Mind over matter, commonly referred to as psychokinesis or PK, is the ability by purely psychic means, to change the composition of physical objects, animate or inanimate, or move them around in space. Two examples of this definition would be "willing" specific numbers to come up when dice are thrown and impressing mental images on unexposed film. Though there is no conclusive evidence as of yet, it is also theorized that the human mind can possibly psychokinetically influence future events. Many parapsychologists, particularly in Russia, believe that the human mind can send magnetic or electrical pulses into space. Whatever it is that can move objects without contact or perform other feats of PK may be the same force that operates in telepathy, clairvoyance and other areas of the paranormal, but as of yet no energy has been definitively pinpointed.

Dr. Rhine and other scientists have done experiments on PK at Duke University using dice. In the first experiment, subjects shook dice in their hands or a cup and willed the dice to land with specific numbers face up. In later tests, a machine to rotate the dice in a small cage and then to "throw" dice down the runway while subjects willed specific numbers to land face up was used so that subjects would have no contact with the dice. Over all, the statistical evidence showed that there was PK at work. Also the theory of distance effecting PK was tested in one experiment with the subject 3 feet away and half were with the subject when they were 30 feet away. The results were inconclusive, which might indicate that psi ability in PK, as well as in other forms of the paranormal is not effected by distance. Dr. Robert Thouless, a british psychologist ran an experiment using coins that were spun while subjects will them to land on heads or tails. Over a two month period and over 4000 spins, it was found that the side influenced came up 42 more times then it would have if only chance were operating.

There have been a few interesting observations amongst the PK tests on humans and its been found that out of 25 men and 25 women, that women scored markedly higher then their male counter parts. Although children scored higher in other areas of psi testing, there have not been enough tests to show any difference when it comes to PK. Dr Helmut Schmidt, a physicist that designs ingenious tests for psi has used subjects other then humans for many of his experiments. In one experiment he used cockroaches on an electric grid attached to a random number generator (RNG). The RNG was to generate electric shocks 50% of the time and the goal of the experiment was for the cockroaches to psychically cause the machine to give fewer shocks. Oddly enough, the cockroaches did the opposite, causing more shocks which puzzled the testers. Another experiment was using chicken embryos to test for PK. Since the embryos need warmth, the object of the test was to see if the embryos could keep a lamp burning. The lamp, placed near them was set to light up 50% of the time and be off the other 50%. During the experiment, the lamp was lit more then 50% of the time possibly proving that the embryos used PK. Another test used paramecia to influence their movements. Nigel Richmond, the experimenter divided the microscope into four sections with crosshairs and then "willed" the paramecia to swim into one of the 4 quadrants. After nearly 1500 tests, the results indicated that the paramecia had in fact been influenced by the tester. It is possible that instead of PK, that telepathy was used but even this would be incredible evidence that humans can communicate with one celled beings.

Energy seems to play a giant role in successful psychokinesis experiments. Neyla Mikhailova, the Russian who can move items such as matchbook covers, saltshakers, tumblers full of water by passing her hand over the items to make them travel slowly across a table top, produced incredible electrical heat while monitored in an EEG chamber. Simialar to Mikhailova is Dr. Julius Krmessky, a Czech researcher, noted for his incredible psychokinesis experiments. He has demonstrated his ability to move mobiles completely sealed under glass and shielded by wood and metal many times over. The mobile is created by attaching a white file card to an inverted test tube and suspending it over a long, upturned needle. Krmessky gazes instantly at the mobile and slowly the card begins to turn when seated a few feet away. A lamp is then lit when a switch is tripped soon after Krmessky begins his intense concentration on the mobile. Another Soviet, Alla Vinogradova, can move a variety of objects on a dielectric surface without touching them. The findings show that there was enough light around the object to light a small neon glow tube. Measurements with extra-sensory field meters pointed to potentials of at least 10 to 12 kV meter. As was true in Nelya Mikhailova's research, it was also discovered in this study that the energy field shifted according to the distance between Alla and the object. This again shows the incredible intensity required to successfully alter a desired object.

We need to analyze experiments, both new and old, when looking at psychokinesis, and take notice of how the researcher went about the research and why. H. Forwald completed a series of papers on experiments to determine the effects of the physical conditions of objects on psychokinetic phenomena. His intent was to look at every object and then report on the possibility of altering the object in some way. He found that when comparing dice or cubes, the magnitude of the acceleration acting on the average cube was 15% that of the gravitational acceleration. The object should reveal a more direct demonstration when a force is acting. It is supposed, incorrectly, then that a ball would be easy to move. However, Forwald states "the reason stems from the fact that psychokinesis does not involve any force, the nature of the phenomenon lies in the allowed quantum mechanical states of the system and the associated probabilities for those states". His theories are based on the dependence of the magnitude of the cube deflection on cube material and construction. Forwald was able to prove its existence without intervention or repetitive error, despite finding numerous mistakes made in the past study of psychokinesis.

Another famous subject of PK research of a different kind was Ted Serious when he would impress his thoughts on film. Dr. Jule Eisenbud relates in the book "The World of Ted Serious" that Ted holds some object in his hand unrelated to the experiment and solely for concentration purposes and stares intently into the camera lens which contains unexposed film. There are ocassions where the camera, itself, is not pointed at Ted but at another object or even a wall. While there are times that Ted has been greatly successful, there have also been times of partial success and other times of complete blanks. Dr. Eisenbud, who was a greatly respected psychiatrist and parapsychologist, conducted many experiments in a carefully controlled laboratory setting and many skeptical professional observers present to avoid the claim of fraud. Dr. Eisenbud even offered a monetary reward if the skeptics could prove fraud was involved in any way but none has taken his challenge. Critics still claimed that there was some form of trickery involved so different measures were taken such as blindfolding Ted, using a lensless camera, thoroughly examining Ted before the experiments to look for any object used to help him and later fresh packages of film unopened and directly from the manufactures were brought in so that Ted had no contact with the film at all.

When discussing PK, the subject of poltergeists also comes into play. The word poltergeist means "noisy spirit" and the phenomena consists of objects flying around a room, doors, cabinets and other such movements often attributed to spirits but believed to actually be caused by the PK of adolescents or young adults. It is thought that repressed hostility from an adolescent in a home is focused towards other members of a household. Because the hostility cannot be expressed in other ways, it is presumed that the energy generated from this is built up and can in some cases cause the movement of objects. Through psychological testing of subjects exhibiting PK disturbances, it was found that the subjects had little or no conscious awareness that they were connected to the phenomena. The subconscious mind, however and as in many other forms of psi phenomena, may possess psychic force that can explode into tremendous displays of energy.

Psychical researcher, William Roll, concluded that the frequency of the distrubances was directly related to the distance between them and the PK subject, thus coining the "attenuation effect". For example, when one suspected teenager was from 1 to 5 feet away, there were 15 poltergeist happenings. As he moved farther away, the happenings decreased in number. When he was 25 feet away, there were only 2 disturbances. Roll found that objects began to move when they were directly in front of the adolescent who energized them. The path the objects took would vary greatly, moving either straight ahead, in a curved path, rotating or floating in place. There was the tendency however for the object to point toward the rooms occupied by the family members who were the object of the pent up hostility but the persons were never injured.

Athough extensive testing has been undergone, there are still so many unanswered questions about PK and how it takes place. The difficult thing to account for is that each person has so many randoms to account for and therefor its difficult to reproduce over and over in a laboratory setting. This seems to be the one area of Psi research where the scientific field still remains disbelieving despite the amount of evidence gathered.