The “Mind Machine” Experiments: The Energy Wheel

Video showing the energy wheel in motion

Introduction: The following “mind-machine” experiment involves a curious mechanism called the “energy wheel”. The principle purpose of construction is to demonstrate the latent powers of the mind, and specifically physical affects generated through mental intention. Professional and amateur researches that have built these have attempted to “will” the rotor one way or another; to motivate a change of direction; and to cease motion altogether without recourse to physical contact. It consists of a small made of rotor lightweight material, usually a three-by-three inch piece of A4 Reflex paper, attached to a thin trunk (always a needle) which is then stabilized on a flat base. The rotor rests atop the tip of the needle without being secured to enable uninhibited circumambulation about the apex.

Aim: To investigate the authenticity of macro-psychokinesis, or the ability to cause a tangible and spontaneous physical effect through observation alone. Many spiritual philosophies encompass an undisputed belief in the reality that thoughts themselves are comprised of energy waves and can influence matter as to cause “psi” phenomena like miraculous healings, materializations, apports, the bending of metallic implements like spoons and forks, and the churning up of certain numbers during repeated trials of dice throwing that invoke alternative explanations to chance. Can thoughts or human mentation actually influence matter in any way and if so, under what circumstances and to what extent?

Hypothesis: There is a consensual agreement amongst researchers that a great many people can consciously manipulate the “energy wheel” so that it does what they want. We can choose a parapsychological or mystical proposition by positing that the “conscious will” of the user can in fact control the rotor, or alternatively we can opt for one less inclined to antagonise those faithfully devoted to the scientific dogma of our day such as the unconscious alteration of electrostatic fields around the palms of one’s hands. According to science writer and author George Harry Stine (1928-1997), the most plausible hypothesis at this stage is one regarding alteration of human mentation as the catalyst for unconscious changes to the electrical resistance of the skin. What he is inferring is that the effect has nothing to do with the direct influence on the part of the mind, but is instead a by-product of mind-body interaction where an unconscious adjustment of negative potentiality inherent in one palm to a positive one incites the negatively-charged rotor into action. (Remember that Earth and everything attached to encompasses a negative charge.) The latter isn’t as far-fetched as it seems when we consider that rubbing the soles of one’s feet on a woollen rug harnesses electrical charge which can be diffused to another living body upon contact.

Given that the universe is indeed a synergy of positive and negative electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic charges between variant organic and inorganic bodies and that mentation as a higher cause can inflict beneficial or harmful changes to matter through the somatic unconscious, there is no reason why the “energy wheel” shouldn’t be forced into rotation by some tangible or unperceived form of non-physical manipulation. While the movement is anticipated, the causal agent may or may not be extras-sensory in nature.

Materials: To perform the experiment you will need either an eraser, a piece of Play-do, clay or Blue-tack; a sewing needle about two inches long; a pair of scissors; a piece of A4 Reflex paper (or any writing paper will do); and a measuring ruler.

Method: Constructing an “energy wheel” is a piece of cake; it’s easily the simplest of all the “mind-machines” presented thus far to fabricate. Begin by measuring out a perfect square about three by three inches long on the writing paper and cutting it out with the scissors. Once you have your shape in hand, make two folds diagonally so that the alternate corners of the square kiss. Your square should end up looking like the roof of a tent, or better still the ribs and canopy of an umbrella. Continue by inserting the butt end of the needle into your choice of base until only about an inch and a half is left jutting out. Once it’s done hover over it (at a distance of course!) to ensure that the needle is perpendicular to the ground. To finish rest the tent-shaped cap on the needle tip, ensuring that the former is perfectly poised without the anomaly of wobbling or leaning one way or another. If you were cautious whilst demarcating the dimensions of the square earlier, you’ll find that the rotor balances on the mechanism without any problems. Your “energy wheel” is now complete!

When you’ve mustered all your reserves of psychic energy and are ready to begin experimentation, relocate to a quiet space equipped with a chair and table. Ensure that you’re nowhere near an open window or any crevices and orifices from whence a draft could emanate at any point and disturb operations. After positioning the “energy wheel” directly before you, slide your elbows onto the table so that you’re comfortable and bring the palms of your hands to within half an inch of the rotor. Assume a motion as if you are about to cradle the device but refrain from making any physical contact. Let your gaze hover over it and imagine the rotor going into a gyration; let the image unfold in your mind’s eye whilst staying as physically and mentally relaxed as possible. At this stage, all your mental efforts should be orientated towards movement in one direction. The ability to concentrate on the task at hand is foremost for achieving success, so refrain from capitulating to any distractions that the surrounding environment might suddenly engender.

For most studies based on “psi” phenomena like telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, divination, and miraculous healings, individuality based on psychological and physical differences makes for some interesting incongruities. It has been shown, time and time again, that only a small percentage of people exhibit an innate talent for initiating extraordinary experiences of this sort. The same kind of phenomenon seems to be at play here. Some for which the ability seems elusive at first eventually learn how to over time, whilst for others conscious control of the mechanism proves a perpetual disappointment. Currently, there is no professional consensus on what somatic or psychological attributes (if any) play a role in one’s ability to operate it, although we can safely assume that these are in no way affiliated to questions and paradigms of individual faith. The reasons for this are buttressed by deductive reasoning, which has has long since proved that the abilities, talents, and gifts remain quantitatively unlinked to and autonomous of dogmatic belief in them. To give a more tangible example, I know of many self-professed atheists who have endured “psychic openings” and consequent communications with discarnate entities they were hitherto oblivious to. We could also invoke more normative feats to address this question; is the propensity to whistle contingent on a belief in the ability? I think not.

At any rate, if you’re one of the fortunate ones there’s a whole range of experiments you could indulge. These include placing glass, plastic, and metal tumblers over the “energy wheel” and seeing if it still responds to your silent commands or coating the palms of your hands in oil or fat and calculating whether responses to your unconscious wishes have accelerated or decelerated.

Results:

Subject: Caucasian male, 33yrs, 5’8”, blue eyes, brown hair, 73 kg, athletic, fit, omnivorous, no major health conditions or problems.

Attempt	Condition: palms within an inch of apparatus.	Condition: no palms at all.	Condition: with glass tumbler over mechanism.	Condition: with plastic tumbler over mechanism.	Condition: hands covered in baby oil.

1^st trial	Deliberate movement to right and then stopped. it.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
2^nd trial	Managed to rotate it left and then stop it.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
3^rd trial	No movement.	Slight movement to the right and then halt.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
4^th trial	Moved it to the left and stopped it.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
5^th trial	Rotated it left, then right, and then brought it to a halt.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
6^th trial	Rotated it left and brought it to a halt.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
7^th trial	Extreme conscious effort to stop it from rotating worked.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
8^th trial	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
9^th trial	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
10^th trial	Moved it to the right, then left, then right again, and then stopped it.	Slight movement to the right and then halt.	No movement.	No movement.	Full rotation but no control.
Success Rate (%)	70	20	0	0	100

The first series of experimental trials were conducted with both palms within half an inch of the rotor. In the second there was a slight modification; the hands were dropped beside the body so that there was no proximity between the former and the mechanism in question. The third series differed from the first and second in that there was a glass tumbler placed over the “energy wheel”. In the fourth the glass was replaced by plastic and the fifth was exactly like the first with the sole exception that both palms were coated in baby oil.

The five series of trials garnered some pretty interesting patterns, to say the least. Save for a few times, the subject was able to maintain conscious control of the rotor when both palms were cupped around the “energy wheel”. Although unstated by the chart of results, changing direction proved very challenging on many an occasion, and at times the desirable effect was delayed by a five seconds or so. Nevertheless, the desired result was contrived on seventy percent of occasions. Conversely the success rate plummeted to a heartbreaking twenty percent when the distance between the mechanism and the physical body was increased, and was extinguished completely when material like glass and plastic separated the two.

Discussion: The question begging to be answered here is whether an inexplicable extra-motor ability to shift the position of non-magnetic objects via mentation alone encompasses an ontological position in the universe. At this stage there is an overwhelming amount of meta-analyses churning up in parapsychological literature in support of extra-sensory experiences like precognition and metaphysical dreams, enough at least to turn the hard heads and eagle-eyes of “hard scientists” like physicists and chemists. I, for one, am an individual who swears by them for in my life they have preceded all critical transitions from one level of consciousness to another. If there is any validity to a phenomenon which transcends spatiotemporal parameters and orientates a bifurcated stream of consciousness to the fourth dimension, then there’s no reason why mental influences on inert matter shouldn’t be possible either. As it happens if we adhered to the Hermetic motif “As above, so below”, such a relationship can and should exist to mirror normative sensory-motor relations we encounter in the physical environment.

Nevertheless the empirical research that has gone into macro-psychokinesis (the influence of mind over matter to a degree detected by the unaided eye) has revealed it to be a rare phenomenon manifested by a miniscule group of individuals. Three renowned and sensationalized cases are those of Russian psychic Nina Kulagina (1926-1990), American psychic Ted Serios (1918-2006), and the Israeli entertainer Uri Gellar (1946- ). Kulagina’s uncanny ability to shift the position of non-magnetic objects on a table seems to have been the principle inaugurator of telekinetic mania in the late 1960s. Her feats became an object of fascination for the investigative eyes of parapsychologists from the more progressive and developed West, who flocked to the Soviet Union in consequent years in hope of investigating the authenticity of phenomena captured on film. Under strictly controlled conditions Kulagina was able to impress sceptics and admirers alike by moving an inverted glass strategically couched within a larger one (Keil, Herbert, Ullman & Pratt, 1976). At around the same chronological period Ted Serios garnering acclaim for successfully affecting changes in matter via the conscious projection of thoughtforms like ambiguous shades, silhouettes, and recognizable articles and entities onto unexposed Polaroid films (Eisenbud, 1967, 1977, 1989)–incidentally the same miraculous talent expressed by Kulagina from a dissimilar angle.

But the culmination of macro-psychokinesis in the West seems to have sprung at the behest of Israeli mystifier and entertainer Uri Gellar, a charismatic man who built his reputation around fixing broken clocks and bending metal implements like rods, cutlery, and keys without any palpable exertions of muscular force. While these phenomena seem inexplicable and impressive on television programs and demonstrations, Geller’s subtle manipulation of the environment in which he performs and his general unwillingness to yield to scientific testing in controlled laboratory settings have cast destructive blemishes over the authenticity of any underlying psychic talents and his credibility in general. Following the loud footprints of Gellar’s lucrative sensationism and the New Age fad, many groups sought to conjure macro-psychokinesis for the sake of drawing public attention and making a quick buck or two. One from Toronto in Canada succeeded in materializing a tulpa, a disembodied thoughform of limited conscious capacity like a ghost synthesized under the powers of active imagination. After opening up a mutually understood channel of commination between “Philip”, the provisional name for the tulpa and themselves, they embarked on a succession of séances designed to demonstrate effects of collective willpower on the physical realm. The highlight of their time with fictitious “Philip” was a table levitation caught on film (Owen and Sparrow, 1976).

Just like the aforementioned cases the current study suggests something more than just chance expectation. In perusing the table of results one can authenticate for him or herself is that attempts to yield a psychokinetic effect were successful seventy precent of the time when a part of the subject (the palms of the hands) was in close proximity to the “energy wheel”. Ruminations of Stine’s hypothesis aside for a few moments, the statistical significance here seems to signify that conscious intent does indeed play a role in generating a psychokinetic effect. The role may be Lilliputian and microscopic in scale, yet it’s there and it can be experimentally verified under controlled conditions. Here, I will again invoke Stine’s hypothesis which attempts to explain the phenomenon as an exponent of electromagnetic synergy between the rotor and the palm of one hand. The logic underpinning such a hypothesis is precariously hinged upon the presumption that the electrostatic field of certain anatomical components of the human body can be spontaneously altered by thought. As far as I know, there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that mentation–be it intellectual or emotionally coloured–can accomplish such a feat. How might the dielectrical constant be inverted only at specific junctions of the palm so that the dissimilarity in electrical charges on the same hand spurs the rotor into action? Furthermore how could cortical operations possibly comprehend the difference between different mental commands and transpose them into electrochemical signals that only invert certain negatively-charged patches of the skin as to incite rotation in one direction, in another, or to halt motion completely. It’s really difficult to conceive of mentation being able to alter dielectrical constants at fixed nodal targets; since when could the neurons of the peripheral nervous system understand the difference between palms and fingers and left or right anyway?

Anyhow the three trials of the first series comprising failed attempts and an inability to exert any influence on the rotor shared an interesting characteristic: the level of concentration was intense to the point of mental fatigue. In contrast, the others were all typified by an ambivalent state of active-passive viewership where the “energy wheel” became the centre of gravity and all else, including the sense of “self” and the personal intellect, was stripped from consciousness. Moments of conscious control were often accompanied by a transcendental conviction of interconnectedness with the “energy wheel”, strong feelings of dissociation from consensual reality, and a candid and childlike cheerfulness. For some strange reason the act of passive concentration, of keeping the task in mind without wanting to force the issue, is the fundamental key to success.

The accompanying four sets of experiments were conducted with minor modifications and allowed further deductions to be made. These indicate that the potency of macro-psychokinesis is drastically reduced by augmenting the distance between the object to be affected and the potential instigator along with material impediments like plastic and glass. Findings of this sort seem a little anomalous because they appear to go against the grain of conventional parapsychological thought which posits that macro-psychokinesis is unhampered by laws that delimit known physical forces comprised of electromagnetic radiation and mechanical frequencies like sound, light, and electricity.

The fifth and final set of experimental trials offered up another interesting piece of information; lubricating one’s hands in oil or fat, rubbing one of them up against a mattress to attain a powerful charge, and then proceeding to cradle the “energy wheel” sent it into uncontainable spinning frenzies that refused conscious manipulation. In hindsight, it appears static charges can and do influence rotation of the “energy wheel” though not for reasons propositioned by Stine. Why should this be so? Well, save for the aetiological problem seeking to address how mentation actually translates into electrochemical signals designed to alter negative electric charges at specific nodal points, the powerful energies behind electromagnetic interactions between entities with a dielectrical constant in nature would completely blight out any subtle signals originating from cortical circuits. For all intents and purposes, human thought has about the same likelihood of influencing electromagnetic synergies as what a drop of blood has in altering the scintillating blue of the sea or what a slight north-westerly wind has of altering the zigzag course of a treacherous tornado.

Conclusion: Going on empirical evidence gathered in support of macro-psychokinesis along with the findings of the current experiment as a whole, it appears that there may be two separate forces at work in the kinetic effect witnessed. The first is delicate, undiscovered and extra-sensory in origin; the latter powerful, quantifiable, and electromagnetic. From the tabulated results we see that there may be an association between the two, nonetheless the underlying mechanism is unlikely to be one whereby the mind plays a vital role in the alteration of the dielectrical constant of the skin. Whatever the case may be, there is definitely a transmission of information occurring between two systems–an observer (myself) and an experimental object (the “energy wheel”)–where the act of conscious projection alone is enough to collapse the latter into a potential state cogitated by the former.