Who ‘d have thought it!

Monday November 17th 1997

Who ‘d have thought it!

BY ANTHONY MITCHELL

IT COULD be a scene from TV’s The X-Files – a group of people controlling objects with nothing other than the power of thought.

But scientists say the truth is out there and claim to havestartling evidence that psychokinesis – the ability of mind over matter – actually exists.

Experiments show that people can affect inanimate objects and the results are being hailed as conclusive proof.

The study by American academics is baffling even the most hardened sceptics who dismissed psychokinesis as hogwash.

Tests carried out focus on a random number generator which produces equal amounts of ones and zeros.

Subjects are asked to concentrate on the display and told to try to alter the sequence. Researchers say that if psychokinesis exists thencertain numbers can be “willed”.

After 12 years, the team, led by Professor Robert Jahn, believes that electronic devices can be controlled by human thought.

The Princeton University researchers found that simply by thinking hard, the subjects proved capable of altering the sequence of numbers so much that the chances of it being a fluke were one in a 1,000 billion.

“We believe that we now have pretty incontrovertible evidence for this phenomenon,” said Prof. Jahn. “These effects seem to be broadly spread among human operators – it seems to be a common ability.”

Previous tests on psychokinesis were rubbished for relying too heavily on the success of a few positive results.

But the scientists carried out tests on a hundred subjects involved in thousands of trials.

The evidence follows earlier claims by researchers at Edinburgh University over the existence of telepathy.

Tests showed that people were able to transmit messages to each other using the power of thought.

Hardened critics have now been forced to give the Princetonresults some credence.

Prof. Stephen Donnelly, a physicist at Salford University and deputy editor of UK Sceptic, admitted the results looked impressive.

“I have a lot more problems with these results as a sceptic,” he said.

The evidence could be a vindication for popular psychic UriGeller.

Dubbed the Prince of the Paranormal, he shot to fame in the1970s with his displays of spoonbending.

“Our minds are capable of remarkable feats, yet most of us never use them to their full capacity,” said Geller, 50. “There is so much untapped potential in our brains.”

The Israeli-born star has been ridiculed for his belief in mind over matter, but evidence seems to suggest he was right all along.