Cosmic Controller?

Cosmic Controller?
Hans-Jurgen Hirschanger says he can move cosmic bodies by request

Published Tuesday, November 18, 2003
by Ashley Harrell



Hans-Jurgen Hirschganger says he has telekinetic abilities that enable him to
move stars.
He simply folds his hands behind his head, focuses on the stars, and enters a
trance of deep concentration. He then asks that the stars move a little to the
left, and then to the right, and according to a select group of people, the
stars comply.
The karate instructor from Frankfurt, Germany, said he selects dim stars because
brighter stars are more difficult to manipulate.
“I tell him go left, and go right,” said Hirschganger, 49, who also says he can
also move stars by request over the telephone.
According to Hirschganger’s translator Dirk Friedrich, the powerful man wills
the stars “out of orbit” and moves them between 5 and 10 diameter lengths of the
star, which is plainly visible from Earth.
“As the stars are in the orbit, they move like the earth and the sun in special
positions,” said Friedrich. “He is able to move them outside of those
positions.”
The alleged repositioning of the stars does not affect earth or the rest of the
galaxy, according to Hirschganger, who merely performs the cosmic adjustments as
a novelty.
“He wouldn’t do it if it had consequences,” said Friedrich. “When he says stop,
they will go back to the old positions.”
Last Friday Hirschganger was given an opportunity to prove himself.
He traveled overseas to the James Randi Educational Foundation in South Florida
to put his star-shifting abilities to the test.
The foundation, dedicated to providing reliable information about paranormal
claims, offers one million dollars to anyone who can show evidence of any
paranormal, supernatural, or occult power under observable conditions.
Founder James Randi, who travels the world giving lectures on paranormal claims,
said he has tested hundreds of cases in the eight years the foundation has be
open, but this was the first attempted star-moving.
Randi, 75, helps design the protocol for testing the supernatural powers, which
must be acceptable to the applicant. Hirschganger’s test involved video taping a
cluster of stars from the Buehler Planetarium at Broward Community College as he
moved one prearranged star. Several independent observers then viewed the tapes
on a giant screen and were asked to identify which, if any, of the stars moved.
After the completion of the test, Hirschganger was confident that the stars had
moved, but the viewers thought differently.
“It failed completely, as expected,” said Randi, who called Hirschganger
“exceedingly naïve, with no notion of how the world really works.”
But the man isn’t taking that as a final answer. Through the translator, he
explained that 20 years ago he discovered his extraordinary abilities while
training to be the world champion in karate.
He was running every day to get in shape, sometimes in the rain, and he noticed
that he always came down with a cold on the days after he ran in the rain, said
Friedrich.
Frustrated by this setback in his training, Hirschganger said he started
concentrating on the clouds releasing the rain, and asked that they vacate the
sky above his head. To his satisfaction, the rain stopped.
This made Hirschganger wonder what else he could relocate, and soon enough, he
had harnessed his power to move celestial bodies, he said.
Insisting that the lens used to capture the movements of the star was too small,
Hirschganger traveled back to the United States last week for another chance,
but he’s not going to get it.
“This is one of the sillier claims that we’ve had,” said Randi. “I won’t
entertain any further testing of him. We’ve got too many important things to
do.”
The million-dollar prize has yet to be claimed.

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