A Psychokinetic Experiment

When I was in high school, I believed in the certitude of science. When I went to college, I studied philosophy and found rational grounds to question this certitude (for those who don't believe me regarding this, I refer you to the philosophical "Problem of Perception"). This, more or less, opened my mind. For awhile I thought philosophy was the be all and end all of rational thought, but before I left college I learned that that was not the case either.

Anyway, I was always interested in the paranormal, although I was never really certain that it was a legitimate field of inquiry. I mean, really... ghosts, telekinesis, ESP. Could those things really be possible?

When I was about 23 years old, I decided to find out for myself. I attended a New Age Psychic Healing class. One of the things we did in the class was try to increase the growth rate of some plants over a period of several weeks. At the end of this time period, I noticed that the "experienced psychic" in the group got better results than anyone else. Still, I was not totally convinced. There could be alternative explanations. One, she could have cheated and used Miracle Gro. Or two, it could be something more subtle like better lighting or better soil. But, since she seemed like an honest person, it did present me with the notion that maybe these things were truly possible.

But I wanted to be sure; I wanted to find out if any paranormal phenomena were real. I figured, that if I could prove to myself that one such phenomenon was real, then maybe the others were as well. How could I do that? It seemed clear that growing plants involved too many variables to control, and ESP might be dismissed too readily as mere coincidence. So, I settled on PK, or psychokinesis, sometimes called telekinesis. Psychokinesis would have an obvious effect, if it was real, and one that could not be dismissed as coincidence, since objects do not coincidentally move. I asked the New Age instructor about it and he suggested the experiment which I will now describe.

Take a large eraser. Stick a sewing needle through the eraser at a right angle to the plane of the flattest side of the eraser. Cut out a small square piece of paper. Draw a dot on one corner of the paper (to use for counting revolutions), then crease the paper along each diagonal. Balance the paper on the needle, such that the needle point is touching the center of the square. Now, put one hand on either side of the paper, about two or three inches away. Relax and concentrate. My instructor, told me to imagine energy flowing from one hand, around the paper in a circular pattern, then back into the opposing hand. However, after some time I came up with my own method. I tried to find in my thoughts the point where "my existence ended" and the "paper's existence began" and then I shoved. Feel free to use which ever method you are most comfortable with.

It took me over a month of effort, working for a half hour to an hour every day (I was very determined). Eventually, though, I did get it to move. I was able to force the paper to make as many as 50 revolutions without ever physically touching it. Granted, I was not in the near-perfect sterility of a science lab, but I did make some effort to control unwanted variables. I made sure all the windows of the room were closed, and I covered my mouth with a t-shirt to block my breath. In the end, I find it very hard to imagine how anything else, but PK, could be responsible for making the paper revolve fifty times, in just a few short minutes.

That experience demonstrated the reality of paranormal phenomena to me. I am relatively certain regarding PK. As for the others, like ESP and ghosts... well, I can't say I know for sure, but I will say it is possible.