Otherworldly experiences by the departed

89 21. Conclusion Communicating with the world of the hereafter may never be practised to entertain society, to satisfy one’s craving for sensationalism or as child’s play. For instance “table-turning” was something a lot of people did at the turn of the century (early nineteen hundreds) and writing with a planchette is nowadays carried out by pupils in lots of classes. Youth magazines provide the necessary instructions and they explain how one can establish contact with the world of the hereafter through a pendulum, rapping tables and automatic writing . The most trivial questions are asked in the process or one enquires about the welfare of departed relatives. This may remain a harmless exercise in lots of cases or remain devoid of damaging consequences, because it might not function due to a lack of psychic ability or one soon desist out of boredom. But an ensuing incessant hearing of voices can have dire consequences in the form of Umsessenheit or possession . Those so afflicted can end up seeing a psychiatrist before they know it. The following happened to a Mrs. Hildegard Gesbert. She tried to establish contact with the hereafter via a tape recorder . These attempts seemed to be very successful to begin with. But Mrs. Gesbert then no longer managed to get rid of the spirits she had called. Before long she no longer heard the voices via her tape recorder, but directly via her brain or via domestic noise sources like the vacuum cleaner or running water. These voices were no longer under her control, they professed to be God, gave nonsensical and arduous assignments and led to sleepless nights. Mrs. Gesbert went to hell and back, suffering mental and physical anguish. The last resort was a stint at a psychiatric clinic. She was diagnosed and classified as being schizophrenic and accordingly treated with medicaments. The psychotropic drugs did indeed temporarily alleviate the Umsessenheit symptoms, but produced the worst kind of side effects. In her book “Test the Spirits” (Prüfet die Geister) (Author’s edition, 1993, P. 86) she writes: “I often wondered in hindsight what was actually worse, the psychotic hell of the spirits or the side effects from the psychotropic drugs that had an extremely terrible effect on me. As the psychic agonies already surpassed the boundaries of what’s bearable, the side effects of the imbibed medication led to the absolute zenith of my suffering.” Refuge in prayers to God for protection against evil spirits finally put an end to the nightly torments. She writes (P. 93): “As no negative entities haunted me the following days and to this very day, the realisation and the solid conviction began to grow within me that the power of prayers did protect me from the terrible harassment from evil spirits. A need to tell my fellow human beings about the power of prayers began to simultaneously awake in me.” This discourse should also serve as an indicator to the importance of praying to God and his son Jesus Christ, the Lord over the good and the evil world of spirit. One should always be aware that contact with the hereafter is not a value-neutral affair and that one should not confuse it with a terrestrial telephone conversation.