Regularly we hear complaints about the mediumistic tradition of working in darkened or semi darkened conditions.
Even though there are different demonstrations being done in red light (Kai Muegge, Stewart Alexander, Gordon Garforth, Warren Caylor, Bill Meadows), there is a group of Survivalists, that claim no valuable physical mediumship exists as long as it is not exercised in lighted conditions, ‘like in the past’!
Moreover these parties do claim, Physical Mediumship without having full phantoms walking around makes no sense at all, because no ‘Loved Ones’ would materialise, what the one and only purpose of mediumship ever was, is and always will be!
I would like to present a pleading against these views in four sections:
1. The truth about the past and Full Form Materializations
2. The truth about experimental groups and Physical Mediumship working in light
3. The connection of the supernormal with darkness conditions and the truth about not having infrared allowed (modern theories)
4. A New Testament of Spiritualism
1. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PAST AND FULL FORM MATERIALIZATIONS
Those who have thoroughly studied Physical Mediumship of the past do know: We have a small group of so called ‘Daylight Mediums’, whose number is so small, that they usually should be regarded as a minimal counterballance, a statistical spike against the much larger number of mediumship facilitators in the dark!
These Daylight Mediums were D.D.Home, Eusapia Paladino, Carlos Mirabelli and maybe some more, if we are lucky.
All the other mediums worked mainly in the dark, resp. in such low red light conditions, that Parapsychology coined them ‘Darkness-Mediums’ in addition to the daylight mediums, who caused such a stir among and earned so much recognition by early investigators who could not explain them and of course by their environment because it was baffled to the extreme!
Now there are several parties claiming, that the light conditions at for example a group of better known ‘darkness’-mediums’ – like Alec Harris’, Einer Nielsens’, Helen Duncans’, Gordon Higginsons’ and some other personalities’ – séances were up to a considerable grade basically or more illuminated, to belong to a generally higher class of mediumship, than the ‘darkness-séances’ of today!
Because everything was ‘so visible’ in the past – meanwhile today everything is ‘covered in darkness’ (what is of course false, but to claim that is for some at least sufficient to talk down qualities and reputations of people, they have never sat with, but those on several websites do know it better anyway…)!
The critique in regards to modern Physical Mediumship is thus not only directed to the grade of illumination but also to the character of phenomena, that are produced today! Certain Survivalists claim, that any mediumistic activity in Physical Mediumship is only worthwhile to attend when one might see loved ones planely in a bright light, red or white, and as long as such conditions aren’t ‘reinstalled’, no seance is it worth to visit!
Now let’s check and see what might be revealed differently, because we believe – by checking the historical materials and by observing the psychological and perceptional conditions of sitters at contemporary seances – we can pretty planely show, that
– the lightened conditions at Séances of mediums who facilitated the Full Materialisation (of Loved Ones) was by far not as lightened than it is claimed today
– the ‘quality’ reunions that shall have taken place were mostly and mainly the product of the seeking of bereaved people who gratefully accepted the proposed situation, seeing a strongly hooded figure in extremely dark red light or in outlines inbetween the curtain slits – and projected, motivated by their longing from the loss, simply more into the ‘re-union’, than there actually was!
We are not saying, that there was not a materialised spirit of a loved one present, but we doubt, that it objectively had the alleged quality as described by the personally involved ‘receiver’ and maybe the people who were present listening to the emotional reaction in the moment when all the accumulated feelings within the bereaved did find a floodgate!
A second natural process – also deforming the original event – does set in, immediately after the so called re-union had taken place! What may have only lasted a minute or two, or maybe only seconds, is so quickly over and then there is only the memorized perception of the event left, in which the bereaved had found an outlet for the accumulated and not yet processed feeling of loss and grief – which of course loads up the memory emotionally to a huge degree, and may trans- or deform it somehow in the retrospect.
Unfortunately we were pushed towards this opinion by witnessing so called re-unions in mediumistic sessions all around the world, physically and mentally. At the biggest spiritualist places and with the most famous spiritualist mediums (and not so famous of course) we have been and witnessed on the mental side of mediumship besides maybe 3 to 5 % valuable stuff massively embarrassing fishing techniques, but more important for our theory – also willing ‘receivers’ for messages gravely poor and questionable.
At Physical Seances for example materialised personalities come up in the dark and say ‘Father’ – nothing more – the sitter breaks out in tears and we later hear her rave about the ‘evidential’ character of the re-union! A lot of these cases we have witnessed!
Actually we do not critisize the mediums who stand under a huge pressure to produce survival evidence as dictated by the institutions!
We moreover believe these were re-unions – but by far not as evidential as they turned into in the retrospect and communication to others!
And there is no reason to believe that might have been different in the past as it is in the 21st century!
We have factual evidence, or better said the abcense of evidence, that the uncountable ‘re-unions’ happening at ‘Full Form Seances’ in the past were not as lightened as is it claimed by many!
There are several photos showing Materializations!
But how many photos have you seen of actual re-unions?
Photography was a young technique, that was exercised at every thinkable occasion and even within the seance room, but who has seen ONLY ONE photograph of a materialised returning spirit!?
Not a celebrity! Not a historian figure! No spirit guide! No totally hooded figure showing not one physiological detail?
An actual reunion beetween relatives!? Between friends?
First of all it is interesting to see, that in all areas of life huge amounts of photographs were produced, but within the seance room only a few could be shot! Interestingly that was not because it was somehow forbidden by the trance controls, it was simply too dark to photograph, what contradicts strongly the claim it was all very well lighted.
So the spirit controls allowed photography here and there, by magnesium flash and infrared, as long as the medium was kept in darkness all the time before and after the shot!
Let’s have a look at a few of Full materialisations, that do clearly show, it was allowed to photograph!
And then lets see, what those photos show, that are alleged to show actual re-unions, it is only a handful!
That at least may give us an idea under which conditions these re-unions have taken place and of which at least visual quality they were.
Reunion of Tom Harrison with his “Grandad” in Minnie Harrison Seances, Infrared-Photography.
We believe the photos show clearly of which visual quality the re-unions probably have been, at least is there no evidence at all, that suffices to allege todays physical mediums would work in obviously lesser light conditions.
It seems as if between diverse darkness-materialisation-mediums of today and those of the past no actual visual informational difference does exist.
The only difference is, that a fully hooded figure in dark red light maybe seemed to have more informational value, but in the end a visual confirmation was not makeable as it is not with different Materialisation-Mediums of today!
We know that there are personal descriptions of f.e. facial features of Materializations by the directly involved, but if we are talking about evidence, it must be stated that subjective impression has not necessarily an objective value, as long as you do not strongly wish it to be the case.
We would be happy if anyone would come forward and plead for the opposite by showing any kind of evidence, that the conditions of light at Materialization Séances of the past as well as the re-union-quality were considerably higher and better than it is today.
2. THE TRUTH ABOUT CIRCLES AND PHYSICAL MEDIUMSHIP WORKING IN THE LIGHT
For years contemporary physical mediumship is critisized for its primary working in the dark or darkened conditions and – mostly low – red light.
And from time to time out of the enthusiasm to be against, groups did and do form, that claim to develop within bright daylight or were additionally been told by spirit guides a development into the light would be finally endorsed by them.
I personally heard of and had contact within the last years with three of such circles.
And those of the readers who may have been active on the typical internet sites like PM4U or others also have heard from time to time about such attempts.
A hint that physical phenomena can happen in lighted conditions may also be that some of them having occurred in connection with so called RSPK cases in light. Modern Parapsychology sees behind the most of RSPK (recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis)-events or Poltergeist-Disturbance-Cases ‘uncontrolled physical mediums’, so called ‘Poltergeist-Focus Persons’, persons who seem to utilize the same not yet understood physical or meta-physical ‘mechanic’ or ‘energy’ to move objects, de- and apport, even materialize.
Isn t that a hint, that it should be makeable?
First of all, from the light-circles of the last years we have never heard again.
And in regards to the energetic laws within Poltergeist Cases a strange thing can be observed with the undebatable physical phenomena that are happening there. Happening in daylight or not, the physical phenomena there seem to somehow purposefully evade any inspection or documentation. This is how it appears to field researchers of Physical Phenomena from the beginning on.
It is a very well known parapsychological field research-artifact: For example the most physical phenomena within Poltergeist cases cannot be observed in their initial moments.
Witnesses for example regularly fail to recognize – when objects are paranormally transported through or appear in mid-air – the initial stages of the phenomenon, when things are appearing or starting their ‘flight’!
When photographers are present, the phenomena are still going on, but it seems nearly unmakeable to document them.
So physical phenomena are appearing to be neither fully observable, nor anyhow satisfyably documentable by any devices – even though they are unmistakenly happening!
This weird fact in connection with the actual physical phenomenon is called ‘elusivity’!
A very well known german Parapsychologist has developed a very interesting system-theory in regards to RSPK-cases and the main conditions of observation of so called macro physical phenomena as they are happening in physical séances also.
In his so called ‘De-focus-relation’ Dr. Walter v. Lucadou describes the uncountable cases of ‘failing camera or video-devices’ or the alternative ‘retreated phenomena’ – phenomena simply stop to occur, as soon as researchers with their devices have entered the scene.
Dr. Walter v. Lucadou is a physicist who works at the ‘Parapsychological Consultant Bureau’, where yearly up to 300 partially very strong german Poltergeist Cases are reported to. This high number shows how much this issue is tabooized and explains why Walter was enabled to develop such a theory – because he had access to a huge number of cases, phenomena and their characteristics.
Once being part of the Eichhalde-Institute at the University of Freiburg, the parapsychological consultant bureau advises people from all walks of life who suddenly have to deal with the paranormal stepping or breaking into their lifes.
The Eichhalde Institute was founded by the iconic Prof. Hans Bender, who was a kind of celebrity within public awareness because he like noone else presented the world of the unexplained within public TV-discussions and documentaries and during his legendary courses at the University for his students in massively overcrowded auditoriums!
So from the whole German speaking countries people contact the Freiburg team when they are guessless in regards to their childrens clairvoyant dreams or other unexplained occurrences down to the most massive physical phenomena cases like the yearly amounts middle of unbelievable 300 cases of Poltergeist Intrusions with all the known physical effects. Stone bombardements as well as the well known ‘mimikry-noises’ (noises imitating all sorts of human actions, like footsteps, crying, voices, knockings and so forth) or the intimidating movement of objects, like large furniture or the throwing of or sudden appearrance of objects, are counted to the most initial phenomena within a much wider range of unexplainable effects.
Very well known contemporary cases like the Enfield-, the Southshield- or the Rosenheim-Case all failed to deliver their physical phenomena documented on modern video recording devices.
And despite the fact that the physical phenomena are unquestionably happening – an accepted fact among parapsychological researchers – until today the phenomena themselves usually manage to avoid to appear on any video- or photo-device.
Either the devices fail, or the recordings are heavily disturbed by unknown influences or the phenomenology simply stops when the mental or camera lenses focus were onto them!
Being enabled to actually try different techniques and methods in the attempt to record physical phenomena Walter v. Lucadou recognized a highly interesting connection.
He found out, that the direct grasp of the human perception, especially the visual sense itself or a device created for it, seemed to destroy the phenomenon.
So Dr. v. Lucadou startet to observe and record the physical phenomena differently and quickly achieved to film a long row of physical phenomena, today all archived at the Institute of Freiburg.
He detected, that as soon, as observers weren t anymore trying to grasp a paranormal occurrence having a full and direct focus onto it, phenomenons ‘elusivity’ obviously decreased.
He started thus to film through defocussed lenses (origin of the word ‘defocus-relation’) or through mirrors and saw a definite decline of the elusivity factor!
Is that thinkable?
Today we know how much our mind is entangled with the outer world. In fact the outer world, as we are recognizing it, is not existing as we are experiencing it, it is our mental system which correlates, that what we see, we actually can feel and smell, the whole world is built within us, reading a certain pattern in a huge molecular construct.
And certain phenomena of quantum level and in quantum theory seem to clearly backup the observed behaviour of elusive phenomena resp. the idea, that our consciousness could get involved in a way finally destroying the phenomenon itself.
Now let’s transport that into the seance room.
3. THE CONNECTION OF THE SUPERNORMAL WITH DARKNESS AND THE TRUTH ABOUT NOT HAVING INFRARED ALLOWED
Darkness and dark, red light! What for? Really only to hide fraudulency?
Maybe here and there, but mainly we are on track of another much more underlaying true pattern!
In traditions much, much older than Spiritualism, the need for darkness is also well known!
For example North American Medicin Men also need the darkness when they call the spirits physically into the room by prayer – for healing and guidance and help – in their Yuwipi-Ceremonies. The ancestor spirits of the Lakota then materialize physically within the room – as long as the room is fully darkened.
The medicin men by the way during the materializations of the spirits are ‘compartimentalized’ – like mediums in their cabinets – enwrapped and strictly roped within holy blankets like mummies to show, that in the darkness not the medicin men are talking to or touching the attending people or are responsible for the other physical phenomena happening in the ceremony room.
Now back to the question, what the real purpose of darkness is within the seance-, or the Yuwipi ceremonial-room.
Its purpose could exactly be the ‘de-focus’-momentum that helped v. Lucadou to observe ‘his’ physical phenomena! And it is actually thinkable, that following the above it is in fact the necessity not allowing us to directly grab onto the phenomena itself with our conscious mental system or our devices (infrared) – what keeps the regularly unstable phenomena stable within the seance room – not the darkness itself!
So it is a purpose darkness actually fulfills – and not the need for darkness itself!
If that is the full truth we do not know either. But that darkness is a initial and unavoidable factor we clearly see when we are reflecting the history of the archetypical experiences of mankind with the ‘occult’. See the word ‘occult’ itself, which is the oldest word describing the whole range of the unexplained. Historically the Latin word is describing all the non-understood phenomena around the human being.
But what does the word ‘occult’ actually say? In the most translations you will find terms like ‘hidden’, ‘secret’, ‘mysterious’ which all aren t representing the right original meaning of the word-stem.
‘Occult’ does mean rightly translated ‘that what comes from darkness‘ and transports thus the undeniable obvious: If you are bringing up an experimental group with truthful people wanting to try out the ‘mechanics’ of the occult by for example doing table sessions, they’ll experience that the table is in darkened conditions simply more active than in more lighted ones. And wanting to have results every experimenter creates environments to have them and accepts sooner or later the darkness as a necessary condition.
Because things simply do not go bump by daylight! The ‘witching-‘, or in german ‘ghosts-‘, ‘hour’ is simply not happening at high noon! And the frightening Succubi, Incubi and Bedroom visitors are simply not coming in lighted conditions!
All these known events are connected to darkness!
We even believe that this seemingly ancient knowledge has found its way into or is embedded within our DNA-based knowledge already.
The widespread fear of darkness especially of very small children is a clear hint to such a hypothesis. Many parents experience their very young children having strong fears in darkness: Being afraid about things that may hide in the night within the closet or in the darkness under the bed and the want to have the door open a little bit to have the incoming light chase away the frightening unknown.
This is a widespread phenomenon and very well known among parents!
And it is in fact a phenomenon, because the childrens fears are absolutely unexplainable and can only come from deep planes of the childrens sub-consciousness, because they originally should connect and associate darkness with their memory of the main haven of safety for every human being: the motherly womb, where they should have learned to connect darkness with absolute safety and comfort.
But something seems to be stronger – the ancient knowledge, that darkness triggers something else: The frightening supernatural forces whose presence and powers are bound to it.
And when we consider the necessities of the Seance Room even only on the perceptional plane of psychology it is the case, that during our whole lifes our visual senses constitute our everyday realities which are thus very prominent and present. Maybe everyday reality and its perception first needs to be cut off, before something else can constitute in our cognition.
If we look into the future of Physical Mediumship with these ideas in mind – about how things might be connected – darkness – as being necessarily entangled with the creational forces our consciousness is part of – maybe can be finally tolerated!
Let’s take it with an American Philospher who once said: ‘I can see, and that is why i can be happy. In light I see a man-made world, but what you call darkness is to me golden, and I see a god-made world!’
4. THE NEW TESTAMENT OF SPIRITUALISM
Our criticism goes further. It is especially directed towards the group of Survivalists who have turned Spirituality into a european spiritualistic dogma condemning every form of practicised mediumship not working solely for the purpose of proving survival and the personal re-union between spirit and man.
160 years ago, the Western Hemisphere was contacted by a union of spirit entities!
Western Society stood in front of its biggests challenges: The American Civil War, Entry into the Age of Industrialism, Entry into the Age of Materialism, Loss of Values, the First World War and Entry into the Atomic Age.
All these eras were shaken by huge existential fears or loss of life.
So it was probably not by chance, that at exactly this point in time humanity was contacted by a higher force! And this higher force came in form of our own ancestors towards us, telling us about the survival of bodily death with the purpose to create finally a western society of privileged who were the pioneers of an awareness-enhanced humanity or society from whose shoulders the main questions about the meaning of life were taken away and thus could live lifes in a beforehand unknown form of freedom. A society that could change its culture of death, which was reigned by ignorance and expulsion. A society in which the individual was not being frightened anymore all his lifes efforts would end in limbo. A society that could celebrate freed being part in a bigger creational picture.
It did not happen. The given knowledge had not enough impact onto the new materialistic thinking and ego-oriented human being who could not personally get over the loss of a loved one. And after the enunciators of the new revelation about Survival had spread their message their followers formed another religion and turned the revelation into a form of daily service to satisfy the needs of those who could only think and feel anymore in terms of ownership and loss and not in terms of holism and ‘let go’, like so many other cultures celebrate the moment the soul becomes freed from its bodily bonds.
Of course we are not critisizing grieving people, but we critisize a way of life that disenables the bereaved of getting over, letting go, because our society expulses to face the creational circle we are all in. It is necessary that we largely reflect about these questions to be able in the end to deal with the deaths of loved ones, as with our own deaths!
So a religion was formed that claims to herald Survival of the Human Soul but use every of its services to prove and prove it again, what is a sacrileg within. Higher spiritual truths simply cannot be proven because they are laying outside of our realms of comprehension!
So who is it, who built this form of religion in which its followers are much too often exposed to services and mediums, who cannot give any objective proof because of lack of real link or training, ability or whatever?
Is it a silent agreement? The bereaved in their state of loss want to accept things as proof which in reality are not. Of course we know that there are quality messages given also, but will they ever prove an afterlife? When we condsider the existence of an Akasha-Chronic or of a morphogenetical informational field in which all the memories of man are stored in, we’ll never learn, if the medium haven’t been in contact with such a thing instead with the deceased him- or herself.
It simply cannot be proven!
Today the main spiritualistic institutions in Europe – on the english isles – do strictly forbide their mediums to enhance or change the original mechanistical ideas of spiritualism about a here-and-now connected with an afterlife-realm of existence – into which the deceased human being transitions and lives there partially comparably like in the here and now. Simply forbide their religions’ facilitators, the mediums, to live plurality or develop their practices and philosophies further, face to face with modern scientific and spiritual concepts of the new millenium.
Knowledge has grown so considerably and mediums today are enabeled to receive and understand much more complex information than let’s say 1885. Why is that not allowed? Why was it chosen to keep up partially most naive ideas of an afterlife, in which we more or less exist in comparable manners as in the here-and-now.
Behaviourism has only one answer to this: Spiritualists do not believe their own message, otherwise it wouldn t be necessary to have in every service mediums ‘show proof’ of Survival, what should be long since deeply intergrated into their personal belief-system in the first place.
We even see dangers in that ‘regularly service’-behaviour. Many independent mediums talk about the fact, that ‘love’ does not give no right, nor reason to repeatedly ‘summon’ the deceased for mental or physical mediumship services!
Love is not a state which is pure by nature! We all know, that love can take monstrous and sick forms, that can lead in the end to hatred and even insanity. It is only the most purest form, what we call ‘unconditional love’ that has the purity we all do admire.
But ‘love’ more or less is the justification to do these services! Love beyond the grave! But isn’t it a kind of an unlucky, a desperate love?! What does the other part say? And is it true, that strong unprocessed grief and loss, covered behind the term love actually binds the deceased to the earth plane, hindering him or her to actually step fully into new dimensional environments, like some communicators do claim?
We do not know, but we cannot fully reject it neither!
A communicator once repeatedly said: ‘Love is actually a strong bond and it vibrates through the dimensional portals! Don’t turn your love into a tool to detain, to withhold – turn your love into a tool to let go! Because your loved ones permanently have to grade down back into the terms and environments of the earths plane, when you cannot get over it – it hinders them to fully step into their disembodied destiny!’
If we look at it from a social and anthropological background all mediumship efforts are originally shamanistic tradition!
The role of every medium today is the original role of the shaman, demonstrating to the public that there are worlds beyond our perception existing more or less inbeteween us and at the same time.
No shaman in its 20.000 years old tradition would have had the idea to prove the ancestor-spirit is actually who he claims to be for several reasons. It would insult the spirit and moreover already in these age-old cultures it was well known that the spirits were who they claimed to be, but that the transition had changed them into something else also.
Ancestors within shamanism in so far only play a role as mighty consciousness potentials or gate keepers with whom the shaman gets in contact with, to guide the shaman, to help him to travel the ‘spirit-world’, to learn about the matrix of conscious, physical and spiritual forms of existence and to give him important information in regards to the everyday needs of the people.
We do need a New Testament of Spiritualism in which the truth of survival is the unquestioned revelation and message!
Mediums are there to connect with their spirit guides to learn about the construct of the different forms of reality within altered states of consciousness, of which one is what we call ‘death’!
During their services mediums study the metaphysical and share with their community what they have learned theoretically and practically!
The spiritual realm becomes uncloaked as the home of many forms of existence of the most strangest nature, with which we can get in contact with and learn from!
We create a spiritualistic testament in the spirit of plurality and not let any dogmas deform or regulate the experiences in the spiritual realm.
Every medium is allowed to enhance its worldview by scientific and spiritual concepts without getting banned from a huge Head-Organisation under which roof the mediums can experiment freely to develop, step by step, a gigantic pool of information by non-preconceived human spirit workers to the benefit of all who like to learn more about that vessel, that stands in the middle of all the questions we have talked about: our consciousness!
K.M.