“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The table would rock back and forth beneath the touch of our fingertips when the pressure was requested; as it did so it would begin to feel increasingly solid and heavy; the creaks and groans in it would disappear and it seemed to become one indivisible unit. The pressure would rather quickly build up until members grouped around it—usually standing—would have to really bear down to level it out again. Once it finally groaned dangerously and I feared some part of it, possibly the top, was about to break.

(Carl had a brainstorm; we placed our bathroom scale on the tabletop finally when the pressure was “going good,” and requested A A to continue building up the pressure so that Carl, who was on the side of the table manifesting the pressure at that time, could measure the force he used to get the table back on the floor solidly. A A obligingly built up the pressure again; pressing down, Carl saw that he used a hand pressure of 70 pounds, as measured by the scale, to get all three legs of the table back on the floor, whereas usually gravity would effortlessly draw the legs back to the floor when our fingertips were removed.

(It is of course possible to balance any object, large or small, and this has led Jane and me to experiment a bit with the table in question. It was soon discovered that by balancing it at a certain angle with the fingertips, then exerting a downward pressure, one can have an illusion of a force from beneath holding the table up with one leg off the floor. However, as far as we can tell this is not the force we have experienced when a leg will refuse to return to the floor.

(Nor of course does the question involving the downward thrust explain other peculiar table motions, such as pirouetting, vaulting into the air, dancing, etc, since with these motions no great hand pressure is maintained. In fact, it is often extremely difficult to maintain fingertip contact with the table, so rapid can its movements be.