In 1981 I was an 18-year-old hanging out with my buddies here in Western Australia. One night a friend and I had been drinking and had stopped at a park to eat some fish and chips we had bought. I didn't expect to have the door flung open and be dragged out with a knee to the face. I was kicked in the head many times and briefly knocked out. It turned out later that my friend had caused some problem with a gang of skinheads earlier in the afternoon. Unbeknown to me!

I spent about three days in the hospital recovering, but was OK except for black eyes and bruises, etc. My mother and my girlfriend came to collect me. They took me home and sat me down with lots of fuss and sympathy.

Of course someone asked, "How are you now?"

" I'm OK," I said, "except for this annoying twitch in my right arm "

My right arm near the top of the triceps had developed a small muscular twitch, probably due to some minor brain or nerve damage. It would fire at random two or three times per second and was very annoying.

My mother piped up, "Oh! My arm has been doing the same thing for days!" She showed me and, sure enough, her arm in exactly the same spot was twitching. We compared our arms and they were firing in sync, which was witnessed by my girlfriend. My mother said it started the night I was bashed.

The twitching subsided after a few days. My mother is still around and can verify this story. As an amateur scientist, it's this event in my life that made me realise that there is indeed more to our lives than science has so far observed. There must be an underlying force that has yet to be measured.

Gregory Bull