Twin telepathy

In another experiment, Richard was asked to open a cardboard box, which he did, hoping to find something nice - preferably eatable - in it. Instead, a huge rubber snake shot out of it at him, giving him a fright. This, too, was instantly picked up by his twin as the pulse line on the chart clearly indicated.

Was this visible proof of telepathy? Although this was not a rigidly controlled scientific experiment, it looked very much like it.

It was not the first time that an ostensibly telepathic signal had been recorded at the moment it was received. In 1997, the same polygraph expert supevised an experiment held in front of a live audience for a programme in Carlton TV's Paranormal World of Paul McKenna series shown on 24th June. The subjects on this occasion were two very lively teenagers, Elaine and Evelyn Dove.

Elaine sat in the studio in front of a large pyramid put together by the special effects wizards, while Evelyn and Jeremy Barrett were in a separate room. When Elaine was nicely relaxed after some skilful light hypnosis from Paul McKenna, the pyramid exploded in a burst of sparks, flashes and coloured smoke, giving her a considerable shock. This showed up on Evelyn's polygraph as a huge deflection - one pen running off the top of the paper, causing Barrett to comment over the intercom that "Evelyn certainly picked up something from somewhere."

"There certainly was something coming," he added, "and it looks to me like shock or surprise". Interestingly, neither Evelyn Dove nor Richard Powles had any conscious awareness of the shocks their twins were being given although they were both unmistakably aware of them unconsciously.