Theresa Cheung - The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World - The Ultimate A–Z of Spirits, Mysteries and the Paranormal

Research into ectoplasm was conducted well into the twentieth century and analyses of small pieces of ectoplasm did in some cases, although not all, reveal fraud, with the use of substances such as muslin, toothpaste, soap, gelatine and egg white. Magician Harry Houdinionce said that he couldn’t believe superior beings would allow the production of such disgusting substances from the human body. Interest in ectoplasm has declined but some modern mediums are still said to produce the phenomenon.

This tiny home on 203 N. Amity Street in Baltimore was once occupied by Edgar Allan Poe from 1832-1835. It is believed to be haunted - but surprisingly not by the famous author who had a fascination for all things paranormal.

Poe only lived in the house for three years and it had several other occupants, including his grandmother, his aunt and his cousin, Virginia Clemm, who later became his wife. The house was taken over by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore in 1941 and is now open to the public. There is a picture of Poe’s wife painted from her corpse on permanent display.

Since the 1960s psychicphenomena, mostly centring around Poe’s attic room and Virginia’s bedroom, have been reported there, including lights turning mysteriously on and off, strange voices and noises, and windows and doors closing by themselves. There have also been sightings of the ghostof an old lady with grey hair, dressed in period clothes. None of the phenomena seems to be hostile but many residents of Baltimore, including street gangs, to this day report an irrational fear and anxiety about the place and prefer to stay away from it.

A famous case of phantom battle re-enactment. The battle of Edgehill was the first major, intense and bloody conflict of the English Civil War between the royalist forces of Charles I and the parliamentary forces of the Earl of Essex. It took place on 23 October 1642 about two miles southwest of Kineton and is said by some to be still witnessed today.

The first account of phantom armiesfighting was reported on 24 December 1642 by shepherds herding their sheep on the former battleground. They reported hearing voices and the screams of horses and then experienced a huge apparitionof the battle in the sky. The shepherds reported the apparition to the local priest who went the following night and witnessed the phenomenon for himself. In the days that followed Charles I sent a group of investigators and they all witnessed the re-enactment too, with some even recognizing fallen colleagues. Their incredible experience is reported in a leaflet: The Prodigious Noises of War and Battle at Edge Hill. Near Keinton in Northamptonshire and its truth is certified by William Wood, Esq and the Justice of the Peace for the same County and Samuel Marshell, Preacher of God’s word in Keinton and other persons of quality.

Psychical investigators believe that the re-enactment, which is still said to appear periodically to this day - although not typically as the full re-enactment but as phantom battle sounds - is caused by the restless, traumatized spiritsof those who died that day. Sceptics argue that certain individuals may be influenced by the history associated with the place and mistake imaginative conjecture for reality.

A test that measures and records the electrical activity of the brain by using sensors (electrodes) attached to the head and connected by wires to a computer. The computer records the brain’s electrical activity on the screen or on paper as wavy lines. Certain conditions, such as seizures, can be detected by observing changes in the normal pattern of this electrical activity.

Measurements of electrical activity in the brain have been instrumental in measuring stress, determining sleep patterns and monitoring body metabolism. They have also been used to detect what happens in the brain during psychicexperiences, such as meditationand episodes of clairvoyance.

A form of psychokinesis, electrokinesis is the ability to create and control electricity using only the powers of the mind. So far there have been no conclusive studies on or cases of factual electrokinesis.

Electrokinetic ability allegedly causes the psychic to act as a human conductor, able to receive, store and transmit large to small quantities of electricity. There is also the act of draining electricity from electronically based devices and in return recharging them. Those who practise electrokinesis claim to be able to actually explode, start up or switch off electronic devices either via intense meditationand visualizationor through overwhelming emotional response.

Electrokinesis is mostly used by stage magicians as a part of their narrative when performing tricks that involve some form of electricity, such as lighting a lightbulb simply held in the palm.

Communication from a voice recorded on a tape recorder from which there is no known source. EVP researchers believe the voices captured on tape are those of spiritsof the dead, but sceptics argue that they are simply voices from radio or TV transmissions being picked up by the recording device.

Interest in EVP began in the late 1920s when the famous inventor Thomas Edison predicted that one day there would be a machine to allow communication with the spirits. In 1959 EVP was said to have been discovered by accident by the Swedish filmmaker Friedrich Jürgenson. Jürgenson was recording birdsong when he discovered an unknown voice on his tape. On replaying the recording later he believed that he had recorded a message from his mother, who had died four years previously.

EVP was further reported in the 1970s by Latvian psychologist Konstantin Rau-dive, who picked up unexplained voices in the background while recording something else. He began to record in empty rooms and still picked up voices, which were later thought to be messages from spirits of the dead. Raudive published his research, in German, in The Inaudible Made Audible, which was translated into English in 1971 with a new title Breakthrough. EVP voices are also called Raudive Voices in recognition of the extensive work he did recording over 100,000 voices.

In the 1980s and 1990s there were thousands of EVP researchers at work devising machines and recording the phenomenon. Several organizations, including the American Electronic Voice Phenomenon in the United States, sprang into existence. Perhaps the most well-known and best-funded device was the ‘spiricom’, invented by George Meek, a retired engineer, with the alleged help of a discarnate scientist who communicated to him during a séance. Unfortunately the success rate of the spiri-com was poor but this did not stop Meek pursuing increasingly sophisticated ways to reach astral planes.

Allegedly EVP voices are never heard during recording, only on playback. They are said to be either faint or clear and can speak or sing in a variety of languages. They are identifiable as men, women and children and according to reports the voices suggest that they can communicate through central transmitting agencies in the spirit plane.

EVP has many enthusiastic supporters who believe the phenomenon is evidence of paranormalactivity, but there are also many critics who doubt the recordings are genuine. Between 1970 and 1972 the Society for Psychical Researchcommissioned psychical researcher D J Ellis to investigate EVP voices, and he concluded that the sounds were susceptible to imagination and most likely a natural phenomenon. Other sceptics believe that the voices are caused by psychokinesis, when sounds are imprinted on the tape by the experimenter.