by Lisa Butler
(Tom and Lisa Butler are transcommunication researchers in the United States. They are the Directors of the Association TransCommunication (ATransC) (formally AA-EVP), which includes members from around the world. The nonprofit Association is dedicated to provide objective evidence that we survive death in an individual conscious state. There is substantial information about their work on their website at atransc.org – the Editor)
In August, we had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Frankfurt, Germany to sit with the Felix Experimental Group. The physical medium of the group, Kai Muegge, lives in a lovely old farmhouse in the picturesque suburb of Hanau. The séances are conducted in a World War II bomb shelter, which is the basement of Kai’s house.
We were greeted by Kai’s mother, Elke, who guided us up several flights of stairs to her living area which had a commanding view of a lush back yard. One and two at a time, the circle members gathered at the dining room table in preparation for the séance. They all spoke good English and each took time to make us feel welcome. Elke and circle leader Dr. Jochen Soederling, a cardiologist, and member Alex, gave us information on the background of the group showing us many of the exciting apports that the group has received. Kai briefly came in and greeted us but then went back to the intense meditation that he does before each séance.
At the appointed time, Jochen led us to the basement where we were able to examine the small space where the séance was to be held. The space is about ten by fifteen feet with wood paneling and a large piece of plywood on the floor. A small wind chime is hung from the wood-paneled ceiling just above a bongo drum sitting on the floor. The Chairs are arranged in a U-shape which is opened toward where the medium sits. The medium’s chair is in a cabinet made of a curtain hung from the ceiling in the fashion of a free-standing shower stall. Closed during the séance, it is shown here with the opening pulled back as it is when the ectoplasm is revealed in the other pictures. At the right, in the above picture, there is a lamp with a shade that covers the red light. This light is covered with a black cloth during the séance to shield the red light from the camera. There is also a camera on a tripod at the end of the room opposite from the cabinet and behind the sitters.
The Eight circle members and three additional guest sitters were directed to their chairs. We sat next to each other two seats from the cabinet, on the side with the red light. Circle leader, Jochen, sat next to me and translating the German communication from the groups main spirit contact, Hans Bender.
After Kai was seated and the cabinet closed, the lights were turned off and an opening prayer was said. There followed many minutes of Kai’s deep breathing as background music played. We already knew that Kai had learned Holotropic Breathing, which helps him enter into a deep trance, otherwise we might have been concerned about his welfare, as his breathing was loud, rapid and gasping.
As the breathing quieted, Jochen excitedly whispered to me, “Hans is coming.” Soon a voice came from the cabinet introducing itself as Hans Bender, who is a well-known German parapsychologist often referred to as “Spook Bender” because of his dedication to the study of survival.
Hans made some opening remarks and welcomed us and the other guest sitters personally. What a thrill it was to hear one of the most important figures in the history of paranormal research say your name! Unfortunately the recording of the séance failed and it is difficult to remember all that was said. Oh, just to have had a recording of him saying “Tom and Leeeza”!
Hans has said in the past that there are five afterlife chemists who are responsible for the ectoplasmic structures that are used in various experiments throughout the séance. Hans has called this type of séance an “ideoplastic materialization séance.” [Ideoplastic is a term coined by Max Vorworm but used here in the sense intended by the German Parapsychology Icon Dr. Freiherr of Schrenck-Notzing (among others: Phenomena of Materialization, Munich 1925) as: Everything that can be remembered, also things the medium has read or observed or is interested in, all these memories can find a materializing“ reflection in the force field.]
Soon there was the sound of the wind chime from the ceiling quickly followed by raps on the ceiling. They sounded for all the world like a heard of gerbils scampering across the ceiling. The sound seemed to come from the direction of the cabinet toward the wind chime. Suddenly, the raps were being made on the wood panel directly behind our heads.
Many excited shouts and exclamations followed as people were being touched. Tom said that he had been touched on his stomach and his head, and later described it as being touched by a soft cloth. Jochen pointed out to me that several people were being touched at one time on opposite sides of the circle. This would have been impossible for any one person to accomplish. There was no sound on the wood floor panel, and at the same time Hans was speaking (through the medium) from within the cabinet.
I let out an involuntary squeal as something that felt like a feather actually tickled my sandaled foot, between my little toe and next toe, before dashing up my chin. I was amazed at the precision of this feat which happened very quickly.
As it became quiet again, we were reminded to keep our feet under our chairs so as not to interfere with the structures. Hans requested that Jochen remove a six inch square luminous plate and place it on the bongo drum which was on the wood floor directly in front of Tom and me. Soon we could see the shape of a hand move over the plate from the side closest to us. The plate was occluded by the hand, first by just a few poorly formed fingers, but at one point, a thumb was also visible. The hand moved back and forth on and off the plate. Then we saw the hand structure coming over the plate from the other direction. The hand-shaped structure actually turned the plate about forty-five degrees before once again appearing on the side of the plate nearest us. After showing us a few fingers belonging to a large hand, a child-sized hand shaped in an “OK” sign briefly moved to the center of the plate. Little did I realize that Tom had been making an “OK” sign with his right hand on his leg and mentally asking that the structure do this!. It did!
Our next treat was the handkerchief experiment. We had been shown the handkerchief with the luminous tabs before the lights were turned off. For the experiment, Jochen stood up close to his chair and held the handkerchief out. All of the sudden it was flying around the circle! I was asked to stand up, staying very close to my chair, and hold the handkerchief out. I was told to let it go the minute I felt something. I stood holding the handkerchief out, and was twice asked by Hans from the cabinet if I felt anything. I was starting to panic that my energy was not correct for the experiment when I felt a tug and off the little cloth flew. It came right back rushing up to within inches of my chest!
Hans spoke to us in English about the structures we had been seeing. We also collaborated with Kai and Jochen after returning home to make sure we correctly report the concept. Kai explained that, from our point of view, the “Rigid Energy Field” fills the experimental area as a three-dimensional field. This field enables the compaction of energy/matter. This happens by interlacing the nonphysical with the physical aspects of reality, which are normally considered two independent realms. Kai explained that most of the physical interactions during the Séance are made possible by this.
A “thought form” is a collection of related ideas, images and memories and can be thought of as a gestalt “thought ball.” Everyone has a worldview, which is really a collection of thought forms characterizing our beliefs and understanding of our world. Bender said the thought forms from the sitters, as well as from many entities in the etheric, begin to develop in this field in more and more complex and perfect, denser stages.
The forms may be based on what we want to see appear because we have read about them or because we are persuaded they might appear. They all originate from our virtual world of visualized thoughts as mental projections. They may also originate as projections of thoughts of those in the etheric. “Those who are the closest to us in the non-physical,” Hans Bender said in the séance, “will use this opportunity to express themselves. So if sitters are longing to hear from a deceased loved one and then feel a touch, they can be sure the touch is actually coming from that beloved person.”
Kai explained that how complete and well-formed the structure is depends on how well the thought forms are developed in our mind. While they may clearly reflect the intention of the sitters, more often, they seem to be interwoven with the sitter’s subconscious hopes and expectations. If these are conflicted, the resulting structure might be poorly or oddly formed in a similar way.
Jochen was asked to prepare the trumpet and a sitter handed him one that had been on the floor behind the circle. The cabinet was closed and Jochen was able to use a bright flashlight to “charge” the luminescent tape as he had earlier “charged” the luminescent plate. He put the trumpet on the floor, large end down, in the middle of the room.
Moments later, we were able to see the trumpet fall over and away from the cabinet. Bender asked Jochen to move it closer to the cabinet where the energy field was stronger, and this time, the trumpet fell small end toward the cabinet. It moved about on the floor in a jerky, uncertain fashion evidently as they worked to gain control of it. Moments later, the trumpet shot into the air and demonstrated a bewildering flight of control that would be impossible of a physical person in that dark room. The sitters laughed and loudly chanted to add power to its flight.
After the trumpet had been returned to the back of the room, some of the sitters pointed out a light in front of the bottom of the cabinet. This light moved on the floor by our feet. Shortly after this a bright, penny-sized, bioluminescent, blue-green light could be seen flying around the circle. It came within inches of my face and I was amazed at its brightness. The circle leader whispered to us that Hans was saying we needed to raise the energy to keep the light going. Everyone in the circle began shouting what sounded to us like “Fly, fly,” and we started chanting this. The light reappeared and the sitters laughed with excitement as it came close to them. Later Tom told me that he had opened his palm and mentally asked the light to land on his hand and it did! He said that he did not feel the light itself, but did feel a firm structure holding the light as it briefly touched his hand between his thumb and index finger.
When we later asked about the light, Jochen told us that he had concluded that the light was part of a materialized structure. He said it looked like it was embedded into a funnel like structure. However over the past few sittings, the appearance had changed, he no longer saw the surrounding structure and could only see the pure light. Tom reported that when it touched him, it felt firm and smooth, neither hot nor cold and about two centimeters square.
Hans was asked if we would be able to take pictures with the red light. He answered that he would let us know in a few minutes. We were very excited when he came back with a yes! We were told that Hans would tap the floor three times with Kai’s foot when he was ready for the pictures to be taken. At that time, the group would count to ten. At “ten,” the red light was turned on while the curtains were opened by the sitters on either side of the cabinet and Jochen took pictures for a count of five.
The red light was between the cabinet and me, and when the curtains were opened, I could only see the bottom half of the cabinet. What I thought I saw was the light on shimmering cabinet curtains. In other words, I thought the curtains were not even opened on that first shot. Later and after looking at the picture Jochen took, I realized that I was seeing a wall of shimmering ectoplasm rather than the curtains. Tom saw that it was coming out of the mediums mouth and said that it looked wet, very shinny and very white even in the red light.
The next time the curtains were opened after a ten-count, I could see a mass of ectoplasm on the floor next to the medium’s sneaker. The last view was a real shock because there in the middle of the pile of ectoplasm was a funny looking simulation of a hand. Tom even saw it move, as if pulsing to grow larger!
The séance ended after the pictures were taken and we all returned to the top-floor dining room table to excitedly discuss what we had experienced. Most of that is a blur because both of us were in something of a daze from what we had just witnessed.
Thoughts
Tom said that, both with the “OK” sign and the moving light, he mentally asked Hans Bender and the etheric chemists to respond to a specific request and they did. His experiment was unknown to anyone else in the room and with the dark conditions no one would have been able to even see the OK sign on his leg. The structures behaved as if they were under intelligent control by grabbing handkerchiefs out of people’s hands and performing other feats. But this intelligent control was not human; its fast and precision movements, often within inches of a sitter’s face, were beyond any human’s capability. All of this in total darkness. On many occasions, phenomena was occurring in various parts of the room at a very rapid pace while all of us held hands and Hans spoke from the cabinet. For any of what we experienced to be theatrically produced as if in a dark-room magic show, a third party would necessarily have been secreted into the room without sound and as quickly extracted from the room afterwards. There was no way that this could have happened. There was not one doubt in my mind that the events we witnessed were of paranormal origin.
The Felix Experimental Group is producing important trans-etheric phenomena that can be seen. The séance takes place in the dark but the various phenomena are illuminated. This is very important as most criticism about materialization séances is that they are held in total darkness. We are told that the phenomena happen through the use of ectoplasm but I believe a large majority of people do not even believe in this substance called ectoplasm. The Felix Group is repeatedly photographing ectoplasm and they have been able to do this in front of scientists. They are producing objective evidence from which we can learn more.
Tom and I would like to thank the Felix Experimental Group for their warm hospitality and also their sincere desire to understand what is taking place and share this knowledge with others. What they are able to demonstrate expanded my mind with the knowledge that the impossible is possible, and I’m sure Hans Bender has much more in store for us to learn through this exceptional Group.
Kai told us early on in our email communication with him that Hans Bender has told them that, worldwide, the vibrational state of spiritual awareness has increased. He said that this vibrational state encloses the earth and all entities and that the way to spiritual enlightenment has become a little bit shorter. Hans says that more physical wonders will occur in the upcoming years and especially the readiness of high leveled scientists to apply the spiritual to science.