Psychokinesis

Psychokinesis (literally "mind-movement") or PK is the more commonly used term today for what in the past was known as telekinesis (literally "distant-movement"). It refers to the psi ability to influence the behavior of matter by mental intention (or possibly some other aspect of mental activity) alone. As of 2004 the term remote influencing is becoming widely used for certain kinds of psychokinesis.

Remote influencing

In recent years, the term remote influencing has become popular to describe the application of psychokinesis to biological systems. This may be to impact either positively or negatively upon health, alter mood, or influence decision making.

In a similar fashion, remote viewing has been applied to clairvoyance. These terms emerged from research undertaken by the American government, for the application of psychic abilities to intelligence gathering, military force, and remote assassination.

Some of the most detailed claims in this area are made in The Men Who Stare At Goats, written by Jon Ronson to accompany his British TV series The Crazy Rulers of the World. It is claimed in the 1980s at 'goat lab' at Fort Bragg, special forces troops attempted to influence the heart rate of mammals such as goats. It is claimed skilled remote influencers can stop the hearts of goats and hamsters long enough to cause death. According to Ronson, on the personal instructions of Donald Rumsfeld post 9/11, over 100 de-bleated goats were shipped to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the research was resumed.

Glenn Wheaton claims to have been involved in the original ‘goat lab’ project in the 1980s, and continues his research in partnership with Dick Allgire through the Hawaiian Remote Viewing Guild. The combination of the intent of psychokinesis, and the control and focus of remote viewing, reportedly enables specific parts of the mind and body of any person to be remotely influenced.

The programs are generally said to be secret, making verification difficult. Incidents of illness in world figures, such as George W. Bush's loss of consciousness after choking on a pretzel in January, 2002, have been ascribed to psychic attacks. Many websites offer to sell courses that purportedly teach remote viewing and remote influencing.

Important claimed "psychokinetics"

Marek Bak - ("Dimension Desconocida" , December 2005 ; "La Republica" - 15 January 2006 - *Article (spanish)).
Uri Geller, the Israeli famous for his spoon-bending demonstrations
Nina Kulagina, alleged Soviet psychic of the Cold War era

Psychokinetic conjuring illusions, performed as entertainment

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Psychokinesis is also a popular topic for illusionists and magicians, and there are many variations on the theme, ranging from a conjurer at a party influencing an object in a sealed box, to a stage illusionist lifting a person or other heavy object and 'passing rings around them' to show that there are no wires or supports.

A common party trick is to use twine or catgut in poor light conditions to physically pull or lift an object. Another one is to place a piece of folded paper, or similar item, on a table, and then pass one's cupped hands around it. The air current from the conjurer's hands will move the paper, but because there will be some delay between the hands moving and the object responding (due to the slower movement of air currents) and some distance between the hands and the object, it will appear that the object moves without being touched or influenced in any physical way.

Often, in this illusion, the hand movements are merely to redirect the audience's attention, while the conjurer simply blows on the object that he is supposedly trying to move.

Commonly, this is known as sleight of hand, and is wholly separate from the scientific/paranormal aspects of psychokinesis.

In most cases, half of the audience's enjoyment is derived from the suspension of disbelief involved in such staged acts, and the other half is derived from attempting to figure out which method the illusionist used to carry out the illusion.

Cultural references

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Probably the most famous depiction of a character with telekinetic powers was Sissy Spacek's portrayal of a troubled high school student with telekinetic powers in the 1976 film Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
In the Ghostbusters universe, ghosts and other supernatural creatures are composed of negatively charged psychokinetic energy. This energy, called PKE, was featured and mentioned extensively in both movies and animated series. Furthermore, the Ghostbusters developed a device called a PKE meter for the purpose of measuring the amount of psychokinetic energy in an area.
in the video game series Mortal Kombat the enigmatic ninja Ermac and the blind swordsman Kenshi can both use Telekinesis.
In the fictional universe of Star Wars, Jedi have, among other powers, psychokinetic abilities due to their mastery of "the Force".
In the Japanese manga Akira (and its subsequent animated film) telekinesis is a subject of secret government research, culminating in extremely powerful individuals such as the main antagonist, Tetsuo, and the titular character, Akira.
In Destroy All Humans!, the Furons have the psychokinesis ability. This ability gives them an advantage in winning a war against a homeworld enemy.
A young Courteney Cox played a telekinetic teenager in the short-lived TV series, Misfits of Science
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, witches are shown to be telekinetic as a whole.
In the Power Rangers universe, inhabitants of the planet KO-35 have innate telekinetic abilities.
In Charmed, telekinesis is a power possessed by most witches, warlocks, upper level demons and angels. Prue Halliwell and Paige Matthews are best known for having this charmed ability.
In X-Men, Jean Grey and many other mutants have telekinetic abilities.
In the TV show Static Shock, Madelyn Spaulding develops telekinesis after Static sends a surge of electricity through her brain.
In Teen Titans, both Raven of the Titan team and Jinx of H.I.V.E. Academy wield telekinetic powers.
In EarthBound, PK or PSI is the primary form of 'magic' in the game, however this variation also includes manipulation of full energy with the mind. EarthBound's PSI was popularized by the appearance of Ness in Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers series, whose special moves included PK Fire, PK Thunder, and later PK Flash.
In the children's novel Matilda by Roald Dahl, the protagonist, Matilda Wormwood, develops telekinetic abilities as a result of untapped intellectual ability.
In Witch Hunter Robin, certain witches have the power to control the movement of objects such as trash cans at will.
The Tomorrow People TV series features characters possessing psychokinetic abilities.
In the video game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy by Midway, Nick Scryer uses many different abilities to defeat enemies (pyrokinesis, telekinesis, etc.)
In the TV show The Secret World of Alex Mack, Alexandra "Alex" Mack gains telekinesis after being drenched in the chemical GC-161.
In the Pokémon game/show, many of the Pokémon wield telekinesis and many other psychic gifts.
In Zapped! a teenage high school whiz kid discovers a formula for telekinetic powers and uses it for various mischief, including undressing girls, and in the sequel Zapped Again! a new generation of high school kids find the old potion and perform similar pranks.
In the Darkstalkers video game series, the vampire hunter Donovan Baine, and a young girl Anita who accompanies him, use telekinesis to a large extent. Donovan's main weapon is a giant spirit sword known as Dhylec, which he mostly wields with just the power of his mind.
In the Gundam meta-verse, there is a type of evolved human being known as a Newtype, predominantly in the Universal Century timeline. This happens when humanity begins to migrate to space, and to adapt to the new environment humanity begins to slowly evolve to adapt to space. Although Newtypes mostly exhibit enhanced senses and varying degree's of heightened mental awareness, they have sometimes performed amazing feats that are very Telekinetic. For example, the main protagonist of Zeta Gundam, Camille Vidan has his titular Mobile Suit perform far beyond its expected performance with the power of his mind during instances where he becomes deeply enraged. There are also Newtype only weapons known as "Funnels" which are psychically controlled modules which are used to remotely attack enemies mentally.
Vampires in popular fiction often have a form of telekinesis. Usually it is the older, more powerful vampires who exhibit this. Vampires usually acquire power the longer they stay alive. In Vampire: The Masquerade the Tremere Clan posseses the Rego Motus, a derivative of the Thaumaturgy discipline which lets them move objects in a psychokinetic fashion.
In the game series Golden Sun, the ability to use powers granted to the mind, ingame called "Psynergy", does exist. Adepts are naturally born knowing they have these powers, though, anyone can use them if they put their mind to it. Four kinds of psynergy exist, Venus (Earth), Mars (Fire), Jupiter (Wind), and Mercury (Water). Amongst these, the most notable is Jupiter and Mercury; Jupiter adepts are naturals at reading minds and being able to pick up on future events, and Mercury can heal through prayer and concentration. Venus have the ability to manipulate objects with their mind, giving them such powers as "Move" and teleporting "Retreat", while Mars can gain abilities that are a mixture of three, knowing "Move" and healing moves are natural to them.
In Metal Gear Solid, the main character, Solid Snake, does battle with Psycho Mantis, a member of FOXHOUND who has the powers of both telepathy and telekinesis.
In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the character Fortune possesses both real and imagined psychokinetic abilities.
In the Nickelodeon show Danny Phantom, the main character battles many ghosts with several Psychic abilities, including telekinesis.
In Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, the main character accidentally resurrects Jason Voorhees with her psycokinetic ability. In the end, she also uses her ability to fight him.
In the Phantasm movies, the Tall Man exhibits Psycokinetic abilities, often using them to trick or kill people. In Phantasm Oblivion, Mike gets psychokinetic abilities from the Sentinel Sphere embedded in his head. He tries to use these abilities to kill the Tall Man and fails.
In the game Second Sight, the hero, some bad guys, and several children display various psycokinetic abilities.
In Elfen Lied, the diclonius species display telekinetic-like powers in the form of long, translucent arms called vectors.
In F.E.A.R., the silhouette we know as Alma was genetically engineered by the government to have vast, uncalculated amounts of psychic power. Among them are telekinesis and pyrokinesis.
On the French animated television series Code Lyoko, Yumi Ishiyama has the power of telekinesis in Lyoko.
Various use in the TV show Stargate SG-1:
- The Ori Priors in the TV show Stargate SG-1 have psychokinetic abilities that are strong enough to lift a man, or to hurl him several kilometers. Their abilities can be neutralized by specific sound frequencies which interrupt the function of highly evolved sections of their body.
- The DNA resequencer can give any human or Ancient telekenisis in addition to other powers. Several characters in the show obtained telekenisis this way, including Khalek (who was given his abilities by Anubis), and several unamed villagers (who were given their abilities by Nirrti).
- Ascended beings possess telekenisis.
In the anime Weiss Kreuz, Naoe Nagi of the assassin team Schwartz displayed psychokinetic abilities many times throughout the series.
Richard Burton played a man with telekinetic powers in the film "The Medusa Touch". His character, Robert Morlar, has the ability to cause catastrophes and induce death with his mind alone.
In the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" a small boy who has been brought back to life by nanogenes has the power to close a door, make phone calls and set clockwork toys working with his mind.
In the Philippine TV show SPIRITS, a boy named Red develops psychokinesis and levitation when exposed to a mysterious light from an alien source.
In the Next-gen Sonic Game, Silver the hedgehog is a timetraveller with psychokinetic powers.

Quotes

"Everyone who believes in telekinesis, raise my hand." - James Randi, Swift, 15 March 2002, closing line

References

Radin, Dean, The Conscious Universe, Harper Collins, 1997, ISBN 0062515020.
Ronson, Jon The Men who Stare at Goats, Picador, 2004, ISBN 0330375474
Sudre, René, Parapsychology, The Citadel Press, 1960, Library of Congress Catalog 60-13928
Imich, Alexander (ed.) Incredible Tales of the Paranormal, Bramble Books, 1995, ISBN 1-883647-03-7
Hasted, J.B., The Metal-Benders, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, ISBN 7010005970
"Dimension Desconocida" , December 2005
Newspaper "La Republica" - 15 January 2006 - *Article (spanish)

External links

Paranormal Forums Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal related topics including Psychokinesis / Telekinesis.
Neuro-Kinetik.com Proposes that brain imaging methods, such as fMRI and high density EEG might locate the "psychic" portion of the brain.
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) center
The RetroPsychoKinesis Project has links to many of the papers related to Helmut Schmidt's experiments.
PsiPog : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance
Contains "How-To" information on a variety of psychic abilities, including Psychokinesis and Telekinesis.
Parapsychological Practitioners Society
Psi Online : A repository of "how-to" information.
realityshifters.com a collection of articles, stories, books and links on psychokinetic reality shifts
World Mind Technologies
Telekinesis Method : How to do Telekinesis and how to develop it.

--MAD