Spirit Photos and the Luminator - Breakthrough to the other side or clever Hoax?

An American called Mark Macy has investigated communication with the spirit world his entire life, and acquired a device called the "luminator". The pole-like gadget allegedly opens some energy field that works with the human body's energy field to allow the "dead" to appear on Polaroid photos.
The faces can appear next to the person, but are more often superimposed over the model's face.
All the investigators, who bring their own film and cameras, are pretty baffled by the results, although unfortunately I haven't seen comments from the hardcore skeptics.
Apparently there are only 8 luminators, although a recent program (which I'm trying to locate) opened it, and there wasn't really much inside (some kind of coil, I'm hoping others know more).
Here's a good, short introductory clip, featuring Denver's Channel 2, Scifi Investigates and Jane Goldman Investigates.



The luminator was developed by Patrick Richards, and this link describes the supposed content.
www.visionaryliving.com...

reply to post by halfoldman


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d7358f7bb6bf.gif[/atsimg]

It's very strange that the light is causing this effect but then it is light and light does have properties that cause refraction, quite possibly holographic patterns. It looks like the persons face to me refracted in the polaroid.

This is most likely some optical illusion and the claims of spirits is really pareidolia with people's imagination filling in the blanks. "This is my father" although it's his face slightly distorted.

I'm not convinced that this is nothing more then an optical illusion caused by the luminator. It doesn't make sense that every person suddenly has a spirit attached to them yadda yadda when luminated and taken a picture of.

More convincing if it was rare that this illusion materialized but it's on every photograph they take which is just not convincing at all.

reply to post by YouAreDreaming

Could be as you say, but it doesn't happen to everybody, or in every photo.
First that fact made me skeptical, because he may have somehow inserted pre-set existing photos he somehow obtained for certain people.
Some could be tricks of the mind, but others clearly do have another added face.
In the link above it says that some skeptics say he shakes the camera, but I'm not convinced.
If he's faking it then it hasn't quite been explained how.

I don't like this one bit personally.

Everyone seems to be grasping at straws and seeing what they want to see.

One thing I think they should try is taking a picture of someone with their mouth wide open. If the over lapping image does the same then....

Ive been the director of a paranormal group since the early 90's.

People see faces in everything.

A face in a tree, OMG its a ghost. Face in the tv screen turned off, OMG its a ghost. Face in the condensation of a shower screen blah blah blah.

reply to post by FoxfilesMulder

Yeah, and sometimes they actually do see faces.
Like in photographs.
In the luminator material they see blurry faces, but faces nevertheless.
The picture in my clip is the intro to a clip on the phenomenon, it is not the photo to be analyzed.
This thread is not about a single photo.

If faked, I'd still be interested how the extra faces got there.
In the clip on sees the investigators bringing their own film.
The faces are obviously there, non of them deny that, but of course nobody can prove they are spirit faces.

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by FoxfilesMulder

 

Yeah, and sometimes they actually do see faces.
Like in photographs.
In the luminator material they see blurry faces, but faces nevertheless.
The picture in my clip is the intro to a clip on the phenomenon, it is not the photo to be analyzed.
This thread is not about a single photo.

If faked, I'd still be interested how the extra faces got there.
In the clip on sees the investigators bringing their own film.
The faces are obviously there, non of them deny that, but of course nobody can prove they are spirit faces.

Sometimes people possibly do indeed see faces.

But to be honest, Ive watched it twice and I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I didn't see any extra face on any photos, I just saw a blurry version of the same face overlapping it.

Its like when someone eats something they don't know what they are eating, how many times have we heard the same thing "It tastes like chicken". The brain is just trying to interpret what its not understanding.

So when someone sees a slightly distorted face, its automatically their dead grandfather.

What you found was a good find anyway and as an apology for the first reply I give you a S&F.

reply to post by FoxfilesMulder

Thanks man.
When I saw the documentary footages on various programs I just thought this should be on ATS - real or fake.
Now I see Mark Macy has a whole set of beliefs apart from his luminator workshops, concerning everything from mankind's origins (ancient alien theory) to energy fields.
Actually only a few people who have gotten results from his luminator recognize the faces as somebody they know.
He is a guru-type figure, but depending on the person, his other ideas may reinforce or undermine his luminator claims.
It's seems more like a quasi-religious thing, rather than a quasi-science issue.
Still doesn't explain how he does it with the photos.

Mark Macy on human origins.
He sums up a good case for ancient human origins long before our supposed "creation" according to Abrahamic religions or human evolution.

Macy: ITC (instrumental trans-communication) and ethereal beings:


Lovely.
Why do people like Macy never become US Presidents?

There is little doubt that something which Macy does changes the facial imagery of his luminator subjects, as each batch of astounded journalists and investigators affirm.

The contents of the device is rather disappointing.
Some perspex tubes with liquid and a fan.
They could hardly account for the sudden unreal images, unless they threaten to prove something new about photography.
The claim is that the contents are secondary to manner in which the liquid and so forth have been energized.
Whatever the case, here is a description:

What makes these faces appear? The spirit faces seem to be facilitated by the presence of a subtle energy device called a luminator, invented by Patrick Richards of Michigan. There are only nine luminators in existence, and all but Macy’s are used in psychotherapy. Macy acquired his luminator in 1999, programmed specifically for spirit photography.
The luminator looks like a large, slim stereo speaker. Inside is a Plexiglas barrel lined with rings filled with water-based liquid that acts like crystal, and two counter-rotating fans that pull air into the unit at the bottom and blow it out at the top, creating a vortex within the device.
Exactly how the luminator works is not known, but its specific subtle energy programming apparently enables the device to change environmental vibrations in a room. This creates a “noise” matrix for spirits to make impressions on film. “There are many dimensions that are superimposed on ours,” said Macy. “They are separated by vibrational level, not by distance or time. We can perceive them when we tune in to their vibrations, just like you would tune in a radio or television frequency. The luminator seems to help us do that.”
A spirit face photo is blurry, as though dimensional realms are intersecting. Spirit faces can be full or partial. Macy has experimented with different lighting and environments and has found low indoor light to be the most effective. Sunlight washes out the effects.

www.visionaryliving.com...

THis is his other site. www.worlditc.com...

Yes hello, he's the White Noise nutjob.

He got busted for photoshopping the image of Doc Mueller, same pic just photoshopped the glasses off. If you look close on his website the person photoshopping removed the glasses but not the shadow below the right eye from the glasses.

His alleged contact with John Denver, that spirit image was an existing photo of John. More fraud.

Then when Macy got busted on multiple photo frauds here is what followed....

X’s posting in the guestbook: (With this posting our contact started)
X (mailto: pppp) wrote on 05.01.2005, 07:50 o'clock using IP xxxx the following text:

Is this a joke or what? Surely nobody falls for all this rubbish? Haven't any of you ever asked yourself why people involved in this generally end up writing a profitable book on it to profit from the gullible that believe in it all. The "evidence" provided on this site alone is completely laughable. Take for instance the pic of the dead Doc Mueller on the front page - it's the same frikkin pic as the alive one, but with his glasses photoshopped off. What a laugh! To the creators of this site: If you are going to try to pull off some elaborate hoax have the decency to acutally employ someone to make your pics look more convincing. And as for the recordings I simply don't know where to begin.

Rolf replied to him in the guestbook:
Rolf-Dietmar (mailto: kontakt (ett) rodiehr.de) wrote on 05.01.2005, 11:47 o'clock using IP 80.140.240.30 the following text:

Hi X,
Your reaction shows that resonance is working perfectly. Something has been touched inside of you. BTW, the same happened to me in 1986 when I started with all this new knowledge. So, I fully understand you. :-) As you might know I am a physicist on the experimental side--used to "hard facts" and figures. But I made experiments myself. And please take into consideration that we are as smart as you are (to say the least :-)). Do you really believe that I / we will use my time to "produce" rubbish?? Should we manipulate pictures only to show something that doesn't exist? We don't like to convince anybody. What we do is to show what happens around the world and we mention our own experiences. Obviously you haven't visited the section "Researchers' Results" yet. I (Rolf) am not that type of person you might think I am. Instead of producing rubbish I would prefer to use my motor bike and have fun while riding. Can you imagine how I felt when I saw that my wife could bend a spoon while I couldn't do that? What do you think of making your own experiments? When you are open minded then surprises might wait for you. :-)
Greetings Rolf

P.S.: BTW, I don't like to write a book because you will find all valuable information for mankind already on paper. Until now this website needs money and time--no profit in money yet. :-)

X replied in the guestbook:
X (mailto: pppp) wrote on 05.01.2005, 12:02 o'clock using IP xxxx the following text:

Hi Rolf,
OK, I am open minded otherwise I wouldn't be arriving at a site like this in the first place. However you do have a picture of Mueller on the front page that is so obviously photoshopped I would expect a first year graphics student to spot it. If you wish to maintain any sort of credibility I would suggest that you remove this obvious hoax that someone has sent you.
X

Rolf replied in the guestbook:
Rolf-Dietmar (mailto: kontakt (ett) rodiehr.de) wrote on 05.01.2005, 12:05 o'clock using IP 80.140.240.30 the following text:

Hi X,
This picture is no hoax. Take time and read the entire story behind it.
Rolf

X replied in the guestbook:
X (mailto: pppp) wrote on 05.01.2005, 13:54 o'clock using IP xxxx the following text:

I believe that you may THINK it isn't a hoax but I can assure you it is - I spend a good deal of my time spotting a lot better hoax pictures than that one. I could go to the trouble of overlaying the two faces over the top of one another if you like, so you see that the shadows appear in the same places. But there is no need to as it is as plain as day. The person who removed the glasses in photoshop didn't didn't bother removing the shadow to the bottom right of the right eye that was caused by the frames of the glasses. School boy error I am afraid.

Rolf sent X an email:
From: Rolf-D. Ehrhardt - To: X - Cc: 1ITC - Macy, Mark - Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 1:05 PM
Subject: ??

Rolf-Dietmar Ehrhardt
- Germany -
www.worlditc.org...
www.rodiehr.de... (in German)

Hi X,
What do you think of moving this type of discussion to our Forum? Others could take part in that too. I can assure you that these pics were not modified. Do you know in which year these pics were received? The experimenter did not have that type of software (Photoshop).
But when you feel better that this is a hoax--then this okay for you. Let me know whether we should move this thread to the Forum. So each of us can move it so it looks "originally posted".
Greetings Rolf

X sent an email to Rolf:

Rolf,
Feel free to move it to the forum, I was thinking the same - would that mean I have to register in order to copy my posts over? I was using the term photoshop loosely as meaning anything that can edit photos. I have never been involved in photo-touching that hasn't been done on a PC but I am aware of the techniques available to editors going way back when doing it by hand was the only method. Maybe this is why he made such a bad job of it! I can prove almost conclusively that the two pictures are of the same origin. But like you said it would be better in a discussion forum.....
X

Comment by Rolf: As you see here we agreed upon moving this discussion to the forum. Having moved all postings, there was no need to keep these postings also in the guestbook.

Mark replied in an email:
X,
You really should explore the website before making your ultimate judgments.
If a child spent his life in a desert and saw a still mountain lake for the first time, he might say that the sky is in the water. I could tell him, no, it's just a reflection, but he would argue, "I believe that you THINK it isn't the sky, but I can assure you it is. I've spent all my life looking at the sky."
Mark M

Rolf sent an email:
Hi X,
Yes, of course you have to register in order to become a member of ForumRomanum and then a member of World ITCs Forum. Tell me when you copied your posting and I will post mine and so on. I am sure that you "prove" to me that the spoon bending was a big fraud. :-) Each of us has to go his own way to recognition-hopefully.
I prefer not to discuss so much but actions taken by myself. Not talking but acting.
Rolf

X sent Mark an email:
From: X - To: Mark Macy - Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 6:21 AM - Subject: Re: new entry

Mark,
I understand your sentiments - I already answered your colleague and assured him I wasn't on a mission to try and discredit your site as you have spent a lot of time on it. I can tell you categorically though that the pic of mueller is a hoax. You could show that pic to any number of photographic experts (without prejudicing them first by saying its a ghost,) and they will all tell you the same. The two pics are the same, only one of them has had the glasses removed by either a graphic editor or by hand on a print, either way a very simple procedure.
Haven't you stopped to question this yourself? Why would spiritual faces on the telly haev shadows across them anyway?
X

Mark sent X an email:

X,
I've seen numerous contacts that I know are legitimate that are puzzling. Some resemble earthside pictures. Of course I questioned that picture, and other contacts, but I took the time to research their background before categorically claiming them fraudulent. I'm a very discerning person. I also am familiar with Photoshop and know than any novice could doctor up a picture better than that was done. I've thought long and hard about those blemishes on Mueller's face where he'd worn glasses on Earth, and I have my own opinions on why they're there, but I know for certain they aren't the result of earthside doctoring-up of the photo..

I was a good friend of George Meek who along with O'Neil established initial contact to Mueller through Spiricom, and while I didn't know Adolf Homes (who received that picture through his TV), I am friends with Fritz Malkhoff and Ernst Senkowski, two very honest researchers who were very close friends with Homes, a simple and honest man. They are both intimately familiar with Homes' technique of getting video image through his TV set, and they know that that picture arrived as the other spirit images arrived on his TV set.

That said, you're welcome to hold onto your opinion of spiritual research based on limited knowledge and background of spiritual research, but in my opinion your like the desert boy judging the validity of a mountain lake upon first glance.
Mark Macy

And now X made his posting in the forum:
Subject: Mueller Pic Is Fake

Hello everyone,
my first post here, so sorry it is a negative one.I came across this site last night while doing some research and the first thing to strike me was that the photo of Mueller on the front page appearing on a TV is in my opinion a hoax and not a very good one at that. I edit and retouch photos as part of my trade and to me it is 100% definite that it has been tampered with, I can spot them as easily as a bank clerk can spot forged notes. However I don’t want you to just take my word for it - take a look yourselves, if you have a copy of photoshop to manipualte the picture with then all the better. You don’t have to be an expert to realise straight away that the two pictures are very very similar. The hoaxer has attempted to make them dissimilar but he must have had very limited tools to work with and may have had to retouch it by hand. Firstly the shadows are in the exact same place on the two pictures. Secondly the facial expression is identical (e.g. the grin.) Thirdly the two pictures are from the exact same angles. Fourthly there are deep shadows in the eyesockets that would have been caused by the removed glasses. But most damning of all, while the hoaxer has made a valiant attempt at removing the frames of the glasses from the face, he has totally forgot to remove the very obvious shadow left by the frames toward the bottom right of the right eye - to me this is almonst 100% proof of the forgery on its own without any other evidence. There are other points too that only become visible upon enhancing in photoshop, but I think that the above points are easily enough evidence. And anyway, you really do have to ask yourself why a spirit face generated on your TV would have any shadows on it at all!

X sent Rolf an email:
I started the topic - i sort of rolled all the messages and these emails into one rather than duplicating them one at a time....
X

Mark made a posting in the forum:
Subject: RE: Mueller Pic Is Fake

X,
you wrote in our Guestbook: "I believe that you may THINK it isn’t a hoax but I can assure you it is - I spend a good deal of my time spotting a lot better hoax pictures than that one. I could go to the trouble of overlaying the two faces over the top of one another if you like, so you see that the shadows appear in the same places. But there is no need to as it is as plain as day. The person who removed the glasses in photoshop didn’t didn’t bother removing the shadow to the bottom right of the right eye that was caused by the frames of the glasses. School boy error I am afraid."

I replied with a private email:
X, You really should explore the website before making your ultimate judgments. If a child spent his life in a desert and saw a still mountain lake for the first time, he might say that the sky is in the water. I could tell him, no, it’s just a reflection, but he would argue, "I believe that you THINK it isn’t the sky, but I can assure you it is. I’ve spent all my life looking at the sky." Mark M

You sent another private email to me, then I replied to that:
X, I’ve seen numerous contacts that I know are legitimate that are puzzling. Some resemble earthside pictures. Of course I questioned that picture, and other contacts, but I took the time to research their background before categorically claiming them fraudulent. I’m a very discerning person. I also am familiar with Photoshop and know than any novice could doctor up a picture better than that was done. I’ve thought long and hard about those blemishes on Mueller’s face where he’d worn glasses on Earth, and I have my own opinions on why they’re there, but I know for certain they aren’t the result of earthside doctoring-up of the photo.. I was a good friend of George Meek who along with O’Neil established initial contact to Mueller through Spiricom, and while I didn’t know Adolf Homes (who received that picture through his TV), I am friends with Fritz Malkhoff and Ernst Senkowski, two very honest researchers who were very close friends with Homes, a simple and honest man. They are both intimately familiar with Homes’ technique of getting video image through his TV set, and they know that that picture arrived as the other spirit images arrived on his TV set. That said, you’re welcome to hold onto your opinion of spiritual research based on limited knowledge and background of spiritual research, but in my opinion you’re like the desert boy judging the validity of a mountain lake upon first glance.
Mark Macy

And this is where my dialog on this ends. I’ve explained in detail on the website how I know such contacts are legitimate spirit contacts. I have a busy schedule that gives me little extra time to contend with the doubts and fears of all the many skeptics.
Mark Macy

Rolf made a posting in the forum:
Subject: RE: Mueller Pic Is Fake

Hi X,
Only to clarify things to the readers. Your guestbook entry was different from your posting here. My reply refers to your first posting in our guestbook. Meanwhile I deleted all the guestbook entries.

X tries 3 times to make the following posting in our guestbook (which had been set to the moderator status meanwhile):
X (pppp) wrote on 07.01.2005, 15:25 o'clock using IP xxxx the following text:

hahahhahahahahhahahaa firstly guestbook entries get deleted when they expose the fraud on this site and then the forums get shut down when people start to explose the fraud going on on this site - whatever happened to freedom of speach. #ing fraudsters. By the way people - all the material on here has been proved to be fraudulent. Oh - I don't expect this message to last too long either, but there will be another. By the way WorldITC - I am putting my name to the fact that you are a bunch of fraudulent charlatans that are extorting money from the gullible. In my country making such an allegation is libel, for which you could sue me for thousands - so why don't you?

Mark sent an email to X:
Hi X,
It might be interesting for you someday to understand what makes you so angry. When the search begins, look inside, not outside yourself.
Good luck,
Mark Macy

X sent an email to Mark:
Subject: RE: Mueller Pic Is Fake

A typical head in the sand attitude then I see. Even when faced with compelling evidence you choose to hold your hands over your ears and say LALALALLALA in a loud voice to drown out the truth. Can you not simply explain why there is a shadow on Muellers ghost face that was caused by the frames of his glasses that the fraudster who doctored the pic failed to remove?

X sent an email to all posters listed in our guestbook on Jan 10th 2005:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Recently the owners of the website WorldIRC.com that deals with apparent contacts with the dead deleted their own forums on its website. This was apparently because there was strong evidence to suggest that they had been involved in falsifying a considerable amount of the material on their website. When confronted with almost undeniable proof of their fraud they decided to cover it up rather than face the shame of being uncovered as fraudsters. They also deleted several entries from their guestbook which also had pointed the finger at their falsifications. The fraud in question includes several faked pictures supposedly of the dead appearing on TVs and also a faked recording with Mr Macy speaking (supposedly) to a dead scientist.
We have written to you directly as it is now the only way to contact those people that are being taken for a ride by these devioud fraudsters who are giving genuine research a bad name. Your email appeared in their guestbook, this is a one-time mail to you and will not be held on any database.
I know that you must understand our concern about people getting involved with this kind of fraud and I hope that you do not mind us contacting you.
Regards.
X & Y (his partner)
AA Research Labs

Rolf sent an email to those addresses mentioned on the email list:
Rolf-Dietmar Ehrhardt
- Germany -
www.worlditc.org...

Dear visitors of our website,
I can assure you that no information on our site is a fraud. We have not manipulated any information. Some pictures may have been enhanced for sake of contrast.
The best verification or falsification is the own experiment. But as we all know from life: sometimes there is more than one attempt necessary to allow a judgement.
Thank you for your time!
Rolf Ehrhardt
(P.S.: Mark Macy is out of town.)

Forum related information:

Rolf posted this message on the forum:

Subject: Closure
Hi All,
This Forum will be closed for new postings from this moment on-Jan 06, 2005 - 11 a.m. CET and will be deleted in the next days.
Thank you for participating.
Rolf

Mark posted this message on the forum:
(as part of a reply to someone)

Hi X,
It was getting unwieldy.
Doubters insisting on convincing us and everyone else that the work is phony. People insisting on getting information from us when it is already available on the website. They lack the time or inclination to search and research and want us to give our time to them for this. For us it is like jumping off the ladder everyday and starting from the bottom. Not the best use of our time.
Also, the bickering and dissension work against resonance.
Discussing differences of opinion in order to find common ground is a good thing in general, but our website probably isn't the best forum for that if it causes aggravation and stirs up the adrenaline of many visitors to the site.
Our main aim is to inform and allow people to use our information to grow at their own pace.
Wild dialog works against that, getting people's emotions in turmoil.
So, that's my position.
Here's what Rolf wrote to another visitor:

"We close the Forum because it is not fruitful enough and too much work to deal with all those ideas and feelings. As I see it people are not willing to work--it is easier to talk only. :-) They simply don't read the basics of ITC and in case they read it they don't agree or they don't understand. We can't start every 3 weeks at the bottom again. People might lift their level of information also. "

Thanks for your interest and participation.
Mark Macy

An excerpt from an email to posters who asked why we close the forum:

…. We know that our work is true and honest, as do tens of thousands of others around the world. We've answered you and others like you over and over until, frankly, we get a little sick of it. You have your own doubts to contend with, and you need to resolve them through your own search. It's not our responsibility in life to provide a forum for people with limited knowledge to attack us and our work.
We've laid out (thanks mostly to Rolf) an unprecedented, reliable library which people can use to understand the spirit worlds, as well as the great promise and the obstacles that face us in trying to communicate with them.
If you can listen more than speak, read more than write, then I think you'll get much from www.worlditc.org.
Meanwhile, we're all better off going our separate ways - - Rolf and I in our way, you and other doubters in your way - - and you are welcome to find your own forums from which to attack things you can't accept.
Vaya con Dios,
Mark Macy

Mark sent (Jan 11th, 2005) an email to many of those who received X’s unsolicited 1/10 email:



First, thanks to X for rounding up the contributors to our www.worlditc.org Guestbook. To you contributors, thank you for your good comments and your interest in our research.

As far as X’s accusations, of course they’re false, as most of you already know. This isn’t the first time ITC researchers have been attacked for the other-worldly truths they present (which often are hard to understand with terrestrial physics), and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I’ve seen it happen before: Someone stands proudly on the deck of their ship of misconceptions, until the ship collides with the rocks of truth . . . and that collision is inevitable. If the person survives the crash, he finds himself stranded on a beach of truth, and he has to adapt to the new life. Truth is solid and always wins out . . . if not in the history books (which get buried eventually in the sands of time), then in the akashic records which are timeless. The information and contacts on our website are among those rocks of truth, to the very best of my knowledge.



HOAXER Anyone who is familiar with this guy, the luminator and the spiricom crap already knows he's a nut.

reply to post by DrJay1975

Thank you so much much for that detailed discussion.
I kinda think it is a hoax, and my question then is also how exactly he creates these photos when people bring their own film (and cameras?).
I don't think all afterlife contact is a hoax, since I've gotten very good EVP results with a tape recorder myself, and nobody will convince me it is all a hoax.
But as far as Macy is concerned: it's too much like a religion, too unclear and predictable.
Thanks for a lot of info - I didn't know he had alleged "spirit images" of John Denver!
Still, if it's a party trick with the Polaroid camera, I'd love to know how it's done.

reply to post by FoxfilesMulder


LMAO! I see this gif. all the time. What is it originally from??

reply to post by TopherWayne

You will find your answer and more in this thread by FoxfilesMulder: www.abovetopsecret.com...
Hope that helps.