| This is an article from Carl's previous blog, Conversations Across the Table, originally posted on Friday, February 11, 2005
I think nearly everyone has played with, or “experimented” with the Ouija Board. Some people really believe that it works, and others are doubtful and assume that one of the participants is actually moving the planchette about. Some acknowledge the phenomenon but explain it as unconscious muscle contractions causing the little planchette to move on the board.
Whatever! Certainly the planchette moves and usually will spell out messages and answer questions. What about the validity of the messages and answers? I never felt any assurance that they were worth risking life or fortune. On the other hand, it was always fun to see if I could influence the direction of the planchette to get an answer I liked (often in relation to the other person or persons I was working with), and about half the time I could
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I don’t think the Ouija is ”dangerous,” as do some Christians, nor just “silly” as do many practical people. It just is what it is, and I’ve never been impressed with it as a serious device for psychic research.
Table tipping is another matter.
The first time I was exposed to it was approximately sixty years ago when I would have been in my middle or late teens, and very much the “student scientist” ready to research and quantify anything.
My parents had some long time friends, Mabel and Fred Brown, and they were over for dinner one evening. Following the meal, all retreated to the living room and talked about numerous subjects. Eventually the discussion turned to a popular program by “Dunninger the Magician” who performed apparent feats of mental telepathy. Everyone has experimented with telepathy, with varying results. My folks had experimented with it during their courtship, and remained interested in psychic phenomena all their lives.
Then Mr. Brown asked if we had ever experienced Table Tipping. We had not, and he suggested we get a table and give it a try. I got out a heavy metal card table and four chairs from the front closet and set them up. Then Mr. Brown, my parents and myself sat at the four sides of the table and rested on our hands on the surface. Mr. Brown talked about his experiences for awhile, and then spoke to the air and asked “Is anyone here?”
The table seemed to vibrate a bit, and then quickly rose up resting at an angle on just one leg, and then settled back down. I gave up my place to Mrs. Brown so that I could watch everyone. Again Mr. Brown asked a question, and the table responded more quickly and more vigorously by tipping up as before. I saw no motion of hands except to move with the table surface, and I saw no connection between the table and participants' knees.
After awhile, I again joined in and I think we “played” for about an hour. I don’t recall that any of the answers were impressive, but I was impressed and confident that the phenomenon was genuine, whatever it was. No one was moving the table either consciously or unconsciously by any physical means. I don’t know if there were any “spirits” causing the movement either.
Neither do I know if psychic energy or material, or ectoplasm, from the participants caused the movement, but I have always believed so and find that more interesting even than spirit communication.
And I can conjecture that “spirits” may be able to communicate by either manipulating such energy or material directly or through the unconscious intermediation of one or more of the participants.
(I leave the quote marks around the word “spirit” for the simple reason that I am not defining what I mean by that word in this story. It could be a totally unconscious projection of a participant, or it could be a real entity of some other sort including that of the “spirit” of a departed person.)
While it may not take much energy or strength to tip a metal card table up on one leg, it is something I have not seen replicated by people claiming it to be the result of unconscious muscle movements!
Jose Feola
My friend, Jose Feola, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, and is a long time “amateur” parapsychologist (I don’t think there are any professionals other than academic) describes actual table lifting in his birth country of Argentina. He says that he and others witnessed a heavy dining table levitate completely, rising several feet towards ceiling – leaving all the participants standing on the their toes to keep contact with the table surface. This was not "tipping" as all the legs were off the floor!
Now, that is impressive! |
