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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In Search of a strange Phenomenon, October 15, 2000
This review is from: Phone Calls from the Dead: The results of a two-year investigation into an incredible phenomenon (Hardcover)
"This book has been extremely difficult to draft since it concerns a subject upon which nothing was previously been written" note the writers in 1979 in their acknowledgments though this is actually not quite true:The first contacts from beyond via telephone were described in detail in a book entitled "Voices from Beyond by Telephone" written by the Brazilian Carlos G. Ramos under the pen-name Oscar D'Argonell in 1925.However these two books seem to be the only ones written exclusively about an object that -among many others- gained the attention of writers who were involved in ADC [After Death Communication] phenomena and was included -wrongly to my opinion-in the research field of ITC. [Instrumental Transcommunication] The cases examined by the authors in the book -without estimating the statistical details-are less than one might expect, about 10-15 but were analysed accurately and intensively. Notable also is the element of spectacular coincidences related with the cases mentioned and can not be ignored. In order to approach an explanation about paranormal Telephony the writers examine three theories:The spiritistic or survival theory,"to begin with, we of course felt that these alleged phone manipulations might indeed be masterminded by the dead during attempts to contact us",the EDB [extradimensional being] theory "however we could not dismiss the possibility that some other types of paraphysical or extradimensional being-perhaps invisible denizens which co-inhabit the Earth with us or exist in some parallel universe- might be playing a huge cosmic joke on us..such beings might be endowed with the ability to manipulate our phone system and mimic the voices of the dead" and finally the PK [psychokinetik]-from the living theory."Finally we also thought that the witnesses themselves might be unwittingly manufacturing these calls through their own innate mind-over-matter [or psychokinetic] abilities." [Chapter 4.The source of the calls I. Problems and possibilities]The calls themselves are collected into the following categories: 1."crisis" calls , received within 24 hours of the caller's death,2.postmortem calls, received within 7 days after death 3,4,5. calls within 30 days,from 2 to 6 months and after 6 months. The authors also try to explain the "Mechanics of the Calls" [Chapter 6] which seems to be the most difficult of all. "To date unfortunately no phantom caller has ever explained to his bewildered listener just how he produced his call so all we can do is guess" Their remarks though are interesting indeed. They examine two different theories , the electromagnetic theory "If these calls are incoming signals, then the phantom telephone voices would have to be an electromagnetic phenomenon...our witnesses really heard only a pattern of electrical oscillations that imitated human speech." and the paraphysical theory "if however these voices are somehow being produced over or within the specific instruments on which they are received , their nature might be different...they might be some sort of human speech or "independent voice"..speaking directly over the amplifier in the receiver." The authors also include in their book a chapter about the history of EVP [Electronic Voice Phenomena]that is to my opinion -regardless of the informations reported- a mistake of them,[Electronic contact with the dead:A wider Perspective Chapter 8.]since the reader might be confused with informations that don't have to do a lot with the object of the book.Last but not the least in their last chapter [Appendix: some critic of the evidence] the authors don't hesitate and that is to their honour to include in their book the critique of others about their work , though it seems that some of it is against them!"after completing the first major draft of this volume copies were sent to three well known and highly respected parapsychologists , each of whom agreed to write some comments for us.[Dr.Gertrude Schmeidler, Dr.John Palmer and Dr John Beloff.] D. Scott Rogo who unfortunately was brutally murdered on 16 August 1990 and ever since did not communicate with nobody in this mortal world by the phone ,together with his colleague Raymond Bayless seemed to know very well the difficulties of their attempt to explain this paranormal phenomenon. Their investigations lasted two years and reading them is no loss of time. More than two decades later uncountable writers mention their book to their bibliography about several paranormal phenomena mostly related with EVP and ITC investigations. I would like not to write and publish all this , something that it was found out to be against my best will but a review i read about that book to my opinion was completely unfair.Anyway the book is so rare now that the continuation of publishing opinions seems to be hardly expected.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rogo was ahead of his time., November 9, 2009
Skeptics stay away. This book was written for those who are seriously interested in the scientific research of discarnate contact via the telephone. This book is for those who already believe this phenomenon could be real and are trying to discover its origin. As a scientist, you must first have a theory, then a hypothesis and then try to prove it. The research performed by these two men was thoroughly flawless and they leave the conclusions of their experiments up to the reader.
Most of the criticism of this book revolves around how the phone is manipulated to carry on a normal conversation when one of the parties is not physical and why they don't just tell us how they do it. In order for this to happen, you have to have someone dead call you and you have to have enough wits about you to ask the question. Most people would be mortified if a dead person called them.
I can answer both of these questions because someone (not alive) called me on the phone every night for ten years. In my case, they were standing right beside the phone manipulating the ringer and modulator with their electomagnetic energy. They could only manipulate simple pulse phones, (the ones that usually cost about $6.95). Digital phones were too difficult to manipulate.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A flawlessly researched exposition by two highly respected parapsychologists., May 25, 2009
I read this book for the first time in 1982 and found it a real page-turner masterwork on a very unique subject - phone calls from alive people from other realities- a subject matter that is for some strange reason avoided by other metaphysical writers.
So I bought and read this classic, a book that has been out of print for decades, again. I believe it is totally feasible yet I would like to know how the phone system is manipulated, if really a phone call, to make possible the communication of two parties dwelling on different dimensions.
There are three types of call:
1. People who had recently passed on or dead for years to out of the blue call family and friends.
2. The receiving kind: you call a house and somebody who is alive in other realities answers the phone.
3. A conversation with an alive person to another alive: yet one party later on denies either making or receiving such phone call. (These are people who intended to call but never did, yet it seems that the call was psychically made)
The issue here is: How is the phone manipulated to carry on a normal conversation when one of the parties is not physical?
To build a channel of communication among those here and those dwelling on different planes of life deeper and more advanced research on this subject must be done.
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