Conference hydra::dejavu

    You might want to contact John Mitchell (DECWET::MITCHELL).  He
    has had some very interesting observations on the subject.
    
    Marion

    	Use either the commands DIR/TITLE=topicname or DIR LAST-1 to
    find the Topics on Channeling.
    
    	Another note to the Moderators:  What this Conference also needs
    in Topic 1 are some basic VAX Notes Commands, to avoid all these
    redundant Topics.  
    
    	Larry
    

I would like to append what Marion said; if you want to learn the reasons to 
*not* channel, *then* contact John Mitchell at DECWET::MITCHELL!

                          -<  anchovies anyone?  >-
    
                              |^I   :^0   8^P
    
                                    ;^D

    
    Oh no, not *anchovies* again!
    
    

.0
Notes on Channelling...

Note       Title                     # replies
287     Ramtha on 20/20                  16
288     Trance Channeling                93
316     Mediums/Channelors               77
364     Ramtha:  "As it were indeed"      5
368     Seth                             14
479     Some notes on Channeling         14

    Re.back a couple     
    
    I see nothing wrong with redundant topics.  There probably was a
    time when it would have bothered me (went against my sense of order 
    and balance or some such ridiculous thing), however I've since 
    decided that life is far too short and chaos is much too wonderful 
    to be bothered by such mundane things as redundant topics...especially
    when there are people familiar enough with the conference who are kind 
    enough to put in references on where additional information can be 
    found in earlier related topics.
                        
    Just my opinion.
    
    Cindy
                                   

re; Cindy and redundancy is Ok is Ok is Ok

Hear, hear...

and there, there, too (ar ar ar ar)

somebody better stop me; it's an attack of the punnies!

(With *or* without anchovies!)

    RE. 733.2
    
    Rather than put the command list in topic 1 (and burden those who
    use a BATCH job to extract their notes) anyone who would like a 
    list of NOTES commands may copy the following file to their own 
    area, by executing the following command:
                                   
    COPY DMATE2::SYS$HELP:NOTES$HELP.TXT []/L

    It can then be edited or read locally by typing or printing it.         

    I'll also put a pointer to the file in note 1.3  If anyone has trouble
    copying the file send me mail rather than posting a reply in this
    file. Thanks.
     
    	- Bill Keefe
 

    
    Did someone say anchovies???   :-)  :-)
    

    I am a new user to this conference....what's the story with this
    Anchovie stuff?  I thought this was a "psychic conference?"
    
    

    re .11:
    
    It is a fact that distilled essence of anchovy can, when properly
    applied, promote group trance and induce channeling.

seriously though, John Mitchell has called himself the Anchovy on the Pizza of 
Dejavu, in that you can take this conference with or without his occasional 
sceptical entries, much as you would take a pizza, with or without anchovies.  
It's kinda like the "inside-Dejavu" joke.

John is not always sceptical.  However, he has made entries that question the 
precepts of many Dejavu noters, sometimes, in a way that is ~/~ (stirring the,
um, "stuff").

Meredith

    re .12:
    
    And figuring out how to apply it properly is one of the reasons
    this conference exists. :-P
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    Re.11 (Meyers)
    
    ...psssst....
    
    They're making that up.  Don't let them fool you.  (;^)
    
    ....end of psssst...
    
    Seriously, it is an inside joke, though I'd be hardpressed to tell
    you the exact origin of it (as in which note it was where it got
    started).  Kind of like folklore, once it gets going, it just keeps
    going and going and going....
    
    Cindy
         

    Being a new and admittedly not as yet jaded (but not unsophisticated)
    devotee of the NOTES file, I am presently trying frantically catch up
    on commentary on some of my "burning" concerns which seem to be
    clustered in the RELIGION, DEJAVU files
    
    So, please excuse me Mr. Mitchell if this one small issue has been
    addressed to you and rectified.  Harry Houdini did not at any time 
    admire the mediums of his day, but spent his entire career debunking 
    them as frauds (admittedly some,perhaps most, were) and he had a heyday
    with them.  It is however, documented that the secret message (in
    difficult to decipher code form )that he gave to his wife Beatrice and 
    to her alone before his death was later brought forth in a spirit 
    trance by the famous trance medium, Arthur Ford.  In his
    autobiography, "Nothing So Strange" Mr. Ford (who is no longer on this 
    earth plane - not in a material body, that is) devoted an entire
    chapter to a description of his cracking of the code.  
    
    After describing the events leading up to this much publicized event,
    he shows the letter that Mrs. Houdini wrote to him dated, Jan 9th,
    1929.  It reads:  
    
    	"Regardless of any statements made to the contrary,
       	 I wish to declare that the message, in its 
         entirety, and in the agreed upon sequence, given
         to me by Arthur Ford, is the correct message
    	 prearranged between Mr. Houdini and myself.
                           	
    			Signed, Beatrice Houdini
    
    	 
    		Witnessed:  
    
    		Harry R. Zander      (Representative of UPI)
    		Mrs.Minnie Chester   (life-long friend of Mrs. Houdini)
    		John W. Stafford     (Assoc. Editor - Scientif American)
    
                                               
	Admittedly a small issue in the reams of comments you have so eloquently
        made in the two NOTES files I have been perusing, but a simple
    	clarification by first hand accounts of the incidents.  By the
    	way, ARE YOU ACTIVE IN OTHER FILES OR INTERESTED MAINLY IN ESOTERICA
        AND THE LARGER ISSUES OF LIFE? As Orson Wells said, "Death and
        the outcome of life is everyone's major preoccupaton." (paraphrase)
    
                        
                                   
    

RE: .16 (PRYDE::ROCHA)
    
    I think that this is dealt with elsewhere in this notes file, but...
    
    This isn't as simple as it may seem (are things ever?).
    
    Houdini's relationship to mediums is a bit ambiguous.  He seemed
    to have an emotional need to believe in the afterlife ... particularly
    after his mother died.  He was hardheaded enough, however, to feel
    that his needing it did not mean that it existed.  He therefore
    set out to find a medium that he could prove was genuine.  When
    he started getting a bit old for full-time escape-artistry (which
    requires great physical stamina and resiliancy) he turned this quest
    into a living by taking it onto the lecture circuit.  He never
    found a medium which he could convince himself was genuine (he was
    the first to admit, however, that being unable to prove genuineness
    is not equivalent to proving fraud).
    
    On his death bed he gave Beatrice an arbitrary message -- not really
    a code, but more of a secret "password" to prove genuineness.  A
    medium (I can't remember for myself who it was, but if you say it
    was Ford I'll believe you), did indeed produce the message -- which
    produced quite a stir.  Unfortunately, a connection (I forget precisely
    what it was friend of a friend, second cousin, first cousin to a
    friend, something like that) was found between the medium and a
    nurse who was present when Houdini gave the phrase to Beatrice.
    She *might* have overheard, and she *might* have passed it on to
    the medium -- nothing was ever proven.
    
    Self proclaimed skeptics often equate the existence of an alternate
    explanation with a proof of that explanation, which is logically
    unsound and therefore anti-skeptical.  Whether Ford obtained the
    message "legitimately" by psychic means or cheated is not known.
    Houdini's final experiment in psychical research must, unfortunately
    be taken as neither successful nor unsuccessful but as ambiguous.
    
    						Topher

    ENOUGH!  ENOUGH! ENOUGH!
    
    
    Back to the main issue on this note _ Channelling  
    
    This notion of Channelling - though called by different names is
    really nothing new - back in the '20, "psychic communication" was
    widespread in "Spiritualist" circles (Spiritualist Churchs or generic
    spiritualists) and, of course, it's documented throughout history
    - you have to research - it's not commonly found.  
    But, it's right under your nose here in DEC territory - Elwood Babbitt
    of Western MASS (Turners Falls) is one of the most famous.  His
    book - Conversations with Christ is a bit startling.  Admittedly,
    eyes roll when the subject is brought up. (There are other books) 
    I have seen Babbitt demonstrate his channelling. His guide - an 
    18th Century Doctor Dr. Fletcher ( I think) - comes through and 
    Elwood appears to be in deep trance - touring the universe, as 
    (Babbitt) says and communing with the higher powers.  When asked why 
    he isn't visiting with departed relatives, friends, etc., he seems
    to feel no need for this since they are fulfilling their own destinies
    or whatever one does when one passes from this plane.  
    
    I may sound a bit cynical - I'm not really.  Actually it's just
    the opposite. As a one time practicing Spiritualist Church member, 
    the struggle to know if there is an afterlife and that the so called
    dead can communicate to us is over for me.  I have had enough personal
    corroborating evidence to convince me of that FOR NOW.  The reason I say
    that I am a "one time practicing Spiritualist", however, is that
    I feel that it is just a starting point - the true nature of the
    universe and the our place in it is not automatically known to those
    who can communicate with discarnate entities nor even by the entities
    themselves.  My Aunt Eleanor died about 2 weeks ago and her daughter
    commented to her dad, "Well, at least Mom knows the big secret now."
    I didn't want to intrude on their grieving but I am not at all certain
    that my aunt knows a whole lot more than we do except that that
    her consciousness goes on and she must continue to expand and develop
    to fulfill her ultimate destiny.  I have taken the subject of
    channelling too far.  I invite comments - "slings and arrows", etc.
    
    Mary B