It's the year 2000. Two thousand years since the birth of history’s most famous psychic. According to the Bible, Jesus displayed abilities beyond explanation, even by today’s advanced science. Supernatural powers, such as Extra Sensory Perception (mind reading, seeing into the future, etc.) and Psychokinesis (affecting objects by mental rather than physical effort) fall into a category known as the paranormal. For many years paranormal ability has been perceived in the media as a ‘wacko’ subject along with UFOs, aliens, ghosts and ghouls (see our very own SuperUnknown) or just a money-spinning confidence trick by people with bendy spoons. In recent years, though, a number of paranormal experiments have been conducted by experienced and respected scientists. One such scientist is John Hasted who has completed thousands of individual experiments which suggest that the bending of metal by paranormal means is possible. Many scientific institutions have conducted controlled tests known as ‘Ganzfeld’ experiments which demonstrate that telepathy is also possible. Inspired by the success of Hasted and Co. the Exposure crew decided to do its own paranormal tests. Eight of us got together one Thursday evening to try and unearth our potential mental powers. Not wanting to risk damaging our expensive office equipment we steered clear of metal bending. We went for telepathy instead. We used five, home made cards each displaying a different symbol: a square, a circle, a cross, a star and wavy lines. The cards were laid out on the floor next to each other. The idea was that one of us would focus on a particular card and mentally project the symbol to the rest of the group. Patrick went first but his projections were about as successful as his chat up lines. Then Marlon had a go and, to everyone’s amazement, Mirella correctly identified the symbol Marlon was projecting three times in a row. Were we onto something? They carried on and Mirella achieved a success rate of six out of seven. The odds against this happening are nearly 20,000 to 1! Had we discovered some kind of telepathic link between Marlon and Mirella? Controlled scientific experiments (including one undertaken by people whose integrity is beyond question, ie us) suggest that some aspects of the paranormal do indeed exist. If people can exchange images with their minds who knows what else we can do with a bit of practice and dedication? Perhaps we might not need phones anymore. We could just think to each other. Mobile phones made obsolete by ‘thinking’ people. Or perhaps we could open the fridge, select a drink and make it fly over to us on the sofa without having to turn away from the TV. All with the power of the mind. But how will we ever know what’s possible if we don’t try? So start trying. If you want to have a go at Psychokinesis don’t go bending your mum’s cutlery because she’ll ring us and complain. Instead, flick a coin over and over again and, with the power of your mind, try to make it land on heads. If you do this a hundred times and heads appears more than, say, 60 times then you may be onto something. Do the experiment again and again to see if your results are repeatable. Or, if you want to try telepathy, don’t go projecting embarrassing photos of yourself in a batman playsuit when you were six. You never know who might be picking up your thoughts. There could be a whole army of telepathy hackers laughing at you! Instead, have a go at Exposure’s card experiment. If you do find that you’re telepathic, psychokinetic or anything else ending in -ic then do let us know. Prove to us you have paranormal powers and we’ll do a feature on you and give you the Exposure you deserve! Reporter: Richard Floyd Illustration: Stuart Preston Reprinted by kind permission of Exposure Magazine