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The Value of Glass Divination for the Paranormal Investigator

Glass divination, or communicating with 'spirits' through the use of an upturned glass, is well known to most people with a keen interest in the paranormal. How useful this kind of divination really is, however, is debatable. The Paranormal Discovery team did not take the decision to practice forms of divination lightly. The decision had to be made early on whether to follow the path of a scientific only approach to investigations or to mix the scientific with the spiritual. We had to agree on the team’s goals and its reasons for allowing itself to partake in practices condemned by other teams. We also had to ask ourselves what could possibly be learnt or proven from doing this type of thing. If we were to allow divination to be part of our research then we had to be careful not to let this become purely for entertainment’s sake. The team had agreed that its main aim was to collect evidence of paranormal activity and the prospect of achieving this from divination seemed remote but worth a try. We were familiar with the theory of ‘ideomotor action’ being the apparent cause of various divination techniques working and had heard of the Phillip experiment, carried out in the 1970s, which is supposed to be proof that the human mind can effectively cause paranormal phenomena to occur. These will be discussed later in relation to the value of carrying out divination as part of a paranormal investigation.

When Paranormal Discovery was in its infancy we tried several different methods of divination and similar experimental things to see if we could get anything interesting to happen. We wondered which, if any, of these would actually work for us and glass divination was one of the first methods attempted as a group. This was initially quite exciting and thought provoking, raising many questions for the team (not questions about the supposed messages we had received as a result but questions to do with how and why the glass actually moves). Glass divination is a method of alleged spirit communication whereby an upturned glass is placed on a table. The people around the table place a finger each very lightly on the bottom of the glass in the hope that it will move in response to questions. This method differs only slightly from using a ouija board in that there is no board, words, letters or number on the table for the glass to point to and, consequently, is considered safer as the participants are thought to be more in control and the answers received are limited to ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Glass divination has its critics, however. The team are well aware of the possibility of the movement of the glass being caused by ideomotor movement and the subconscious. It is also understood that answers given to questions (if indeed from spirits) can sometimes be misleading and contradictory. Perhaps it is the case that once contact is made then the entity may say or do anything to grab the participants’ interest in order to keep the session going. Nevertheless, during one of our investigations, we all sat in a supposedly haunted hotel room with the dressing table pulled away from the wall so we could sit round it. The necessary protective measures were put into place and then a glass was placed upside down in the centre of the table. We were ready for our very first glass divination session to begin. We all felt a little apprehensive as we sat with our fingers on it waiting for something to happen . . .

"If there are any spirits or anybody in this room, could you please move this glass for us?” Katrina said to the darkened room. We waited with baited breath. Then after a couple of minutes Tori asked if anyone else could feel the glass pulsing and throbbing which we could. Not much else was happening but we decided to continue and our patience paid off. Soon the glass started to turn slightly much to everyone’s amazement. “Keep moving it”, said Natalie. The glass started to move in circles, picking up speed as it went. We soon established which way it was moving to give a ‘yes’ reply to our questions or a ‘no’. That was where it had all begun…

After talking to a spirit who had supposedly died in that room and was still haunting that space, we soon found another spirit desperate to communicate with us. The glass had suddenly stopped almost as if in mid-sentence and then quickly restarted but with a marked difference in its movement – this time the glass started to twist around in the tiniest of figure of eight shapes and then began to move back and forward between two of the team members with great speed. We soon established from the answers given that this ‘spirit’ was not connected to the building but was, supposedly, a deceased relative of two of the team members and who had dropped in for a chat! We couldn’t believe what was happening and it was very emotional stuff.

Now a year on from that day we have had many sessions of glass divination all being extremely different from each other. To date we have had alleged murderers telling us of their crimes and executions as the glass spun round the table so fast it toppled over several times. We have had the Lady of a castle complaining bitterly about us being there and we have communicated with others who would not pass on any information about themselves and who seemed to relish in the attention being shown to them. As if this wasn't enough, other activity often occurs while the team are carrying out the divination, for example, movement around the room and disembodied voices, are becoming more frequent. Imagine our surprise on one occasion when we asked if the attending spirit minded us being there, only for all of us to hear a quiet ‘yes’ in reply coming from the corner of the room. A loud giggle was even heard by all those present coming from behind the bar of one hotel investigation – apparently in reply to one of our questions.

As mentioned before, the team decided to participate in divination techniques because we felt that there was more to be learnt than initially thought. So what have we learnt so far? Here are some findings which are not new to anyone who has an interest in the field. However, these small facts have not simply been read about or heard about from others, these are what we have experienced first hand as a team whilst carrying out divination.

Well, we found out early on that not all spirits are helpful and not all want their identity to be known. We have found out that any information gained is not to be taken at face value and so is complemented to by the information gained from the team's mediums and from historical research etc. Location research is kept to a minimum before the investigation so that any facts provided by glass divination could perhaps be proven at a later date .
We have learnt that the glass may move as soon as it is touched, that it may move with only one person touching it or many people touching it. We have discovered that it doesn’t move at all when certain individuals place a finger on it. It is also not the case that just because the glass usually moves when certain team members participate that it will always move when the same people attempt divination.
We have scrutinised the different movements of the glass. It seems that different 'spirits' move the glass in different ways, some even have their own 'signature movement' to indicate it is them when they first move the glass.
The glass has never fallen off the edge of the table and always stop just at the table edge. . .
. . .and it has never moved without human contact.
We watched as the glass twisted and turned and noticed that this was very hard to see when watching the playback on video. As a result the glass now used has been painted with broad bands to allow any movement to be seen more clearly on video.
Emotions from the spirits seem to produce different results too, for example, a sudden lunge towards a participant might be seen as threatening behaviour. Fast circular movements can be seen as eagerness to communicate or if going clockwise, then an affirmative answer to a question. The glass has often been seen sliding over to a particular person after a comment has been made as if in agreement with the person who has just spoken.
We have discovered that an upturned wine glass is better to use as it tends to topple over if more pressure is exerted on one side and so easily shows if somebody is unconsciously pushing or exerting pressure on one side of the glass.
We also discovered through experimentation that the tool used for this purpose does not necessarily have to be a glass or hollow vessel. Any small object that can move easily across the table surface will work just as well. It would appear that the stories often heard as teenager about ‘spirits’ inhabiting the glass whilst using the ouija board are part urban myth.
In our experience, divination, for whatever reason, appears to be a catalyst in allowing other paranormal activity to happen. For this reason, no divination session now goes unfilmed and voice recorders are always utilised (we have learnt the hard way about not always being prepared for the unexpected!).
We have tried the divination with all participants inside a protective circle and also without the same protection. There has been no difference as far as we can tell (the circle of protection is complementary to the personal protection methods which are always used by the investigators)

Okay, none of the above statements are groundbreaking and the burning question as always is - who or what is moving the glass? Is it the humans or the spirits? Well, firstly let’s discuss Ideomotor Effect. What exactly is it…?

William Benjamin Carpenter devised the term “ideomotor effect” in 1882 during his studies into the movement of pendulums, dowsing rods and table tipping by spirit mediums, which was very much in vogue at the time. Ideomotor action was seen as an instinctive and subconscious behaviour. In brief, his theory, which was later proven, was that muscular movements could be initiated by the subconscious mind, independently of conscious desires or emotions. So, what does this mean for the paranormal investigator? Basically, most examples of divination can be explained physiologically/psychologically and without any involvement from spirit beings or paranormal forces. The participant might be moving the chosen divination tool but is not prepared to take responsibility for this and certainly won’t accept that the answers and information being communicated could be the result of his own imagination or subconscious desires. He can’t doubt his own senses and the glass, or whatever is being used, may be moving when he ‘knows’ that he is not the one causing this. Furthermore, if the information being communicated is scary, embarrassing or personal in nature then this just strengthens the belief that it was not them that caused the glass to move. The whole event is then attributed to paranormal forces. This is supported by the Automatism Theory that can be attributed to one person in similar circumstances or to a group of people when it is then known as Collective Automatism, e.g. when using a ouija board. More recently experiments have shown how the glass used during a ouija board session could not point to letters to make any sense when the participants were blindfolded. An episode of Penn and Teller’s TV show ‘Bullshit’ called “Ouija Boards/ Near Death Experiences” aired in 2003 showed viewers how when the board was turned upside down without the blindfolded participants being aware of this that the pointer moved to blank spaces on the table where the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ had previously been. All the evidence to date would indicate that the glass or other tool is being moved by the participants in many forms of divination.

The Spiritualist Theory is much simpler. This supports the idea that spirits are indeed being contacted and that communication has been possible via the chosen divination method. The spirit is responsible for the movement of the tool used. Movement may be dependant on the participants actually touching the device and the spirit may not be able to move the object without human contact. Spirits, then, are able to utilise this natural physiological ability in humans and use this to their own advantage in order to communicate. Maybe the dowser/participant unknowingly receives information or messages through their own psychic abilities and the glass or pendulum is then moved subconsciously to pass this on. The participant is used as a catalyst to allow communication to take place. Or is the explanation simpler than that? Is the energy emitted by the human actually required in order for the glass to move and mere contact from that person is all that is needed? .

Now let’s discuss the Phillip experiment briefly mentioned before. In short, a Canadian group led by Dr A.R.G. Owen created a fictional character, giving him a complete background and personality etc. The aim of the experiment was to see if a group of people could create a fictional character and later manage to communicate with him via séances and maybe even experience additional phenomena. It took months of effort progressing from informal sittings to carrying out classical spiritualist séances to eventually have unexplained phenomena taking place, all allegedly caused by the spirit of Phillip, the made-up character. Table tipping and raps on the table occurred as if in response to questions. Other strange phenomena also occurred: a light mist formed in the centre of the table, lights blinked on and off, whispering voices were heard but not recorded, and most impressively of all, the table managed to levitate half an inch above the floor on one occasion during filming for a television documentary but sadly this was not caught on camera. The experiment was hailed a success. The researchers had managed to achieve their goal of creating a ‘spirit’ and then managing to communicate with him during a séance – or so it would seem.

The Paranormal Discovery team carry out various forms of divination both individually and as a group. It is our belief that these techniques are still worthwhile even though ideomotor action could realistically be responsible for some results obtained. However, it is worth remembering that just because the ideomotor effect can explain movement, it does not necessarily mean that every movement is the result of ideomotor action. This explanation alone does not actually disprove the idea of spirit communication or paranormal activity in every case, in just the same way that the Phillip experiment did not actually disprove possibility of communicating with spirit beings during a séance. Perhaps the experimenters did make contact with a spirit who was mischievous and found the idea of misleading them to be amusing (they did think this to be unlikely, however, since no information other than that known to or made up by the researchers was communicated by ‘Phillip’). The mere fact that various phenomena occurred at all is still impressive and similar things have been happening with the Paranormal Discovery team as said before. Therefore we feel that is sensible to consider other possibilities. Could it be that we have been creating the movement around the room, the taps, footsteps and disembodied voices ourselves through the power of our own minds? Are our own expectations, visualisation and intentions enough to cause this and to cause these phenomena in addition to making the glass move? Some sceptics would like to see the glass move of its own accord before admitting that something paranormal might be happening. We disagree. Some of the team members believe that during divination, the 'spirit' (this term is used to cover a number of possibilities since we do not know what actually communicating with us) needs the human element to be able to move the divination tool. Why this should be so is still a puzzle since we acknowledge that items can move of their own accord at other times other than during divination. In fact, this is something that has been witnessed by several members of the team on more than one occasion but not during any of our divination sessions! In addition to this, how can anyone know for sure that any information or message provided by the participant's subconscious (and which is later passed on via ideomotor movement of the divination tool) has not been transferred to this person from a 'spirit', by their own psychic abilities or other unknown source?

Some would argue that divination is simply a poor use of the team's time at a location. Paranormal Discovery, however, feel that "nothing ventured, nothing gained”. We will continue doing this and are ever hopeful of gaining information in the future which could not have been known or guessed by any of the people present. After all, it is the result/answers that are important and not necessarily the method used to get these. If any answers obtained during divination are later proven to be the result of telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing, clairvoyance etc then the team will consider this a success. If other phenomena is captured on film or audio as a result of us carrying out the divination so much the better. We feel there is no right or wrong way to conduct an investigation, every team is different - whatever works for one team might not work for another. We are after all, investigating and trying to prove the existence of paranormal phenomena, and Paranormal Discovery believes that glass divination may actually be one of the many ways to help us do this.

Written by Tori Bruce and Katrina Boitz

Bibliography

“Ouija, the Most Dangerous Game”, Stoker Hunt

“Parascience Pack” by Uri Geller and Ron Van Der Meer

“Explaining the Unexplained” by Hans J Eysenck and Carl Sargent

“Tricks of the Mind” by Derren Brown

“The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits” by Rosemary Ellen Guiley