Miracles: Healing Hands

In our journey through the Western World’s catalogue of what are commonly called miracles, we have turned our back on some rather striking examples of what fits our definition in Eastern culture. We have discussed the creation of the Tulpa in previous papers, as well as other rarely discussed mysteries found largely in the Orient. But those are topics to be revisited sometime in the future, or by those better versed in those cultures. For the moment, I would like to take a look at the largest single set of miracles we encounter, a phenomenon we see virtually every day; the miracle of spontaneous healings.

Healing is a mainstay of the Bible, both old and new testaments, ending with the most spectacular healing of all time, the raising of Lazarus of Bethany in the Gospel of John, four days after his death. Students of the ancient texts will tell you that the name Lazarus is in fact the English variant of the name comes directly from the Latin, itself derived from the Greek Lazaros, which in turn came from the Aramaic Lazar. The ultimate origin is the Hebrew name Eleazar (אלעזר), which literally translates to "God (has) helped". Some might argue that this is in fact not a healing at all, because Lazarus is already in his tomb, but the mechanism of the healing follows other examples of healings by the hand of Jesus and he does nothing different in this example. Historically, Lazarus was supposedly a friend of Jesus, which is significant to the parable simply because Jesus is showing emotion over his friends reported death, an element that does not seem to exist in other healings.

Healing as a Christian concept can come through the touch of faith (James 5:14-15); by speaking the word of faith (Luke 7:1-10); or by the presence of God being manifested (Mark 6:56; Acts 19:11-12). The Bible speaks of "gifts" of healing because there are three types of healings: physical (diabetes, blindness, cancer, deafness, etc.), emotional (jealousy, worry, discouragement, and other destructive attitudes), and spiritual (bitterness, greed, and guilt, etc.). Although there are three main types of healings in Christianity, there is much diversity with the gift of healings. While one person might have the gift of healing to rid a person of cancer or perform a creative miracle, another person might have a diversity of the same gift to correct lower back problems or remove a root of bitterness). According to Mark 16:17-20, the gifts of healing belong to all believers, with the key element being the “belief” that you can indeed heal coupled with the recipients belief that you can do it.

But what of non-Christian, or even secular healing? Largely, the parameters are the same, even though the rhetoric is not; the single necessary element required to heal is the belief of the healer that he can heal a subject and of the subject believing that healing can be accomplished in his case.

Among the non-Christian healers a wide range of beliefs can be found, from purely Eastern philosophies to the homegrown ones of the United States. Many believe in the healing of the sick from the inside, thus diet becomes an integral part of the process, others see it as a calling down of healing powers from a higher plain, which can be addressed by a number of different names.
For India’s Gurus and Mystics, the simple wave of a peacock feather can cure many minor problems, both physical and emotional, while other cultures feel it necessary to participate in a “laying of hands” to accomplish their ends. Some say that the subject must be present in the same space as the healer, while others practice distance healing without a second thought, yet to some degree, it all works. Some groups, such as the fundamentalist Christian Scientists rejected the use of all medications, others have softened their stand on the use of drugs in a modern day version of “Give unto Caesar…”

Of course, not all “miracles” are limited to healing, faith based or otherwise. Possibly the best known story of Christian miracles concern the parable of the Loaves and the Fishes. This miracle is also known as the "miracle of the five loaves and two fish" given the Gospel of John reports those five small barley loaves and two small fish supplied by a boy were used by Jesus to feed a multitude.

According to the Gospels, when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been killed, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place near Bethsaida. The crowds followed Jesus on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. To which he reportedly replied, "Bring them here to me."

Jesus directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children, John says.

This miracle, which appears in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, is also known as the "miracle of the loaves and fishes" but the Gospel of Matthew refers to seven loaves and a few small fish used by Jesus to feed a multitude.

From the scriptures, this was a remarkable feat, whether there were 5, 7 or a dozen loaves and similar numbers of fish on hand for the crowd of several thousand… it would be a feat to feed several hundred. But this is not the last time that a small group fed a larger one with limited resources. Let’s take a look at a modern day and very secular story of even greater proportions.
In the summer of 1969 in Bethel, New York a small group of eager promoters proposed the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival on the farm of Max Yasgur. The original affair was planned to be held in Woodstock, 60 miles further east, but the town father rejected the concept and the Bethel site was decided upon just a few weeks before the event. While preparations for the site were lacking, promotion of the event was not and every would be hippie intended to attend, so a neat little songfest for about 8,000 quickly grew as every radio station within 500 miles talked up the event.

Everyone knows what happened next. The traffic to Bethel was so bad that the state decided to close the NYS Thruway, nothing moved on the major roads within 50 miles and a crowd of kids numbering from a conservative estimate of 200,000 to over a half a million crowded into the little farming community. The event stated on Thursday and it rained on Friday night, turning the site into a disaster area of epic proportions. The state’s Governor, Nelson Rockefeller considered issuing an executive order to arrest the promoters for poor planning and sending in the National Guard to rescue “survivors.”

But the disaster never happened. On Saturday morning, an eclectic hippy named Wavy Gravy stepped up to the microphone on stage and made a startling announcement, “What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 500,000!” Wavy was a mover and shaker with a group from California, known lovingly as the Hog Farm, who travelled about from one concert to another, offering aid to “bad trippers,” (Those who took either too much or simply bad psychedelic drugs) and feeding the hungry. But Woodstock was bigger than anything they had ever seen before.

Nevertheless, the Hog Farm served their version of the loaves and fishes, in this case Granola, to the eager throng, averting disaster. Later that day, a mother of two local teens turned up on the access road with bags filled with peanut butter on Wonder bread sandwiches that she a some friends had prepared at their home in Woodridge NY, about 20 miles away. Knowing the local roads, Leni Binder had no problem following a circuitous route through the back woods, a trip she made several times to, “Feed the kids.” At one point she got out of her car near the first aid tent to exchange greeting with another local volunteer, Gracie Shaner, who was standing by with the local ambulance… they walked to the edge of the bowl that made the natural setting for the stage area, listened for a while and said, “This is good!”

I do not want to anger anyone who looks at the loaves and fishes as a miracle, I have read several accounts about what modern mathematicians have suggested and I just do not know the real numbers, but I will admit no matter how you fudge those numbers, the end result was remarkable, but so too was the ability of the Hog Farmers and Mrs. Binder in their modern day efforts to feed the hungry.

The point I am trying to make is simply that what is remembered as miraculous might well have been the power of the Almighty, or simply the will of people to overcome adverse conditions and avert disaster only confused by an inaccurate head count, or how much food was really available. Obviously, there is no way to know in the case of the loaves and fishes, that kind of date is lost in time, but it is reasonable to assume that among the masses were a few folks who had their own food with them and we really can’t comment on the exact number of people that were fed that day. As I said earlier, even if we are talking about 500 people, not 4 or 5 thousand, the feat is miraculous, but there could be a reasonable explanation. Once those assembled saw the sharing of what was on hand, they might well have decided to share what they had with them, thus the “discards” far outweighed the original offering; as for how many were present, I don’t see St. Peter doing a real head count… it suffices to say that it was a large crowd, given the remote location and that is enough.

Woodstock falls under similar considerations. Yes, we have all seen the flyovers of the crowd, but no one really knows how many people were there after the storm when the “Breakfast in Bed,” was undertaken by workers at the Hog Farm or Mrs. Binder distributed her peanut butter sandwiches. Some things are fairly clear; the Hog Farm team came to the site in renovated school busses, which served as accommodations for the volunteers, a place for food prep and storage. No matter how you look at it, a bus load or granola would not nearly be enough for the crowd that morning, but it was! The hoarding factor comes into play here as well. I survived on a couple of Milky Way bars and a few cokes (yes, there were cokes available – if you had access to the first aid tent) and there were others who had some meager food supplies in their backpacks. We also had a large number of folks freely using illicit prescription drugs to stay awake… and suppress their appetites.

Was Woodstock’s food supply a miracle? Well, no one has ever made a religious claim to that effect, but it was at least remarkable and who knows, in a hundred years someone might look back on that event and deem it all an act of God. The fact however is that mankind can do remarkable, even miraculous things, once they open themselves up to it.

This is not contrary to the overall concepts of what a miracle might be, in fact when you look at miracles in general most have a human element that is the causative factor. When we look at modern miracles, like the mass sightings in Egypt, some claim it is mass consciousness in play, the group construct. But with each of these miracles is an element that defies being forced into an accepted theory… for instance in Egypt, the first reported sighting was made by a group of Muslim men, not Christians, who immediately identified the apparition as being the Mother of Jesus, who in their religion is a great prophet.

Yes, some miraculous sightings are religiously motivated; Knock, Ireland in the 19th century was almost purely Catholic and the church was the center of the community and life in general. The same is true when you look at Fatima or Lourdes in their eras. In all of these cases there were overriding concerns placing outside pressure on the participants, be it famine, an invading army, revolution or times of financial disaster, which obviously feed the phenomenon.

Now, here is the question. We can identify Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Portugal, even Egypt as being ripe for a miracle when they occurred, but why is the United States devoid of these phenomena? One expert suggests it is because we are, as a nation, more protestant in our beliefs; even the American Catholic tends to be much more liberal than his European cousins, in fact in Ireland I know folks who refer to American Catholics as practicing a form of “Catholic Lite,” who pick and choose doctrine to fit their personal beliefs, so they readily accept the Church’s teachings on abortion, but ignore their stand on birth control, premarital sex, etc. In that atmosphere there is less likelihood of events being interpreted as miraculous. In the American society, we accept it as possibly paranormal, before hanging a religious tag on it and the Church itself fosters that kind of thought process. If a person goes to the parish priest to say they think a family member is possessed, they are more likely to be referred to a psychiatrist or a paranormal investigator than a team of exorcists. The Exorcist only becomes involved if the lay professionals say the situation deems their participation.

Bilocation is most probably the act of an out of body experience taken to the maximum; visions may well be mental constructs of the visionaries and healing the act of a human mind over matter with a willing subject, but that begs the involvement of the religious aspects found in each of these phenomenon. So in the final analysis, we may understand the mechanism of a miracle, but not the explanation for the missing pieces. I suppose that after all is why we call them miracles!

© 2010 Rick Moran & ASUP, Inc.

Miraculous Mass Sightings

Last time, we discussed Marian visitations such as Lourdes and Fatima, a religious theme that is well known worldwide, but was limited as far as actual viewers. This section on miracles will look at another kind of visitation, those involving mass sightings where multiple witnesses, sometimes in the thousands report seeing the identical apparitions. Please remember, it is our purpose here to investigate such cases with an eye to strictly paranormal explanations.

While the children of Fatima were the only witnesses to the “beautiful Lady,” who visited them in the fields, thousands did report seeing “orbs” and the “dance of the Sun” on the day of the last visitation. Even among the children, only the eldest, Lucia actually was in constant contact with the apparition, talking to her and receiving the messages; the younger children only saw the vision, but could not hear her voice. The same is true in many of the most famous visitations, but at others the number of witnesses explodes.

Again, there are hundreds of reported cases, many with good documentation from the Catholic Church, who admittedly is extremely skeptical of such reports; nevertheless there are cases through the ages, all over Europe and the World. Again, to give you a brief overview, I have selected a few for review here. These include cases from Knock, Ireland, Zeitoun, Egypt and finally a latter day case that the ASUP investigated in Bayside, Queens.

Knock is possibly my favorite case because, as a child I heard the tale from an uncle’s wife, who was a native of County Mayo, Ireland. Knock, by all accounts was a sleepy little village, nestled in the west county, close to absolutely nothing. The inhabitants were all Catholic and devout but nothing suggested the strange events of August 21, 1879 when one Mrs. Margret Beirne noticed an odd glow coming from the south gable of church in the middle of town. Margret looked to see if there was a fire, but instead found what she said looked like a statuary tableau of Jesus, Mary and a man dressed as a bishop, who she assumed was St. John. The tableau was about a foot or so off the ground and a few feet from the southern wall of the old Knock Church, and she assumed it was something new added by the Monsignor of the parish. When she returned home, she told her family, rather matter-of-factly about the new “statues.”

Later that evening, she was walking her friend, Mary McLaughlin with her sister Mary Beirne to the McLaughlin home near the church and they decided to take another look at the new statue. This time, Margret got a lot closer than before and realized that the “statues” were moving! One of the girls ran to find the parish priest, while the other looked on with a mixture of fascination and terror.

According to later accounts, the image of “Mary” was dressed in white,” Joseph” was grey bearded and dressed in muted tones, while the” Bishop” was in his full colorful regalia. A young man passing by joined the girls and later said the book that the “bishop” was carrying was so clear that he could see the individual letters on the page, but could not read them, they were in Greek. Soon more than a dozen witnesses were on hand to witness the event and each later gave testimony of what they saw. One elderly woman attempted to hug the legs of “Mary” and found that while the image seemed solid to the eye, her arms passed right thru it. All agreed the vision was not at all ghostlike or ethereal, but appeared to be full formed and three dimensional, at times moving, smiling and even walking slightly.

The next day, another witness came forward who was a man who was working in a nearby field. This witness stated that while he did not go to the church, he did see a strange light emanating from the west gable of the structure. He also stated that he was drawn to that direction because he saw a bright orb circle the church before resting in the eaves. He offered no other explanation or supposition. Knock was investigated by the hierarchy of the Church from Dublin, who found the witnesses credible, but the story of Knock does not end there.

Knock was to become a center for pilgrimage over the next century and stories about the healing powers of prayer offered at Knock continued to circulate, a large Catholic pilgrimage center has been erected on the site and the home of the Beirne family, as well as the old church have been preserved.

On October 12, 2009, thousands gathered at the Knock Shrine, Co Mayo, hoping to see an apparition of Our Lady.

There were ripples of applause from a crowd estimated at more than 5,000 as some people believed they could see the sun shimmering, changing color and dancing in the sky.
Some people were rapturous afterwards. Others were highly skeptical. “It’s an optical illusion, pure and simple,” one skeptic, who did not wish to be named, said. “Anybody looking at the bright sun long enough would begin to imagine things.” But other pilgrims were adamant that something supernatural, possibly life changing, had occurred.

John Tunney, from Islandeady, Castlebar, said: “I’m 53 years old and I have never seen the sun go like that before. I witnessed the sun go all different colors, yellow, red and green. Then it completely darkened and began shimmering. Sometimes the sun emitted a clean, bright light, then it would darken again.”

Mr. Tunney’s wife, Nina, said: “The sun was spinning in the sky. I experienced a feeling of total happiness. It is a feeling I would love to experience again. It was amazing. I felt marvelous.” Yvonne Rabbitte, from Dunmore, Co Galway, showed other pilgrims a photograph she had taken on her digital camera which showed vivid rays radiating downwards from the sun at the time the image was taken. Maggie Ahern, from Castlebar, had no doubt that the happenings in Knock were due to “heavenly intervention”.

Earlier in the week Dublin-based clairvoyant Joe Coleman predicted Our Lady would appear at the old parish church – scene of the 1879 apparition – at 3pm. Quite a number of those present were members of the Travelling community. They waited in the open air despite an invitation on loudspeaker at about 2:30 pm from Knock parish priest Msgr. Joseph Quinn that those in the grounds enter the adjacent Basilica to participate in ceremonies to mark the annual Dominican pilgrimage. The diocese made no public comment on the affair since.

Unlike the vision at Knock, the apparitions at Zeitoun, Egypt, was witnessed by tens of thousands of witnesses over a protracted period, hovering above Saint Mark's Coptic Church, a shrine dedicated to the Holy family, who according to tradition rested in that place during their stay in Egypt shortly after the birth of Jesus.

The apparitions, hundreds in number took place at night, and Our Lady was always surrounded by light. At 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2, 1968; She appeared on the roof of the Church in a kneeling position, surrounded by light. The first man who saw her, a Muslim, Farouk Mohammed Atwa, was reportedly undergoing treatment for a case of gangrene. The following day when he went to hospital for his scheduled operation, and was certified completely healed.(Reported by Watani, an Egyptian newspaper, 21 April 1968) Other devoted women saw her and recognized her as Our Lady. The first apparition lasted only for a few moments, but that was just the beginning.

For the next three years Our Lady appeared on many occasions especially at night, and sometimes she was accompanied by white doves that would fly around her. Many orbs of light would be seen in the sky preceding the apparitions as if beautiful diamonds made of light were dropping from the heavens. The first two years she appeared about two to three times a week.
These apparitions attracted large crowds by night, sometimes up to 250,000 people, according to local authorities who feared for the safety of such crowds; they were Christian, Jews, Moslems, unbelievers and many others. The apparitions finally ended in 1971 leaving an atmosphere of unity and peace and many people received miraculous healings there. The apparitions were approved firstly by the Patriarch of the Coptic Church in Egypt, and later on they received approval by the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephanos did all the investigations and submitted them to Pope Paul VI in May 1968, who approved them as a visitation of the Mother of God.

One remarkable thing about these apparitions is that Our Lady was visible by everyone and she allowed photographs to be taken. The apparition walked around the giant dome of the church, sometimes waving to the onlookers. Her face was said to be flesh colored, as were her hands, and she was bathed in a brilliant lights. In all, thousands of photographs were taken, showing not just the light show that accompanied the visitations but the image of the apparition as well, who appeared to be three dimensional.

Although no messages were given in these apparitions, Our Lady appeared many times in a position of prayer as if inviting onlookers to pray. The doves would fly and form the sign of the cross. The reports from Egypt are the longest running encounter of their kind, lasting years and many times on a weekly basis.

Our last visitation is even more modern and possibly the most unlikely, the reports of the Virgin Mary in Queens County, Long Island, New York, which were investigated by the ASUP. These reports centered on Mrs. Veronica Lueken, who lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood near Bayside, New York, who reported that she had been visited by the Mother of Jesus at her home in Fresh Meadows, and reported that she would appear at St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Bayside on April 7, 1970. This visitation was followed by a host of others, first to the church and later when the Catholic diocese took legal action to ban Mrs. Lueken from the church grounds, her followers relocated their demonstrations to the monument in nearby Flushing Meadow Park, site of the 1964 World’s Fair where the Vatican had built a pavilion to show the Pieta by Michelangelo, where the Pope came to offer mass during the Fair.

Mrs. Lueken’s family incorporated so that they could legally raise funds, reportedly to pay for her weekly newsletter to be sent worldwide, her small rented home became ground zero for followers and disbelievers alike and the local homeowners association took legal action to bar visitors to her street; she then limited her public appearances to the World’s Fair site, where thousands were drawn each month in hopes of seeing the miraculous.

Central to the Lueken claims were photographs being circulated among her followers of “The Ball of Redemption” being taken at the Vatican Pavilion site each month. Lueken’s entourage stated very clearly that to take a photo of the balls of glowing red, you had to use a certain Polaroid camera while Veronica was in trance; any other type of camera would not reproduce the heavenly image. There were hundreds of these photos circulating, but when several copies found their way to the hands of photo experts, they were deemed to be the fingertips of the photographer as they pushed the red button adjacent to the lens of the camera to take the picture, a design flaw that caused the flash to bounce off the finger tip, making it appear pinkish red in color to one side of the image. Even though some of these images clearly showed the ridges of finger prints, the followers countered that skeptics could say what they wished and that the photos were indeed proof of divine intervention.

I went to the site on several occasions and was met by physical restrain from Lueken’s body guards, who refused to give access to either myself or W.J. Karling, a local photojournalist who I was accompanying. Karling was chased and wrestled to the ground by one bodyguard when he attempted to take a photo of Lueken, leading to yet another legal battle in which officials ordered that the press had as much right to be on the site as anyone else. Findings concerning the photographic evidence collected by ASUP were later reviewed by independent experts and the Archdiocese of New York, who came to the unanimous conclusion that the Luekenites were perpetrating a hoax to raise funds, either with or without the knowledge of Mrs. Lueken herself. Sometime later I visited the Lueken home to find an empty house, the floors strewn with flyers about the visitations and a large Christian symbol emblazoned on the living room wall, which the landlord could not cover… not because it was religiously inspired but because it was done in Tempera that resist being covered by any paint. Lueken had disappeared, only to re-emerge some months later, still claiming that her Marian apparitions, who she alone could see, were real. She died on August 3, 1995 but a small band of her followers continue to spread her message to this day, even though the mainstream Catholic Church had disavowed them.

It should be noted here that the Luekenite movement was later seen by sociologists as a part of the larger Sedevacantist position, a group of Catholics who believe that the unbroken line of succession of the Papal state was discarded at the Second Vatican Council in 1963 and that all later Popes were elected illegally. This belief was later attributed to members of the Opus Dei, an ultra conservative group within the church, but no clear evidence to that has come to light to this point.

All of this as a given, we will not look at the pros, cons, similarities and differences in our course of Miracles, which will be covered in our last section.

© 2010 Rick Moran and the ASUP, Inc.

Some Good Examples of Bilocation

Some time ago I penned an article on miracles as they relate to the paranormal. This is a topic of great fascination, but it is often sidelined when someone suggests that they have no place in the secular research into the unexplained. As I suggested in that article, nothing could be further from the truth: some “miracles” are indeed topics for our study, but under a different name, while others beg to be researched from our unique prospective. To better illustrate the point, let’s take some time to look at several different kinds of miracles.

Probably the best miracle to begin with is bilocation (or in some cases trilocation); the ability of a person to physically be in more than one location at a time. The bible is filled with these accounts, but within the Catholic Church we find some of the best research on the topic, simply because bilocation is considered a sign of high religious precept in an individual, and is thus meticulously catalogued in the process of sainthood. Thus we have volumes written about saintly bilocation over a period of a thousand years or more.

What kinds of case studies exist? Let me give you just one. On September 22, 1774 Alfonso de Liguori was meditating and fasting in his cell at the Palace del Goti in Arezzo, Italy. After several hours he left his room and announced to his fellow residents that Pope Clement had died in Rome. But Rome was a day’s journey away back then; the monks only received official work of the Pontiff’s passing late the next evening.

Accompanying the news was a list of the clerics who attended to the Pope in his last hours. Included in that list was the same Alfonso de Liguori, who was reported to be praying at the bedside for several hours before the Pope’s passing. Later, this became a part of the Church’s investigation of Liguori for sainthood and dozens of eye witnesses all agreed, he was in Rome, praying and speaking to others, while in fact, he was also in his room in Arezzo more than 100 miles away.

The Liguori case underlines an important point in true bilocation; this is not a ghostly image or apparition traveling to a more distant point, the fact is made and repeated that it was a flesh and blood human being, who could talk, eat and interact in both places at once. Liguori was not the first case, nor the last to bilocate as amassed in the Vatican’s records. St. Anthony of Padua is said to have been officiating in the Church of St. Pierre in Limoges on Holy Thursday, when he remembered he had promised to be at a similar service on the other side of the town. In this case, he walked from the pulpit to the altar, knelt and began to pray while the assembled parishioners waited. At the same moment he reportedly walked out of the shadows of monastery chapel and began reading the service as planned several miles away. When he finished, he walked back into the shadows and disappeared, only to turn to his flock at the first church to continue his service.

These miracles of bilocation are not limited to Italy, or even Europe. Some of the best documented cases are from the New World. Martin de Pores is a good example; he lived his entire life in Peru, born in 1579, but his miracles are reported worldwide and are thoroughly documented in his Canonization proceedings. Martin was a mulatto, his father a ranking Spanish officer, his mother a black servant. His father saw to it that Martin was trained as a physician, but Martin succumbed to his calling to the Church, entering the Monastery of the Holy Rosary in Lima, where he served as a layman helper, doing the most menial of tasks for the rest of his life. He refused training for the priesthood, stating his goal was a life of humility in service to God.
While Martin may have wanted the simple life, it didn’t turn out that way; his bilocated travels are two-fold, most in and around Lima, but also in places as far removed as Japan, China and Algiers. The fact that he was a Spanish speaking mulatto tended to stand out in these far-away lands, where he was reported to be seen working with children, distributing candy and teaching catechism. The fact that he only spoke Spanish was not a problem, adding multilinguisity to his bilocating talents.

Probably the best documented case in Martin’s portfolio of bilocation cases was one from a Spanish man who had been imprisoned in Algiers by the Turks. On a visit to Lima he was shocked to encounter Martin at the monastery because he was certain that this was the same mulatto monk who often came to him in his cell while imprisoned in North Africa. He said that Martin would come and tend to him, bringing him food and later money, which was used by the man to pay his ransom and gain release.

Martin was often reported to appear in locked sick rooms, tending to the infirmed, changing linen and caring for them, all at the same time that he was in the close quarters of dozens of monks and priests at his monastery and each case is completely documented in the archives in Rome.

In the 20th Century the spotlight fell on Padre Pio, whose bilocations are even better documented than his predecessors. Pio is best known for his Stigmata, but was often seen in more than one place at the same time. Padre Pio was known to visit Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary after the failed revolution against the Soviet Union, bringing with him water, wine and altar bread and then stayed to help serve Mass for the cleric, who was being held in solitary confinement.

Possibly the best document case of bilocation concerning Pio was in conjunction with the passing of Msgr. Damiani at Montevideo, Uruguay. According to a contemporary account the Apostolic delegate and five Bishops were lodged in the residence, prior to a cornerstone ceremony at a new seminary. The Archbishop Barbiere was one of them and he wrote that while in his room, the door was pushed open slightly and he heard a knock at the door, followed by a voice that said, “Go to the room of Msgr. Damiani, he is dying?” The Bishop was able to see the figure of a Capuchin Monk as he walked away. Once in the Monsignor’s room, they found that he had indeed suffered a massive heart attack and was dying. On the nightstand the Monsignor scribbled a note, “Padre Pio came!” Later Pio admitted that he had promised Damiani that he would be at his bedside at the moment of his death, but also noted that he warned his friend that he would not be in Italy, but America. Pio was never willing to discuss the affair publically, but Barbiere swore that it was Pio he saw that evening in Uruguay. Pio of course never left Europe.
Bilocation is certainly not limited to men, there a countless cases of female bilocators, but it should also be noted that not all of them are tied to service in the Catholic Church. One notable case is that of Teresa Higginson, who was a secular teacher in England in 1844. Her case is unique because she documented her experiences first hand. She wrote about a bilocation to an Africa village, where she taught even though she herself was mystified as to how she attained a working knowledge of the local language. Quoting a letter written by Higginson, “This has astonished me a little, that I perfectly understand all that they wish to communicate to me and they comprehend all that I say to them…”

The Higginson bilocations are well documented, but this phenomena is not limited to Christian practitioners, similar cases can be found in Hindu and Buddhist texts; Yogic bilocation was reported and investigated by members of the ASPR in the 1970s. The only difference is how the different groups explain the phenomena in their doctrine. Martin de Porres suggested, “If God can multiply the loaves and fishes, why couldn’t he duplicate me?” A simple answer from a basically simple man, but yogic literature would disagree. Yogis believe that man can expand his ethereal double to the point where it can be bilocated. While the theory suggests ethereal realization, some maintain that the “body” can materialize to the point of being human, with enough practice and meditation.

That takes us to the present and future; can what we report as miracles actually be a trainable ability in any human? Well, that seems to be the argument once you turn your attention to the Out of Body Experience (OOBE) which were the center of interest at the PRF at Duke in the 1970s. Here too there are dozens of cases and more than a few that never ended up in the official case notes. The OOBE experiments were not limited to Duke’s PRF, there were many others, too numerous to mention here, but most are well documented. The cases that I am most familiar with are those involving S. Keith “Blue” Harary, who could reportedly induce OOBE at will. I had personally witnessed some of these experiments, both the official ones and those not documented and came away impressed that he could indeed travel to another location and report what was happening there, as well as be able to motivate animal reactions to his ethereal visitations. Could he make himself visible? I doubt it, but what I saw was a good representation of astral projection at the very least.

Nevertheless, there are several differences between bilocation and OOBE. First, the bilocation experience can last for long periods, while the OOBE is much shorter in duration. Likewise in bilocation, the subject can talk and interact as well as perform physical acts and carry objects, where the OOBE is not interactive. More importantly, the bilocator’s travel is instantaneous, where in OOBE there is a reported feeling of travel to the location. Finally, the bilocator never reports the feeling of leaving their body and witnesses say they were physically present, while the OOBE is just the opposite. That being said, can we actually tie the two phenomena?

My thoughts on this are very basic; I would be hard put to categorize bilocation as a natural or normal phenomenon, thus it is, regardless of religious significance, paranormal, just like OOBE. Some have argued that bilocation is in fact OOBE to its logical limits, suggesting that with concentration and practice a person who has mastered OOBE should at some point be able to manifest themselves in a distant location, while visible elsewhere. I think that might be a stretch. It seems that the religious nature of the bilocator’s activities is somehow a key here.

Every century has its bilocator, but the nature of the individual enabled seems to require a dedication that we simple do not see in science or research. The bilocator is a willing subject who is not traveling as a tourist, but rather has a mission, that might be the answer.

Of course, you can’t talk about bilocation or OOBE without giving time to the subject of remote viewing. If anything came from the OOBE studies of the 70s it is the government’s interest in the ability to visit locations for the purpose of see what is there. While the continued existence of this program is debated, there is no doubt that the government had a keen interest in the topic and in fact recruited many top people in the OOBE field to engage in what was then “secret” research. Noteworthy is the fact that Blue Harary was not one of them. In fact Blue disavowed anything noteworthy coming from the experiments he was engaged in while at Duke, which was a surprise considering what I had seen.

Today, there are others who admit to participating in remote viewing, the reported ability to project a person’s conscious mind to a remote location, while drawing a picture of the landscape during the excursion. Is remote viewing another form of OOBE or Bilocation? There are similarities, no doubt, but the available research is just too sketchy to make any assumptions. Some believe the program is alive and well, others say it was a dead end, but the project, as far as we all know it was intriguing.

Ultimately, this is all interrelated and should be of interest to the paranormal investigator. How are they related to the typical ghost we are not really sure, but it is reasonable to draw some assumptions given the available information and further study is certainly warranted.

© 2010 Rick Moran and the ASUP, Inc.

An Introduction to Ghost Integrity - Do You Trust Your Ghost?

“Is anyone here?” the intrepid ghost hunter asks while walking into an empty room. Nothing is heard, but later while listening to audio recordings of the session, there can be heard a faint response. The presence says very clearly, “No, I am not here!”

Some may interpret that answer as a lie; I tend to think of it as a great sense of humor.

If you subscribe to the theory that ghosts are the energy form of a deceased human, then you also have to deal with the reality of individual personality. The world is full of humans, some happy, some sad, some helpful and some basically nasty. We can expect nothing less of their earthbound spirits. We all know people who can’t lie, it is not in their nature to tell a fib, while we all also know habitual liars whose very existence depends of the game of misleading those around them. So too with ghosts, we can only assume, with every other variation in between.
At least one researcher from the turn of the last century theorized that in fact, what a ghost says is dependent on the mind of the person asking the question or someone close to them, suggesting that the consciousness associated with a ghost is in actuality the projection of a living human. We will come back to that hypothesis a little later on, but for the present, let’s explore the possibilities.

The earliest forms of spirit communication can be traced back to scryers and the reading of objects to receive a message, this eventually led to the use of the pendulum, swinging from a subject’s hand, first to signify yes or no and later, with the use of a board with letters and numbers, to spell out words. Finally, came the Ouija Board, which replaced the pendulum with a planchette which glided over the smooth surface of a lettered board at the touch of two subjects. The progression is noteworthy for several reasons, the most obvious the fact that the communications passed from soothsayers to the general public as time progressed, eliminating the “middle man.”

In the later 20th century, as the concepts of radio and TV were introduced, so too moved the notion of spirit communication through electronics, most notably the ITC experiments and later Franks Box and those that followed, giving a “voice” to the spirit. The observer might assume all of these systems are interrelated, but on close scrutiny, while they share a common goal, there are worlds apart. The one thing they do share is the need for interpretation, be it the soothsayer and his magic crystal ball or the Ghost Box operator listening for Aunt Hattie to send a message. Truth, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one might comment.

In order to separate the wheat from the rest, you have to set some realistic limits to any communications inquiry. To keep it simple, the best way is to limit the information being sought to simple answers; yes or no to start with. While all of the communications devices I have mentioned can communicate longer and more extensive messages, the researcher will classify most of them as flawed to some degree, thus the rating system used today by most researchers when classifying Electronic Voice Phenomenon. A Class One EVP is completely understandable, no room for interpretation, no noise factor to deal with. This message is “in the clear” with no room for error. For example, “What is your name?” followed by an appropriate response in context, “Charles.” These are not EVPs open to conjecture or interpretation, we are not saying “It sounds like it is saying Charles.” The Class One EVP could be played to a thousand people and all would say the tape is vocalizing the name, “Charles.” Every other class of EVP is open to conjecture, so if you want to make a case for real spirit communication, only the Class One will suffice. Many may disagree, but this is the only logical direction to follow.

The same is true for any other communication in this genre, be it a ghost box or a Ouija Board. Once you enter the realm of interpreting the message, you are opening a can of worms, so a superficial glance at the most significant data is probably the best place to start, not that some very complicated messages can’t be gleaned from these devices. Within the scope of my work in this area, I have heard or witnessed dozens of complicated messages that begged to be confirmed and a good deal of time has been dedicated to researching the truth behind them.

The one case that comes to mind is from a Ouija Board study conducted at NYU many years ago. During those sessions, multiple subjects received messages from a spirit reported to be a young boy, who had been killed in a trolley car accident at the turn of the century, not too far from the cmpus. More and more information was collected from this spirit and researchers then set to the task to prove or disprove his existence in history. This was not easy at the time, it required hours of work searching microfiche files and thumbing through dusty newspaper morgues; the Internet did not yet exist. All of that work did pay off however; the boy did live in the area he said and the accident was reported in the newspaper. As to what else he told the subjects, we have to leave to conjecture, but the basic element, the boy’s existence in context, was astounding to most.

Of course, that should not have surprised the team all that much. Almost a century before, under the supervision of Dr. William James, a Boston psychic made contact with a recently passed member of the ASPR, who entered into elaborate conversations with his late colleagues. Richard Hodgson was a great researcher, probably the first full-time paid paranormal investigator, who had risen from being a self avowed skeptic and debunker into one of the great investigators of his or any later era. Hodgson was an Australian, who earned multiple degrees before undertaking, “the search for the source and secret of all life.”

Hodgson later joined James Hyslop and William James at the ASPR where he acted as the group’s Secretary, field investigator and principal researcher. Hodgson became the point man in the ASPR’s study of Leonore Piper, possibly the most gifted psychic of her generation. During this period he hypothesized that talk of the subliminal self and psychic communications were incompatible. He had earlier considered that psychics were reading the minds of their clients, either consciously or subconsciously, which he later abandoned in favor of the spirit communications theory. Hodgson later began to have direct communications with what might be called “spirit guides,” in today’s vernacular. He later wrote that, “It adds a great deal to life to be assured of the nearness and help of particular discarnate spirits.”

Hodgson died at the age of 50 and was missed by his associates, but none were expecting what was to happen next. Eight days after Hodgson’s death, Ms. Theodate Pope who was a friend of the last researcher, had a sitting with Leonore Piper, who worked primarily through automatic writing. She began to write the letter H, and her pencil broke. Once replaces, the message was written, HODGSON.

One January 23rd, 1906, on a third sitting, Mrs. William James and her son went for a sitting with Piper as part of the ASPRs ongoing study. This time Hodgson communicated directly using Piper’s voice, “Why there is Billy! Mrs. James and Billy, God Bless You! Well, well, this is good! (laughter) I have found my way and I am here… have patience with me…Where is William? I am not strong, but have patience with me…I will tell you all.”

Over the next seven months, several ASPR investigators worked with Pipe full time and the spirit of Hodgson emerged with remarkable results. He admitted that some earthly names come and go and that was very difficult to remember some events. For example, he could recall his last meal with some associates at the Tavern Club, but could not recall the names of those present. This may not have been a defect of being on the other side however; several colleagues noted that in life, Hodgson was very poor when remembering names. The spirit suggested that it was also difficult to manipulate the “organism” (the medium Piper) to communicate. When writing, the lettering was sometimes illegible, but it was noted that in life, Hodgson had such a bad handwriting that James often had to ask his daughter to decipher it.

The key to believing that this was actually Hodgson communicating was a fact he offered, in a session with several witnesses, alluding to a past affair in Australia, before any of them knew him. James hired a private investigator, who was able, with great difficulty, to confirm the relationship. The spirit was most comfortable working with a spirit guide named Rector. When James asked if he could communicate without Rector, Hodgson explained, “Rector understands the management of the light.” He offered no further explanation. He told James he was far too skeptical and that he (James) had to understand that communications in this fashion are far more difficult than when he was alive. In time the contacts became less frequent and eventually nothing more was heard from Hodgson.

Of course, the skeptics would say this could be any number of other phenomena, but James and Hyslop admitted that during their sessions and other, the voice of Hodgson was speaking on several topics and ongoing research that was frankly way beyond the understanding or vocabulary of the psychic. They also felt that the information given was true and accurate, but that there were questions left unanswered, either because Hodgson did not have the answer, or was not willing to share it with them. The problems associated with the stated difficulty in communicating, loss of memory in some areas and a fading link for the continued communications were all potholes on the road to better understanding, but universally, those involved in this case were convinced that they had communicated with their departed colleague.

So, in theory, real communications is possible, based on this early ASPR study, but that begs the question of how to eliminate the false or fictitious from reality in spirit echanges. The first step is the research. While I may not have encountered the phenomena personally, there are many cases where investigators claim that a presence followed them from a haunted location to the individual’s home. The first question is not the obvious one, however. Rather than questioning the validity of the claim, it is better to look at the details that have led the investigator to believe that this is true. This is also where the separation of research from field work is important. If the investigator does not have access to the history of the case beforehand, it is fairly simple to compare the “personality” of the reported traveling spirit with the assumed presence in the target location. If the “guest ghost” can’t articulate specifics as to his history and nature, then it is probably not the same. This would especially be true in long running phenomena, where the presence at the original target location has been residing and active for some time.

If it is assumed that the two are one in the same, then you have to go back to the original client for further follow-up. Is the activity still in that location, specific to the “spirit” being identified. If so, it is unlikely to have achieved the ability to be in more than one place at a time, and whatever is happening, it is unlikely that it can be attributed to a bilocating ghost. But if that is not the answer, what could it be? There are two possibilities; first it could be another spirit who is playing with the individual, part of a cosmic game that seems to show up all too often, especially in those not fully versed in the field, a kind of initiation prank from the other side. The second is also possible, a kind of mental projection created by the individual in response to being in close contact, usually again for the first time, by a real spirit. A mental construct is certainly powerful, can manifest in many ways and be very real.

The point here however is the fact that when dealing with a presumed ghost, you can’t necessarily depend on the information you receive, whether it is an EVP or any other form of communication. The integrity of the information is limited by the honesty and possibly the intention of the spirit. Sometimes the spirit will reveal meaningful information, other times mindless babble. Many times they will simply agree with you or tell you what you hope to hear. Dozens of folks each year write and call me because they are communicating with a spirit who simply says, “Help me!” which in some ways is very similar to an EVP that says it isn’t there. It is simply something to say, mindless chatter, part of a game. On the other hand, the message may be revealing and meaningful and a simple “Help me,” might be very real. How do you know? Again, go back to the research.

First, identify the entity; don’t assume anything! Carefully question motivation, why would it follow you home? For what purpose? Hodgson communicated with his colleagues in an attempt to conduct unfinished business. That is true, as we all know, in most haunting cases; so what is the reason for this hitchhiker? Ghosts do not just go visiting, they do not take vacations, there has to be a purpose. These are no easy answers to these questions, but the alternative is to ignore the activity all together.

Returning for a moment to the subject at hand, this is not to suggest that all ghosts lie or mislead, nor does in suggest that a spirit who misleads is in some way “demonic.” That would be mixing apples and oranges. Scrying does not open a door to the damned, if it opens a door at all. We have yet to prove empirically that any of this is “real.” Voices from a ghost box could be simple audio matrixing, and messages from a Ouija Board simple electrical impulses that move the planchette; psychics could be channeling their own abilities through ESP. Yes, there is a long anecdotal record that suggests it is something else but what, is the question and until as much time is devoted to research in these areas, we are no further along this path than James, Hyslop and Richard Hodgson.

It is nevertheless prudent to take all “communications” with a grain of salt and not be misled. All too often I hear of folks who allow themselves to be manipulated by spirits, they consult with them before any decision of consequence and blindly follow their lead. This is a pitfall that anyone could easily fall into and one that we have to avoid. There is no proof that what they are hearing is true or in their best interests. That does not mean it is demonic in nature, just dishonest and there is nothing to suggest otherwise. Yes, folklore runs rampant in this context with all sorts of claims, but as with anything else, first you have to confirm the existence of activity, then research its history. Only after all of that can you hope to find answers. That is our quest.

© 2010 – Rick Moran and the ASUP, Inc. All Rights Reserved.