Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Psychic Escapologist

Ready for a little weirdness? According to the book, Stupid History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness and Mythconceptions Throughout the Ages, by Leland Gregory (and a few other sources):

On April 13, 1977 a woman named Yvonne Whittlesham decided to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in a somewhat unorthodox way. Billing herself as a 'psychic escapologist,' her plan was to don an iron helmet, which rendered her completely sightless, get in a car, and drive blindly down the road for one mile at 60 mph. Her only source of navigation was to be the telepathic communications of the crowds gathered to watch the spectacle.

Queen's Jubilee Celebration
As you can imagine, this quickly proved to be a bad idea. After the psychic communications allegedly ceased as Wittlesham hit 50 mph, she decided to keep going. However, she felt the urge to sharply turn the car. In doing so, she veered directly into the corner of a barn, knocking herself unconscious. She survived the crash, but I'm guessing her reputation as a 'psychic escapologist' took a hit.

I am all for demonstrations of psychic ability as a means of research and education, but please...don't try this at home. Stick with the Zener cards and random number generators and leave the stunt driving to, well, stunt drivers.

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