Afterlife Report - CJ Ducasse

In this week's issue VZ states:

PROFESSOR SEES 18 MATERIALIZED ENTITIES

What could be more convincing than seeing a spirit form materialize right in front of you?

“The prima facie most impressive evidence there could be of the survival of a deceased friend or relative would be to see and touch his materialized, recognizable bodily form, which then speaks in his or her characteristic manner,” wrote C. J. Ducasse, a professor of philosophy at Brown University in his 1961 book, A Critical Examination of the Belief in Life After Death [available online]. Professor Ducasse attended a seance in which he observed 18 different materializations, including his deceased mother.

Here is the extract referred to: ( From Admin please note that this must be accredited to Michael Tymms Gaia Blog http://metgat.gaia.com/blog where the original and much more may be found)

"The prima facie most impressive evidence there could be of the survival of a deceased friend or relative would be to see and touch his materialized, recognizable bodily form, which then speaks in his or her characteristic manner," wrote C. J. Ducasse, a professor of philosophy at Brown University in his 1961 book, A Critical Examination of the Belief in Life After Death. "This is what appeared to occur in my presence on an occasion three or four years ago, when during some two hours and in very good red light throughout, some eighteen fully material forms - some male, some female, some tall, some short, and sometimes two together - came out of and returned to the curtained cabinet I had inspected beforehand, in which a medium sat, and to which I had found no avenue of surreptitious access."

Ducasse went on to explain that the material forms were recognized by other sitters and in some cases the deceased spoke and caressed the living. One of the forms called his name and Ducasse went up to her and asked who she was. "Mother," she replied. "She did not, however, speak, act, or in the least resemble my mother," Ducasse continued the story. "This was not a disappointment to me since I had gone there for purposes not of consolation but of observation." The friend who had taken Ducasse to the circle informed him that his mother had materialized on a number of occasions and that the form sometimes looked like her and sometimes it did not.

Whether it was his mother or not, Ducasse was fairly certain it was a materialized spirit. "I can say only that if the form I saw which said it was my mother and which patted me on the head, was a hallucination - a hallucination ‘complete' in the sense just stated - then no difference remains between a complete hallucination on the one hand and, on the other, ordinary veridical perception of a physical object; for every further test of the physicality of the form seen and touched could then be alleged to itself hallucinatory and the allegation of complete hallucination then automatically becomes completely vacuous."

Ducasse also had an opportunity to see the ectoplasm in good red light, to touch it, and take ten flash photos of the substance as it emanated from the mouth of the medium. "Whether or not it was ‘ectoplasm,' [it] did not behave, feel, or look like any other substance known to me could, I think, under the conditions that existed. It was coldish, about like steel. This made it seem moist, but it was dry and slightly rough like dough the surface of which had dried. Its consistency and weight were also dough-like. It was a string, of about pencil thickness, varying in length from six to twelve feet. On other photographs, not taken by me, of the same medium, it has veil-like and rope-like forms.""

I have been editing this because Ducasse was a major figure in Psychic Research and a significant philosopher. As lyfsagerny points out in the next post this is an interesting area and major person to look at.

on APSI Michael Tymm wrote
From APSI and Michael Tymm
“Dr. C. J. Ducasse (1881-1969) – The French-born American philosopher came to the United Stated as a teenager and eventually became chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Brown University. He had many sittings with mediums and lectured extensively on psychical research.

Some of the facts we have considered suggest that the belief in life after death, which so many persons have found no particular difficulty in accepting as an article in religious faith, may well be capable of empirical proof. That the occurrence of paranormal phenomena does appear to have such implications, is, I submit, sufficient reason to give them far more attention and study than they have commonly received in the past. “
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/ducasse/physical.htm
An example of his highly rated philosophical works is here
http://www.ditext.com/ducasse/duc-cont.html
As Victor shows the whole book A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life After Death can be found here http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/books/ducasse/critical/contents.htm

Do you think perhaps that the Ducasse case might illustrate the fact that a medium has no control over what spirit might materialize thru him/her? It could be a deceptive or truthful spirit, a fraud or the genuine article. Still, the phenomenon of materialization is taking place regardless of the veracity of the materialized entity. I think of the Colin Fry incident where a mischievous entity apparently took over Fry's body and caused him to behave in ways he was totally unaware of and not in control of. I would imagine the same thing could happen with a materialization medium who has no control over what spirit might come through.