The Dead Are Alive: They Can and Do Communicate With You

What is Death?   Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was. There is absolutely unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?   I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well.   Harry Scott Holland 1847–1918 Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral.   Chapter 1     HOW IT BEGAN   On December 10, 1974, Wilma Plimpton left this life. She had been unconscious for 72 hours before passing. At least this is what doctors and nurses clinically thought. But Wilma told her husband, A.J., a year or so later after he had established two-way communication with her, that she had been out of her body, in her spirit form, trying to tell him she was still alive, and knew what was going on.   When death of the physical body occurred, said Wilma, she had blacked out, and when she returned to consciousness, she found herself in what appeared to be an almost endless hospital ward with rows of occupied beds and white-attired attendants. Her first thoughts were that A.J. had had her moved to another hospital, until she saw her formerly deceased father and mother standing beside the bed, smiling down at her.   Then, for the first time, the thought struck her: “I must have died! If I’m dead, where am I?” Her parents, sensing her thoughts, explained that she was in what might be called a Rest Home, one of many which exist around the earth, where most people are transported at death, to remain for longer or shorter periods, until they become adapted to the new conditions.   As Wilma became more and more aware of her surroundings, which seemed to be as real and substantial as her earth existence had been, she was almost overwhelmed by the emotional pull of A.J.’s grief upon her.   The effect on Wilma was such that, while she didn’t know how it could be done, she felt she had to respond to A.J.’s mental call and return to earth and try to assure him that she was still alive—that there was a life after death, in which he had not believed—and that they, one day, could be re-united.   As Wilma had these thoughts, she suddenly found herself in the Plimpton home in Oklahoma, and in the physical presence of A.J. who was, at that moment, gazing fixedly at her photograph. She heard her own voice speaking to him but was frustrated to observe that he didn’t hear it. She followed him about the rest of the day, in his car, wherever he went, trying to embrace him, to comfort him, to catch his attention in one way or another—and her fruitless efforts continued until night when A.J. finally retired, and went to sleep, calling her name.   It was then that Wilma intercepted his thought and sensed that he was contemplating suicide, since he felt he could not go on without her.      In January of 1975, a little more than a month after Wilma’s demise, a despondent A.J. still intent on doing away with himself, passed a newsstand and was challenged by a paperback book title, YOU LIVE AFTER DEATH by Harold Sherman. He bought it on impulse, wondering skeptically if he could have been wrong, if there could be a form of continuing life after death. In any event, he decided that he would see what this writer had to say.   I, of course, was the author of this book. It had first been published in 1949, and after a number of editions in hard cover, had gone into paperback with Fawcett Publications, now known as CBS-Fawcett, New York City, where YOU LIVE AFTER DEATH has remained a best seller ever since.   A.J. took the book home and read it that night. When he came to the last page, he saw a letter from me wherein I invited all who had had psychic experiences to write me a report of them, in care of my ESP Research Associates Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas.   A.J. was sufficiently impressed by what I had to say about the possibility of Survival to write me, asking if I knew any way he could learn how to communicate with his wife, Wilma, provided she still existed. He said he didn’t know anything about the subject of Psychic Phenomena, but he was willing to approach it with an open mind if I could show him how he could undertake his own research and develop his own proof of life after death.   We exchanged correspondence until the day that A.J. motored from his home in Oklahoma to meet me in my home in north central Arkansas. We spent the first hour getting acquainted. He told me he had spent the major part of his adult life in the production end of the oil business; that he had also owned a Flying Service in Florida, engaged in the selling of new and old planes, as well as helicopters. “I owned a helicopter myself and Wilma and I used to cover the country on combined business and pleasure trips.” Music was an avocation with A.J. who was a fine organist. He had a magnificent Theatre Organ installed in his home but all the music had gone out of his life when Wilma had died and he sold the instrument and resolved he would never play again.   As I studied A.J., I found him to be a man of great intensity of purpose. He said that he wanted me to tell him all I could about different forms of research so he could decide how to go about it himself. If I thought there was a chance of his managing to communicate with Wilma, he was willing to devote day and night to it.   When I learned that A.J. knew a great deal about electronics, that one of his sons was an electronic engineer with NASA, I decided to suggest that he concentrate his efforts on experimentation with Electronic Voice Phenomena.   “What’s that?” A.J. wanted to know.   “Let me take a few minutes to explain,” said I. “It’s known simply as the tape recording of spirit voices. There’s a history connected with this development.”   I went to my files and brought out a brief account, which I read to A.J.   “ ‘In 1959, Friedrich Jurgenson, of Molubo, Sweden, while recording ‘bird sounds,’ in a forest, was astounded when he played back the tape, to find human voices on it, one of which appeared to be his long deceased mother’s voice. He heard his own name called and then the words, ‘Friedrich, you are being watched.’ The more he listened, the more he became convinced that these sounds were not radio signals; they were coming through on tape in different languages—Swedish, German or Latvian.   “ ‘Jurgenson concluded that these voices had to be emanating from another Dimension. Before making his discovery public, however, he devoted four years to a careful and systematic experimentation, during which time he recorded some several thousand voices. He encountered interference with what is called ‘white sound,’ through which the voices had to emerge, some exceptionally faint or in whispers, and occasionally loud and easy to hear, often establishing their identity as entities who had formerly lived on earth.   “ ‘In 1965, Dr. Konstantin Raudive, psychologist and author of a number of philosophical books, visited Jurgenson and together they made a number of successful recordings. Later, returned to his home on the edge of the Black Forest, in Germany, Dr. Raudive undertook the enormous task of recording, analyzing and cataloguing some eighty thousand ‘paranormal voices,’ with the aid of fellow scientists and engineers. This job completed, he reported his findings in an epoch-making book titled, BREAKTHROUGH, which inspired electronically-minded researchers to undertake investigations of their own, with like significant results.   “ ‘One of them, G. Gilbert Bonner, well known English researcher, made many thousands of recordings, quite a number of which were in extended dialogue of nearly 30 minutes duration.   “ ‘On the evidence of such recordings,’ said Bonner, ‘and also on the content of the material, I am certain these voices have their origin in another Dimension. I challenge any parapsychologist to prove that these recordings are not paranormal. These cannot be explained away by radio intrusion or noises mistaken for voices. In some cases, the age, sex and even the personality of the speaker are clearly identified. It is hardly likely that all these are psychokinesis. The voices speak in logical sentences of five to ten words at a time—call to a person by name—and identify themselves as people who previously lived on earth. They also reveal that they can SEE us and, at times, even display a knowledge of the future.’   “ ‘Then Bonner added: ‘Their manifestation through tape recording of their voices challenges the very foundation of scientific thinking.’   “ ‘Two of the pioneer investigators in the United States were the Lamoreaux brothers, Joseph and Mike, of Washington State. In their experimentation, they also recorded some thousands of voices, and received many messages in answer to questions which they carefully and systematically recorded for future checking and evaluation. When a friend, Jim Remich, was accidentally killed, they were able to contact him after a time, and in one communicative session, they asked him if there were any Rules for Living, like our ‘Ten Commandments,’ where he was.   “ ‘Yes, there are,’ was Jim’s recorded reply. ‘If you will leave your tape running, I will try to give them to you.’ The Lamoreaux brothers did as directed, and these are the exact words which appeared on the tape.   “There are Six Rules. “The First Rule is to live as though you are part of everyone. “The Second Rule is to help everyone. “The Third Rule is to not let anyone feel alone. “The Fourth Rule is to love everyone. “The Fifth Rule is to forgive everyone. “The Sixth Rule is to live like you are one with everyone and everyone is one with God.”   A.J. had listened intently to my reading of this information and seemed deeply impressed and moved by it.   “Our ESP Foundation is acting as a clearing house for many independent researchers who are experimenting with the tape recording of spirit voices,” I told him. “There is much work yet to be done. Everyone is trying to reduce the volume of sound interference so the voices can come through with greater clarity. These investigators are checking with each other and exchanging helpful suggestions about methods they are using which have seemed to improve reception.”   “Give me all the instructions you can. I’ll buy the equipment needed, and get to work!”   For answer, I handed A.J. a pamphlet our ESP Foundation had prepared on information furnished us by William “Bill” Welch, author of TALKS WITH THE DEAD (Pinnacle Publishing). We had booked Bill to be on our Body, Mind and Spirit Healing Workshop program to be held in St. Louis, but Bill had died of cancer shortly before the scheduled date. A noted Hollywood screen writer, Bill had devoted many hours to “spirit voice” recording.   As a tribute to him, we established a William Welch Memorial Research Division of our ESP Foundation and have made his Instructive Message available to all “spirit voice” researchers.   It reads, as follows, opening with Bill Welch’s statement: “This is how I have talked with the dead in receiving more than 20,000 of what I believe to be ‘spirit voices.’ If you wish to follow my simple methods, I feel you can, in time, achieve like results.”