Telekinesis: The Wheel and the Table
Two practices, a century and a half apart, both asking the same question: can a group's focused attention move something physical, without touching it?
The Wheel
In 1984–86, physicist György Egely tested this directly at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: 304 students across three schools, hands held near a light wheel under glass, no touching. About a third of trials produced clear, measurable rotation — not evenly across groups, and not without real problems (the study wasn't blinded, success correlated with mood and belief in the task, and the author's own paper admits the database "is not wide enough" for real statistics). Real, imperfect, worth trying yourself.
- Hands near the glass, not touching.
- Relax — tension works against it, not for it.
- Give it a minute or more.
- No result is data too. Not everyone succeeds every time.
The Table
Table-tipping is older by a century and a half — a Victorian parlour practice that British researcher Kenneth Batcheldor took seriously enough to study properly in the 1960s and '70s. His method is what we use:
- Setup: a light, four-legged wooden table. 3–6 people. Dim, warm light. Fingertips resting lightly, little fingers touching your neighbours'.
- Mood first: talk, joke, stay light. Batcheldor found a solemn, staring group almost never got anywhere — a relaxed one often did.
- Invite it, out loud: "Can you tilt toward me?" Welcome any small creak rather than stopping to investigate it.
- Set a code once movement is steady: one tilt for yes, two for no.
- Test it honestly: a loose sheet of paper under everyone's hands shows if a hand pushed before the table moved — the same check Michael Faraday used in 1853.
THE HONEST HISTORY
In 1972, a Toronto research group invented a completely fictional character, "Philip" — and got consistent, coded table responses from him anyway. One of the clearest demonstrations that something real happens in a group around a table, whatever its actual source turns out to be.
Safety: tables can tip harder than expected — keep feet clear, fingers off the edge. Keep it playful; skip "who's there" framing if anyone's uneasy.
References & Resources
Egely, G. (1986). Experimental Investigation of Biologically Induced Energy Transport Anomalies. KFKI-1986-94/K, Hungarian Academy of Sciences — the original institutional preprint, 304 students.
Batcheldor, K. Table-tipping research, 1960s–70s — the "witness inhibition" and "ownership resistance" concepts behind this protocol.
Owen, A.R.G. & Whitton, J. (1972). The Philip Experiment, Toronto — the fictional-character table-tipping study.
Faraday, M. (1853). Experimental Investigation of Table-Moving. Journal of the Franklin Institute, 56, 328–333 — the original paper-under-hands test.