"Do Tables Tilt, Turn And Float? Table Levitation Phenomena, 1850-2006"

Currently Scheduled Lectures

The Parapsychology Foundation lecture (described below) is being repeated by Walter Meyer zu Erpen in Toronto, Ontario, on this date:

FRI., 31 October 2008 – 2:00 to 3:30 pm
Halton Room, Best Western Hotel (previously Ramada Inn), 161 Chrisholm Drive, Milton, Ontario, L9T 4A6
Cost: $110 for two-day Spiritualist Church of Canada AGM: Celebrating 80 Years in Spiritualism (includes membership for non-members)

SAT., 21 June 2008 – 7:00 to 8:45 pm (download PDF poster with complete information)
Basler Psi-Verein, Neuweilerstr. 15, 4054 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Phone: 41 (061) 383 97 20
Information: info@bpv.ch www.bpv.ch
Cost: 20 Swiss Francs (10 Swiss Francs for members)

THURS., 6 SEPTEMBER 2007 – 7:00 to 8:30 pm (download PDF poster with complete information)
Ottawa Spiritualist Temple, c/o Community of Christ Church, 888 Bryon Avenue, OTTAWA, ONTARIO
Phone: 1-613-820-8231 (S. Hill)
Cost: $15.00

THURS., 13 SEPTEMBER 2007 – 4:30 to 6:00 pm (download PDF poster with complete information)
Presentation as part of the International Spiritualist Federation Fraternal Week
Crowne Plaza Hotel, 70 State Street, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
Phone: 1-585-546-3450 (hotel number to leave a message for Walter or ISF organizers on or after 8 September)
Cost: $50.00 (ISF Day Visitor Rate, unless a lesser rate is posted for a single lecture)

SUN., 16 SEPTEMBER 2007 – 1:00 to 2:30 pm (download PDF poster with complete information)
Presentation will follow the 11:00 am Church Service
First Spiritualist Church of Galt, 72 Grand Avenue North, CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO
Phone: 1-519-622-7177 (leave message
) Cost: $10.00 (suggested donation)

WED., 17 OCTOBER 2007 – 7:30 to 9:00 pm (download PDF poster with complete information)
International Spiritualist Alliance, 201 – 317 Columbia Street, NEW WESTMINSTER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Phone: 1-604-521-6336
Cost: $8.00 ($7.00 for members)

As part of the Parapsychology Foundation’s Perspectives Lecture Series, historian and archivist Walter Meyer zu Erpen gave two presentations about table-tilting phenomena, on 1 June 2006 at the Eileen J. Garrett Research Library, Greenport, Long Island, and on 6 June at the New York Academy of Sciences, New York City. The illustrated lecture drew extensively upon Meyer zu Erpen’s personal experiences of the phenomenon since 1998 as a member of a Canadian Spiritualist home circle.

The Speaker

Since 1998 Walter Meyer zu Erpen has participated in a Canadian Spiritualist study group that has observed strong psychokinetic table movements, including lifting, rocking, and pivoting of a square, 21-pound table.

The Presentation

Meyer zu Erpen outlined the history of table levitation phenomena from 1850 onwards. His talk was illustrated with still photography and video, drawing on his historical knowledge along with his personal experience of more than 130 sessions in a home circle sitting to elicit table phenomena.

He focussed on: the experiments of psychical researchers with physical mediums Eusapia Palladino and Jack Webber, among others; table phenomena in sitter groups including but not limited to those conducted by W. J. Crawford, Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, and Kenneth J. Batcheldor; and modern phenomena such as the levitation of a 65-pound table from the hands of the Thurmond Group in upstate New York in 1975.

Throughout the presentation, the presenter drew on his personal experience to:

• discuss the role of spirit controls in physical phenomena and table-tilting as a means of communication;
• describe the best evidence of psychokinesis observed in the Canadian group;
• explain conditions favorable to the production of table phenomena, as well as those conditions that inhibit it; and
• discuss the significance of the observed phenomena and outline some possible next steps in the study of it.

The Conclusions

His conclusions include the following:

• "spirits" do not directly move tables; it is psychic energy or force directed through human hands into the table surface which causes movement, although the source of the energy is not necessarily the sitters themselves, nor is the directing of the force necessarily derived from the sitters;
• from an analysis of "yes / no" answers provided by a rocking table to questions posed by sitters, the most impressive evidence of spirit survival is found when correct information is beyond the knowledge of the recipient(s) and when details can be confirmed externally later; and
• psychokinesis (theory of mind over matter) provides a possible explanation of table phenomena if expanded to include a group mind or consciousness, as well as a discarnate mind, possibly influencing the movement.

To Obtain A Copy

Print copies of the slides from the PowerPoint presentation are available for the fee of $10.00 to cover copying and mailing costs.

To order a copy, please send $10.00 by cheque or money order payable to the Survival Research Institute of Canada. Mail to:

Survival Research Institute of Canada
Post Office Box 8697
Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3S3 CANADA

To send a personal cheque in a non-Canadian currency, please read Method of Payment.