Spiritualism
There are different opinions about this phenomenon. Everyone heard, and even about the fact that in the late XIX - early XX centuries, many were carried away by this occupation, trying in this way to make contact with deceased relatives. There were even demonstrations of experiments, of course, scammers, hoaxers, how could it be without it. As a result, they did not really achieve anything, and came to the conclusion that all this is nonsense. Abandoned. And to this day, the phenomenon is almost forgotten. It is believed that there is nothing at all. But somehow strange. It was, many tried, they talked with someone there, and now it turned out that this simply did not exist. Reminds an old joke about a child’s surprise: how so, the ass is, but there is no such word? Let's try to figure out a little what the phenomenon is.
The easiest way to become a medium, that is, a mediator in communication with the "other world", is a spiritual pendulum. It is known from antiquity.
As a spiritual pendulum, any cargo suspended on a thread or rope can be used. The medium takes in its hand the free end of the rope, and puts the weight down, holding it in a relaxed hand. So, now this subject can be given a task, and it will begin to swing. Or rotate. Ignorant people are so trying to check the quality of products and food. If you bring the pendulum to a product or food, it will begin to swing. It sways along, you can eat, across - it is undesirable. If you just walk with such a pendulum anywhere, you can find that it starts to swing in some places, and even rotates in a circle. I myself conducted experiments and made sure that a certain grid of squares was obtained, limited by these swings of the pendulum. But it does not coincide either with the geometry of the room, or with the sides of the horizon, or with the direction to the magnetic pole. In fact, it does not coincide with anything. It turns out that in this way it is possible to determine a certain coordinate network unknown to science. The next use of the pendulum is that it can answer simple questions. Yes - sways along, no - across. Moreover, these answers do not always coincide with the opinion of the person himself, which may cause surprise.
The next technique of spiritualism is dowsing. The simplest thing, known since ancient times, is to pick up a curved vine, stretch it with your hands so that the tree is in tension, and so walk on the ground.
It is believed that when there is treasure or water underground, the pointed edge of the vine should itself turn down. A modern way of dowsing is the use of two frames that are freely held in hands. The frames are bent corners of any wire, the material does not matter.
When the medium goes with two frames in its hands, if any anomaly is found underground, then they themselves must turn towards each other. I was shown this method while serving in the army in 1986. Yes, I confirm that it works, and I "discovered" a certain object underground, however, I did not understand which one, because no one was going to check it. The frames really seem to be turned towards each other by an unknown force. Previously, they often used this method when searching for underground sources of water and treasures, but it does not always give reliable evidence. Therefore, with the advent of more advanced methods of geological location, it has become obsolete.
The third technique of spiritualism, the most famous, is divination with a needle. A circle is drawn on paper, the letters of the alphabet are arranged around the perimeter, and to simplify the answer - the words "Yes" and "No". The needle point is placed in the center of the circle, a thread is threaded into the eye of the needle. The thread is held in a relaxed hand, so that the needle is at an angle, like an arrow, and it starts to rotate itself, collecting from the letters of the word.
I myself checked this method, it works. My friends and their wives also checked in their young years. The result - we sought some answers. But in general, there was one general impression: there was little sense in these experiments. Information is extremely limited and unreliable. Therefore, everyone was skeptical.
A variation of this divination is a spiritualistic board. It can even be bought ready-made at the store. The medium holds a pointer in its hands, which itself moves along the board. And collects words from letters.
The reliability of this method is not higher than that of others, but almost all have tried. At the same time, as I guess, no one ever attaches serious significance to this phenomenon. Rather, you can play "horror stories". As adults, we often forget about this experience, as about children's fun. Well, this plot is also used in horror films in order to communicate horrible omens, this board also works there itself, without the participation of a medium, it just does not fly and does not hit on the head.
And finally, the most advanced way is automatic writing. The medium holds a pencil or fountain pen in her hand, without any effort, and she herself begins to write words and sentences. Previously, this method was used in psychiatry to identify "unconscious motives", but then abandoned.
There are even more exotic group methods of spiritualism, but we will not consider them here.
The science of this phenomenon is expressed critically and very succinctly. This is an ideomotor act, a derivative of the subconscious. The hand of the medium itself makes involuntary movements, activating a spiritualistic tool, working in this case as a pointer. Formally correct. Without the participation of the medium, nothing will move by itself. But on this, in fact, they threw it. The Soviet government, with the help of Friedrich Engels, completely debunked and defeated spiritualism as superstition. Well, really, why study something? The head is dark and all that. Therefore, no one is interested in this phenomenon now, fun, nothing more.
But I understood a simple thing. After all, they overlooked the phenomenon itself. Yes, as many would probably object to me, it is unreliable, and rather resembles an accidental guess. But this does not mean that it does not exist! He just tells us some information that we most likely misinterpret. You can compare this state of affairs with a device with an arrow, on the scale of which nothing is written. We did something, the arrow deviated, but what it shows us and in what units of measurement is not clear. Moreover, the criterion for scientific interest is that it often gives answers that do not coincide with the personal opinion of a person acting as a medium. The arrow deviates when we ourselves do not expect this.