What do you think of this experience at a physical medium's workshop?

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Lightlover

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I would be interested in members comments about my account of an experience I had at a workshop run by a physical medium. Is it Spirit involvement, or is there some other sensible explanation ? I've have tried to be truthful and objective as a former scientist, but you only have my word for that of course.

" At a workshop, at a village hall near Basingstoke on 18th August 2012, the attendees (about 12) took it in turn to sit in the cabinet in red light for a transfiguration experiment. When it was my turn to sit in the cabinet, I sat quite still with my eyes closed and let myself go in to a kind of meditation.

I said that my face was itching, and the physical medium said later: “I could see the transfiguration taking place, as could the rest of the students, but we didn't realise it was to that extent!”
I had no idea there was anything over my face, although I felt itches and tingles at times. My eyes were closed throughout, and I could hear all that was said in the room, although I felt I was in a bit of a dream state. A photo was taken, and showed a large lump on my face which wasn't there before. I heard the group talking about the cabinet moving. My scientific detachment was breaking down somewhat!

In the same period as the photo was taken, other things were happening to me and the cabinet.
There was a strong red light in the cabinet, and the room was darkened with curtains but we could see each other well, as it was daytime.
As I do not consider myself mediumistic or psychic, I did not bother to get someone else to camcord me in the cabinet. I sat with closed eyes and kept very still throughout. I let myself go in to a kind of meditation with an open mind, and I could hear comments that my face was changing. I did feel some itches and tingles on my face, but I've had those before in spiritual situations. Suddenly, I heard remarks that the cabinet was moving, and it seemed that all could see this, except me of course. There was excitement in the room, and the others began to talk to the cabinet, or rather if there was a communicator causing the movement. A code was established of sideways movement for Yes, and backwards and forwards for No. Questions were then asked if the communicator was male (yes), was he wanting to contact someone here (yes), was the person to contact male (no), female (yes). A relative (yes). Did you pass over more than ten years ago? (yes). There were three candidates left. Dark hair? (no) or fair hair? (yes). The only person who was left was my fair-haired sister, who was in attendance.

My sister accepted the communicator, but said nothing at first. Others asked, is it a grandfather? (no). Is it father? (no). My sister then asked, is it Ray? ( Our brother ). The answer was an emphatic yes, shown by lots of sideways swaying movement. I was feeling very emotional by now. My sister asked, Are you happy where you are? The answer was yes. She was rather taken aback, and asked nothing else.
I might add that I had no sensation that the cabinet was moving, as my eyes were closed throughout and I was a bit dreamy, but I could hear the voices and understand what the attendees were saying.
I confirmed the facts with the other attendees, who said the cabinet movements were very pronounced, and we all knew that no fraud was possible. They also said that my face had some kind of lump on it, when they looked at me. Although this, like table tilting, is a basic form of communication, it proved once again for me that the 'paranormal' is a reality, and there was an 'intelligence' behind the answers to questions. Beyond that, I think it's a matter of personal belief and interpretation. "

Jo Winstone, one of the attendees , says: “I can confirm everything Norman has said. It was wonderful to see his face transfiguring, and I'm so pleased the communication was for him and his sister.” Other attendees confirmed what they saw and heard, in a way which satisfied me that it was not mass suggestion, the photo proved the formed 'lump', and I think it was extremely suggestive of Spirit because there was no physical contact with the cabinet to move it purposefully, and was it coincidental that the replies to questions led back only to my sister? I'm trying to attach the photo.

My lump.jpg


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It sounds reasonable to me based on other reports of physical mediumship that I've read. I never heard of the cabinet moving as a form of communication, only table tipping, but I have never been at a physical seance so I only know what I've read. I have taken classes in mental mediumship at a spiritualist church.

What exactly do you want to know?
(My browser is not displaying your second image.)

Who was giving the workshop?

There are physical mediums in this group if that would help:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/evidenceforafterlife/
I think you need a facebook login to join the group.
 
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Hi Jim. Like you, I had never heard of cabinet movement before it happened with me, but I had experienced table tipping in light with nobody touching the table, besides communication that way.

I suppose I would like to see other opinions which would try to explain this phenomena by normal physics, without Spirit being involved. I like to see other opinions, in case I've overlooked something, but I can't see another explanation. I question everything until the evidence satisfies me. I have been investigating physical mediumship and taking part in seances for many years, and have other types of experiences and evidence. I thought there could be a wide range of opinion on this site which might help the search for truth.

The medium who took the workshop was Jo Bradley, and I have experienced much through her mediumship. She does not do public demonstrations. Thanks for the link.
 
Lightlover said:
Hi Jim. Like you, I had never heard of cabinet movement before it happened with me, but I had experienced table tipping in light with nobody touching the table, besides communication that way.

I suppose I would like to see other opinions which would try to explain this phenomena by normal physics, without Spirit being involved. I like to see other opinions, in case I've overlooked something, but I can't see another explanation. I question everything until the evidence satisfies me. I have been investigating physical mediumship and taking part in seances for many years, and have other types of experiences and evidence. I thought there could be a wide range of opinion on this site which might help the search for truth.

The medium who took the workshop was Jo Bradley, and I have experienced much through her mediumship. She does not do public demonstrations. Thanks for the link.
Click to expand...

I've conducted very little research into mediumship, but I am interested in the sort of phenomena you describe.

There are some interesting group perception phenomena which are well documented, like hypnotism, which are not well understood. Quija boards are another in my view. Whenever people voluntarily (or not) somehow accept that they are not causing the phenomena, it somehow seems to enable them turn over what brain scientists might call 'executive control' to one or more third parties. Whether these phenomena are only working in they way scientists currently accept remains an open question to me.

Your own specific experience is difficult for me to comment on though... Terrible for me to say... But I'd want to look at deliberate fraud... Sorry :-(.

In particular I'd want to look at visual perceptual effects potentially caused by red light, seems to me there might be some... but that doesn't mean that I'm not open minded that some group phenomena outside of what science currently accepts is really happening here, and is just being invoked by these effects.
 
Fraud and 'normal' effects must always be considered. I think that one has to experience for oneself to accept phenomena outside of what science currently accepts, and make your own mind up whether you are being deluded or defrauded, or whether the facts are genuine and properly interpreted. My opinion of the facts and the photo prove nothing to anyone else, and although I have a scientific background and am an amateur investigator I am not a professional, so I don't know what how they would behave at a workshop like this to satisfy themselves there was anything paranormal going on.

From my perspective, I say that I helped assemble the simple tube/canvas and ensured there was no trickery, the medium was honest and trustworthy, and it all took place in daylight so the attendees could see all that was going on at all times. I know that I did not move the cabinet that I was sitting in. The outside of the cabinet was seen moving in the daylight, not in red light, which was only inside the open-fronted cabinet. It's hard for me to believe that all twelve attendees, plus the medium, saw movements which were not there. The 'code' on the movements did lead to a conclusion which made sense to me. Similarly the 'lump' they say they saw form on my face., which was photographed, was seen at the time.

Sir William Crookes carried out scientific experiments in the 19th Century which for me proved paranormal movements of objects and much else, and I am one of very many who have tried out for ourselves and followed in his footsteps as best we can. with physical mediumship.
 
Lightlover said:
Fraud and 'normal' effects must always be considered. I think that one has to experience for oneself to accept phenomena outside of what science currently accepts, and make your own mind up whether you are being deluded or defrauded, or whether the facts are genuine and properly interpreted. My opinion of the facts and the photo prove nothing to anyone else, and although I have a scientific background and am an amateur investigator I am not a professional, so I don't know what how they would behave at a workshop like this to satisfy themselves there was anything paranormal going on.

From my perspective, I say that I helped assemble the simple tube/canvas and ensured there was no trickery, the medium was honest and trustworthy, and it all took place in daylight so the attendees could see all that was going on at all times. I know that I did not move the cabinet that I was sitting in. The outside of the cabinet was seen moving in the daylight, not in red light, which was only inside the open-fronted cabinet. It's hard for me to believe that all twelve attendees, plus the medium, saw movements which were not there. The 'code' on the movements did lead to a conclusion which made sense to me. Similarly the 'lump' they say they saw form on my face., which was photographed, was seen at the time.

Sir William Crookes carried out scientific experiments in the 19th Century which for me proved paranormal movements of objects and much else, and I am one of very many who have tried out for ourselves and followed in his footsteps as best we can. with physical mediumship.
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What do you think the red light is about...?
 
Had a quick search for colour, sensory adaption, opponent processes and distortions in facial perception etc... You might find this article interesting...

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royptb/366/1571/1702.full.pdf

There are plenty of other articles dealing with facial perception, which appears to be an incredibly complex process. They might shine a light on your experience (pardon the pun), and why everybody could see a similar distortion effect on your face.

As for the movement, I'm not sure, but I'm somewhat suspicious about the use of 'red' light inside a 3D cabinet with temporary periods of fixation on your face, then glancing back to the outside of the cabinet, and wonder whether these contrasting periods could cause a very simple illusion of movement, similar to the more sophisticated illusory motion effects in optical pictures (example below). Just a wild guess...

rotsnake2-02.jpg
 
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Now that I read about it, there is a specific new Red/Blue jump type motion effect between blurred red and blue boundaries, which was discovered in 2010.... it causes a jump in the opposite direction to the direction your eyes move... was there any blue outlining the outside of the cabinet, or as a backdrop to the cabinet?

When you make saccades horizontally to and fro over the image above, you can see the illusory motion only for the upper half whereas the lower half keeps to be stable. (You may have to make your browser smaller to see the effect).

border_blur_and_sharp_BlueOnRed.png
 
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Max_B said:
What do you think the red light is about...?
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Transfiguration, which we were sitting for, is done in red light because white light is said to tend to destroy the ectoplasm, which the medium supplies to assist the phenomenon. It obviously has to be seen as a change in the facial features and red light is said to be less harmful. Although it was daylight with the curtains drawn, it would have been too dark and shadowy in the cabinet to see without red light.
 
Max_B said:
Now that I read about it, there is a specific new Red/Blue jump type motion effect between blurred red and blue boundaries, which was discovered in 2010.... it causes a jump in the opposite direction to the direction your eyes move... was there any blue outlining the outside of the cabinet, or as a backdrop to the cabinet?

When you make saccades horizontally to and fro over the image above, you can see the illusory motion only for the upper half whereas the lower half keeps to be stable. (You may have to make your browser smaller to see the effect).

Thank you Max B for taking the trouble to research and provide these interesting article links. No, there wasn't any blue outlining on the outside of the cabinet, or as a backdrop.



border_blur_and_sharp_BlueOnRed.png
Click to expand...

Thus far, the prerequisites for this illusion to occur are:
  1. The color pair of two regions must be red and blue.
  2. The edge of the regions must be blurred.
  3. The image formed on the regina must be move, either via eye movement or via pattern motion.
 
Max_B said:
Had a quick search for colour, sensory adaption, opponent processes and distortions in facial perception etc... You might find this article interesting...

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royptb/366/1571/1702.full.pdf

There are plenty of other articles dealing with facial perception, which appears to be an incredibly complex process. They might shine a light on your experience (pardon the pun), and why everybody could see a similar distortion effect on your face.

As for the movement, I'm not sure, but I'm somewhat suspicious about the use of 'red' light inside a 3D cabinet with temporary periods of fixation on your face, then glancing back to the outside of the cabinet, and wonder whether these contrasting periods could cause a very simple illusion of movement, similar to the more sophisticated illusory motion effects in optical pictures (example below). Just a wild guess...

rotsnake2-02.jpg
Click to expand...
It doesn't explain why the photo corresponds to what the attendees claimed they saw, even if all the attendees had a similar illusion of movement. Also they say they saw it move backwards and forwards as well as sideways; would this fir the theory? I found the article too difficult to understand, as very complicated and lengthy so I gave up! Interesting though.
 
Another interesting point is that I watched the other 11 attendees sitting in the cabinet under the same conditions, but I saw no movement of the cabinet, nor did anyone else. I filmed them all with my video camera but no movements were shown on playback. I regret not asking someone to video me in the cabinet, it seems like sod's law! But then, even if I had done, and movements had been recorded, it could still have been disputed as unscientific evidence. :(
 
Lightlover said:
Thus far, the prerequisites for this illusion to occur are:
  1. The color pair of two regions must be red and blue.
  2. The edge of the regions must be blurred.
  3. The image formed on the regina must be move, either via eye movement or via pattern motion.
Click to expand...

Yeah... That why I was interested what the colour of the outside of the cabinet was, or background against which the red lit interior was placed against...
 
Lightlover said:
It doesn't explain why the photo corresponds to what the attendees claimed they saw, even if all the attendees had a similar illusion of movement. Also they say they saw it move backwards and forwards as well as sideways; would this fir the theory? I found the article too difficult to understand, as very complicated and lengthy so I gave up! Interesting though.
Click to expand...

I thought the facial distortions under the red lighting were pretty well established... The photo just looked like your face under red lighting to me... But once I started looking for lumps... the areas opposite the shadows started to distort into bumps... We experience the same thing with EVP (all be it sounds), once we've had a suggestion made about a sensory input.

It's not an explanation for conscious perception, but it seems quite common to experience all sorts of facial distortions under different sensory conditions.

The cabinet movement seems a little harder to get to grips with... Yet illusory movement using colour and pattern is well established... and I can't shake the feeling that the use of a narrow range of wavelengths of light increase the possibilities of some sort of movement perception.

Anyway you asked for alternative views... So that's what I'm giving... :-)
 
Max_B said:
I thought the facial distortions under the red lighting were pretty well established... The photo just looked like your face under red lighting to me... But once I started looking for lumps... the areas opposite the shadows started to distort into bumps... We experience the same thing with EVP (all be it sounds), once we've had a suggestion made about a sensory input.

It's not an explanation for conscious perception, but it seems quite common to experience all sorts of facial distortions under different sensory conditions.

The cabinet movement seems a little harder to get to grips with... Yet illusory movement using colour and pattern is well established... and I can't shake the feeling that the use of a narrow range of wavelengths of light increase the possibilities of some sort of movement perception.

Anyway you asked for alternative views... So that's what I'm giving... :)
Click to expand...

That's fine Max B, I appreciate you taking the trouble to help me with your suggestions for alternative views. :)
 
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