Psychokinesis

Psychokinesis (from Greek ψυχή 'mind' and κίνησις 'movement'), or telekinesis (from τηλε- 'far off' and κίνηση 'movement'), is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Psychokinesis experiments have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no convincing evidence that psychokinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as pseudoscience. The word 'psychokinesis' was coined in 1914 by American author Henry Holt in his book On the Cosmic Relations. The term is a linguistic blend or portmanteau of the Greek language words ψυχή ('psyche') – meaning mind, soul, spirit, or breath – and κίνησις ('kinesis') – meaning motion, movement. The American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine coined the term extra-sensory perception to describe receiving information paranormally from an external source. Following this, he used the term psychokinesis in 1934 to describe mentally influencing external objects or events without the use of physical energy. His initial example of psychokinesis was experiments that were conducted to determine whether a person could influence the outcome of falling dice. The word telekinesis, a portmanteau of the Greek τῆλε ('tēle') – meaning distance – and κίνησις ('kinesis') – meaning motion – was first used in 1890 by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof. In parapsychology, fictional universes and New Age beliefs, psychokinesis and telekinesis are different: psychokinesis refers to the mental influence of physical systems and objects without the use of any physical energy, while telekinesis refers to the movement and/or levitation of physical objects by purely mental force without any physical intervention. There is a broad scientific consensus that PK research, and parapsychology more generally, have not produced a reliable, repeatable demonstration.:149–161 A panel commissioned in 1988 by the United States National Research Council to study paranormal claims concluded that 'despite a 130-year record of scientific research on such matters, our committee could find no scientific justification for the existence of phenomena such as extrasensory perception, mental telepathy or ‘mind over matter’ exercises... Evaluation of a large body of the best available evidence simply does not support the contention that these phenomena exist.' In 1984, the United States National Academy of Sciences, at the request of the US Army Research Institute, formed a scientific panel to assess the best evidence for psychokinesis. Part of its purpose was to investigate military applications of PK, for example to remotely jam or disrupt enemy weaponry. The panel heard from a variety of military staff who believed in PK and made visits to the PEAR laboratory and two other laboratories that had claimed positive results from micro-PK experiments. The panel criticized macro-PK experiments for being open to deception by conjurors, and said that virtually all micro-PK experiments 'depart from good scientific practice in a variety of ways'. Their conclusion, published in a 1987 report, was that there was no scientific evidence for the existence of psychokinesis.:149–161