Anyone can do it, but you might not have much luck if you sit there scowling at your cutlery like you're trying to hypnotise it... spoons don't hypnotise well. The best method is to throw a party. Get at least a dozen friends together - pick the kind of people who'll try anything for a laugh, because your efforts won't be helped if there's a moaning sceptic around.

Invite people who have children to bring: kids make great spoon-benders. When you hold your spoon or fork, ask it out loud: "Will you bend for me?" If you feel a sympathetic tingle in your fingertips, this is the one for you. Tell your guests to hold up their spoons and shout, "Bend! Bend!" The atmosphere now will be hilarious, a scene of Carry On madness, and that's ideal for parascientific phenomena. You're about as far removed from dry laboratory experiments as possible!

Holding your spoon by the bowl, rub the stem between your forefinger and thumb. Tell it to bend, bend, bend! Walk around and tell your friends' cutlery to bend - especially encourage the children. Very often, particularly for first-time party-goers, nothing will happen for a few minutes - and then one spoon will start bending. Usually it begins with the children, most commonly the girls.

I think complete innocent open-mindedness is the key. And once one bends, a chain reaction kicks in. Everybody begins to believe that metal-bending is possible for anyone. You'll all be tying knots in knives and loops in ladles - have fun!

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