HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-02-19, Page 25THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1997 PAGE 25.
For Teens, By Teens
Psychic Phenomena
By Erin Roulston
Almost everybody has been
there. When it happens, it makes us
stop and wonder, "Was it
coincidence, or could there really
be such a thing as ESP?"
It's happened to me. Sometimes I
"know" who's on the phone before I
answer it. Sometimes a friend
begins to talk about something I
was just thinking. Sometimes I am
singing a song and when I turn on
the radio that just happens to be
what is playing.
We've all heard stories about
twins who can read each other's
thoughts, and mothers who can
hear their children in distress, even
though the child is far out of
hearing range.
How do you explain these
things?
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) is
a phenomenon that has intrigued
the human race for centuries. In
ancient times, people spoke of
prophecies and miracles. People
with psychic abilities were burned
at the stake as witches.
Today, there are numerous
societies that research psychic
phenomena and more than 100
American Universities have
departments that study ESP. Many
famous people are or were firm
believers in the paranormal; for
example, Shirley McClaine,
Abraham Lincoln, Winston
Churchill and Samuel Clemens;
better known as Mark Twain.
Now, if you're anything like me,
a few coincidences with a
telephone won't make you a
believer. Of all the ESP stories I've
heard, about 90 per cent can be
easily explained in a logical,
scientific way. But these stories had
me wondering if maybe, it could be
possible.
We've all heard about the
infamous sinking of the
'unsinkable' Titanic, but have you
heard the dozens of predictions
foreshadowing the tragedy?
Thirty-four years before the
crash, W. T. Stead began lecturing
that ocean liners needed more life
boats to hold the number of
passengers in case of an accident.
Over the next 30 years he wrote
many 'fictional' graphic accounts of
a shipwreck, and even described his
own drowning to send his point
across.
Fourteen years before the
disaster, another man named
Morgan Robertson wrote a book
about the 'Titan', a giant ship
identical to the yet undesigned
Titanic. It told a tale similar in
every detail about the crash and the
death of hundreds.
In 1898 work on the 'Titanic'
began. During that time two
psychics and'another normal,
everyday woman sent warnings to
Stead of the ship's impending
doom. Despite all this, Stead still
booked passage on the Titanic's
maiden voyage.
As the sailing date approached,
the second engineer of the ship
resigned because he had a hunch
that some sort of disaster lay ahead.
A number of ticket holders
cancelled passage because of
'superstitions'. A London business
man had repeated dreams of the
Titanic wreck and "her passengers
and crew swimming around her."
He decided to take passage on a
later ship. •
On the day of the Titanic's
voyage, another psychic divined
that "a great liner would be lost" in
two days. As the ship pulled away
from the port, one woman watching
the magnificent sight from her
rooftop on shore began to scream
wildly at her husband that the ship
was going to sink.
As it was repeatedly predicted,
the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912
when it hit an iceberg. For the
2,206 people on board, there were a
mere 20 lifeboats, only enough
room for 1,178 people. W. T.
Stead's 30-year fight for more
lifeboats was a failure and the man
drowned in the churning, ice water
when there was no room for him in
the boats.
The case of the 'Titanic'
predictions is too big to be
coincidental. Of all the predictions,
19 were found impossible to
discredit.
Now, very few of us have ever
experienced psychic phenomena of
that calibre, nor anything like Ingo
Swann's claims of the telepathic
communication with his pet
chinchilla and a common house
plant. But, is there a way to tell if
it's just coincidence or real ESP?
In scientific experiments by J.B.
Rhine,, a deck of 25 cards was set
before the subject. He was asked to
predict the cards in their order. The
average person should get three to
seven guesses right. If you get
more, you just may have a special
power!
By Mark Nonkes
And the winner is..." the drum
roll plays over the loud speaker as
the presenter fumbles to open the
envelope. A name is announced,
the audience applauds and the
surprised winner has a smile from
ear to ear.
That's right folks, our TVs have
been invaded by award shows.
People’s egos are crushed or
boosted, being named the best at
this or that. There are hundreds of
different categories so no one who
was involved will be missed.
The entertainment world has the
biggest impact on our society.
Movie stars make millions of
dollars for starring in films. More
money than you or I will every lay
eyes upon.
But why do we make our stars
such idols? Anyone can name last
year's Academy Award winners,
but no one can recall who won last
year's Nobel Peace Prize: People
Crossroads Drama Festival
By Ashley Gropp
On Feb. 14 and 15, students from
several area high schools performed
at Crossroads Drama Festival in
Blyth. The participating schools
were F.E. Madill, Central Huron,
Stratford Central, Listowel District
and Goderich District Collegiate.
Unlike the upcoming Sears
Festival, Crossroads gives students
the opportunity to perform in a
non-competitive festival. It also
allows students to present their
plays in a real theatre, rather than a
school gymnasium. Janet Amos,
the festival artistic director, offered
her opinions on how to improve
each play after performances both
nights.
When schools first arrived,
students listened to introductions to
the committee, Kelly Alexander,
Louanna Alexander, Janet Amos,
Carol Oriold, Erin Roulston, Jay
Sanders and Shawna Walker, then
signed up for workshops on
different aspects of drama. Each
participant signed up for two
workshops.
Before morning workshops
began,, a game was played to help
students meet each other. Through
out the day, as workshops were
going on, the performers for that
particular evening did their Tech
rehearsals.
Friday night's performances
began with Stratford Central's
drama Unbalanced. It was written
and student directed by Ben
»7alsh.
Central Huron then did Stephen
Leacock's comedy The Raft,
featuring Cappy and Zoey Onn of
Blyth, with an added musical
number. Finally, CHSS also did
Little Sister, a student-directed
(Shawna Walker) drama.
The next night, Saturday,
Listowel opened performances with
their war-time drama The Wall
Within. It was followed by F.E.
Madill's comedy Dusting and
Deliverance by student Caley
Moore. It was student-directed by
Kelly Alexander.
The closing play of the festival
was Goderich's Tall Tales. Student
Abby-Lynn Knorr was the assistant
director.
The festival was both entertain
ing and educational. Each night the
audience was put on a roller coaster,
switching emotions with each play.
It's a good thing Crossroads isn't a
competition because picking a
winner would have been truly
difficult.
who do a lot more than a movie to
entertain us, people who help the
world's well being but get little
recognition. Yet a movie starring
some big name gets the big hype.
We can see this in the sales of
magazines. Magazines like People
or Entertainment Weekly have
much bigger sales when Science
World where we actually can leam
some useful information rather than
other people's lives.
It's easier to forget about our
problems when we look at all the
problems of our movie stars. The
majority of Hollywood stars have
been divorced, remarried about two
or three times each, charged for
drunk driving, drug possession and
the stars that are making the
headlines are often doing
something to get attention.
Everyone has idols in their
culture. It just seems odd to me,
that people who invent a
prevention to a deadly disease get
less recognition than an actor who
stars in one film.
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