Daren McAlester: Talking to ghosts takes on many ways to communicate with spirits who have passed into another dimension or realm of existence in the afterlife. When most naive people think of the word Medium they conjure up visions of the popular media-fed Hollywood version. First lets look at mediums and how they function in their roll of communicators. "Mediums are people who have a special gift that allows the spirit people to give messages from the afterlife. The objective of a mediums work is to prove survival of the human personality after death and to help the bereaved come to terms with their loss. Sittings with mediums are not for fortune telling but are experimental sessions to provide evidence of survival. Any attempt to communicate with Spirit is, by its very nature, purely experimental and therefore, results can never be guaranteed."What is Spiritualist Medium?
A Spiritualist Medium is a believer in Spiritualism. Modern Spiritualism began in 1848 when sensational spirit communications in Hydesville led to rapid developments throughout America, eventually reaching Europe including Britain. Mediums who demonstrate in Spiritualist Churches are carefully monitored by the Spiritualists National Union (SNU) which helps to ensure that their medium-ship is to a high standard.
Medium-ship takes two main forms:
Physical Mediums: Physical phenomena is of such a nature that it is usually demonstrated only at private seances. Any person sitting with the medium can hear or see what is happening. By means of raps, audible voices or materialised figures the spirit people convey intimate information about themselves, their recollection of their earthly lives and details of their lives in the spirit world.
Mental Mediums: Mental phenomena is demonstrated through the mind of a medium. Mediums identify three forms of mental medium-ship:
1. CLAIRVOYANCE when mediums see the spirit.
2. CLAIR AUDIENCE when mediums hear the spirit.
3. CLAIR SENTIENCE when mediums senses the presence and the thoughts of the spirit.
Mental phenomena is the type most often demonstrated in public. Trance medium ship is a form of mental medium-ship in which the medium is overshadowed by the spirit communicator and allowed to speak directly through the medium.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon (E.V.P.)
One of the world's most respected scientists, Thomas Alva Edison, believed that it would one day be possible to build a machine that would help humans communicate with the dead. He once said:
"If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore ... if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something."
Unfortunately, Edison did not live to see his invention take shape.
In 1949, Marcello Bacci of Italy began recording voices with an old tube radio. People would come to Bacci's home to talk with their departed relatives. A few years later, two Italian priests named Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli were trying to record a Gregorian chant on their magneto-phone, but the machine kept breaking. Exasperated, Father Gemelli looked up and asked his father for help. To his surprise, his dead father's voice answered from the magneto-phone, "Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you."
One of the most well-known EVP researchers of the 20th century was a Swedish opera singer, painter and film producer named Friedrich Jurgenson. His interest in electronic voice phenomena was sparked one day in 1959, when he recorded the sounds of birds singing in a forest. When he played the tape back, he heard a female voice say, "Friedrich, you are being watched. Friedel, my little Friedel, can you hear me?" It was the voice of his dead mother. Jurgenson went on to record many other voices over the next four years, and he published two books: "Voices From the Universe" and "Radio Contact with the Dead."
Dr. Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist, heard of Jurgenson's experiments several years later. At first he was skeptical, but then he tried the technique himself and wound up recording many voices, including that of his deceased mother.
In the 1960s and 1970s, EVP became a legitimate, if controversial, arm of paranormal research. American researchers George and Jeanette Meek and psychic William O'Neil recorded hundreds of hours of EVP with radio oscillators. They claim to have worked closely with another scientist, Dr. George Jeffries Mueller. The only catch was that Mueller was deceased.
Sarah Estep, one of the most outspoken EVP researchers, started the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (AAEVP) in 1982. She claims to have communicated with thousands of ghosts, as well as with aliens.
Researchers around the world continue to investigate EVP. Their findings are documented on dozens of Web sites, as well as in books.
*NOTE: With my curiosity peaked, I am investigating this approach to 'Talking to Ghosts' and avidly collecting recordings and using the evp editor. Learning how to use this instrument is a time consuming process which consists of several steps to arrive at an intelligible 'recording' of a ghostly response to questions. I will be posting updates in the forums as to my progress as an 'Amateur Researcher'.
Happy Hunting,
Daren McAlester.
