OK, I will not go into the electrocution crap until I go find the books I read the story from... But when I get it I will type out the story in the book.
But for now...
The pyramid shape does in fact have powers, when aligned true north / south. Check out this site, it lists some known pyramid powers:
http://www.geocities.com/undergsci/pyramideffects.html
I must say that I have a small pyramid collection. One of them I had my friend, a glazier, make out of mirrors... so I can try the razor blade experiments and a few other things. It actually works.
crappy pic:
