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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

139.0. "UEIsd" by INK::KALLIS () Thu May 29 1986 20:17

    Electronic phenomena seem to range from "phantom phone calls," such
    as reports of getting telephonic conversations from the dead, to
    obtaining strange voices on recordings that the person wasn't aware
    were being recorded (the ultimate being sending a tape through a
    recorder without the microphone being plugged in and getting
    _something_ on the track).
    
    The "phantom telephone Call" could be a hoax, a delusion, or the
    like (has anybody read of a phantom phone call to a telephone
    answeering device?).  Recortding "phantom voices" on tape could
    be a) faint impressions of an earlier recording (if the tape wasn't
    blank), b) some sort of rectification phenomena whereby a local
    radio signal or television sound waere being picked up, or c) a
    defective recorder that induces noises that the brain interprets
    as voices.
    
    Paranormal photographs (ghosts, strange lights, manifestations)
    I leave to another discussion, since I know (as a retired amateur
    photographer) how easily these can be faked.
    
    However, anybody have reports on Unusual Electronic Incidents? 
    Ones we can talk about seriously?
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
    P.S.:  Some things, though unlikely, do happen.  There have been
    several reports of people who thought they were hearing "voices"
    who it was later determined had a freak condition where their tooth
    fillings were acting as crude rectifiers and were picking up radio
    signals like a crystal set.
    
    -S
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
139.1Strangers in the Night....PSGMKG::MCCAYThu May 29 1986 23:4420
139.3Who said that?MOSAIC::HARDYFri May 30 1986 16:0813
    I recommend John C. Lilly's PROGRAMMING AND METAPROGRAMMING THE
    HUMAN BIOCOMPUTER and later works.  Lilly is most famous for his
    research with dolphins, but he also did some very interesting work
    with the isolation tank.   What is relevant here is that he did
    very extensive work on the interpretation of chaotic and invariant
    stimuli.   This does not mean that the spirit voices are not there,
    but rather that they may find it easier -- being quite immaterial
    -- to maipulate the brownian motion in semiconductor circuits, or
    even the ionic flux across the neurons of the listener, and so you
    should beware of taking the microphone, tape recorder or whatever
    as a necessary part of the process.
    
    
139.4What Said Who?PEN::KALLISTue Jun 17 1986 14:2712
    According to the latest issue of FATE magazine, the best technique
    for getting "phantom voices" it to use a sensitive microphone and
    to record at the highest possible volume.  Given those items, it
    would be worth investigating whether in the babble of "phantom voices"
    there are also examples of "phantom mucic."
    
    If so, then something non-paranormal might be going on.
    
    However it's studied, it should be systematic.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    
139.5An electrical poltergeist.PBSVAX::COOPERTopher CooperTue Jul 22 1986 20:39104
I've been meaning to type in this case for some time.  I have quoted this
account from the book *Poltergeists* (catchy title, huh?) by Alan Gauld and
A.D. Colonel (pages 94-97).  The book is published by "Routledge & Kegan
Paul".  Specifically I have quoted from Part 1 ("Survey and sampling of
cases") which is credited to Gauld alone.  I highly recommend this book,
as it manages to be exhaustive and scholarly, yet very readable to a lay
audience.

Both the authors and the publisher are British.  I have attempted to retain
the British spellings, but both my fingers and my eyes are American so
their may be some inconsistencies.

		    Topher

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[The author spends several paragraphs discussing the case in the context of
their book before they actually describe it.  The only observation of
special interest is]

Despite the fact that in the present case many of the happenings centred
upon pieces of electrical equipment, it seems likely that ... the forces at
work were of a kind that might loosely be called mechanical.

		    .	.   .

The case in question is ... the well-known Rosenheim case of 1967-8.  It
was investigated by Professor Hans Bender, Professor of Parapsychology at
the University of Freiburg, West Germany, and a leading investigator of
poltergeist cases, together with various associates.  The printed reports
... are rather short.  [specific citations]  A television documentary about
the case has been broadcast in Britain.

The case began at the end of November 1967, when inexplicable events
started to occur in a lawyer's office in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim.
Neon lights on a two and a half metre high ceiling repeatedly went out, and
were afterwards found to have been unscrewed from their sockets.  Electric
light bulbs exploded, sharp bangs were heard, electric fuses blew without
apparent cause.  Developing fluid in photocopying machines was again and
again spilled.  The telephones became subject to curious disturbances --
calls were cut off, all four telephones often rang simultaneously, the
telephone bills swelled unprecedentedly.  It can be imagined that under
these conditions the layer's office did not run smoothly.

Suspicion in the office at first centred on the power supply.  The
maintenance department of the power station and the post office authorities
[in Germany, as in most of the world, the post office is also the telephone
company] were called in.  The power station's monitoring equipment
registered large deflections in the power supply.  These deflections
sometimes coincided with the peculiar phenomena, and continued even when a
special power supply was installed to ensure `undisturbed' electric
current.

The post office fitted to the telephone a device which recorded for each
outward call the number dialled, the time of the dialling, and the length
of the call.  Over a period of weeks this device recorded innumerable calls
to the speaking clock (0119), often dialled six times a minute, and at
times when it seemed absolutely certain that no one in the office could
have been responsible.

Bender and his colleagues came on the scene on 1 December 1967.  They
speedily noticed that the phenomena seemed to depend on the presence of a
new employee, a nineteen-year-old girl referred to as Annemarie Sch.  A
first deflection of the instruments monitoring the power supply was often
registered the moment Annemarie arrived for work in the morning.  When she
walked along the corridors, electric lights hanging from the ceiling began
to swing behind her (this phenomenon was photographed).  When bulbs
exploded, the pieces flew towards her.  Phenomena decreased in frequency
with distance from her.

In an attempt to demonstrate conclusively that the phenomena were not due
to variations in the mains power supply, the co-operation of two physicists
from the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics in Munich, F. Karger and G.
Zicha, was obtained.  On 8 December 1967, they fitted the power station's
recorder, which monitored the mains supply, with a voltage magnifier, and
set it up in the corridor to record the mains voltage.  Between 4.30 p.m.
and 5.48 p.m. the recorder registered and irregular sequence of strong
deflections.  Some of these were accompanied by sharp cracks, similar to
those produced by electric sparks (these sounds were tape recorded).  Then,
and on subsequent days, they set up equipment to record the electric
potential and the magnetic field in the vicinity of the recorder, and also
equipment to record the sound amplitude in the office.  They were able (at
least if one assumes that *their*own* equipment was not also being
interfered with) to rule out as explanations of the recorder deflections
the following: mains voltage variation; HF voltage, demodulated at
component with non-linear characteristic; external static magnetic fields;
loose contacts in the electronic amplifier system; extraneous mechanisms in
the recorder; ultrasonic or infrasonic effects, including strong vibrations
and manual intervention.  They were forced to the conclusion that some
unknown mechanical influence had acted on the pointer of the measuring
instruments.

Bender describes the end of the case as follows:

   The discovery of the PK nature of the occurrences led to an
   intensification of the events: paintings began to swing and to turn,
   drawers came out by themselves, documents were displaced, a 175 kilogram
   cabinet moved twice about 30 cm from the wall, etc.  Annemarie Sch.,
   getting more and more nervous, finally displayed hysterical
   contractions in her arms and legs.  When she was sent on leave, nothing
   happened, and when she definitely left the office for a new position, no
   more disturbances occurred.  But similar events, less obvious and kept
   secret, happened for some time in the new office where she was working.

A video-recording of one of the picture rotations was obtained.