Girl, 11, uses metal ‘energy’ gentle touch to twist fork

By Emilyn Ng

The New Paper
20 June 2005

IF you invite this 11-year-old girl over for a meal, you’d better keep your eyes on your cutlery.

No, she is not going to make off with your forks or spoons.

Instead, Sherlyn Quek can bend the prongs of a fork into snake-like coils – by gently touching them.

Sherlyn, who is in Primary 6 at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School, demonstrated her fork- and spoon-twisting ability in her flat in Serangoon recently.

Using her fingers, she gently bent and twisted the metal into new forms and shapes.

A simple fold takes mere seconds, but more complicated patterns can take up to 10 minutes of twisting – while she focuses hard on the object in her hand.

Sometimes she closes her eyes and takes deep breaths to focus on the job. Most of the time, however, she’s smiling and laughing to relax.

She appears to be able to manipulate the metal cutlery without exerting a lot of force. Said Sherlyn: ‘You don’t have to use so much strength.’

And it’s not sleight of hand either, says Sherlyn.

She attended a self-improvement course in April, which taught participants how to harness ‘psychokinetic energy’ – energy from the mind – to change their perceptions and overcome inhibitions.

Organised by Success Action International, the course was conducted by a Singaporean, Dr Joseph Guan, an Energy Medicine specialist who deals with emotional intelligence and stress management.

Participants are largely working professionals interested in self-improvement who pay $680 for the one-day course.

Sherlyn’s father, Mr Reimond Quek, is the director of Success Action International. He said that Sherlyn had attended the course out of interest.

It was then that she realised she could bend and twist metal cutlery. But she is not the only one who can do it.

Said Mr Quek: ‘If you treat the subconscious as the Operating System of your body, your conscious mind will be the software.

‘A lot of us are stuck with limitations passed down from parents or conditioned by childhood. So we try to tweak the subconscious to operate on XP and not Windows 95.’

NOT A MAGIC SHOW

Reiterated Mr Quek: ‘This is not a magic show – it is used to empower people. The spoon-bending is… to let people know if you focus on anything, you are capable of doing much more.’

Sherlyn demonstrated two methods to manipulate the cutlery.

In one instance, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths to relax.

‘You relax, and imagine that the fork is part of your body, and that white light is passing through you. The fork becomes soft, so soft that you can bend it easily,’ said Sherlyn.

The thickest metal object she has bent so far is a spoon, about 2mm thick, borrowed from Mandarin Hotel. This was for a demonstration at the hotel, where a similar workshop was held.

Said Sherlyn: ‘The first time you do it, it is actually very simple. And you can bend the spoon in any pattern you want.

‘But after that, it gets a bit difficult.’

Laughter then comes in handy.

Explained Sherlyn: ‘I think of a really funny joke and when I laugh, it actually produces energy. The spoon becomes softer and I can bend it easily.’

Her friends in school find her ability both amazing and amusing. They try to do what she does, but find they can’t.

Said Mr Quek: ‘Everyone can do it. But if you get too excited and cannot concentrate, then you won’t be successful.’

He then showed he could do it too.

She has tried to teach her best friends to bend and make shapes of animals out of the spoons and forks too.

Said Sherlyn: ‘They also joke about how they can’t shake my hand or their bones will break.’

Ask Sherlyn, however, if she applies her mental energy to her studies and she shrugs, saying her grades fluctuate.

Does everyone know about her ability to bend forks and spoons?

She said: ‘It’s not something I go around telling everybody, or else I’d sound very boastful. But I feel powerful.’