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December 2008 
Do the Dead Communicate?
Posted on Mar 20th, 2006
by 
Jeff Mishlove
Jeff Mishlove
Dr. Elisabeth Targ was a friend of mine. The story of her brilliant research and her tragic death is told on several websites that you may find of interest. Here is a version from Wired Magazine. She pioneered in conducting double-blind studies of psychic healers working on life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS and cancer. Then, ironically, she contracted a virulent form of cancer and died in 2002, while in her early 40s.
But, the full story has yet to be told. Since her death, there have been many stories circulating regarding various contacts from Elisabeth experienced through trance mediums, dreams and other modalities. The amount of these contacts seemed so impressive, that the Harvard psychiatrist and best-selling author, John Mack, was planning to write a book about them before his own tragic death -- by accident.
I, myself, experienced what I believe may have been a communication from Elisabeth. It took place about a year ago. I had a rather lucid dream in which she appeared to me. We were conversing and I told her that I was very impressed with the stories of various communications that were coming from her. "Especially," I said in the dream, "the physical phenomena."
At that very moment, I was awakened from my dream by the phone ringing. It was just after 2:00 a.m. I got out of bed and picked up the receiver. On the other end was loud white noise -- of a sort I do not remember ever hearing before on the phone.
Last night, I saw the movie, White Noise, on television. Naturally, it was a Hollywood thriller -- complete with evil ghosts. But, to the best of my knowledge, the actual descriptions of "electronic voice phenomena" (or EVP) communications with the deceased were realistic (apart from the fact that such communications do not seem to entail any real danger). There are some fascinating websites that describe work going on in this fringe area -- that even parapsychologists tend to avoid.
(A courageous parapsychologist who did venture into this realm was my distant cousin, D. Scott Rogo, who wrote a fascinating book called Phone Calls From the Dead, in partnership with Raymond Bayliss. Much could be said of Scott's work and his tragic death. That will require another blog, focusing on psychic crime investigation.)
This is a subject that I am trying to understand more deeply myself. I have not yet formed any firm conclusions regarding survival and the afterlife. My best suspicion is that it is far more complex than we appreciate. Probably, in the absence of a physical body, the human soul is much more fluid -- and subject to entirely different dynamics than we experience on this earth.
I would be very interested in the experience and opinions of those who read this blog.
Access: Public
Thanks for posting this wonderful blog entry, Jeff! I knew Elisabeth Targ also, and got some interesting communications from her after she died. I was very upset by her death, feeling that it was almost like some kind of conspiracy had taken place… since in my grief and angst I felt stunned that she could have coincidentally contracted the rare ailment she’d been studying when she passed away. In the communication I got from Elisabeth after she’d passed away, it was clear to me that she was not at all upset or angry… but still very actively involved in many of the same areas of exploration she’d been working on before she died. I wrote an article that has a picture of me with Elisabeth and a summary of some of her work called
href=”http://realityshifters.com/pages/articles/researchconfirmsdh.html”>Scientific Research Confirms Distant Healing.
Along the lines of white noise, I’ve heard a very distinct reverse speech message in the last recorded phone message I got from a dear friend, days before he died of a heart attack. He said things in reverse speech that could only indicate he knew in some way that he was about to pass away. His behavior the week before he died also seemed to indicate he knew he’d be leaving us soon… taking time to call and visit with as many friends as possible.
That's a lovely photo, Cynthia. It looks like the two of you were at a conference together. Can you post a bit more about how you knew Elisabeth – and, also, more details (if they are available) concerning the contact you experienced after her death?
Elisabeth and I were at one of the first
href=”http://www.bizspirit.com/science/”>International Conference on Science and Consciousness events in New Mexico, and the photo was taken immediately following her presentation of her research on “A Randomized Double-Blind Study of the Effect of Distant Healing in a Population with Advanced AIDS - Report of a Small Scale Study” that was published in the Western Journal of Medicine in December 1998.
I’ve had a few experiences of sensing Elisabeth’s presence near me; none involved PK types of activity or white noise, but all felt unmistakably like she was with me. I talked with her about how we all miss her, and how it feels so unfair for her to die so young. She had only just begun to get her work internationall recognized, and I was concerned about how it seems that sometimes prayer researchers (such as the story of how the Klingbeil father-son team of prayer researchers apparently committed double-suicide, as described in Bill Sweet’s book,
href=”http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1401091490/realityshifts”>A Journey into Prayer ) end up dead unexpectedly, and I was concerned that at a time when people in the world so clearly need further enlightenment and open-minded prayer research it’s been so difficult for researchers in this field to feel supported by their peers, the public, and people involved in traditional religions.
The nature of my first communication with Elisabeth was regarding how I felt a great wrong had occurred when she died. I felt a sense from her that she was not feeling wronged, but instead was rather actively continuing her work, even though she was now deceased. Subsequent communications with Elisabeth have given me a feeling of closeness to her and collaboration with people around the world who care about how our thoughts and feelings change the world.
i'm familiar with Dr. Russell Targ but i haven't done much reading about Elisabeth. so thanks for sharing this.
i grew up in a country where trance communication with the dead is like pastime. i have no experience on this but i'm not the type of person who would brush this off so easily. i guess because it's deeply ingrained in me.
i saw White Noise too. fascinating. my only problem with parapsychology are the people who exploit and sensationalize it, thus watering down any authentic inquiry. that's why my mentor Jimmy Licauco hates the word “parapsychologist.” can't blame the guy. he's a lonely voice in a culture steep in spirituality, superstitions, and dogma.
i enjoy reading your blog because it feeds my curiosity of things that are unexplainable (yet). takes me back to my early days of searching, and i find myself circling again. psi is blasphemy.
Ah, Elisabeth. I knew her pretty well, as a friend, and spent several social occasions with her (including her wedding), but mainly because she and my wife were high school buddies and were still good friends as adults reunited in the Bay Area near their home town of Palo Alto.
I was in the home – affectionately known as the Hayfields – where Elisabeth passed away. I got to see her about two days before she died, part of a small group praying and playing drums. My wife was there wtihin 6 hours of her death. She was pretty heavily doped out on morphine near the end. I also saw her body after she died.
My wife has not had any direct visitations from Elisabeth, other than a couple of ordinary dreams which Elisabeth was in. However, my wife *has had* a psychicly activated experience or two with Elisabeth's mother, Joan. My wife and Joan were in a woman's circle for years, and so when Joan fell ill in the garden (stroke, I believe) of the Hayfields, it was a devastating experience for her. Later, when the Targs were renting the Hayfields' home to our close friends Robin & Damon, my wife and Robin had an experience where a kitchen light went on, and flashed, and there were noises … all centering around Joan.
Clearly the family is psychically activated. I have met Russell a few times and certainly am aware of his work (although I'd like to see some brand new material from him), and of course, as we know, Elisabeth's uncle (Joan's brother) is Bobby Fischer, the chess great.
By the way, Elisabeth's wedding, after she had already been stricken by her brain tumour and already partly debilitated, facing ont the San Francisco Bay up in Marin County, was one of the bravest and most beautiful things I have ever witnessed in my entire life. Her husbankd, Mark, is a fine and brilliant man as well.
So, Elisabeth Targ, may your memory be a blessing.
P.S. The way WIRED “outed” part of her research posthumously was cowardly and just sucked.