In The Wake Of

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Story 1.

Phone calls from the dead.

We have previously explored reports concerning the spirits of those who have passed on, but this week we will be examining a phenomenon which is even more bewildering.

Instances in which friends and relatives have received what should have otherwise been an impossible phone call from the dead.

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.

When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four-litre jug.

When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

Oh,

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia Trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip.

Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

Whatever.

You were made to outdo your holidays.

We were made to help organize the competition.

Expedia, made to travel.

When the phone fixed to the far wall of the kitchen began to ring, Bonnie McConnell had been on the other side of the room preparing dinner.

It was a Sunday evening, and although she had not been expecting a call, her first instinct was to answer it, something she could not act upon because of the thick layer of foodstuffs covering her fingers.

Calling out to her husband, who was sitting in the adjoining room watching television, she finished what she was doing and hurried across to the sink to clean up.

While she quickly toweled the remaining water from her hands, Bonnie had listened out for any hint of who the unknown caller might be as her husband lifted the receiver.

After a few polite words, He had turned and offered the phone to her, whispering that it was their old friend Enid on the other end of the line.

Bonnie could not help but smile as she had lifted the receiver to her ear, aware that she had not spoken to Enid Jolson for over a year.

The subsequent conversation had gone on for some time, with Jolson informing Bonnie that she was quite well and that she had recently moved to a nursing home much closer to the McConnell residence.

The call had ended with Bonnie promising to visit the following day, and that she would purchase a bottle of Enid's favourite brandy on her way over.

But the old lady's tone had suddenly changed, remarking that she had no need for such vices anymore.

With that, the phone call ended.

This unexpected contact from their old friend took up the majority of the McConnell's dinner conversation that evening.

with Bonnie eagerly looking forward to her trip across town.

The next morning, upon asking the receptionist at the nursing home which room Enid was in, the look she had received was one of concern.

The worker had informed her that unfortunately, Mrs.

Jolson had recently passed away, offering sympathy for Bonnie's loss and apologies for her wasted journey.

Shocked at the news, Bonnie inquired as to how this had happened, as she had only spoken to her friend the night before.

Almost immediately, a confused expression fell upon the receptionist's face.

In a soothing tone, she politely informed the visitor that she must be mistaken, as she had been on duty when Mrs.

Jolson had been found deceased in her bed the previous morning, many hours before the alleged phone call had taken place.

In their 1979 book, Phone Calls from the Dead, parapsychologists Raymond Bayliss and D.

Scott Rogo examine the aforementioned phenomenon in great depth.

For as long as there have been methods of electronic communication between the living, there have been reports that spirits of the departed are somehow able to access these devices and make contact from beyond the grave.

Having looked at numerous examples of this, The authors noted several common themes.

The majority of such contacts occurred within the first 24 hours of the deceased caller having passed on, although in a limited number of cases, this period could be extended for up to two years.

A significant number of the callers seemed to be almost confused or disorientated for the duration of the call, discussing subjects which were either cryptic or irrelevant with the recipient.

Quite often, the witnesses involved reported that the quality of the line was very poor, with the words being spoken difficult to distinguish because of static or white noise.

In addition, it was common for the voice of the speaker to be described as muffled or metallic, sometimes sounding as if they were standing some distance from the handset.

Eventually, After analysing and assessing the various reports they had managed to unearth, the two scientists formed the opinion that such calls could be divided into two different categories.

The first of these classifications involves receiving a call from someone who has passed away, although the caller does not speak when the phone is answered.

The second presents as a seemingly innocuous call from a loved one, where it is later discovered that the conversation should have been impossible, as the friend or relative in question had recently passed on.

In the spring of 1969, a young man named Carl had rented a cottage for a weekend vacation.

On arriving at his accommodation, the holidaymaker was pleasantly surprised to find an old-fashioned telephone handset sitting on the bedside table.

But on the first evening of his trip, He had been drifting off to sleep when he was unexpectedly awoken by the sound of the phone ringing insistently beside him.

Half Half asleep and glancing at his wristwatch, Carl could see that it was 11.15pm, which led him to believe that the call must be important.

Lifting the handset, he was somewhat bewildered to hear his father's voice on the other end of the line, informing him that his mother needed to speak with him.

When he tried to ask what the issue was, His father had continued to speak, almost as if he was not hearing Carl's replies.

The younger man had become increasingly concerned and frustrated as he was repeatedly urged to call her.

He demanded to know why his father could not simply pass the phone over as his mother should have been there with him.

After a minute or two, having made no progress, His father had suddenly made reference to the fact that he was in a beautiful place, and then hung up.

Replacing the receiver, Carl had then tried several times to call his parents' home number, only to find that the phone on the nightstand seemed unable to make outgoing calls.

Irritated, he got out of bed and searched the rest of the cottage for another phone, only to discover that the one in the bedroom appeared to be the only phone inside the premises.

Having struggled to sleep that night, Carl had risen early the following morning and made his way into the nearest town so that he could place a call call to his parents.

Upon locating a public phone booth, he was shocked to discover from relatives that his mother was unable to speak to him at that time as she was still far too upset.

She had been lying in bed with his father the previous evening when he had suddenly begun to convulse, dying of a heart attack a short time later.

On making further inquiries with his family, he was even more unnerved to discover the time of his father's death, which had been recorded by the attending paramedics, as 11:15pm.

It was only afterwards, as he had hurriedly packed his things back at the cottage, that the bewildered and traumatised holidaymaker discovered that the phone by his bed was purely ornamental and had never been connected to a working phone line.

During the course of some of these exchanges, the caller demonstrates a definite purpose or agenda as they speak, determined to ensure that the reason for their call is fully understood by the recipient.

It is during these incidents that Bayliss and Rogo noticed the highest percentage of allegedly robotic or distorted speech patterns reported by witnesses.

Perhaps the most famous example of this kind of call, and indeed the most high-profile person to have allegedly received one, is horror author Dean Kuntz.

In September of 1988, Koontz had been at work when his office phone began to ring.

As his number was unlisted and only known to a select group of people, the writer had answered, reasoning it must be important.

For a few seconds, there had been no sound on the line save for crackling and static, but then a female voice had suddenly uttered the phrase, please be careful.

Bewildered, Koontz had inquired as to the caller's identity, only for her to ignore the question and instead repeat her request two further times, before hanging up.

After the call, and as only a few people knew his office phone number, Koontz spent time puzzling over the caller's identity.

She had sounded much like his grandmother, but she had died some 20 years prior.

Finally, reasoning that it must be a mistake or prank, he had shrugged the incident off and carried on with his work.

Two days later, whilst he was visiting his father at a care home, the old man had become confused and agitated.

The incident quickly escalated.

to the point where Staff had left Dean struggling with his father, who had gone on to arm himself himself with a fishing knife.

After what seemed an eternity, Koontz was finally able to disarm him.

At that exact moment, a police officer arrived and aimed his weapon at the author, mistakenly thinking he was attacking the old man.

The words from the strange phone call two days before had hit Koontz like a sledgehammer.

In a heartbeat, he dropped the knife and backed away.

For years afterwards, Kuntz would relate to people how, if he had not suddenly realised the significance of the call from his deceased grandmother, he would likely have walked towards the officer holding the knife and would probably have been shot as a consequence.

Of course, the direction of these calls is not always one way.

There are examples in which a living person may phone somebody, only to find out afterwards that the person they spoke to had died before the call was even made.

In these cases, there is often far less of a tangible link between the parties involved, and the conversations are usually much more mundane in nature.

One such example which the parapsychologists cited in their work was that of an employee at a phone company named Mary, who in late April of 1985 had attempted to close a sales call to a residential number in Pennsylvania.

The call had been answered by what sounded like an older woman, who identified herself as Mrs.

B.,

the wife of the homeowner.

Mary immediately began to recite her tried and tested sales script, inquiring who the family's current telecoms provider was.

and gently increasing the pressure when she was subsequently informed it was AT ⁇ T.

For a time, the saleswoman sensed that she may be close to successfully closing on a new contract.

But then, just prior to the end of the call, Mrs.

B had somewhat relented, stating that her husband was a lifelong and loyal AT ⁇ T customer and would not want to change providers.

On inquiring if she could speak with him, Mary was told that he was unavailable at that time.

He had recently retired and was always out fishing.

Having noted down that the couple were unhappy with what they were being charged by their existing provider, Mary then agreed a time to phone back and ended the call.

The following evening, she rang the couple at the pre-arranged time and was relieved that on this occasion, it was a male voice that answered.

However, upon identifying herself, the conversation quickly became uncomfortable, with the man stating that he did not appreciate cold callers trying to sell him things he had no interest in buying.

Used to being rebuffed by reluctant customers, Mary had apologised for the intrusion and stated that there must be some misunderstanding, as she had spoken to the man's wife the day before and that they had agreed on an appropriate time to call back.

For a few moments, the line had remained silent.

The man then became angry, stating that the reason he had not been home the day before was because he was at his wife's funeral.

The line then went dead as he terminated the call.

When examining these cases, it seems easy to dismiss out of hand the idea of people being contacted by the dead.

Often it is alleged that the person receiving the call must have been tired or mistaken about what they heard on the line.

Sometimes incidents are explained away as dreams or the product of overactive imaginations.

The fact that in most cases there is no tangible evidence to prove the call ever took place offers no lead in finding the truth of the matter.

Witnesses have reported that the dead have phoned them from withheld or private numbers, sometimes from phone numbers they recognise or those which are already saved in their device.

But examination of call histories and phone bills never show any record of these communications, only further undermining the testimony of those reporting them.

But this does not necessarily prove that the witness didn't experience something strange.

Bayliss and Rogo postulated that in these occurrences, no call ever takes place.

Instead, The spirits of the dead might merely manipulate communications devices to give the impression that a call was received.

Some commentators have attempted to tie these experiences to other phenomena.

For instance, a middle-aged woman traveling through Nebraska one evening observed a strange object in the skies which followed her car for nearly two hours.

Just as she returned home, her phone began to ring.

The man who spoke to her on the other end of the line had a metallic tone to his voice and identified himself as Roger.

When she informed him that she didn't know anyone by that name, he told her that he was her brother and then hung up.

The woman, who was an only child, shrugged the incident off as a wrong number,

but some years later she learned that long before she was born, her mother had given birth to a stillborn baby boy, who had he survived, would have been named Roger.

She couldn't help feeling that the sighting of the strange object and the subsequent phone call was somehow related.

The fact remains that these instances are so commonly reported throughout the world, from witnesses across multiple communities and backgrounds, that it seems almost cynical to simply pretend they do not happen.

If the spirits of the dead can manifest themselves physically to their loved ones, leaving no trace of their appearance, then why should they not be able to do the same in utilizing technology?

Perhaps the most defining characteristic of this phenomenon, unlike others we have examined, is the positivity surrounding these interactions.

During such conversations,

recipients receive important information from the callers, often providing them with one final, unexpected chance to speak with their loved ones.

And in some cases, such calls have even been known to help an individual avoid misfortune or tragedy.

Regardless of whether these phone calls are a supernatural phenomenon or a trick of the mind, there is no denying the beneficial impact they have on those involved.

The opportunity to speak with a loved one one last time and make peace before they are finally gone is a truly heartwarming and life-affirming thought.

For those of you who, like me, choose to ignore calls from withheld numbers, just know that it might be from someone you least expect.

Story 2 Renaissance

There are numerous examples of famous and influential figures who claim to recall past lives.

Such stories have often proven easy to refute, with suggestions that those involved are courting fame or controversy.

But such tales prove more difficult to dismiss when the parties involved are small children, expressing thoughts and feelings too advanced for their years, almost as if they have been here before.

History is littered with examples of individuals who have displayed what appears to be significant knowledge of an existence prior to their being born.

Many famous leaders and politicians have cited events and occurrences which they claim to have recalled from a past existence, with detailed memories which they state have gone on to influence their actions in this life.

Tales of this phenomenon have been recounted by such prominent public figures as Benjamin Franklin and Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the noted philosopher Dr.

Carl Jung.

But perhaps the most notable believer in the concept of reincarnation was the celebrated American World War II general, George Patton.

Patton believed that he could recall events from as many as eight past lives, where he had been a fighting man during conflicts throughout history.

These included fighting for Alexander the Great, being a soldier at the Battle of Agincourt under King Henry V,

and serving as an aide to the French Marshal Murat during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the case of Patton and many other famous believers in reincarnation, such claims have generally been dismissed as pure fiction, created out of a desire for public interest and acclaim.

But it is much more difficult to dismiss such testimonies when they come from much younger claimants, some barely old enough to walk and talk, yet they still claim to have memories of a prior adult existence.

Over the last 45 years,

a team of researchers working out at the University of Georgia have continued to document and investigate examples of alleged child reincarnation.

During the course of their research, They came into contact with over 2,500 children, all of whom displayed signs of having lived a past life.

In the majority of cases, many of the children recounted unnervingly detailed memories, with physical manifestations of alleged past injuries occurring less frequently.

But in addition to being unable to explain how or why the children involved would fabricate such stories, the investigators were shocked to discover that more often than not, their memories seemed to correlate with an existing historical record.

The son of a serving police lieutenant, Ryan Hammonds was born in Oklahoma in 2004.

He would turn out to be a late speaker due to enlarged adenoids which would not be removed until he was four years old.

In the aftermath of this operation, Ryan's parents were surprised by the apparent ease and speed with which their son began to form full words and sentences.

But this amazement soon turned to shock as he began to describe vivid details of a life he claimed to have lived prior to being born.

The four-year-old related how he had resided in Hollywood in a large house with a swimming pool and had driven around Los Angeles in a green car.

He explained how he had visited the beach with his girlfriends, done business deals with US senators, and enjoyed luxury holidays to European cities such as Paris.

In time, Ryan's parents sought help from Dr.

Jim Tucker, one of the researchers at the University of Georgia, who quickly made plans to visit the family.

Having arrived at their home, Tucker was shown a picture of a man whom Ryan had identified as the person he used to be, which they located during their own research into Hollywood history.

The photo in question was from a 1932 film titled Night After Night, Night, starring Mae West and George Raft.

The man in the picture appeared to be an unknown extra in the movie.

On taking Ryan on a tour of houses in Los Angeles, the boy was able to identify a home he vividly remembered.

Research showed that the house had once belonged to an actor named Bill Elliot.

This in turn positively identified the man in the photograph as a Hollywood agent named Marty Martin, a friend of Elliot's who had appeared as an extra in Night After Night as a favour.

Martin had passed away in 1964 and a closer examination of the film agent's life uncovered a staggering 47 accurate statements which Ryan had made prior to the identification.

These included that he'd had three stepsons and a biological daughter, that he'd done business with New York Senator Irving Ives, and had worked with Hollywood legend Rita Hayworth.

During his time working with Ryan, Dr.

Tucker asked if he could remember what had happened at the point he had died, with the cause of Martin's death having been recorded as a brain hemorrhage.

Ryan replied that he could and that he had gone to a place of bright light.

where everybody went before they came back.

He had then waited there until he had chosen his mother as a conduit for his new life.

But at the age of seven, before more work could be done with him, Ryan began to show signs of not wanting to recall his prior existence.

He began to clear away photographs and articles which provided details of his time as Marty Martin, insisting that he now wanted to move on and live his new life.

He remains one of the most detailed and well-documented cases to have been investigated by Dr.

Tucker.

The detail expressed regarding his past life remains almost impossible to explain away.

Another perplexing case which landed on the desk of Jim Tucker and his fellow researchers was that of James Leninger, a boy born in San Francisco during April of 1998.

After the family moved to Dallas when he was just two years old, young James had been taken for a day trip to the James Kavanaugh Flight Museum in the nearby town of Addison.

Noticing that her son had been particularly enthralled by the World War II exhibits on display, Andrea Leninger had sought out a matching toy plane for him to take home as they had left via the museum gift shop.

Placing it into his outstretched hands, she had reasoned that this one was particularly special, as it had a bomb attached to the bottom of it.

She had then watched in bewilderment as the boy had shaken his head before correcting her.

He then told her that what she had assumed was a bomb was in fact a drop tank.

Shortly after this, James began to experience night terrors.

Running into his room, His parents would find him screaming that he was involved in an air crash, trapped in the cockpit of a falling plane, which was burning.

Over the coming weeks, their son's description of his nightmare became increasingly vivid.

He explained that the plane was a Corsair, which had been shot down by a Japanese fighter.

Assuming that he must be repeating something he had seen on television, Bruce Leninger had initially humoured the boy, only to become disturbed by the intricate detail which his two-year-old son was adding.

James explained that he had been shot down near Iwajima, along with another pilot called Jack Larson.

They had taken off from a ship named the Natoma.

Having bought him more toys to play with, his parents observed as James re-enacted air battles, correctly referring to planes he had designated as Japanese fighters by their nicknames of Zeke's and Betties.

During these mock dog fights, the toddler began to refer to himself in the third person, stating that he was a US pilot named James III.

When Bruce gently inquired as to why he was using that name, the two-year-old replied that it was because he was the third member of his family to be called James Huston.

the same as his father and grandfather.

Armed with this information, Bruce began to scour the internet for any historical records which might correspond with his son's story.

He was stunned to discover the existence of an American aircraft carrier which had served in the Pacific campaign named the USS Natoma Bay.

After a lengthy period of deliberation, He proceeded to make contact with the veterans group associated with the vessel and was allowed to take James along to one of their annual reunions.

Almost immediately, the boy began to engage with elderly veterans of the campaign, calling them by their first names and recalling times they had shared together with a pilot named James Huston Jr.

An American fighter pilot by that name had indeed been killed in action near Iwo Jima at the age of 21, having flown a course air from the USS Natoma Bay.

Even more astounding was that this information was not available anywhere within the public domain.

But no sooner had confirmation of James's past life seemingly been obtained than the boy began to withdraw from proceedings, eager to move on from the revelation.

Dr.

Tucker's study of the case, as it had been with Ryan Hammonds, identified a series of key statements which would have been impossible for the boy to have discovered, as they were unique to the veteran community.

He would also note that James's description of his time after death was eerily similar to the Hammond's case, the pursuit of a place of light followed by a period of waiting before selecting a new mother to be born to.

Perhaps the most famous example of children displaying knowledge of a past life did not originate in the United States of America, but instead took place in the northeast of England.

In the years following the end of World War II, recently married John and Florence Pollack made the decision to move to the Northumberland town of Hexham and start a family.

They were soon blessed with two young daughters, Joanna and Jacqueline.

who enjoyed playing together in their parents' grocery shop when they were not at school.

The girls were happy children, but their mother grew disturbed when at the point Jacqueline learned to speak, she had said that she would never grow up to be a lady.

Two years later in May of 1957,

both girls had been making their way to church with a school friend one morning when they were struck by a passing car.

The vehicle was driven by a woman who had recently been separated from her own children and had been prescribed powerful drugs in an effort to cope with this severance.

All three of the girls were killed instantly in an accident which shocked the local community and utterly traumatised their parents.

After many months of grieving, the Pollocks made the decision to try for more children, with Florence being told by her doctor the following year that she was pregnant with a single fetus.

Her husband was stunned when in October of 1958, Florence gave birth to a pair of twin girls, who they went on to name Gillian and Jennifer.

Moving away from Hexham in an effort to escape the pain of the past, they tried to start a new life, only to discover that fate had other ideas.

It soon became clear that the twins bore an overwhelming resemblance to their deceased sisters, to a seemingly supernatural degree.

Jennifer possessed a faint white scar across her forehead and a birthmark to the left side of her waist.

Both marks were identical to ones that Jacqueline had been born with.

Upon learning to walk, she was instantly drawn to the toys which had belonged to Jacqueline, with Gillian insisting on playing with the ones which had previously been purchased for Joanna.

Both girls also became obsessed with hairdressing, just as their deceased siblings had been.

But what the Pollocks had assumed was startling coincidence soon developed into a much deeper concern, as their daughter's sleep became disrupted by violent nightmares and visions.

They began to wake up screaming, stating that there was a car bearing down on them at speed.

This then turned into a wider phobia of cars and roads, the girls refusing to venture out of the house for fear of being struck by a vehicle.

One morning, when she was trying to comfort the girls after a particularly vivid nightmare, Florence was horrified to see Gillian reach across and touch Jennifer's forehead before informing her sister that she could see blood pouring from it.

Recalling that Jacqueline had passed away as a result of serious head trauma during the collision, Florence broke down, begging her husband to find some way to explain what was taking place.

In an effort to confirm his suspicions, John arranged for a day trip back to Hexham.

He then watched in amazement as the girls correctly identified places where the family used to live and work, despite having never visited the town before.

It would not be until the girls reached the age of five that the terrifying dreams and memories which plagued their sleep finally faded away, leaving them to live normal and happy lives.

The eerie similarities between the Pollock twins and their deceased older sisters remains one of the most divisive cases of alleged reincarnation on record.

Whilst some researchers point to the physical similarities as irrefutable proof of the concept, Others point to the desire of the parents to replace their deceased children as the main factor influencing their behaviour.

Of the 2,500 cases investigated by Dr.

Tucker and his team, almost three-quarters resulted in a positive identification of an individual believed to be a previous incarnation of the child involved.

More intriguingly, in almost a fifth of these inquiries, marks or scars were found on the child, which seemingly correlated to injuries or the cause of death in alleged past lives.

Perhaps the most striking of these was a young boy born with two large birthmarks at the front and rear of his head, who claimed to have been shot through the eye in a past life.

But as compelling as Tucker's research is, the academic community has evolved a slew of psychological explanations for the actions of the children involved.

These largely centre around children fixating and fantasising about minor details they've overheard from parents, who then unwittingly contribute further material whilst trying to investigate the matter further.

At such a young age, children are exceedingly open to suggestion and have vivid imaginations, sometimes seeing the questioning by their parents as a game or pastime to indulge in.

At the same time, Parents may wittingly or unwittingly be seeking some form of closure from the exchange, expressing key details which in turn end up being fed back to them.

Child reincarnation remains an ongoing area of active research, with arguments for either side of the concept being of equal strength.

Perhaps the greatest unanswered question appears to be why the phenomenon only seems to affect children for the first few years of their lives, before then fading away.

Does this represent a feeling of closure on their past life, having achieved recognition of its existence from those around them?

Or is this simply evidence of the subjects tiring of their fabrications and moving into the next stage of their growth and development?

As the fields of medical and psychological research continue to advance, it is entirely possible we may yet find the truth behind this mysterious phenomenon, either in this lifetime or the next.

glorious.