Archbishop Cosmo Lang, was the Church of England’s top expert on the supernatural during W.W. II. and an advisor to Winston Churchill and the war effort, among Churchill’s other occult advisors were Dennis Wheatley, Louis De Wohl. Dr Alexander Cannon Lord Victor Rothschild and allegedly, Aleister Crowley. That Churchill used astrologers and mediums for advice is well known, and advised by devout spiritualist R.A.F. leader Lord Dowding, sought out several well known mediums such as Joe Benjamin and Leslie Flint. But Churchill became the victim of one of Spiritualisms greatest frauds, which is said to have thrown him into deep depression. William Roy, was the cleverest fake of all and the medium whose tricks are still used by fakes and fraudsters today. Born William Plowright at Surrey England in 1911, and always interested in conjuring, he married Mary Castle a nightclub owner, and watching back stage, he learned tricks such as mind reading and slight of hand, from those appearing. He later studied Spiritualism, and felt the bereaved would give him an easy living, and set up his office from home.
When people rang for an appointment, he would research who they were, in the newspapers, births marriages and deaths section, and notes kept from graves at local cemeteries, and an accomplice would call at their house on a pretext, and elicit information, and when they called at his home, an accomplice would take their bags and coat and ask them to empty their pockets, saying the contents would influence the medium., and rummage them for details. The waiting room contained another accomplice who would chat to those inside, while a peep hole and ear piece, gave more info. William Roy had a small microphone behind his ear, covered by ear long hair, and a copper rod glued to the bottom of his shoe, and when he stood on a rod inserted between the floorboards, contact would be made, and the accomplice would read from the bags wallets and coats, the personal information straight into his ear.
He would scour the papers each day, and was bang up to date with the news. Among those duped alongside Churchill was Canadian premier Mackenzie King. Leaders of show business and industry, and scores of the vulnerable and bereaved. mThe training of a medium takes many years and fake mediums are usually exposed by other mediums themselves, and Maurice Barbanell in 1955, with a dramatic front page article in the Two Worlds magazine, broke the news of his fakery that many had long suspected, but it was his confessions in the Sunday Pictorial, sold for big money in 1958, which brought out so much appalling detail, one of his ploys with widows, was to pretend he was speaking as the dead husband, and asked them to give him money to continue gods work for the bereaved, in one case alone he was given 15,000 pounds as a gift.
The suicide of his second wife Dorothy, left him free for another prosperous marriage. He set up again in another area as “Bill Silver, talks with god for you “ and again conned many consumed with grief, from their savings. His death in 1977, meant that the Scotland Yard took possession of all his trickery, his memory cards, tickets, miniature microphones etc for their museum and training center, Many of the American T V evangelists use these same tricks today, to trick many out of millions.
Winston Churchill, Lord Victor Rothschild and Aleister Crowley were all 33rd degree masons, there are 33 vertebra in the spine, and the degree initiations are said to awaken the chakras along the spinal cord.. So Masonic’s is as occult as it gets, yet Churchill who claimed psychic ability, was indeed conned, here he was with Lord Rothschild, in charge of the entire war effort, desperately looking to fake mediums for advice. On his visit to medium Helen Duncan in prison, he swore her to secrecy but told her he was absolutely furious over the whole William Roy episode. The government claimed that Duncan was prosecuted for being a fraudulent medium, yet said that she could give out real secrets involving the D day landings, how, if she was a fraud ?
Even by government standards this is total lying rubbish. Why were no other fake mediums prosecuted ? Duncan was only prosecuted because she was genuine, and to silence her. The law on fraudulent mediumship is being changed this year, the changes are ill thought out, but public safeguards are still very necessary.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Was the big bang really teh beginning?
For decades, physicists have accepted the notion that the universe started with the Big Bang, an explosive event at the literal beginning of time. Now, computational physicist Neil Turok is challenging that model -- and some scientists are taking him seriously. According to Turok, who teaches at Cambridge University, the Big Bang represents just one stage in an infinitely repeated cycle of universal expansion and contraction. Turok theorizes that neither time nor the universe has a beginning or end. It's a strange idea, though Turok would say it's no stranger than the standard explanation of the Big Bang: a singular point that defies our laws of physics, where all equations go to infinity and "all the properties we normally use to describe the universe and its contents just fail." That inconsistency led Turok to see if the Big Bang could be explained within the framework of string theory, a controversial and so-far untested explanation of the universe as existing in at least 10 dimensions and being formed from one-dimensional building blocks called strings. Within a school of string theory known as m-theory, Turok said, "the seventh extra dimension of space is the gap between two parallel objects called branes. It's like the gap between two parallel mirrors. We thought, What happens if these two mirrors collide? Maybe that was the Big Bang."
Turok's proposition has drawn condemnation from string theory's many critics and even opposition from the Catholic Church. But it's provoked acclaim and wonder, too: He and Princeton University physicist Paul Steinhardt published Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang last year, and Turok -- also the founder of the South Africa-based African Institute for Mathematical Sciences -- won 2008's first annual TED Prize, awarded to the world's most innovative thinkers.
Turok's proposition has drawn condemnation from string theory's many critics and even opposition from the Catholic Church. But it's provoked acclaim and wonder, too: He and Princeton University physicist Paul Steinhardt published Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang last year, and Turok -- also the founder of the South Africa-based African Institute for Mathematical Sciences -- won 2008's first annual TED Prize, awarded to the world's most innovative thinkers.
Part 2
Leo
I never did before until I started doing researching psychical research and parapsychology then it all changed. You say that everything we could know about the mind is stored in our brains first of all that is an assumption right there your referring to the production theory but there is also the transmission theory of the mind brain relationship which easily explains all the neuroscienific evidence better than the production theory because number one it takes in the data of phenomena such as stigmata, internal impressions etc also accomodates evidence of survival and psi, free will.
I agree with you on Sylvia Browne she is clearly out to get people's money. However I disagree about John Edwards which had the guts to be tested under scientific controlled conditions with Professor Gary Schwartz.
What i find funny is skeptic organizations claim to say that we are open minded to the possibility of the paranormal being real but here we have James Randi saying this about things such as acupuncture
Vista: If the results were positive, would you still be sceptical?
James Randi: Yes, I will always be sceptical of things that are not likely to be true. Now, Sophia Loren, that's a different matter.
Damien
No Leo, saying that the brain stores information regarding your personality, memories etc is not an assumption. Your brain is the only part of your body that stores such things. That is why head trauma, depending on how serious it is, can often result in personality changes, memory loss etc.
I didn't mention Sylvia Browne, although she's probably the one that makes me the angriest, but John Edwards has been caught red handed cheating. Here is one example:
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/article.php?storyid=346 Note: he takes this one case which the possibility of editing to make John Edwards bad
I never did before until I started doing researching psychical research and parapsychology then it all changed. You say that everything we could know about the mind is stored in our brains first of all that is an assumption right there your referring to the production theory but there is also the transmission theory of the mind brain relationship which easily explains all the neuroscienific evidence better than the production theory because number one it takes in the data of phenomena such as stigmata, internal impressions etc also accomodates evidence of survival and psi, free will.
I agree with you on Sylvia Browne she is clearly out to get people's money. However I disagree about John Edwards which had the guts to be tested under scientific controlled conditions with Professor Gary Schwartz.
What i find funny is skeptic organizations claim to say that we are open minded to the possibility of the paranormal being real but here we have James Randi saying this about things such as acupuncture
Vista: If the results were positive, would you still be sceptical?
James Randi: Yes, I will always be sceptical of things that are not likely to be true. Now, Sophia Loren, that's a different matter.
Damien
No Leo, saying that the brain stores information regarding your personality, memories etc is not an assumption. Your brain is the only part of your body that stores such things. That is why head trauma, depending on how serious it is, can often result in personality changes, memory loss etc.
I didn't mention Sylvia Browne, although she's probably the one that makes me the angriest, but John Edwards has been caught red handed cheating. Here is one example:
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/article.php?storyid=346 Note: he takes this one case which the possibility of editing to make John Edwards bad
War of words by skeptics on the paranormal part 1
Some skeptics are downright closed minded and cast a bad light on open minded skeptics who would rather research themselves instead of having words tossed to them that all paranormal phenomena is bunk. I recently have been debating with two skeptics Chad and Damien ehre is all discussions.
First Chad and Me
Leo
This is a big mistake on your part Chad many things have been proven as a scientific fact way before the scientific community catched on such as the wright brothers when they showned that machines can fly the scientific community first laughed at them. Also as far as I know cold fusion experiments are still happening. It's not that that these scientists who question evolution but they clearly saying that there are gaps in evolution also that evolution cannot explain how a feature came into existence because selection can only work once the feature appears.
Chad
Leo, scientist did not laugh at the Wright brothers for SHOWING that heavier than air craft could fly; it was obvious that it could once the plane was in the air. They were skeptical at the hypotheses, but obviously they were able to prove their hypothesis correct, which is the way science works. Also, yes fusion experiments are still taking place, however NOT using the same methods as Pons, it would be ridicules to keep repeating the same method over and over when it has already been shown not to work. Further, the scientist at the creation institute do in fact deny evolution all together and clearly by your comment on selection you have a misunderstanding of evolution.
Leo
Chad,
Professor jeffery Schwartz his theory is that a mutation in the broadist sense arises usually in the unexpressed or resitated state in biological sense we would call it inactive spread silently through the population and you have individuals with copies for novelty and then they produce offsprings that have both copies that evolution can only explain how novelty evolved not where it originated from the same applies to entire species. As Jeffery also points out a feature can only have selection act on it once it appears. Jeffery Schwartz theory rips at the heart of evolutionists who use darwin's theory to explain everything very simply as a gradual procession with a purpose.
Also about PONS
Read this Now there's news U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has achieved cold fusion.
Building on the techniques first reported by Fleischmann and Pons - two of the most reviled, ridiculed, and ostracized figures in the recent history of science, dismissed as frauds and quacks, vilified around the world, deprived of funding and made the butt of countless jokes - yes, building on the work of these two men, the Navy's researchers have apparently found a way to produce low energy nuclear reactions that can be "replicated and verified."
Many the commenters on the DailyTech story are suddenly adopting the line that yeah, sure, of course cold fusion is real, we knew it all along, but since it's not practical for generating electricity, it's no big deal. This tracks nicely with what Arthur C. Clarke (a longtime proponent of cold fusion) has called the three stages of acceptance of any new idea:
(1) "It's crazy - don't waste my time."
(2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing."
(3) "I always said it was a good idea."
With cold fusion, we currently seem to be at stage 2.
Now, it's it's probably cruel to do this, but I thought it might be interesting to see what that noted defender of science, James Randi, has had to say about cold fusion over the years.
Here's his expert opinion:
The "cold fusion" farce should have been tossed into the trash heap long ago, but justifiable fear of legal actions by offended supporters has stifled opponents. . . cold fusion is a dead duck, the earth is not flat, and the fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.
In 1998, Randi gave a Pigasus Award (a plaque featuring a flying pig) to ABC News "for their unquestioning and enthusiastic endorsement of 'cold fusion,' ESP ... and all sorts of junk science." (Both quotes appear, with citations, here.)
In other words: It's crazy - don't waste my time. (Stage 1.)
And here's an essay (in PDF form) by skeptic Victor Stenger, arguing that cold fusion claims have many instructive parallels to ESP research. Of course, Stenger's point is that both cold fusion and ESP are bogus examples of pseudoscience at its worst.
If cold fusion is for real, does this mean that Stenger and Randi will now take another look at ESP?
Don't hold your breath.
Here's the article here on this discovery of Cold Fusion
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7168
Chad
I couldn't make heads or tales of what you were attempting to say about evolution. I'm not here to debate the fact of evolution but if you like i can. On Pons I was using his research as an example of the necessity for evidence and repeatability in science. In the article you quote, or in the blog that you copied/pasted from, there is no mention of replication of Pons results. Something may come of cold fusion, or it may not, the results of the experiment in the article are very preliminary and will have to be repeated and confirmed MULTIPLE times to be accepted by the scientific community. Until that time, as with paranormal research, scientist will continue to scoff. Again, evidence to support a claim is required.
Leo
Psyhical Research has presented evidence for survival and for psi to conventional science what did they do? ignored it because it conflicts with materialism
Chad
You mean the Society for Psychical Research that touted the Creery sisters as evidence for psi? The same society that's been around since 1882 and fully supported people like Rhine and Soal; with their extraordinary evidence for ESP? All three of which were found to be not so extraordinary after all. In fact I believe the Creery sisters were found to be, surprisingly, cheating and both Rhine and Soal weren't so honest in their methods either.
I don't mean the sarcasm, but you would think in the 125 or so years that the society has been actively seeking evidence for the paranormal they would have contributed something to society.
Leo
They have contributed a lot to society to our understanding of our place in the universe. Yes there was cheating but there was also lots of valid evidence I can cherry pick too evidence I believe is fraud.
I can't deny the existence of an afterlife, because such a thing is unobservable and untestable. Agnosticism is the most anyone can say about it's existence. However, when claims are made about the physical world, as I have said before, they are open to scientific inquiry. If someone claims they are experiencing a paranormal event; it is up for investigation and as of so far, natural explanations have been found for nearly every example
Have they? this is where your knowledge fails if you have been researching the paranormal you would know that many paranormal phenomena remain unexplained no natural explanations fit.
"I am absolutely convinced of the fact that those who once lived on earth can and do communicate with us. It is hardly possible to convey to the inexperienced an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence." William Barrett
If my opinion no one has the right to say that psychical research was not worthwhile if they have not studied the evidence.
Chad
Leo, I guess this is one thing that skeptics and believers will always disagree on. Believers find a barely over chance hit rate as compelling evidence for psi, skeptics don't. I just feel that after over a 100 years of testing psi; someone could of come up with some compelling results or maybe a useful application for it. If we could predict the future or communicate with psi it would revolutionize science! I guess we'll have to settle with the boring things that science has given us; that is until psi works out. Note: There is independant replication of psi experiments with positive results]
No, I do mean that relativity over through classical mechanics(Newtonian Mechanics). I guess i shouldn't say it over through all of Newtonian Mechanics; relativity over through some parts of it and highly modified others.
Yes string theory is a compelling new idea and many people are working on it. However, it may be completely wrong. As of so far there are no experiments to test its predictions and until they do it's still just ideas.
First Chad and Me
Leo
This is a big mistake on your part Chad many things have been proven as a scientific fact way before the scientific community catched on such as the wright brothers when they showned that machines can fly the scientific community first laughed at them. Also as far as I know cold fusion experiments are still happening. It's not that that these scientists who question evolution but they clearly saying that there are gaps in evolution also that evolution cannot explain how a feature came into existence because selection can only work once the feature appears.
Chad
Leo, scientist did not laugh at the Wright brothers for SHOWING that heavier than air craft could fly; it was obvious that it could once the plane was in the air. They were skeptical at the hypotheses, but obviously they were able to prove their hypothesis correct, which is the way science works. Also, yes fusion experiments are still taking place, however NOT using the same methods as Pons, it would be ridicules to keep repeating the same method over and over when it has already been shown not to work. Further, the scientist at the creation institute do in fact deny evolution all together and clearly by your comment on selection you have a misunderstanding of evolution.
Leo
Chad,
Professor jeffery Schwartz his theory is that a mutation in the broadist sense arises usually in the unexpressed or resitated state in biological sense we would call it inactive spread silently through the population and you have individuals with copies for novelty and then they produce offsprings that have both copies that evolution can only explain how novelty evolved not where it originated from the same applies to entire species. As Jeffery also points out a feature can only have selection act on it once it appears. Jeffery Schwartz theory rips at the heart of evolutionists who use darwin's theory to explain everything very simply as a gradual procession with a purpose.
Also about PONS
Read this Now there's news U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has achieved cold fusion.
Building on the techniques first reported by Fleischmann and Pons - two of the most reviled, ridiculed, and ostracized figures in the recent history of science, dismissed as frauds and quacks, vilified around the world, deprived of funding and made the butt of countless jokes - yes, building on the work of these two men, the Navy's researchers have apparently found a way to produce low energy nuclear reactions that can be "replicated and verified."
Many the commenters on the DailyTech story are suddenly adopting the line that yeah, sure, of course cold fusion is real, we knew it all along, but since it's not practical for generating electricity, it's no big deal. This tracks nicely with what Arthur C. Clarke (a longtime proponent of cold fusion) has called the three stages of acceptance of any new idea:
(1) "It's crazy - don't waste my time."
(2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing."
(3) "I always said it was a good idea."
With cold fusion, we currently seem to be at stage 2.
Now, it's it's probably cruel to do this, but I thought it might be interesting to see what that noted defender of science, James Randi, has had to say about cold fusion over the years.
Here's his expert opinion:
The "cold fusion" farce should have been tossed into the trash heap long ago, but justifiable fear of legal actions by offended supporters has stifled opponents. . . cold fusion is a dead duck, the earth is not flat, and the fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.
In 1998, Randi gave a Pigasus Award (a plaque featuring a flying pig) to ABC News "for their unquestioning and enthusiastic endorsement of 'cold fusion,' ESP ... and all sorts of junk science." (Both quotes appear, with citations, here.)
In other words: It's crazy - don't waste my time. (Stage 1.)
And here's an essay (in PDF form) by skeptic Victor Stenger, arguing that cold fusion claims have many instructive parallels to ESP research. Of course, Stenger's point is that both cold fusion and ESP are bogus examples of pseudoscience at its worst.
If cold fusion is for real, does this mean that Stenger and Randi will now take another look at ESP?
Don't hold your breath.
Here's the article here on this discovery of Cold Fusion
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7168
Chad
I couldn't make heads or tales of what you were attempting to say about evolution. I'm not here to debate the fact of evolution but if you like i can. On Pons I was using his research as an example of the necessity for evidence and repeatability in science. In the article you quote, or in the blog that you copied/pasted from, there is no mention of replication of Pons results. Something may come of cold fusion, or it may not, the results of the experiment in the article are very preliminary and will have to be repeated and confirmed MULTIPLE times to be accepted by the scientific community. Until that time, as with paranormal research, scientist will continue to scoff. Again, evidence to support a claim is required.
Leo
Psyhical Research has presented evidence for survival and for psi to conventional science what did they do? ignored it because it conflicts with materialism
Chad
You mean the Society for Psychical Research that touted the Creery sisters as evidence for psi? The same society that's been around since 1882 and fully supported people like Rhine and Soal; with their extraordinary evidence for ESP? All three of which were found to be not so extraordinary after all. In fact I believe the Creery sisters were found to be, surprisingly, cheating and both Rhine and Soal weren't so honest in their methods either.
I don't mean the sarcasm, but you would think in the 125 or so years that the society has been actively seeking evidence for the paranormal they would have contributed something to society.
Leo
They have contributed a lot to society to our understanding of our place in the universe. Yes there was cheating but there was also lots of valid evidence I can cherry pick too evidence I believe is fraud.
I can't deny the existence of an afterlife, because such a thing is unobservable and untestable. Agnosticism is the most anyone can say about it's existence. However, when claims are made about the physical world, as I have said before, they are open to scientific inquiry. If someone claims they are experiencing a paranormal event; it is up for investigation and as of so far, natural explanations have been found for nearly every example
Have they? this is where your knowledge fails if you have been researching the paranormal you would know that many paranormal phenomena remain unexplained no natural explanations fit.
"I am absolutely convinced of the fact that those who once lived on earth can and do communicate with us. It is hardly possible to convey to the inexperienced an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence." William Barrett
If my opinion no one has the right to say that psychical research was not worthwhile if they have not studied the evidence.
Chad
Leo, I guess this is one thing that skeptics and believers will always disagree on. Believers find a barely over chance hit rate as compelling evidence for psi, skeptics don't. I just feel that after over a 100 years of testing psi; someone could of come up with some compelling results or maybe a useful application for it. If we could predict the future or communicate with psi it would revolutionize science! I guess we'll have to settle with the boring things that science has given us; that is until psi works out. Note: There is independant replication of psi experiments with positive results]
No, I do mean that relativity over through classical mechanics(Newtonian Mechanics). I guess i shouldn't say it over through all of Newtonian Mechanics; relativity over through some parts of it and highly modified others.
Yes string theory is a compelling new idea and many people are working on it. However, it may be completely wrong. As of so far there are no experiments to test its predictions and until they do it's still just ideas.
Monday, February 18, 2008
British mediums help find missing soldier’s remains
Soon after her soldier son Blake Hartley went missing in France three years ago, Sally Perrin’s attempts to find him led her to two British mediums, Gordon Smith (left) and Dennis Mackenzie (right). She hoped they would tell her that he was alive and maybe, for whatever reason, had defected and was living happily in Spain or Italy. But both confirmed, independently, that Blake was dead and his body was in a river.
The evidence was specific enough for Sally and her husband, Blake’s stepfather, to focus their search on a particular stretch of a river that ran close to where he and other soldiers had camped. A bone eventually recovered from debris close to the spot indicated by the mediums has been confirmed by DNA to be Blake’s.
Gordon Smith was the first medium to be contacted by Sally Perrin after Blake, aged 25, went missing on 8 August 2004, soon after finishing his second term at Sandhurst Military Training College. He was leading eight other lads on an army adventure-training expedition to France. They pitched their tents at Chamonix, an alpine town close to Mont Blanc which Blake knew well, and after a couple of beers went into town for a meal.
After visiting a few bars they ended up in a nightclub from which Blake and another of the soldiers departed between 2am and 3am. On the route home, Blake disappeared into a garden but the other man said he had decided not to follow and made his own way back to the campsite. And that was the last anyone saw of Blake. No one was particularly concerned, believing he would turn up next morning, so police were not informed until mid-afternoon.
Blake Hartley had apparently disappeared without trace. No body was found in the river. No sightings of him were reported. And a website set up by Sally Perrin produced no new clues. It was then that she decided – though not a Spiritualist – to seek psychic help. Someone recommended Gordon Smith, a medium with such a good reputation that getting a sitting with him is virtually impossible except for the most deserving cases.
Blake’s mother decided to drive to Bristol to see Gordon Smith give a public demonstration of his mediumship and, in the second half, took advantage of a question-and-answer session to ask, “Can you help me find my son?” He agreed to give her a private reading, in London, and as well as providing a wealth of information which, Sally Perrin says, “he couldn’t possibly have known”, he confirmed her son was dead.
He “saw” people chatting around Blake in a bar or nightclub and a new mate he barely knew was with him. He also described a raging river with steep banks on either side, surrounded by marshy flat land with mountains in the background. It was in this river that Blake’s remains would be found – but not, he predicted, until towards the third anniversary of his disappearance.
Gordon Smith had made it a condition of the sitting – because of the already heavy demands on his time – that the Perrins should give no publicity to his involvement. And that is a promise they have honoured. No mention of him is to be found on the website (www.blakehartley.com) that has provided regular updates on their search ever since Blake disappeared.
LifeChangingMessagesWeb.jpgNow that the case has been solved, the Scottish-born medium has agreed to reveal his involvement in the case in a new book – his fifth – from Hay House: Life Changing Messages. And in it Sally Perrin tells her story in her own words, in a very moving but down-to-earth 10-page contribution.
In an interview with www.ParanormalReview.com, Sally Perrin added further details of Gordon Smith’s involvement and explained how the other medium, Dennis Mackenzie, came to be involved.
Referring to Blake’s death, Gordon Smith had told his mother that he could “hear” fast moving water and felt his body was near a weir, 60 kilometres south of Chamonix. Having accepted that Blake was dead, they wanted closure by finding tangible evidence of his fate. But his body could have been anywhere in a 100-kilometre stretch of river. Fortunately, Gordon Smith’s reference to the weir narrowed the search to a specific point, some 60 kilometres from where Blake had disappeared.
“In fact, there were two weirs close together,” Sally Perrin told us.
She would have liked Smith to visit Chamonix with her and her husband to assist in the search but his commitments – he’s probably the most-travelled medium, right now – did not allow it. Instead, at the recommendation of someone who had seen the Blake Hartley website, they turned to Dennis Mackenzie, a Cambridgeshire medium who was featured in Goodbye, Holly, written by the father of Holly Wells, one of the two girls murdered by Ian Huntley in what has become known as the Sohan Murders.
Mackenzie’s reading provided psychic confirmation of Blake’s death and the fact that his body was in the river. What’s more, he also agreed to accompany David and Sally Perrin to Chamonix to assist in the search – and an ITV Central television news film crew went too.
Not only did they film Mackenzie with the Perrins at the point where he said Blake had gone into the river, but he even traced the final route taken by Blake and his companion, even walking through someone’s garden to the river bank.
Dennis Mackenzie gave us his version of the Chamonix visit and is particularly pleased that his psychic investigation was recorded on film. He made special reference to stopping in front of a red door – which turned out to be the nightclub visited by Blake and his companions – and described events that took place inside. He also claimed to have given the Perrins a name of someone involved.
“Dennis retracing Blake’s final steps was mind-blowing,” Sally Perrin told us. “We’d already established the route Blake had taken in advance and he was spot-on.”
And the nightclub?
“Yes. He came out with a very detailed explanation of what happened in the nightclub: there were a lot of details that have not been published at all about what happened in there, that the boys had told me about, and he came out with that as well. Quite extraordinary.”
What about the name that was given?
“I recall he gave us one name – it was the very unusual nickname of one of the lads who was with the person I suspect knows more than he is saying.”
The mediums had done as much as they could at this point. It was now left to the river and a local man, Joseph Dancet, to offer up the hard evidence that the Perrins needed.
In May 2006 – long after the readings and the visit by Dennis Mackenzie to Chamonix – Joseph contacted Sally Perrin after seeing her website to tell her he had seen a body, which he was certain was Blake’s, 10 days after he disappeared. He had informed the French police but they didn’t seem to believe him.
The couple flew out to meet Joseph who pledged that he and his friend, Claude Antoine, who knew the river well, would do everything they could to help find Blake’s remains. True to his word, that’s what they did for the next eight months, whenever conditions in the icy-cold, fast-running river allowed.
Sifting through huge amounts of debris with strange rakes they managed to recover a human femur on 30 December 2006. DNA proved it was Blake’s. It was virtually two years and five months since Blake had mysteriously vanished.
“It was found in exactly the kind of area Gordon had described,” Sally reveals in Life Changing Messages. “Annoyingly, it was found just a few yards further south of the place where every search that we had conducted had ended, just downstream of a bridge that denotes the beginning of the torrent, where, according to the police, bodies do not get caught up!”
After Joseph had recovered the femur, the Perrins watched as police reconnoitering the area found two more bones which were examined to try to establish the cause of his death.
blake_picture.jpgSo, did Blake just fall into the river after drinking too much – a river whose dangers were well known to him and about which he had warned others?
Or was there more to his death than a simple accident? Sally Perrin believes there was, and is sure not only that at least one person knows the answer, but also that the British Army’s report on the incident is a “whitewash”.
It could have been an accident following an altercation in which the other person is afraid to tell the truth for fear of being prosecuted. Or it could even have been murder. The one person who does know is Blake Hartley, but he’s not saying.
“Gordon Smith told me that he doesn’t want to say, because of a code of honour,” Sally Perrin told us. “But when I pushed him to ask Blake for more information, he said Blake was showing him a large initial. And that’s the initial of the person who I believe knows more than he is saying.”
However, what matters most to Sally Perrin is that Gordon Smith and Dennis Mackenzie ended the dreadful uncertainty about her son’s disappearance and Blake has assured her that he is happy in the next world.
“And I often have to stop myself in those deep moments of grief and remind myself of those words.”
The evidence was specific enough for Sally and her husband, Blake’s stepfather, to focus their search on a particular stretch of a river that ran close to where he and other soldiers had camped. A bone eventually recovered from debris close to the spot indicated by the mediums has been confirmed by DNA to be Blake’s.
Gordon Smith was the first medium to be contacted by Sally Perrin after Blake, aged 25, went missing on 8 August 2004, soon after finishing his second term at Sandhurst Military Training College. He was leading eight other lads on an army adventure-training expedition to France. They pitched their tents at Chamonix, an alpine town close to Mont Blanc which Blake knew well, and after a couple of beers went into town for a meal.
After visiting a few bars they ended up in a nightclub from which Blake and another of the soldiers departed between 2am and 3am. On the route home, Blake disappeared into a garden but the other man said he had decided not to follow and made his own way back to the campsite. And that was the last anyone saw of Blake. No one was particularly concerned, believing he would turn up next morning, so police were not informed until mid-afternoon.
Blake Hartley had apparently disappeared without trace. No body was found in the river. No sightings of him were reported. And a website set up by Sally Perrin produced no new clues. It was then that she decided – though not a Spiritualist – to seek psychic help. Someone recommended Gordon Smith, a medium with such a good reputation that getting a sitting with him is virtually impossible except for the most deserving cases.
Blake’s mother decided to drive to Bristol to see Gordon Smith give a public demonstration of his mediumship and, in the second half, took advantage of a question-and-answer session to ask, “Can you help me find my son?” He agreed to give her a private reading, in London, and as well as providing a wealth of information which, Sally Perrin says, “he couldn’t possibly have known”, he confirmed her son was dead.
He “saw” people chatting around Blake in a bar or nightclub and a new mate he barely knew was with him. He also described a raging river with steep banks on either side, surrounded by marshy flat land with mountains in the background. It was in this river that Blake’s remains would be found – but not, he predicted, until towards the third anniversary of his disappearance.
Gordon Smith had made it a condition of the sitting – because of the already heavy demands on his time – that the Perrins should give no publicity to his involvement. And that is a promise they have honoured. No mention of him is to be found on the website (www.blakehartley.com) that has provided regular updates on their search ever since Blake disappeared.
LifeChangingMessagesWeb.jpgNow that the case has been solved, the Scottish-born medium has agreed to reveal his involvement in the case in a new book – his fifth – from Hay House: Life Changing Messages. And in it Sally Perrin tells her story in her own words, in a very moving but down-to-earth 10-page contribution.
In an interview with www.ParanormalReview.com, Sally Perrin added further details of Gordon Smith’s involvement and explained how the other medium, Dennis Mackenzie, came to be involved.
Referring to Blake’s death, Gordon Smith had told his mother that he could “hear” fast moving water and felt his body was near a weir, 60 kilometres south of Chamonix. Having accepted that Blake was dead, they wanted closure by finding tangible evidence of his fate. But his body could have been anywhere in a 100-kilometre stretch of river. Fortunately, Gordon Smith’s reference to the weir narrowed the search to a specific point, some 60 kilometres from where Blake had disappeared.
“In fact, there were two weirs close together,” Sally Perrin told us.
She would have liked Smith to visit Chamonix with her and her husband to assist in the search but his commitments – he’s probably the most-travelled medium, right now – did not allow it. Instead, at the recommendation of someone who had seen the Blake Hartley website, they turned to Dennis Mackenzie, a Cambridgeshire medium who was featured in Goodbye, Holly, written by the father of Holly Wells, one of the two girls murdered by Ian Huntley in what has become known as the Sohan Murders.
Mackenzie’s reading provided psychic confirmation of Blake’s death and the fact that his body was in the river. What’s more, he also agreed to accompany David and Sally Perrin to Chamonix to assist in the search – and an ITV Central television news film crew went too.
Not only did they film Mackenzie with the Perrins at the point where he said Blake had gone into the river, but he even traced the final route taken by Blake and his companion, even walking through someone’s garden to the river bank.
Dennis Mackenzie gave us his version of the Chamonix visit and is particularly pleased that his psychic investigation was recorded on film. He made special reference to stopping in front of a red door – which turned out to be the nightclub visited by Blake and his companions – and described events that took place inside. He also claimed to have given the Perrins a name of someone involved.
“Dennis retracing Blake’s final steps was mind-blowing,” Sally Perrin told us. “We’d already established the route Blake had taken in advance and he was spot-on.”
And the nightclub?
“Yes. He came out with a very detailed explanation of what happened in the nightclub: there were a lot of details that have not been published at all about what happened in there, that the boys had told me about, and he came out with that as well. Quite extraordinary.”
What about the name that was given?
“I recall he gave us one name – it was the very unusual nickname of one of the lads who was with the person I suspect knows more than he is saying.”
The mediums had done as much as they could at this point. It was now left to the river and a local man, Joseph Dancet, to offer up the hard evidence that the Perrins needed.
In May 2006 – long after the readings and the visit by Dennis Mackenzie to Chamonix – Joseph contacted Sally Perrin after seeing her website to tell her he had seen a body, which he was certain was Blake’s, 10 days after he disappeared. He had informed the French police but they didn’t seem to believe him.
The couple flew out to meet Joseph who pledged that he and his friend, Claude Antoine, who knew the river well, would do everything they could to help find Blake’s remains. True to his word, that’s what they did for the next eight months, whenever conditions in the icy-cold, fast-running river allowed.
Sifting through huge amounts of debris with strange rakes they managed to recover a human femur on 30 December 2006. DNA proved it was Blake’s. It was virtually two years and five months since Blake had mysteriously vanished.
“It was found in exactly the kind of area Gordon had described,” Sally reveals in Life Changing Messages. “Annoyingly, it was found just a few yards further south of the place where every search that we had conducted had ended, just downstream of a bridge that denotes the beginning of the torrent, where, according to the police, bodies do not get caught up!”
After Joseph had recovered the femur, the Perrins watched as police reconnoitering the area found two more bones which were examined to try to establish the cause of his death.
blake_picture.jpgSo, did Blake just fall into the river after drinking too much – a river whose dangers were well known to him and about which he had warned others?
Or was there more to his death than a simple accident? Sally Perrin believes there was, and is sure not only that at least one person knows the answer, but also that the British Army’s report on the incident is a “whitewash”.
It could have been an accident following an altercation in which the other person is afraid to tell the truth for fear of being prosecuted. Or it could even have been murder. The one person who does know is Blake Hartley, but he’s not saying.
“Gordon Smith told me that he doesn’t want to say, because of a code of honour,” Sally Perrin told us. “But when I pushed him to ask Blake for more information, he said Blake was showing him a large initial. And that’s the initial of the person who I believe knows more than he is saying.”
However, what matters most to Sally Perrin is that Gordon Smith and Dennis Mackenzie ended the dreadful uncertainty about her son’s disappearance and Blake has assured her that he is happy in the next world.
“And I often have to stop myself in those deep moments of grief and remind myself of those words.”
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Ps2 Games that i am thinking of purchasing
1. Twisted Metal: Head On- it's very action packed and I think better than the previous twisted metal games
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003- Looks pretty good
3. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns : Lots of wrestlers to choose from and create wrestlers
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003- Looks pretty good
3. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns : Lots of wrestlers to choose from and create wrestlers
What the Advanced Spirits told Allan Kardec
.
Sometime in the year of 1853 or 1854, Hippolyte Léon Dénizarth Rivail, a French educator, decided to investigate the mediumship phenomena that had been breaking out in France. He began sitting at the home of a friend, Emile Charles Baudin, whose daughters, Caroline, 16, and Julie, 13, were mediums. While most of the messages coming through the two young girls were of a mundane nature, the messages became serious and profound when Rivail was present. He was informed that spirits of a higher order were communicating when he was present because they knew he could comprehend the messages and get them to the public. Among those purportedly communicating with Rivail, who adopted the pseudonym Allan Kardec, were John the Evangelist, St. Augustine, St. Vincent De Paul, St. Louis, Socrates, Plato, Fénélon, Benjamin Franklin, and Emanuel Swedenborg.
It was these advanced spirits who told him to adopt the pseudonym Allan Kardec for the books he would write "in the fulfillment of the mission" which they had for him. In 1857, Kardec's book, Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirits' Book) was published, offering answers to many questions which Kardec put to the spirits. Here are a few of those questions and answers.
Why is it that reason is not always an infallible guide?
"It would be infallible if it were not perverted by a false education, by pride, and by selfishness. Instinct does not reason. Reason leaves freedom to choice, and gives man free will."
Do all spirits pass by the road of evil to arrive at good?
"Not by the road of evil, but by that of ignorance."
How is it that some spirits have followed the road of good, and others the road of evil?
"Have they not their free-will? God has not created any spirits bad; He has created them simple and ignorant, that is to say, possessing an equal aptitude for good and for evil. Those who become bad become so of their own free-will."
How can spirits, at their origin, when they have not yet acquired self-consciousness, possess freedom of choice between good and evil? Is there in them any principle, any tendency, which inclines them towards either road rather than towards the other?
"Free-will is developed in proportion as the spirit acquires the consciousness of himself. Freedom would not exist for the spirit if his choice were solicited by a cause independent of his will. The cause which determines his choice is not in him, but is exterior to him, in the influence to which he voluntarily yields in virtue of the freedom of his will. It is this choice that is represented under the grand figure of the fall of man and of original sin. Some spirits have yielded to temptation; others have withstood it."
Whence come the influences that act upon him?
"From the imperfect spirits, who seek to take possession of him and to dominate him, and who are happy to see him succumb. It is this temptation that is allegorically pictured as Satan."
Does this influence act upon a spirit only at its origin?
"It follows him through all the phases of his existence as a spirit, until he has acquired such thorough self-command that evil spirits renounce the attempt to obsess him."
Why has God permitted it to be possible for spirits to take the wrong road?
"The wisdom of God is shown in the freedom of choice which He leaves to every spirit, for each has thus the merit of his deeds."
Since there are spirits who, from the beginning, follow unswervingly the right path, and others who wander into the lowest depths of evil, there are no doubt, many degrees of deviation between these extremes?
"Yes, certainly; and these degrees constitute the paths of the great majority of spirits."
Does the remembrance of his corporeal existence present itself to a spirit, complete and spontaneously, immediately after his death?
"No, it comes back to him little by little in proportion as he fixes his attention upon it, as objects gradually become visible out of a fog."
Do spirits of different orders mix together in the other life?
"Yes and no; that is to say, they see each other, but they are none the less removed. They shun or approach one another according to the antipathies or sympathies of their sentiments, just as is the case among yourselves. The spirit-life is a whole world of varied conditions and relationships, of which the earthly life is only the obscured reflex. Those of the same rank are drawn together by a sort of affinity and form groups or families of spirits united by sympathy and a common aim - the good, by the desire to do what is good, and the bad, by the desire to do evil, by the shame of their wrong-doing, and by the wish to find themselves among those whom they resemble."
Are all spirits reciprocally accessible to one another?
"The good go everywhere, as it is necessary that they should do, in order to bring their influence to bear upon the evil-minded. But the regions inhabited by them are inaccessible to inferior spirits, so that the latter cannot trouble those happy abodes by the introduction of evil passions."
Do spirits retain any human passion?
"Elevated spirits, on quitting their bodily envelope, leave behind them the evil passions of humanity, and retain only the love of goodness. But inferior spirits retain their earthly imperfections. Were it not for this retention, they would be of the highest order.
How is it that spirits, on quitting the earth, do not leave behind them all their evil passions, since they are then able to perceive the disastrous consequences of those passions?
"You have among you persons who are, for instance, excessively jealous; do you imagine that they lose this defect at once on quitting your world? There remains with spirits, after their departure from the earthly life, and especially with those who have had strongly marked passions, a sort of atmosphere by which they are enveloped, and which kept up all their former evil qualities; for spirits are not entirely freed from the influence of materiality. It is only occasionally that they obtain glimpses of the truth, showing them, as it were, the true path which they ought to follow."
Do spirits foresee the future?
"That, again, depends on their degree of advancement. Very often, they foresee it only partially; but, even when they foresee it more clearly, they are not always permitted to reveal it. When they foresee it, it appears to them to be the present. A spirit sees the future more clearly in proportion as he approaches God. After death, the soul sees and embraces at a glance all its past emigrations, but it cannot see what God has in store for it. This foreknowledge is only possessed by the soul that has attained to entire union with God, after a long succession of existence."
When a soldier, after a battle, meets his general in the spirit-world, does he still acknowledge him as a superior?
"Titles are nothing; intrinsic superiority is everything."
Why do not all spirits define the soul in the same way?
"All spirits are not equally enlightened in regard to these matters. Some spirits are still so little advanced intellectually as to be incapable of understanding abstract ideas; they are like children in your world. Other spirits are full of false learning, and make a vain parade of words in order to impose their authority upon those who listen to them. They, also, resemble too many in your world. And besides, even spirits who are really enlightened may express themselves in terms which appear to be different, but which, at bottom, mean the same thing, especially in regard to matters which your languae is incapable of expressing clearly, and which can only be spoken of to you by means of figures and comparisons that you mistake for literal statements of fact."
.
Sometime in the year of 1853 or 1854, Hippolyte Léon Dénizarth Rivail, a French educator, decided to investigate the mediumship phenomena that had been breaking out in France. He began sitting at the home of a friend, Emile Charles Baudin, whose daughters, Caroline, 16, and Julie, 13, were mediums. While most of the messages coming through the two young girls were of a mundane nature, the messages became serious and profound when Rivail was present. He was informed that spirits of a higher order were communicating when he was present because they knew he could comprehend the messages and get them to the public. Among those purportedly communicating with Rivail, who adopted the pseudonym Allan Kardec, were John the Evangelist, St. Augustine, St. Vincent De Paul, St. Louis, Socrates, Plato, Fénélon, Benjamin Franklin, and Emanuel Swedenborg.
It was these advanced spirits who told him to adopt the pseudonym Allan Kardec for the books he would write "in the fulfillment of the mission" which they had for him. In 1857, Kardec's book, Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirits' Book) was published, offering answers to many questions which Kardec put to the spirits. Here are a few of those questions and answers.
Why is it that reason is not always an infallible guide?
"It would be infallible if it were not perverted by a false education, by pride, and by selfishness. Instinct does not reason. Reason leaves freedom to choice, and gives man free will."
Do all spirits pass by the road of evil to arrive at good?
"Not by the road of evil, but by that of ignorance."
How is it that some spirits have followed the road of good, and others the road of evil?
"Have they not their free-will? God has not created any spirits bad; He has created them simple and ignorant, that is to say, possessing an equal aptitude for good and for evil. Those who become bad become so of their own free-will."
How can spirits, at their origin, when they have not yet acquired self-consciousness, possess freedom of choice between good and evil? Is there in them any principle, any tendency, which inclines them towards either road rather than towards the other?
"Free-will is developed in proportion as the spirit acquires the consciousness of himself. Freedom would not exist for the spirit if his choice were solicited by a cause independent of his will. The cause which determines his choice is not in him, but is exterior to him, in the influence to which he voluntarily yields in virtue of the freedom of his will. It is this choice that is represented under the grand figure of the fall of man and of original sin. Some spirits have yielded to temptation; others have withstood it."
Whence come the influences that act upon him?
"From the imperfect spirits, who seek to take possession of him and to dominate him, and who are happy to see him succumb. It is this temptation that is allegorically pictured as Satan."
Does this influence act upon a spirit only at its origin?
"It follows him through all the phases of his existence as a spirit, until he has acquired such thorough self-command that evil spirits renounce the attempt to obsess him."
Why has God permitted it to be possible for spirits to take the wrong road?
"The wisdom of God is shown in the freedom of choice which He leaves to every spirit, for each has thus the merit of his deeds."
Since there are spirits who, from the beginning, follow unswervingly the right path, and others who wander into the lowest depths of evil, there are no doubt, many degrees of deviation between these extremes?
"Yes, certainly; and these degrees constitute the paths of the great majority of spirits."
Does the remembrance of his corporeal existence present itself to a spirit, complete and spontaneously, immediately after his death?
"No, it comes back to him little by little in proportion as he fixes his attention upon it, as objects gradually become visible out of a fog."
Do spirits of different orders mix together in the other life?
"Yes and no; that is to say, they see each other, but they are none the less removed. They shun or approach one another according to the antipathies or sympathies of their sentiments, just as is the case among yourselves. The spirit-life is a whole world of varied conditions and relationships, of which the earthly life is only the obscured reflex. Those of the same rank are drawn together by a sort of affinity and form groups or families of spirits united by sympathy and a common aim - the good, by the desire to do what is good, and the bad, by the desire to do evil, by the shame of their wrong-doing, and by the wish to find themselves among those whom they resemble."
Are all spirits reciprocally accessible to one another?
"The good go everywhere, as it is necessary that they should do, in order to bring their influence to bear upon the evil-minded. But the regions inhabited by them are inaccessible to inferior spirits, so that the latter cannot trouble those happy abodes by the introduction of evil passions."
Do spirits retain any human passion?
"Elevated spirits, on quitting their bodily envelope, leave behind them the evil passions of humanity, and retain only the love of goodness. But inferior spirits retain their earthly imperfections. Were it not for this retention, they would be of the highest order.
How is it that spirits, on quitting the earth, do not leave behind them all their evil passions, since they are then able to perceive the disastrous consequences of those passions?
"You have among you persons who are, for instance, excessively jealous; do you imagine that they lose this defect at once on quitting your world? There remains with spirits, after their departure from the earthly life, and especially with those who have had strongly marked passions, a sort of atmosphere by which they are enveloped, and which kept up all their former evil qualities; for spirits are not entirely freed from the influence of materiality. It is only occasionally that they obtain glimpses of the truth, showing them, as it were, the true path which they ought to follow."
Do spirits foresee the future?
"That, again, depends on their degree of advancement. Very often, they foresee it only partially; but, even when they foresee it more clearly, they are not always permitted to reveal it. When they foresee it, it appears to them to be the present. A spirit sees the future more clearly in proportion as he approaches God. After death, the soul sees and embraces at a glance all its past emigrations, but it cannot see what God has in store for it. This foreknowledge is only possessed by the soul that has attained to entire union with God, after a long succession of existence."
When a soldier, after a battle, meets his general in the spirit-world, does he still acknowledge him as a superior?
"Titles are nothing; intrinsic superiority is everything."
Why do not all spirits define the soul in the same way?
"All spirits are not equally enlightened in regard to these matters. Some spirits are still so little advanced intellectually as to be incapable of understanding abstract ideas; they are like children in your world. Other spirits are full of false learning, and make a vain parade of words in order to impose their authority upon those who listen to them. They, also, resemble too many in your world. And besides, even spirits who are really enlightened may express themselves in terms which appear to be different, but which, at bottom, mean the same thing, especially in regard to matters which your languae is incapable of expressing clearly, and which can only be spoken of to you by means of figures and comparisons that you mistake for literal statements of fact."
Organic Molecules have been detected
Organic molecules – in the form of methane – have been detected on a planet outside our solar system for the first time. The giant planet lies too close to its parent star for the methane to signal life, but the detection offers hope that astronomers will one day be able to analyse the atmospheres of Earth-like worlds.
Astronomers Mark Swain and Gautam Vasisht of Caltech in Pasadena, US, and Giovanna Tinetti of University College London, UK, used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the giant planet HD 189733b, which is slightly more massive than Jupiter and lies 63 light years from Earth.
Because the planet crosses the face of its parent star as seen from Earth, some starlight is periodically filtered through the planet's atmosphere, where different chemicals absorb particular wavelengths.
The observations confirm an earlier tentative detection of water vapour and reveal the presence of methane gas.
"Initially, that is surprising," says Sara Seager of MIT in Cambridge, US, who was not involved in the study. Because HD 189733b orbits very close to its parent star – just 10% of Mercury's distance from the Sun, it is very hot, with atmospheric temperatures of about 700° Celsius. "When the temperature is this high, the dominant form of carbon should be carbon monoxide, not methane," says Seager.
The authors suggest that some ill-understood chemical process might be responsible, either concentrating the methane in cooler parts of the atmosphere, or generating extra methane directly. Alternatively, the methane might simply mean that the planet happens to be very rich in carbon, Seager says.
This combination of water and organic molecules would be a promising one for life if it were found in a less hostile spot than the atmosphere of a searing gas giant.
Eventually, astronomers hope to be able to analyse the atmospheres of smaller planets more akin to the Earth, and the new study is a big step in that direction, says Seager. "The path that we're on is towards rocky planets," she told New Scientist. "I'm really excited about this."
Astronomers Mark Swain and Gautam Vasisht of Caltech in Pasadena, US, and Giovanna Tinetti of University College London, UK, used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the giant planet HD 189733b, which is slightly more massive than Jupiter and lies 63 light years from Earth.
Because the planet crosses the face of its parent star as seen from Earth, some starlight is periodically filtered through the planet's atmosphere, where different chemicals absorb particular wavelengths.
The observations confirm an earlier tentative detection of water vapour and reveal the presence of methane gas.
"Initially, that is surprising," says Sara Seager of MIT in Cambridge, US, who was not involved in the study. Because HD 189733b orbits very close to its parent star – just 10% of Mercury's distance from the Sun, it is very hot, with atmospheric temperatures of about 700° Celsius. "When the temperature is this high, the dominant form of carbon should be carbon monoxide, not methane," says Seager.
The authors suggest that some ill-understood chemical process might be responsible, either concentrating the methane in cooler parts of the atmosphere, or generating extra methane directly. Alternatively, the methane might simply mean that the planet happens to be very rich in carbon, Seager says.
This combination of water and organic molecules would be a promising one for life if it were found in a less hostile spot than the atmosphere of a searing gas giant.
Eventually, astronomers hope to be able to analyse the atmospheres of smaller planets more akin to the Earth, and the new study is a big step in that direction, says Seager. "The path that we're on is towards rocky planets," she told New Scientist. "I'm really excited about this."
Friday, February 15, 2008
An Interesting New Interview on Skeptiko
Check it out here http://www.skeptiko.com/ this particular interview talks about the journal of scientific exploration and how skeptics say it's not a real scientific journal and how other's disagree with that.
Psychic versus sceptic
user posted image rDanny Penman: I was trained to be a cynical hard-nosed scientist. My PhD in biochemistry taught me that logic, rationality and devotion to the truth are the most important qualities for any scientist. When I became a journalist, I kept these values close to my heart. Recently my ‘rational' view of the world was shattered. Whilst researching a story on the late Princess Diana, I interviewed the medium Sally Morgan. Sally had, apparently, been receiving messages from the Princess. After telling Diana's story, Sally offered to give me a psychic reading. I was intrigued enough to take up the offer, viewing it as a possible opportunity to expose psychics as charlatans who exploit the gullible through good guesswork. Yet, on the surface at least, Sally did not appear to be a fraudster. She was a delightfully level-headed and thoroughly charming middle-aged woman. If it wasn't for a strange look that occasionally flickered across her eyes, I would not have seen her as being special in any way. Even her tastefully furnished house appeared entirely suburban, with pastel coloured sofas, cushions and chairs.
There were no crystal balls, pentangles or occult trappings of any kind. Her reading was also thoroughly down to earth. From common expectation, I had imagined that Sally would begin with a few minutes of guttural chanting before slipping theatrically into a trance. Instead she took a sip of coffee and dropped a bombshell. "You're going to Greece," she said.
There were no crystal balls, pentangles or occult trappings of any kind. Her reading was also thoroughly down to earth. From common expectation, I had imagined that Sally would begin with a few minutes of guttural chanting before slipping theatrically into a trance. Instead she took a sip of coffee and dropped a bombshell. "You're going to Greece," she said.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Acupuncture
Acupuncture boosts IVF success
user posted image rAcupuncture may increase the success rates of fertility treatment, according to a study. The Dutch and US research, published in the British Medical Journal, found for every 10 IVF cycles with acupuncture, there would be one extra pregnancy. However, the study, which looked at more than 1,300 women, hinted that patients at European clinics might not benefit as strongly. A UK alternative medicine expert said he was not convinced by the results. Approximately 10% to 15% of British couples have difficulty conceiving at some point in their lives and look for specialist fertility treatment. IVF involves fertilising the egg with sperm outside the woman's body then putting the resulting embryo back into the womb. Some couples face repeated expensive attempts to achieve a pregnancy.
Acupuncture has been used for centuries in China to regulate female fertility, and in recent years, scientists have been looking at whether it could boost IVF chances.
Acupuncture Reduces Pain After Breast Surgery
ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2001) — NEW ORLEANS – Acupuncture is just as effective as the leading medication used to reduce nausea and vomiting after major breast surgery, according to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The 5,000-year-old Chinese practice also decreased postoperative pain in these women, they report.
Based on strong trends emerging during the course of their ongoing clinical trial, the Duke researchers believe acupuncture is an effective antiemetic (a drug that reduces nausea and vomiting) that is less expensive and has fewer side effects than medications currently used.
"Up to 70 percent of women who undergo major breast surgery experience significant postoperative nausea and vomiting, so it is an important medical issue," said lead investigator and Duke anesthesiologist Dr. Tong Joo (T.J.) Gan.
"We've known from previous studies that acupuncture can be an effective antiemetic when compared to placebo, but it has never been tested against one of the most commonly used medications ondansetron (Zofran)," Gan continued. "Acupuncture turns out to be just as effective as the drug or better, and our patients also reported much less pain after surgery, a finding that surprised us."
Gan presented the results of his team's study today (Oct. 15) during the annual scientific sessions of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
The study enrolled 40 women who were undergoing major breast surgery (breast augmentation, breast reduction or mastectomy) requiring general anesthesia. The procedures lasted between two and four hours, and most women were discharged after spending the night in the hospital.
Women were equally divided into three groups – one received acupuncture before the surgery, one received ondansetron prior to surgery and one received neither. They found that two hours following surgery, 23 percent of acupuncture patients reported nausea, compared to 36 percent for the drug and 69 percent for placebo. After 24 hours, 38 percent of acupuncture patients reported nausea, compared to 57 percent for the drug and 61 percent for placebo.
In regards to vomiting, 7 percent of acupuncture patients reported vomiting two hours following surgery, compared to 7 percent who received ondansetron and 23 percent who received the placebo. After 24 hours, 23 percent of acupuncture patients reported vomiting, compared to 28 percent for the drug and 46 percent for placebo.
"We were most surprised by the level of pain reported by women, with 31 percent of acupuncture patients reporting moderate to severe pain two hours after surgery, compared to 64 percent for ondansetron and 77 percent for placebo," Gan said.
Specifically, the researchers applied acupuncture at the sixth point along the pericardial meridian, which is located two inches below the bottom of the palm of the hand and between the two tendons connecting the lower arm with the wrist. According to Chinese healing practices, there are about 360 specific points along 14 different lines, or meridians, that course throughout the body just under the skin.
"The Chinese believe that our vital energy, known as chi, courses throughout the body along these meridians," Gan explained. "While healthiness is a state where the chi is in balance, unhealthiness arises from either too much or too little chi, or a blockage in the flow of the chi. By applying acupuncture to certain well-known points, the Chinese believe they can bring the chi back into balance."
For their study, the researchers used electroacupuncture, which uses an electrode – like that used in standard EKG tests – at the appropriate point. Instead of actually breaking the skin with the traditional long slender needles, the electroacupuncture device delivers a small electrical pulse through the skin.
"Electroacupuncture enhances or heightens the effects of traditional acupuncture," Gan explained. "In China, when acupuncture is used during surgery for pain relief, they commonly use electroacupuncture devices."
While it is not completely known why or how acupuncture – whether electroacupuncture or traditional – works, recent research seems to point to its ability to stimulate the release of hormones or the body's own painkillers, known as endorphins, Gan said.
"Ten years ago, a study involving acupuncture would not have been accepted at a scientific meeting like this," Gan said. "In many ways, the practices of the East are being accepted by the West, especially as we continue to learn why practices like acupuncture work."
The Duke trial will continue with a total of 75 patients, at which point the results will be used as the basis of an application to the National Institutes of Health for a larger clinical trial. The researchers also will look to combine acupuncture with antiemetics to see if this combination of Eastern and Western approaches has greater effectiveness.
The research was supported by Duke's department of anesthesiology. Duke colleagues Dr. Steve Parillo, Dr. Jennifer Fortney and Dr. Gregory Georgiade were part of Gan's research team.
And that acupuncture can relieve shoulder pain after surgery:
The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of traditional Chinese acupuncture in the treatment of scapulohumeral pain during the early stage following heart surgery.... Reduction of pain and angular gain were almost immediate, durable, measurable and reproducible....
And that wrist acupuncture can relieve postoperative nausea at least as well as pain meds:
Wrist acupuncture is as effective as medication for easing post-operation nausea, according to research reported next Saturday in the British weekly New Scientist. Hong Kong and Australian scientists reviewed 26 trials [involving] 3,000 patients who were either given P6 acupuncture or sham treatment ... Those who received the right treatment were 28 per cent less likely to feel nauseous and 24 per cent less likely to ask for anti-sickness drugs compared to those who got the placebo treatment. Acupuncture was just as effective as routine anti-sickness drugs in preventing nausea and vomiting, but had few side effects and was cheaper, the study found.
Electrostimulation acupuncture is used instead of anesthesia by some Chinese surgeons performing invasive procedures:
A woman in her 60's presented with a fractured ulnar olecranon. The surgery would include the placing of some nails and other hardware into her olecranon to fasten it more securely to the shaft of the ulna.
Due to her advanced years, it was decided that acupuncture anesthesia would be used instead of Western drugs to avoid any possible adverse reactions.
One half hour before the surgery, while the prep was taking place, we inserted two needles into the patient.... The electro-stim began at 100 Hz ... to simply stimulate the body into secreting endorphins.... Once the surgery began, the patient complained of some discomfort and we turned the strength of the electro-stim up from "1" to "2". The idea isn't to double the amplitude, but to simply turn it up to induce the anesthetic response of the nerve being effected. We also turned down the frequency form 100 Hz to 50 Hz...
The controls didn't once change after the surgery began. The surgery lasted about 45 minutes and went off without a hitch. After the cut was sutured and the nurses were cleaning up the patient, we removed the needles. The patient was in good spirits.
spirits.
Acupuncture can relieve lower back pain and leg pain:
The use of acupuncture for lumbar disc protrusion pain provided convenient and effective pain relief without side effects. Although the limitations ... of our study must be considered, classical acupuncture appears to be superior to placebo acupuncture in limiting the overall disabilities caused by the pain of lumbar disc protrusion pain.
Patients at Cedars-Sinai swear by acupuncture:
Caroll Clark is one of the Cedars-Sinai patients who volunteered for acupuncture therapy. She expected the bed rest after surgery to exacerbate an ongoing back problem.
"I have a vertebra in my back that I was a little concerned about, that I had told the doctor about," she said. "My back was hurting the first two days (after surgery) and then when they did the acupuncture, it quit hurting and I never took any pills after the second day I was in the hospital. One evening I took some Extra Strength Tylenol but as far as pain pills, the narcotic kind, I didn't have to take any after that."
Her pain relief was so complete, Clark thought she was receiving pain medication. "I asked the nurse about it. She said, 'No, you don't get pain medicine unless you ask for it. Do you want some?' I said, no, I just thought you gave it to me naturally because I wasn't having pain."
user posted image rAcupuncture may increase the success rates of fertility treatment, according to a study. The Dutch and US research, published in the British Medical Journal, found for every 10 IVF cycles with acupuncture, there would be one extra pregnancy. However, the study, which looked at more than 1,300 women, hinted that patients at European clinics might not benefit as strongly. A UK alternative medicine expert said he was not convinced by the results. Approximately 10% to 15% of British couples have difficulty conceiving at some point in their lives and look for specialist fertility treatment. IVF involves fertilising the egg with sperm outside the woman's body then putting the resulting embryo back into the womb. Some couples face repeated expensive attempts to achieve a pregnancy.
Acupuncture has been used for centuries in China to regulate female fertility, and in recent years, scientists have been looking at whether it could boost IVF chances.
Acupuncture Reduces Pain After Breast Surgery
ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2001) — NEW ORLEANS – Acupuncture is just as effective as the leading medication used to reduce nausea and vomiting after major breast surgery, according to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The 5,000-year-old Chinese practice also decreased postoperative pain in these women, they report.
Based on strong trends emerging during the course of their ongoing clinical trial, the Duke researchers believe acupuncture is an effective antiemetic (a drug that reduces nausea and vomiting) that is less expensive and has fewer side effects than medications currently used.
"Up to 70 percent of women who undergo major breast surgery experience significant postoperative nausea and vomiting, so it is an important medical issue," said lead investigator and Duke anesthesiologist Dr. Tong Joo (T.J.) Gan.
"We've known from previous studies that acupuncture can be an effective antiemetic when compared to placebo, but it has never been tested against one of the most commonly used medications ondansetron (Zofran)," Gan continued. "Acupuncture turns out to be just as effective as the drug or better, and our patients also reported much less pain after surgery, a finding that surprised us."
Gan presented the results of his team's study today (Oct. 15) during the annual scientific sessions of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
The study enrolled 40 women who were undergoing major breast surgery (breast augmentation, breast reduction or mastectomy) requiring general anesthesia. The procedures lasted between two and four hours, and most women were discharged after spending the night in the hospital.
Women were equally divided into three groups – one received acupuncture before the surgery, one received ondansetron prior to surgery and one received neither. They found that two hours following surgery, 23 percent of acupuncture patients reported nausea, compared to 36 percent for the drug and 69 percent for placebo. After 24 hours, 38 percent of acupuncture patients reported nausea, compared to 57 percent for the drug and 61 percent for placebo.
In regards to vomiting, 7 percent of acupuncture patients reported vomiting two hours following surgery, compared to 7 percent who received ondansetron and 23 percent who received the placebo. After 24 hours, 23 percent of acupuncture patients reported vomiting, compared to 28 percent for the drug and 46 percent for placebo.
"We were most surprised by the level of pain reported by women, with 31 percent of acupuncture patients reporting moderate to severe pain two hours after surgery, compared to 64 percent for ondansetron and 77 percent for placebo," Gan said.
Specifically, the researchers applied acupuncture at the sixth point along the pericardial meridian, which is located two inches below the bottom of the palm of the hand and between the two tendons connecting the lower arm with the wrist. According to Chinese healing practices, there are about 360 specific points along 14 different lines, or meridians, that course throughout the body just under the skin.
"The Chinese believe that our vital energy, known as chi, courses throughout the body along these meridians," Gan explained. "While healthiness is a state where the chi is in balance, unhealthiness arises from either too much or too little chi, or a blockage in the flow of the chi. By applying acupuncture to certain well-known points, the Chinese believe they can bring the chi back into balance."
For their study, the researchers used electroacupuncture, which uses an electrode – like that used in standard EKG tests – at the appropriate point. Instead of actually breaking the skin with the traditional long slender needles, the electroacupuncture device delivers a small electrical pulse through the skin.
"Electroacupuncture enhances or heightens the effects of traditional acupuncture," Gan explained. "In China, when acupuncture is used during surgery for pain relief, they commonly use electroacupuncture devices."
While it is not completely known why or how acupuncture – whether electroacupuncture or traditional – works, recent research seems to point to its ability to stimulate the release of hormones or the body's own painkillers, known as endorphins, Gan said.
"Ten years ago, a study involving acupuncture would not have been accepted at a scientific meeting like this," Gan said. "In many ways, the practices of the East are being accepted by the West, especially as we continue to learn why practices like acupuncture work."
The Duke trial will continue with a total of 75 patients, at which point the results will be used as the basis of an application to the National Institutes of Health for a larger clinical trial. The researchers also will look to combine acupuncture with antiemetics to see if this combination of Eastern and Western approaches has greater effectiveness.
The research was supported by Duke's department of anesthesiology. Duke colleagues Dr. Steve Parillo, Dr. Jennifer Fortney and Dr. Gregory Georgiade were part of Gan's research team.
And that acupuncture can relieve shoulder pain after surgery:
The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of traditional Chinese acupuncture in the treatment of scapulohumeral pain during the early stage following heart surgery.... Reduction of pain and angular gain were almost immediate, durable, measurable and reproducible....
And that wrist acupuncture can relieve postoperative nausea at least as well as pain meds:
Wrist acupuncture is as effective as medication for easing post-operation nausea, according to research reported next Saturday in the British weekly New Scientist. Hong Kong and Australian scientists reviewed 26 trials [involving] 3,000 patients who were either given P6 acupuncture or sham treatment ... Those who received the right treatment were 28 per cent less likely to feel nauseous and 24 per cent less likely to ask for anti-sickness drugs compared to those who got the placebo treatment. Acupuncture was just as effective as routine anti-sickness drugs in preventing nausea and vomiting, but had few side effects and was cheaper, the study found.
Electrostimulation acupuncture is used instead of anesthesia by some Chinese surgeons performing invasive procedures:
A woman in her 60's presented with a fractured ulnar olecranon. The surgery would include the placing of some nails and other hardware into her olecranon to fasten it more securely to the shaft of the ulna.
Due to her advanced years, it was decided that acupuncture anesthesia would be used instead of Western drugs to avoid any possible adverse reactions.
One half hour before the surgery, while the prep was taking place, we inserted two needles into the patient.... The electro-stim began at 100 Hz ... to simply stimulate the body into secreting endorphins.... Once the surgery began, the patient complained of some discomfort and we turned the strength of the electro-stim up from "1" to "2". The idea isn't to double the amplitude, but to simply turn it up to induce the anesthetic response of the nerve being effected. We also turned down the frequency form 100 Hz to 50 Hz...
The controls didn't once change after the surgery began. The surgery lasted about 45 minutes and went off without a hitch. After the cut was sutured and the nurses were cleaning up the patient, we removed the needles. The patient was in good spirits.
spirits.
Acupuncture can relieve lower back pain and leg pain:
The use of acupuncture for lumbar disc protrusion pain provided convenient and effective pain relief without side effects. Although the limitations ... of our study must be considered, classical acupuncture appears to be superior to placebo acupuncture in limiting the overall disabilities caused by the pain of lumbar disc protrusion pain.
Patients at Cedars-Sinai swear by acupuncture:
Caroll Clark is one of the Cedars-Sinai patients who volunteered for acupuncture therapy. She expected the bed rest after surgery to exacerbate an ongoing back problem.
"I have a vertebra in my back that I was a little concerned about, that I had told the doctor about," she said. "My back was hurting the first two days (after surgery) and then when they did the acupuncture, it quit hurting and I never took any pills after the second day I was in the hospital. One evening I took some Extra Strength Tylenol but as far as pain pills, the narcotic kind, I didn't have to take any after that."
Her pain relief was so complete, Clark thought she was receiving pain medication. "I asked the nurse about it. She said, 'No, you don't get pain medicine unless you ask for it. Do you want some?' I said, no, I just thought you gave it to me naturally because I wasn't having pain."
Argument from skeptics: “Experiments that show evidence for psi must be replicable in order to count as evidence.”
Corollary: “I won’t consider successful psi experiments as evidence of psi unless the results are replicated by other scientists and peer reviewed.”
This is another category that skeptics tend to use to dismiss evidence. If they can’t it into the “anecdotal evidence is worthless category,” then they put it into the “unreplicable category” (and by that they don’t just mean replicable by a few other scientists, but by every scientist in the world!). While this standard may seem reasonable scientifically, it is usually just another tactic to try to raise the bar, because no matter how many times a successful psi experiment is replicated, they still will demand a never-ending higher rate of replication! (If the 2,549 sessions of the Ganzfeld and autoganzfeld experiments from 1974 to 1997 by different research laboratories which produced above chance results doesn’t count as replicable, then what would?)
In fact, the very nature of psychic phenomena makes them not easy to replicate. Dean Radin, Ph.D, Director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory at the University of Nevada, and author of The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, lists 8 reasons why this is so: (page 40)
“Psi effects do not fall into the class of easily replicated effects. There are eight typical reasons why replication is difficult to achieve: (1) the phenomenon may not be replicable; (2) the written experimental procedures may be incomplete, or the skills needed to perform the replication may not be well understood; (3) the effect under study may change over time or react to the experimental procedure; (4) investigators may inadvertently affect the results of their experiments; (5) experiments sometimes fail for sociological reasons; (6) there are psychological reasons that prevent replications from being easy to conduct; (7) the statistical aspects of replication are much more confusing than more people think; and (78) complications in experimental design affect some replications.”
The second problem with this argument is that successful psi experiments definitely have been replicated by different researchers and laboratories. One famous solid example is the series of telepathy studies known as the ganzfeld experiments, in which subjects guess target images while sitting with ping pong ball halves over their eyes and listening to relaxing white noise designed to deprive them of sensory stimuli to heighten their intuition and psychic abilities. Dean Radin, in the same book quoted above describes the replicability of the Ganzfeld experiments: (page 78-79)
“At the annual convention of the Parapsychological Association in 1982, Charles Honorton presented a paper summarizing the results of all known ganzfeld experiments to that date. He concluded that the experiments at that time provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of psi in the ganzfeld……..
At that time, ganzfeld experiments had appeared in thirty-four published reports by ten different researchers. These reports described a total of forty-two separate experiments. Of these, twenty-eight reported the actual hit rates that were obtained. The other studies simply declared the experiments successful or unsuccessful. Since this information is insufficient for conducting a numerically oriented meta-analysis, Hyman and Honorton concentrated their analyses on the twenty-either studies that had reported actual hit rates. Of those twenty-eight, twenty-three had resulted in hit rates greater than chance expectation. This was an instant indicator that some degree of replication had been achieved, but when the actual hit rates of all twenty-eight studies were combined, the results were even more astounding than Hyman and Honorton had expected: odds against chance of ten billion to one. Clearly, the overall results were not just a fluke, and both researchers immediately agreed that something interesting was going on. But was it telepathy?”
Radin further elaborates on how researcher Charles Honorton tested whether independent replications had actually been achieved: (page 79)
“To address the concern about whether independent replications had been achieved, Honorton calculated the experimental outcomes for each laboratory separately. Significantly positive outcomes were reported by six of the ten labs, and the combined score across the ten laboratories still resulted in odds against chance of about a billion to one. This showed that no one lab was responsible for the positive results; they appeared across-the-board, even from labs reporting only a few experiments. To examine further the possibility that the two most prolific labs were responsible for the strong odds against chance, Honorton recalculated the results after excluding the studies that he and Sargent had reported. The resulting odds against chance were still ten thousand to one. Thus, the effect did not depend on just one or two labs; it had been successfully replicated by eight other laboratories.”
On the same page, he then soundly dismisses the skeptical claim that the file-drawer effect (selective reporting) could skew the meta-analysis results in favor of psi: (page 79-80)
“Another factor that might account for the overall success of the ganzfeld studies was the editorial policy of professional journals, which tends to favor the publication of successful rather than unsuccessful studies. This is the “file-drawer” effect mentioned earlier. Parapsychologists were among the first to become sensitive to this problem, which affects all experimental domains. In 1975 the Parapsychological Association’s officers adopted a policy opposing the selective reporting of positive outcomes. As a result, both positive and negative findings have been reported atg the Paraspsychological Association’s annual meetings and in its affiliated publications for over two decades.
Furthermore, a 1980 survey of parapsychologists by the skeptical British psychologist Susan Blackmore had confirmed that the file-drawer problem was not a serious issue for the ganzfeld meta-analysis. Blackmore uncovered nineteen complete but unpublished ganzfeld studies. Of those nineteen, seven were independently successful with odds against chance of twenty to one or greater. Thus while some ganzfeld studies had not been published, Hyman and Honorton agreed that selective reporting was not an important issue in this database.
Still, because it is impossible to know how many other studies might have been in file drawers, it is common in meta-analyses to calculate how many unreported studies would be required to nullify the observed effects among the known studies. For the twenty-eight direct-hit ganzfeld studies, this figure was 423 file-drawer experiments, a ratio of unreported-to-reported studies of approximately fifteen to one. Given the time and resources it takes to conduct a single ganzfeld session, let alone 423 hypotheitcal unrepoted experiments, it is not surprising that Hyman agreed with Honorton that the file-drawer issue could not plausibly account for the overall results of the psi ganzfeld database. There were simply not enough experimenters around to have conducted those 423 studies.
Thus far, the proponent and the skeptic had agreed that the results could not be attributed to chance or to selective reporting practices.”
Another skeptical argument against the ganzfeld studies is sensory leakage. Radin addresses this as well: (page 81-82)
“Because the ganzfeld procedure uses a sensory-isolation environment, the possibility of sensory leakage during the telepathic “sending” portion of the session is already significantly diminished. After the sending period, however, when the receiver is attempting to match his or her experience to the correct target, if the experimenter interacting wit the receiver knows the identity of the target, he or she could inadvertently bias the receiver’s ratings. One study in the ganzfeld database contained this potentially fatal flaw, but rather than showing a wildly successful result, that study’s participants actually performed slightly below chance expectation………
Despite variations in study quality due to these and other factors, Hyman and Honorton both concluded that there was no systematic relationship between the security methods used to guard against sensory leakage and the study outcomes. Honorton proved his point by recalculating the overall results only for studies that had used duplicate target sets. He found that the results were still quite strong, with odds against chance of about 100,000 to 1.”
Where skeptic Ray Hyman disagreed with Charles Honorton was in the role of randomization flaws affecting the ganzfeld results. However, as Radin points out, the consensus of the experts on meta-analysis is against Hyman’s hypothesis: (page 82-83)
“A similar concern arises for the method of randomizing the sequence in which the experimenter presents the target and the three decoys to the receiver during the judging process. If, for example, the target is always presented second in the sequence of four, then again, a subject may tell a friend, and the friend, armed with knowledge about which of the four targets Is the real one, could successfully select the real target without the use of psi.
Although these scenarios are implausible, skeptics have always insisted on nailing down even the most unlikely hypothetical flaws. And it was on this issue, the importance of randomization flaws, that Hyman and Honorton disagreed. Hyman claimed that he saw a significant relationship between randomization flaws and study outcomes, and Honorton did not. The sources of this disagreement can be traced to Honorton’s and Hyman’s differing definitions of “randomization flaws,” to how the two analysts rated these flaws in the individual studies, and to how they statistically treated the quality ratings.
These sorts of complicated disagreements are not unexpected given the diametrically opposed conviction with which Hnorton and Hyman began their analyses. When such discrepancies arise, it is useful to consider the opinions of outside reviewers who have the technical skills to assess the disagreements. In this case, ten psychologists and statisticians supplied commentaries alongside the Honorton-Hyman published debate that appeared in 1986. None of the commentators agreed with Hyman, while two statisticians and two psychologists not previously associated with this debate explicitly agreed with Honorton.
In two separate analyses conducted later, Harvard University behavioral scientists Monica Harris and Robert Rosenthal (the latter a world-renowned expert in methodology and meta-analysis) used Hyman’s own flaw ratings and failed to find any significant relationships between the supposed flaws and te study outcomes. They wrote, “Our analysis of the effects of flaws on study outcome lends no support to the hypothesis that ganzfeld research results are a significant function of the set of flaw variables.
In other words, everyone agreed that the ganzfeld results were not due to chance, nor to selective reporting, nor to sensory leakage. And everyone, except one confirmed skeptic, also agreed that the results were not plausibly due to flaws in randomization procedures. The debate was now poised to take the climactic step from Stage 1, “It’s impossible,” to Stage 2, “Okay, so maybe it’s real.”
Even after the successful replicable series of ganzfeld experiments, further replicability was found in the computer-controlled autoganzfeld experiments, designed to be even more efficient and controlled than the original ganzfeld experiments (although not shown to be significant as mentioned above). This time though, two magicians who specialized in mentalism were brought in to check the protocals for cheating loopholes, as Radin describes: (page 86)
“In addition, two professional magicians who specialized in the simulation of psi effects (called “mentalists” or “psychic entertainers”) examined the autoganzeld system and protocols to see if it was vulnerable to mentalist tricks or conjuring-type deceptions. One of the magicians was Ford Kross, an officer of the Psychic Entertainers Association. Kross provided the following written statement about the autoganzfeld setup:
In my professional capacity as a mentalist, I have reviewed Psychophysical Research Laboratories’ automated ganzfeld system and found it to be provide excellent security against deception by subjects.
The other magician was Cornell University psyhcologist Daryl Bem, who besides coauthoring a 19954 paper on the ganzfeld psi experiments with Honorton, is also a professional mentalist and a member of the Psychic Entertainers Association.”
Radin summarizes the results of the autoganzfeld experiments as follows: (page 86)
“The bottom line for the eleven series, consisting of a total of 354 sessions, was 122 direct hits, for a 34 percent hit rate. This compares favorably with the 1985 meta-analysis hit rate of 37 percent. Honorton’s autoganzfeld results overall produced odds against chance of forty-five thousand to one.”
Further replications beyond the ganzfeld and autoganzfeld experiments include the following: (page 87-88)
“The next replications were reported by psychologist Kathy Dalton and her colleagues at the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh experiments, conducted from 1993 through 1996 (and still ongoing), consisted of five published reports and 289 sessions using an improved, fullyl automated psi ganzfeld setup. It was based on Honorton’s original autoganzfeld design and implemented in stages first by Honorton, then by psychologist Robin Taylor, then by me, and finally by Kathy Dalton. Other replications have been reported by Professor Dick Bierman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam; Professor Daryl Bem of Cornell University’s Psychology Department; Dr. Richard Broughton and colleagues at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina; Professor Adrian Parker and colleagues at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; and doctoral student Rens Wezelman from the Institute for Parapsychology in Utrecht, Netherlands.
While only the 1985 meta-analysis, the autoganzfeld study, and the Edinburgh study independently produced a hit rate with 95 percent confidence intervals beyond chance expectation, it is noteworthy that each of the six replication studies (after the autoganzfeld) resulted in point estimates greater than chance. The 95 percent confidence interval at the right end of the graph ois the combined estimate based on all available ganzfeld sessions, consisting of a total of 2,549 sessions. The overall hit rate of 33.2 percent is unlikely with odds against chance beyond a million billion to one.”
Finally, at the end of the chapter, Radin concludes what the findings of the ganzfeld experiments and others before it suggest
“Now jointly consider the results of the ganzfeld psi experiments, the dream-telepathy experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, the ESP cards tests from the 1880s to the 1940s, Upton Sinclair’s experiments in 1929, and earlier studies on thought transference. The same effects have been repeated again and again, by new generations of experimenters, using increasingly rigorous methods. From the beginning, each new series of telepathy experiments was met with its share of skeptical attacks. These criticisms reduced mainstream scientific interest in the reported effects, but ironically they also refined the methods used in future experiments to the point that today’s ganzfeld experiments stump the experts.”
Thus from all this, it is indisputable that we have solid scientific and statistical evidence that one of the most successful and controlled series of telepathy experiments in history, the ganzfeld experiments, were definitely replicable. Radin’s book describes many other replicable psi experiments as well, including ESP, clairvoyance, remote viewing, and psychokinesis. So I highly recommend it. The book, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, can be ordered from Amazon.com. For more details about the ganzfeld experiments, see the following detailed articles which can be viewed online:
Corollary: “I won’t consider successful psi experiments as evidence of psi unless the results are replicated by other scientists and peer reviewed.”
This is another category that skeptics tend to use to dismiss evidence. If they can’t it into the “anecdotal evidence is worthless category,” then they put it into the “unreplicable category” (and by that they don’t just mean replicable by a few other scientists, but by every scientist in the world!). While this standard may seem reasonable scientifically, it is usually just another tactic to try to raise the bar, because no matter how many times a successful psi experiment is replicated, they still will demand a never-ending higher rate of replication! (If the 2,549 sessions of the Ganzfeld and autoganzfeld experiments from 1974 to 1997 by different research laboratories which produced above chance results doesn’t count as replicable, then what would?)
In fact, the very nature of psychic phenomena makes them not easy to replicate. Dean Radin, Ph.D, Director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory at the University of Nevada, and author of The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, lists 8 reasons why this is so: (page 40)
“Psi effects do not fall into the class of easily replicated effects. There are eight typical reasons why replication is difficult to achieve: (1) the phenomenon may not be replicable; (2) the written experimental procedures may be incomplete, or the skills needed to perform the replication may not be well understood; (3) the effect under study may change over time or react to the experimental procedure; (4) investigators may inadvertently affect the results of their experiments; (5) experiments sometimes fail for sociological reasons; (6) there are psychological reasons that prevent replications from being easy to conduct; (7) the statistical aspects of replication are much more confusing than more people think; and (78) complications in experimental design affect some replications.”
The second problem with this argument is that successful psi experiments definitely have been replicated by different researchers and laboratories. One famous solid example is the series of telepathy studies known as the ganzfeld experiments, in which subjects guess target images while sitting with ping pong ball halves over their eyes and listening to relaxing white noise designed to deprive them of sensory stimuli to heighten their intuition and psychic abilities. Dean Radin, in the same book quoted above describes the replicability of the Ganzfeld experiments: (page 78-79)
“At the annual convention of the Parapsychological Association in 1982, Charles Honorton presented a paper summarizing the results of all known ganzfeld experiments to that date. He concluded that the experiments at that time provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of psi in the ganzfeld……..
At that time, ganzfeld experiments had appeared in thirty-four published reports by ten different researchers. These reports described a total of forty-two separate experiments. Of these, twenty-eight reported the actual hit rates that were obtained. The other studies simply declared the experiments successful or unsuccessful. Since this information is insufficient for conducting a numerically oriented meta-analysis, Hyman and Honorton concentrated their analyses on the twenty-either studies that had reported actual hit rates. Of those twenty-eight, twenty-three had resulted in hit rates greater than chance expectation. This was an instant indicator that some degree of replication had been achieved, but when the actual hit rates of all twenty-eight studies were combined, the results were even more astounding than Hyman and Honorton had expected: odds against chance of ten billion to one. Clearly, the overall results were not just a fluke, and both researchers immediately agreed that something interesting was going on. But was it telepathy?”
Radin further elaborates on how researcher Charles Honorton tested whether independent replications had actually been achieved: (page 79)
“To address the concern about whether independent replications had been achieved, Honorton calculated the experimental outcomes for each laboratory separately. Significantly positive outcomes were reported by six of the ten labs, and the combined score across the ten laboratories still resulted in odds against chance of about a billion to one. This showed that no one lab was responsible for the positive results; they appeared across-the-board, even from labs reporting only a few experiments. To examine further the possibility that the two most prolific labs were responsible for the strong odds against chance, Honorton recalculated the results after excluding the studies that he and Sargent had reported. The resulting odds against chance were still ten thousand to one. Thus, the effect did not depend on just one or two labs; it had been successfully replicated by eight other laboratories.”
On the same page, he then soundly dismisses the skeptical claim that the file-drawer effect (selective reporting) could skew the meta-analysis results in favor of psi: (page 79-80)
“Another factor that might account for the overall success of the ganzfeld studies was the editorial policy of professional journals, which tends to favor the publication of successful rather than unsuccessful studies. This is the “file-drawer” effect mentioned earlier. Parapsychologists were among the first to become sensitive to this problem, which affects all experimental domains. In 1975 the Parapsychological Association’s officers adopted a policy opposing the selective reporting of positive outcomes. As a result, both positive and negative findings have been reported atg the Paraspsychological Association’s annual meetings and in its affiliated publications for over two decades.
Furthermore, a 1980 survey of parapsychologists by the skeptical British psychologist Susan Blackmore had confirmed that the file-drawer problem was not a serious issue for the ganzfeld meta-analysis. Blackmore uncovered nineteen complete but unpublished ganzfeld studies. Of those nineteen, seven were independently successful with odds against chance of twenty to one or greater. Thus while some ganzfeld studies had not been published, Hyman and Honorton agreed that selective reporting was not an important issue in this database.
Still, because it is impossible to know how many other studies might have been in file drawers, it is common in meta-analyses to calculate how many unreported studies would be required to nullify the observed effects among the known studies. For the twenty-eight direct-hit ganzfeld studies, this figure was 423 file-drawer experiments, a ratio of unreported-to-reported studies of approximately fifteen to one. Given the time and resources it takes to conduct a single ganzfeld session, let alone 423 hypotheitcal unrepoted experiments, it is not surprising that Hyman agreed with Honorton that the file-drawer issue could not plausibly account for the overall results of the psi ganzfeld database. There were simply not enough experimenters around to have conducted those 423 studies.
Thus far, the proponent and the skeptic had agreed that the results could not be attributed to chance or to selective reporting practices.”
Another skeptical argument against the ganzfeld studies is sensory leakage. Radin addresses this as well: (page 81-82)
“Because the ganzfeld procedure uses a sensory-isolation environment, the possibility of sensory leakage during the telepathic “sending” portion of the session is already significantly diminished. After the sending period, however, when the receiver is attempting to match his or her experience to the correct target, if the experimenter interacting wit the receiver knows the identity of the target, he or she could inadvertently bias the receiver’s ratings. One study in the ganzfeld database contained this potentially fatal flaw, but rather than showing a wildly successful result, that study’s participants actually performed slightly below chance expectation………
Despite variations in study quality due to these and other factors, Hyman and Honorton both concluded that there was no systematic relationship between the security methods used to guard against sensory leakage and the study outcomes. Honorton proved his point by recalculating the overall results only for studies that had used duplicate target sets. He found that the results were still quite strong, with odds against chance of about 100,000 to 1.”
Where skeptic Ray Hyman disagreed with Charles Honorton was in the role of randomization flaws affecting the ganzfeld results. However, as Radin points out, the consensus of the experts on meta-analysis is against Hyman’s hypothesis: (page 82-83)
“A similar concern arises for the method of randomizing the sequence in which the experimenter presents the target and the three decoys to the receiver during the judging process. If, for example, the target is always presented second in the sequence of four, then again, a subject may tell a friend, and the friend, armed with knowledge about which of the four targets Is the real one, could successfully select the real target without the use of psi.
Although these scenarios are implausible, skeptics have always insisted on nailing down even the most unlikely hypothetical flaws. And it was on this issue, the importance of randomization flaws, that Hyman and Honorton disagreed. Hyman claimed that he saw a significant relationship between randomization flaws and study outcomes, and Honorton did not. The sources of this disagreement can be traced to Honorton’s and Hyman’s differing definitions of “randomization flaws,” to how the two analysts rated these flaws in the individual studies, and to how they statistically treated the quality ratings.
These sorts of complicated disagreements are not unexpected given the diametrically opposed conviction with which Hnorton and Hyman began their analyses. When such discrepancies arise, it is useful to consider the opinions of outside reviewers who have the technical skills to assess the disagreements. In this case, ten psychologists and statisticians supplied commentaries alongside the Honorton-Hyman published debate that appeared in 1986. None of the commentators agreed with Hyman, while two statisticians and two psychologists not previously associated with this debate explicitly agreed with Honorton.
In two separate analyses conducted later, Harvard University behavioral scientists Monica Harris and Robert Rosenthal (the latter a world-renowned expert in methodology and meta-analysis) used Hyman’s own flaw ratings and failed to find any significant relationships between the supposed flaws and te study outcomes. They wrote, “Our analysis of the effects of flaws on study outcome lends no support to the hypothesis that ganzfeld research results are a significant function of the set of flaw variables.
In other words, everyone agreed that the ganzfeld results were not due to chance, nor to selective reporting, nor to sensory leakage. And everyone, except one confirmed skeptic, also agreed that the results were not plausibly due to flaws in randomization procedures. The debate was now poised to take the climactic step from Stage 1, “It’s impossible,” to Stage 2, “Okay, so maybe it’s real.”
Even after the successful replicable series of ganzfeld experiments, further replicability was found in the computer-controlled autoganzfeld experiments, designed to be even more efficient and controlled than the original ganzfeld experiments (although not shown to be significant as mentioned above). This time though, two magicians who specialized in mentalism were brought in to check the protocals for cheating loopholes, as Radin describes: (page 86)
“In addition, two professional magicians who specialized in the simulation of psi effects (called “mentalists” or “psychic entertainers”) examined the autoganzeld system and protocols to see if it was vulnerable to mentalist tricks or conjuring-type deceptions. One of the magicians was Ford Kross, an officer of the Psychic Entertainers Association. Kross provided the following written statement about the autoganzfeld setup:
In my professional capacity as a mentalist, I have reviewed Psychophysical Research Laboratories’ automated ganzfeld system and found it to be provide excellent security against deception by subjects.
The other magician was Cornell University psyhcologist Daryl Bem, who besides coauthoring a 19954 paper on the ganzfeld psi experiments with Honorton, is also a professional mentalist and a member of the Psychic Entertainers Association.”
Radin summarizes the results of the autoganzfeld experiments as follows: (page 86)
“The bottom line for the eleven series, consisting of a total of 354 sessions, was 122 direct hits, for a 34 percent hit rate. This compares favorably with the 1985 meta-analysis hit rate of 37 percent. Honorton’s autoganzfeld results overall produced odds against chance of forty-five thousand to one.”
Further replications beyond the ganzfeld and autoganzfeld experiments include the following: (page 87-88)
“The next replications were reported by psychologist Kathy Dalton and her colleagues at the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh experiments, conducted from 1993 through 1996 (and still ongoing), consisted of five published reports and 289 sessions using an improved, fullyl automated psi ganzfeld setup. It was based on Honorton’s original autoganzfeld design and implemented in stages first by Honorton, then by psychologist Robin Taylor, then by me, and finally by Kathy Dalton. Other replications have been reported by Professor Dick Bierman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam; Professor Daryl Bem of Cornell University’s Psychology Department; Dr. Richard Broughton and colleagues at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina; Professor Adrian Parker and colleagues at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; and doctoral student Rens Wezelman from the Institute for Parapsychology in Utrecht, Netherlands.
While only the 1985 meta-analysis, the autoganzfeld study, and the Edinburgh study independently produced a hit rate with 95 percent confidence intervals beyond chance expectation, it is noteworthy that each of the six replication studies (after the autoganzfeld) resulted in point estimates greater than chance. The 95 percent confidence interval at the right end of the graph ois the combined estimate based on all available ganzfeld sessions, consisting of a total of 2,549 sessions. The overall hit rate of 33.2 percent is unlikely with odds against chance beyond a million billion to one.”
Finally, at the end of the chapter, Radin concludes what the findings of the ganzfeld experiments and others before it suggest
“Now jointly consider the results of the ganzfeld psi experiments, the dream-telepathy experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, the ESP cards tests from the 1880s to the 1940s, Upton Sinclair’s experiments in 1929, and earlier studies on thought transference. The same effects have been repeated again and again, by new generations of experimenters, using increasingly rigorous methods. From the beginning, each new series of telepathy experiments was met with its share of skeptical attacks. These criticisms reduced mainstream scientific interest in the reported effects, but ironically they also refined the methods used in future experiments to the point that today’s ganzfeld experiments stump the experts.”
Thus from all this, it is indisputable that we have solid scientific and statistical evidence that one of the most successful and controlled series of telepathy experiments in history, the ganzfeld experiments, were definitely replicable. Radin’s book describes many other replicable psi experiments as well, including ESP, clairvoyance, remote viewing, and psychokinesis. So I highly recommend it. The book, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, can be ordered from Amazon.com. For more details about the ganzfeld experiments, see the following detailed articles which can be viewed online:
Monday, February 11, 2008
Closed Minded Skepticism Websites
Here's a list of closed minded skeptic sites I have come across all I have to say is don't fall under it because getting out being a closed minded skeptic is a hard thing to do. Now some science sites are no longer giving into the materialist scientists and are publishing studies that challenge the materialistic paradigm that mainstream is now in I will get to them websites after I list these
http://depletedcranium.com/?cat=34
http://www.badscience.net/
http://www.sciam.com/
http://www.quackwatch.org/
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/
http://www.randi.org/
http://skepdic.com/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
http://skeptoid.com/
http://www.nature.com/index.html
http://www.nsf.gov/
http://www.pandasthumb.org/
http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.straightdope.com/
http://discovermagazine.com/
http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns
http://www.everythingispointless.com/
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/
http://www.skepdic.com/
http://www.skeptic.com/
http://csicop.org/
http://stupidevilbastard.com/
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/
http://skepticalacid.com/
http://atheisttoolbox.com/index.php
Now here are some websites supporting open minded science
http://www.parapsych.org/members/d_radin.html
http://www.victorzammit.com/
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/
http://www.after-death.com/
http://www.aspr.com/
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/New/index.html
http://www.tricksterbook.com/
http://www.horizon-research.co.uk/
http://www.itp.edu/
http://www.metapsychique.org/
http://www.iands.org/home.html
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/james.html
http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/
http://www.williamjames.com/Folklore/MINDOVER.htm
http://www.parapsychology.org/
http://www.pflyceum.org/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/paraps.html
http://www.psychognosia.org/
http://www.cfpf.org.uk/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320
http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html
http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?section=1
http://www.scientificexploration.org/
http://www.survival-research.net/
http://www.aspsi.org/
http://ejp.org.uk/
http://www.expbeyond.org/
http://www.jamesw.clara.net/
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/
http://www.monroeinstitute.com/
http://www.aaevp.com/
http://www.rhine.org/
http://www.noetic.org/
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/
http://publicparapsychology.blogspot.com/
http://jeff.gaia.com/blog
http://blog.mceagle.com/
http://depletedcranium.com/?cat=34
http://www.badscience.net/
http://www.sciam.com/
http://www.quackwatch.org/
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/
http://www.randi.org/
http://skepdic.com/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
http://skeptoid.com/
http://www.nature.com/index.html
http://www.nsf.gov/
http://www.pandasthumb.org/
http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.straightdope.com/
http://discovermagazine.com/
http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns
http://www.everythingispointless.com/
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/
http://www.skepdic.com/
http://www.skeptic.com/
http://csicop.org/
http://stupidevilbastard.com/
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/
http://skepticalacid.com/
http://atheisttoolbox.com/index.php
Now here are some websites supporting open minded science
http://www.parapsych.org/members/d_radin.html
http://www.victorzammit.com/
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/
http://www.after-death.com/
http://www.aspr.com/
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/New/index.html
http://www.tricksterbook.com/
http://www.horizon-research.co.uk/
http://www.itp.edu/
http://www.metapsychique.org/
http://www.iands.org/home.html
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/james.html
http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/
http://www.williamjames.com/Folklore/MINDOVER.htm
http://www.parapsychology.org/
http://www.pflyceum.org/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/paraps.html
http://www.psychognosia.org/
http://www.cfpf.org.uk/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320
http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html
http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?section=1
http://www.scientificexploration.org/
http://www.survival-research.net/
http://www.aspsi.org/
http://ejp.org.uk/
http://www.expbeyond.org/
http://www.jamesw.clara.net/
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/
http://www.monroeinstitute.com/
http://www.aaevp.com/
http://www.rhine.org/
http://www.noetic.org/
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/
http://publicparapsychology.blogspot.com/
http://jeff.gaia.com/blog
http://blog.mceagle.com/
Jessica Alba recalls teen ghost attack
Jessica alba says she was attacked by a ghost when she was 17. The star of The Eye claims she was visited by an otherworldly being, and was so terrified afterwards she refused to stay in her house. Alba, 26, recalled: "I had no idea what it was. I felt this pressure and I couldn't get up, I couldn't scream, I couldn't talk, I couldn't do anything. "Something definitely took the covers off me and I definitely couldn't get off the bed, and then, once I did, I screamed, ran to my parents' room and I don't think I spent many nights in that house ever again! "There was definitely something in my parents' old house - I don't know what it was. I can't really explain it. But they got it blessed and they burned sage and stuff since then." Alba - who is expecting her first child with fiance Cash Warren - also revealed the pregnancy has been playing havoc with her hormones. "I think I've already thrown Cash out of the house twice since I've been pregnant," she said. "He's like, 'Are you just pregnant? I hope you're just pregnant and acting crazy,' and I'm like, 'It has nothing to do with that!' "And then we cry and we hug and he's like, 'You're pregnant, what do you want?' Little things get me so mad.
You get so emotional when you're pregnant, and so irrational. It's totally dumb."
You get so emotional when you're pregnant, and so irrational. It's totally dumb."
3d television a reality within five years
True three dimensional TV that does not depend on wearing strange glasses could be demonstrated within five years. Scientists have at last started to catch up with the 3D holographic displays that have become commonplace in science fiction films. The Princess Leia figure projected by R2-D2 in Star Wars is one example of moving holograms that have been shown in a wide range of films over the decades since the invention of holography in the 1960s. How a 3D holographic image would be displayed by the screen But the reality has lagged far behind and for decades relied on using glasses to feed a slightly different image to the right and left eyes, using different coloured lenses or polaroid, for instance in the first film of the "golden era" of 3D movies, Bwana Devils. The glasses remain in use today, for instance to view an Imax version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Now a new material that will allows an updateable palm sized 3D holographic display is described in Nature by Dr Savas Tay, Prof Nasser Peyghambarian and colleagues at the University of Arizona, Tucson, in work that raises hopes for applications in the home, defence, medicine and industry. Red ghostly displays produced by the team, which includes members of the Nitto Denko Technical Corporation, Oceanside, California, show a car, brain molecule and skull in three dimensions. Dr Tay says that if all goes well, a prototype holographic TV system could be available in five years.
Holograms are interference patterns of light generated by the interaction of a uniform reference laser beam with a second beam that has been reflected from an object of interest. If a beam similar to the original reference beam is the shone through a hologram, the result is a three-dimensional image of the object scanned. Just as a moving picture is actually a series of stills shown in quick succession, so a moving hologram would be a series of still holograms to fool the brain.
Holograms are interference patterns of light generated by the interaction of a uniform reference laser beam with a second beam that has been reflected from an object of interest. If a beam similar to the original reference beam is the shone through a hologram, the result is a three-dimensional image of the object scanned. Just as a moving picture is actually a series of stills shown in quick succession, so a moving hologram would be a series of still holograms to fool the brain.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Stretch Of I-4 Believed To Be Haunted Built Over Graves
On Monday night, Local 6's Mike Holfeld reported on a stretch of road that has been the location of nearly 2,000 accidents since 1963.
Over the years, people reported seeing strange things on the road.
"People are claiming to see all kinds of things -- orbs floating across the highway, apparitions on the side of the road hitchhiking, phantom trucks, you name it," book author Charlie Carlson said.
After the report aired, viewers called to learn more about a photo of a ghostly figure seen in front of a crumpled sedan that was apparently taken on the "I-4 Dead Zone."
Carlson, who is the author of the book Weird Florida, said he received the ghostly photo via e-mail from a Melbourne reader four years ago.
However, Holfeld has learned that the photograph or one similar to it has been circulating since 1999.
Holfeld also said what is certain is that four graves are located beneath the stretch of I-4.
The graves date back to the 1880s and a settlement called St. Joseph’s Catholic Colony, the report said. One of the German families fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic.
"It is two adults and two children buried on the very spot that has been shrouded in mystery," Holfeld said.
The family buried under the road is one of eight families found on a document, Holfeld said. The names are: Geiseker, Schlosser, Krueppel, Bauer, Forwald, Ochbosch, Yueger and Kulsch.
"We can pretty much narrow it to one of those families for sure," Sanford historian Christine Best said.
The Florida Highway Patrol is working with Local 6 to develop new information in the case, Holfeld reported.
Over the years, people reported seeing strange things on the road.
"People are claiming to see all kinds of things -- orbs floating across the highway, apparitions on the side of the road hitchhiking, phantom trucks, you name it," book author Charlie Carlson said.
After the report aired, viewers called to learn more about a photo of a ghostly figure seen in front of a crumpled sedan that was apparently taken on the "I-4 Dead Zone."
Carlson, who is the author of the book Weird Florida, said he received the ghostly photo via e-mail from a Melbourne reader four years ago.
However, Holfeld has learned that the photograph or one similar to it has been circulating since 1999.
Holfeld also said what is certain is that four graves are located beneath the stretch of I-4.
The graves date back to the 1880s and a settlement called St. Joseph’s Catholic Colony, the report said. One of the German families fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic.
"It is two adults and two children buried on the very spot that has been shrouded in mystery," Holfeld said.
The family buried under the road is one of eight families found on a document, Holfeld said. The names are: Geiseker, Schlosser, Krueppel, Bauer, Forwald, Ochbosch, Yueger and Kulsch.
"We can pretty much narrow it to one of those families for sure," Sanford historian Christine Best said.
The Florida Highway Patrol is working with Local 6 to develop new information in the case, Holfeld reported.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Supernatural studies in the material world
user posted image rReyhan Harmanci: One doesn't typically get the chills during a PowerPoint presentation in a well-heated conference room. But ghost stories were the hot topic at a two-day event in San Francisco's Cowell Theater billed as the first scientific conference on the afterlife for a general audience. Take, for example, a tale spun by "Professor Paranormal" Loyd Auerbach, a former teacher in the now-closed parapsychology department of Pleasant Hill's John F. Kennedy University, about a ghost named Lois. The story is set in the mid-'80s, when a family moved to an old Victorian house in Livermore. Soon after settling in, they became aware of a ghost named Lois, the former owner of the house, who was developing a relationship with the 12-year-old son. The boy told his family that he spoke to Lois daily. "Apparently," Auerbach said, "Lois even helped him with his homework." Auerbach was intrigued. He and two students piled into a car with some rudimentary recording equipment and headed to Livermore, casually discussing stuff like one student's former dance career and Auerbach's thoughts on purchasing a new car. When they got to the house, they met the boy. He said Lois was distressed. They had just watched "Ghostbusters" on television together, and she was worried they'd bring equipment to vaporize her. Auerbach assured him this wasn't the case. Well, the boy said, then Lois wants to know whether the student would continue dancing and what color car Auerbach wanted. They were floored. Auerbach said he checked the tape - the three didn't mention anything they had discussed in the car with the boy.
He also checked the car for bugs. Nothing. The story, from Lois, was that she had been nervous about their visit and didn't believe they wouldn't try to hurt her, so she rode with them in the car. Auerbach and his team also investigated details of Lois' life relayed by the preteen. It all checked out. Auerbach holds a master's degree in parapsychology, has written seven books on the subject and has been a fixture on the paranormal lecture and television circuits for more than a decade.
He also checked the car for bugs. Nothing. The story, from Lois, was that she had been nervous about their visit and didn't believe they wouldn't try to hurt her, so she rode with them in the car. Auerbach and his team also investigated details of Lois' life relayed by the preteen. It all checked out. Auerbach holds a master's degree in parapsychology, has written seven books on the subject and has been a fixture on the paranormal lecture and television circuits for more than a decade.
Valentine's Day Coming Soon
I hate being single hopefully soon that will not be the case. Even so I like the day I like it when love is in the air.
I like to post some valentine's day poems
Be my Valentine, my love,
As I will be for you,
And we will love the whole day long,
And love our whole lives through.
For love has no parameters
And does not end with time,
But is the gift of paradise,
A pinch of the sublime.
So let us take this holiday
To resubmit our love
To those within that know no sin
And with the angels move.
Before I knew you, I had always loved you,
Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.
My inner picture was a portrait of you
Years before your heart my heart would move.
Vistas of enchantment are but rarely
As we find them in reality.
Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,
Eden as no dream could ever be.
Nor is this the magic of the moment,
The proper costume for the holiday.
In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,
Not of the desire, but of the way,
Else lost amid the longings of the day.
Both of those poems are so nice just reinforces why i need a girl who loves me for me
I like to post some valentine's day poems
Be my Valentine, my love,
As I will be for you,
And we will love the whole day long,
And love our whole lives through.
For love has no parameters
And does not end with time,
But is the gift of paradise,
A pinch of the sublime.
So let us take this holiday
To resubmit our love
To those within that know no sin
And with the angels move.
Before I knew you, I had always loved you,
Even as I dreamed of whom I'd love.
My inner picture was a portrait of you
Years before your heart my heart would move.
Vistas of enchantment are but rarely
As we find them in reality.
Love with you is what I dreamed, but really,
Eden as no dream could ever be.
Nor is this the magic of the moment,
The proper costume for the holiday.
In words like these one finds the winnowed ferment,
Not of the desire, but of the way,
Else lost amid the longings of the day.
Both of those poems are so nice just reinforces why i need a girl who loves me for me
Sir Arthur's Diaries Seance Revealed
. Biographer Andrew Lycett believes he has uncovered an important aspect of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s life that was not previously known, and he reveals it in his new book, Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes. But his “revelation” has been in the public domain for over 70 years.
The Times arts correspondent Dalya Alberge (15 September 2007) wrote:
“Notebooks describing his earliest contact with mediums and psychic phenomena have emerged this week, 120 years after he wrote them, proving that his interest in seances had started 30 years earlier than previously thought.
“The author was working as a doctor in Portsmouth when he attended his first seance in 1887, the year that he published his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.”
Andrew Lycett explained to The Times: “He had an interest in the paranormal from an early age, but the detail of his actual dabbling in seances had not been known. He didn’t come out as spiritualist until the First World War. What is interesting about this is that it shows him engaging with spiritualism at an earlier age than that.”
Writing in The Guardian, Lycett describes how Conan Doyle’s papers were kept under wraps after his death in 1930 by his squabbling family. It was only in May 2004, when they were put up for auction at Christie’s and the British Library bought most of his papers, that writers and researchers were given access to them. And Lycett tracked down the notebooks, which had been sold to an eminent New Jersey cardiologist and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast.
It is these which tell of Conan Doyle’s first experience of psychic phenomena in 1887, while practising as a doctor in Portsmouth, Hampshire. At a patient’s house, he sat with a group of people who saw a table moving and spelling out messages.
Lycett is not alone in believing that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s interest in Spiritualism came about through bereavement, after his son Kingsley and brother Innes died (having escaped the trenches of World War I) in a flu epidemic. The claim was recently repeated in a TV documentary about Houdini on the History Channel.
And yet, there is no excuse for such errors. There was no need for Lycett to gain access to the Conan Doyle diaries now residing in New Jersey to discover Conan Doyle’s long association with psychic phenomena because he was quite open about his early dealings with Spiritualism.
Reference to it can be found in Nandor Fodor’s impressive Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science (1934) which tells us:
“In the years between 1885-88, Doyle took part in table turning sittings at the house of his patient, General Drayson, a teacher in the Greenwich Naval College, a keen mathematician and a man of scholarly education. Through the mediumship of a railway signalman, apports were produced.
“The phenomena were too amazing for Doyle and he secretly underrated both the honesty of the medium and the intelligence of the sitters. But his interest was aroused.”
Sir Arthur’s History of Spiritualism also makes reference to his early interest in the paranormal and his decision to make the public more aware of the implications of spirit communication after the carnage of World War I.
The Times arts correspondent Dalya Alberge (15 September 2007) wrote:
“Notebooks describing his earliest contact with mediums and psychic phenomena have emerged this week, 120 years after he wrote them, proving that his interest in seances had started 30 years earlier than previously thought.
“The author was working as a doctor in Portsmouth when he attended his first seance in 1887, the year that he published his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.”
Andrew Lycett explained to The Times: “He had an interest in the paranormal from an early age, but the detail of his actual dabbling in seances had not been known. He didn’t come out as spiritualist until the First World War. What is interesting about this is that it shows him engaging with spiritualism at an earlier age than that.”
Writing in The Guardian, Lycett describes how Conan Doyle’s papers were kept under wraps after his death in 1930 by his squabbling family. It was only in May 2004, when they were put up for auction at Christie’s and the British Library bought most of his papers, that writers and researchers were given access to them. And Lycett tracked down the notebooks, which had been sold to an eminent New Jersey cardiologist and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast.
It is these which tell of Conan Doyle’s first experience of psychic phenomena in 1887, while practising as a doctor in Portsmouth, Hampshire. At a patient’s house, he sat with a group of people who saw a table moving and spelling out messages.
Lycett is not alone in believing that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s interest in Spiritualism came about through bereavement, after his son Kingsley and brother Innes died (having escaped the trenches of World War I) in a flu epidemic. The claim was recently repeated in a TV documentary about Houdini on the History Channel.
And yet, there is no excuse for such errors. There was no need for Lycett to gain access to the Conan Doyle diaries now residing in New Jersey to discover Conan Doyle’s long association with psychic phenomena because he was quite open about his early dealings with Spiritualism.
Reference to it can be found in Nandor Fodor’s impressive Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science (1934) which tells us:
“In the years between 1885-88, Doyle took part in table turning sittings at the house of his patient, General Drayson, a teacher in the Greenwich Naval College, a keen mathematician and a man of scholarly education. Through the mediumship of a railway signalman, apports were produced.
“The phenomena were too amazing for Doyle and he secretly underrated both the honesty of the medium and the intelligence of the sitters. But his interest was aroused.”
Sir Arthur’s History of Spiritualism also makes reference to his early interest in the paranormal and his decision to make the public more aware of the implications of spirit communication after the carnage of World War I.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The Case For Immortality
I like to discussed the case for survival of bodily death which i find very compelling.
1. Apparitions
A collectively perceived apparition of a dead man
As a carefully verified case in which a number of people, at the same time, perceived the apparition of a man known to be dead, let us consider the following:
In June 1931, Samuel Bull, by occupation a chimney-sweep, died in his cottage in Ramsbury, Wilts., England. His aged widow continued to live in the same cottage with a grandson, James Bull, twenty-one years of age. In August 1931, a daughter, Mrs. Edwards, gave up her own home and came with her husband and five children to live with the widow for the purpose of looking after her.
Some time in or after February 1932, Mrs. Edwards saw the deceased man ascend the stairs and pass through a closed door into the room, then unused, in which he had died. Almost immediately after Mrs. Edwards saw the apparition, James Bull also saw it. Later all the members of the family together observed it. Even the five-year-old girl recognized it as 'Grandpa Bull.' The appearances continued at frequent intervals until about 9 April. Whenever the apparition was seen, all the persons present were able to see it.
The Chaffin apparition gave information not known to any living person
The evidence in this famous case was tested in court, and the judge accepted it as the basis for his verdict:
James L. Chaffin, a farmer in North Carolina, had a wife and four sons. In 1905 he made a will leaving his property to his third son, Marshall, but leaving nothing to his widow and the three other sons. In September 1921, the old man died, and the will was probated. In 1925, the second son, James, made the following sworn statement:
'On a night during the latter part of June 1925, my father appeared at my bedside, dressed as I had often seen him in life, wearing a black overcoat which I knew to be his own.
My father's spirit took hold of his overcoat, pulled it back and said, "You will find my will in my overcoat pocket," and then disappeared.'
James made inquiries, and finally in July found his father's overcoat at the home of his brother John. He cut the stitches of the inner pocket, and found inside, not the will itself but a roll of paper with the words, 'Read the 27th Chapter of Genesis in my daddie's old Bible.' (This chapter tells how Esau was supplanted by his younger brother Jacob.)
Taking his daughter and two neighbours with him as witnesses, James Chaffin, Junior, then went to his mother's house, found the dilapidated Bible, and in the presence of the testator's widow and two other witnesses looked up the 27th Chapter of Genesis. Folded into the pages there they found a will dated 16 January, 1919, which had been made without witnesses, but which was valid by the laws of North Carolina as being in his own handwriting. This newer will divided the property equally among all the four sons, adding: 'You must all take care of your Mammy.'
At first the heirs under the old will contested the new one. But when they were shown the actual document at the trial they admitted it to be genuine, and they withdrew their opposition. Ten witnesses were prepared to swear it was in the testator's handwriting. In December, 1925, the second will was admitted to probate, and probate of the earlier will was cancelled.
So far as can be learned, James Chaffin, Senior, before his death spoken to anyone about his second will. His apparition, after death, would seem to have been the vehicle of his surviving personality, seeking to complete the righting of a wrong which he had done while still in his mortal body.
The authenticated apparition of a dying captain
The cases which have just been cited were apparitions of persons who had been dead for months or years. Let us now consider a representative case of an apparition at the moment of death:
On 3 January, 1856, Joseph Collyer was in command of the steamer Alice, which was moored alongside the levee on the Mississippi River just above New Orleans. Joseph had retired to his berth for the night. Another steamer bore down upon the moored ship, and Joseph was called. He ran on to the deck, clothed only in his nightgown. The other steamer collided with the Alice. The concussion caused the flagstaff to fall, striking Joseph's head and actually dividing the skull. This, of course, caused instant death.
On that same night, Joseph's mother, Anne E. Collyer, at her home in Camden, New Jersey, had a remarkable experience which she reported to another son in a letter dated 27 March, 1861.
'On the 3rd of January, 1856, I did not feel well, and retired to bed early. Some time after, I felt uneasy and sat up in bed; I looked around the room, and, to my utter amazement, saw Joseph standing at the door, looking at me with great earnestness, his head bandaged up, a dirty night-cap on, and a dirty white garment on, something like a surplice. He was much disfigured about the eyes and face. It made me quite uncomfortable the rest of the night. The next morning, Mary came into my room early. I told her that I was sure I was going to have bad news from Joseph. I told all the family at the breakfast table; they replied: "It was only a dream, and all nonsense," but that did not change my opinion.'
Joseph's brother, Robert H. Collyer, M.D., who lived in London, reported in a letter dated 15 April, 1861, that he had obtained the details about Joseph's death from another brother, William, 'who was on the spot at the time of the accident.' In October 1857, Robert visited the United States, and learned from his mother about her experience. Her account was corroborated to him at that time by his father and his four sisters. On 12 May, 1884, one of the surviving sisters wrote a letter of corroboration.
Dr. Collyer stated that his father, who was a scientific man, calculated the difference of longitude between Camden and New Orleans, and found that the apparition occurred at the exact time of Joseph's death.
His mother had never seen Joseph attired as his apparition appeared to be. One curious fact is that the bandaging of the head did not take place until hours after the accident. William told Robert that Joseph's head was nearly cut in two by the blow, and that his face was dreadfully disfigured, and the nightdress much soiled.
A conscious apparition of a living person
For comparison with the samples given above, of apparitions of dead men, and an apparition of a man at the moment of death, consider the following example of an apparition of a man who was still very much alive. The experience was reported by a bachelor farmer named Walter E. McBride, who lived near Indian Springs, Indiana.
On 23 December, 1935, McBride had been concerned during the entire day about his father. He was under the impression that his father might be ill. Shortly after retiring, at about eight o'clock that evening, he felt himself to be floating in the room, in a whitish light which cast no shadows. He said that he was wide awake at the time. After moving upward to a certain height, he felt himself to be turning vertical, and looking downward he saw his physical body lying on the bed.
He then found that he was floating upward through the building. The ceiling and floor failed to stop him. Almost at once he realized that he was moving through the air towards the north, and he seemed to know he was going to his old home several miles away. Passing through the walls of his father's house, he stood at the foot of the bed in which he saw his father reclining. His father's eyes were fixed upon him and he seemed to be surprised, but he did not seem to hear when McBride spoke to him. The knowledge came to McBride that his father was well, whereupon he found himself travelling back to his bedroom. He again saw his own body, still lying on the bed where he had left it. Re-entering his physical self, he was instantly alert, with no feeling of drowsiness. Throughout this excursion, McBride was aware of a presence, which he was unable to identify, but which he subsequently came to regard as a guide.
Upon recovering possession of his physical body, McBride got up, made a light, and wrote down the time and the account of what he had experienced. Two days later, on Christmas Day, 1935, he visited his father, who verified his experience by saying he had seen McBride, just as he had stood at the foot of the bed. The father, moreover, had written down the time of his vision, and it tallied with the time put down previously by the projectionist. Mrs. J. E. Wires and her son, Earl, of Shoals, Indiana, were also visiting the senior McBride at the time. On 25 February, 1938, they each signed the following statement: 'I can vouch that the above-described meeting and discussion did take place.'
2. DeathBed Visions
Here is a powerful case of visions of a dying person
Dr. Wilson of New York, who was present at the last moments of Mr. James Moore, a well-known tenor in the United States, gives the following narrative:
"It was about 4 a.m., and the dawn for which he had been watching was creeping in through the shutters, when, as I leant over the bed, I noticed that his face was quite calm and his eyes clear. The poor fellow looked me in the face, and, taking my hand in both of his, he said: 'You've been a good friend to me, doctor.' Then something which I shall never forget to my dying day happened, - something which is utterly indescribable. While he appeared perfectly rational and as sane as any man I have ever seen, the only way that I can express it is that he was transported into another world, and although I cannot satisfactorily explain the matter to myself, I am fully convinced that he had entered the golden city - for he said in a stronger voice than he had used since I had attended him: 'There is mother! Why, mother, have you come here to see me? No, no, I am coming to see you, just wait, mother, I am almost over. Wait, mother, wait, mother!'
"On his face there was a look of inexpressible happiness, and the way in which he said the words impressed me as I have never been before, and I am as firmly convinced that he saw and talked with his mother as I am that I am sitting here.
"In order to preserve what I believed to be his conversation with his mother, and also to have a record of the strangest happening of my life, I immediately wrote down every word he said. It was one of the most beautiful deaths I have ever seen."
Miss Cobbe in her Peak in Darien gives another instance of this kind, but the following narrative is even more striking. It is vouched for by my friend the late Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, who contributed it to the Spectator. Mr. Wedgwood writes:
"Between forty and fifty years ago, a young girl, a near connection of mine, was dying of consumption. She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition, taking no notice of anything, when she opened her eyes, and, looking upwards, said slowly, 'Susan - and Jane - and Ellen!' as if recognising the presence of her three sisters, who had previously died of the same disease. Then, after a short pause, 'And Edward, too!' she continued, - naming a brother then supposed to be alive and well in India, - as if surprised at seeing him in the company. She said no more, and sank shortly afterwards. In course of the post, letters came from India announcing the death of Edward from an accident a week or two previous to the death of his sister. This was told to me by an elder sister who nursed the dying girl, and was present at the bedside at the time of the apparent vision."
3. The Cross-Correspondences
Mediumistic phenomena was further increased some ten years ago by a new development, hitherto unknown, that of Cross-Correspondence. It was discovered by the distinguished secretary of the British Society for Psychical Research, Alice Johnson, who, while studying the automatic writings, of the different mediums, became aware of a strange relationship between them. In some cases this consisted of striking allusions made by one written communication to the other, in the use by both mediums of the same strange expressions, in a common reference to a certain literary quotation, and so on. This relationship was of too frequent and systematic a character to be merely due to chance, and did not necessarily exist between two mediums only, but between several. For instance, on April 8, 1907, Mrs. Piper uttered the words "Light in the West" while in a trance in London. On the same day, three hours later, Mrs. Verrall, a medium in Cambridge, wrote automatically among other things: "Rosy is the East, etc.
AOn August 6, 1906, Mrs. Holland wrote in India at the end of a fairly long communication, separated by a wider space and in an altered hand:
"Yelo" (scribbled).
"Yellowed Ivory."
Two days later Mrs. Verrall wrote in Cambridge on August 8:
"I have done it to-night y yellow is the written word
yellow
yellow
Say only yellow.'
And her daughter also wrote automatically at the same time, without her mother's knowledge:
“Camomile and resin the prescription is old on yellow paper in a box with a sweet scent.”
In other cases automatic writings supplement each other, and only make coherent sense when added together. It is - to use a metaphor - almost as though a manuscript had been cut into scraps and handed to various compositors who would only be able to make sense of the whole after joining the fragments together. Oddly enough, cross-correspondence first showed itself suddenly among a number of mediums, including Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Piper, and others.
Spiritistic interpretation sees in cross-correspondence the best of all proofs of its teaching that mediumistic phenomena emanate from spirits, arguing that the relationship between the various automatic scripts can only be the outcome of an intelligence beyond the ken of the mediums, which uses the latter to prove its own independent existence through the cross-correspondences. Only an intelligence, it is argued, would be capable of meting out a consecutive idea into distinct parts and then directing the pen of the various mediums so that each should write separate fragments of the whole. Spiritism further points to the strange coincidence that cross-correspondence appeared for the first time after the death of Myers, one of the most eminent scientific English-speaking spiritists, who was expected to furnish a conclusive proof of spiritism. In the first cross-correspondence, the "spirit" purporting to be Myers draws direct attention to the new development and the prospect of its further continuance. As a matter of fact, it is not possible not to regard certain cases of cross-correspondence as evidence of the most remarkable and difficult parapsychic phenomena. It is easy to understand that when confronted with cross-correspondence, scepticism should lose its assurance, and that those spiritistically inclined should become definite converts. It is obvious that cross-correspondence must be attributed to a reflecting mind. There can be no question of chance, for the varied inspirational utterances are too numerous, too striking in character, and fit into each other too well. Despite this, they need not be regarded as any incontrovertible proof of spiritism. The hackneyed contention that the various mediums concerned have come to an understanding with regard to a common deception cannot, of course, be maintained. There is no cause for suspicion here. The possibility, however, is not to be denied that there may be an unconscious telepathic understanding of that kind. We have gradually collected so many proofs of the highly developed intelligence of the subconscious mediumistic psychic life that such a hypothesis cannot be excluded. We know of automatic riddles and of anagrams of such artistic conception that we cannot reject such possibilities. A certain Mr. A., for instance, while experimenting with automatic writing, at his third attempt to obtain a reply from the supposed spirit to his question: "What is Man?" received the automatic answer, "Tefi Hasl Esble Lies," of which the solution is "Life is the less able."
No difficulty is encountered in interpreting the cases in which the cross-correspondence confines itself to connexions between automatic script in the way in which a certain word is repeated or referred to. Such similarities must be explained as due to the mediums writing being possessed of telepathic or clairvoyant faculties. It is another matter when one fragment only makes sense when joined to another, each scrap consisting of one sentence. Then it is necessary, unless the connexion between the two scripts is to be regarded in the light of mere coincidence resulting from a purely hypothetical completion, of one fragment by another, that a mutual understanding or convention should be assumed to exist between the two mediums to settle which words of the sentence should be written by either. If, however, telepathic possibilities of communication actually exists between them, it is equally admissible to contend that all these various mediums are alike imbued with their desire to add to the proofs in favour of spiritism.
A conscious suggestive influence of one trance personality on other individuals would represent a positive novum. A priori there is no reason why a person in a somnambulistic state or in a similar condition should not be subjected to suggestion from others, and also subject others thereto. Experimentally, we only know at the present time of suggestion "à distance", (based on the tests of Richet, P. Janet, and others), in the form of suggestions by a conscious individual.
It would be extremely interesting (if it were possible) to persuade the trance personalities themselves to make suggestions either to conscious or to other hypnotized persons. Suggestion on suggestion might also be contrived, by influencing a person under hypnosis, so that he should distribute his own suggestions even at a distance.
Cross-correspondences are from the point of view of logical proof at a disadvantage when compared with other parapsychic phenomena, in so far as we are, in their case, mainly obliged to rely on the veracity of the mediums themselves. Many among them, notably those to whom the most important experiments are due, as also the authors of the reports published in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," have themselves supplied the material in full cognisance of the stage reached in the problem at issue. The assumption that the writers must be regarded as common frauds is in contradiction to what is known of their character on the whole; besides which, in Mrs. Piper's case, the phenomena of cross-correspondence were carried out under a system of strict control.
Further examples of the work of the cross correspondences
One of the most famous, which occurred right at the beginning of the cross-correspondence, is as follows:
Mrs. Verrall, lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge, writes:
"On January 31, 1902, I had been lunching with Mr. Piddington in town, and after the arrival of Sir Oliver Lodge from Birmingham was about to walk with them to the SPR Council Meeting at 3 p.m., when I felt suddenly so strong a desire to write that I came down and made an excuse for not accompanying the gentlemen, saying I would drive later. As soon as they had started I wrote automatically in the dining-room the following words:
"Panopticon σφαιράς άτιτάλλει συνδέγμα μύστικον τί ούκ έδιδως; volatile ferrum - pro telo impinget."
A few more words were added, when I was interrupted by Mr. Piddington, who had returned, in order to drive with me to the meeting. All the rest of the day I felt a wish to write, and finally, in the train on the way home to Cambridge, more script was produced. That script contained no verifiable statement but was signed with two crosses, one of them being the Greek cross, definitely stated elsewhere in the script to be the sign of Rector (one of Mrs. Piper's trance personalities).
So far for what happened in England. In Boston, as I subsequently learned, the following took place. At Mrs. Piper's sitting on January 28, 1902, after the reference to my daughter's supposed vision, Dr. Hodgson suggested that the same "control" should try to impress my daughter in the course of the next week with a scene or object. The control assented. Dr. Hodgson said: "Can you try and make Helen see you holding a spear in your hand?" The control asked: "Why a sphere?" Dr. Hodgson repeated "spear," and the control accepted the suggestion, and said the experiment should be tried for a week. On February 4, 1902, at the next sitting, and therefore at the very first opportunity, the control claimed to have been successful in making himself visible to Helen Verrall with a "sphear" (so spelt in the trance writing)."
This example is also an instance of the curious and baffling confusion which prevails in much of the automatic writing which contains cross-correspondences. Instead of an (actively conditioned telepathic?) vision which we might have expected after the séance with Mrs., Piper, we get at Mrs. Verrall's end (as was so often the case with her) script mixed up with broken bits of Latin and Greek (she was a classical scholar), or, as in the present case, so far as it is published, script consisting of nothing but bits of Latin and Greek, in which very clear allusions, obvious at once, strike us to the séance in Boston (σφαιρα = sphere; volatile ferrum, telum = spear).
A second example. On March 11, 1907, at about eleven o'clock, Mrs. Piper, who was in her normal waking consciousness, said "Violets. Dr. Hodgson (said) violets." In accordance with previous experience marked utterances of this kind might be expected to have reference to a cross-correspondence. In fact, on the same day about the same time Mrs. Verrall wrote automatically:
"With violet buds their heads were crowned.
"Violaceae odores.
"Violet and olive leaf purple and hoary.
"The city of the violet―"
It is hardly necessary to emphasize here the marked way in which the word violet is stressed. The whole script seems really to be simply built up round this word. (This example is taken from A. Hude's "The Evidence, etc.," p. 283).
To conclude with an example in which several days elapsed between the cross-correspondence.
On April 8 the Myers' personality speaking through Mrs. Piper, said to Mrs. Sidgwick: "Do you remember Euripides?" "Do you remember Spirit and Angel? I gave both. Nearly all the words I have written to-day refer to messages I am trying to give through Mrs. V―.", Mrs. Verrall had already on March 7 done a long piece of automatic writing in which the word "Hercules Furens," and "Euripides" are found.
And on March 25 she had written: "The Hercules play comes in there, and the clue is in the Euripides play if you could see it." Also she wrote on the same day a separate piece of script in which the word "shadow" occurred several times: "Let Piddington know when you get a message about shadow. The shadow of a shade. That is better umbrarum umbras σκιάς έίδωλον was what I wanted to get written." The word "spirit," however, was not used. On April 3 an effort was clearly made to reach a satisfactory conclusion, although the word "Angel" could not be reached. "Flaming swords - wings or feathered wings come in somewhere - Try pinions of desire. The wings of Icarus - Lost Paradise regained - his flame - clad messengers (she draws an angel with wings) that is better F W H M has sent the message through at last."
The cross-correspondence, moreover, was extended to include Mrs. Holland. On April 16 she wrote automatically a passage in which were found these words: "Lucus Margaret To fly to find Euripides Philemon." The names Lucus and Philemon seem to be derived from Browning's translations of Euripides' Hercules Furens. (A. Hude, p. 285).
Many other cross-correspondences, some of them extremely striking ones, cannot be quoted here because of their complexity and of the space which they require for interpretation and comment. The peculiarity of the cross-correspondences from English sources is that they are mostly of an especially contorted kind. Some French cross-correspondence to which I am unable to refer, are (as I am told) much easier to see through. (G. Geley, "Contribution à l'etude des Correspondances Croisées." Documents nouveaux, Paris, 1914).
4. 1. The case of Al Sullivan: Al was a 55 year old truck driver who was undergoing triple by-pass surgery when he had a powerful NDE that included an encounter with his deceased mother and brother-in-law, who told Al to go back to his to tell one of his neighbors that their son with lymphoma will be OK. Furthermore, during the NDE, Al accurately noticed that the surgeon operating on him was flapping his arms in an unusual fashion, with his hands in his armpits. When he came back to his body after the surgery was over, the surgeon was startled that Al could describe his own arm flapping, which was his idiosyncratic method of keeping his hands sterile.
2. The case of the Chinese woman: The author Maggie Callanan in her 1993 book, Final Gifts, wrote about an elderly Chinese woman who had an NDE in which she saw her deceased husband and her sister. She was puzzled since her sister wasn't dead, or so she thought. In actuality, her family had hid her sister's recent death from her for fear of upsetting her already fragile health.
3. The case of Pam Reynolds:This is reported by Michael Sabom in his book Light and Death. Pam Reynolds underwent a very risky operation to remove an aneurysm from her brain, in which her brain was drained totally of its blood so that the doctors could clip off the swollen blood vessel. During this procedure, Pam had a deep NDE in which she saw all of the details of the operation and later reported on it with complete accuracy, even though she was "dead" by usual criteria (no heartbeat or respiration, and a flat EEG) for much of it. [ Some of her experience happened before her brain stopped however it's likely that it continued throughout the entire operation]
4. Cases of the blind who can see: As recorded by Kenneth Ring in his book, Mind Sight, there is solid evidence for 31 cases in which blind people report visually accurate information obtained during an NDE.
Also many studies have been done on Near Death Experiences you can find these studies here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/986177.stm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence02.html
http://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/dutch_study.html
http://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/u_k__study.html
http://www.iands.org/research/important_studies/penny_sartori_phd_prospective_study.html
5. The Newspapers Tests rank of to almost the very top of the evidence that has been collected for survival of bodily death
Sir William's comments had to do with the book and newspaper experiments conducted by himself and more extensively by the Rev. Charles Drayton Thomas, a Wesleyan minister. Unlike most members of the clergy, Thomas did not see communication with the "dead" through mediums as a threat to his Christian beliefs. In fact, he saw it as supporting the basic tenet of Christianity - we do live on after death. .
Like Barrett, Thomas was a member of the British Society for Psychical Research (SPR). His experiments, along with those of Barrett, were conducted with Gladys Osborne Leonard, the renowned British medium. "The primary purpose of these efforts was said [by my father] to be a demonstration that spirit people were able to do that for which telepathy from human minds could not account, a demonstration calculated to clarify the evidence already existing for the authorship of their communication," Thomas wrote in 1922.
Thomas said that it was his father, the Rev. John Thomas, also a Wesleyan minister, who, posthumously, gave him the idea of the book and newspaper tests. It was during a sitting with Mrs. Leonard early in 1917, that the father and son on different sides of the veil began collaborating in the experiments.
The senior Thomas, who died in 1903, told his son that the tests had been devised by others in a more advanced sphere than his and the idea passed on to him. At the time, Drayton Thomas (he went by his middle name) had had over 100 sittings with Mrs. Leonard, although later in his career that number exceeded 500. He mentions that the tests were secondary to other business which he and his father discussed and that his father continually gave other evidence of his own identity.
Drayton Thomas would arrange a notebook on a table with a lighted lamp. Leonard would take a seat several feet from him and after two or three minutes of silence she would go into a trance. Suddenly, in a clear and distinct voice, Feda, Leonard's spirit control, would take over Leonard's body and begin using her speech mechanism while relaying messages from the senior Thomas and others in the spirit world. There was no similarity between Leonard's voice and that of Feda, who spoke like a young girl. Moreover, Feda spoke with an accent and had frequent lapses of grammar.
Occasionally, just after Leonard went into the trance state, Thomas would hear whispering of which he could catch fragments, such as, "Yes, Mr. John, Feda will tell him...Yes, all right..." Feda often referred to herself in the third person, e.g., "Feda says she is having trouble understanding Mr. John."
The idea behind the book tests was to communicate information gleaned by the father from a book in the son's extensive library. For example, in one of the earliest experiments, the father told the son to go to the lowest shelf and take the sixth book from the left. On page 149, three-quarters down, he would find a word conveying the meaning of falling back or stumbling. When the younger Thomas arrived home that evening after his sitting with Mrs. Leonard, he went to the book and place on the page, where he found the words, "...to whom a crucified Messiah was an insuperable stumbling-block."
The father explained to the son, through Feda, that he was able to get the "appropriate spirit of the passage" much easier than he could the actual words. However, over a period of 18 months experimentation, he found himself able to pick up more and more words and numbers, gradually shifting from "sensing" to "clairvoyance." It was made abundantly clear by the father that he was experimenting on his side as much as his son was on the material side.
It was certain that Mrs. Leonard had never visited Thomas' house and knew nothing of the library of books in it. Realizing, however, that his subconscious might somehow have recorded such detailed information in the book when he read it years before as well as the exact location of the book in his library, Thomas decided to experiment with books in a friend's house. He informed his father of the plan so that the father knew where to search. In one of the tests there, Feda told Thomas that on page 2 of the second book from the right on a particular shelf, he would find a reference to sea or ocean. She added that the discarnate Thomas was not sure which, because he got the idea and not the words. When Drayton Thomas pulled the book from the shelf of his friend's house, he read, "A first-rate seaman, grown old between sky and ocean."
In another experiment, Drayton Thomas was told to look at page 9 where he would find a reference to changing of colors. Upon opening this book, Thomas found, "Along the northern horizon the sky suddenly changes from light blue to a dark lead colour." In still another test at his home, Feda told Drayton Thomas to go to a book at a certain point on a shelf and he would find words looking like "A-sh-ill-ee" on the cover. Feda explained that she was giving the sound but not the correct spelling. When Thomas arrived home, he went to the exact spot indicated by Feda and found a book authored by Mrs. Ashley Carus-Wilson.
Over a period of about two years, the father and son researchers carried out 348 tests. Of those, 242 were deemed good, 46 indefinite, and 60 failures. The discarnate Thomas explained the failures as his inability to get the idea through the mind of the medium or the medium's mind somehow distorting the message.
After conducting a number of book tests, the senior Thomas suggested a different kind of experiment - what came to call the "newspaper tests." These newspaper tests, which also involved Mrs. Leonard, began in 1919, some two years after the book tests. In the newspaper tests, the discarnate Thomas would provide information to be found in newspapers and magazines not yet printed. Thus, he would exercise a sort of precognition and clairvoyance. This would seemingly rule out what was being called Super ESP, the ability of the medium to go beyond reading the mind of the sitter and tap into the mind of anyone having a particular knowledge of a subject.
In a test on January 16, 1920, the junior Thomas was told to examine the Daily Telegraph for the following day and to notice that near the top of the second column of the first page the name of the place he was born. Thomas was born in Victoria Terrace on Victoria Street in Tuanton. When Thomas checked the paper the following day, he found the word "Victoria" exactly where his father said it would be.
In a test on February 13, 1920, Thomas was told to go to the London Times of the following day and near the top of column two of the first page he would find the name of a minister with whom he (the father) had been friendly when living in Leek. Lower in the column, he would find his (Drayton's) name, his mother's name, and an aunt's name, all within a space of two inches. When the paper appeared the morning after the sitting, Thomas saw no familiar names relative to the minister friend. He then consulted with his mother who immediately called his attention to the name "Perks," informing her son that the Rev. George T. Perks was a friend of his father's and had visited him while they were living in Leek. Looking lower in the column, Thomas found his name, a slight variation of his mother's name, and an aunt's name, all within a space of 1 ¼ by 1 ½ inches.
In the same test, Thomas was told that two-thirds of the way down column one, he would find a word suggesting ammunition, and between that and the name of a former teacher of his he would find a French place name, looking like three words hyphenated into one. While Thomas found the name of a former teacher, "Watts," it was in the column next to the one indicated by his father. As for the ammunition reference, the word "canon" appeared twice, apparently taken by the discarnate Thomas as "cannon." The Belgian town of Braine-le-Château was also found in the column indicated.
Drayton Thomas checked with the London Times and concluded that the page from which his father took the information had not yet been typeset at the time the information was given to him through Leonard and Feda.
Many other newspaper tests were carried out by Drayton Thomas. In each case, he would immediately write down the information and file it in a sealed envelope with the Society for Psychical Research at a time before the type was set at the newspaper office. Further, Thomas would check papers from at least 10 other days, being sure that the same names did not appear in those editions, thereby ruling out coincidence. Some of the tests were inconclusive and a few were failures, but there were many more positive results.
When Thomas asked his father how he was able to obtain information from newspapers not yet typeset, the father replied that he didn't quite understand it himself. He referred to it as some kind of "etheric foreshadowing." He likened it to seeing the shadow of a man around the corner before actually seeing the man. "Now the things I see are frequently but the spiritual counterparts of things which are about to take form; some of my tests from the Times might be called shadows of a substance," the discarnate Thomas explained. "When you see a shadow it is but an outline, and you do not look for detail, and that explains the difficulty of these tests; we cannot always sufficiently observe detail." He further explained that as he had moved from sensing to seeing, he could not always see the word clearly, as in one case he gave the word "rain" for what proved to be "raisin."
6. Triple Blinded Studies done on mediums by Professor Gary Schwartz
http://veritas.arizona.edu/
also you will find many other experiments also done
7. Psi Evidence
go here and read up on these studies all supporting the evidence for psi which shows that mind is more than the brain
http://amnap.blogspot.com/search/label/scientific%20studies
That is just some of the evidence that supports the survival hypothesis
Such as Electronic Voice Phenomena
8.
Scientific effort (EVP)
EVP is the short word for Electronic Voice Phenomenon. EVP voices cannot be heard when a recording device such as tape-recorder is recording, but it can be heard when the tape is played back. The simplest form of the experiment is to adjust radio frequency between two stations where no signal can be detected. This setting produces white noise which includes wide range of frequency. Record this noise for one or two minutes after you ask some question. Repeat recording in this style. When you listen the recorded result after the experiment, you might hear something in the part when you were silent, and you sometimes notice the voices give you an answer for your question.
Well, is there such phenomenon? So many people have researched EVP since it has long history (about 40 years). The most famous person who cooperated with scientific research would be Konstantine Raudive.
He contacted Jürgenson after reading his two books, and asked him to demonstrate some of his tapes to a small private audience. Jürgenson is one who tried to spread the study of this phenomenon worldwide for the first time. Since the demonstration was successful, Raudive started some research with Jürgenson on his estate in order to gain some personal experience. Soon Raudive started his own experiments in 1965. His classic research Unhoerbares Wird Hoerbar (The Inaudible Becomes Audible) was published based on 72,000 voices he recorded. Several things happened when it was translated into English.
On 16th November 1969, Peter Bander, who tried to introduce the English translation of this German book, was assailed by the gravest doubts. At that time, publisher Colin Smythe told him that he experimented on a tape recorder following the procedures outlined in Konstantine Raudive's book, and mentioned that at one particular point a certain rhythm was clearly audible and also a voice but he could not make sense of it. When Bander played it back, he heard nothing. Then he rewound it and let it play. After about ten minutes he got the following ridiculous conclusion:
"I noticed the peculiar rhythm mentioned by Raudive and his colleagues .., I heard a voice .... I believed this to have been the voice of my mother who had died three years earlier."
Isn't it merely subjective impression? Anyway, Bander and Smythe were working to publish the English version, "Breakthrough" without any doubt after this incident. However, unexpected interference came from the English vice prime minister in those days. He told them that he would ruin their company if they insist to publish such junk, evil book. Then, Bander and Smythe proposed to have a controlled experiment with Raudive, so that they can assert their rights to publish the book.
In 1971, Pye Records Ltd. invited Raudive to their sound lab and installed special equipment to block out any radio and television signals which they could detect at that time. They would not allow Raudive to touch any of the equipment. Raudive used one tape recorder which was monitored by a control tape recorder. All he could do was speak into a microphone. They taped Raudive's voice for eighteen minutes and none of the experimenters heard any other sounds. But when the scientists played back the tape, to their amazement, they heard over two hundred voices on it. Observers accepted the validity of EVP since some voices addressed Raudive as his nickname, "Kosti" or "Koste," and Raudive's deceased sister said her name three times "Tekle."
Consequently, English edition of the book "Break through" was published. In the next year, more controlled experiment was took place. The English company Belling and Lee, Ltd., used by the British government to test its most sophisticated defense equipment, decided to conduct some experiments with Raudive at their Radio-Frequency-Screened Laboratory. The supervising engineer, Peter Hale, was a physicist and electronics engineer. He was considered the leading expert on electronic-suppression in Great Britain, and one of the five leading sound engineers in the West. The recording hardware which was designed for this test was provided, and the blank tape which had just been shipped from the factory was used. But the voices still appeared.
A.P, Hale stated:
In view of the tests carried out in a screened laboratory at my firm, I can not explain what happened in normal physical terms.
9. The Proxy Sittings
There was a argument in the early days of Psychical Research that mediums were using telepathy from unconscious minds who were at the sittings.
The Reverend Charles Drayton Thomas, a Methodist minister who became a psychic researcher, spent many years as a proxy sitter investigating the mediumship of Mrs Leonard and recording his results for the Society for Psychical Research. He would go to a sitting knowing only the name of the deceased and the name of the person who desired communication.
In one instance in 1936-37 Thomas went to four sittings on behalf of Emma Lewis, a person he did not know. Through the medium, Mrs Leonord, he was able to gain seventy pieces of information which Emma later felt confirmed beyond all doubt that it was her father, Frederick William Macaulay, who was communicating.
The only possible objection a skeptic can make in relation to proxy sittings is fraud. There is no other possible or probable explanation for the information coming through the medium about someone who has passed on and who had no connection whatsoever with any of the sitters who were with the medium at the time.
But so far in the last fifty years or so, no one has been able to even suggest fraud in the proxy sittings conducted by the Reverend Drayton Thomas. Again, psychic researchers are impressed by the conspicuous absence of criticism of these particular proxy sittings.
For Example Professor Dodds says this about the possibilty fo fraud in the proxy sittings:
The hypothesis of fraud, rational inference from disclosed facts, telepathy from the actual sitter, and co-incidence cannot either singly or in combination account for the results obtained ( Dodds 1962).
10. Instrumental Transcommunication Experiments
During 1994 ITC experimenters in Luxembourg, Germany, Brazil, Sweden, China and Japan received paranormal telephone calls from Dr Konstantin Raudive who died in 1976 (Kubris and Macy 1995: 14). These calls were tape recorded and analyzed by voice experts.
The calls have continued since then and one two-way taped conversation in 1996 between Dr Konstantin Raudive and Mark Macy lasted for 13 minutes (Continuing Life Research video— ITC Today 1997).
According to Mark Macy’s World ITC website scientists working for the International Network for Instrumental Transcommunication (INIT) received from the Afterlife:
*
pictures of people and places in the afterlife on television that either appeared clearly on the screen and remained for at least several frames, or which built up steadily into a reasonably clear picture over multiple frames
*
text and/or picture files from people in the afterlife which appeared in computer memory or were planted on disk or similar recordable media
*
text and/or images of people and places in the Afterlife through FAX.
Such contacts, which were received by European experimenters over a 10-year period and were enjoyed by other researchers from 1995 are giving modern researchers a view of unprecedented clarity into life after death.
The evidence collected by this now extensive group of reliable witnesses — including reputable scientists, physicists, engineers, electronic technicians, doctors, professors, administrators, clergymen, successful businessmen — is undeniably convincing to those who systematically investigate the EVP and ITC. The consistency of the evidence from different parts of the world is overwhelming.
One of the leading researchers in this field today is Sonia Rinaldi who leads the biggest ITC Association in Brazil, with nearly 700 members. She recently announced new contacts received via computer, answering machine, telephone and video camera. At public meetings in Brazil and in the United States large numbers of members and visitors were able to receive direct answers from loved ones in the spirit world.
Up to date information on her research can be read in English on her website ANT Associacao Nacional de Transcomunicadores in English. All her work is based on scientific control and her site contains scientific declarations issued by the most respected University in Brazil, USP - Universidade de São Paulo.
Recently the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization founded by Astronaut Ed Mitchell to bridge the gap between science and religion, announced that it will be working with Sonia in a project to examine the claims of ITC.
Mitchell decided to form the group after a spiritual experience while walking on the moon 25 years ago. Today the Institute of Neotic Sciences, based in California, is headed by Winston Franklin as President, and is composed of approximately 50,000 persons around the world, including some of the world's top scientists. IONS designs and funds various cutting-edge scientific research projects.
11. The Mrs. Holland Scripts
MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPTS
Some of the most remarkable automatic scripts, - which have been discussed with critical acumen by the Research Officer of the S.P.R., - came to a lady of education and social position resident in India. This lady was not a spiritualist, and at the time had no acquaintance with the members of the Society for Psychical Research. As her family disliked the whole subject she prefers to be known under the pseudonym of "Mrs. Holland." Subsequently, on her return to England, she became personally known to and esteemed by many of the leaders and officials of the S.P.R. Her attention having been once casually drawn to the subject of automatic writing she tried the experiment and to her surprise found her hand, wrote both verse and prose without any volition on her part; the first messages were headed by the impromptu lines:
Believe in what thou canst not see,
Until the vision come to thee.
Mrs. Holland says she remains fully conscious during the writing, "but my hand moves so rapidly that I seldom know what I am writing." Her interest in the subject increased and she obtained and read Mr. Myers' monumental work Human Personality, which was published after Mr. Myers' death. Though she did not know the author, it was natural that much of her automatic script purported to be inspired by him. A careful study of the messages so inspired has compelled the belief that the spirit of Mr. Myers really did control some of these messages. Here for instance is a very characteristic communication purporting to come from Mr. Myers:
"To believe that the mere act of death enables a spirit to understand the whole mystery of death is as absurd as to imagine that the act of birth enables an infant to understand the whole mystery of life. I am still groping-surmising-conjecturing The experience is different for each one of us. . . One was here lately who could not believe he was dead; he accepted the new conditions as a certain stage in the treatment of his illness."
Then follows, not quite verbally correct, the first two lines of Mr. Myers' poem St. Paul - a poem which Mrs. Holland declares she had never read and of which she knew nothing whatever. Of course it is possible that she had somewhere seen these lines quoted, though she has no recollection of this. The automatic script is as follows:
"Yea, I am Christ's - and let the name suffice ye - E'en as for me He greatly bath sufficed.(1) If it were possible for the soul to die back into earth life again I should die from sheer yearning to reach you - to tell you all that we imagined is not half wonderful enough for the truth - that immortality, instead of being a beautiful dream, is the one, the only reality, the strong golden thread on which all the illusions of all the lives are strung. If I could only reach you - if I could only tell you - I long for power, and all that comes to me is an infinite yearning - an infinite pain. Does any of this reach you, reach anyone, or am I only wailing as the wind wails - wordless and unheeded?" - Proceedings S.P.R., Vol. XXI, P. 233.
12. Powerful Medium Mrs. Piper
Mrs Leonore Piper wasn't exactly the picture of a spiritualist wonder-worker. She was a middle-class and married Bostonian who had lived an eminently normal life. Her introduction to the spiritualist movement came only after she suffered some medical problems as a result of an accident. Her father-in-law suggested that she see a prominent blind clairvoyant in Boston to hear what he would have to say about possible treatment. It was during her first consultation that something strange occurred. Mrs Piper later explained that as she sat listening to the psychic, 'his face seemed to become smaller and smaller, receding as it were into the distance, until gradually I lost consciousness of my surroundings'. She had apparently entered into a spontaneous trance, which surprised her since she had previously entertained no interest in spiritualism.[4] She started attending some of Dr Cocke's regular séances anyway, and soon discovered that she, too, had trance ability. It wasn't long before she was the talk of the spiritualist community, since during her trances her clients seemed capable of making contact with their deceased friends and relatives.
[4] Piper, Alta. The Life and Work of Mrs Piper. London: Kegan Paul, 1929.
Mrs Piper was only 25 years old at the time and her burgeoning mediumship probably wouldn't have come to scientific attention at all were it not for a fortunate development. William James's mother-in-law heard about her, visited the young psychic, and was so impressed by her performance that she guided James's attention to her. James and his wife sat with Mrs Piper shortly thereafter and were astounded by the accurate messages they received.
James attended several sittings with Mrs Piper from 1885 to 1886, and several of the incidents he witnessed especially impressed him. During one sitting for example, the psychologist and his brother were told that their aunt (who was living in New York) had just died that very morning at 12.30. James knew nothing of the matter but as he later wrote, 'On reaching home an hour later I found a telegram as follows - Aunt Kate passed away a few minutes after midnight'.
Mrs Leonore Piper was the 'one white crow' who proved spirit communication to William James satisfaction. (Mary Evans Picture Library)
The SPR was naturally impressed by stories such as these, so in 1887 they decided to take action. They sent one of their most critical investigators to Boston to look into the case and report back to them.
Richard Hodgson was a keen and rigidly sceptical investigator but he was also passionately devoted to psychical research. He set sail for Boston and ended up spending the next eighteen years of his life studying Mrs Piper's mediumship.
Richard Hodgson came to the United States in part to take over the reins of the American branch of the SPR, which William James had helped to organize. His first major project was to take complete charge of the Piper case. His plan was to book her sittings himself, study her background, and make sure she wasn't secretly studying her sitters. He even had her trailed by detectives. He also insisted that many of the sitters he booked remain anonymous to her. Despite these formidable controls, the quality of the Piper mediumship remained impressive. She would merely sit down with the client, suffer some minor convulsions and enter a trance, and soon a curious personality who called himself 'Dr Phinuit' would speak through her and act as master-of-ceremonies for the session. Hodgson was never much impressed by Dr Phinuit since the persona's French was practically non-existent and he could never give a very credible account of his terrestrial life. Phinuit actually seemed to be a split-off portion of Mrs Piper's own mind, or so Hodgson argued. But despite his dubious credentials, Dr Phinuit was often brilliant at bringing through veridical messages from the dead.
Hodgson later reported that at his first sitting at Mrs Piper's home, Dr Phinuit successfully described and helped bring through some of his own departed friends. The control especially mentioned an old school friend and called him by his proper name. 'He says you went to school together,' he explained to Hodgson. 'He goes on jumping-frogs and laughs. He says he used to get the better of you. He had convulsions before his death struggles. He went off into a sort of spasm. You were not there.'
All of this rather trivial information was correct, and it alerted Dr Hodgson to the fact that he was being confronted by a case of epoch-making potential.
The communications that followed the appearance of his old friend impressed him even more. Hodgson was from Australia and many years before his move to England he had fallen in love with a young woman. Marriage never entered his life, however, and the woman passed on long before the time of the present sittings. Hodgson was astounded when Phinuit began describing the young woman, and she was able to bring through several deeply personal messages which, more than anything else, convinced Hodgson of the authenticity of the Piper mediumship.
Despite the startling nature of the evidence, Dr Hodgson was not sure that he was actually making contact with the dead. It was true that the messages seemed to be coming from the world of the dead, and he spent months supervising the sittings of other clients whose personal experiences were leading them to the same view. Yet like so many of SPR founders, Hodgson found himself grappling with the same old telepathy versus spirit communication debate that was plaguing the study of apparitions. It was certainly reasonable to assume that Mrs Piper's messages came from the dead; but it was also possible that she was reading the minds of the sitters and gathering up all the pertinent information. He reasoned that this information could then be used to help build up perfect (but bogus) personations of the dead. This line of reasoning was tempting since Mrs Pipers chief control actually seemed to be bogus. It didn't take too much of a leap in faith and logic to assume that all the spirits that regularly came through her also had their psychological roots within her own mind. Hodgson at first actively favoured this view; which he put forth in his first major paper on the case.[5]
[5] Hodgson, Richard. A record of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1892, 8, 1-67.
He was not the only person to receive such evidential messages, since many of the sitters he booked in Boston reported similar success. So in order to test Mrs Piper under even more stringent conditions, Hodgson and his colleagues decided that she should go to England and sit for the SPR leaders in person. They would then be in a position to supervise her closely for themselves. The trip would also allow the researchers to be sure that Mrs Piper was not secretly learning about her sitters' backgrounds, since she had never visited England before, and could not have had access to information about them. The sitters in this case were, of course, the researchers themselves.
Mrs Piper sailed for England in 1889 and was met at the docks by F. W. H. Myers and Oliver Lodge, an influential physicist at the University of Liverpool and one of the SPR's leading lights. They carefully controlled every move she made and even, with her consent, opened her mail to make sure no one as 'feeding' her information. Despite these incumbrances, she gave séances for the SPR both in Liverpool and Cambridge with outstanding success.
It would be impossible to go into great detail about these important sittings. Lodge was perhaps the most impressed with Mrs Piper, partly due to his own experiences with her.[6] The following is a report Lodge filed about a single incident that occurred during one of his first sittings. Remember that this is actually just one episode which occurred during a more lengthy session:
[6] Myers, F. W. H.; Lodge, Oliver; Leaf, W.; James, William. A record of observations of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1890, 6, 436-659.
It happens that an uncle of mine in London, now quite an old man, and one of a surviving three out of a very large family, had a twin brother who died some twenty or more years ago. I interested him generally in the subject, and wrote to ask if he would lend me some relic of his brother. By morning post on a certain day I received a curious old gold watch, which this brother had worn and been fond of, and that same morning, no one in the house having seen it or knowing anything about it, I handed it to Mrs Piper when in a state of trance.
I was told almost immediately that it had belonged to one of my uncles - one that had been very fond of Uncle Robert, the name of the survivor - that the watch was now in possession of this same Uncle Robert, with whom he was anxious to communicate. After some difficulty and many wrong attempts Dr Phinuit caught the name, Jerry, short for Jeremiah, and said emphatically, as if a third person was speaking, 'This is my watch, and Robert is my brother, and I am here. Uncle Jerry, my watch'...
Having thus ostensibly got into communication through some means or other with what purported to be a deceased relative, whom I had indeed known slightly in his later years of blindness, but of whose early life I knew nothing, I pointed out to him that to make Uncle Robert aware of his presence it would be well to recall trivial details of their boyhood, all of which I would faithfully report.
He quite caught the idea, and proceeded during several successive sittings ostensibly to instruct Dr Phinuit to mention a number of little things such as would enable his brother to recognise him ...
'Uncle Jerry' recalled episodes such as swimming the creek when they were boys together; and running some risk of getting drowned; killing a cat in Smiths field; the possession of a small rifle, and of a long peculiar skin, like a snake-skin, which he thought was not in the possession of Uncle Robert.
All these facts have been more or less completely verified.
The only problem with evidence such as this is that Mrs Piper liked to hold the hands of her sitters. It was suggested by some sceptics that somehow the sitter might be communicating information to the psychic by making unconscious and subtle muscular movements. This idea was especially championed by Andrew Lang, an early SPR member and a pioneering anthropologist and folklorist. He engaged Lodge in a prolonged debate over this issue in the SPR's publications. Lang was sceptical of Mrs Piper, but even he finally admitted that the 'snake-skin' reference cited above was just too good to be dismissed.
Several of the Society's leaders were able to work with Mrs Piper during her trip. They filed a joint report on their work with her in which they came to four main conclusions: (1) that there was no reason to suspect Mrs Piper's good faith or honesty (2) that Dr Phinuit was probably a secondary personality of the psychic's own mind, (3) that he often 'faked' his way through some of the sittings, but that (4) on a good day he could bring through voluminous amounts of highly evidential material. The SPR researchers would not, however, commit themselves as to whether these messages emanated from the dead. This was an issue on which they were hopelessly divided. Sir Oliver Lodge preferred this theory to any other about the source of Mrs Piper's communications, but the telepathic hypothesis loomed far and wide and some researchers favoured it.
Even though the SPR could not agree about the source of Mrs Piper's communications, its leaders did not cease studying her formidable abilities. She returned to Boston in 1890 where she once again worked under Hodgson's auspices. Although the reasons were not clear, it now seemed that the quality of her mediumship was improving. Some of her sittings were so impressive that the telepathic hypothesis had to be stretched widely to account for them. This was certainly the opinion of the Revd and Mrs S. W. Sutton, who first attended sittings with Mrs Piper in 1893.[7] Their hope was to establish communication with their little daughter Katherine, who had died only six weeks before. The Suttons were intelligent people and they brought along a note-taker supplied by Dr Hodgson, so today we still have a complete stenographic record of what transpired during their critical sitting of 8 December. This was an occasion on which several departed members of the Sutton family spoke through Mrs Piper, including their daughter. The sitting is so crucial to understanding the psychology of the Piper mediumship that an edited version of the sitting is transcribed below.
[7] Hodgson, Richard. A further record of observations of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1898, 284-582.
This séance began as Mrs Piper took hold of the note-taker's hands. Her trance followed in short order and then Mrs Sutton took the psychic's hands in her own. It didn't take the enigmatic Dr Phinuit very long before he was able to bring through her daughter. He almost began the sitting with the words, 'A little child is coming through'. The Suttons could then hear the control coaxing the child to come to him, and he spoke as if he were their daughter. This was typical of the control, who often proxied in this manner. He reached for a medal and a band of buttons that the Suttons had placed on the séance table, and then spoke:
Dr Phinuit
I want this - I want to bite it.
Quick, I want to put them in my mouth ...
Mrs Sutton's Annotations
She used to bite it.
The buttons also. To bite the buttons was forbidden. He exactly imitated her arch manner.
I will get her talk to you in a minute. Who is Frank in the body?... We do not know. My uncle Frank died a few years before. We were much attached. Possibly Phinuit was confused and my uncle was trying to communicate.
A lady is here who passed out of the body with tumour in the bowels ... My friend, Mrs C. died of ovarian tumour.
She has the child ... She is bringing it to me. Who is Dodo? Speak to me quickly. I want you to call Dodo. Tell Dodo I am happy. Cry for me no more [Phinuit puts his hands to his throat.] No more sore throat any more Papa, speak to me. Can not you see me? I am not dead, I am living. I am happy with Grandma. [Phinuit now speaks for himself:] Here are two more. One, two, three here ... one older and one younger than Kakie. That is a boy. The one that came first. The little one calls the lady, Auntie I wish you could see these children. [Addressing Mr Sutton, to whom he turns:] You do a great deal of good in the body [To Mrs Sutton:] He is a dear man. Was this little ones tongue very dry? She keeps showing me her tongue. Her name is Katherine. She calls herself Kakie. She passed out last. Tell Dodo Kakie is in spiritual body. Where is horsey? Big horsey, not this little one. Dear Papa, take me wide [to ride]. [Speaking for Katherine:] Do you see Kakie? The pretty white flowers you put on me I have here. I took their little souls out and keep them with me. Papa, want to wide horsey. Every day I go to see horsey. I like that horsey. I go to wide I am with you every day ...
The name for her brother George.
She had pain and distress of the throat and tongue.
My mother had been dead many years.
Correct.
Both were boys.
Not her aunt.
Her tongue was paralysed, and she suffered much with it to the end.
Correct
I gave her a little horse. Probably refers to a toy cart and horse she used to like.
Phinuit describes lilies of the valley, which were the flowers we placed on her casket. She pleaded this all through her illness.
I was so hot, my head was so hot. I asked if she remembered anything after she was brought downstairs.
Correct.
Some further messages were received and Kakie referred to her sister Eleanor by name. Then, to the Sutton's great surprise, the communicator begin singing a song that was sung to her before she died. The little communicator urged her parents to sing along with her, and the couple complied. While they were singing they could hear a soft, childlike voice coming out of the psychic's mouth and intoning the precise words with them. Two stanzas were sung before the sitting could progress. Then the child sang yet another song she had known in life through the entranced medium. It actually seemed as if the child was talking directly through Mrs Piper and was no longer using the control as a proxy. What so impressed the Suttons was that these two songs were the only two the child knew completely. Phinuit seemed to re-insert himself at this point, and the sitting continued:
Dr Phinuit
Where is Dinah? I want Dinah.
Mrs Sutton's Annotations
Dinah was an old black rag-doll, not with us.
I want Bagie.
I want Bagie to bring me my Dinah. I want to go to Bagie. I want Bagie. I see Bagie an the time. Tell Dodo when you see him that I love him. Dear Dodo. He used to march with me. He put me way up. Her name for her sister Margaret.
Correct.
Dodo did sing to me. That was a horrid body. I have a pretty body now. Tell Grandma I love her. I want her to know I live. Grandma does know it, Marmie - Great grandma, Marmie.
We called her Great Grandmother Marmie, but she always called her Grammie. Both Grandmother and Great Grandmother were then living.
With evidence such as this pouring in, Dr Hodgson found himself doubting the idea that telepathy could explain Mrs Piper's utterances. Even the somewhat questionable but crudely lovable Dr Phinuit began proving himself a bit. But it wasn't until one of Hodgson's own friends died and began communicating through Mrs Piper that he finally changed his entire verdict about the Piper mediumship. This new development came in 1892 during a crucial stage in the mediumship.
Before 1892 the Piper mediumship was characterized by two features. She always delivered her messages by trance speech and her transition to the trance state was accompanied by fits and spasms. This was the stage of the mediumship dominated by Dr Phinuit's ever-present personality, much to the chagrin of those researchers who considered him nothing but a sub-personality of the medium's. But in 1892 Mrs Piper began developing (under Hodgson's guidance) automatic writing which soon superseded the trance speech. The transition to the trance state also became gentler and more facile during this period. The real change in the trance state came, however; with the appearance of a new trance-personality who replaced Dr Phinuit as the psychic's primary control. George Pellew (whom Hodgson called 'George Pelham' throughout his writings on the case) was a young and philosophically minded friend of the researcher's. He had sat with Mrs Piper himself once before his death and long remained intrigued with the problems of trance mediumship. His death came in 1892 as a result of an accident, and it wasn't long before he started communicating through Mrs Piper. He soon took control of the Piper trance state altogether.
The appearance of the Pelham control also heralded a new dimension in the quality of the mediumship. It became more focused and consistently evidential. Hodgson also used the Pelham persona to test the possible spiritistic basis of the entire mediumship. During the next several months, he introduced 150 sitters to the séances, of whom 30 had known Pelham during his life. The Pelham control was able to accurately recognize 29 of them. His only lapse came when he failed to recognize a young woman he had only known as a child. Most of the sitters were able to talk and reminisce with the Pelham personality as though he were right there in the flesh, and the quality of his many trance conversations was certainly equal to that of the Sutton sittings. Hodgson was so impressed by this new personality that he issued another report on Mrs Piper in 1898 in which he outlined his reasons for converting to the spiritistic theory.[8]
The subsequent history of the Piper mediumship is no less imposing or dramatic. She underwent several more changes in control, and when Dr Hodgson died suddenly in 1905, he subsequently communicated through her Mrs Piper's mediumship began to deteriorate in 1911 and she lost her trance state altogether, though the automatic writing continued for several more years. She held sittings well into the 1920s and died in 1950.
The Scole Experiments
http://www.thescoleexperiment.com/artcl_00.htm
The evidence for identity in the discarnate
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/barrett/identity.htm
Medium DD Homes
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/doyle/home.htm
DeathBed Visions
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter20.html
Reincarnation
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter24.html
Direct Voice Mediums
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter15.html
Poltergeists
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter23.html
Xenoglossy
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter22.html
Drop In communicators
One spectacular case of positive communication was that of Pearl Curran who tried a Ouija board with her neighbor on July 12th 1912. After a year of experimenting she began to receive messages from Patience Worth, who claimed to be a spirit entity born in 1649 near Dorsetshire in England.
Between 1912 and 1919 she dictated through the board five million words—epigrams, poems, allegories short stories and full-length novels. Her collected works fill twenty-nine bound volumes, 4375 single-spaced pages. There were five full-length novels, the most successful being The Sorry Tale a 300,000 word story of the earthly life of Jesus which was reviewed as follows in the The New York Times, July 8, 1917:
This long and intricate tale of Jewish and Roman life during the time of Christ is constructed with the precision and accuracy of a master hand. It is a wonderful, a beautiful and noble book.
Patience Worth also wrote over 2,500 poems. She won a national poetry contest in which forty thousand contestants submitted multiple entries. She was regularly published in America's most prestigious annual poetry anthology.
One of her greatest admirers was the publisher William Reedy who was on the award-selecting committee for the first Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He was a regular visitor to Pearl's house and he said of her poems:
They contain passages of bewitching beauty, of rare high spirits, of pathos. It does not equal Shakespeare or Spencer. It is not so great as Chaucer. But if there be any intelligences communicating poems by Ouija board or otherwise... it is good poetry, better poetry than we find in our magazines as a rule—poetry with a quality of its own (Hunt 1985: 31).
The Seth books
Another famous literary relationship which began with Ouija communication was that between Seth and Jane Roberts and her husband who began using a Ouija Board in 1963. On their fourth try an entity introduced itself as 'Frank Withers' who said that he had most recently lived on earth as an English teacher and had died in 1942. Later he explained that he preferred to be called 'Seth' and that he had a special mission to help people better understand themselves and reality.
Through Jane, Seth has dictated several best-selling books which have dealt with the nature of reality, reincarnation, dreams, astral travel and the nature of God. He has given step-by-step advice to his readers on the development of meditation techniques and ESP. He has diagnosed illnesses, correctly described the contents of building and rooms many miles away and materialized as an apparition in well-lit settings (see Roberts 1974, 1994, 1997a 1997b).
There are many other stories of successful literary and creative relationships that have developed through using the board including that of James Merrill, a Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote The Changing Light at Sandover (1982) working with a Ouija board.
His frightening experiences (visions, bodily transformations, felt powerful presences) as well as his positive and joyous ones are vividly reported in the poem. However after more than thirty years experience with the board Merrill claims that he no longer recommends that friends use it because:
One can never tell in advance how susceptible a given person will be.
Strong evidence for the afterlife
What I personally find staggering about the Ouija board literature is the extent to which it is consistent with the findings of researchers who have worked with top level mediums, with electronic voice phenomena and with the other areas of scientific research mentioned in this book. It is simply impossible to explain the staggeringly different kinds of communication that one receives when entities of different levels are communicating—often in quick succession—purely on the basis of projection of the unconscious of an individual or a group.
As well there have been a number of startling cases of drop-in communicators coming through the board. These are entities which although totally unknown to the sitters give correct and verifiable details of names, address, occupation and sometimes a large number of other details. Dr Alan Gauld investigated 37 of these who had appeared among 240 alleged communicators in a Ouija board circle which met in a Cambridgeshire home between 1937 and 1954 (Gauld 1966-72:273-340).
In his paper for the Society for Psychical Research he explains how he followed up the details of some of these in some cases more than twenty years after the original communication had been made and had been able to verify a significant number of details in at least four cases.
In the case of Gustav Adolf Biedermann Gauld was able to verify the personality of the communicator and the following specific information:
I lived in London.
My house was Charnwood Lodge.
Nationality German.
Correct name Adolf Biedermann.
I was always known and called Gustav
I was a Rationalist
I was turned seventy when I passed away
I had my own business
I am associated with the London University
I passed over a year ago
In these cases, Gauld points out, the sitters did not seek publicity or money and he was convinced that there was no way they would have gone to the trouble of accessing the public documents he obtained from a huge number of sources to fool the other circle members and then leave them for more than twenty years on the off-chance that somebody would happen by to investigate them.
1. Apparitions
A collectively perceived apparition of a dead man
As a carefully verified case in which a number of people, at the same time, perceived the apparition of a man known to be dead, let us consider the following:
In June 1931, Samuel Bull, by occupation a chimney-sweep, died in his cottage in Ramsbury, Wilts., England. His aged widow continued to live in the same cottage with a grandson, James Bull, twenty-one years of age. In August 1931, a daughter, Mrs. Edwards, gave up her own home and came with her husband and five children to live with the widow for the purpose of looking after her.
Some time in or after February 1932, Mrs. Edwards saw the deceased man ascend the stairs and pass through a closed door into the room, then unused, in which he had died. Almost immediately after Mrs. Edwards saw the apparition, James Bull also saw it. Later all the members of the family together observed it. Even the five-year-old girl recognized it as 'Grandpa Bull.' The appearances continued at frequent intervals until about 9 April. Whenever the apparition was seen, all the persons present were able to see it.
The Chaffin apparition gave information not known to any living person
The evidence in this famous case was tested in court, and the judge accepted it as the basis for his verdict:
James L. Chaffin, a farmer in North Carolina, had a wife and four sons. In 1905 he made a will leaving his property to his third son, Marshall, but leaving nothing to his widow and the three other sons. In September 1921, the old man died, and the will was probated. In 1925, the second son, James, made the following sworn statement:
'On a night during the latter part of June 1925, my father appeared at my bedside, dressed as I had often seen him in life, wearing a black overcoat which I knew to be his own.
My father's spirit took hold of his overcoat, pulled it back and said, "You will find my will in my overcoat pocket," and then disappeared.'
James made inquiries, and finally in July found his father's overcoat at the home of his brother John. He cut the stitches of the inner pocket, and found inside, not the will itself but a roll of paper with the words, 'Read the 27th Chapter of Genesis in my daddie's old Bible.' (This chapter tells how Esau was supplanted by his younger brother Jacob.)
Taking his daughter and two neighbours with him as witnesses, James Chaffin, Junior, then went to his mother's house, found the dilapidated Bible, and in the presence of the testator's widow and two other witnesses looked up the 27th Chapter of Genesis. Folded into the pages there they found a will dated 16 January, 1919, which had been made without witnesses, but which was valid by the laws of North Carolina as being in his own handwriting. This newer will divided the property equally among all the four sons, adding: 'You must all take care of your Mammy.'
At first the heirs under the old will contested the new one. But when they were shown the actual document at the trial they admitted it to be genuine, and they withdrew their opposition. Ten witnesses were prepared to swear it was in the testator's handwriting. In December, 1925, the second will was admitted to probate, and probate of the earlier will was cancelled.
So far as can be learned, James Chaffin, Senior, before his death spoken to anyone about his second will. His apparition, after death, would seem to have been the vehicle of his surviving personality, seeking to complete the righting of a wrong which he had done while still in his mortal body.
The authenticated apparition of a dying captain
The cases which have just been cited were apparitions of persons who had been dead for months or years. Let us now consider a representative case of an apparition at the moment of death:
On 3 January, 1856, Joseph Collyer was in command of the steamer Alice, which was moored alongside the levee on the Mississippi River just above New Orleans. Joseph had retired to his berth for the night. Another steamer bore down upon the moored ship, and Joseph was called. He ran on to the deck, clothed only in his nightgown. The other steamer collided with the Alice. The concussion caused the flagstaff to fall, striking Joseph's head and actually dividing the skull. This, of course, caused instant death.
On that same night, Joseph's mother, Anne E. Collyer, at her home in Camden, New Jersey, had a remarkable experience which she reported to another son in a letter dated 27 March, 1861.
'On the 3rd of January, 1856, I did not feel well, and retired to bed early. Some time after, I felt uneasy and sat up in bed; I looked around the room, and, to my utter amazement, saw Joseph standing at the door, looking at me with great earnestness, his head bandaged up, a dirty night-cap on, and a dirty white garment on, something like a surplice. He was much disfigured about the eyes and face. It made me quite uncomfortable the rest of the night. The next morning, Mary came into my room early. I told her that I was sure I was going to have bad news from Joseph. I told all the family at the breakfast table; they replied: "It was only a dream, and all nonsense," but that did not change my opinion.'
Joseph's brother, Robert H. Collyer, M.D., who lived in London, reported in a letter dated 15 April, 1861, that he had obtained the details about Joseph's death from another brother, William, 'who was on the spot at the time of the accident.' In October 1857, Robert visited the United States, and learned from his mother about her experience. Her account was corroborated to him at that time by his father and his four sisters. On 12 May, 1884, one of the surviving sisters wrote a letter of corroboration.
Dr. Collyer stated that his father, who was a scientific man, calculated the difference of longitude between Camden and New Orleans, and found that the apparition occurred at the exact time of Joseph's death.
His mother had never seen Joseph attired as his apparition appeared to be. One curious fact is that the bandaging of the head did not take place until hours after the accident. William told Robert that Joseph's head was nearly cut in two by the blow, and that his face was dreadfully disfigured, and the nightdress much soiled.
A conscious apparition of a living person
For comparison with the samples given above, of apparitions of dead men, and an apparition of a man at the moment of death, consider the following example of an apparition of a man who was still very much alive. The experience was reported by a bachelor farmer named Walter E. McBride, who lived near Indian Springs, Indiana.
On 23 December, 1935, McBride had been concerned during the entire day about his father. He was under the impression that his father might be ill. Shortly after retiring, at about eight o'clock that evening, he felt himself to be floating in the room, in a whitish light which cast no shadows. He said that he was wide awake at the time. After moving upward to a certain height, he felt himself to be turning vertical, and looking downward he saw his physical body lying on the bed.
He then found that he was floating upward through the building. The ceiling and floor failed to stop him. Almost at once he realized that he was moving through the air towards the north, and he seemed to know he was going to his old home several miles away. Passing through the walls of his father's house, he stood at the foot of the bed in which he saw his father reclining. His father's eyes were fixed upon him and he seemed to be surprised, but he did not seem to hear when McBride spoke to him. The knowledge came to McBride that his father was well, whereupon he found himself travelling back to his bedroom. He again saw his own body, still lying on the bed where he had left it. Re-entering his physical self, he was instantly alert, with no feeling of drowsiness. Throughout this excursion, McBride was aware of a presence, which he was unable to identify, but which he subsequently came to regard as a guide.
Upon recovering possession of his physical body, McBride got up, made a light, and wrote down the time and the account of what he had experienced. Two days later, on Christmas Day, 1935, he visited his father, who verified his experience by saying he had seen McBride, just as he had stood at the foot of the bed. The father, moreover, had written down the time of his vision, and it tallied with the time put down previously by the projectionist. Mrs. J. E. Wires and her son, Earl, of Shoals, Indiana, were also visiting the senior McBride at the time. On 25 February, 1938, they each signed the following statement: 'I can vouch that the above-described meeting and discussion did take place.'
2. DeathBed Visions
Here is a powerful case of visions of a dying person
Dr. Wilson of New York, who was present at the last moments of Mr. James Moore, a well-known tenor in the United States, gives the following narrative:
"It was about 4 a.m., and the dawn for which he had been watching was creeping in through the shutters, when, as I leant over the bed, I noticed that his face was quite calm and his eyes clear. The poor fellow looked me in the face, and, taking my hand in both of his, he said: 'You've been a good friend to me, doctor.' Then something which I shall never forget to my dying day happened, - something which is utterly indescribable. While he appeared perfectly rational and as sane as any man I have ever seen, the only way that I can express it is that he was transported into another world, and although I cannot satisfactorily explain the matter to myself, I am fully convinced that he had entered the golden city - for he said in a stronger voice than he had used since I had attended him: 'There is mother! Why, mother, have you come here to see me? No, no, I am coming to see you, just wait, mother, I am almost over. Wait, mother, wait, mother!'
"On his face there was a look of inexpressible happiness, and the way in which he said the words impressed me as I have never been before, and I am as firmly convinced that he saw and talked with his mother as I am that I am sitting here.
"In order to preserve what I believed to be his conversation with his mother, and also to have a record of the strangest happening of my life, I immediately wrote down every word he said. It was one of the most beautiful deaths I have ever seen."
Miss Cobbe in her Peak in Darien gives another instance of this kind, but the following narrative is even more striking. It is vouched for by my friend the late Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, who contributed it to the Spectator. Mr. Wedgwood writes:
"Between forty and fifty years ago, a young girl, a near connection of mine, was dying of consumption. She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition, taking no notice of anything, when she opened her eyes, and, looking upwards, said slowly, 'Susan - and Jane - and Ellen!' as if recognising the presence of her three sisters, who had previously died of the same disease. Then, after a short pause, 'And Edward, too!' she continued, - naming a brother then supposed to be alive and well in India, - as if surprised at seeing him in the company. She said no more, and sank shortly afterwards. In course of the post, letters came from India announcing the death of Edward from an accident a week or two previous to the death of his sister. This was told to me by an elder sister who nursed the dying girl, and was present at the bedside at the time of the apparent vision."
3. The Cross-Correspondences
Mediumistic phenomena was further increased some ten years ago by a new development, hitherto unknown, that of Cross-Correspondence. It was discovered by the distinguished secretary of the British Society for Psychical Research, Alice Johnson, who, while studying the automatic writings, of the different mediums, became aware of a strange relationship between them. In some cases this consisted of striking allusions made by one written communication to the other, in the use by both mediums of the same strange expressions, in a common reference to a certain literary quotation, and so on. This relationship was of too frequent and systematic a character to be merely due to chance, and did not necessarily exist between two mediums only, but between several. For instance, on April 8, 1907, Mrs. Piper uttered the words "Light in the West" while in a trance in London. On the same day, three hours later, Mrs. Verrall, a medium in Cambridge, wrote automatically among other things: "Rosy is the East, etc.
AOn August 6, 1906, Mrs. Holland wrote in India at the end of a fairly long communication, separated by a wider space and in an altered hand:
"Yelo" (scribbled).
"Yellowed Ivory."
Two days later Mrs. Verrall wrote in Cambridge on August 8:
"I have done it to-night y yellow is the written word
yellow
yellow
Say only yellow.'
And her daughter also wrote automatically at the same time, without her mother's knowledge:
“Camomile and resin the prescription is old on yellow paper in a box with a sweet scent.”
In other cases automatic writings supplement each other, and only make coherent sense when added together. It is - to use a metaphor - almost as though a manuscript had been cut into scraps and handed to various compositors who would only be able to make sense of the whole after joining the fragments together. Oddly enough, cross-correspondence first showed itself suddenly among a number of mediums, including Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Piper, and others.
Spiritistic interpretation sees in cross-correspondence the best of all proofs of its teaching that mediumistic phenomena emanate from spirits, arguing that the relationship between the various automatic scripts can only be the outcome of an intelligence beyond the ken of the mediums, which uses the latter to prove its own independent existence through the cross-correspondences. Only an intelligence, it is argued, would be capable of meting out a consecutive idea into distinct parts and then directing the pen of the various mediums so that each should write separate fragments of the whole. Spiritism further points to the strange coincidence that cross-correspondence appeared for the first time after the death of Myers, one of the most eminent scientific English-speaking spiritists, who was expected to furnish a conclusive proof of spiritism. In the first cross-correspondence, the "spirit" purporting to be Myers draws direct attention to the new development and the prospect of its further continuance. As a matter of fact, it is not possible not to regard certain cases of cross-correspondence as evidence of the most remarkable and difficult parapsychic phenomena. It is easy to understand that when confronted with cross-correspondence, scepticism should lose its assurance, and that those spiritistically inclined should become definite converts. It is obvious that cross-correspondence must be attributed to a reflecting mind. There can be no question of chance, for the varied inspirational utterances are too numerous, too striking in character, and fit into each other too well. Despite this, they need not be regarded as any incontrovertible proof of spiritism. The hackneyed contention that the various mediums concerned have come to an understanding with regard to a common deception cannot, of course, be maintained. There is no cause for suspicion here. The possibility, however, is not to be denied that there may be an unconscious telepathic understanding of that kind. We have gradually collected so many proofs of the highly developed intelligence of the subconscious mediumistic psychic life that such a hypothesis cannot be excluded. We know of automatic riddles and of anagrams of such artistic conception that we cannot reject such possibilities. A certain Mr. A., for instance, while experimenting with automatic writing, at his third attempt to obtain a reply from the supposed spirit to his question: "What is Man?" received the automatic answer, "Tefi Hasl Esble Lies," of which the solution is "Life is the less able."
No difficulty is encountered in interpreting the cases in which the cross-correspondence confines itself to connexions between automatic script in the way in which a certain word is repeated or referred to. Such similarities must be explained as due to the mediums writing being possessed of telepathic or clairvoyant faculties. It is another matter when one fragment only makes sense when joined to another, each scrap consisting of one sentence. Then it is necessary, unless the connexion between the two scripts is to be regarded in the light of mere coincidence resulting from a purely hypothetical completion, of one fragment by another, that a mutual understanding or convention should be assumed to exist between the two mediums to settle which words of the sentence should be written by either. If, however, telepathic possibilities of communication actually exists between them, it is equally admissible to contend that all these various mediums are alike imbued with their desire to add to the proofs in favour of spiritism.
A conscious suggestive influence of one trance personality on other individuals would represent a positive novum. A priori there is no reason why a person in a somnambulistic state or in a similar condition should not be subjected to suggestion from others, and also subject others thereto. Experimentally, we only know at the present time of suggestion "à distance", (based on the tests of Richet, P. Janet, and others), in the form of suggestions by a conscious individual.
It would be extremely interesting (if it were possible) to persuade the trance personalities themselves to make suggestions either to conscious or to other hypnotized persons. Suggestion on suggestion might also be contrived, by influencing a person under hypnosis, so that he should distribute his own suggestions even at a distance.
Cross-correspondences are from the point of view of logical proof at a disadvantage when compared with other parapsychic phenomena, in so far as we are, in their case, mainly obliged to rely on the veracity of the mediums themselves. Many among them, notably those to whom the most important experiments are due, as also the authors of the reports published in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," have themselves supplied the material in full cognisance of the stage reached in the problem at issue. The assumption that the writers must be regarded as common frauds is in contradiction to what is known of their character on the whole; besides which, in Mrs. Piper's case, the phenomena of cross-correspondence were carried out under a system of strict control.
Further examples of the work of the cross correspondences
One of the most famous, which occurred right at the beginning of the cross-correspondence, is as follows:
Mrs. Verrall, lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge, writes:
"On January 31, 1902, I had been lunching with Mr. Piddington in town, and after the arrival of Sir Oliver Lodge from Birmingham was about to walk with them to the SPR Council Meeting at 3 p.m., when I felt suddenly so strong a desire to write that I came down and made an excuse for not accompanying the gentlemen, saying I would drive later. As soon as they had started I wrote automatically in the dining-room the following words:
"Panopticon σφαιράς άτιτάλλει συνδέγμα μύστικον τί ούκ έδιδως; volatile ferrum - pro telo impinget."
A few more words were added, when I was interrupted by Mr. Piddington, who had returned, in order to drive with me to the meeting. All the rest of the day I felt a wish to write, and finally, in the train on the way home to Cambridge, more script was produced. That script contained no verifiable statement but was signed with two crosses, one of them being the Greek cross, definitely stated elsewhere in the script to be the sign of Rector (one of Mrs. Piper's trance personalities).
So far for what happened in England. In Boston, as I subsequently learned, the following took place. At Mrs. Piper's sitting on January 28, 1902, after the reference to my daughter's supposed vision, Dr. Hodgson suggested that the same "control" should try to impress my daughter in the course of the next week with a scene or object. The control assented. Dr. Hodgson said: "Can you try and make Helen see you holding a spear in your hand?" The control asked: "Why a sphere?" Dr. Hodgson repeated "spear," and the control accepted the suggestion, and said the experiment should be tried for a week. On February 4, 1902, at the next sitting, and therefore at the very first opportunity, the control claimed to have been successful in making himself visible to Helen Verrall with a "sphear" (so spelt in the trance writing)."
This example is also an instance of the curious and baffling confusion which prevails in much of the automatic writing which contains cross-correspondences. Instead of an (actively conditioned telepathic?) vision which we might have expected after the séance with Mrs., Piper, we get at Mrs. Verrall's end (as was so often the case with her) script mixed up with broken bits of Latin and Greek (she was a classical scholar), or, as in the present case, so far as it is published, script consisting of nothing but bits of Latin and Greek, in which very clear allusions, obvious at once, strike us to the séance in Boston (σφαιρα = sphere; volatile ferrum, telum = spear).
A second example. On March 11, 1907, at about eleven o'clock, Mrs. Piper, who was in her normal waking consciousness, said "Violets. Dr. Hodgson (said) violets." In accordance with previous experience marked utterances of this kind might be expected to have reference to a cross-correspondence. In fact, on the same day about the same time Mrs. Verrall wrote automatically:
"With violet buds their heads were crowned.
"Violaceae odores.
"Violet and olive leaf purple and hoary.
"The city of the violet―"
It is hardly necessary to emphasize here the marked way in which the word violet is stressed. The whole script seems really to be simply built up round this word. (This example is taken from A. Hude's "The Evidence, etc.," p. 283).
To conclude with an example in which several days elapsed between the cross-correspondence.
On April 8 the Myers' personality speaking through Mrs. Piper, said to Mrs. Sidgwick: "Do you remember Euripides?" "Do you remember Spirit and Angel? I gave both. Nearly all the words I have written to-day refer to messages I am trying to give through Mrs. V―.", Mrs. Verrall had already on March 7 done a long piece of automatic writing in which the word "Hercules Furens," and "Euripides" are found.
And on March 25 she had written: "The Hercules play comes in there, and the clue is in the Euripides play if you could see it." Also she wrote on the same day a separate piece of script in which the word "shadow" occurred several times: "Let Piddington know when you get a message about shadow. The shadow of a shade. That is better umbrarum umbras σκιάς έίδωλον was what I wanted to get written." The word "spirit," however, was not used. On April 3 an effort was clearly made to reach a satisfactory conclusion, although the word "Angel" could not be reached. "Flaming swords - wings or feathered wings come in somewhere - Try pinions of desire. The wings of Icarus - Lost Paradise regained - his flame - clad messengers (she draws an angel with wings) that is better F W H M has sent the message through at last."
The cross-correspondence, moreover, was extended to include Mrs. Holland. On April 16 she wrote automatically a passage in which were found these words: "Lucus Margaret To fly to find Euripides Philemon." The names Lucus and Philemon seem to be derived from Browning's translations of Euripides' Hercules Furens. (A. Hude, p. 285).
Many other cross-correspondences, some of them extremely striking ones, cannot be quoted here because of their complexity and of the space which they require for interpretation and comment. The peculiarity of the cross-correspondences from English sources is that they are mostly of an especially contorted kind. Some French cross-correspondence to which I am unable to refer, are (as I am told) much easier to see through. (G. Geley, "Contribution à l'etude des Correspondances Croisées." Documents nouveaux, Paris, 1914).
4. 1. The case of Al Sullivan: Al was a 55 year old truck driver who was undergoing triple by-pass surgery when he had a powerful NDE that included an encounter with his deceased mother and brother-in-law, who told Al to go back to his to tell one of his neighbors that their son with lymphoma will be OK. Furthermore, during the NDE, Al accurately noticed that the surgeon operating on him was flapping his arms in an unusual fashion, with his hands in his armpits. When he came back to his body after the surgery was over, the surgeon was startled that Al could describe his own arm flapping, which was his idiosyncratic method of keeping his hands sterile.
2. The case of the Chinese woman: The author Maggie Callanan in her 1993 book, Final Gifts, wrote about an elderly Chinese woman who had an NDE in which she saw her deceased husband and her sister. She was puzzled since her sister wasn't dead, or so she thought. In actuality, her family had hid her sister's recent death from her for fear of upsetting her already fragile health.
3. The case of Pam Reynolds:This is reported by Michael Sabom in his book Light and Death. Pam Reynolds underwent a very risky operation to remove an aneurysm from her brain, in which her brain was drained totally of its blood so that the doctors could clip off the swollen blood vessel. During this procedure, Pam had a deep NDE in which she saw all of the details of the operation and later reported on it with complete accuracy, even though she was "dead" by usual criteria (no heartbeat or respiration, and a flat EEG) for much of it. [ Some of her experience happened before her brain stopped however it's likely that it continued throughout the entire operation]
4. Cases of the blind who can see: As recorded by Kenneth Ring in his book, Mind Sight, there is solid evidence for 31 cases in which blind people report visually accurate information obtained during an NDE.
Also many studies have been done on Near Death Experiences you can find these studies here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/986177.stm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence02.html
http://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/dutch_study.html
http://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/u_k__study.html
http://www.iands.org/research/important_studies/penny_sartori_phd_prospective_study.html
5. The Newspapers Tests rank of to almost the very top of the evidence that has been collected for survival of bodily death
Sir William's comments had to do with the book and newspaper experiments conducted by himself and more extensively by the Rev. Charles Drayton Thomas, a Wesleyan minister. Unlike most members of the clergy, Thomas did not see communication with the "dead" through mediums as a threat to his Christian beliefs. In fact, he saw it as supporting the basic tenet of Christianity - we do live on after death. .
Like Barrett, Thomas was a member of the British Society for Psychical Research (SPR). His experiments, along with those of Barrett, were conducted with Gladys Osborne Leonard, the renowned British medium. "The primary purpose of these efforts was said [by my father] to be a demonstration that spirit people were able to do that for which telepathy from human minds could not account, a demonstration calculated to clarify the evidence already existing for the authorship of their communication," Thomas wrote in 1922.
Thomas said that it was his father, the Rev. John Thomas, also a Wesleyan minister, who, posthumously, gave him the idea of the book and newspaper tests. It was during a sitting with Mrs. Leonard early in 1917, that the father and son on different sides of the veil began collaborating in the experiments.
The senior Thomas, who died in 1903, told his son that the tests had been devised by others in a more advanced sphere than his and the idea passed on to him. At the time, Drayton Thomas (he went by his middle name) had had over 100 sittings with Mrs. Leonard, although later in his career that number exceeded 500. He mentions that the tests were secondary to other business which he and his father discussed and that his father continually gave other evidence of his own identity.
Drayton Thomas would arrange a notebook on a table with a lighted lamp. Leonard would take a seat several feet from him and after two or three minutes of silence she would go into a trance. Suddenly, in a clear and distinct voice, Feda, Leonard's spirit control, would take over Leonard's body and begin using her speech mechanism while relaying messages from the senior Thomas and others in the spirit world. There was no similarity between Leonard's voice and that of Feda, who spoke like a young girl. Moreover, Feda spoke with an accent and had frequent lapses of grammar.
Occasionally, just after Leonard went into the trance state, Thomas would hear whispering of which he could catch fragments, such as, "Yes, Mr. John, Feda will tell him...Yes, all right..." Feda often referred to herself in the third person, e.g., "Feda says she is having trouble understanding Mr. John."
The idea behind the book tests was to communicate information gleaned by the father from a book in the son's extensive library. For example, in one of the earliest experiments, the father told the son to go to the lowest shelf and take the sixth book from the left. On page 149, three-quarters down, he would find a word conveying the meaning of falling back or stumbling. When the younger Thomas arrived home that evening after his sitting with Mrs. Leonard, he went to the book and place on the page, where he found the words, "...to whom a crucified Messiah was an insuperable stumbling-block."
The father explained to the son, through Feda, that he was able to get the "appropriate spirit of the passage" much easier than he could the actual words. However, over a period of 18 months experimentation, he found himself able to pick up more and more words and numbers, gradually shifting from "sensing" to "clairvoyance." It was made abundantly clear by the father that he was experimenting on his side as much as his son was on the material side.
It was certain that Mrs. Leonard had never visited Thomas' house and knew nothing of the library of books in it. Realizing, however, that his subconscious might somehow have recorded such detailed information in the book when he read it years before as well as the exact location of the book in his library, Thomas decided to experiment with books in a friend's house. He informed his father of the plan so that the father knew where to search. In one of the tests there, Feda told Thomas that on page 2 of the second book from the right on a particular shelf, he would find a reference to sea or ocean. She added that the discarnate Thomas was not sure which, because he got the idea and not the words. When Drayton Thomas pulled the book from the shelf of his friend's house, he read, "A first-rate seaman, grown old between sky and ocean."
In another experiment, Drayton Thomas was told to look at page 9 where he would find a reference to changing of colors. Upon opening this book, Thomas found, "Along the northern horizon the sky suddenly changes from light blue to a dark lead colour." In still another test at his home, Feda told Drayton Thomas to go to a book at a certain point on a shelf and he would find words looking like "A-sh-ill-ee" on the cover. Feda explained that she was giving the sound but not the correct spelling. When Thomas arrived home, he went to the exact spot indicated by Feda and found a book authored by Mrs. Ashley Carus-Wilson.
Over a period of about two years, the father and son researchers carried out 348 tests. Of those, 242 were deemed good, 46 indefinite, and 60 failures. The discarnate Thomas explained the failures as his inability to get the idea through the mind of the medium or the medium's mind somehow distorting the message.
After conducting a number of book tests, the senior Thomas suggested a different kind of experiment - what came to call the "newspaper tests." These newspaper tests, which also involved Mrs. Leonard, began in 1919, some two years after the book tests. In the newspaper tests, the discarnate Thomas would provide information to be found in newspapers and magazines not yet printed. Thus, he would exercise a sort of precognition and clairvoyance. This would seemingly rule out what was being called Super ESP, the ability of the medium to go beyond reading the mind of the sitter and tap into the mind of anyone having a particular knowledge of a subject.
In a test on January 16, 1920, the junior Thomas was told to examine the Daily Telegraph for the following day and to notice that near the top of the second column of the first page the name of the place he was born. Thomas was born in Victoria Terrace on Victoria Street in Tuanton. When Thomas checked the paper the following day, he found the word "Victoria" exactly where his father said it would be.
In a test on February 13, 1920, Thomas was told to go to the London Times of the following day and near the top of column two of the first page he would find the name of a minister with whom he (the father) had been friendly when living in Leek. Lower in the column, he would find his (Drayton's) name, his mother's name, and an aunt's name, all within a space of two inches. When the paper appeared the morning after the sitting, Thomas saw no familiar names relative to the minister friend. He then consulted with his mother who immediately called his attention to the name "Perks," informing her son that the Rev. George T. Perks was a friend of his father's and had visited him while they were living in Leek. Looking lower in the column, Thomas found his name, a slight variation of his mother's name, and an aunt's name, all within a space of 1 ¼ by 1 ½ inches.
In the same test, Thomas was told that two-thirds of the way down column one, he would find a word suggesting ammunition, and between that and the name of a former teacher of his he would find a French place name, looking like three words hyphenated into one. While Thomas found the name of a former teacher, "Watts," it was in the column next to the one indicated by his father. As for the ammunition reference, the word "canon" appeared twice, apparently taken by the discarnate Thomas as "cannon." The Belgian town of Braine-le-Château was also found in the column indicated.
Drayton Thomas checked with the London Times and concluded that the page from which his father took the information had not yet been typeset at the time the information was given to him through Leonard and Feda.
Many other newspaper tests were carried out by Drayton Thomas. In each case, he would immediately write down the information and file it in a sealed envelope with the Society for Psychical Research at a time before the type was set at the newspaper office. Further, Thomas would check papers from at least 10 other days, being sure that the same names did not appear in those editions, thereby ruling out coincidence. Some of the tests were inconclusive and a few were failures, but there were many more positive results.
When Thomas asked his father how he was able to obtain information from newspapers not yet typeset, the father replied that he didn't quite understand it himself. He referred to it as some kind of "etheric foreshadowing." He likened it to seeing the shadow of a man around the corner before actually seeing the man. "Now the things I see are frequently but the spiritual counterparts of things which are about to take form; some of my tests from the Times might be called shadows of a substance," the discarnate Thomas explained. "When you see a shadow it is but an outline, and you do not look for detail, and that explains the difficulty of these tests; we cannot always sufficiently observe detail." He further explained that as he had moved from sensing to seeing, he could not always see the word clearly, as in one case he gave the word "rain" for what proved to be "raisin."
6. Triple Blinded Studies done on mediums by Professor Gary Schwartz
http://veritas.arizona.edu/
also you will find many other experiments also done
7. Psi Evidence
go here and read up on these studies all supporting the evidence for psi which shows that mind is more than the brain
http://amnap.blogspot.com/search/label/scientific%20studies
That is just some of the evidence that supports the survival hypothesis
Such as Electronic Voice Phenomena
8.
Scientific effort (EVP)
EVP is the short word for Electronic Voice Phenomenon. EVP voices cannot be heard when a recording device such as tape-recorder is recording, but it can be heard when the tape is played back. The simplest form of the experiment is to adjust radio frequency between two stations where no signal can be detected. This setting produces white noise which includes wide range of frequency. Record this noise for one or two minutes after you ask some question. Repeat recording in this style. When you listen the recorded result after the experiment, you might hear something in the part when you were silent, and you sometimes notice the voices give you an answer for your question.
Well, is there such phenomenon? So many people have researched EVP since it has long history (about 40 years). The most famous person who cooperated with scientific research would be Konstantine Raudive.
He contacted Jürgenson after reading his two books, and asked him to demonstrate some of his tapes to a small private audience. Jürgenson is one who tried to spread the study of this phenomenon worldwide for the first time. Since the demonstration was successful, Raudive started some research with Jürgenson on his estate in order to gain some personal experience. Soon Raudive started his own experiments in 1965. His classic research Unhoerbares Wird Hoerbar (The Inaudible Becomes Audible) was published based on 72,000 voices he recorded. Several things happened when it was translated into English.
On 16th November 1969, Peter Bander, who tried to introduce the English translation of this German book, was assailed by the gravest doubts. At that time, publisher Colin Smythe told him that he experimented on a tape recorder following the procedures outlined in Konstantine Raudive's book, and mentioned that at one particular point a certain rhythm was clearly audible and also a voice but he could not make sense of it. When Bander played it back, he heard nothing. Then he rewound it and let it play. After about ten minutes he got the following ridiculous conclusion:
"I noticed the peculiar rhythm mentioned by Raudive and his colleagues .., I heard a voice .... I believed this to have been the voice of my mother who had died three years earlier."
Isn't it merely subjective impression? Anyway, Bander and Smythe were working to publish the English version, "Breakthrough" without any doubt after this incident. However, unexpected interference came from the English vice prime minister in those days. He told them that he would ruin their company if they insist to publish such junk, evil book. Then, Bander and Smythe proposed to have a controlled experiment with Raudive, so that they can assert their rights to publish the book.
In 1971, Pye Records Ltd. invited Raudive to their sound lab and installed special equipment to block out any radio and television signals which they could detect at that time. They would not allow Raudive to touch any of the equipment. Raudive used one tape recorder which was monitored by a control tape recorder. All he could do was speak into a microphone. They taped Raudive's voice for eighteen minutes and none of the experimenters heard any other sounds. But when the scientists played back the tape, to their amazement, they heard over two hundred voices on it. Observers accepted the validity of EVP since some voices addressed Raudive as his nickname, "Kosti" or "Koste," and Raudive's deceased sister said her name three times "Tekle."
Consequently, English edition of the book "Break through" was published. In the next year, more controlled experiment was took place. The English company Belling and Lee, Ltd., used by the British government to test its most sophisticated defense equipment, decided to conduct some experiments with Raudive at their Radio-Frequency-Screened Laboratory. The supervising engineer, Peter Hale, was a physicist and electronics engineer. He was considered the leading expert on electronic-suppression in Great Britain, and one of the five leading sound engineers in the West. The recording hardware which was designed for this test was provided, and the blank tape which had just been shipped from the factory was used. But the voices still appeared.
A.P, Hale stated:
In view of the tests carried out in a screened laboratory at my firm, I can not explain what happened in normal physical terms.
9. The Proxy Sittings
There was a argument in the early days of Psychical Research that mediums were using telepathy from unconscious minds who were at the sittings.
The Reverend Charles Drayton Thomas, a Methodist minister who became a psychic researcher, spent many years as a proxy sitter investigating the mediumship of Mrs Leonard and recording his results for the Society for Psychical Research. He would go to a sitting knowing only the name of the deceased and the name of the person who desired communication.
In one instance in 1936-37 Thomas went to four sittings on behalf of Emma Lewis, a person he did not know. Through the medium, Mrs Leonord, he was able to gain seventy pieces of information which Emma later felt confirmed beyond all doubt that it was her father, Frederick William Macaulay, who was communicating.
The only possible objection a skeptic can make in relation to proxy sittings is fraud. There is no other possible or probable explanation for the information coming through the medium about someone who has passed on and who had no connection whatsoever with any of the sitters who were with the medium at the time.
But so far in the last fifty years or so, no one has been able to even suggest fraud in the proxy sittings conducted by the Reverend Drayton Thomas. Again, psychic researchers are impressed by the conspicuous absence of criticism of these particular proxy sittings.
For Example Professor Dodds says this about the possibilty fo fraud in the proxy sittings:
The hypothesis of fraud, rational inference from disclosed facts, telepathy from the actual sitter, and co-incidence cannot either singly or in combination account for the results obtained ( Dodds 1962).
10. Instrumental Transcommunication Experiments
During 1994 ITC experimenters in Luxembourg, Germany, Brazil, Sweden, China and Japan received paranormal telephone calls from Dr Konstantin Raudive who died in 1976 (Kubris and Macy 1995: 14). These calls were tape recorded and analyzed by voice experts.
The calls have continued since then and one two-way taped conversation in 1996 between Dr Konstantin Raudive and Mark Macy lasted for 13 minutes (Continuing Life Research video— ITC Today 1997).
According to Mark Macy’s World ITC website scientists working for the International Network for Instrumental Transcommunication (INIT) received from the Afterlife:
*
pictures of people and places in the afterlife on television that either appeared clearly on the screen and remained for at least several frames, or which built up steadily into a reasonably clear picture over multiple frames
*
text and/or picture files from people in the afterlife which appeared in computer memory or were planted on disk or similar recordable media
*
text and/or images of people and places in the Afterlife through FAX.
Such contacts, which were received by European experimenters over a 10-year period and were enjoyed by other researchers from 1995 are giving modern researchers a view of unprecedented clarity into life after death.
The evidence collected by this now extensive group of reliable witnesses — including reputable scientists, physicists, engineers, electronic technicians, doctors, professors, administrators, clergymen, successful businessmen — is undeniably convincing to those who systematically investigate the EVP and ITC. The consistency of the evidence from different parts of the world is overwhelming.
One of the leading researchers in this field today is Sonia Rinaldi who leads the biggest ITC Association in Brazil, with nearly 700 members. She recently announced new contacts received via computer, answering machine, telephone and video camera. At public meetings in Brazil and in the United States large numbers of members and visitors were able to receive direct answers from loved ones in the spirit world.
Up to date information on her research can be read in English on her website ANT Associacao Nacional de Transcomunicadores in English. All her work is based on scientific control and her site contains scientific declarations issued by the most respected University in Brazil, USP - Universidade de São Paulo.
Recently the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization founded by Astronaut Ed Mitchell to bridge the gap between science and religion, announced that it will be working with Sonia in a project to examine the claims of ITC.
Mitchell decided to form the group after a spiritual experience while walking on the moon 25 years ago. Today the Institute of Neotic Sciences, based in California, is headed by Winston Franklin as President, and is composed of approximately 50,000 persons around the world, including some of the world's top scientists. IONS designs and funds various cutting-edge scientific research projects.
11. The Mrs. Holland Scripts
MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPTS
Some of the most remarkable automatic scripts, - which have been discussed with critical acumen by the Research Officer of the S.P.R., - came to a lady of education and social position resident in India. This lady was not a spiritualist, and at the time had no acquaintance with the members of the Society for Psychical Research. As her family disliked the whole subject she prefers to be known under the pseudonym of "Mrs. Holland." Subsequently, on her return to England, she became personally known to and esteemed by many of the leaders and officials of the S.P.R. Her attention having been once casually drawn to the subject of automatic writing she tried the experiment and to her surprise found her hand, wrote both verse and prose without any volition on her part; the first messages were headed by the impromptu lines:
Believe in what thou canst not see,
Until the vision come to thee.
Mrs. Holland says she remains fully conscious during the writing, "but my hand moves so rapidly that I seldom know what I am writing." Her interest in the subject increased and she obtained and read Mr. Myers' monumental work Human Personality, which was published after Mr. Myers' death. Though she did not know the author, it was natural that much of her automatic script purported to be inspired by him. A careful study of the messages so inspired has compelled the belief that the spirit of Mr. Myers really did control some of these messages. Here for instance is a very characteristic communication purporting to come from Mr. Myers:
"To believe that the mere act of death enables a spirit to understand the whole mystery of death is as absurd as to imagine that the act of birth enables an infant to understand the whole mystery of life. I am still groping-surmising-conjecturing The experience is different for each one of us. . . One was here lately who could not believe he was dead; he accepted the new conditions as a certain stage in the treatment of his illness."
Then follows, not quite verbally correct, the first two lines of Mr. Myers' poem St. Paul - a poem which Mrs. Holland declares she had never read and of which she knew nothing whatever. Of course it is possible that she had somewhere seen these lines quoted, though she has no recollection of this. The automatic script is as follows:
"Yea, I am Christ's - and let the name suffice ye - E'en as for me He greatly bath sufficed.(1) If it were possible for the soul to die back into earth life again I should die from sheer yearning to reach you - to tell you all that we imagined is not half wonderful enough for the truth - that immortality, instead of being a beautiful dream, is the one, the only reality, the strong golden thread on which all the illusions of all the lives are strung. If I could only reach you - if I could only tell you - I long for power, and all that comes to me is an infinite yearning - an infinite pain. Does any of this reach you, reach anyone, or am I only wailing as the wind wails - wordless and unheeded?" - Proceedings S.P.R., Vol. XXI, P. 233.
12. Powerful Medium Mrs. Piper
Mrs Leonore Piper wasn't exactly the picture of a spiritualist wonder-worker. She was a middle-class and married Bostonian who had lived an eminently normal life. Her introduction to the spiritualist movement came only after she suffered some medical problems as a result of an accident. Her father-in-law suggested that she see a prominent blind clairvoyant in Boston to hear what he would have to say about possible treatment. It was during her first consultation that something strange occurred. Mrs Piper later explained that as she sat listening to the psychic, 'his face seemed to become smaller and smaller, receding as it were into the distance, until gradually I lost consciousness of my surroundings'. She had apparently entered into a spontaneous trance, which surprised her since she had previously entertained no interest in spiritualism.[4] She started attending some of Dr Cocke's regular séances anyway, and soon discovered that she, too, had trance ability. It wasn't long before she was the talk of the spiritualist community, since during her trances her clients seemed capable of making contact with their deceased friends and relatives.
[4] Piper, Alta. The Life and Work of Mrs Piper. London: Kegan Paul, 1929.
Mrs Piper was only 25 years old at the time and her burgeoning mediumship probably wouldn't have come to scientific attention at all were it not for a fortunate development. William James's mother-in-law heard about her, visited the young psychic, and was so impressed by her performance that she guided James's attention to her. James and his wife sat with Mrs Piper shortly thereafter and were astounded by the accurate messages they received.
James attended several sittings with Mrs Piper from 1885 to 1886, and several of the incidents he witnessed especially impressed him. During one sitting for example, the psychologist and his brother were told that their aunt (who was living in New York) had just died that very morning at 12.30. James knew nothing of the matter but as he later wrote, 'On reaching home an hour later I found a telegram as follows - Aunt Kate passed away a few minutes after midnight'.
Mrs Leonore Piper was the 'one white crow' who proved spirit communication to William James satisfaction. (Mary Evans Picture Library)
The SPR was naturally impressed by stories such as these, so in 1887 they decided to take action. They sent one of their most critical investigators to Boston to look into the case and report back to them.
Richard Hodgson was a keen and rigidly sceptical investigator but he was also passionately devoted to psychical research. He set sail for Boston and ended up spending the next eighteen years of his life studying Mrs Piper's mediumship.
Richard Hodgson came to the United States in part to take over the reins of the American branch of the SPR, which William James had helped to organize. His first major project was to take complete charge of the Piper case. His plan was to book her sittings himself, study her background, and make sure she wasn't secretly studying her sitters. He even had her trailed by detectives. He also insisted that many of the sitters he booked remain anonymous to her. Despite these formidable controls, the quality of the Piper mediumship remained impressive. She would merely sit down with the client, suffer some minor convulsions and enter a trance, and soon a curious personality who called himself 'Dr Phinuit' would speak through her and act as master-of-ceremonies for the session. Hodgson was never much impressed by Dr Phinuit since the persona's French was practically non-existent and he could never give a very credible account of his terrestrial life. Phinuit actually seemed to be a split-off portion of Mrs Piper's own mind, or so Hodgson argued. But despite his dubious credentials, Dr Phinuit was often brilliant at bringing through veridical messages from the dead.
Hodgson later reported that at his first sitting at Mrs Piper's home, Dr Phinuit successfully described and helped bring through some of his own departed friends. The control especially mentioned an old school friend and called him by his proper name. 'He says you went to school together,' he explained to Hodgson. 'He goes on jumping-frogs and laughs. He says he used to get the better of you. He had convulsions before his death struggles. He went off into a sort of spasm. You were not there.'
All of this rather trivial information was correct, and it alerted Dr Hodgson to the fact that he was being confronted by a case of epoch-making potential.
The communications that followed the appearance of his old friend impressed him even more. Hodgson was from Australia and many years before his move to England he had fallen in love with a young woman. Marriage never entered his life, however, and the woman passed on long before the time of the present sittings. Hodgson was astounded when Phinuit began describing the young woman, and she was able to bring through several deeply personal messages which, more than anything else, convinced Hodgson of the authenticity of the Piper mediumship.
Despite the startling nature of the evidence, Dr Hodgson was not sure that he was actually making contact with the dead. It was true that the messages seemed to be coming from the world of the dead, and he spent months supervising the sittings of other clients whose personal experiences were leading them to the same view. Yet like so many of SPR founders, Hodgson found himself grappling with the same old telepathy versus spirit communication debate that was plaguing the study of apparitions. It was certainly reasonable to assume that Mrs Piper's messages came from the dead; but it was also possible that she was reading the minds of the sitters and gathering up all the pertinent information. He reasoned that this information could then be used to help build up perfect (but bogus) personations of the dead. This line of reasoning was tempting since Mrs Pipers chief control actually seemed to be bogus. It didn't take too much of a leap in faith and logic to assume that all the spirits that regularly came through her also had their psychological roots within her own mind. Hodgson at first actively favoured this view; which he put forth in his first major paper on the case.[5]
[5] Hodgson, Richard. A record of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1892, 8, 1-67.
He was not the only person to receive such evidential messages, since many of the sitters he booked in Boston reported similar success. So in order to test Mrs Piper under even more stringent conditions, Hodgson and his colleagues decided that she should go to England and sit for the SPR leaders in person. They would then be in a position to supervise her closely for themselves. The trip would also allow the researchers to be sure that Mrs Piper was not secretly learning about her sitters' backgrounds, since she had never visited England before, and could not have had access to information about them. The sitters in this case were, of course, the researchers themselves.
Mrs Piper sailed for England in 1889 and was met at the docks by F. W. H. Myers and Oliver Lodge, an influential physicist at the University of Liverpool and one of the SPR's leading lights. They carefully controlled every move she made and even, with her consent, opened her mail to make sure no one as 'feeding' her information. Despite these incumbrances, she gave séances for the SPR both in Liverpool and Cambridge with outstanding success.
It would be impossible to go into great detail about these important sittings. Lodge was perhaps the most impressed with Mrs Piper, partly due to his own experiences with her.[6] The following is a report Lodge filed about a single incident that occurred during one of his first sittings. Remember that this is actually just one episode which occurred during a more lengthy session:
[6] Myers, F. W. H.; Lodge, Oliver; Leaf, W.; James, William. A record of observations of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1890, 6, 436-659.
It happens that an uncle of mine in London, now quite an old man, and one of a surviving three out of a very large family, had a twin brother who died some twenty or more years ago. I interested him generally in the subject, and wrote to ask if he would lend me some relic of his brother. By morning post on a certain day I received a curious old gold watch, which this brother had worn and been fond of, and that same morning, no one in the house having seen it or knowing anything about it, I handed it to Mrs Piper when in a state of trance.
I was told almost immediately that it had belonged to one of my uncles - one that had been very fond of Uncle Robert, the name of the survivor - that the watch was now in possession of this same Uncle Robert, with whom he was anxious to communicate. After some difficulty and many wrong attempts Dr Phinuit caught the name, Jerry, short for Jeremiah, and said emphatically, as if a third person was speaking, 'This is my watch, and Robert is my brother, and I am here. Uncle Jerry, my watch'...
Having thus ostensibly got into communication through some means or other with what purported to be a deceased relative, whom I had indeed known slightly in his later years of blindness, but of whose early life I knew nothing, I pointed out to him that to make Uncle Robert aware of his presence it would be well to recall trivial details of their boyhood, all of which I would faithfully report.
He quite caught the idea, and proceeded during several successive sittings ostensibly to instruct Dr Phinuit to mention a number of little things such as would enable his brother to recognise him ...
'Uncle Jerry' recalled episodes such as swimming the creek when they were boys together; and running some risk of getting drowned; killing a cat in Smiths field; the possession of a small rifle, and of a long peculiar skin, like a snake-skin, which he thought was not in the possession of Uncle Robert.
All these facts have been more or less completely verified.
The only problem with evidence such as this is that Mrs Piper liked to hold the hands of her sitters. It was suggested by some sceptics that somehow the sitter might be communicating information to the psychic by making unconscious and subtle muscular movements. This idea was especially championed by Andrew Lang, an early SPR member and a pioneering anthropologist and folklorist. He engaged Lodge in a prolonged debate over this issue in the SPR's publications. Lang was sceptical of Mrs Piper, but even he finally admitted that the 'snake-skin' reference cited above was just too good to be dismissed.
Several of the Society's leaders were able to work with Mrs Piper during her trip. They filed a joint report on their work with her in which they came to four main conclusions: (1) that there was no reason to suspect Mrs Piper's good faith or honesty (2) that Dr Phinuit was probably a secondary personality of the psychic's own mind, (3) that he often 'faked' his way through some of the sittings, but that (4) on a good day he could bring through voluminous amounts of highly evidential material. The SPR researchers would not, however, commit themselves as to whether these messages emanated from the dead. This was an issue on which they were hopelessly divided. Sir Oliver Lodge preferred this theory to any other about the source of Mrs Piper's communications, but the telepathic hypothesis loomed far and wide and some researchers favoured it.
Even though the SPR could not agree about the source of Mrs Piper's communications, its leaders did not cease studying her formidable abilities. She returned to Boston in 1890 where she once again worked under Hodgson's auspices. Although the reasons were not clear, it now seemed that the quality of her mediumship was improving. Some of her sittings were so impressive that the telepathic hypothesis had to be stretched widely to account for them. This was certainly the opinion of the Revd and Mrs S. W. Sutton, who first attended sittings with Mrs Piper in 1893.[7] Their hope was to establish communication with their little daughter Katherine, who had died only six weeks before. The Suttons were intelligent people and they brought along a note-taker supplied by Dr Hodgson, so today we still have a complete stenographic record of what transpired during their critical sitting of 8 December. This was an occasion on which several departed members of the Sutton family spoke through Mrs Piper, including their daughter. The sitting is so crucial to understanding the psychology of the Piper mediumship that an edited version of the sitting is transcribed below.
[7] Hodgson, Richard. A further record of observations of certain phenomena of trance. Proceedings: Society for Psychical Research, 1898, 284-582.
This séance began as Mrs Piper took hold of the note-taker's hands. Her trance followed in short order and then Mrs Sutton took the psychic's hands in her own. It didn't take the enigmatic Dr Phinuit very long before he was able to bring through her daughter. He almost began the sitting with the words, 'A little child is coming through'. The Suttons could then hear the control coaxing the child to come to him, and he spoke as if he were their daughter. This was typical of the control, who often proxied in this manner. He reached for a medal and a band of buttons that the Suttons had placed on the séance table, and then spoke:
Dr Phinuit
I want this - I want to bite it.
Quick, I want to put them in my mouth ...
Mrs Sutton's Annotations
She used to bite it.
The buttons also. To bite the buttons was forbidden. He exactly imitated her arch manner.
I will get her talk to you in a minute. Who is Frank in the body?... We do not know. My uncle Frank died a few years before. We were much attached. Possibly Phinuit was confused and my uncle was trying to communicate.
A lady is here who passed out of the body with tumour in the bowels ... My friend, Mrs C. died of ovarian tumour.
She has the child ... She is bringing it to me. Who is Dodo? Speak to me quickly. I want you to call Dodo. Tell Dodo I am happy. Cry for me no more [Phinuit puts his hands to his throat.] No more sore throat any more Papa, speak to me. Can not you see me? I am not dead, I am living. I am happy with Grandma. [Phinuit now speaks for himself:] Here are two more. One, two, three here ... one older and one younger than Kakie. That is a boy. The one that came first. The little one calls the lady, Auntie I wish you could see these children. [Addressing Mr Sutton, to whom he turns:] You do a great deal of good in the body [To Mrs Sutton:] He is a dear man. Was this little ones tongue very dry? She keeps showing me her tongue. Her name is Katherine. She calls herself Kakie. She passed out last. Tell Dodo Kakie is in spiritual body. Where is horsey? Big horsey, not this little one. Dear Papa, take me wide [to ride]. [Speaking for Katherine:] Do you see Kakie? The pretty white flowers you put on me I have here. I took their little souls out and keep them with me. Papa, want to wide horsey. Every day I go to see horsey. I like that horsey. I go to wide I am with you every day ...
The name for her brother George.
She had pain and distress of the throat and tongue.
My mother had been dead many years.
Correct.
Both were boys.
Not her aunt.
Her tongue was paralysed, and she suffered much with it to the end.
Correct
I gave her a little horse. Probably refers to a toy cart and horse she used to like.
Phinuit describes lilies of the valley, which were the flowers we placed on her casket. She pleaded this all through her illness.
I was so hot, my head was so hot. I asked if she remembered anything after she was brought downstairs.
Correct.
Some further messages were received and Kakie referred to her sister Eleanor by name. Then, to the Sutton's great surprise, the communicator begin singing a song that was sung to her before she died. The little communicator urged her parents to sing along with her, and the couple complied. While they were singing they could hear a soft, childlike voice coming out of the psychic's mouth and intoning the precise words with them. Two stanzas were sung before the sitting could progress. Then the child sang yet another song she had known in life through the entranced medium. It actually seemed as if the child was talking directly through Mrs Piper and was no longer using the control as a proxy. What so impressed the Suttons was that these two songs were the only two the child knew completely. Phinuit seemed to re-insert himself at this point, and the sitting continued:
Dr Phinuit
Where is Dinah? I want Dinah.
Mrs Sutton's Annotations
Dinah was an old black rag-doll, not with us.
I want Bagie.
I want Bagie to bring me my Dinah. I want to go to Bagie. I want Bagie. I see Bagie an the time. Tell Dodo when you see him that I love him. Dear Dodo. He used to march with me. He put me way up. Her name for her sister Margaret.
Correct.
Dodo did sing to me. That was a horrid body. I have a pretty body now. Tell Grandma I love her. I want her to know I live. Grandma does know it, Marmie - Great grandma, Marmie.
We called her Great Grandmother Marmie, but she always called her Grammie. Both Grandmother and Great Grandmother were then living.
With evidence such as this pouring in, Dr Hodgson found himself doubting the idea that telepathy could explain Mrs Piper's utterances. Even the somewhat questionable but crudely lovable Dr Phinuit began proving himself a bit. But it wasn't until one of Hodgson's own friends died and began communicating through Mrs Piper that he finally changed his entire verdict about the Piper mediumship. This new development came in 1892 during a crucial stage in the mediumship.
Before 1892 the Piper mediumship was characterized by two features. She always delivered her messages by trance speech and her transition to the trance state was accompanied by fits and spasms. This was the stage of the mediumship dominated by Dr Phinuit's ever-present personality, much to the chagrin of those researchers who considered him nothing but a sub-personality of the medium's. But in 1892 Mrs Piper began developing (under Hodgson's guidance) automatic writing which soon superseded the trance speech. The transition to the trance state also became gentler and more facile during this period. The real change in the trance state came, however; with the appearance of a new trance-personality who replaced Dr Phinuit as the psychic's primary control. George Pellew (whom Hodgson called 'George Pelham' throughout his writings on the case) was a young and philosophically minded friend of the researcher's. He had sat with Mrs Piper himself once before his death and long remained intrigued with the problems of trance mediumship. His death came in 1892 as a result of an accident, and it wasn't long before he started communicating through Mrs Piper. He soon took control of the Piper trance state altogether.
The appearance of the Pelham control also heralded a new dimension in the quality of the mediumship. It became more focused and consistently evidential. Hodgson also used the Pelham persona to test the possible spiritistic basis of the entire mediumship. During the next several months, he introduced 150 sitters to the séances, of whom 30 had known Pelham during his life. The Pelham control was able to accurately recognize 29 of them. His only lapse came when he failed to recognize a young woman he had only known as a child. Most of the sitters were able to talk and reminisce with the Pelham personality as though he were right there in the flesh, and the quality of his many trance conversations was certainly equal to that of the Sutton sittings. Hodgson was so impressed by this new personality that he issued another report on Mrs Piper in 1898 in which he outlined his reasons for converting to the spiritistic theory.[8]
The subsequent history of the Piper mediumship is no less imposing or dramatic. She underwent several more changes in control, and when Dr Hodgson died suddenly in 1905, he subsequently communicated through her Mrs Piper's mediumship began to deteriorate in 1911 and she lost her trance state altogether, though the automatic writing continued for several more years. She held sittings well into the 1920s and died in 1950.
The Scole Experiments
http://www.thescoleexperiment.com/artcl_00.htm
The evidence for identity in the discarnate
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/barrett/identity.htm
Medium DD Homes
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/doyle/home.htm
DeathBed Visions
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter20.html
Reincarnation
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter24.html
Direct Voice Mediums
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter15.html
Poltergeists
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter23.html
Xenoglossy
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter22.html
Drop In communicators
One spectacular case of positive communication was that of Pearl Curran who tried a Ouija board with her neighbor on July 12th 1912. After a year of experimenting she began to receive messages from Patience Worth, who claimed to be a spirit entity born in 1649 near Dorsetshire in England.
Between 1912 and 1919 she dictated through the board five million words—epigrams, poems, allegories short stories and full-length novels. Her collected works fill twenty-nine bound volumes, 4375 single-spaced pages. There were five full-length novels, the most successful being The Sorry Tale a 300,000 word story of the earthly life of Jesus which was reviewed as follows in the The New York Times, July 8, 1917:
This long and intricate tale of Jewish and Roman life during the time of Christ is constructed with the precision and accuracy of a master hand. It is a wonderful, a beautiful and noble book.
Patience Worth also wrote over 2,500 poems. She won a national poetry contest in which forty thousand contestants submitted multiple entries. She was regularly published in America's most prestigious annual poetry anthology.
One of her greatest admirers was the publisher William Reedy who was on the award-selecting committee for the first Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He was a regular visitor to Pearl's house and he said of her poems:
They contain passages of bewitching beauty, of rare high spirits, of pathos. It does not equal Shakespeare or Spencer. It is not so great as Chaucer. But if there be any intelligences communicating poems by Ouija board or otherwise... it is good poetry, better poetry than we find in our magazines as a rule—poetry with a quality of its own (Hunt 1985: 31).
The Seth books
Another famous literary relationship which began with Ouija communication was that between Seth and Jane Roberts and her husband who began using a Ouija Board in 1963. On their fourth try an entity introduced itself as 'Frank Withers' who said that he had most recently lived on earth as an English teacher and had died in 1942. Later he explained that he preferred to be called 'Seth' and that he had a special mission to help people better understand themselves and reality.
Through Jane, Seth has dictated several best-selling books which have dealt with the nature of reality, reincarnation, dreams, astral travel and the nature of God. He has given step-by-step advice to his readers on the development of meditation techniques and ESP. He has diagnosed illnesses, correctly described the contents of building and rooms many miles away and materialized as an apparition in well-lit settings (see Roberts 1974, 1994, 1997a 1997b).
There are many other stories of successful literary and creative relationships that have developed through using the board including that of James Merrill, a Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote The Changing Light at Sandover (1982) working with a Ouija board.
His frightening experiences (visions, bodily transformations, felt powerful presences) as well as his positive and joyous ones are vividly reported in the poem. However after more than thirty years experience with the board Merrill claims that he no longer recommends that friends use it because:
One can never tell in advance how susceptible a given person will be.
Strong evidence for the afterlife
What I personally find staggering about the Ouija board literature is the extent to which it is consistent with the findings of researchers who have worked with top level mediums, with electronic voice phenomena and with the other areas of scientific research mentioned in this book. It is simply impossible to explain the staggeringly different kinds of communication that one receives when entities of different levels are communicating—often in quick succession—purely on the basis of projection of the unconscious of an individual or a group.
As well there have been a number of startling cases of drop-in communicators coming through the board. These are entities which although totally unknown to the sitters give correct and verifiable details of names, address, occupation and sometimes a large number of other details. Dr Alan Gauld investigated 37 of these who had appeared among 240 alleged communicators in a Ouija board circle which met in a Cambridgeshire home between 1937 and 1954 (Gauld 1966-72:273-340).
In his paper for the Society for Psychical Research he explains how he followed up the details of some of these in some cases more than twenty years after the original communication had been made and had been able to verify a significant number of details in at least four cases.
In the case of Gustav Adolf Biedermann Gauld was able to verify the personality of the communicator and the following specific information:
I lived in London.
My house was Charnwood Lodge.
Nationality German.
Correct name Adolf Biedermann.
I was always known and called Gustav
I was a Rationalist
I was turned seventy when I passed away
I had my own business
I am associated with the London University
I passed over a year ago
In these cases, Gauld points out, the sitters did not seek publicity or money and he was convinced that there was no way they would have gone to the trouble of accessing the public documents he obtained from a huge number of sources to fool the other circle members and then leave them for more than twenty years on the off-chance that somebody would happen by to investigate them.
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