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By Ruby Lang IN Sydney, Australia a group of researchers have been turning the tables on parapsychologists - or to put it more succinctly, table turning, or tilting, their way into a field that is principally the domain of psychologists and academics. The group has borne witness to noises and movement of an ordinary card table that defy conventional physics - and recently their experiences made it into the Australian Journal of Parapsychology, a publication devoted to theories, statistical analysis and experiments relating to Psi (Psychokinesis) and ESP (Extrasensory Perception). Inspired by the work of the Philip Group, a ‘70s research project initiated by the Toronto Society of Psychical Research, the group of non-academics was established in May 2001 in a bid to replicate the successes of the Canadians in creating an "artificial ghost". Briefly, the Philip Group were able to direct Philip to effect lights, tap under the table, tap on walls and move the table vigorously around the room. During later sessions Philip produced - upon request - raps in the adjoining plaster walls. The Philip group also found that if the table flipped over, the tap noises started coming through from the top of the table, which was now the underside. Of course for the Aussies it all went horribly wrong. Or to put it another way, absolutely nothing happened. For five long months the group sang, chanted, meditated and pleaded with the powers that be for some kind of response - be it a rap, creak, groan or shuffle from the table around which they had dutifully gathered every fortnight. But for whatever reason Skippy Cartman, the improbably-named entity they had created and with which they were trying to make contact, had declined to comment. So what to do? Well, the Philip Group certainly wasn't the only table-tilting act in town, so the group threw out the Philip Group brief and decided to turn to the works of Kenneth Batcheldor for further inspiration. Batcheldor's group achieved knockings, table movements and eventually, they claim, complete table levitation by their eleventh sitting - all conducted in complete darkness. So with a change in methodology - albeit in semi-darkness as opposed to completely in the dark - came the results they had so keenly awaited. First came the lightest of taps, then strange groans as if the wood in the flimsy card table were contracting and expanding, then movement - in fits and starts - before graduating to wild spinning on one leg. Instead of trying to make contact with a fictional character, in this case a non-entity [pun intended], the group simply began to concentrate on the table itself for a direct response. The group of eight, headed by Australian paranormal researcher Michael Williams, has now started to film its activities in the hope that they too will achieve total levitation of their table - a cheap $5 card table with folding legs not unlike that used in the original Philip Experiment. Revision of the raw video footage shows table legs lifting off of the ground and the sitters virtually being dragged along behind the table as it starts to build up momentum and spin around on one leg. The video camera light fitting has also been known to falter and go out just as the movements start to occur. The infrared video footage has also turned up strange balls of light, which appear to roll across the floor in random directions near the sitters. Williams has caught similar moving balls of light after filming in reputedly haunted homes and locations, but he is none the wiser about exactly what they are. "Some people hypothesise they are the spirits of the dead, but all we can definitively say is they appear to be spheres of infrared energy - and they're definitely not normal," Williams said. In the meantime the series of guest sitters - which has included a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a zoologist, a sceptical film critic and a journalist - have all had to re-adjust their personal belief systems to deal with what they are seeing. After all, furniture is not supposed to move by itself. If it did, furniture removalists would surely be out of a job! Continued On Next Page (Parapsychology, Page 2) ... AUTHOR: Rebecca Lang  TAGS: Life parapsychology mystery BOOKMARK: Digg it | Add to Del.ICIO | Add to FARK ACTIONS: Comment Save Print Register free acount 
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