Do Tables Tilt, Turn And Float? Table Levitation Phenomena, 1850-2006: An Illustrated Presentation with Walter Meyer zu Erpen

Using still photography and video, Walter Meyer zu Erpen will outline the history of table levitation phenomena from 1850 onwards.  He will combine historical research with his personal experience of more than 130 sessions in a home circle sitting to elicit table phenomena. This discussion will include the experiments of psychical researchers with physical mediums Eusapia Palladino and Jack Webber, among others; table phenomena in sitter groups including but not limited to those conducted by W. J. Crawford, Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, and Kenneth J. Batcheldor; and modern phenomena such as the levitation of a 65-pound table from the hands of the Thurmond Group in upstate New York in 1975.

From 1998 to 2010, historian and archivist Walter Meyer zu Erpen participated in a Canadian Spiritualist study group in Victoria, British Columbia, that observed strong psychokinetic table movements, including lifting, rocking, and pivoting of a square, 21-pound table. Their activities were featured in the Canadian TV documentary Conjuring Philip as part of psychical researcher Iris Owen’s retelling of how her Toronto-based research group created “Philip,” an imaginary ghost, during the 1970s.