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Media Watch for August 2002 (Issue 9)
An Orb Photography Study. We found an excellent article describing a study of orb photography in the Winter 2001 issue of The Spiritual Scientist, published by the Scole Group in Great Britain. In the author’s words, “I have worked for a photographic company for twelve years so have a good base for photography. A customer came in with the problem of ‘Spheres’ in a photo taken with a new digital camera. That was the start of a three-month project to find the cause. They had the belief that it was the spirit of their baby who had died less than a year old. I was hoping in a way it was, for all concerned. We tried about 6-7 digital cameras, but couldn't get the Spheres on all of them. What was also strange was that the spheres appeared to be predominately around women. At first, using their camera, I could not get the effect, but eventually I did after several attempts. I felt that it was a bit like psychometry, as you had to link to the vibration of the object to get the answers.”
The author describes his search for the truth, at one point stating that, “Sometimes it seemed the Spheres would appear as a response to something I had said.” Fuji even exchanged the original problem camera. However, in the end, and despite everyone’s desire that the orbs would be entities, the author concluded through experimentation that they were light reflecting off of dust.
Clairvoyants often report seeing orbs when they become aware of the presence of an entity, and we know that there is the possibility of finding orbs that represent entities in our photographs. It is more common to find orbs that represent flash-illuminated dust and rain, or light flairs caused by a flash or the sun reflecting off of something shinny in or near the field of view of the camera. Telling the difference can be quite challenging, but it is important to understand the difference.
Not Going to the Light. We have received an email from a woman whose father recently died, but has remained to “haunt” his surviving family. Typical disturbances are garage doors opening on their own, the sound of footsteps following people, apparitions of the father and a persistent sense of “someone there.” At least four of the family have experienced all of these phenomena. It is also interesting that the women in contact with us asked her father (insisted, actually) to leave the garage door alone. He has, but persists in opening her sister’s garage door.
This person is not a Spiritualist, but we tell you of this report because it brings up an important aspect of our responsibility as Spiritualists. She contacted us as part of a desperate effort to understand what was happening to her family and to find out what to do about it. We have addressed her concerns by giving her a framework in which to understand why her father might not have gone on, and by giving her a way to help him. We also referred her to a local Spiritualist church. In essence, we told her about the concepts of Spiritualism and how to talk to her father to suggest that he completes his transition. This is typical “rescue” work of “stuck” entities that many Spiritualists perform. Knowing what to expect when we transition helps to protect us from becoming “stuck.” As Spiritualists, we have an important service to provide to others, both as rescue workers for the deceased and as advisors to their family.
Gary Schwartz’s New Book. Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D. is professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona and director of its Human Energy Systems Laboratory. Many of you are probably familiar with Dr Schwartz and the experiments done at the Human Energy Systems Laboratory on Mediumship in which the Reverend Anne Gehman participated. His experiments with mediums have created considerable controversy in the media and "skeptical" press, probably because they offer credible evidence for survival. The experimental design used to test the mediums ruled out conventional explanations of fraud, cold reading, vague information, and statistical coincidence. The experiments are now detailed in the new book, The Afterlife Experiments by Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., with William L. Simon. www.openmindsciences.com/
The International Survivalist Society (ISS). A new survivalist society has been formed by Tom M. Jones of the U.K. and David Duffield of the U.S. The group writes that the sole objective of the ISS is to disseminate the scientific proof of survival of death on a global level. “We aim to provide a scientifically valid alternative to religion (belief and faith), pseudo-skepticism (irrational dogmatism) and orthodox science (defending current paradigms). By disseminating hard-to-find and valuable survivalist material we also hope to provide an invaluable research tool for both lay-persons and professionals.” The website at www.survivalafterdeath.org includes works by Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Arthur Findlay, Arthur Conan Doyle and many other eminent figures.
Victor Zammit on the Jeff Rense Show. Victor Zammit, the author of A Lawyer Presents The Case for the Afterlife, was recently interviewed on the Jeff Rense radio show. He said that there were twenty-four different types of evidence that prove the afterlife. EVP was the first proof that was discussed. Victor called EVP objective evidence that is happening in many different countries and even in the Vatican. “EVP is something that can be objectively demonstrated. It can be shown that it is scientific,” Victor said.
The
Foundation of Legend.
The May 2002 issue of Fate Magazine ran a short piece from The
London Telegraph on mysterious cone-shaped golden objects that have been
found in archaeological digs in Europe for the last 167 years.
At first the objects were thought to be vases but now German
archaeologists and historians have concluded that the objects are conical wizard
hats worn by ancient European magicians. The
hats are embellished with astrological symbols.
So now we know where the idea for those pointy wizard hats, portrayed in
books and cartoons, may have come from. |
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