On Victor Zammit - Scientific Studies in Life After Death

Preamble

Vitaliy

----- Original Message -----

From: Vitaliy gm

To: victor@victorzammit.com

Cc: nan@scorcher.ru

Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 7:51 PM

Subject: On a materialization experiment with David,Thompson on Friday June 30 2006

Victor, hi,

First of all, thank you for very interesting book "A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife Irrefutable Objective Evidence", which I found on your site. Recently I became interested in paranormal events and effects, but the trust level towards the majority of available documents does not withstand even the naive criticism. Your book is much more serious in this respect. I have read only one episode and right away have got several questions and comments to you, if you don't object. I am a plain engineer, quite naive in legal rules and procedures, but still some of your inferences go far beyond reliable evidence. Let us look through your text.

Seven Etherians (spirits) including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and former Society of Psychical Research researcher, Montague Keen, actually materialized... I actually shook hands with Sir Arthur, who died in July 1930, on Friday, 30 June 2006. Experiences like this alone will inevitably cause a revolution in the belief in and the acceptance of the afterlife.
- You cannot give reliable evidences that persons with whom you communicated were really Conan Doyle and M.Keen. You only thought that probably it was so. Besides, you cannot be sure that they "actually materialized" - you shaked somebody's hand and heard somebody's voice... that's all.

The experiment took place in a private home at Castle Cove, Sydney... Some of the sitters are highly experienced in physical mediumship and very familiar with the tricks used by impostors claiming to be
physical mediums.
- You do not specify - to whom belonged that home and apartment. I suspect that they were Mr.Thompson's... Am I right? Would I be in your place, I would invite Mr.Thompson to the place where he never had been before. I have read about mediumship for the first time in my life and see very serious drawbacks in its organization and/or your description - yet to be seen further.

Prior to entering the room another sitter and I searched the medium and confirm that he had nothing under his clothing, concealed in hems of his trousers and no belt. Another sitter and I checked his track pants, pockets, his cardigan and his shoes to make sure that they were normal.
- Yessss... it was reasonable thing to do... But if I was among your team, I would propose to change his clothing completely into the one proposed by sitters.

... and a large modular display cabinet about 2.5 meters (8 feet) tall in which it would have been impossible to conceal even a small person. There were no trapdoors in the walls, floors and ceiling or recesses in the room.
- My following comments are the consequence of your first mistake - you did not propose the other place for the seance. As for me, I do not like this display cabinet - you can never say what acoustic hardware were inside - it should be thoroughly inspected. And of course, there could be several loudspeakers within the room walls to produce the stereophonic effect of moving sound source... And, for sure, there could be secret trapdoors which you did not notice.

On the mantelpiece in the room were a set of drum sticks and a glass of water. Beside the séance leader’s chair were a CD player with a music CD, a small lamp with red globes and a simple cardboard cone, the end
of which was lined with luminous tape. In physical mediumship circles this is called a “trumpet” and is used as a simple megaphone to amplify spirit voices.
- Drum sticks were giving you impression that drum sticks sound which you will hear during the séance will be coming from these same sticks. And, for sure, I do not like this CD player. You cannot swear that it contained only the music CD. You even did not checked it yourself for the whole play time.

The séance experiment took place in total darkness. This is because ectoplasm – a whitish gaseous substance which is taken from the medium and sitters and used by the spirits to make themselves visible – is extremely sensitive to light and to other forms of physical energy such as electricity...
- Here you step aside from the strict facts and give to the reader your understanding of the technique exploited. No one independent judge would accept these phantasies as reliable evidence. Science does not know anything about such substance: ectoplasm. But requirement of complete darkness is typical for forgery. Of course, if you were really interested in objective evidences, you should take the infrared camera and make video film - with Mr.Thompson not being aware of it. Assure you - you would see many interesting things on it. As a matter of fact - I really cannot understand - were you REALLY interested to perform objective investigation?

Soon afterwards we heard very distinct, fairly heavy breathing and the loud clear voice of “William,” an afterlife entity, who is responsible for protecting the medium and organizing which spirits are allowed to speak. He welcomed us all, talking slowly, using a low-pitched resonant voice. The voice had authority and projected a feeling of warmth.
- And here again - you speak about William as of some certified entity. Of course, his voice could be translated through several loudspeakers, or it could be a real person who entered the room through some secret door. You agree, how an infrared camera would help in these circumstances? You cannot say that having such camera was ethically unacceptable - you have tape recorder - electric unit switched on - and it did not scared your "ghosts"... And of course, "low-pitched resonant voice" makes me think about hypnotic seance...

1. William welcomed everyone to the circle and introduced us to some spectacular movements of the trumpet. We could see the luminous end of it whizzing around the room. At times it passed just an inch (about 2 centimeters) away from our faces. We could feel a rush of air as it passed us. At one stage it repeatedly tapped myself and my wife on the head...
- Well... luminous end... hmmm... do you agree that luminescence take place only under some (ultraviolet?) radiation? You said before that it was complete darkness in the room... It gives me impression that really that room was not plain apartment in the ordinary building, and your inspection of it was unsatisfactory... I guess that William was collaborate of Mr.Thompson... alas... no infrared camera... Though, I think, William had infrared glasses on - that's why he could act freely in complete (for you) darkness.

He stressed the importance of harmony among the sitters.
- Very natural remark - typical to collective hypnotic seances.

3. Montague Keen, a well-known psychic researcher from the British SPR who died in February 2004, spoke directly to me by name and said he would be working with me to prove the existence of the afterlife.
- Of course, Mr.Thompson knew your name, and late Montague Keen did not say anything specific private things known only to you both.

4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930, very well-known author of the Sherlock Holmes books) gave an eloquent
speech on the topic of survival after death and how one’s state of mind on crossing over determines what one
experiences. During his talk he approached me and shook my hand. His hand felt warm and solid and was huge – at least twice as large as the hand of the medium David Thompson and significantly bigger than the hand of anyone else in the room.
- Very naive action - why are you so sure that it was Sir Conan Doyle soul speaking? And you still insist that such evidences would be taken seriously in the court? Amazing!... Besides, of course, good experiment would be to let two sitters ask to invite souls of their relatives and speak with them in their native language, say, Russian and Chinese, - unknown to Mr.Thompson in advance.

Often the entities would begin speaking using direct voice – an artificial larynx constructed from ectoplasm (see Chapters10 and 12), the sound coming from close to the medium. Then they would materialize with a distinctive sound and we could hear them speaking from different positions in the room.
- This explanation also goes beyond your proof - you cannot support it with anything

While my hand was on David Thompson's gag, we could hear the materialized Timothy still giving instructions from a different direction. It would have been a physical impossibility for the medium to say anything under the circumstances.
- Of course, it was not Mr.Thompson, but wall loudspeakers...

Care was taken to identify where the voices were coming from – it was noticed they came from different areas and heights of the room.
- Really, it is enough to have at least four loudspeakers and stereophonic microphone assembly...

Conclusion

I am absolutely convinced that paranormal activity took place, that materialized entities conversed with us and that the entity that called himself Arthur Conan Doyle did in fact shake my hand.

Well... and here is my conclusion

Your investigation was done very amateurishly. You failed in many places and have given several unsupported comments. I think that no court would support your claims, and, more than that, the afterdeath mystery remains there, where it was before. It is a pity that I am so far from Australia and cannot come to yours to receive my $1 mln award.

Good luck!

Vitaliy