Testament

by Mark R. Bell

Testament is a nonfiction case study presented in a Q&A format as interviews and journals document events usually equated with the 'supernatural' or 'miraculous.' The book evolved after the author researched 'talking poltergeists' throughout history, including America's Bell Witch and the U.K.'s Mary Jobson and Isle of Man cases. In 1995 he interviewed a contemporary family dealing with the phenomena, Centrahoma's Bell/Mc Wethy family. Initial interviews feature them discussing their interaction with a variety of disembodied voices - central among them the enigmatic presence known as 'Michael.' Among the events experienced by the author in Oklahoma were materialization of coins and other objects, spirit laughter and groaning, and insect phenomena. Upon returning to his native Los Angeles, the phenomena continued and escalated. He stopped working as a publicity writer for Paramount Pictures as he began transcribing the tapes. Bell remarks, ''In the Bell Witch case, there was an incident where the haunting Entity repeated two different ministers' sermons in their own voices after they'd spoken in different locations at the same time earlier that day. In Centrahoma, Twyla Eller told me about an incident where she overheard her sister and a friend talk about a flat tire. Later, Twyla witnessed the same conversation when it actually occurred so she said it was as if their house had recorded it before it happened. I thought of these occurrences following my return to L.A. My TV set started going off whenever I began to watch it. Upon turning on one documentary program, at that precise moment someone was complaining that their telephone service had stopped working and then my TV set went off.'' Photographs document spirits and apparitions, bushes that went up in flames behind Bell's condo, and a Bigfoot. Bell has discussed his experiences during dozens of radio interviews - most recently on ''Now That's Weird'' (London) and ''Speaking of Strange'' (North Carolina). Bell comments, ''My experiences and research showed that all living things are continuously interacting with an intermediary Superconsciousness or Spiritual Force that may be recognized through circumstances often described as coincidences and synchronicity, intuition and telepathy, prophetic dreams and visions, mediumship and trance channeling, as well as events sometimes associated with hauntings, 'talking poltergeist' phenomena and 'electronic voice phenomena.'''

1072 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 1997

Reviews

[Richard Riddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over all this transcription of the activities that occurred over a significant period of time is very hard to read. That said, I can also appreciate the difficulty of documenting all of this by the author. I also understand the difficulty he has had in attempting to understand what he has encountered and the information it has shared with him. For the general reader it is very possible to just disclaim everything that he has written. I do not do that, I think what he has experienced is real, though being obsessed with trying to understand the information is very possible, I would challenge anyone to react differently under the circumstances. If you are searching for truth, then this may not be the book for you. If you are interested in the affects of interactions with spirits then you can find it here. I am continuing to work my way through the book, but my reason is to gain a better understanding of the author and how he has evolved as I am worried about his interpretation of what he has encountered.