Arthur Ellison is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the City
University of London. Not only is he an excellent scientist, but he
possesses a resolute sense of humour. He has been interested in the
paranormal for most of his life, and he recently gave a lecture on the
subject to a mixed audience of scientists and non-scientists. Towards
the end of his talk, he asked the audience to participate in an
experiment.
Next to him on the rostrum was a bowl of flowers on a table. Much to
the dismay of the audience, he asked them to concentrate collectively
on the bowl of flowers to see whether they could levitate it. With
some pitying smiles and anxious frowns, the audience eventually began
to concentrate. The professor said that to help them he was going to
play a tape-recording of the Buddhist chant 'ommm', a sound which is
supposed to make the whole universe change.
The concentration of the audience grew deeper, the lecture hall was
pervaded with the ominous droning sound of the chant. Slowly at first,
gradually more rapidly, the bowl of flowers began to wobble, and
finally it left the surface of the table and floated clear, several
millimetres in the air. Levitation!
The audience drew back aghast at their achievement. Without warning,
the bowl of flowers crashed down to the table; immediately the
audience broke up in a furious buzz of conversation. What had
happened?
The point of my story is not the levitation, but that two people came
up to Professor Ellison afterwards. One was an old lady, the other a
professor of physics.
The old lady said, 'Do you know, Professor, when the bowl of flowers
lifted I saw a grey substance between the bowl and the table and
between the legs of the table and the floor.'
The professor of physics snorted derisively. 'I don't know what all
the fuss was about, nothing moved at all!'
Actually, the bowl of flowers did move and did levitate, because the
professor had hidden special magnets in the bowl and under the table.
He had played the Buddhist chant of 'ommm' to hide the humming noise
of the electromagnets. However, and this is really what assessing the
paranormal is about, the old lady saw a grey substance, but there was
no grey substance; the professor saw nothing move, when something did
move. The vision of both lady and professor was completely faulty.