ''Psychic Experiences of Famous People'' | |||
| publisher = Aries Press | |||
| location = Chicago | |||
| pages = pp.55-56 | |||
| isbn = | |||
| quote = | |||
}} See endorsement quote by Thurston at ] article. also available at google.books.com</ref> | |||
*] (1925 – 1996), a ] skilled in controlling his heart functions who was studied at the ] in the spring and fall of 1970, and was alleged by some observers at the foundation to have telekinetically moved a knitting needle twice from a distance of five feet.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | last = Green | |||
| first = Elmer | |||
| coauthors = Alyce Green | |||
| title = Beyond Biofeedback | |||
| publisher = Knoll Publishing Co | |||
|date=1977 | |||
| pages = pp. 197-218 | |||
| isbn = 0440005833 }} </ref> Although Swami Rama wore a facemask and gown to prevent allegations that he moved the needle with his breath or body movements, and air vents in the room had been covered, at least one physician observer who was present at the time was not convinced and expressed the opinion that air movement was somehow the cause.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | url = http://www.swamij.com/pdf/swami-rama-beyond-biofeedback.pdf | title = http://www.swamij.com/pdf/swami-rama-beyond-biofeedback.pdf | format = ] | pages = pp. 12-16 | accessmonthday = July 24 | accessyear=2007}}Elmer Green's description of Swami Rama's alleged psychokinetic demonstration (with illustrations).</ref> The test device was an uncovered, balanced knitting needle (one of two glued on top of each other at right angles) positioned under a floodlight in a room where incense had been burned prior to the test.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.geocities.com/swamiramabio/ResearchSwamiRama.htm | |||
| title = http://www.geocities.com/swamiramabio/ResearchSwamiRama.htm | |||
| accessmonthday = July 24 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}} Photo of the uncovered balanced knitting needle device (a typical psi wheel) that Swami Rama allegedly influenced by telekinesis.</ref> | |||
''See Also'' | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
Science writers ] and ] and the philosopher ] have written that if telekinesis were possible, one would expect casino incomes to be affected, but the earnings are exactly as the laws of chance predict.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hurley|first=Patrick J.|title=A Concise Introduction to Logic|date=2012|publisher=Wadsworth Cengage Learning|location=Boston, MA|isbn=978-0840034175|page=635|edition=11th}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schick|first=Theodore Jr.|title=How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age|date=2010|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=Dubuque, Iowa|isbn=978-0073535777|page=222|edition=6th}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Robert |title=The Las Vegas Experts' Gambling Guide |date=1968 |publisher=] |page=26}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Neher|first=Andrew|title=The Psychology of Transcendence|url=https://archive.org/details/psychologyoftran00nehe|url-access=registration|date=1990|publisher=Dover|location=New York|isbn=978-0486261676|page=|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref name="Gardner">{{cite book|last1=Gardner|first1=Martin|title=Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science|date=1986|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|isbn=9780486203942|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TwP3SGAUsnkC|access-date=11 December 2015|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|309}} | |||
== Belief in telekinesis == | |||
Belief in psychokinesis varies greatly among individuals and cultures. In September 2006, a survey about belief in various religious and paranormal topics conducted by phone and mail-in questionnaire ]ed Americans on their belief in telekinesis. Of these participants, 28% of male participants and 31% of female participants selected "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement "''It is possible to influence the world through the mind alone''". There were 1,721 participants, and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.<ref>http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf Study conducted by the Gallup Organization between October 8, 2005 and December 12, 2005 on behalf of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, of Waco, Texas, in the United States.</ref> | |||
Psychologist ] argues that many experiments in ], ] or ] assume that the intentions of the subjects or experimenter do not physically distort the apparatus. Humphrey counts them as implicit replications of telekinesis experiments in which telekinesis fails to appear.<ref name="Humphrey"/> | |||
In April 2008, British psychologist and skeptic ] published the results of an online survey he conducted, "Magicians and the Paranormal: A Survey," in which 400 magicians worldwide participated. For the question <i>Do you believe that psychokinesis exists (i.e., that some people can, by paranormal | |||
means, apply a noticeable force to an object or alter its physical characteristics)?</i>, the results were as follows: No 83.5%, Yes 9%, Uncertain 7.5%.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://richardwiseman.com/magicsurvey | |||
| title = Magicians and the Paranormal: A Survey | |||
|accessmonthday= May 7 | |||
|accessyear= 2008 | |||
}} Published April 23, 2008.</ref> | |||
===Physics=== | |||
== Skepticism and controversy == | |||
The ideas of telekinesis violates several well-established laws of physics, including the ],{{Which|reason=There are many inverse square laws in physics; TK might not violate ALL of them|date=April 2024}} the ], and the ].<ref name="Gilovich"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Frazier|first1=Kendrick|title=Paranormal Borderlands of Science|date=1981|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879751487|pages=60–65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjENAQAAMAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> Because of this, scientists have demanded a high standard of evidence for telekinesis, in line with ]'s dictum "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof".<ref name="Humphrey"/><ref name="Sutherland">{{cite book|last1=Sutherland|first1=Stuart|title=Irrationality: The Enemy Within|date=1994|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=9780140167269|page=309|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HAVjQgAACAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015|quote=he movement of objects without the application of physical force would, if proven, require a complete revision of the laws of physics. (...) he more improbable something is, the better the evidence needed to accept it}}</ref> The ] law of parsimony in scientific explanations of phenomena suggests that the explanation of telekinesis in terms of ordinary ways—by trickery, special effects or by poor experimental design—is preferable to accepting that the ] should be rewritten.<ref name="Girden"/><ref name="Hyman"/> | |||
The topic of psychokinesis is regarded as pseudoscience by many mainstream scientists. In the book ''Parapsychology: The Controversial Science'' (1991), British parapsychologist Richard S. Broughton, Ph.D, wrote of the differences of opinion among top scientists encountered by ], director of the (now-closed) ], regarding the psychokinesis research that the lab was engaged in at the time. Jahn is quoted as saying that six Nobel laureates commented on the lab's work and that two firmly rejected the whole topic, two encouraged his team to push on, and two were unwilling to commit either way, thus indicating that negative and positive scientific opinion on the subject, even at the highest level, is not absolute.<ref name=Broughton/> | |||
Supporters of research in the field point out that many things in science were once thought impossible and ridiculed, only later to be proven true.<ref name=Broughton/> ], ], and O. Costa de Beauregard have publicly stated that they believe that nothing in ] forbids the existence of psi phenomena.<ref name=Broughton/> Nobel laureate ] has stated that the results of experiments in quantum physics that he has seen have produced more compelling evidence for the hypothetical existence of psi effects than the results of experiments done in the lab so far by parapsychologists.<ref name=Broughton/><ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Nobel laureate Brian Josephson | |||
| year = May 5, 1987 | |||
| title = The Unexplained | |||
| publisher = BBC World Service radio program | |||
| location = London }} broadcast interview. | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Philosopher and physicist ] has written that:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bunge|first1=Mario|title=Philosophy in Crisis: The Need for Reconstruction|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophycrisis00mari|url-access=limited|date=2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=978-1573928434|page=}}</ref><blockquote> violates the principle that mind cannot act directly on matter. (If it did, no experimenter could trust his readings of measuring instruments.) It also violates the principles of conservation of energy and momentum. The claim that quantum mechanics allows for the possibility of mental power influencing randomizers—an alleged case of micro-—is ludicrous since that theory respects the said conservation principles, and it deals exclusively with physical things.</blockquote>Physicist ], who has investigated parapsychological claims, has written that an unknown fifth force causing telekinesis would have to transmit a great deal of energy. The energy would have to overcome the ] binding the atoms together, because the atoms would need to respond more strongly to the fifth force than to electric forces. Such an additional force between atoms should therefore exist all the time and not during only alleged paranormal occurrences. Taylor wrote there is no scientific trace of such a force in physics, down to many orders of magnitude; thus, if a scientific viewpoint is to be preserved, the idea of any fifth force must be discarded. Taylor concluded that there is no possible physical mechanism for telekinesis, and it is in complete contradiction to established science.<ref name="Taylor"/>{{rp|27–30}} | |||
===Anecdotal evidence=== | |||
On the problem of eyewitness testimony of alleged psychokinetic events, ] (that is, stories by eyewitnesses outside of controlled laboratory conditions) are considered by scientists and skeptics alike to be insufficient evidence to firmly establish the scientific validity of psychokinesis.<ref name=Broughton/> | |||
There are 3 humans who have supernatural powers; Nadim Wehbe, Rachelle Bouchaia and Antonio Nassif. Each sibling possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a house they call the manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate Sydney, NSW. | |||
Charmed is the story of the three siblings, discovering that they are the world's most powerful force of good, The Charmed Ones; each gifted with innate magical powers they must collectively use to defend the "innocents" of NSW from demons, warlocks and other evil beings. During their fight against the forces of evil, youngest brother Christopher is murdered, breaking the united Power of Three. However, the Charmed triple-destiny is restored with the introduction of a long-lost fourth half-brother, Antonio Nassif, who is half-whitelighter. | |||
In 1979, ] and Richard Mattuck published a parapsychology paper proposing a quantum explanation for telekinesis. Physicist ] wrote that their explanation contained assumptions not supported by any scientific evidence. According to Stenger their paper is "filled with impressive looking equations and calculations that give the appearance of placing on a firm scientific footing... Yet look what they have done. They have found the value of one unknown number (wavefunction steps) that gives one measured number (the supposed speed of -induced motion). This is numerology, not science."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stenger|first1=Victor J.|title=Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses|date=1990|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879755751|pages=248–250}}</ref> | |||
'''Nadim Wehbe''' | |||
Born September 18, 1986, Nadim is the eldest Charmed brother. Born with the power of telekinesis, he later manifests an astral projection ability and the power to explode things at will. Strong-willed, feisty and intelligent, he would often take charge of situations and has always been overprotective of his two siblings, Rachelle and Chris. He became responsible, with a fierce determination at whatever he did, including fighting demons. This sense of responsibility occasionally leads to clashes with the more free-willed Chris, however, the two grow closer as the years progress. Though at times Nadim lets pride dictate his way of handling things, he never lets his personal life interfere with his work life. | |||
Physicist ] has written that spoons, like all matter, are made up of ]s and that any movement of a spoon with the mind would involve the manipulation of those atoms through the four ]: the ], the ], electromagnetism, and ]. Telekinesis would have to be either some form of one of these four forces, or a new force that has a billionth the strength of gravity, for otherwise it would have been captured in experiments already done. This leaves no physical force that could possibly account for telekinesis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/02/18/telekinesis-and-quantum-field-theory/ |title=Telekinesis and Quantum Field Theory: Cosmic Variance |publisher=Discover Magazine |date=2008-02-18 |access-date=2014-03-11}}</ref> | |||
'''Rachelle Bouchaia''' | |||
Born on December 4, 1985 and is the middle child. Her powers include the ability to freeze objects at will. She is most concerned with having a normal life, and always has reservations about her life as a Charmed One. When she first becomes a Charmed One, she is quiet and reserved, often having to mediate between Nadim and Chris. As the years progress, she gains a stronger persona and takes more authority after Chris dies. | |||
Physicist ] has found it suspicious that a phenomenon should only ever appear at the limits of detectability of questionable statistical techniques. He cites this feature as one of ]'s indicators of ].<ref name="Park"/> Park pointed out that if mind really could influence matter, it would be easy for parapsychologists to measure such a phenomenon by using the alleged telekinetic power to deflect a ], which would not require any dubious statistics. "he reason, of course, is that the microbalance stubbornly refuses to budge." He has suggested that the reason statistical studies are so popular in parapsychology is that they introduce opportunities for uncertainty and error, which are used to support the experimenter's biases.<ref name="Park"/> | |||
'''Christopher Abboud'''''' | |||
Phoebe, born July 2, 1990 is the original baby of the family and is a spontaneous, free-spirited young man. The power he was born with is premonitions, which grow to enable him to see into the past as well as the future. This later allows him to project himself into the future and the past. He later gains the powers of levitation, which he often combines with his martial arts skills, and the power of empathy but later loses the latter two due to misusing them for personal gain. He forces a premonition so he can leave for a date and is caught on tape by an inspector. It is possible that he earned back levitation and empathy. Early on, he often had a turbulent relationship with his older brother, Nadim. On May 8, 2007, 3 years new to the craft he is killed by Shax, a demonic assassin sent by the Source. | |||
===Explanations in terms of bias=== | |||
'''Antonio Nassif''' | |||
] research has suggested that people are susceptible to illusions of telekinesis. These include both the illusion that they themselves have the power, and that the events they witness are real demonstrations of telekinesis.<ref name="Blackmore">{{cite journal|last=Blackmore|first=Susan J.|title=Psychic Experiences: Psychic Illusions|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|volume=16|pages=367–376|year=1992}}</ref> For example, the ] is an ] between intention and external events, and believers in the paranormal have been shown to be more susceptible to this illusion than others.<ref name="Benassi">{{cite journal|last1=Benassi|first1=Victor A.|last2=Sweeney|first2=Paul D.|last3=Drevno|first3=Gregg E.|title=Mind over matter: Perceived success at psychokinesis.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|date=1979|volume=37|issue=8|pages=1377–1386|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.37.8.1377}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Blackmore|first1=Susan|last2=Trościanko|first2=Tom|title=Belief in the paranormal: Probability judgements, illusory control, and the 'chance baseline shift'|journal=British Journal of Psychology|date=November 1985|volume=76|issue=4|pages=459–468|doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.1985.tb01969.x}}</ref> Psychologist ] explains this as a biased interpretation of personal experience. For example, someone in a dice game wishing for a high score can interpret high numbers as "success" and low numbers as "not enough concentration".<ref name="Gilovich"/> Bias towards belief in telekinesis may be an example of the human tendency to see patterns where none exist, called the ], which believers are also more susceptible to.<ref name="Blackmore"/> | |||
Born on March 16, 1992. While still in school, Antonio would often get into trouble. His personality is bold and vibrant, adding a new dynamic to the Charmed Ones. Antonio's birth power is half telekinesis and premonitions, but because he is part Whitelighter this ability combines with his natural orbing to create telekinetic-orbing. He comes into the craft quickly, aiding in the vanquish of The Source of All Evil. She is driven to become a "full-time witch", and has a hard time finding a career or hobby he is content with, eventually settling with his destiny as a Whitelighter, like his father. Due to this he has not much of a social life or friends. Antonio is very reliant on Nadim and the two develop a very strong relationship. Antonio sometimes feels left out of THE POWER OF THREE as they were close to Chris. | |||
A 1952 study tested for ] with respect to telekinesis. Richard Kaufman of ] gave subjects the task of trying to influence eight dice and allowed them to record their own scores. They were secretly filmed, so their records could be checked for errors. Believers in telekinesis made errors that favored its existence, while disbelievers made opposite errors. A similar pattern of errors was found in ]'s dice experiments, which were considered the strongest evidence for telekinesis at that time.<ref name="Gardner"/>{{rp|306}} | |||
===Illusion of Control=== | |||
In psychology there is a well-established phenomenon called the ], in which people think they have a degree of control of something when it makes no difference what they do. Such an ] between a person's intention and a physical effect could give a false impression of psychokinesis. Two examples of this in relation to psychokinesis are when a person claims to use PK to affect the outcome of a roll of dice, which could be merely a one in 11 chance event, and when a claim is made to be able to control the appearance or disappearance of clouds. See also ]. | |||
In 1995, Wiseman and Morris showed subjects an unedited videotape of a magician's performance in which a fork bent and eventually broke. Believers in the paranormal were significantly more likely to misinterpret the tape as a demonstration of telekinesis, and were more likely to misremember crucial details of the presentation. This suggests that ] affects people's interpretation of telekinesis demonstrations.<ref name="Wiseman">{{cite journal|last1=Wiseman|first1=Richard|last2=Morris|first2=Robert L.|author-link1=Richard Wiseman|author-link2=Robert L. Morris| title=Recalling pseudo-psychic demonstrations|journal=British Journal of Psychology|date=February 1995|volume=86|issue=1|pages=113–125|doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.1995.tb02549.x|url=http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/BJPpseudo-psychic.pdf|hdl=2299/2288|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Psychologist ] cites confirmation bias as an explanation of why belief in psychic phenomena persists, despite the lack of evidence:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sternberg|first1=Robert J.|author-link=Robert J. Sternberg|last2=Roediger III|first2=Henry J.|last3=Halpern|first3=Diane F.|title=Critical Thinking in Psychology|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521608343|page=292|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mA9NPAgWR0C|access-date=11 December 2015|quote=Some of the worst examples of confirmation bias are in research on parapsychology (...) Arguably, there is a whole field here with no powerful confirming data at all. But people want to believe, and so they find ways to believe.}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote>Some of the worst examples of confirmation bias are in research on parapsychology ... Arguably, there is a whole field here with no powerful confirming data at all. But people want to believe, and so they find ways to believe.</blockquote> | |||
Psychologist ] has argued that an ] contributes to belief in telekinesis.<ref name="selfismagic">{{cite book|last1=Baer|first1=John|last2=Kaufman|first2=James C.|last3=Baumeister|first3=Roy F.|title=Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will |date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780195189636|page=Self is Magic|url=http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic67047.files/2_13_07_Wegner.pdf|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> He observes that in everyday experience, intention (such as wanting to turn on a light) is followed by action (such as flicking a light switch) in a reliable way, but the underlying neural mechanisms are outside awareness. Hence, though subjects may feel that they directly introspect their own ], the experience of control is actually inferred from relations between the thought and the action. This theory of ''apparent mental causation'' acknowledges the influence of ]'s view of the mind.<ref name="selfismagic"/> This process for detecting when one is responsible for an action is not totally reliable, and when it goes wrong there can be an illusion of control. This can happen when an external event follows, and is congruent with, a thought in someone's mind, without an actual causal link.<ref name="selfismagic"/> As evidence, Wegner cites a series of experiments on ] in which subjects were induced to think they had influenced external events. In one experiment, subjects watched a ] player taking a series of ]. When they were instructed to visualize him making his shots, they felt that they had contributed to his success.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pronin|first1=Emily|last2=Wegner|first2=Daniel M.|last3=McCarthy|first3=Kimberly|last4=Rodriguez|first4=Sylvia|title=Everyday magical powers: The role of apparent mental causation in the overestimation of personal influence.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|date=2006|volume=91|issue=2|pages=218–231|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.218|pmid=16881760|url=http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/Pronin,%20Wegner,%20McCarthy,%20&%20Rodriguez%20(2006).pdf|access-date=2009-07-03|issn=0022-3514|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105011719/http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/Pronin%2C%20Wegner%2C%20McCarthy%2C%20%26%20Rodriguez%20%282006%29.pdf|archive-date=January 5, 2011|df=mdy-all|citeseerx=10.1.1.405.3118}}</ref> Other experiments designed to create an illusion of telekinesis have demonstrated that this depends, to some extent, on the subject's prior belief in telekinesis.<ref name="Benassi"/><ref name="Wiseman"/><ref name="Wilson">{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Krissy|last2=French|first2=Christopher C.|title=Magic and memory: using conjuring to explore the effects of suggestion, social influence, and paranormal belief on eyewitness testimony for an ostensibly paranormal event|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|date=13 November 2014|volume=5|pages=1289|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01289|pmid=25431565|pmc=4230037|doi-access=free}}</ref> | |||
A 2006 meta-analysis of 380 studies found a small positive effect that can be explained by ].<ref name="Bosch">{{cite journal|last1=Bösch|first1=Holger|last2=Steinkamp|first2=Fiona|last3=Boller|first3=Emil|title=Examining psychokinesis: The interaction of human intention with random number generators--A meta-analysis.|journal=Psychological Bulletin|date=2006|volume=132|issue=4|pages=497–523|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.497|pmid=16822162}}</ref> | |||
===Magic and special effects=== | ===Magic and special effects=== | ||
] performing the "Levitation of Princess Karnac" illusion, 1894, U.S. Library of Congress]] | |||
Magicians, sleight-of-hand-artists, etc., have successfully simulated some of the specialized abilities of PK (object movement, ], levitation, teleportation), but not all of the feats of claimed spontaneous and intentional psychokinesis have been reproduced under the same observed conditions as the original.<ref name=Broughton/><ref> | |||
{{See also|Mentalism}} | |||
{{cite web | |||
Magicians have successfully simulated some of the specialized abilities of telekinesis, such as object movement, ], levitation and teleportation.<ref>]. (2004). ''The Nature of the Mind: An Introduction''. Routledge. 135-136.</ref> According to ], there are many impressive magic tricks available to amateurs and professionals to simulate telekinetic powers.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carroll|first1=Robert Todd|author-link=Robert Todd Carroll|title=The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions|date=2003|publisher=Wiley|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|isbn=9780471272427|page=316|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FPqDFx40vYC|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> Metal objects such as keys or cutlery can be bent using a number of different techniques, even if the performer has not had access to the items beforehand.<ref name="Hines"/>{{rp|127–131}} | |||
| url = http://www.uri-geller.com/uri-biography/uribiog4.htm | |||
| title = What Magicians Say About Uri Geller | |||
| accessmonthday = May 19 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}}</ref> According to Robert Todd, author of '']'' , there are many impressive magic tricks available to amateurs and professionals to simulate psychokinetic powers.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://skepdic.com/kinesis.html | |||
| title = The Skeptic's Dictionary - SkepDic.com: psychokinesis (PK) | |||
| accessmonthday = September 28 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}}Robert Todd Carroll: "The variety of magic tricks used to demonstrate psychokinetic powers is impressive. Scientists have been investigating PK since the mid-19th century but with little success at demonstrating that anyone can move even a feather without trickery involving something as simple and obvious as blowing on objects to move them."</ref> These can be purchased on the Internet from magic supply companies. Amateur-made videos alleging to show feats of psychokinesis, particularly spoon bending and the telekinetic movement of objects, can be found on video-sharing websites such as YouTube. Critics point out that it is now easier than ever for the average person to fake psychokinetic events and that without more concrete proof, the topic, apart from its enjoyment in fiction, will continue to remain controversial.<ref name=Genzmer/> | |||
According to ] there are a number of ways for faking telekinetic metal bending. These include switching straight objects for pre-bent duplicates, the concealed application of force, and secretly inducing metallic fractures.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wiseman|first1=Richard|author-link1=Richard Wiseman|last2=Greening|first2=Emma|title=It's still bending: Verbal suggestion and alleged psychokinetic ability|journal=British Journal of Psychology|date=February 2005|volume=96|issue=1|pages=115–127|doi=10.1348/000712604x15428|pmid=15826327|url=http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/BJP-key.pdf}}</ref> Research has also suggested that telekinetic metal bending effects can be created by ]. On this subject the magician Ben Harris wrote:<ref>{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Ben|title=Gellerism Revealed: the Psychology and Methodology Behind the Geller Effect|date=1985|publisher=M. Hades International|location=Calgary|isbn=9780919230927|pages=195–196}}</ref> | |||
=== Statements by skeptics === | |||
The more vocal members of the ] assert that because some PK effects can be reproduced or simulated by trickery or special effects, that is a more reasonable explanation than to accept that the ] should be rewritten.<ref name=Broughton/> To support their side of the argument, skeptics may invoke the principles of ], ], the lack of replicable experimental evidence for psychokinesis, and the saying ] to support their position. | |||
====Michael Shermer==== | |||
], the executive director of the ] and founding publisher/editor-in-chief of ] magazine, who also writes a monthly column for ''Scientific American'' magazine, stated in 1997 and again in 2002 in his book '']'' his position that people who claim to have witnessed psychic phenomena, which includes psychokinesis, "have committed an error in thinking " and are "misinformed" about what they claim they personally experienced or observed. Shermer has a Ph.D in the history of science and masters and B.A. degrees in psychology. He is one of the world's leading skeptics of the paranormal. | |||
{{Quote|So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: '' Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood'' and ''Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth ''. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It' s not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.| Michael Shermer|''Why People Believe Weird Things'', 1997, 2002, Introduction}} | |||
====James Randi==== | |||
] is an author, magician, and long-time lecturer of paranormal skepticism. In 1999, he founded the ] which he continues to direct. He has stated that psychic feats, such as the alleged softening of metal described in "spoon bending," in his view, have contributed only to society's understanding of fraud. Randi's formal education consists of completion of elementary school in Canada, several years of high school (did not graduate) and at age 67, an honorary ] degree from the University of Indianapolis.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://randi.org/jr/bio.html | |||
| title = http://randi.org/jr/bio.html | |||
| accessdate = 2007-06-09 | |||
}}From Randi's bio: "1995: A degree honoris causa, Doctor of Humane Letters, was awarded Mr. Randi from the University of Indianapolis."</ref> He described himself as a "child prodigy" with an IQ of 168 (Stanford-Binet scale) in a 2001 ''Skeptic'' magazine interview conducted by Michael Shermer<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10428115_ITM | |||
| title = http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10428115_ITM | |||
| accessdate = 2007-06-09 | |||
}}"Skeptic: But you didn't finish high school, did you? Randi: Correct, I didn 't. You had to finish all five years and, frankly, I was not in school most of the time because I was one of those child prodigies. I'm not boasting about it. It's a simple fact that I had those particular conditions of mind that allowed me to learn very quickly. My IQ, as tested by the Stanford-Binet, was 168."</ref> and again in his ''Swift'' JREF column on January 25, 2008<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/151/1/ | |||
| title = http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/151/1/ | |||
| accessdate = 2008-01-26 | |||
}}''Swift'' January 25, 2008: "...I had an IQ of 168 / Stanford-Binet and was classified as 'Genius or Near-Genius.'"</ref>; however, this claim has never been independently verified. | |||
{{Quote|More importantly, I think, we should ask why not one of the " discoveries" of parapsychology — the reality of mental spoon-bending, survival | |||
-after-death, ESP, etc., has made one iota of change in our lives, in science , in philosophy, or in any disciplines — except for the field of fraud and swindle, of course.| James Randi |''Swift'' JREF online newsletter, November 21, 2003 }} | |||
<blockquote>If you are doing a really convincing job, then you should be able to put a bent key on the table and comment, "Look, it is still bending", and have your spectators really believe that it is. This may sound the height of boldness; however, the effect is astounding – and combined with suggestion, it does work.</blockquote> | |||
====Carl Sagan==== | |||
The late ], who had a Ph.D in astronomy and astrophysics and Masters and B.A. degrees in physics, offered this advice to scientists and the public at large about psychokinesis research in his 1995 book '']'': | |||
{{Quote|Typical offerings of pseudoscience and superstition—this is merely a representative, not a comprehensive, list— are... extrasensory perception (ESP), such as telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, and "remote viewing" of distant places;... It is barely possible that a few of these paranormal claims might one day be verified by solid scientific data. But it would be foolish to accept them without adequate evidence. In the spirit of garage dragons, it is much better, for those claims not already disproved or adequately explained, to contain our impatience, to nurture a tolerance for ambiguity, and to await—or, much better, to seek— supporting or disconfirming evidence.| Carl Sagan|''The Demon-Haunted World'' , 1995, pages 221, 224}} | |||
Between 1979 and 1981, the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at ] reported a series of experiments they named ], in which two teenaged male subjects had demonstrated telekinesis phenomena (including metal-bending and causing images to appear on film) under less than stringent laboratory conditions. ] eventually revealed that the subjects were two of his associates, amateur conjurers ] and Michael Edwards. The pair had created the effects by standard trickery, but the researchers, being unfamiliar with magic techniques, interpreted them as proof of telekinesis.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Colman|first1=Andrew M.|title=Facts, Fallacies and Frauds in Psychology |date=1987|publisher=Hutchinson|location=London|isbn=9780091730413|pages=195–185}}</ref> | |||
=== Prize money for proof of psychokinesis === | |||
A 2014 study that utilized a magic trick to investigate paranormal belief on eyewitness testimony revealed that believers in telekinesis were more likely to report a key continued to bend than non-believers.<ref name="Wilson"/> | |||
Internationally, there are individual skeptics of the paranormal and ] who offer cash prize money to anyone—or anyone who meets a criterion of eligibility, such as a certain level of fame—who can successfully demonstrate the existence of an extraordinary psychic power, such as psychokinesis, which is currently regarded by mainstream science as being ] in origin, according to an agreed-upon experiment. ] have remained uncollected by people claiming to possess paranormal abilities.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}. The James Randi Educational Foundation offers 1,000,000 US dollars to anyone who can produce a PK event - or any other paranormal occurrence - under previously controlled, mutually agreed upon circumstances. The money is kept in an escrow account with Goldman-Sachs in New York. | |||
=== Prize money for proof of telekinesis === | |||
==Notable witnesses to PK events== | |||
{{Main|List of prizes for evidence of the paranormal}} | |||
Psychokinetic events have been witnessed by psychologists in the United States at the Ph.D, Masters, and B.A. degree levels,<ref> | |||
Internationally, there are individual skeptics of the paranormal and ] who offer cash prize money for demonstration of the existence of an extraordinary psychic power, such as telekinesis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/randi.html |title=Randi $1,000,000 paranormal challenge |publisher=The Skeptic's Dictionary |access-date=2014-04-12}}</ref> Prizes have been offered specifically for telekinesis demonstrations: for example, businessman Gerald Fleming promised to offer £250,000 to ] if he could bend a spoon under controlled conditions.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=British and Irish Skeptic|last=Hutchinson|first=Mike|year=1988|title=A Thorn in Geller's Side|issue=July/August | pages=2–4}}</ref> The ] offered the ] to any accepted candidate who managed to produce a paranormal event in a controlled, mutually agreed upon experiment.<ref name=rolling>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/james-randi-obituary-1079316/|title = James Randi, Famed Magician and Paranormal Skeptic, Dead at 92| magazine=] |date = October 22, 2020}}</ref><ref name=challenge>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable-skepticism-of-the-amazing-randi.html?_r=0|title=The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 7, 2014|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Adam}}</ref> Currently, the ] offers a prize of $250,000, the largest in the world, for proof of the paranormal.<ref name="CFI">{{cite web |title=Prove Your Paranormal Powers and Win $250,000 from the CFI Investigations Group |url=https://centerforinquiry.org/press_releases/prove-your-paranormal-powers-and-win-250000-from-the-cfi-investigations-group/ |website=centerforinquiry.org |date=June 26, 2020 |publisher=Center For Inquiry |access-date=14 June 2022}}</ref><ref name="SI">{{cite web |last1=Underdown |first1=Jim |last2=Hillman |first2=Lou |title=$250,000 Remains Unclaimed: CFI Investigators Recount a Year of Applicants |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/04/250000-remains-unclaimed-cfi-investigators-recount-a-year-of-applicants/ |website=skepticalinquirer.org |date=April 30, 2021 |publisher=Skeptical Inquirer |access-date=14 June 2022}}</ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Roll, William G. | |||
| coauthors = Storey, Valerie | |||
| year = 2004 | |||
| title = Unleashed — Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch | |||
| publisher = Paraview Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster | |||
| location = New York | |||
| isbn = 0-7434-8294-8 }} ], Ph.D in psychology from Lund University in Sweden; Jeannie Lagle, Masters degree in psychology. Both witnessed PK involving Tina Resch. Roll additionally witnessed PK in numerous other cases he investigated and wrote about. See his Wiki article for other case references or elswhere in this article's reference list under "Types of abilities - control of photons".</ref><ref name=DeanRadin> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.deanradin.com/NewWeb/bio.html | |||
| title = Official website of Dean Radin | |||
| accessmonthday = June 9 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}} ''see also'' </ref><ref name=PamelaHeath> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://pamelaheath.com/about.htm | |||
| title = Official website of Pamela Heath | |||
| accessmonthday = June 9 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}}</ref> and in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world by | |||
professionals with medical degrees,<ref name=MichaelCrichton> {{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.crichton-official.com/aboutmc/biography.html | |||
| title = Official website of Michael Crichton | |||
| accessmonthday = June 9 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}} ''See also'' .</ref><ref name=PamelaHeath/> physicists,<ref> {{cite book | |||
| author = Hasted, John B. | |||
| year = 1981 | |||
| title = The Metal Benders | |||
| publisher = Routledge and Kegan Paul | |||
| location = London | |||
| isbn = 0-7100-0597-0 }}John B. Hasted (1921-2002), M.A., Ph.D. Chairman and Professor, Department of Physics, Birkbeck College, University of London. In his book ''The Metal- Benders'', he describes his research of PK claimants and PK events he personally witnessed.</ref> | |||
electrical engineers,<ref name=DeanRadin/> military personnel,<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Johnson, Ron | |||
| year = 2004 | |||
| title = The Men Who Stare at Goats | |||
| publisher = Simon & Schuster | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 63, (Back cover) | |||
| isbn = 0-7432-7060-6 }}"In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the U.S. . Army. Defying all known accepted military practice—and indeed, the laws of physics—they believed that a solidier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls, and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them."; "Lenny from Special Forces disappeared into the room where the goat was. He came back and answered, with surprise and solemnity, "The goat is down.'"</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Steinberg, Jeffey | |||
| year = August 26, 2005 | |||
| title = Cheney's 'Spoon-Benders' Pushing Nuclear Armageddon | |||
| publisher = Executive Intelligence Review }}"In reality, Fort Bragg, by 1978, was already a hotbed of mind-war experimentation. Among the programs carried out at remote corners of the sprawling special operations base: the Goat Lab, where a team of New Age- trained Special Forces soldiers attempted to burst the hearts of goats, in an adjacent holding pen, through the power of psychic concentration." Article available online at .</ref> | |||
police officers,<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://www.xzone-radio.com/stcatharines.htm | |||
| title = 1970 Poltergeist in St. Catherines, Ontario | |||
| accessmonthday = June 9 | accessyear=2007 | |||
}} Handwritten official police reports of a 1970 spontaneous PK case witnessed by officers of the Niagara Regional Police in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.</ref><ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Roll, William G. | |||
| coauthors = Storey, Valerie | |||
| year = 2004 | |||
| title = Unleashed — Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch | |||
| publisher = Paraview Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster | |||
| location = New York | |||
| isbn = 0-7434-8294-8 | |||
}} Two police officers witnessed alleged PK activity in the Resch home in the 1984 Columbus poltergeist case.</ref> | |||
and other professionals and ordinary citizens. ], Ph.D, a Yale-educated geologist, geophysicist, author, and professor at Boston University has written "I do believe that some PK is real" referring to the evidence for micro-PK obtained by the Princeton PEAR laboratory experiments and similar studies and some reports of macro-RSPK observed in poltergeist cases. He once witnessed a book "jumping off a shelf" while in a room where a female PK agent was also present.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Schoch, Robert M. | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = January/February 2008 issue | |||
| title = ''Psychokinesis: A Scientist Searches for the Reality Behind PK's Representations'' | |||
| publisher = ''Atlantis Rising'' magazine | |||
| location = Livingston, Montana USA | |||
| pages = pp. 42-43, 70-71 | |||
| isbn = | |||
| quote = | |||
}}</ref> | |||
==Belief== | |||
===Michael Crichton=== | |||
Between 1979 and 1981, a survey on belief in various religious and paranormal topics conducted by phone and mail-in questionnaire ] 1,721 Americans on their belief in telekinesis. Of these participants, 28% of male participants and 31% of female participants selected "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement, "''It is possible to influence the world through the mind alone.''"<ref>{{cite web|title=American Piety in the 21st Century: New Insights to the Depth and Complexity of Religion in the US|url=http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf|access-date=21 April 2014}} Study conducted by the Gallup Organization between October 8, 2005 and December 12, 2005 on behalf of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, of Waco, Texas, in the United States.</ref> | |||
Best-selling author ] ('']'', '']'', etc.), who graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School,<ref name=MichaelCrichton/> and is a past recipient of the Association of American Medical Writers Award,<ref name=MichaelCrichton/> described his successful experience with psychokinesis at a "spoon bending party" in his 1988 book ''Travels'':<ref name=MichaelCrichton/> | |||
{{Quote|I looked down. My spoon had begun to bend. I hadn't even realized. The metal was completely pliable, like soft plastic. It wasn't particularly hot, either, just slightly warm. I easily bend the bowl of the spoon in half, using only my fingertips. This didn't require any pressure at all, just guiding with my fingertips. I put the bent spoon aside and tried a fork. After a few moments of rubbing, the fork twisted like a pretzel. It was easy. I bent several more spoons and forks. ... I had bent a spoon, and I knew it wasn't a trick. I looked around the room and saw little children, eight or nine years old, bending large metal bars. They weren't trying to trick anybody.| Michael Crichton|''Travels '', 1988, pages 319-320}} | |||
=== |
=== Subsets of telekinesis === | ||
Parapsychologists divide telekinetic phenomena into two categories: ''macro-telekinesis'', large-scale telekinetic effects that can be seen with the naked eye; and ''micro-telekinesis,'' small-scale telekinetic effects that require the use of statistics to be detected.<ref name="introduction"/> Some phenomena—such as ],<ref name="introduction"/> ],<ref name="introduction"/> ],<ref name="introduction"/> ],<ref name="introduction"/> ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/psi_powers |title=Themes: Psi Powers |publisher=Science Fiction Encyclopedia |access-date=2016-03-12|quote=Fire-raising, alias pyrolysis or pyrokinesis, can be considered as a fine-tuned variant of Telekinesis – feeding kinetic energy to the target's individual molecules to increase its temperature rather than move it as a unit.}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Jonathan C.|title=Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit|year=2010|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Malden, Massachusetts|isbn=978-1444310139|page=246}}</ref> and ]<ref name="introduction"/>—are considered examples of telekinesis. | |||
Parapsychologist and author ] has reported that he, too, was able to bend the bowl of a spoon over with unexplained ease of force with witnesses present at an informal PK experiment gathering. Radin has a Ph.D in psychology from the University of Illinois, a Masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, and a B.A. degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts.<ref name=DeanRadin/> He described his experience in his 2006 book ''Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality'' and online (with photos):<ref name=DeanRadin/> | |||
{{Quote|I was much more skeptical about such claims until one day I personally folded the bowl of a large, heavy soup spoon in half with a gentle touch, and with half a dozen witnesses present. I later tested to see if I could do this again with a similar spoon using ordinary force. I couldn't budge the bowl without the assistance of two pairs of pliers and some serious leverage. So I have good reason to doubt the usual skeptical assertion that all cases of metal-bending are conjuring tricks or due to unconscious use of force.| Dean Radin| ''Entangled Minds'', page 331}} | |||
In 2016, ] stated "Overall, the majority of academic parapsychologists do not find the evidence compelling in favour of macro-".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Watt|first1=Caroline|title=Parapsychology: A Beginner's Guide|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=9781780748870|page=37|year=2016}}</ref> | |||
==Psychokinesis in religion, mythology, and popular culture== | |||
], France, 1857.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Heath, Pamela Rae, M.D., Psy.D. | |||
| year = 2003 | |||
| title = The PK Zone: A Cross-Cultural review of Psychokinesis | |||
| publisher = iUniverse | |||
| location = Bloomington, Indiana | |||
| page = p. 3 | |||
| isbn = 0-595-27658-X | |||
| quote = Religion has seemed to provide fertile ground for both spontaneous and intentional PK. Every great religious tract of mankind includes stories of people with the ability to heal and to multiply food, such as the Bible says were performed by Jesus Christ.}}</ref>]] | |||
;Religion and mythology | |||
There are written accounts and oral legends of events fitting the description of psychokinesis dating back to early history, most notably in the stories found in various religions and mythology. In the Bible, for example, Jesus is described as miraculously walking on water, transmuting water into wine, healing the sick, and reversing physical disability or even death by an act of touch or willing it to be so.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Brian, Denis | |||
| year = 2000 | |||
| title = The Voice of Genius: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries | |||
| publisher = Basic Books, imprint of Perseus Books | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 288 | |||
| isbn = 9-780738-204475 | |||
| quote = . . . parapsychologists are studying some of the unusual events recorded in the Bible: changing water into wine could be called psychokinesis; . . . People have spoken of such things from early times and they seem to occur in every civilization.}}</ref> | |||
===Notable claimants of telekinetic abilities=== | |||
Mythological beings, such as witches, have been accused of levitating people, animals, and objects.<ref> | |||
] (right) monitors for fraud, Milan, 1892.]] | |||
{{cite book | |||
] hoaxer ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/get_out/article_503fed83-70f0-5378-a73d-f345c2db5464.html?mode=image&photo |title=New exhibit looks at occult photography |work=East Valley Tribune |date=September 27, 2005 |access-date=2014-04-18}}</ref> (1840–1901) of France fakes telekinesis in this 1875 ] photograph titled ''Fluidic Effect''.]] | |||
| author = Guiley, Rosemary Ellen | |||
There have been claimants of telekinetic ability throughout history. Angelique Cottin (ca. 1846) known as the "Electric Girl" of France was an alleged generator of telekinetic activity. Cottin and her family claimed that she produced electric emanations that allowed her to move pieces of furniture and scissors across a room.<ref name="Podmore">{{cite book|last1=Podmore|first1=Frank|author-link=Frank Podmore|title=Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1108072588|pages=41–42}}</ref> ] wrote there were many observations which were "suggestive of fraud" such as the contact of the girl's garments to produce any of the alleged phenomena and the observations from several witnesses that noticed there was a double movement on the part of Cottin, a movement in the direction of the object thrown and afterwards away from it, but the movements so rapid they were not usually detected.<ref name="Podmore"/> | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = 1989 | |||
| title = The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft | |||
| publisher = Facts on File | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 201 | |||
| isbn = 0-8160-1793 | |||
| quote = In hauntings, witches, poltergeists, and fairies have been blamed for levitating people, animals, and objects. | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Spiritualist ] have also claimed telekinetic abilities. ], an Italian medium, could allegedly cause objects to move during séances. However, she was caught levitating a table with her foot by magician ], and using tricks to move objects by psychologist ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Christopher|first1=Milbourne|author-link=Milbourne Christopher|title=Search for the Soul|date=1979|publisher=Crowell|location=New York|isbn=9780690017601|page=|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/searchforsoul0000chri/page/47}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hansel|first1=C.E.M.|author-link=C. E. M. Hansel|title=The Search for Psychic Power: ESP and Parapsychology Revisited|date=1989|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879755164|page=240}}</ref> Other alleged telekinetic mediums exposed as frauds include ] and ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moreman|first1=Christopher M.|title=The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and around the World |date=2013|publisher=Praeger|location=Santa Barbara|isbn=9780313399473|pages=77–78}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Polidoro|first1=Massimo|author-link=Massimo Polidoro|title=Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle|url=https://archive.org/details/finalseance00mass|url-access=registration|date=2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York |isbn=9781573928960|page=}}</ref> | |||
The court wizard and prophet ] in the ] legend, is said to have used his power to transport ] across the sea to England from Ireland.<ref> | |||
{{cite book | |||
| author = Newall, Venetia | |||
| coauthors = | |||
| year = 1974 | |||
| title = The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Magic | |||
| publisher = The Dial Press | |||
| location = New York | |||
| page = p. 121 | |||
| isbn = 0-8037-2343-1 | |||
| quote = He performed many feats of magic, sailing through the ocean in a house of glass and transporting Stonehenge across the sea from Ireland. | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Polish medium ], active in the early 20th century, claimed to be able to perform acts of telekinetic levitation by way of an entity she called "Little Stasia".<ref>]. (1934). ''These Mysterious People''. Rider. Chapter 21.</ref> A 1909 photograph of her, showing a pair of scissors "floating" between her hands, is often found in books and other publications as an example of telekinesis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.diomedia.com/public/3693080/imageDetails.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102195819/http://www.diomedia.com/public/3693080/imageDetails.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 2, 2014 |title=Stanisława Tomczyk photo description at Diomedia |access-date=November 18, 2013}} Description page at a stock photo agency representing the Mary Evans Picture Library, where the date is also given as 1909. She visited the researcher in 1908 and 1909; hence, the exact year is uncertain and reported as 1908 elsewhere.</ref><ref name="Jinks">{{cite book|last1=Jinks|first1=Tony|title=An Introduction to the Psychology of Paranormal Belief and Experience|date=2012|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=9780786465446|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ylxJ5fXPd7YC&q=%22Stanis%C5%82awa+Tomczyk%22&pg=PA11|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref> Scientists suspected Tomczyk performed her feats by the use of a fine ] or hair between her hands. This was confirmed when psychical researchers who tested Tomczyk occasionally observed the thread.<ref name="Jinks"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Carrington|first=Hereward|title=The Story of Psychic Science (psychical research)|date=1990|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|location=Kila, Montana|isbn=9781564592590|page=136}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wolman|first=Benjamin B.|title=Handbook of Parapsychology|date=1977|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold|location=New York|isbn=9780442295769|page=320}}</ref> | |||
;Popular culture | |||
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:''See also ] and ]'' | |||
Many of India's "]" have claimed macro-telekinetic abilities and demonstrated apparently miraculous phenomena in public, although as more controls are put in place to prevent trickery, fewer phenomena are produced.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wiseman|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Wiseman|title=Deception & Self-deception: Investigating Psychics|date=1997|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573921213|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDMNAQAAMAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015|pages=182–196}}</ref> | |||
Psychokinesis has a well-established existence in movies, television, computer games, literature, and other forms of popular culture. In the 1976 film '']'', based on the ] novel of the same name, ] portrayed a troubled high school student with telekinetic powers. She was nominated for an ], the first psychokinetic character in a film ever to be so recognized (] was the second, in 1980's ''Resurrection''). Numerous characters have the ability to control the movement of objects using the ] in the '']'' canon. In the 1988 ] movie ], a few of the main characters use telekinesis throughout the film. | |||
] | |||
The comic book character ] of the ] exhibits powerful telekinetic ability. Also from the TV show '']'', the serial killer ] frequently exhibits telekinetic ability. It is also commonly used as a power in a large number of ]s and ]s. <!-- PLEASE TRY NOT TO ADD ANY FURTHER EXAMPLES TO THIS BRIEF SECTION. --> | |||
], a 19-year-old secretary, was said to have telekinetic powers by parapsychologist ] in the ] case in the 1960s. Magicians and scientists who investigated the case suspected the phenomena were produced by trickery.<ref name="Taylor">{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=John|title=Science and the Supernatural: An Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena Including Psychic Healing, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and Precognition by a Distinguished Physicist and Mathematician|date=1980|publisher=T. Smith|location=London|isbn=978-0851171913}}</ref>{{rp|107–108}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Kendrick Frazier|year=1986|title=Science Confronts the Paranormal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2Nm8OyXpyQC&pg=PA35|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=9781615926190|pages=35–}}</ref> | |||
], a ] skilled in controlling his heart functions, was studied at the ] in the spring and fall of 1970 and was alleged by some observers at the foundation to have telekinetically moved a knitting needle twice from a distance of five feet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Green|first1=Elmer|last2=Green|first2=Alyce|title=Beyond Biofeedback|url=https://archive.org/details/beyondbiofeedba00gree|url-access=limited|date=1977|publisher=Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence|location=New York|isbn=9780440005834|pages=–218|edition=2nd}}</ref> Although he wore a face-mask and gown to prevent allegations that he moved the needle with his breath or body movements, and air vents in the room were covered, at least one physician observer who was present was not convinced and expressed the opinion that air movement was somehow the cause.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.swamij.com/pdf/swami-rama-beyond-biofeedback.pdf|title=Beyond Biofeedback (chapter "Swami Rama")|pages=12–16|access-date=July 24, 2007}} Elmer Green's description of Swami Rama's alleged psychokinetic demonstration (with illustrations).</ref> | |||
===Psychics=== | |||
Russian psychic ] came to wide public attention following the publication of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder's bestseller ''Psychic Discoveries Behind The Iron Curtain''. The alleged Soviet psychic of the late 1960s and early 1970s was shown apparently performing telekinesis while seated in numerous black-and-white short films,<ref name="Berger">{{cite book|last1=Berger|first1=Arthur S.|last2=Berger|first2=Joyce|title=The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research|date=1991|publisher=Paragon House|location=New York|isbn=9781557780430|pages=|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpa00berg/page/326}}</ref> and was also mentioned in the ''U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency'' report from 1978.<ref>{{cite book|date=30 March 1978|title=Paraphysics R&D – Warsaw Pact (U). Prepared by U.S. Air Force, Air Force Systems Command Foreign Technology Division. DST-1810S-202-78, Nr. DIA TASK NO. PT-1810-18-76|publisher=Defense Intelligence Agency|pages=7–8|quote=G.A. Sergevev is known to have studied Nina Kulagina, a well-known psychic from Leningrad. Although no detailed results are available, Sergevev's inferences are that she was successful in repeating psychokinetic phenomena under controlled conditions. G.A. Sergevev is a well-respected researcher and has been active in paraphysics research since the early 1960s.}}</ref>{{ISBN missing|date=December 2015}} Magicians and skeptics have argued that Kulagina's feats could easily be performed by one practiced in sleight of hand, or through means such as cleverly concealed or disguised threads, small pieces of magnetic metal, or mirrors.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Kulagina,%20Nina.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060503004631/http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Kulagina,%20Nina.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-05-03 |title=James Randi Educational Foundation — An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural |publisher=Randi.org |access-date=2014-03-17}}</ref><ref name="Polidoro">{{cite web|url=http://www.cicap.org/new/articolo.php?id=101003 |title=Secrets of a Russian Psychic |publisher=Cicap.org |access-date=2014-03-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Couttie|first=Bob|title=Forbidden Knowledge: The Paranormal Paradox|date=1988|publisher=Lutterworth|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780718826864|page=141}}</ref><ref name="Stein">{{cite book|last=Stein|first=Gordon|title=The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal|date=1996|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573920216|page=384|edition=2nd}}</ref> | |||
], an American ] expert and psychic, was famous for his alleged telekinetic ability to turn the pages of books and make pencils spin while placed on the edge of a desk. It was later revealed by magicians that he achieved his feats by air currents.<ref>{{cite book|last=Regal|first=Brian|title=Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/pseudosciencecri00rega_858|url-access=limited|date=2009|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=9780313355073|page=}}</ref> Psychologist ] wrote that Hydrick learnt to move objects by blowing in a "highly deceptive" and skillful way.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wiseman|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Wiseman|title=Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There|date=2011|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|isbn=9780230752986|pages=81–95}}</ref> Hydrick confessed to ] that his feats were tricks: "My whole idea behind this in the first place was to see how dumb America was. How dumb the world is."<ref>{{cite book|last=Korem|first=Dan|title=Powers: Testing the Psychic & Supernatural|date=1988|publisher=InterVarsity Press|location=Downers Grove, Illinois|isbn=978-0830812776|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/powerstestingpsy0000kore/page/149}}</ref> In the late 1970s, British psychic ] was the subject of laboratory research in the United States and England, and today claims healing powers.<ref name="Berger"/><ref name="ManMythMagic">{{cite book|last1=Cavendish|first1=Richard|title=Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown|date=1995|publisher=M. Cavendish|location=New York|isbn=9781854357311|page=2442|edition=New|url=https://archive.org/details/manmythmagici02cave|url-access=registration|access-date=11 December 2015|quote=Spiritualism aroused violent antagonism and criticism concentrating particularly on the physical phenomena occurring at seances, which opponents claimed were faked.}}</ref> Magicians ] and ] have suspected Manning used trickery to perform his feats.<ref>{{cite book|last=Booth|first=John|title=Psychic Paradoxes|date=1986|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879753580|pages=12–57}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Henry|title=Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts, UFOs|date=1988|publisher=Macmillan of Canada|location=Toronto|isbn=978-0771595394|pages=|edition=Canadian|url=https://archive.org/details/extrasensorydece0000gord/page/101}}</ref> | |||
In 1971, an American psychic named Felicia Parise allegedly moved a pill bottle across a kitchen counter by telekinesis. Her feats were endorsed by parapsychologist ]. Science writer ] wrote that Parise had "bamboozled" Honorton by moving the bottle with an invisible thread stretched between her hands.<ref name="Stein"/><ref name="Frazier">{{cite book|last1=Frazier|first1=Kendrick|title=The Hundredth Monkey: and other Paradigms of the Paranormal|date=1991|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879756550|url=https://archive.org/details/hundredthmonkey00kend|url-access=registration|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref>{{rp|163}} | |||
Boris Ermolaev, a Russian psychic, was known for levitating small objects. His methods were exposed on the World of Discovery documentary ''Secrets of the Russian Psychics'' (1992). He would sit on a chair and allegedly move the objects between his knees; but when filmed, lighting conditions revealed a fine thread fixed between his knees, suspending the objects.<ref name="Polidoro"/> | |||
Russian psychic Alla Vinogradova was said to be able to move objects without touching them on transparent acrylic plastic or a plexiglass sheet. Parapsychologist ] observed Vinogradova rub an aluminum tube before moving it allegedly by telekinesis. He suggested that the effect was produced by an ]. Vinogradova was featured in the Nova documentary '']'' (1993) which followed the ] work of ].<ref name="Polidoro"/> She demonstrated her alleged telekinetic abilities on-camera for Randi and other investigators. Before the experiments, she was observed combing her hair and rubbing the surface of the acrylic plastic. ] has replicated Vinogradova's feats with acrylic surface, showing how easy it is to move any kind of object on it when it is charged with static electricity by rubbing a towel or hand on it.<ref name="Polidoro"/> Physicist ] wrote, "It is very likely that electrostatics is all that is needed to explain Alla Vinogradova's apparently paranormal feats."<ref name="Taylor"/>{{rp|103}} | |||
===Metal bending=== | |||
{{See also|Spoon bending}} | |||
] was famous for his spoon bending demonstrations.]] | |||
Psychics have also claimed the telekinetic ability to bend metal. ] was famous for his ] demonstrations, allegedly by telekinesis.<ref name=Berger/> He has been caught many times using ]. According to science writer ], all of Geller's effects have been recreated using conjuring tricks.<ref name="Randi">{{cite book|last1=Randi|first1=James|title=The Truth About Uri Geller|date=1982|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879751999|edition=Revised|title-link=The Truth About Uri Geller}}</ref><ref name="Hines">{{cite book|last1=Hines|first1=Terence|author-link=Terence Hines|title=Pseudoscience and the Paranormal|date=2002|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573929790|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Px0RAQAAIAAJ|access-date=11 December 2015}}</ref>{{rp|126–130}} | |||
The French psychic Jean-Pierre Girard has claimed he can bend metal bars by telekinesis. He was tested in the 1970s but failed to produce any paranormal effects in scientifically controlled conditions.<ref name="Blanc">{{cite journal|last1=Blanc|first1=Marcel|title=Fading spoon bender|journal=New Scientist|date=16 February 1978|volume=77|issue=1090|page=431|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rTTswrb4YRMC&q=Jean-Pierre+Girard+psychokinesis&pg=PA431|access-date=17 February 2017|language=en|issn=0262-4079}}</ref> He was tested on January 19, 1977, during a two-hour experiment in a ] laboratory, directed by physicist Yves Farge. A magician was also present. Girard failed to make any objects move paranormally. He failed two tests in ] in June 1977 with magician James Randi.<ref name="Blanc"/> He was also tested on September 24, 1977, at a laboratory at the Nuclear Research Centre, and failed to bend any bars or change the metals' structure. Other experiments into spoon-bending were also negative, and witnesses described his feats as fraudulent. Girard later admitted he sometimes cheated to avoid disappointing the public, but insisted he had genuine psychic power.<ref name="Blanc"/> Magicians and scientists have written that he produced all his alleged telekinetic feats through fraudulent means.<ref name="Randi"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Warren H.|last2=Zusne|first2=Leonard|title=Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking|date=1989|publisher=L. Erlbaum|location=Hillsdale, New Jersey|isbn=978-0805805086|edition=2nd}}</ref> | |||
Stephen North, a British psychic in the late 1970s, was known for his alleged telekinetic ability to bend spoons and ] objects in and out of sealed containers. British physicist ] tested North in a series of experiments which he claimed had demonstrated telekinesis, though his experiments were criticized for lack of scientific controls.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hasted|first1=John|title=The Metal-Benders|date=1981|publisher=Routledge & Paul|location=London|isbn=978-0710005977}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2017}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gardner|first1=Martin|author-link=Martin Gardner|title=The New Age: Notes of a Fringe watcher|date=1991|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879756444|pages=|url=https://archive.org/details/newagenotesof00gard/page/28}}</ref> North was tested in Grenoble on December 19, 1977, in scientific conditions and the results were negative.<ref name="Blanc"/> According to James Randi, during a test at ], North was observed to have bent a metal sample with his bare hands. Randi wrote "I find it unfortunate that never had an epiphany in which he was able to recognize just how thoughtless, cruel, and predatory were the acts perpetrated on him by fakers who took advantage of his naivety and trust."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Randi|first1=James|title=Flim-Flam!: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions|date=1987|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=978-0879751982|edition=9th}}</ref> | |||
"Telekinesis parties" were a cultural fad in the 1980s, begun by Jack Houck,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=163910022 |title=George Houck Obituary |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2014-04-18}}</ref> where groups of people were guided through rituals and chants to awaken metal-bending powers. They were encouraged to shout at the items of cutlery they had brought and to jump and scream to create an atmosphere of pandemonium (or what scientific investigators called heightened ]). Critics were excluded and participants were told to avoid looking at their hands. Thousands of people attended these emotionally charged parties, and many were convinced they had bent the objects by paranormal means.<ref name="Frazier"/>{{rp|149–161}} | |||
Telekinesis parties have been described as a campaign by paranormal believers to convince people of the existence of telekinesis, on the basis of nonscientific data from personal experience and testimony. The ] has criticized telekinesis parties on the grounds that conditions are not reliable for obtaining scientific results and "are just those which psychologists and others have described as creating states of heightened suggestibility."<ref name="Frazier"/>{{rp|149–161}} | |||
Ronnie Marcus, an Israeli psychic and claimant of telekinetic metal-bending, was tested in 1994 in scientifically controlled conditions and failed to produce any paranormal phenomena.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/2062-the-song-remains-the-same.html |title=The Song Remains the Same |publisher=James Randi Educational Foundation |access-date=2014-03-13}}</ref> According to magicians, his alleged telekinetic feats were sleight of hand tricks. Marcus bent a letter opener by the concealed application of force and a frame-by-frame analysis of video showed that he bent a spoon from pressure from his thumb by ordinary, physical means.<ref>{{cite web|author-link=Joe Nickell|last=Nickell|first=Joe|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/mind_over_metal|title=Mind Over Metal |date=July 2013|publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|access-date=2014-03-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindspring.com/~anson/randi-hotline/1994/0010.html|title=Randi's Geller Hotline for 1994: Ronnie at Berkeley|publisher=Mindspring.com|date=1994-04-05|access-date=2014-03-13}}</ref> | |||
==In popular culture== | |||
Telekinesis has commonly been portrayed as a ] in comic books, movies, television, video games, literature, and other forms of popular culture.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/10/1019_superhero_tech/19.htm |title=Twenty Technologies That Can Give You Super Powers: Super Power: Psychokinesis |publisher=BusinessWeek |access-date=2014-04-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111141632/http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/10/1019_superhero_tech/19.htm |archive-date=January 11, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gresh|first1=Lois|last2=Weinberg|first2=Robert|title=The Science of Superheroes|date=2002|publisher=J. Wiley|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|isbn=9780471024606|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/scienceofsuperhe0000gres|url-access=registration|access-date=11 December 2015|quote="Every member of the X-Men had a code name that matched his or her super power. Thus, Archangel, Warren Worthington III, had wings and could fly. Cyclops, Scott Summers, shot deadly power beams from his eyes. Jean Grey, Marvel Girl, was a telekinetic and also a telepath. . . ."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=CellFactor®: Psychokinetic Wars|url=https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/cellfactor-psychokinetic-wars-ps3/|website=Playstation|access-date=2014-04-11|date=2014-01-22}}</ref> | |||
Notable portrayals of telekinetic characters include the Teleks in the 1952 ] novella '']'';<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vance|first=Jack|date=January 1952|title=Telek|journal=]|title-link=Telek}}</ref> ] in the ] novel and its ] ] ], '']'';<ref>{{cite web|url=http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/carrie.3/|title=Carrie (1976) – Overview|publisher=MSN Movies|access-date=2014-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410000157/http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/carrie.3/|archive-date=April 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> ] in the 1980 healer-themed film '']'';<ref>{{cite web |url=http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-awards-and-nominations/resurrection.5/?ipp=15 |title=Resurrection (1980) – Awards & Nominations |publisher=MSN Movies |access-date=2014-04-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102192232/http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-awards-and-nominations/resurrection.5/?ipp=15 |archive-date=January 2, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> the ] and ] in the '']'' franchise;<ref>{{cite book|last1=Windham|first1=Ryder|last2=Wallace|first2=Dan|title=Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide|date=2012|publisher=Dorling Kindersley Publishing|location=London, England|isbn=9780756692483|pages=19, 21|edition=Updated and expanded.|quote=Page 19 "Object Movement": "Although such ability is commonly known as a ] 'object movement' power, it is more accurately described as a manipulation of ] — the energy field that surrounds and binds everything — to control the direction of objects through space. Jedi utilize this talent not only to push, pull, and lift objects, but also to redirect projectiles and guide their starships through combat." Page 21 "] Powers" : "Levitating his adversary and choking him in a telekinetic stranglehold, ] simultaneously relieves Vos of his lightsaber."}}</ref> the Psychic-type Pokémon in the '']'' franchise,{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} the Scanners in the 1981 film '']'';,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1018315-scanners/ |title=Scanners |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=2014-04-11}}</ref> George Malley in John Travolta’s 1996 movie '']'', ] in the 1988 children's novel '']'' and its ];<ref>{{cite news|author=Serena Allott |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8160186/Waltzing-Matilda-Dahls-classic-dances-on-to-the-stage.html |title=Waltzing Matilda: Dahl's classic dances on to the stage |publisher=Daily Telegraph |date=2010-11-26 |access-date=2016-08-09}}</ref> three high school seniors in the 2012 film '']'';<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sharkey|first1=Betsy|title=Review: 'Chronicle' is smart about its telekinetic teens|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2012-feb-03-la-et-chronicle-20120203-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2014-04-11|date=2012-02-03}}</ref> ] as well as Vecna and various lab children from the ] series '']'';<ref>{{cite news|last1=Chaney|first1=Jen|title=Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown on Playing Eleven, Her Love-Hate Relationship With Scary Movies, and Acting Without Speaking|url=http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/stranger-things-millie-bobby-brown-playing-eleven-scary-movies.html|access-date=16 October 2016|work=Vulture|date=18 July 2016|language=en}}</ref> ] in the '']'' game and series franchise;<ref>{{cite web |last1=Amaike |first1=Yoshinari |title=Creating Silver the Hedgehog |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/09/26/creating-silver-the-hedgehog |website=] |access-date=4 April 2021 |language=en |date=26 September 2006}}</ref> ] from the '']'' franchise{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} and ] in the 2018 film '']''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} | |||
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==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
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==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* {{cite book|author1=Henry Gordon|author-link1=Henry Gordon (magician)|title=Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts, UFOs|date=1988|publisher=Macmillan of Canada|location=Toronto|isbn=978-0771595394|edition=Canadian|url=https://archive.org/details/extrasensorydece0000gord}} | |||
* ''The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, ''], HarperEdge, 1997. | |||
* {{cite book|author1=David F. Marks|author-link1=David Marks (psychologist)|title=The Psychology of the Psychic|date=2000|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=978-1573927987|edition=2nd|title-link=The Psychology of the Psychic}} | |||
* ''Distant Mental Influence'', William Braud, Hampton Roads Publishing, Inc. , 2003. ISBN 1-57174-354-5. (largely a collection of published scientific research papers on formal experiments in psychokinesis conducted by the author with others between 1983 to 2000). | |||
* {{cite book|author1=Richard Wiseman|author-link1=Richard Wiseman|title=Deception & Self-Seception: Investigating Psychics|date=1997|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573921213}} | |||
* ''Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality,'' ], Pocket Books, 2006. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Panati |first1=Charles |title=Supersenses, Our Potential for Parasensory Experience |date=1974 |publisher=] |location=New York |isbn=9780385111928 |url=https://archive.org/details/supersensesourpo0000pana}} | |||
* ''The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe'', ], HarperCollins, 2008, updated paperback edition. ISBN 978-0-06-143518-8. | |||
* ''Flim Flam!,'' ], Prometheus Books, 1982. ISBN 0-87975-198-3. | |||
*''Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives,'' James Houran and Rense Lange, editors; McFarland Press, 2001. A collection of science articles by leading researchers on documented ghost and spontaneous PK cases, with technical discussion also of possible methods of action for PK. ISBN | |||
0786409843. | |||
===Published Scientific Papers on PK / TK=== | |||
* A journal of PK-related research papers published by EmergentMind.org. | |||
* by Holger Bösch, Fiona Steinkamp, and Emil Boller, Psychological Bulletin, 132, 497-523, 2006. | |||
* by Eckhard Etzold ''Journal of Parapsychology'', Fall 2005. | |||
* by Eckhard Etzold, presented at the Parapsychological Association Convention 2004. | |||
* by Jack Houck, presented at the Science of Whole Person Healing Conference, ], ]. | |||
* by O. Costa de Beauregard, ''Journal of Scientific Exploration'', Vol. 12, No. 2, 1998. | |||
* by William G. Braud, ''European Journal of Parapsychology'', Vol. 10, 1994. | |||
* by Helmut Schmidt, ''Journal of Scientific Exploration'', Vol. 1, No. 2, 1987. | |||
===Military Papers on PK / TK=== | |||
* A 1985 study on potential military applications of psychokinesis by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas USA. Listed at the U.S. ]'s website and available to the public through the U.S. National Technical Information Service. | |||
* A study published in 2004 that reviews the current state research of real and hypothetical methods of teleportation. Includes a section titled ''PK phenomenon''. Conducted by Eric Davis of Warp Drive Metrics, Nevada and sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards AFB, California. Available publicly on the Federation of American Scientists website. | |||
* A 1967 study by Helmut Schmidt conducted at the Boeing Scientific Research Laboratory in Seattle, Washington USA that concluded: "From the results, it is tentatively concluded that there exists a weak but significant correlation between the statistical processes operative in these experiments and the experimenter who initiates the processes." Listed at the U.S. ]'s website and available to the public through the U.S. National Technical Information Service. | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{Commons category|Psychokinesis}} | |||
* by John Walker. | |||
* | |||
* A series of scientifically controlled, web-based PK experiments. | |||
* An invitation by the Rhine Research Center of Durham, North Carolina USA to submit reports of PK or TK as part of an academic research study. | |||
* Includes the "List of Cultural References to Psychokinesis and Telekinesis" that was formerly on Misplaced Pages. | |||
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Latest revision as of 05:05, 7 January 2025
Influencing of objects without physical interaction "Psychokinesis" redirects here. For the film, see Psychokinesis (film). For other uses, see Telekinesis (disambiguation).
Telekinesis (from Ancient Greek τηλε- 'far off' and -κίνησις 'motion') is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no reliable evidence that telekinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as pseudoscience.
Reception
Evaluation
There is a broad scientific consensus that telekinetic research has not produced a reliable demonstration of the phenomenon.
A panel commissioned in 1988 by the United States National Research Council to study paranormal claims concluded that:
despite a 130-year record of scientific research on such matters, our committee could find no scientific justification for the existence of phenomena such as extrasensory perception, mental telepathy or "mind over matter" exercises ... Evaluation of a large body of the best available evidence simply does not support the contention that these phenomena exist.
In 1984, the National Academy of Sciences, at the request of the US Army Research Institute, formed a scientific panel to assess the best evidence for telekinesis. Part of its purpose was to investigate military applications of telekinesis, for example to remotely jam or disrupt enemy weaponry. The panel heard from a variety of military staff who believed in telekinesis and made visits to the PEAR laboratory and two other laboratories that had claimed positive results from micro-telekinesis experiments. The panel criticized macro-telekinesis experiments for being open to deception by conjurors, and said that virtually all micro-telekinesis experiments "depart from good scientific practice in a variety of ways". Their conclusion, published in a 1987 report, was that there was no scientific evidence for the existence of telekinesis.
Carl Sagan included telekinesis in a long list of "offerings of pseudoscience and superstition" which "it would be foolish to accept ... without solid scientific data". Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman advocated a similar position.
Felix Planer, a professor of electrical engineering, has written that if telekinesis were real then it would be easy to demonstrate by getting subjects to depress a scale on a sensitive balance, raise the temperature of a waterbath which could be measured with an accuracy of a hundredth of a degree centigrade, or affect an element in an electrical circuit such as a resistor, which could be monitored to better than a millionth of an ampere. Planer writes that such experiments are extremely sensitive and easy to monitor but are not utilized by parapsychologists as they "do not hold out the remotest hope of demonstrating even a minute trace of " because the alleged phenomenon is non-existent. Planer has written that parapsychologists have to fall back on studies that involve only statistics that are unrepeatable, owing their results to poor experimental methods, recording mistakes and faulty statistical mathematics.
According to Planer, "All research in medicine and other sciences would become illusionary, if the existence of had to be taken seriously; for no experiment could be relied upon to furnish objective results, since all measurements would become falsified to a greater or lesser degree, according to his ability, by the experimenter's wishes." Planer concluded that the concept of telekinesis is absurd and has no scientific basis.
Telekinesis hypotheses have also been considered in a number of contexts outside parapsychological experiments. C. E. M. Hansel has written that a general objection against the claim for the existence of telekinesis is that, if it were a real process, its effects would be expected to manifest in situations in everyday life; but no such effects have been observed.
Science writers Martin Gardner and Terence Hines and the philosopher Theodore Schick have written that if telekinesis were possible, one would expect casino incomes to be affected, but the earnings are exactly as the laws of chance predict.
Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey argues that many experiments in psychology, biology or physics assume that the intentions of the subjects or experimenter do not physically distort the apparatus. Humphrey counts them as implicit replications of telekinesis experiments in which telekinesis fails to appear.
Physics
The ideas of telekinesis violates several well-established laws of physics, including the inverse-square law, the second law of thermodynamics, and the conservation of momentum. Because of this, scientists have demanded a high standard of evidence for telekinesis, in line with Marcello Truzzi's dictum "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof". The Occam's razor law of parsimony in scientific explanations of phenomena suggests that the explanation of telekinesis in terms of ordinary ways—by trickery, special effects or by poor experimental design—is preferable to accepting that the laws of physics should be rewritten.
Philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge has written that:
violates the principle that mind cannot act directly on matter. (If it did, no experimenter could trust his readings of measuring instruments.) It also violates the principles of conservation of energy and momentum. The claim that quantum mechanics allows for the possibility of mental power influencing randomizers—an alleged case of micro-—is ludicrous since that theory respects the said conservation principles, and it deals exclusively with physical things.
Physicist John Taylor, who has investigated parapsychological claims, has written that an unknown fifth force causing telekinesis would have to transmit a great deal of energy. The energy would have to overcome the electromagnetic forces binding the atoms together, because the atoms would need to respond more strongly to the fifth force than to electric forces. Such an additional force between atoms should therefore exist all the time and not during only alleged paranormal occurrences. Taylor wrote there is no scientific trace of such a force in physics, down to many orders of magnitude; thus, if a scientific viewpoint is to be preserved, the idea of any fifth force must be discarded. Taylor concluded that there is no possible physical mechanism for telekinesis, and it is in complete contradiction to established science.
In 1979, Evan Harris Walker and Richard Mattuck published a parapsychology paper proposing a quantum explanation for telekinesis. Physicist Victor J. Stenger wrote that their explanation contained assumptions not supported by any scientific evidence. According to Stenger their paper is "filled with impressive looking equations and calculations that give the appearance of placing on a firm scientific footing... Yet look what they have done. They have found the value of one unknown number (wavefunction steps) that gives one measured number (the supposed speed of -induced motion). This is numerology, not science."
Physicist Sean M. Carroll has written that spoons, like all matter, are made up of atoms and that any movement of a spoon with the mind would involve the manipulation of those atoms through the four forces of nature: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, and gravitation. Telekinesis would have to be either some form of one of these four forces, or a new force that has a billionth the strength of gravity, for otherwise it would have been captured in experiments already done. This leaves no physical force that could possibly account for telekinesis.
Physicist Robert L. Park has found it suspicious that a phenomenon should only ever appear at the limits of detectability of questionable statistical techniques. He cites this feature as one of Irving Langmuir's indicators of pathological science. Park pointed out that if mind really could influence matter, it would be easy for parapsychologists to measure such a phenomenon by using the alleged telekinetic power to deflect a microbalance, which would not require any dubious statistics. "he reason, of course, is that the microbalance stubbornly refuses to budge." He has suggested that the reason statistical studies are so popular in parapsychology is that they introduce opportunities for uncertainty and error, which are used to support the experimenter's biases.
Explanations in terms of bias
Cognitive bias research has suggested that people are susceptible to illusions of telekinesis. These include both the illusion that they themselves have the power, and that the events they witness are real demonstrations of telekinesis. For example, the illusion of control is an illusory correlation between intention and external events, and believers in the paranormal have been shown to be more susceptible to this illusion than others. Psychologist Thomas Gilovich explains this as a biased interpretation of personal experience. For example, someone in a dice game wishing for a high score can interpret high numbers as "success" and low numbers as "not enough concentration". Bias towards belief in telekinesis may be an example of the human tendency to see patterns where none exist, called the clustering illusion, which believers are also more susceptible to.
A 1952 study tested for experimenter's bias with respect to telekinesis. Richard Kaufman of Yale University gave subjects the task of trying to influence eight dice and allowed them to record their own scores. They were secretly filmed, so their records could be checked for errors. Believers in telekinesis made errors that favored its existence, while disbelievers made opposite errors. A similar pattern of errors was found in J. B. Rhine's dice experiments, which were considered the strongest evidence for telekinesis at that time.
In 1995, Wiseman and Morris showed subjects an unedited videotape of a magician's performance in which a fork bent and eventually broke. Believers in the paranormal were significantly more likely to misinterpret the tape as a demonstration of telekinesis, and were more likely to misremember crucial details of the presentation. This suggests that confirmation bias affects people's interpretation of telekinesis demonstrations. Psychologist Robert Sternberg cites confirmation bias as an explanation of why belief in psychic phenomena persists, despite the lack of evidence:
Some of the worst examples of confirmation bias are in research on parapsychology ... Arguably, there is a whole field here with no powerful confirming data at all. But people want to believe, and so they find ways to believe.
Psychologist Daniel Wegner has argued that an introspection illusion contributes to belief in telekinesis. He observes that in everyday experience, intention (such as wanting to turn on a light) is followed by action (such as flicking a light switch) in a reliable way, but the underlying neural mechanisms are outside awareness. Hence, though subjects may feel that they directly introspect their own free will, the experience of control is actually inferred from relations between the thought and the action. This theory of apparent mental causation acknowledges the influence of David Hume's view of the mind. This process for detecting when one is responsible for an action is not totally reliable, and when it goes wrong there can be an illusion of control. This can happen when an external event follows, and is congruent with, a thought in someone's mind, without an actual causal link. As evidence, Wegner cites a series of experiments on magical thinking in which subjects were induced to think they had influenced external events. In one experiment, subjects watched a basketball player taking a series of free throws. When they were instructed to visualize him making his shots, they felt that they had contributed to his success. Other experiments designed to create an illusion of telekinesis have demonstrated that this depends, to some extent, on the subject's prior belief in telekinesis.
A 2006 meta-analysis of 380 studies found a small positive effect that can be explained by publication bias.
Magic and special effects
See also: MentalismMagicians have successfully simulated some of the specialized abilities of telekinesis, such as object movement, spoon bending, levitation and teleportation. According to Robert Todd Carroll, there are many impressive magic tricks available to amateurs and professionals to simulate telekinetic powers. Metal objects such as keys or cutlery can be bent using a number of different techniques, even if the performer has not had access to the items beforehand.
According to Richard Wiseman there are a number of ways for faking telekinetic metal bending. These include switching straight objects for pre-bent duplicates, the concealed application of force, and secretly inducing metallic fractures. Research has also suggested that telekinetic metal bending effects can be created by verbal suggestion. On this subject the magician Ben Harris wrote:
If you are doing a really convincing job, then you should be able to put a bent key on the table and comment, "Look, it is still bending", and have your spectators really believe that it is. This may sound the height of boldness; however, the effect is astounding – and combined with suggestion, it does work.
Between 1979 and 1981, the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University in St. Louis reported a series of experiments they named Project Alpha, in which two teenaged male subjects had demonstrated telekinesis phenomena (including metal-bending and causing images to appear on film) under less than stringent laboratory conditions. James Randi eventually revealed that the subjects were two of his associates, amateur conjurers Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards. The pair had created the effects by standard trickery, but the researchers, being unfamiliar with magic techniques, interpreted them as proof of telekinesis.
A 2014 study that utilized a magic trick to investigate paranormal belief on eyewitness testimony revealed that believers in telekinesis were more likely to report a key continued to bend than non-believers.
Prize money for proof of telekinesis
Main article: List of prizes for evidence of the paranormalInternationally, there are individual skeptics of the paranormal and skeptics' organizations who offer cash prize money for demonstration of the existence of an extraordinary psychic power, such as telekinesis. Prizes have been offered specifically for telekinesis demonstrations: for example, businessman Gerald Fleming promised to offer £250,000 to Uri Geller if he could bend a spoon under controlled conditions. The James Randi Educational Foundation offered the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge to any accepted candidate who managed to produce a paranormal event in a controlled, mutually agreed upon experiment. Currently, the Center for Inquiry offers a prize of $250,000, the largest in the world, for proof of the paranormal.
Belief
Between 1979 and 1981, a survey on belief in various religious and paranormal topics conducted by phone and mail-in questionnaire polled 1,721 Americans on their belief in telekinesis. Of these participants, 28% of male participants and 31% of female participants selected "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement, "It is possible to influence the world through the mind alone."
Subsets of telekinesis
Parapsychologists divide telekinetic phenomena into two categories: macro-telekinesis, large-scale telekinetic effects that can be seen with the naked eye; and micro-telekinesis, small-scale telekinetic effects that require the use of statistics to be detected. Some phenomena—such as apports, levitation, materialization, psychic healing, pyrokinesis, retrocausality, and thoughtography—are considered examples of telekinesis.
In 2016, Caroline Watt stated "Overall, the majority of academic parapsychologists do not find the evidence compelling in favour of macro-".
Notable claimants of telekinetic abilities
There have been claimants of telekinetic ability throughout history. Angelique Cottin (ca. 1846) known as the "Electric Girl" of France was an alleged generator of telekinetic activity. Cottin and her family claimed that she produced electric emanations that allowed her to move pieces of furniture and scissors across a room. Frank Podmore wrote there were many observations which were "suggestive of fraud" such as the contact of the girl's garments to produce any of the alleged phenomena and the observations from several witnesses that noticed there was a double movement on the part of Cottin, a movement in the direction of the object thrown and afterwards away from it, but the movements so rapid they were not usually detected.
Spiritualist mediums have also claimed telekinetic abilities. Eusapia Palladino, an Italian medium, could allegedly cause objects to move during séances. However, she was caught levitating a table with her foot by magician Joseph Rinn, and using tricks to move objects by psychologist Hugo Münsterberg. Other alleged telekinetic mediums exposed as frauds include Anna Rasmussen and Maria Silbert.
Polish medium Stanisława Tomczyk, active in the early 20th century, claimed to be able to perform acts of telekinetic levitation by way of an entity she called "Little Stasia". A 1909 photograph of her, showing a pair of scissors "floating" between her hands, is often found in books and other publications as an example of telekinesis. Scientists suspected Tomczyk performed her feats by the use of a fine thread or hair between her hands. This was confirmed when psychical researchers who tested Tomczyk occasionally observed the thread.
Many of India's "godmen" have claimed macro-telekinetic abilities and demonstrated apparently miraculous phenomena in public, although as more controls are put in place to prevent trickery, fewer phenomena are produced.
Annemarie Schaberl, a 19-year-old secretary, was said to have telekinetic powers by parapsychologist Hans Bender in the Rosenheim Poltergeist case in the 1960s. Magicians and scientists who investigated the case suspected the phenomena were produced by trickery.
Swami Rama, a yogi skilled in controlling his heart functions, was studied at the Menninger Foundation in the spring and fall of 1970 and was alleged by some observers at the foundation to have telekinetically moved a knitting needle twice from a distance of five feet. Although he wore a face-mask and gown to prevent allegations that he moved the needle with his breath or body movements, and air vents in the room were covered, at least one physician observer who was present was not convinced and expressed the opinion that air movement was somehow the cause.
Psychics
Russian psychic Nina Kulagina came to wide public attention following the publication of Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder's bestseller Psychic Discoveries Behind The Iron Curtain. The alleged Soviet psychic of the late 1960s and early 1970s was shown apparently performing telekinesis while seated in numerous black-and-white short films, and was also mentioned in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report from 1978. Magicians and skeptics have argued that Kulagina's feats could easily be performed by one practiced in sleight of hand, or through means such as cleverly concealed or disguised threads, small pieces of magnetic metal, or mirrors.
James Hydrick, an American martial arts expert and psychic, was famous for his alleged telekinetic ability to turn the pages of books and make pencils spin while placed on the edge of a desk. It was later revealed by magicians that he achieved his feats by air currents. Psychologist Richard Wiseman wrote that Hydrick learnt to move objects by blowing in a "highly deceptive" and skillful way. Hydrick confessed to Dan Korem that his feats were tricks: "My whole idea behind this in the first place was to see how dumb America was. How dumb the world is." In the late 1970s, British psychic Matthew Manning was the subject of laboratory research in the United States and England, and today claims healing powers. Magicians John Booth and Henry Gordon have suspected Manning used trickery to perform his feats.
In 1971, an American psychic named Felicia Parise allegedly moved a pill bottle across a kitchen counter by telekinesis. Her feats were endorsed by parapsychologist Charles Honorton. Science writer Martin Gardner wrote that Parise had "bamboozled" Honorton by moving the bottle with an invisible thread stretched between her hands.
Boris Ermolaev, a Russian psychic, was known for levitating small objects. His methods were exposed on the World of Discovery documentary Secrets of the Russian Psychics (1992). He would sit on a chair and allegedly move the objects between his knees; but when filmed, lighting conditions revealed a fine thread fixed between his knees, suspending the objects.
Russian psychic Alla Vinogradova was said to be able to move objects without touching them on transparent acrylic plastic or a plexiglass sheet. Parapsychologist Stanley Krippner observed Vinogradova rub an aluminum tube before moving it allegedly by telekinesis. He suggested that the effect was produced by an electrostatic charge. Vinogradova was featured in the Nova documentary Secrets of the Psychics (1993) which followed the debunking work of James Randi. She demonstrated her alleged telekinetic abilities on-camera for Randi and other investigators. Before the experiments, she was observed combing her hair and rubbing the surface of the acrylic plastic. Massimo Polidoro has replicated Vinogradova's feats with acrylic surface, showing how easy it is to move any kind of object on it when it is charged with static electricity by rubbing a towel or hand on it. Physicist John Taylor wrote, "It is very likely that electrostatics is all that is needed to explain Alla Vinogradova's apparently paranormal feats."
Metal bending
See also: Spoon bendingPsychics have also claimed the telekinetic ability to bend metal. Uri Geller was famous for his spoon bending demonstrations, allegedly by telekinesis. He has been caught many times using sleight of hand. According to science writer Terence Hines, all of Geller's effects have been recreated using conjuring tricks.
The French psychic Jean-Pierre Girard has claimed he can bend metal bars by telekinesis. He was tested in the 1970s but failed to produce any paranormal effects in scientifically controlled conditions. He was tested on January 19, 1977, during a two-hour experiment in a Paris laboratory, directed by physicist Yves Farge. A magician was also present. Girard failed to make any objects move paranormally. He failed two tests in Grenoble in June 1977 with magician James Randi. He was also tested on September 24, 1977, at a laboratory at the Nuclear Research Centre, and failed to bend any bars or change the metals' structure. Other experiments into spoon-bending were also negative, and witnesses described his feats as fraudulent. Girard later admitted he sometimes cheated to avoid disappointing the public, but insisted he had genuine psychic power. Magicians and scientists have written that he produced all his alleged telekinetic feats through fraudulent means.
Stephen North, a British psychic in the late 1970s, was known for his alleged telekinetic ability to bend spoons and teleport objects in and out of sealed containers. British physicist John Hasted tested North in a series of experiments which he claimed had demonstrated telekinesis, though his experiments were criticized for lack of scientific controls. North was tested in Grenoble on December 19, 1977, in scientific conditions and the results were negative. According to James Randi, during a test at Birkbeck College, North was observed to have bent a metal sample with his bare hands. Randi wrote "I find it unfortunate that never had an epiphany in which he was able to recognize just how thoughtless, cruel, and predatory were the acts perpetrated on him by fakers who took advantage of his naivety and trust."
"Telekinesis parties" were a cultural fad in the 1980s, begun by Jack Houck, where groups of people were guided through rituals and chants to awaken metal-bending powers. They were encouraged to shout at the items of cutlery they had brought and to jump and scream to create an atmosphere of pandemonium (or what scientific investigators called heightened suggestibility). Critics were excluded and participants were told to avoid looking at their hands. Thousands of people attended these emotionally charged parties, and many were convinced they had bent the objects by paranormal means.
Telekinesis parties have been described as a campaign by paranormal believers to convince people of the existence of telekinesis, on the basis of nonscientific data from personal experience and testimony. The United States National Academy of Sciences has criticized telekinesis parties on the grounds that conditions are not reliable for obtaining scientific results and "are just those which psychologists and others have described as creating states of heightened suggestibility."
Ronnie Marcus, an Israeli psychic and claimant of telekinetic metal-bending, was tested in 1994 in scientifically controlled conditions and failed to produce any paranormal phenomena. According to magicians, his alleged telekinetic feats were sleight of hand tricks. Marcus bent a letter opener by the concealed application of force and a frame-by-frame analysis of video showed that he bent a spoon from pressure from his thumb by ordinary, physical means.
In popular culture
Telekinesis has commonly been portrayed as a superpower ability in comic books, movies, television, video games, literature, and other forms of popular culture.
Notable portrayals of telekinetic characters include the Teleks in the 1952 Jack Vance novella Telek; Carrie White in the Stephen King novel and its three film adaptations, Carrie; Ellen Burstyn in the 1980 healer-themed film Resurrection; the Jedi and Sith in the Star Wars franchise; the Psychic-type Pokémon in the Pokémon franchise, the Scanners in the 1981 film Scanners;, George Malley in John Travolta’s 1996 movie Phenomenon, Matilda Wormwood in the 1988 children's novel Matilda and its 1996 film adaptation; three high school seniors in the 2012 film Chronicle; Eleven as well as Vecna and various lab children from the Netflix series Stranger Things; Silver the Hedgehog in the Sonic the Hedgehog game and series franchise; Ness from the Mother franchise and Shin Seok-heon in the 2018 film Psychokinesis.
See also
- Clairvoyance
- Energy (esotericism)
- Extrasensory perception
- Force
- Force field (physics)
- Force field (technology)
- Human magnetism
- List of psychic abilities
- List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
- Levitation (paranormal)
- Psi (parapsychology)
- Science fiction
- Spiritism
- Telepathy
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Every member of the X-Men had a code name that matched his or her super power. Thus, Archangel, Warren Worthington III, had wings and could fly. Cyclops, Scott Summers, shot deadly power beams from his eyes. Jean Grey, Marvel Girl, was a telekinetic and also a telepath. . . .
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Further reading
- Henry Gordon (1988). Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts, UFOs (Canadian ed.). Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. ISBN 978-0771595394.
- David F. Marks (2000). The Psychology of the Psychic (2nd ed.). Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1573927987.
- Richard Wiseman (1997). Deception & Self-Seception: Investigating Psychics. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 9781573921213.
- Panati, Charles (1974). Supersenses, Our Potential for Parasensory Experience. New York: Times Books. ISBN 9780385111928.