The power of the chick

Paranormal phenomena are warmly debated. I do not take a firm stance on them but let me tell you about a fascinating experiment that was made in the 80s.

Telekinesis, one of the debated fields, is thus defined: a production of motion in objects (as by a spiritualistic medium) without contact or other physical means.

On a more basic level, people wonder whether we can physically affect objects solely with the power of the mind.


That’s where René Peoc’h stepped in. He devised a controlled experiment involving a RNG (a machine which traces perfectly random trajectories) and chicks.

The first thing a chick sees out of his shell, it adopts as its mother (don’t even get me started on the possibilities). The RNG was put close to a hatching chick, and the two were left to mingle freely for a few days, until the chick was really attached to its “mother”. Then it was separated from the RNG by being put in a cage with a transparent side. The RNG was fenced in a perimeter in sight of the cage. The distressed chick wanted its mother to come closer.
The experiment showed that the trajectory of the RNG was significantly altered, the RGN coming closer to the cage and more often than it normally would have.
The opposite was also true. When the chicks were made to be afraid of the RNG, the trajectory of the RNG would then significantly stay away from the cage.

This is just a summary of the findings, courtesy of yours truly. But how bloody interesting is that????

If you want to read more, the article is in French.