Controlled Experiments Into Levitation
The only somewhat compelling and thorough case of controlled scientific tests performed recently were those of Nina Kulagina, a Russian "psychokinetic", in the 1960s. She demonstrated the power to levitate small objects repeatedly in conditions which satisfied Russian, Czech, and American scientists, although she never levitated herself. She levitated objects such as table tennis balls, wine glasses, and matches in conditions engineered to make the use of hidden magnets, wires, and similar "tricks" seem impossible. But these feats are commonly reproduced on-stage by illusionists, and scientists can be fooled by tricks of skillful illusionists — as was proven by James Randi's Project Alpha in 1979. In fact, Kulagina's use of a stick was actually photographed by parapsychologists.
Read more about this topic: Levitation (paranormal)
Famous quotes containing the words controlled and/or experiments:
“Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us nearly a year at school, and will enter Harvard University this month. He promises very well, considering we never controlled him much.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)