William Benjamin Carpenter,
Michael Faraday,
James Braid,
Michel Eugène Chevreul
behavioral science
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Ideomotor phenomenon
- William Benjamin Carpenter debunked psychics and spiritualists,
- claiming they were responsible
- for any paranormal manifestations they claimed
- even if they were not conscious of their role.
- James Braid related this to hypnosis,
- in which instruction may be given to muscles
- without conscious awareness or agreement.
- Michael Faraday showed that subconscious pressures
- exerted by the people who were touching the table,
- not paranormal phenomena, caused table-turning.
- Michel Eugène Chevreul explained
- involuntary and subconscious muscular reactions
- are responsible for the movements
- of magic pendulums, divining rods, and table-turning.
Ouija
- Who is it?
- I . . . T . . . S
- O . . . N . . . L . . . Y
- U . . . S
Knee-jerk reactions
- I know evidence of past performance
- doesn’t support my hopes
- for the team, political candidate, negotiator;
- however, I’m willing to give them a chance.
- I personally saw a man find water for a well
- using a forked wand of willow.
- It doesn’t matter to me
- if scientists say there’s nothing to it.
- I agree it’s not probable
- anyone can channel an entity living out of time,
- but she believes she’s not just making it up,
- so I listen to what she says.
- When we asked, the Ouija board
- pointed to the right answers.
- Yes, it rained yesterday;
- yes, there’s an afterworld.
- OK, let’s accept for now
- you don’t believe in UFOs,
- but just you wait until you see one,
- then you’ll believe.
Anyone may unconsciously influence, without a willful purpose, tables, pendulums, rods, and planchettes on ouija boards. This ability does not presume any special connection to a spiritual world. The unconscious might be worth listening to, but there’s no way to predict its relationship with shared reality.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: