Dr. Paolo Presi, Italy

    ITALIAN RESEARCHES IN TRANSCOMMUNICATION
by Paolo Presi

In line with my fundamentally technical background, my research will focus analysing the scientific aspects of the phenomenon.

I would like to argue that since the final results belong to the realm of physics -as in the case of a recorded tape-, it is most important to be able to point out, and then analyse, all those events that escape known physics laws. In other words, in order to investigate the unknown, it is necessary to direct our attention towards those factors that are anomalies in relation to known physics laws.

In Italy, as in the rest of the world, there are two main schools of thought in regard of transcommunication. The first focuses on the content of the messages and the analysis of the interrelations amongst physical reality and transcendent existence. Differently, the second school researches “how” the phenomenon actually occurs and therefore concentrates upon the process. I identify with the second school and therefore my research will investigate the issue from this particular perspective.

At the beginning of the 70s, the phenomenon seemed to fit the so called “radiophonic model”.

This model is based on the assumptions that some like-broadcasting stations from the “other” dimension existed and that they could be heard on specific radio frequencies. Consequently, my first duty was to locate the frequency bands involved in the phenomenon. I was able to obtain some interesting results.

Firstly, the experiments showed that each operator received the “voices” on a different frequency, normally found on its own, with positive results.

Secondly, the type of  device used was not determinant for the quality and quantity of the received “voices”. In other words, to use sophisticated and technically advanced devices does not result in a superior sound quality of the received “voices”.

In addition, the phenomenon should occur either by recording the signals coming from a radio set as well as using a simple microphone connected to a tape recorder. However, evidence suggests a different conclusion. The two methods give different, in terms of quality, kind of “voices”. While the “voices” received by the radio were mainly sound-voices quite slow, those received through a microphone were whispered and fast.

In conclusion, the wide range of frequencies involved and the variety of methods used proved the “radiophonic model” unreliable.

For this reason the research was turned to a different approach, in particular it was focused on the variables involved in the process of formation.

Eng. Carlo Trajna’s work on the “Stimulated Psychophony“ represented a turning point in 1977. He argued that the “voices” are formed because of the energy variation that occurs in pre-existent acoustic or electromagnetic events. His experiments showed that, for microphonic recordings, the quantity and quality of the “voices” depended on the acoustic conditions of the environment where the recording took place or on the kind of sonority artificially generated (Stimulation). This important discovery revealed how the radio itself could no longer be considered as a “receiver” of the “voices”, but it was simply a sonority generator at acoustic or electromagnetic low frequency level that then was transformed into “voices” through an unknown process. This conclusion follows directly from the events observed and is consistent with the various frequency bands used by previous researchers.

There have been many attempts to find a technical device able to improve the “production” of “voices”, but they were largely unsuccessful. New devices was proved valid only for those who designed them or for those believing in them, but not for others.

This fact clearly showed the inability to record the phenomenon when the same technical devices are used by different operators.

This suggested that the process involved may not be merely physical.

At the beginning of the ‘80s, the research came to a halt due to the argumentation backed up by Professor Ferdinando Bersani, a physicist of C.S.P. (Centre for Parapsychological Studies) in Bologna. He exploited the weak aspect of the phenomenon, namely the acoustic ambiguity of the “voices”.

He claimed that if any ordinary acoustic event is artificially fragmented and cadenced it could be interpreted in a linguistic manner if the perceiver is expected to receive a message.

At the time I was able to defend the authenticity of the phenomenon with a simple counter-demonstration. Based on the mechanism that regulates human perception, I showed how all acoustic perception is influenced by the attentive condition of the listener to hear. In particular, I pointed out that with a specific degree of attention (selective attention), even loud acoustic stimuli could go unperceived at consciousness level.

I therefore concluded that what Professor F. Bersani claimed did not undermine the objective reality of the “voices”, but he only exploited the weakest aspect of the phenomenon. The fact that the “voices” are not easily understandable may, de facto, lead to interpretative mistakes.

The psychoacoustic decoding is a perfectly normal process and it does not only involve the “voices” perception, but the whole perceptive system of human communication.

The persevering research carried out in those years resulted in two major achievements towards the objectivity of the messages.

It was demonstrated that:

• The messages involve an explicit intention on the part of the sender to have them heard.

• The messages received are objective (not illusory) and this was proved on a scientific base.

In order to point out the willingness of the sender to “send” the messages, Eng. C. Trajna resorted to mathematical linguistics. He examined a thousand of economic advertisements that were published on Italian newspapers. Such advertisements, by definition, have a clear intention to communicate to the readers a definite message. We can then plot a diagram by placing on the “x” axis the number of words forming the advertisement, while on the “y” axis the incidence, expressed in percentage, of those advertisements with a given number of words. This diagram clearly shows a displacement of an asymmetrical Gaussian curve, which is typical of those messages that contain an evident willingness to transmit an information.

Eng. Trajna, in the following experiment, took into consideration a statistical sample of a thousand supposed paranormal messages. He located the periods (i.e. a series of words ending with a full stop) contained in the advertisements and counted the number of words forming each one. The messages were selected from the literature available at the time, such as books by Jürgenson, Raudive, Alvisi, Barsotti, Bacci and Trajna himself. The second diagram showed the same displacement as the first one (Asymmetric Gaussian curve) and therefore it proved that the messages retained a certain intention to communicate.

Avoiding a lengthy and complicated reasoning about the theoretical foundations of  the curve representing the displacement for the messages containing a willingness to “receive”, it can be summarised that this curve progresses with an exponentially decreasing pattern which is very different from the previous one (Asymmetric Gaussian curve). The latest case takes into consideration the number of syllables in the same period, while the first one was considered the number of words.

A second statistical sample of a thousand messages was then examined and, based on the number of syllables, it was possible to plot both curves and compared them. From this comparison it followed that paranormal messages involve a perceptible intention to communicate and do not present appreciable signs that indicate some kind of illusory distortion. In other words, they proved to be real and objective, whatever their origin.

The work of Dr. Renato Orso from Turin achieved important results in the study of this matter. More specifically, he contributed to prove the acoustic objectivity of such messages. In this paper I will refer to a series of instrumental analysis of some “voices”, supposed to be paranormal, received by Dr. Orso himself.

This analysis was carried out by the qualified technicians of the Acoustic Department at the Electro Technical Institute “Galileo Ferraris” in Turin.

It was used a sonograph model 6061B, manufactured by Kay Electrometrics Co.

Both the equipment and relative standard operating procedure are commonly utilised in speech identification expertises and are recognised in juridical proceedings.

Out of all the “voices” Dr. Orso presented to the Institute, five were chosen. They were considered as the clearest of all and the ones that could be more easily analysed. Successively, Dr. Orso recorded a second tape in which he repeated exactly what the five paranormal “voices” said. This was done in order to be able to compare the Orso’s “normal” voices with the relevant supposed paranormal. At the same time, it would have been able to verify the correct content decoded by Dr. Orso.

Before the execution of the spectrograms, the voice specimens were processed with a parametric equalizer and a dynamic expansion processor. These operations have been carried out by the technicians of the Institute by using equipment and methods currently applied to obtain proper specimens analysable.

From this sonographic analysis the following conclusions had been drawn:

Paranormal “voices” have an acoustical structure similar to human voices. Specifically,  it is possible to record the presence of formants that correspond, as frequencies, to the ones of the vowel sounds typical of the Italian language. I would like to point out that the presence of formants identifies and classifies a vowel with its information content. In the case of human voices, the formants derive from the action of the so called “resonant cavities” of vocal tract, while in the case of the paranormal “voices”, they seem to originate from another process. Such process could (hypothetically) point out a paranormal change (thickening or rarefaction)  of the background noise.

The temporal sequence of the vowels, their duration, the duration of the pauses and the accent on certain vowels of the “voices” determine a speech rhythm similar to ours.

The fact that the paranormal “voices” are objective reality and not psychoacoustic illusions is evident in the corresponding positions of paranormal formants and the formants of the voice spoken by Orso. This confirms that Orso decoded correctly what was said by the “voices”.

The transfer of information or “message” is based exclusively on the sequence of the vowel formants and the integration, made by the listener, of the missing consonants or the pauses of the same length of the Italian stop consonants. It is necessary to highlight that the consonants are produced by a sudden interruption of the air flow coming from the lungs or by obstruction, by more or less important obstacles, of the vocal tract.

The spectrograms reveal the almost total absence of the fundamental frequency that for human voices is determined by the vibration of the vocal cords. The lack of the fundamental frequency coupled with the lack of consonants, that in humans is given by the vocal tract, suggest that the paranormal producer of these linguistic events does not have a production speech apparatus.

From all these interesting conclusions it follows that a temporary but plausible hypothesis about the process of formation of the “voices”. The evidence presented showed us that the final physical effects involve anomalies compared to the predictable effects. For this reason, it is logical to assume that an entity able to interact with our physical dimension is involved in the process  and that, by doing so,  this entity is also able to overthrow known physical laws.

If the entity sending the information was purely physical, the effects it produces should respect known physic laws. However, experimental results do not reflect this situation.

If they did, then we would already have identified the physical constants and variables that regulate this phenomenon. We would also have already created a technical equipment that is able to make the phenomenon repeatable, that is to be repeatable by any operator.

There have been numerous and various physical anomalies in the effects, as any of us certainly have experienced.  The anomaly, that I believe to be the most significant as indicative of an authentic contact between two dimensions of existence (or of consciousness), belongs to the  temporal dimension. I refer specifically to those cases, noted by several operators, in which an apparent  “slowing down” of the tape coincides with the recording of the “voices” or those sound recognised as “voices” only when they have been played at different playback speeds.

The phonetic characteristics of the voices clearly suggest that the temporal dimension is involved. It is sufficient to mention their characteristic speech rhythm, that suggests a specific prosody, is used.

Another interesting peculiarity is their speech utterance speed that can be higher or lower than the human one.

From this it follows that same kind of temporal variations are involved in the formation process of the “voices”.  In this regard, it is necessary to point out that a word is made up of a temporal sequence of vowel sounds and consonants.

In this structural sense, I consider the “voices” recorded by Marcello Bacci especially valuable. In his recordings,  it is easy to perceive how the succession of phonemes seems to present various speeds.  Only for a few instants, they proceed at a normal speed which allows to perceive the original voice timbre of the “speaker”. The variation in speed might result from a contraction or dilatation of the time flow in which each phoneme is uttered by the “voice”. Today we still do not know how such process evolves.

Eng. C. Trajna offered an encouraging contribution towards resolving this uncertainty. In 1990, he put forward an interpretative model that successfully passes the empirical test. The “Psychotemporal Model” assumes that “Psychic Time” flows differently from “Physical Time”.

The “voices” would be the consequence of a change in the available electro-acoustic events. Such change would be brought about by an active psyche (incarnated or disincarnated) through its abilities, known in Parapsychology as Psychoscopy and Psychokinesis.

These abilities would be activated by a supposed “psychotemporal wave”.

This would be produced every time the psychic time, which is subjective, shifts from physical time, which is objective.

The “psychotemporal wave” is thought to consists of four phases: three phases are “imaginary” and one is “real” (both are mathematically derived). The “voices” should develop during the “real” phase.

The mathematical formulation of the theory recognizes that four “psychic-operators”, having equal psychotemporal waves and in phase coincidence, should be able to produce a wave completely “real”.

Such a wave should represent a psychotemporal carrier which can be modulated as it normally happens in the case of a radio frequency carrier.

From this theory it follows that an isolated operator can exploit, in the best of cases, one and one only of “real” phase available to him.

Consequently, the received “messages” are usually quite brief. In the case of four operators ( four is the ideal number) and in the best of cases, psychotemporal wave consists of four “real” phases. This allows to receive longer messages. The theory developed by Eng. C. Trajna  is consistent with the experimental observations.

My experience shows that the best reception of voices is obtained by those operators that are strongly interested in the phenomenon expecially for what concerns the life after life implications. Attempts carried out by sceptical and very critical operators are usually unsuccessful.

To obtain good results an open mind is the first requirement to the operator approaching the phenomenon.

Rationality, intended as the operative element of the intellect, may become a restraining factor in the phenomenon when it coincides with a lack of reference models.

It is necessary to point out that each event can be understood then accepted, only if a comparison process with the applicable reference models has been successfully passed.

In my long survey of the phenomenon I noted that the possibility to record “voices” (or to establish a contact) is proportional to the level of mind openness of the operator, i.e. to accept this possibility before the event occurs.

In 1983 I defined this particular mental attitude as an “Inner Attentive Disposition”. This is a specific psychological condition that allows rational conditioning to be moderated by a simple acceptance of the limits of sensorial reality and the ability to conceive realities that differ from the sensorial one. The Inner Attentive Disposition can be acquired and, when internalized, allows the operator to tune in with finer realities.

I strongly believe that this intimate condition is necessary to receive transinformation.-

These considerations help us to understand the reason why those who have lost a dear one can obtain good quality “voices”. It is proven that a person that is grieving is able to reach a compromise with his own rationality when he accepts that a contact beyond life with the dear one is possible. In other words, the person, strongly motivated to establish same kind of contact, is freed from rigid mental schemes that would dismiss this possibility. The “Border Parapsychology”, which studies life beyond life, is rich in these experiences.

It is common knowledge that during mediumistic sessions, sceptics are elements of disturbance in the phenomena and they can even cause the phenomena to cease.

The opposite is also true: open-minded people towards the phenomena determine the necessary condition (maybe a suitable psychotemporal wave) for the phenomena to happen.

posted by rodiehr Feb 2005