Telekinesis
Telekinesis
A term denoting the claimed faculty of moving material objects without contact, presumably by psychic force. The movement of objects, without contact or with only limited contact was frequently observed in the séance room. Phenomena included rappings, table-turning, levitations, the conveyance of apports, and other material phenomena. Spiritualists believed these were caused by the intervention of discarnate spirits. Magnetists believed in the existence of some kind of fluidic or energetic emanation as the cause of such movements. Others, discounting those phenomena that were the result of fraud, suggested some form of telekinetic theory, which held that all these varied feats are accomplished by the thoughts of mediums and sitters, independent of muscular energy, whether direct or indirect.
The term has more recently been supplanted by psychokinesis or PK.
Psychokinesis
Psychokinesis
The ability to move objects at a distance by mental power. The term has now largely displaced "telekinesis," formerly used by psychical researchers and Spiritualists. The term "psychokinesis" or "PK" was proposed by psychologist J. B. Rhine and his associates at the Psychology Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 1934 in relation to experiments with influencing the fall of dice by mental concentration.
Special terms have developed as the study of PK has expanded, such as: "PK-MT" (psychokinetic effect on moving targets, such as dice), "PK-LT" (influence on living target, such as plants, healing, influencing of animals), and "PK-ST" (influence on static targets). A "PK Placement Test" denotes a PK-MT experiment in which the subject attempts to influence falling objects to land in a designated area.
(See also movement )
telekinesis
tel·e·ki·ne·sis / ˌteləkiˈnēsis/ • n. the supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power or other nonphysical means.DERIVATIVES: tel·e·ki·net·ic / -ˈnetik/ adj.