Kinesis and the powers of the mind
I don't know about you, but I love watching Superhero movies. I didn't really use to, but when you have boys it is inevitable that eventually, you have to decide between Marvel or DC superheroes. For the record, we are a Marvel household. While quite exaggerated, some of the superpowers that our favourite superheroes have are quite similar to a range of different psychical abilities that fall under the 'kinesis' category. Whether it is Aquaman controlling water or The Human Torch Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four manipulating fire, many believe they have the ability to control certain elements using the power of their mind. Beyond psychokinesis and sketchy accounts of pyrokinesis, it is quite difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the other forms of kinesis with many fandom based information often being confused with what people consider genuine accounts of these abilities. I have failed to find any legitimate studies to test these other abilities, so if you are aware of any, I would love to have a look!
So let's look into the different categories of kinesis.
Psychokinesis
Known as PK for short, the word psychokinesis comes from the Greek words ‘mind’ and ‘motion’. It was coined in 1914 by Henry Holt who was an American author in his book “On the Cosmic Relations”. Psyche refers to a person’s mind or soul and the word kinesis refers to movement or motion. It is the concept which basically combines mind and matter. You will have heard the phrase “Mind over matter”. This is telling a person to use their mind to overcome the physical situation you are in. Using your mind to influence matter means that a person is using their mind to physically make an object move without touching it. This essentially is what psychokinesis is.
PK is probably one of the more impressive psychical abilities if proven to be true because of the way it is portrayed in movies. Movies like Carrie where a troubled girl got revenge on all those who made fun of her at high school by moving objects with her mind or the X Men movies. More recently, you may think of the character Eleven from Stranger Things. They all explore the concept of people using their minds to move objects. While bending spoons and other more obvious styles of psychokinesis are considered to be advanced telekinesis and considerably rare, micro pk is an area that parapsychologists seem to have taken the most interest in because it seems to be more plausible when it comes to psychic ability. The simple concept of being able to influence the roll of a dice for example. If you want to read more about psychokinesis and the Rhine Dice trials to test it, check out my article: https://llifs.com.au/blog/psychokinesis-pk/
While psychokinesis is one of the more well known psychical abilities, there are other elements which people claim they can manipulate or control using the power of their mind.
Pyrokinesis
Pyrokinesis is the ability to control and manipulate fire with the power of one's mind. This term was actually coined by author Stephen King in his 1980 Book Firestarter, however, the phenomena itself has been reported long before that. While many magicians often use this as a way to fool their audience, Daniel Dunglas Home a Scottish Psychic medium from the late 1800s was said to have had this ability in addition to being able to levitate and communicate with the dead. Under trance, he would perform what was described as 'fire tests' where researcher Sir William Crookes claimed to witness flames coming from the tips of his fingers and was able to handle hot coals with hands. Harry Houdini was quoted as saying of Dunglas "one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation" with many psychical researchers who looked into his claims concluding that the dark conditions and an element of sleight of hand could cause witnesses to see things due to sensory deprivation. It was also claimed that the 'hot coal' he would handle was likely a piece of asbestos he kept in his pocket.
There is no evidence to suggest that any claims of psychokinesis have been genuine and are more associated today with magicians or have been known hoaxes.
Hydrokinesis
Hydrokiniesis is considered to be the ability to control or manipulate water with the power of your mind. Is it any liquid or just water? Supposedly, in order to be able to use this ability, you need to have a telepathic connection with the element. As humans, we are made up largely of water so it is this energetic connection that supposedly allows us to be able to use telekinesis to move the water.
We know from above the word kinesis is linked to movement or motion. The word hydro is Greek for water, and in Science also refers to combining form. Interestingly, hydrokinetic energy refers to a form of power or energy that is generated from flowing water. Think of mills that are powered by water flowing through a turbine to power the machinery.
Otherwise known as Aquakinesis, Waterbending, Hydromancy, or Moisture Manipulation, like many psychical abilities, people claim that anyone is capable of this ability with enough practice.
Aerokinesis
Otherwise known as airbending, aerokiniesis is thought to be the ability to control air with the power of thought. Supposedly you are able to create small to large gusts of wind. Having a strong connection with air and the Earth is said to be needed to be able to manipulate the air. As humans we live and breathe by oxygen so it is thought having a strong connection within and focusing on your breath allows you to master this ability.
Electrokinesis
Electrokinesis is said to be the power to manipulate electricity by moving, controlling, directing, or attacking it. A person is often referred to as an electromancer and can control the influence and flow of energy waves, electrical currents, and electromagnetism. People often associate this ability with what is known as Street Light Interference. Paranormal Author Hilary Evans coined this term to describe the many accounts of people claiming street lights would go out as they pass. While some people claim they have no control over the lights switching off, others claim to be able to do it using the power of their mind. It is thought that this is an example of electrokiniesis.
The Egely Wheel
While researching this area, a common theme was that in order to be able to manipulate these forces, a person must first have control over their own mind. George Egely who classed himself as a skeptic when it came to paranormal phenomena, wanted to create a way to measure bioenergy. He wanted a way to be able to measure the movement of objects using only the mind.
As most scientists I also refused to accept the existence of paranormal phenomena, although I considered myself to be open-minded. Probably due to the fact that at the university you were pressurized into not believing in things like these. I have to admit if I had met anything like the Egely Wheel back then I would have rejected it off hand. Being confused and wanting to find out the truth I started to do some research by collecting experimental data, and descriptions of observations available in this subject. I thought I would find numerous contradictions among them, so I could reject the existence of these phenomena without bad feelings. To my surprise I found out that experimental data and observations of the different phenomena from different times and places were the same or similar to each other, researchers and collectors of experiences met the same phenomena in similar circumstances and came to the same conclusions, although they did not know about each other’s work, plus a device similar to Egely Wheel was not available for them. There is a need for a device that can precisely and easily measure the bioenergy. This captured my interest, I began to think that there must be some truth behind this. The data proved that the phenomenon could be true. But of course, if there was a phenomenon like this then there is now and there will be in the future, too. That was when the idea of a device similar to Egely Wheel came to my mind.
Thousands of people claim to have results using this tool which costs close to $200USD to buy. The website itself claims you can buy a cheaper vitality meter to take measurements 'just for fun' so it is unlikely that this is a concrete way to measure bioenergy. I suppose it is comparable to using something like a K2 meter, you would have to have a good understanding of bioenergy, what exactly the device is reading and what false positives can set it off. Some claim just by putting your hand near it makes it spin while others claim this is an example of the device reading your aura or your own levels of bioenergy. It is certainly an interesting concept though and one I am going to look into further to see if I can find any proper studies on it. Again if you are aware of any, please point them in my direction!
While to many people these abilities are unproven, we do know there have been trials into the concept of psychokinesis. These are just an extension of that. The question becomes, should we look into these further? I would love to hear from you and your thoughts on these abilities. I have had many people tell me they feel they have the ability to manipulate water which is what led me to this research in the first place. Street light interference is a more well-known phenomenon, and something I will look into separately and in more detail in an upcoming article. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts!
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