Mark Mauvais

As a Parapsychologist the main crux of my research revolves around the phenomenon of Extra Sensory Perception. E.S.P. is the ability to percieve information from outside of the five senses. We have already explored a few of the different methods used to experiment with E.S.P such as the Rhine Test or the Ganzfeld experiments, but many people still ask me if I would be kind enough to explain how Extra Sensory Perception works in more detail.

So I've got a nice film for you to watch, starring the legend that is Leonard Nimoy:

We can't really talk about Telekinesis without mentioning the infamous Nina Kulagina. During the cold war the USA and the Soviet Union were in direct technological competition as both sides sought to build bigger and better weapons than each other. The cold war in a nut shell. The KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency pumped millions of roubles into researching paranormal activity and psychic phenomenon. The most famous of all there discoveries was the Russian telekinetic Nina Kulagina who could famously move inanimate objects using telekinesis, but more terrifyingly could stop a beating heart with her mind!

I have spend many weeks pouring myself into copies of the leaked KGB files, as well as numerous reports by respected scientists, two of whom were Nobel laureates, to extract any and all information that I could about how Ms. Kulagina was able to perform such impressive feats using only the power of Telekinesis (or Psychokinesis). You can see why the KGB would be so interested in a woman who could stop hearts with her mind, think of the potential applications in warfare and espionage...

"Oh no, I'm having a heart attack. Bloody communists!"

What makes Nina Kulagina such an interesting case study is that she was examined by over forty different scientists under strict laboratory conditions. She would often be strapped into machines and monitors which would measure physical changes in her body including accelerated and altered heartbeat and brain waves. We also know that she would spend some time meditating before these feats and would go into a trance like state. Other symptoms recorded included lower back pain and a temporary blurring of sight.

For me the question was: How can we take what we know about Nina Kulagina and use this information to boost our own psychic power?

There are many tools that the modern ghosthunter has at his disposal, both paranormal and scientific.

Today we shall be looking at the Ouija board. Its something we've all heard about, people saying in an all mystifying voice “oh be careful...”

The Ouija Board is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the sometimes words such as 'yes' and 'no'. Its primary function is as a medium for communicating with ghosts or spirits, some even believe demons! In a séance participants would place a finger on a 'planchette' and would be guided by a spirit to spell out a message.

Now we've all heard horror stories about how dangerous the Ouija Board is and heard all the warnings, but I can assure you that they are all completely true... At a ghost hunt I was on recently the lady leading the séance was whipped in the face by a spirit! But don't let that put you off!

After my last post about spoon bending quite a few people on Twitter have been messaging me asking “How do I train in telekinesis?” or “How do I learn psychokinesis” so I decided that rather than writing out lots of individual replies I would write up a quick guide so you too can learn how to develop your telekinetic ability.

The first tool for any aspiring 'telekinetic' such as yourself is the 'Psi Wheel' they can be bought from shops, but I wouldn't waste your money, not when you can make one in your bedroom form shit you have lying around the house. Grab a post-it, some blue tack and a sewing needle:

Boom. You have your very own Psi Wheel.

Now the aim of the Psi wheel is to rotate the paper on the tip of the needle using only your psychic energy. By focusing your attention in the wheel you will be able to make it move, it will be difficult at first but don't beat your self up, I mean if you did it first time the email me immediately, we'll make a fortune together! When you have mastered getting the wheel to spin around and are able to do it without putting your hands near to the wheel try 'turning up the difficulty setting' and place a jar or glass over it...

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. 

Spoon bending was first made popular in the 1970s after a host of TV performances from Israeli born Uri Gellar and has go on to become a well established part of our culture, almost everyone has seen or heard about Spoon bending but few people actually know what its all about.

The phenomenon of spoon bending exploded across the United States and so called 'PK parties' popped up all over the country from New York to California. At these events people of all ages would come together and were guided through rituals and chants and would attempt to use 'psychokinesis' or 'PK' to bend spoons using their minds.

Personally I prefer the term 'Telekinesis' which dates back to 1890 and was coined by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof and I will be using that from now on. The word Telekinesis comes from the Greek τηλε, tele meaning "distant" and κίνησις, "kinesis", meaning motion, movement; literally "distant-movement" and describes the ability to interact with the physical world with just your mind. There has been numerous studies into Telekinesis and yet again we find ourselves back at J.B Rhine, who was the first person to conduct scientific studies into telekinesis. The experiments including attempt to influence the rolls of dice I'm sure we've all had the experience of playing a board game and trying to make the dice stop on a six or “lucky seven”! The results showed a statistical variation from probability, but perhaps the most impressive evidence for TK is anecdotal.

So, where to begin? At the start I suppose! That's what Lewis Carroll recommends anyway :P

I climbed into the car with Gaz and Cath, the two organizers of the event, and in fact the two people who run 'Spooks Events' as soon as I sat down I felt a warm feeling coming from them and I knew I was in for an interesting evening. We had to go and pick up a fourth person, another guest who attended the Ghost Hunt in Oxford. That was interesting as I had made a note in my journal the day before that I had expected a third person, who was unknown to me to be there also.

I must admit that I had been making pictures in my head about the journey to Oxford (which is an hours drive away from where I live) and I imagined that it would be really awkward and that I would hounded by questions like “what am I thinking?” and such but I can't stress how nice Gaz and Cath were and they made me feel really comfortable. They are a really good couple and he loves her more than she knows. It was nice to see them bickering in that teasing kind of way that people do, like I say they made me feel really comfortable.

By the time we arrived at Oxford castle the temperature had dropped to a nice level of chilly and darkness had descended so the setting was exactly right for a spooky night of ghost hunting! It was when we arrived that I first met the lovely Julie Angel Guest, the medium that Spooks Events had hired for the hunt. I was really glad to meet her and one of my motives had been to 'model' her and see how she did what she did, so I was very excited about what I would learn. Her inner chatter was amongst the loudest I have ever heard, with all the sense firing off! Forget a sixth sense, she had about sixteen!

The people at Oxford castle kicked off the event with a historical tour telling us all about how the castle had changed throughout time, about how it had gone from being used a main defence of the city of Oxford to being used as a squalid prison and now the site of countless ghost hunts. He told us all about Matilda, the grandmother of the Richard the Lion-heart and King John who famously signed the Magna Carta. It was a real treat for me as I'm a massive history buff and just to see the castle was worth the trip.

We had a quick break and recharged our batteries with some nice coffee and some biscuits. It was at this point that I realised how little I had done, and despite looking awesome I hadn't shared any of the thoughts or feelings I had picked up on the trip. In the pictures I had made in my head I was running round helping people, talking to the guests and that but when the time came I had been frozen. I sat down for a moment and have myself a quick reprogramming.

Now it was Julie's turn to take us round the castle. This was the part I had been looking forward to the most, I was looking forward to seeing what she could do. Even on the first trip round, to be fair to her I could see her physically reacting at times and could hear her internally making notes to remember for example the weak knees feeling she felt going down one certain set of stairs. But yeah, she was mind blowingly accurate and there wasn't a single person left unimpressed by her. I had picked up a few of the things that she mentioned but she was another another level. Even just her ability to decode the extra sensory input into actual words was impressive, but I guess that’s all the experience. I couldn't have asked for a better person to observe. I learnt a lot.

So then they let us loose in the castle. It was cool, yeah like how you are imagining it now, except no in night vision! We only had torches to aid our sight. The people at 'Spooks Events' had laid out equipment for the guests to use, paranormal stuff like pendulums and dowsing rods and the more scientific type gadgets like infra red thermometers and KII EMF readers. Realizing this was my chance to be more involved I went into the castle and just tagged along with a group.

The crypt of the castle was where we had the most success. The was much activity down there as I suppose one would expect what with it being used as a place to store dead bodies! The rest of the castle had been pretty low on activity but the crypt seemed to be over flowing with spirits. There was this one corner of the room in which almost everybody picked up something. A few people said they had been touched when they were in that part of the room. I rather cheekily sat down with some mannequins and literally seconds after my bottom made contact with the wood a small stone hit me in the leg. The EMF reader started having a fit and we tried to communicate with whatever it was that was there.

The EVP samples are a little difficult to understand, and some parts I'm not as sure about as others. I'd love to hear what you think is being said. For me I definitely hear “strange” clear as a bell. We got totally lost in time, ass you often do when your having so much fun and Gaz actually had to come and round people up! We had another break and Cath explained that the group would be split into two smaller groups. One would go with her to the crypt and another would go with Julie and both groups would attempt to communicate with the spirits using a Ouija board. We had a lot of success with the EMF meter picking up signals in the basement so I was keen to see what would be said down there. The Ouija board gets a bad press and you always hear people saying, in that mystical tone, “oh be careful.. you don't want to let anything in... make sure you close properly or you'll be followed” or whatever and I felt that Cath did an excellent job (despite being whipped in the face) and made sure that everybody was safe and grounded. I was very impressed by her during the 'seance' and her knowledge on the subject of the paranormal was matched only by her passion for the subject.

All in all I had a great night. The people were great, warm and very helpful. Spooks Events were excellent and I would definitely recommend them a million times over. Sure the EVP samples are a bit hit and miss but I certainly picked up a lot of vibes in the building, I certainly felt some presence in the crypt and I did get hit by a stone which I can't really explain away. What I will take away from the night is a whole bunch of anecdotes and an even stronger belief that there is something out there on the other side, something that we can't explain... yet.

Most peoples only experience of the ESP test is from Ghostbusters

Most people in the know regard Professor Joseph Banks Rhine as the granddaddy of Parapsychology. Way back in the 1930's at Duke University, along with associate Dr. Karl Zener, the pair were amongst he first to seek evidence of Extra Sensory Perception using the 'scientific method'.

The method revolved around the use of Zener cards, or ESP cards as they are more commonly known. There are a total of 25 cards each bearing one of the five symbols, repeated five times. The cards would be mixed and then 'the sender' would select the cards one at a time. In turn 'The receiver' would attempt to name the card said person was thinking of.

What makes this so interesting is that because there are only five to choose from the chances of guessing correctly are one in five or 25%. But the tests show that, against probability the participants were able to achieve a much higher score. 1850 trials were taken. Probability would expect a 20% sucess rate, or 370 hits. The total number of successes actually scored for the series is 558, which is better than 30%

Many people in the scientific community doubted the results of J.B Rhine's E.S.P test citing flaws in the experiment, cheating or bias as reason for inaccuracy. To their amazement though when the tests have been reproduced by sceptics of E.S.P, such as the famous Richard Wiseman the results have been similar.

I've said it before and I will say it again: By the standards applied to any other science ESP has been proven to exist.

They make you stick Ping Pong balls over your eyes...

Still many people I meet in the street don't believe in ESP and think that what I do is somekind of trick. When I tell them that Extra Sensory Perception has been proved to exist in the lab then they say things like "I think I would know about that" but the startling fact is most poeple don't!

The Ganzfeld Experiment consists of two participants in separate rooms trying to communicate with each other using telepathy. Person A is deprived of sensory input and is bathed in a red light whilst person B views images on a TV screen and attempts to relay them to the next room. Person A vocalises any words or feelings felt during the telepathic transmission which are recorded on tape or whatever. These telepathic thoughts and feelings are then compared with the original images send from Person A. The results are astonishingly accurate. Time and time again the Ganzfeld experiments have yielded results that deviate from randomness to a significant degree.

Over the course of thousands of experiments, by the standards applied to any other science, ESP has been proven to exist.