As a journalist you are often sent on strange assignments - and it was time for the Liverpool Daily Post's David Charters to embark on yet another, when he took part in a trial for ESP.

The psychic power of ESP - of having a telepathic awareness of the thoughts of others or a prerecognition of future events - is widely believed to exist.

And David, along with features editor Louise Douglas, was asked to take part in a trial on the subject at Hope University College in Liverpool.

For the test David was to be the "receiver", while Louise was the "sender", and after first completing a 70-answer questionnaire, they were taken into seperate rooms.

Recounting the experience to readers, David said: "I lay on a very comfortable black, leather couch under the bathing of red light, softened by the halved ping pong balls on my eyes.

"I was given earphones and a caressing, female voice guided me through a series of gentle exercises before a sense of relaxation was meant to envelop me.

"A hissing sound called 'white noise' was then introduced to blank out other sounds and help me concentrate my thoughts. This is known as a 'mild form of sensory isolation'."

David was asked to describe his thoughts, while in another room Louise watch a 60-second film clip which was shown to her six times.

And to begin with there were similarities, as David described a beach and a ruined church, and Louise's clips showed a desert and an ancient ruin.

But from there on it went downhill, as David was shown four film sequences and then chose the one which most closely mirrored his thoughts.

He chose a beach scene, but Louise guessed wrongly - choosing the minotaur fighting a soldier instead.

David said: "The researcher concluded that we had not achieved a telepathic 'hit'. On the other hand there had been some fleeting similarities between sender and receiver. Did that mean anything? Perhaps."

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