Using Technology to Contact the Deceased: Klaus Schreiber

Thomas Edison may not have succeeded in developing a device to talk to the deceased, but that hasn't stopped others from trying.  One of the most notable examples was a German researcher, Klaus Schreiber (1925-1988).  According to this online article, Schreiber "was a cheerful, kind man and loved friends and parties, but his life was marked by heavy losses and economic hardship."  After marrying his first wife Gertrud in 1946, Schreiber endured a number of sorrows in his life: after their fourth child Karin was born in 1960, his wife died shortly after childbirth.  Their son Robert was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1968 at the age of 22.  Their daughter Karin then suffered a workplace injury in 1978 at the age of 18, dying herself shortly thereafter.  

All of these tragic events may have been enough to destroy Schreiber's life, when in fact it was only the beginning of many weird and unexplainable events for him.  After listening to some radio programs on EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), Schreiber decided to do some experimenting of his own.  Quoting from the aforementioned article again:

"On a morning of 1982, Klaus was listening to the show "Incredible Stories" (amazing stories), on  RTL (Radio Télévision Luxembourg), about the electronic voice phenomena, [wihch] was the moment that changed his life. Klaus, on the same night, during a meeting with friends in the basement of his house, decided to comment on what was heard in the morning on the radio about EVP. After discussion with his friends, Klaus decided to do an experiment. He got a tape recorder, put a [blank] tape and started a recording, addressed to Peter, [who was] a deceased friend of all those present at the meeting. To everyone's surprise, Peter responded [on the tape]: 'Hello, friends!'"  Most of Schreiber's friends were so shocked that they left his house, never to return.  

Meanwhile, Schreiber began to take on the task of converting his basement into an audio-video experimental lab, utilizing T.V. sets, video camcorders, amplifiers, Ultraviolet lamps, infra-red lamps, and microphones.  Enlisting the help of an engineer friend, Martin Wenzel, Schreiber dubbed his system the "Vidicom", which allowed images of the deceased to show up on his T.V. screen.  The TCI Seattle article contained the following schematic and goes into more detail on how Schreiber and Wenzel were able to get their assembled device to work:

 

The components in the schematic were as follows:  1) Video camera; 2) Video amplifier; 3 & 5) video recorders; 4 and 6) black and white TVs; 7) microphone; 8) sound enhancer; 9) UV Lamp; 10) Infrared lamp; 11)Aluminum Foil.  According to the article, their device worked in this manner:

"In addition to the UV and Infrared lamps, the lab was lit by ambient and natural light. The UV lamps, infrared and the ambient lighting were combined in a way to create an energy field and illuminate slightly the television screen. The aluminum foil reflected light on the TV screen. With the video camera pointed at the TV and a RCA cable connected, the camera transmitted and filmed the TV's own image, forming a feedback system, where the image of the television was repeated several times, as an infinite mirror. By changing the camera position (angle and distance), increasing or decreasing the zoom, adjusting the focus and controlling the lights reflection , he got on the screen a kind of luminous effect that periodically vibrated or oscillated. The recording time was short, only 1 to 3 minutes, because the video [had to] be analyzed frame-by-frame, and was very time-consuming."

Schreiber was able to capture many images of deceased individuals on the TV screen, apparently able to communicate from the afterlife, including King Ludwig II, Albert Einstein, Austrian actress Romy Schneider, and his own daughter Karin.

 

Schreiber in his basement lab, with an image of what appears to be his deceased daughter Karin on the television screen. 

Even if Schreiber's images are not truly genuine, there quite possibly is something else extraordinary going on that remains unexplainable.  Unfortunately, duplicating his experiments might prove difficult, as many of the devices he used were quite commonplace in the 1980s, but are no longer being manufactured.  

Schreiber passed away from a massive heart attack on January 7, 1988.  His obituary contained these words:

"There is no death – there is only a passing to an other level of existence. – I am with you."

 

Sources (with additional images from Schreiber's experiments):  

http://www.worlditc.org/h_08_schreiber_0.htm

https://en.tciseattle.com/klaus-schreiber-portugues

Words to Ponder Over: Allan Watts

Allan Watts (1915-1973) was a British-American writer and self-described "philosopher entertainer".  Steeped in multiple Eastern religious traditions and philosophies, he offers us these words to meditate on when considering life after death:

“[T]he anxiety-laden problem of what will happen to me when I die is, after all, like asking what happens to my fist when I open my hand, or where my lap goes when I stand up.”

Dying & Grief in T.V. and Cinema: Nomadland

For those of you who might not be familiar, the 2020 American movie Nomadland tells the story of Fern (played by actress Frances McDormand).  Fern and her husband had spent many years working in a factory in the town of Empire, Nevada.  But then everything falls apart for Fern: the factory shuts down, the town becomes mostly abandoned, her husband dies.  Fern packs her remaining possessions into a van and travels around the country doing seasonal jobs.

In a particularly emotional and poignant scene, Fern meets up with another nomad, Bob Wells, who shares his real-life story about the tragic loss of his son.  Bob sympathizes with Fern and tells her that there really are "no final goodbyes" in life:

Words to Ponder Over: from the AskReddit subreddit

Sometimes you get profound insights from ordinary people asking ordinary questions.  One Reddit user asks the question: "When does the grief from a loved one actually start getting better?"  The top responder gave this answer:

"A lot of people find this comment that [another Reddit user] wrote on a thread a few years ago to be helpful when dealing with grief. Hope it helps you:

'Alright, here goes. I'm old. What that means is that I've survived (so far) and a lot of people I've known and loved did not. I've lost friends, best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, grandparents, mom, relatives, teachers, mentors, students, neighbors, and a host of other folks. I have no children, and I can't imagine the pain it must be to lose a child. But here's my two cents.

I wish I could say you get used to people dying. I never did. I don't want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter the circumstances. But I don't want it to "not matter". I don't want it to be something that just passes. My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love...

As for grief, you'll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you're drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it's some physical thing. Maybe it's a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it's a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.

In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don't even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you'll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what's going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything...and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life.

Somewhere down the line, and it's different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O'Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out. 

Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to. But you learn that you'll survive them. And other waves will come. And you'll survive them too. If you're lucky, you'll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.'"

And some of us have endured tons of loss over the years.  Another user gave a reply in that same thread:

"You said it perfectly. I lost my dad in 2010, mom 2012, daughter 2016, son 2020, and my husband of 51 years December 18, 2022. The waves keep coming, but you do ride them out. It takes time for sure. Some days it seems hard to breathe."

I hope all of you reading this had a good holiday season and a good New Year.  If you're grieving, I hope you will find it easier to breathe, even if the waves are crashing around you.  Looking forward to being with you and posting more here in 2025!