An unexpected celebrity appearance kicked off proceedings, with Richard Wiseman, author of the bestselling 59 Seconds bounding onstage to welcome Dr Caroline Watt, expert debunker of para-nonsense at Edinburgh University’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit.
“Everyone feeling psychic?!” he yelled to a unanimous, cheerful response in the affirmative.
Dr Watt, a pristinely neat woman with none of the dishevelled qualities of Bill Murray’s character in Ghostbusters though certainly some of the maverick, was to lead us through some frequently comical experiments.
One saw us all become the famed telekinesis hoaxer James Hydrick - balancing our pens on the edge of the table, blowing them like fools and following the act up with a hand flourish and surprised pout.
Practicing the art of dowsing (making decisions via pendulum-swinging) to Handel’s Water Music, our imaginations were tested alongside our susceptibility.
Both Wiseman and Watt, in their scientific wisdom, are professed skeptics though adopted a neutral pose for the evening - the better we found our own way.
During a collaborative and engaging evening one of us won a prize for being “the most psychic”, though they wouldn’t want to brag about their powers of probability assessment.
Brilliant, esoteric fun.
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