Magical Realist
Valued Senior Member
Interesting accounts of the effect of botulism and other illnesses on psychokinetic powers. Not that I'd risk botulism for the power to twist metal tape in the air with my mind. But that there is a connection DOES warrant further investigation..
"One day in February 1920 at the Clinton prison in Donnemara, New York, 34 men suffered botulinus poisoning from eating tinned salmon, an illness which often proves fatal. Fortunately, on this occasion there were no deaths but something very peculiar happened. All the men began to exhibit strange and unusual powers.
The anomaly was first noticed when one of the men tried to toss away a crumpled piece of paper and was surprised when the paper refused to leave his hand. The prison doctor, Julius B. Ransom, was summoned and, after examining the man, found that the other men were also similarly afflicted. Thankfully, the good doctor must have been more inquiring than the average locum, for after subjecting the 34 men to further tests he found other strange phenomena. For example, when the men placed their hands anywhere near magnetic compasses, the needles would spin crazily; pieces of paper which happened to be in the vicinity of the men would spin wildly, stick to their bodies, or be repelled away with considerable force; and suspended steel tapes would perform snake-like gyrations in their vicinity.
This strange power, the doctor found, varied proportionally according to the severity of the disease, and when the illness began to wane so did their powers. Consequently, upon full recovery, the unusual talents of the men completely disappeared.
This would probably have been the last anyone would have heard of the incident if Dr. Mayne Reid Coe Jr., a medical researcher, had decided not to take up the case. After a thorough investigation the doctor suggested that the bacterial poison upon entering the men's bodies and contacting their muscle cells caused a current of low amperage to be generated--about half a million volts. He was also amazed to find that because of this electrostatic charge many botulism sufferers were actually seen glowing in the dark.
Coe went on to perform even more amazing experiments. Convinced that the human body could be persuaded to generate bioelectric currents of its own, Coe practiced yoga fasting and breathing techniques and later claimed that he could easily move a suspended cardboard box placed eight feet away in any direction he desired.
The development of telekinetic or psychokinetic abilities in individuals seems often to occur during or after an illness or stress. The famous PK expert Uri Geller tells how his spoon- bending talents began soon after he received an electric shock from his mother's sewing machine, and the English clairvoyant Mathew Manning recalls the electric shock his mother received while she was "carrying" him. Finally there is the interesting story of Edgar Cayce, the Kentucky-born psychic known as "the sleeping prophet" who also exhibited unusual powers after an illness.
A Swedish engineer Haakon Forwald noticed that in many psychokinetic experiments, especially those involving the throwing of dice, different substances, would, when exposed to the energy from the mind, often react differently. Forwald worked with cubes made from zinc, copper, cadmium, silver, lead, and bakelite. He confirmed that different metals did in fact react in a different fashion when exposed to PK and suggested that as his mind was trying to influence all the cubes equally, any difference must exist in the atomic make-up of the cubes. He further suggested that when exposed to PK the cubes themselves might be liberating energy! Forwald, after performing further experiments, stated: ". . .the mind action is of a relaying kind that is able to start an energetic process within the atom but does not convey energy to it. . ."
The idea that the mind during PK experiments acts as a trigger releasing energy at an atomic level from seemingly inert matter rather than imparting it could help to explain the working principle behind the Czechoslovakian psychotronic generators or motors (the secret of which to my knowledge, has never been fully revealed)...."===http://www.anomalist.com/features/ebody.html
"One day in February 1920 at the Clinton prison in Donnemara, New York, 34 men suffered botulinus poisoning from eating tinned salmon, an illness which often proves fatal. Fortunately, on this occasion there were no deaths but something very peculiar happened. All the men began to exhibit strange and unusual powers.
The anomaly was first noticed when one of the men tried to toss away a crumpled piece of paper and was surprised when the paper refused to leave his hand. The prison doctor, Julius B. Ransom, was summoned and, after examining the man, found that the other men were also similarly afflicted. Thankfully, the good doctor must have been more inquiring than the average locum, for after subjecting the 34 men to further tests he found other strange phenomena. For example, when the men placed their hands anywhere near magnetic compasses, the needles would spin crazily; pieces of paper which happened to be in the vicinity of the men would spin wildly, stick to their bodies, or be repelled away with considerable force; and suspended steel tapes would perform snake-like gyrations in their vicinity.
This strange power, the doctor found, varied proportionally according to the severity of the disease, and when the illness began to wane so did their powers. Consequently, upon full recovery, the unusual talents of the men completely disappeared.
This would probably have been the last anyone would have heard of the incident if Dr. Mayne Reid Coe Jr., a medical researcher, had decided not to take up the case. After a thorough investigation the doctor suggested that the bacterial poison upon entering the men's bodies and contacting their muscle cells caused a current of low amperage to be generated--about half a million volts. He was also amazed to find that because of this electrostatic charge many botulism sufferers were actually seen glowing in the dark.
Coe went on to perform even more amazing experiments. Convinced that the human body could be persuaded to generate bioelectric currents of its own, Coe practiced yoga fasting and breathing techniques and later claimed that he could easily move a suspended cardboard box placed eight feet away in any direction he desired.
The development of telekinetic or psychokinetic abilities in individuals seems often to occur during or after an illness or stress. The famous PK expert Uri Geller tells how his spoon- bending talents began soon after he received an electric shock from his mother's sewing machine, and the English clairvoyant Mathew Manning recalls the electric shock his mother received while she was "carrying" him. Finally there is the interesting story of Edgar Cayce, the Kentucky-born psychic known as "the sleeping prophet" who also exhibited unusual powers after an illness.
A Swedish engineer Haakon Forwald noticed that in many psychokinetic experiments, especially those involving the throwing of dice, different substances, would, when exposed to the energy from the mind, often react differently. Forwald worked with cubes made from zinc, copper, cadmium, silver, lead, and bakelite. He confirmed that different metals did in fact react in a different fashion when exposed to PK and suggested that as his mind was trying to influence all the cubes equally, any difference must exist in the atomic make-up of the cubes. He further suggested that when exposed to PK the cubes themselves might be liberating energy! Forwald, after performing further experiments, stated: ". . .the mind action is of a relaying kind that is able to start an energetic process within the atom but does not convey energy to it. . ."
The idea that the mind during PK experiments acts as a trigger releasing energy at an atomic level from seemingly inert matter rather than imparting it could help to explain the working principle behind the Czechoslovakian psychotronic generators or motors (the secret of which to my knowledge, has never been fully revealed)...."===http://www.anomalist.com/features/ebody.html