Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Paranormal & Fortean : EVPs & The Spirit World Part Two

The Spirit Electronic Communication Society was a group formed in Manchester, England in 1949. The group published a pamphlet with the goal of "Electronic Communicaton for the Spritual Emancipation of the People." The inspiration to start the group was the work of Dutchman Mr N. Zwann who had demonstrated, at the International Spiritualism Federation's 1948 Congress, an "electrical device which produced a field of energy capable of stimulating the psychic senses into activity." This device went through several name changes and remarkable results were claimed when using these devices. This supposedly included a way to have direct communication with the dead. By 1952, however, the excitement generated by the devices had died down(no pun intended). In the same year however, two respected Roman Catholics, a Benedictine monk Father Pellegrino Marina Ernetti and physician, Father Agostino Genelli, accidentally picked up voices of unknown origin while working on a recording of a Gregorian chant with a wire recorder in the physics lab at Milan University.
The work the two men were doing was not going well. In frustration, Genelli asked his dead father to help him. When the pair listened to what was on their primitive recorder they were astonished to hear Genelli's dead father's voice saying, "I am always with you and help you." Pope Pius XII even got in on the act after word reached him about the event. The pope decided that the Father's should not worry, because the voice they had recorded was a scientific fact and had no spiritual value.

In 1959, seven years after the event took place with Father Genelli and Father Ernetti, is when the real brealthrough came. A Latvian born artist and documentary film producer, Friedrich Jurgenson, was recording birdsong in the woods near his home in Molnbo, Sweden, for a film he was making. When Jurgenson played the recording later he heard a man's voice speaking Norwegian and discussing the nocturnal habits of birds. Jurgenson thought that maybe he had picked up a normal radio transmission even though the synchronicity of the subject matter was surprising. However, weeks later, Jurgenson was rattled and astonished when another recording had a female voice on it. The voice asked: "Friedel, my little Friedel, can you hear me?" Jurgenson instantly recognized his mother's voice calling him by his pet name. His mother had died four years previously. Jurgenson now believed he had found a connection to the hereafter. He continued recording, eventually registering hundreds of voices. Many of them spoke in different languages and many responded to him personally. He also identified some of the voices as belonging to deceased friends and relatives. In 1964, Friedrich Jurgenson published his findings in a book called Voices of the Universe. This book also attracted other researchers and scientists, including Dr. Hans Bender. Dr. Bender was the head of the parapsychological research unit of the University of Freiburg in Germany. Bender started his own team of scientists working on recording the phenomena. Their results, obtained by using blank tapes and regular tape recorders in a quiet enviorment, captured voices also, so this appeared to confirm Jurgenson's results.
The image is of the previously mentioned Friedrich Jurgenson. I hope to have the next post in the series here tomorrow. Thanks again for all of your thoughtful and intelligent comments. All the best to anyone stopping by!

8 comments:

Chris Benjamin said...

he looks kind of ghostlike himself; but a handsome ghost.

Devin said...

Agree benji! Thanks so much for stopping by-really enjoy your blog-good luck with the writing-mine is in a stall that it has not recovered from-best as always!

Alex Robinson said...

Wow - so very interesting Devin.

Makes me want to take a tape recorder out into the bush. Still I have to wonder why is communication so hit & miss - is it ourselves that are so 'out of tune' & the eternal question to that is WHY?? For a world supposedly based on survival of the fittest & advancement of each species, we sure seem to be mighty 'slow'- well I am anyway :)

I hope you are very well

Devin said...

wise-as always so great to see you here! EVPs like so many para-phenom really interest and fascinate me-but they have a chimera like quality-like trying to nail jelly to a wall sometimes! (although i have never tried to do that:-) all the best wise-and hope you are having a lovely day in NZ!

aferrismoon said...

One reason perhaps for the lack of connexion with the 'dead' is that we spend a lot of time getting inundated by the inauguration, or a film premiere or an actor's lovelife.
then 'fear' of getting hurt, killed , dispossessed probably has an effect such as 'not wanting' to hear anything out of the ordinary lest it get us hurt, killed or dispossessed aka boxed up.
These blogs seem to be a material way round this distraction problem, as the formerly disparate lend each other an ear, an eye , a brain and a heart.

cheers

Devin said...

thanks as always for your wonderfully original thoughts aferris-best as always!

X. Dell said...

Back in the 1920s, when wireless telecommunications were new, a number of spiritual peple believed that the ether represented by the airwaves contained the disembodied spirits of those no longer walking the Earth. A famous song of that decade celebrated the technology that some believed would link them to lost love ones, or perhaps even the Lord Himself.

Turn your radio on
And listen to the music in the air,
Turn your radio on
And glory to share

Turn the lights down low
And listen to the Master's radio,
Get in touch with God
Turn your radio on.


Forgive my scepticism, but the main medium I consume has always been radio. I have yet to receive communications from anyone I know on "the other side." I do have videotape of some of the more important ones, however, that I plan on turning into mpeg files:-)

Devin said...

Xdell as always so great to see you here-was unaware of that! video you say? would love to see that! thanks again so very much for stopping by and commenting-sorry this series is going so slow-havent been feeling up to par lately-all the best!