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Understandably, anyone viewing the footage is quick to throw up reasons as to how the entire thing could be faked. Indeed, the videotape supplied to the Australian Journal of Parapsychology along with the original paper was quickly dismissed - not so much as a hoax, but as "too ambiguous to be definitive evidence of PK". PK being psychokinesis for the uninitiated, the apparent ability of a human being to affect objects, events and people around them via their consciousness.

"So-and-so must be leaning on the corner of the table" or "it must be unconscious muscle movement" are just some of the other responses the group has received from casual observers. It seems unless someone experiences this odd phenomenon firsthand, then it cannot possibly be real.

"The group have been filmed by independent television producers, and disinterested persons who have accidentally walked in on sessions have been rooted to the spot as they watch the phenomena occurring," Williams said.

Williams, who has been investigating reports of strange phenomena for the last 20 years, is amused by the reluctance of the parapsychology community to warm to his experiment, or to the notion that such things are possible - particularly when his group is only replicating the work of others before them.

"It is difficult to ascribe fraud when taps occur under each person's hands, whilst all hands are resting lightly on top," Williams said.

"A mysterious rod under the table is highly unlikely, and would have to be manipulated unseen by a person's foot. And for the table to rotate around on one leg is difficult as well, since the person has to raise the table, with hands on top, and then move it around. And if someone were manipulating a corner, we would all have to be cheating, since it has rotated under the hands/corners of everyone.

"Many intellectually constrained philosophers may resort to the old hoary trick of 'If I can think of how something could be faked, ergo it was'".

"The trouble is, it would be applicable to most scientific experiments!"

For those unfamiliar with the whole thing, rest assured the group's experiments with table-tilting are nothing new.

Some of the earliest table-tilting experiments were conducted in the mid-1800s in America and Europe, more often than not for amusement than any other purpose.

The past-time found favour with Spiritualist circles and was regarded by some as stunning evidence of "physical mediumship", the ability of practising mediums to affect physical objects around them.

But while the results are replicable, they are far from predictable, and one of the chief challenges for the Australian group has been getting the phenomena to occur on demand.

While Williams acknowledges that there are preferred conditions that encourage table-tilting, there is no guaranteed formula for getting results from the table.

"There is no methodology whatsoever - it doesn't respond to yes/no questions, and words or actions used successfully on previous occasions to elicit noise or movement are just as likely to evoke no response at all at the next sitting,'' Williams said.

Thus the group acknowledges that scientific study of the forces at work moving the table is perhaps harder than otherwise might be the case.

To that end they will keep turning up to their fortnightly sessions over the card table in the hope that the secrets of psychokinesis might just be right under their fingertips.

***For further information about the group's activities, Michael Williams can be contacted at ozestrange@hotmail.com.

References

Batcheldor.K (1984) Contributions To the theory of PK Induction from sitter-Group Work, The Journal of The American Psychical Research Vol.78, April.

Morris.L. Advisory Editor (1975) Perspectives in Psychical Research ,New York, Arno Press.

Owen.I, Sparrow.M (1976) Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure In Psychokinesis. New York, Harper & Row Publishers.

Williams.M, Lang.R (2002) Private notes and video recordings from the Meson Archives, Sydney, Australia.

Ruby Lang is an Australian paranormal researcher and web mistress of www.strangenation.com.au, a website devoted to all things Fortean in Australia. When she isn’t ensconced behind a computer she can be found perusing haunted houses or investigating thickets of bushland for Yowies, Big Cats and the occasional UFO.