tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14045527360617866672024-03-05T08:48:28.557-08:00Is there life after death?A summary of my personal investigation and researchSparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-21889882135241359322013-02-14T12:59:00.000-08:002013-02-15T15:35:12.934-08:00Is there a one true religion? In searching for the truth regarding such large questions as "is there life after death" we see there are many religions in the world which claim to offer answers to this question.<br />
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Certainly all religions may offer things which are both beneficial as well as harmful to people and societies, but is there a one true religion? How can we know which religion is true?<br />
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If by trying to find the one true religion our search involves investigating peoples sincerity, then we shall get no where, for every religious person out there will swear to you they have the truth and may sincerely believe it. How people feel about something does not constitute evidence. Someone may "feel" they have found the one true religion, but another person from a different religion may equally claim the same thing, with equal amounts of certainty.<br />
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When all is said and done, all religion really has to offer as evidence are its holy scriptures of choice. Books which were written thousands of years ago. Yet one must ask- if religious scriptures like the Bible did not exist, how would those religious people discover the truth about life, death and everything?<br />
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Compare this with spiritualism, which offers a large quantity of evidence in many different forms- Near Death Experiences, EVP, Apparitions, Physical Mediumship, Mental Mediumship, Hauntings, Video and Photographic evidence and so on. Say what you will about the quality of the evidence, but there is at least, a large quantity of evidence to be investigated. Evidence that is not simply from one period in history but from which phenomenon can be found far back in human history up to the modern day, in all corners of the world.<br />
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What this tells us is that in pursuit of truth regarding spiritual matters, one has the choice between blind faith that religion has to offer and examining a very large base of modern and historical evidence to be found in Spiritualism.<br />
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Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-91931886425345126992011-09-20T13:07:00.000-07:002011-09-20T13:07:18.794-07:00Sir William Crookes and the ghost of Katie King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7XQ6OIEljulm562WBWk1bQMbtl0fXeWqXA9xtlclbBepGBwP98_78C1VMGCVleYKLtj19OhhGCmbk7gr7Q02y0c-FCnN0R92_LnnCT234NYoOrWGNQgTrzdcPSUCuf4nCRqFL0XRkEiu/s1600/sir+william+crookes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7XQ6OIEljulm562WBWk1bQMbtl0fXeWqXA9xtlclbBepGBwP98_78C1VMGCVleYKLtj19OhhGCmbk7gr7Q02y0c-FCnN0R92_LnnCT234NYoOrWGNQgTrzdcPSUCuf4nCRqFL0XRkEiu/s1600/sir+william+crookes.jpg" xaa="true" /></a></div><strong>Sir William Crookes (1832-1919)</strong> was a prominant scientist, physicist and chemist. He was renouned for the skill, execution and preciseness of his experiments. <br />
Crookes felt that he had a duty as a scientist to investigate the phenomena related to the wider question of whether or not there is any part of us which survives physical death. <br />
The phenomena he researched in regard to this question largely focussed on claims of materialization mediumship (or "physical mediumship") - individuals who claimed to act as an agent through which spirits from the other side could draw on a substance from the mediums own body known as ectoplasm to mould into their form and manifest themselves in our physical reality.<br />
Crookes was determined to conduct an impartial investigation into these claims and imposed the condition on mediums that they must do their sittings at his own house, with his own selection fo friends present and under strictly controlled conditions which he sets. <br />
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Crookes was able to study the famous mediums of his day including Kate Fox, Florence Cook and Daniel Dunglas Home and came the conclusion through his research that these mediums were at the very least producing phenomena which cannot be explained via ordinary means.<br />
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Medium Florence Cook was said to be fully materializing the spirit of a woman named Katie King in seances which began around the year 1871. Florence was only about 15 years old when the pheneomena began. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nvhNWmqggfH1cANoa9Lme2mhWsOclavLYOsTX_uCGh3KTBPythXUo2inYXU0cI1Yg31spTMHfv3cELsmqH2LQFbltOI_eIWbVfaXyPVjZdSgA6Y63M1yzE7CpZpRYIjgG9bqpmxK1bPn/s1600/Katie_King.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7nvhNWmqggfH1cANoa9Lme2mhWsOclavLYOsTX_uCGh3KTBPythXUo2inYXU0cI1Yg31spTMHfv3cELsmqH2LQFbltOI_eIWbVfaXyPVjZdSgA6Y63M1yzE7CpZpRYIjgG9bqpmxK1bPn/s320/Katie_King.gif" width="288" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Katie King was said to look very similar to the medium Florance Cook, which aroused skepticism that Florance and Katie King were simply the same person, with Florence mascurading around as a ghost.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When William Crookes attended one of Cook's seances, he claimed to have heard moaning from within the spirit cabinet which lead him to wonder whether Florance and Katie may well be seperate individuals. This event made Crookes determined to conduct a thorough investigation of Florence Cooks mediumship. In his investigation of Florence Cook, William Crookes asked the medium to stay at his home and perform seances. This way Crookes would be fully in control of the investigation and hope to rule out fraud.<br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">In support of Katie King and Florence Cook being two seperate individuals, Crookes as well as other witnesses noted several physical differences between the two. Katie was larger built. Different colour hair. Unpierced ears. Florence at one stage was found to have a blister on her neck, whilst Katie did not. </div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">William Crookes had this to say about the idea of Katie King and Florence Cook being the same person:</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>"I have the most absolute certainty that Miss Cook and Katie are two separate individuals so far as their bodies are concerned. Several little marks on Miss Cook’s face are absent on Katie’s. Miss Cook’s hair is so dark a brown as to almost to appear black; a look at Katie’s, which is now before me, and which she allowed me to cut from her luxuriant tresses, having first traced it up to the scalp and satisfied myself that that it actually grew there, is a rich golden auburn.” </em></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjGP4i0uyPcMltqhCAWbeIBummVGOlhJ9ZV_SLRST0xhXT-WcBGFNISmA1et8R1IhneIgUiYh3_XtdiRntcU2mGW8KaBu4KL-fS7TjktOtXtyNCW74DtxrhCsi0gBfhNuvj1A0AmiJKus/s1600/crookeskatieking1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjGP4i0uyPcMltqhCAWbeIBummVGOlhJ9ZV_SLRST0xhXT-WcBGFNISmA1et8R1IhneIgUiYh3_XtdiRntcU2mGW8KaBu4KL-fS7TjktOtXtyNCW74DtxrhCsi0gBfhNuvj1A0AmiJKus/s320/crookeskatieking1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">In addition to this, William Crookes also said:</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>“[For approximately six months] Miss Cook has been a frequent visitor at my house, remaining sometimes a week at a time. She brings nothing with her but a little hand bag, not locked; during the day she is constantly in the presence of Mrs. Crookes, myself, or some other member of the family, and, not sleeping by herself, there is absolutely no opportunity for any preparation even of a less elaborate character than would be required for enacting Katie King.” </em></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Could it be possible that it was in fact an accomplice masquerading as Katie King? A likely candidate perhaps being Florence Cook's sister. </div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">In the course of these experiments, William Crookes claimed to have actually witnessed Florence Cook and the alleged spirit of Katie King at the same time, however his accounts of these incidents appear to lack detail and to the highly skeptical it could still be argued that Crookes simply saw an accomplice who had her face covered by a hood, whilst Florence Cook was acting the part of Katie King.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Could it have been an accomplice? According to William Crookes:</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>“I prepare and arrange my library myself as the dark cabinet, and usually, after Miss Cook has been dining and conversing with us, and scarcely out of our sight for a minute, she walks direct into the cabinet, and I, at here request, lock its second door, and keep possession of the key all through the séance; the gas is then turned out, and Miss Cook is left in the darkness. On entering the cabinet, Miss Cook lies down upon the floor, with her head on the pillow, and is soon entranced."</em></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It seems difficult to imagine how an accomplice could have entered into this arrangement without such things as trap doors, which would not have been present in Crookes' home, under the controlled conditions. </div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It is said that William Crookes took numerous photographs of these materializations but it seems the vast majority of these photographs are no longer available. </div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">9 December, 1873 - A man named William Volckman attended one of Florence Cook's seances. Volckman was a skeptic and believed that Katie King and Florence Cook were one and the same person. In order to prove this theory, during the seance he waited for Katie King to materialize and then made a grab for the alleged spirit. A struggle then took place, Volckman was then held back by other sitters and the alleged spirit of Katie King escaped back into the spirit cabinet. Once things had calmed down about 5 minuets later, the curtain of the spirit cabinet was pulled back- and Florence was still there securely bound- the seals unbroken. An examination of Florence also found no trace of the white clothes that Katie King wore. </span></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This "exposure" did cast much doubt on the mediumship of Florence Cook, however some would also question Volckman's motives and there are theories that he may have been hired on a deliberate agenda to try and discredit her mediumship.</span></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqXy7r_8v25eBX8fKwtFLkrVJHyC_YODGMuD8X3t5uiTIsryAdVEeMQ7gF7CifpMoWx1O00YSluZmHRbLRbGVUakkoAneOCJJZBXsfkzTyRiygQX68OUjltTMwD1QYYuDcpy1Tq_b7Oh5h/s1600/katiecrookes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqXy7r_8v25eBX8fKwtFLkrVJHyC_YODGMuD8X3t5uiTIsryAdVEeMQ7gF7CifpMoWx1O00YSluZmHRbLRbGVUakkoAneOCJJZBXsfkzTyRiygQX68OUjltTMwD1QYYuDcpy1Tq_b7Oh5h/s1600/katiecrookes.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center">The fact is Florence Cook was brought to William Crookes' home and examined under strict conditions by a man of science and the materializations occurred under various levels of lighting and photographic and physical evidence was captured on numerous occasions. William Crookes felt completely certain that Katie King and Florence Cook were NOT the same individual- having examined them and also seen them both together on some occasions. His strict conditions also appear to rule out the idea of an accomplice acting as Katie King. It must be said however that William Crooke's notes on the subject lack detail and do to some extent require an element of faith in his word. His testimony is certainly valuable due to his scientific credibility. </div><br />
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</div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-70329403248859024202011-09-02T16:35:00.000-07:002011-09-02T16:35:26.505-07:00Spirit Photography<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/cZGfH8TJ13c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mFf2ZAylLEk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-86616513153425650872011-08-28T13:54:00.000-07:002011-08-28T13:54:46.965-07:00Interesting video: The science of eternityI recently came across a very interesting video which contains a number of interviews with people who had experiences with physical mediumship and also talking about the scientific aspects of how life after death is possible. <br />
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Although the video is now obviously a little dated, there's no doubt that there is a great wealth of information and survival evidence packed into roughly an hours worth of viewing material. <br />
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I was particularly interested to see in parts 3 and 4 of this video another rare interview with Tom Harrison- the son of materialization medium Minnie Harrison. There is also a fascinating story of two parents who were reunited with their deceased son during a materialization seance. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibPlspMNq8o&feature=related">Part Two</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02I2TEKKOjQ&feature=related">Part Three</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raIYnqWp8Gk&feature=related">Part Four</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axn0j-67-Z0&feature=related">Part Five</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADxYnU7NH5U&feature=related">Part Six</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hCDhAK-BL0&feature=related">Part Seven </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Da22fzBK-0&feature=related">Part Eight</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-31155024015014679042011-08-20T09:38:00.000-07:002011-08-20T09:46:31.602-07:00Ectoplasm: captured on film?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkSgXSxy27biAJDshsmCZ4nkPUxl40GtJqLCmFTLLGNR5c5bO7Lfsz-d6X0lgxpeAWH-E_O6ekld02xSefUBUY5ZB0-0_p3vpjp2h1SgfWP0A-56E3zfGMmBSQTxhPZ0zM4SEa9Xc4W4Tq/s1600/Schrenck-Notzing.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkSgXSxy27biAJDshsmCZ4nkPUxl40GtJqLCmFTLLGNR5c5bO7Lfsz-d6X0lgxpeAWH-E_O6ekld02xSefUBUY5ZB0-0_p3vpjp2h1SgfWP0A-56E3zfGMmBSQTxhPZ0zM4SEa9Xc4W4Tq/s1600/Schrenck-Notzing.gif" /></a></div><strong>Albert Von Schrenck-Notzing (1862-1929)</strong> was a German physician who did a great deal of research into the paranormal, particularly physical mediumship. His book, "<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/phenomenaofmater00schr">Phenomena of materialization</a>" was published in 1920 (which can be viewed by clicking the link). <br />
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Albert Von Schrenck-Notzing is said to have found in the course of his investigations that ectoplasm is composed of white or colorless blood cells called leucocytes, which are extracted from the body of the physical medium during materialization. <br />
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Von Schrenck investigated a number of mediums including Eva Carreire, Willi & Rudi Shneider and Stanislawa P. <br />
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<strong>The following photographs</strong> taken of polish medium Stanislawa P by<strong> </strong>Albert Von Schrenck-Notzing show the medium demonstrating the emission of ectoplasm- even through netting which was placed over her head to prevent trickery in the form of regurgitating materials through her mouth. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccQL3ng609qRa7G2iaJKLG9Kpe91fZmfUE_pCSifV5SGKBi9F7jwBP22iVZ4_IVvc1Pwk182GmVblllhDv2XyrTJt3gCOFurdeVNGyPisuS_tON23DEGqHIL_erse2jT1SGhTbdLjqpQr/s1600/Albert-StanislawaP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccQL3ng609qRa7G2iaJKLG9Kpe91fZmfUE_pCSifV5SGKBi9F7jwBP22iVZ4_IVvc1Pwk182GmVblllhDv2XyrTJt3gCOFurdeVNGyPisuS_tON23DEGqHIL_erse2jT1SGhTbdLjqpQr/s320/Albert-StanislawaP2.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Above: Photograph taken 25 January 1913 </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDK00iX_NYNEiCKxhRi-XyNZyCVbcwgk_9WdoHT6WZRFnOs67L0S6oGXQ_OqIs7qFkzUAHO6zvNKKEDHimXKG_7-iZNifIRAjpuDfazhtOeOB-Ey-h4Xm3psDXy5AhVy-8GER3l5U44JY/s1600/Albert-StanislawaP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDK00iX_NYNEiCKxhRi-XyNZyCVbcwgk_9WdoHT6WZRFnOs67L0S6oGXQ_OqIs7qFkzUAHO6zvNKKEDHimXKG_7-iZNifIRAjpuDfazhtOeOB-Ey-h4Xm3psDXy5AhVy-8GER3l5U44JY/s320/Albert-StanislawaP.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Above: Photograph taken 23 June 1913</div></td></tr>
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</tbody></table><strong>Ectoplasm caught on film for the first time</strong><br />
Sitting with a polish medium named Stanislawa P, Schrenck-Notzing was able to capture the emission and resorption of ectoplasm on cinematograph for the very first time. In his tests with Stanislawa P, Schrenck-Notzing also covered her head with a layer of netting which he claimed would eliminate the possibility of the medium regurgitating substances through her mouth. The medium was still able to produce ectoplasm even with the netting over her head. <br />
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This film is apparently today archived at the University of Freiburg at the institute of Parapsychology. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>25th June, 1913: Ectoplasm captured on film</strong></div><div align="center"><strong>Rare Frame captures: from the film showing ectoplasm emitting from medium Stanislawa P </strong></div><div align="center"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8E1piAq5FCu0ImFJNOpYgMf4GaKeoG2SBANmts_ld6D70K5oFLZZo2cnHsKR33QU49Sw3S1wAveaL6xUkgJACDPzSl7VBtOfsvO8BcupMWXnLERO0DQ0fBgmVwHUefOEraxZjlMOQIqL/s1600/StanislawaFilm01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8E1piAq5FCu0ImFJNOpYgMf4GaKeoG2SBANmts_ld6D70K5oFLZZo2cnHsKR33QU49Sw3S1wAveaL6xUkgJACDPzSl7VBtOfsvO8BcupMWXnLERO0DQ0fBgmVwHUefOEraxZjlMOQIqL/s320/StanislawaFilm01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEleKYeU9ah-azdY6boncGgRXRJ4pWLy7V_rkVOitZRbiVY6Yog0YKjKJm4sJAKRvxWg3nHCzykebG0koVKxlVtKNaZwxfdhFAwkWlmvZkL7sZZf5wFPqlNOJsOmACS7D9AFWz4ZBEa22c/s1600/helenduncan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEleKYeU9ah-azdY6boncGgRXRJ4pWLy7V_rkVOitZRbiVY6Yog0YKjKJm4sJAKRvxWg3nHCzykebG0koVKxlVtKNaZwxfdhFAwkWlmvZkL7sZZf5wFPqlNOJsOmACS7D9AFWz4ZBEa22c/s1600/helenduncan.jpg" /></a></div>One of the most famous physical (materialization) mediums in recent history was a lady named <b>Helen Duncan (1897-1956)</b>. Helen Duncan was born and lived in Scotland and was alleged to have possessed paranormal abilities beginning in her early childhood. Helen married at the age of 20 and had six children. Employed as a factory worker, Helen had to work hard to support her family, because her husband, Henry Duncan, had been injured during his involvement in World War 1 and was rendered unable to work. Despite caring for 6 children and working to support her family, in her spare time Helen continued to develop herself as a clairvoyant and around the year 1926, Helen developed abilities as a physical medium, able to summon spirits whilst in a trance state and emit ectoplasm, a substance which allows spirits to materialize themselves in a physical form.<br />
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<b>World War 2 and the HMS Barham sinking</b><br />
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As would be expected, Helen found her claimed abilities as a medium in greatest demand during the time of World War 2 when many people were loving loved ones as a result of the war and there was a great deal of uncertainty and despair. During this period, Helen Duncan moved to live in Portsmouth which was essentially the home of the Royal Navy and not the best place to be at this time due to it being a major target for enemy attacks.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxvL7L15vaG4mKEHzBFCHeBV4N4yY1BnM2BRGuI1mUVYciYt_vMoOr1LEQx2n32oaUaetxSYdUUz7eqYkwyR3XQiKHVa8ffLN81_4MQYaDCh13U2litTstXx-5GkT2xmGvLheiz4i19kq/s1600/HMSBarham.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxvL7L15vaG4mKEHzBFCHeBV4N4yY1BnM2BRGuI1mUVYciYt_vMoOr1LEQx2n32oaUaetxSYdUUz7eqYkwyR3XQiKHVa8ffLN81_4MQYaDCh13U2litTstXx-5GkT2xmGvLheiz4i19kq/s1600/HMSBarham.gif" /></a></div>It was during this time, in 1941 when during a seance, Helen Duncan was able to fully materialize the spirit of a sailor who wore his naval cap which on it was written the name of his ship- HMS Barham. He announced that he had recently been killed as a result of his ship, HMS Barham being taken down by the enemy in the Mediterranean. This information had not at the time been made public by the government who had completely denied it and kept it a secret that HMS Barham was taken down when a German U-Boat U331 had torpedoed the ship. Apparently the government had only informed some individuals on a confidential basis that they had lost loved ones but kept secret from the public at large that 861 British seamen had been lost, in order to protect public moral and mislead the enemy.<br />
Once news had spread, this incident lead to the authorities taking greater notice of Helen Duncan's activities.<br />
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<b>1944 Arrest and trial</b> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2bzkNbM8z5ujs3iEMGMGywHydaTCV-2DFX05BVAOFDisgPo2gQ95Xf6tvUrQwWWicCLJwnOYWKqSfjjQdgleQKP3QAwGfUGIm03OBVdPpfsEfvZdf68m5MTRYUSwNsVn0gBY0FLSZ-7v/s1600/times.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2bzkNbM8z5ujs3iEMGMGywHydaTCV-2DFX05BVAOFDisgPo2gQ95Xf6tvUrQwWWicCLJwnOYWKqSfjjQdgleQKP3QAwGfUGIm03OBVdPpfsEfvZdf68m5MTRYUSwNsVn0gBY0FLSZ-7v/s1600/times.gif" /></a></div>In January 1944, police raided one of Helen Duncan's seances in her then hometown of Portsmouth just as a spirit manifestation was taking place. It was rumoured that the reason for this raid was due to a paranoia on behalf of authorities that Duncan might reveal further details of classified information such as that of the imminent D-Day landings. In other words, she was viewed as a potential threat to national security. <br />
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Duncan, along with three members of her audience were arrested and taken to court. This court case was extensively covered by the media. <i>The Times newspaper </i>at the time reported that during this raid, Helen Duncan was caught red handed in the act of faking the spirit phenomena. It was alleged that the "spirit" which was apparently manifesting at the time was actually Helen Duncan herself, concealed in white cloth and that she was also found in possession of a HMS Barham hat-band which would have been used to fabricate the phenomena.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoMRih_F0d9C9ji8T8t9HMlbLb1yPn0QFj8l682zQfK1hyphenhyphenrv4paE0KeEqsdL1DmFg0J9OIiGyTAySSpU_ZVzjRR3WnBt0S0BsJnSEiPkhC1ji6palMSgbZXbmfyoeqDpfQIrUkghQzKMM/s1600/hduncan2.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoMRih_F0d9C9ji8T8t9HMlbLb1yPn0QFj8l682zQfK1hyphenhyphenrv4paE0KeEqsdL1DmFg0J9OIiGyTAySSpU_ZVzjRR3WnBt0S0BsJnSEiPkhC1ji6palMSgbZXbmfyoeqDpfQIrUkghQzKMM/s1600/hduncan2.gif" /></a> <i>Left: Helen Duncan allegedly materializing the spirit form of her spirit guide "Peggy". Skeptics such as Harry Price believed that this "spirit" was simply being made from a combination of white cloth materials and a rubber dolls face attached to it both propped up by a clothes hanger. </i><br />
<em>However, supporters claim that spirit materialization is a complex process and that spirits are not always able to mould the ectoplasm into a realistic and lifelike form. </em><br />
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Helen was brought on trial at the Old Bailey in London and would become the last person to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for profiting from "fraudulent spiritual activity". This act had not been used to prosecute anybody for more than a century. <br />
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Supporters of Helen Duncan allege that she was effectively harassed by the police, made the subject of a number of false allegations and that there were powerful people out to get her in what amounted to a conspiracy emerging partly from wartime paranoia. <br />
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During the trial, Helen Duncan's defense suggested that she give a demonstration of her abilities in the witness box. In other words, Helen would conduct a seance in the courtroom. This proposal was rejected and Duncan was found "guilty" under the Witchcraft Act and sentenced to 9 months in prison. Duncan was released from prison on 22 September 1944. <br />
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<b>The death of Helen Duncan</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCR7WoJkrCWCcH9s3J0BxwOtVUiL5QRomjT7P-V02hQzwIOs0P1JBUstdpiRzjR9DggSwu4mbQbtIxv0oZYnEdZtm03k4NGDFUxqkEzN3I2_reOT_7yOEVjNQmwn42UC5cIahSOhbUCKeE/s1600/helenduncan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCR7WoJkrCWCcH9s3J0BxwOtVUiL5QRomjT7P-V02hQzwIOs0P1JBUstdpiRzjR9DggSwu4mbQbtIxv0oZYnEdZtm03k4NGDFUxqkEzN3I2_reOT_7yOEVjNQmwn42UC5cIahSOhbUCKeE/s1600/helenduncan2.jpg" /></a>In November of 1956, police once again raided one of Helen Duncan's seances in Nottingham. Police allegedly grabbed hold of Helen Duncan, searched her and searched the seance room for "props" such as fake beards, masks and costumes that might be used as part of a hoax. They could find none on this occasion.<br />
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Shortly after this raid, Helen became very ill. Some say this was down to shock but spiritualists argue that Helen became ill as a result of being interrupted whilst in a state of trance- a time which a medium is said to be in a highly-sensitive and vulnerable condition. Apparently a Doctor confirmed that Helen did have two second degree burns on her stomach area, which spiritualists claim may of been the result of the ectoplasm re-entering her body too quickly. <br />
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As Helen became more ill, she returned to her home in Scotland and some five weeks after the police raid incident, Helen Duncan was dead. Doctors listed the cause of death as related to her diabetes and heart failure. <br />
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<strong>Helen Duncan's mediumship verdict: real or fake?</strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyb4w6SmUXNuKU7fBJzlABbP8beSCH6ffGQJL5HqR7KDhyphenhyphenCSs4llUuLNbnzc2XdW8aBVdPG9hUAiK5W43S9UcLgYIhkvBMvLK13xHym2HMDOBM6TV1KmOF107IPApeRCp5XfOCuJo_iv2/s1600/harryprice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyb4w6SmUXNuKU7fBJzlABbP8beSCH6ffGQJL5HqR7KDhyphenhyphenCSs4llUuLNbnzc2XdW8aBVdPG9hUAiK5W43S9UcLgYIhkvBMvLK13xHym2HMDOBM6TV1KmOF107IPApeRCp5XfOCuJo_iv2/s1600/harryprice.jpg" /></a></div><b>Harry Price investigation. </b>Helen Duncan's mediumship was put to the test by psychic investigator Harry Price. He claimed that the "ectoplasm" Mrs. Duncan was producing was nothing more than cheesecloth which she was somehow regurgitating from her stomach, a theory he developed having had the medium physically examined in every area other than her stomach. Price then purchased yards of cheesecloth and asked an assistant to pose with the cheesecloth in a similar fashion to which Helen Duncan would produce ectoplasm, and found that the ectoplasm and cheesecloth looked very similar.<br />
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In one photograph Harry Price took of Mrs. Duncan, there appears to be a hand materializing from the ectoplasm and moving, which Price says is nothing more than cheesecloth, with a rubber glove attached via a safety pin. On this picture, Price notes "the puffed cheeks" of the medium- implying that Helen Duncan is making a rubber glove move by blowing into it. This does not seem to make sense, because surely if you attach a rubber glove to the end of some cheesecloth and blow into the top of the cheesecloth, the material would be such that it would have no effect on the glove.<br />
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Although the regurgitation theory is indeed possible, I was unable to find any evidence that Harry Price was able to duplicate the effects Mrs. Duncan produced via regurgitating- either himself or with an assistant. The closest he got was to take six feet long strip of cheesecloth, roll it up and show that it would fit into the mouth of an assistant. However, this cheesecloth was never swallowed and regurgitated- and it is a wonder how anyone could carry out that process without choking, gagging and feeling extremely sick, yet no mention of choking noises or sickness was made and if yards of cheesecloth were coming up through Helen Duncans throat, how could she at the same time "fake" the voice of her spirit guide who was talking during this process? How might cloth even look having been in someones stomach? Surely its colour, appearance and feel would be completely different? So whilst the regurgitated cheesecloth theory is possible, it is also unfounded and does not seem a practical or demonstratable explanation. <br />
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This theory also ignores the fact that the ectoplasm can be seen to be being produced not only from the mouth but from other parts of her body such as ears. It is of course not physically possible to store yards of cheesecloth inside your ears!! The only other explanation could be that in addition to regurgitating the materials from her stomach, Helen then quickly took the cheesecloth and "poked it into her ears"- an explanation that seems unlikely since Helen Duncan was securely bound to the chair during the time which she produced the ectoplasm. <br />
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The photographs to which I refer from this investigation can be found on the Harry Price website: <a href="http://www.harrypricewebsite.co.uk/Seance/Duncan/duncan-intro.htm">Harry Price and Helen Duncan</a>.<br />
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Medium Maurice Barbanell who had the following to say about the Harry Price investigation:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><em>"Harry Price, a researcher who thrived on publicity, propounded the extraordinary</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>theory that, instead of being a genuine materialisation medium, Helen Duncan</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>swallowed yards of cheesecloth which she later regurgitated. To show how</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>nonsensical this theory was, Mrs Duncan gladly submitted herself to X-ray</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>examination. Price’s “explanation” was that she had a secondary stomach, like a cow. </em><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>The X-ray examination proved that both her stomach and her oesophagus were</strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>normal</strong>. </em><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Counsel for the defence at the Old Bailey tried to introduce the X-ray photographs as</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>evidence, but these too were legally inadmissible. </em><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>More than once at Helen Duncan’s séances, I was invited to handle some of the</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>ectoplasm immediately after it had been produced. It was always bone-dry, and had a</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>curious stiff “feel”, proving that it could not have been regurgitated.</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>I conducted an experiment that was conclusive in its result. At my suggestion, Helen</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Duncan, and every sitter at one séance, swallowed tablets of methylene blue. These</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>had the effect of dying into a bluish colour the contents of all our stomachs. Yet when</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>the materialisations appeared, they were their usual white colour."</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>- Maurice Barbanell -<a href="http://webzoom.freewebs.com/ebabeiknarf/Articles%20of%20Interest/Maurice%20Barbanell/Helen%20Duncan%20by%20Barbanell.pdf"> Read full article here</a></em></div><br />
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Helen Duncan was also investigated by the <strong>London Spiritual Alliance</strong> in 1931 who would also denounce her as a fraud. Apparently Helen attended a great many sittings with the LSA and produced large quantities of ectoplasm from which human figures of adults and children would manifest and many specimen samples of the ectoplasm were taken for scientific analysis, but the London Spiritual Alliance came to the conclusion that these were an elaborate hoax around the same time that claims of fraud were made by Harry Price. <br />
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It would appear that much of the focus is often on Helen Duncan's trial under the Witchcraft act and the events surrounding this rather than her actual supposed abilities as a medium. It can no doubt be argued that Helen Duncan suffered unfair treatment at the hands of the law, however just how genuine she was as a medium continues to be debated. <br />
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<b>Further reading</b><br />
<a href="http://www.helenduncan.org.uk/">http://www.helenduncan.org.uk/</a><br />
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<strong>Relavant video- </strong>Alan Crossley talks about his experiences of materialization seances with Helen Duncan:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZuEBASIrDGk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RLQ_AyU-Pk&feature=relmfu">Part Two</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0hnbLxcTbU&feature=relmfu">Part Three</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C5gPNbXQzw&feature=relmfu">Part Four</a></div></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"></div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-91914718532815810332011-08-17T14:36:00.000-07:002011-08-20T07:26:53.460-07:00The spirit photography of William H. Mumler<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bixGcnukYCsp0A_r8im8geZ6LzM8d-j6-BXoMejzDOr8GRo2GZrDOPUOo0KLU2dkir8Rf5vkUe4Yuy5rb0oftAj_pTv0HIgiHyUEoD6aFDfhjImY0CC-thcKX6-AptlHAH9x3p_Bn3zK/s1600/Mumler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bixGcnukYCsp0A_r8im8geZ6LzM8d-j6-BXoMejzDOr8GRo2GZrDOPUOo0KLU2dkir8Rf5vkUe4Yuy5rb0oftAj_pTv0HIgiHyUEoD6aFDfhjImY0CC-thcKX6-AptlHAH9x3p_Bn3zK/s1600/Mumler.jpg" /></a>Do ghosts exist? Where's the proof? Well surely it would provide a solid case for the existence of ghosts if we were able to use cameras to photograph them? Many such claims have been made since the dawn of photography itself. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Primitive technology and equipment to take photographs began to emerge in the early 1800's and developed quickly throughout the decades ahead. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Right from the early days of photography came the claim that ghosts could be captured using cameras, which began with a man named <strong>William H. Mumler (1832-1884).</strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">William Mumler lived in Boston and originally worked as a jewel engraver. He practiced amateur photography in his spare time and one day in the early 1860's, he took a self-portrait photograph. When this photograph was developed, he was suprised to see that he was not alone in his photograph- as he saw behind him a ghostly figure who he recognised to be his cousin, who had died 12 years prior to this photograph being taken. This is widely credited as being the first spirit photograph.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">As news spread of this story, people would then begin to ask Mumler to take their photograph in the hope that they too could capture images of deceased loved ones. As time went on, demand grew and Mumler was said to have reluctantly made the transition into making spirit photography a full time career. He then moved to New York and it was said that numerous photography experts examined Mumler and could find no evidence of fraud. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Skeptics would argue that despite the people investigating Mumler being learned and educated individuals, most people back then simply did not know what they were looking for when it came to identifying fraud, due to the fact these were still the early days of photography and they would have known little about what went on in the dark room. <br />
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However, William Mumler certainly did allow a great number of skeptics as well as photographic experts (who surely <em>would</em> of been aware of the tricks used to create fake ghostly images) to examine the process from start to finish and to inspect his equipment and people were unable to find evidence of fraud. <br />
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A professional photographer at the time named Mr. Jeremiah Gurney had this to say about William Mumler's photography:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>"I have been a photographer for twenty-eight years; I have witnessed Mumler's process, and although I went prepared to scrutinize everything, I could find nothing which savoured of fraud or trickery. The only thing out of the usual routine being the fact that the operator kept his hand on the camera."</em></strong></div><br />
Despite this and many other supporters, there were ongoing accusations against Mumler including the accusation that Mumler would break into peoples homes in order to obtain photographs of deceased relatives which he could then use to create fake spirit photography. It was also stated that some of the "spirits" appearing in Mumlers photographs were recognised as living persons. These accusations eventually amounted to Mumler being taken to court charged with fraud in 1869. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkeEpkoyWieF4JhJjiIYIVsUM1KZ8JPvoI2pCj3u5Sdimmcpx0X4Y2OiU5eUIvBszTANbtP3EJyUidKiPFlAebIuJKVcKuBCzGU25Vf0PHPmRNLo6Phc6n8u9qeYaYgSlgTeMx-Xn6IpT/s1600/Phineas_Taylor_Barnum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkeEpkoyWieF4JhJjiIYIVsUM1KZ8JPvoI2pCj3u5Sdimmcpx0X4Y2OiU5eUIvBszTANbtP3EJyUidKiPFlAebIuJKVcKuBCzGU25Vf0PHPmRNLo6Phc6n8u9qeYaYgSlgTeMx-Xn6IpT/s200/Phineas_Taylor_Barnum.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>One of Mumler's critics and a person who would testify against him in this court case was a man named <strong>Phineas Taylor Barnum. </strong>Barnum (pictured left) had gained a reputation in his day as being the "prince of humbugs" as he held a great deal of contempt for what he considered to be fraudulant mediums. In much the same way as some skeptics of paranormal claims have done today, Barnum offered a financial reward of $500 to any medium who could demonstrate proof of their ability to communicate with the dead.<br />
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Barnum felt that William Mumler was making profits by taking advantage of people at a time when they were unable to think clearly due to the grief they were experiencing after the loss of a loved one.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2NxbDxf7Ziq0KJPU8_3MfRAdfBu9b51aK-iQjB_s1Sxe861E00z6OE-GYeCuHSQycdho3legu_eaha92Ai85sOIDYuTQLKdK8VaBWbDhChhp8VwPdwPOZxBE_ctov0LnmWPTzX60iHTdj/s1600/Barnum_lincoln.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2NxbDxf7Ziq0KJPU8_3MfRAdfBu9b51aK-iQjB_s1Sxe861E00z6OE-GYeCuHSQycdho3legu_eaha92Ai85sOIDYuTQLKdK8VaBWbDhChhp8VwPdwPOZxBE_ctov0LnmWPTzX60iHTdj/s1600/Barnum_lincoln.jpg" /></a>During the court case, Barnum hired a man named Abraham Bogardus, a professional photographer to create a picture which would appear to show Barnum photographed with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, in order to demonstrate how easy it is to create fake spirit photography. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There were those in the court case who came out in support of Mumler, including a journalist by the name of Moses A. Dow who he produced a spirit photograph for.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Eventually the court decided that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Mumler of fraud. However, the accusations and court case had already done enough damage to Mumler's reputation to ruin his career. William Mumler died in poverty in 1884. It is said that Mumler destroyed all of his negatives shortly before his death, allowing for his photography to forever remain shrouded in mystery.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>A selection of photograph's taken by William H. Mumler </strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMXSdHVEi4xuHSOHDg4kIUURnp7u-WhN3nbqKBrU3g4XzqDDH8DQvKTG7VFxkNQsgLRKigqW2lpp6GUzATr-eKNPrYV8HyE40zHP7WRHvGqp-jmkYJ9fPtEqLWMPdmqCrcEhBJXeA0wUu/s1600/williammumler.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMXSdHVEi4xuHSOHDg4kIUURnp7u-WhN3nbqKBrU3g4XzqDDH8DQvKTG7VFxkNQsgLRKigqW2lpp6GUzATr-eKNPrYV8HyE40zHP7WRHvGqp-jmkYJ9fPtEqLWMPdmqCrcEhBJXeA0wUu/s320/williammumler.png" width="228" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Above: Perhaps one of the most famous photograph's taken by Mumler, this photograph shows Mary Todd Lincoln sitting with the spirit of her deceased husband Abraham Lincoln standing behind her. According to reports, William Mumler was not aware of Mary Lincolns identity before the photo was taken, as she had given a false identity by the name "Mrs. Tundall" and she turned up with her face almost completely covered wearing a black hooded robe and asked that she only reveal her face at the exact moment the photo was taken. As the photo developed, it revealed Abraham Lincoln himself to be the spirit "extra". </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Above: There is a truly remarkable story behind this picture of Moses A. Dow. <a href="http://photographymuseum.org/dowread.html">Read his testimony by clicking here</a>. According to his own testimony, he had managed to make contact through spiritualist mediums with a deceased young girl who he once employed to work for him. She informed him that should he visit a spirit photographer, that she would make an appearance and also gave details as to what position she would take, what she would wear ect. William Mumler took the photograph, as far as I am aware with no prior knowledge of this and Dow even assumed a false identity. Needless to say the image produced a spirit "extra" of the exact description and likeness of the girl who Dow had been in contact with.</div><br />
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Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-69502059647816602572011-08-13T15:46:00.000-07:002011-08-17T13:33:34.657-07:00The spirit photography of William Hope<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3tdtCRB1B_sXvFQ0zHat0MSYKaPf5gZo9ZlNCqlF5lXkFrbSeYWqny_43bS29skE3IKoZqf5zwgOKBg6P_rn_CP3Br92T8PfiBTgk518Sa5bZVYD51isTRYfjlXSOvZzRe3qNckvjYz_u/s1600/william_hope_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3tdtCRB1B_sXvFQ0zHat0MSYKaPf5gZo9ZlNCqlF5lXkFrbSeYWqny_43bS29skE3IKoZqf5zwgOKBg6P_rn_CP3Br92T8PfiBTgk518Sa5bZVYD51isTRYfjlXSOvZzRe3qNckvjYz_u/s1600/william_hope_medium.jpg" /></a>Today I would like to write about the subject of spirit photography. Is it possible that ghosts and spiritual entities, assuming they exist, can be captured in photographs? Many such claims have been made and I'd like to focus in particular on a historical case of one individual in particular by the name of <b>William Hope</b> (pictured left) who lived between the years 1863 and 1933.<br />
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Originally employed as a carpenter, around the year 1905 Hope supposedly discovered his ability to take spirit photographs by accident. Hope was taking some photographs with a friend and found that when the photographs were developed, a transparent lady was present in one of these pictures. Hope's friend recognised this lady to be his sister who had been dead for many years. <br />
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William Hope said;<strong><em> "I knew nothing at all about Spiritualism then. We took the photograph to the works on Monday, and a Spiritualist there said it was what was called a Spirit photograph. He suggested that we should try again on the following Saturday at the same place with the same camera, which we did, and not only the same lady came on the plate again, but a little child with her. I thought this very strange, and it made me more interested, and I went on with my experiments."</em></strong><br />
Despite destroying many of these original photographs, Hope was pursuaded to start keeping them after<br />
<i><b>Archdeacon Thomas Colley </b></i>who had been a psychical researcher for about 40 years, helped to bring William Hopes spirit photography to public attention.<br />
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Archdeacon Thomas Colley had set out to test whether Hope's photography was genuine and he went along to meet William Hope and he would apparently even bring his own camera and simply asked Hope to take the photograph. Colley would then develop the plates using his own chemicals. It was claimed that even under these conditions, spirits would still appear in the photographs, convincing Thomas Colley that Hope's abilities were genuine. <br />
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Hope then formed (and was leader of) what was known as "The Crewe Circle" Spiritualist group. The name was adopted because the group was based in Crewe, England and was set up to provide a service to the public where people would visit and have their photograph taken in the hopes of capturing an image of a deceased loved one. Thousands of photos were taken, capturing what were supposedly spirits of the dead. According to records, Hope would only charge a minimal fee to cover equiptment costs and time taken to take the photographs. <br />
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Believers in William Hope's abilities would say that he had no motives for fraud, since not only did he originally have no interest in or knowledge of spiritualism, but he was not making a huge fortune in doing it. <br />
<u><b>Controversy and claims of fraud</b></u><br />
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As has been the case with all spirit photography, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding whether or not Hope's photography was genuine. <br />
Dr. Nandor Fodor (1895-1964), was a parapsychologist, psychologist, author and one time associate of Sigmund Freud, wrote a book called the <i>Encyclopedia of Psychic Science </i>published in 1934. His write up summarizes nicely the main controversy that William Hope was faced with:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"controversy arose in 1922 and was, on the surface, damning for Hope. In a report published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research he was accused of imposture by Mr. Harry Price. The accusations were later published in a sixpenny pamphlet. The basis of the revelation was that Mr. Price, in a sitting at the British College of Psychic Science, caught Hope in the act of substituting the dark slide, holding the exposed pates, by another; further that he (Hope) handed him two negatives (one of which contained a psychic extra) that did not bear the secret mark of the Imperial Dry Plate Company specially impressed on the packet of films by X-rays and which were different in colour and thickness from the original plates."</b></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
In other words, investigator Harry Price had apparently secretly marked the plates Hope was using in his photography equipment. Not knowing this, when Hope attempted to produce spirit photographs, none of the photos he produced contained the marks which Price had secretly etched on, which suggests that Hope had exchanged the materials to ones with fake spirit images. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">HOWEVER, Fodor continues to point out that there are two sides to every story and also presents us with the possibility that in fact William Hope was genuine in what he was doing but was "set up" and falsely accused of fraud. Again, I quote from his book Encyclopedia of psychic science:<i><b> </b></i><br />
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<i><b></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"Subsequent investigation proved that the counter-accusation raised by spiritualists of an organised conspiracy against Hope deserved examination. The wrapper of the packet was found, and it bore marks of tampering. Moreover, one of the original marked plates was returned anonymously and undeveloped to the S.P.R. a week after the experiment and three weeks before the revelation. On being developed it showed an image. As the packet of marked plates was lying about for four weeks in the office of the S.P.R. it was open to tampering and substitution, it being also likely, in the view of the Hope-apologists, that the abstractor sent back the missing plate out of pure mischief. Immediately after the revelation Hope offered new sittings and declared his willingness to submit himself to stringent tests. The offer was refused. Harry Price, however, signed a statement to the effect that the test of February 24, 1922, 'does not rule out the possibility that Hope has other than normal means.' Indeed, no less authority than Sir William Crookes bears out the true mediumship of William Hope in an authorised interview published in Christian Commonwealth on December 4, 1918. On his own marked plates, under his own conditions, he obtained a likeness of his wife different from any he possessed. On the other hand Sir Oliver Lodge was emphatic in stating concerning a test of his own with a sealed packet sent to Hope: 'I have not the slightest doubt that the envelope including the plates had been opened.' Again Sir William Barrett claimed to have received with Hope 'indubitable evidence of supernormal photography.'"</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Hope also had a supporter in the form of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most famous proponents of spiritualism. In his book entitled <strong><em>the history of spiritualism</em></strong>, Doyle states:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>"The attack upon Mr. Hope, the psychic photographer, was examined by a strong independent committee and was shown to be quite unsound, and even to bear some signs of a conspiracy against the medium."</em></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><u><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The spirit photographs taken by William Hope </b></span></u><br />
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Here is a collection of some of the spirit photographs taken by William Hope. They are as interesting as they are creepy. Perhaps what makes these photographs even more creepy in my opinion is the fact that everybody in the photographs pictured with the alleged spirits are now themselves long since deceased. <br />
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To modern eyes these photographs may be immediately dismissed as fakes that can easily be explained as double exposures. My own view is they do simply look "too good to be true". There are to this day some examples of spirit photography where very solid looking figures will appear as ghosts in an image, but the idea that someone could take hundreds or thousands of these? <br />
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Despite my immediate reaction that these photographs are obvious fakes, I always try to approach every subject with a completely open mind. I think the story of William Hope is an interesting one and the notion that his abilities were put to the test by some individuals who were unable to find evidence of fraud, combined with the mystery and allegations of conspiracy surrounding those who did claim to expose Hope as a fraud, allow people to this day to continue to entertain the possibility that these photographs just might be genuine. <br />
So, here are a collection of William Hope's spirit photographs. <br />
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</div></i>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-87378555129800197412011-08-11T15:20:00.000-07:002011-08-11T16:29:15.505-07:00The mediumship of Mina "Margery" Crandon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6fF6nVljN_qoXwaDU-vVG-XMpriIocx-h0YQ-2tdCVGfHXLIKfTlwAhMqyFAOhApHh_UAJu96h4YaoxTorstptt0pilDJhprgkMQTjvQJ2FBXMK9mQxarBC6hEYtmrEqsyng_z5l61oP/s1600/minamargerycrandon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241px" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6fF6nVljN_qoXwaDU-vVG-XMpriIocx-h0YQ-2tdCVGfHXLIKfTlwAhMqyFAOhApHh_UAJu96h4YaoxTorstptt0pilDJhprgkMQTjvQJ2FBXMK9mQxarBC6hEYtmrEqsyng_z5l61oP/s320/minamargerycrandon.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>There were many in the past who claimed to have mediumship abilities and if you do a search on Google you will most likely eventually come across photos such as the one above. But who is the lady pictured? I wanted to research and find out..</em></div><br />
<strong>Mina Crandon, who became known as "Margery" was a lady who lived between the years 1888 to 1941 and became famous for her claims to be a medium. The truthfulness of her claimed abilities became very controversial, with plenty of supporters claiming she was the real deal and had extraordinary abilities and skeptics saying she was an outright fraud. </strong><br />
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<strong>According to records, Mina had no supernatural experiences early on in life and only developed an interest in spiritualism due to the influence of her husband Le Roi Goddard Crandon, who was a Surgeon at the time. Mr. Crandon was apparently very troubled by the idea of death and this lead him to develop an obsession with spiritualism and the setting up of spritiualist "Home groups" which would meet up and regularly perform seances. </strong><br />
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<strong>During the course of these seances, Mina had come into contact with a psychic who informed her that a young man was attempting to make contact with her from the spirit world. This young man would turn out to be Minas younger brother who was called Walter. Walter had died in 1911 as a result of a rail accident. As time went on, Mina claimed to be in contact with Walter and that her deceased brother was now acting as her spirit guide, which marked the real beginning of her abilities as a medium. </strong><br />
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<strong>Mina then became well known by conducting many seances in which bizzare things would happen. She developed the ability to manifest ectoplasm and channel spirits and gathered many supporters. </strong><br />
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<strong>In 1923, Minas abilities were put to the test when a contest sponsored by Scientific American magazine promised prize money of $2500 to any medium who could clearly demonstrate genuine psychic ability. This contest was devised by J. Malcolm Bird, an editor of the Scientific American magazine. A panel of judges were set up which consisted of Walter Franklin Prince, an American psychical researcher; Daniel Comstock, who introduced Technicolor to films; Hereward Carrington, a popular occult writer; William McDougall, a professor of psychology a Harvard University; and finally- Harry Houdini the famous magician and escape artist. </strong><br />
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<strong>Once the investigation got underway, it became apparent that the judges were completely divided as to how genuine Minas abilities were. J. Malcolm Bird, responsible for the idea in the first place and also responsible for observing and recording data about the invesitgations, became convinced that Mina was the real deal and that some paranormal phenomena was genuinely occuring. Hereward Carrington was similarly convinced. Most of the judges were becoming swayed toward the idea of awarding Mina the $2500 prize, however there was a great deal of disagreement from Houdini, which caused friction and conflict. Houdini maintained that Minas was a fraud. </strong><br />
<strong>Apparently, this conflict had been present throughout the invesitgation and Bird even wanted Houdini disqualified from the panel, presumably due to feeling that Houdini had an unreasonably hostile attitude toward any of the phenomena being produced and documented. </strong><br />
<strong>As the Judges considered awarding Mina the prize, Houdini was so outraged that he said he would travel to Boston where the seances were being held and was utterly determined to prove Mina to be a fraud. Mina and many of the other judges did not trust Houdini and felt he was deliberately out to get her.</strong><br />
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<strong>Houdini claimed that during the seances, Mina was using a number of deceptive tricks, such as making noises with her feet and moving and lifting objects in the dark herself which had been claimed to of been lifted by the spirits. However, Houdini was not able to expose Mina right away and demanded further tests be carried out. The ultimate test came when Houdini demanded that during the seance, Mina be bound up in a box which only had holes in for her head and her arms and to continue to demonstrate phenomena such as the ringing of bells and so on. According to reports, Minas spirit guide Walter, was apparently very angry with what Houdini was doing and the top of the box Mina was bound up in appeared to be ripped off by an invisible force. On one occasion when Mina had been fastned back into the box which had a numerous padlocks, Walter came through when Mina was in trance and told the people present that Houdini had rigged the bell so that it could not work. Once examined, the bell was indeed rigged with a piece of rubber so that it could no longer work but Houdini denied any involvement. </strong><br />
<strong>On another occasion, Walter explained the Houdini had placed a ruler inside the box that Mina was bound up in, which was also found after examination. The theory was that Houdini would be able to accuse Mina of being a fraud and later people would investigate and find that Mina had a ruler which she could use to produce various phenomena in the seance room. </strong><br />
<strong>It would appear on these occasions Houdini had been caught deliberately trying to set up a medium and expose her as a fake when he was in fact lying. </strong><br />
<strong>Due to the Judges not being in agreement, the $2500 was never awarded. </strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwpIwsmi9qEkXlhBOqcGt9AuKCoHo2FXOReceg9e6tNCNu_68ifBzlM38xyJtXbmhlGu7ZRSnQpOnbd3vb2onXvJqFYAWr6Fe3CeBtRVW45FHleqJ3mAiCHbHsZ_tr8M6j5IkFcrQavtq/s1600/Houdini+Exposes+the+Tricks+Used+by+the+Boston+Medium+Margery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwpIwsmi9qEkXlhBOqcGt9AuKCoHo2FXOReceg9e6tNCNu_68ifBzlM38xyJtXbmhlGu7ZRSnQpOnbd3vb2onXvJqFYAWr6Fe3CeBtRVW45FHleqJ3mAiCHbHsZ_tr8M6j5IkFcrQavtq/s320/Houdini+Exposes+the+Tricks+Used+by+the+Boston+Medium+Margery.jpg" width="203px" /></a></div><br />
<strong>After these incidents, Houdini then published a book entitled "<em>Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the Boston Medium Margery"</em> which claimed that he had debunked Minas abilities and exposed her as a fraud. This caused outrage amoung Mina and her supporters. J. Malcolm Bird would lead the fight back against these claims by also publishing a book in support of Minas abilities and what was witnessed, which woudl eventually convince many others. Hundreds of pages of the American Society for Psychical Research journal were also devoted to documenting Minas abilities. </strong><br />
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<strong>One Minas most famous supporters was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories. Doyle was a firm supporter of spiritualism but also ironically good friends with Houdini. In one of Doyle's books "The Edge of the Unknown"- he devotes an entire chapter to the incidents described above involving Minas mediumship and Houdini's attempts to debunk her. I would recommend reading this. Here's the google books link which enables you to read the chapter about Houdini, in which Doyle also reveals that he believed Houdini possessed REAL paranormal abilities. </strong><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=OTyblAOGp5wC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false">THE EDGE OF THE UNKNOWN By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a></strong></div><br />
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</div><strong>Later during Minas mediumship, she began to produce a new type of physical phenomena. Two dishes would be placed on the table in front of her, one containing cold water, the other containing warm water. In one of the dishes was a piece of wax, which it was claimed when this wax softned, Walter- Minas spirit guide / deceased brother , was able to make an impression of his thumb in it. </strong><br />
<strong>This was later exposed to be fake, as the thumbprints were found to be those of Minas dentist!</strong><br />
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<strong>Critics also claim that Mina flirted and had affairs with some of the people who would be present in her seances. </strong><br />
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<strong>So was she the real deal? I do not know. But the importance of this story is that things are often much more complicated than they first seem and you need to do your research and read different eye witness accounts and so on. You cannot assume the skeptics are necessarily the good guys who only use honest means to investigate and have no biases of their own, because in many occasions, the skeptics will use deceptive tricks of their own. Also, certain claims made by various individuals become confused with "facts" over time. For instance, I note that the wikipedia article on Mina Crandon portrays her to of been successfully debunked by Houdini, when in actual fact I was unable to find evidence that this was definately the case. The more I research into the history of those who claimed to be mediums the more I find that things not as clear cut and simple as they seem and there is often a wealth of information for believers and skeptics alike to chew on. That's what makes it so interesteing. </strong><br />
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Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-43368836913969491782011-07-26T16:02:00.000-07:002011-08-20T07:25:45.186-07:00The materialization mediumship of Minnie Harrison<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFRoQ4QPqcw5xo7cPcUWh_OpA0qkHOZLp2-fmxFx5V9RaHDJAnuxtch4O_fE0QCLsrjzRK82A_MnM8iD9qu_5GutN2NY4JwXbExy9jSV3fZXkeytT30WprYq4JxHoP1wn79UxZ9UEd-e3/s1600/Photo_aunt_Agg_Medium_Minnie_Harrison.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFRoQ4QPqcw5xo7cPcUWh_OpA0qkHOZLp2-fmxFx5V9RaHDJAnuxtch4O_fE0QCLsrjzRK82A_MnM8iD9qu_5GutN2NY4JwXbExy9jSV3fZXkeytT30WprYq4JxHoP1wn79UxZ9UEd-e3/s320/Photo_aunt_Agg_Medium_Minnie_Harrison.gif" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div>I've just sat through an entire hour long video entitled "Visitors from the other side" which is basically an interview alongside clips of speeches made by a guy called Tom Harrison, who was the son of <span id="video-description" style="display: block;">materialization medium Minnie Harrison, as well as interviews with other witnesses to her mediumship skills. Materialization mediumship is where phenomena is produced of an actual physical entity or spirit person using the subtance of ectoplasm. </span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;">I have to say this is actually an amazing story and a lot of the time I admit my brain was in overdrive thinking "this has to be fake" and "this cannot be real". </span><span style="display: block;">It was amusing at one point toward the end of the video when one lady was asked how she now feels about death reply "It sounds strange but I'm actually quite looking forward to it!". </span><span style="display: block;">I think that speaks volumes for how convincing the evidence presented in the video is. </span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJTVHA8yxVnRxuduwTqCzIDSRJnOAgcrx51YKvRTXAk4fxmzmRkqnCUmLAH0cPGGv1ukJWu8HsYmsEh2JgxnUpErEeqQvkg_7dSxYIzGT1QjuAgWMIuQC1SVPTblTk1dH3LvAe-jOVkqv/s1600/minnie_harrison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJTVHA8yxVnRxuduwTqCzIDSRJnOAgcrx51YKvRTXAk4fxmzmRkqnCUmLAH0cPGGv1ukJWu8HsYmsEh2JgxnUpErEeqQvkg_7dSxYIzGT1QjuAgWMIuQC1SVPTblTk1dH3LvAe-jOVkqv/s320/minnie_harrison.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;">It is extraordinary to hear of how these people witnessed full body materializations of those who had been dead for MANY YEARS just being right there in the room- talking to them, able to touch them! In the video, many photographs are presented which were taken during the seances. We get to see examples of spirit writing, and toward the very end of the video we are treated to an actual audio recording which was made during one of the materializations. </span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;">This is absolutely unbelievable and I think it is fair to say the vast majority of people are completely unaware that this level of proof for life after death is available and has been for many, many years. </span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;">If you have a spare hour I'd highly recommend watching it. </span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qw9cmCIgw7U?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here's the google video link: <span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"><a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4547643599106427733&hl=en">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4547643599106427733&hl=en</a></span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span><span style="display: block;"></span></div><span style="display: block;"></span></div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-7419959097311784222011-07-05T14:43:00.000-07:002011-07-05T14:43:22.139-07:00Why I rejected ChristianityIn 2010, I approached many Chrisitan churches and spoke to many different Christians. I've had friends who were Christian over the years and a relationship with a Christian.<br />
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For a whole year I would stay up night after night researching Christianity and reading everything I possibly could about it. I was sincerely open minded to it, in fact that is not entirely true- I would say I actually <em>wanted</em> to believe in Christianity and I wanted to find the proof that the claims Christians made were true. <br />
All I can say is that after a year of searching even trying out "sincere prayers" to the Christian God, that I have not found the evidence. <br />
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It is very easy when researching Christianity to get drawn straight into the different interpretations of the Bible, without stepping back and asking the wider questions like "what actually is the bible?" and "how did the bible come to get put together?" and "is the bible the literal word of god?". <br />
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My experience is that when you talk to Christians about what they believe and ask them to justify their beliefs, they will simply start quoting from the Bible to "prove" that what they are saying must be true. That's why it is so easy to get drawn into a debate where the underlying assumption is basically that the bible is true and it's just a matter of deciphering what the different parts of it mean. <br />
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I admit I was drawn in by this approach at first and spent a long time simply trying to figure out which variant of Christianity was the "true" variant and most accurately reflected what was taught in the Bible. <br />
The trouble is that even with this method of approaching the question- you are met with literally numerous opinions as to what different people think the Bible is <em>really</em> teaching. With all the numerous different "camps" each claiming to have the right answers, it simply became overwhelming, confusing and frustrating. <br />
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I guess I was stuck in that mindset for almost a year - and approached lots of different Christians during that time. <br />
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I have to say that during my time pursuing Christianity and more specifically whether or not Christianity offered answers to lifes biggest questions, I was continually left feeling the the "answers" provided by Christians were simply unreasonable and backed by no evidence other than quotes from the Bible. <br />
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For example, can it be right that the only people going to heaven are a select group of Christians? The rest of the planet is doomed and will face eternal punishment at the hands of God. I found so many problems with this idea. Firstly, our lives are so short- is it reasonable of God to expect us in this short time to figure out what it is we need to do in order to determine our eternal fate? And secondly, what really is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian who is a perfectly decent, perfectly "moral", perfectly kind-hearted human being? I think when you step back and look at that objectively, there's really nothing that makes the Christian any more "special" or somehow worthy of this eternal paradise than the average decent person. <br />
If anything, the Christian comes off as slightly less of a well developed human being when they start asserting reasons why the other person is likely to go to hell or perish at the hands of God due to the fact they do not have a certain set of beliefs. <br />
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Continuing the last point, it can be witnessed time and time again that Christians make all of the same mistakes as any other ordinary person. Despite all the talk, all the rhetoric, there really is nothing that is "whiter than white" or "purer than pure" about the average Christian. The ONLY difference in this respect between a Christian and the average decent person in terms of making mistakes in life is that the Christian feels that all non-christians will face severe consiquences for their mistakes, whereas they only need to say "sorry" to God, and they are "forgiven". Given that God does not directly talk to people and tell them that they are forgiven, this is obviously a self-serving assumption on the part of the Christian. The idea that everybody else who makes mistakes is in the wrong, but the Christian is OK due to the assumption that God forgives them smacks of arrogance and double standards. <br />
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A great example when it comes to double standards is on the issue of sex. Christians are so happy to lecture everybody else about the "sins" in regard to sex outside of marriage or particular sex acts, or masturbation or controlling sexual urges and so on. Yet the fact is, I've known enough Christians to know that they have absolutely NO RIGHT what so ever to have this "holyer than thou" attitude. What they say in public will be completely different to what goes on "in secret". Before I knew too many Christians, I had no idea that all the supposedly "sinful" things that they preach against are all things they have been engaged in at one time or another anyway!! The Christian response to this is usually "well that was wrong what they did and you must have simply known some Christians who did not really measure up to what we aspire to" blah blah blah. The fact is that is just more TALK. They have no right to lecture anybody else and assume a "morally superior" position. <br />
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The simple fact is NO ONE has the right to tell you that because you do not believe in the things they believe or belong to their little group, that God rejects you and will throw you away into the lake of fire or to imply that they are somehow more special than you are. Just because someone reads the bible and says they believe in Jesus, makes them no more important, no more special and most definately by no means more morally developed than any other human being.<br />
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A good example of this is that I have witnessed a great many occasions where being met with situations where others are suffering in some capacity, a Christian will say "I will pray for you". This simply is another way of saying "I will do absolutely nothing to help you, but I will pray so that it makes me feel better about myself". It would be far better rather than saying "I will pray for you" simply to get off your arse and help the person out and take some action that is going to be of real benefit to people who are suffering. <br />
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This article might give the impression that I am bitter toward Christianity. I have to be honest and say there are certain charactaristics which I have found amoung the Christians I've met which annoy me. However - when it comes to the wider picture of Christianity itself, I can't say I have any hard feelings at all. These are all just my personal experiences and the people I've encountered and I'm by no means saying ALL Christians behave in the ways I have listed. I don't as a matter of fact rule out the existance of God nor of Jesus Christ, nor do I rule out the possibility that there is an afterlife. Nor do I reject major moral teachings found in Christianity. I simply reject the organised religion aspect and the whole organised religion mindset- the "I'm saved, you're eternally damned" attitude.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-80962299210452466492011-06-27T17:13:00.000-07:002011-07-07T14:50:06.715-07:00The most important question you can EVER ask yourself"What happens when we die? Is there life after death?" Why is this question so important? I think it is <em>the </em>single most important question that faces us. Why? Because quite simply put- virtually every single thing in our entire lives is ultimately uncertain apart from the fact that is one day we shall die. We may live our lives as though this is not going to happen or as though death is something that is far away in the future and barely worthy of a moments concern. Nothing could be further from the truth. Death is not something we have a choice about. It is absolutely 100% certain to happen. One day, with 100% certainty, you will be dead. And so will all of the people you know, love and all the people see around you every day. And that is a terrifying thought, isn't it?<br />
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SO what happens when we die? We know that physically speaking, this body we have shall perish. It will turn to dust. This physical body we are so intimately bound up in all of our lives, it will no longer be. But what about us? What about that part of you- the part that thinks, sees, feels, remembers and so on? Will that part too simply perish? Will we cease to be conscious forever> Will it be as though we never existed in the first place and this entire life of ours rendered to literally nothing? <br />
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Well we know that we are intimately bound up with our physical body and we know that when parts of our physical body become damaged or stop working that we lose that corrisponding function. We seem to depend on properly functioning parts of our physical body for our entire experience and existance. This would suggest that when the physical body perishes, so too do we.<br />
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However, there is a large amount of evidence that has been collected over a period of hundreds of years that suggests that we continue to live after the physical body has died. This evidence is consistant and has repeated itself in cultures all over the world under numerous conditions. I therefor do not believe this evidence can simply be ignored.<br />
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I have been searching for answers as an open minded skeptic. However I can only be honest and admit that what one believes in regard to the question of "Is there life after death" can be strongly influenced simply by your own feelings- about life in general. Unless you take the time to thoroughly research the evidence, the only conclusions you can ever make on this issue will be emotionally based. For instance you might feel depressed or resentful and that life is pointless. From these emotions it would be easy to conclude there is no afterlife or any hope beyond whatever lot we have in life right now. On the opposite side of things, one might be bound up in the emotion of fear- that is, fearing death and adopt the viewpoint "there must be an afterlife" as an emotional crutch or comfort device to avoid facing up to this fear.<br />
There are numerous examples of emotionally based belief setting that I could list, but I'm sure you get the general idea. The point is- the only way to get answers is to study the evidence scientifically and empirically. Subjective and emotionally based beliefs are simply faith- and faith is not evidence.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-45101497463812719782011-06-10T09:13:00.000-07:002011-06-10T09:13:08.174-07:00Does religion give us the answers to whether or not the afterlife is real?What all organised religions do is present followers with a "holy text" which is a collection of subjective writings from people who lived thousands of years ago. The "holy text" may or may not even be able to be fully authenticated. In many cases they are not. <br />
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Religion means blind faith. Blind faith in living life according to what a book tells you and what people who follow that book tell you. <br />
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I have read numerous books and websites which claim to offer the "scientific case for..." or the "evidence for..." their religious claims. But ultimately all religions have to offer to you is quotes from their "divine scriptures". And those who follow organised religion endlessly bicker over the interpretation of their scriptures. <br />
You are required to have faith and the evidence for the claims is lacking.<br />
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This pales in comparison to conducting an investigation into the phenomena supportive of life after death such as:<br />
<ul><li>Near Death Experiences</li>
<li>Death bed visions</li>
<li>After death communications</li>
<li>Electronic Voice Phenomena</li>
<li>Apparitions</li>
<li>Out of Body Experiences</li>
<li>Reincarnation and past life regression</li>
</ul>..And so on. The fact is that if you approach this subject with a truly open mind, there is simply far more objective evidence to be studied when you look at afterlife evidence rather than organised religion.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-85544041353435998072011-05-07T16:40:00.000-07:002011-05-07T16:40:43.917-07:00Organised religionAlthough there are numerous religions in the world, it is interesting to note that the belief in the afterlife amoung human beings predates organised religion. <br />
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The numerous religions in the world may appear to differ in many ways, but actually they all present a fairly similar set of concepts when it comes to the question "Is there life after death?". <br />
Most organised religions offer the promise of an eternal life in heaven if one meets certain conditions. The concept is that right now the whole human race is of a fallen nature, we are all doomed to some terrible fate upon death unless we embrace a certain set of actions and beliefs. <br />
This fate could be an endless number of reincarnations into so called lower life forms, an eternity in a firey hell, or being annihilated out of existance. In most of these religions, it is God who judges us and decides our fate, though in some it is simply the accumulation of our actions in our lifetime that decide our afterlife fate.<br />
Note however, that in all of these religions, ones short lifetime right now is the deciding factor of our ETERNAL fate. <br />
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Thus in our very short time here on Earth we should all be in a blind panic and rush to discover exactly what it is we need to do to avoid such terrible eternal punishment before we die. We must quickly learn what it is we must do to avoid offending God and get into Gods good books, to become enlightened, to be spiritually "born again" and secure ourselves an eternal place in heaven and escape Gods wrath.<br />
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So what's the big problem with these concepts? The big problem is that God will, according to these religions, enflict eternal punishment upon the vast majority of his creation, upon beings which not only are of significantly lower intelligence, but also have an unreasonably short amount of time and very few "clues" with which to learn what it is they must do to avoid this wrath. Does this not seem just a little unfair?<br />
What about all those perfectly kind and loving human beings who mistakenly believed the "wrong" things? <br />
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Proponents of all organised religions often like to use the "free will" argument at this stage and say that humanity is doomed due to human error/sin/mistakes and that we must use our "free will" to take certain actions and adopt certain beliefs that will now save us from Gods wrath. But what must be remembered is that the average person leads a busy life- with school, work, relationships and so on, and does not always have the time to reflect upon deeper issues and when they do, we live in a world full of people all claiming to have the answers! Do people really deserve to be punished for all eternity for not being able to figure out what is the "true religion" in their short time here on Earth? Do you think that is really what the actions of an all knowing and all loving God would be?Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-47625082873511999592011-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:002011-05-05T13:36:43.810-07:00Some facts about the Bible<strong><em>Biblical inerrancy</em></strong> is the belief that the bible is totally free of error. That it is the literal word of God and all that it says must be taken literally. These people maintain that the Bible is free of error on all major issues: science, history, psychology, politics, maths, art ect. <br />
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Circular reasoning is used by saying that the Bible proves the Bible to be true. <br />
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Since they believe the Bible is the literal word of God, scripture is "quoted" to then "prove" that one must live ones life in a certain way and obay certain rules, believe certain things and carry out certain activities. Bible scripture is given a huge sense of authority, as it is quoted as though it were being spoken as a command directly from the lips of God. <br />
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No matter how bizzare, restrictive, counterproductive, unethical or plain silly any of these rules and guidelines are, the continual threat of eternal punishment from God becomes the motivating fear behind all of it. This is coupled with a complacent attitude that simply because they believe in Jesus and read the bible, they have a free and easy ticket to heaven, sparing little thought to the multitudes who arn't quite so "enlightened" as themselves who God will enflict eternal punishment upon. <br />
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<strong>Is the bible really the work of a perfect, all loving God?</strong><br />
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The bible is not perfect. It contains hundreds of contradictions, many statements which are absurd and go against common sense and information which was been proven by science to be factually untrue. <br />
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The bible is not all loving. There are numerous examples of gross vulgarity, highly questionable morality and extremely unloving, unfair and horrific acts said to be carried out by God and those who worship God.<br />
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<strong>Has God used his almighty power to preserve the Bible?</strong><br />
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FACT: Original copies of the bible do NOT exist. We only have copies of copies. <br />
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Between the different editions and translations of the bible, there have been <em>numerous</em> alterations over hundreds of years. <br />
<br />
The bibles that exist today are therefore going to be very different from the original manuscripts in many important ways. <br />
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<strong>Is the information in the Bible the literal word of God?</strong><br />
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The identity of many biblical authors is completely unknown and annonymous. <br />
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Of the few books of the bible that deal with the ministry of Jesus, all of these books were wrote well after the life of Jesus and we have no evidence that the alleged authors genuinely wrote these books. <br />
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Hearsay is defined as "<span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">unverified,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">unofficial</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">information</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">gained</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">acquired</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">from</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'">another</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'">not</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'">part</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">one's</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">direct</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">knowledge" (dictionary.com). This sums up perfectly the books of the bible. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span name="hotword" onclick="this.style.backgroundColor='#b5d5ff';return hotWord(this);" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='transparent'" onmouseover="this.style.cursor='default'" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default;">Evidence deemed as hearsay would have trouble standing in a court of law. </span></span><br />
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Many biblical stories can be traced as adaptations of earlier stories and myths.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-62387942601929255582011-05-04T12:35:00.000-07:002011-05-04T12:35:40.908-07:00Are all non-Christians doomed?Are all those who are not Christians doomed to either an eternal hell or an eternal destruction? This is what we hear often from Christianity. We hear that if you do not believe in Jesus and you are not a Christian, God will send you to hell forever. Or God will wipe you out of existance forever. Which one you believe really depends on what you think the bible teaches on the matter.<br />
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I have carefully examined the biblical case for and against both eternal torture (the belief that god sends sinners to hell forever) and annihilationism (the belief that sinners are perminantly destroyed). Annihiliationism holds that we do not inherently possess immortality, but instead that immortality is conditional. <br />
<br />
I have come to the conclusion that there does appear to be a much more convincing case to be made that the bible teaches annihilationism. <br />
<br />
<li>Psalm 92:7 ...................shall be "destroyed" forever.... </li><br />
<li>Psalm 1: 6 ....................be the way of the ungodly shall "perish" </li><br />
<li>Matthew 10:28 ..............rather fear him which is able to "destroy" both soul and body in hell </li><br />
<li>John 3:16 .....................whosoever believeth in him should not perish (Greek: destroyed) </li><br />
<li>Romans 6:23 ................For the wages of sin is "death"… </li><br />
<li>James 4:12 ....................There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to "destroy" </li><br />
<li>Philippians 3:19 .............Whose end is "destruction" </li><br />
<li>2 Thessalonians 1:9 ........Who shall be punished with everlasting "destruction" </li><br />
<li>Hebrews 10:39 ...............But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition (Greek: destruction); but of them that believe to the saving of the soul </li><br />
<li>Revelation 20:14 ..............This is the second death. </li><br />
<br />
Annihiliationists will say- why would God choose words like "destroy, perish, death and destruction" to signify anything other than their plain meaning?<br />
The case for eternal torture in the Bible is altogether fairly weak and does not stand up to closer scruitiny in my opinion. Check out <a href="http://www.hell-know.net/">http://www.hell-know.net/</a> for an indepth study into this subect matter.<br />
<br />
I was convinced of Christian annihilationism for some time. But there are problems. Just take a look around you. Lots and lots of perfectly ordinary, decent human beings are going to be destroyed simply because they are not Christians. How is that fair? You could preach to hundreds of people every week and convert them to Christianity, but essentially still over half the planet is going to be destroyed by God. And that is what your "message" is that you are preaching. How is this 'good news'? It's fine if you want to lock yourself away and only ever talk to Christians or love or care for Christians. But how can you tell loving family members who are not Christian that essentially you believe God will throw them in the lake of fire and have them destroyed? What gives you the right to go around "preaching" that millions of ordinary, decent people who may of even been more charitable and loving in their lifetime than yourself, are simply going to be blasted out of existance because they havn't got round to becoming Christians? How is that ever fair? <br />
<br />
Throughout history, our world has reacted in horror to individuals in positions of power who have used their great power to kill multitudes of people who don't happen to believe the "right" things, for example, Adolph Hitler. And yet Christians go around teaching that God, much like a muderous dictator, is going to throw you in hell or kill you for not believing the right things. <br />
<br />
I once read a Christian book which tried to justify the idea of God sending people to hell or annihilating them as comparing it to the relationship between a parent and a child. The book said 'If you were a parent and your child rejected you, would you not be angry?' As if this perfectly justifies the idea of God throwing his children in the lake of fire. Sure, parents would be hurt if their child rejected them, but how many would be happy to MURDER their child or see them thrown into hell to suffer for all eternity because they don't believe what they want them too??<br />
<br />
Sure, Christians will say "God is all knowing and only he can make a good judgement and we have to trust this". But this is just a cop out. This is like saying "yes, I realise how utterly unfair this teaching is but you just have to have <strong><em>blind faith</em></strong> in what I am saying and stop asking so many questions". <br />
<br />
Far from the "love" and the "hope" and the "good news" I was supposed to be feeling by believing this stuff, the more I reflected on all these problems of divine judgement the more I began to feel repulsed. Far from spiritually uplifting, it was dragging me down and making me feel bad. The whole thing is completely driven by fear. I just simply could not go around with a "I'm saved, and you're not" attitude. Sure there are some genuinely evil people in this world, but I believe the vast majority of people have plenty of potential to do good and it really doesn't matter what religion you belong to. I know, deep down, that if there is such a thing as a loving God, and an afterlife, that these utterly rigid and fearful dogmatic set of teachings simply cannot be true. Far too many of Gods children will be destroyed because they did not believe the right things. And we live in a world with an endless number of opinions and people who claim to have the "truth", and yet all we have apparently been left as "evidence" is a book called the Bible, to make up our minds that will determine our eternal fate. What about people in the world who cannot read?? What about the numerous parts of the Bible which appear to contradict other parts? <br />
<br />
When it comes down to it- what evidence <strong><em>really</em></strong> is there for these claims? If we step back and look objectively at the situation, the ONLY evidence that God will do these things are a handful of quotes from the Bible. <br />
<br />
Compare this with hundreds of modern day reports of Near Death Experiences where individuals from all backgrounds and walks of life claim to have an afterlife experience and an experience with God, or Jesus or other religious figures or deceased relatives. These people tell us that although Heaven and Hell exist, they exist to varying degrees and that where one goes depends upon ones charactar during life. But even this is not "for all eternity". According to Christians, only THEY should be in Heaven. So what about all these NDE's where people are meeting non- Christians in heaven? <br />
<br />
The modern day Bible was put together by the pope. Not only does it contain contradictions, but parts of it have been proven scientifically inaccurate. We do not have the original documents. Not only this but all of the writings of the bible are SUBJECTIVE accounts, which render them subject to all of the problems of subjective evidence. I do not believe the Bible should be read and followed in a strictly literal sense, but that deeper, spiritual meanings can be found in it. I do not "reject Jesus", but I do reject going around preaching that non-believers are damned for eternity.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-80207085607265663502011-05-04T11:54:00.000-07:002011-08-28T09:36:21.775-07:00Ectoplasm: Real or fake?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfqlWcZcfMkxfVz-rfb3slkzGkUWslr-ToATB0nfygGIXRWSTwTeUYDdu5nvNoPb_bkAtoSVNgeP2e06_ITUvDiLuaGEVRrLN-eql5HVNg90KgcPMjEEzMkPlzbxReFTk7CLwu6JbpRNj/s1600/ectoplasm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfqlWcZcfMkxfVz-rfb3slkzGkUWslr-ToATB0nfygGIXRWSTwTeUYDdu5nvNoPb_bkAtoSVNgeP2e06_ITUvDiLuaGEVRrLN-eql5HVNg90KgcPMjEEzMkPlzbxReFTk7CLwu6JbpRNj/s400/ectoplasm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<strong>First of all, <em>what is ectoplasm</em>?</strong> The term "ectoplasm" was coined by a man named <span class="st">Dr. Charles Richet which comes from the Greek words ektos ("outside") and plasma ("something formed or molded"). According to Dr. Richet, Ectoplasm is (quote) "a whitish substance, that creeps as if alive, with damp, cold, protoplasmic extensions that are transformed under the eyes of the experimenters into a hand, fingers, a head or even an entire figure".</span><br />
<br />
Ectoplasm is said to be a substance that excretes from the body of a medium (usually through the mouth, sometimes ears and nose), a substance which spirits from the other side use in order to manifest themselves in our physical reality. The spirit entity will use the substance of ectoplasm to form physical body parts such as hands and arms or even a voice box to speak with us. Ectoplasm is said to be made up partly of white or colourless blood cells extracted from the mediums own body. <br />
<br />
Only a small number of mediums are said to be gifted in this area and the process of bringing forward spirits via ectoplasm is known as materialization mediumship. The whole process needs to take place in total darkness, due to the ectoplasm substance being extremely sensitive to light. It is even said that sudden exposure to light or other disturbances during the materialization can cause direct physical harm to the medium. <br />
<br />
The materialisation of spirits via ectoplasm was popular many years ago in victorian times, but we rarely see it today. There are however still a small number of mediums who continue this practice. <br />
<br />
The skeptics of course say that the whole thing needs to be carried out in total darkness because it is all a trick and that the reason we don't see much of it today is because the hoaxes and scams must of all been unmasked and exposed in the past so no one can get away with it anymore. <br />
<br />
Furthermore, skeptics claim that the "ectoplasm" itself is nothing more than cheesecloth, which gets stuffed into cavities of the body and then regurgitated during a seance. <br />
<br />
It must be admitted that the old photos of ectoplasm do simply look like a conjuring trick using cheesecloth or other substances and it is easy to understand why at first glance, most people would dismiss ectoplasm as nothing more than an elaborate hoax.<br />
<br />
However, a closer examination of the subject leaves me feeling unsure. For starters, many high standing men of science came to the conclusion that ectoplasm is genuine. Charles Richet himself who coined the term was a physiologist, bacteriologist, pyschologist, chemist and a winner of the nobel prize in 1913. Hardly the kind of individual you'd expect to be easily duped by a hoax using cheesecloth. <br />
<br />
The idea that "all the mediums got exposed as hoaxers" in the past is simply not true. Quite the opposite, in fact many records can be found of materialisation mediums who were in fact scientifically studied under carefully controlled conditions - bound to a chair, and in some cases gagged. The kind of amazing phenomena that has been documented are not things which any stage magician has been able to duplicate either. There are numerous convincing cases of materialisation mediumship documented and if one takes the time to research into ectoplasm and materialisation mediumship a little more deeply than the initial impression of it, there is a wealth of information there which will make you at least question if it could well be possible.<br />
<br />
If you want to read about some modern examples of materialisation mediumship I would highly recommend you check out <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0954633849/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=retrutop-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0954633849">The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=retrutop-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0954633849" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-72766961332150173642011-04-07T13:42:00.000-07:002011-07-07T14:49:39.115-07:00Most famous ghost photographs ever taken<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovEzmqe_j8aUNTps6Y5bTa0gOnAwaZwVCMPvOs_T_VvCQDxwiqCl-e0jGBndXVvhX2Gzp19qFWBhgcZPHJBnAtVtK4MWcWIp5citCfZ3xlbMQLLMxlbI7UDG5J_txCUVNLXODkpI6Li2Q/s1600/brown_lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovEzmqe_j8aUNTps6Y5bTa0gOnAwaZwVCMPvOs_T_VvCQDxwiqCl-e0jGBndXVvhX2Gzp19qFWBhgcZPHJBnAtVtK4MWcWIp5citCfZ3xlbMQLLMxlbI7UDG5J_txCUVNLXODkpI6Li2Q/s320/brown_lady.jpg" width="265px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Brown Lady, 1936</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOzZly-eqLy7WQl1eXQUdHp4rfUySnBKkpsmwpzVhS32uwaZbdyjiEllqElCdGQeHzYJtzIB4hi3pVXUaJe1YkPZGqHT4G_aPs37E5kwaHJO7Qer1NJRtglLXxBIzao77ckrzdJYXB2k3Z/s1600/Wem+Fire+Apparition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOzZly-eqLy7WQl1eXQUdHp4rfUySnBKkpsmwpzVhS32uwaZbdyjiEllqElCdGQeHzYJtzIB4hi3pVXUaJe1YkPZGqHT4G_aPs37E5kwaHJO7Qer1NJRtglLXxBIzao77ckrzdJYXB2k3Z/s320/Wem+Fire+Apparition.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wem Fire Apparition 1995</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEPB68MrxedvoFkUmkvD86nvecUpc5df0CpYd07Hkmbe8M472ZeSPcauU_7vH6Fp_z9Mqgz35IW_Iafmc25K80kxyRgwxSCO0UlJBr7RD0Q-gKLqGjuycNs1Bv0GZ7iRT6bjULf7MIhRV/s1600/Bachelors+Grove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEPB68MrxedvoFkUmkvD86nvecUpc5df0CpYd07Hkmbe8M472ZeSPcauU_7vH6Fp_z9Mqgz35IW_Iafmc25K80kxyRgwxSCO0UlJBr7RD0Q-gKLqGjuycNs1Bv0GZ7iRT6bjULf7MIhRV/s320/Bachelors+Grove.jpg" width="220px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bachelor’s Grove Cemetary 1991</td></tr>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgeTM2yzHMJmjWoRxdGJ0Pnh26cd59CGN46MSE1Eob6gPt0rjjaMAPp5HOAmGTju9OwJK2n-9rFOP9Pf6V-qCDcKYhyphenhypheneLFH3D0_D0TPY_2SlwMmfemq6VJtCgZfNWPv5QMoE-3bAnOqf09/s1600/londonghost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgeTM2yzHMJmjWoRxdGJ0Pnh26cd59CGN46MSE1Eob6gPt0rjjaMAPp5HOAmGTju9OwJK2n-9rFOP9Pf6V-qCDcKYhyphenhypheneLFH3D0_D0TPY_2SlwMmfemq6VJtCgZfNWPv5QMoE-3bAnOqf09/s320/londonghost.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Security Camera footage</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Hampton Court, London October 2003</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-59081764667079786212011-04-02T12:51:00.000-07:002011-08-07T11:07:47.733-07:00Mediums: Are some real? Or are they all fake?There have always been people who claim they can contact the dead. These people are popularly refered to as "Mediums". But is it really possible that these people are contacting the dead, as they claim, or is it all trickery and deception? Obviously there are plenty of fakes out there. But are some mediums genuine? <br />
<br />
<strong>How fake mediums and psychics work</strong><br />
<ol><li><strong>Cold reading. </strong>Without knowing it, we can give away quite a lot of information about ourselves just in our appearance, our body language and the things that we say. A fake medium will use this means to gain information about us in very a subtle way and then make it seem as though they are delivering this information as though it was gained from the "spirit world". One clue that a medium is cold reading is that they keep asking YOU the questions. They completely rely on your continued input and feedback. Once they have some vague ideas about who it is you are trying to contact, they then offer what appears to be more specific information but what are in reality statements that could apply to anyone, or outright falsehoods. The information they give is often of a trivial nature, but people going to mediums may be in an emotionally troubled state and find it difficult to be rational. The fake medium will watch your facial expressions and body language to see when they are making a "hit" or a "miss". If your input is extremely minimal, expect the fake mediums reading to be extremely poor and very vague. </li>
<li><strong>Hot reading. </strong>A fake medium will attempt to research the history of a location or person in whatever way they can prior to giving a reading. Any information they gain will then be delivered to make it seem as though they have an impressive knowledge of that person or building.</li>
</ol><strong><em>Focussing only on the hits.</em> </strong>People have a tendency to focus only on the things a medium got right, in other words on their "hits". This could be because people are desperate to believe or do not want to feel as though they wasted their money ect. However, a fake medium will opperate in exactly the same way. Any major misses or false information will simply be swept under the carpet and they will keep throwing out lots of information until they get a hit. <br />
<br />
When it comes down to it, there are really two types of "fakers"- there are those who are doing it deliberately and those who may genuinely believe they have this ability but the reality is that they do not. Skeptics believe that ALL mediums fit into one or two of these catagories. <br />
<br />
<strong>Do <em>real</em> mediums exist?</strong><br />
<br />
Clearly if a medium is to have any hope of proving themselves as being real, they need to show they can do the opposite of what a fake medium does. <br />
<br />
So heres the kind of criteria a medium should meet to be considered "genuine": <br />
<ul><li><strong>No prior knowledge</strong> of the person who is coming to have a reading (other than perhaps, <em>very </em>minimal details such as a first name).</li>
<li>Is able to give <strong>accurate information</strong> without any input from the person who is having the reading done</li>
<li>Gives detailed and specific information which <strong>nobody else could have possibly known</strong> except for the person having the reading done </li>
<li>There are more "hits" than "misses" in the reading</li>
</ul>The classic problem with mediumship has always been that this skill can be made into a <strong>profitable business</strong> and this will always leave a claimed medium open to accusations that they are just "doing it for the money" and taking advantage of individuals who are in an emotionally vulnerable state and desperate to latch on to anything that will make themselves feel better. <br />
In their defense, many mediums say they simply find themselves in greater demand as their skills gain recognition and having to devote more and more time to their mediumship abilities and of course, everybody has to make money and earn a living somehow. Also, rather than taking advantage of troubled individuals, mediums in some cases may be providing a great service and providing a great deal of help and comfort where it is needed.<br />
<br />
<strong>Impressive modern day mediums</strong><br />
So are there any mediums who have impressed me? I have watched many of them and I have to say in a lot of cases I can see how a lot of what a medium does can look like cold reading. But there are a few who stand out as being very impressive. The most impressive medium I have seen to date has to be <strong>Lisa Williams</strong>. I do not know if her shows are edited to make her ability look more impressive than it really is, but this is about the only explanation the skeptical side of me can come up with that would explain what I've seen on her shows. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/AtDnsjHsu-A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
I would recommend doing a youtube search for Lisa Williams and watching all of her readings. She is very impressive. <br />
<br />
<strong>Is it all just super ESP and telepathy?</strong><br />
<br />
The only other explanation is that the information being gained is somehow being picked up from the environment or the medium is reading peoples minds (telepathy). Maybe the universe is like one giant tape recorder and records everything that has ever happened, and certain individuals may be "sensitive" to this and able to pick up on past events ect. This is the general idea behind super ESP. To date, I am unaware of anyone actually proving that super ESP is a real phenomena. But are mediums just reading peoples minds?<br />
<ol><li><strong>Proxy sittings-</strong> this is where someone will go to see a medium on behalf of another person, who knows nothing about that person. This way the medium could not be mind reading the subject. Many proxy sittings have been carried out and yielded positive results. </li>
<li><strong>Cross corrispondences-</strong> </li>
</ol>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-15096566723878145652011-03-31T15:54:00.000-07:002011-04-02T13:06:28.680-07:00Is the truth "out there"?Is there life after death? Does God Exist? Does life have a purpose? All these "big questions" are being continually asked to this day and I think we often assume that it is down to us to discover <em>new</em> answers to these questions as though answers to these questions have <em>never </em>been found by those who came before us. <br />
<br />
But what if the truth is already "out there" and has been for quite some time? The more I read and research these topics and read the OLD books- literature from a hundred years ago or more, the more I realise that the same philosophical and scientific debates have been whirling around for much longer than most people realise. And conclusions to those debates have already been reached many, many times before. <br />
We may think what we say , read or "discover" today - whether skeptical or believer- when researching these topics are new things, but they are not, they are merely a rehash of old. <br />
<br />
I think it is comforting to know that the evidence both in favour and against the existence of an afterlife and god are <em>already out there</em>- the debates have already happened countless times, and the conclusions are there to be seen by anyone with a truly open mind. Even if you had been born in the early 1900's or the 1800's, even then- you had your mediums claming to contact the dead and your paranormal phenomena, your skeptics and your materialists, the fakes and the hoaxers. It was all there, just like it is today. The evidence for and against the afterlife has been around for a VERY long time.<br />
<br />
<strong>Are skeptics always the honest guys?</strong><br />
One big assumption I made and I think a lot of other people probably make is to completely assume that the "skeptics" are the honest guys. They are the ones trying to uncover those faking the paranormal phenomena. <br />
To be honest though, the truth is that closed minded skeptics are just as capable of going to great lengths to rig things, set things up and create elaborate conditions which make all things paranormal look ridiculous and false as you do the people who go to great lengths to fake paranormal phenomena. <br />
<br />
With so many voices shouting very loudly that they have the truth, it can drown the truth out almost completely. If you want to find the truth, your task is to opperate with a truly open mind, to wade through the bias and deciet on BOTH sides of the argument and find the plain, hard facts. Then accept them.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-21589498467138736362011-03-27T12:25:00.000-07:002011-07-12T05:05:10.921-07:00Do ghosts really exist? The evidence.<strong>Ghosts. Do they come from the land of the dead or the land of living?</strong><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcat062szD2x1yE3vNbebUz7wpJVKT3xSBrhKUx5D4ngJLpCzz0Hxya_6UakYxPto85A9-5jtGuCc1XtLK1Tt1BiVQzXcud2_Bvnyc7mio6B0smNmoSA9nGKy_kOMruO1GjFr0Dgvqb3I/s1600/brown_lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; height: 221px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 224px;"><img border="0" height="200px" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcat062szD2x1yE3vNbebUz7wpJVKT3xSBrhKUx5D4ngJLpCzz0Hxya_6UakYxPto85A9-5jtGuCc1XtLK1Tt1BiVQzXcud2_Bvnyc7mio6B0smNmoSA9nGKy_kOMruO1GjFr0Dgvqb3I/s200/brown_lady.jpg" width="165px" /></a></div>So do ghosts exist? There have been stories of ghosts and hauntings going right back throughout history. There are countless ghost tales! But do they REALLY exist? Some people will immediately scoff at this question and say of course ghosts do not exist. But I feel it is best to examine the evidence with an open mind. There are certainly plenty of things which happen that people interpret to be paranormal, but don't always turn out to be paranormal. Instead, natural explanations can be found. Whatever explanations we come up with, it's clear that something's going on! I think a better question we can ask is "what are ghosts?". Are ghosts just a figment of our imagination? Are ghosts the spirits of dead people? Or are they something else entirely? <br />
<br />
<strong><em>Why is this question important?</em></strong> Because it could help to provide an answer to the wider question of whether or not there is an afterlife. <br />
<br />
<strong><em>What's the evidence?</em></strong> Evidence of ghosts comes in the form of numerous eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence and inexplicable experiences. Ghost stories have abounded for hundreds of years in cultures all across the world. The evidence would appear at first glance to be overwhelming. Can all this evidence be dismissed as hallucinations and camera tricks? <br />
<br />
<strong></strong><strong>SKEPTICAL VIEW: Ghosts are all in the mind?</strong> <br />
<br />
For those who do not believe in ghosts, there are a number of explanations as to why people may report seeing an apparition or experiencing paranormal phenomena: <br />
<ul><li><strong>Hallucinations</strong> are experiences which seem real, but happen entirely in the mind. They are a subjective phenomena and therefore do not really exist. These experiences are not restricted to people who might be classed as "insane" and can happen to ordinary people. Hallucinations are found to be more common during the times when people are just drifting off to sleep or waking up. This is when we can have a somewhat altered state of consciousness. And this happens to be the time when many people report seeing "ghosts" or other images. </li>
<li><strong>Sensory confusion.</strong> People have a tendency to see patterns and shapes in things that are not really there. That's why you can play the game of looking at clouds in the sky and seeing certain shapes, which you may point out to a friend who can observe the same thing. This could be what happens in some "ghost sightings"- one person, or a bunch of people, see a pattern or form that isn't really there, it is just the mind playing tricks on them. A dim reflection or shadows and lighting cast in a certain way could be misidentified as something supernatural like a ghost. People who are under the influence of "suggestion" who THINK a place might be haunted can find their minds playing all sorts of tricks on them. Imagination can run wild, and every noise can be interpreted as something paranormal. </li>
<li><strong>The grief stricken mind -</strong> It is common that when people lose a loved one they will be grief stricken and this grief can bring out all sorts of reactions. If a wife loses her husband who has shared the bed with her for 40 years, she might feel a "presence" for example in the bed, because that is what she usually feels. It is the mind playing tricks. People may have vivid dreams of lost loved ones, again there is nothing necessarily paranormal about this and can just be a natural reaction to the loss of a loved one. </li>
</ul><strong>Are Ghosts just hallucinations? 10 reasons why they are not</strong><br />
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So we've heard the skeptical arguments. What about the case for ghosts being real phenomena? In his book entitled "You cannot die" Ian Currie wrote a section called <em>"Are they (ghosts) just hallucinations?"</em> which I think provides an excellent summary of the case in favour of ghosts NOT being hallucinations. I've summarised his main points here into 10 reasons why apparitions (ghosts) are not hallucinations. <br />
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<ol><li><strong>Normalcy of witnesses-</strong> seeing apparitions of the dead does not just happen to people like occultists and spiritualists. The vast majority of people who see apparitions are perfectly normal people. </li>
<li><strong>Good health of witnesses-</strong> Also, the people who witness apparitions usually report being in good health physically and emotionally. Many do not report anything unusual in their mental functioning (experiencing shock, stress or elation) at the time of the sighting. Most are in a perfectly ordinary state of mind. </li>
<li><strong>Suggestion and expectation-</strong> many people who witness apparitions find the experience was totally unexpected, and occured within familiar surroundings and "burst in" on them whilst they were going about their normal daily business. </li>
<li><strong>High number of reports-</strong> according to Currie, there are a very high number of people as a propotion of the general population who claim to have had an experience which convinced them that they were in contact with someone who was dead. </li>
<li><strong>Multiple witnesses -</strong> hallucinations are purely subjective. It is only the hallucinator who sees and hears them. But according to Currie, there have been many cases where apparitions have been witnessed by more than one individual at the same time, which means they cannot be a hallucination. </li>
<li><strong>Successive experiences -</strong> apparitions that haunt a certain location may be witnessed by numerous people over the course of many years. You might argue that if you tell someone a story of a haunting , you then place the suggestion in their minds. However, there are many cases where people have no prior knowledge that a location is haunted or what particular incidents tend to happen and have independently reported witnessing/experiencing the exact same ghostly phenomena.</li>
<li><strong>Objective phenomena -</strong> apparitions can also be accompanied with physical movement of objects, sounds, footsteps ect, all of which are objective phenomena and cannot therefore be a hallucination. </li>
<li><strong>Animal reactions to apparitions -</strong> animals would not react if apparitions of the dead were purely a hallucination that someone is having. But animals are often reported as reacting to apparitions with fear. </li>
<li><strong>Veridical apparitions-</strong> these are apparitions which convey information which is later verified as being correct. This information conveyed is information that the witness or witnesses could not possibly have known. </li>
<li><strong>Reciprocal apparitions -</strong> these are apparitions where a person who is alive undergoes an "out of body experience" and then visits someone that he or she knows. That person then witnesses the disembodied spirit of the living person. It has been reported that apparitions of the dead and apparitions of the living (brought about through 'out of body experiences') have no significant differences. They are virtually the same. Thus, reciprocal apparitions of living people cannot be hallucinations because there are two people in independent locations involved. This strongly suggests that apparitions of the dead cannot be hallucinations either. </li>
</ol><strong><em>A further objection- </em></strong>It's certainly possible that some apparaitions are hallucinations. However, one obvious objection that I would like to bring up is to ask why would someone hallucinate seeing the apparition of a dead person who they may not even know anyway? Hallucinations can take on any shape or form, so why would someone simply hallucinate the apparition of a dead person and then stop hallucinating? Why not hallucinate that there is a green eyed monster running around also? <br />
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Secondly, just because you hallucinate something does not mean that "something" cannot exist. You could hallucinate that a cat is sitting on your bed. It might mean that the cat you see on your bed does not exist, but it does not mean cats do not exist. Similarly, arguing that someone had a hallucination of an apparition means apparitions are false, does not prove this. You would need to argue that ghosts are ALWAYS hallucinations or tricks of the mind, and as we have seen there are objective phenomena which take place to refute this idea.<br />
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<strong>SKEPTICAL VIEW: Dealing with the objective phenomena</strong> <br />
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As we have seen, one strong objection to the idea that ghosts are just tricks of the mind is that if they were then the experience should be purely subjective. However, objective occurences are often witnessed alongside the haunting or apparition. So what are some of the skeptical explanations for this phenomena? <br />
<ul><li><strong>Fraud and fakers -</strong> The first and most obvious skeptic explanation for objective paranormal phenomena is that people are simply lying, motivated by the need for attention, fame, money and so on. There have been numerous cases of trickery amoung those who claim to have contacted the dead or captured evidence of the paranormal. Fakers may find ways to "simulate" a haunting, with noises ect. Those who claim they can contact the dead, people known as Mediums, may simply be decieving people by finding out knowledge before hand about a person or location and then impressing people with accurate details which they claim were given to them "from the spirit world". Also in this catagory would be cases in which people exaggerate certain occurances which in reality were far from fantastic. </li>
<li><strong>Natural, mundane explanations-</strong> a variety of creepy sounds can occur in the average building as a result of things like temperature changes, the wind, mice in the walls, faulty plumbing ect. Poor insulation and air passages can create cold spots and strange sounds. Residents and people in the surrounding area could also be the source of strange sounds. Also in the darkness, when many ghost sightings are reported, it is easy to mistake mundane everyday objects for something like a ghost. </li>
<li><strong>Dust on the lense?-</strong> So called "spirit photography" can be explained as double exposures, "orbs" can be explained as the light from the camera flash reflecting off bugs or dust particles in the air. The existance of modern image editing software has now made it easy for almost anyone to create realistic fake ghost photographs. </li>
</ul><strong>Objections: </strong>It is certainly wise not to jump to the "paranormal" conclusion and to check for natural explanations and signs of trickery first. <br />
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<ol><li><strong>What about cases where natural causes cannot be found?-</strong> Whilst some paranormal activity can be down to natural causes, there are cases where natural explanations cannot be found. Closed minded skeptics will not see this as a sign of the paranormal, but simply that we have yet to discover a non-paranomal cause for a particular occurence. Closed minded skeptics may simply ignore and dismiss paranormal evidence that they cannot explain away or falsely attribute natural causes. </li>
<li><strong>Many people want to rid their homes of ghosts</strong>. Far from being motivated by the prospect of money, there are many people who are willing to PAY people who claim they will be able to exorcise ghosts from their homes. They do not want fame or attention, they want the paranormal activity to stop. </li>
<li><strong>Hoaxes do not disprove the afterlife.</strong> You can fake just about anything. You can create any kind of elaborate hoax. You can fake being ill for the purposes of gaining attention or money, but that does not mean that illness does not exist. Similarly, just because there are people who have faked paranormal phenomena, does not mean that real paranormal phenomena does not exist. Of course you could use software these days to re-create every ghost photograph that was ever taken, but does this mean they are all fakes?</li>
</ol><strong>Communicating with fictitious (made up) Ghosts?</strong><br />
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In the early 1970's, a group known as the Toronto Society for Psychical research created a fictitious ghost by the name of "Philip" to see if they would be able to "make contact" with this entirely made up entity. <br />
They created a detailed history for "Philip" and the details of how this fictional charactar was supposed to of lived his life and died. This became known as <strong><em>"the Philip experiment".</em></strong> <br />
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The group would sit in a room and meditate together focussing on the fictional charactar, and see if they could make any kind of contact. For a whole year, this method failed to produce any results. <br />
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Then the group decided to try a spiritualist style seance to contact Philip. They sat around a table, dimmed lights and focussed on the fictional charactar. They then recieved "communication" in the form of a rap on the table. Then they started to ask the entity questions, one rap for yes, two for no. The entity identified itself as Philip. <br />
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Further paranormal phenomena resulted, with the table levitating, moving and sliding and even moving toward certain group members and trapping them in a corner of the room. "Philip" would also apparently be able to dim and restore the lights upon request. "He" was able to cause the group to feel a cold breeze blow over them at will. On some occasions , a fine "mist" was reported hovering over the table. <br />
Many more of these experiments have been carried out where people will create fictional ghosts and contact them usually through rapping noises, with the ghost appearing to show signs of having its own "personality".<br />
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What are we to make of these experiments? Does this mean that ghosts do not exist? <br />
<ol><li><strong><em>It proves that Ghosts do not exist. </em></strong>This theory does not explain how the paranormal OBJECTIVE phenomena occured. The experiment was not conducted to disprove the existence of ghosts, nor does it. </li>
<li><strong><em>Paranormal activity is somehow created by our unconscious minds.</em></strong> This explanation makes sense, because "Philip" never communicated anything which the subjects involved didn't already know. He was "limited" by their knowledge. The objective phenomena may of been caused by what is termed "psychokinesis"- which is found in some poltergiest cases. This is where the living person is said to be generating objective phenomena with their mind or "mind over matter". </li>
<li><strong><em>They created a "thought-form".</em></strong> In other words, they actually used their collective energy to genuinely create a new entity. <a href="http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/t/thought_forms.html">More info</a>. </li>
<li><em><strong>They contacted a playful ghost.</strong></em> Perhaps a ghost really was present and just acted the part of Philip to make contact? Perhaps ALL the fake ghosts that have been contacted are just playful spirits? Is this really feasible? </li>
</ol><div></div><div></div><strong>Ghosts of the living or ghosts of the dead?</strong><br />
This is the ultimate question- are ghosts just a projection arising from the minds of living people, or are they really the ghosts of dead people? <br />
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Research into cases of <strong><em>poltergeist activity</em></strong> in the past has lead some to conclude that it was somehow the persons own mind that was creating the bizzare phenomena. <br />
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><em>"The typical poltergeist is somehow created by a force housed in the brain and body of the agent himself ... the force probably emanates from two places on the agent's body that take on the function of the ‘rotating beams' of force"</em> (W. R. Roll, project director of the <i>Psychical Research Foundation </i>at Chapel Hill, North Carolina)</span></blockquote></blockquote>Not everyone agrees with this theory. The other argument is that anyone who dabbles in using ouija boards or seances or spiritism generally without being fully aware or protected or prepared can attract negative "lower vibrational" entities which will often pretend to be a deceased loved one or assume any kind of false identity to be able to be around people. Sometimes they will give away information about the future or impress people with other kinds of information. These are entities which are ultimately looking for a body to possess, and will use deciet and trickery to draw people close to them. Perhaps in many of these cases where "fake" ghosts have been attracted, it is a lower vibrational entity that is feeding off the information in peoples minds just to draw closer to them. <br />
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Another possibility is that <em>both</em> kinds of hauntings are possible- hauntings by the living and hauntings by the dead. If we essentially are going to become ghosts ourselves when we die, it stands to reason that we would have some of the "powers" that ghosts have right now, but in a much more limited scope. <br />
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<strong>Any concluding thoughts on this matter?</strong> What can be said is that I have yet to come across any evidence from the experiments done into psychokinesis and telekinesis (the ability of mind to influence matter) that these abilities can do things such as materialize apparitions, create voices or other similar phenomenon.<br />
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<strong><em>Successive experiences</em></strong> as mentioned before, where completely independent visitors to a haunted location witness the same paranormal phenomena is one possible argument that could be used against the idea that all ghosts are products of the mind. <br />
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<strong><u>FURTHER TOPICS</u></strong><br />
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<strong>What about popular TV shows like 'Most Haunted'?</strong> <br />
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I think whether you are a total skeptic or a believer in ghosts you will see that what shows like Most Haunted do is paint a fairly sensationalist view of investigating ghosts. Viewers want to be scared and entertained right away. However, real paranormal investigation doesn't usually work this way. So what Most Haunted relies upon to provide the entertainment that viewers crave is the dramatics of the people on camera. The Cameras are on the crew filming their "reactions" at least 90% of the time. We see night vision cameras and a bunch of people getting freaked out in an alleged haunted location, and it's entertaining to watch for a while (other people might just say predictable, and boring!). They will scream everytime they hear a knock or bump. The fact is if you sit quietly in ANY building there is a natural level of noise and this cannot automatically be taken as paranormal activity. So it doesn't really amount to a serious investigation. I say this because the crew will visit a location and maybe stay a night. Real investigations go on for months and months. <br />
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<strong>Religious explanations- Are ghosts demonic?</strong><br />
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You would imagine that religion generally would be not only acceptive, but promoting the paranormal as being real. But suprisingly this isn't often the case, despite their beliefs in heaven, hell, the devil, and god, some will rubbish the idea of ghosts and hauntings altogether. <br />
Other religious thinkers would say that paranormal activity is certainly "real" in the sense that the phenomena that takes place is being caused by a supernatural entity, but deny that these entities are disembodied spirits of the departed. Instead, they interpret these entities as demons or demonic activity. These demons would impersonate dead loved ones and use spiritism to trick and decieve, to possess and lead people away from God. An example of a modern religious group that believes this are the Jehovah Witnesses and some other Christian groups. They base their authority for this belief upon their interpretation of what the Bible says. <br />
However, there has been a long history amoung orthodox religion of actually persecuting those who practice spiritism. <br />
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I do not know how you would go about deciphering that any given paranormal activity is the result of disembodied dead people, or demonic activity. However, if you were to debate this point you'd need to debate two things:<br />
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<ol><li>Is the Bible (or any said religious text) the authentic word of God? How can this be proven?</li>
<li>If the Bible is the authentic word of God, then we must debate whether or not it teaches that apparitions are in fact demons</li>
</ol>I think there is a logical case to be made against the "all ghosts are demons in disguise" idea also. Why would demons do this? The argument given is that demons seek to ultimately lead people away from God? Well what about all these people who have encounters with apparitions and after death communications which give them comfort and hope? What about all the people who may have been atheists who actually became devout believers in god after a supernatural experience? What about all of the experiences where people felt a loving energy? I think some organised religions are equally opposed to aspects of the paranormal, because it threatens some of their beliefs. The "ghosts are the devil coming to destroy your soul" idea seems to me to be an idea designed to strike immense fear into people in order to protect traditional beliefs more than anything else.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-42405539006347176602011-03-24T10:42:00.000-07:002011-08-20T08:10:40.405-07:00Does the mind die when the brain dies?<div><b>Are we immortal?</b> According to wikipedia, "Death" is defined as follows: </div><br />
<div align="center"><i>"Death is the termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism."</i></div><br />
<div>We can define immortality as the: </div><br />
<div align="right"><i>"The literal survival of the individual human personality or consciousness for an indefinite period after physical death, with its memory and awareness of self-identity essentially intact" (as defined by Corliss Lamont).</i></div><br />
<div>So does the human personality survive the death of the physical body? Well, the fundamental issue here is the relationship between the personality and the body. </div><br />
<ul><li><b>Monism</b> states that the physical brain produces consciousness and the mind and therefore the body and personality are bound together, and cannot exist seperately.</li>
<li><b>Dualism</b> states that our personality and consciousness can exist seperately and independently from the physical body, because they are two different entities. </li>
</ul><br />
<div>If monism is right, and consciousness and personality arise from the physical brain, then they are dependant upon it and this means that when the physical brain dies, then "we" cease to be. If dualism is right, then when our physical body dies, "we" shall continue to exist with our personality, consciousness and memories intact. Which position is correct? Where does the evidence point to? </div><br />
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<div><b>Scientific Evidence for mind-brain dependence (monism)</b> </div><br />
<ol><li>Mental abilities emerge with the development of the brain; failure in brain development prevents mental development </li>
<li>There seems to be an evolutionary relationship between the complexity of the brain and a species' cognitive traits </li>
<li>Brain damage from accidents such as a blow to the head or from toxins, diseases, and malnutrition and can often cause irreversible losses of mental functioning. Mental functions may also decrease as the brain ages. </li>
<li>The functions of seeing, hearing and speech are correlated with specific areas of the brain</li>
<li>Mental states are correlated with brain states; electrical or chemical stimulation of the human brain can invoke perceptions, memories, desires, and other mental states. Electrical stimulation can also present the formation of new memories and cause memory loss. </li>
<li>Alcohol, Caffeine and other Drugs can effect mental states</li>
</ol><br />
<div>If the mind can exist independently of the brain, then why doesn't the mind continue to function normally when brain damage occurs? Thinking and memory instead appear to depend upon the cortex of the brain so how could they possibly survive the destruction and decay of the phyical brain? </div><br />
This idea is hardly new, all the way back in the year 1725 it was Benjamin Franklin who wrote the following in his book <strong><em>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain:</em></strong><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><em>"In a sound Sleep sometimes, or in a Swoon, we cease to think at all; tho' the Soul is not therefore then annihilated, but exists all the while tho' it does not act; and may not this probably be the Case after Death? . . . . Now upon Death, and the Destruction of the Body, the Ideas contain'd in the Brain, (which are alone the Subjects of the Soul's Action) being then likewise necessarily destroy'd, the Soul, tho' incapable of Destruction itself, must then necessarily cease to think or act, having nothing left to think or act upon."</em></div><br />
<b>Evidence in favour of Dualism?</b> The fact that the mind is seen to react to damage or changes in the physical brain is assumed to be evidence that the physical brain must therefore be PRODUCING the mind. The mind is simply an emergent property of the brain. But wait a minute! Is this assumption a FACT? There is another theory of the relationship between consciousness<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCujcg8cHtsQGenEYMz-rs_BvsZMl2vXRPcdIuq5pZglfrCMEODtHY8ZVmHeR2NxUUqfH93Q6MIZ1rnqnpeTlS6_3NtPONcIQqvnhwf-vXAKngvjIQ5c1-DbwsmRdm2uKCZP85xY3HudF/s1600/tv.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588899020267346466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaCujcg8cHtsQGenEYMz-rs_BvsZMl2vXRPcdIuq5pZglfrCMEODtHY8ZVmHeR2NxUUqfH93Q6MIZ1rnqnpeTlS6_3NtPONcIQqvnhwf-vXAKngvjIQ5c1-DbwsmRdm2uKCZP85xY3HudF/s200/tv.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 169px;" /></a> and the physical brain which states that the physical brain actually acts as a reciever of consciousness. Rather than producing consciousness, the brain recieves consciousness, it regulates consciousness and it restricts and limits consciousness. This theory is compatible with all the observed facts mentioned above. It would mean that the relationship between consciousness and brain is much like the relationship between a television set and the signals it recieves. Just because you break your TV set and the TV then fails to gain a clear picture is not evidence that the pictures on the TV screen actually originate from within the TV set itself. In a similar way, yes damage to the physical brain can result in changes to that persons consciousness and personality, but this similarly does not necessarily mean that the consciousness and personality originate FROM the physical brain. <br />
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This theory is hardly new. In his 1928 book entitled "Why I believe in personal immortality", scientist Oliver Joseph Lodge wrote the following:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>"the brain-nerve-muscle mechanism, with the rest of the material</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>body, constitutes an instrument, which is constructed, controlled, and utilized,</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>by life and mind; an instrument which may become impaired or worn out, so</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>as to prevent its successful manipulation by the normal controlling entity; and</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>that the signs of that dislocation or impairment may become conspicuous</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>without entitling us to draw any conclusion other than that the channel or link</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>between mind and matter has become clogged or imperfect."</i></b></div><br />
And earlier still, in a book entitled "The World of Souls" written by <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Professor Wincenty Lutoslawski in 1899:</span></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>"To understand the relation of thought and brain it will be</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>sufficient to admit that the brain is the organ through which we</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>receive all impressions from without, and through which we</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>produce all movements, specially the movements of speech. All</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>evidence tends to exhibit merely these functions of the brain,</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>and every assertion crediting the brain with thought is based on </i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">a fallacy similar to that which refers to the heart all emotions for</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">the reason that emotions influence the action of the heart....</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thus thought is known to us, not as a physiological process, but</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">as an act of consciousness, from our own mental experience,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">and we have no reason to identify it with any bodily activity</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">observable.... Nothing else than what you are conscious of as</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">yourself is your soul. It is a wrong analogy of language which</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">leads us to say, "My soul," as we say "My body," "My brain,"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">etc. In fact you are a soul, and you ought not to speak of having</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">a soul as if the soul were different from yourself."</span></div></div><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span></span></i></span></span>That this was wrote over 100 years ago is quite astonishing as the very same issues of mind / brain duality are debated today and yet in such old books you can find these theories. <br />
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To me it appears that there is obviously evidence that our minds can be restricted in certain ways by changes in the physical brain but it remains unclear as to whether or not this signals a mind/brain dependence or whether this is simply the effects of the mind being limited by the "instrument" of a brain whilst bound in this physical existance.<br />
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<b>SKEPTICAL VIEW: We believe in an aferlife because it comforts us</b><br />
Why do so many people believe in the afterlife? One explanation is that people believe in the afterlife because it is a psychological coping mechanism to deal with death. So all of the so called paranormal stories and people professing to believe in an afterlife are just doing this because they have such a deep seated need to BELIEVE there is an afterlife that they almost trick themselves into finding evidence for it. <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Objection. Afterlife doesn't comfort everyone.</i></b> One immediate objection to this idea is that we could equally say that some people do not want there to be an afterlife. Some people are not comforted by the idea and are more comforted by the idea that death is the end of our existence. These people will dismiss any evidence that there is an afterlife and seek out evidence that death is the end to our existence. So to argue for or against the existence of an afterlife based upon peoples <i>feelings and beliefs</i> towards it does not make tell us anything about the FACTS.</div>Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-11676851906522020682011-03-22T17:45:00.000-07:002011-07-07T14:58:50.697-07:00What happens to the soul when we sleep??If we have a "soul" then where does it go every single night when we go to sleep? Sure, we dream for a while, but what about those times during the night when time passes by and we are unaware of things?<br />
I've read a number of crazy theories, such as the idea that our soul goes onto travel in other dimensions while we sleep. My objection to this idea is that if we are our soul, then why don't we remember any of this? Why don't WE experience it?<br />
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The skeptical side of me feels that it seems illogical that if indeed we have a soul that can opperate and function independently of the physical brain and body then why should it ever need to "rest"? Surely being unconscious at all should be impossible if we have an immortal soul?<br />
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The only other explanation could indeed be that souls do actually sleep! I guess it could be possible. Our brain or mind doesn't totally stop functioning during sleep, otherwise we would be dead. Our thought vibrations simply change.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-13364762759302685202011-03-20T04:04:00.000-07:002011-03-20T11:42:44.786-07:00Does God Exist?This is a big question and one that I shall not attempt to gain a definitive answer to in the space of this article.<br /><br /><strong>We exist- so what caused us to exist?</strong><br /><br />There are some who might like to argue that we do not realy exist. I personally do not accept this view. If you did not exist, you would not be able to deny you exist. <br /><br />However, what if WE exist, but the world around us does not and is just an illusion? This is the classic "Brain in a vat" idea, the notion that the world around us could simply be something akin to the type of world presented in the movie "the Matrix". Well, it's possible, i'll grant that. <br /><br />The third option here of course is that we do indeed exist and that the world around us exists. We must then ask , what caused us? What caused the world around us to exist?<br /><br /><strong>Nothing caused us to exist?</strong><br /><br />Is it possible that we have no cause? Well that would go against common sense and against the established scientific law of cause and effect. Did the universe and ourselves just pop out of nothing? I personally don't see this is as being a reasonable position to take. If you have ABSOLUTELY nothing, then there's never going to be "something" spontaneously arise from it. You can't get something from nothing. It's impossible. <br /><br />So therefor it stands to reason that SOMETHING must have caused us to exist. But what?<br /><br /><strong>Did the universe cause us to exist?</strong><br /><br />Perhaps the universe has always existed in some shape or form? Or there exists an infinite regress of universes? Maybe the universe itself has just spent such a long time evolving until eventually we get to the point we are at today? <br /><br />Firstly, as far as I'm aware, there is simply no hard evidence that our universe was created by another one. <br /><br />As for whether or not our universe itself was not created, but existed forever, I'm not sure. <br /><br />There is a theory known as the "big crunch" theory, which suggests the universe is like a rubber band- expanding and contracting, and that when the universe contracts it results in a big bang (rather than a black hole), which started this present form of the universe, and is destined to go on having on exanding and contracting, one big bang after another, forever. <br /><br />However, there doesn't appear to be any concrete evidence for this theory and recent scientific discoveries have observed that the universe is not being slowed down by gravity, but is instead speeding up.<br /><br />Even so, for me this still doesn't explain how a universe that presumably is not itself a conscious being with personality and emotion can give rise to conscious beings with personality and emotions? <br /><br />The universe is said to work according to certain "laws" and "principles" - the major choice is between whether the organising force behind these laws and principles is blind, impersonal, unconscious chance, or a conscious, personal creator.<br /><br />I accept that the existance of God is a possibility. What I struggle with is the fact that we cannot see God. We cannot detect God with any of our senses or any of our scientific instruments.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1404552736061786667.post-79343741053654800182011-03-02T14:50:00.000-08:002011-08-20T08:12:46.078-07:00How can we ever come to terms with death?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQ-j7zYa04eX3eB1aSWfme2hWKC-wrojxg1QGg_5834q1rxYgKKz4h6p9y0VNxu_dzJWMTV-2l3Aq_ogPSI0cMIkNQMZq0mrDKd5wJb0iPDaZGFTBMKKlVOyqUIGknS7anG2bsnMxGL-w/s1600/spooky_graveyard.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQ-j7zYa04eX3eB1aSWfme2hWKC-wrojxg1QGg_5834q1rxYgKKz4h6p9y0VNxu_dzJWMTV-2l3Aq_ogPSI0cMIkNQMZq0mrDKd5wJb0iPDaZGFTBMKKlVOyqUIGknS7anG2bsnMxGL-w/s320/spooky_graveyard.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Is death our eternal oblivion?</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>Death. It's a hopelessly grim subject and one that most of us don't like to think about. We live our day to day lives as though death does not exist, as though we and everyone we know will just go on living like we are forever. <br />
We act as though death is something that is so far from us at this moment in time that we need barely give it a passing consideration. We all like to imagine living a long life and if we must die at all, perhaps dying late in our elderly years in a peaceful sleep.<br />
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Yet there have always been those who have taken time to seriously consider our own mortality and purpose. It is a subject has inspired countless philosophies, songs, poems and works of art. <br />
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For many of us, it is often only when experiencing the loss of a loved one or someone that we know, that the reality of death comes suddenly crashing down on us. <br />
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The cold, hard reality is that nothing is certain in this life except that one day you will die. One day everyone you know will die. One day- we will all be dead. We may try to trivialize this fact in any number of ways, but it is a truth that is 100% certain to happen. <br />
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Not only this, but death can strike at any moment and in any shape or form. We are given absolutely no guarantees. Death happens to the young and the old. The best we can do is to try and prolong our lives by staying healthy and avoiding danger.<br />
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So what happens when we die? Ask most people, regardless of how well educated they are on the subject, and they will tell you that death "is not the end". Our bodies may die, but our minds continue to live.<br />
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Some say that we all go to a place called heaven or to a spirit plane/reality. Others say we go to heaven or we go to hell. Others say we are born again into a new body. There are numerous theories, but ultimately they all promise life after death.<br />
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But what if there is no life after death? What if death is the end? What if, when we die, we just cease to exist? We enter into what we can only compare to a dreamless sleep that we shall never wake up from.<br />
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Many people say they are scared of ghosts. Is it not far more terrifying that there are no ghosts? Isn't the idea of an endless nonexistance being the only thing awaiting all of us at the end of this life far more scary than any spook or spectre? Isn't the idea that the loved ones we have lost have simply dissolved away into nothingness something that should haunt us every day of our lives far more?<br />
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It is strange to think of those who have died, to see people in photographs or even movies- to think that at that point in time they were alive, and now, they are gone. It is far stranger to know for a fact, that the same fate awaits us and that one day others may be looking back at pictures of us. <br />
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It is strange to think of this from a wider perspective in the sense that time is continually passing by and that essentially, "yesterday" is now gone forever. We can never get it back. And what we do right now will be tomorrows yesterday. <br />
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So, is death really the end, or is there an afterlife? Does an afterlife await all of us, or is it conditional upon the things we do in this life?<br />
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If death is the end, how can we really go on living meaningful lives carrying the burden of this knowledge? Surely if death is truly then end, then our life is just a countdown to oblivion? A hopelessly bleak outlook indeed. <br />
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I realise this is quite a depressing subject to deal with, but it is one which my mind does not want to rest from until I find satisfying answers. <br />
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This blog is going to be my attempt to grapple these questions and try to find some answers.Sparky11http://www.blogger.com/profile/03068961871404265864noreply@blogger.com0