What Is Ideomotor Action?
Ideomotor action is the body following the mind’s expectations. If you think that your water divining rod is going to move when it gets near water, then sure enough it will move. We do not make it move consciously, it just happens. This is the way our organism works but we are not taught about such things when we undergo our education. We are taught that either we consciously influence the movement of inanimate objects or another force is doing it. Yet scientists know that this is not true. No wonder we are so easily fooled by dowsers and and ouija boards.
If we are really going to ever understand how psychics, tarot readers and astrologers have such an influence over us, we need to read up on the latest research being done on how our brains and body interact. Obviously the things kids are told in school are lagging behind the latest research, so we are all growing up in ignorance.
Here is a video showing James Randi speaking about our ignorance of ideomotor action:
Here is the Wikipedia page on ideomotor action
And here are some more links on the same subject:
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/ideomotor.html
http://www.skeptics.org.uk/article.php?dir=articles&article=ideomotor_effect.php
http://www.hypnosiseducationcenter.com/ideomotor-action.html