PSYCHOMETRY: A psychometrist is a sensitive person, who has the ability to describe individuals or scenes connected with them, based on a physical contact with objects that have belonged to them. Widely speaking, psychometry is the ability to "read" this history of the object by just holding it in the hand and "tuning in". No one has been able to prove what exactly is "tuned into", but the theory most accepted is that any object carries its history within an ethereal counterpart. This is related to the tape recorder and the playback theory regarding ghosts and visitations, as described by Oliver Lodge and later supported by many, according to which strong feelings can influence surroundings or objects. Any ethereal counterpart must necessarily include not only the historical information, but also all details about the nature of the object. This is where psychometry started. The word "psychometry", which literally means "measuring of the soul", was created by the American researcher Joseph Rhodes Buchanan (1814-1899) in 1842. As a professor in medicine at Covington, Kentucky, USA, he discovered that 80% of his students were able to feel the effect of medicines by just holding them in their hand. When the subject of an experiment was handed a vomitive, he only avoided vomiting by stopping the experiment. The physical effect of this early demonstration of psychometry is a reminder, that the ethereal body is also traditionally called the sensory body. Twenty-two of Buchanan’s experiments came to the attention of William Denton. Denton was a professor in geology in Boston, and through his work with meteorites and fossils, he found that one out of ten men and one out of four women, were sensitive enough to register something about the history of such objects, and often gave very lively descriptions of the scene surrounding the object. A special kind of psychometry is also called para-archaeology, intuitive archaeology or psychic archaeology. During a two-year period during WWII, Stefan Ossowiecke was presented with various objects from the Varsovian museum, as part of a number of investigations of his psychic abilities. Not only was he able to correctly date and identify the nature of these objects, but he was also able to give detailed descriptions of fx life in a prehistoric village, just by holding a pointed piece of metal, which he identified as part of a spear. Ossowiecki’s description of the process is interesting: "I start by stopping all reasoning and I throw all my inner power into the understanding of the spiritual sensory impression. I confirm, that this state is brought about through my unswerving belief in the spiritual unity of the whole of humanity. Then I find myself in a new and special state, in which I see and hear outside time or space. It is as if I loose some energy, I become feverish and my heart rhythm becomes irregular. As soon as I stop reasoning, something very much like electricity flows through my limbs for a few moments. Then I am grasped by clarity, pictures start appearing, usually from the past." In 1953, a Dutch clairvoyant described some cave people and their religious ceremony, based on a bone splinter from Lesotho. In our times, George McMullen, a Canadian truck driver, has helped Norman Emerson, a professor in archaeology at the University of Toronto, in his excavations in the field. He not only gave lively descriptions of the Iroquois way of life, but also very precisely marked the outline of a long house, which was later excavated exactly where McMullen had said it was. Finally, psychometry and dowsing seem to work hand in hand, and both have the advantage that they can be tested, as they operate with prediction. Tom Lethbridge, who used a pendulum, thought he could discern between stones that were thrown by people and one that had been lying on the beach, thrown about by the elements. By using a pendulum, and based on the rhythms he had discovered identifying male and female, he was able to discern whether a man or a woman had thrown the stone. Psychometry and hypnosis have often been connected. Just before WWI, a German doctor in Mexico City, Dr. Gustav Pagenstecher, treated a Maria Reyes de Zierold for sleeplessness. Hypnosis proved to be more effective than medicine, but while hypnotised, the patient identified so closely with the hypnotiser, that she reported sensory impressions, which were the same as his – a phenomena called sensory solidarity. When she was handed an object, she also identified with it and was able to describe its history; she has described the drop through the atmosphere or an underwater scene, when sitting with a meteorite or a shell in her hand. These descriptions were studied by the American Society for Psychical Research, and their preciseness was confirmed, even when they differed from the research leader’s original expectations, a totally different description, which thus excludes the possibility of telepathy. Many of the first experiments with psychometry would be dealt with in a very different way today. Some were dismissed, even by other contemporary researchers, because hypnosis was involved. Also, since the original researchers in many cases knew of the origin and history of the objects, telepathy could seldom be excluded as a viable mechanism. "Clean" psychometry can only be taken into account when no one knows the history of the object in question, which can then later be confirmed, or when new information appears, which can later be confirmed. Therefore psychometrists should receive objects from people, who have no knowledge of their history or perhaps at times objects, which history is provisionally unknown, but can later be confirmed, so that telepathy can be excluded as an explanation. Such is the case when psychometrists work blindly, when trying to help the police with investigations of criminal matters. Robert Cracknell is a well-known psychic detective. In connection with a murder case in the late 1970’s, he gave police information, which corresponded so exactly with the evidence, which had not been made public, that he himself became a main suspect. He has since often helped the London police. Back