The Weather Wizards – Part Four

The aboriginal rain dances of shamanistic societies are testimony to mankind’s ability to manipulate the elements by means of sympathetic rituals, conceived and carried out with a particular objective in mind. Through the repetition of these time-worn ways, conducted in the confident belief that their avowed objective will come to pass, these rituals achieve their desired results.

Skeptical westerners, groomed in their heavy cloak of scientific conditioning are seldom capable of grasping, let alone exploiting, the degree to which a sympathetic mind can harness the powers of lightning, wind and rain. But while it does not form part of customary western education, manipulation of the weather can occasionally be intuitively acquired. In his book entitled Mysteries, the British author Colin Wilson related the extraordinary tale of the American psychic Ted Owens.

As a child Ted Owens became aware that he could read other people’s minds. He did not pay particular attention to this at the time as he assumed that all children possessed the same ability. Apart from this unusual facility, he led a normal although adventurous life. However one night in 1965, when he was forty-five, an unusual incident occurred which was to herald a new era in his life.

Owens was driving near Fort Worth, Texas, when he noticed a huge cigar-shaped object in the sky which was illuminated with flashing lights. This sighting had a profound effect on him, and he later claimed that it was this encounter that led to the acquisition of his subsequent powers. Not long after this occurrence he happened to be caught in a violent thunderstorm. His daughter was beside him in the car.

To entertain her and to ease her apprehension, Ted told her that he had the power to cause lightning to strike whenever he wished. To his own surprise the lightning seemed to respond to his thoughts. During the weeks that followed, Owens repeated his experiments with other storms, and soon became convinced that he did actually possess the power to influence the weather.

Owens later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, which at the time was experiencing a severe drought. Thinking that he might be able to put his new-found talent to good effect, he announced to his family that he intended to will it to rain. A powerful storm erupted soon afterwards, drenching the surrounding countryside. Encouraged by this success, Ted decided to bring his talent to the attention of the media. He wrote to several newspapers declaring his intention to cause a succession of storms to strike the area. Eight storms were recorded in the next few days.

Colin Wilson first encountered Owens when he spoke at a Parascience Conference held at London University in August, 1976. The weekend of the conference was oppressively hot, as the entire country was locked in the grip of one of the worst summer droughts on record. At the conclusion of his talk, Owens said that he proposed to use his powers to end the searing heat wave. Wilson related in his book what took place when he and his wife left the conference.

“My wife and I wandered out into the stifling air of late afternoon, our minds now occupied with the question of what time the pubs would open. The sky clouded over. Ten minutes later, as we walked in the direction of Holborn, the first large drops of rain splashed on the hot pavement. Ted Owens proved to be right. Not only was the drought over, it proved to be the beginning of one of the wettest winters on record.” (Mysteries)

Now few people would be prepared to grant Owens credit for the long, rainy English winter, or even for the storm which heralded its arrival. Yet Wilson himself found it hard to dismiss this as a mere random occurrence. As he wrote in his book:

“What is any rational person to make of all this? The obvious explanation, I suppose, is coincidence. But if you keep on applying it to case after case in the Owens dossier, it begins to look a little thin.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Weather Wizards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.