Scientists find Evidence Of Paranormal Powers

[Guest guest]

Scientists Find Evidence

Of Paranormal Powers

By Anil Dawar

The Daily Telegraph

7-3-4

 

If you have ever felt that someone is watching you, sending tingles

up your neck, it might not have been just your imagination.

 

Scientists have found evidence to suggest we do have a sixth sense

and can tell when we are being watched, even through CCTV.

 

This shows humans could have paranormal powers, say researchers at

Germany's Freiberg University.

 

Dr Stefan Schmidt and his team carried out two experiments a

thousand times and believe they have finally proved the reality of

the sixth sense.

 

The first, called "remote staring'', consisted of a volunteer in a

sealed room watching a second volunteer in another room via CCTV.

 

The second volunteer was hooked up to electrodes which recorded the

tingles or electrical activity of the skin. This was compared when

the volunteer was or was not being watched.

 

In the second experiment, called ``direct mental interaction'', the

first volunteer concentrated on making the second feel uncomfortable

or relaxed from within the sealed cell.

 

The German team used a complex statistical scale to grade the

studies according to reliability and paranormal effect recorded.

 

In other experiments, the starer tried to make the other feel either

uncomfortable or relaxed. Again, the electronic monitor proved

repeatedly that it could be done.

 

In the British Journal of Psychology, Dr Schmidt noted that the data

was ambiguous but found that "for both data sets there is a small

but significant effect''.

 

While the findings will please believers in the paranormal, they are

not enough to convince the sceptics.

 

Psychology professor Richard Wiseman, of Hertfordshire University,

said: "The number of times you turn around and find someone not

looking at you far outnumber the times when you do but you only

remember the times you turned round to see someone looking.''

 

Back in the 1960s Czech psychologist Milan Ryzl did a series of

experiments with two supposedly telepathic people who were many

kilometres apart.

 

The ``sender'' was asked to try to make the ``receiver'' feel

uncomfortable by imagining that he had been buried alive, and

succeeded in inducing a crippling attack of asthma.

 

Mr Ryzl was inspired by a colleague, Stepan Figar, who had proved

that when one person concentrates on another, it can actually cause

a measurable rise in blood pressure.

 

Tapping the paranormal * The 'sixth sense' - knowing something

without seeing or hearing it. * Dr Stefan Schmidt did more than 1000

experiments, involving two people in different rooms. * One of them

would observe the other over a CCTV monitor. * Electrodes were

attached to the skin of the volunteer being watched. * A meter

registered '#########' in the skin if he was being stared at.

 

Copyright 2004 News Limited.

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10018130%

255E13780,00.html