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TABLE UP!
or
How to Tilt a Table
By Georgia Mae Fields
Maintain a serious attitude, concentrate, the legs of the table will rise off the floor to answer the questions that you ask.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE to participate in a truly mystical experiment let me tell you about "Table Up."
For years I have refrained from relating these incidents to anyone except close friends fearing strangers might question my mental stability. Certainly I had such doubts concerning those who told me about "Table Up." But to experience this strange phenomenon is to believe in it. Seven years have passed since I first witnessed a Table Up session but I clearly remember that wintry January evening spent in a country home near the small one-traffic-light town New Vienna, O.
It was 1959 and Joseph Allen Chaney, who lived in the nearby no-traffic-light village of Samantha, and I were classmates at nearby Wilmington College. Glenn David Williams, my brother, and I lived with our parents, Mr. and Mrs. George O. Williams, four miles southeast of New Vienna in an unincorporated cluster of houses called Careytown. The Auburn Methodist Church was not far away and the young people of the congregation met together on the first Tuesday of each month. We took turns as hosts and hostesses and on that particular January evening were assembled in the home of Beverly Davis.
It was Beverly who suggested we play Table Up. Our lesson completed, we were hungrily devouring refreshments while our minister, the Reverend Marvin Schaumann, spoke with Beverly 's father in another room. Most of us never had heard of such a game so Beverly explained the rules.
"We set up a card table so that one end faces north," she explained. ''Three of us sit at the other sides and rub our hands together until they feel warm. Then we spread our hands wide and lay them, palms downward on the table. Each person puts his thumbs together and touches his neighbors' little finger with his own. Then we chant, 'Table up, table up, table up,' until the table legs on the north end rise off the floor."
"Yes, with someone's help," taunted my brother.
"Oh, no," Beverly contradicted. "No one does it. The table rises by itself."
"And what does it do after that?" I mockingly asked.
"It answers questions," our hostess answered. "It's no joke. Ask Joe or Meredith," Beverly said in answer to our laughter. "They've seen it too."
I looked at Joe and Meredith, expecting to catch a sheepish smile on their faces. But there was none.
"She's right," Joe said.
He and his brother, Meredith, were related to Beverly and the three of them had learned the game through some member of their family.
"How does the table answer?" asked David Patton. David and his sister Carol lived on a farm near the Auburn Church. The farm since has become part of the Fallsville Game Reserve.
"The table legs drop a few inches and then rise," Beverly stated. "We can tell the table to nod once for yes, twice for no or any other way we choose. It follows instructions very well."
Our curiosity aroused, we agreed to try "Table Up." Solemnly Beverly, Joe and Meredith sat down at the card table. Vigorously they rubbed their palms together and then spread them upon the table so they formed a semicircle. Beverly asked us to join in the chanting and halfheartedly we agreed. Twenty seconds or more elapsed; nothing happened. I waited for the three of them to confess laughingly that they had been joking. Then Carol screamed.
The north end of the table had lifted off the floor; slowly it rose until it was eight inches above the floor. We ceased chanting and the table became stationary, two legs resting upon the carpet and two suspended in mid-air.
Somehow we thought we had been deceived. Immediately my brother and I examined the way Beverly's, Joe's and Meredith's hands rested upon the table. We looked on top and under the table but found no evidence of trickery.
"Now ask a question," dared Meredith.
"How many cars are parked on the driveway?" Glenn challenged. "Nod once for each car." Slowly the table moved down and up seven times. Glenn ran to the window and counted. Then he reported there were seven cars outside.
Eagerly we asked more questions. At first we only asked questions we could answer quickly ourselves — "Was I born in March?" "How old am I?" The card table answered each question with astounding accuracy.
Then we began to question the table about the future. "Will it snow tomorrow?" "Next Saturday?" "Will I marry this year?" "How many children will I have?"
It was at this point that Reverend Schaumann looked into the living room and saw us gathered around the tilted card table. He checked, as we had done, to see that no one was nudging the tilted table with a knee or a foot.
Satisfied that the table rose unaided, Reverend Schaumann suggested electricity produced by rubbing our hands together drew the table upward.
We asked him to try questioning the table. He asked how many people were seated around it and stared disbelieving as the table tilted three times.
"When you ask a question," he said, "and are aware of the answer, muscle contraction causes the table to rise and fall. I'll ask a question none of you can answer. Then we'll see how accurate the table is."
"How long have my wife and I been married?" he asked. "Nod once for each year."
Sensing that Reverend Schaumann was confident the table would not answer at all, we stared at the table's legs. As we watched the legs moved up and down 12 times.
"That's right," Reverend Schaumann muttered. Quietly and soon he bade us good night and left.
"Who would like to take our place?" Beverly asked. The trio removed their hands from the table and it fell heavily to the floor. Jean and Patty Vance and I rubbed our hands until they felt hot and then rested them, uncertainly, on the tabletop. We all began chanting, free of self-conscious snickers now, and the table slowly rose. We asked dozens of questions and it was midnight before we were conscious of the time. Only once did the table's prediction seem doubtful. The table said one of our friends, Robert McKibben, would marry within three months. Robert was not going steady that January. But the table was right — four months later Roger and Joyce Frump of Samantha married.
Mother was still awake when my brother and I arrived home that night. We told her of our new and mystifying game. Her attitude was the same as ours and Reverend Schaumann's had been before we witnessed Table Up. How could she accept such an impossible story? When we finally retired for the night I was too excited to sleep. My brother and I had decided to prove to Mother a card table really can answer questions.
The following Sunday we invited Carol, Joe and Meredith to another Table Up session. We set up a card table, seated ourselves around it and, rubbing our hands together, began to chant. Mother stared in silence as the table legs lifted slowly off the floor. Our first questions were those we had asked before. We wanted to prove to ourselves as well as to my mother the table's consistency. All of us were amazed.
But the table's most convincing prediction took place more than a month later. It was a Sunday and I had slept instead of going to church. Carol Patton and two other friends, Deanna West and Norma Stanley, came by after services to see why I had been absent. Once again the subject of the Table Up game arose. Deanna and Norma never had witnessed the game and so we decided to play. Deanna was married and pregnant and we asked the tilting table when her baby would arrive. It was due April 15 but the table predicted the baby would not be born until May 28. It also predicted Deanna 's first child would be a girl.
Even our past experiences did not keep us from doubting the table. But days. elapsed. April faded into May and Deanna was not yet a mother. Finally the morning of May 28 arrived.
"This is Deanna's big day," I remarked at breakfast.
"Do you really have faith in the card table?" Mother asked.
I said I did but it wasn't until that evening that my faith was vindicated. After dinner a neighbor, Mrs. Joseph Davis, delivered our monthly newspaper and lingered to chat a few minutes. "What do you think of the news?" she asked.
"What news?" I asked.
"Deanna West had a baby girl this morning," she answered.
The table had been right again!
In the spring of 1960 I asked the tilting table how old I would be when I died. I shudder each time I recall that night. If the table had nodded only a few times I believe I might have had a nervous breakdown. The answer, however, was reassuring — I hope it was accurate, al though I have no intention of double checking. The table rose and fell 93 times.
Another prediction the table made was that I would marry a dark-haired, brown-eyed man. On November 10, 1962, I married Robert Frederick Fields who is both dark-haired and brown- eyed. In late 1963 my sister-in- law, Mrs. Glenn D. Williams of Maineville, O., and I were pregnant and the table predicted both of us would have boys. On January 12, 1964, my son, Mark Robert Fields, was born. On July 26 Glenn David Williams Jr. entered our world.
Before writing this article for Fate I felt I should get the approval of whoever or whatever is behind the messages of the tilting table. So one night at my parents' home I asked it if it would be permissible for me to tell the readers of Fate about Table Up. The answer was an affirmative "Yes". Now that you too are familiar with Table Up perhaps you will wish to share in this mystifying experience. If so, please follow these instructions:
You need, of course, a card table and several chairs. A light weight table is best. Always set the table on a rug or carpet. A textured surface keeps the two legs which remain on the floor from sliding. If they begin to slip one of the participants may place a foot at the base of the legs, bracing the table so the northern legs ascend properly.
Seat yourselves in a semi-circle around the southern half of the table and vigorously rub your hands together. Once they feel hot, spread them wide and lay them, palms downward, upon the table. Cross your thumbs, place your index fingers together and cross your little fingers with your neighbor's on either side. Only the two end persons will have one little finger that is not touched by another. Hold your hands rather loosely. Rest them lightly on the table — do not hold the table down.. Throughout the session hands must remain connected. If anyone lets go of his neighbor's hand the connection will be broken and the table will fall to the floor.
It is necessary to maintain a serious attitude, to believe in and concentrate upon the chanting and the questioning. The legs usually rise off the floor within a minute of the start of the chanting. Occasionally more time is required. If they have not lifted within three minutes start again from the beginning. Don't give up.
Do not stop chanting too soon. The tilted table must have enough room to tilt up and down once the questioning begins. When the legs have ascended about six or eight inches begin your questioning.
Pose only one question at a time. Everyone seated around the table must concentrate upon each question. Tell the table to nod once for yes, twice for no, or, use any other code you choose.
The table's accuracy depends in part upon the sincerity of those gathered around it and varies slightly from session to session. Sometimes it is best to hold several sessions with different individuals seated at the table. Once I asked the tilted table if it always tells the truth. It replied it does not. Also, it tends to ignore inquiries concerning the power behind Table Up and certain touchy aspects of world affairs. Perhaps we are not meant to know all the secrets of the universe.
(Fate Magazine - November, 1966 - Volume 19 – No. 11 – Issue 200)
This magazine is from the Webmasters personal collection. This article was reprinted from the November, 1966 issue of Fate magazine. They have been publishing this incredible magazine since the 1940's. It's an excellent source of information. Many of the back issues are available at their web site. Click on the magazine cover to visit their web site.
