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Contacting the Dead? It's Become a Lively Business

• Psychics & Other Frauds

By ROY RIVENBURG, TIMES STAFF WRITER

After 12 years of not hearing from my dad, I was starting to get worried. I mean, just because he's been dead the whole time doesn't mean he can't stay in touch. With so many talented psychics running around, including several who have their own TV shows, the lines of communication should be wide open.

Unfortunately, even though my job as a journalist has required me to interview psychic dogs, psychic humans and the occasional Magic 8 Ball, my father's spirit has never materialized. Until now.

The breakthrough happened earlier this month at a summit of "after-death communicators." Actually, the summit was a flop. At the last minute, well-known medium James Van Praagh backed out because "Entertainment Tonight" needed him to contact actor Robert Blake's slain wife. And a University of Arizona professor who researches psychic phenomena was too ill to fly from Tucson. Hmm. Guess the spirits didn't see that coming.

But that still left Judy Guggenheim, co-author of "Hello From Heaven!," and George Dalzell, a psychiatric social worker from the L.A. County Department of Mental Health. By day, Dalzell tries to help homeless people get the voices out of their heads, but at night, he tunes into such voices--from the spirit realm.

Dalzell has written a book, "Messages," outlining a string of bizarre encounters with the ghost of his dead lover Michael Keller, who apparently is quite a prankster in the hereafter. Keller's friends and relatives say his ghost disrupts phone calls, flicks lights on and off, arranges rose petals into patterns and sets off alarm clocks at odd hours. About the only thing his spirit hasn't done is phone next-of-kin to ask if their refrigerator is running.

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Richard Evans Lee
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Comments

I wanna contact my aunt and gradparents. How? I NEED to know! They all left me at a young age. I NEED them back.

Posted by: Kathleen | February 10, 2004 7:34 PM

I am 13 years old and have had a lot of death in my short life. My Brother died when i was 11, My Grandma GG when i was 9, My uncle Bud when i was 10, and my best friend died this past summer. Thats only a few! I really want to know how to contact the dead so i have been doing some research. I came across this web sit and am still waiting for Colby and Jesse, and all my loved ones to say "hi". I dont really understand how this web page works. I came across one that told me to sleep with flowers next to my bed! Another one told me to inform this sycic and then it said i was too young. Everything these web pages told me to do i folowed the best as i could. I just really need answers to all of my qestions. I'm not asking for them back becuse i am sure that they are haveing a fun time in heaven but i just wanna know if they rember me and if they are still near?

Posted by: Kelsey Halverson | March 9, 2004 4:29 PM

I would really like to find out how to contact ghosts without having to buy anything, or do something weird with electronics. I've tried looking into a mirror in a dark bathroom while saying the name 47 to 100 times, and that supposedly worked for my friends, but I need more ideas!!!

Posted by: anonymous | May 19, 2004 2:16 PM

i did derren brown seance recently playing along at hom i found it very scary as when they were contacting jane i got thrown across the room by something i beleive strongly in ghosts and use weegie boards regularly i think all people should contact dead relatives as i now know that my grandmother is safe and well same with my grandfather i think that everyone needs to know about the dead and beleive that they can as to keep the spirit world alive!

Posted by: miss_annonymous | June 1, 2004 3:58 PM

I am spritually lost without my parents. I would like to contact them. My mother was murdered when i was 6yrs. old and my father died in a motorcycle accident. I speak to(in my opinion) my mother's murder often although it has yet to be proven. Please if someone honest could help me it just might break this wall between me and my parents. It would be greatly appreciated. RockAngeL Forever

Posted by: RockAngeL | August 14, 2004 6:48 AM

I have a brother who died he was shot I held him in my arms until he died I would love to speak to him again can you help me?

Posted by: laceymarkel | November 4, 2004 12:52 PM

I just recently lost a boyfriend,i would give anything to talk to him again, is there anyway i can do this without having to pay or use electronics!!?Please let me know!

Posted by: Lindsey | November 15, 2004 8:41 PM

well firstly me and my friends were bored and we were home alone and we were gonna stay like dat for 3 hrs so one of my friends (nicole) made a suggestion and said dat we should play the weegie board i said no way not in my house ill get haunted and then 5 mins later she suggested again and i said oh fine but just dis once we started playing and then the glass move to several letters and we read out it and it said 'u have released me and now im coming to get u if u dont get do these things den....' den i said wot qustions den it said 'theres only two...' 'firstly u have to cut ur self den cut ur self dats it' den my friend said dat no im gone and den the glass smashed every one went after dat and den i got punched in de night by someone when i was sleepin when i woke up no one was der in de morning i checked wot happended and der was a scratch on my face and it said u should have stopped ur friend.........

Posted by: cypriot babe | October 13, 2005 4:39 PM

I lost my best friend in a car crash, I'm not sure what exactly happen, I feel it wasnt an accident. To ease my conscious I would like to no one day, what happen.

Posted by: Raymond | October 15, 2005 1:44 AM

hi my name is Dani and i am 12 years old. in my family alot of people have died and grama is about to so i want to know how to cantact the dead. please send directions. thanxs bye

Posted by: Dani Knutson | October 16, 2005 7:37 PM

well i have a friend who some people think he commited suicide but i think he got murderd, they found him whith a rope on his neck, Do u have any way to communicate with him. I was thinking of playing the weegie board but i'm not sure thanks

Posted by: sarahi | April 27, 2006 10:10 PM

My daughter was 4 when she spoke to a ghost. I heard her, went in her room and there was no one there. She said he was standing right next to me and said hi. I said hi and she said he wanted me to know she is ok and he will take care of me. She described him to me and when I called the owner of the house, he said she described his dead grandfather, who owned the house many yrs ago, all the way down to the amputated leg and the suit he was buried in. The ghost was looking for an old train set and told her where he put it, under the floor boards in the basement, which we all found and gave to the owner, who was very excited and surprised. Things like that aren't made up. Things like that are not explained but then neither is God. So why can't there be something out there? I know why she contacted him and I didn't. She was innocent and open to believe it. I think we as skeptical adults close our minds to it and shut down the chance we could have. I believe in another life and myself personally have experienced it as well. I was always with someone else, so there are witnesses that help me know I wasn't crazy or dreaming. One of those experiences was when I was in labor with my daughter. I was going to have a c-section and the dr didn't arrive yet because it was a fast and early delivery. Then I was left with a nurse while the other went to get the dr because it looked like I wasn't going to make it to the c-section after all, the baby was already almost there. The nurse patted my head, brushed my hair and hummed a song to me I hadn't heard since I was little. She said it was going to be ok and that she was there to help me. I went to grab her hand and there was no one there. THere was no other nurse. I was left alone. Then the other nurse that had left came running in and told me she was sorry for leaving me but the hospital was having babies at the same time and they were short staffed. I asked her where that other nurse went and she told me there was no other nurse, that I was indeed left alone. About a week later, my mom came back from South America after visiting my grandmother. I told her about the experience and she broke down and cried and told me my grandmother had died a few days before the birth of my daughter but she didn't want to tell me because of my condition. She said that song the "nurse" was humming was my grandmother's song to me when I was a child. No one will ever convince me that there was no intervention there, that there was no contact there from someplace we don't understand. Just because we don't see it, doesn't mean it is not there. I am not sinning when I light a white candle and invite my ghosts in. They are all welcome here and they know it, which is why I am never alone. None of us ever are. We have to open ourselves to it, not be afraid, trust they will not hurt us and call to them, who we love and miss. They will come to you. Maybe not in the way they portray them in the movies but you will know they are there. They find strange ways to announce themselves because they are still learning how to use their new "bodies". God loves us all, especially those of us who are suffering. Remember that.

Posted by: Rosana | May 5, 2006 7:54 PM

I lost my mother Janurary 5, 2006 with this death I lost my closet friend. I still dial her telephone number every morining in hope it is all a dream and with some small chance she will answer the phone.I have prayed many prayers that I could have a sign or that she would contact me in some why to let me know I will see her again in a happy place. I just want to know if my mother is happy and safe . I want to know if my mother is in heaven.

Posted by: HEARTBROKE | August 15, 2006 10:07 PM

whene I was 3 I started to see the dead. It started off with my great grandfather who i don't remember. He has stayed with me my whole life. Then it stared happening more frequently when I was in grade 6. The house we lived in had major activity to the point that everyone was noticing. It was not a good experiance. Due to how bad it was I staredt to shut this gift off. When i was smaller i could see them as if they were standing right beside me. Now when it happens which is not as often its like watching a movie in my head. I see and hear everything. Im so use to it that it realy does not bother me and I am quiet comfortuble with it. My question is how can I tune it in as well as when I was youger. I wish I had not tuned it out for so long and want to turn it on agian. My 2 youg childred have stared doing it 3yrs and 18months. I want to be able to help them with this and let them know its nothing to be afraid, its a gift.Any advive?

Posted by: crystal | October 27, 2006 1:50 PM

Hello I would like to share my storey..Alls I can say is in year 2000 my attention was off my own pain do to my father dieing I now had his pain on my mind and heart..and at the same time God also had my attention comepletely do to this tradgedy of my father..alls I can say is one day I walked in his hospital room while he was in coma and you better believe I was trying to contact God..through this devastation..as I walked in his hospital room all of a sudden I felt this embracing energy come all around me It was either Holy Angels deceased loved ones..Jesus Christ himself..or God himself..alls I know it was a embracement coming from everything that was good ..pure..soothing.. healing..etc. and then what started to happen was beings of yellow bright light would start hoovering around me ..over me..where ever it wanted to be..naturely through this experiance that God aloud to happen for me I was awakened in my soul..I then had to re learn everything I ever learnt thats okay cause this time the Holy spirit was going to be doing the teaching. As for the other spirits..Just remember to be careful that you your self remain in good spirit..so that only the perfect spirit will be able to dwell around you I mean that by your thoughts..your character..yourwhole energy system always remain and pertect your self with everthing that is right and pure and true by you your self becoming more like the good spirit each and every day so that the bad spirits will not be able to penatrate in your zone.For me most of the time when uncomfortable things start to happen usually Im the one off centered so there fore My energy within is then contrary to the good spirits..When im in line with my self in a cool even peaceful manner the good spirits come around me and there job is to only want to help me comfort me etc..over the past 6 years now I am very comfortable in what I have recieved of God spiritually speaking....

Posted by: Rose | October 30, 2006 4:12 PM

heartbroke; i think i can help u i believe ur mom name started with an r

Posted by: lasting link | January 22, 2007 1:16 PM

How do you feel?

Feel free to share your feelings about Contacting the Dead? It's Become a Lively Business. Please stick to the theme of the entry. Disagreement is fine. Homophobia, racism, and kindred expressions of hatred will be deleted. This site is one of my hobbies. I genuinely enjoy hearing from people and hate moderating or killing comments. Forthright disagreement is fine as long as it is civil.
My thanks,
Richard

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