We are pleased that the more than 2 years of cooperation has now brought about the second short documentary, which is referring to the particularly exciting deep trance cabinet séances of ours! They reflect our all ideal conception concerning the mediumistic act and its conditions: a medium in a deep trance state, whose control spirits steer the present forces and do express themselves verbally. The medium is meanwhile in a kind of slumber. All speech performances happen without its conscious participation. Experimentally, all spirit operations with focus objects in the inner space of the circle are in the focus of part 2 of the documentary.
The medium is always held and secured in the chair by Dr. Heike Bauder, who during specifically very active sections of the evening even manually palpating the mediums body. Julia, sitting on Kais opposite side holding him, is then checked by her during high phenomenological activity in the room as well! Both sit in front of the medium and thus block it quasi towards the inner circle space.
Under these conditions, the effects and manifestations of form begin – from shadowy to concrete. Things are grasped, sitters are touched and shapes in differen grades of completion (hands, hand-like, faces, pets asf.) can be observed in the backlight of the luminous plate and other objects.
THE BEGINNING
The first part of the documentary described the cooperation with the currently most active researcher-couple in parapsychological field research, Prof. Dr. E. Kruse and Dr. Heike Bauder. Namely in the field of mediumistical physical phenomena, starting on the subject of table levitation, Prof. Eckhard Kruse documented with an incredible effort the different conditions under which levitation of all four table legs can be observed. Skin resistance sensors guaranteed that all hands were on the surface of the table and excellent infrared recordings documented that nothing supported the tables from below.
APPROACH
The basis for the feasible use of IR is, among other things, the long-standing acquaintance between the medium and the researcher couple. Eckhard Kruse was the scientific advisor of the Basel Psi Association in the times of Lucius Werthmuellers presidency. Kai demonstrated since 2009 in Basel and developed there starting 2015 with groups of advanced sitters the mediumistic high discipline of ‘Full Materializations’ (‘Full Form Materializations)’ under séance room conditions. Kruse and Bauder often witnessed the strange materialized shapes and figures occurring in the Basel Psi-Verein. However, Kai and his wife Julia turned down requests for research for many years after their three-year engagement and over 15 consistently successful sittings with American researchers ended up in theories that in no way reflected the session results.
DEEPENING INSIGHTS
Close to L. Werthmuellers unawaited death we agreed to go into new highly supervised physical test-sessions. Bauder had by this time already made a statistical survey of statements made by Kai’s guest sitters in Basel about their experiences attending one of Kais séances. It served to find possible correlations in the statements depending on the background, origin and age of those present.
Furthermore, Professor Kruse collected data and the formants on voice phenomena of another English medium and published them peer-reviewed in the Journal for Scientific Exploration. He assisted in a number of séances of an US-American Apport Medium in Basel and deepened thus his insights about the processes. He also participated as a scientific observer in séances of an Irish Medium. Another publication brought him his research work in self-experimentation with Bauder on the dynamics at the Oui-Ja Board. Another English physical medium underwent more than 50 test sessions with Kruse. The couple collected eventually data on physical mediumship in Germany, Australia, England and Switzerland.
THE LEVITATION IN THE WAKING TRANCE
During the Corona years the sessions in Hanau began, for which Kruse used every conceivable equipment that made it possible to approach the reality of the phenomenon, make them more and more visible and finally record them. Nevertheless, our table videos experienced the criticism of a former investigator who had noticed that Kai had one (!) thumb tip extending about half a centimeter beyond the outer edge of the table surface in some of the recordings, about which he claimed the entire lifting power of the table was fraudulently created on the basis of this thumb tip. In our table sessions, we let every strong man and woman try out how such a table could be lifted into the air. Due to the weight of the hands involved, the table weight increases not inconsiderably – by several kilograms – and even with two hands under the surface, it is hardly possible to lift the table briefly, let alone make it float. Table levitations from the point of view of the medium, which take place in a waking trance, happen to happen under different conditions.
WHAT DOES THE AWAKE MEDIUM EXPERIENCE?
There are different inner (and outer) alignments to be achieved, capable to direct the forces for a few seconds in such a way that the table rises from the floor. ‘For example, I can always clearly feel that the closer I am to the table with my central body mass, the more beneficial for the process it is! ‘Anticipatorily’ moving my hands upwards repeatedly lead to the point that in a small percentage the table rises along with the hands as if suddenly glued to them and suddenly let it come loose. We show all this in part 1.
The professor published then pictures of levitations, clearly showing, table levitations also take place when the thumb-tip does not rest on the outer edge of the surface. The documented results from the Séances are new, fresh and most rare data material, on which everybody can work off his/her hypotheses – however only if the data is made available. Otherwise they of course can be neither discussed nor evaluated by anybody!
Why contemporary séance room data generally is so rare nowadays and comes with a strange reluctance and emotional charging you read about below in the box!
A little more than 2 years ago we started our cooperation with the experienced research couple in physical mediumship field research, the professor of applied computer science Eckhard Kruse and his partner, the psychotherapist Dr. Heike Bauder. Both of them have, like no one else in decades, been engaged in Parapsychologies actual initial topic: Physical Phenomena in mediumship. The new interdisciplinary branch was to elucidate the phenomena reported by more and more reliable observers and leading scientists from out of the séance-rooms all over the world.
TOO DIFFICULT AND COMPLEX
Today, however, the attempts to get insight into the red-light illuminated experimental rooms of the spiritualists of the West have become very rare. While the branch gained a safe foothold in certain subject areas, like the reincarnation research, with Near-Death-States, ESP-research and many more, the field research around physical phenomena, at least in mediumship, failed apparently somehow repeatedly and in the end entirely – presumably primarily due to the factor ‘human being’!
There is existing skepticism, towards the mediums, although physical phenomena were always a constant component to supernatural manifestations. Nevertheless, parapsychology discontinues its research on physical mediums at an increasing rate. More and more the mixture of the involved dynamics for researchers yesterday and today has become too unmanageable: Media, genuine and fake, researchers, sincere and not, believers and skeptics, dogmas and world views, sympathies, antipathies, social differences and missing standards in data collection around the research subject ‘human’ prevented too often eventually any real gain of knowledge. Affirmative attitudes towards ‘physical phenomena’ carried the danger of seeing one’s own reputation called into question – by collegial insinuations of credulity – up to accusations of concrete participation in fraudulent maneuvers.
FEAR FOR ONE’S OWN REPUTATION
Also the involved emotionality of the protagonists was as if seized by the high vibrating energy of a spirit world, researchers acted in the arguments about ‘supernatural’ or ‘not’, again and again exaggerated and emotional, manic and reckless, brutal or even suicidal.
Only a few works within the parapsychological literature on physical mediumship are therefore recognized as generally valuable or even as standard works in comparison with their other fields! Books that had actually advanced the knowledge of mediumship phenomena in some way: methods, as in Schrenck’s ‘Materialization Phenomena’, collections, like Aksakov’s ‘Animism and Spiritism’ or Moser’s ‘Grand Occultism’, analyses, like Senkowski’s ‘Instrumental Transcommunication’ or Hamilton’s photographic method.
HUNTERS AND HUNTED.
For further implications and complications in the handling of human test subjects, the stories about Houdini and Margery (debunker fakes deception of the medium), or about Harry Price and Rudi Schneider (experimenter discredits medium because he does not want to ‘share’ it) and we would have something to contribute as well, but leave it. The world of science lost its prestige during Corona anyway! There is no need for us to follow up!
Kruses new approaches to seance-room research may have been considered aloof, if not presumptuous, as independent and successful as they came along. The peer review processes proved in the following to be very difficult. Were they putting obstacles in his way? A common method when moving beyond a mainstream, even in parapsychology!
Therefore the professor decided to capture his research, the impressions and events, the secrets and results of his research on film to share it with the whole world! Professor Kruse has done a great service to Modern Parapsychology with his methods!
Thank you for the great insights, Professor Kruse
and Dr. Heike Bauder!
Here again part 1 of the series about Modern Parapsychological Field Research
about table levitations…