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From Can Telepathy Explain ? – Dr Minot Judson Savage

TELEKINESIS is the technical term which psychical researchers have agreed to use as covering cases of the movement of physical objects which seem to require as explanation some force other than muscular, or, indeed, any kind which is ordinarily recognised by science. I wish to give a few specimens of this kind of phenomena which have come under my own observation. When I was quite a boy, the movement called "spiritualism " was felt in the little town in Maine where I was born. Seances and circles were quite common. Most of them, so far as my observation went, were merely expressions of curiosity, and many of them were conducted in no serious spirit. At that time table movements were common, even in the presence of many people who did not regard themselves as mediums. Indeed, there was a small light stand in the house which would move, and go through many varieties of exercise, alone with myself.

As I touched my fingers lightly on the top of it and appealed to any supposed spirits who might be present to manifest themselves, the table would follow me about the room or lift one leg and rap on the uncarpeted floor in answer to questions. In the presence of my brother also I saw table movements which not only could not be accounted for by ordinary muscular pressure, but were precisely opposite to the movements which would naturally have been produced by such muscular pressure as there was. I did not carry the matter far enough to come to any serious conclusion.

As I grew older and came under the dominating- influence of the religious ideas in which I was trained, I came to regard the whole matter as uncanny, and possibly evil, so that later, as a young minister, I denounced the whole business, preaching against it with vigour proportioned only to my profound ignorance of the whole matter. I have noticed that this is not an uncommon procedure not only on the part of young and inexperienced ministers but sometimes also in the case of those who are older and ought to know better. Since I began the serious study of the subject in later years, I have seen every phase of this kind of manifestation. I have known time after time of tables being lifted into the air when there was no visible explanation save that the tips of certain fingers were touching their tops. These things have occurred not in darkness, but in light, and so many times that there is no sort of question on the part of those who have had experience that such things do really take place. But this is not all. I have seen physical objects move in broad daylight, without the visible contact of any human hands or the presence of any other force known and recognised by science.