THE
EVP & TRANSCOMMUNICATION SOCIETY
Quarterly
Newsletter
No: 16 October 2000
BELIEF
FROM KNOWLEDGE
The
following article by Paul Sieveking, editor of Fortean
Times appeared in the Sunday
Telegraph on September 3rd 2000. It's
food for thought and manna from heaven for the sceptics, although the last
sentence rather qualifies that which precedes it:
THAT'S
NOT A GHOST, IT'S A HUM YOU CAN'T HEAR
“Two
ingenious hypotheses about why we experience ghosts have appeared recently.
While these may
The
second theory comes from Vic Tandy, computer expert, who, about three years ago,
was working late one night in a laboratory with a reputation for being haunted.
He developed a cold sweat and a feeling of depression and of being
watched. Then an indistinct grey figure appeared on the periphery of his vision.
Recently,
Mr. Tandy tested out his hypothesis in a 14th century cellar beneath the Tourist
Information Centre in Coventry where several visitors had had strange
experiences. In 1997, for instance,
a tour guide, Colin Cook, noticed that a Canadian journalist appeared
to be taken ill as he crossed the room. The man was frozen to the spot, the
hairs on his arms stood up and goose pimples formed.
He reported the face of a woman seemed to
Mr.
Tandy and his colleagues tested for infrasound in the cellar by having someone
stamp the ground and then analyzing the resonance.
Prior to the stamping, a background reading was taken; the experimenters
withdrew from the cellar and left the instruments to sample and average any
ambient sounds present for 20 seconds. To
their surprise, there was a most pronounced peak at 19Hz. The corridor leading
to the cellar is 10.95 metres long, which would resonate at about 16.3Hz; but it
is not straight and the researchers suggested that the door opening would reduce
this effective length in the same way that a finger hole in a wind instrument
would behave. This would give an
effective length of about 9.5 metres, which would resonate at 19Hz.
The source of energy to create the standing wave remains a mystery.
My
Note:
To
plagiarize the above account, a heading to illustrate one of my recent
encounters is: -
THAT'S
NOT A GHOST, IT'S A HUM I CAN HEAR
Although
they are not the exact words used by one of the more senior members of the
Society for Psychical Research, when presented with one of my clearest digitally
produced, spectrographically imaged, unambiguous spirit voice conversations
transferred onto magnetic tape, in the hope that the Society would be prepared
to do some psychical research, with all it implies, into this most neglected of
paranormal phenomena - the EVP. What
he actually said was: “I found it
very difficult to clarify the speech due to my advancing years and background
interference". He followed by saying that he would be most interested to
hear from me again if I "find it possible to improve the clarity of the
reception". It took a while to
recover from the inappropriateness of this remark.
My
response, as any normally intelligent person's must be, is: if I was either an
electronics wizard working for a multi-national company in the field of auditory
micro technology (or whatever the terminology is) and/or God's right-hand woman,
I would have "clarified" the reception already and wouldn't need to
consult anyone at the SPR. I would
by now have the glorious satisfaction of having sold my patented 'Spirispeak'
device world-wide thus convincing the mass of the population that there is
indeed an after-life (and that some of them had better pull their socks up if
they don't want to finish up in the hot place), and having made myself a
multi-billionaire.
No
need for the SPR in this scenario! Also,
without being too unkind, someone who excuses their inability to hear subtle
recorded sounds from another dimension by claiming to be ‘advanced in years’
(a euphemism for being deaf) is hardly the most suitable person to judge the
“clarity of the reception” and thus the veracity of the evp, in any event.
GAIT
PROJECT – USA
This
stands for Global Association Instrumental Transcommunication and was conceived
by Sarah Estep founder of the AAEVP in the United States, (now run by Lisa and
Tom Butler, from whom I received the following information):
Dale Palmer, one of the founders of GAIT writes: "I think most of
you know that by early next year we hope to have a Computer Centre built and
operating where anyone in the world, who has a computer and is on the Internet,
can log on and do his or her own communications with persons in other dimensions
of reality. One will hopefully also
be able to store one's own secret code so that after transition one can
communicate and use that code which can then be authenticated at the Computer
Centre.
The
Noetics Institute (not to be confused with the Institute of Noetic Sciences) has
now purchased a new high- speed computer. It
should be able to handle several people over the Internet from any place in the
world all doing communications at the same time.
Only last week we finally, after four months of waiting, have installed a
new state-of-the-art fibre-optic cable to feed the computer.
This new fibre-optic line can reportedly handle half a million images per
day. Our team of electrical engineers is now in the 14th month of their 18-month
assignments.
All
research and development is right on schedule.
You might keep your fingers crossed that when they all give their final
reports in late December and we put them all together, they do work.
It is our hope and our plan that we have software, etc. like no other in
the world. We have electrical
engineers working in several different areas of assigned research.
One is working to create software that will enhance the level of the
voices so that everyone, even the hearing impaired like me, can hear them.
Another is working on software to decompress the voices, i.e. make them
time variant, i.e. space them apart so that anyone can detect the correct
enunciation without playing them over and over.
We
believe we do have the knowledge to make it work.
We believe we also have the expertise to design and build the technology
to do it. However, we do not yet
have the knowledge of why it works. The
answer to why is beyond the boundaries of the current scientific paradigm.
This "why" is what we are now trying to understand, and we
shall, be it God's will. But in
order for us to understand this "why" we will have to experience a
quantum jump in our thinking and understanding.
We must come to realize that this entire physical dimension is only a
very tiny part of all reality. Also,
that our own short visits into this physical dimension are only a very tiny part
of our own personal reality". "
My
Note:
If only we had a similar organization in Britain!
It's so lonely here!
*************
My
Note:
Still on the subject of the learning curve:
I read in The Christian
Parapsychologist, published by the Churches' Fellowship for Psychical and
Spiritual Studies, that you can study parapsychology for 'A' level at more than
one British University. I knew of the Koestler Chair at Edinburgh held by
Professor Bob Morris (not interested in EVP, I've tried him), but there's also
the Perrott-Warwick unit at Hertfordshire (who funded Cambridge student David
Ellis to write a book rubbishing the EVP - he's now a member of the SPR,) and
then there are five other higher educational institutions which offer
parapsychology course as part of a BA, BSc or MA degree programme (usually as
part of a degree in psychology). They
are Coventry, Liverpool Hope, Liverpool John Moore and Northampton.
"Swallows
heralding a parapsychological summer?" Matthew Smith muses in his article
in Christian Parapsychologist, or
maybe, I venture, vultures pecking at a newborn carcass? 'It depends on
whether you think the glass is half full or half empty! I'm in the half-empty
frame of mind at the moment. However, The
Christian Parapsychologist, for those
who may be interested and don't know about it, is well worth reading. It has
been published for twenty-five years and, as The Reverend Angus Haddow writes in
the September 2000 issue: "It is the only magazine of high quality in
Britain which enables Christians to explore this (parapsychology) field and, at
the same time, listen to non-Christian psychical research. "The
Fellowship", to quote from the magazine,
"takes a positive view of psychic sensitivity which many people
experience quite naturally in their lives, perhaps through an unsought
telepathic communication. Some seem
to have a greater awareness of this dimension than others, and in some it is
more refined. There is a gentle call on members to relate this to a fuller
Christian life in which the psychic may find consecration".
There
are two classes of membership: full and associate. Those eligible for full
membership must be practicing members of Churches, which are members of or
affiliated to the World Council of Churches, or must themselves acknowledge
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of the World.
Associate members, who cannot vote or hold office, need no such
qualifications and may be elected if the Council of the Fellowship so
determines.
There
is a library, and study material, cassette and videotapes.
Books and booklets are also available.
A fuller prospectus together with lists of the above are available from:
The General Secretary, The Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual
Studies, South Road, North Somercotes, Nr. Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 7PT.
Tel: 01507 358
*************
HUNTER
SELKIRK
“I
had read and heard about the physical mediumship of Hunter Selkirk, a County
Durham coalminer who became the breadwinner of the family after his father was
killed in a major pit explosion in 1909. He was the man who helped to get the
Spiritualist Church at Craghead a pit village in Co. Durham built, and carried
out many materialization séances there as well as giving
healing.
In
1993 my husband Allan and I went to Craghead Church to talk with three elderly
ladies who had sat in a physical circle with Hunter Selkirk and had too been
given healing. They spoke about the
miraculous effect of his healing on them, and about his mediumship and all three
ladies mentioned his helpers "Topsy" a small black girl, "Zuru"
an African Negro and the French Doctor (who had been instrumental in their
miracle cures). They also reminded me of the book about Hunter, by Harry
Emerson, written in the 1940's entitled Listen
My Son. Friends
of Craghead Church reprinted it in 1984.
In
a chapter entitled 'The Spirit Tutor' there is a discussion between sitters at
one of Hunter Selkirk's circles:
We
had a dozen or more of the children speak to us in this way, but all seemed to
prefer the more intimate way. The
voices were all clear and distinct and much louder than when speaking in the
direct voice. This happened on only
one occasion and no one attempted to explain this more fully, but it does make
one think of the possibilities of the future.
If at some time, this, or a similar method of communication does become
possible, you can always have an answer ready for anyone who says that we
disturb the dead. You can quote
what I have told you and say, ‘The dead started it first’”
My
Note:
Could the "similar instrument in the séance room" referred to by the
spirit child Ivy Rutherford, be the tape recorder or, in my case, the digital
recorder? Certainly, the loudest
spirit voices I have recorded have been in the séance room and all were able to
hear - admittedly with some difficulty, as the quality of sound leaves a lot to
be desired -hence my abortive attempts to get a scientific interest taken in
order to investigate the mechanics of it all. I have asked my spirit
communicants 'how' they do it; how do they know when I switch on my recorder and
have had an answer which indicated there was some sort of switchboard with
lights. And, certainly, people have to be found to 'take the call', as many
times I've heard spirits (other than those I've asked to speak to) saying things
like "He's not here; go and find him; bring him here. I've heard my son's
name called out as though he was in some sort of line-up, and then I've heard my
son say, excitedly, "Is she near?”
The
Hunter Selkirk story emphasizes once again how much time has passed since this
voice phenomenon was first noted and demonstrated yet still proper research into
the EVP is not instituted. This make me at one and the same time more depressed
that all our efforts to make people in Britain who can scientifically
investigate this technological miracle of spirit communication have, so far,
failed and more determined that they are
going to listen soon whether they like it or not.
*************
The
actor Sir Alec Guinness died two months ago, on the 5th August.
At about six in the evening on the 7th August I was half watching, with a
friend, a German programme on satellite television. It was showing a huge
waterspout travelling across the sea somewhere around the coast of Japan.
The commentary was Japanese dubbed into German.
My friend and I were both drinking 'Guinness' (which I very rarely do)
and at the same time, I was reading the newspaper report of Alec Guinness's
death and looking at a photograph of him in his most famous film Bridge
over the River Kwai in which he played a British officer in charge of
soldiers who had been captured by the Japanese in the last war and forced to
build a bridge over the River Kwai in Japan. Many of the men were tortured and
died. The theme music from the film
was a distinctive military march, which was played and whistled by the men
throughout.
Suddenly,
while the waterspout on screen was still travelling across the sea, we both
heard this military march coming from the TV, being whistled exactly as in Alec
Guinness's film. It obviously had nothing to do with what was being shown on
screen and there were only a few bars, then the programme reverted to normal.
I
know Sir Alec Guinness was a psychic. I remember reading something about the
occasion when he was with the late American actor James Dean who had just bought
the car he eventually died in. Sir
Alec apparently went very pale and begged Dean not to use the car, telling him
he would have a fatal crash - which
is exactly what happened. So, was
Sir Alec getting a little message through to us about life after death via the
TV on the 7th August? I like to
think so.
BOOK
REVIEW
THE
CONSCIOUS UNIVERSE: THE SCIENTIFIC TRUTH OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
By
Dean Radin, PhD
Published by Harper Collins 1997; Dean Radin is the director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. The title is very suggestive and the book has been reported by one French parapsychologist as very important. On its sleeve we read "From history's dawn, people of all cultures have found forceful but entirely anecdotal evidence of links between our minds and the material world - from the Evil Eye to ESP, from clairvoyance to poltergeists Dean Radin and a few other pioneering scientists have at last amassed irrefutable data that support the anecdotes and places us on the edge of what may well be the next scientific revolution."
This
myth-shattering book explains the evidence for the veracity of psychic
phenomenon, uniting the teaching of mystics, the theories of quantum physics,
and the latest in high-tech experiments. With
painstaking research and deft, engaging prose, Radin dispels the misinformation
and superstition that have clouded the understanding of scientists and lay
people alike concerning a host of fascinating oddities.
Psychokinesis, remote viewing, prayer, jinxes and more - all are real;
all have been scientifically proven, and the proof is in these pages.
Radin
draws from his own work at Princeton, Stanford Research Institute, and Fortune
500 companies, as well as his research for the US Government, to demonstrate the
surprising extent to which the truth of psi has already been tacitly
acknowledged and exploited. As The
Conscious Universe details, such no-nonsense entities as Sony, Contel and
the US Army have delved into and benefited from psychic forces.
He then examines why the scientific establishments still pooh-poohs psi
for reason that have nothing to do with the weight of new evidence and
everything to do with the institutionalized prejudices of scientists themselves.
The
Conscious Universe
also sifts the data for tantalizing hints on how mind and matter are linked.
Though the link defies the law of classical physics, it may heel closely
to the basic precept of quantum mechanics.
Finally Radin takes a bold look ahead, to the inevitable social,
economic, academic and spiritual consequences of the mass realization that mind
and matter can influence each other without having any physical contact.
Professor
Brian Josephson, a Physics Nobel Laureate, has read the book and writes on the
back cover: "Cutting perceptively through the spurious arguments frequently
made by sceptics (Radin) shows the evidence in favour of (paranormal) existence
is overwhelming".
17.4.2000
On
"I
was a boy's pet rabbit" (Newsletter
No. 15 July 2000). First of
all, assuming it was a paranormal voice, could it not have been ---a boy's pet
rabbit? If animals don't exist in
the spirit world I wouldn't want to go there, and it may be that there they can
communicate in words, telepathically. I
certainly hope so.
My
literary sensibilities were very taken with your neologism 'papparagon' (Newsletter
No. 15 July 2000) and I had a fun half hour trying to work it out.
"You've got them...shoot" (same Newsletter) made me think the
-"gon" (of papparagon) might be "gun", and the closest word
I could find to "pappara-" was "papparazzi", so might it be
a kind of camera (with buttons?) I
get the feeling that this raises more questions than it solves though.
Papparagon
sounds like a word from James Joyce's "'Finnegan's Wake. His inspiration
for this was his schizophrenic daughter Lucia who talked in this way, and
schizophrenics' tendency towards neologism is well known in psychiatric
literature (like faratoto for "father", for example).
Now schizophrenics also hear voices.
I'm not, rest assured, about to label you and all the other researchers
into the EVP schizophrenic: but I wonder whether schizophrenic patients are
hearing voices which are objectively there, but which most of us can't detect.
On
a more technical note, it struck me today how much more affinity the EVP has to
analogue (cassette tape, video tape) than to CDs and DVDs onto which we can't
record. Even my 14 inch Sony
televideo automatically finds the best reception, which means you can't record
on the interfrequency. It looks as
though hi-tech and business considerations might shut out the voices.
It's worrying.
All
the best,
Richard
George,
St.
Albans, Herts.
As
for Richard's appraisal of "papparagon" which was part of a spirit
message on my telephone answering machine: "There's
another button come off this damned papparagon".
I find what he says intriguing, although this particular message was
preceded by the words "fire
engines" and I don't know what that's got to do with otherworldly
cameras. On the other hand, the more I hear from the spirit world, the less I
know - or rather the ideas I had before are being seriously challenged. So,
anything's possible!
********************
24th
July 2000
Dear
Judith
This
happened over fifteen years ago when I was teaching young adults with learning
difficulties. I was sitting on the
kitchen floor surrounded by cards I was matching for the class, together with
two speakers and my record player. The record, the title of which I don't recall
was one of Stewart Burrows' sacred songs "I
know that my Redeemer liveth".
I
was deeply engrossed in my task; the music was non-intrusive background music.
Both speakers were on and I was soon aware that the music from one
speaker had faded altogether, while the sound of Stewart Burrows' voice from the
other had become very faint indeed. Another
voice took over which seemed to be similar to his voice.
I don't remember the actual words but he spoke at length on how to search
for God - not around, but inwards and upwards.
After
delivering the message, the voice of Stewart singing the sacred songs returned
and the music also came back through the other speaker and everything carried on
normally to the end of the record.
A
few days later I was casually glancing through a book by Sai Baba and on the
last page there were the actual words that had been spoken to me - about half a
page or so. I was delighted and
gave the book to my nephew who I thought would be interested, and then bought a
second copy for myself. Not
surprisingly, when one knows Swami, it simply didn't exist in this copy!
I still remember the message though!
May
Broadhurst,
Stockport,
Cheshire.
********************
28th
August 2000
Dear
Judith
I
think you may be interested to know what happened to my granddaughter.
She lives in Los Angeles, USA and about a month ago, just before she came
to England, she lost her purse with credit cards in it. She informed the Bank
the next morning (as she discovered the loss after the Bank had closed) and they
told her that someone had already called to cancel them.
The Bank people told my granddaughter that they'd asked for her mother's
maiden name (private information) and the caller had given them the name
“Hall”.
This
amazed my granddaughter, as no one even knew she'd lost her purse, nor her
mother's maiden name. Who could it
possibly be who'd called the Bank? She
said that she thought that if anyone honest had found her purse, they would have
handed it in and if anyone dishonest had found it they would have attempted to
use the credit cards so they wouldn't cancel them. And no one, but no one, who
could have found her purse would have known her mother's maiden name.
So,
who was it that called the Bank?
M.
Hall
London,
N1
********************
4th
October 2000
Dear
Judith
I
am in complete agreement with you that we need to identify the factors that
facilitate evp (or tdc as it is more usually called now).
The phenomenon itself is now so well established that it cannot be
written off as random radio signals. Material
has been repeatedly produced in direct response to questions put by sitters.
Monty Keen (a member of the Society for Psychical Research) and I have
even been present when results, clear and unequivocal, were produced on a tape
recorder from which the microphone had been removed, and without input of white
noise. He and I, in the course of
our investigations, have also seen material appear on a television screen.
The only alternative explanation for these phenomena is fraud, but not
only have we no reason for doubting the honesty of the people concerned, we were
also able to operate a measure of effective control.
The
late Scott Rogo a leading American investigator, collected many cases where
messages had come through on the telephone.
George Meek actually built a device that allowed clear communication (the
Spiricom) but after a time it unaccountably ceased to produce results.
The Luxembourg group are currently producing material on television
screens, and one of our colleagues, Dr. Hans Schaer, is working with them.
And of course there are the results produced by early pioneers such as
Jurgenson, Raudive, Bonner, Alsop and others.
Thus
there is no doubt that a phenomenon exists that must be taken very seriously.
The question is how to develop it in a form that will be clear,
repeatable, and stand up to the scrutiny of sceptics - who hate the idea that
such things are possible, but who must be convinced if work of this kind is to
receive the support and publicity it deserves.
This is the question we have to answer, and your own dedicated and
thoughtful work is another important step in the right direction and to be very
much welcomed. My hope is that
those who appear to be responsible for the many communications reported by
researchers can help in improving the methods used, and Monty and I, after our
personal experiences of clear communication, hope that this may prove possible
before much longer.
Both
he and I are very anxious to encourage you in your work, and to give any help
that we can. Monty is in London
much more frequently than I am as he lives hearer, and it may be that he is able
to call on you before I can. However,
I would very much like us to meet and certainly want to keep in touch.
With
very best wishes.
Professor
David Fontana (Chair of the SPR)
Cardiff,
Wales.
Judith