"In Search of a Strange Phenomenon"

"This book has been extremely difficult to draft since it concerns a subject upon which nothing has previously been written," note Rogo and Bayless in the acknowledgments section of their 1979 book. Actually, this is not quite true. Contacts "from beyond" via telephone were first described in detail in a book entitled Voices From Beyond By Telephone, written by the Brazilian Carlos G. Ramos under the pen-name of Oscar D'Argonell in 1925. However, these two books still seem to be the only ones written exclusively about the subject. Phone Calls From The Dead has gained the attention of many researchers involved in ADC (After Death Communication).

The cases examined by the authors in this book are fewer than one might expect, about 10-15, but these were analysed accurately and intensively. Notable also is the element of spectacular coincidences related with the cases mentioned, and this should not be ignored. In order to approach an explanation about paranormal telephony the writers examine three theories:

1) The spiritistic or survival theory. "To begin with, we of course felt that these alleged phone manipulations might indeed be masterminded by the dead during attempts to contact us."
2) The EDB (Extra Dimensional Being) theory. "However we could not dismiss the possibility that some other types of paraphysical or extradimensional being - perhaps invisible denizens which co-inhabit the Earth with us or exist in some parallel universe - might be playing a huge cosmic joke on us...such beings might be endowed with the ability to manipulate our phone system and mimic the voices of the dead."
3) The PK from the living theory. "Finally, we also thought that the witnesses themselves might be unwittingly manufacturing these calls through their own innate mind-over-matter (or psychokinetic) abilities."

The calls themselves are collected into the following categories:

1) "Crisis" calls, received within 24 hours of the caller's death.
2) Postmortem calls, received within 7 days after death.
3,4,5) Calls received within 30 days, from 2 to 6 months, and more than 6 months after death.

The authors also try to explain the "Mechanics of the Calls" (Chapter 6) which seems to be the most difficult challenge of all. "To date unfortunately no phantom caller has ever explained to his bewildered listener just how he produced his call, so all we can do is guess." The author's speculative remarks though are interesting indeed. They examine two different possibilities:

1) The electromagnetic theory. "If these calls are incoming signals, then the phantom telephone voices would have to be an electromagnetic phenomenon...(perhaps) our witnesses really heard only a pattern of electrical oscillations that imitated human speech."
2) The paraphysical theory. "If however, these voices are somehow being produced over or within the specific instruments on which they are received, their nature might be different...they might be some sort of human speech or "independent voice" speaking directly over the amplifier in the receiver."

The authors also include in their book a chapter about the history of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). In my opinion this is a mistake on their part since the reader might be confused with information that doesn't have a lot to do with the subject of the book.

In their final chapter, the authors include critiques from others about their work. "After completing the first major draft of this volume, copies were sent to three well known and highly respected parapsychologists (Dr.Gertrude Schmeidler, Dr.John Palmer and Dr John Beloff), each of whom agreed to write some comments for us." It is to Rogo and Bayless' honour to include these comments in their book, even though it seems that some of it is against them!

D. Scott Rogo, who unfortunately was brutally murdered on 16 August 1990, together with his colleague Raymond Bayless, seemed to know very well the difficulties of their attempt to explain this paranormal phenomenon. Their investigations lasted two years and reading their report is no waste of time. More than two decades later, uncountable writers have listed Phone Calls From The Dead in the bibliographies of their own books dealing with various paranormal phenomena related to EVP and ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) investigations.