If you’ve ever listened to late night AM radio standard “Coast To Coast AM,” you’ve likely heard Art Bell or George Norry talk about remote viewing—the practice of viewing geographic locations telepathically, once experimented with by the CIA and the KBG. Well, how about some remote tweeting?
A British academic specializing in scholarly paranormal investigations has already begun a grand experiment using Twitter. There will be four trials through to the end of the week testing whether the wisdom of the crowds can predict where Professor Richard Wiseman is.
During each stage of the experiment, Wiseman will go to a different location and Twitter users are invited to tweet thoughts about the things around him. Twenty minutes later, Wiseman will post five photos online, four of which are not where he is, and participants will vote on which location.
If collectively—his goal is 10,000 participants—the crowd guesses his location three out of four times, he says the event will support the existence of ESP.
The professor says Twitter’s realtime capabilities make it a perfect venue for conducting a mass experiment regarding remote viewing. Stage 1 is already finished, but Wiseman invites newcomers to give it a try tomorrow at 3 PM UK time.
As a side note, Wikipedia says Wiseman is known for conducting research on humor. Seeking the world’s funniest joke, the research found a 1951 classic to be the winner. It goes like this:
A couple of Mississippi hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”