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Communicating with the Dead (Original)

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Sandra
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« Reply #90 on: January 08, 2008, 01:38:43 am »

zaphod

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   posted 05-12-2005 11:21 PM                       
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No, Not yet...Still hopeful tho..

Probably drop a load if I ever do!!!!
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« Reply #91 on: January 08, 2008, 01:39:04 am »

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I actually have seen ghosts. My hobby is to investigate the paranormal, I will share my experiences with you sometime...
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« Reply #92 on: January 08, 2008, 01:39:48 am »

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quote:
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What the heck is a psychopomp??

Psychopomp, is a very clunky sounding word. It means "soul conductor" . A psychopomp is a shaman with the ability to search for lost souls, find them and guide them home.

Sometimes when a death occurs, the Soul is caught unprepared. Depending on the person's spiritual or religious beliefs, the Soul may not remember where its spiritual home is.

The Soul of the person that has died, may stay with the physical body, not knowing where else to go, or if the person died in familiar surroundings such as his or her home, may stay there.

This Soul's natural journey back to its spiritual home, is then interrupted. The Soul needs help, it cannot continue the journey on its own. A psychopomp is needed.

When the physical body is near death, I meet with the Soul and show her or him the way to its spiritual home.

At the time of physical death, I watch over and guide the Soul, assuring safe return to its spiritual home.

____________________________________

COMA PATIENTS

____________________________________

Coma patients are those who have had nearly the entire Soul leave the body. There is just enough of the Soul remaining to keep the patient alive, but without consciousness.

The Physical World cannot live without the Spiritual World. The Human body cannot live without the soul. If the Soul leaves the body, death occurs.

Whatever the tramatic event that caused the Soul to flee the body, these Souls are either lost and cannot find their way back to the body, or are still deciding IF they want to return to the body, or go on to their Spiritual home.

Yes, this state can continue for weeks, months and years because time is not linear in the spiritual world. It is possible for a Soul that has been floating outside the body to belive that only a few moments have passed, when in physical reality it has been months or years.

It is possible to find these Souls and determine if they wish to return to the body and wake up. Then, if they wish it, guide them back to the physical body .

copyright Jennifer Sanfilipo, Jaguarheal

Email: Jennifer@jaguarheal.com
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« Reply #93 on: January 08, 2008, 01:40:09 am »

Sandra Taylor

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I hope that Trent, who started this topic, and the rest of you who contributed to it, don't mind if I add some of my own research into this topic. Exploration into the afterlife has been an interest of mine since I was a child, and I'm grateful to find others here also in pursuit of this same goal.
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« Reply #94 on: January 08, 2008, 01:40:31 am »


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The New Paranatural Paradigm

Claims of Communicating with the Dead
The paranatural paradigm deals with other dimensions of reality beyond our own and apart from the supernatural. Philosopher Paul Kurtz examines the paradigm in the context of life after death.

Paul Kurtz
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A new paranatural paradigm seems to be emerging in postmodern culture. There is great public fascination with a paranatural/paranormal conception of the universe, fed in large part by the mass media and encouraged by a number of "fringe sciences," which claim to support this outlook. The cultural backdrop for this is the development of postmodernism in the academy -- the denial that science provides us with objective truth, the belief that it is only one mythic narrative among others, and that a New Age paradigm is emerging that displaces or drastically modifies scientific naturalism.

What do I mean by the term "paranatural"? Science pre-supposes naturalism; that is, it seeks to develop causal explanations of natural phenomena, and it tests its hypotheses and theories by reference to the principles of logic, empirical observation, experimental prediction, and confirmation.

This is in contrast with supernatural explanations, which claim to deal with an order of existence beyond the visible or observable universe, and attributes events to occult causes. Supernaturalism postulates divine powers intervening miraculously in natural causal sequences. Thus it is alleged that the natural and material universe needs to be supplemented by a supernatural reality, which transcends human understanding and can only be approached by mysticism and faith. The domain of faith, it is said, supplements the domain of reason.

There are, however, two classes of events that stand between the natural and supernatural realms and enable us in some sense to deal with the occult. These refer to (1) paranormal and (2) paranatural phenomena. The term "paranormal" was used in the past century by parapsychologists (such as J.B. Rhine and Samuel Soal) to refer to a class of anomalous events that its proponents claimed were inexplicable in terms of normal materialistic sciences. "Para" meant "besides, alongside of, or beyond" naturalistic psychology. Nonetheless, these parapsychologists maintain that it was possible to describe and perhaps interpret these events experimentally, and they did so by referring to a range of psi phenomena, which referred to ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis.

There is another range of events, which I have labeled as "paranatural," that deal with still other dimensions of reality: classical mystical or supernatural claims that allegedly intrude into our universe from without. I am here referring primarily to a theistic order of reality and to phenomena including discarnate souls, intelligent design, and "creation science." Visitations from extraterrestrials beyond this world may be considered to be both paranormal and paranatural. Included under this rubric of "paranatural" are some classical religious phenomena, such as weeping statues, stigmata, exorcism and possession, faith healing, the Shroud of Turin, past-life regressions used as evidence for reincarnation, historical revelations by prophets who carry messages from On High, and other so-called religious miracles. All of these have an empirical component and are not completely transcendental, and hence they are capable of some experimental testing and historical reconstruction of their claims. Although these anomalous events are beyond nature, in one sense, proponents of them seek to offer some kind of empirical evidence to support their hypotheses that there are nonnatural, nonmaterial, or spiritual processes at work in the universe.

I disagree with the claims of the defenders of the para: I do not think that either the paranormal or paranatural exist outside of nature or that they constitute dimensions of reality that undermine naturalism. Para is a substitute for our ignorance at any one time in history (as is the term "miracle," which is interjected when we do not understand the causes of phenomena). Indeed, as we expand the frontiers of knowledge, phenomena considered para can, I submit, be given naturalistic or normal explanations, and this range of phenomena can either be interpreted by the existing body of explanatory scientific principles or by the introduction of new ones.

http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-11/paranatural.html

[ 05-15-2005, 01:03 AM: Message edited by: Sandra Taylor ]
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« Reply #95 on: January 08, 2008, 01:40:51 am »

                    
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The Paranatural Paradigm and Life After Death
I wish to illustrate this by dealing with the intriguing question: What is the evidence for life after death? Can we communicate with the dead? That is, Are we able to be in touch with people who have died? Do they have some form of existence, perhaps as "discarnate spirits" or "disembodied souls"? This is an age-old question that is related to faith in immortality and a very deep hunger for it. Although it has been interpreted as "paranormal," it may more appropriately be considered to be "paranatural" because of its religious significance. Indeed, for the great supernatural religions of the world -- Christianity, Judaism, and Islam -- belief in an afterlife and the promise of heaven are central.

At present there is intense popular interest in these questions in the United States. It is stimulated by the mass media, at least as measured by the number of popular books, magazine articles, movies, and television and radio programs devoted to the theme. The films The Sixth Sense (with Bruce Willis and Haley Osment) and Frequency are examples of the prevailing interest, as are the best-selling books by James Van Praagh (Talking to Heaven, 1997; Reaching to Heaven, 1999), John Edward (One Last Time, 1998), Sylvia Browne (The Other Side and Back, 1999), and Rosemary Altea (You Own the Power, 1999). Dan Rather on CBS, the Fox TV network, Larry King Live, and other talk-show hosts have devoted many uncritical programs to these claims. For example, the HBO TV network did a special last year, "Life Afterlife," purporting to present the scientific examination of survival. It interviewed dozens of people, all of whom claim to have communicated with the dead, and several parapsychologists, all arguing the case for survival. Included in this special were critical comments by two skeptics -- one more than usual! This is supposed to constitute a "balanced" documentary, and it is typical of the state of American media when dealing with paranatural or paranormal claims. There are all too few objective programs examining such questions; most favor a spiritual-paranormal interpretation.

As a result of a massive media onslaught, polls in the last decade place the United States as number one in belief in life after death in the democratic world, and higher than virtually all European countries. Two cross-national surveys conducted for the International Social Survey Program in 1991 and 19931 indicate that the United States ranked highest, along with Ireland and the Philippines, for those who believe in heaven (63.17% of the population), highest for those who believe in hell (49.6%), and highest for those who believe in life after death (55%). The US was lowest of twenty-one nations on knowledge of human evolution (44.2%), lower than Poland and Russia. Recent polls have shown the level of credulity growing in the past decade. In 1996 a poll conducted by Goldhaber Associates (at the State University of New York at Buffalo) indicated that 90 percent of Americans were either "religious" or "somewhat religious."2 A recent poll conducted for Newsweek magazine by the Princeton Survey Research Associates, based on a sample of 752 adults interviewed indicated that 84 percent of Americans said that God performed miracles and 77 percent said saints or God can cure people otherwise medically incurable.3 Paradoxically, the US is allegedly the most advanced scientific-technological society in the world.

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« Reply #96 on: January 08, 2008, 01:41:41 am »

                
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A History of Life After Death Claims
What do scientists have to say about life after death? As the readers of Skeptical Inquirer know, science has been investigating our ability to communicate with the dead for at least 150 years and it has attempted to discover empirical evidence in support of the claim. It began to do so with the emergence of spiritualism in the nineteenth century; more specifically, with the Fox sisters (Margaret and Kate), two young girls in Hydesville, New York (outside of Rochester), who in 1848 first claimed that they could receive messages from "the spirit world beyond." In their presence, there were strange rappings; people would receive answers to their questions spelled out by the number of taps (Kurtz 1985). The basic premise was that human personality survived death and could communicate with specially endowed mediums. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century spiritualism swept the United States, England, and Europe. Thousands of mediums soon appeared, all seemingly capable of communicating with the dead. The most popular method of investigation was to try to communicate in a specially darkened sZ<caron>ance room, wherein the discarnate entity would make its presence known by physical or verbal manifestations: table tipping, levitation of objects, ectoplasmic emissions, teleportation, materializations, automatic writings, etc.

A committee of medical doctors at the University of Buffalo tested the Fox sisters in 1851 and attributed their raps to the cracking of their toe knuckles or knee caps against a wooden floor or bedstead. The physicians did a controlled experiment by placing the girls' feet on pillows, and nothing happened. The great physicist Michael Farraday investigated table tipping (1852) and found that it was due to pressure exerted by the fingers of the sitters (whether voluntarily or involuntarily). Sir Walter Crookes investigated the most colorful mediums of the day, D. D. Home (1871) and Florence Cook (1873), and thought that they had special abilities of mediumship -- though critics believe that he was duped by both (Hall 1962, 1984).

The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882 in Great Britain by Henry Sidgwick, Richard Hodgson, F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney, and others to investigate survival of life after death, among other questions. The American branch of the Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1885 by William James at Harvard. These researchers examined reports of apparitions and ghostly hauntings. It was difficult to corroborate these subjective eyewitness accounts and so these investigations focused on physical manifestations. There were numerous photographs of ghosts -- which it was soon discovered could easily be doctored. Many famous mediums such as Eusapia Palladino (in Italy) and Leonora Piper (in Boston) were tested under controlled conditions in an effort to determine whether they possessed extraordinary powers.

Palladino was especially elusive, and the scientific community was split as to whether she was fraudulent. The Feilding Report was an account of sittings done in Naples (1909) by a team of scientists who thought she was genuine. Palladino was also tested in the United States at Harvard by Hugo Muensterberg (1909) and at Columbia University (1910) by a team of scientists; and in both cases the physical levitation of the table behind her and the feeling of being pinched by her spirit control (called John King) was found to be caused by her adroit ability to stretch her leg in contortions and to pinch sitters with her toes, or levitate a small table behind her. This was detected by having a man dressed in black crawl under the table and see her at work. A subsequent Feilding report (1911) also found that she had cheated (Kurtz 1985).

Late in his career the famous magician Houdini (1874-1926) exposed several bogus mediums. By the 1920s the spiritualist movement was thoroughly discredited, because when the controls were tightened, the effect disappeared; skeptics insisted that if a person claims to be in contact with a spiritual entity, there must be some independent physical corroboration by impartial observers (Houdini 1924, 1981).

In the 1930s the survival question in science was laid aside. J.B. Rhine and others focused instead on psi phenomena, again with controversial results, because scientists demanded replicable experiments by neutral observers, which were difficult to come by (Hansel 1980). In any case, whether or not psi existed was independent of the survival question.

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« Reply #97 on: January 08, 2008, 01:42:06 am »

                      
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Spiritualism Returns
In recent decades interest in the survival question has reappeared. This is rather surprising to skeptical investigators. No doubt this revival of interest is due in part to the growth of religiosity and spirituality on the broader American cultural scene, but is also due to the sensationalism of the mass media. I can only briefly outline some of the claims that had been made and the kinds of research that has been done. Most of this work is highly questionable, for the standards of rigorous methodological inquiry so essential to science seem to have declined drastically from what occurred in the early part of the last century.

(1) Channeling to the other side. Surprisingly, a new class of mediums, now called channelers, have emerged (such as James Van Praagh, John Edward, Sylvia Browne, and Rosemary Altea previously cited) who claim to be able to be put themselves into immediate contact with a dead relative or friend and to convey a message back from them. Thus, what we have are subjective reports based on the word of the channeler that he or she is in touch with the departed spirit. There are two ways that this is done. First, there are "hot" readings, when the channeler may know something by previous research about the person being read. A good case of this is Arthur Ford, who did a reading of Bishop James Pike and claimed he was in contact with his son who had committed suicide. It was discovered after Ford's death that he had done extensive background investigation of Pike's son before the reading. The most common method used, however, is the skillful use of "cold readings" by the channeler. The public here is taken in by flim-flammery, and there is all too little effort to critically examine the claims made.

There has been a massive shift in the methodology used. If in previous decades scientists demanded some corroborative and/or physical manifestation of mediumship, today all rigorous standards of evidence and verification seem to have been abandoned. Psychologist Ray Hyman has shown how a psychic gives a general cold reading: if he throws out messages from the spirit world to an audience someone will usually emerge to whom it fits (Hyman 1977). Thus, he may ask, "Does anyone know a Mary, or a William?" And most likely a person will step forth who does, and then the reading proceeds, on a hit-and-miss basis. The skillful channeler simply has to have one or two lucky hits to mystify the audience.

(2) Apparitions and other sightings. Similar considerations apply to the epidemic of eyewitness testimonials that people have been reporting of ghostly apparitions, angels, and other ethereal entities. Such stories are pervasive today, since a tale once uttered may spread rapidly throughout the population; this is facilitated by the mass media and becomes contagious. If someone claims to see ghosts or angels, other people, perhaps millions, may likewise begin to encounter them.

What is so curious is that people who see ghosts usually see them clothed. It is one thing to say that a discarnate soul has survived, but that his or her clothing and other physical objects have survived is both amusing and contrary to the laws of physics.

The most parsimonious explanation that we have for this phenomenon is that it is in the eye of the beholder, satisfying some deep-felt need, a transcendental temptation or will-to-believe. The demand for independent objective verification seems to be ignored. It is puzzling why so many people will accept uncorroborated subjective reports, particularly when we find them unreliable. The death of a loved one can cause untold psychological trauma, and there are powerful motives, psychological and indeed sociological, for believing in their survival. Thus there are naturalistic psychological and sociological explanations that better account for the prevalence of such phenomenological givens, without the need to postulate discarnate beings or our ability to communicate with them.

Let me briefly outline two other areas of survival research, which at least claim to be more carefully designed.

(3) Death-bed visions. Osis and Haraldsson (1974, 1977) sent out questionnaires to doctors and nurses to ask them to describe the verbal accounts of death-bed visions of people in their last moments of dying. The question is whether these persons were able to communicate with departed friends or relatives at the last moment or were merely hallucinating, as skeptics suggest they were. In any case, virtually all of this data is second-hand, and is influenced by cultural expectations that when we die we will meet people on the other side.

(4) The phenomenology of near-death experience. This is a very popular area of research today, widely touted as evidence for communication, and based on first-hand testimony. Much research has gone into this intriguing area by Raymond Moody (1975, 1977), Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1981), Kenneth Ring (1980, 1984, 1998), Michael Sabom (1982), and Melvin Morse (1990), among others. These extended phenomenological reports claim to give us evidence from the other side from people who were dying and resuscitated. There is an out-of-body experience, a vision of a tunnel, a bright light, a recall of one's life, and perhaps a meeting of beings on the other side.

Critics claim that the descriptive collage offered is of the dying process, and that in no case do we have reports of persons who have died (i.e., experienced brain death) and communicated with those on the other side. There are a variety of alternative naturalistic explanations. Skeptics maintain we are most likely dealing with psychological phenomena, where the person facing death has either hallucinations, has reached a state of depersonalization, and/or there are changes in brain chemistry and the nervous system (Blackmore 1993). Some have postulated that the discarnate entities or divine beings encountered on the other side are colored by the socio-cultural context (Kellehear 1996); though proponents maintain that in spite of this there is a common core of similarities. Some have said that falls or accidents where a person thinks he is about to die, but survives, can cause analogous out-of-body experiences and panoramic reviews (Russell Noyes 1972, 1977). Not everyone who is dying reports near-death experiences; many and people who are not dying report having them. Sleep paralysis and hypnopompic and hypnagogic dream states are factors in common out-of-body experiences. Ronald Siegel (1981) maintains that similar NDEs can be induced by hallucinogens. Karl Jansen (1996) has presented evidence that they can be stimulated by the dissociative drug ketamine. Various conditions can precipitate an NDE, such as low blood sugar, oxygen deprivation, reduced blood flow, temporal-lobe epilepsy, etc., and can lead to an altered state of consciousness. For skeptics, in no case can we say that the person has died and returns; what we are dealing with is the process or belief that one is dying.

Analytic philosophers have pointed out additional serious conceptual difficulties in the hypothesis that nonphysical beings are communicating with us -- there is a sharp mind/body dualism here. Perhaps the real question is not whether there is sufficient evidence for "x," but the meaning of "x"; and whether we can communicate with "disembodied entities" who have a level of consciousness without sensory organs or a brain. Some have claimed that the communication is "telepathic," but the experimental evidence for telepathy is itself questionable.

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« Reply #98 on: January 08, 2008, 01:42:34 am »

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Conclusion
After a quarter of a century in this field of research, I find that eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, and that unless carefully controlled studies and standards are applied, people can deceive themselves and others into believing that almost anything is true and real -- from past-life regression and extraterrestrial abductions to satanic infestations and near-death experiences.

What should be the posture of the scientific investigator about paranatural survival claims? Clearly, we need an open mind, and we should not reject a priori any such claim; if claims are responsibly framed they should be carefully evaluated. After a century and a half of scientific research, what are we to conclude? I submit that there is insufficient reliable or objective evidence that some individuals are able to reach another plane of existence beyond this world and/or communicate with the dead. As far as we know, the death of the body entails the death of psychological functions, consciousness, and/or the personality; and there is no reason to believe that ghosts hover and haunt and/or can communicate with us.

I realize that this flies in the face of what the preponderance of humans wish to believe, but science should deal as best it can with what is the case, not with what we would like it to be. Unfortunately, scientific objectivity today has an uphill battle in this area in the face of media hype and the enormous public fascination with paranormal and paranatural claims.

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« Reply #99 on: January 08, 2008, 01:43:04 am »

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Notes

1. Currently based at the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago.

2. "Religious Belief in America: A New Poll," Free Inquiry 16(3) (Summer 1996), pp. 34-40.

3. Religion News Service, April 13, 2000.


References

* Altea, Rosemary. 1999. You Own the Power: Stories and Exercises. New York: William Morrow.
* Blackmore, Susan J. 1993. Dying to Live. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
* Browne, Sylvia, with Lindsay Harrison. 1999. The Other Side and Back: A Psychic's Guide to Our World and Beyond. New York: Dutton.
* Edward, John. 1998. One Last Time: A Psychic Medium Speaks to Those We Have Loved and Lost. New York: Berkeley Books.
* Feilding, E., W.W. Baggally, and H. Carrington. 1909. Report on a series of sittings with Eusapia Palladino. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 23: 306-569.
* Feilding, E., and W. Marriott. 1911. Report on a further series of sittings with Eusapia Palladino at Naples. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 25.
* Hall, Trevor H. 1962. The Spiritualists: The Story of Florence Cook and William Crookes. London: Duckworth.
* ---. 1984. The Enigma of Daniel Home: Medium or Fraud? Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
* Hansel, C.E.M. 1980. ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Evaluation. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
* Houdini, Harry. 1924. A Magician Among the Spirits. New York: Harper.
* ---. 1981. Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Expose. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
* Hyman, Ray. 1977. Cold reading: How to convince strangers that you know all about them. The Zetetic (Skeptical Inquirer) 1(2).
* Jansen, K.L.R. 1996. Using ketamine to induce the near-death experience: Mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Yearbook of Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness, no. 4.
* Kellehear, Allan. 1996. Experiences Near Death: Beyond Medicine and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth. 1981. Living with Death and Dying. New York: Macmillan.
* Kurtz, Paul, ed. 1985. A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
* Moody, Raymond A., Jr. 1975. Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon-Survival of Bodily Death. Covington, Calif.: Mockingbird Books.
* ---. 1977. Reflections on Life After Life. New York: Bantam Books.
* ---. 1999. The Last Laugh: A New Philosophy of Near-Death Experiences, Apparitions, and the Paranormal. Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Road Publishing Co.
* Morse, Melvin, and Paul Perry. 1990. Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children. New York: Ballantine Books.
* Neher, Andrew. 1981. The Psychology of Transcendence. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
* Noyes, Russell Jr., and Roy Klette. 1972. The experience of dying from falls. Omega 3:45-52.
* ---. 1977. Depersonalization in response to life-threatening danger. Comparative Psychology 18: 375-384.
* ---. 1977. Panoramic memory: A response to the threat of death. Omega, 8.
* Osis, Karles, and Eilendur Haraldsson. 1974. Survey of death visions in India. In W.G. Roll, et al., eds, Research in Parapsychology 1973. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press.
* ---. 1977. Deathbed observations by physicians and nurses: A cross-cultural survey. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 71: 237-259.
* Ring, Kenneth. 1980. Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan.
* ---. 1984. Heading toward Omega: In Search of Near-Death Experience. New York: William Morrow.
* ---. 1998. Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience. Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books.
* Sabom, Michael B. 1982. Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. New York: Harper & Row.
* Siegel, Ronald. 1981. "Life After Death." In Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Paranormal, ed. by G.O. Abell and B. Singer. New York: Scribners.
* Van Praagh, James. 1997. Talking to Heaven: A Medium's Message of Life after Death. New York: Dutton.
* --. 1999. Reaching to Heaven: A Spiritual Journey through Life and Death. New York: Dutton.
* This paper was delivered at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society, held in Minneapolis, March 22, 2000.

About the Author
Paul Kurtz is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of New York at Buffalo and the founding chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

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« Reply #100 on: January 08, 2008, 01:43:30 am »

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Communicating with the DEAD

by Keelynet

Communicating with the Dead using the principle of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP).

In a stunning breakthrough, two different teams of researchers, one in the US and the other in Germany, have both developed devices that let them talk with the dead.

So far, they are said to have actually held conversations with at least nine "dead" people.

Konstantin Raudive did much original work in this area which has been carried on by Dr. Walter Uphoff, George Meek and the Fishbach family of Germany.

"This is undeniable proof that there is life after death," declared Dr. Ernst Senkowski, Professor of Physics at the Technical College of Bingen, West Germany.

"They have shown us wit, personality, memory and an active mind. They are as much 'alive' now as when they had physical bodies.

Researcher George Meek, director of the MetaScience Foundation in Franklin, N.C. says, "Our findings give us undeniable proof that the dead ARE TRYING to contact us."

On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, researchers have found that the dead tell the same story: In the spirit world, there is no concept of time or distance and no need for food. Spirits can observe the living and perform such feats as reading books without opening them.

The electronic devices are similar to ham radios, except that they receive 13 different frequencies at once. "The voices of the dead are about twice the speed of normal human speech and they have a rhythm that is different from our own - almost a flat monotone," explained researcher Meek.

And in Germany, Dr. Senkowski said that of the four dead people he's talked with, "one is a Hamburg dockmaster who died in 1965. We verified this information. He told us that he was well and happy."

"Another is a Hamburg steam engineer who died in 1959. He told us to give greetings to his wife, calling her by the special nickname, 'Little Dwarf.' And when we gave her the message, she told us it was a very personal nickname known only to her and her husband. She took it as proof that the person who contacted us was indeed her dead husband."

The dead have given Dr. Senkowski details of the afterlife, "I once tried to arrange a 3 PM conversation with one," he said. "He told me that was impossible because he had no concept of time or distance." And one day Dr. Senkowski received a bizarre communication from a female spirit. "I was wearing a gold chain around my neck rather than the silver one I usually wear," he recalled.

"Then suddenly a young women's voice spoke through the machine. 'There is a gold chain around your neck today - not a silver one', she said. "I have been observing you."

http://www.totse.com/en/fringe/dreams_auras_astral_projection/evp1.html
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« Reply #101 on: January 08, 2008, 01:43:57 am »

Sandra Taylor

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Meek's team developed a radio based system which they call SPIRICOMM. It used a medium (psychically sensitive) with technical skills to operate an electronic arrangement which produced 13 simultaneous audio signals.

The "departed" can somehow suppress those signals in such a fashion as to generate intelligible speech. As the machine was being tuned for the best operation, the technician was being "guided" by voice from the other side. A most interesting arrangement.

One of the spirits Meek's team has talked to some 25 times identifies himself as Dr. George J. Mueller, an electrical engineer who died in 1967 of a heart attack.

"Dr. Mueller told us where to find his birth and death certificate records. He told us he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Engineering and that he taught there," said Meek.

Amazingly, according to records at Cornell, what Mueller said was true.

Dr. Mueller told the researchers to read pages 66 and 67 from the book, "Introduction to Electronics" that he'd written in 1947, said Meek, who found that 'pages 66 and 67 were an overall view of what man had done and what he could do in electronics. And it related directly to our breakthrough! Dr. Mueller also told us that in the spirit world each person can assume the outer appearance of any time in his or her life.'

Dr. Mueller also told the researchers that he no longer felt any need for food, and that he could read any page that he wanted in any book just by looking through the book's cover. He told us that he was happy and we should not fear death, and that he has friends in the afterlife.

And Dr. William Tiller, full Professor of Material Sciences at Stanford University and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Delaware, added, "My feeling is that this development should start a series of breakthroughs in afterlife research."

Further information which we of Vangard Sciences found of interest was a comment made by a "departed" technician relating to how they can manipulate energy.

Since there is no physical matter on their level, all they have to work with is energy. By causing the energy to flow in a vortex, it naturally achieves a focal point which allows action to occur from their level to our physical level.

The technician stated that they were still learning how to "tap the spiral" which shows that the ever tightening spiral segments increase in power as they condense toward the center or focal point.

Mr. Meek's contacts state that they have groups (of departed entities) some with up to 200 participants trying to help devise a reliable system for DIRECT COMMUNICATION.

http://www.totse.com/en/fringe/dreams_auras_astral_projection/evp1.html
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« Reply #102 on: January 08, 2008, 01:44:25 am »

         
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In a phone conversation with George about 3 years ago, he said they were getting phenomenal information relating to a wide range of new technologies.

The last we heard was that MetaScience was working on a device for direct VISUAL INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION with the "dead".

Two other excellent workers in this field are our friends Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff with the New Frontiers Center. They have an excellent newsletter and travel widely to keep up on the latest research.

Walter gave a presentation to the 1988 7th Int'l Psychotronics Association meeting in Georgia in which he showed videos of work done by the Fishbachs of Germany. These showed how they had actually received images on a TV screen from departed entities.

In a private conversation with Walter, he graciously showed us a schematic of how the German video system is setup. He kindly gave us a copy of the diagram with German labels which he translated.

Ron recently received a short letter from Mary Jo Uphoff informing us that Walter had taken ill. He was hospitalized at the time of the writing (June 90) and not doing too well. We hope Walter recovers as quickly and fully as possible.

Mary Jo continues that the New Frontiers newsletter would be on hold for a short while until Walter gets better. Back issues are available however.

If you would like to experiment in this area, we will provide a very basic description of how to do simple EVP work.

The original discovery came when a naturalist in Europe was making magnetic tape recordings in a wooded area. When playing the tape back, he heard strange high pitched whining, which, when amplified turned out to be almost intelligible phrases in several different languages.

Modern techniques developed by Konstantin Raudive use a regular tape recorder with a germanium diode as the ONLY AUDIO INPUT. Take a 1N914 germanium diode from Radio Shack and solder it to a plug made to fit the MIC input.

When plugged into the jack and the volume is turned up to the highest it will go, the diode apparently will pickup up a very wide range of frequencies.

http://www.totse.com/en/fringe/dreams_auras_astral_projection/evp1.html
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« Reply #103 on: January 08, 2008, 01:44:52 am »

                   
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These frequencies are modulated by the "departed entities" so that careful listening to the playback will yield some form of intelligible phrase. Of course, there are several ways to enhance the intelligibility.

These include slowing down the tape and various forms of filtering using an equalizer.

This is the basis of the original EVP experiments.

The unit MetaScience worked on went through several modifications of which we have only limited information at this time (Mark IV). We know that 13 audio frequency generators (individually tuneable) were all powered on at the same time.

As we understand it, the technician must be sensitive to departed entities and can adjust (optimize) the precise frequency (thus the relationships) as guided by the entity whom he knows to be present and speaking.

We understand that there have been improvements with the use of a carrier frequency in the range of 47 MHz, but we have no further data on this.

Dr. Uphoff gave us a diagram for visual imaging of the "dead". As we understand it, when the camera is turned onto the TV and continually recycled through the VCR, within about 50 passes it begins to become sensitive to modulation by outside agencies.

Pictures of Romi Schneider (famous German actress), Albert Einstein and other entities, including many family members of the experimenters have appeared and been captured on the videotape in the VCR.

The experiment must be carried out under conditions conducive to minimal disturbances and not hostile to results.

As we understand this, Keely referred to the establishment of what he termed a "Sensitized Centre".

This was a stable geometric form, either in matter or energy which when so differentiated (optimal energy transference) became subject to extremely small outside stimuli. This of course would be the nature of emanations radiated from "discarnate entities".

http://www.totse.com/en/fringe/dreams_auras_astral_projection/evp1.html
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« Reply #104 on: January 08, 2008, 01:49:41 am »

Changing Perspectives on Life After Death


by Theresa Welsh
People used to debate whether there was an “afterlife” without mentioning the “beforelife” or much debate about what this discarnate “life” might be like. But today, the sophistication of information about the life of the spirit -- and the desire for such information -- has increased greatly

books: The Case for an Afterlife by Roy Ald (1968), Life Without Death? by Nils O. Jacobson (1974), Journey of Souls (1994) by Michael Duff Newton; Ultimate Journey by Robert Monroe (1996)
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It’s a curious fact that even our perceptions about what constitutes evidence of whether we exist before or after our earthly life changes with time. The Christian religion teaches that there is an afterlife, but is silent on the subject of where we are before birth. It also provides little insight about what the life after death must consist of. In the early years of Christianity, many believed in reincarnation, but that belief was outlawed at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. In the Jewish religion, there is no requirement of any belief in an afterlife, but the Hasidic Jews, who study the Kabbalah, do believe in reincarnation. For most people growing up in the 40s, 50s, or 60s, the whole subject was a big question mark with few places to turn for information. They could either just accept whatever their church told them, or they could look at stories about paranormal happenings and consider it proof of survival of death.

http://www.theseekerbooks.com/articles/lifeafter.htm
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