Customer Reviews

Miracles in the Storm: Talking to the Other Side with the New Technology of Spiritual Contact

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Mark Macy's books, the author encourages us to stretch the "mental model" which we use to view the world(s) --- both our physical world and the spiritual world as well.

His previous book, Conversations Beyond The Light, documents the early miracles of Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) ---contact between the two worlds made possible by using technical equipment.

Macy's latest release, Miracles In The Storm, provides further examples of spiritual contacts from the afterlife ("the other side".) Macy also details the frustrating inability to maintain a harmonic group of ITC researchers on THIS side.

I was fascinated by both books. Macy's insights into human nature combine with historical reporting of significant breakthroughs to provide a most enlightening experience.

If you are not familiar with the miracles of ITC, I recommend strongly that you read both Conversations Beyond The Light and Miracles in the Storm, and suggest you first read Conversations, to introduce you to ITC. The latest release, Miracles, deals more with the human failure to work harmoniously toward the common goal of ITC, despite good intentions, tireless efforts, and Macy's positive attitude.

If you spend any time thinking about what comes after death, you owe it to yourself to learn about ITC. These books have totally changed my outlook on what happens after the physical body dies.

It is entirely possible that ITC research can bridge the divide that Macy refers to as "the centuries-old chasm between science and spirit, between doubt and faith." Contacts with the spirit world are now recorded on tape, film, and in computer files. The gap is narrowing, thanks to the work of Mark Macy and his colleagues.

It takes a lot to boggle my mind, but this book did. I have read hundreds of accounts of paranormal activity, but the activity summarized in this book is really amazing.

I was aware of EVP (electronic voice phenomena) and assumed that ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) was just another name for it. It isn't, however. ITC involves much more detailed, more direct, and more profound information coming from the spirit world. We're talking spirit messages via computer (not attached to the internet), by phone calls (which the phone company has no record of), and by faxes from nowhere.

As I read the book, I constantly viewed it with a skeptical eye. However, author Macy comes across as very sincere, dedicated,discerning, and credible in his observations and reporting of them. I find it difficult to believe that he and the number of reputable scientists involved in ITC research could have been duped over and over again for years on end.

Over many years of reading and personal research, I am convinced of the reality of a spirit world. I believe in spirit materialization and spirit communication. If all of the other things I have encountered, e.g., materializations, apports, levitations, direct-voice mediumship, trance mediumship, etc., are real, I see no reason to draw the line and say that ITC is beyond belief.

The pseudo-skeptics will certainly smirk, scoff, and snicker in their usual closed-minded,arrogant, vainglorious, and pompous manner, but that is their problem. For the open-minded person who believes that there is more to this world than the material, this book has much to offer.

When a publisher's copy of Miracles in the Storm arrived in the post for review, I wasn't expecting much from it. I couldn't quite see the relevance. Until I read the book, that is.

I became totally engrossed in the fascinating account Mark Macy gives of how the ITC team here on earth have struggled to find the right balance between the trust and teamwork required of them by the group they are working with on the other side, called 'Timestream', and their desire for hard scientific 'proof' to wow the world. I should add that the Timestream group includes departed souls who worked as empirical scientists on earth; however, these former scientists now have a clearer understanding of science as 'knowing' in the sense of embracing a truth,rather than trying to capture it.

Acceptable 'proof' of inter-dimensional communication has been the spin-off of experimenters like Macy having their hearts and minds open to Timestream. As Mark Macy writes in the preface: "We humans come to trust the opinions of people on Earth who exhibit those qualities consistently over a long period of time, and it is natural, then, for us to extend the same trust to our spirit friends."

ITC traces its history back to the 'spiricon' voice on tape experiments made by George Meek and Bill O'Neil in the United States in the 1970s. The contact centre then shifted to the home of Maggy Harsch-Fischbach and her husband Jules in Luxembourg. They had been inspired by the work of Meek and a German experimenter Hans-Otto Koenig to set up tape recorders in their
home in 1985 and it was not long before they were recording communications from a group of departed souls from Earth, working under the guidance and protection of a delightfully wise and knowledgeable ethereal being.

Maggie Harsch-Fischbach has often asked the brilliant being who guides the Timestream project about himself, or herself. Here is an excerpt from the information she received:

"Our existence is beyond your comprehension. It's easier for us to explain to you what we are not. Not human, nor animal, nor male, nor female, nor light being, nor, of course, God. There are seven of us, and although we are individual beings with individual natures, we are fused together. Many beings such as we live together in small groups, or clusters, as we exist in subtle realms where such boundaries as skin and ego, which separate physical beings in your world, do not exist. We are in ethereal realms of spacelessness and timelessness where beings who resonate with one another can join together in common existence, if they so choose. Many of the great beings who have walked your planet, such as Jesus Christ, Mohammed and Gautama Buddha, return home to live in ethereal clusters in our realm,
which, from your perspective, is very close to God.

"Names are of no importance to us. As they are important to you, you may call me Technician, as my role in this project is that of a technician to facilitate contact between worlds."

Do I accept this? In trying to answer that, I am drawn to ask, "What does it mean to be true to oneself?" And the answer for me is to be loyal to the relationships and path in life that one has chosen voluntarily, at the right time for choosing, around the age of 28 to 35. My chosen relationship is with the party surrounding Jesus - Peter particularly. It is a relationship that I have found to be open to all possibilities, including that of Jesus having come out of and returning
to an ethereal diffusion that is as much home to Gautama the Buddha and Mohammed and the being who is known as Technician by the Timestream and ITC groups. They take etheric, astral and physical form when on assignment, with Jesus' assignment as the Christ Messiah having been particularly difficult, because of its centrality in history, to draw history to a close, by allowing himself to be imaged on a cross, as a brother and
friend. An image that is branded on all our souls, reaching deep into every nook and cranny of our all too human, compromised hearts. To awaken demons and enlighten hope.

Quite some sentences there. Never mind. I let them stand in the spirit of Christmas sharing. And balance them out with this insight into the new impulse that has been seeded in the human heart. It is drawn from an exchange between the German physicist Ernst Senkowski and a member of the audience during a
presentation of ITC organised by Mark Macy:

"Matter and energy are not basic components of reality, as we have been taught," said Ernst Senkowsky: "They only exist in our minds, or call it spirit or consciousness. The modern term would be 'information'. Matter, energy and everything else are special forms of 'information." A young woman stood up, "You mean reality is all in our head?" she asked, to get a laugh. "Obviously the world is not in our head," replied Ernst. "It is part of the nonlocal mind. On the other hand, if we learned to 'play' with our minds, we could be wizards, creating and changing the things around us."

That is what the new world order could be about. However, it requires cleared hearts and enlightened minds, which is what the now past age under the cross of terror and liberation has opened the way for, for peacemakers,not warmongers.

I want you to know that when reading Miracles in the Storm, at times it felt like I was holding light in my hands. Thank you Mark Macy, I was struck by the sincerity of your witness. And I read what you and your small ITC group were doing as tentatively branching out in an unfolding spiritual science, by which we will yet come to live in a resurrected world of love, truth and purity of heart.

(...)

"It can only work when the vibrations of those present are in complete harmony, and when their aims and intentions are pure". This is the message of "Miracles in the Storm", by Mark Macy, and it is unquestionably a book that will wake the sleeping mind.
Miracles in the Storm is about the miracle of Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) and the ensuing conflicts within a global Instrumental Transcommunication structure consisting of several people from various ethnic groups and backgrounds. This is an attempt to reveal how ITC "requires an opening of the heart on the part of the folks at both ends of the line - an acknowledgment of each other's being and a sincere concern for each other". It is also a book of how one quite extraordinary man found his way to God, after remaining an agnostic for most of his life and developing life-threatening cancer.
This book is literally a Who's Who of ITC, containing countless personal antidotes from Juliet Hollister, George Meek, Willis Harmon, Jules and Maggy Harsh-Fischbach, Sonia Rinaldi, and others.
This book is highly recommended for anyone who is interested in an alternative view of the afterlife. It offers a hope of survival and contact with a loved one which is so often missed in present day religions.
I believe that in his journey Mark realized that what's important in life is not so much the things that we do, but why we do them. His book states that it is the motivation and the heart of man that determines the outcome of all things, and this is very apparent in the work by this truthful author.
Read this book. It might possible change your life.

Macy's book focuses mainly on the personality conflicts that undermined an attempt at high-tech communications with the spirit world. His style is readable and brisk, his tone sincere and unaffected, but he provides little or no evidence that the phenomena he describes are authentic. The main researchers he depicts come off more as enthusiastic dilettantes than serious scientists. For me, Macy forfeits nearly all credibility when he casually declares that the history of the human race can be understood by integrating some of the spirit communications with the writings of Erich von Daniken (p.140)! Von Daniken, of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS fame, is an entirely discredited huckster. If Macy can be persuaded by von Daniken's pop-culture writings, he will probably believe just about anything. There is an unfortunate messianic tone pervading the book - the message that a new dawn of humanity is coming, courtesy of the spirit communicators and the mortals who spread their message. You'll probably find MIRACLES IN THE STORM enjoyable and easy to read (hence three stars), but it will convince no one who isn't already a believer.

I found this gossipy tome fascinating only because I'm already well-read concerning the EVP/ITC phenomena themselves. I agree with the reviewers who say it doesn't tell you a whole lot about EVP or ITC - indeed, some of the contacts the author reports (which were received primarily by a married couple in Luxembourg rather than himself) are definitely in the "too good to be true" vein and may have you rolling your eyes if you aren't already quite familiar with EVP and ITC. Some of the reports (and the Luxembourg couple's insistence upon absolute control) virtually scream "Fraud!" and had me rolling my eyes even though I am familiar with reputable EVP and ITC reports that are flat-out amazing. These are very weird phenomena that demand attention even if you aren't yet willing to concede they are communications from those who have passed on. Anyway, I don't doubt the author's sincerity, and he does give an insider's view of the fussin' and feudin' within the EVP/ITC research community (primarily the European ITC community). You certainly won't come away from this book convinced of the reality of EVP and ITC - in fact, it may have the opposite of the author's intended effect in this regard - but it will entertain you if you have an interest in the phenomena (or the equally interesting phenomenon as to how paranormal research always disintegrates into the same sort of petty schisms you might find among the deacons at your local Baptist church).

Reading Miracles in the Storm gave me a tremendous sense of relief, to say the least.
I read most of the near-death experience books published over the last decade and I was convinced that something very special was being offered by these people's interpretation of their near death experience.

In short, their reports offered a win-win situation, with two choices for interpretation: One, there is a sublime life beyond the pain of physical material life, or, two, our brains are capable of 'naturally' experiencing enlightenment and release from stress and pain, that makes us feel that we are already in paradise. Which ever one it is, it offers a win-win opportunity. If it is the latter, we can start to direct our thinking and feeling life to consciously experience this pure bliss in our every-day lives. That is what I aim to do.

Miracles in the Storm is a new approach to the same subject. When I read it, I felt such a great release of tension. I felt blissful at the thought that, when we pass from this material plane, we reclaim our most perfect sense of being and energy.
This is a very excitement thought! I began to see everyone around me differently. I could see anyone as a perfect beings in spirit, regardless of their station in life or their physical condition. This way of seeing people is beautiful.
These researchers into ITC, like the author of Miracles in the Storm, open the way for us to be convinced that our spirit lives on, and we can also have a glorious life, here and now, when we appreciate the miracle of life on the larger scale and on many dimensions. If Physicists have difficulty explaining the many dimensions of life they have discovered, how difficult must it be for the rest of us? This book is my first contact with ITC and I am so thankful for the renewal of spirit and energy that these revelations have given to me directly. This book would be a great help to anyone who is facing death, their own or their loved ones. They will have a much easier time of it when they know more about the many dimensions that life manifests on.

I recently met Mark Macy at a demonstration of the Luminator during which Polaroids were taken. While Mr. Macy seems sincere about his work in this field of research, I would like a better explanation of what the Luminator is and does.

A few days later, I read this book. Any real discussion of contact and technologies is mired in the conflicts between individuals and organizations. Because of this, it is sometimes a tedious read.

One thing I would like to know -- if spirits are eager to contact persons on "this side," why aren't they more often direct and/or explicit in their communications?

I found this book to be interesting and well written, but lacking in credibility. The insistent of the author to protray a few of the characters, namely Maggy and Jules, as credible experimenters was more than I could stomach. The author has attempted to show their contacts with the after life as genuine. To most people, these contacts are incredibly fraudulent and for this reason it puts this author in a bad light as the subject matter can not be believed.

Many people will read this book for evidence of afterlife survival and it won't meet the criteria because of the author's insistence that contacts can be made similar to Maggy and Jules F. I can't recommend this book for this reason. I do heartily believe in contact from the dead but the author's insistence of credible contacts from Maggy and Jules has thrown a deeply suspect nature upon this field, and it is apparent why there were arguments within the ITC group that composed this book. In my humble opinion, the field of ITC has been greatly damaged by this couple, and for this reason, I can't recommend this book to anyone although I do not doubt the author's sincerity.

If you're buying this book to read about spiritual contact from the other side, FORGET ABOUT IT! The bulk of this book concerns the researchers' inability to get along with each other. Macy is too busy trying to tell us who was "holy" enough to speak with the other side, instead of documenting the contacts and their content. What a waste......