Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <PsychoticMinds1-at-aol-dot-com> becasue they work on changin capacitance and the coil will change the capacitance in it when you touch the lamp it senses a change in the capacitance of the circut and goes to the next state tthe coil is probably inducing a very tiny almost unnoticible charge onto it makin it cycle