Book ITC - C-19 Spiritsm and Mediumism

Like all the arts terms, spiritism can only be defined in approximations, and it is difficult to distinguish it from spiritualism. While the latter is understood primarily as a philosophical attitude and world-view, spiritism stresses the mediumistic practices: contacts with TEs from transareas/-spheres may be realized during readings or séances (HOLMS). Since 1848 (Hydesville, USA), the spectrum ranges from ‘vulgar’ to ‘revelatory spiritism’, with the use of the simplest technical (!) aids (table or glass moving, pendulum, planchette, and others), over records written down as dictated by inner voices, automatic writing, verbal pronouncements in semi- and full trance states, up to physical manifestations.

Alongside of nonsensical and incorrect contents, correct information comes through, short or rather long contacts with actually, and with allegedly deceased persons, as well as multi-faceted philosophic-ideologic-religious ‘explanations’ of most varying levels, most of which appear as inspirations from higher or highest (!) spirit beings. Because possibilities of direct control (mostly) do not exist, the presumed sources or originators of the TI (the medium’s subconscious, telepathic influences from terrestrials, the collective unconscious, or autonomous TEs, including ‘extraterrestrials’) remain just as much in the sphere of human belief or personal evaluation as does the valuation of their contents.

These very summary reflections be supplemented in two directions: the formation of sects or sect-like groups of (blindly) trusting or even fanatic followers around revelational or inspirational mediums allows inferences regarding the origin/formation of organized religious communities, whose inducers or initiators were persons with mediumistic gift. Some of those messages and insights later were selected and, as dogmas, were ranked up to absolute truths and established as professions of belief.

The subsequent proclamation of infallibility (e.g., Vaticanum, 1870) served to further secure the thus obtained positions of power. The extreme scleromorphism of systems of this kind causes the difficulties in their adaptation to changed conditions in their environment. As a matter of fact, the same applies for the creation of natural sciences out of (kept secret) inspirations or intuitions, and their ending up in conservative tendencies represented in an authoritarian manner.

Since the first VOT, it has been customary in several circles of experimenters to argue about the possibly necessary mediumistic abilities required for being successful in the experiments. Since ‘mediumism’ is not measurable and can only be interpreted very generally as ‘mediation’, or (more specifically) in the spiritistic sense, such arguments are futile. Neither were instrumental contacts more successful in the presence of professional mediums than in the presence of normal people, nor was it possible to demonstrate that specific psychic abilities of the experimenters do not play an essential part. On the other hand, the inner experiences and the external observations of

and others, do reveal their ‘mediumistic faculties’. It be therefore stated unequivocally that at the present state ITC, as the attempt to make contact with the deceased (and/or other TEs), represents a mechanized form of (as yet) non-sectarian ‘spiritism’, as far as the transpartners are not eventual non-human entities.

Transcontacts that might be independent from the experimenter’s ‘mediumism’ could be realized with devices which – analogous to our telecommunication equipment - could be handled by almost anyone at almost any time. And even such a TTC, the imaginable final link of the mediumistic -> instrumental -> technological chain, would still have to make allowance for the TEs’ autonomy, which appears as such and is expressed rather frequently [172]. Sehen Sie es so: Ohne unser freundlich Zutun waeren auch Ihre intensivsten Bemuehungen vergebens (Look at it this way: without our friendly assistance even your most intensive efforts would be in vain) (ABX in F-38.8).

[172] MEEK’s numerous labor-intensive, time-consuming and costly attempts to contact interested deceased scientists with the help of professional mediums, and to obtain useful technical information from them, did not produce a breakthrough. Most of the statements were of a very general kind, and the TEs themselves seemed to be unacquainted with the conditions of transmission, and unable to control them. In contrast, O’NEIL’s efforts made with direct-medium support resulted in 20 hours of bi-directional communication

In ITC, the relationship between mediumism and technology is a reciprocal one (see Ill. 34). Purely mediumistic contacts MTC without any technological means have been realized, the imaginable (and in this epoch perhaps to be aspired for) TTC would not require any personal mediumism, at the most it could build upon a sufficiently strong morphic field. The present instrumentally supported connections are an inseparable combination of both elements.

The TEs often stressed the difficulties faced with a temporary takeover of the psychosomatic control of a living human being, and the correct transmission of information. According to them, this is a very delicate procedure bound up with considerable danger for the medium’s health [173 – Part of the inmates of psychiatric clinics may well be victims of uncontrolled influences from the Beyond, and of inadequate treatment (see BAETTIG (unpublished); MACRAE, NAEGELI, WICKLAND)]. The quality of the transmitted TI is co-determined by the (mental/spiritual) capacities of the living person (including possible experiences from ‘earlier lives’), and it is limited in an inestimable manner.

For transposing its primary ideas, normally an entity presumably can only call up terms that are ‘stored’, ‘laid down’ in the medium’s psyche, and are accessible to the entity in or through the psyche. Knowledge from past lives or timely parallel incarnations may also contribute to this. The group CLAUDIUS/JOSCHEM/SCHNEIDER (F-37.11) declared that the elements introduced were to be regarded not only as an unavoidable distortion of the original information, but – without regard to the semantic problems – as serving additionally to slow down the planned transformation of the earthly structures of thinking [174].

Altogether, the actual mediumistic enouncements appear as a non-separable mixture that may comprise telepathic elements received from living persons. Contrary to what is suggested by the lately popularized ‘channeling’, the human medium is in no way a simple channel as used in communications engineering, is not comparable with a passive telephone line, but is an active and (in the strict sense) unreliable transposer of very high complexity, situated at the bottom end of a rather long multi-stage transmission and illustration chain (see HEIM D-22 and [175].

[174] On a relatively low level, a computer can only be meaningfully activated by ‘machine-readable’ signals or signal sequences. The danger of partly or completely unconscious auto-production is particularly great in the case of semi-trance mediums. In the case of animistic remote perception experiments, it is extremely difficult for the percipient to not subject the impressions arising from unconscious regions to rational evaluation, to not disturb or even destroy the reception process, or distort the PSI signals by this.

[175] The conception of the ‘Jacob’s ladder’ here receives a content adapted to our time, see [192].

[192] Here, the ‘modern’ version of ‘Jacob’s ladder’ is recognizable (Genesis, Chapter 28): In his dream JACOB sees the angels ascending and descending. There exist three interpretations: ladder of virtue, ladder of cognition, and the soul’s mystic ladder. ‘The possibility of bridging the terrestrial world and the Beyond is made clear, but the patience and effort required for it are stressed as well’ (RUBERG). To this adds the again and again repeated necessity of spiritual development, pronounced through mediums and a wealth of paranormal voices, e.g.: Ich moechte diese Treppe herunterreden. Wir muessen Stufen koennen. Es ist eine Kette. (I wish to speak down this ladder. We must be able to (do) steps. It is a chain.) It might as well be methodical indications to what is hinted at here, say the use of stepped frequency combinations, or transposings according to the simile principle.

According to AARON (F-37.12), the words are always furnished by the humans, since the primary TI lies on a non-verbal level.

If it were realizable at all as a border-line case within a holistic system, pure TTC would exclude such difficulties and ensure the receipt of primary TI, which then would only be subject to the semantic restrictions resulting from differing states of consciousness. Without regard to an eventual few exceptions, this has not been the case so far, and the evidence for a trans-technological direct triggering of our devices is pending, although a few extraordinary ITC accompaniments, which in our system can be technically interpreted, suggest conjectures in this direction. For instance, Dipl.-Ing. Hans MALIK, Vienna, based on a TI received via his trance-mediumistic spouse, gave out in automn 1963

It is rather clearly recognizable colourings and details of the TI, and the occasionally observed recording of the thoughts of present and absent living persons, that point to an important contribution of the experimenters [176].

[176] All these descriptions do not take into account the correlations that apply in the information space, which go along with the notion of the ‘short transdistance of similar patterns’ (HEIM). HEGELER discovered astronomic-astrologic relations between successful TC partners, and in several cases was able to find clear concurrences of aspects (private information).

The objection that VOT came about independently from the experimenter since they occurred also during his physical absence, neglects that informational correlations are independent from space-time. At the most, it would be valid for reciprocal EM physiological effects of limited reach, which, it is true, principally cannot be excluded.

In the recent past, some successful experiments on ‘sound tape telepathy’ have been carried through. For example, in France, in 1994/95, within a previously agreed time of a few hours in the early morning, Jacques BLANC-GARIN had a short dialogue with (mediumistic) Monique SIMONET while she was sleeping in a rather distant place; using a microphone-recorder combination, he recorded Monique’s answers to his questions in form of whispers. In three further cases he received the answers of his sleeping spouse in the same way. BLANC-GARIN, not least because of these results, warns of ascribing the VOT too quickly exclusively to deceased (Le Messager 36, Oct. 2001, p. 5-8).

In the USA, in April 2001, the couple Tom and Lisa BUTLER conducted a three-days series of successful experiments. Each time one party was sleeping while addressed from afar by the other party. The reactions noticed on the sound tape were positive (AAEVP Newsletter, vol. 20, no. 2, 2001, p.7).

A very detailed discussion on the possible ‘sources’ of mediumistically and instrumentally realized transinformation stems from Donatus RUEETSCHI (Switzerland), (TBSF Mitteilungsblatt (information bulletin), no. 56, p. 6-14). According to this, we are subject to a fundamentally illogical reasoning when we try to put imaginable sources or originators of trans-voices, -images, and –texts into different ‘boxes’. The data, or information that appear as extraordinary, can be described – if one wants to nevertheless use the current terminology – as a conglomeration of different fragments, namely of

The periodical “Parasciences & Transcommunication” (no. 43, p. 34-36) also took up this subject under the title ‘Who causes transinformation?’. The specific question read: Do we actually have to do – particularly with view to the frequently criticized banality of the messages - with originators from the Beyond, whose utterances that reach us are abrogated by ‘transmission problems’, or are they mere fragments creatively produced, or telepathically received by psychically or mediumistically gifted persons, which are erroneously assigned to deceased?

Considering all this, it appears to be principally incongruous to declare in particular the transinformation realized with the use of technological instruments as ‘live’ fade-ins into the appliances by those in the Beyond. Without having to exclude this possibility, the practical experiences point, now as before, clearly to an unconscious ‘mediumistic’ contribution of the experimenters who act as the primary receivers and secondary translators of the thoughts of transbeings. This description is countenenced by the fact that substantial contents of the instrumentally received contacts are in conformity with those realized solely mediumistically, and the top results occur with persons with whom other paranormal effects manifest as well.

In this context be pointed out that the syllable ‘trans’ in ‘transcommunication’ bases, as is recognizable, on the tradition of dividing the world into the earthly one and the one ‘beyond’, a view which, due to more recent observations and deliberations, is substantially relativized. Taking a farther-reaching view, we have to do with informative reciprocal effects within one only networked ‘world’, which is not limited to our astro-physically defined cosmos.

The answering of the easily following question if and how fairly reliable interpretations of mediumistically and instrumentally transmitted contents can be obtained at all, is relatively easy. The ‘secret’ lies in methodology. In analogy with the critical inspection of insignificant individual pebbles, the analysis of singular phenomena ends in the overhasty assertion of their unimportance and worthlessness, while, as the result of a patient synthesis of the multifarious lot, a meaningful mosaic begins to loom up. It may be a strange ambiguous puzzle, whose parts can be combined in different ways, and will each time deliver different pictures; however, independently of this, within a sufficiently clearly impending holistic system, the analytical ‘thinking in boxes’ finally loses its, during centuries exaggerated, exclusive validity.