A Little Background
So, I know what you’re thinking how can you class glass divination as an experiment given that its likely to be seen as a sceptics favourite for criticism, plus results wise its near on impossible to understand if the glass is moved by a spirit or those touching the glass!
All very valid points and to be fair its not one of my favourite approaches. That said though it is a favourite still of many investigation teams out there and something I thought worth a little of my time. Especially as I have also used it on many occasions and experienced the odd time where this approach has yielded results which remain unexplained.
The concept in this simple form is to create a scenario where by spirit can use our energy to communicate yes or no answers to questions that the group may ask out loud to the location they are in. When this works and communication does appear to occur presenting information beyond the knowledge of the group it can be fascinating. It also generates many a debate; such as is the spirit physically moving he glass or are they providing the information to use unconsciously so we in turn move the glass without knowing. The key in my experience is to find a way to quantify the information source, which incidentally is not an easy task.
Still as Glass divination is an age old approach to spirit communication it’s not something we should abandon simply as it may not tick all the right boxes scientifically. Perhaps it could be adapted to be a better kind of experiment, that’s my hope anyway.
What You Will Need
Given that this is based around the glass divination approach this experiment doesn’t really require that much. However it is always good to find the right place to setup. Personally I have found that any kind of seance or divination works in little light, this maybe because the sensory deprivation helps with focussing psychically. That said more experienced spirit communicators may feel that they can work in more light, as I have heard that some well established circles work in day light.
For this approach you’ll need:-
- A table for at least four people to stand or sit around. Ensure your comfortable.
- A relatively light glass, like a tumbler. Just not a heavy one.
- Yes and No indicators. This could be anything from two pieces of paper with yes on one and no on the other, to different colour lights.
- A digital voice recorder or camcorder.
That is pretty much it really. You can of course add in additional gadgets to monitor the situation like EMF, Temperature, etc.
The Method
This should be a relatively simple setup once the appropriate location is chosen.
- Setup/place the table in a relatively central location within the space you have, ensuring that there is plenty of space around it to stand or sit.
- Place the glass in the centre of the table.
- Place your yes and no markers at opposite ends of the table. Remember if the markers aren’t obviously related to yes and no, then you will need to ensure that their relevance is made clear during communication.
- Place the digital voice recorder on the table and begin the recording. (Or Camcorder)
- Tag the audio with the location, date and time. Then give a brief description of what you have setup and what you are hoping to achieve.
- Settle into position around the table and glass.
- Place your right index finger on the top of the glass. Ensure the touch is gentle without pressure, just so you can feel it there. Tag what you are doing in the audio.
- Begin your communication by introducing yourselves, its only polite.
- Then you can start calling out to the room and location asking the spirits to communicate by moving the glass. Remember to keep your questions limited to yes and no answers. Identify the location a glass should go for yes or no too.
- If anything occurs, glass movement, noises, etc. Ensure that you tag it in the audio recording to the best of your ability.
- Once a form of communication is established continue it by asking further questions to gain as much information as possible.
- When communication ends and you wish to close off the session, ensure that you thank those that have communicated.
- Complete the session by closing the audio and tag the finish time. Stop the recording.
The length of the session is dependent on how well the communication goes, but ideally I wouldn’t try to exceed 30 minutes. Clear commentary throughout the session is also important to help understand what is occurring. This maybe difficult for those around the table, so an observer maybe a good option too.
Managing the Results
This isn’t a straight forward experiment to manage the results for really, but that said there are some things we can look at and draw conclusions from. Firstly, we can look at which questioning approaches are more successful. The circumstances that are in place when things go well and when things dont of course.
The most important thing to review though is the audio or video footage of the session. Within this should be any information that is communicated to the group and from this you can conduct follow up research to understand if anything is supported. This can sometimes yield some interesting results so is always worth doing.
Something else to review would be the audio for possible EVPs. This is based on the fact that as we are asking out and running a digital voice recorder, usual circumstances for EVPs.
It’s my hope that by creating a standard approach to follow regarding something as simple as glass divination we can begin to look at the similarities and patterns between our experiences.
Ashley Knibb 