Table Tipping/Seances

[Lily]

I'm not sure how people here feel about this, and I'm not even sure how I feel but following the recent vein of new threads now might be the time to breach the subject.

I bring it up because on a recent investigation another group decided to hold a seance. Being very curious I participated. Now regardless of all else the table did move, the air temperature did drop, and I personally began to feel quite ill. My questions are: Is there anyway this type of thing can be accepted scientifically? What you all think of this method? And then more specifically to the spiritually minded here, Are there anyways to protect yourself while still being open as a group?

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Lily

[Ryan]

Being a scientific group PRAI does not really use any of these methods and if we do we don't enter any results as evidence of the paranormal. We tried table tipping before just for the sake of curiosity and as we expected nothing whatsoever happened and we have in the past participated in séances with what we would call fairly spurious results. As a group we don't dismiss these methods we have simply chosen not to employ them in our investigations and instead adopt a purely scientific approach. The main problem we have with these methods is that it is nearly impossible to scientifically validate anything that does happen which in our eyes renders it invalid evidence. We are infact investigating the physiological effects these and other methods have on the participants involved we have found that the power of suggestion alone can have very interesting results.

[Lily]

:) I figured as much. And I must say I do admire you guys for your very scientific approach. I'm a strange kind of mystic, a spectical mystic! The mystical approach works for me, but only first hand. Any 'proof' I want to be 100% hard evidence.

That said it was the first time anything ever happened when I was around. Definitely interesting, but as you said for completely different reasons.

So, would you be of the view that any form of psychism is interesting, but only in parallel with the scientic approach?

Regards,
Lily

[DaveMcG]

I don't think any evidence of an object moving can be accepted as proof when people are actually in contact with the object in question.
People may say that they didn't move it, but either purposely or unwittingly they can move the object. There is no way to prove it either way, and as such, it can't be accepted.

Amusing Story:
I have taken part in a seance before with a few people. It involved the glass on the table method, and it was instigated and led by someone who has nothing to do with this group. Needless to say I was skeptical about it and I could actually see the person move the glass. I could see their finger flexing just before the glass moved, everytime. I said that the glass wasn't moving of its own(or a spirits) accord, which I don't think the person was very happy about. The person then started asking questions, saying, "Who do you want to leave?". Unsuprisingly the glass moved to me.....the person who had been calling the seance, and the person leading it into question.

[Lily]

That story is very similar to others I've heard. I think if I ever really wanted to test this technique it would involve a room wired for motion detection, and the participants in the seance wouldn't be allowed to actually touch the object! Thanks for your input guys.

Regards,
Lily