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

BOOK TEST

The book test is a way for the deceased to communicate with the living and provide evidence of their survival after death. It was developed in the early twentieth century by English medium Gladys Osborne Leonard and her spirit control, Freda.

In the book test the deceased communicates through a medium and provides the title of a book not known to the medium. The deceased gives the book’s exact location and then specifies a page number, which is supposed to contain a message from the deceased. Leonard’s book tests were very successful, and almost always the passage selected contained personal messages.

Book tests were very popular around the time of World War I, when interest in communicating with the dead was strong, but not all book tests were as successful as Leonard’s. A study published in 1921 suggested that only around 17 per cent were successful.

Paranormal factors may well figure in some book tests, but this does not necessarily imply that there is life after death, as book tests can be easily explained by the idea that the medium him or herself is picking up psychic information. Another problem with book tests as proof of life after death is that on almost any page of a given book some passage may be interpreted as a message.

BORLEY RECTORY

Borley Rectory has been called ‘the most haunted house in England’. It was investigated between 1929 and 1938 by Harry Price, founder of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research in London. Price, a celebrated ghost hunter, claimed the house to be ‘the best authenticated case in the annals of psychical research’.

The rectory, a gloomy and unattractive red building located in the county of Essex, was built in 1863 by the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull. He later expanded the original building to accommodate his large family of 14 children.

The first reported ghostly incident occurred in the afternoon of 28 July 1900, when one of the Reverend’s daughters, Ethel, thought she saw a ghost that looked like a nun dressed in dark clothes. Local legend had it that the rectory was built on the site of a thirteenth-century monastery, where a monk and a nun had fallen in love but had been killed before eloping. Sightings of the nun’s ghost, and the ghost of a dark man wearing a tall hat, were reported frequently by Ethel Bull and her sisters. Ethel lived a long life, dying at the age of 93 in 1963. She maintained her story until the end, saying, What would be the use of an old lady like me waiting to meet her Maker, telling a lot of fairy stories?’

In 1929 Harry Price invited himself to the rectory to investigate. According to his book, The Most Haunted House in England, published in 1940, the occupants at the time, the Reverend G E Smith and his wife, both professed sceptics of the paranormal, told him that strange occurrences began almost immediately after they moved in. They heard strange whispers, saw odd black shapes and magic lights, heard phantom footsteps, smelled strange odours and, in general, witnessed odd occurrences such as objects smashed, doors banged, spontaneous combustions of portions of the house, wall writings, paranormal bell ringing, the sounds of galloping horses, mysterious smoke in the garden, rapping in response to questions and appearances by the phantom nun. Price said he investigated the matter thoroughly and actually witnessed the phenomena for himself while he was there. He held a séance, and he and others present heard a faint tapping in response to questions. The spirit claimed to be the Reverend Bull.

In 1929 the Smiths moved out and the Reverend Lionel Algeron Foyster and his wife, Marianne, moved in. The poltergeist activity increased, and Price returned to continue his investigations. He found the phenomena to be much more violent than before, terrifying Marianne and their three-year-old daughter in particular. In 1935 the Foysters moved out, and in 1937 Price leased the property himself for a year. During his stay he witnessed many paranormal incidents and compiled a book of procedures using camera equipment and other methods of documenting spirit activity. He enrolled 40 assistants to help him.

Many of his assistants were mediums, and they produced some fabulous theories, suggesting that the monk and nun were strangled and buried in the garden and that they longed for mass and a proper burial. Other assistants began the project with great enthusiasm but dropped out after getting no results.

Price left the rectory in 1938, convinced that paranormal activity was taking place and that there was a medieval monastery on the site, even though it had already been proved that the only building ever to have existed on that site was a twelfth-century church, not a monastery. His book publishing his findings was well received for its meticulous psychical research but also criticized for being sensational. After Price’s death in 1948 his allegations were reexamined by psychical researchers Trevor Hall, Kathleen Goldney and Eric Dingwell. Charles Sutton, a Daily Mail reporter, suspected Price of faking phenomena. During a visit to the rectory with Price he had been hit on the head by a pebble - and subsequently found Price’s pockets to be full of pebbles.

Perhaps the most damming condemnation, however, came from a previous inhabitant of the rectory, Mrs Smith, who in 1949 signed a statement saying that nothing unusual had happened in the house until Price arrived. The Smiths suspected him of being the perpetrator.

Hall, Dingwell and Goldney, in their book The Haunting of Borley Rectory, concluded that nothing out of the ordinary had happened there during Price’s stay and that everything could be explained rationally. They accused Price of concocting hocus-pocus to serve his own need for publicity. They suggested that Borley Rectory lent itself well to the influence of suggestion, since ‘In every ordinary house sounds are heard and trivial incidents occur which are unexplained or treated as of no importance. But once the suggestion of the abnormal is put forward - and tentatively accepted - then these incidents become imbued with sinister significance: in fact they become part of the haunt.’

Borley Rectory is an old, gloomy-looking building, and a psychological explanation is plausible. However, it may not explain everything, and the possibility that something paranormal did occur or that certain individuals who lived there, including Price himself, were sympathetic and sensitive enough to become a focus of psychic attack cannot be dismissed totally.

BOSTON SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

A psychical research organization that was well regarded in its day, publishing a series of books and pamphlets between 1925 and 1941.

The society was created as a result of internal strife within the American Society for Psychical Research. When spiritualist Frederick Edwards became president in 1923 and introduced more popularist policies, Walter Franklin Prince, the ASPR’s well-respected research officer, left to start a rival society in Boston with an academic focus. The Boston Society was officially set up in 1925 ‘in order to conduct psychic research according to strictly scientific principles.’

Prince was the backbone of the society, and it faded away after his death in 1934. During its brief existence the society did not actively seek members and always favoured quality over quantity in research and publication. Among its most important bulletins was a report in the 1920s on ESP experiments conducted at Harvard University, and a paper entitled ‘Toward a Method of Evaluating Mediumistic Material’, published in 1936. The society also published a number of groundbreaking books on mediumship, including Beyond Normal Cognition by John Thomas (1937). The Boston Society also published J B Rhine’s work Extra Sensory Perception (1934), which described laboratory experiments carried out at Duke University.

BOTANOMANCY

An ancient practice that can be traced all the way back to the Druidic tree worship, botanomancy is a method of divination by burning branches of trees, typically vervain and briar, upon which questions have been carved. The fire and smoke indicate the course of future action to be pursued.

BRAIN/BRAIN WAVES

Although it’s possible that psychic power is a bridge that connects your brain to a higher mind or spiritual force, some experts believe that psychic ability should be treated as another aspect of brain function. They regard psi as an additional sense that is somehow located in our brains, and believe that understanding psi can help explain how we perceive and process information.

One of the most amazing discoveries in medicine was made by Roger Sperry in the 1960s, when he revealed that the right hemisphere of the brain, responsible for intuition and creativity, makes an equally valuable contribution as the left hemisphere of the brain, responsible for reason and logic and previously thought to reign supreme. Opinions differ on what part of the brain psi function exists in, but many believe that the ability to connect to intuitive information is housed in the right side of the brain and that for optimal brain function both the right and left sides of the brain need to work together.

Some scientists suggest as well that brain waves need to work together. Brain waves are electrical impulses our brains constantly release, and they are measured in hertz, or cycles per second. There are four major stages of brain-wave activity, beginning with beta, the shortest and fastest waves, and moving through to delta, the strongest and slowest.

When the brain is emitting beta waves, the individual is active, awake and conscious, with his or her eyes open. Alpha brain waves operate just below waking consciousness, a state that is attained in meditation and relaxation. The average person can maintain awareness in this state. Typically, eyes are closed and the body is relaxed, but alpha waves are also produced during daydreaming with eyes open. The alpha state is not essential to achieve success in psi testing results, but studies show that it is conducive to psi. Theta brain waves are achieved during deep relaxation. The average person cannot maintain awareness in this state, but some meditators claim that they can. The final state, delta, is one of sleep or unconsciousness.

Some scientists maintain that the blending of all four brain waves creates a brand-new brain wave. Some followers of Eastern philosophy propose that the awakened mind, which occurs when a person is more aware of their spiritual existence, is a state that combines all four brain waves at once.

BREATH

The first and last thing you do in life is to breathe. Breathing is the essence of life. And so it is not surprising that breathing and breath are often identified with the soul. In Roman times a close relative would inhale the last breath of someone who was dying, because it was thought that the soul had to enter into another body or it would be lost. In Hinduism the breath or life energy is seen as the force that controls the mind; healthy breathing is healthy thinking and healthy being, which is why yoga always teaches breathing exercises.

In the past half century or so many Westerners have tried to learn the techniques for breathing, meditation and mind control that Eastern yogis have studied for millennia. In recent years psychiatrist Stanislav Grof developed a method that combines breathing and meditation and called it Holotropic Breathwork; it helps individuals enter an unordinary state of consciousness for psychic healing by using evocative music, accelerated breathing, energy work and mantra drawing. Aspects of this meditation involve exploration of the inner self and spiritual opening.

Breathing exercises

Simple breathing exercises are thought to help give you quick access to psychic states of mind. One Eastern technique is to visualize, with each in-breath, drawing in coloured light - pink light for harmony and quiet contemplation and white or gold light for spiritual energy - and slowly breathing out black mist or smoke as all the negative energies leave the body.

A yoga breathing exercise that is thought to be wonderfully effective for saturating your aura and your body with energy is alternate nostril breathing.

Using your right thumb, close your right nostril and inhale slowly through your left nostril for a count of four. Then keeping the right nostril closed, use your fingers to close the left nostril, so both nostrils are closed for a count of eight. Then, keeping your left nostril closed, remove your thumb from your right nostril and exhale for a slow count of four. Switch nostrils, closing the left nostril and inhaling through the right nostril for a count of four. Close both nostrils again for a count of eight, and exhale slowly for a count of four through the left nostril. Repeat the whole exercise four or five times.

BRIDGE OF SOULS

The Bridge of Souls in mythology and folklore is the heavenly road souls of the dead must travel in order to get to the afterlife. The most common motif used for the Bridge of Souls is that of the rainbow.

In Hawaii, Polynesia, Austria, Japan and among some Native American tribes, the rainbow is thought to be the path souls take on their way to heaven, and has been called a bridge or ladder to higher or other worlds. The Russians call the rainbow the ‘Gate to Heaven’. In New Zealand dead Maori chiefs are believed to travel up the rainbow to their new home. In parts of Germany and Austria, folklore suggests that children’s souls are led up the rainbow to heaven, and in some parts of England it is considered unlucky to point at a rainbow.

People all over the world have different ways of looking at and understanding rainbows. For some they suggest magical possibilities, for others a rainbow indicates that a project is going to fail - ‘building rainbows in the sky’ - but whenever a rainbow appears, and however rationally it can be explained as a natural phenomenon, even the most hardened sceptic cannot help but be struck by its magic and its beauty.

BROOM

The broom is intimately connected with witches and witchcraft. It was commonly believed that witches anointed their bodies with a salve given to them by the devil that enabled them to fly through the air upon a variety of sticks or stems, including broomsticks. The choice of the broom or besom as a likely means of transport is probably due to the association between brooms and female domesticity, though male witches were thought to ride in this way as well as women.

In Eastern European folklore a broom may be used in exorcism ceremonies to sweep evil spirits out the door. It is also thought that stepping over a broomstick, placing it under your pillow or putting a broom across a threshold will offer protection against evil spirits and ghosts at night.

BROWN LADY

An English manor house in Norfolk has been haunted for nearly 300 years by the so-called ‘Brown Lady’, who is believed to have been captured once on film in one of the most famous spirit photographs ever taken.

Raynham Hall is the seat of the Marquesses of Townshend. The Brown Lady is believed to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of the second Marquess of Townshend and sister to Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister of England. At the age of 26 Dorothy married Lord Charles Townshend. According to lore when Townshend discovered that Dorothy had been the mistress of Lord Wharton he locked her in her apartment until her death from either a broken heart or chicken pox or a fall down the stairs.

Until 1904 a portrait identified as Lady Dorothy hung in the hall. In the portrait the woman is dressed in brown and has large shining eyes. It was said that the portrait looked normal by day but at night the face became evil looking.

Over the centuries there have been a number of reports of encounters with the Brown Lady at Raynham Hall. In the early nineteenth century George IV allegedly woke in the middle of the night to see a woman dressed in brown. He was said to be so terrified that he refused to stay another hour in the house. In 1835 she was witnessed several times by a Colonel Loftus, a guest staying in the castle. Not long after, novelist Captain Frederick Mar-ryat was invited to a ball at the house. He allegedly encountered the ghost in the corridor and when it grinned diabolically at him he shot at it. The bullet was said to have gone right through the ghost and was later discovered lodged in a door behind where the ghost appeared.

In 1926 the ghost was seen again by the young Lord Townshend. In 1936 Lady Townshend hired a photographer called Indra Shira to take photographs of the house. While taking the photographs Shira noticed what looked like a shadowy figure dressed in white moving down the stairs. He asked his assistant to take a photograph and although the assistant could not see anything he aimed his camera in the direction indicated by Shira. When the photograph was developed the Brown Lady appeared as an outline wearing what looked like a wedding gown and veil. The photograph was published in Country Life magazine on 1 December 1936 and became an overnight sensation. Experts past and present have examined it and no evidence of fraud has ever been found.

BROWNIE

In Scottish folklore brownies are kindly spirits, also known as the bwca in Wales and the pixies in Cornwall. When they appear they are believed to look like small men - about three feet high - and are unkempt and wild in appearance. They are said to become attached to particular families and are happy to do chores for the family at night.

According to lore brownies don’t like to be offered payment for their work, either because they are too proud or because they are compassionate by nature, but they do enjoy and expect gifts of cream and good food. If gifts aren’t left out, or their work is criticized, brownies are said to become mischievous and cause trouble.

There are different stories about the origin of the name. One of the most plausible is that in the early seventeenth century, when the Covenanters in Scotland were being persecuted for their beliefs, many of them were forced to hides in caves and secret places, and food was carried to them by friends. They dressed themselves in a fantastic manner, and if seen in the night they would be taken for fairies. One band of Covenanters was led by a hunchback named Brown who, being small and active would slip out at night with some of the others and bring back the provisions left by their friends. Those who knew the truth named Brown and his band the ‘Brownies’.

BROWNING CIRCLE

The Browning circle was organized by nineteenth-century medium D D Home for poets Robert and Elizabeth Browning. The activities of the circle converted Elizabeth to spiritualism, but her husband condemned and ridiculed Home, calling him a toady, a fraud and a leech in a poem entitled ‘Mr Sludge, the Medium’ (1864).

The Brownings met Home in 1855 when they attended a séance he held for a wealthy couple who wanted to establish contact with their son, who had died three years previously. At the séance they witnessed table tilting, ghostly hands and rapping. Elizabeth was amazed, but Robert was unimpressed and expressed publicly his loathing for Home, suggesting that the whole thing could easily have been faked, as Home always wore loose clothing that could conceal tubes and strings to produce the phenomena. No one knows what caused Robert’s hatred, although some believe it may have been his low opinion of what he called Home’s ‘effeminacy’. Homosexuality was illegal in 1855, and there were many rumours of Home’s affairs with young men. The Brownings’ disagreement over spiritualism was the only public quarrel the couple had; Robert loathed Home so much that Elizabeth stopped talking about it. Punch magazine took Robert’s side, using rich imagery to suggest Elizabeth’s gullibility.

BUGUET, EDOUARD [1841–1901]

Edouard Buguet was a famous spirit photographer during the 1860s and 1870s until he was exposed as a fraud in 1875. Buguet’s photographs were remarkably clear, unlike the misty pictures from other contemporary spirit photos of the era. The French photographer went to extraordinary lengths to impose ghostly images upon his photos, using live models at first but later switching to sculpted heads when he began to fear being exposed.

In 1875 Buguet’s studio was raided after a tip-off from a dissatisfied customer. His tricks were exposed, and he was convicted of fraud and sent to prison for a year. Buguet never again worked as a photographer, but his photographs have become collectors’ items, with some believing that he did actually succeed in photographing ghosts.

BULL, TITUS [1871–1946]

Titus Bull was an American physician and neurologist who believed that spirit possession was at the root of many illnesses. In the 1920s and 1930s he worked in New York City and treated many of his patients with spiritualist therapy. With the help of medium Carolyn Duke, he claimed to treat and cure manic depressives, schizophrenics and alcoholics.

Bull believed that possessing spirits entered their victims through the base of the brain, the solar plexus or the reproductive organs. He thought that these spirits were not evil, just confused, and that they needed help to pass to their proper plane and leave the victim in peace. In 1932 he published a pamphlet entitled Analysis of Unusual Experiences in Healing Relative to Deceased Minds and Results of Materialism Foreshadowed. In it he suggests that spirit possession, although not a cause of mental illness, is a complicating factor and that trauma and stress can attract spirits to a person.

Bull practised general medicine in a time when little attention was paid to the mind-body connection in health, but as he was not systematic in his explanations, his work is often ignored by medical and psychical research societies.

BURIAL RITES

The idea of a journey to the afterlife is evident in every culture and every age, and it has always been considered a duty of the living to set the dead on their path to the other world. In primitive times symbols were carved on rocks and implements and weapons buried with the dead to help them in the next life. In Greece a gold coin was buried with the dead to pay the ferryman to take them across the River of Death. The Egyptians had the most elaborate burial rituals, which lasted for days. Today the idea of a journey can still be said to exist when we lay flowers on graves to provide beauty and peace in the hope the spirit will find it on the other side.