Ever play that game where you pick the one superpower you’d like to have? I used to pick invisibility, but not anymore. Now I would wish for the power to embarrass people at will. Let’s face it, if you can embarrass someone you are in complete control of any situation. And, well, the power to cause embarrassment would be at least as entertaining as invisibility and you wouldn’t have to be naked while you do it. Others doubtlessly would choose the power of telekinesis; especially anyone who has just watched Carrie.
Telekinesis is considered one of the more common types of paranormal phenomena. Essentially, those who are supposed to have telekinetic abilities possess the power to move any object merely through mental concentration. True story: I was once sitting at the bar at Darryl’s restaurant back in the early 80s, sitting over my glass of Coke and thinking deeply about something when, without my touching it, the glass literally exploded. I’m serious; it burst into dozens of pieces. I didn’t knock it over and nobody at all touched it. It was as though the focus of my mental concentration somehow made the glass shatter.
Probably there is a reasonable explanation, but many of us have stories something along those lines. Sitting there and all of a sudden a book falls off the table or a door shuts and there is no wind. The Fox Mulder in us will usually attribute things like this to either ghosts or telekinesis. Those who trust in the power of telekinesis even suggest that ghost stories may really just be stories of those who possess the power but aren’t aware of it. I’ll go with that since I do not believe in ghosts at all.
How is telekinesis done? The most common theory among people who appear on shows like In Search Of has to do with some unexplained and untapped source of energy that lies within us all. The problem is that in order to bring forth this untapped energy, one must have the ability to concentrate with no distraction. Maybe that was easy a hundred years ago, but not so much today. Ever taken a moment to just stop and listen to all the myriad sounds that take place at any given moment? Like that Twilight Zone episode, it would drive someone from a hundred years ago insane.
What telekinesis really boils down to, according to believers, is that everything exerts energy. You put out energy and the object puts out energy. It is the interaction that takes place between you and the object that results in the truly stunning site of telekinetic movement. Of course, what these believers fail to properly explain is how this interaction works. Nevertheless, there have been some pretty interesting scientific experiments into telekinesis. One of the most famous took place in the 1930s and involved what may well be the Holy Grail of using telekinesis to make money: tossing dice. Imagine how much money you could take home from any casino in the world if you could control how the dice on a craps table came up.
The experiment was overseen by Joseph Rhine and his results actually did indicate that some people did seem to have the ability to control the roll of the dice. Unfortunately, most so-called scientific experiments have been as fraudulent as a Sarah Palin press conference. Skeptics were able to prove that most exhibitions of telekinesis were done with hidden tricks. To date the Rhine experiments remains the only authentic and controlled scientific experiment that indicates with even the most remote of certainty that some form of telekinesis may actually exist.
