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Psychokinesis



 
 
The term psychokinesis (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ????, "psyche", meaning mind, soul, heart, or breath; and ????s??, "kinesis", meaning motion; literally "movement from the mind"), also known as telekinesis (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
  + , literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system
Physical system

In physics the word system has a technical meaning, namely, it is the portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment, which in analysis is ignored except for its effects on the system....
 that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy. Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object, or influencing the output of a random number generator.

The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is an aspect of parapsychology
Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
.






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The term psychokinesis (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ????, "psyche", meaning mind, soul, heart, or breath; and ????s??, "kinesis", meaning motion; literally "movement from the mind"), also known as telekinesis (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
  + , literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system
Physical system

In physics the word system has a technical meaning, namely, it is the portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment, which in analysis is ignored except for its effects on the system....
 that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy. Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object, or influencing the output of a random number generator.

The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is an aspect of parapsychology
Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
. Some paranormal researchers believe that psychokinesis exists and deserves further study, although the focus of research has shifted away from large-scale phenomena to attempts to influence dice and then to random number generators.

There is no convincing scientific
Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
 evidence that psychokinesis exists. A meta-analysis
Meta-analysis

In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. This is normally done by identification of a common measure of effect size, which is modelled using a form of meta-regression....
 of 380 studies in 2006 found a "very small" effect which could be explained by publication bias
Publication bias

Publication bias arises from the tendency for researchers, editors, and pharmaceutical companies to handle experimental results that are positive differently from results that are negative or inconclusive....
. PK experiments have historically been criticised for lack of proper controls and repeatability. However, some experiments have created illusions of PK where none exists, and these illusions depend to an extent on the subject's prior belief in PK.

Terminology


Early history

The term "Telekinesis" was coined in 1890 by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof. The term "Psychokinesis" was coined in 1914 by American author-publisher Henry Holt in his book On the Cosmic Relations and adopted by his friend, American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine in 1934 in connection with experiments to determine if a person could influence the outcome of falling dice. Both concepts have been described by other terms, such as "remote influencing", "distant influencing" "remote mental influence", "distant mental influence", "directed conscious intention", " anomalous perturbation", and "mind over matter." Originally telekinesis was coined to refer to the movement of objects thought to be caused by ghost
Ghost

File:Henry Fuseli- Hamlet and his father's Ghost.JPGA ghost is popularly held to be the disembodied spirit or soul of a death person. Popularly described as insubstantial and partly transparent, ghosts are reported to haunt particular List of reportedly haunted locations that they were associated with in life or at time of death....
s of deceased persons, mischievous spirit
Spirit

The English word "spirit" comes from the Latin "spiritus" . The term is commonly used to refer to a supernatural being which is transcendence and therefore metaphysical in nature....
s, angels, demon
Demon

In religion, folklore, and mythology a demon is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit. In Christian terms demons are generally understood as fallen angels, formerly of God....
s, or other supernatural
Supernatural

The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are Spell and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others....
 forces. Later, when speculation increased that humans might be the source of the witnessed phenomena not caused by fraudulent mediums and could possibly cause movement without any connection to a spiritualistic
Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a monotheism belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but the distinguishing feature is belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted, either by individuals or by gifted or trained "Mediumships", who can provide information about the afterlife....
 setting, such as in a darkened séance
Séance

A s?ance is an attempt to communicate with Souls. The word "s?ance" comes from the French language word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une s?ance de cin?ma" ....
 room, psychokinesis was added to the lexicon. Eventually, psychokinesis became the term preferred by the parapsychological community. 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, etc.

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 are now regarded as the subspecialties of PK. In the 2004 U.S. Air Force-sponsored research report Teleportation Physics Study, the physicist-author Eric Davis, PhD, described the distinction between PK and TK as "telekinesis is a form of PK." 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) or large (an automobile, building, or bridge).

Measurement and observation

Parapsychology
Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
 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 laboratory
Laboratory

A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which science research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories....
. Micro-PK (also micro-TK) is a very small effect, such as the manipulation of molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, etc., that can only be observed with scientific equipment. The words are abbreviations for micro-psychokinesis, micropsychokinesis 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."

Spontaneous effects

Spontaneous movements of objects and other unexplained effects have been reported, and many parapsychologists believe there are possibly forms of psychokinesis/telekinesis. Parapsychologist William G. Roll
William G. Roll

William G. Roll is a noted psychologist and parapsychologist on the faculty of the Psychology Department of the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia, in the United States....
 coined the term "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK) in 1958. 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. Researchers use the term "PK agent," especially in spontaneous cases, to describe someone who is suspected of being the source of the PK action. 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 poltergeist
Poltergeist

denotes an invisible Soul or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects, generally in a particular locale such as a house or room or place within a house....
 cases.

Umbrella term

Psychokinesis is the umbrella term
Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or wikt:grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym.For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields....
 for various related specialty abilities, which may 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 vibrations of atoms
    Atom vibrations

    The atoms and ions, which are bonded with each other with considerable interatomic forces, are not motionless. Due to the consistent vibrating movements, they are permanently deviating from their equilibrium position....
     in matter to alter temperature, possibly to the point of ignition if combustible (also known as pyrokinesis
    Pyrokinesis

    Pyrokinesis, derived from the Greek Language words ' and ' , was the name, coined by horror novelist Stephen King for the ability to create or to control fire with the mind that he gave to the protagonist Charlie McGee in Firestarter....
     and cryokinesis
    Cryokinesis

    Cryokinesis is an ancient term deriving from Eastern Asia to explain and/or describe the movement and contol over ice and hence solid water and freezing matter....
     respectively).
  • Aerokinesis, the telekinetic subspecialty of being able to control the movement of air molecules specifically.
  • Hydrokinesis, the telekinetic subspecialty of being able to control the movement of water molecules specifically
  • Self levitation (rising in the air unsupported, flying).


  • Object deformation
    Deformation

    In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an applied force . This can be a result of tensile strength forces, compressive strength forces, Simple shear, bending or torsion ....
     (including metal softening and bending
    Spoon bending

    Spoon bending is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either without physical force, or with less force than normally necessary....
    ).
  • Influencing events.
  • Biological healing.
  • Teleportation
    Teleportation

    Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, either by paranormal means or through technological artifice....
     (disappearing and reappearing elsewhere).
  • Phasing through matter.
  • Transmutation of matter.
  • Shape-shifting
    Shapeshifting

    Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a :wikt:metamorphosis of a person or animal....
    .
  • Energy shield (force field).
  • Control of magnetism.
  • Control of photons (light waves/particles).
  • Thoughtform
    Thoughtform

    A thoughtform is a manifestation of mental energy, also known as a 'tulpa' in Tibetan mysticism. The thoughtform is also one of the expressed means of Samyama....
     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 Thoughtography).


Belief

In September 2006, a survey about belief in various religious and paranormal topics conducted by phone and mail-in questionnaire poll
Poll

Poll or polling may refer to:...
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%.

In April 2008, British psychologist and skeptic Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman started his professional life as a Magician , before graduating in Psychology from University College London and obtaining a Ph.D....
 published the results of an online survey he conducted entitled "Magicians and the Paranormal: A Survey," in which 400 magicians worldwide participated. For the question 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)?, the results were as follows: No 83.5%, Yes 9%, Uncertain 7.5%.

Notable claimants of psychokinetic or telekinetic ability

  • Uri Geller
    Uri Geller

    'Uri Geller Freud', commonly 'Uri Geller' , born on 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-United Kingdom performing arts and self-proclaimed psychic who claims "to be able to spoon bending with the power of his mind" and to have psychic powers, although he currently prefers the designation of "mystifier" rather than "psychic."...
     (1946 – ), the Israeli famous for his spoon bending
    Spoon bending

    Spoon bending is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either without physical force, or with less force than normally necessary....
     demonstrations, allegedly by PK. Geller has been caught many times using sleight of hand and according to author Terence Hines, all his effects have been recreated using conjuring tricks.
  • Nina Kulagina
    Nina Kulagina

    Nina Kulagina, Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina was a Russian woman who reportedly had great psychic powers, particularly in psychokinesis. Academic research of her phenomenon was conducted in the USSR for the last twenty years of her life....
     (1926 – 1990), alleged Soviet psychic of the late 1960s and early 1970s, mentioned in the U.S. Defence Iintelligence Agency report from 1978: „G.A. Sergevev is known to have studied Nina Kulagina, a well-known psychic from Leningrad. Although no detailed results are available, Sergvev's inferences are that she was successful in repeating psychokinetic phenomena under controlled conditions. G.A. Sergevev is well-respected researcher and has been active in paraphysics research since the early 1960's.
  • Felicia Parise, 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. 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 bell jar
    Bell jar

    A bell jar is a piece of laboratory glassware similar in shape to a bell . A bell jar is placed on a base which is vented to a hose fitting, which can be connected via a hose to a vacuum pump....
     filmed by a magician). 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.
  • Eusapia Palladino
    Eusapia Palladino

    Eusapia Palladino was a Spiritualist Mediumship from Naples, Italy.In her early life, Eusapia Palladino was married to a traveling conjuror....
     (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 Howard Thurston
    Howard Thurston

    Howard Thurston was a stage Magician from Columbus, Ohio....
     (1869 – 1936), who witnessed her levitation of a table.
  • Swami Rama
    Swami Rama

    Swami Rama was born Brij Kishore Dhasmana, to a Northern Indian Brahmin family in a small village called Toli in the Garhwal Himalayas. He became the lineage holder of the Sankya Yoga tradition of the Himalayas Masters....
      (1925 – 1996), a yogi
    Yogi

    A yogi is a term for a male practitioner of various forms of spiritual practice. In contemporary english language yogin is an alternative rendering for the word yogi....
     skilled in controlling his heart functions who was studied at the Menninger Foundation
    Menninger Foundation

    The Menninger Foundation was founded by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas and consists of a clinic, a sanitarium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name....
     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 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.
  • Many of India's "godmen"
    Godman (Hindu ascetic)

    A godman is a colloquial name for a particular type of charismatic hinduism asceticism who has a high-profile presence, is capable of attracting attention and support from Indian society, and makes claims of spiritual attainments....
     have claimed macro-PK abilities and demonstrated apparently miraculous phenomena in public, although as more controls are put in place to prevent trickery, fewer phenomena are produced.
  • Miroslaw Magola
    Miroslaw Magola

    Miroslaw Magola , allegedly has an ability to use his own psychokinesis to lift objects made of different material off the floor, against the force_of_gravity....
    , alias "Magnetic Man". He claims he can lift objects off the floor, transport them through the air and force them to stick to his body - all using the power of his mind. "I load myself with energy (I connect myself to it) and at the same time I wish for the object to raise" he says of his power. On the UK television programme Beyond and Belief in February 1996, although the viewers and the studio audience were reported to have seen Magoal attracting objects to his body before the show, he was unable to perform any levitation effects despite 30 minutes of quiet preparation. He has been investigated by Friedbert Karger of the Max Planck Institute.


See Also
Category:People claiming to have psychokinetic abilities
Category:Supernatural healing

Notable witnesses to PK events

Alleged psychokinetic events have been witnessed by psychologists in the United States, and elsewhere in the world by  professionals with medical degrees, physicists,  electrical engineers, military personnel, police officers,  and other professionals and ordinary citizens. Robert M. Schoch
Robert M. Schoch

Robert M. Schoch is an associate professor of Natural Science at the College of General Studies, a 2 year non-degree granting unit of Boston University....
 PhD, professor at Boston University, has written "I do believe that some psychokinesis is real" referring to the evidence for micro-psychokinesis obtained by the Princeton PEAR laboratory experiments and similar studies and some reports of macro-RSPK observed in poltergeist cases. He reports once seeing a book "jumping off a shelf" while in a room where a female psychokinesis agent was also present. Best-selling author and medical doctor Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton

John Michael Crichton, Doctor of Medicine , was an United States author, film producer, film director, and physician, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and techno-thriller genres....
 described what he termed a "successful experience" with psychokinesis at a "spoon bending party" in his 1988 book Travels. Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
Institute of Noetic Sciences

File:Edgar Dean Mitchell.jpgThe Institute of Noetic Sciences was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell and industrialist Paul N....
, author Dean Radin
Dean Radin

Dean Radin is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in Petaluma, California, USA, on the...
 has reported that he, like Michael Crichton, was able to bend the bowl of a spoon over with unexplained ease of force with witnesses present at a different informal PK experiment gathering. He described his experience in his 2006 book Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality and online (with photos). Author Michael Talbot
Michael Talbot

Michael Coleman Talbot was an American author of a number of books highlighting quantum mysticism, and espousing a theoretical model of reality that suggests the physical universe is akin to a giant hologram....
 (1953-1992) described a variety of spontaneous psychokinetic events he experienced and were witnessed by family and friends in two of his books, Beyond the Quantum and The Holographic Universe.

PK Parties

"PK Parties" were a cultural fad in the 1980s, 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 became convinced that they had bent silverware by paranormal means.

Scientific controversy

If PK were to exist as claimed by some experimenters, it would violate some well-established laws of physics, including the inverse square law, the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
 and the conservation of momentum. Hence scientists have demanded a high standard of evidence for PK, in line with Marcello Truzzi
Marcello Truzzi

Marcello Truzzi was a professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal , a founder of the Society for Scientific Exploration, and director for the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research....
's dictum "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof". When apparent PK can be produced in ordinary ways—by trickery, special effects or by poor experimental design—scientists accept that explanation as more parsimonious
Parsimony

Parsimony is a 'less is better' concept of frugality, economy or caution in arriving at a hypothesis or course of action. The word derives from Middle English parcimony, from Latin parsimonia, from parsus, past participle of parcere: to spare....
 than to accept that the laws of physics should be rewritten.

The late Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. was an United States astronomer, Astrochemistry, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences....
 included telekinesis in a long list of "offerings of pseudoscience and superstition" which "it would be foolish to accept (...) without solid scientific data" though even highly improbable claims may possibly be eventually verified. He placed the burden of proof
Burden of proof

The burden of proof is the obligation to shift the assumed conclusion away from an oppositional opinion to one's own position . The burden of proof may only be fulfilled by evidence....
 on the proponents, but cautioned readers to "await—or, much better, to seek—supporting or disconfirming evidence" for claims that have not been resolved either way. Physicist Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman

Richard Phillips Feynman was an United States physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as work in particle physics ....
 advocated a similar position.

In their 1991 research paper Biological Utilization of Quantum Nonlocality, Nobel Prize laureate Brian Josephson and coauthor Fotini Pallikara-Viras proposed that explanations for both psychokinesis and telepathy might be found in quantum physics.

There is a broad consensus, including several proponents of parapsychology, that PK research, and parapsychology more generally, has not produced a reliable, repeatable demonstration.

In 1984, the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."...
, at the request of the US Army Research Institute, formed a scientific panel to assess the best evidence from 130 years of parapsychology. Part of its purpose was to investigate military applications of PK, for example to remotely jam or disrupt enemy weaponry. The panel heard from a variety of military staff who believed in PK and made visits to the PEAR laboratory
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab

The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program was established at Princeton University in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to pursue rigorous scientific study of the interaction of human consciousness with physical devices, systems, and processes common to contemporary engineering prac...
 and two other laboratories that had claimed positive results from micro-PK experiments.

The panel criticised macro-PK experiments for being open to deception by conjurors, and said that virtually all micro-PK 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 psychokinesis. Parapsychology advocates responded by accusing the panel of bias.

Research with random number generators has been influenced by signal detection theory, viewing the effect of PK as weak but real "signal" hidden in the "noise" of experimental results. An effect too weak to be demonstrated in a replicable experiment would still show up as a statistically significant effect in a large set of data. To test this, parapsychologists have carried out meta-analyses
Meta-analysis

In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. This is normally done by identification of a common measure of effect size, which is modelled using a form of meta-regression....
 of large data sets, with apparently impressive positive results. This has in turn been criticized as an invalid use of meta-analysis, since the original studies are too dissimilar for the resulting statistics to be meaningful. A 2006 meta-analysis of 380 studies found a small positive effect within the margin that could be explained by publication bias
Publication bias

Publication bias arises from the tendency for researchers, editors, and pharmaceutical companies to handle experimental results that are positive differently from results that are negative or inconclusive....
.

Physicist Robert L. Park
Robert L. Park

Robert Lee Park , also known as Bob Park, is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former Executive Director of the American Physical Society....
 finds 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
Irving Langmuir

Irving Langmuir was an United States chemistry and physics. His most noted publication was the famous 1919 article "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules" in which, building on Gilbert N....
's indicators of pathological science
Pathological science

Pathological science is the process in science in which "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions"....
. Park argues that if PK really existed it would be easily and unambiguously detectable, for example using modern microbalance
Microbalance

A microbalance is an instrument capable of making precise measurements of weight of objects of relatively small mass: of the order of a million parts of a gram....
s which can detect tiny amounts of force.

PK hypotheses are also tested implicitly in a number of contexts outside parapsychological experiments. Gardner considers a dice game played in casinos, where gamblers have a large incentive to affect the numbers that come up. This is in effect a large sample-size test of the same hypothesis as the J. B. Rhine dice experiments, but year after year the house takings are exactly those predicted by chance. Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Humphrey

Professor Nicholas Keynes Humphrey is a United Kingdom psychologist who until 2008 held a School Professorship at the London School of Economics and a half-time Professorship at the New School for Social Research in New York....
 argues that many experiments in psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
, biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 or physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 assume that the intentions of the subjects or experimenter do not physically distort the apparatus. Humphrey counts them as replications of PK experiments (but implicitly so) in which PK fails to appear.

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 Robert G. Jahn, director of the (now-closed) PEAR laboratory
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab

The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program was established at Princeton University in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to pursue rigorous scientific study of the interaction of human consciousness with physical devices, systems, and processes common to contemporary engineering prac...
, regarding the psychokinesis research that the lab was engaged in at the time.

Laboratory experiments versus field research


Many scientists have concluded that psychokinesis, especially the visible movement of objects, does not exist because it cannot be replicated in a controlled laboratory setting to match anecdotal reports. There are many areas of accepted science, however, such as in astronomy, geology, and meteorology, that do not rely on replicable results in a laboratory and instead depend on spontaneous cases in nature to provide evidence for study and the formation of theories. On the problem of eyewitness testimony of alleged spontaneous psychokinetic events, anecdotes
Anecdotal evidence

The expression anecdotal evidence has two distinct meanings. Evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay is called anecdotal if there is doubt about its veracity: the evidence itself is considered untrustworthy or untrue....
; that is, stories by eyewitnesses outside of controlled laboratory conditions, are considered insufficient evidence by the majority of scientists to establish the scientific validity of psychokinesis..

Explanations in terms of bias

Cognitive bias
Cognitive bias

A cognitive bias is a person's tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors, and is a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology....
 research has been interpreted to argue that people are susceptible to illusions of PK. These include both the illusion that they themselves have the power, and that events they witness are real demonstrations of PK. For example, Illusion of control
Illusion of control

Illusion of control is the tendency for human beings to believe they can control, or at least influence, outcomes that they demonstrably have no influence over....
 is an illusory correlation
Illusory correlation

Illusory correlation is the phenomenon of seeing the correlation one expects in a set of data even when no such relationship exists. When people form false associations between membership in a statistical minority group and rare behaviors, this would be a common example of illusory correlation....
 between intention and external events, and believers in the paranormal have been shown to be more susceptible to this illusion than skeptics. Psychologist Thomas Gilovich
Thomas Gilovich

Thomas D. Gilovich is a professor of psychology at Cornell University who has researched decision making and behavioral economics and has written popular books on said subjects....
 explains this as a biased interpretation of personal experience. For example, to someone in a dice game willing for a high score, high numbers can be interpreted as "success" and low numbers as "not enough concentration." Bias towards belief in PK may be an example of the human tendency to see patterns where none exist
Clustering illusion

The clustering illusion refers to the tendency to erroneously perceive small samples from random distributions as having significant "streaks" or "clusters", caused by a human tendency to underpredict the amount of variability likely to appear in a small sample of random or semi-random data due to chance....
, which believers are also more susceptible to.

A 1952 study tested for experimenter's bias
Experimenter's bias

In experimental science, experimenter's bias is bias towards a result expected by the human experimenter. David Sackett, in a useful review of biases in clinical studies, states that biases can occur in any one of seven stages of research:...
 in a PK context. Richard Kaufman of Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
 gave subjects the task of trying to influence 8 dice and allowed them to record their own scores. They were secretly filmed, so their records could be checked for errors. The results in each case were random and provided no evidence for PK, but believers made errors that favoured the PK hypothesis, while disbelievers made opposite errors. A similar pattern of errors was found in J. B. Rhine
Joseph Banks Rhine

Joseph Banks Rhine was a pioneer of parapsychology. Rhine founded the parapsychology lab at Duke University, the Journal of Parapsychology, and the Rhine Research Center....
's dice experiments which at that time were the strongest evidence for PK.

Wiseman and Morris (1995) 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 PK, and were more likely to misremember crucial details of the presentation. This suggests that confirmation bias
Confirmation bias

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and to avoid information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs....
 affects people's interpretation of PK demonstrations. Psychologist Robert Sternberg
Robert Sternberg

Robert J. Sternberg , is an American psychologist and psychometrics and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association....
 cites confirmation bias as an explanation of why belief in psi phenomena persists, despite the lack of evidence: "[P]eople want to believe, and so they find ways to believe."

Magic and special effects


Magicians, sleight-of-hand-artists, etc., have successfully simulated some of the specialized abilities of PK (object movement, spoon bending
Spoon bending

Spoon bending is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either without physical force, or with less force than normally necessary....
, 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. According to philosopher Robert Todd Carroll
Robert Todd Carroll

Robert Todd Carroll , Ph.D., is an American writer and academic. Carroll has written several books and skeptical essays, but achieved notability by publishing the Skeptic's Dictionary online in 1994....
, there are many impressive magic tricks available to amateurs and professionals to simulate psychokinetic powers. These can be purchased on the Internet from magic supply companies. Metal objects such as keys or cutlery can be bent by a number of different techniques, even if the performer has not had access to them beforehand. 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.

The need for PK researchers to be aware of conjuring techniques was illustrated by events in the early 1980s. The McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University reported a series of experiments in which two subjects had demonstrated PK phenomena (including metal-bending and causing images to appear on film) and other psychic powers under laboratory conditions. Magician James Randi
James Randi

James Randi is a Magician and Scientific skepticism best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,...
 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 PK. The laboratory closed not long after.

Prize money for proof of psychokinesis

Internationally, there are several individual skeptics of the paranormal and skeptics' organizations
List of Skeptics and skeptical organizations

This is a list of people and organizations that promote or practice scientific skepticism. In general they favor science and are opposed to what they call pseudoscience and quackery....
 who offer cash prize money for demonstration of the existence of an extraordinary psychic power, such as psychokinesis. Experimental design must be agreed upon prior to execution, and additional conditions, such as a minimum level of fame, may be imposed. Prizes have been offered specifically for PK demonstrations, for example businessman Gerald Fleming's offer of 250,000 pounds sterling
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
 to Uri Geller if he can bend a spoon under controlled conditions. These prizes remain uncollected by people claiming to possess paranormal abilities.

The James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation

The James Randi Educational Foundation is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magic and Scientific skepticism James Randi....
 offers 1,000,000 US dollars to anyone who has a demonstrated media profile as well as the support from some member of the academic community, and who can produce a paranormal event, such as psychokinesis, in a controlled, mutually agreed upon experiment.

Psychokinesis in religion, mythology, and popular culture

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 transmuting water into wine, which "could be called psychokinesis", healing the sick, and multiplying food.

Mythological beings, such as witches, have been accused of levitating people, animals, and objects. The court wizard and prophet Merlin
Merlin

Merlin is best known as the Magician featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures....
 in the King Arthur
King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary Britons leader who, according to medieval histories and Romance , led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century....
 legend, is said to have used his power to transport Stonehenge
Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the England county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of Earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age mon...
 across the sea to England from Ireland.

Popular culture

Psychokinesis has a well-established existence in movies, television, computer games, literature, and other forms of popular culture. In the 1976 film Carrie, based on the Stephen King
Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an United States author of contemporary horror fiction, fantasy fiction and science fiction.Having sold an estimated List of bestselling fiction authors of his books, King is best known for his work in horror fiction, in which he demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the genre's history....
 novel of the same name, Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek

Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek is an Academy Award–winning United States actress and singer. Her screen debut was in the 1972 film Prime Cut co-starring Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman....
 portrayed a troubled high school student with telekinetic powers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
, the first psychokinetic character in a film ever to be so recognized (Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn is an Academy Awards-winning American actress....
 was the second, in 1980's Resurrection). Numerous characters have the ability to control the movement of objects using the "the Force"
Force (Star Wars)

The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional Star Wars fictional universe, created by George Lucas. First mentioned in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it is integral in all subsequent films in the series, as well as the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" of comic books, novels, and video games....
 in the Star Wars
Star Wars

Star Wars is an epic film space opera Media franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but later had the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels....
 canon. In the 1988 anime
Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
 movie Akira
Akira (film)

is a 1988 in film anime film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo based on Akira of the same name. The film is set in a neon-lit Tokyo in 2019....
, a few of the main characters use telekinesis throughout the film; also that year, Lar Park Lincoln
Lar Park Lincoln

Lar Park Lincoln is an United States actor. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1987 film House II: The Second Story as Kate and in the 1988 horror film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as Tina Shepard....
 played a telekinetic in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees....
. In the 2009 film PUSH
Push (2009 film)

Push is a 2009 in film Cinema of the United States science fiction film thriller film directed by Paul McGuigan . The film stars Chris Evans , Dakota Fanning, Djimon Hounsou, and Camilla Belle....
 and the subsequent DC Comics
DC Comics

DC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. A subsidiary of Warner Bros....
 series, the "Mover" characters Nick Grant and Victor Budarin display a very advanced mastery of telekinesis.

Prue Halliwell
Prue Halliwell

Prudence Halliwell, also known simply as Prue, is a fictional character from the television series Charmed, and its numerous spin-offs, such as List of Charmed books, games and trading cards....
's main power as a witch was telekinesis in the series Charmed
Charmed

Charmed is an award-winning, Television in the United States cult television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998 until May 21, 2006, when its network, The WB Television Network, ceased operation....
. Also from the TV show Heroes
Heroes (TV series)

Heroes is an American science fiction dramatic programming created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the stories of ordinary individuals from around the world who inexplicably develop Superpower , and their roles in preventing disasters, usually foreseen in images produced by precognitive painter...
, the serial killer Sylar
Sylar

Gabriel Gray, more commonly known by his Pseudonym of Sylar, is one of the primary antagonists in the NBC drama Heroes . Portrayed by Zachary Quinto, he is a Superpower serial killer who targets other superhumans in order to steal their powers....
 frequently exhibits telekinetic ability.

The comic book character Jean Grey
Jean Grey

Jean Grey-Summers is a fictional comic book superhero#superheroines appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. She has been known under the aliases Marvel Girl and Phoenix , and is best known as one of five original members of the X-Men....
 of the X-Men
X-Men

The X-Men are a fictional superhero team in the . In the series, Professor Xavier responds to anti-Mutant prejudice by creating a haven at his Westchester County, New York mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity....
 exhibits extremely powerful telekinetic ability. Psychokinesis is also commonly used as a power in a large number of videogames and role playing games.

See also

  • Anecdotal evidence
    Anecdotal evidence

    The expression anecdotal evidence has two distinct meanings. Evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay is called anecdotal if there is doubt about its veracity: the evidence itself is considered untrustworthy or untrue....
  • Anomalous operation
  • Count of St Germain
    Count of St Germain

    The 'Count of St. Germain' has been variously described as a courtier, adventurer, charlatan, inventor, Alchemy, pianist, violinist and amateur composer, but is best known as a recurring figure in the stories of several strands of occultism – particularly those connected to Theosophy, where he is also referred to as the Master Rakocz...
  • Ectenic Force
    Ectenic Force

    Ectenic force is said to be a form of spiritual Energy emitted by a Mediumship, that allows them to manipulate objects without apparent physical contact....
  • Energy (spirituality)
    Energy (healing or psychic or spiritual)

    The term energy has been widely adopted by writers and practitioners of various forms of spirituality and alternative medicine to refer to a variety of ideas, often conceived as "fields" surrounding the earth or any living thing, supposed to be directly perceptible and accessible to the human mind as "auras", "rays", "fields" or "vibra...
  • Faith healing
    Faith healing

    Faith healing is the attempt to use religious or spirituality means such as prayer, mental practices, spiritual insights, or other techniques to prevent illness, cure disease, or improve health....
  • Global Consciousness Project
    Global Consciousness Project

    The Global Consciousness Project is a long-running science experiment maintained by an international collaboration of about 100 research scientists and engineers....
  • List of psychic abilities
    List of psychic abilities

    This is a list of psychic abilities. Only abilities that have been notably attributed to real-world people are listed here, List of superhuman abilities are not included....
  • Magical thinking
    Magical thinking

    Magical thinking in anthropology, psychology, and cognitive science is nonscientific causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the ability of the mind to affect the physical world , correlation equaling causation, the law of contagion, the power of symbols, and the meaningfulness of synchronicity....
  • Manifestation
    Manifestation

    Manifestation may refer to any one of the following:*The Manifestation of God, which are the prophets of the Bah?'? Faith.*The Law of Attraction is a New Age thought that people can manifest reality using thoughts....
  • Materialization
  • Wolf Messing
    Wolf Messing

    Wolf Grigorevich Messing was an alleged psychic who became a stage performer....
  • Nensha
    Nensha

    , better known to English language speakers as thoughtography or projected thermography or nengraphy, is the ability to Psychokinesis "burn" images from one's mind onto surfaces, or even into the minds of others....
  • Observer-expectancy effect
    Observer-expectancy effect

    The observer-expectancy effect is a form of reactivity , in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to unconsciously influence the participants of an experiment....
  • Pauli effect
    Pauli effect

    The Pauli effect is a reference to the apparently mysterious failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people. It is named after the Austria theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli....
  • Precognition
    Precognition

    Precognition or Precog denotes a form of extrasensory perception wherein a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they happen....
  • Psi wheel
    Psi wheel

    A Psi wheel is pyramid-shaped top-like device consisting of a small piece of paper or aluminum foil balanced on the tip of a pointed object. It is commonly used in attempts to prove the validity of telekinesis....
  • Psionics
    Psionics

    Psionics is the study and/or practice of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis and other workings of the outside world through the psyche....
  • Psychic surgery
    Psychic surgery

    Psychic surgery is a procedure typically involving the apparent creation of an incision using only the bare hands, the apparent removal of pathological matter, and the seemingly spontaneous healing of the incision....
  • Tina Resch
    Tina Resch

    Tina Resch achieved some fame during what the media called the Columbus Poltergeist case. She was an adopted child, and in 1984 unexplained events of alleged spontaneous telekinesis at her home were covered extensively by news media....
  • Jack Sarfatti
    Jack Sarfatti

    Jack Sarfatti is an American Theoretical physics and the author of a number of popular works on quantum physics and consciousness. He is known for his Iconoclasm ideas, and is interested in what he sees as the breakdown of the paradigm that posits science and the humanities as separate disciplines, arguing that physics — which he calls...
  • Silva Method
    Silva Method

    The Silva Method is the name given to a self help program developed by Jos? Silva , which claims to increase an individual's IQ and sense of personal well-being by developing their higher brain functions....
  • Tai al-Ardh
  • Telepathy
    Telepathy

    Telepathy describes the purported transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the Senses#Five classical senses ....
  • Teleportation
    Teleportation

    Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, either by paranormal means or through technological artifice....
  • Therapeutic touch
    Therapeutic touch

    Therapeutic touch , also called Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch or Distance Healing, is an Energy medicine claimed to promote healing and reduce pain and anxiety....


Further reading

  • The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, Dean Radin
    Dean Radin

    Dean Radin is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in Petaluma, California, USA, on the...
    , HarperEdge, 1997.
  • 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).
  • Deception & Self-Deception: Investigating Psychics, Richard Wiseman, Prometheus Books, 1997. ISBN 1-57392-121-1. Reports on investigations of macro-PK and also the effect of prior belief on interpretations of fake PK.
  • Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality, Dean Radin
    Dean Radin

    Dean Radin is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in Petaluma, California, USA, on the...
    , Pocket Books, 2006.
  • The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena, Diane Hennacy Powell, M.D., Walker & Company, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8027-1606-4. Includes a chapter on psychokinesis. Author is a former faculty member of Harvard Medical School.
  • The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, Lynne McTaggart
    Lynne McTaggart

    Lynne McTaggart is a journalist and author, most famous for her popular pseudoscience books The Field and The Intention Experiment.She and her publisher/husband Bryan Hubbard are directors of a public company called "What Doctors Don't Tell You Ltd.", which publishes newsletters that critique mainstream medicine....
    , HarperCollins, 2008, updated paperback edition. ISBN 978-0-06-143518-8.
  • Flim Flam!, James Randi
    James Randi

    James Randi is a Magician and Scientific skepticism best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,...
    , 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.
  • How We Know What Isn't So: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life, Thomas Gilovich
    Thomas Gilovich

    Thomas D. Gilovich is a professor of psychology at Cornell University who has researched decision making and behavioral economics and has written popular books on said subjects....
    , Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 0029117062. Includes a chapter titled "Belief in ESP" and a subsection "Mundane Psychokinesis."


Published 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, March 28, 2003.
  • by William G. Braud, European Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 10, 1994.
  • "A review of psychokinesis (PK)" by Edward Girden (1962). Psychological Bulletin 59 (5) pages 353-388 doi:10.1037/h0048209
  • by Robert G. Jahn, (1982) Proceedings IEEE, 70, No.2, pp.136-170. ]
  • by Victor A. Benassi, Paul D. Sweeney, and Gregg E. Drevno (1979). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (8) pp.1377-1386. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.8.1377


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. Defense Technical Information Center
    Defense Technical Information Center

    The Defense Technical Information Center is a repository of Technical report for the United States Department of Defense. According to the organization, DTIC "serves the DoD community as the largest central resource for DoD and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available today"....
    '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. Defense Technical Information Center
    Defense Technical Information Center

    The Defense Technical Information Center is a repository of Technical report for the United States Department of Defense. According to the organization, DTIC "serves the DoD community as the largest central resource for DoD and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available today"....
    's website and available to the public through the U.S. National Technical Information Service.


External links

  • entry in the online edition of the Skeptic's Dictionary by philosopher Robert Todd Carroll.
  • 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 Wikipedia.