Hi everyone!

I am a historian based in Toronto, Canada, and I will be leading a Psychometry Experiment from May 1 to July 15. Psychometry, or "token-object reading," is the ability to derive facts about an object, its history and/or its owner(s) by looking at it and touching it. Dr. J. Rhodes Buchanan introduced the term in 1842 to describe how psychics could obtain impressions from objects. Since then, researchers around the world have tested the possibility that people can do this. Many of their experiments have yielded fascinating results.

I am conducting this Psychometry Experiment from a historian's standpoint - analyzing the history of several personal objects lent by people, each of them with a special meaning to its owner, and the impressions that complete strangers give of them.

If you will be in the Toronto or Hamilton area in Ontario, Canada between May 1 and July 15, you may be interested in participating in this experiment. It will be held on various dates at public locations. People of all ages will be welcomed to participate - from those who have never had a "psychic" experience before, to people who have had inexplicable events occur in their lives, to people who assert that they have psychic abilities. All participants will get to see how their results compared with the actual history of the object once data is correlated.

There is a website set up for the experiment:
http://psychometry.psican.org/

I will be sure to post updates in this thread when they come available. Many thanks to the moderators at Unexplained Mysteries for allowing me to share these details on the message board.

Chris Laursen

wish I could ....I might at least get some fishing in......speaking of history, I happen to have become a recent study of TG Hamilton and UOM .....B
http://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/hamilton.shtml


halfhandshuffle:kiss-100,000 years
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_a-NYivv6o

FIRST PSYCHOMETRY EXPERIMENT DATE CONFIRMED

Hi everyone. I'm pleased to confirm the first date in which people can participate in the Psychometry Experiment.

Saturday, May 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dundas Library (Allwood Room)
18 Ogilvie Street
Dundas, Ontario, Canada

If you will be in the Hamilton/Halton Region on that date, you are welcomed to participate by pre-booking a time by contacting me. Dates and locations in the greater Toronto area and hopefully the Niagara region will be posted here as soon as they are confirmed.

Further details on the Psychometry Experiment website.

very best!
Chris

Where in Toronto? If it's in Regent park or something you can forget it.

Regent Park? LOL! I will have dates and locations to announce next week, so stay tuned.

Chris

Here's the first Toronto date confirmed, at the wonderful and historic Beaches Branch of the Toronto Public Library.

Saturday, June 9 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Toronto Public Library, Beaches Branch
2161 Queen St. East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Very easy access by car (with lots of free street parking) or by streetcar. Please note that you must e-mail or PM me if you are interested in volunteering to participate. Pre-booked appointments only.

More dates and locations will be posted here as soon as they are confirmed. Further details on the Psychometry Experiment website.

very best!
Chris

Oh sweet, right by my house.

If you're interested in participating, just drop me an e-mail or PM once you know you can commit some time to coming in. All appointments are pre-booked. Hope to see you then!

cheers,
Chris

The Psychometry Experiment will be held in the Niagara region on June 2 & 3.

Saturday, June 2 & Sunday, June 3 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3 (very close to Niagara Falls, Ontario)
Welland Canals Centre, 1932 Welland Canals Parkway
St. Catharines, Ontario

Very easy access by car, bike and public transit. Please note that you must e-mail or PM me if you are interested in volunteering to participate. Pre-booked appointments guarantee a space; limited space only.

More dates and locations will be posted here as soon as they are confirmed. Further details on the Psychometry Experiment website.

very best!
Chris

* Invitation: Psychometry Experiment in Markham, St. Catharines and Toronto, Ontario *

What if you could derive specific facts about the history of an object simply by touching it? I invite everyone to the Ancient Mystic in central Markham this coming Saturday to participate in the Psychometry Experiment and find out! Space is limited to please PM or e-mail me to pre-book your time.

Saturday, May 26 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Ancient Mystic
Co-Located with Café Amaro & the Resource Centre
5694 Hwy 7 East (Sherwood Plaza, Unit 13)
Markham, Ontario, Canada

This is a very accessible site near downtown Markham!

It is free to participate! Everyone is welcomed - whether or not you have had any psychic experiences!

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
It's very simple. You would participate at one of the public dates below by pre-booking (by e-mail).

Participation will take 45 to 60 minutes of your time. In a private room, Chris will lead you in a brief exercise to relax. You will have four boxes in front of you, and you can open them one by one in the order you please. You have half an hour, and should take your time to get mental impressions from each objects, giving them to Chris in as much detail as possible. It is okay if you can't get through all four objects. It is much preferred that you spend a good deal of time with one or two objects and give detailed mental impressions than rush through all four.

You can either give your impressions verbally (audio is recorded) or, if you cannot describe what comes to your mind, you will have paper and pen available to draw these impressions. The impressions you get can be anything: images, sounds, emotions, words. These things may seem random to you, but trust your instincts and give absolutely every impression that comes to you.

Your identity is confidential and will not be released in any reports made on this project.

DO YOU GET TO FIND OUT THE RESULTS?
Not immediately. Chris will be correlating all results through until the early autumn, at which point he will e-mail you summaries of the objects you looked at and if any of your impressions accurately pertained to the actual history of the objects and their owners. Chris will also be writing about and speaking on this project and the history of psychometry, and will notify you of any articles published or public engagements.

You never know. What you perceive may accurately be the history of the object and its owner! The only way you can find out is by trying.

OTHER UPCOMING DATES
Sat., June 2 & Sun., June 3: ST. CATHARINES - St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3
Sat., June 9: TORONTO EAST - Beaches Library
Tue., June 19: NORTH YORK - Seneca College @ York University

Further details on the Psychometry Experiment website.

I hope to see you there!

Chris

More on Psychometry: http://paranormal.about.com/cs/espinformation/a/aa063003.htm

Hi, remoteplanet:

I had a thought about your research design and was wondering if you had it in there. If psychic abilities don't exist, then shouldn't the variation in accuracy among your test subjects be attributable to chance? In other words, if the subjects vary in accuracy at significantly greater than chance levels, wouldn't that indicate that something other than guesswork and imagination is going on? I suppose it could indicate a difference in the ability to infer facts about an object just as well as a difference in "psychic" perceptions, but it would at least indicate something worth investigating further. Is that a question you're entertaining in this experiment?

Hi Chris -
will there be other Toronto dates and locations?
The Beach is pretty far out for me; the streetcar would take ages.

Hi boorite - Sorry for not answering earlier - I've been extraordinarily busy. Thanks for your comments!

Chance is a significant factor accounted for in parapsychological testing, including other experiments on psychometry. There is no doubt in my mind that people will by chance come up with a couple of details here and there that can be correlated to the actual history of the object and its owner, and that there would be no way to account for any psychic abilities in them doing that. However, if a person were to give specific and accurate details on all four of the objects that they look at, I consider it likely that that is evidence beyond chance, and warrants further investigation with that individual.

Ultimately, I will be writing about how psychometry has been used by people in the past, the process of putting together this experiment, and the results. The project is historical, and simply gives people, ranging from those who have never had psychical experiences to those who say they can control extra-sensory abilities to try something unusual that has been used by people - past and present - to derive "hidden" information. Though inspired by scientific testing, it is not clinical, and has variables such as location to be accounted for.

As a historian, I will be happy if some people can demonstrate that they have been able to somehow derive accurate and specific facts from the objects, thus adding to the evidence that it is possible to derive information from objects psychically.

I hope that helps answer your question, and I welcome any further comments, ideas or questions!


very best,
Chris

There are four more public dates in which you can participate in the Psychometry Experiment led by social historian Chris Laursen and supported by PSICAN. All dates are in Toronto, Canada including the Beaches (June 9), North York (June 19), Parkdale (June 24) and the Danforth (June 30). Full details of these dates are below.

WHAT IS THE PSYCHOMETRY EXPERIMENT?
What if you could derive specific facts about the history of an object simply by touching it? You will have a chance to find out if they have this uncanny ability in the Psychometry Experiment, being held at locations in the greater Toronto area until June 30.

This is part of research social historian Chris Laursen is conducting on psychometry. Psychometry, or "token-object reading," is when you touch an object that belongs to someone you do not know, and you get specific and accurate impressions about the object and/or object owner's history.

WHAT WOULD I DO?
It's very simple. You would participate at one of the public dates below by pre-booking (via e-mail).

Participation will take 45 to 60 minutes of your time. You will have four boxes in front of you, and you can open them one by one in the order you please. You have half an hour, and should take your time to get mental impressions from each objects, giving them to Chris in as much detail as possible. It is okay if you can't get through all four objects. It is much preferred that you spend the time you need with one or two objects than rush through all four.

You can either give your impressions verbally (audio is recorded) or by writing them down/drawing them (pen and paper provided). The impressions you get can be anything: images, sounds, emotions, words. These things may seem random to you, but trust your instincts and give absolutely every impression that comes to you.

Your identity is confidential and will not be released in any reports made on this project.

DO I GET TO FIND OUT THE RESULTS?
Not immediately. Chris will be correlating all results through until the early autumn, at which point he will e-mail you summaries of the objects you looked at and if any of your impressions accurately pertained to the actual history of the objects and their owners. Chris will also be writing about and speaking on this project and the history of psychometry, and will notify you of any articles published or public engagements.

You never know. What you perceive may accurately be the history of the object and its owner! The only way you can find out is by trying.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
We invite you to participate, find out what's inside of the boxes and give your impressions of the objects! Check the official website, http://psychometry.psican.org, for full details on how to participate. You must pre-book a time (as per below dates) to guarantee that you can participate.

LOCATIONS

* BEACHES DATE *

Saturday, June 9 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Toronto Public Library, Beaches Branch
2161 Queen St. East
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Very easy access by car (with lots of free street parking) or by streetcar.

++++++++

* NORTH YORK DATE *

Tuesday, June 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Seneca College @ York University (Keele Campus)
Stephen E. Quinlan Building
70 The Pond Road (close to York Blvd. and Keele)
Toronto (North York), Ontario, Canada

This is a very accessible site right on the York University Keele campus with tons of bus service!

++++++++

* PARKDALE DATE *

Sunday, June 24 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Conspiracy Culture Bookstore
1696 Queen Street West
(near Roncesvalles cross street)
Toronto, Ontario

Very easy access by car or streetcar.

* Please note that this date has a variable from the other dates. Participants will only write down their impressions behind a blind in the store as opposed to in a private room, where they can verbalize or write down impressions.

++++++++

* DANFORTH DATE *

Saturday, June 30 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lucsculpture School & Studios
663 Greenwood Avenue
- 2 buildings north of Danforth
- 1 block from Greenwood Subway Station
Toronto, Ontario

This is a very accessible site right on the TTC subway line!