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Psychomantuems

A psychomanteum is a specially built room which uses mirrors to help a person enter an altered state of consciousness and make contact with someone in the afterlife.

Dr Raymond Moody learned how this worked by studying mirror gazing. He learned that in Ancient Greece people who wanted to contact someone who had died spent a few days in darkness and then would look at a shiny surface.

Watch this video interview where Dr Moody explains the process.

Moody created a process for people to spend a whole day in a quiet relaxed setting and thinking about the person they wanted to contact. At sunset they would go into a specially prepared room with only a little amount of light and sit looking into a mirror.

Dr Moody claims that 85% of his clients who go through a full day of preparation do make contact with someone who has died. In most cases this occurs in his specially build laboratory but in 25% of cases it happens later in their own homes—often the client wakes up and sees the person who died at the foot of the bed (Moody 1993: 97).

All of Moody's clients insist that this contact is real not imagined—there is clear two-way communication, in some cases physical touch.

He also says that the people who go through the experience become 'kinder, more understanding and less afraid of death' (Moody 1993:98).

Moody gives full instructions on how he created his psychomanteum in his book Reunions- Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones (1993 Ballantine Books New York by Raymond Moody with Paul Perry):

• He set aside a special room in an old building.
  
• At one end of the room a mirror four feet tall and three-and-a-half feet wide was mounted on the wall. The bottom edge of the mirror was three feet above the floor.
  
• A comfortable chair was prepared by removing its legs so that the top of the headrest was about three feet above the floor.
  
• The chair was placed about three feet from the mirror and inclined slightly backward. This was done to so the person looking into the mirror dis not see their own reflection.
  
• A black velvet curtain was hung behind the chair from the ceiling on a curved curtain rod.
  
• Directly behind the chair was placed a small stained glass lamp with a fifteen watt bulb. This was the only source of light in the room.