The phenomena of table turning flourished during the 1850s, providing for many the context for belief in spirit action, and for the development of explanations such as unconscious muscular movements and the exteriorization of nervous forces from the sitters. This paper consists of the presentation of excerpts from the classic study of these phenomena by Agénor de Gasparin, who reported his work on the subject in his book Des Tables Tournantes (1854, 2 vols., translated to English in 1857). De Gasparin (...) believed that unconscious muscular action could not explain the movements of tables, and postulated the emission of a force from the sitters around the table to account for the movements. I present a long excerpt from de Gasparin’s book in which he described the phenomena he obtained, preceded by a short review of interest in table phenomena in the 1850s, and followed by critiques showing the general skepticism about these phenomena during and after de Gasparin’s lifetime. (shrink)

Between June 2014 and December 2015, a PK laboratory was organized in Buenos Aires. Up to five video cameras were installed to record the events. Various devices were assembled to measure physical, physiological and environmental variables. 23 meetings were held with a presumptive PK subject, identified in previous research. The subject was apparently able to move a table at will, through an alleged "PK force", and the phenomena were documented and recorded on several occasions. Although contactless movement of the table (...) or other objects could not be achieved, muscular effort was ruled out as the cause of the observed movements. One experiment developed by William Crawford was repeated, although Crawford’s results were not replicated. EEGs studies were performed with the subject at rest and also during the production of the phenomena. Unexplained anomalies were observed in the EEG data obtained during the production of the phenomena, and the normal curve of a Random Number Generator also deviated significantly (p = 0.008) during the trials. No variations of electric and magnetic fields were found to be associated with the phenomena. Stephen Braude visited the laboratory and attended 3 meetings. (shrink)