Book ITC - A-5 Direct Voices

A new and impressive form of wireless communication
with the spirits in their real voices could even in this
century become as straightforward as the telephone or radio.
BRADLEY, 1926

While mediumistic transcommunication is externalized in verbal form by means of the medium’s speech organs, the source of ‘direct voices’ in the vicinity of specially gifted ‘direct-voice mediums’ can be clearly located apart from them, in empty space, or in/at trumpets (frequently psychokinetically moved) that may be regarded as amplifiers (HOLMS, p. 223 and followings; RAVALDINI).

A direct voice proclaimed ‘the crimes of the living’ in the German town of Bingen in 858 AD; during the reign of RICHARD I, the English physicist BOYLE reported repeated two-way communications with a girl’s voice. The first observation in the last century was made by the DAVENPORT brothers in Ohio, where the transentity JOHN KING manifested himself [20]. HYSLOP et al. published in 1913 under the imprint of the American Society for Psychical Research a 200-page report concerning their successful experiments – even in daylight – with BLAKE, in which voices were heard that were identical with those of deceased communicators during their lifetimes (BAYLESS). FANNY MOSER (p. 789) well described the direct voice as the ‘most remarkable of all’, but - indicating the opportunities for fraud during séances held in darkened rooms - did not enter further into the subject.

It seems completely incomprehensible that this phenomenon, verified under controlled conditions on many occasions in more recent times, as yet has been ignored even by parapsychologists (let alone by ‘science’).

Perhaps the disregard of direct voices is linked with the fact that the relatively more frequent (trance-) mediumistic somatic utterances are more easily interpretable in an animist manner. But in the case of direct voices we have to do with an unusual combination of a (partly) materialized ‘voice box’, detectable with infrared photography (HUTTON cited by FLINT), and an information-conveying psychokinetic action, whose forms of manifestation and contents disqualify any non-spiritist ‘explanation’ as an improper evasion.

FINDLAY’s report on his twelve years of experiences with direct voice medium SLOAN was translated into German for the first time in 1960, 29 years after its publication, while in 1951 already 49 English editions and 29 in foreign languages were available. The results of 39 séances are 282 communications, many of which have been confirmed as accurate (the odds of this being a coincidence are 1 in 200 milliard (am. = 200 billion)), in 83 different voices, the identity of many of which has been evidenced, partly with industrial instruments. These results must be considered a challenge, and this to the same degree as the several hundred (tape-)recordings made by FLINT over several decades (see RICHET, F-37.3 and APPLEGATE). More recent occurrences: first-hand report by MALZAHN on direct voices and materializations in South America, (presented at the FGT conference in Buedingen, Germany, on November 19^th, 1988) and DE BONI’s report at FIDANI, combined with direct writing [21], (MANGANI).

[21] Regarding ‘ectoplasm’ see BONIN, FODOR, FINDLAY, HOLMS, SCHIEBELER. Re. THORNER, see Appendix A of MEEK/DAPKEY.

Transentities describe the ‘voice-box’ as an artificial, mask-like larynx, which they form out of organic substances taken (exteriorized) from the medium with the addition of ‘transmaterial’ substances by exercising psychic influence. This ‘ectoplasmic transformer’ often appearing on the left above of the medium (WAIS), after adaptation practices, can be activated by trained deceased persons in such manner that a voice is generated which everyone present can hear, which is capable of dialogue, and which in optimal cases is similar to that of the deceased person [22]. Occasionally direct voices have an enormous loudness level and can be heard over distances of up to 150 m (160 yds) (FODOR; TASCHNER; [23].

[22] ROGO/BAYLESS’ (p. 144) report about relatively early experiments on the recording of paranormal voices using acoustically shielded microphones and making them audible by means of electronic amplification through a loudspeaker. A similar practice is revealed by FODOR (p. 94) about THOROGOOD: The microphone was installed inside a box whose walls were made of various materials. Although the persons attending in the room did not hear anything, the voices were perfectly put forward through a loudspeaker in a side room.

[23] Overloudness was observed also in the CHOPPER case, and in an experiment made by CETL in the FRG.

Mediumistic direct voices possibly relate to those VOT [23 – see above paragraph] (recorded using sensitive microphones) with unclear origin, despite of many experimental endeavours. Attempts to locate the voices spatially by means of the (artificial head) stereo method have occasionally been successful (KOENIG, LUKSCH). Have to be regarded as directly parallel to the direct voices the DEAV, partly capable of dialogue and documented many times in the course of the last years, which apparently are radiated by EM mechanical transducers (loudspeakers of radios and TV sets, telephone receivers). Possibly the short-lived interface, the voice-box, of the direct-voice mediums is here combined with stable material structures (loudspeakers, telephone receivers), although their activation within a ‘contact field’ also lies beyond our current level of understanding.

So, it is not generally clarified if the DEAV are electronically generated, or if they come forth as direct voices in the immediate vicinity of, e.g., a loudspeaker or a telephone receiver. During an experiment made by BACCI, which the author had the opportunity to observe, an oscilloscope was connected parallel to the receiver’s loudspeaker and furnished an optical representation of the electrical signals, in synchronism with the hearable voice. In contrast with this, KUNDLER, during a contact established at HOMES, was of the subjective opinion that the voice was coming out of the space immediately in front of the loudspeaker (see expositions in A-6.4).

The development in time of the direct mediumistic voices and the DEAV shows characteristical concurrences. BAYLESS (1976, p. 219 and followings) describes how direct-voice contacts build up. They begin with short whispering voices of varying loudness, perhaps accompanied by undefinable noises. Vocalizing, articulation, loudness and clearness increase in the course of months. Finally contacts lasting several minutes come about, sometimes with shorter, sometimes with longer pauses between some passages. In ITC partly identical ongoings have been documented, f.i., at BODEN (telephone voices), O’NEIL (Spiricom, Mark IV), KOENIG, CETL, HAERTING, and HOMES.

In both fields, MTC and ITC (VOT and DEAV), there are indications (with reserve [24]) for an ‘energetic problem’ that seems to limit the transcontacts. ‘Lack of energy’ is often mentioned in MTI, see, e.g., HYSLOP: I must go now, since my power is leaving me and I do not (no longer) know what I am doing. Frequently the quality of the voices decreases immediately before a contact breaks down. FODOR (93) on the direct voice: ‘The power decreased in no time and consequently the pronounciation of the words used became confused, and the sounds almost unarticulated.’ This description coincides exactly with observations made in ITC. The sudden distortion of individual words and phrases, or brief pauses, often together with a noticeable speeding up of the speech, herald the approaching end of a contacct (CETL, KOENIG). Sometimes the transbeing expressed the available remaining time: Wir haben noch ungefaehr … Minuten (We have about … minutes left) (CETL). For the increase of the speed of speech with DEAV see B-11.1, Ill. 12.

[24] In this context the word ‘energy’ is not used in the sense of the specific concept of earthly physics; see subtle energy in D-29.