EVP, a Visionary Experience and Rediscovering Nostradamus

Nostradamus coat of arms from Ottavio Cesare Ramotti's Nostradamus: The Lost Manuscript (English translation 1998)

This morning before waking, I had a short dream about encountering an enormous scarab beetle.  For some reason, nobody else had yet noticed the beetle perched at the top of some shelves in the room.  One dream dictionary that a friend gave me specifies that beetles are an indication of jealousy and hostility around one.  I can only think that anyone with those feelings about myself hasn't read very much of this autobiographical series of articles.  Over the years, most of the people who've expressed disapproval were individuals who hadn't bothered to read anything I've written.  When one realizes that there is a shared aspect to each of our individual 'higher selves' in 'Oneness' (God) and that we each have our own 'guide' interacting with us from the ascended state, one should consider how to best manifest this knowledge in service to others on planet Earth.

I've been a metaphysical author for 22 years and it has sometimes been observed that some people have great resistance to my 'message' or messages, depending on how and when they perceive my efforts.  One of the important truths I've learned from experiencing and reading about transcendental communication cases is that human relationships can be ruled by an individual projecting his or her own personality traits onto others when interacting with them.  Metaphysical authors and anybody actually may be perceived by someone else based on that person's own past experiences and orientation.  Personally, I've always striven to avoid any commercialization beyond having published a first paperback edition of Testament.  

Something that may not be clear is that a fundamental motivation of myself as a metaphysical author is sharing my own experience of 'Love' in life.  Of course, Love is something not easily defined and the way I now look at it is to equate Love with God as Creator desiring to Be and then to experience joy through Giving.  The extent of this Giving is beyond calculation.

Dreams are an aspect of the transcendental as are so-called 'paranormal phenomena.'  Transcendental communicator Lazaris has defined the 'Secret' as "You are not really alone.  There is a Source; there is a Love; there is a God.  We would suggest that there is a God / Goddess / All That Is."  (The Sacred Journey: You and Your Higher Self 1987)  Here are some perspectives about transcendence from Lazaris:

Transcendence is changing something from one form to a higher octave form that is intrinsically and personally more valuable.  

Transcendence is allowing miracles into your life.  Let more miracles happen.  Love is the guarantee in the world of no guarantees!  Love allows miracles.  

My Unexpected Path of Spiritual Discovery (Article 18)

September 21, 1995.  Upon obtaining the Dictaphone transcribing equipment that provided an improved amplifying system for listening to the interviews on microcassettes recorded in the Oklahoma house designated the site of a 'talking poltergeist' haunting, I gradually became a more experienced transcriber.  Upon listening closely to the tapes, I found that 'spirit messages' often occurred and there was a wide range of unattributed sounds, some being startlingly fantastic.  I would eventually discover that what I labeled as “spirit messages” in my interview transcripts had come to be categorized as an area of paranormal research known as ‘Electronic Voice Phenomena’ (EVP) yet my own discovery and investigation was done without any knowledge that scientists had noticed and studied the phenomena.

After becoming more familiar with EVP, I soon recognized that there were few limits to how recorded spirit utterances can be characterized.  Some are so clear that they can sound like an ordinary human voice while others can consist of parts of words or sound like fragmentary jargon — perhaps a phrase lacking at least one syllable.  The messages are usually of short duration.  In preparing the transcript of the Centrahoma interviews, I capitalized the spirit messages and put them in parentheses.  When I listened closely to the recordings of my initial two telephone conversations with Maxine Mc Wethy, when she began to answer my question about the spirit demonstrating mind-reading by saying, “Yes,” a spirit message could then be detected: “IT’S FU —.”  When I first heard it, I  thought I heard 'FUN' and that's how I typed the message in the transcript: (“IT’S FUN”).  After gaining more EVP experience and studying the tape again, I didn't hear the entire word 'fun.'  Later after many more years of research, it became obvious that there can be a telepathic component involving some instances of EVP.  Once when I listened to Art Bell interview EVP researchers on "Coast to Coast AM," listeners called in and reported hearing different words when some EVP recordings were played in succession on the radio show broadcast.      

Listening to the ‘spirit messages’ including word fragments interspersed with the interview commentary, I noticed that there were many occasions when what sounded like a word attributed as a spirit message would be followed with one of the interview participants saying the same word, myself included.  Not all apparent spirit utterances were loud and clear enough to be comprehensible.  As I gained experience, there would be other attributes associated with this phenomena that would continually expand my comprehension of the breadth and complexity of what was possible with spirit messages/EVP.

Becoming familiar with clairaudient cases of mediumship, I learned that at times psychics also may hear only fragments of words at times so there is a parallel between EVP and psychic mediumship.

Transcribing the tapes, while some words and phrases seemed clearly to be spirit messages, others were impossible to know for certain if they might be attributable as an unusual fluctuation of an interview participant’s voice.  In addition to the array of spirit vocalizations on the tapes were an array of diverse unattributed sounds.  To keep a record of the sounds in the transcript I began keeping a glossary of symbols used for this with the most frequently heard recurring sounds listed first.  When it eventually came time to publish the documentary-style collection of interviews and journals that I thought would be the best way of bringing forth my astonishing experiences, I was concerned that prospective readers could be discouraged from purchasing the book due to the inclusion of the spirit messages and unattributed sound symbols yet initially I'd felt that this was the only way to provide an accurate account.

At one point I decided to remove the unattributed sound symbols altogether from the first edition of the paperback Testament yet as I stared making deletions, the EVP message in the transcript that immediately confronted me was "DON'T CHANGE IT."

"But they'll think I'm crazy," I may have told my ever-present guide, who I've learned to usually rely on (as most 'mediums' and 'channels' profess in their autobiographies) when some obvious meaning is noticeable during some moment of guidance.  The variety of this transcendental communication in my own life is detailed in other blog articles.

On November 3, I experienced an apparent visionary event.  I was at home looking out the sliding glass doors leading to the small patio when I was astonished to see a missile ascend into the sky beyond the eastern hillside.  When following this there were no reports to be found of any other people having seen the huge missile, I realized the visionary aspect of what I'd seen.  The word for this is 'clairvoyance.'  I estimated that the famous Nostradamus could be such a person and his letter to Francois Berrard mentions what seems to be clairaudient dictation.  Over the years, I’d seen television reports about the sixteenth century French prophet and astrologer; and also a fictionalized 1994 European biofilm.  I’d saved a couple books about him as well yet it was only after my visionary experience that I was compelled to again research his works.  I obtained a new 1994 “millennium edition” of The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus translated, edited and interpreted by Henry C. Roberts.  The paperback included a “Preface to First Edition,” which was described as “A Letter of Dedication to his son, Caesar Nostradamus.”  I was surprised to discover that despite him often being presented as a man of mystery, Michel de Nostredame had left a document from Salon dated March 1, 1555 that offered precise commentary about his work.

Nostradamus mentioned “the things which the Divine Essence hath revealed to me by astronomical revolutions” and offered a surprising consideration in light of the accuracy of some of his famous predictions: “. . . events are definitely uncertain, and that all is governed by the power of God . . .”  He explained, “. . . I was willing for the common good to enlarge myself in dark and abstruse sentences, declaring the future events, chiefly the most urgent and those which I foresaw (whatever human mutation happened) would not offend the hearers, all under dark figures more than prophetical.”  Nostradamus stated, “The prophets, by means only of the immortal God and good Angels, have received the spirit of vaticination, by which they foresee things, and foretell future events . . . Only by the means of some indivisible eternal being, and by Herculean agitation the causes come to be known by this celestial motion . . . the perfect knowledge of the cause of things cannot be acquired without the divine inspiration . . . Therefore, my son, thou mayest, notwithstanding thy tender brain, comprehend things that shall happen hereafter, and may be foretold by celestial natural lights, and by the spirit of prophecy . . . .”

Most of what I’d seen written about or dramatizing the life of Nostradamus had overlooked the associations with ‘Divine Essence’ and the Angelic.  

As I continued to attempt to better understand this intermediary Presence in my life having an identity linked with the famous Archangel through the nickname 'Michael' used in the Oklahoma house, I eventually would find another commentary about Michael in the eleventh edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 18 that included:

He holds the secret of the mighty “word” by which God created heaven and earth (Enoch lxix. 14), and was “the angel who spoke to Moses in the Mount” (Acts vii. 38).  It was through Babylonian and Persian influence that names were given to the angels, and according to Kohut Jiid. Angel. P. 24) Michael is parallel to Vohumano, “Ahura’s first masterpiece,” one of the Zoroastrian Amesha-spentas or archangels.  It is as guardian angel of Israel or of the Church, the true Israel, that Michael appears in Jude 9 and Rev. xii. 7.  This latter passage is of distinctly pre-Christian origin; it is not the Child that overthrows Satan, the figure of the Messiah is ousted by that of Michael.  There is also here a relic of the primeval Babylonian myth of the struggle between the light God Marduk and the forces of chaotic darkness.

I became simply accustomed to life with an unseen Presence interacting with me.  Living alone, I found myself often speaking to ‘Michael’ or ‘Boo,’ which were my usual nicknames at the time.  I guess ‘Boo’ was an emotional regression to my childhood when my favorite stuffed animal I’d named ‘Boo-Boo” (perhaps an influence from watching “Yogi Bear” cartoons).  After beginning this discourse with the never-audibly-responsive ‘Boo’ (unless you consider the EVP) occasionally there would be synchronicities involving ‘Betty Boop’ character paraphernalia as an aspect of the diverse manifestations.

an Internet image provides an example

After my paranormal initiation, I had little interest in fictional pastimes.  While growing up I'd occasionally read nonfiction books about the paranormal and this continued to be my choice of reading materials.  My desire now was to expand upon what I'd learned from my personal 'paranormal initiation.'  

I found a correlation between the unattributed sounds I was hearing on audio cassettes with a 19th Century account of Spiritualist research.  The source was The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism (1907) by Hereward Carrington.  The chapter entitled “Raps” quoted from an earlier book: Researches in The Phenomena of Spiritualism (1874) by William Crookes (1832-1919), an eminent English chemist and physicist.  Years later I would explore the history of the field of paranormal experimentation known as ‘Electronic Voice Phenomena’ and find further correlations.  Consisting of articles that originally appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Science between 1871 and 1874, Researches in The Phenomena of Spiritualism offers an account of “careful scientific testing experiments” relating to the investigation into phenomena at the time popularly associated with ‘Spiritualism,’ a spiritual movement centering on 'spirit communication.'

Included in the book by Crookes is the article “Experimental Investigation of a New Force” where he excitedly chronicled “certain definite results which I think it right should be published.  These experiments appear conclusively to establish the existence of a new force, in some unknown manner connected with the human organization, which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force.”  The article divulged that investigations in the presence of Daniel Dunglas Home had enabled Crookes “to affirm so conclusively the existence of this Force.”

The experiments I have tried have been very numerous, but owing to our imperfect knowledge of the conditions that favour or oppose the manifestations of this force, to the apparently capricious manner in which it is exerted, and to the fact that Mr. Home himself is subject to unaccountable ebbs and flows of the force, it has but seldom happened that a result obtained on one occasion could be subsequently confirmed and tested with apparatus specially contrived for the purpose.

Among the remarkable phenomena which occur under Mr. Home’s influence, the most striking, as well as the most easily tested with scientific accuracy, are— (1) the alteration in the weight of bodies, and (2) the playing of tunes upon musical instruments (generally an accordion, for convenience of portability) without direct human intervention, under conditions rendering contact or connections with the keys impossible.

The article on the subject of “Psychic Force” that followed gave further background information on the previous experiments of Crookes and chronicled his new experiments offering evidence of this Force.  He recalled the announcement of his plan “to investigate the phenomena of so-called spiritualism . . . called forth universal expressions of approval.”  He now observed about the reaction of what I call 'denialists':

These remarks, however, were written too hastily.  It was taken for granted by the writers that the results of my experiments would be in accordance with their preconceptions. What they really desired was not the truth, but an additional witness in favour of their own foregone conclusion.  When they found that the facts which that investigation established could not be made to fit those opinions, why,—"so much the worse for the facts."  They try to creep out of their own confident recommendations of the inquiry by declaring that "Mr. Home is a clever conjurer, who has duped us all."

Crookes noted that such remarks "imply a curious oblivion of the very functions which the scientific enquirer has to fulfil."

In an 1874 article, Crookes proceeded to classify some of the phenomena he’d noticed.  He specified: “. . . with the exception of cases specially mentioned, the occurrences have taken place in my own house, in the light, and with only private friends present besides the medium.”  The classifications established by Crookes included “The Rising of Tables and Chairs off the ground, without contact with any person,” “The Appearance of Hands, either Self-Luminous or Visible by Ordinary Light,” “Direct Writing,” “Phantom Forms and Faces,” and “Special Instances which seem to point to the Agency of an Exterior Intelligence.”

Allocated to the final category “Class XIII Miscellaneous Occurrences of a Complex Character,” Crookes described two separate incidents in the presence of mediums (Kate Fox and then D. D. Home) where spirit communication presented “alphabetic” messages with letters indicated by ‘raps’ or ‘taps.’  The second of the thirteen classifications formulated by Crookes “The Phenomena of Percussive and other Allied Sounds” provided the information cited in Hereward Carrington’s book that presented me with a previously documented case showing some precedent to my hearing “unattributed sounds” on audio cassette tapes.  Details provided by Crookes for this class of phenomena included, “At different times, during my experiments, I have heard delicate ticks, as with the point of a pin; a cascade of sharp sounds as from an induction coil in full work; detonations in the air; sharp metallic taps; a cracking like that heard when a frictional machine is at work; sounds like scratching; the twittering as of a bird, &c.”

Listening to the interview microcassettes with the Dictaphone transcribing equipment made it easier to discern what was being said during the Centrahoma interviews although some moments remained difficult to distinguish, including Bill’s comments as sometimes his voice wasn’t much more than a whisper.  The pedal made it easy to rewind the tapes for repeated listening.

Two recurrent messages were “YEAH” and “YOU KNOW,” words that I recalled Twyla had told me that her family often heard Michael say.  One prominent 'spirit message' voice heard repeatedly had a low-pitched whispery tone in stark contrast to how the family had described Michael’s voice as being “high-pitched.”  When I’d asked the family if any one of them had ever experienced any missing time periods usually associated with UFO encounters, they hadn’t recalled any such missing time but an EVP instance could be heard on the tape: “YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.”  This mention of ‘missing time’ seemed to refer to additional time as I was able to accomplish an extraordinary amount of interviewing.  The published tape transcripts don’t document the periods when the tape recorder was turned off.

In several different places on the tapes, there could be heard strange whispering in the background where I couldn’t distinguish what was being said and my recollection of the interview ruled out any attribution to family members.

The spirit messages often commented on what was being said during the interview.  One example is “metallic-sounding spirit giggling” being heard while Maxine and I were considering about what could be occurring in the attic.  I’d read descriptions of spirit voices as having a metallic quality but didn’t understand what the adjective was meant to convey until hearing this instance of EVP.  Other messages seemed intended to be communicated at the time I was listening to the tape.  Some of the EVP and unattributed sounds emphasized particular words of comments made by interview participants.

There seemed no limit to the types of voice phenomena heard on the tapes.  I was astonished to hear one EVP that sounded like the voice of Allison, a co-worker from the Paramount publicity department happily saying my name.  Another voice sounded uniquely like my friend Fiona saying “HI."  The significance of hearing my friends’ voices recorded on a tape in Oklahoma seemed a clear indication courtesy of Michael that there were aspects of their individual personalities that existed beyond the constraints of time and space as we are accustomed in our familiar day-to-day reality.  Other spirit messages sounded like they were in other languages while there were a few that sounded like something recorded in reverse.  Last week when I used a microcassette tape recorder for the first time in many years, there were some malfunctions and during playback of one of the white noise periods I heard a clear EVP of a voice saying my first name "MARK."  I didn't recognize the voice.

While transcribing the transcripts, on one of the most amazing portions of tape there were what sounded distinctly like battlefield sounds of explosions and gunfire.  These war noises and an Indian wail could be heard repeatedly in the same sequence during the numerous times I replayed the tape.  At the time, this incident exceeded all my estimations of what was possible.   Another surprising EVP instance was the sound of felines loudly caterwauling. 

On some tapes there were manifold unattributed sounds and the majority of them I identified as “clicking, clock or ticking” or “knocking/hammering upon wood.”  Some of them I couldn’t seem to find a satisfactory way of expressing until, during a visit to my brother’s office I crossed paths with a familiar face who’d also once worked in the Paramount publicity department, Jennifer.  When I was discussing the difficulty presented by the unattributed sounds on the interview tapes I was transcribing, she humorously commented that there was probably even tap-dancing going on.  I realized that her comment was exactly what some of the sounds sounded like so I added this description to the glossary of unattributed sounds that I was compiling for my manuscript.  This glossary used a specific symbol for each particular sound designation as it was simplest in this manner to document where the sounds were audible on the tapes.  One of the many surprising occurrences was when all the members of the family in Oklahoma spontaneously said “yeah” at precisely the same time.

As I became more accustomed to spirit messages/EVP, in addition to such words as “NO,” “YEAH” or “RIGHT” augmenting sentences, it became noticeable that there were instances of the phenomena where a word would be inserted at the beginning of a sentence or between two sentences as another variation of Guidance commentary, such as “SO,” “BUT” or “LIKE.”  Hearing the word “NO” on a recording in the middle of a sentence and thus negating what was being said impelled me to carefully listen to people’s speech.  In addition to incidents of EVP, when engaged in talking with people I noticed incidents where they were speaking and then subconsciously negated what they were saying by themselves uttering “no” in the middle of a statement although they weren't aware of it. 

I had some strange experiences with messages left via telephone calls at my Pacific Bell message center.  Around Halloween a message had been recorded that sounded like Fiona saying my name.  I thought that maybe there was a technical malfunction and a portion of the message had been lost but when I called Fiona, she said that she hadn’t called me.  The next day Twyla called me and mentioned, “Oh, Michael said he was going to call you.”  The main reason for Twyla phoning me was to tell me that she’d been notified that the television special featuring a TV show documentary segment featuring the family had been scheduled for November 30.

I went on to discover that EVP communication is commonly noticeable on radio broadcasts and any unedited program recordings, including television broadcasts. YouTube videos from previous decades provide the evidence.  As one becomes experienced with EVP, the range of phenomena becomes noticeable.  When closely observing interviews, one may start contemplating aspects of communication such as voice fluctuation and subconsciously motivated utterances of such self expressions as 'yeah' and 'you know.'  Before giving my attention to studying EVP with YouTube recordings, I hadn't realized how people's voices can show pronounced changes during interviews and this may include the interviewer.  For beginners, I would recommend one begin with studying a recording of oneself and listening very closely to every utterance and word.

I saw my attorney on a couple occasions.  One afternoon, Jonathan was helping me shop for a new computer and we both witnessed what seemed to me an obvious demonstration by Michael.  Jonathan and I were walking past a stack of boxed software and one of the boxes on the flat top of the display flew off and tumbled to the floor.  We both clearly saw what happened but when I reminded Jonathan about it, he was adamant that it had nothing to do with Michael.  When I asked him what explanation he could offer, he said, “Gravity.”

I became accustomed to listening to some religious radio shows on my way home from the gym.  It was evident that contemporary Christianity spanned an immense variety of doctrine and interpretations.  I found especially interesting a call-in show where there were occasional testimonials about contemporary signs and wonders that I’d never heard reported in the media before, including accounts of speaking in tongues and other unexplained phenomena occurring among Vineyard Movement congregations.  I eventually subscribed to a free monthly publication offered on one of the radio shows: Personal Update, the news journal of Koinonia House.  One article by Lambert Dolphin in particular caught my attention — “Physics and the Bible: The Other Side of the Vacuum” (volume 7, number 4, April 1997).

We are left on our own to infer the real existence of kitchens, closets, banquet halls and libraries in the heavenly lands!  For example, the library in God's house must surely contain books in multidimensional living color — books that contain in minute detail the history of the world as it really happened, all recorded by special angels (see Ezekiel 9:2 for instance).

If, then, we are being prepared now to live in wonderful new bodies we also can look forward to dwelling in a splendid new house and city.

For several years following my trip to Oklahoma, I routinely recorded commentary, interviews and telephone calls, and occasional excerpts of radio shows to continue my audio journal.

Below are the final two pages of the paperback first edition of Testament — click on the Glossary for a larger image.  The glossary and symbols weren't used in the Internet edition of the book due to html limitations at the time.