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Thought Imagery & Ectoplasm (Part III in a series)

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:53:03 GMT

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.

Tags: ectoplasm, teleplasm, materialization, thought-imagery, spiritualism, spirits, seances, physical mediumship, W. Usborne Moore

The Mystery of Ectoplasm -- Part II ("Absurd, but true.")

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:33:12 GMT

above: not all ectoplasm flows from the mouth

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..

Tags: ectoplasm, teleplasm, mediumship, Eva C., spirituality, spirits, materializations, Albert von Schrenck Notzing, Gustave Geley

The Mystery of Ectoplasm - Part I

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:33:03 GMT

Above: Ectoplasm

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.

Tags: ectoplasm, spirituality, life after death, Charles Richet, materializations, spiritualism, psychical research

Feuds and Regrets in the Afterlife

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:23:55 GMT

above: Geraldine Cummins

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.

Tags: spirituality, mediumship, life after death, consciousness, Geraldine Cummins, automatic writing

Meeting Death at the Finish Line

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:57:55 GMT

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.

Tags: spirituality, mile, mile run, death, liberation, microcosm of life, proper pacing

A Psychiatrist Explores the Paranormal

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:21:31 GMT

above: Berthold E. Schwarz, M.D.

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."

Tags: Berthold E. Schwarz, spirituality, ESP, consciousness, pyschiatry, telepathy, psychical research, life after death

How the "dead" are judged

http://metgat.gaia.com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:36:32 GMT

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.

Tags: spirituality, judgment day, life after death, afterlife, judgment at death, Frederic W. H. Myers, William Stainton Moses, Robert Hare, Simon Tugwell

Brain Surgeon Searches for the Soul

http://metgat.gaia.com — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:08:03 GMT

above: John L. Turner, M.D.

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."

Tags: John L. Turner, Medicine, Miracles, and Manifestations, energy medicine, life after death, Jorei

No Need to "Let Go" of Loved Ones after Death

http://metgat.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:05:54 GMT

above: Dr. Louis LaGrand

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/

Tags: Louis LaGrand, dying, death, hospice care, spirituality, life after death, grief, grieving

Was Michael Jackson Overshadowed by Spirits?

http://metgat.gaia.com — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:50:52 GMT

Above: Jesse Shepard

There has been much in the way of spirit communication to suggest that talented artists in the spirit world attempt to influence, or overshadow, people here on the earth plane, especially people who might have an aptitude for whatever gift the particular spirit had when incarnate. "The spirit world, rather than the physical world, is the sphere of causes," Dr. James M. Peebles, a California physician, quotes one of many seemingly advanced spirit communicators in an 1887 book. "Its baptismal influences are continually being poured upon mortals. All great orators are inspired; all poets are impressed; the greatest artists often paint wiser than they are known. Many of the best mediums on earth do not know they are mediums. Many claim thoughts and ideas as their own that were simply transmitted to their sensitive brain."

Psychical researcher Allan Kardec was told much the same thing by communicating spirits - that we are influenced by various spirits, some advanced, some "earthbound," some talented but not particularly advanced or earthbound. Moreover, a person can be overshadowed by a number of spirits at the same time. Overshadowing is a matter of degree and the individual can accept or reject the influence based on free will. Possession or obsession is a very advanced degree of overshadowing.

While watching an hour-long TV special about the life of Michael Jackson last week, I couldn't help wonder if he had been overshadowed by both artistic spirits and by some very low-level spirits, perhaps even possessed by some relative to his obvious hang-ups.

One of the more interesting stories in this regard is referred to as The Thompson-Gifford case. During January 1907, Frederic L. Thompson, a New York City goldsmith, consulted Dr. James H. Hyslop, the founder and director of the American Institute for Scientific Research, which was devoted to the study of abnormal psychology and psychical research. "Mr. Thompson came to me with the fear that his visions and hallucinations were threatening his sanity," Hyslop explained.

Thompson informed Hyslop, a former Columbia University professor of logic and ethics, that around the middle of 1905 he was "suddenly and inexplicably seized with an impulse to sketch and paint pictures." Prior to that, he had no real interest or experience in art beyond the engraving required in his occupation. The impulses were accompanied by "hallucinations or visions" of trees and landscapes. The impulses so affected him that he found it difficult to concentrate on his job.

One particular image that Thompson could not get out of his mind involved some gnarled oak trees overlooking the ocean. Hyslop asked Thompson to paint the scene from the images he was getting. Since Hyslop had been studying mediumistic phenomena, he arranged to have Thompson sit with three different mediums. The information coming through the mediums revealed that Thompson was being influenced by a deceased artist named Robert Swain Gifford, who had died shortly before Thompson's problems began. Thompson and Hyslop were able to piece together information that directed them to the island of Nashawena in the Elizabeth Islands, off Massachusetts. There they found the scene Thompson had painted it for Hyslop, the curves and bends in the trees just as Thompson had painted them from the mental images he received.

"On any theory we ought to recognize that the identity of Mr. Gifford is clear," Hyslop concluded. "There are perhaps no single incidents that would force one to accept this view, but their collective force is overwhelming and constitutes a mass of relevant hints inapplicable to any one else."

While skeptics might claim that Thompson made up the whole story and that he actually visited the scenes beforehand and made the sketches he claimed came from his visions, Hyslop saw no motive for such a charade, nor could fraud explain how Thompson suddenly became an accomplished artist with no prior experience or training. Most of all, though, Thompson had no control over the sittings with the mediums, which were arranged and observed by Hyslop. If Thompson had been faking it, how did all the veridical information concerning Gifford come through the mediums?

"Superficially, at least, all the facts point to the spiritistic hypothesis, whatever perplexities exist in regard to the modus operandi of the agencies effecting the result," Hyslop ended his report.

Probably the best known case of musical overshadowing is that of Rosemary Brown, a widowed London housewife who, beginning in 1964, was believed to have channeled the spirits of many great composers, including Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart, Chopin, Bach, and Debussy. Although Brown, who had mediumistic abilities, had taken some piano lessons, she had no real talent and was unacquainted with the technicalities of writing notes. She was contacted by Liszt and told that a group of composers from the spirit world would be using her to dictate new compositions through her by means of automatic writing. "You have sufficient training for our purposes," Liszt told her. "Had you been given a really full musical education it would have been no help to us at all."

Liszt explained that a full musical background would have been an impediment to them as she would have had too many theories and ideas of her own that they might not have been able to overcome.

Brown proceeded to produce many musical works, all of which were well beyond her previous capabilities and appeared on both British and American TV. Music critics were divided as to whether her music resembled or approached that of the old masters. "I've no doubt she's psychic," said composer Richard Rodney Bennett. "She's told me things about myself she just couldn't have known about. I was having trouble with a piece of music and she passed along Debussy's recommendation - which worked....A lot of people can improvise but you couldn't fake music like this without years of training. I couldn't have faked some of the Beethoven myself."

Renowned pianist Hephzibah Menuhin was also impressed. "The music is absolutely in the style of these composers," she said.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Brown_(spiritualist)

Communicating through direct-voice medium Leslie Flint in 1956, Chopin mentioned having been aware, during his earth life, of some kind of beings giving him inspiration and assistance while he was composing. In fact, he gave that as his reason for making so much effort to contact those on earth, i.e., he was grateful for having had help and he wanted to extend any help he could to others.

More amazing, though, is the story of Jesse F. Shepard, a musical medium who performed on the piano in the United States, Australia, Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and other countries, often before royalty. He also sang, his voice said to fill cathedrals. However, he performed mostly in the dark and always while in a trance state. Occasionally, the piano could be seen playing without Shepard's hands on it. In the normal (non-trance) state, he could neither play nor sing.

Reporting on a performance that took place on September 3, 1893, Prince Adam Wisniewski stated that the second piece played by Shepard that night was a rhapsody for four hands, played by Liszt and Thalberg. "Notwithstanding this extra ordinarily complex technique, the harmony was admirable, and such as no one present had ever known paralleled, even by Liszt himself, whom I personally knew, and in whom passion and delicacy were united. In the circle were musicians who, like me, had heard the greatest pianists in Europe, but we can say that we never heard such truly supernatural execution."

Of Shepard's voice, Professor M. Bernardin Rahn said that it was very unique. "There is no imitation of it possible," he added. "The compass of the voice can have nothing likened to it. A bass of profound depth, full expression, is first heard. Thereupon it is answered by a soprano, which attains the utmost heights with clear and thrilling notes. Brilliant shakes follow the most amazing staccato."

According to Professor J. Kiddle of New York, Shepard was not only a gifted trance musician, but also gave trance addresses in English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Chaldean, and Arabic, dealing with scientific, philosophical, and social subjects. He also wrote two volumes of discourses. Renowned Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck, the 1911 Nobel Prize winner in literature, said that he knew of nothing in literature more admirable or more profound.

Some people thought that medium Daniel Dunglas Home was a talented musician, but it was really the spirit or spirits overshadowing him that deserved the credit. Sir William Crookes, the distinguished British chemist and physicist who discovered the element Thallium and was a pioneer in x-ray technology, reported seeing an accordion, its keys untouched by human hands, playing beautiful music in the presence of Home on several occasions. Home would hold the end of the accordion with his finger tips, allowing the instrument to hang. Apparently, the "psychic force" required for the spirits to play the instrument was transmitted through Home's body and fingers. In one of the experiments, Crookes enclosed the accordion in a cage, while Home held the end of it from outside the cage. "It then commenced to play, at first chords and runs, and afterwards a well-known sweet and plaintive melody, which was executed perfectly in a very beautiful manner," Crookes reported, mentioning that these experiments took place in his own house and that he had purchased the accordion himself, not allowing Home to handle it before the experiment so that there could be no possibility of a trick instrument.

Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator with Charles Darwin of the natural selection theory of evolution, was present in Crookes' home at one such experiment. "The room was well-lighted and I distinctly saw Home's hand holding the instrument, which moved up and down and played a tune without any visible cause," Wallace reported, adding that Home took away his hand and the instrument continued to be played by a "detached hand" that clearly did not belong to Home.

On another occasion, the accordion floated across the room, clearly free of Home. "A phantom form came from a corner of the room, took an accordion in its hands, and then glided about the room playing the instrument," Crookes wrote. "The form was visible to all present for many minutes, Mr. Home also been seen at the time. Coming rather close to a lady who was sitting apart from the rest of the company, she gave a slight cry, upon which [the phantom] vanished."

It may be that child prodigies are a result of such spirit influence. Dr. Charles Richet, the 1913 Nobel Prize winner in medicine, reported on the strange case of Pepito Arriola, when, at age 3 years, 3 months, he performed at the Psychological Congress in Paris during 1900. Richet stated that the boy played brilliantly on the piano. "He composed military or funeral marches, waltzes, habaneras, minuets, and played some twenty difficult pieces from memory," Richet, a professor of physiology at the medical school of the University of Paris for 38 years, wrote. "A hundred members of the Congress heard and applauded him."

It was further reported that little Pepito's hands could not stretch more than five notes, yet he appeared to sound full octaves. Some onlookers said that his hands seemed to increase in size during the playing, and Rosalie Thompson, a clairvoyant, claimed that she saw the child dissolve into the figure of a man while at the piano.

As Pepito's mother was an accomplished musician, one might conclude that the boy's gift was genetic. However, the mother stated that she did not teach him. Her first awareness of the boy's talent was when he was just 2 ½. She heard one of her own difficult pieces being correctly played, entered the room, and found her son at the piano.

Genetics may be a factor in that the spirits seem to seek out a person who as the innate ability for whatever it is they are trying to impart. Spirit operators explained to medium William Stainton Moses that because he had no real musical appreciation, they could not produce proper music through him. Communicating spirits told Allan Kardec that such spirits are inclined to influence those with whom they have a certain "affection."

"As a matter of fact, all of the most brilliant geniuses of any age have been [so inspired]," the communicating spirit quoted by Dr. Peebles said. "They could not have originated the ideas which are conveyed by the works of men like Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Dante, Plato, Aristotle, and others, unless the writers or speakers had been inspired by men from the spirit world."

When asked whether the human "sensitive" should take credit, the spirit replied: "He takes all the credit of their utterance in your world, but as it is only temporarily, we do not mind it. When he comes into the spirit world he finds his mistake out, and is obliged to admit that he is not such a genius as he thought he was. Then he has to take his proper place in the world of thought, and perhaps may be dissatisfied...Alas! how are the mighty fallen. When the spirit world reveals to them how little they really were, and how useless have been their attempts at self glorification, they begin to be wiser and sadder men."

Tags: Michael Jackson, overshadowing, spirits, Rosemary Brown, Jesse F. Shepard, life after death, musical ability, spirituality

Remembering Frederic Myers -- Frederic Who?

http://metgat.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:47:33 GMT

Above: Frederic W. H. Myers

Theodor Flournoy, a world-renowned University of Geneva psychology professor, once opined that the name Frederic W. H. Myers should be joined to those of Copernicus and Darwin, completing "the triad of geniuses" who most profoundly revolutionized scientific thought.

Pioneering psychiatrist William James, wrote that Frederic Myers "will always be remembered in psychology as the pioneer who staked out a vast tract of mental wilderness and planted the flag of genuine science upon it."

"Frederic Who?" you ask. Put Frederic William Henry Myers into a Google search and the first thing that pops up is a Wikipedia entry identifying him as an English poet and essayist, hardly a reason to justify the glorious comments by Professors Flournoy and James.

Everyone knows the name of Sigmund Freud, but very few know that of Frederic Myers, a man who seems to have been ahead of Freud in developing a systematic conception of the subconscious mind.

Although not educated as a psychologist, Myers, a Cambridge classical scholar was a de facto psychologist who referred to the subconscious as the "subliminal." When, in 1911, Freud joined the Society for Psychical Research, which was co-founded by Myers in 1882, he wrote an article making it clear that Myers' "subliminal" was not the same as his "unconscious." Essentially, the difference was that Myers saw a soul enveloped in the subconscious, while Freud accepted atomic materialism, which denied the existence of a soul.

Why isn't Myers remembered today? Perhaps, because, as Aldous Huxley saw it, Freud was focused on the "rats and beetles in the cellarage," while Myers was more interested in the treasures and birds in the attic, something Freud, who was a mere teenager when Myers began developing his ideas of the subconscious, ignored.

In a newly-released biography of Myers, Immortal Longings, author Trevor Hamilton explains that Myers is not remembered today because the prevailing paradigm in those early years of psychology, as it remains today, was the Wundtian approach, which holds that the only things that make sense are those which can be scientifically measured and quantified. The soul was not subject to scientific measurement, so was rejected.

Huxley saw Myers as a classical scholar, a minor poet, a conscientious observer, and a platonic philosopher, someone who "was free to pay more attention to the positive aspects of the subliminal self than to its negative and destructive aspects," as with psychologists and psychiatrists of then and now. Hamilton quotes Huxley as saying that Myers' "unconscious" was superior to Freud's in that it was more comprehensive and truer to the data of experience. How much Myers influenced Freud is not clear, but there is little doubt that Myers' ideas significantly influenced William James and Carl Jung.

Sir Oliver Lodge, the esteemed physicist and electricity pioneer, stated that Myers had, before his death in 1901, been "laying the foundation for a cosmic philosophy, a scheme of existence as large and comprehensive and well founded as any that have appeared."

In his autobiography Lodge wrote that Myers had a remarkable interest in science and a portentous memory. He knew the Ǣneid by heart and could recite many of the Bab Ballads without difficulty. Lodge remembered attending one of Myers' lectures on the poet Crabbe, calling it a remarkable tour de force. "He had no notes," Lodge recalled, "but after speaking of Crabbe and his poetry in unexpectedly eulogistic terms, he recited from memory whole reams of Crabbe's poetry, which I had never heard before, and was ignorant of."

It was Myers, Lodge explained, who broke down his skepticism and showed him the reasonableness of the survival hypothesis. "He it was who put evidence in my way such as gradually convinced me of the truth of the doctrine."

Dr. Charles Richet, the 1913 Nobel Prize winner in medicine, said: "If Myers was not a mystic, he had all the faith of a mystic and the ardour of an apostle, in conjunction with the sagacity and precision of a savant."

The latter part of the 19^th Century was a time of despair and hopelessness for many. "We were all in the first flush of triumphant Darwinism, when terrene evolution had explained so much that men hardly cared to look beyond," Myers is quoted by Hamilton in explaining why he set out in search of the soul.

As with so many other educated people, Myers, the son of a minister, had lost his faith, and life had become a march toward an abyss into nothingness. He recognized that there were many who were "willing to let earthly activities and pleasures gradually dissipate and obscure the larger hope" during life's death march, but, perhaps because he was a deep thinker, Myers was unable to effectively use the defense mechanism called repression to overcome his death anxiety and his concomitant fear of extinction.

Subtitled "FWH Myers and the Victorian Search for Life after Death," Hamilton's book details the efforts of Myers and several of his colleagues to make sense out of various paranormal phenomena which seemed to suggest that the world is not totally mechanistic and that consciousness does survive physical death.

Although Professor William Barrett, a physicist, is recognized as the prime mover in setting up the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882, he relinquished the leadership roles to Myers and his two Cambridge friends, Edmund Gurney, and Professor Henry Sidgwick. Their objective was to scientifically study the phenomena, including hypnotism, telepathy, multiple personalities, and mediumship, to see if they offered any evidence that mind was not totally dependent on brain and that there is something beyond the five sense. But they had to do it discreetly, cautiously, and indirectly. "To admit the literal reality of the ghost was to move back to the dark ages," Hamilton explains their dilemma. There were simply too many "newly enlightened" people in the upper echelons of society who could not make a distinction between matters of the spirit and the superstitions of the church they had left behind and now scoffed at.

"It is too simple to represent Victorian England as a pious, fundamentalist land shaken by the advances of a materialistic and iconoclastic science," Hamilton states, pointing out that the census of 1851 revealed that well over five million people did not attend church on Sunday, March 30, 1851. However, it was clear, Hamilton adds, that the educated middle classes and upper-middle classes were emancipating themselves from their evangelical roots as a result of the scientific and scholarly advances. Darwinism might have been the crowning blow, but this emancipation had begun well before Darwin, during the "Age of Reason."

Drawing from Myers' diary, a short autobiography written only for his friends, and other references, Hamilton explores Myers' early life and the influences which shaped his beliefs and disbeliefs. He acquaints us with his days at Cambridge, when he was called, "Myers the superb," and then discusses his conflicting love interests as well as other trials and tribulations. He tells how Myers hooked up with Gurney and Sidgwick and how the three intellectuals complemented each other in various ways - Myers often brash and assertive, Sidgwick reserved and cautious, Gurney meticulous and somewhere in between Myers and Sidgwick in his enthusiasm for their mission.

The SPR exposed many fraudulent mediums, although there is controversy over some of the exposures, including that of Madame Blavatsky. The mediumship of Eusapia Palladino was also very controversial, some members of the SPR convinced that she was a charlatan and other that she was a genuine medium, whereas the truth seems to be that she was a "mixed" medium - producing genuine phenomena at times and faking some at those times when her powers failed her. Theosophists, in the case of Blavatsky, and Spiritualists, in the case of various other mediums, argued that the researchers simply didn't understand the phenomena and were applying terrestrial science to celestial matters which they didn't understand.

As Hamilton sees it, Myers was caught in a Victorian dilemma. "One set of desires, the yearning for the immortal, spiritual universe, was opposed by another set, which was the wish for privacy and the hiding of any evidence that breached the unimpeachable façade of familial and moral behaviour," he writes. "His need to prove and even preach survival was counterbalanced by his reticence over intimate evidence."

That "intimate evidence" involved a number of evidential messages coming to him through different mediums from Annie Marshall, his great love of the early 1870s (although apparently a platonic affair because of her marriage to Myers' cousin). When Annie killed herself because of her many frustrations, Myers grieved deeply. When he later married the beautiful and wealthy Eveleen Tennant, their marriage was troubled somewhat because of Annie's communications with Myers from beyond the veil - communications which Myers kept private and which were destroyed by his wife after his death.

Myers died at age 57 of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder. William James, who was present in Rome when Myers, his friend, died, wrote that "his serenity, in fact, his eagerness to go, and his extraordinary intellectual vitality up to the very time the death agony began, and even in the midst of it, were a superb spectacle and deeply impressed the doctors, as well as ourselves."

After Myers death, various mediums began receiving messages purportedly coming from Myers. Some of these messages were very fragmented and made no sense until they were collected and pieced together to make complete ideas. "The whole process seemed at times like a giant Victorian word game (anagrams, cryptic puzzles, strange puns and rhymes), of which, in fact, Myers and his colleagues...were inordinately fond," Hamilton explains. These so-called "cross-correspondences" were interpreted by other researchers as attempts by Myers, as well as by Gurney and Sidgwick, both of whom preceded him in death, to overcome some of the objections to mediumship, including fraud and telepathy. "[They suggested] a high level of collective design and purpose, implying character, intention and personality," Hamilton states.

One of the more simple cross-correspondences came through on January 17, 1904, when Alice MacDonald Fleming, the sister of author Rudyard Kipling, received the biblical reference I Cor. xvi, 12 from Myers by means of automatic writing. Living in India at the time, Fleming was instructed by Myers to send the message to SPR headquarters in London. He further told the SPR that he tried to get the entire wording through in Greek but could not get Fleming's hand to form Greek characters, and so he gave only the reference. On the very same day, thousands of miles away in England, Mrs. Margaret Verrall, an automatic writing medium who was a member of the SPR, also received the same biblical reference from Myers by means of automatic writing. This biblical passage, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong," was the wording inscribed in Greek over the gateway of Selwyn College, Cambridge, under which Myers frequently passed.

One message for Sidgwick's widow, Eleanor, who had been very active in the SPR, read, "Now, dear Mrs. Sidgwick, in future have no doubt or fear of so called death, as there is none."

In another communication, Myers gave this message about the afterlife: "The reality is infinitely more wonderful than our most daring conjectures. Indeed, no conjecture is sufficiently daring."

Myers was apparently ahead of the times in the area of physical fitness as well. His diary indicates that he ran two miles most days, one day finishing his run in 13 ½ minutes. "Beside the record of his time he added ‘Inextricable sadness,'" Hamilton writes. "Through his life, while he was fit enough, one hazards that these runs, at times virtually every day, coincided with periods of intense spiritual and emotional disturbance."

On a trip to the United States in 1865, Myers decided to test himself by swimming across the Niagara River, from the Canadian side to immediately below the falls. "I plunged in; the cliffs, the cataract, the moon herself, were hidden in a tower of whirling spray; in the foamy rush I struck at air; waves from all sides beat me to and fro; I seemed immersed in thundering chaos, alone amid the roar of doom." Myers wrote in his diary.

Hamilton concludes the book by asking if Myers' quest had been successful. "In personal terms it was," he opines. ""He became convinced, on the basis of the intimate sittings he had with both Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Thompson, that he had communicated with human beings (however different their nature and post-mortem existence) who had survived bodily death. This belief was underpinned by his wide ranging reading and research in paranormal and abnormal activity across Europe and in the United States. It led to him bearing the onset of death with a kind of joyous resilience, almost even insouciance..."

On the other hand, Myers obviously failed in his wider hope of establishing immortality for the spiritually-challenged masses. While the search for immortality continues today, more than a hundred years later, the foundation established by Myers and his colleagues seems to be slowly but increasingly appreciated.

Hamilton offers a very interesting, intriguing, informative, in-depth, and even inspirational look at one of history's most overlooked and unappreciated contributors. One wonders if or when modern psychology will ever escape from the muck and mire of scientific fundamentalism and catch up with Myers.
Immortal Longings is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.com.UK

Tags: Frederic W. H. Myers, Trevor Hamilton, Immortal Longings, spirituality, life after death, mediumship, Society for Psychical Research

A Near-Death Experience to Die For

http://metgat.gaia.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:37:11 GMT

above: Fanny Ruthven Paget

In her 1917 book, How I Know that the Dead Are Alive, Fanny Ruthven Paget offers one of the most vivid and detailed near-death experiences ever recorded. While not clearly stating her illness, one might infer that Paget, a resident of Houston, Texas, suffered from severe pneumonia for several days during 1911.

"All about and above me I could see nothing, but fancy my astonishment if you can, when looking down, I saw my body resting peacefully on the bed, representing what is commonly called a ‘dead person'," Paget recalled. "I could not move my eyes from it; it fascinated me as it lay in the cold whiteness, robed in a gown of lavender silk, with dainty laces and ruffles...The deep blue ‘windows of the soul,' the eyes, were at half mast; the soul being absent the light was gone; the lips slightly parted wore just a suggestion of a smile; the left hand rested lightly on the breast - the engagement ring scintillating as brightly as ever; the right, which no doubt had been lifted unconsciously at the shock of impact, had fallen a little apart from the body and lay, palm upturned. How peaceful it looked!

"Thus every detail of the clay image fastened itself upon my consideration as I viewed it dispassionately, realizing that it was a cast-off garment for which I had no further use. However, I felt a protective kindliness toward it; it had been a faithful servant, executing my every wish and whim and now that I had passed beyond the range of its services, it pleased my fancy to robe it in the white, pearl-be-decked dress, the wearing of which had meant so much to me in quite a different way."

Paget then concerned herself with her fiancé in another town and found herself being propelled by a vibratory sensation to his sleeping body. "As I looked upon him I saw the shadow body more distinctly than the physical. Viewed from the other side of life, the ‘shadow' body seemed the original and the physical the duplicate, the soul the real, the body the unreal. Within and interpenetrating all was a light, which I had not before perceived as being a part of the spiritual anatomy. This light penetrated from within, both the shadow and physical bodies, maintaining through and about the body an aura or illumination which enveloped it; clothing it, as it were, in a magnetized illumination. How wonderful this three-in-one life-manifestation seemed, especially when we generally recognize only the one - the physical!"

Talking to the Living

Moving closer to her fiancé, Paget attempted to converse with him, but he slept on, even though his soul, which was not sleeping, responded joyously and tried to help her penetrate his physical consciousness as he moaned and turned restlessly in his sleep. After a few moments, he cried out, "Fanny, Fanny," and sat up in bed, wide awake. As he turned on a light and reached for his glasses and a magazine, she tried to communicate, but he did not react to her words. "I am dead, that is why he cannot hear and see me," she thought, further recalling that she felt more alive than she had ever felt. "There was something pitiably painful about being so near one beloved, seeing him plainly and hearing him distinctly, even knowing that he was thinking of me, and yet having him utterly ignore my presence, and above all knowing that he would never recognize me again - never hear my voice no matter how ardently I called, while I was the same in every way minus the physical body."

Then she perceived that her vibratory environment did not harmonize with his. "Mine was the vibration of perpetual motion - his more like a ‘dead sea' into which these vibratory currents ebbed and flowed, and it seemed such an easy matter to move out of the ‘deadness' into the ‘ebb and flow' that I waited and watched a long time before I realized that he would make no effort to do so."

Realizing that she would not be able to penetrate his physical consciousness, she bade him farewell and attempted to move on; however, the vibratory force seemed to restrain her. "Persistently the force held me, as though inviting me to further considerations of earth interests, but I had none. My material possessions were disposed of as I desired; there was no life-work I was leaving incomplete; I had no children, no one depending on me; nothing held me to the earth. My desire had been to go beyond it and now that I had done so, I was well pleased and wanted to go on to the joys I felt awaited me beyond the influence of earth. Yet the force held me, try as I would to pass beyond it, until, instead of struggling against it I tried to understand it - to wrest from it its reason for thus detaining me, feeling that there must be some reason for such marked persistence. Almost instantly the lesson sank into my consciousness and I realized that the long arm of mundane interests can reach into the Beyond and hold its victims within the shadow of earth - pitting its magnetism against the promise of higher things."

She then felt herself moving in an undulating way within the propelling vibration and was suddenly enveloped in oppressive heavy darkness, feeling alone in eternity and waiting in awesome uncertainty. She perceived that the darkness was really within her and could be eliminated only from within. "There were loved ones and many others welcoming me and rejoicing that I was with them." Her spirit guide, who identified himself as Meon, was also there. She now felt light and carefree.

Visiting "Hell"

Meon then told her to follow him, "and with a soft, bluish light playing about and enveloping us, we floated out on the undulating waves of space." As they were propelled by vibratory waves, they encountered a "red darkness" where she found herself among many others. "I was listening, trying to hear what they were saying but the vibrations were evidently not in harmony, so I could not hear distinctly, and after a long time of vain effort I turned to Meon, and asked ‘What place is this?'" Meon explained that they were in a place still very much within earth's magnetism, or spiritual gravitation. Paget asked why the souls were detained there and Meon informed her that some desire it while others were not yet strong enough to progress beyond that point. "Earth interests hold them," he explained.

"There was no bar to their going on but they did not want to; some did not know they could not give up the earth life," Paget related. "In this dark earth-magnetized region disembodied spirits lived the mundane existence much as the psychic lives the spiritual while yet in the mundane - one in progression, the other retrogression. Disembodied spirits living the mundane life do so at the expense of human beings in the earth life, while the mundane person living the spiritual life is obeying the law of evolution and progression."

Paget observed spirits of love and mercy attempting to help those souls stuck in this "hellish" realm, but most of them had not yet acquired "spiritual hearing" and did not respond to the offers of assistance. There were some, however, who heard and struggled up from the vortex. Meon informed her that no soul was irretrievably lost, no matter how many aeons it may remain in the darkness.

Paget began to wonder if this was to be her new abode, but Meon assured her that it was not. "Did not the Christ descend into this place before his ascension?" he addressed her concern.

"Far out beyond the red-fringed darkness I could see light, in which rainbows seemed to play, pale as the dawn, of a gray-weird loveliness, coming and going as though flirting with the darkness, for to embrace it would be to destroy," she continue on. "For delicate beauty it seemed I had never seen anything more fascinating or alluring than this kiss of the dawn and the darkness in the Soul world - it was like kissing death goodbye."

The Dawn World

They passed into what seemed to be another world. Paget called it the "Dawn World," since it seemed that the light began to neutralize the darkness. "There were houses, flowers, trees, everything was so life-like it amazed me. I almost fancied I had returned to earth." The inhabitants conversed with her, but they did not seem to realize that they were in the "after life," as they were not entirely free of earth's magnetism. Paget witnessed some of them going earthward, as though drawn by something of paramount importance. "While there seemed no doubt that these people once inhabited the earth, I saw no one I had ever known in this life. They had possibly progressed there out of the darkness and would go back to help those less fortunate into the higher condition which they had attained."

Meon and Paget vibrated onward in ever increasing light. "So enchanting was this riding on vibratory waves of space in a gentle undulatory way, that I felt like going on forever, and forever, never tiring, never stopping, but after abandoning myself to the witchery of it for some time, I perceived the vibrations changing, merging into a quivering sensation, even more exquisite, and then, as if part of it, my feet came upon something different, something firm and reliable."

She now found herself in a city of light, one of whiteness, boundless in expanse. "It seemed I had reached the limit of my ability to float in space. It seemed that I was heavier than my surroundings in some way. Everywhere were the most exalted souls I had yet seen. Some came forward and greeted us, addressing Meon as though he were one of them, and then, together, we entered into a building immeasurable in space and height, the veritable soul of architectural magnificence. The material had the transparency of glass of a variegated whiteness, into which colors, harmonizing in the most delicate way, were coming and going, ever changing. Electricity seemed to be the power which held it all together, as the electric blue would merge into violet and play incessantly, in a serpentine way, into which almost imperceptible yellowish streams seemed to flow. It was self-illuminated...It seemed that all the wisdom of all the ages was mine as I stood there. Life and death gave up their mysteries, and I no longer wondered but observed as one who understood. The machinery of earth existence was operated and regulated by and through the power of this plane. It was actually in contact with the earth. No happening on earth escaped the observation of the great spirits who seemed to have nothing else to do but watch over the beings of earth, to teach them, to lift them up through darkness, watch over reincarnations, create teachers and place them where they were most needed. With these teachers they were in direct communication at all times and knew exactly what was going on through some form of wireless telegraphy or telephony, perhaps, but they communicated as though there were no distance.

"They seemed to draw the highly evolved souls of earth up to them mentally, and these cooperated consciously, responding unerringly. It was marvelous to watch the process or rather processes, as there were many phases of this supervision. There were coming and going all the time. I saw many go out and disappear into the depths, all rejoicing in their work, the uplifting of humanity. The souls were countless, the space immeasurable, yet there was no confusion - it was system idealized, each recognizing his mission and doing it. Truly, it was the Christ principle manifested, for they were laboring for others, not themselves."

Meon took Paget even higher, where the influence of earth was not felt. A great soul came forward and asked her if she would like to return to earth. She said she would like to return only if she could do good by telling others what she had experienced. The being warned her that many would not believe her and that she might suffer from her efforts, but Paget said she was up for the challenge.

A Life Review

Paget then felt alone with bowed head. She then saw a little light vibrating directly before her. It began shaping itself into something. "It was not unlike a moving picture." She began to see figures and a small girl emerged. She soon realized that the young girl was herself and she was reliving her life on earth. She saw herself reveling in her grand passion, music, which held her in bondage as she grew in the joy and mastery of it. "How the little, white fingers, too small to span an octave, subconsciously caught fragments from the ‘choir invisible' and imprisoned them on the piano!

She saw herself grow through college and into a proud, self-centered woman. There appeared before her three roads, one labeled "Good," one "Evil," and the other, the center, was unlabeled. She found herself on the center road, which had many more people than either of the side roads. "These roads were guarded by invisible creatures, according to the indicated propensities of each, who were always calling to those who traveled in the center, in an endeavor to influence them to more determined tendencies. Ever and anon there were paths leading from the center to the outer roads and from one outer road to the other, showing how easily one can change ones course at will."

Paget then saw the young woman dreaming of becoming a great singer, the compensation being the homage of the world. "I saw her holding to heart in enchanted fancy, as the only thing worth while, the emptiest of all life's coveted cups - Fame." There was no one to remind her that ‘by ambition fell the angels."

The "movie" of her life continued on to the time she came down with a severe case of laryngitis and lost her singing voice. She saw herself cursing God and being enveloped by a shadow-stained covering of materialism. She saw both her parents pass into the spirit world, leaving her alone, fighting the bitter fight. She saw even the most trivial matters in her life review. "Its faithfulness to detail was perfectly marvelous. Nothing was hidden, nothing slurred over. It was all there. I was standing face to face with my earth life just as I had lived it, awaiting its condemnation or justification."

When the life review ended, Meon stood waiting. He told her that the purpose of the review was to build an edifice on the ashes as she returned to earth life.

‘Meon and other spirits were hovering about me. I could feel the electrified essence, which had manifested its presence everywhere during my voyage, drawing itself away - letting me go, as it were. Then the burden of physical life was full upon me and what a misfit I was!"

Tags: near-death experience, death, life after death, spirituality, consciousness, Fanny Ruthven Paget

What is the "Second Death"?

http://metgat.gaia.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:52:28 GMT

In my years as a competitive long-distance runner, I regularly experienced the phenomenon referred to as the "second wind." Even for the well-conditioned runner, the first 150 to 200 yards of a race involves some stress and struggle as the heart and lungs are asked to suddenly quicken. However, after around 30 seconds, the second wind kicks in and the body settles down into a relatively effortless rhythm. It is like a car going through first and second gears before finally shifting into high gear.

As I have come to understand it, the "second death" is something akin to the second wind. That is, immediately after the silver cord breaks and the physical body releases the spirit body, i.e., "gives up the ghost," there is some stress, some confusion, some struggling in the spirit person's attempt to adjust to his or her new condition. When the adjustment is made, the second death is experienced.

The term "second death" is found in the New Testament Book of Revelations four times:

2:11: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

20:6: Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

20:14: And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

21:8: But the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murders, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Bible scholars don't seem to agree on the meaning of those verses. They do agree that physical death is the "first" death, but beyond that interpretations become very convoluted. One popular fundamentalist interpretation puts it that he who has accepted Christ has already died the second death - death to sin. Therefore, it cannot hurt him. Those who actually experience the second death end up in a "lake of fire."

While we might infer from the Biblical interpretations that the second death means some kind of condemnation, the more metaphysical interpretations suggest just the opposite - a graduation of some kind from a lower state to a higher state.

The predominant theory is that the second death takes place within hours or a few days for the spiritually advanced, but may take months of years in earth time for the spiritually challenged, those who remain "earthbound." In effect, the second death is an "awakening" to one's condition based on one's spiritual consciousness in the earth life. The second death might be equated to the now popular expression, "going into the light" at the end of the tunnel as well as to the "Ground Luminosity" of the Buddhist.

"We might with justice speak of a first and second death because not only the physical body has to be shed but the next body also," a spirit entity calling himself "Scott" communicated to Jane Sherwood. "Think of the whole man as being composed of four interpenetrating forms. The second of these is very near to the physical in substance and is very closely knit to it. It is the etheric or life-body and gives the power of sensory experience. It never leaves the physical body, even in sleep, but at death it parts from the physical along with the astral and ego bodies. It is too closely related to the physical to allow the higher bodies to pass clearly into their proper sphere, so it also has to be shed and this is the second death."

This transition stage - between the first and second deaths - has been referred to as Hades, which is not synonymous with Hell, as some religions would have us believe. There may be great confusion, a "fire of the mind," so to speak, by materialistic or spiritually-challenged souls; hence the belief that Hades is the Hell of religion. In effect, Hades seems to be an intermediate or staging area of sorts where the soul must adjust its vibrations to the spirit world. It is said that even Jesus needed a period of adjustment, or at least wanted to experience it so that he knew what others were going through. Thus, he initially spent a day or more in Hades and then on the third day "rose into Heaven." That is, he apparently experienced the second death on the third day. Of course, there are many who would argue with such an interpretation.

The spiritually-challenged souls are frequently referred to as "earthbound" spirits, because they cling to earthly ways. Referring back to the long-distance runner comparison, it seems appropriate to liken these earthbound spirits to the overweight couch potato who attempts to run a marathon. He might run for 200 yards, but instead of getting a second wind, he is forced to slow to a trot or just walk, and even surrender in frustration.

"The duration of the state of confusion that follows death varies greatly," explained Alan Kardec, the pioneering French psychical researcher of the 19^th Century. "It may be only of a few hours, and it may be of several months, or even years," Kardec wrote. "Those with whom it lasts the least are they who, during the earthly life, have identified themselves most closely with their future state, because they are soonest able to understand their new situation."

Kardec went on to say that there is nothing painful in this mental confusion for those who have lived an upright life. "He is calm, and his perceptions are those of a peaceful awakening out of sleep. But for him whose conscience is not clean, it is full of anxiety and anguish that become more and more poignant in proportion as he recovers consciousness."

One spirit communicated to Kardec that his state was a very happy one and that he no longer felt the pains he experienced during his final days in the earth life. "The transition from the terrestrial life to the spirit life was, at first, something that I could not understand, and everything seemed incomprehensible to me; for we sometimes remain for several days without recovering our clearness of thought; but, before I died, I prayed that God would give me the power of speaking to those I love, and my prayer was granted." He estimated that it took him about eight hours in earth time to regain clearness of thought.

Silver Birch, the spirit entity who spoke through the entranced Maurice Barbanell, said the same thing. "This [awakening] depends on the degree of awareness that the newcomer possesses," he explained. "If completely ignorant of the fact that life continues after earthly death, or if so indoctrinated with false ideas that understanding will take a long time, then there is a process of rest equivalent to sleep."

Silver Birch went on to say that the time for realization is self-determined. It can be short or long, as measured by our duration of time. For the enlightened, at least those whose actions in the physical world were in accordance with their enlightenment, it is a speedy process.

A very similar message comes from the writings of medium Alice A. Bailey and her teacher, the Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul. They point out that most people, being focused on the physical plane, experience a semi-consciousness in the period after death, usually one of emotional and mental bewilderment. The etheric body of the spiritually-undeveloped person can linger for a long time near its discarded physical shell because the pull of the soul is not as potent as the material aspect is.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead refers to this period of awakening as the "Ground Luminosity" or "Clear Light," and says that the vast majority of peopledo not immediately recognize the Ground Luminosity and are therefore plunged into a state of unconsciousness. As explained by Sogyal Rinpoche, the spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist groups and centers, consciousness continues without the body and goes through a series of states called "bardos." The problem is that in the bardos "most people go on grasping at a false sense of self, with its ghostly grasping at physical solidity, and this continuation of that illusion, which has been at the root of all suffering in life, exposes them in death to more suffering, especially in the ‘bardo of becoming'."

Communicating through Geraldine Cummins, Frederic W. H. Myers said that he could not generalize as to the conditions in Hades, which he also referred to as the "place of shadows," because conditions varied so much. However, he stated that the "average man who has led a well-ordered life" may very well experience communion with deceased loved ones and see fragmentary happening of his earthly life, judging himself, before resting, seemingly in a veil while in a state of semi-suspended consciousness. He added that three or four days of earth time may suffice for the Hades experience, but also pointed out that many souls "linger a long while in Hades and wander to and fro in its grim ways, encountering certain strange beings who hover near the borders of the physical world, who wake old sorrows and troubles in the minds of men, and who play upon the understandings of certain individuals they would possess while still in the flesh, dethroning the reason, stealing from man his birthright."

Myers had died, at age 57, on January 17, 1901 while in Rome. The first communication from his came through Rosalie Thompson, a medium, to Professor Oliver Lodge and his wife on February 19, 1901. However, it was clear that Myers was struggling to communicate. He told the Lodges that he was confused when he first arrived on the other side, before he realized he was dead. "I thought I had lost my way in a strange town, and I groped my way along the passage," he said. "And even when I saw people that I knew were dead, I thought they were only visions. I have not seen Tennyson yet by the way."

Many other spirit communicators have said that awareness or consciousness on that side of the veil is in proportion to the spiritual awareness or consciousness while on earth. Thus, there are some who immediately recognize that they have departed the earth life, while others are slow to understand their condition. "I awoke standing by my dead body, thinking I was still alive and in my ordinary physical frame," Julia Ames communicated to William T. Stead. "It was only when I saw the corpse in the bed that I knew that something had happened."

Stead, a world renowned author and journalist who was very much involved with Spiritualism, was a victim of the Titanic disaster in 1912. One survivor recalled Stead sitting calmly in the smoking room while apparently reading a Bible as chaos gripped nearly everyone else on the ship. Not long after his death, Stead began communicating through a number of mediums in both Great Britain and the United States. Communicating to his daughter, Estelle, Stead recalled that his first awareness that he had passed over when he found a number of deceased friends with him. "I knew it suddenly and was a trifle alarmed," he communicated. "Practically instantaneously I found myself looking for myself. Just a moment of agitation, momentarily only, and then the full and glorious realization that all I had learnt was true."

All of the victims seemed to gather in one place as their bodies floated in the ocean below. Some of them were mental wrecks, wondering if they would be taken to meet their Maker and what their sentences would be, while others were more concerned with loved ones left behind. There were a number, however, who seemed more concerned about their valuables that went down with the ship.

After all of the victims gathered together, they seemed to rise vertically into the air at a terrific speed, as if they were all standing on a platform. "I cannot tell how long our journey lasted, nor how far from the earth we were when we arrived, but it was a gloriously beautiful arrival. It was like walking from your own English winter gloom into the radiance of an Indian sky. There was all brightness and beauty."

After their arrival, they were greeted by many old friends and relatives and then all parted company. Stead's father then accompanied him to a temporary rest home, which he was told was for newly-arrived spirit people. "It was nearest to earth conditions and was used because it resembled an earth place in appearance," Stead explained his arrival in what seems to have been the Hades condition, going on to say that the main objective was to get rid of unhappiness at parting from earth ties.

"On arriving here there is often much grief," Stead continued. "Grief that is sometimes incapacitating, and no movement forward can be made until the individual wishes it himself. Progress cannot be forced upon him."

A number of spirit communicators suggest a period of conscious confusion, followed by a "sleep" and then an awakening. A spirit identifying himself as Thomas Dowding, a schoolmaster who joined the British army and was then killed on the battlefield, communicated to Wellesley Tudor Pole that one moment he was alive and the next moment he was helping two of his friends carry his body down the trench labyrinth. "I did not know whether I had jumped out of my body through shell shock, temporarily or for ever," he told Pole. "You see what a small thing is death, even the violent death of war! I seemed in a dream...Death for me was a simple experience - no horror, no long-drawn suffering, no conflict. It comes to many in the same way."

Dowding said he experienced no pain when struck by a shell splinter. After his body was taken to the field mortuary, he remained near it the entire night, expecting to wake up in the body again. He then lost consciousness. When he awoke the next morning, his body was gone and he began hunting for it. He then realized that he must be dead. Once he recovered from the shock of that realization, he felt as if he were floating in a mist that muffled sound and blurred the vision. "It was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Everything was distant, minute, misty, unreal. Guns were being fired. It might all have been millions of miles away...I think I fell asleep for the second time, and long remained unconscious and in a dreamless condition."

When he "awoke" the second time, he felt cramped, but this feeling gradually left him. "I think my new faculties are now in working order," he continued his story. "I can reason and think and feel and move."

He was welcomed by his brother, William, who had died three years earlier, and accompanied to a rest hall. William explained to him that it took some time for him to help him because the atmosphere was so thick. "He hoped to reach me in time to avert the ‘shock' to which I have referred, but found it impossible."

It was after reaching the rest hall that things became clearer and he was no longer confused.

According to those who see more than a single spirit body, there can be a third death and even a fourth death as the spirit sheds the additional bodies or goes to a higher vibration. I can relate the running experience to this as well. Although it was a very rare experience, there were several times during my many years of long-distance running when, after acquiring the second wind, I achieved a state of what might be called effortless euphoria. There was no stress at all, no matter how fast I seemed to be running. It was if I had no limitations and could go on and on forever. Unfortunately, however, those few experiences all came during training runs, not during races. Perhaps the ego was too much involved in the race experience.

Tags: second death, death, spirituality, life after death, afterlife, Hades, Ground Luminosity, going into the light

When the Silver Cord is Severed

http://metgat.gaia.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:42:27 GMT

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. - Ecclesiastes 12:6-7

One Bible reference suggests that the above Old Testament passage be interpreted by taking the "silver cord" to mean the marrow of the backbone, the "golden bowl" to mean the membrane that covers the brain, the "pitcher" to mean the veins of the body, the "fountain" to mean the liver, the "wheel" to mean the head, and the "cistern" to mean the heart out of which the head draws the power of life.

I infer from Ecclesiastes that the loosening of the "silver cord" is one of several ways by which the physical body and spirit body separate at the time of death, perhaps referring to old age. Clairvoyants and out-of-body travelers, however, see the severance of the silver cord involved in every kind of death.

Frederic W. H. Myers, the Cambridge scholar who became a pioneering psychical researcher, communicated extensively through the mediumship of Geraldine Cummins of Ireland, considered perhaps the most famous and credible automatic writing medium ever, after his death in 1901. Myers referred to the spirit body as the double, explaining that it is an exact counterpart of the physical shape. "The two are bound together by many little threads, by two silver cords," Myers explained. "One of these makes contact with the solar plexus, the other with the brain. They all may lengthen or extend during sleep or during half-sleep, for they have considerable elasticity. When a man slowly dies these threads and two cords are gradually broken. Death occurs when these two principal communicating livens with brain and solar plexus are severed."

Myers went on to explain that life occasionally lingers in certain cells of the body after the soul has departed. "The double still adheres to the shell by means of certain of the threads which have not yet been broken," he continued. "The soul does not suffer in the physical sense if thus delayed in his journey. He may suffer in the sense that he has, thereby, a greater awareness of the immediate surroundings of his physical body. It gives him the power to perceive his friends and relations wherever this worn-out garment lies. As a rule, however, he obtains complete freedom from earth's detaining grasp within an hour - or a few hours - of death."

The soul slowly rises into the double and for a brief time hovers above the physical shell, Myers further explained, adding that a "little white cloud" or "pale essence" can be discerned by some.

Estelle Roberts, one of England's most famous mediums, recalled being at the bedside of her husband, Hugh, as he died. "I looked again at dear Hugh, recalling the happiness we had enjoyed together, and while I sat there I saw his spirit leave the body. It emerged from the back of his head and gradually molded itself into an exact replica of his earthly body. It remained suspended about a foot above the body, lying in the same position, and attached to it by a cord to the head. Then the cord broke and the spirit form floated away, passing through the wall."

Roberts also reported hearing strange, terrifying noises as if someone was "rending linen" and occasionally sounding like the cracking of a whip. This apparently the spirit body breaking loose from the physical body.

In his 1929 book, A Curious Life, George Wehner, a trance medium and clairvoyant from Detroit, Michigan, tells of his many mediumistic experiences and other paranormal observations, including the passing of his mother. "A misty blue-white form, the counterpart of my mother's, but radiant, like a blue-white diamond's flame, was slowly rising from her body on the bed," he wrote. "This form lifted at an angle, the feet rising higher than the head, which remained attached to the physical head. The form now seemed to try to free itself, and after several tugs, the misty head separated from the body's head, and the freed form righted itself in the air exactly as a log rights itself after it has been dropped into deep water. For a second, I saw several arms and hands materialize in the air and reach downward to welcome the new-born soul. Then, like a shadow, the spirit-form of my beloved mother glided rapidly upward through a corner of the ceiling."

In his 1916 book, Raymond or Life and Death, Sir Oliver Lodge, the esteemed British physicist and radio pioneer, in a séance with medium Gladys Osborne Leonard, discussed the subject with Raymond, his deceased son who had been killed on the battlefield in France. Raymond told him that the body doesn't start mortifying until the spirit has left it. He went on to tell his father that he had witnessed a scene several days earlier in which a man was going to be cremated two days after the doctor pronounced him dead. "When his relatives on this side heard about it, they brought a certain doctor on our side, and when they saw that the spirit hadn't got really out of the body, they magnetized it, and helped it out," Raymond explained through Feda, Leonard's control. "But there was still a cord, and it had to be severed rather quickly, and it gave a little shock to the spirit, like as if you had something amputated. But it had to be done."

Raymond suggested that there should be a seven-day waiting period before cremation. "People are so careless," he said. "The idea seems to be ‘hurry up and get them out of the way now that they are dead."

There have been other reports of difficulties in "giving up the ghost." In Zeitschrift fuer Parapsychologie, a clairvoyant man who preferred to remain anonymous reported sitting at his dying wife's bedside and seeing an "odic body" take form over his wife's physical body. It was connected to the physical body by a "cord of od." The arms and legs of this odic body were flailing and kicking as if struggling to get free and escape. Finally, after about five hours, the fatal moment came at last. "There was a sound of gasping," the man reported. "The odic body writhed to and fro, and my wife's breathing ceased. To all appearances she was dead, but a few moments later she began to breathe again. After she had drawn her breath twice, everything became quiet. At the instant of her last breath, the connecting cord broke and the odic body vanished."

Communicating through the direct-voice mediumship of Lillian Bailey, Bill Wootton, a World War I victim, described the life cord this way: "It is a silver cord which is thick. It glows and glistens. From it we can tell the health of persons. When we see their cord getting very thin until it's right down to a hair's breadth, we know that the physical body is not going to be held very long by that spiritual cord."

Wootton said the cord emerges from the pineal gland in the head and extends to the solar plexus. "It is the life force that belongs to the spirit YOU, which pours in through the glands and makes the body work." When death takes place, the cord is severed as if a rope were snapping at a worn-out point, Wootton added.

Wellesley Tudor Pole, another British medium, reported on his experiences as he sat with a dying friend, whom he refers to as "Major P." Death seemed close at hand as Major P. remained unconscious. Pole noticed a shadowy form hovering in a horizontal position about two feet above the bed. "This form is attached to the physical body on the bed by two transparent elastic cords," Pole recorded at 3 p.m. "One of them appears to be attached to the solar plexus and the other to the brain. As I watch this form it grows more distinct in outline, until I can see that it is an exact counterpart, so far as the form is concerned, of the body on the bed. I can see what looks like spiral currents passing up through these two cords, and as the physical body grows more lifeless, the form hovering above seems to become more vital."

At 3:40 p.m., Pole noted that the "double" had become more distinct and that he could see the currents passing through the cords gathering greater momentum. "The life-force is steadily ebbing out of the body, and is apparently passing into the form above."

At 3:55 p.m. Pole observed two figures stoop down over the bed and break the cords at points close to the physical body. "Immediately I see that the form or double rises about two feet from its original position, but remains horizontal, and at this same moment Major P.'s heart stop beating."

Similar reports come from those who have had a near-death experience (NDE). Long before Dr. Raymond Moody published his findings on NDEs, Dr. A. S. Wiltse, a Skiddy, Kansas physician, reported a personal experience that was no doubt a NDE, as he suffered from typhoid fever. He was informed by his attending physician, Dr. S. H. Raynes, that he was without pulse or perceptible heartbeat for about four hours. "Dr. Raynes informs me, however, that by bringing his eyes close to my face, he could perceive an occasional short gasp, so very light as to be barely perceptible, and that he was upon the point, several times of saying, ‘He is dead,' when a gasp would occur in time to check him."

During the time that he appeared to be dead, Wiltse curiously observed what was going on. "With all the interest of a physician, I beheld the wonders of my bodily anatomy, intimately interwoven with which, even tissue for tissue, was I, the living soul of that dead body. I learned that the epidermis was the outside boundary of the ultimate tissues, so to speak, of the soul. I realized my condition and reasoned calmly thus. I have died, as men term death, and yet I am as much a man as ever. I am about to get out of the body. I watched the interesting process of the separation of soul and body. By some power, apparently not my own, the Ego was rocked to and fro, laterally, as a cradle is rocked, by which process its connection with the tissues of the body was broken up. After a little time the lateral motion ceased, and long the soles of the feet beginning at the toes, passing rapidly to the heels, I felt and heard, as it seemed, the snapping of innumerable small cords. When this was accomplished, I began slowly to retreat from the feet, toward the head, as a rubber cord shortens. I remember reaching the hips and saying to myself, ‘Now, there is no life below the hips.'"

Dr. Wiltse could not recall passing through the abdomen or chest, but he recollected that his "whole self" was collected into his head. He appeared to himself something like a jelly-fish in color and form and remembered thinking that he would soon be free.

"As I emerged from the head, I floated up and down and laterally like a soap bubble attached to the bowl of a pipe until I at last broke loose from the body and fell lightly to the floor, where I slowly arose and expanded into the full stature of a man. I seemed to be translucent, of a bluish cast and perfectly naked. With a painful sense of embarrassment, I fled toward the partially opened door to escape the eyes of the two ladies whom I was facing, as well as others who I knew were about me, but upon reaching the door I found myself clothed, and satisfied upon that point, I turned and faced the company."

Wiltse recalled being surprised at how pale the body looked but congratulated himself on the way he had composed his body, his hands clasped at his chest. He marveled at how well he was feeling, when only minutes before he was in extreme distress. He then looked back through the open door, where he could see his body. "I discovered then a small cord, like a spider's web, running from my shoulders (of the spirit body) back to my body and attaching to it at the base of my neck in front."

Since Wiltse returned to life, the cord apparently was not severed.

Much more recently, Dr. Peter Fenwick of England and his wife, Elizabeth Fenwick, quote one NDEr as feeling "like a kite on an endless string." This "cord" seemed to be attached to the back and the person could feel it pulling her back into her body.

Another NDEr told the Fenwicks that although he could not see his body, he could see that he was attached by a light grey rope.

Dr. Sam Parnia, another NDE researcher, was told by an experiencer that she found herself standing beside herself looking at a cord that connected her to her body and thinking how thin and wispy it was.

In effect, the silver cord appears to be the counterpart of the umbilical cord. While the umbilical cord must be severed when we come into the material world, the silver cord must be severed when we return to the real world.

Notice: Dark Lore III is now available from Amazon.com I have contributed one of the 14 stories to this anthology concerning the paranormal. My contribution is on the Glastonbury Scripts, which involved the excavation of the Glastonbury Abbey ruins in England. Frederick Bligh Bond, the architect and archaeologist hired in 1907 to excavate the ruins, decided to employ a medium and contact long-dead monks who had lived at the abbey for information as to where to dig. Over a period of some 12 years, interrupted by World War I, Bond received more than 60 messages from the monks directing his excavations. Many of them were exact to the inch. Some, however, were a little off due to overlapping construction over the centuries.

The other 13 stories touch upon a wide variety of paranormal subjects. Nick Redfern gives a different spin to the Roswell E.T. theory. Greg Taylor, the editor of the anthology, discusses some of the pre-Raymond Moody near-death experiences, including that of Dr. George Ritchie, whose NDE inspired Moody's 1975 best-seller. Greg Bishop presents the very intriguing story of Dr. Mario Tazzaglini, who is said to have channeled aliens. Neil Arnold investigates the monsters of Dutch folklore, while Theo Paijmans gets to the occult roots of Nazi Technology and Robert Bauval searches for the secrets of Menkaure, builder of the third pyramid of Giza. Other contributors include Mike Jay, Philip Coppens, Blair MacKenzie Blake, Robert Schoch, Geoff Falla, Adam Gorightly, and "The Emperor," with the subjects ranging from the "Philadelphia Experiment" to ancient biblical sites. Check it out at

http://www.amazon.com/Darklore-3-Greg-Taylor/dp/0975720090/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242250773&sr=1-1

Tags: silver cord, death, dying, spirituality, Ecclesiastes, consciousness, Frederic W. H. Myers, George Wehner

The Conversion of Dr. Richard Hodgson -- Part 2 of 2

http://metgat.gaia.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:42:20 GMT

above: Leonora Piper
Before March 1892, Dr. Richard Hodgson, the executive secretary and chief investigator for the American Society for Psychical Research (SPR) rejected the spirit hypothesis of mediumship. He believed that the purported "spirit control" of the medium was a "secondary personality" buried in the medium's subconscious and that it was somehow reading the minds of the sitters. To some, this explanation was more fantastic than the belief that spirits were actually communicating, but it was, nevertheless, a popular one among educated men and women.

Hodgson's views changed after the death of George Pellew, a 32-year-old member of the ASPR, as a result of a fall from a horse during February 1892. Sometime before his accident, Pellew, the author of at least six books, including biographies of statesmen John Jay and Henry Addington, had told Hodgson that he could not conceive of an afterlife but that if he died before Hodgson and found himself "still existing" he would attempt to let Hodgson know.

On March 22, 1892, a little over a month after Pellew's death, Hodgson brought John Hart, a friend of Pellew's, for a sitting with Leonora Piper, a Boston, Mass. trance medium whom Hodgson was studying. Mrs. Piper would go into a trance and Phinuit, her spirit control, would speak through her, relaying messages from other spirits. Apparently, it was too difficult and risky for other spirits to occupy her body; thus Phinuit acted as an intermediary.

Early in the sitting, Phinuit announced that "George" was there. He then gave his full name and the names of several close friends, including the sitter. To give assurance that it was actually him communicating through Phinuit, Pellew told Hart that the pair of studs he was wearing were once his and were given to Hart by his (Pellew's) parents, which Hart confirmed as true. Pellew then mentioned some mutual friends, Jim and Mary Howard, and asked Hart if he could get them to attend a sitting. He also brought up a discussion he had had with Katharine, the Howard's 15-year-old daughter, about God, space, and eternity. As neither Hart nor Hodgson, who was also in attendance and taking notes, was aware of any such discussion with Katharine, this information, later verified as fact, clearly fell outside the scope of telepathy.

Hodgson recorded that many personal references were made by Pellew and that Hart was very impressed, mentioning that various words of greetings and speech mannerisms were very characteristic of Pellew, even though relayed through Phinuit.

Some three weeks later, Jim and Mary Howard had a sitting with Mrs. Piper. As was the procedure, Hodgson did not tell Mrs. Piper their names or give her any clue as to their connection with Pellew. Yet, Pellew communicated. However, rather than Phinuit speaking through Mrs. Piper and relaying messages from Pellew, Pellew took over Mrs. Piper's body and spoke directly to his friends. "Jim is that you?" Hodgson recorded Pellew's initial greeting. "Speak to me quick. I am not dead. Don't think me dead. I'm awfully glad to see you. Can't you see me? Don't you hear me? Give my love to my father and tell him I want to see him. I am happy here, and more so since I can communicate with you..."

Pellew went on to tell his friends that he was very limited in what he could do as he had just "awakened to the reality of life after death." He told them it was all darkness at first and that he was puzzled and confused. He said that he could see Jim, but that his voice sounded like a big bass drum. Jim Howard asked Pellew if he was surprised to find himself still living. "Perfectly so," Pellew responded. "Greatly surprised. I did not believe in a future life. It was beyond my reasoning powers. Now it is as clear to me as daylight. We have an astral facsimile of the material body."

At a later sitting, the Howards brought their daughter, Katharine. Pellew came through and asked Katharine about her violin lessons, commenting (apparently jesting) that her playing was "horrible." Not realizing the humor in it, Mary Howard spoke up to defend her daughter's music, but Pellew then explained that he mentioned it because that is what he used to do when in the flesh. It was intended as verification of his identity.

However, there was some confusion on Pellew's part in responding to various questions put to him by the Howards. Pellew explained that he was somewhat "dull" in his new sphere and that his memory was not much different than when he was on the earth plane, i.e., that he couldn't always recall everything in a moment. He went on to say that he had lost all sense of time in his new environment, but he was determined to make his identity clear. "Hodgson, I mean, and Jim, I want you both to feel I am no secondary personality of the medium's," he told them, adding that he lives, thinks, sees, hears, knows, and feels just as clearly as when he was in the material life. "...but it is not so easy to explain it to you as you would naturally suppose, especially when the thoughts have to be expressed through substance materially."

Phinuit broke in and took back control from Pellew, commenting that Pellew had bypassed him by mistake and that he would act as the go-between the remainder of the session. Phinuit began speaking fluent French to Katharine, who had lived in France and knew the language. Someone known to Mary Howard as Madame Elisa then interrupted, speaking in Italian. Mary Howard responded in Italian. (Piper did not know French or Italian.)

As a further test of telepathy, Mrs. Howard brought three pictures to a sitting and asked Pellew to identify them. Pellew correctly identified the first picture as the Howard's summer home. He correctly identified a second picture as a country place where they had stayed, recalling a little brick henhouse which was not in the picture. Mrs. Howard confirmed the accuracy of this report and then showed a third picture, which Pellew could not identify. In fact, Pellew had never seen it. Had Mrs. Piper been reading Howard's mind, she should have been able to identify it, unless, of course, she could also read Howard's mind relative to the test, and her subconscious was aware and devious enough to know that it was more important to show ignorance than it was to identify the location in the picture.

The communication with Pellew caused Hodgson to abandon all other theories in favor of the spirit one. While the earthly existence of Phinuit could not be verified, there was no doubt that Pellew had lived in the flesh. Moreover, there was too much individuality, too much purpose and persistence, expressed by Pellew to attribute it to telepathy of a limited or expanded nature. It was one thing for a medium to tap into another mind or cosmic reservoir for information, quite another for that other mind or reservoir to come back with the fullness of a personality rather than just fragmentary bits of information.

"I had but one object, to discover fraud and trickery," Hodgson wrote. "Frankly, I went to Mrs. Piper with Professor James of Harvard University about twelve years ago with the object of unmasking her...I entered the house profoundly materialistic, not believing in the continuance of life after death; today I say I believe. The truth has been given to me in such a way as to remove from me the possibility of a doubt."
Pellew then began sharing "control" duties with Phinuit and eventually took over for him. Hodgson noted that when someone Pellew had known when alive happened to be sitting, he (Pellew) would greet him or her by name. When someone unknown to him was sitting, he didn't address the person by name. The non-recognition went against any telepathy theory. "There are thirty cases of true recognition out of at least one hundred and fifty persons who have had sittings with Mrs. Piper since the first appearance of G.P. (George Pellew), and no case of false recognition," Hodgson reported. "The continual manifestation of this personality - so different from Phinuit or other communicators - with its own reservoir of memories, with its swift appreciation of any reference to friends of G.P., with its ‘give and take' in little incidental conversations with myself, has helped largely in producing a conviction of the actual presence of the G.P. personality, which it would be quite impossible to impart by any mere enumeration of the verifiable statements."

At a sitting on June 17, 1895, Hodgson asked Pellew what Phinuit was doing when he (Pellew) was the only one using Piper's body. Pellew replied that Phinuit was holding back "a million others" from interrupting him.

Tags: Leonora Piper, Richard Hodgson, mediumship, spirituality, spirits, George Pellew, consciousness, secondary personality

The Conversion of Dr. Richard Hodgson -- Part 1 of 2

http://metgat.gaia.com — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:12:51 GMT

above: Richard Hodgson

Having heard that Dr. Richard Hodgson, an Australian teaching in England and serving as an investigator for the Society for Psychical Resarch (SPR), had supposedly exposed Madame Blavatsky as a charlatan, Mr. R. Pearsall Smith of Philadelphia instigated the offer to Hodgson to come to America and head up the American branch of the SPR. Smith's intent was to debunk all mediums, as his grieving brother had been led astray by a charlatan.

Soon after his arrival in the U.S. in April of 1887, Hodgson had his first sitting with medium Leonora Piper, who had greatly impressed Professor William James of Harvard University. James had arranged the sitting for Hodgson, careful not to reveal Hodgson's name or purpose for being in the country.

After Mrs. Piper went into the trance state, "Phinuit,' her spirit control at the time, took over her body and mentioned the name "Fred" to Hodgson. "You went to school together, and Fred was very fond of playing leap-frog," Phinuit relayed the message from Fred. "He was swinging on a trapeze when he fell and injured his spine, finally dying in a convulsion. You were not present at the time of his accident or death."

Phinuit continued: "Fred states his father was your mother's brother. He also wants to remind you of Harris at school. He was a very able man. Fred says you come from Australia. After your father's death you went to Germany. Fred was with you then in spirit. While there you got provoked with a lady. You said she was deceitful, a story teller. He also says one of your chief reasons for choosing St. John's College (at Cambridge) was that Wordsworth was a Johnian."

Hodgson was stunned by the accuracy of the communication, as he recalled his cousin Fred, whose father was his mother's brother, excelling at the game of leap-frog by taking long flying jumps that attracted crowds of schoolmates. Fred injured his spine in a gymnasium in Melbourne in 1871 and died within a matter of days. Hodgson was not present at either the accident or the death.

Harris was the name of their schoolmaster in 1868 or 1869. While in Germany, Hodgson charged a lady with falsehood under somewhat peculiar circumstances, although Hodgson recalled going to Germany before his father's death in 1885, not after it. And it was true that Hodgson chose St. John's College because Wordsworth had been educated there.

At a second sitting, Phinuit described a lady with dark hair, dark eyes and a slim figure, but he could not get her name. He could get only that her Christian named ended with an "sie." "She was much closer to you than any other person," Phinuit communicated. "Too bad, you were not with her at the time. She died in England when you were across country. The lady had two rings, one went with her body to the grave, the other ought to have gone to you...She had a brother and a sister. She had a black lace collar, with a pin with a head, and a ring with a stone which she wanted given to you. This lady had beautiful teeth. She wants you always to keep a book of poems which you had given her and had been sent back to you. You had written her name in it in connection with her birthday."

Phinuit went on to tell Hodgson that the woman was a great friend of his sister's and that he (Hodgson) heard about her death from his sister. Still struggling with the name, Phinuit suggested it might be "Ellerton," He then said that her left eye is brown and on the right eye there is a spot of a light color in the iris, the spot being straggly and of a bluish cast. He said it was a birthmark.

Hodgson was further impressed, although there were several bits of information that he was unsure of. He did not recall a brother or sister, although he remembered that at least one sibling had been stillborn. Not wanting to name his friend in his report, Hodgson referred to her only as "Q." He confirmed that she was his sister's good friend and that his sister informer him of Q's death. Moreover, her name ended with a "sie." (Hodgson's biographer Alex Baird later revealed that her name was "Jessie D----.") Strangely, Ellerton was the surname of one of Q's other cousins.

"The description of "Q," her relationship to me, the manner of her death, and my absence from her side are true," Hodgson recorded. "She died in Australia while I was in England." But Hodgson knew nothing about the rings. He recalled the black lace collar distinctly and the pin vaguely, but not the stone in the ring. He did not recall that she had beautiful teeth. Rather, he recalled that a year or two before her death she had some teeth extracted (which may have been replaced with "beautiful" teeth).

As for the book of poems, Hodgson remembered lending her Tennyson's The Princess and her having returned it. He remembered writing her name on one of the fly leaves.

Hodgson further recalled the eye blemish, but thought it was grey rather than blue. He asked Phinuit how he knew about the eye. Phinuit replied that "Q" was standing close to him and showing him her right eye, so that he could see it plainly.

Phinuit went on to tell Hodgson that his mother was living but his father and little brother had died. "There are two Toms in your family, both brothers, one alive and one in spirit," he continued. Hodgson confirmed the facts as given by Phinuit.

"Here is a schoolmate, with a lot of freckles, little fellow with red hair," Phinuit continued. "Name like Wingford, he lived with his grandmother." Hodgson knew to whom Phinuit was referring, although he recalled the boy's name as Grimwood, not Wingford.

Another old schoolmate then presented himself to Phinuit. Phinuit said he was lame when he was a boy and that his name sounded like Brookford. Hodgson recalled the lame boy but remembered his name as Brooks.

Phinuit informed Hodgson that his young married sister would soon have another child, a boy. This prophecy turned out to be true, as his sister gave birth before the end of the year.

As biographer Baird saw it, Hodgson's whole attitude about mediums began to change with those first few sittings.

After Hodgson's death in 1905, fellow psychical researcher Hereward Carrington wrote that Jessie ("Q") continued to communicate with affectionate and evidential messages for Hodgson, a life-long bachelor, in his many additional sittings with Mrs. Piper over the next 18 years.

Tags: Richard Hodgson, Leonora Piper, mediumship, life after death, Phinuit, spirits

An Interview with the author of "The Articulate Dead"

http://metgat.gaia.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:15:18 GMT

My book, The Articulate Dead, was released during December by Galde Press. I have had numerous questions concerning the book from friends, correspondents, and from a half-dozen Internet radio stations. Thus, I decided to put these questions together in something of a self-interview in an attempt to explain what the book is about and why I wrote it.

So, Mike, what's the book about?

It's about psychical research that took place between 1850 and 1940 - research aimed primarily at proving that humans survive physical death and continue on in other realms of existence.

Yuck, sounds like a pretty dull read.

It probably is for those who prefer to escape reality by reading fiction, or for those who find spiritual enlightenment in reading Harry Potter.

Who is your audience?

Anyone who expects to die, but primarily people suffering from "GR-10 Syndrome."

GR-10 Syndrome? What's that?

I'm glad you asked. It's something I identified after I retired and started coming in contact with other retired people. I call them the 10 G's of Retirement: Graying, Grunting, Grumbling, Grimacing, Groaning, Growling, Griping, Grieving, Groveling, and Groping.

Far out! But how does your book deal with those things?

As I see it, most older people are suffering from a number of those GR's because they sense their lives winding down and they have nothing to look forward to. They see death as the grim reaper, nothing else. The material in my book suggests that there is something beyond death and that death is to be embraced.

‘One life at a time' is my motto. Shouldn't we be living in the present rather than looking ahead to some future life, if there is one?

Definitely. But this life can be so much sweeter, especially in our final years, if we are assured that there is meaning to it and that we are not all just marching toward an abyss of nothingness or total extinction. Once we begin to see the bigger picture, we don't live in the past, nor do we live in the future. The best way to live in the present is to "live in eternity." To do that, you must accept this life as a small part of a much larger life.

But various polls say that 80-85 percent of the U.S. population believes in an afterlife.

I know quite a few of those people. They say they believe, but they really just hope. Some of them go to church on Sunday, but the rest of the week they strive to be "one with their toys," living the hedonistic lifestyle and envying people like Hugh Heffner and Britney Spears. Celebrities have become our gods. Blind faith based on religious dogma just doesn't do it for most people these days. A recently report study in the Journal of American Medical Association suggested that dying cancer patients who relied strongly on their religious faith to cope with their illnesses were three times more likely than others to receive intensive, invasive medical procedures, even during their final days. While there might be other explanations for that, one might infer that they are more afraid of dying than others.

I don't believe in an afterlife and I'm content.

William James, the renowned psychiatrist, said he had tried to adopt that frame of mind but called it all humbug - so much bravado that melts away as the person approaches death's door. I know some people who do a very good job of repressing the idea of death by escaping into mostly meaningless activities. Kierkegaard called it "Philistinism" - man fully concerned with the trivial, so focused on meaningless things that he has lost sight of the big picture. There may be some people who have no fear of extinction, of obliteration - of their march toward nothingness - but few people are able to adopt such a "courageous" outlook on death. I don't think there is any question that the vast majority of people fear death and do everything possible to repress the idea of it. .

And how does your book play into all this?

It offers quite a bit of evidence that man survives death and lives in a spirit world. Seeing the evidence offered by the various researchers helps one move from disbelief or from blind faith to true faith or conviction.

Who are the researchers?

A number of distinguished scientists and scholars, including two British physicists, both knighted for their discoveries in mainstream science, a British chemist also knighted for his work in science, a world-renowned American chemist and inventor, a professor of logic and ethics at Columbia, a Cambridge classics scholar and poet, a New York Supreme Court chief justice, a biologist who was Darwin's collaborator in the theory of natural selection, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, two Christian clergymen, and a French educator, to name the primary researchers I discuss in the book.

What did their research turn up?

They concluded that humans can communicate with the spirit world, and, concomitantly, that consciousness survives physical death.

How did they come to that conclusion?

By investigating mediums - intermediaries between other dimensions of reality and the material world. And I'm not talking about one or two observations. Consider that Dr. Richard Hodgson spent 18 years observing Leonora Piper of Boston, Mass. or that the Rev. William Drayton Thomas had well over 500 sittings with Gladys Osborne Leonard of England.

But isn't that all outdated science?

That's what the pseudo-skeptics and debunkers want you to believe. They say it was all pseudo-science and that those distinguished researchers were all victims of charlatans. The fact is that the methods used by those early researchers are the same methods used today when mediums of that quality are found. Unfortunately, though, we don't seem to have the quality of mediumship today that we did 75-150 years ago.

Why is that?

Those same pseudo-skeptics and debunkers will tell you that it is because the mediums on whom the research was based were all frauds and were exposed as such. No doubt there were a number of frauds, but there were clearly genuine mediums. There are two primary explanations for the lack of such mediumship today. For one, it involves a lot of quiet time, experimentation, and small harmonious groups. In those days before radio and television, people had the time to experiment and had the patience to wait for results. They gathered together in harmonious mediumship circles, sang and listened to music while waiting for the proper conditions. Sometimes they waited an hour or so before the spirits could draw enough power from the medium and the sitters to come through. In today's fast-paced world, people don't have the patience for that type of thing. They'd rather watch television.

      That's one explanation. What's the other?
     Some of the early spirit communicators said that they had just learned to communicate with us on this side of the veil. It was reported that Benjamin Franklin and Emanuel Swedenborg, two of the world's greatest scientists when alive, figured out how to manipulate matter after many experiments on their side. However, they and all the other spirit communicators who joined in didn't anticipate the resistance they were to receive. They gave us all the evidence they could possibly give and saw no point in continuing, especially when seeing how innocent people were being hurt by being called fakes.   Why should they have to go on reinventing the wheel?   As they say in the engineering profession, efforts to keep reinventing the wheel eventually lead to a square wheel.

What resistance are you referring to?

On the one hand, there were the scientific fundamentalists - those scientists stuck in the muck and mire of scientism, unwilling and unable to accept things which could not be explained by strict scientific methods or mechanistic causes. One Columbia University professor tried to have Professor James Hyslop fired when he found out about Hyslop's interest in psychical research. In his defense, Hyslop, noting scientific efforts to find a species of useless fish to support Darwin's theory, asked "why is it so noble and respectable to find whence man came, and so suspicious and dishonorable to ask and ascertain whither he goes?"

Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the physicists involved in the research, put it this way: "It is not easy to unsettle minds thus fortified against the intrusion of unwelcome facts; and their strong faith is probably a salutary safeguard against that unbalanced and comparatively dangerous condition called ‘open-mindedness,' which is ready to learn and investigate anything not manifestly self-contradictory and absurd."

And on the other hand?

On the other hand, there were the religious fundamentalists who saw that some of the things coming out of mediumship were in conflict with established dogma and doctrine. To protect themselves, the religious hierarchy brainwashed their flocks with the idea that it was all the work of the devil. And the press also played a big part in the resistance. They sided with either the scientific fundamentalists or the religious fundamentalists in attacking both the mediums and the researchers. They turned serious research into tongue-in-cheek spook stories, and that's how the media continues to treat it to this day.

But you mentioned two Christian clergymen among the researchers?

Yes, one Anglican and one Methodist minister. They were mavericks, just like the scientists and scholars were. There are always courageous people more interested in getting at the truth than in protecting their reputations among ignorant people.

Why isn't the research of those distinguished scientist better known today?

Because of the scientific and religious fundamentalism I just mentioned, as well as the ignorant media. The scientific fundamentalists are unable to accept anything that falls outside of the mechanistic paradigm, while the religious fundamentalists are unable to accept anything they see as conflicting with the Bible. And the media is more interested in sensationalism than it is in truth.

Why did it end in 1940?

It didn't really end then. It began to tail off around 1925, but there was still some good research going on during the 1930s. All of the distinguished researchers mentioned in the book had pretty much died off, Sir Oliver Lodge being the last, in 1940. Seeing all the flak they received from mainstream science, others weren't willing to subject themselves to the same criticism. A new field called parapsychology developed and most of its practitioners are more interested in examining extra-sensory perception while just beating around the bush on the subject of survival. It was as if they had to go back and work on the spokes of the wheel rather than the wheel itself.

Is the book like reading a bunch of scientific reports?

No, that's one of the reasons I wrote the book. The original reports are written in the usual academic manner. Academicians are very poor writers by journalistic standards. I've tried to convert the academic language to language that people can understand. A number of very interesting stories unfold, including spirits directing an archaeologist to the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, spirits leading a researcher to crosses buried by American Indians, a deceased author completing his book through a medium, a Titanic victim coming back to tell about his new environment, a lost hunter contacting his family to explain what happened to him, soldiers killed in the war telling what it was like to die and then cross over to the other side, and three of the researchers involved in the original research dying and then continuing their research on the other side, communicating with their fellow researchers left behind, to name just some of the stories.

But aren't there other books on the subject?

Quite a few have been written over the years, but most of them are out of circulation. There are a few fairly recent books dealing with the same subject. Deborah Blum, Victor Zammit, Michael Schmicker, Craig Hogan, Ray Stemman, and Archie Roy all have good books dealing with the basic subject. While there is some overlap in the books, we all approach it a little differently and hit upon different aspects of the research. Look at how many books there have been during the past two years on atheism. I can think of at least six, which all seem to say the same thing.

Is there any similar survival research going on today?

Dr. Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona did some interesting research with clairvoyants and clairaudients a few years back and reported on it in a couple of books, but the pseudo-skeptics attacked him just as they did those distinguished scientists of yesteryear.

So why did you write the book?

Because I believe all the turmoil we are experiencing in the world today is a result of extreme materialism. Materialism in the extreme is really hedonism or Epicureanism. "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." As I see it, this attitude is a result of people not really believing in an afterlife, a larger life. I felt that in resurrecting some of the best evidence for the survival of consciousness I might prompt a few hedonists or Epicureans to rethink their philosophy of life.

And you expect your book to change all that?

Of course not. I'll be happy if a few thousand people read it. This type of book doesn't sell well. Most people would rather escape into some work of fiction. As they say, though, small streams eventually create large rivers. I just felt a need to add a drop of rain that might contribute to one small stream.

"The Articulate Dead" is available from Galde Press http://www.galdepress.com/ or at Amazon.com

Tags: life after death, afterlife, death, Michael Tymn, consciousness, mediumship, The Articulate Dead, psychical research, ical

An Interview with Pamela Rae Heath, M.D., Psy.D.

http://metgat.gaia.com — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:44:57 GMT

above: Dr. Pamela Rae Heath

My interview with Dr. Heath was for the March issue of "The Searchlight," which I edit for the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies. For more information on the Academy, go to http://aspsi.org/ Note that the Academy's annual conference is scheduled for June 19-22 at DeSales University.

As she sees herself, Dr. Pamela Rae Heath is a bridge between psychics and parapsychologists. "I try to help parapsychologist understand how to design better studies, which control situations without making their research participants feel like objects instead of people," she explains. "And I try to help psychics understand their own gifts better, and how to control their abilities."

Co-author of "Suicide: What Really Happens in the Afterlife?" with Jon Klimo, Ph.D., Heath, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a semi-retired anesthesiologist who is more focused these days on parapsychology and the paranormal than medicine.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1976, Heath received an M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1980. She then practiced medicine at different locations, including Abilene, Orlando, and Miami. After experiencing abilities of her own during the early 1990s, she returned to graduate school and received a Psy.D. from Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology (now the American School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University, San Francisco Bay Area Campus) in 1999.

Her dissertation was a phenomenological study of the experience of performing psychokinesis. She has since published "The PK Zone: A Cross-Cultural Review of Psychokinesis," and other articles on this subject in parapsychology journals. She is a certified Master Hypnotherapist and a member of several paranormal research organizations.

I recently put some questions by e-mail to Dr. Heath:

Would you mind explaining the nature of those spontaneous psychic experiences you had during the early 1990s?

"Looking back on it, I realize I started meditating (without knowing what I was doing) and having visions in third grade. But I didn't think of myself as psychic until many years later. I was a doctor in my 30s when several things started happening at the same time. I began knowing what kind of cases I was going to do as emergencies on call that night. I freaked people out by answering (in specific terms) their questions before they had been said out loud. And I began to wake up just before the telephone rang on call, never waking up when it didn't ring except for one time when I later learned they'd been dialing my number when the patient had died in the ER. It got where I couldn't deny any more that something odd was happening. So, I went to a psychic who had a reputation for being the real deal. He told me I was psychic. It really freaked me out. It was a month before I could even say the word psychic. After that, I started to experiment to see what I could do."

Generally, what was your attitude about such psychic experiences and paranormal phenomena before you had those experiences?

"I was a big science fiction fan from third grade on. So, before I had my psychic experiences as an adult, I believed that psychic abilities were possible, but it never occurred to me that I might have them."

What prompted you to collaborate with Dr. Klimo on a book about suicide?

"I met Dr. Klimo in graduate school. He often spoke about an experience that he had of gathering information for a woman who was interested in committing suicide. The thought was that if she knew what she was getting into, that she wouldn't do it. I felt that it was the kind of information that could save lives, and told him he should write a book about it. I kept saying it, but he had not kept his original pages and didn't want to start over from scratch. I finally realized that it wasn't going to get written unless I did it. But I had gotten the idea from Jon, and have great respect for him as the world's expert of channeling, so I dragged him in on the project with me."

What are your conclusions relative to suicide? Can suicide ever be justified?

"I think that there can be many causes of suicide - it can be an accident, a desperate cry for help, feeling like you don't belong or have no other options to name just a few. The spirit realm sees taking the life of a healthy body as selfish and shortsighted. In the case of assisted suicide, they do not see it as murder, but still encourage people to think it through and make sure those around them are comfortable with this choice before proceeding. They tell us that, hard as it may be to accept, there are sometimes purposes served by suffering. However, relatively few assisted suicides that were channeled had regrets."

Has your experience as an anesthesiologist given you any insight into the nature of consciousness?

"I actually probably have gotten more insight into levels of consciousness from my hypnosis training than I ever did as an anesthesiologist. None of my patients ever came back to tell me of out-of-body experiences during the time they were under."

Do you have any particular focus or project in the area of psychic phenomena going on at this time?

"My areas of expertise are mind-matter interaction (formerly known as psychokinesis) and experiential research. I've also done quite a few ghost investigations over the years with Loyd Auerbach and the Office of Paranormal Investigations. I just finished rewriting and updating The PK Zone, and even gave it a new title: Mind-Matter Interaction: The Stories, Research, and Theory. I'm also finishing up a new manuscript, which will again be with Jon Klimo, which will be about the stages in the afterlife. It is looking like it will be available from North Atlantic Books in Spring 2010. The book might have been finished earlier, but I got sidetracked by the death of both of my parents earlier this year. I made sure both of them moved on to the Light, but it made the subject too painful to work on for several months."

How do your peers in the medical community react to your interest in psychic phenomena?

"I've actually been surprised at how well many of my medical colleagues have accepted my other work as a psychic and a parapsychologist. Several asked for tarot reads, and were really interested in ghost investigations. Of course, it helps a lot that I'm in California! This wouldn't go over as well in many other parts of the country. However, a lot of being accepted has to do with the terminology you use. Doctors are very body-oriented, so if you talk about "gut instinct" they tend to accept it, where they wouldn't accept things like "intuition" or "psychic."

Do you see the medical community as being any more open or accepting relative to psychic phenomena now than when you were in medical school or an intern?

"It's been a very long time since I was a medical student in Texas, so things have changed in a lot more ways than simply more openness to alternative healing! However, I would say that how well psychic phenomena are accepted by the medical community really depends on where you live. In California or Oregon, I suspect you'd see a lot of openness. If you're in the South, you can probably safely talk about the prayer healing studies. In the Midwest and much of the East Coast, I'd doubt you'd see much acceptance. But I could be wrong."

What are some of the misconceptions out there concerning psychics?

"One is that some people are psychic while others aren't. Everyone is psychic, even skeptics. They may use their abilities to block other people from succeeding at psychic tasks or to overly fail psychic tests by scoring worse than is possible through random chance, but this is a normal ability that everyone has. Another misconception is that psychic abilities always start in childhood. Untrue. Psychic talent often starts in a person's 30s and can continue to grow in power at least until his or her 50s. However, the most important thing I try to get across to folks is that psychic abilities are need based. What you can or cannot do depends on what is important to your unconscious mind. So, if you can do one thing and not another, it doesn't tell you anything about your own limits. All it tells you is what's important to your unconscious mind. Should what's important to you unconscious mind change, then so can your abilities."

Have you had any experience with séances?

"About a month or so after I got told that wasn't going crazy, that I really was psychic, I started taking anomalous healing classes from the Reverend Mary Smiley at Casadaga, Florida, one a few Spiritualist camps in the United States. Mary charged me only $4 a lesson, as she really wasn't in it for the money. However, as one of her students, I got invited to some of the private séances they held for their own entertainment. I was the only non-professional medium there, and never got charged a cent. Generally about 6-8 of us would meet, all bringing covered dishes so we could eat when we finished. I had a great time! The most dramatic experiences I had were of chasing a heavy wood table from the center of the room all the way to the edge of it and back again (all hands on top of it, with everyone in short sleeves for a Florida summer). It took six of us to carry that wood table into the living room, and I knew from the circumstances that it hadn't been faked! That table was really booking, too! It was moving fast. The other dramatic thing I remember was watching the profile of the person next to me literally change shape when she channeled. I think back on those experiences as one of the highlights of my life. I love physical phenomena!"

It often seems to me that parapsychology is going backward, sort of reinventing the wheel discovered by psychical researchers a hundred years ago and turning out a square wheel. Moreover, they have moved away from survival research and into more mundane fields of ESP. It is as if they are trying to rebuild the spokes on the wheel and ruining the wheel itself. How do you see this?

"As a full member of the Parapsychological Association, I know a lot of the folks working in the field today, at least in the US and Europe. You have to understand that from the time parapsychology was first formed as a scientific form of endeavor, survival research has been one of the cornerstones of the field (the other two are ESP and Mind-Matter Interaction research). I would say most of those in the field are cautious believers, though they disagree about what form in which survival takes place. Most would agree that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. If the soul represents a form of energy (which is suspected but unproven), then it would make sense that some kind of survival of that energy would occur. Where you get into arguments, is whether there is any survival of personality or sense of individuality. Some people think the soul re-merges with a kind of collective consciousness. Perhaps the strongest evidence, and one that has swayed many parapsychologists to become believers in survival, is that of Ian Stevenson's reincarnation research. It's very persuasive stuff. Add to that instrumental transcommunication research, Gary Schwartz's work testing mediums, forensic past life regression, near-death experiences, and you start to see a consistent pattern suggestive of not just survival of the soul, but some kind of survival of personality."

But hasn't parapsychology reached a point of diminishing returns? What is the point of doing further work in telepathy when the ganzfeld experiments are about as good as one could hope for?

"I think there is ALWAYS reason to gather evidence of ANY phenomenon - whether ESP or otherwise. When I'm gathering information, I don't worry about what that information is going to say. I want the evidence to reveal its own truth to me. I let it tell me what's going on, rather than worry about proving a point. That's actually what makes me a good experiential researcher. I never worry about proof. Proof simply doesn't matter to me. I want to see what is. And that's also my philosophy for writing books. I start by gathering as much data as possible, and then let it show me the natural pattern that falls into place. I think of it as being like putting together an extremely complex jigsaw puzzle, where I don't know the frame shape or what the final image will be. There's a lot of uncertainty. But there's also the excitement of knowing that if I can discover enough pieces, I'll be able to see how they fit together, and a pattern will emerge. To be honest, that's why I enjoy writing so much. I figure things out as I organize the material for a book and see how it all falls into place."

Since you are working on a book about the stages of the afterlife, I assume that you believe that consciousness survives physical death.

"You have to understand that I was psychic before I trained as a parapsychologist. I'd seen physical phenomena, spontaneously remembered past lives, and talked to spirits. Although I don't advertise my talent, I have mediumship abilities. So, I have never doubted that there is (at least temporarily) some survival of personality."

What are the stages of the afterlife as you see them?

"Let me add my caveats. I'm still fine tuning my understanding of things, and it needs to be recognized that the stages to the afterlife vary in length from one soul to the next and can sometimes occur out of order or even simultaneously. However, the main elements appear to be: 1) recognizing they are dead; 2) separating from the body; 3) being greeted by spirit helpers; 4) moving through levels; 5) reunion; 6) rest and recovery; 7) life-review and self-judgment; 8) spiritual work; and 9) reincarnation. There also appear to be an optional stage in there of visits to the living (which can include going to your own funeral). The upcoming book will also talk about afterlife adjustment problems and how these souls can be helped both by others in spirit and those in the physical plane."
Visit Dr. Heath's web site at http://www.pamelaheath.com/

Tags: spirituality, life after death, parapsychology, Pamela Rae Heath, consciousness, suicide, psychic phenomena

Can Spirits Control Animals?

http://metgat.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:08:36 GMT

above: Clever Hans

Every now and then I'll hear a story about how either a bird or butterfly, or a group of butterflies, is accepted as a sign that a deceased loved one is around. The bird may suddenly appear on one's window sill at a regular time every day and exhibit unusual behavior or the butterflies may swarm on a regular basis.

If such stories are supposed to suggest that the deceased loved one has returned in a lower life form, I am highly skeptical and I don't know why such stories would offer comfort to the bereaved. If, however, the stories suggest that animal life can be influenced and directed by discarnate humans, I am much less skeptical.

Consider the case of the Elberfeld horses, which I wrote about for the current (March/April) issue of Atlantis Rising magazine. The closed-minded person will immediately dismiss the whole story as laughable, but the open-minded person will consider the testimony of a number of distinguished scientists and scholars and recognize that there may very well be something to it.

In 1900, Wilhelm von Osten of Elberfeld (then Central Prussia) is said to have taught his Russian stallion, Hans, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The horse would strike out an answer to a problem by striking his hoof so many times. For example, for 35, Hans would strike his left front hoof three times and his right front hoof five times.

Professor Edoward Claparede of the University of Geneva studied the horse and called the phenomenon "the most sensational event that has happened in the psychological world." Of course, mainstream science could not accept such a verdict and sent Oskar Pfungst of the Berlin psychological laboratory to rescue science. Pfungst reported that the horse merely obeyed visual clues, whether conscious or unconscious, given by von Osten. This became known as the "Clever Hans effect," a term still used by animal trainers today.

Von Osten was humiliated and apparently refused to give further demonstrations. However, when he died, he left Han to a friend, Karl Krall, a wealthy merchant, who had seen enough of the horse's ability to discount the Clever Hans effect. Krall also bought two Arabian stallions, Muhamed and Zarif and began training them in the same manner von Osten had taught Hans. Within three weeks, Muhamad was doing multiplication and division and within four months he knew how to extract square roots, cubic roots, and even fourth-power roots. Zarif was a little slower, but eventually could do most of what Muhamad could do, while Hans went to the back of the class. Krall also taught the horses how to read and write. They would communicate by tapping a hoof one time for each letter of the alphabet, e.g., five strikes for E.

Hearing of these horses, Maurice Maeterlinck, a world-renowned Belgian author and Nobel Prize-winner in literature, decided to investigate. At the first demonstration, he was astounded and commented that he was rather disturbed, as such abilities were in total opposition to his worldview.

When Krall took a trip to town, Maeterlinck was permitted to test the horses on his own. Maeterlinck gave them some problems of which he did not know the answer - a way of ruling out the Clever Hans effect as well as mental telepathy, another theory that had been advanced, as fantastic as a mind-horse might seem. It was only after he received the answer from one or the other horse that he did his calculations to determine if the answer was correct.

In one test, Maeterlinck asked for the square root of a number, not realizing it was a surd - a number which had no square root. Muhamed lifted his foot, paused, and then shook his head.

Maeterlinck reported on tests run by Dr. H. Hamel while Krall was on a trip. Hamel asked Muhamed for the fourth power root of 7,890,481, which Hamel himself did not know until checking Muhamed's correct answer of 53. It took the horse about six seconds to begin striking out the answer.

But the horses were sometimes wrong. Professor Claparede asked Muhamed for the fourth power root of 614,656 and received the correct answer of 28, but when he wrote the number 4,879,681 on the blackboard in front of the horse, Muhamed tapped out 117. When told he was wrong, he tapped out 144, also wrong. The horse then gave up.

A New York Times article dated March 3, 1912, told how Zarif was asked for the date by the reporter and tapped out 25 for February 25. When asked how many days left in the month, Zarif tapped out 29. It was a leap year. When asked how often leap years occur, the horse tapped out "every four years."

Maeterlinck, Claparede, and Hamel were not the only researchers to study the horses. At least eight other respected academicians observed the horses and apparently were satisfied that it was not fraud or the Clever Hans effect. Yet, modern references all seem to accept the Clever Hans effect as the only explanation.

Maeterlinck theorized that the horses had mediumistic ability and were able to tap into some kind of cosmic soul. Even though Maeterlinck believed in mediumship, he did not believe that spirits could communicate through mediums. The cosmic soul theory, first advanced by Harvard's William James seemed more fantastic than the possibility that a mischievous spirit or spirits were having some fun by influencing or controlling the horses.

In effect, seven possibilities were recognized:

1. Outright fraud: Considering the fact that the horses performed regularly in the absence of the trainers, this appears to have been ruled out.
2. Fabricated Story: It seems highly unlikely that a man of Maerterlinck's reputation would make up such a story, especially when so many other respected scientists, scholars, and journalists all observed the horses and also reported on it.
3. Clever Hans effect: Here again, the horses performed when no trainer was around and when the researchers themselves did not know the answers.
4. Telepathy: Since the horses gave correct answers when the researchers themselves did not know the answers, this theory seems to have been ruled out.
5. Cosmic Soul: This theory can't be disproved, but it seems to be the most far-fetched of all.
6. Spirit Control: As one historian on spirit phenomena suggested, if spirits can levitate tables and humans, then there was no reason to believe they couldn't control the horses.
7. True Intelligence: Horses and perhaps other animals are really much smarter than we realize. If they can figure fourth-power roots in a matter of seconds, they may even be more intelligent than humans.

Based on all the facts available, number 6 is the only one that begins to make sense to me, even though I struggle with it. But if dicarnates can actually control horses, then why not birds and butteflies?

For a more detailed report on the Elberfeld horses, see my article in the current issue of Atlantis Rising. See http://www.atlantisrising.com/index.shtml

Tags: Elberfeld Horses, spirituality, animal intelligence, consciousness, life after death, Maurice Maeterlinck, Clever Hans effect

Why You Might Not Realize You Are Dead

http://metgat.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:09:43 GMT

There have been numerous messages and signs from the spirit world indicating that many spirits are slow in recognizing that they are "dead," some floundering in this state for a long time, however time is measured in that realm. This phenomenon was popularized in the hit movie, The Sixth Sense, a few years back, when the Bruce Willis character apparently didn't know he was dead.

It is difficult to comprehend how a person, or soul, cannot know he or she is dead, but we need only ponder on how we escape into movies and even print fiction to begin to understand it.

Although I find very little on television that interests me these days, I admit to being hooked on the "24" action series. I get so into the excitement at times that I find myself on the edge of my seat and "living" the action. When a segment of the series ends on its usual cliffhanger and a commercial comes on, I am to some extent reminded that it is just a TV program, not real life. But my consciousness will not fully accept the fiction or unreality of it. Some part of my consciousness still holds onto the emotion and action of it while anxiously awaiting the next segment to see what happens to Jack Bauer.

On the other hand, I don't lose myself in the movie as much as some people. My wife refuses to watch bloody scenes and if one catches her by surprise she will let out a scream. I have no difficulty watching such scenes, although I'm sure that if I were witnessing them in real life my reaction would be much different. Thus, even though I am somewhat absorbed in the movie and not completely distinguishing between reality and unreality, my consciousness is straddling the "threshold of awareness" enough so that I do not react too emotionally to violent scenes.

When a trip prevented me from seeing a weekly segment of "24" last year, I felt conflicted. I had to know what was going to happen. My mind tried to reason with my consciousness by re-"minding" it that it isn't real and that I shouldn't care what happens, but my consciousness struggled to accept what the mind was telling it and I was determined to see the next segment.

Having recently read "To Die For" by James E. Beichler, Ph.D., I now have a framework by which to better understand the struggles between mind and consciousness, including why some spirits don't realize they are dead.

"Mind interprets our sensed world and environment using reason, the cumulative result of real experiences of the material four-dimensional world placed within a specific mental framework or worldview," Beichler, a semi-retired physics professor, explains, "while consciousness deals more with intuition, our innate feelings and subconscious understanding of the larger five-dimensional framework of physical reality."

As Beichler sees it, when mind is much more evolved than consciousness those making the transition from this life to the larger life may be faced with a very big gap, thus not recognizing that they are dead. If the person had achieved a higher level of consciousness while occupying the physical body, "then the mind would already have memories of five-dimensional experience and would then merge with less difficulty into its new state of being," he explains, adding that this mind remains stuck in its four-dimensional reality.

In other words, the mind (the soul) separates itself from the physical organ (the brain) and then attempts to orientate itself based upon the spiritual consciousness that it has achieved during the time it occupied a physical shell. If the spiritual consciousness is well developed, the mind quickly awakens to its new and true reality. But if that consciousness is not well developed - if it is still grounded in the material world - this "handicapped" mind does not quickly "awaken" and may not even realize that the physical body has been shed, i.e., the soul doesn't realize that it is "dead."

"The mind/consciousness complex retains its identity (the person still remains) after a manner in the fifth dimension, in so far as self-identity is not a material but still a physical quantity or quality," Beichler further explains. "However, the extent to which the complex is ‘conscious' or mindful of its own existence, its being, would depend upon the extent to which it was ;conscious' or aware of its five-dimensional connections before the death of the four-dimensional body and what is perceived by the mind as ‘self' while the body still lived and functioned."

It is difficult to grasp, but it makes sense. After all, do you know that you are "alive" when you are dreaming while asleep? And while watching a movie, are we constantly reminding ourselves that it is not real? There would be no pleasure or entertainment in watching movies if our level of awareness were so high that we were so reminding ourselves.

Indications are that there are many degrees of awakening and consciousness on the Other Side and that many souls go back and forth over the threshold of awareness, just as most of us do in watching a good movie. That is, the conflict between mind and consciousness continues so that some souls realize at times that they have passed from the physical world but at other times they cling to the physical world and temporarily forget that they are "dead." They are in a struggle with earth's magnetism. I suspect that the majority of souls are in this in-between state, fluctuating back and forth over that threshold of awareness, "earthbound" at times and free from the "earthbound" condition at other times, however time is measured in that realm. Only those who are totally self-centered and materialistic in earth life don't realize their new state at all, at least initially.

Another perspective on this is to view the earth life like a movie, an illusory life, being viewed by the real self - the soul. When the earth life ends, the soul that is totally absorbed in it is still experiencing it, just as many of us are still affected by the movie after it ends.

Beichler's model explains many of the characteristics and properties of the near-death experience. For example, noting that not all experiencers undergo a past-life review, he concludes that those who have a highly-developed consciousness - one that has kept pace with the development of the mind - may not need a life review as they probably reviewed their lives when alive in the flesh. At the other extreme, there are those not advanced enough in their conscious evolution to appreciate a life review, and still others who may not accept a life review because they deny their death and sense nothing at all. "In other words, people's minds seize upon the most familiar surroundings when they enter the new environment of the five-dimensional universe," Beichler offers, "but can still reject the experience completely depending upon their mind set and mental priorities at the time of death."

Dr. Beichler's book is available from Trafford Publishing (888-232-4444) or at Amazon.com

Tags: life after death, afterlife, death, not knowing you are dead, James Beichler, spirituality, consciousness, mind