EXPLORING THE BIZARRE REALM OF THE PARANORMAL AND OCCULT SCIENCES

By Sean Casteel

Maria D’ Andrea

One of psychic Maria D’Andrea’s earliest memories is of fleeing as a refugee from her native Hungary during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. She and her mother were among the 200,000 refugees seeking to escape iron-handed Communist rule in what would eventually become a failed revolution that was crushed by the puppet regime established by the Soviet Union.

            On that cold, icy trek to freedom, Maria’s psychic powers may have saved her life and her mother’s life as well.

Hungarian refugees cross a river on their way to Austria in November 1956.

            “It was actually my mother and some of her friends,” Maria recalled. “It was a large group. And as we were escaping, we got really cold and it was very dangerous. A lot of people around us were getting killed, but we were doing okay. The group stopped at a certain point and were trying to decide whether if they should go back or keep going forward. My mother told me I was six at the time. She said I told them that God said we should move forward and we’d be fine.

            “I don’t know why anybody would listen to somebody that’s six in the first place,” Maria continued. “But my mother said the group split up and half of them went back. The other half decided to listen to me. Apparently I wasn’t speaking in a way that a six-year-old would normally speak. My mother said the way I phrased it wouldn’t make sense for somebody my age. The group that went back, all of them got killed. But we made it to freedom.”

            Maria and her fellow travelers reached the safety of Austria and she and her mother would eventually resettle in the United States.

         When I mentioned to Maria that the Hungarian Uprising had recently had its sixty-year anniversary, she said, “You know what is weird? A lot of us don’t really keep track because we’re trying to move forward. But a lot of it I do remember. There was a lot of ice and it was freezing out.”

             The same psychic powers that delivered Maria and the other refugees from death have served her well as an adult. She has long been a fulltime, professional psychic, meaning that she makes her living giving readings and counseling to those seeking help from beyond. She is also an interfaith minister and a shaman and speaks publicly on spiritual, psychic, paranormal and interdimensional topics. Meanwhile, other members of her family, although they have similar abilities, don’t make their living that way.

            “Everyone in my family,” she said, “have jobs that have nothing to do with psychic situations. However, they do some psychic work on the side. As an example, both of my sons are in analytical fields and they both do readings. My grandparents on my mother’s side were trance mediums. My grandfather also did automatic writing and he used to channel his brother who had passed away when he was a lot younger.”

Maria insists that everybody has some degree of psychic ability hidden within them.

            Maria’s father owned a couple of businesses and was well-served by his analytical and psychic abilities.

            “Most of the people in my family were priests and ministers and professors at universities,” Maria said, “so they all had analytical jobs and possessed psychic gifts. They were highly intuitive.”

            But Maria insists that everybody everywhere has some degree of psychic ability hidden within them.

            “Everyone at some point has had a gut feeling,” she explained. “For example, when you first meet someone, not every time, but every now and then, before you even say hello you have an urge telling you whether you like them or you don’t. You ever notice that? So when you get that feeling, it’s more or less accurate. It’s a very intuitive, psychic – it’s like a warning system. It tells you basically if someone is not going to get along with you.”

            This doesn’t operate as a moral judgment on the other person, according to Maria. It simply means the connection between you and that person is not going to work out. Meanwhile, one’s intuition could just as likely be telling you that you’ve encountered a good situation.

            “So you’re picking up on whatever it actually is,” she said. “I feel that everyone has a base of psychic and intuitive ability. You can look at it this way: Some people are artists but everybody can draw. Well, pretty much, except me. I can’t do a stick figure. But everybody has a base for that also.”

Maria D’Andrea’s Positively Positive Spell Book.

            Global Communications/Inner Light Publications has published many of Maria’s books on numerous psychic topics. She is quick to point out that all her books are “How-To” books as opposed to a vain fixation on writing about her own life story.

            “I truly believe that the more you can do for yourself, the better the world gets,” she reasoned. “The better you do, the more you can help other people, and the better it gets for people around you. As an example, I have a book on finance. I have one on evocation, which is a heavier level of dealing with the spiritual realm. And then I have one that is a positively positive spell book.

             “I really never write anything negative and I don’t teach negativity. I truly believe in karma and that whatever you put out comes back. There’s always a positive way to approach everything. And the whole point is to help people improve their lives, whether it’s through meditation or rituals or spells or mentally focusing on situations. I always feel that if you have an interest in it then you’ll be attracted to it and you can benefit by spiritually improving your life.”

              You can read more of what Maria has to say about her work on her website, located at http://www.mariadandrea.com as well as contact her there should you wish to consult with her personally.

Maria D’ Andrea’s Supernatural Words of Power.

              Maria’s bestselling “Yes You Can!” series of books includes a newer title called “Supernatural Words of Power,” which teaches one how to harness the simple spoken word to attain and achieve the things you long for in life. You will learn to command the true power of language to establish an open channel to the cosmos. There is a powerful energy force generated by the spoken word that man has been able to control since ancient times, but this ability has been locked away in our collective unconscious and hidden from the masses of us for eons. Maria teaches a simple, step-by-step methodology for reawakening the power concealed within us using words as that force’s most basic tool of expression.

               But if you find yourself not interested in different methods of psychic “reaching out,” then you’re not supposed to be reading her books.

            “It always goes to the person who is ready to move on that type of situation,” she said. “You know that saying? When the student is ready, the teacher comes. I tend to look at it that way. Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting people know the techniques and the tools they can actually use to improve their lives. Whether they want to move on it or not, that is free will.”

            Maria is such a dedicated teacher that she even does it without payment on occasion.

            “I do a lot of media work,” she said. “I used to teach on the air for free. I had a TV show called ‘The Spiritual World With Maria’ and it’s now available on YouTube. As much as we need to make a living, because, unfortunately, the phone company does not barter, we still need to put back. Because it’s a circle.

               “People always seem to forget the putting back part,” she continued. “Sometimes people look at putting back as a money thing, but it really isn’t. Sometimes it’s that you can help people financially. Sometimes it’s as simple as a friend needing a ride to the store or for an appointment if their car isn’t working. If you give them a ride, you’re putting back. Sometimes people really need advice. If you’re giving them advice from the heart, if you feel it’s going to help them, again, you’re putting back. The funny part is, when you do something like that, because you want to and you’re doing it from the heart, it really does come back. When you need a ride, say twenty years later, somebody’s going to be there for you.”

              One of the most basic components of what Maria teaches is open-mindedness, a sense of the psychic realm as a place we can freely explore in a continual learning experience. But first we must learn “psychic self-defense,” which Maria cautions readers to do in all of her books by the use of rituals and spells and by visualizing the protective white light radiating from heaven itself. Once that is taken care of, a positive spirit may come and speak to the seeker.

              “Now, it can be clairaudient,” she explained, “which means you can actually hear words in your mind. It sounds exactly the same as if someone was standing behind you where you don’t see them but they’re talking to you. There’s absolutely no difference in the way you hear it clairaudiently. Sometimes you have to remember they’re not literally there.

              “I’ve actually had it happen where I turned around to answer somebody before I remembered that they weren’t ‘there,’” she said, laughing. “But it sounds exactly the same. Sometimes you clairvoyantly see something or someone. You can actually see them physically. It depends on the situation.”

              But when inviting spirits into your life, again, you must remember to first use psychic self-defense methods.

              “I keep coming back to that,” Maria said, “because it’s really imperative. If there was something negative coming in, a negative spirit or entity, what would happen is that you would see them or hear them or know that they’re there, but they cannot affect you. That’s the difference. You’re always safe when you do this.”

              This ability to be impervious to negative spirits is what makes it possible to do a house cleansing, for example, and banish evil spirits – because we are always safe.

Maria cautions that when inviting spirits into your life you must remember to first use psychic self-defense methods.

              “In the physical world,” Maria said, “we’ll go to places none of our friends would go to because we’re safe everywhere.

              “But say you’re summoning a spirit,” she went on. “If it’s a relative, it’s fine, because you know who the relative is. If you’re summoning a spirit by name, you need to be really sure what that entity is before you do that. Some folks will read a book and they’ll call in a name because the book said that it’s a positive spirit. I always say before you call in a spirit to work with you or help you, I would go to Google or the encyclopedia or the library and find out what they say this particular entity does. Don’t just look at what just one person says that they do. You want to double-check because you want to be safe.”

There are other necessary practices to follow.

              “One is, you have to be in a positive mood,” she said. “You have to have a goal. You have to be aware that you have free will. You have to know you’re in control at all times because in the physical body we really have the control.”

              There are times when a given spirit may not wish to work with you, she said, at which point you try calling in a different spirit who IS willing to work with you. Once the ritual or summoning is completed, you mustn’t forget to thank the spirit for helping you.

              “I happen to be an interfaith minister,” she said, “so I consider it to be God. But whatever you name your source, that’s that works for you. You have to thank your sources and send the spirit back. Because if you controlled its coming to you, it’s not going to leave until you send it home. You would get all kinds of issues if you forget. So you do have to send them back.”

A spirit has some degree of choice as to whether to leave or not.

              “But you have to remember that we have the will power,” she said. “We’ve spoken. We have to have emotions behind it because emotions are like a battery charger. And we really have to have no fear because we know we’re safe everywhere. That takes a little practice. If you encounter something negative, your first reaction is to panic. You can’t panic. You just have to remember that you’re always safe.

               “There really is no ‘negotiating’ with spirits,” Maria continued. “People have a misconception about that. We are always in control. The spirit can choose whether or not to work with us, but as soon as you’re dealing with a spirit where you’re supposed to be negotiating, you’re dealing with something negative. Don’t deal with the negative. As soon as any negotiating gets started, you want to send the spirit away and to have sufficient control to send the spirit away.”

Maria made reference to an occult law that says “like attracts like.”

             “So when you’re working in a positive way,” she said, “most of the time you’re going to attract positive spirits, because like attracts like. It doesn’t mean a negative spirit may not pop up to see what you’re doing or to test you. But they’re not going to feel ‘comfortable’ around you.”

              Sending an evil spirit love and healing energy works against its negativity and leads it to back off. But any feelings of anger or fear or emotional upset on the part of the human in question will be like delicious food to a malevolent entity. It’s a creature of negative energy that feeds on mortal negativity.

One of the reasons Maria likes to do readings is that what comes up in a reading is what people NEED to know, but not always what they WANT to know.

               Maria spoke about how the word “occult” simply means ancient wisdom and hidden knowledge, adding that today the more frequently used words are “paranormal” or “metaphysical.”

                “We really are the oldest science,” she said. “It’s not just a matter of someone up there chanting.”

                  For Maria, as a professional psychic, her mastering of the occult sciences and their wisdom has served to help others navigate the spirit realm and create positive change in their lives.

                  “One of the reasons I like to do readings is that what comes up in a reading is what people NEED to know,” she explained. “It’s not always what they WANT to know. At the end of a reading, I put in questions that the person can ask. But I never want to know anything ahead of time, because the universe will tell them what they need to know that’s going to help them improve their lives. Whether people make the move on things or not, that’s free will. But the point of a psychic reading is always to elevate yourself spiritually and to be able to maneuver much better within your own life.

                 “You don’t always have to use tools to be able to work in these areas. Some of it is just very direct. It’s a combination of mental focus and technique. You don’t always need rituals, spells, candles, gemstones, any kind of tools. A lot of times, our best work is when we just go direct. But the point of the books and some of the tools and rituals is for people who haven’t been on that level yet. It’s kind of like a training level. Once you really get the hang of it, eventually the point is not to need any of it.”

Sean Casteel

SUGGESTED READING AND AUDIO LIST 

Maria D’Andreas Positively Positive Spell Book

Supernatural Words of Power: Control and Influence Others Through The Incredible Secret Power of Ordinary Speech

Curses and Their Reversals – Plus Omens, Superstitions and the Removal of the Evil Eye

MR UFOS SECRET FILES – Over 125+ Video And Audio Originals

VISITING THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – UFOS, MEDIUMSHIP AND THE PARANORMAL

 By Sean Casteel

At one point in the history of America the belief in spiritualism was as strong – and as controversial – as the belief in UFOs is today. And a demonstrable parallel can be drawn between the two topics, which even seem to attract some of the same people across the various paranormal research fields – more so in recent years as increasing numbers come to accept the reality of UFOs as being at least partially of a paranormal or supernatural nature.

The most fundamental belief of the Spiritualists is that the soul survives physical death and that certain departed souls can communicate with the living.

Spiritualism flourished beginning in the mid-19^th century and for many decades held a fascinated general public in its thrall. Whether one was a believer or a determined skeptic, everyone had an opinion as to the reality of contacting the dead, with many others devoting their energies to the tireless debunking of fraudulent mediums who the skeptics thought were scamming the public and taking their hard earned money deceitfully.

What is Spiritualism? The most fundamental belief of the Spiritualists is that the soul survives physical death and that certain departed souls can communicate with the living. This communication is achieved through the agency of a medium, a man or woman who claims the distinct ability to speak with those who have passed away.

The Shaking Teepee Phenomenon is common throughout Native American culture. A shaman will enter a teepee and the shadows of spirits will appear even though the medicine man is bound so that he cannot move about.

Mediumship traces its roots back to the ancient shamanistic traditions and is an extension of many priestly traditions as well. Most Native American tribes had at least one shaman or “medicine man” among them who would go into a specially prepared teepee and enter into a trance state (sometimes in a drug-induced state) in order to contact the ancestors of the tribe. Those standing outside the teepee could see mysterious shadows and figures moving about inside the lodge which could not have been the shaman. His hands were often bound and his posture secure – much like in a séance off the reservation.

A true medium can be a conduit for numerous Spiritualist phenomena, including prophecy (i.e., the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece). He or she may also be capable of clairvoyance and clairaudience, possess the gift of speaking in tongues and of healing by the laying on of hands. They may see visions and enter easily into a trance. A medium can also summon spirits and guides from the world of the dead and even cause the voices of the departed to speak aloud to a gathering of the living at a séance.

A distinguished British physicist and chemist, Sir William Crookes, around the turn of the 20^th century categorized certain physical manifestations of spiritualistic activities. These include:

*** The movement of heavy bodies with contact but without mechanical exertion.

*** The phenomena of percussive and other similar sounds.

*** Movements of heavy substances when at a distance from the medium.

*** The rising of tables and chairs off the ground, without contact with any person.

*** The levitation of human beings.

*** The movement of various small articles without contact with any person.

*** Luminous appearances.

*** The appearance of hands, either self-luminous or visible by ordinary light.

*** Direct (automatic) writing.

*** Phantom forms and faces.

*** There is also the possibility of special instances that seem to point to the agency of a superior intelligence as well as miscellaneous occurrences of a complex character.

Sir William Crookes photographed at a séance with the spirit known as Katie King.

All of which sounds like a motherlode of the strange and bizarre and calls to mind many of the claims made by UFO abductees. This relationship between Spiritualism and UFOlogy has often been noted by Timothy Green Beckley, the CEO of the publishing houses Global Communications and Inner Light Publications. While Beckley is widely known as Mr. UFO, he has also long been interested in spiritualistic and occult matters and has republished classic works in the field.

The latest such offering from Beckley is “We Can Awaken the Dead: Evidence of an Afterlife Now!” It consists mainly of the personal journey to Spiritualist truth made by Vice Admiral W. Usborne Moore, a British naval officer who publicly advocated the notion that we can communicate with our departed loved ones.

MODERN SPIRITUALISM

A military man for most of his life, Vice Admiral William Usborne Moore’s worldview “softened” greatly after being contacted by the spirit of a loved one during a séance.

Moore began as a skeptic. He talks of reading a book, at the recommendation of an acquaintance, by the aforementioned William Crookes called “Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism,” which Moore said had led many people to the subject. Readers marveled that Crookes’ credentials as a scientist did not deter him from expounding at length on the existence of “forces exercised by invisible intelligences.”

Moore decided to test the waters himself and went to visit a clairvoyant named Mrs. Crompton, in Portsmouth, England, in 1904.

 “She clairvoyantly saw a spirit form near me,” Moore writes, “that answered very nearly to ‘Iola’ as I remember her.”

Another medium, a Mr. Vango, described Iola to Moore two or three times, giving her name.

“These were the first intimations I received,” Moore explains, “of the desire of my relative to get in touch with me.”

As time passed and Moore visited other mediums, Iola continued to reach out to Moore.

During the heyday of spiritualism, photos of ectoplasm and spirits were often taken in the séance room. Some were obvious hoaxes. Others could not be so easily explained. Here are photos of ectoplasmic spirit and the fabled angel hair found at UFO landing sites that often dissolves in minutes.

“To be brief,” Moore writes, “I found that the deeper I went into the study of Spiritism, the more apparent it became that, whether he wished it or not, man’s individuality was not extinguished at death. I read books, visited clairvoyants, and attended séances for materialization. Through all of this I was constantly reminded of the existence of a near and dear relative, older than myself, who passed away thirty-seven years ago in the prime of her life. Her continued reappearances could only lead me to one conclusion: I was being guided to a reconsideration of the problem of immortality.

“At last, I have come to the absolute conviction,” he continues, “that what we call ‘death’ is a mere incident, a door to a higher life that is, in reality, more substantial to the senses we shall hereafter possess than the one we set so much store upon here. The near relative who had proved to me this valuable truth is called in this volume ‘Iola,’ a spirit name which she herself adopted to avoid the unpleasant complications that may arise as to her identity among those of her friends and relatives who are not educated in Spiritism.”

Thus Moore was drawn to the subject by his lost relative reaching out to him and not the other way around. Iola seemed to reenter his life from the world of the dead completely unbidden and without prompting on Moore’s part.

Along with his heartfelt belief in the genuineness of Spiritualism, Moore also took aim at the debunkers.

“Nothing they write has tallied with what I’ve seen,” he declares. “For a concrete instance of the foolish suggestions put forward by these ignorant ‘know-it-alls,’ I would point to a recent work in which there is a description of how slate-writing is performed.”

A slate that is now on display in the Lily Dale Museum, still has a message and a drawing of flowers allegedly produced by a spirit during a séance.

Slate-writing falls into the category of “physical” spiritualist phenomena in which a spirit takes chalk in hand and write messages from beyond on a small slate.

“The writer says the sitter brings his own double slate,” Moore writes, “and the psychic deftly inserts a small piece of chalk previously prepared by being mixed with steel filings. While the slate is being held under the table or elsewhere, the psychic moves the chalk by means of a magnet concealed up his sleeve and does it as in mirror writing.”

The debunking writer unequivocally says the deceiving medium’s use of this method is unassailable fact, but Moore quite pointedly differs.

“This statement of ‘fact’ is untrue,” Moore argues. “Such a thing cannot be done. Even with an electromagnet in open sight it would be impossible to write twenty legible words. With a man sitting near you and watching you it is not possible to write five legible words without detection.”

Nevertheless, Moore admits, books by debunking authors sold well and perhaps helped the naysayers to climb the social ladder of the time.

“For the majority of educated people are anxious not to be disturbed in their amiable doctrines of a Day of Judgment,” Moore reasons, “and a fiery material hell in store for those who do not agree with them.”

Readers at this juncture will observe that the way the skeptics behaved during the heyday of spiritualism is similar to the debunkers today who go out of their way to discredit many UFO experiencers, be they abductees or the much more tainted contactees of the late 40s and 1950s.

Early on in his book, Moore describes other physical phenomena he had personally witnessed, which included the materialization of heads and busts of discarnate entities, spirit singing, whispers and the flight of a musical instrument around the room and over the heads of the sitters, all the while playing a definite tune.

“I saw and heard a number of things,” Moore writes, “that could not be explained by any system of juggling or deception of any sort.”

THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS – THE GREATEST PHYSICAL MEDIUMS OF ALL TIME?

The Davenport Brothers managed to produce all sorts of phenomena while they were chained in a special spirit cabinet. Musical instruments would play and fly around the room of their “own accord.”

Such physical manifestations as Moore described were an everyday occurrence for the Davenport Brothers, a duo of American spiritualists whose talents were celebrated by none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the immortal detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle had manufactured a character whose skills as a logician solved many crimes, but Doyle himself was given to more mystical beliefs. His struggle against the magician and escape artist Harry Houdini over the veracity of Spiritualist claims – including that of the Davenports – is well-known. Beckley has published a book [see the Suggested Reading list at the end of this article] dealing with their very public conflict as well as other strange theories about Houdini’s “hidden powers.”

Beckley has also published “Dark Séance: The Fabulous Davenport Brothers,” which is in part a reprint of a detailed account of their careers written in the early part of the 20^th century. Their story began in 1846, when the Davenport family was disturbed by what they described as “raps, thumps, loud noises, snaps, cracking noises, in the dead of night.” Not knowing how to respond, they simply did nothing.

A few years later, when the famous Fox Sisters began making headlines for experiencing similar things, ten-year-old Elizabeth Davenport declared that if such things happened to anybody, they might as well happen to them. The Davenports gathered around their table, placed their hands upon it, as they had read the Fox Sisters had done, and waited to see what would happen. After a few moments a movement as of swelling or bulging was felt in the table, then crackling noises, tippings, raps, and, finally, very loud and violent noises.

Ira Davenport, five years older than his sister, Elizabeth, was “taken with a violent propensity to write, his hand becoming subject to extraordinary gyrations. These messages were believed to be quite beyond both his mental or physical powers, and contained matters known only to the persons to whom they were addressed, and quite beyond his personal knowledge.”

Another incident in this early stage of the Davenports’ development involved the knives, forks and dishes on the breakfast table beginning “to dance around as if suddenly imbued with vitality. In a few moments the table began to move, tipping up sideways, balancing itself on one leg and finally rising clear from the floor, floating in the air without the least support and moving in such a way that it was wonderful that the dishes upon it did not slide off and come crashing upon the floor.”

Meanwhile, Ira’s younger brother, William, had begun to communicate with an entity who said he was not of this Earth. The entity warned them to procure a large table for the better accommodation of those who would be coming from far and near to see these wonders for themselves. The family began to hold regular séances during which the physical manifestations were repeated in front of witnesses. Loud raps were heard; the table answered questions; spectral forms were seen in the flash of a pistol; lights appeared in the upper parts of the room; and musical instruments floated in the air while being played upon above the heads of the company.

Ira Erastus Davenport and William Henry Davenport.

The spirits somehow communicated to the Davenports that Ira and William should take their show on the road. They began by touring in Maine and obligingly permitted debunkers to thoroughly examine their equipment and to bind the brothers hand and foot so that no sleight of hand could be perpetrated. In spite of these conditions, the brothers were nevertheless able to conjure mysterious arms and hands that would play musical instruments.

While appearing in Philadelphia, the brothers were met with “violent opposition” from “philosophers,” religious bigots, other spiritualists and people spoiling for a fight in general. It required fifty policeman to keep order. In spite of this, the brothers still produced the most extraordinary manifestations even before hostile crowds.

They continued to amaze observers and moved on to tour England and Scotland, appearing not only in theaters but also in private homes. In exclusive drawing rooms in London, they performed before not the “ignorant or the credulous,” but a select company that included some of the sharpest minds in England, none of whom could see any method of deception on the part of the Davenport Brothers.

 A writer for a London newspaper, The Morning Post, who was present for one such private séance, reported – somewhat bewilderedly – that, “Possibly they may be [clever conjurers] or it is possible that some new physical force can be engendered at will to account for what appears on the face of it absolutely unaccountable. All that can be asserted is that the displays to which we have referred took place on the present occasion under conditions and circumstances that preclude the presumption of fraud. Here is a field for the investigation of the scientific world.”

Beckley’s “Dark Séance: The Fabulous Davenport Brothers” also includes his own musings on the brothers and Spiritualism in general, with particular attention given to the similarities between Spiritualism and UFOs. It is certainly true that both fields cry out for serious study by the scientific community, as The Morning Post writer urged in his account of the London séance.

This has been but a brief overview of “Dark Séance,” but the book itself is rich in fascinating detail. Ira died in 1911 and his brother William died tragically young at age 36 in 1877. Whatever the secret to their apparent miraculous powers was, it has never been disclosed or discovered.

THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE DEAD

Thirty Years Among the Dead.

While one reads Vice Admiral W. Usborne Moore and the Davenport Brothers in large part because they deal with physical manifestations of Spiritualistic workings, there is also another avenue explored in a book from Inner Light/Global Communications called “Thirty Years Among the Dead,” first published in 1924. The book is still available in older, more expensive editions, but Beckley’s version is the only one that can truly be called “complete and unabridged.”

“Thirty Years” is not, as the title may suggest to some, a dull account of hanging around a morgue somewhere. It offers instead a still vitally relevant approach to abnormal psychology that is based on the idea that extreme mental illness is caused – not by a harsh environment or muddled brain chemistry – but by the encroachment upon the innocent by the discarnate spirits of the evil dead.

You may already be thinking that therein lies the stuff of a great horror movie, but you will be intrigued to learn that “Thirty Years Among the Dead” is a factual, well-documented account of treating and actually curing the mentally ill by contacting the oppressing spirits within the sufferer and convincing those spirits to leave.

To carry out this form of therapeutic spiritualism, a physician named Dr. Carl A. Wickland worked alongside his wife, Anna, an accredited medium who voluntarily allowed herself to be temporarily possessed by these wicked spirits in order to better understand their tormented motivations. The Wicklands would then use this information to treat the victims who so grievously suffered under these destructive otherworldly influences. Along with the mediumistic coercion of spirits conducted by his wife, Dr. Wickland would administer low voltage electric shocks to the patient’s neck and spine with a device called a “Wimhurst generator,” a wand-like instrument that worked to “dislodge” the wicked spirit of the dead.

UFO research also has a variety of unexplained photos of a paranormal nature associated with it – such as the photo of Elizabeth Templeton taken on an isolated hilltop in the UK. When the family photos were developed, a strange “spaceman”-like image appeared that was not visible when the picture was taken.

In his introduction to the new edition, Beckley explains that the Wicklands felt they had absolute evidence that these demented spirits of the dead liked to hang around the living in order to continue their evil ways even from the afterlife. In essence, they would leech onto those who were prone to similar fits of debauchery or were well on their way to a life of unabated revelry and eventual damnation.

“The influence of these discarnate entities,” Dr. Wickland writes, “is the cause of many of the inexplicable and obscure events of earth life and of a large part of the world’s misery. A recognition of this fact accounts for a great portion of unbidden thoughts, emotions, strange forebodings, gloomy moods, irritabilities, unreasonable impulses, irrational outbursts of temper, uncontrollable infatuations, and countless other mental vagaries.”

Dr. Wickland points out that “records of spirit obsession and possession extend from the remotest antiquity to modern times,” including the Old and New Testaments and the Homeric legends. The Wicklands’ work stands as an example of the power of certain Spiritualist practices to heal deep psychological and emotional wounds, something science is still groping in the dark to accomplish through medication and simple talk therapy.

And while it is true that Spiritualism cannot today claim the many millions of followers and believers it had in the years between 1850 and the early decades of the 20^th century, Timothy Green Beckley is part of the process of keeping the movement in front of the reading public and demonstrating its continued relevance to many fields of the occult sciences and to the pursuit of the truth underlying UFOs and alien abduction. Beckley’s publishing efforts may one day help the world to arrive at a kind of paranormal “Theory of Everything” where all the mysteries fit in their proper places – to the enlightenment of us all.

Sean Casteel

SUGGESTED READING:
“We Can Awaken the Dead: Evidence of an Afterlife Now”

“Dark Séance: The Fabulous Davenport Brothers”

“Thirty Years Among the Dead”

“Revealing the Amazing Powers of Harry Houdini”

VIDEO/AUDIO – MR. UFO’S SECRET FILES
https://www.youtube.com/user/MRUFO1100