2008 World Telekinesis Competition

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before. Ok, so it's not telepathy, but telekinesis I'm talking about here. Telekenisis, a form of psychokinesis, is the application of mind over matter that allows one to influence objects remotely. The idea has fueled imaginations for decades now. Citing Uri Geller, people went on (spoon) benders in the 70s and still do today. Sissy Spacek's Carrie showed us the dark side in the movies. The phenomenon has a history of controversy but skeptics and believers can't claim a definitive answer one way or the other.

It is a mystery, but perhaps you can put your mind to rest at the first ever World Telekinesis Competition coming to Victoria this spring. Teams of three will compete against each other to influence the behaviour of a candle placed in the middle of the game board. The winning team will have swayed the candle's drip to fall upon their opponent's side of the board. Here's the clincher: team members do not have to compete from the same geographic location, hence the "remote" part of the program.

The event is being organized by Noxious Sector - a collaboration of Victoria artists Ted Hiebert, Doug Jarvis and Jackson 2bears "dedicated to the exploration of alternative cognitive function". I spoke with the group about this unique competition because, frankly, I had no idea how one would go about setting it up, let alone declaring a winner in such an ambiguous contest. Turns out they have it all figured out.

Beyond Robson: Why have you chosen a candle as the target of the competitor's interest?

Noxious Sector: "Candles have a long history of use in occult and paranormal contexts, from seances to meditation to religious use. Similarly, many of the methods for learning telekinesis involved meditating upon a candle, with the aim of influencing its behavior. We felt that, given the nature of the event, a candle would be an appropriate focal point for competition. Additionally, one of the things we had to keep in mind was access to game items. The tea-light variety of candle that we use is easy to obtain and generally also easy to recognize, which means teams can easily purchase one or several for training and/or competition purposes..."

BR: Tell me about your organization's goals with this event.

NS: "The idea is to go one step further than simple speculation on the possibility and/or impossibility of telekinetic influence. We are amateurs at telekinesis and welcome other thoughts and ideas as for how the phenomenon can be most effectively learned and practiced. Rather than simply polling people however, we wanted to leave room for others to enact their visions of telekinetic influence. The competition is a strategic way to (1) involve other interested parties without necessarily influencing the manner in which they participate and (2) to assess the relative efficacy of telekinetic models deployed by the various participating teams. For us what is interesting is not so much who wins, but rather the forum that will be created in the name of exploring telekinetic possibilities..."

BR: Have you done anything like this before that has led to creating this event?

NS: "Many of our projects engage aspects of the paranormal and the occult, usually aiming to fairly explore the question without necessarily judging the reality of a phenomena. We have, for instance, used dowsing rods as a component in the curation of an exhibition ("Dowsing for Failure," Open Space, 2006) as well as self-hypnosis strategies for performative induction ("Experimental Self-Hypnosis: Shapeshifting," 2005). We have also participated ourselves in a telekinesis competition, which was what directly led to this more elaborate version of competitive telekinesis. The previous competition was hosted by a gallery in Toronto (PM Gallery) and involved the three of us in Victoria competing against a three-person team in London, UK. The competition was part of an exhibition curated by Kyle Bishop ("Intramural League," 2007)..."

BR: Is there an educational (or other) component to this event besides the actual competition?

NS: "There are really as many components to the event as people are willing to engage. For ourselves, we are interested in the possibilities and variations that different teams come up with. We are also very much interested in the aesthetics of telekinetic performance. The educational side is, we assume, implied in the structure of the event since teams will need to inform themselves of different ways of remotely influencing objects such as candles. It is also perhaps implied in the social aspect of the competition, where people will need to decide for themselves whether they are willing to seriously entertain the event that we are organizing. We are asking questions, and also asking people to come up with creative solutions and viable answers that they are willing to perform. What the outcome is, really, remains to be seen but we hope that at the very least the event will initiate dialogue on the possibilities of such phenomena, both within local communities and in the larger context of the event itself..."

BR: You mention this is an amateur event. Is there a way for you to check that professional psychics would be detected?

NS: "We are mostly operating with good faith when it comes to this. We have, of course, asked people for biographical statements and this sort of thing, and we reserve the right to search online for professional psychic involvement among potential teams. We have also discussed using dowsing rods and other scrying techniques to detect those who are not playing by the rules. For the most part however, we give the benefit of the doubt to potential participants in the name of good sportsmanship..."

There you have it. There are already two teams confirmed for participation - the Pacific Organization of Telekinetics and the London United Psychic Club - but they are looking for more. Interested parties are invited to visit the Noxious Sector website before the deadline of February 28, 2008 to sign up.

Dear friends, I have copied this from another page, here are the pages for you to further investigate onto it.

1) :

http://www.beyondrobson.com/arts/2008/01/got_a_thing_on_my_mind_2008_world_telekinesis_competition/

2):

http://www.mindbodynsoul.com/cms/Telekinesis.html

Here is the page for the 2008 World Telekinesis Competition:

http://www.noxioussector.net/wtc/rules.html

Everyone can participate, if you actually ARE able to perform telekinesis/psychokinesis!

One step closer 2 Evolving, as human beings! Let's all try this, exercise yourself into this.

What do you guys think of it, and who will compete!

Let's discuss it, Let's help each other Evolve into this mather.

Very special thanks to:

2008 World Telekinesis Competition

Victoria (BC) Canada: Spring 2008