Voice Transmissions With The Deceased
by Friedrich Juergenson

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221 CHAPTER 44

A professor is consulted – the press reacts positively –Prof. Dr. Hans Bender of Freiburg is interested – An experiment with students

The Swedish radio still does not dare to share the voice phenomena with its listeners. Stensson’s recordings suddenly were not persuasive enough. A senior professor of the Stockholm Technical University is now in the picture. Double is better. The whole affair starts to get on my nerves. Still, I agree.

Professor Laurent, that is his name, comes across as a friendly and understanding individual. He will retire soon and would like to research the voice phenomena as a private individual. Unfortunately his hearing is no longer very good, and since he often works until late at night it is difficult for him to stay awake in the case of lengthy recordings.

We conduct microphone recordings together; a few voices are recorded. The “old Jew” has a little fun with Laurent. A tenor sings in a monotone in Swedish: “Uncle Churchill contacts Ove…thanks, Ove!”

I asked Laurent if he knew what Ove meant. Laurent answered that he knew exactly.

Two artificial speech generators, which could be used to record artificial voices with a tape recorder, had been built at the university. These gadgets had been christened humorously as Ove I and II. Laurent promises to return to Nysund.

This fall and winter I was visited by numerous well-known personalities. We conducted recordings together. Most of the time the results are satisfactory. Dr. Alf Ahlberg, Sweden’s adult education 222 expert gets a direct reply to his question though in a humorous tone of voice.

Dr. Ivar Alm, a student of C.G. Jung is addressed in Danish. A group of journalists, Ivan Bratt of the “Folklet”, Evert Hallin of the “Ekiltuna Kuriren” and Anders Elmquist of the “Aftonbladet” visit me frequently and we conduct joint recordings. The results are again positive and the journalists share extensive reports with the public.

One evening editors Bratt, Olsson and an engineer from Oerebro came to visit. They arrived late because a serious traffic accident had blocked the road. A Scottish tourist had died; the other passengers in the car had suffered serious injuries.

We talked for a while about the tragic incident. Afterwards I put in a new tape and switched on the record button. It was a normal microphone recording without a radio connection. When we later listened to the recording, we discovered a male voice that called out in a loud and urgent tone: “Hurry up!” There were no further recordings because there was a telephone call from my English friend Thorlin calling from Eskiltuna. He was considerably agitated and reported that had made a recording a short while ago during which a strong male voice spoke the English sentence “No fear of death!” He spoke with a Scottish accent, which led to the conclusion that the recorded voice was that of the unfortunate Scotsman.

Next Sunday numerous guests arrived at my home in Nysund. It was already late and the guests were getting ready to leave when I received a phone call form Eskiltuna again. It was Claude Thorlin. His voice sounded happy and excited.

223 He had managed to obtain an unusually clear recording from the radio. He asked me to switch on the recording mode of my tape recorder and to put the microphone next to the telephone receiver. He wanted me to listen to the text because he was convinced that I would be able to hear the voice clearly even over the telephone. After I recorded his recording over the phone, the tone quality was a little distorted of course, I could hear without the least difficulty a choir that sang in German and Swedish: “We are traveling to Moelnbo. Friedel has company!…”

Prof. Laurent also commented positively in the press. However, he added that it would be better for science if it could be proved that the voices did not originate with the dead. In the meantime I had come into contact with Prof. Hans Bender in Freiburg (Germany). Prof. Bender directed the Institute for Borderline Research in Psychology and Psycho hygiene (mental health). He is a parapsychologist and his interest in my voice phenomena is evidently high.

Other foreign parapsychologists take up contact with me and I receive the most interesting sorts of offers. However, the Swedish Broadcasting Company still cannot decide.

Television contacts me once again. The newspapers repeatedly pose the question: “When are we finally going to hear the ghost voices on the radio?” Swedish and foreign publishers offer to publish a book of mine. I opt for a Swedish publishing house that had earlier published my cultural history articles.

The book is supposed to appear in January 1964. I write it in short and compressed intervals. It is a relatively hasty effort with lots of 224 corrections and unnecessary details. I lack time and a certain necessary distance to the events. During the time that I am writing the book I do not receive any transmissions, only here and there short greetings from Lena.

The Thorlin’s come to visit frequently on weekends. Claude has succeeded in getting some excellent recordings. Claude is a fine clarinetist, very musical and with quick reactions to the slightest sounds. He speaks English and Swedish and also understands some German. The situation fascinates him to an extraordinary degree. He stops smoking, becomes a vegetarian and uses his spare time exclusively to make recordings. Claude works quietly. He doesn’t publish. He wants to let the situation mature and to join me later at a proper occasion for an appearance.

Almost all of the voices that Claude recorded on tape can be recognized without any problems. Some of the voices speak Russian and Yiddish. One recording seems to be in Stalin’s voice, his name too is mentioned several times. The “old Jew” is present. At one time he says: “Historic recording…you can make a thousand copies!…”

In another transmission a clear female voice sings a song in three languages. She ends her presentation with “…now comes an iceberg… that is Stalin when he dies!…”

The Thorlin's are with us New Year’s Eve. We turn on our tape recorders and make two microphone recordings simultaneously. We converse freely. Our son Peter spontaneously calls out “Skol!” to toast the dead Hugo. When we listen to the tape we hear Hugo’s voice twice. The first time he calls out “Friedel” in a strong voice, the second time he says in Swedish: “Clink louder!” after Peter’s Skol. Both tape recorders register the same message with equal strength and clarity.

225 Professor Laurent suggests a test. Young students at the Technical University are to listen to my tapes and write down their texts. I have some concerns since I have no knowledge of the receptivity and concentration of the young people, nor do I know whether they have mastered any foreign languages. Nevertheless I agree. First off the tape recorders of the Technical University turn out to be extremely obsolescent. Their counter mechanism does not work in tandem with mine.

The sound is abominable. The whole thing doesn’t work and besides the young people play all kinds of tricks. The start to get on my nerves to the point where I am forced to “read them the riot act.” While the classroom quiets down, I have lost the urge to conduct further demonstrations. Laurent is much embarrassed by the whole situation and I finally suggest undertaking a new demonstration with my own equipment.

The hall is much more quiet during the next demonstration. I have invited two friends, the Swedish author Sture Loennerstrand, who reported the Shanti Devi case in the world press, and the engineer Ivan Troeng who has great technical skills and besides is very active in matters of parapsychology. I am doing this with the intention of having two reliable witnesses, because Laurent had made the offhand remark that possibly we are dealing with suggestion.

First off, my equipment functions without any problem and I find the desired tape segments easily. A couple of technicians have connected an amplifier to my tape recorder so that the voices can be heard clearly and distinctly. Most words are recognized spontaneously. There are only differences of opinion when it comes to foreign words. No one is present who understands Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish. 226 Gradually the mood changes the students open up, become involved and everyone starts talking at the same time. Skepticism seems to have been dissipated; the voices are there and can be heard by everyone.

Sture Loennerstrand turns directly to Laurent and asks with a loud voice: “Are you of the opinion Professor, that we are still dealing with suggestions?” An embarrassing pause ensues, then Laurent replies a little shyly: ”No, no, I only meant in certain cases…”

Afterwards, Troeng, Loennerstrand and I meet for dinner in a restaurant in the old city. We are in a good mood and the food tastes great.

From now on I see clearly: Only hard facts can break the resistance.