I've thought a lot about Michael Jackson this year. Poor Michael. Poor, rich Michael. Poor, gifted Michael. Like many supercreatives (from the legendary Mozart and Van Gogh to modern day's Jim Morrison and a legion of his fellow rock stars), Michael suffered some tortured years leading up to his untimely death last summer. Unlike most of the others, though, Michael's greatest torment came not so much from inner  weaknesses for alcohol and the notorious –ines, but from outside. I believe it was mostly society's jackals and hyenas who detected the superstar's weaknesses and pulled him down.

… as a 12-year-old kid in 1971,

… and later at age 18,

… and then seeing him appear to defy the laws of physics with his moonwalk…

The first time I saw and heard him perform, I realized immediately: this is a kid destined for greatness. The only other time I had that sense about someone at the core of my being was during Barrack Obama's 2004 address to the Democratic Convention. I knew, this guy should be the next President!

Michael's greatest weakness (as well as a great strength) was his sensitivity. That sensitivity helped him set fire to millions of minds and hearts with his music and dance, but it also made him an easy target. (Sensitive people, by nature, don't fight back.) And his amazing wealth made him an appetizing target.

He had a warm spot in his heart for children, which manifested as the Neverland Ranch, an attempt to bring childhood paradise to Earth. He let kids come to the ranch with their parents during day visits, and hosted many of the kids overnight. His intent was to give kids a sense of magic and wonder.

Many adults, especially the hormone-rich variety, saw things from a more sinister perspective, as they often do. Testosterone, in particular, compels people to assume that matters of the heart are usually twisted up with matters of the crotch, so that love and sex always go hand in hand. Some adults began to wonder of those overnight adventures might involve some sexual misconduct… and rumors began to stir a cloud of doubts and uncertainties about Michael… leading eventually to an indictment and lawsuit that tore his life apart even after he was found innocent of all charges.

In particular, a number of adults— parents like Gavin Arvizo's mom and dad, filmmakers like Martin Bashir, entertainers like Jay Leno and his writers, and innumerable lawyers (who saw Jackson's estate "open for business")—took advantage of the weakened entertainer to fulfill their own desires for money, fame, laughs, and more money. They took advantage of Jackson's sensitivity and dragged him down… like hyenas on a zebra.

Contrary to popular folklore, if attacks like that don't kill you, they don't always make you stronger either. Sometimes they leave you too weak and dispirited to go on… especially when some of the hyenas like the taste of blood and continue the attack relentlessly. Such is the nature of the human jungle here on Earth.

In any case, I'm certain that Michael Jackson has now found the paradise that wasn't quite accessible to him here no Earth. He's in the ancestral planes where love, trust, and good will are the driving forces, and being of service to the Grand Plan is the greatest aspiration.

When I first visited noted ITC researchers M&J Harsch-Fischbach in the summer of 1992, they had a small communications lab on Marie Curie Street in Luxembourg. My colleague Hans Heckmann and I were invited into the lab, where an old IBM computer with DOS operating system was displaying a text message on its green CRT screen:

"This is Henri Sainte Claire de Ville, member of the Scientific Group. We were unable to link Timestream and Centrale in joint efforts for a successful cross-contact last weekend. It's a vibrational problem that will require a minor adjustment to your device. We warmly greet Mark Macy and Hans Heckmann. Please tell George Meek that I am no longer with Project Lifeline, but work with Marie Curie, who is in charge of the Scientific Group of Timestream."

There's an interesting story here, and we should start at the beginning.

Henri Ste Claire de Ville was an acclaimed chemist who made aluminum useful in industry, among other accomplishments. He was born in the French West Indies in the Caribbean in 1818, was educated in Paris, and died in France in 1881.

In the 1980s, a century after his death, he was a member of the Lifeline spirit group that was in contact with George Meek of Franklin, North Carolina, through a team of psychic channels. At the same time, the Harsch-Fischbach couple of Luxembourg were in contact with another spirit group called "Timestream" through ITC systems. Both spirit groups included late scientists, government leaders, artists, entertainers, and others. Lifeline scientists included Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Henri Sainte Claire de Ville. When Meek and the Luxembourg couple became friends in the mid-1980s, their spirit groups came together to conduct some common projects, which they referred to as "cross-contacts."

The first cross-contact came through radio sounds in the summer of 1986, in the living room of the Harsch-Fischbachs. On this occasion, Timestream opened a sort of conference call with the Luxembourg couple on Earth and Lifeline in spirit, choosing Henri Ste Claire de Ville as spokesperson for the contact.

The contact begins with beeps and whistles from equipment on the other side—at Timestream sending station. Then the contact is introduced by the voice of "Technician," the ethereal being who, as part of The Seven, facilitates ITC communications between Earth and the astral world "Marduk," or "Eden,". Technician introduces this contact (as he introduced most of the radio and TV contacts with the Luxembourg couple in the 1980s).

Listen to the radio contact and follow along below:

Technician: Test. Project Lifeline… speaking in Timestream.

(The mechanical sounds fade away, replaced by the voice of the 19^th Century scientist.)

De Ville: My name is Henri Sainte Claire de Ville. I left your world in 1881, and I am speaking to you in my name and in the name of our staff of Lifeline—The Scientists. Your projects, as well as from Lifeline and from Timestream, is to set fire to minds, to set fire to minds in your world, and in that moment to try to master time. I can give you a few explanations… (not understood)… you will know it as consciousness. There in the never-ever, all time is one and timeless. Dear colleagues, the information I wanted to bring forth…

(As the contact breaks down, mechanical sounds resume)

Technician: The contact to Lifeline has broken down.

The following year, Timestream arranged to show Prof. de Ville on the TV screen of the Luxembourg couple, turning his head from left to right.

Watch the footage of a 19th Century scientist "live" from the worlds of spirit.

And finally, bringing the story full circle, by the time I traveled to Europe in the early 90s, Henri Ste Claire de Ville was apparently more excited by the possibilities of ITC than of channeling… and he'd left Lifeline to join Timestream.

By then, Centrale was yet another spirit group making ITC contacts with researcher Adolf Homes in Germany. In 1992, Timestream and Centrale were trying to coordinate their efforts to send related information to both sites on Earth (Luxembourg and Germany). They had decided that cross-contacts of that kind would not just foster collaboration among a large circle of ITC enthusiasts on both sides of the veil, but they would also prove the legitimacy of these other-worldly communications. As you can imagine, there's no shortage of skeptics who reject the possibility of spirit communication through technology… and our fantastic spirit friends were doing everything they could to quell the skepticism.

I leave it to you, dear reader, to come to terms with your boggle point… to determine whether you think the contacts shared in this article are possible. Pesonally? I know they're possible, and I'd easily stake my life on their legitimacy. After all, I had the privilege to get to know everyone involved in those contacts.

The Ph.D. – Nearly every summer for the past decade I've gone to Montreal to attend my favorite conferences, sponsored by the International Institute of Integral Human Sciences (IIIHS), which explores the frontiers of science, spirituality and culture. The event generally consists of two 3-day conferences with a 5-day College Week in between.

Students of many cultural backgrounds have passed through the organization's International College Program, enrolling in courses and workshops in Montreal and at affiliated colleges in various countries, attending the annual conferences, and taking educational and cultural tours to exotic lands. The worldly and other-worldly focus of IIIHS is right up my alley!

In 2003, the group's founders arranged for me to receive a doctoral degree from an affiliated university in Sri Lanka. It's an honorary Ph.D. awarded to me for my extensive research and writing over the years.

The Award – In 2003 I shared the Swiss Prize for Epipsychologywith my friends Jacques and Monique Blanc-Garin of France. That was for our research and writing in ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication), the use of technology to get in touch with the worlds of spirit. 

INIT – My greatest honor was the opportunity to work with The Seven angels, or ethereal beings, as a member of the International Network for Instrumental Transcommunication. They communicated directly with some of our members through phones, computers, and other modern devices. From my book, The Project:

"The Seven Ethereal beings…identified themselves to us as "gatekeepers" between the spirit worlds and our world. They didn't reveal to us the full scope of their gatekeeper duties, but those duties certainly include control over the miraculous communication bridge that opened up for our group. Our spirit friends (deceased humans) told us that being in the presence of The Seven is like standing before a bank of living supercomputers that exchange oceans of information instantly. These entities provided vast energies to facilitate the miraculous contacts that our spirit friends made with us. Occasionally The Seven themselves spoke through the ITC channels, delivering messages to us through most of our communication technologies that boggled our minds, and I would trust the validity of those messages with my life (which, frankly, is a small risk, considering the timeless nature of the Ethereals and the fleeting nature of human lives). To say their information is as good as gold is an understatement. As a reliable source, then, messages from The Seven through ITC devices are number one in my book."

So, the ethereals would sometimes lower their vibration to enter the astral world of our spirit friends, who said the angels glowed in rainbow colors. I'm sure those angels could enter our world, too, in a way that we could see them in all their glory. Although they didn't grace INIT in such a "face-to-face" way, I believe they've done so at various times throughout our ancient history. Down through the ages there have been plenty of sightings reported in early cultures and religions from around the world. From Time Magazine, 1993-Dec 27, in an article, ""Angels Among Us," by Nancy Gibbs and others:

"ANGELS ACROSS THE AGES. If there is such a thing as a universal idea, common across cultures and through the centuries, the belief in angels comes close to it. Jews, Christians and Muslims have postulated endlessly about angels' nature and roles, but all three religions affirm their existence. There are angels in Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism; winged figures appear in ancient Sumerian carvings, Egyptian tombs and Assyrian reliefs. Visible or invisible, in disguise or in full glory, angels appear in more than half the books of the Bible: it was an angel who told Abraham to spare his son from sacrifice, who saved Daniel from the lion's den, who rolled the stone away from Christ's tomb. Muslims believe that angels are present in mosques to record the prayers of the faithful and to testify for or against people on the Day of Judgment. Medieval theologians believed that angels had to exist to fill the gap between God and humankind. In ancient civilizations, whose multiplicity of deities socialized freely with mortals, there was little need for divine intermediaries…"

In particular, there are many references to a group of seven angels

·         In wikipedia…

·         In astrology…

·         In apocalyptic writings…

·         On artistic websites…

Are The Seven angels who spoke to our INIT group the same as the seven archangels of yore?

The more I reflect on the experiences of our INIT group and the messages we received from The Seven (as I reported in our Contact! journal, especially the Fall 1996 issue), the more I'm inclined to believe that, yes, they are the same seven.

Talk about an honor!

These holidays are a great opportunity not only to revel in the miracles of the season, but to reflect on a series of world-changing miracles experienced a few years ago, including a phone call from a celebrated musician... 75 years after his death.

The 1990s brought a flurry of phone calls from the worlds of spirit—specifically, from the paradise world where most of us will awaken after we die. Its inhabitants call the place Eden, or Marduk. Here on Earth, it's called Heaven by Christians and Jews, Jannah by Muslims, and Pitraloka (ancestral world) by Hindus. We all have memories of Eden, but most of them are buried like forgotten dreams in our subconscious minds. People in Eden, likewise, harbor vague, often hidden memories of their lives on Earth.

There are people on both sides of the veil today who have chosen to keep the dream alive by building communication bridges between Earth and Eden. Here on Earth, some people do it by praying, others by meditating, and others by psychic channeling, or mediumship. My own favorite techniques are prayer, meditation, and what we call ITC, or instrumental transcommunication—the use of modern technologies and electromagnetic energies to bring information directly into our world from finer spiritual minds, in the form of voices, images, and text. For example, in ITC spirits call us on the phone or plant files on our computer hard drives.

Sounds exciting, right? Well, it is! Sad thing is, while ITC contacts happened quite a lot in the 1990s, they hardly happen at all today. What I want to share in this blog entry and some future ones is a taste of the miracles that some of my colleagues and I experienced in the 90s. (I've written elsewhere in many places, especially my book "Miracles in the Storm," about why the contacts broke down, so I won't dwell on that here.)

My First Spirit Phone Call

Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist and professor at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, became one of the best-known pioneers in technical spirit communication before his death in 1974. So it's not surprising that he would resume the work after his death, becoming a most prolilfic communicator from the other side, as advancing earthside technologies allowed a rapid evolution from tiny voices on tape recorders to actual phone conversations and in-depth computer contacts (detailed pictures of Eden and letters several pages long describing that world and its inhabitants). Konstantin began to contact several of my colleagues and myself in the 1990s, mostly by phone. I was lucky enough to receive the first phone call among my colleagues here in the states, but I wasn't set up to record that call. It came as a surprise, to say the least! Basically he told me (on January 7, 1994):

This is Konstantin Raudive. We have succeeded in establishing a bridge to the States. You are the first to be contacted by this means. This is the first contact you get from us. This is Konstantin Raudive.

There was no opportunity for me to reply. I was stunned speechless anyway.

George Meek's Spirit Phone Call

A week later, my good friend and ITC mentor George Meek in North Carolina received the second USA phone call from Konstantin Raudive and his spirit team. Technically it was George's secretary Sandy who got the second phone call early one morning while George was at the local post office… and she told Konstantin he'd be back shortly. So when George got home and received his call from Timestream later that morning (the "third" USA phone call), he was ready with a tape recorder. You can follow the transcript below while you…

…listen to the phone conversation between George Meek and spirit colleague Konstantin Raudive:

Earthside: Good morning, this is George Meek.

Spiritside: This is Konstantin Raudive. George, my friend, at last we succeeded in contacting you. Jeannette is beside me, and she wants to give you all her love. This is Konstantin Raudive. This is the first contact you get from us. I suppose that you can hear me.

Earthside: I can hear you very well. Very plainly.

Spiritside: Fine, so this is the beginning of a new story, a new chapter, George. You are a very good friend of ours, even if we haven't met. We will continue this. This is the first bridge we succeeded to build to the States. Mark was contacted, and I must interrupt now.

Earthside: Uh, thank you, dear friend. You may not be able to hear me, but I want to take this occasion to say . . .

beep – beep – beep (broken connection, end of contact)

George and I were both excited by the landmark development of an ITC bridge to the States. George especially had high hopes that now he'd begin to receive ITC contacts on a regular basis, including phone calls from his late wife Jeannette, who'd died in the spring of 1991.

That was not to be, however. The spirit group told us we'd first have to establish a stronger psychic or mediumistic bridge. We were learning that ITC contacts are based upon psychospiritual forces or energies. George and I had a mutual friend named Jean Peterson, a gifted psychic here in Colorado who was channeling messages from our spirit group. Also, George's housekeeper Loree was psychically gifted. So hopefully the contact field would begin to germinate from there.

Miscommunications

One February morning, Konstantin called George Meek to tell him that ITC contacts would be postponed until a good mediumistic bridge had been established. George wasn't set up to record the call, so he didn't fully understand the message. He thought they were saying an ITC bridge would soon open up for him. The spirit group called me the following week to clear things up. To make sure the message got recorded, they left it on my telephone answering device while I was out of the house.

Listen to that message left on my telephone answering device:

This is Konstantin Raudive speaking. We just tried to contact George Meek. We succeeded, but he didn't get what we wanted to tol— tell him. We were talking to him that we tried to make mediumistic contact through Jean Peterson, and he wanted to register by other means, electric means. Eh, there will be no telephone contacts, rather, to your ITC group, Colleague Mark, until you will have strengthened the bridge—the mediumistic bridge to our Timestream group. This is Konstantin Raudive speaking.

I think that life on Earth is somewhat notorious throughout the larger cosmos for bad communication. When messages are processed through the five senses and the physical mind of the brain, all sorts of distortions take place, resulting in a strange, often comical enmeshment of truth, belief, and misconception.

Sarah Estep's Spirit Phone Call

Well, as the bridge to the States started to develop, our spirit friends' sense of humor began to show itself. Sarah Estep was the president and founder of AAEVP (American Association – Electronic Voice Phenomena), and when Konstantin Raudive called her within days of calling George and me, she said in her characteristically joyful, friendly voice, "Dr Raudive, how are you?!"

Listen to Konstantin's wry reply:

Spiritside: I'm as fine as a "dead one" can be. Dear Sarah, thank you very much for everything you did for the propagation of the voices. We tried and succeeded in building this bridge to the States. You are one of the first who are contacted by this means. Thank you very much for all the work you did. We are very proud and honored that we could contact you. I must interrupt now. This was the first contact. This is Konstantin Raudive speaking.

Earthside: Thank you so much!

A Most Miraculous Contact in Europe

Well, the most spectacular contacts by far were already underway in Europe. Shortly after Jeannette Meek died, a Luxembourg colleague of mine named Maggy received a series of communications from spirit group Timestream telling how Jeannette was getting settled into her new paradise existence. On one occasion they told Maggy that Jeannette had befriended the famous Ragtime composer, Scott Joplin.

Still, it was a real surprise when Scott phoned Maggy on August 11, 1992. Maggy had friends visiting in her Luxembourg lab that day, fascinated by the radio equipment under development and asking lots of questions. One of those friends was Hilde Schwickerath of Saarbruecken, Germany, whose husband Otto had died twelve years earlier.

The contact

When the phone rings, Maggy answers. There's a strange voice on the other end of the line having some trouble trying to say, "Hello." It's some moments before Maggy realizes the caller is Scott Joplin. Throughout much of the dialog, two dogs bark in the background. They're on the spirit side, not the Earth side. (Terry is a Scottish Terrier companion of Jeannette Meek; Kucki is a deceased pet of the Schwickeraths.)

Otto Schwickerath is with Scott, but it isn't until near the end of the conversation that Maggy and her guests realize it. Otto has asked Scott to convey some details of a silly accident that the Schwickerath couple had experienced years earlier at St Johanna Markt, a popular night culture neighborhood in Saarbrueken, Germany, more than a decade earlier. It involves a bump on the head. While the memory is vivid in Otto's mind, Hilde doesn't recall the incident until a couple days later, after she's returned home.

With all the miscommunications between the 19^th Century, smoothly colloquial Black musician trying to convey German slang from Otto to the modern European ladies, this is one of the most amazing, evidential, and insightful (not to mention funny) ITC contacts you're ever liable to hear.

(Also, Scott has been away from the Earth for 75 years, so it takes him several tries just to say, "Hello.")

Listen to Scott Joplin as you follow the dialog below…

Maggy Harsch: Hallo?

Scott Joplin: H'law.

Maggy: Hallo?

Scott:   H'lwha.

Maggy: Hallo?

Scott:   (The words run together.) Hello-I'm-Scott-Joplin.

Maggy: (In German, asks for identity.)

Scott:   (Now becoming refamiliarized with his old Earth voice) Scott Joplin. Joplin, Scott. Can you hear me?

Maggy: Chaplain, yes, I can hear you.

Scott:   Okay, I got here with me . . .

Maggy: (Remembering an earlier contact in which Scott Joplin was mentioned as a friend of Jeannette Meek) Ah, Mr. Joplin!

Scott:   Yeah, I got here with me an Otto Schwickerath or something like that. He says something about St Johanna Markt. St Johanna Markt in Saarbrucken. St Johanna Markt in Saarbrucken, and a bause on his head. You got me?

Maggy: No, I don't got you. How do you call her?

Scott:   She . . . Her . . . Schickerath! Otto Schwickerath . . .

Maggy: Schwickerath, yes, yes, she is here. (Maggy turns the phone over to Hilde, still not realizing that Otto Schwickerath is with Scott Joplin.)

Scott:   . . . the name.

Hilde Schwickerath: I'm here. I hear you.

Scott:   Yeah, okay. He tells me something about St Johanna Markt, or something like that.

Hilde:   Sanc Johann?

Scott:   Johanna Markt of Saarbrucken.

Hilde:   Yes, yes, you can find in Saarbrucken, St Johanna Markt!

Scott:   Yeah, okay, he tells me about a bause, but I don't know what it is, "bause."

(A bause is a bump on the head in a dialect of Southern Germany.)

Hilde:   Bowser? It's a name? Bowser?

Scott:   Not Bowser. He spells it b-a-u-s-e. Bause. Oh, really….

Hilde:   Ah, bause.

Scott:   A boil on his head. That's a boil on his head.

(Beule is a more general German term for a bump, pronounced "boil-uh," and there's indication that Scott at first might have it confused with a boil, an infected, swollen area of the body, then a bit later begins to pronounce it correctly.)

Hilde:   Mm-hm.

Scott:   Got me?

Hilde:   I don't know.

(Mr Joplin sighs in obvious frustration.)

(A small dog barks in the background.)

Scott:   Oh, well then…

Hilde:   I can't understand. What is "bause?"

Scott:   A beule on his head. A beule. Uh…

Hilde:   What means it? What means it? Hello?

Scott:   Hello?

Hilde:   What's your name?

Scott:   (a bit flabbergasted now) Scott Joplin!

Hilde:   Chapel? (Then from the background, Maggy tells her it's Scott Joplin, a name Mrs Schwickerath is not familiar with.) Ah, Joplin. Eh, do I know you?

Scott:   Why, you don't know me.

Hilde:   No? Never?

Scott:   I don't think so, Lady.

(Hilde and Maggy converse in German, and Maggy mentions the fact that Scott and Hilde are both friends of Jeannette Meek.)

Hilde:   Ah, Jeannette Meek is your friend?

Scott:   Yes, yes, my pal-friend. Yeah. My pal-friend.

Hilde:   Ah, my husband, his name is Otto Scwhickerath. Do you know him?

Scott:   Yes, certainly!

Hilde:   (expresses excitement in German)

Scott:   That guy's standing here.

Hilde:   (with deep emotion) Ah! Otto is here? Oh, greetings. A lot of greetings!

Scott:   A bause, he's saying it's called a beule.

Hilde:   Bause… (obviously still confused) Uh, Maggy is hearing now. Moment.

Maggy: Hello, here is Maggy again.

Scott:   (in distress now) Ah, see there, it's all rather stupid, I think. A bause, a beule, he said. A beule on the head.

Maggy: A beule on the head?

Scott:   Yeah, a beule.

Maggy: A beule on the head, what do you mean by that?

Scott:   Your grandfather says, "A knup."

(A knup or knubbel is a knock on the head, or a very hard lump.)

Maggy: A knup?

Scott:   A knup.

Maggy: Yes. And what is a . . .

Scott:   That's all… I must go….

(Scott is getting frustrated, which means that the contact will end soon unless things can be resolved. Maggy says in a soothing voice:)

Maggy: It's okay, there's somebody here who can understand.

Scott:   Okay, fine.

Maggy: (trying to sound cheerful and enthusiastic) Fine! Thank you, Mr. Joplin. It's very nice to speak….

Scott:   (regaining his composure) It's nice to talk to you.

Maggy: Yes, it's nice to talk to you! Uh, Mr. Joplin, can you tell us anything of Jeannette Meek?

(A spirit dog comes close to Scott Joplin now. Its yapping is audible.)

Scott:   A terrier here. Here's the dog. That's the dog.

Maggy: Hello? I hear the dog! What dog is it?

Scott:   Terry.

(More than one clairvoyant colleague has reported seeing a small, squarish, Scotty-like dog moving around at the feet of Jeannette Meek since her transition to spirit. Jeannette has told mediums that the dog's name is "Terry.")

Maggy: Terry? Terry…

Scott:   He's together with Kucki.

(The deceased dog Kucki had belonged to Hilde Schwickerath, who now hears the dogs and gets back on the phone. Maggy tells Hilde the two dogs are Kucki and Terry, but in the excitement Hilde is thinking of her other late dog, Berta… then quickly corrects herself.)

Hilde:   Ah, hello, is this Berta or is this Kucki? Kucki and Terry, yeah?

Scott:   (exasperated) I already told Maggy it's Kucki. I told her. It's Kucki.

Hilde:   Ah, he is nice, huh?