The first infra-red photo above shows a materialization in process with the medium Ethel Post Parrish.  Note the ectoplasmic trail from the medium in the cabinet to the materialization.  The second photo shows the completed materialization of a spirit giving her name as Silver Belle, an Indian girl who claimed to be Parrish's spirit guide.

     It is easy to dismiss the completed materialization as a fake, since it looks much more like a painting or a mannequin than a real person. However, an understanding of the ideoplastic nature of the materialization phenomenon helps us make sense of it, assuming an open mind.     

     One Internet site states that Professor Julian Ochorowicz, a Polish psychologist and psychical researcher, coined the term "ideoplastic," referring to the "unconscious power of a medium to create tangible and apparently autonomous physical forms."  However, the author, who calls it is a "stupid" idea, shows his own ignorance, as it is not the power of the "medium" that creates the materialization.  It is the ability of the communicating "spirit" to project its image into the ectoplasm emitted by the medium.       

      In his 1942 book, Life Now and Forever, Arthur J. Wills, Ph.D., president of the U.S. College of Psychic Science and Research, tells of an experiment carried out by Mary C. Viasek  and Mrs. Z. J. Allyn, a materialization medium.

      Mrs. Viasek, who had learned to travel out of body, told Mrs. Allyn that she would attempt to visit her circle on September 28 while she was traveling by train from California to Toledo, Ohio.   At the time of the séance in Los Angeles, the train was in Utah.   After leaving her body, Viasek willed herself to Allyn's circle in Los Angeles.  The circle was already in progress and Viasek entered the materialization cabinet, where she found Allyn entranced in a chair and a number of spirits waiting to materialize.  The "cabinet guide" told her that she was welcome to observe but because she was mortal she could not participate.

      Viasek then observed three "spirit chemists" collecting something.  Looking closer, she saw a band of light, of bluish-grey vibrations, resembling heat waves, passing around the circle and into the cabinet. "The stream of vibrations started from the medium's husband, Mr. Allyn, who sat by the right side of the cabinet, and gradually increased in size as the various members of the circle contributed their vibrations to it," Wills quoted the report, going on to explain that the stream was about two inches in width and six inches in depth and increased in size as it passed around the circle and then into the cabinet, at which time it was about a foot in width and 18 inches in depth.   It was further noted that not all of the sitters contributed to the stream, as it appeared to go around a couple of them.

       Once the stream reached the cabinet, a spirit chemist took it and appeared to pour it into the back of the head and neck of the medium.  At the same time that the light, bluish-grey vibrations were being poured into the medium, a white substance (not named, but apparently ectoplasm), began to emanate from the medium's chin, throat, and chest. This emanation was then taken by another spirit chemist and put over the spirit to be clothed.   As he was pouring the substance over the spirit, he said in a firm positive voice:  "Think your features!  Think your face!  Think your eyes! Think your form!  Think positively!  Think your form as you were on earth!  Think your arms!"  As the spirit thought these things a form gradually built up over him. 

      All the while the circle members were singing in order to establish and maintain harmonious vibrations.  When they finished one hymn and before starting another hymn, the materialization failed as "the substance fell from the spirit."  The spirit chemist then began attempting to clothe another spirit and it also failed when the hymn was abruptly changed.  Viasek noted that the vibrations changed when the singing changed and interfered with the manifestations.

      During these failures, Viasek was in the cabinet but could not get her feet on the floor. When the group members started singing Shall we gather at the river, her feet touched and she found herself standing in front of one of the chemists.  He said, "You are mortal.  You cannot go," but she appealed to him and he then consented.   The chemist then turned her around with her back toward him and began pouring the substance drawn from the medium over her, while saying:  "Think your features positively, just as you are!  Think your hair! Your eyes!  Think your form!  Think your arms!  Think your hands!  Think your feet!"

      Then the chemist placed some substance over her to form her dress, a garment of white lace. "This was a creation of the chemist, not of her thought."

       When Viasek stepped through the curtain into the circle, she felt that she was blind for several seconds, but her sight then came to her.  However, she found she could not speak.   As one of the sitters approached her, she received "strengthening vibrations" and was able to speak.  As she began to talk to the group, something happened to upset the vibrations of the circle and Viasek felt as if her breath had been knocked out of her by a blow to the solar plexus.  She stepped backwards toward the cabinet and seemed to lose consciousness before regaining it again and observing other materialization successes and failures. She could not discern exactly when the forms began to materialize, but she noted that they began to dissolve outside the cabinet.   What little of the substance was left when the materialization dissolved flowed toward the incoming stream of light, bluish-gray vibrations.

       Members of the circle confirmed Viasek's materialization and it was noted that her "breathing" problems began when Dr. H. H. Turner, one of the circle member, increased the light in the room so that he could make a note of the time and record Viasek's words.

       As indicated in parts II and III of this series, some spirits communicated that they were unable to materialize because they had difficulty remembering what they looked like when alive in the flesh. Therefore,  the ability or inability of Silver Belle to visualize what she looked like when incarnate can explain the seemingly hokey appearance.  She probably lived before photography, but may have had a painting of herself to visualize, or perhaps she had an idealized recollection of what she looked like.
  
   Visualization self-experiment

      A little self-experiment will help in better appreciating the problems involved in both materializations and spirit photography.  Imagine, if you will, that you were once a great athlete. Further imagine that you are sitting at home when you receive a phone call from the director of your sport's Hall of Fame.  He or she tells you that you have been voted into the Hall and will be inducted next month.  Two photographs of you are needed - an action shot and a portrait.  The director tells you that the Hall has the latest in photographic technology.  All you have to do is visualize the two photos you want put on the Hall of Fame wall and transmit those visualizations over the telephone lines.   Those visualizations will be recorded on a special machine and photographs made of them.

      Now, visualize the action shot you want to transmit over the telephone wires.   Then, visualize your portrait shot.   If you are a man, it's unlikely that you imagined yourself as you appear looking in the mirror when you shave in the morning, and if you are a woman it's highly unlikely that you imagined yourself as you appear before putting on your makeup in the morning. If you are much over 40, you probably transmitted an image of yourself at a younger age.

      The fact is that most of us really have a somewhat distorted image of ourselves.  Often the image is based on photographs, including portraits, of ourselves when we are looking our best, both younger and slimmer.   Moreover, we don't always visualize ourselves from head to foot.  Was the action image you sent a full body shot or just an upper body shot?    

         When I mentally searched for an action shot of myself, I focused in on a photograph of myself during the 1977 New York City Marathon. The photo is from the waist up only.    Although I ran scores of races during my younger years, I cannot really visualize a moment in any one of those races that is not recorded on a photograph; thus, I had to rely on a photograph of myself.

       And so with this little self-experiment we might appreciate the problem spirits had in transmitting photographs of themselves in the phenomenon known as spirit photography.  Many of those old photos were supposedly debunked because they looked very much like photographs or portraits that were taken of the person when he or she was alive.  It was assumed that the photographer somehow got hold of an old photograph of the person, doctored it a little, and used it to trick his gullible customer. 

       When I summon up an image of my brother, who died in 1971, I visualize him as he appeared in his high school graduation photo, not at some moment in time that was not recorded anywhere other than in my memory.  I can bring up the latter if I stop to search my memory for a time when I was with my brother, but it is much easier to just bring up the graduation photo.

       A spirit photo purporting to have come from Father Junipero Serra, the early California missionary, shows Father Serra with his mother.   It appears very hokey, because his mother is only about half his height, meaning around three-feet tall, and Father Serra appears somewhat wooden.  However, when we consider the ideoplastic nature of the phenomenon, it makes sense.  Father Serra lived before photography and probably didn't have many mirrors, if any, around his missions.  Thus, the projection was far from representing what he really looked like and probably indicates that he saw himself so much taller than his mother. 

The final part of this series on ectoplasm will be posted on Dec. 6

above: ectoplasm beginning to form into a materialized spirit (Medium: Kathleen Goligher, photographer, Dr. William Crawford)  

      Vice-Admiral W. Usborne Moore, a retired British naval commander, began investigating mediums in 1904. One of the first he sat with was Cecil Husk, an English materialization medium.   Like so many mediums of the day, Husk had been charged with fraud a number of years earlier.  "Mr. Cecil Husk's séances have been the theme of many discussions amongst spritists," Moore addressed the concerns.  "I have sat with him over forty times, and have only once suspected fraud.  On that occasion the conditions were bad, and I am by no means sure that my doubts were reasonable.  Even supposing my first ideas were correct, there were good reasons for attributing the trick I thought I had witnessed to unconscious fraud."   As Moore came to understand unconscious fraud,  the medium, while in a trance state, will sometimes be prompted by spirits to move things when the power is low and the spirits cannot accomplish it on their own.    Such unconscious fraud was interpreted by skeptical investigators to be outright fraud rather than unconscious attempts to achieve a result.

         Moore also noted that many materializations with Husk as well as with other mediums did not look completely lifelike.  Some looked like stage dummies while others had a parchment appearance. Some were just heads, others busts of the person.  Many were only half or two-thirds normal human size.  Moore came to understand that many of the unlifelike materializations were failed attempts by spirits to fully materialize.  

       These unlifelike manifestations,  like partial materializations (hands only, arms, heads) were scoffed at by the skeptics and debunkers.  "Did the charlatan think we would believe that something so ridiculous is the materialization of a spirit entity?" the smug debunker would ask.  Indeed, were all the mediums who produced these strange unlife-like objects so stupid as to think they could fool people with them?  It is easier for those with open minds to believe that they were, as Moore concluded, failed attempts at materialization. 

       As indicated in Part I of this series on ectoplasm, Dr. Charles Richet, a Nobel-Prize winning scientist, told of one sitting in which a communicating spirit said that he could not materialize because he could not remember what he looked like when alive.  At a later sitting, this same spirit materialized in body but without a face.

     Admiral Moore was present in England when William T. Stead, a social activist, began communicating through several mediums, including Etta Wriedt, after dying in the Titanic disaster.   Stead explained that there were souls on his side who had the power of sensing people (mediums) who could be used for communication.  One such soul helped him find mediums and showed him how to make his presence known.  It was explained to him that he had to visualize himself among the people in the flesh and imagine that he was standing there in the flesh with a strong light thrown upon himself.  "Hold the visualization very deliberately and in detail, and keep it fixed upon my mind, that at that moment I was there and they were conscious of it," Stead explained, adding that the people at one sitting were able to see only his face because he had seen himself as only a face.  "I imagined the part they would recognize me by." 

        It was in the same way he was able to get a message through.  He stood by the most sensitive person there, concentrated his mind on a short sentence, and repeated it with much emphasis and deliberation until he could hear part of it spoken by the person.

       In her 1892 book, There is No Death, Florence Marryat, a popular writer of the Victorian era, told of a sitting with a medium in which an old family friend, John Powles, communicated but initially declined to materialize.  Peter, the medium's spirit control, communicated that "he doesn't want to show himself because he's not a bit like what he used to be."  However, when Marryat persuaded Powles to show himself, she saw only a face that didn't resemble her old friend in the slightest.  She wrote that it was "hard, stiff, and unlifelike.  Powles then told her that he would try to do better the next time.

         For the next sitting, Marryat brought along a necktie that had belonged to Powles, keeping it in her pocket and telling no one about it.  Soon after the séance began, Peter told Marryat to hand over the necktie and put it on Powles' neck.  "The face of John Powles appeared, very different from the time before, as he had his own features and complexion, but his hair and beard which were auburn during life, appeared phosphoric, as though made by living fire," Marryat wrote, adding that she then mounted a chair, put the tie around his neck and asked if she could kiss him.  Powles shook his head, but Peter then told her to give him her hand. "I did so, and as he kissed it his moustaches burned me," Marryat wrote.  "I cannot account for it.  I can only relate the fact.  After which he disappeared with the necktie, which I have never seen since, though we searched the little room for it thoroughly."

         The prima facie most impressive evidence there could be of the survival of a deceased friend or relative would be to see and touch his materialized, recognizable bodily form, which then speaks in his or her characteristic manner," wrote C. J. Ducasse, a professor of philosophy at Brown University in his 1961 book, A Critical Examination of the Belief in Life After Death. "This is what appeared to occur in my presence on an occasion three or four years ago, when during some two hours and in very good red light throughout, some eighteen fully material forms - some male, some female, some tall, some short, and sometimes two together - came out of and returned to the curtained cabinet I had inspected beforehand, in which a medium sat, and to which I had found no avenue of surreptitious access."

         Ducasse went on to explain that the material forms were recognized by other sitters and in some cases the deceased spoke and caressed the living. One of the forms called his name and Ducasse went up to her and asked who she was.  "Mother," she replied.  "She did not, however, speak, act, or in the least resemble my mother," Ducasse continued the story.  "This was not a disappointment to me since I had gone there for purposes not of consolation but of observation."  The friend who had taken Ducasse to the circle informed him that his mother had materialized on a number of occasions and that the form sometimes looked like her and sometimes it did not.

         Whether it was his mother or not, Ducasse was fairly certain it was a materialized spirit.  "I can say only that if the form I saw which said it was my mother and which patted me on the head, was a hallucination - a hallucination ‘complete' in the sense just stated - then no difference remains between a complete hallucination on the one hand and, on the other, ordinary veridical perception of a physical object; for every further test of the physicality of the form seen and touched could then be alleged to itself hallucinatory and the allegation of complete hallucination then automatically becomes completely vacuous."

          Ducasse also had an opportunity to see the ectoplasm in good red light, to touch it, and take ten flash photos of the substance as it emanated from the mouth of the medium. "Whether or not it was ‘ectoplasm,' [it] did not behave, feel, or look like any other substance known to me could, I think, under the conditions that existed.   It was coldish, about like steel.  This made it seem moist, but it was dry and slightly rough like dough the surface of which had dried. Its consistency and weight were also dough-like.  It was a string, of about pencil thickness, varying in length from six to twelve feet.  On other photographs, not taken by me, of the same medium, it has veil-like and rope-like forms."

        When we consider Richet's comments about the spirit who forgot what he looked like when alive in the flesh, as well as Stead's comments about having to visualize himself in order to show himself, and Marryat's comments about Powles' first attempt not looking anything like she remembered him and his telling her he would try again,  Ducasse's comments about the spirit claiming to be his mother not looking like she did when alive makes some sense as it becomes clear to the open-minded person that the process of a spirit materializaing all or part of the body is a very complex and difficult procedure. 

       Much more recently in his 2008 book Life After Death: Some of the Best Evidence, Dr. Jan W. Vandersande, a physicist, tells of his own observations of ectoplasm, while living in South Africa during the 1970s, with several mediums, including Kitty Gordon, under red light. "...Ectoplasm started pouring out of Kitty's nose and started to form a gauze-like sheet similar to that seen in photographs of the Johannesburg medium.  One of the sitters was then told to pick up the end of the ectoplasm on the floor, hold it high (about 5-6 feet) and then pull it partly across the room (about 4-6 feet) while it was still attached to Kitty's nose. It was truly spectacular to see. The ectoplasm was slightly transparent. The person holding the ectoplasm was then told to drop the ectoplasm. It fell to the ground and disappeared (quite fast, within seconds) back into Kitty's nose. Besides the very clear sight of ectoplasm there was also a very noticeable smell; I would call it a smell very much like a perspiration smell. It was a truly amazing experience and I have absolutely no doubt that it was ectoplasm we had just seen."

        The cover of Vandersande's book has a photo taken by Professor Jack Allen, one of Vandersande's colleagues who taught anatomy at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, of a materialized spirit, who had a very black beard, one that most people would say was a fake beard.  However, if we can accept the projected-image explanation and Marryat's comment about Powles' beard appearing phosphoric, we can understand how this materializing spirit probably visualized himself with a very black beard rather than a gray one.   

        The projected-image explanation might also help us understand why materialized spirits are seen wearing clothes.  If you were attempting to project an image of yourself to someone over the phone, it is unlikely you would project a picture of yourself in the nude. 

    And so it was also with the phenomenon called spirit photography.  In order to project their images on to the photographic plates, the spirits said they had to remember what they looked like and then project that image.  In once case, a spirit communicated that he had to visit his old home, view a portrait of himself on the mantel in order to remember what he looked like, and then return.  In fact, a number of old spirit photographs turned out to resemble old portraits of the person, which led debunkers to assume that the photographer/medium somehow obtained an old photo of the person and transposed it to the photographic plate - a reasonable assumption for those who close their minds to the reality of the spirit world and are determined to find fraud without attempting to understand spiritual science. 

      An article in the January 1933 issue of Psychic Science told of an experiment conducted by T. Glen Hamilton, M.D., a Canadian psychical researcher, in which two spirit communicators built an ectoplasmic ship.  Coming through two mediums, the spirit communicators carried on a dialogue in which they pretended they were on a pirate ship and among a crew of ruffian pirates.  It was stated that this play-acting was intended to recover past memories and better facilitate a thought-image of the ship.  Hamilton remarked:  "No matter how great we may conceive the unknown powers of the human organism to be, we cannot conceive of it giving rise to an objective mass showing purposive mechanistic construction, such as that disclosed in this ship-teleplasm (ectoplasm).  We are forced to conclude that the supernormal personalities in this case (by some means yet unknown to us) so manipulated or otherwise influenced the primary materializing substance after it had left the body, or was otherwise brought into its objective state, as to cause it to represent the idea which they, the unseen directors, had in view, namely the idea of a sailing ship." 

      When we begin to understand how thought-imagery plays into materialization, things begin to make more sense.  Still, however, the debunker wants to apply terrestrial science to celestial matters and continues to scoff.    
         Part IV in this series on ectoplasm will appear on Nov. 22.

       Skeptical scientists insisted that ectoplasm was nothing more than cheesecloth or some other substance cleverly packed in the body and regurgitated at an opportune moment.  They gave examples of this "rumination hypothesis," showing how some people are able to use the stomach as a hiding place and later bring it back up.

       However, as Dr. Albert Von Shrenck Notzing, a German forensic psychiatrist, pointed out to the doubters, more than half of the 180 observations of ectoplasm by him did not involve ectoplasm flowing from the mouth.  It sometimes came from the nose, from the ears, from the vagina, and quite often just from the pores of the skin.  In the case of medium called Eva C. (Marthe Beraud), Shrenck Notzing often observed it oozing from the pores near her shoulder.   

       Schrenck Notzing was so careful in his study of Eva C. that he had her completely strip before many of the sittings and then subject herself to a gynecological exam.  She was then given special attire, consisting of knitted tights and an apron tunic closed down the back.  Before each sitting, the tunic was sewed up at the back, the wrists, and the junction of the tights with the dress. There was, von Schrenck Notzing said, absolutely no opportunity for her to smuggle any kind of foreign substance or object into the room.  On several occasions, Eva C. volunteered to sit in the nude and did so to satisfy various skeptical scientists who observed the phenomenon with Schrenck Notzing.    

        "Not one of the observers during these four years has ever found on the medium's body, or in the séance costume, anything which could have been used for the fraudulent production of the phenomena," Schrenck Notzing wrote, adding that the various rooms in different houses had no secret passages or trap doors, as skeptics claimed, and were regularly examined, both before and after every sitting by him and visiting savants.  Moreover, the room was locked by him so that there was no possibility of another person entering.   

      As Schrenck Notzing pointed out, even if the rumination hypothesis were true, the phenomena did not end with ectoplasm flowing from an orifice of the medium.  That was only the first stage.  Various objects, including fingers, hands, heads, and occasionally complete body materializations took shape from the ectoplasm.  It was one thing to advance the rumination hypothesis, quite another to explain how these various objects formed from the alleged regurgitated material.  

      To this, the skeptics claimed that Eva C. and other mediums had cleverly arranged wires in the room to transport in various objects, but Schrenck Notzing said that this was impossibility as he had the opportunity to examine the room before the medium entered and again at the end of the sitting.  Moreover, Eva C. did not have access to the room beforehand. 

       Dr. Gustave Geley, a professor of medicine at the University of Lyons and a Laureate of the French Medical Faculty, observed Eva C. in his own laboratory twice a week over a three-month period during 1917-18.  "It is needless to say that the usual precautions were rigorously observed during the séances in my laboratory," Geley wrote. "On coming into the room where the séances were held, and to which I alone had previous access, the medium was completely undressed in my presence and dressed in a tight garment, sewn up the back and at the wrists; the hair and the cavity of the mouth were examined by me and my collaborators before and after the séances.  Eva was walked backwards to the wicker chair in the dark cabinet; her hands were always held in full sight outside the curtains, and the room was always quite well lit the whole time. I do not merely say, ‘There was no trickery,' I say ‘There was no possibility of trickery."

      Geley described the process: "With Eva, the mode of operation necessary to obtain materializations is very simple. The medium, after having been seated in the dark cabinet, is put into the hypnotic state, slightly, but enough to involve forgetfulness of the normal personality.  This dark cabinet has no other purpose than to protect the sleeping medium from disturbing influences, and especially from the action of light.  It is thus possible to keep the séance room sufficiently well lit for perfect observations.

      "The phenomena appear (when they do appear) after a variable interval, sometimes very brief, sometimes an hour or more.  They always begin by painful sensations in the medium; she sighs and moans from time to time much like a woman in childbirth.  These moans reach their height just when the manifestation begins, they lessen or cease when the forms are complete."

      Of the ectoplasm, Geley wrote:  "The substance exudes specially from the natural orifices and the extremities, from the top of the head, from the nipples, and the ends of the fingers...the most easily observed from the mouth...The substance has variable aspects; sometimes, and most characteristically, it appears as a plastic paste, a true protoplasmic mass; sometimes as a number of fine threads; sometimes as strings of different thickness in narrow and rigid lines; sometimes as a wide band; sometimes as a fine tissue of ill-defined and irregular shape...In fine, the substance is essentially amorphous, or rather, polymorphous."

      Of the quantity, Geley said this is also very variable, sometimes very little and at other times covering the medium completely, like a cloak.  It most frequently appeared white, but occasionally black or gray.

     "Sometimes it is slowly evolved, rises and falls, and moves over the medium's shoulders, her breast, or her lap with a crawling, reptilian movement; sometimes its motion is abrupt and rapid, it appears and disappears like a flash.  It is extremely sensitive, and its sensitiveness is closely connected with that of the hyperaesthetised medium, and touch reacts painfully on the latter...The substance is sensitive to light rays; a light, especially if sudden and unexpected, produces a painful start in the medium. However, in some case the substance can stand even full light.  The magnesium flashlight (flash camera) causes a violent start in the medium...It shrinks from all contact and is always ready to avoid them and to be reabsorbed. 

       Several other scientists collaborated with Geley in his study of Eva C.  "We saw, touched, and photographed representations of heads and faces formed from the original substance," Geley wrote.  "These were formed under our eyes, the curtains being half-drawn.  Sometimes they proceeded from a cord of solid substance issuing from the medium, sometimes they were progressively developed in a fog of vaporous substance condensed in front of her, or at her side." 

    Schrenck Notzing also reported that when he tried to capture some ectoplasm it evaporated and seemed to be reabsorbed by the medium. However, there was some residue left behind, which Schrenck Notzing had chemically analyzed. "As regards the structure of the teleplasm (ectoplasm), we only know this," Schrenck Notzing wrote.  "That within it, or about it, we find conglomerates of bodies resembling epithelium, real plat epithelium with nuclei, veil-like filmy structures, coherent lamellar bodies without structure, as a well as fat globules and mucus."  Whether or not this residue represented the true nature of the ectoplasm or was just that part associated with Eva's own body Schrenck Notzing had no way of knowing. One thing for sure, he commented, the substance did not consist of India rubber, which many skeptics had suggested it was.

      As reported in Part I of this series on ectoplasm, Dr. Charles Richet, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, also attested to the genuineness of the phenomena produced by Eva C.

Interestingly, Richet, Schrenck Notzing, and Geley all resisted the spiritistic hypothesis, the idea that the phenomena were being produced by spirits.  All saw it as a possibility and indications are that Geley came around to see it as the most likely explanation.  Indications also are that Richet and Schrenck Notzing may have privately accepted the idea that spirits were producing the phenomena, but publicly they would not admit to it.  They were hard-core scientists and there was no room for spirits in their belief system.  They simply wrote it off as something that was beyond science at the time.

      Yet, in spite of the fact that these three distinguished scientists witnessed it over and over again and attested to the non-fraudulent nature of Eva's mediumship, modern references on Eva all suggest that fraud was involved, that the three scientists were duped by a master magician.

       One debunking theory holds that Eva had a hollow tooth and therefore was able to smuggle things into the séance rooms in her tooth.  Whether or not she actually had a hollow tooth is unclear from the modern sources.

       Another debunking theory had to do with Juliette Bisson, an influential artist who had become interested in hypnotism, telepathy, and clairvoyance because her physician father was interested in the subjects as she was growing up.   She collaborated with Schrenck Notzing in studying Eva and at some point allowed Eva, who was later married, to live with her and her husband in their Paris home. It was Mme. Bisson who did the gynecological exams and then put Eva into the trance state.  One debunking theory that has been handed down and accepted in modern references is that the two women had a lesbian relationship and therefore Bisson was a confederate in the sham. 

      Since Eva was strictly an amateur and apparently was not paid for her sittings, it is never made clear by those advancing this theory what the two women had to gain from the regular sittings - more than 180 by Schrenck Notzing over a four-year period, some lasting over two hours and quite a few in which they sat for an hour before anything developed, and still others in which nothing at all happened.  What was the point of it all?  There was no reality TV in those days.

    The facts that Mme. Bisson was well-to-do and that Eva C. preferred not to use her real name also seem to be in conflict with such a theory.

      After Geley's death in a 1924 plane crash, it was reported that a study of his notes supposedly indicated that Geley found objects hidden in Eva's hair in a most suspicious way, even though he made no mention of these in his reports.  Geley's notes were never produced to confirm such a claim.

       Perhaps more than anything, the debunkers pointed to some of the "ridiculous" manifestations produced from the ectoplasm, several of which looked like they had come from a local magazine.   Such manifestations will be the subject of Part III of this series    

       Schrenck Notzing mentioned that one of the scientists he invited to a sitting was in awe of what he saw and fully agreed with him that fraud was not possible under the strictly controlled conditions.  However, a week or so later, this same scientist stated that he had changed his mind because what he had witnessed was not possible and therefore it had to be a trick beyond his comprehension. Schrenck Notzing further observed that every scientist who was introduced to the subject matter seemed to discount all research that had gone on before them. "It is unfortunate," he wrote, "that learned men, who see the phenomena for the first time, commit the error of supposing that their entry into the arena marks the beginning of the proper investigation of mediumistic phenomena.  They disregard the copious literature and the many strictly scientific reports of their colleagues, such as the numerous unrefuted results obtained by eminent investigators with the medium Eusapia Paladino..."

      Schrenck Notzing also observed that the cynical press was quick to accept unsubstantiated debunking reports and sensationalize them, thereby defaming innocent people.  These sensationalized reports then became "fact" as far as the public is concerned and later became part of standard reference books, muddying up the waters so that people don't know what to believe.

       If Eva C. had been the only person producing ectoplasm and related phenomena, then there might be justification for being skeptical, but the fact is that the phenomena were observed by many distinguished men and women and their reports were consistent with those of  Drs. Schrenck Notzing, Geley, and Richet.

         This ectoplasmic formation at the expense of the physiological organism of the medium is now beyond all dispute," said Richet, who won the Noble Prize for his  research on anaphylaxis, the sensitivity of the body to alien protein substances.  "It is prodigiously strange, prodigiously unusual, and it would seem so unlikely as to be incredible; but we must give in to the facts...Yes, it is absurd; but no matter - it is true."                  

         Part III of this series on ectoplasm will appear here on Nov. 8..                 

        How can anything so repulsive and so repugnant in appearance be real?  And how can there possibly be any spiritual connection with it?

       No doubt this is the first reaction of intelligent, rational people who come across old photos in books about paranormal phenomena of a substance referred to as ectoplasm.  The photos usually show a seemingly thick foamy or slimy substance - sometimes looking like vomitus, other times like shaving soap, and still at other times more like cheesecloth - flowing from one of the orifices of a so-called "medium" in an entranced state - from the nostrils, mouth, ears, vagina, and even the pores.   Some of the photos show what are claimed to be materialized human forms - occasionally just a face or an arm - forming within the ectoplasm.

       If we are to believe the debunkers and skeptics, ectoplasm is nothing more than cheesecloth stuffed into one or more of the cavities of the body and then extruded at an opportune time, the sole purpose being to dupe those present.  However, it is difficult to believe that some of the most eminent men of science, who observed it, examined it, tested it, and proclaimed it real, could have been fooled over and over again, especially under laboratory conditions.  It stretches the imagination to believe that as much "cheesecloth," as seen in many of the photographs, could be stored in an orifice of the body, especially the ears and pores, and so dramatically extruded, then to have human forms shaped from it or within it, and then, in some cases, to have those human forms emerging from the ectoplasm and carry on conversations with those present, sometimes about personal matters known only to the sitter.

        Equally puzzling is why numerous alleged charlatans would dream up something so seemingly ridiculous and revolting.  Couldn't they come up with a trick a bit more realistic and believable?  If it all began with one trickster, why were so many other charlatans impressed by something so bizarre?  

       "It is a whitish substance that creeps as if alive, with damp, cold, protoplasmic extensions that are transformed under the eyes of the experimenters into a hand, fingers, a  head, or even into an entire figure," explained Dr. Charles Richet.

      Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Medicine, Richet (1850-1935) was a physiologist, chemist, bacteriologist, pathologist, psychologist, aviation pioneer, poet, novelist, editor, author, and psychical researcher.  After receiving his M.D. in 1869 and his Ph.D. in 1878, he served as professor of physiology at the medical school of the University of Paris for 38 years.

      It was Richet who gave the name ectoplasm to what had previously been referred to as od, psychic force, and teleplasm. When Sir William Crookes, the esteemed British chemist, first reported on it in connection with the mediumship of Florence Cook, Richet was among the many scientists who scoffed and thought that perhaps Crookes, a pioneer in X-ray technology, had "lost it."  .  "I avow with shame that I was among the willfully blind," Richet wrote in dedicating his 1923 book, Thirty Years of Psychical Research, to Crookes, commending him for his courage and insight.     

     "This ectoplasmic formation at the expense of the physiological organism of the medium is now beyond all dispute," Richet stated.  "It is prodigiously strange, prodigiously unusual, and it would seem so unlikely as to be incredible; but we must give in to the facts...Yes, it is absurd; but no matter - it is true."

        Richet saw it as some sort of exterior ("ecto" meaning exterior) protoplasm.  In his  book, Richet referred to the ectoplasm produced by the medium Marthe Béraud as "gelatinous projections," explaining that "a kind of liquid or pasty jelly emerges from the mouth or the breast of Marthe which organizes itself by degrees, acquiring the shape of a face or limb.

      "Under very good conditions of visibility, I have seen this paste spread on my knee, and slowly take form so as to show the rudiment of the radius, the cubitus, or metacarpal bone whose increasing pressure I could feel on my knee," Richet wrote. 

       Richet further observed that the materializations are usually gradual, beginning with a rudimentary shape and then complete forms and human faces only appearing later on.  "At first these formations are often very imperfect.  Sometimes they show no relief, looking more like flat images than bodies, so that in spite of oneself one is inclined to imagine some fraud, since what appears seems to be the materialization of a semblance, and not of a being.  But in some cases the materialization is perfect.  At the Villa Carmen I saw a fully organized form rise from the floor.  At first it was only a white, opaque spot like a handkerchief lying on the ground before the curtain, then this handkerchief quickly assumed the form of a human head level with the floor, and a few moments later it rose up in a straight line and became a small man enveloped in a kind of white burnous, who took two or three halting steps in front of the curtain and then sank to the floor and disappeared as if through a trap door.  But there was no trap door."

      While skeptics find much humor in some of the flat, paper-like materializations, Richet had no difficulty with them.  "The fact of the appearance of flat images rather than of forms in relief is no evidence of trickery," he wrote.  "It is imagined, quite mistakenly, that a materialization must be analogous to a human body and must be three-dimensional.  This is not so.  There is nothing to prove that the process of materialization is other than a development of a completed form after a first stage of coarse and rudimentary lineaments formed under the cloudy substance."      

      Richet referenced one sitting in which a communicating spirit said that he could not materialize because he could not remember what he looked like when alive.  At a later sitting, this same spirit materialized in body but without a face.  In effect, the success of the materialization appears to depend upon the ability of the particular spirit to visualize his old self and somehow project that thought-image into the ectoplasm.  Apparently, the ability to do this varies as much with spirits as does artistic ability among humans.

     Richet also observed somewhat similar phenomenon with Eusapia Palladino, the controversial Italian medium, although never a full body materialization.  She most often produced ectoplasmic arms.  He referred to it as a kind of supplementary arm that came from Palladino's body. "Once I saw a long, stiff rod proceed from her side," he explained, "which after great extension had a hand at its extremity - a living hand warm and jointed, absolutely like a human hand." 

      Replying to skeptics, Richet said that we have no warrant to deny a phenomenon because we do not know its laws.  "If that were the case we should have to close all scientific books."                        

          While the "veil-like" or "cheesecloth" form is often seen in photographs taken in infrared or phosphorescent light, ectoplasm apparently comes in many forms, including gaseous, liquid, or fibrous.  It can assume different colors from soft white to gray and black.  It can move slowly but disappear in a flash.  It can be stiff or pliable. It can be invisible, seen only by clairvoyants, or seen by all present.  

        The inconsistent nature of ectoplasm is just one of many aspects of it that defies scientific scrutiny and gives fuel to the attacks by debunkers.  Adding to this is the fact that darkness is usually required.  This is because the ectoplasm is said to be sensitive to light rays, and exposure to light can result in serious injury to the medium, who must reabsorb the ectoplasm at the conclusion of the séance before the lights are turned on.  Further complicating the observation is the fact that a materialization "cabinet" is usually required.  This cabinet is often nothing more than a corner of the room curtained off for the medium to sit within.  It further protects the medium from light rays but is said to also be necessary to concentrate the ectoplasm and permit the spirits a certain privacy in their attempts to take shape.

       Of course, the debunkers see the cabinet as nothing more than a "dressing room" which permits the "fraudulent" medium to quickly change costumes and emerge from the cabinet as a spirit entity.  To advance such a debunking theory is to assume that men like Richet, Crookes, Professor Gustave Geley, Baron (Dr.) von Schrenck Notzing, and a dozen or more other distinguished scientists were duped over and over again under controlled conditions.  Only the most arrogant and closed-minded person would dare challenge the observations of these respected scientists without doing any kind of investigation of his or her own.  Nevertheless many did.  And mainstream science continues to ignore what could be the most important scientific subject in the physical realm.  

      Part II of The Mystery of Ectoplasm will appear here in two weeks. 

       The story of the Ross sisters, as communicated through the mediumship of Geraldine Cummins, perhaps the most accomplished automatist of the 20^th Century, suggests that family grudges and feuds carry over into the afterlife if not resolved before death.   The story also suggests that we can have concerns and regrets relative to how things, such as wills, were left at the time of transition from the physical world.

       Beatrice Gibbes, Cummins' friend and assistant, described the method employed by Cummins.  She would sit at a table, cover her eyes with her left hand and concentrate on "stillness."   She would then fall into a light trance or dream state.  Her hand would then begin to write.  Usually, her "control," most often a spirit named Astor, said to be a pagan Greek when alive on earth, would make some introductory remarks and announce that another entity was waiting to speak.  Because of Cummins' semi-trance condition and also because of the speed at which the writing would come, Gibbes would sit beside her and remove each sheet of paper as it was filled.   Cummins' hand was quickly lifted by Gibbes to the top of the new page, and the writing would continue without break.  The handwriting most often changed to that identified with the communicating spirit when alive.

     From 1925 thru 1929, Molly Ross, the youngest of four sisters and the only surviving one (age 45 in 1925), had nine sittings with Geraldine Cummins (GC)    Gibbes observed and recorded the story in a book titled They Survive.  After the sittings, Gibbes would go over the scripts with Molly and have her comment on evidential points.

       Molly had three sisters who had passed over.  They were Audrey, who died in 1894 at age 21; Margaret, who died in 1925 at age 57, and Alice, the oldest of the four sisters, who died in 1928 at the age of 62.    

       Molly had had several evidential sittings with GC after Margaret's death in 1925.  After Alice appeared on the brink of death while in a nursing home in York, Molly, who was living in London, was summoned to her sister's bedside.  After Alice died on October 11, 1928, Molly wired  GC in Dublin, Ireland, requesting that Astor find her oldest sister, Audrey, and to let her know that Alice had passed over.

      Four days later, on October 15, Molly received a letter from GC, postmarked October 12, saying that Margaret had communicated and said that "Alice was  not alone when she was slipping out of her body...that Audrey and Mater (their mother) came to her."

       Margaret explained that Audrey presented herself to Alice as Alice remembered her in 1894, not as she was in 1925.  She further explained that because Alice and Mater had quarreled before Mater's death three years earlier, and because Audrey had much more experience on that side, Audrey was the first to appear to Alice while Mater remained in the background.     Because Alice was so restless, Audrey put a dream of old days about her soul.   When Alice saw these old memories, her fear left her.

       Margaret said that she had not yet approached Alice because she was not yet fit to draw near the newly dead.  Besides, Margaret added, she would not have been received kindly by Alice as they constantly quarreled when they were alive.  This point was particularly evidential to Molly, since it was true and she was certain that GC had no way of knowing of the friction between the two sisters.

     On November 10, 1928, Mollie sat with GC in London.  A request was made to Astor to find Margaret.   After a pause, Margaret took hold of GC's hand and told Molly that she had talked with Alice.  "I had quite a shock when I found out that we didn't disagree with each other," Margaret wrote.  "She is so much gentler than she was."   Margaret then said that Alice would attempt to communicate directly, although it might be too soon and her words might be muddled.  Mollie observed the writing change to a big scrawl and become very labored.

     "Mo, Mo, Molly.  I am here.  I see you," Alice wrote. "It's all true.  I am alive.  The pain went at once.  I felt suffocating.  Then, just after I got that awful chocking, I felt things were breaking up all about me.  I heard crackling like fire and then dimness.  I saw you bending down with such a white face and you were looking at me, and I wasn't there."   Alice added that she regretted that her husband, John, and her son, Ronald, were not there when she left the body. Molly confirmed the deathbed scene as accurate and pointed out that John and Ronald arrived several hours after the death.  Here again, Mollie saw this as very evidential since GC had no way of knowing what took place in Alice's final hours.

        Alice said that she regretted not having treated her second son, who was living in East Africa, as an equal to Ronald.  Molly confirmed that Ronald was the favorite son and noted that Ronald was favored in Alice's will, another fact which GC could not have known.   As the writing became fainter, Margaret took back the pencil and explained that Alice found it hard to write at the end as she didn't understand how to manage the words. However, she got through most of what she wanted to say.   Margaret added that Alice also regretted treating her husband badly.  Molly noted that this was also very evidential as Alice "bullied her husband dreadfully."

        Margaret then mentioned that Alice still resented the fact that Margaret cut her out of her will and left her share to Charles, their brother, who had no need of the money. This was another very evidential fact to Molly.  "She hasn't forgotten yet the way I left my money," Margaret wrote.  "She feels it would have made a difference in her last days."

       Molly told Margaret that Alice's family was managing financially.   "Good," Margaret replied.  "I will tell her that, then she won't bother about things.  The fact of the matter is, she came out of the world with a dark cloud of years of troubled thought about money.  It all accumulated and clung about her.  But I think now it will be slowly dissipated...All that worrying before her death left her in a very scattered state of mind."

       When Margaret told Molly that Alice had it easier than she (Margaret) did, Molly requested an explanation.  "I never cared much for anyone," Margaret responded.  "One pays for that over here." 

       Margaret went on to say that she was now "quite clear" of her worldly longings and had built herself a house with her thoughts.  Moreover, she was sharing the house with someone.  "Oh!  I don't think that sounds quite nice," Molly reacted.  "Who are you sharing it with?  A MAN?"    Margaret said she was not prepared to tell Molly of her companion, but, apparently in jest, wrote that she should tell Charles (their brother) that she had dragged the Ross name into the mud.  Mollie noted that it was a family joke that Charles took life too seriously and was always afraid of a family scandal.

        On November 11, 1928, Molly again sat with GC.  After GC went into a trance, Molly asked Astor if he could bring her sister, meaning Margaret.  "Yes, I will call her," Astor responded, apparently thinking of Alice.  "She is quite near.  Her new body is now almost formed.  When it is complete she can face the new world and this life.  Wait (pause).

       "Funny old man called me," Alice wrote, "Who is your grey-bearded admirer, Molly?"

       Molly explained that the man was Astor, GC's guide. Alice replied that her mind was still in tatters and that she was confused.   Alice then wrote that her men were no good.  Molly replied that there were many men she liked in her younger days.  "They were nice to flirt with but not any use otherwise," Alice wrote.  Molly noted that Alice, when alive, frequently referred to herself as a "flirt." 

      Alice then said that Mater sends her love to Molly and talks about her (horseback) riding.  Alice then recalled a quarrel that she had had with Mater over Molly's ability to ride a particular horse.  Another evidential fact.

       Alice mentioned that Margaret had been around.  "You know I never could stand her," Alice said, "but you would have laughed to see us together.  We were so polite.  She was trying so hard to avoid giving offence...I put Margaret in her place all right.  She told me how sorry she was about her will and the money she didn't leave to me.  I told her that being sorry didn't make up for the thoughtlessness, that there was more thought in your little finger than in her whole body.  Do you know, she took it quite quietly, and would you believe it, kissed me!  My word, I was never so taken back in my life.  I couldn't say anything more to her then."

        At one point, Alice said, "And in those last months I used to keep saying to myself,    ‘if only this or that had happened.'"   Molly recalled her saying those exact words.

       Alice also mentioned having talked with their father (Pater) and his making reference to some "numbskull" relatives.  This was a word that Alice sometimes used when alive, Molly noted, while Beatrice Gibbes could not recall GC ever having used the word before.

       Alice asked Molly if she had seen John (Alice's husband) recently.  Molly said she had.  "Tell him I see more and more how patient and good he was to me," Alice wrote.  "I feel so sorry now because I know I spoke harshly to him sometimes."  Molly noted that "harshly" was a very mild way of putting it.

      After a few more comments the writing changed to Margaret's quick style. Molly asked Margaret if she was aware that Alice was just communicating.  "Yes, she has quite blossomed out," Margaret replied.  Molly noted that Margaret frequently spoke of people "blossoming out" when she was alive in the flesh.

       Margaret mentioned that she and Alice had had a "fusillade" (i.e., shoot-out, outburst) when they last met.  Molly recalled that the word "fusillade" was often used by Margaret before she passed.

        On the following day, November 12, Molly returned for another sitting with GC.  Astor announced that both Margaret and Alice were there.  "You mustn't mind too much what Alice says to you," Margaret opened the dialogue.  "She is still very much in the cloud of her memories.  She feels, however, that things are not so bad here now. At first she found fault with so many different aspects of life in this place between the worlds.  There is a kind of intermediate state, you know.  If only human beings would talk to their people when they are in that state it would give such comfort...I had a difficult time, but it is over now. You did help me."

      Molly again asked Alice about her housemate. "You would laugh at me if I explained," Margaret replied.  "We have to go through certain essential experiences, and if we miss them in the earth-life we may have to face them here.  I have actually to share a house - not a bed - with a man (laughter).  Quite true."

       Molly asked if she were joking.  "No, I am not," Margaret answered. "I don't mean anything improper.  I merely mean I have to put up with a companion of another type of mind.  Here we talk of men and women, but we really mean male and female minds.  I have to put up with the masculine type of mentality in my home.  Heavens!  It is trying sometimes!"

       Margaret said that her masculine companion has a "very untidy mind," which she was having a hard time adjusting to.  "You know we make our homes out of our memories.  I like a nice little house.  He wants a house that is quite unlike anything that was ever built or imagined.  You can't imagine all his absurd, impossible ideas.  How would you like to come home to your cozy little sitting room and find that it had been turned into a great hall; that it has curious lights in it, and no ordinary furniture?"

        The writing changed and the pencil tapped the paper in an agitated manner. "I get so impatient," Alice communicated after fumbling with the pencil.

       Alice told Molly that Audrey had taken her on a trip to the south of France.  "I was hungry for it," Alice explained.  Molly noted that Alice, when alive, had longed to get away from England and spoke of getting away to the South of France.

       Alice also wrote about being approached by a man who claimed to be her brother.  However, Alice was confused as she had, to her knowledge, no brothers on that side.  When Molly reminded her that their mother had a stillborn baby before she (Alice) was born, Alice recalled the story.

      "Oh! I understand now," Alice said. "Audrey left me with him and didn't explain.  He said he was living quite close to Margaret, that she didn't know he was her brother.  He explained that he had charge of some man who came over to this life, not so very long ago, and his punishment was to live with her.  Her punishment was to live with him.  Did you know that there was a kind of twist in poor Margaret's soul and so she had to get it straightened out by living with her opposite?"

       Alice added:  "You don't have sex business over here. It is something different. Margaret has to learn to live with some other people."

       Alice also said that she doubted Molly, who had never married, would have to go through such an experience because she had not "grown inwards like a bad corn."  Molly noted that this was also a typical expression of Alice's when alive.

        The discussion returned to Charles, the brother who had received Alice's share of Margaret's money.  "...I feel so furious with Charles still," Alice penciled. "I don't want to risk his ever knowing...He is an odious man."  Molly clearly recalled Alice referring to Charles as an "odious man" on numerous occasions when in the earth life, seeing this as extremely evidential.

       As the pencil rushed across the paper and the words became confusing, Astor broke in and said that lady was very excited.  He told her to have patience.  Alice complained that the "butler" was very rude, apparently referring to Astor.  Molly recalled that Alice had always been very impatient with her servants. 

        Molly asked Alice what she had been doing with her time.   "I was taken to a land like the earth in some ways but very different in others," Alice responded.  "For instance, you see rocks, trees, houses, about you, but if you choose to close your outward eyes and use another part of you that can perceive, you see right through these rocks, trees, houses, and solid earth.  They tell me here that even while you are on earth, if you practiced them from childhood closing the outer eyes and willing hard to see with the eyes of your inner body, everything also would become transparent to you.  And you would see other strange things." 

       Molly asked about Margaret.  "Oh!  I've no patience with her," Alice wrote...My dear, she is so stupid, still."  Molly noted that Alice always complained of Margaret's stupidity.

       "She is just planted there in her wretched house, trying to pretend she is living just as she did on earth, which is such nonsense," Alice continued.  "It is just as if I had pretended all my life I was a baby in a nursery and kept on sucking a bottle.  Margaret is still sucking her baby bottle and she whines for her baby comforter.  Why, I am already far ahead of her, though I have been here such a short time."

      Alice said that had she known what it was like on that side when she was on earth, she would not have bothered so much about dinners and overdrafts.  Molly recalled that Alice was frequently worried about overdrafts.

        The sisters began to discuss Alice's dog.  As Alice tried to write the name of her dog, Patricia, she wrote "Patsey, Pitri-e-" and then "STUPID," after which the pencil was  flung violently down.  After things quieted down, Alice apologized and said she could not get the hand to write properly.

      Molly's next sitting was on March 26, 1929.  Astor asked Molly to wait while he found her sister.  After fumbling with the pencil, Alice began writing in her broken and uneven calligraphy. She informed Mollie that Margaret was giving her a hard time and requested that she mediate. "She is just as mulish as ever," Alice wrote.  Molly recalled Alice using that word many times in describing Margaret. 

      "You know what she's like," Alice continued.  "She's just the same.  Wants everything to be run in her way, by rules and regulations.  I told her she was the real trouble.  That her nagging about this and that was bad for the Mater."  Molly also recalled Alice's frequent use of the word "nagging."

        After a pause, Margaret communicated and complained about Alice.  "She is just the same.  She hasn't changed a bit.  You remember how she used to carry all before her, sweep everything aside to suit herself; behave as though she were the only person in the house to be attended to.  Of course, you were so young when we were together in the house you can't remember how spoilt and impossible she was.  Well, she has simply taken possession of the Mater.  She behaves as if she were mistress of everything. She tries to prevent my seeing her.  She won't let me tell the Mater about my own little difficulties...And when she is coming out in the old colors again I think it is high time she was put in her place. Molly recalled Margaret frequently saying "coming out in old colors again" with regard to Alice.

       Molly suggested that Margaret try to get on better with Alice and she might then gravitate to happier conditions.  Margaret said that she would think it over, then wrote that she would say a few nice words to Alice, after which Alice would speak.  "She is so silly, you know," Margaret ended.  "She boasted to the mater that she had managed to get married and that I hadn't, and had done nothing with my life."  Molly noted that Alice used to taunt Margaret about not being married and doing nothing with her life. 

     After a pause of about a half-minute, the pencil tapped and Alice's peculiar writing began.  "I thought you would do it, Molly," Alice wrote. "She has apologized to me...she saw how much she was in the wrong.  I shall get real peace and happiness now if Margaret really does leave the Mater to me..."

       Alice went on to tell Molly that her new body has been growing and changing.  "You would be surprised if you saw it.  I have grown so much younger.  It gives me pleasure to look and feel as if I were in the twenties again....Perhaps Charles and I will have to live together. HOW HEAVENLY!"  Molly noted that Alice often used this expression in jest. It was written in extra large letters.

       On March 28, Molly again sat with GC.  She asked Astor if she could speak to her two weird sisters.  "They have, during their life on earth, impregnated their ever-growing etheric doubles with the spirit of antagonism for each other," Astor communicated.  "My friend, you sow the seeds of another potential existence here.  You need not be too troubled about them.  Slowly this warp in their being will be straightened out.  But at the moment, when they meet, they respond to old, deep antagonisms.  I will summons them."

        Margaret communicated first and said that she had told Mater she would not be seeing much of her in the future because Alice was jealous of her. "The Mater said the people one lives with can be the creation of our own minds; that I could make Alice a really lovable person by thinking her so all the time.   Such nonsense, really."  Molly noted that this was a phrase frequently used by Margaret.  

      Molly asked how Pater was coping with the situation. "He seems only to be amused at what's happened," Margaret responded. "He isn't interested in either of us.  His whole mind is fixed on some work he has here. He always was that way.  Didn't bother about people."  Molly confirmed this as correct.

       After some other comments by Margaret, there was a pause and Alice returned and wrote that everything has been going well since Margaret left and that she has been visiting many old friends with Mater.  She added that Margaret needed a "husband of the firm kind" to make her understand how to live.  Molly noted that Alice often remarked that women needed "firm husbands."

        The handwriting changed to that of Mater, who affectionately greeted Molly.  Molly asked her what was going on with Alice and Margaret. "Oh yes, I was very upset about it," Mater replied.  "It reminded me of the old days when they quarreled and I could do nothing with them...You know I didn't see much of Margaret till Alice came.  Then she used to visit us a great deal.  At first, I was very pleased.  Then I saw it was partly not to let Alice be the one and only.  So silly, really."  Mollie noted that Margaret was not particularly fond of her mother when alive, and it was very like her to try and upset arrangements under the circumstances as described.    

       Mater explained to Molly that Alice, being newly arrived, needed her attention more than Margaret did.  "I am happy because I know I am able, in this way, to help her to happiness.  I don't mind her taking control of everything. I won't restrain her now.  I will let her give her own nature full play.  Later she will begin to learn, and will change.  At present what is essential is that she should be content after her long discontent, as it would be fatal if she became warped or embittered."

       Mater added that Margaret is much harder to help because she hates change, and she is naturally indolent.

       Because of pressures of other work and also because GC had been in Ireland for several months, Molly did not sit with GC again until September 29, 1929.  Molly told Astor that she would like to talk to her two strange sisters.  After a pause, Margaret began writing.  She mentioned that she had been around Molly several times during the summer and was glad that she was able to spend some time with John (Alice's husband). "You can be very sympathetic," Margaret wrote.  "He never met with that in his married life anyway."  Molly noted that she had visited John several times and what Margaret said was for the most part true. 

      Molly asked Margaret how she was doing.  "Things are getting brighter for me," Margaret replied.  "Alice taunted me about not having friends here, so I thought I would show her that I had my own circle.  So, though I didn't like doing it at all, I looked up strangers.  I tried to make the acquaintance of quite unprepossessing people. The result is, I have made my circle now, but it wouldn't have been made if it hadn't been for Stephen.  You don't know him.  He is the man I loathed so much, who had to live with me here. Well, he isn't so bad after all, though he does upset me still; he is so unmethodical and untidy.  Anyway, he quite understood my point of view about Alice, and agreed that I must show her that I can manage very well for myself, and lead a happy, successful life. So first he brought in his friends.  Some were dreadful people, and I would have had nothing to do with them if it hadn't been for the thought of Alice.  But the finny thing was, that after I had got to know them, they didn't see so dreadful after all.  Do you know, Molly, I believe I made a great mistake in life. I shut myself away from people too much.  I am afraid I was rather self-centered.  I have only just been getting to know how kind people can be, and though Stephen and I have rows sometimes still, I am beginning to see that he means very well and isn't out to deceive me or do me."

       Margaret asked Molly if she would come to live with her when it was her time to cross over to the other side, but Molly said she would have to see what conditions are when she gets there.  Molly then said that she would like to talk to Alice.

       "May I say that I think you are very foolish to talk to Alice?" Margaret replied.  She will only weary you with her temper, but of course, if you want to have a row with her, you can...I could tell you a great deal about travel here if you talk to me.   Most interesting.  The worlds you can visit, the states you can enter....."

        But Molly rejected the offer and asked that Alice be allowed to take over the hand.  There was a pause and the untidy broken handwriting of Alice began.  "Stupid.  This hand is idiotic," Alice wrote as she struggled to take control of GC's hand.

         "Molly dear, I can't tell you how wonderful it is not to have to be cook, housekeeper, charwoman and nurse to John, all combined," Alice wrote. "Don't tell him I said that. I know he did his best."

       Alice went on to say that when John comes over she will leaver Mater and make a home with John since he would never be able to look after himself there.  "He seems to be able to look after himself now at any rate," Molly told Alice.  "I don't think you need bother."

       But Alice insisted that she wanted to be with John again.  When Molly said she didn't seem to appreciate him when she was on earth, Alice agreed.  "I know I didn't.  I have grown to want John again.  It was the reverse on earth."

        When Alice attempted to ask about her dog, she again struggled with the hand.  Beatrice Gibbes explained that GC did not like dogs and that any discussion of them somehow resulted in her organism being upset and thus difficulties arose.

      "It would be difficult to attribute the production of the Ross scripts to the ‘subconscious activity' of Miss Cummins," Gibbes offered in concluding the case. "Her mind contained no reminiscences or associations upon which it could draw in order to successfully dramatize these very original ladies.  That language employed is purely colloquial and there is no attempt to emulate the style of a particular author known to us.  But there is the precise building up of curious and mundane personalities which were characteristic of certain deceased persons unknown to the automatist, but definitely claimed to be recognized by their surviving relatives."

     Gibbes added that the writing did not bear any resemblance to GC's normal script and the phraseology was much different than that used by GC in her conscious state.  Moreover, she concluded that the individuality of the spirit communicators made such theories as telepathy and Universal Memory highly unlikely.

     Only in something like running can finality be achieved, the sort of finality that is almost perfection. But it is not the kind of perfection that leaves you with nothing to live for. You are not your own executioner, because sport is not the main aim of life. Yet to achieve perfection in something, however small, makes it possible to face uncertainty in the more difficult problems of life. - Sir Roger Bannister

        A mile seems like an odd distance when you break it down to 5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, 320 rods, eight furlongs, or 1,609.34 meters.   But it is not without reason, for it was derived from an ancient Roman measure of 1,000 strides or 2,000 paces.  The word comes from the Latin mille, meaning thousand.  

     The fact is that a Roman stride was from the rear of the heel of one foot to the rear of the same heel.  Thus, two paces made one stride.  A Roman pace, therefore figures out to 31.68 inches, pretty consistent with a present day military march step of 32 inches, not quite a yard.

       There is much greater rhyme and reason to the mile when you divide it into four equal parts, as it usually was before the once standard 440-yard track was shortened by a few feet to 400 meters. In those four equal parts, the mile became analogous to the seasons of the year - spring, summer, autumn, and winter - or, concomitantly, to the stages of life - youth, young adulthood, middle age, and old age.

     To fully appreciate the analogies here, one must first recognize that a foot race of any distance can be viewed as a microcosm of life.  There is a start (birth) and a finish (death or liberation).  Between those two points, there is an unfolding - from awkwardness to rhythmic movement, from strength to weakness, from high vitality to depletion, from youthful exuberance to weariness, often reaching a point of near collapse at the finish.  A runner who does not ration his or her energy over the length of the race will say that he or she has "died" before the finish.  As with many in life, we often experience fear, doubt, apprehension, anxiety, suffering, and frustration.   We strive, struggle, suffer, surge, and surmount.  We sometimes surrender and we sometimes soar.

     The mile lends itself to being divided into four equal parts more than any other standard racing distance.  Moreover, the mile is said to be the most balanced running event, requiring equal amounts of strength (anaerobic capacity) and endurance (aerobic capacity).  And so it seems with life.

     Applying a standard unit of time - a minute a quarter - gives special symmetry to the mile and significance to the challenge of running four laps in four minutes...or under.  Covering a mile in four minutes can be looked upon as symbolic of the perfectly paced life - a life of principles, patience, persistence, and perseverance, a life in which suffering is essential because it touches the soul and awakens the spirit.

     The First Quarter (Youth)

     The first lap of the race is like spring and youth.  The runner is fresh, spirited, impulsive and possibly even reckless.  There is a kind of awkwardness in the early strides as one must find a rhythm.  In his book, The First Four Minutes, Roger Bannister recalled the moments right after the gun sent him on his way to running history's first sub-4 minute mile back in 1954.  He slipped in "effortlessly" behind Chris Brasher, "feeling tremendously full or running."  His legs felt no resistance and it was as if he was being "propelled by some unknown force."  He remembered wanting to shout to Brasher, who was acting as a "rabbit," to pick up the pace.  It wasn't until he heard the first lap time of 57.5 seconds that he realized that his sense of pace had deserted him.

      Certainly, discipline is the key on the first lap. Unless proper restraints are applied during this lap, the ordeal ahead will be especially difficult.  To many of us already on life's final lap, it appears that most of today's young people do not have that discipline, i.e., are not properly restrained.  As suggested by the name of a popular movie a few years ago, remaining celibate for 40 days and 40 nights is an act of endurance for today's youth.  Seduced by mammon and spurred on by the follies and fantasies instilled in them by an increasingly hedonistic, celebrity-worshipping culture, youngsters today appear to be running mindlessly and with reckless abandon in the outside lanes while trying to cover the first lap in 50 seconds, a pace which will most definitely take its toll in the early part of the second quarter.  

     As coaches we wonder how they can possibly finish without slowing to a saunter for the remainder of the "race."  We wonder if they care.  We wonder where the parenting and coaching went awry.  We wonder why they do not value the long-term prizes of the spirit as much as the short-term comforts of the flesh.  We blame the system, a system which we did not have the foresight, strength, courage, or time to resist.

     The Second Quarter (Young Adulthood)

     The second lap is like summer and young adulthood.  There is a striving for position as the heat of the battle begins to intensify.  Bannister recalled still worrying about the pace being too slow, but heard a voice shouting, "relax" above the noise of the crowd. He obeyed and found himself relaxing so much that his mind seemed almost detached from his body.  He covered the second lap in 60.5 seconds, passing the half mile in 1:58.

     Settling into a good position with the necessary rhythm is the key to the second lap.  Without the proper discipline on the first lap, this will likely be very difficult.  It's during this second quarter of life that we are establishing ourselves in our careers, developing relationships, marrying, raising children, starting to build a nest egg.  For most, it requires considerable effort, but that effort is still not fully discernible.  We have been conditioned to take it in stride, even though most of us often stutter-step, stumble and stagger as we become "boxed in" or trapped within prisons of own creation.  It's often dog-eat-dog, every person for him- or herself as we strive for a favorable position toward the front.

     The gracious and ethical participant can be easily elbowed and tripped up, possibly falling flat on his or her face and never getting back into the race.  We want the inside track but are often forced to the outside lanes because there is too much ambition, too much selfishness, too much greed on the inside.  It's often plain luck, perhaps fate, that permits the beneficent person to maintain a favorable position. So many well-meaning and gentle souls, though, are unable to adapt to the vainglorious infighting up front. They fall behind and must be content with simply finishing the race out of the medals.

    The Third Quarter (Middle Age)

     Bannister slowed to a 62.7-second autumn lap, still well within reach of four minutes.  He called the third lap "barely perceptible."  For those who have properly paced themselves through life's first two laps, the third lap can be the most comfortable and serene.  By middle age, many people have fully established themselves in home and occupation and are no longer fettered by child-raising.  The passions of youth have been sufficiently quelled and the infirmities of old age not yet encountered.  It is the calm before the storm.

     Many others, however - those who have not properly paced them themselves through the first two laps - are already "crashing and burning."  The flotsam and the jetsam they have left on the track can obstruct and hinder those still maintaining a strong, steady pace.  The last two laps can turn into more of a steeplechase, with its water jumps and hurdles, than a flat, smooth, rhythmic event.  Maintaining focus and composure in spite of the distractions around us while holding something in reserve is the key to the third lap.

     The Gun Lap (Old Age)  

     Then, winter and old age - the gun or bell lap.  The last of the life-giving oxygen begins to seep from the body and some form of arthritis attacks the joints.  The muscles are no longer supple and feel the strain.  "My body had long since exhausted all its energy," Bannister wrote, "but it went on running just the same.  The physical overdraft came only from greater willpower."

     For those who have failed to properly pace themselves, the last quarter will be extremely painful.  It has become increasingly clear to them that their hopes will go unrealized, their ambitions unattained, their desires unfilled.  If they have been unable to escape the jaws of mammon - unable to develop a spiritual outlook on life - they may see the finish line as extinction, obliteration, nothingness.  They bury the idea of death deep in the subconscious and then busy themselves with their jobs, partake of certain pleasures, strut in their new clothes, show off their polished cars, worship celebrities, hit little white balls into round holes, escape in fictitious stories in books, at the movies, and on television, experience vicarious thrills a sporting events, and pursue a mundane security that they expect to last indefinitely.

     But even those maintaining a proper pace may begin to question their resolve, as the finish line looms ahead like death. "The tape meant finality - extinction perhaps!" Bannister recalled thinking.

     Notice the expression on most milers as they cross the finish line - arms outstretched, neck taut, head tilted, face contorted, and in anguish.  It is easy to imagine a wooden cross at the runner's back and he may very well feel like crying out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"

     To Bannister, those last few seconds felt never-ending.  But fun, pleasure and financial reward were never a factor in Bannister's pursuit.  The prize he sought was one of the spirit.  No material reward would have substituted.  Consciously or subconsciously, Bannister knew that the prizes of the spirit cannot be stained, can never rust, can never be corrupted.  It was not extinction that Bannister was facing, he suddenly realized.  There was something much greater waiting for him.  "The faint line of the finishing tape stood ahead as a haven of peace after the struggle," he recalled.  Leaping at the tape he was "like a man taking his last spring to save himself from the chasm that threatens to engulf him."

     Bannister covered the last quarter in 58.7 seconds, finishing in 3:59.4, but it was not the end.  The greatest part was yet to come - liberation!  "No words could be invented for such supreme happiness, eclipsing all other feelings," he wrote, adding that he felt bewildered and overpowered.

     People who have had near death experiences - "dying" and then coming back to life - often recollect things during the time they were "dead" much as Bannister recalled the moments after finishing.

     Those fully immersed in the mundane, clothed in the grossness of matter, slaves to materialism may not fully grasp or appreciate the analogies here.  They likely do not understand that the willpower of which Bannister spoke is a function of spirit and that spirit is the manifestation of soul. However, for those willing and able to see it, the mile run can be one of life's greatest teachers.

     Few people still living in this realm of existence have been involved in the study of Psi, or ESP, however we label it, longer than Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz, now a resident of Vero Beach, Florida.  In his 1968 book, A Psychiatrist Looks at ESP, Schwarz  offers psychiatric case reports on the lives of three individuals, each with psychic ability.  In the Introduction to the book, he states that "the facts of  psychical research are more urgently in need of serious study today than ever before."

       Among his other books are The Jacques Romano Story; Psychic Nexus: Psychic Phenomena in Psychiatry and Everyday Life; Parent-Child Telepathy; Miracles of Peter Sugleris; Psychiatric and Paranormal Aspects of Ufology; and UFO-Dynamics.  He is the co-author of several other books and of 185 scholarly or scientific articles, including many in the Journal of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies.    

      A graduate of Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Medical School, and Bellevue Medical Center, New York University, Dr. Schwarz practiced in New Jersey before moving to Florida in 1982.  In addition to being a long-time member of the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, he is a Fellow of the American Society for Psychical Research, a Fellow of the American Association for The Advancement of Science, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.   I recently put some questions to him by e-mail:      

When and how did you become interested in ESP and paranormal phenomena?

     "Hearing the Dunninger radio broadcasts when I was a child fascinated me, as did my father's occasional accounts of a railroad worker's telepathic demonstrations before the Kiwanis Club, and more so my mother's ‘private conversations' with her best friend who frequently wondered about various mediums, fortune tellers, etc.  My mother was down-to-earth, open minded, and frequently advised Edith in so many words that she, Edith, had as much ability as those she consulted and should ‘be herself.'  I also read about psi and was later jolted by my mother's telepathic apprehension of my brother, Eric, being killed in action in WWII when I was on leave from the Navy while in medical school.  

      "During internship, I heard more about Henry Gross, the Maine dowser, from friends and books, and wanted to meet him.  Then, during my fellowship in psychiatry, I had contact with some psi gifted patients which made me more curious and led to further readings on the subject. Later, in private practice, I expanded the practical aspects of telepathy in psychotherapy and embarked on the in-depth studies of gifted paragnosts. On a field trip to Kentucky with dowser Henry Gross, I also studied the ordeals by serpents, fire and strychnine in the Holiness people.  Other super paragnosts that I got to know well were Jacques Romano, Joseph Dunninger, Arthur Ford, Gerard Croiset, and Professor Tenhaeff's extraordinary paragnost from the Netherlands when he visited the United States.

      "Also, Kreskin, my New Jersey neighbor, and I became friends.  In those years I also reported on a series of parent-child telepathic experiences from my own family. In addition to these varied projects and in some instances concomitant electrographic researches (EEG), UFO's and its psychiatric paranormal aspects captured my attention. The latter centered largely on Stella Lansing and her UFO motion pictures and the renowned abductee Betty Hill, whom I first met at a UFO conference."

In what area of ESP was your initial focus?

                  "My initial focus was on the nonagenarian-telepath-genius Jacques Romano who could demonstrate a variety of telepathic skills and who beyond that had a most creative mind.  It was uplifting to be with him for what happened, was happening or would happen around him. This led to an enhanced awareness of psi with my patients and also with my  wife and two children, plus frequent telepathy with my parents.  By making near ab initio records of the telepathic exchanges between patients and myself largely in face-to-face psychotherapy plus other circumstances, and becoming familiar with the extensive psychiatric literature on psi, and meeting some of the leading figures in those areas, I found my situation similar to the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the Emperor's New Suit of Clothes, i.e., how could anyone in this field who cared to examine (and experience) the wealth of psi data possibly miss the boat? ... the surprises, challenges, intrigues, and above all potentials for understanding."

     How did your friends and colleagues react to your interest in ESP?

                   "Fortunately, my family and friends shared my interests in psi and also participated in many experiences with me and in their own lives. My neighbor, Bartholomew A. Ruggieri, a distinguished pediatrician who co-authored a book on child-parent relationships with me, got to know many of the gifted people/paragnosts who visited my office; and Bart also shared and wrote about some of his newly acquired psi awareness with his patients and with myself.  My psychiatric colleagues were always respectful and treated me kindly. My practice was active and even though many of my referring physicians knew of my psi research, they continued to send me patients, some with remarkable psi aspects. At no time was I ridiculed, and to the contrary, when I had ‘Romano parties' or Dunninger visits to my home/office my physician-colleagues-attendees were most appreciative and to this day some who are still living ask about events of long ago and what subsequently happened. Indeed, the experiences at the ‘parties' might have changed their lives."
        Among the various cases you have personally studied, which do you consider the most interesting?

      "When I moved to Florida in 1982, I thought that my psi researches were at an end but synchronicity intervened and I became immersed for the past twenty-five years in studying two spectacularly psi gifted people. My formal studies of Joe A. Nuzum of Pennsylvania have included his mental psi, i.e., telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and his physical psi,  i.e., virtuoso metal bending and its derivatives, such as transposition of markings/inscriptions of metallic surfaces, genuine escapes from various restraints, psi induced combustion, telekinesis, levitation, variegated matter through matter feats and teleportation. Through synchronicity I met Katie, a Florida housewife who had many diverse psi abilities, and in the course of our sessions developed apportations and the presumed materialization of ‘gold foil'... actually, on analysis, copper and zinc... upon her body and sometimes on the bodies of others including myself, and when entranced illiterate Katie would also write the quatrains of Nostradamus in its English translations with Greek, Latin, and French phrases. Recently, her son, James, who had been observed through the years, discovered a carving of a mammoth on a fossilized mammoth bone that he found during his paleontology diggings. Sandwiched in between these years I also studied Peter Sugleris and his super psi abilities, including a well documented, videographed and recorded episode of a Peter's levitation in his mother's backyard."

     What about UFO cases?

       "Stella Lansing, a Massachusetts housewife, had taken hundreds of movies of UFO's.  I was with her many times when she was filming, and also saw many of her films. The UFO pictures sometimes overlapped...in dividing frames...an optical impossibility. She also, beginner's luck, separately filmed a UFO-like craft and its four occupants; and once when with Stella, I filmed and apparently out of nowhere came a nocturnal mystery auto with strange alternating signaling headlights.  In addition, Stella had many paranormal experiences, films and audiotapes. Her friend Fran, when with Stella and alone, obtained similar UFO psi filmic percepts as once did my son, Eric. Stella provided many clues to the UFO mystery and offered insights about the phenomena. I am indebted for the expert assistance of Fortean photographer, August C. Roberts, Joseph Dunninger, ufologists Brent Raynes, and Shirley Fickett, my son Eric and others. Everything is relative and it is difficult to rank something "second"... some of the best examples can not be reported, as they are too personal, or must be consigned to footnotes or the "time capsule."

            Do you see your colleagues in psychiatry today as being any more open minded than they were 50-60 years ago? What about the rest of the world? Are they  any more accepting today than back then?

                   "My psychiatric colleagues always have their hands full with their patients, and although friendly towards me, most were not interested in paranormal research.  Had they bothered to look into it further like my neighbor, Dr. Ruggieri, I think that they too would have had their eyes opened, and found the subject to have practical value in behavioral states, telesomatic reactions and ‘healing.'  In Florida a colleague attended a Joe Nuzum demonstration and also once came to a Katie session.  I regret how I failed to interest my county medical society to have Joe Nuzum perform at one of their meetings, or to have Katie appear at a state psychiatric conference. I miss my colleagues-friends and famous researchers Jule Eisenbud, Jan Ehrenwald, Nandor Fodor, Joost Meerloo, Ian Stevenson and Montague Ullman, who in their magnificent works opened whole new vistas  for psi exploration and medicine, and whose seminal thoughts are still waiting wider acknowledgement and exploration.  Although these luminaries have all passed on, I am sure that new psychiatric researchers will enter the field, for psi is as inviting today as in the past, and there is no reason why, for example, many of the spectacular, but so sadly missing for so many years, phenomena like materialization of whole body forms with speech, movement, thought and levitations, should not reappear, be investigated and understood with new techniques and instruments. Is medicine, and psychiatry in particular, ready for such a potential explosion of knowledge? As in the past, there are deep psychological resistances. The road is bumpy yet it can be traversed."

        What are your thoughts on Super Psi? Do you think it can explain messages   coming through mediums and otherwise defeat the survival hypothesis?

          "Before considering Super Psi, it might behoove the experimenters to become thoroughly familiar with the telepathy of everyday life.  A psychiatrist, if so interested and trained, is in an exceptional position to undertake this task.  He/she will have the challenges of having an assortment of telepathic transactions between his patients and himself, as well as spilling over into the sessions with other patients and into their lives outside formal sessions.  Many of these episodes, by experts already mentioned, have been written up but I particularly recommend the classic, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science by the psychoanalyst, Nandor Fodor.  In my opinion this is still the most comprehensive, best book ever written on psi.  Psi research can become engrossing in its demanding attention and memory attributes but it can also be rewarding in understanding the complexity of thought, how it originates, is shared, and influences behavior, decisions, creative invention, and bodily functions.  For example, my own early volley of telepathic drawing experiments graphically show how psi might operate in surprising, unintended, sometimes proscopic ways.  Indeed, how it might and does happen in everyday communications.  Life and much of its complexity can be dissected. Although Super PSI can be an explanation and be involved, for example, with experimental book tests as done by Dunninger, Joe Nuzum and others, it does not denigrate nor rule out other possibilities.  There are many examples of Super Psi versus discarnate-other dimensional communications in the literature, and I applaud your excellent, recently published, The Articulate Dead.  Although not in the league of some of your exquisite examples, I have had some personal experiences which might make Super Psi less likely, if not inexplicable, compared to alternative hypotheses, including survival.  Such psychiatric examples might include my articles connected with the deaths of Gertrude Ogden Tubby and Nandor Fodor.  Some of the best examples are so personal that they are saved for the ‘time capsule.'  They might be spectacular and meaningful to the experient but not interesting to the reader who would have to connect all the dots...not as easy or scientifically appealing as studying and documenting measured physical psi, e.g., levitation or telekinesis, matter through matter."         

           Many of the early researchers held that the medium's spirit control was a "secondary personality" capable of telepathically feeding back information. How do you feel about that?

          "When I first met Nandor Fodor he told me how he had solved the origin of Eileen Garrett's spirit control (Uvani), but before Dr. Fodor could elaborate he died. Although the personality of the medium is often the main feature of the communication in many cases this is clearly not always the case. It is almost too far fetched to try and fit it into that notch, i.e., multiple personality...forms of dissociation, than to utilize the spirit control hypothesis.   Joe Nuzum and Katie when entranced frequently alluded to the source of their communicators, as ‘spirits,' or with names of deceased people known to them,, or in general terms as Katie's ‘the watchers,' or for Nostradamus, the ‘old guy.'  In many cases it is more plausible to accept on face value the identification claims of the communicator, as you have done recently in your article on Mrs. Piper's Phinuit, than to go to abstruse-alternative meandering.  Some of Joe Nuzum's most spectacular experiences, which I have transcribed, involved communications with deceased, and for which the ‘secondary personality feeding-back telepathic' explanation would take unusual gyrations as a suitable explanation.  For example, at a Joe Nuzum performance, a woman wrote the name of her deceased husband on a piece of paper, placed it on a table which then levitated. After gliding back to the floor the woman examined the paper.  In her deceased husband's handwriting it said, ‘Please Honey, don't go.' The woman was slated to go to Iraq for a job.  Later, Joe learned that the husband, while working in a steel mill, fell into the furnace and was consumed (JNT XVI: 248-250)."

          What do you see as the future of parapsychology and psychical research?

          "The data of psychical research are as challenging and momentous as ever. They demand attention and revived investigations using new techniques from many scientific disciplines. Paradoxically, it seems it might be that the physicists...‘objectivist-materialists'...will be the ones to pry open psi's secrets with the exciting developments of quantum theory.  Yet this does not leave out the still pressing need for concomitant psychiatric-paranormal research, since these studies involve people, emotions, rapport, behavior, the unconscious with the trance and forms of dissociation, neurosciences and biology.  Reexamined data from the past as well as more recent discoveries such as those by Eisenbud on thoughtography, Stevenson on reincarnation, and precognition in the neglected ‘chair tests' with Croiset by the late professor Tenhaeff all merit renewed attention.  Similarly future parapsychological considerations should include the spectacular filmic recorded ‘Psi Physics' obtained by Wm. Edward Cox in his SORRAT researches, and the equally compelling, companion, spiritistic, motivation factors reported by leading SORRAT protagonists, Alice Neihardt Thompson in her The Great Adventure Handbook for Living.  All these explorations in addition to electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and related instrumental trance communications (ITC) although written up largely in popular forms have not received the attention they merit in parapsychogical and other scientific journals.

           "The future might have been delayed but it cannot be denied. The medical-practical applications of psi in the study of immune mechanisms and its role in causation (telesomatic), defense, ‘cure' - healing and or amelioration of diseases can be further explored. The medical sciences are equipped to investigate and analyze these cases. The influence of psi discoveries on philosophy is no less provocative than its implications for psychopathology, behavior, ethics, conscience development and pointing to new ways of studying mankind.  Perhaps an overlooked key to the understanding of psi might be synchronicity, a psychic nexus aspect including and extending beyond telepathy and which might loom large for the future. The theme is developed in several books by English professor, SORRAT protagonist-paragnost, John Thomas Richards."

      If my evangelical and fundamentalist friends are right, I face a pretty harsh judgment after I die.  My interest in the "demonic" things discussed in this blog as well as my failure to accept the "faith" and atonement doctrines means I am headed straight into the fire and brimstone.  

      Here's how it should go, if they are correct.  I will stand before God for my judgment. St. Peter will hand Him a scroll that covers my life history.  God will review it and say:

     "Ah, Michael, my boy, I see here you had some problems with pride, lust, envy, greed, sloth, wrath, and gluttony along your journey, but you seem to have overcome  them quite well, except perhaps for the last one. You could have presented yourself at least 20 pounds lighter.  Overall, though, it appears that you led a reasonably disciplined and decent life, selfish at times, but giving more than taking.  I commend you for your efforts in confronting the challenges I put before you."

      "Thanks, God.  I know I could have done better, but I hope it was good enough to let me through those pearly gates."

      "I'm sorry, son, I can't let you in."

      "Oh, My God, why is that?  Are You saying the Bible thumpers were right?"

       "Exactly."

       "But I accepted most of the Bible in a symbolic way.  And Jesus has always been my role model, and I considered him the greatest prophet who ever lived and thought of him pretty much as chairman of the board in Your kingdom. I simply refused to believe that he was on a power trip like some dictator or ancient king, wanting us to sing Hosanna 24/7. Don't I get any points for shouldering the burden rather than placing it all on him?" 

        "Sorry to say that you don't.  You should have listened to your ‘born again'

friends.

         "Do you mean to say, God, that I could have really pigged out and presented myself at a perfect weight or 100 pounds overweight, instead of just 20, and it would not have made any difference?"

         "What can I say?  Yes."

          "God, I gather I am going to have a lot of time to think about my mistakes, but just so I better understand, are you saying that I could have murdered, raped, pillaged, and done all kinds of nasty things but would have been allowed entry to Your kingdom if I had repented and been ‘born again' just before I died?"  

          "You've got it right there, son."

          "And I could have been perfect in loving and serving my fellow man, but still not allowed entry simply because I didn't worship properly?  That doesn't seem fair."

          "Who are you to question my fairness, you disrespectful, arrogant, self-righteous, good-for-nothing, wicked, gluttonous devil worshipper?  I've got a few million more people here to judge today. Move on! Begone!"

           Gavel slams down and I am cast into hell to spend eternity as my ‘born again' friends look on and lament that I did not listen to them.  

        Within Christianity, there are varying views relative to when the judgment takes place.  With some, it is immediately after dying, the soul moving on to heaven's staging area until a greater judgment at the time of the rapture, at which time there is admission to an even more glorious environment.  With other denominations, there is no judgment of any kind until the moldering body is restored and raised from the dead with all others on that final day.  In the mean time, we sleep in the grave.  If your body has been been cremated, or vaporized in an atomic blast, tough luck. 

         Simon Tugwell, a Dominican priest and Oxford theologian, explains that Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist and saint, taught that at death people go to "nice or nasty waiting-rooms, depending on their moral qualities," and there they await Judgment Day.   

     Referring to this double judgment - a particular judgment following death and a more universal one at end of time, Tugwell points out that church authorities are faced with a fundamental ambiguity in that it is not clear what is left to be judged at the time of the resurrection.  Popes and scholars wrestled with the ambiguity and a popular compromise was that the soul is judged right after death and can experience heaven with only limited bliss. It is only when the soul and the resurrected body are combined at the final judgment that full bliss - an intensity of beatitude - can be realized.  We can then see God in full light.  

      Tugwell suggests that the "embarrassment" of the time-lag between death and resurrection may be a time lag only as viewed by humans, who are unable to comprehend the timelessness of the afterlife.  He seems to conclude that we do not know what happens to the dead immediately after death and until the resurrection, but "they are in God, so all is well."

      According to Michael J. Taylor, S.J., professor emeritus of religious studies at Seattle University in Washington, a new theology of death has emerged.  Instead of God passing judgment on how we lived as the person stands passively before Him, the dying person is allowed to make a final choice for or against God.  "In this ‘moment' all the dying will have full consciousness and complete freedom," Taylor explains.  "Their powers of decision-making will be totally clear and will be made with full awareness of all their important life choices up to that point.  What may have been vague and uncertain choices in life will now be firmly made: the best of former options will be ratified in a final way."

       In effect, the person chooses an eternity with or without God.  Apparently, the person does not see the latter state as the horrific hell of orthodoxy, but rather as one of self-love.  His decision is based upon what he has learned during his lifetime.  If he does not opt for an eternity with God, then he probably is in for a rude awakening.

       Modern revelation, coming to us primarily through mediumship and near-death experiences, offers us a much more sensible, rational, and fair judgment, if it can be called a "judgment," one consistent with a loving and just God.  Many near-death experiencers have reported a "life review" in which they see definitive moments in their life flash before them during the experience.  P. M. H. Atwater, whose NDE took place during 1977, reported that she saw every thought she had ever had, every word she had ever spoken, and every deed she had ever done during her life review.  Moreover, she saw the effects of every thought, word, and deed on everyone who might have been affected by them.   As she interpreted it, she was judging herself.

     Tom Sawyer, who had an NDE in 1978 when his car fell on him while he was working under it, recalled reliving every thought and attitude connected with decisive moments in his life and seeing them through the eyes of those who were affected by his actions.  He particularly recalled an incident that took place when he was driving his hot-rod pickup at age 19 and nearly hit a jaywalking pedestrian, who darted in front of him from behind another vehicle.  When Sawyer engaged in a verbal exchange with the pedestrian, the man yelled some four-letter words at him, reached through the window, and hit him with his open hand.  Sawyer responded by jumping out of his car and beating the man relentlessly. During his life review, Sawyer came to know everything about the man, including his age, the fact that his wife had recently died, and that he was in a drunken state because of his bereavement.   

       Sawyer came to see the attack from his victim's standpoint. "[I experienced] seeing Tom Sawyer's fist come directly into my face," he recalled. "And I felt the indignation, the rage, the embarrassment, the frustration, the physical pain...I felt my teeth going through my lower lip - in other words, I was in that man's eyes.  I was in that man's body.  I experienced everything of that inter-relationship between Tom Sawyer and that man that day.  I experienced unbelievable things about that man that are of a very personal, confidential, and private nature." 

       Although he does not refer to it as a life review, Carl Gustav Jung, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist, writes of something very similar in describing a near-death experience he had in 1944 after breaking his foot and then having a heart attack. "It was as if I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced or done, everything that had happened around me. I might also say: it was with me, and I was it. I consisted of all that, so to speak.  I consisted of my own history, and I felt with great certainty: this is what I am.  ‘I am this bundle of what has been, and what has been accomplished.'"

       Jung went on to say that he had the certainty that he was about to enter an illuminated room and then understand the historical nexus of his life and what would come after. However, his vision ceased before he had such an experience.

       After his death, pioneering psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers communicated extensively through the mediumship of Geraldine Cummins of Ireland.  Myers referred to the period immediately after death as Hades and "The Play of the Shadow Show."  He said that this period varies considerably from individual to individual, but generally after the soul is greeted by deceased loved ones it experiences a semi-suspended consciousness and sees fragmentary happenings the life just lived. "He watches this changing show as a man drowsily watches a shimmering sunny landscape on a midsummer day," Myers explained.  "He is detached and apart, judging the individual who participates in these experiences, judging his own self with aid of the Light from Above.

       Myers further explained that while this is taking place, the etheric body is loosening itself from the "husk" and when the judgment is completed, generally after three to four days, the soul takes flight, passes into the world of illusion, and resumes full consciousness.

         he Rev. William Stainton Moses, an Anglican priest, developed into a medium and put many questions to an apparently advanced spirit called Imperator.  One of the questions he asked was whether there is a general judgment.  "No," was the response.  "The judgment is complete when the spirit gravitates to the home which it has made for itself.  There can be no error.  It is placed by the eternal law of fitness.  That judgment is complete, until the spirit is fitted to pass to a higher sphere, when the same process is repeated, and so on and on until the purgatorial spheres of work are done with, and the soul passes within the inner heaven of contemplation."

       Imperator explained to Moses that the soul is the arbiter of its own destiny and that the "sentence" it imposes upon itself is based on the character it has built up by its earthly acts.

     In 1853, Dr. Robert Hare, an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, commenced an investigation of mediums with the intent of debunking them..  However, he was soon converted to Spiritualism and received many messages from the spirit world explaining how things operated on that side.  As he came to see it, one's immediate place in the afterlife "is determined by a sort of moral specific gravity, in which merit is inversely as weight."

     This moral specific gravity is apparently built up during a person's lifetime based on his or her good or works or lack thereof and manifests itself in the person's energy field, or aura.  Hare called it a circumambient halo and was told that it passes from darkness to effulgence based on the degree of spirit advancement.  Moreover, one cannot be dishonest with himself as the moral specific gravity allows him to tolerate only so much light. If he were to try to cheat and go to a higher sphere, he would not be able to tolerate the light there.

      Seemingly consistent with this moral specific gravity idea is the explanation given to Frederick C. Schulthorp during his early 20^th Century astral projections.  Schulthorp was told that every thought generates an electrical impulse that is impressed upon the individual's energy field and is stored there.  Every thought, he was informed by communicating spirits, has a specific rate of vibration.  The combined vibrations over a lifetime determine the person's initial station in the afterlife environment.   "Upon entry into spirit life, a person will naturally and automatically gravitate to his state in spirit which corresponds to his acts and thoughts throughout life as reproduced by his ‘personal tape record,'" Schulthorp explained his understanding at a time before computers made this comprehensible to the average person.

        A moral specific gravity is an idea that appeals to reason and one that can be reconciled with a just and loving God.  It is a plan of attainment and attunement, of gradual spiritual growth, of reaping what we sow.  

In a recent Internet article, Philip Bender, an American teaching English to Chinese doctors, asked his students for their views on the afterlife.  He found that, like Westerners, they had euphemisms for death, including, "closed their eyes," "left the world," "gone to the Western sky," and, for important people, "hung up," or "gone to see Chairman Mao."   As to whether they actually believed in an afterlife, the responses were mixed.  None of them appeared to have a conviction in this regard, but some of them expressed the traditional belief in spirits.  Most were ambivalent or skeptical.

Surprisingly, a 2003 survey of  1,044 American doctors found that 76-percent believe in God, while 59-percent believe in some kind of afterlife.  It is a curiosity that there are quite a few who believe in God but do not believe in an afterlife.  

For doctors as well as for everyone, the question is whether brain and mind are one and the same thing.   As a long-time neurosurgeon, Dr John L Turner of Hawaii, is very familiar with brain matter.  However, in recent years he has come to the conclusion that brain and mind are not the same thing, as most professors in medical schools would have their students believe.

In his recently-published book, Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations, (The Career Press, Inc.), Turner states that his search has basically been aimed at determining if we are merely "brief candles strutting and fretting on the stage of life, only to be extinguished when the play ends."  And he wonders if death is as simple to understand as changing trains.   Based on what he has learned so far, he is reasonably certain we live on in a never-ending universe.  Concomitantly, in line with the bigger picture, he is interested in ways in which complementary medicine, or energy medicine, might contribute to the quality of this lifetime.  "We need to better understand that we are one with that energy and one with all things," he offers.

 Turner has been interested in psychic matters since his days in graduate school some 40 years ago.  Beginning his practice of medicine and surgery on an island where he was the only neurosurgeon, the lack of peer pressure allowed his unhampered study of metaphysics, spiritual matters, and life after death. Now that he has limited his medical practice to consultations, he is finding time to learn more about subjects the general populace calls "paranormal."  He is actively involved with a group studying Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and is learning about mediumship.

 His interest is such matters began while pursuing a Ph.D. in physics.  "Until then, my interest in the paranormal was limited to reading about astral projection in books by Oliver Fox and Sylvan Muldoon, and during my undergraduate days, I would spend time trying to ‘roll out' of my body," Turner explains.   "It never worked and eventually I abandoned the effort.  Later, during graduate school in the department of physics at Ohio State University, I was given the book, The Sleeping Prophet, about Edgar Cayce.  That completely changed the course of my life, pulled me into a search for other dimensions and the spiritual world."

After reading about Cayce, Turner made a sudden change from physics to medicine. However, the intense study and training in Western medicine left no time for him to think about more spiritual forms of healing.  After moving to the "Big Island" of Hawaii in 1982, Turner focused on mainstream medicine.  "Any search for the dimension from which Edgar Cayce culled his information had to be put on hold," he says.  "I had a full practice and family matters to tend to." 

 A case in which a malignant brain tumor disappeared after seven Buddhists monks intervened rekindled his interest in spiritual matters.   "I couldn't believe my eyes!" Turner writes in the book.  "There was no trace of the lesion that had glared menacingly from the screen before and after the surgery."  

In another case - brain surgery in which Turner seemed to have exhausted all options - he decided to try prayer.  It apparently worked as the surgery was successful.    But even when unsuccessful in saving a patient, Turner came to see spiritual implications.  He studied reports of near-death experiences and "began to realize that we have a spirit that does not extinguish at death, but lives on to begin a new journey."  He again experimented with out-of-body travel, or "astral projection," then remote viewing, and meditative chanting.   Through Buddhist chanting, he found that he could disassociate his mind from his body and become aware of remote events.  Then he discovered Jorei, a form of healing energy channeled from the spirit world, a procedure espoused by Mokichi Okada of  Tokyo, Japan.  Initially, Turner found Jorei "a difficult pill to swallow," but the more he studied and observed it, the more he began to realize that there was something to it.

As Turner thinks back on it, energy medicine started to become part of his practice around 1995.  "Before that, I didn't employ energy healing methods, even though I became increasingly aware of them," he recalls.  I didn't really begin to put it all together until I had read the books, Into the Light by Dr. William Campbell Douglass and The Secret Life of Plants, which set things up for the philosophy of Mokichi Okada and what he called the Medical Art of Japan.

"Although there may have been some unseen - to me - raised eyebrows, I was never criticized or subjected to ridicule," Turner says of his blending of Western and Eastern medicine.  "The entire hospital staff was able to see the results, as Mokichi Okada had predicted, saying that it would begin in Hawaii.  This was significant because he never visited Hawaii."

Turner doubts that he would have had such freedom on the Mainland USA.  "I spoke with a Mainland surgeon today," he offered.  "She said that at one hospital, after talking about her experience with remote viewing in surgery, the conversation was reported and her staff privileges were removed.  I remember a doctor in Ashville, North Carolina saying that some lawyers, at the behest of drug companies, were threatening to pull physicians' medical licenses if they practiced non-traditional medicine, as it was not in keeping with ‘the standard of care' in the area.  So here, on this island, where no neurosurgeon ventured before, due to lack of equipment and income limitations,  I had no opposition at all, but rather, encouragement to do what I felt best for the patient."

 Dr. Turner's interest in EVP and Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) is fairly recent and was encouraged by Martin Simmonds, a resident England, who helped Turner construct his website (http://johnlturner.com/index.php).  Not long after they talked about EVP and ITC, Simmonds complained of abdominal pain and died from cancer shortly thereafter.  In some recent experiments, Turner seems to have made EVP contact with his old friend.

Does Turner see any hope for energy medicine being accepted by Western physicians?  "Unfortunately," he shrugs, "many physicians stand fast to their allopathic (conventional) training and refuse to budge even in the face of verifiable evidence of the efficacy of incorporating universal energy techniques into bag of tools."  However, he believes that in time, when selfishness takes a back seat to love, they will "see the light."

There is a school of thought among psychologists and grief counselors that the aggrieved person should find closure by "letting go" and getting on with his or her life.  Nothing is more wrong, Dr. Louis LaGrand believes.  We should be saying hello to our deceased loved ones, not goodbye.  

"Of all the misconceptions associated with the grief process, none is more damaging than the idea  that mourners must let go of the deceased and find closure," LaGrand, a semi-retired professor, opines.  He agrees, however, that you can hold on "too tightly" to the past and that this can prevent the mourner from rebuilding his or her life in the present.  He distinguishes between "love" and "attachment," pointing out that love is being fully committed to the welfare of the departed, while attachment is being more concerned with one's own needs.  "In short, mourners should establish a new relationship with the deceased and reinvest in life at the same time," he offers.  
 

The author of eight books and numerous articles, LaGrand, who lives in Florida, is known world-wide for his research on the extraordinary experiences (EEs) of the bereaved, otherwise known as after-death communication or ADC.  EEs, LaGrand stresses, are not messages coming through mediums or psychics.  Rather they involve such phenomena as seeing apparitions, hearing the deceased person, having a scent of the deceased person, intuitively feeling the person's presence, sometimes even feeling a touch, receiving meaningful symbols and signs, and having vivid dreams about the deceased love one.

With advanced degrees from Columbia University, the University of Notre Dame and Florida State University, LaGrand is a distinguished service professor emeritus at State University of New York, as well as a certified grief counselor.  He gives workshops on grief support and stress reduction in schools, hospices, and health agencies around the United States and abroad.   Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with him and discuss his years of work with the bereaved and his study of EEs.

 "The scientific method does not lend itself well to examining spontaneous events or intuitive faculties," LaGrand says, "and so these things must necessarily fall under the umbrella of the paranormal, but they should not be brushed aside and ignored because they do not meet scientific criteria, as they bring about healing and expanded consciousness for mourners and give meaning to life."

As LaGrand sees it, the hope generated by EEs and other forms of after-death communication, including mediumship and near-death experiences, is the most unappreciated virtue in coping with loss and change, especially the death of a loved one.

To deal with grief, LaGrand recommends keeping a journal, noting synchronicities and asking yourself what the message is, reading some of the powerful evidence of the spirit world, starting a daily spiritual practice, whether meditating, writing, chanting, or simply taking time out to talk with our loved ones in spirit.   

"Without a doubt," he responds when asked if believers are more open to accepting the death of a loved one than non-believers.  "They believe the beloved is in a better place, out of pain, and most comforting, that there will be a reunion one day.  There will always be a relationship and death cannot take it away.  This also implies that they are still loved and have an advocate on the other side."

LaGrand's interest in dying and death began some 40 years ago when he attended a conference on human ecology along with several of his fellow educators.  On the drive home from the conference, the subject of dying and death was brought up by one of his colleagues.  "I realized then how little I knew about the topic and decided I needed a crash course on the subject," he recalls.  "The next semester, I included a short mini-course on the topic in the Human Ecology course and the students loved it.  Within the space of a year I was able to get approval for the first full semester course on dying and death to be taught at the college.  Of course, this meant I had to do a lot of study and preparation which brought me to joining the Association for Death Education and Counseling. There I learned much over the years from colleagues I befriended."

As for dealing with the dying, especially in hospice work, it would be ideal if all the terminally-ill had the knowledge and conviction of the Spiritualist and LaGrand would be happy if his books, including Love Lives On and After Death Communication: Final Farewells, were more widely available to hospice patients, but the reality is that few hospice administrators and volunteers are prepared to discuss such things.  "Hospice philosophy does not push knowledge about an afterlife on its patients," LaGrand explains.  "This does not mean that the topic does not come up.  Hospice personnel allow the dying person to take the lead in this regard.  Some dying people want to talk about it.  Others do not."

As with hospitals, hospices can differ significantly when it comes to discussing the afterlife, depending on who is in the leadership positions and who is in the trenches, LaGrand points out.  "Officially, administrators seem to want to be politically correct and not say it is policy to discuss the hereafter," he adds.  "Without a doubt many people want to talk about what's next.  One of the important skills of the caregiver is to determine when an opening for discussion presents itself."  
 

But many caregivers are schooled in orthodox religion and therefore not prepared to discuss the subject in a meaningful way.  And, of course, there is also the problem of the pastors who serve the hospices and the dying patients.  "There are some denominations in orthodox religion who believe the devil is behind much of the communication that is claimed by mourners," LaGrand says, shaking his head. "However, Catholics, Episcopalians, and some others are open to the possibility by way of the Doctrine of the Communion of Saints.  When I deal with a conflict, as I did once with a Baptist minister, I let the person do all the talking and make no attempt to change his views.  Why?  Because both sides hold extremely strong views and I believe it is a waste of time to try to change the other."

LaGrand has observed a wide range of attitudes among the dying.  "Some are very accepting of their deaths and are more concerned about how their loved ones will get along," he muses.  "Others have some fear of the unknown.  Still others will deny their deaths right up to the end.  This can be very disturbing to family members. Yet, denial of one's death may be the only coping mechanism a person possesses and can employ, and we have to be very careful about taking that away by trying to get the individual to understand that death is near.  It would only greatly add to the anxiety." 

While most dying people want close family and friend around for a while, at some point they tend to go within and seek peace, LaGrand ends the interview.  "The last words of my father, whom I saw take his last breath, to his sister, who was trying to keep him engaged with life was, ‘Please leave me alone.'  He died shortly after.  He was a believer and was ready to go."

Dr. LaGrand's web site is at:  http://www.extraordinarygriefexperiences.com/