Honor: 54 [ Give / Take ]
7 entries this month
PRIVATE ENTRY
21:40 Jun 26 2008
Times Read: 826
• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •
PRIVATE ENTRY
16:05 Jun 21 2008
Times Read: 839
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PRIVATE ENTRY
16:05 Jun 21 2008
Times Read: 840
• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •
Book Tests
16:01 Jun 21 2008
Times Read: 842
"Book Test Mediumistic test in which a discarnate communicator directs a sitter to a passage in a certain book; in successful tests, the passages have some special meanin to the sitter. Book tests were first proposed by Feda, the spirit CONTROL of GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD, and it is Leonard who is best known for them.
In one Leonard test, a communicator who claimed to be a young officier killed during World War I said he had a passage for his father. He said this was to be found on page 37 of the "ninth book on the third shelf counting from left to right in the bookcase on the right of the door to the drawing-room as you enter." The book so designated turned out to be one called Trees, and the passage referred to a tunneling beetle. The officer's father was extremely interested in forestry, and his obsession with the beetle was a family joke.
Not all book tests are so striking. In 1921, ELEANOR SIDGWICK published an analysis of 532 book tests with Leonard. Of these, she judged 92 (17%) to be successful; 100 (19%) approximately successful; 96 dubious; 40 nearly complete failures; and 204 complete failures. However, these results must be considered in comparison to a control experiment involving 1,800 sham book tests. Here there were 34 successes and 51 partial successes (together less than 5% of the total), which gives an idea of what would be expected by chance.
Some paranormal factor evidently is involved in many book tests, but this need not necessary imply survival after death since book tests are easily susceptible to explanation in terms of SUPER-PSI, the idea that the medium gets his or her information directly through his or her psychic faculties."
-Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Book Tests. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, 2nd Edition. Page 52. New York, NY: Visionary Living, Inc.
Do you believe that book tests could possibly be true or that they're all fake and the medium conducting them could just be lucky on their successful turnouts?
Has anyone heard anymore studies being done on them? I've been looking online but can't seem to find anything else.
Would there be any way to make sure that the medium didn't use their own personal knowledge to influence the tests or to make the test become a successful outcome?
If you do believe that this could possibly work, what do you think the purpose would be or the outcome prove?
I personally don't know whether it could work or not. I don't really see a purpose in it other than trying to prove that there's life after death. The outcome could just be that someone is directed to a book that explains something about them or a family member. How does that really help us? I mean, it would be different if it could onvey messages about something very important or even in their own words... not in the words of a book that's already been written.
So what's your opinion?
Automatic Writing Thread
15:49 Jun 21 2008
Times Read: 844
Automatic Writing is a term I had never heard of before. Once I read what it was about, I knew exactly what it was but just didn't know the term. I'm interested in it now and I'm trying to figure out where I stand on the topic.
I believe it can happen, but that not every case of it is true. I think that a person could be used as a vessel for the dead to communicate with the living but I don't know how one would go about proving it with modern tests and come up with the same results every time. But what would the results rely on? Someone would have to find a person who could always do automatic writing under the same circumstances.
"Demonologists argue that automatic writing makes one vulnerable to obsession or possession by demons who masquerade as the dead. However, the real danger, if any, most likely comesfrom the expression of repressed material in the psyche, for which an individual may not be prepared."
-Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Automatic Writing. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, 2nd Edition. Page 25-26. New York, NY: Visionary Living, Inc.
I think it can most defiantly be dangerous if someone doesn't know what they're getting into and it honestly worked for that person.
Now if it was considered dangerous, why did people treat it like a game? Why did so many people within the Spiritualist community claim they had the connections with the dead to be able to do automatic writing?
"Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. People who believe in "automatic writing" say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written. In some cases, it is done by people in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand.
While advocates of automatic writing believe that their experiences are genuine, the Encyclopedia Britannica article on spiritualism notes that "...one by one, the mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes employing the techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of their clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of widespread fraud within the spiritualist movement severely damaged its reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society in the United States."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_writing
Surely not everyone would believe them, right? Since so many people did believe in them until they started being unmasked as frauds, why did they so badly 'need' to believe that the process worked?
Do you believe it could work for some mediums? Or that the whole idea is a sham?
The process of Automatic Writing is also still used as a therapeutic method. Do you think it could possibly help in that way?
Automatic Writing
05:36 Jun 19 2008
Times Read: 855
Automatic Writing is a term I had never heard of before. Once I read what it was about, I knew exactly what it was but just didn't know the term. I'm interested in it now and I'm trying to figure out where I stand on the topic.
I believe it can happen, but that not every case of it is true. I think that a person could be used as a vessel for the dead to communicate with the living but I don't know how one would go about proving it with modern tests and come up with the same results every time. But what would the results rely on? Someone would have to find a person who could always do automatic writing under the same circumstances.
I think it can most defiantly be dangerous if someone doesn't know what they're getting into.
Here is what originally interested me in the topic:
"Automatic Writing Writing done in a dissociated or altered state of consciousness that is attributed to spirits of the dead or other discarnate beings. It is believed by some that such spirits manipulate the writing utensil in order to communicate, especially since the writer often is unaware of what is being written, and the handwriting style is markedly different from his own. Most likely, however, the writer writes unconsciously, and messages are formed from material in the subconscious mind or from a secondary personality, or are obtained through extrasensory perception.
Various forms of automatic writin go back to ancient times (see PLANCHETTE). Automatic writing is the most common form of AUTOMATISM. It has been known to occur involutarily. Spiritualism made it popular as a deliberate means of attempting to communicate with the dead, and it replaced the much slower methods of spelling out messages with pointers, such as the planchette, or counting out letters of the alphabet through rappings.
Through automatic writing, mediums have claimed to produce messages from famous persons in history. In the 1850s, Judge John Worth Edmonds, an American Spiritualist, incited a spate of automatic writing with his alleged messages from Francis Bacon and EMANUEL SWEDENBORG; curiously, the latter always misspelled his name "Sweedenborg." The material produced sounded nothing like the work of either famous man, but it nonetheless inspired others to communicate with more famous deceased persons, including Christ himself. Literary-minded spirits of the dead allegedly communicated entire books and novels and thousands of lines of poetry (see PATIENCE WORTH). Pens were a common tool, but other Spiritualist methods included slate-writing and the use of typewriters.
FREDERIC W.H. MYERS, a founder of the SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH (SPR), found little evidence of SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH in cases of automatic writing he investiated. After his death, numerous mediums claimed to receive automatic writings messages from him (see CROSS CORRESPONDENCES; PALM SUNDAY CASE).
While late 19th-century psychical researchers pursued automatic writing in terms of the survival question, the budding field of psychology began to experiment with automatic writing in mental illness as a way for the unconscious mind to express thoughts and feelings that could not be verbalized. Automatic writing continues to be used as a therapeutic tool in present times.
Automatic writing also enjoys continuing popular appeal. Some individuals attempt to communicate with the alleged highly evolved discarnate beings made famous in CHANNELING. Jane Roberts, the American channeler of an entity known as Seth, said she produced automatic writing from Paul Cezanne and WILLIAM JAMES as well.
Demonologists argue that automatic writing makes one vulnerable to obsession or possession by demons who masquerade as the dead. However, the real danger, if any, most likely comesfrom the expression of repressed material in the psyche, for which an individual may not be prepared."
-Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Automatic Writing. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, 2nd Edition. Page 25-26. New York, NY: Visionary Living, Inc.
Now if it was considered dangerous, why did people treat it like a game? Why did so many people within the Spiritualist community claim they had the connections with the dead to be able to do automatic writing?
Surely not everyone would believe them, right? Since so many people did believe in them until they started being unmasked as frauds, why did they so badly 'need' to believe that the process worked?
And even now the process of Automatic Writing is still used as a therapeutic method. Do you think it could possibly help in that way?
"Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. People who believe in "automatic writing" say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written. In some cases, it is done by people in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand.
While advocates of automatic writing believe that their experiences are genuine, the Encyclopedia Britannica article on spiritualism notes that "...one by one, the mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes employing the techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of their clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of widespread fraud within the spiritualist movement severely damaged its reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society in the United States."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_writing
A couple of extra sources:
"Tips for Automatic Writing"
-http://www.healingfromwithin.com/Articles/Automatic_Writing/automatic_writing.html
"Automatic Writing - Autowriting.com"
-http://www.autowriting.com/
Forum Posts
21:28 Jun 18 2008
Times Read: 864
Since most people know I'm lacking forum posts insanely... I am going to use this section of my journal for now to develop ideas for the main forum.
I've been having problems being able to research some of my own ideas and also wording them right.
I want them to be able to stay in the main forum... not get rejected to the Sandbox.
I will have them private until I post them in the forum and then I will make them public. The only difference is I might have a little more information here and also some more sources listed here.
So keep a look out because it might help some people come up with some decent replies to my threads.
*I don't really like how people have overlooked my "Saturday" thread and made ignorant replies to it. I would have thought some of the Sires might actually cared, especially the ones who replied but I guess not.*
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