Music and the Paranormal

by Melvyn J Willin

Introduction

For the last thirty years I have earned my living as a professional musician (teacher/ performer) but during this time my favourite pursuit has been the study of all matters allegedly paranormal. By this I mean phenomena that baffles science by not obeying the laws that we have been led to believe are true. From an enormous list one could mention poltergeists, ghosts, psychic healing, astral projection etc. and no doubt a list made a hundred years ago might have included hypnotism and the possibility of space travel!

Some years ago I decided to combine my career and hobby in under-taking research into paranormal music phenomena. I found that there were many examples of subjects worthy of study which had only received scant attention, but I had to limit myself to just a few studies to allow a suitable degree of thoroughness to be achieved. I chose three areas

1. music as a possible agent in telepathy experiments.

2. music that was claimed to have been composed by dead composers through musical mediums.

3. music that was claimed to have been heard when no physical source was available.

Music and telepathy

Attempts to devise reliable tests in psychical research originated in the 1880s as the subject began to be treated seriously. The term "Extra-Sensory Perception" (ESP) was popularised in the 1930s by the parapsychologist JB Rhine using visually orientated targets for people to convey to each other telepathically in experimental conditions. It was found that people responded to such tests when they were in a relaxed state of mind with their normal senses "masked" e.g. their eyes would be covered and their hearing would be confused by wearing headphones playing the sounds of monotonous waves or electrical "white noise". This experimental procedure was referred to by the title "ganzfeld" implying the availability of an "open field" in which to allow the unconscious to operate.

Experiments using music have not been conducted very often. Brief reports by R Shulman appeared in the Journal of Parapsychology in 1938 (Shulman 1938) and there were others by RW George in the Parapsychology Bulletin in 1948 (George 1948). HHJ Keil conducted tests in the USA -reported in 1965- but none of these tests were instigated by a musician (Keil 1965). I therefore decided to hold a series of a hundred trials using the ganzfeld procedure.

Hundreds of musicians and non-musicians were contacted from around the country and asked to participate in an experiment in telepathy. 120 people agreed to attend and these included ages from 18 - 75 years and both sexes. (72 women and 48 men.) Two well separated buildings were used which were sound proofed and in advance a target pool of eighty musical items were prepared by myself. Nobody else knew the identity of these extracts of music.

The person who was to receive a telepathic impulse remained in one building and he/she relaxed using the ganzfeld method (masked senses) whilst in the other building a second person listened to a randomly chosen piece of music which he/she attempted to send telepathically to the receiver. During this period of time, which typically lasted half an hour, the receiver was recorded as he/she spoke out loud of any experiences being felt - notably of a musical nature. Finally from a selection of different pieces which included the actual music being "sent" the receiver was asked to choose which item was felt to be the target. (For further details see Willin 1996a.)

Although the overall results were disappointing with only a chance number of direct hits occurring i.e. the actual piece being chosen, a number of events happened that would suggest that telepathy might have taken place between some people on occasions. For instance, one receiver spoke of a serious mood with heavy orchestral music and a solemn and serious event, the she continued: "people standing together; solemn; in a square or something; grey ..." The sender trying to transmit music was listening to the "March to the Scaffold" from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique. On another occasion the receiver stated: "Rhythm and shouting; sense of rhythm; dancing movement". She correctly identified a piece of flamenco guitar music being sent.

The music that seemed to lend itself to greater contact being made between the two participants telepathically was either from the Romantic period or emotionally arousing music whereas the worst scores were obtained from more intellectually stimulating music. For instance, the aforementioned Berlioz track and the opening the Symphony 5 by Shostakovich were positively identified but Kontakte 1 and Kontakte 2 by Stockhausen were not discovered.

Specific conclusions cannot be drawn from this series of experiments other than signifying that night time seemed to produce better results and fewer distractions than daytime trials and friends of the opposite sex with a non-sceptical outlook to the paranormal often managed better results. The earlier experiments achieved higher scores which may indicate that the novelty of undertaking such activities may have waned as boredom set in by the participants as well as the experimenter ... which was me!

Music from dead composers

Music plays an important role in most religions and Spiritualism is no exception where singing has long been thought to encourage the communication of spirits. In the nineteenth century mediums were claiming that they could play instruments through divine intervention and, in one famous example, under experimental conditions.

Daniel D Home produced music from accordions on many occasions under the watchful eye of Sir William Crookes and although the arch-sceptic James Randi has suggested that Home used conjuring to achieve his feats, this has never been verified (Randi 1995).

Home was not a musician but several amateur musicians claimed that they had been contacted by spirits to enhance their performances. The French medium George Aubert claimed to have a very basic ability on the piano, yet when in trance he was "possessed" by the spirit of Mehul and able to play difficult works by many composers. Similarly an amateur singer Jesse Shepard (1849-1927) was visited by a spirit who told him to develop his singing and he commenced to amaze his audiences with: "a basso of colossal register" and "in the highest notes it becomes a decided soprano" (Campbell Holmes 1925).

The violinist Florizel von Reuter wrote two books about the advice he received from the spirit of Paganini (von Reuter 1928/ 1931) and the English eccentric Charles Tweedale wrote at length about his contact with Stradivarius' spirit which helped him to discover the secret of the famous violin maker's varnish (Tweedale 1940). Jelly d'Aranyi (1895-1966) a friend of Sir Edward Elgar and a brilliant concert violinist, discovered the whereabouts of Schumann's "lost" violin concerto through seance activity (Palmstierna 1937), but she received a great deal of help in her searches from her contacts in the music profession.

Professional composers have often spoken and written of their inspiration being God inspired rather than through the intercession of a spirit (see Abel 1955 for several examples.) and when I asked John Tavener whether his musical inspiration came from inside himself or an external force, he felt it was external.

During the 1970s several musical mediums published their works with varying degrees of success. One such was Clifford Enticknap who believed that he was a "channel" for Handel's music. He wrote an oratorio Beyond the Veil which is some four and a half hours in duration and contains such memorable lines as:

He showed his genius at the keyboard,
when not much more than a little child,
and later he amazed the world
by the very incredible speed
with which he wrote his music.

The musical mediumship of Rosemary Brown needs to be taken more seriously since she produced several hundreds of works allegedly dictated by a large number of different composers including Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin and others. Her music's standard and source has caused a great deal of controversy with claims and counter-claims from her supporters and critics. Professor Ian Parrott has written a book praising her music (Parrott 1978) and John Lill has spoken highly of her Beethoven in particular. However, recent analyses of her music by Barry Cooper (University of Manchester), and students from the University of Sheffield, found the music sadly lacking the "spark" of the original composers. The word "pastiche" was often mentioned.

Unfortunately Mrs Brown was not willing to discuss or provide access to her music and I therefore decided to place adverts in Spiritualistic magazines and paranormal journals to discover any musical mediums composing or performing in the 1990s. I was contacted by fourteen people who agreed to complete a questionnaire which examined their claims of musical mediumship and I later interviewed most of them and analysed their music and performances.

Most of my correspondents were around retirement age and there were more men than women. Several of the mediums described themselves as music teachers or performers, but non-musical careers such as librarianship, the civil service and chartered accountancy were also declared. The majority held O levels and A levels (or the equivalent), but musically the differences ranged from "a few piano lessons as a child" to diplomas from London music colleges. There was general agreement among them that an external force - most used the word "spirit" - was guiding them and providing proof of the continuation of the spirit or soul after physical death. They believed that music was providing tangible evidence of this.

The majority of the musical mediums seemed to be genuine in their beliefs and most did not seek financial gain from their efforts, but simply public recognition for their gifts. Investigation discovered that several of them spent a great amount of time working at their music be it composing or practising and it could be argued that at this time of life a gap in their emotional and physical lives was being alleviated by such activity.

The music was mainly of a good amateur quality but it did not compare favourably with the music of the composers who were alleged to have dictated it. In their defence the mediums claimed that transmission problems from the spirit to the physical world caused this as well as their own brains hampering the process. Whatever the genuineness of the mediums' alleged contact with a spirit world they nevertheless achieved results which were beyond their normal capacity and perhaps if they had claimed inspiration from the memory of a dead composer rather than dictation by his spirit, then they would not receive the scorn that is so often their lot. (See Willin 1996b for an expansion of this section.)

Musical Ghosts

What a curious title! Most people have an idea about what they mean by a "ghost", but for the purposes of this article I shall define it as a phenomenon that can be perceived by one or more of the senses when it is not physically present. The ghost can be of a living person or of the dead, and animals and inanimate objects (phantom ships, buses etc.) have also been reported. There is a huge literature on the history and nature of such manifestations, much of which is decidedly "popular" in content, but for a more intelligent approach Hilary Evans' Visions, Apparitions and Alien Visitors (Evans 1984) might be sought out or alternately membership of the Society for Psychical Research in London.

My interpretation of "musical" includes sounds generally believed to be of a musical nature but excluding other sounds - e.g. the spoken voice is excluded but the singing voice is included; church bells are included but door-bells and servants' bells are excluded. Some of the inclusions and exclusions could be argued differently but the line had to be drawn somewhere!

I have tried to discover the possible sources for anomalous music and decided upon three possible suggestions after intentional fraud and natural causes had been discounted:

1. Musical ghosts residing solely in the percipient's mind.

2. Musical ghosts existing solely outside the percipient's mind, but being caused by it.

3. Musical ghosts manifesting solely from an external source.

These three ideas were pursued when investigating both past records of the phenomena as well as present day case studies. An example of the former was the curious case in the early part of the twentieth century when two respected ladies believed to have witnessed a "time-warp" at Versailles. They wrote a book of their experiences (Morison and Lamont 1911) which included hearing music from a paranormal origin. Professor Parrott supported their claim that the music was genuinely anomalous (Parrott 1966) but others including Ernest Newman and Sir Malcolm Sargent were not convinced. I examined the available evidence and felt that it seemed more likely that a combination of faulty memory by the ladies, a little embroidery of the facts and the misconception of natural events as paranormal events may have lead to the "mystery" of the ghostly music at Versailles.

The psychical researcher Ernest Bozzano made an exploratory study of death bed music being heard (Bozzano 1923) which was expanded and continued by the American musician and psychic researcher Scott Rogo in two further volumes (Rogo 1970/1972) and at Colgate University New York State, Joscelyn Godwin has written about many similar examples especially from "angelic" or mystic origins (Godwin 1987). I decided to read as much of the available literature as possible and then make a list of the various locations around the UK where paranormal music had been heard and investigate them. (This was limited to the UK simply to avoid expensive overseas travel and should not imply that such phenomena has not been reported outside the UK.) Most of the examples consisted solely of music and a visual presence was not detected.

Having discovered 170 locations where music had allegedly been heard without a physical transmitter I categorised the places as follows:

1. Castles.

2. Abbeys and churches.

3. Palaces and country houses.

4. Public houses and hotels.

5. Other buildings.

6. Outdoor locations.

The music itself was usually appropriate to the environment where it was heard. For instance, tales of Scottish castles often referred to bagpipe playing ghosts and abbeys and churches contained chanting monks or organ playing

Whenever possible suitable people (managers, owners, curators, archivists etc.) were contacted by letter to ask what light they could throw upon the stories attached to their properties or locations.

In an article of this size it is only possible to provide limited details, but generally I received replies to my letters - the exception being the pub landlords none of whom answered - and they expanded or denied the stories I had read elsewhere. There were some entertaining examples including a story attached to a church where "ghostly" organ music had been heard at night by more than one person on several occasions. I received a letter from the retired organist of the church in question who informed me:

Many years ago I regularly went to play the organ late at night without switching any lights on ... You can imagine, therefore, how the rumours started, especially with a boarding school close by! private correspondence to M Willin

I have, of course, attended and instigated on-location investigations myself and one concerned Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire which is well represented with references to monks chanting. The present owner's sister Mrs. E. Varley heard chanting in her teens:

I was sitting by the window of my room quite late at night when I heard it. It was very clear and quite loud enough for me to pick up the notes of the chant ... when I sang the tune the next day to someone staying in the house, they recognised it as Gregorian chant cited Brooks 1990:42-43

The curator of the Motor Museum situated there has also allegedly heard "the sounds of monks chanting" (Bord 1990:27).

I was invited by the Ghost Club (an organisation interested in psychical research) to attend an all night investigation of the ruins in January 1994 and myself and six other members spent a very cold and wet night at various vantage points where the monks had been seen or heard. No phenomena was perceived apart from one member hearing chanting coming from the ladies' toilet. I investigated personally and found it to be the whirring of an electric fan heater and nothing like the Gregorian chant suggested. Our visit not having discovered any manifestations does not imply that they have not occurred in the past or will not arise again in the future, but it certainly proved how, even experienced investigators, will sometimes provide a paranormal solution to natural events.

Some cases of reported paranormal music were undoubtedly fraudulent in origin consisting of claims aimed at acquiring financial gain or through an enjoyment of practical joking. One such case was reported by Peter Underwood, a prolific writer of ghost stories:

Some "phantom music" was brought to my attention by a leading psychical research society ... several investigators were convinced that the music was paranormal ... I made a preliminary visit and ... I thought I could hear faint music. I found that the very next room was full of music. I then heard different music from another room.

On investigating an arm chair belonging to the host he found several buttons which when depressed produced music from different parts of the house. When he was approached with this discovery he replied:

... I've had a lot of fun meeting all sorts of interesting people ... I've never claimed it was ghostly music; people came, heard the music and told me it was 'paranormal'. Underwood 1996:10

Some genuinely reported cases may have had a similar origin without the witnesses' knowledge. Mistaking natural sounds for paranormal music or even distant radios and other music sources certainly allowed further cases to be included in the literature. However, there are examples where none of these explanations would seem to be acceptable and one has to question whether music with a paranormal origin was occurring and, if so, where it originated from.

Present day and historical sources inform one that music has been heard and continues to be heard in situations where it is impossible for such music to exist. A study of locations has indicated that the music is often appropriate to the places if physical performers were present, but a human presence is necessary to actually perceive it.

Rogo believed that such music was impossible to prove: "When a person hears transcendental music, it is impossible to verify that the percipient did actually hear it" (Rogo 1972:18-19). He was convinced that the music could only be heard inside the percipient's brain and did not rely on an external sound source, ie it could not be recorded. However, he did not believe that it was manufactured by the brain but that it existed in a different dimension to that which human beings can perceive with their "normal" senses. His argument cannot be challenged if one accepts that the music is beyond one's conception, but this does not help to unravel the mystery if a "normal" answer is to be found.

Medical conditions do not seem to explain percipients" experiences. Sufferers from hearing problems (tinnitus etc.) are acutely aware of their deficiencies and would be unlikely to confuse paranormal music with their ailments. One such case was brought to my notice in 1994:

One night as I was settling down to sleep, I became aware of hearing music. I suffer from tinnitus and thought what a pleasant change it was to hear [instead of] the usual rushing water and whistling that I usually get. It sounded like an orchestra ... I can only describe the music played as heavenly... Mrs B Murkoff, published in Enigmas Magazine Nov/Dec 1994

Similarly it is probable that psychological problems of hearing "voices" or "music" would recur sufficiently for them to be diagnosed and treated medically ( David Smith 1992).

If a solution to the enigma of paranormal music is to be found, it may be discovered by further study of the brain. It is known that music can be transmitted by radio waves where a direct origin seems unlikely e.g. at an event attended by myself and several hundred other people, music was heard emanating from a hand held microphone and I have also heard music from an amplifier which was not attached to any other sound source. It may be possible that such activity can occur in the brain without the percipient being aware of this.

In the 1930s, whilst undertaking experimental brain research, the American neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield discovered that electrical stimulation of the sensory cortex produced sensations which the patient could immediately discuss, since a local anaesthetic was all that was needed for the incision. One woman was able to hear music and: "when Penfield stimulated the same point thirty times, she heard the melody again each time, beginning at the same place. She could even hum in accompaniment" (W Penfield cited in Blackmore 1993:212). It is therefore possible that some people's brains receive similar stimulation in either unknown or even random situations that cause the paranormal music to be heard in at least some of the circumstances encountered. However, this suggestion may not apply to all the accounts of anomalous music and one must remain unsceptical to Rogo's notion that the music is genuinely beyond human comprehension.

Conclusion

This research is continuing and there is always a danger that a conclusion will be overturned when new evidence is unearthed.

If the ganzfeld experiments did not produce overall proof of music acting as a possible catalyst to telepathy then they nevertheless provided thought-provoking material as to how some people in some conditions appeared to make contact telepathically.

If the musical mediums did not write music dictated by the composers specified that could stand up to professional scrutiny, then they nevertheless managed to compose beyond their normal capacity.

If the ghostly music was often caused by natural sounds, faulty memories or fraudulent activity, then did this account for every example of the music documented?

Perhaps in trying to write logically about "music" - the most intangible of the arts - one is attempting the impossible and that its secrets will always reside in the paranormal.

References

Abel, AM. Talks with great composers. Psychic Book Club, UK. 1955

Blackmore, S. Dying to live. Grafton, UK. 1993

Bord, J&C. Atlas of magical Britain. Sidgwick and Jackson, UK . 1990

Bozzano, E. Phenomenes psychiques au moment de la mort. Paris. 1923

Brooks, JA. Britain's Haunted Heritage. Jarrold, UK. 1990

Campbell Holmes, A. The facts of psychic science and philosophy. Keegan, UK. 1925

David Smith, J. 'The auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia' - Auditory Imagery (ed Reisberg). Erlbaum, US. 1992

Evans, H. Visions, apparitions and alien visitors. BCA,UK. 1984

George, R. 'An ESP experiment with music' (1938) - Parapsychology Bulletin, 1948, 11, 2-3.

Godwin, J. Music, mysticism and magic. Arkana, UK. 1987

Keil, H. 'A GESP test with favourite musical targets' - Journal of Parapsychology, 29, 35-44. 1965

Morison & Lamont (pseudonyms) An Adventure. Macmillans, UK. 1911

Murkoff, B. Enigmas Magazine. Nov/ Dec 1994. Clackmannanshire.

Out of this World. MacDonald, UK. 1989

Palmstierna, E. Horizons of immortality. Constable, UK. 1937

Parrott, I. The Music of "An Adventure". Regency Press, UK. 1966

- The Music of Rosemary Brown. Regency Press, UK. 1978

Randi, J. The Supernatural A-Z. Headline, UK. 1995

Rogo, D Scott. NAD. University Books, US. 1970

- NAD Vol 2. University Books Inc, US. 1972

Shulman, R. 'An experiment in ESP with sounds as stimuli' - Journal of Parapsychology. 2, 322-325. 1938

Tweedale, C. News from the next world. Werner Laurier, UK. 1940

Underwood Ghosts and haunted places. Piatkus, UK. 1996

von Reuter, F. Psychic experiences of a musician. Rider & Co, UK. 1928

- A musician talks with unseen friends. Rider & Co, UK. 1931

Willin, MJ. 'A ganzfeld experiment using musical targets' - Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. 61, 842. London. 1996a

- 'Music from beyond the veil' - The Skeptic. 10, 5-6. M/ter. 1996b