Witnessing a Levitating Table: A Ghost Hunter's Story

[McHeathen]

Last Friday night I was invited by a group of ghost hunters to attend a venue alledged to be haunted by more than one ghost/spirit. There were two mediums at the venue. Apart from witnessing the usual 'two knocks if you are there' phenomenon. The most impressive thing I witnessed was levitation of a table.

A group of about twelve of us gathered around a table one of the mediums told us to put one finger under the table and lift it. This was to give us some idea of the effort requied to lift it. Then we were told press down with both hands on the table. After we all felt the table to 'vibrate' we were told by the medium to keep one hand on the table and to put one finger of the other hand under the table, but only to press it lightly on the table. The reason why we had to do this was to prevent the table from randomly floating around the room once the er 'spirit' or 'spirits' lifted the table.

We suddenly felt the table lifting up by itself and floating around the room while we followed it, guiding it by each of our one finger. I had the impression that someone was cheating, until the table started to bounce up and down on our fingers.

I could find any ropes, wires, etc. So how exactly was this trick done?

 

[micromass]

 

[Evo]

Here's an example.

Some debunkers of Spiritualism’s claims were men of science. Michael Faraday, whose numerous inventions included the electric motor, transformer and the electric generator, also invented a device to test the Spiritualist phenomenon known as table tipping. The practice of table tipping had, by the 1850s, become one of the evidences mediums demonstrated to prove contact with the spirit world. Two or more séance sitters would place their hands on a small table, palms down. Usually after a lengthy time the table would begin tipping and sometimes moving about the room. None of the sitters were aware of any force on their part. It was claimed that the spirits moved the table. Faraday’s device was simple but effective. It consisted of two wooden sheets laid on top of the table with several cylindrical rollers between the sheets. The sitters’ hands were then placed on the top sheet. The device was able to measure minute muscular movements called ideomotor actions – the same physical/psychological force that causes a hand-held pendulum to sway, a dowsing rod to point, or a Ouija Board planchette to move. Because these tiny muscular movements are so imperceptible, it appears that the table moves by some outside force. Faraday’s experiments demonstrated that the sitters were, in fact, unconsciously moving the table.

http://www.mentallusions.com/article1.html

 

[McHeathen]

Here's an example.



http://www.mentallusions.com/article1.html

Tables don't move by people pressing their hands down on top of the tables. What I witnessed was not a table tipping, but lifting and floating. I asked one of the mediums what would happen if we took our figners away and she expalined to be that the table would randomly move around the room. She explained to me that even pressing the one finger on the side of the table was sufficient to stop this from happening. At one point I removed my finger and the table still remained in the same place. At one point the table was even bouncing up and down on our fngers. BTW the table was too heavy and there were not enough strong people for the table to be thrown up by our fingers.

 

[Evo]

The link I posted was for floating tables, it's an old, old trick played on people. So, if the table would continue to float without anyone touching it, then why didn't the "medium" have people remove their hands? This forum is for scientific criitique. You seem to be convinced it's supernatural, so thread closed.