Parapsychology articles and blog

This is a review of the book Practicing Conscious Living and Dying: Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness by Annamaria Hemingway. I’ve been sent this book for a review by Annamaria’s publisher.

I was not sure what to expect from this book, when I received it for a review. Annamaria has contacted me in August 2007 and told me the book was about “researching survival of consciousness” and that she would arrange a review copy for me when the book publishes in January 2008. I’m interesting in this topic very much, so I, naturally, agreed. But let me tell you, although this book deals with the subject of research of consciousness, it is much more than that.

About the structure of the book. The book is divided into 3 sections. Each section has an introductory chapter, followed by a number of personal stories. There are 16 such personal stories in the book. The sections are:

1. Near-Death Experiences – Not the end but a new beginning (5 stories)
2. Dying to experience Life (4 stories)
3. Birth, death and rebirth: A continuum of consciousness (7 stories)

In the first section, there’s an introduction into NDE (Near Death Experience). Annamaria covers the subject from a historic perspective, by describing historic writings, such as Republic by Socrates and the Myth of Er by Plato which also touches the subject of dying and the world beyond. From historical accounts she moves into modern era research, such as those conducted by Dr. Pim van Lommel, Dr. Michael Sabom, Dr. Peter Fenwick and others. It is a good introduction into the subject of NDE, OBE and related research. The five personal stories tell different accounts of NDEs, including the personal background, the NDE experience itself and its effect on the life of the person. From the story of Reuben who wanted to commit suicide, through story of Tiffany, who was struck by a lightning, all the accounts are very interesting and in all of them the experience changes the lives of the people in a very strong way and in the positive direction.

The third section (I’ll return to the second) deals with the subject of the spiritual world, the continuum of consciousness, mediumship and other aspects of spirituality. The personal stories following the introductory chapter, are very touching as they usually deal with the deaths of close ones and later contact with them, either through mediums or some other way.

But the stories in the second section are those that made me cry when I read the book. There is nothing supernatural in these stories, except maybe the almost supernatural compassion that people may feel after being touched by the death of the loved ones. These 4 stories alone are worth the entire book, even you have no interest in NDE’s, spirits etc. Take the story of Joanne Cacciatore who gave birth to a stillborn and how this experience changes her life into a life of great compassion as she established the Kindness Project. She also befriend Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and then continued her work of teaching people to come to terms with the dying process.

Story of Peter Samuelson whose almost random act of helping a child dying from cancer to fulfill a dream turned him into establishing several philanthropies to help ill children pulled a lot of tears from my eyes. Other stories are very emotional as well and they give a small glimpse into the lives of some great people who after seeing death changes their life to help others in very remarkable ways. I believe these are the stories that tell about how to live and die consciously.

This is one of the more interesting and touching books I’ve read in a long time. Being interested in NDEs and the survival of consciousness I found the book very inspirational and thought provoking. It is not a scientific book, although it cites scientific work, and it is not written in such a manner. The book is written by a woman and it can be felt in the writing. It was much more emotional than I expected a book on NDE to be.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. Even if you don’t take the subject of NDE and life after death too seriously, the stories are interesting and touching nonetheless. And if you are interested in these subjects then your enjoyment of the book will only be larger and more complete.

I have written about Miroslaw Magola, the Magnetic Man, including my interview with him. Miroslaw has been telling me about his contacts with James Randi and Randi has several times written about him as well on his site. Now, Miroslaw Magola wants to publish the following article. I publish it verbatim as he sent it to me, except for some minor editing for spelling and presentation.

The true story about Mr. James Randi and me, Miroslaw MAGOLA, the „Magnetic Man“

Our first contact dates to 1996 when I learned that my „human bio-magnetism“ ability (magnetism not in the original physical sense) may fall into the area of the JREF prize organised by James Randi http://www.randi.org/.

Although so far I have not applied officially, and although James Randi keeps a list – „I have a little list“ http://www.randi.org/jr/031204busted.html – of 178 applicants as of 2004 (in which he includes my name), he thought enough of my internet publications that he dealt with me in two further publications (twice in 2004 – http://www.randi.org/jr/032604why.html as well as in http://www.randi.org/jr/082704gluton.html – and latest in March 2008 – http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift/swift-march-14-2008.html).

About my abilities: Details of these can be found in my interviews with Mysteries magazine ( http://www.mysteries-magazin.com/index.php?menu=journal&op=journal&func=covers&id=2008 ) and Mind-energy.net (http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/281-Interview-with-Miroslaw-Magola-the-magnetic-man.html). Just to give you a few examples I am able to lift various items of different materials (metal, wood, plastic, ceramic) with palms, forehead and chest in a vertical direction and – if using palms – to bang them together without the objects falling down. I have proved my abilities not to be a hoax during several public appearances and demonstrations, e.g. at the Basel PSI days (http://www.psi-infos.de/2002_fahigkeiten.html), and on television, e.g. in a live show for the British ITV programme „Beyond-Belief“ (http://www.uri-geller.com/bb.htm), SF1 and Telebasel (Switzerland), RTL and PRO7 (Germany) (http://users.aol.com/mmagola/mh.html) and „Unbelievable“ on Fuji-TV in Japan . All demonstrations can be viewed on the internet and I’m inviting anyone whoever is interested to do so. (http://www.magola.com/English/welcome.html http://www.magneticman.org http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7-8ckQtpY&watch_response).

These are the things that I can do. How do you choose to call them, is up to you. I call it „human bio-magnetism“ Several reputable scientists have conducted research in this area. To name few: Prof. Dr. Ruhenstroth-Bauer and Dr. Friedbert Karger of the Max-Planck-Institut in Germany, Prof. Alex Schneider Msc, Dr. U.E. Hasler of Switzerland, Dr. Alexander Imich , Barbara G. Koopman of USA, Prof. Dr. Konstatin Korotkov, Professor of Physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia.

Getting back to Mr. James Randi and me.

He doubts my abilities and thinks they are down to „trickery (i.e. like adhesive, glue etc.)“. I can reassure and prove to you that adhesive or glue do not play any role, neither does suction with the help of humidity such as „natural perspiration“ or „the natural skin oil“, or any other similar things. These suspicions are also a reason why he suggests to „dust [my] skin with talcum powder before such a test“. With regards to his thoughtful concern that „perhaps Magola is allergic to talcum powder“ I can put your mind to ease – I won’t need medical assistance any time soon. If you look closely at the photos and videos you will see that in these demonstrations I use talcum powder and even rubber gloves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaJWA5o_t4&feature=related¸ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTMekYqvbVA&feature=related).

To precisely define the terms:

My abilities are not about „drawing physical force“, but instead about bio-magnetic power producing movement of objects wchich stick to a part of my body even when dusted with talcum powder.

Furthermore, I am appalled by Mr. Randi’s allegation in his article „That Pot Head Man“ (http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift/swift-march-14-2008.html#i14, 14 March 2008) where he accuses me of bad hygiene ; I see this as a personal attack of the lowest kind. I understand that Mr. Randi „has no urge whatsoever to travel across the world to see yet another ‘sticky skin’ demo“ (“A sticky person“, http://www.randi.org/jr/032604why.html). Therefore, I’m willing to accept his conditions to coordinate a meeting in a place and time convenient for Mr. Randi, where I would be able to demonstrate my human bio-magnetic abilities on a public forum through a television program or any other way Mr. Randi would agree to. We can establish before hand the type of materials ,their weight and any other details necessary, including „a few grams of talcum powder“.

I also assume that Mr. Randi carries his cheque book when he travels.

Miroslaw MAGOLA

There’s a new video on You-Tube which shows the exam for a 3rd-level Nei-kung by the first westerner student of John Chang, the Magus of Java, who is teaching the Mo Pai school of kung-fu. To pass 3rd level a student must demonstrate certain telekinetic abilities by using his yin chi.

You can read more about Nei-Kung, John Chang, his amazing abilities and his school in the book The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal by Kosta Danaos, another student of his. I’ve read it and highly recommend getting it, if you’d like to read first hand account with this rare man.

The description to the following video on Youtube.com site tells the following:

It was just last year I found this person. He is the first Westerner to ever be admitted into the ancient school of Mo Pai. About four or five other Westerners have become students, but all have failed for one reason or another. There has never been another Westerner to have ever reached the 3rd level.

This person is currently in training to go on to the 4th level of nei-kung which is different from chi gong, despite what other alleged, pseudo authorities say.

The short segment is his testing for the 3rd level when he passed in 2000.

Notice that the boxes are against a wall, and they fall forward and not backward as if there was something blowing them backward from the front. There are two methods of either pulling them forward or pushing them backward. The distance between his hand and the boxes is over 9 feet; a tape measure is seen on the floor.

As you can see in the video, along with the Wester student is the world famous master/teacher, John Chang and his son.

I think the video speaks for itself, although the quality is quite poor, since for some reason the put the camera against a bright window, which washed out much of the detail. What do you think of this video?

On 3 March 2008, Sanal Edamaruku, who is the president of an organization called Rationalist International, challenged India’s tantrik (a black magician). The tantrik is thought to be the most powerful in India. Sanal has challenged the tantrik to kill him using black magic during a live TV program. The tantrik, Pandit Surinder Sharma, agreed. Sharma claimed during an earlier TV discussion that he could kill any person within 3 minutes using black magic. This has started because one of India’s former politicians, Uma Bharati, accused her opponents of using tantrik magic to hurt her, following a series of negative events in her life.

During the challenged, the tantrik chanted his mantras for a lot more than 3 minutes but it had no ill effect on Sanal whatsoever. In fact, Sanal Edamaruku only laughed all the time. The tantrik moved onto more “powerful” techniques and started to wave a knife and touch Sanal with it.

Only after two hours of this show, which overrun all other programs at that time on the channel, did the anchor declare the failure of the tantrik. The latter tried to explain it away with the thought that a very powerful god was guarding Sanal, to which he replied being an atheist.

The tantrik then said that his most powerful magic works only at night. Sanal has challenged him again. Under an open might sky several hours later they gathered for the ritual. The tantrik warned that once it is started there’s no way back and Sanal would get crazy and then scram in pain and die. Sanal laughed and they started.

Alex Tsakiris, the host of the Skeptiko podcast, selected replication of the "Dogs that know when their owners are coming home" experiment of Rupert Sheldrake, as the first one of his OpenSourceScience initiative.

Today, the project posted the first video, describing the experiment and some preliminary result. Our forums section now also added a new forum to discuss the replication, alongside the active Skeptiko podcast forum. After seeing the video, go to the new DogsThatKnow experiment discussion forum.

He also released show #41 of the Skeptiko podcast about the experiment.

I have lately interviewed the Magnetic Man Miroslaw Magola. During our email conversation he referred me to a recent interview that he’s done for a German language only print mysteries-magazin. I couldn’t understand the interview, since I can’t read German and I’ve asked visitors of my site help with the translation. To my happiness, Jan Martin Löhndorf from Germany agreed to translate the piece for me. Big thanks to Jan.

I’ve emailed the editors of the magazine and wrote that I want to publish the translation on the web. I’ve received no objection from them, so here I’m posting it. If I receive further notice form the magazine that asks me to remove the translation, I will. I’m not using any graphics from the article, only the text.

Interview with Miroslaw Magola in Mysteries Magazin

PSI-talent challenges sceptics “I don’t cheat!”

Miroslav Magola’s amazing “attractive” powers

Be it metal vessels, marble or wood: Nearly everything sticks to Miroslav Magola. For several years now, german Miroslav Magola, formerly from Poland, has been keeping people amazed with his unbelievable performances. With criticism growing, he now promises, “For the future, I will also appear using talcum and gloves.”

2002: In the middle of the ample foyer of the congress hall housing the Basel Psi-convention, kneels a bald-headed man of medium age on the floor – surrounded by amazed spectators. Before him are placed several metal pots of different sizes, all turned upside down. Cautiously, the man lays his hand on the bottom of one of the vessels, Then he slowly lifts his arm – and the spectators hardly believe their eyes. The heavy vessel seems to stick to the palm of his hand. As though it were magnetically attracted. Miroslav Magola smiles – and concentrates again. Then – still kneeling on the ground – he performs the same spectacle with his other hand. Slowly he reaches out with both his hands, each of them having a metal pot sticking to it. Then he smashes them against each other with full force, like a cymbalist. Several times, even. Without the pots falling down, as everyone would suspect. Alarmed by the noise, several of the visitors eye Magola to witness this exceptional performance. Slowly the “magnetic man” lowers his hands with the pots “sticking” to them again, places them gently on the carpet, where they separate from his hands – as though a hidden magnet was deactivated. Magola smiles. Stunned, the audience spontaneously applaud. More people halt. Because the uncommon guest holds some more surprises in stock. In a similar way, he “lifts” more objects with his hands, waving about wildly with his arms – but the objects still stick to his palms. Big cooking pots seem to even stick to his forehead, although, according to the laws of gravitation, they should crash downwards.

If you ever wanted to study parapsychology as a science but couldn’t do it for some reason (like maybe your closes university doesn’t include courses in parapsychology), now there is an option for learning online.

Dr. Caroline Watt, senior lecturer in psychology, from the university of Edinburgh now offers online course called An Introduction to Parapsychology. The course will be open to all (but not free) and will consist of 10 weekly modules. The course aims to provide a balanced approach and stimulate critical thinking on each topic. (from the course’s site).

There are two interesting lists on the site to clear the confusion of what’s the course is about.

What the course will teach you:

• what methods parapsychologists use
• what parapsychologists have found
• what paranormal experiences people have
• what critics say about parapsychological claims
• how to think critically about paranormal claims and experiences

What the course will not teach you:

• how to be ‘psychic’
• how to read minds
• how to hunt for ghosts etc.
• how to communicate with the deceased

The course might not be cheap for some, priced at £200 (around $400).

I introduce another article by dreq hempel who wrote here such articles as How Qigong or Taoist Yoga Explains Gurdjieff and The Highest Technology of All Technologies: The Yan Xin Secret

Gurdjieff and the Triode Amplifier: Your I-thought is the Pre-Amp, Taoism is the Triode Amplifier

by drew hempel, MA
anti-copyright

Normally the mind is weak and we are controlled by our emotions, causing sickness and lack of potential free energy.

As Gurdjieff states the West relies on dualism – whereas he relies on the Law of Three. There is an exception though in the West – THE TRIODE AMPLIFIER.

To turn your mind into a triode amplifier you first need a PRE-AMP. The I-thought – without visions and without words – is the pre-amp grid which reverses and amplifies the weak current that normally exists in our brain.

80% of our brain’s energy is used for vision but when we are asleep people rely on sound to wake us. Just as Einstein used the Doppler Effect to develop his theory of relativity – so too does the phase-shift of frequency create a significant increase in amplitude.

That’s the secret of quantum chaos Brian Goodwin – a biologist who authored “Temporal Order of Cells” and is now the inspiration for digital biology at M.I.T. Basically Kirkhoff’s Law – harmonic functions – apply equally to mechanical and electrical systems.

So back to your brain – the pineal gland exists between the ears – in the center of the head. When we hold onto the I-thought we activate the pineal gland as the pre-amp grid, just like a triode tube amp.

So normally there’s ALWAYS a weak current between the inner ears – the grid of the I-thought blocks that current and then amplifies it as a reversed current – a 180 degree shift.

This is just like how pedaling a bike makes you go forward – but you can’t explain this to someone, they just have to learn how to do it. The first time I was lied to, that I remember, was when I was taught how to ride a bike. The mind or talking and seeing is cheap. We learn through experience.

Einstein liked to use bike riding as a metaphor – just keep moving so we off-set the inertia which normally makes the wheels wobble side to side. You can see this by holding a wheel at the axle and spinning it – you can’t hold it because it wobbles side to side.

So gravity is just the velocity and acceleration of the forward motion while the mass causes the inertia. Intensity of energy is actually caused by frequency, not mass as amplitude. So gravity uses logarithmic math while quantum energy uses divide and average statistics but BOTH are dualistic. The triode amp is different – it uses Gurdjieff’s Law of Three whereby the I-thought, as the Pre-Amp, harmonizes the Will and
Consciousness.

The amplified current is the kidney energy (will), the spinning of the wheel, is the reverse breathing, activated through the I-thought.

But remember – the whole system relies on putting that PRE-AMPLIFIER or grid in place.

Gurdjieff emphasized that most Western alchemists just focused on the chemistry – what Taoists call the Jing – and therefore the energy level was just left at the emotional level.

He said the reason is because the West is too materialistic and didn’t take into account that alchemy starts with the I-thought. So will power is driven by the I-thought – the YI or intention in Taoism – reverses the desire of what our eyes see, so that the weak current between our ears now, with the pre-amp in place – the grid of the I-thought, is activated, reversed and AMPLIFIED.

In the last several days a number of interesting posts were added to our Parapsychology and alternative medicine forums. Here I’ll present several of them.

User anonymous, who often writes on the topics of psychic development, healing and spiritual churches and is happy to answer people on the topics lately wrote that Army is going to test alternative medicine for PTSD. PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for those who don’t know and many soldiers suffer from it, coming back from war. He quotes an article from Wired about the news:

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy – no matter how far outside the accepted medical form- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from “spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga” to “bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing” to mend the psyches of wounded troops.

But many of these treatments haven’t been held up to much rigorous scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4 million in “seedling grants” to “conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies” into all sorts of “novel approaches.” Projects “containing preliminary data” will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even “innovative but testable hypotheses without preliminary data” could get as much as $300,000. Proposals are due May 15.

“Music, animal-facilitated therapy, art, dance/movement, massage therapy, EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] program evaluation, virtual reality, acupuncture, spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga,” might all be considered worth of the military’s largess. So would “biologically-based treatments, botanicals, and nutritional supplements for enhancing cognitive function and mood in patients with trauma spectrum disorders, including TBI and/or PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or substance dependence/abuse.” Even proposals for wild-sounding “therapies using bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture” would be accepted.

This is good news indeed. I might add using the EFT therapy. One of its teaching videos even shows several sessions with people suffering with PTSD after vietnam war. And it seems that EFT helped them very much.

Another interesting post by the same anonymous is called Skeptics duped by Fraudulent Skeptics. Here’s the intro:

There is a big problem in the skeptical community. There is rampant obscuration of the truth by prominent skeptics who have misled masses of people. Skeptics often say that believers in the paranormal have been fooled by charlatans but it is the skeptics who have been fooled by prominent members of their community who seem to be more interested in winning the debate than in illuminating the truth.

Following, he provides a significant number of links and excerpts from various sources that signify the point. Including quotes from Randi, Dean Radin, Michael Prescott and more. Another forum user, LeoM, added several sources of his own.

In Home remedies forum user Allen Green posted a number of articles on various conditions and news from research from the web.

User Drynal wrote about the Art of making a psi ball, where he describes how to create a psi ball, which is an energy practice.

User Jozen-Bo writes about The Incredible Mind Portal which is something that he kind of invented and now promotes on the forum. It seems to be a technique that should help people to deal with their problems, generally speaking.

On the very active Skeptiko podcast forum there are lots of interesting discussions, both philosophical ones about the consciousness nature and psi and also discussions of the various episodes of the great podcast itself. One interesting post was added by user Open Mind, where he writes about The Collective Placebo Effect. Collective Belief & Disbelief?. He provides several quotes from various articles about the placebo effect. For example:

’......Cimetidine was one of the first anti-ulcer drugs on the market, and it is still in use today. In 1975, when it was brand new, it eradicated 80% of ulcers, on average, in various different trials. But as time passed the success rate of cimetidine – this very same drug – deteriorated to just 50%.
This deterioration seems to have occurred particularly after the introduction of ranitidine, a competing and supposedly superior drug…..

So, if you haven’t done this already, take a look at our various forums. Read the posts that interest you, ask your questions and write your answers and ideas, where they are fit. All you need to post is to register for the forums for free. You’re all welcome.

I’m glad to finally publish my interview with Miroslaw Magola, also called the Magnetic Man. Miroslaw possesses a unique ability to “stick” objects to parts of his body. I have already written an article about him in last October, see for an introduction Miroslav Magola the Magnetic Man. Since then I saw more references to him, including references from people skeptical of his ability. I am glad that Miroslaw has accepted my invitation to interview him. Note, that Miroslaw was born in Poland and now lives in Germany. Yet, his English is quite poor and he preferred to be interviewed over the email, since his reading and writing skills are better than his talking skill. Since most of my interviews were conducted over the email, I saw no problem with that.

Obviously, the claims of Miroslaw are quite extraordinary. There are very little people even claiming to have the ability to attach objects to them without adhesives, even rarer is when the objects are not metallic. Miroslaw himself proudly writes that he has been examined by several scientists or researchers in various fields and his website lists them. I have asked Mr. Magola, even before I sent him the question, to provide me with some references to these researchers, if which Miroslaw has sent me four contacts: Prof. Dr. Konstatin Korotkov, Dr. Alexander Imich, M.D. Dobruskin, Jack Houck. I’ve decided to check these four references for information about Magola.

Dr. Konstatin Korotkov seems to be a researcher and an inventor. He is a Professor of Physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia, published over 70 papers in leading journals on physics and biology, and he holds 12 patents on biophysics inventions (from his website). He seems to be researching what he calls bioelectrography, research of human’s energy field. He developed a technique known as the Gas Discharge Visualization technique (GDV), which should be better than Kirlian photography. I’ve sent an email to the email address at his webpage but unfortunately got no reply to this day.

Miroslaw gave me a phone number in New York for M.D. Dobruskin who seems to be related to Kirlian photography. Yet, on this phone number he was not available anymore and I couldn’t find any additional information on this person on the internet, except for some pictures where he tests Magola, on the following website (at the bottom): http://members.aol.com/mmagola/experiments.html.

Jack Houck is well known for his PK party. He also understands in metals, I think and he worked as an engineer for Boeing for many years. I wrote to Jack twice using the email supplied on his webpage but never got reply, too.

The only person who actually replied was Dr. Alexander Imich. I wrote about Dr. Imich twice here, in the articles An unusual voice mail and Dr. Alexander Imich is in financial need. I also mentioned him as one of the people reseraching Magola in my original article on the Magnetic Man. Dr. Imich is now almost 105 years old but he is still active in the world of parapsychology. So, I talked to him over the phone and he asked me to write him an email which I did. His reply was as follows:

Some years back, during an informal demonstration, I have seen various objects – metallic and non-metal – weighing probably up to 1 kg, sticking to palms and/or to the front of Miroslaw Magola’s head, and lifted by him this way from the floor.

To my knowledge, this is rather a rare human capacity of paranormal nature. Described for the first time in Russia and exhibited by Miroslaw Magola.

Sincerely,

Alexander Imich PhD., President
Anomalous Phenomena Research Center

In another interview of Dr. Imich (July 2005) he is also asked of Magola and answers the following:

Miroslaw Magola is a Polish citizen living in Germany. Together with Dr. Barbara Koopman, we have observed a phenomena first described in Russia. Various metallic and non-metallic implements, some weighing more than a pound, sticking to his skin. Not many people are producing this, ostensibly paranormal phenomenon that, in the very inadequate parapsychological nomenclature, has to be classified as psychokinetic.

So at least there seems to be some credibility to his claims although I don’t know of any real scientific papers that were published about Mr. Magola. Neither does he know.

Miroslaw was also kind enough to send me a lot of high-quality photographs of himself. He mailed me several dozens Megabytes of photographs and other material. He was also kind enough to email me scanned pages of the interview with him in the “mysteries-magazin”. The magazine is in German and I don’t understand German that much. If anyone who understands German is willing to translate parts of all of the interview from the journal I’ll be happy to email him the pages and publish it here (if copyright allows). You’ll see some of the photographs he’s sent me below the interview.

And now to the interview itself. I allowed myself to edit his answers a bit for spelling and punctuation for the best of my ability.

Could you please describe your ability to attach objects to yourself, is it only about metal objects?

My ability is like a „magnetic power“ ( not in the physical sense ). It is holding – but of course – without glue, adhesive-tape or similar things. The ability works to all materials : metal, plastic, wood, ceramic. See link http://www.magola.com/English/welcome.html

When and how have you developed this ability in yourself? How long did it take?

The Daily Grail website (paranormal news, mostly) had posted a large article about the JREF’s Million Dollar challenge, titled The Myth of the Million Dollar Challenge. The article is rather long (about 4000 words) and in it the author, Greg, discusses the challenge. He mostly argues about the success probability that Randi requires from the participants (about 1 to 1 million for the full 1 Million prize), which is way way above what is considered significant in science (1 to 20).

He also tells of several cases where Randi seemed to back up from a suggested challenge, when it seemed too risky for him. He also raises some legal issues, which are mentioned in the rules of the challenge, in which the participants will lose all right to their presentation in the challenge.

The article even got a response from Randi (though only in Randi’s own newsletter), to which Greg responds as well in an update to the article. Interesting read to anyone interested in the million dollar challenge.

Magola

I'm preparing questions for my upcoming interview with Miroslaw Magola, the magnetic man. Miroslaw seems to possess a rare gift to "glue" objects to himself. These objects are not only metal and he demonstrated his ability also with gloves and talc on his hands. If you want to ask the man some questions, please do so before I send them to him (couple of days).

To get a glimpse into his ability, read my previous story about Miroslaw Magola, which I wrote in last October. You can write your questions here in the comments or on the forum.