Common steps and sub-activities
Unusual functional ability
Unusual functional ability is an ability to do something which the vast majority of people cannot do. Furthermore it is the ability to do this without extensive training; often a person is born with this ability. Examples include the ability to do extraordinary mental arithmetic - people who are called 'Calculators'. It may be an ability to play piano from childhood in a way that is quite unique. It might be a unique and unusual painting ability which 'comes from nowhere'.
Children with these gifts are often called prodigies and if they also have autism as well may be called savants; but a child prodigy need not necessarily be a savant or autistic and not all autistic children have these extraordinary gifts.
To explain these capabilites, one has to look at the the Model of the Mind. I have repeated it here for convenience.

A person with these gifts is undergoing permanent spiritual experience. The other functions of the mind may be working OK, they may not be. Some savants have an impaired emotional response, some have very very high emotional responses, but an impaired ability to learn. All sorts of variations on this mind/function combination can occur, which is why it has often caused confusion.
The key thing is that the person's Ego is, to a large extent not operating. They were conceived, grew to be a baby, were born and at no time did the Higher spirit relinquish control to the Ego. They are little gods!!
And because of this they have access to functions beyond the normal human being package functions. Turn back to the Model. It is divided into three – the Subconscious, the Conscious and the Higher spirit with the composer function. The composer provides us with spiritual input - Data input such as images, voices, sounds, and music, but it can also provide us with functional input. All these gifted people have been given extra functions.
What makes this area so intriguing is that some of these functions appear to be 'learnt function' as if the universe stores not only functions the Intelligences have created, but those we have created. Possibly there are learnt functions such as riding bicycles or tightrope walking, which are executable ready formed function we can download and use. We don't reinvent the function, we just use it.
Paul Kammerer was trying to prove this scientifically and painstakingly and had probably succeeded before his experiments were tampered with by someone who broke into his laboratory. Some functions - learnt function, invented functions, functions that were not part of the original human being package are there in the spiritual world, stored and ready for us to use or gifted to us.
In order to make sense of this we need to go back to the Intelligence hierarchy. All Spirit Entities can create subtypes of themselves and they are organised into a hierarchy. The following hugely simplistic diagram shows the principle of the Entity hierarchy.
The letters are functions. As you go up the hierarchy the entities become progressively more and more 'powerful' - more functions [and attributes] until, of course at the top you have the Ultimate Intelligence [or God if you prefer]. If we imagine that human beings are leaves on this Tree of Life and are the K instances every one normally has the 'K' human being package. But perhaps extra functions have been stored further up this hierachy which are human but not part of the standard package - for example - H, I and J. Some of these may be learnt functions. Someone who is very spiritually open, then has access to these functions. they can be a 'calculator' or a magnificient piano player without ever practising.
Another example. Here we have the Tree of Life, with its named Entities. At the bottom we have some little leaves on that tree - occurrences of the Entity type. My little puppy [type border collie] is given function 11, but via the tree he may also have access to higher functions - function 2 and function 3. So my little puppy can not only swim but bark in time to music. My husband [for it is he] has human being functions, but may also have access to functions 4 and 5 - underage drinking and underage smoking [I jest - sorry].
Observations
Please note that along with the observations of those who have these extra functions, I have also provided some useful background observations from scientists which show other examples of a pool of stored function.
I have not included all the observations from environmental control, as it would swamp this entry; instead I have used a representative sample, it is worth noting however, that a large proportion of experiences involving environmental control have been achieved through unusual functional ability.
Observations
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- Alonso Clemens
- Anna Maria Castreca - Marked with the stigmata and died as Abbess in the odour of sanctity
- Arriola, Pepito - On the nature of inspiration
- Arriola, Pepito - Habanera
- Art Tatum - Humoresque, Elegy and Chopin
- Art Tatum - I Got Rhythm
- Art Tatum - Just One of those things
- Art Tatum - Live
- Art Tatum - Over the Rainbow (1953)
- Art Tatum - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
- Art Tatum - Tea For Two
- Art Tatum - Tiger Rag
- Art Tatum - Wee Baby Blues
- Art Tatum and Adelaide Hall - You Gave Me Everything But Love (1932)
- Art Tatum with Lionel Hampton & Buddy Rich - Love for sale
- Arthur Benjamin - A performance of "Mathemagic"
- Azam, Dr Etienne Eugène - Hypnotism, Double Consciousness and alterations of personality – The case of Marie X
- Azam, Dr Etienne Eugène - Hypnotism, Double Consciousness and alterations of personality – The side effects of hypnotism - catalepsy
- Azam, Dr Etienne Eugène - Hypnotism, Double Consciousness and alterations of personality – The side effects of hypnotism - hypersensitivity
- Ball, Dr Martin - Throat singing
- Bidder, George Parker - And his powers of mental calculation
- Blind Tom Wiggins the musician
- Boethius on Orpheus
- Bright twins
- British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review – The man who could to contract or dilate his pupil at will
- Carly
- Chabert – from Miracle Mongers And Their Methods By Houdini
- Chabert – from Sights of London
- Chabert – from the Chronicle, London, September, 1829
- Chabert – from Timbs' Curiosities of London, published in 1867
- Chance Taylor - the little boy with perfect pitch
- Colonel Townsend resurrects himself – dies and comes back to life by his own volition
- Croad, Mrs Carrie - The Testimony of the Nonconformist Minister Mr. J. G. Westlake - Eating no food
- Crofton Coker - The changeling
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - Sight restored in mania
- Daniel Tammet
- Deliverance
- Derek Paravicini
- Dr Watso - Drumming like he has never done before
- Dr William Sargant – The priest put out his tongue and drove a large iron spike through it
- Elberfeld's horses and Hans, the Russian stallion - The horses-calculators
- Ella, prime numbers and magic
- Eric
- Fancher, Mollie - Living without any food
- Fancher, Mollie - Blindsight and prophecy
- Fancher, Mollie - Living without any food - without sustenance enough to feed a baby
- First class honours in mathematics
- Fraulein O
- Freedom Long, Max - Becomes a rock
- Gibier, Dr Paul - Psychism Analysis of Things Existing - After innumerable invocations to Brahma, we saw with stupefaction that the bowl had disappeared while we were looking at and touching it
- Gilles Trehin
- Gottfried Mind
- Green, Drs Elmer and Alyce – Experiment with Temperature control - with a woman convinced it would not work
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - Access to unknown functions
- Harmaline, 5-MeO-DMT & DMT - A theory of the universe
- Hasted, Professor John - Levitation, who and how
- Henri Mondeux - The mental calculator
- Home D. D. – Bodily elongation experiments 01 – Mr. Jencken’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Bodily elongation experiments 02 – Mr. Jencken’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Bodily elongation experiments 03 – Lord Adare’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Bodily elongation experiments 04 – Lord Adare’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Fire experiments November 30, 1868 – Lord Adare’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Fire experiments – Lord Lindsay’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Fire experiments – Mr. Jencken’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Fire experiments – Samuel Carter Hall, F.S.A ’s testimony
- Home D. D. – Fire experiments – Stainton Moses’s testimony
- Improved piano playing by going out of body
- Inaudi - The mental calculator
- Indriðason, Indriði – Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol 57 – 10 Performing remarkable gymnastic feats
- James Randi
- Jedediah Buxton
- Jefferies, Anne – Clairvoyance and healing powers emerge
- Johann Martin Zacharias - The mental calculator in a class by himself
- Johns, Andrew Gary - Johns' high or manic periods are likely to have helped his performance on the pitch
- Johns, Andrew Gary - The release from pain that is mania
- Jonathan Lerman
- Joseph of Cupertino - Ascends to the ceiling with the crockery
- Kum-Hwa Kim – Riding the blades in New York and the USA, August 1982
- Kum-Hwa Kim – Riding the blades in Sidney, Australia July 1994
- Leslie Lemke
- Lisa Bentley - Ironman winner
- Lola the dog - The dog who was sensitive to the transmission of thought - telepathic
- Louise Lateau de Bois d’Haine
- Lusseyran, Jacques - And then there was Light
- Man lives normal life with abnormal brain
- Manning, Matthew - The Link - 20 Bending six inch steel nails
- Masters and Houston - Becoming a galaxy
- Masters and Houston - Feels that his substance now is the same as that of some part of the environment
- Masters and Houston - On becoming a machine
- Masters and Houston - Transmutation into another substance
- Matt Savage and his trio
- Meet Nobuyuki Tsujii, the blind concert pianist who learns by ear
- Mircea Eliade - Taulipang and the Yecuana
- Mudang spiritual experiences – Dancing barefoot on well-honed straw-chopper blades
- Natasha - the girl with X ray eyes
- Nathan Coker – Able to firewalk and handle fire
- Nobuyuki Tsujii - Chopin's Étude No 12 in C minor, Op 10
- Nobuyuki Tsujii - Debut at Carnegie Hall
- Nobuyuki Tsujii - Elegy for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami
- Nobuyuki Tsujii - Van Cliburn 2009 FINAL and Semi final
- Nobuyuki Tsujii - Whisper of the river
- Nobuyuki Ttsuji - 11 years Old Piano Lesson
- Obree, Graeme - On Pursuit races and time trials
- Oliver Sacks - Musical prodigy
- Oliver Sacks - The Twins
- On the subconscious ability to calculate the lapse of time
- Ostoja, Count Roman - Levitating a table
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – A patient with intestinal disease and inflamed appendix
- Palladino, Eusapia - Levitating, tapping, flashes of electricity and apporting
- Pelley, William Dudley - Seven Minutes in Eternity With Their Aftermath 07
- Pericles Diamendi - Prodigy and calculator
- Pullen, James Henry
- Pythagoras - Iamblichus's Life - Counting fishes
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 02 Alla becomes Illya Repin
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 03 None of Raikov’s subjects has come down from their artistic high after being cut off from Raikov
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 04 Volodnya as ‘N’ faces the censors
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 09 The boy began to play in the manner of the master violinist Fritz Kreisler
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 10 If you think you'd like to try ‘reincarnation’ as a quick cram course, don't.
- Raikov, Professor Vladimir L - Psychic Discoveries – 11 Testing an aeronautics engineer- designing futuristically
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - Describes Tom
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - Nadia
- Ramachandran, Dr V S - On savantism
- Richard Wawro
- Richardson the famous fire-eater - Handles and eats fire
- Rolf, the dog, was able to count, do sums and communicate
- Ronaldo shoots goals in the dark
- Rosie King
- Sacks, Oliver - If only I could go back sometimes and be a dog again!
- Saint Francis of Paola - Fire handling
- Savant abilities in twins
- Schwarz, Jack - An account by Raymond Bayless
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green - He found he could stop pain, stop bleeding, influence people through hypnosis, remove pains in other people and could guess other people's thoughts
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – A demonstration of avoidance of infection, the relationship between infection and belief
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – A demonstration of control of bleeding
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – A demonstration of control of pain
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – A demonstration of pain and bleeding control at the veterans Administration hospital in Topeka
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – Demonstrations given to the Los Angeles County Medical Association, arranged by psychiatrist Dr. Kurt Fantl
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – Diagnosis via auras
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – Healing via visualisation and mind control
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – Jack held the burning end of a cigarette against the inside of his left forearm three times, and gave no indication of pain
- Schwarz, Jack - Beyond Biofeedback by Drs Elmer and Alyce Green – Walking with an ankle that was broken and mending the broken bones
- Schwarz, Jack - Mind over Matter
- Scott Johnson - Ironman Finisher
- Seeing in the dark
- She became a jaguar
- Shereston, Adam - Acquires superhuman strength
- Sidis, William James - The Animate And The Inanimate - 01 Chapter One The Reverse Universe
- Sidis, William James - The Animate And The Inanimate - 02 Chapter Two Reversible Laws
- Sidis, William James - The Animate And The Inanimate - 03 Chapter Three on Entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics
- Sidis, William James - The Animate And The Inanimate - 12 Chapter Twelve
- Sister Veronica Laparelli – Both levitation and bodily elongation
- Starving yogi astounds Indian scientists
- Stephen Wiltshire
- Swami Rama - 02 The Swami increased the temperature difference between the left and right sides of his hand and slowed his heart
- Swami Rama - 03 The Swami stops his own heart
- Swami Rama - 04 The Swami causes a fourteen-inch aluminum knitting needle to rotate on a pivot in the laboratory
- Swami Rama - 05 The Swami turned on the subtle energy in a chakra so intensely that it became visible to the naked eye
- Swami Rama - 06 The Swami and the blood-cell experiment
- Swami Rama - 07 The Swami produces cysts and tumours on demand
- Swami Rama - 08 The Swami and psychokinetic experiments
- Swami Rama - 09 The Swami and telepathy
- Tahra Bey - An account by Raymond Bayless of his stage act
- TED talk - Daniel Tammet - Different ways of knowing
- The Ceasing of Notions – 11 The Way and other powers
- The Comedian Sothern – Immunity from flame
- The incombustible Spaniard, Senor Lionetto
- The Lancet - He left the hospital in a fit of indignation, because he heard a nurse say she thought he was shamming
- The Mind Blank Spell - Salvia divinorum, Mushrooms & Alcohol by Memnoch
- The Resurrection of Harides the Yoghi
- Tibetan Buddhism - Chogs sang
- Tibetan Buddhism - Lung-gom-pas
- Tibetan Buddhism - The art of warming oneself in the snow
- Tibetan Buddhism - The monk who could imprint AUM
- Tom Fuller - The Virginia calculator
- Tony DeBlois
- Truman Henry Safford - Mental calculator
- TumTum Mendoza
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 12
- Ugo Zaneboni - The Mental calculator
- Understanding languages she didn't know
- Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home – 22 He placed his face right among the burning coals, moving it about as though bathing it in water
- Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home – 45 Home walked about and was elongated in the usual manner
- Vito Mangiamele
- Watson, Lyall - Animals and shared function
- Whately Carington - The learnt function of spiders
- William Kempe
- Wim Hof - The Ice Man
- Wolfe, Thomas - Becomes a 'calculator'
- Yogiraja Vaidyaraja, the burying yogi, and his ability to maintain autonomic equilibrium while enclosed in an airtight box all day
- Youtube video - Korean Shaman (무당) - Possession by the Spirit of Changun and riding the chaktu
- Zerah Colburn - The mental calculator