FEG Table-tipping Report, Springfield, NJ 2014

10 sitters, including the medium, Kai Muegge, came together for a table-tipping-levitating séance, again at Springfield, NJ on September 3, 2014, which lasted for a bit under 2 hours. This was my first such sitting, and being unfamiliar with its process and protocols, it was sometimes difficult to keep up and so my memory of particular phenomena and sequences may be out of order. Also keep in mind that because there is so much going on all at once, not everyone sees everything; also what one person clearly notices or hears is not always visible or audible to another. There are many reasons for this, including emotional, spiritual and psychological developmental aspects, which are too complex to explore with any appreciable depth here.

FEG’s experience has shown that the best table is a round one of a height at which sitters can sit comfortably, and made of one solid piece of fairly light plastic. The lighter weight of plastic makes the tipping and levitation much easier. Because the table movement can often get quite rowdy, sliding around the floor needs to happen easily. Also, when a levitating table returns to the ground, it’s often sudden and so not always a soft landing, and repeated returns will eventually break a wooden or metal table and possibly damage the floor or walls. Although I’ve yet to hear of anyone being personally injured by a falling or shattering table, I would rather not take any chances.

A round shape also allows for a maximum of sitters as opposed to a more restrictive square. The roundness is also helpful if the forces are non-ectoplasmic. Ectoplasmic rods extending from an entranced medium are able to grasp the table to move it about. Other energy forces, which the FEG Chemists are continually experimenting with, gather beneath the table and exert a dynamism that can move upward and in other directions—an apparently “grasp” it for more refined and controlled movements. The underside of a round plastic table usually has the desirable concavity, however slight, that is conducive to gathering, holding, and building the energy in beneficial ways. Chairs should also ideally be light in weight, easily moved when sitters needed to stand and follow the table with their hands on it, should it start traveling about the room.

The table had been especially ordered and had arrived earlier that day. It was discovered that it was not what it had looked like in the catalogue. It was a nice, light and solid plastic piece, but obviously meant for little children to sit at on the floor, being only about 2 feet in height. The only other table available was a square one with cast metal legs and a wooden surface, which was at a normal height for adults to sit at. After much fussing and fretting about what to do, Spirit intervened by reminding us that we are inspired, creative beings, and every supposed problem is also an opportunity for playful experimentation and inventiveness. In short, getting too serious exerts too much gravity on the situation—lighten up!–exactly the advice we needed if the intent was levitation.

Surely it was no mere coincidence that one of the sitters, who had been at Kai’s sittings before, is also an artist, and particularly a sculptor. S. cheerfully took on this new project, commandeering assistants to bring some supplies from a nearby closet, which were plastic-wrapped stacks of paper plates, about 6” in height, and plenty of the duct tape used to help black out the séance room. In very little time, S. was able to add about a foot in height to the legs of the plastic table. Although it was a bit unstable, it would do as an experiment. Since neither table was ideal, we would use both, starting with the wooden one, and then when it was intuited that the forces were such, move to the plastic one.

Ever the pedagogue, Kai gave us interesting information before the lights went out about how to tell when fraudulent behavior is at hand, and demonstrated various techniques that have been historically used to give the appearance that a table was moving or levitating on its own. He invited each of us to try these techniques, which made it clear how difficult it would be to easily and convincingly move a heavy table like our wooden one.

The square wooden table was situated in the center of the same room we had gathered in two nights earlier for the physical mediumship séance. It was in line with the cabinet which was still in place, and Kai sat at the end where his back was to the cabinet. I was sitting directly across from him. The cabinet’s curtains were tied open, and the rattle and tambourine were placed on a chair inside it. Julia Muegge sat by herself about 6 feet from our table, where she could operate the cd music player, the red light dimmer switch if needed, as well as a regular white light flashlight. The latter was to be used for the purpose of finding any musical instruments that might leave the cabinet and return them, as well as to gently shine upward on the high ceiling if light was needed at any time. Kai instructed that the white light would only be activated after we collectively said aloud, “1, 2, 3” to give Spirit any warning that might be needed, as white light is often debilitating to certain spiritual energies. Julia also continuously sang softly to herself so that we would know where she was at all times.

After the room was blacked out and the lights switched off, everyone sat around the table with both hands lightly resting on the table’s surface. A short but passionate, non-religious request was made to Spirit to come join us in love and camaraderie. We began to sing together, just like campers around the campfire.

What was especially enjoyable for me was the informality of this sitting, particularly because Kai did not enter trance but was conscious throughout. He was able to speak as himself, reporting his personal experience, sharing information and thoughts, speak and ask questions of his own to spirit and to the rest of us. It was helpful that several of us who were there had been at the previous sitting, providing reassurance to first-timers as well as modeling the cheerful and even rowdy attitude of having fun that is important to bring to the table.

I was the first to say aloud that I had seen a spirit light. It had been outside the circle, far up near the 12 foot ceiling, and blue, winking on and off very quickly over my left shoulder. This is the usual sign of my guides arriving in the space, so I wasn’t surprised that nobody else had seen it. Kai also asked, “inside or outside the circle?” He often asked this question, and I believe it helped us focus our spiritual senses even more. A minute or so later, the table began to move, twisting slightly to the left and then the right before stopping. We congratulated spirit and encouraged it for more. Increasingly robust spirit light phenomena began, which were bluish-white and spiraling right up out of the table’s center—to me, it looked very much like the kind of light activity seen inside the medium’s cabinet during a formal séance. To see it outside the cabinet, only inches in front of my face, was breathtaking! It was interesting that not everyone could see this light activity, and we talked to one another over the table, sharing and speculating. At one point, someone exclaimed at seeing a bright, red light shoot up from the floor between me and the sitter at my right, and yet I never saw it. The usual flying greenish-yellow spheres commonly seen at a formal séance did not appear at this one—or at least, perhaps others saw them but I did not—and I might surmise that his was because the Chemists were not taking part with their usual experiments.

Another sitter, “L.” later reported to me being a bit disconcerted at seeing Kai’s hands covered in a purple light up to his wrists, as well as on the back of his neck; and also on the hands and face of the sitter next to her. When mentioned to Kai, his enigmatic reply was that it was a good color to see. A first-timer, L. later shared with me about her uneasiness about moving and dancing about in her seat in the dark, which felt uncomfortable. Also, at first the touches she experienced were slightly terrifying and even felt invasive, which aroused mixed feelings of resentment and excitement. When Kai yelled that he was being touched, and then asked who else was being touched, this elicited feelings of skepticism in her, causing her to wonder how he knew when someone else was touched.

What she shared about her experience of the sitting was not unfamiliar to me. It’s important to understand that there is an inevitable psychological developmental process being activated that must unfold in order to move forward. Something like the now-cliché stages of grief, there are stages of terrestrial “humanness” one must go through, including shock, denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance, etc. As a problem-solving organ evolved over countless millennia, the brain has its unyielding instinctual needs. At first it is brought up against walls, or to the edges of cliffs beyond which it cannot intellectually pass. Some people then are able to connect with the spiritual energies that will allow them to continue moving; others can’t or won't. When Kai was asking who else was touched, it wasn’t because he knew when others were also touched, but he was modeling for the inexperienced in the circle to teach them the protocol, and also assure that it's ok and essential to report out loud; even more so to say thank you, more please! It's all about energy—exploring and playing with it. As for the violet color, my intuition is that this was more about L.’s developing spiritual senses and less about the other sitters.

In formal séances, Kai is sleeping while Hans Bender controls the medium. Kai was clearly excited throughout this sitting, since he did not become entranced and remained totally conscious—these were things he normally only heard about and never got to see. He reported that he was being touched on the head, as did several others, including myself. His touches were like little rappings on his skull; mine were gentle caresses about my head, face, neck and shoulders. At one point something poked me between the shoulder blades. Other sitters reported similar experiences, including gentle touches on their hands. The spirit light activity continued to spiral up from various spots on the table, which finally began to seriously move from beneath our hands. We had to stand up and push our chairs away in order to follow it, although it only went a few inches before stopping. Kai said this was probably because it was too heavy. We spoke the “1-2-3” command aloud to alert Spirit, so Julia could then shine the flashlight on the ceiling and we could see how to reposition the table back in the center of the room.

The spirit light activity and touching continued, and the table began dancing a kind of soft shoe again, while we also began hearing the tambourine and rattle lighting playing in the cabinet. Kai cautioned us to not focus on the sounds of the instruments, as this would interfere with their energies, but to stay focused on the table. We then clearly heard the tambourine hit the floor a few feet away to the right of the cabinet behind Kai’s back. The “1-2-3” command was spoken and Julia retrieved it and replaced it back in the cabinet, positioning it in such a way to make it easier for Spirit to grasp.

Darkness and singing resumed. When the table resumed its movements, again we could hear the tambourine shaking in time to the music, and suddenly we heard and felt it fall onto the center of the table! J., the sitter next to me, exclaimed that he had felt the tambourine actually land on the back of his shoulder, and then travel down his extended right arm and onto the table. This meant that the tambourine had levitated all the way from the cabinet at the opposite end of the room, and either circled the table to where he was sitting, or descend from some other direction above. The “1-2-3” command was spoken and Julia retrieved the tambourine, and replaced it back in the cabinet. The darkness and singing resumed.

In probably less than a minute, we could hear the tambourine playing over near Julia, who exclaimed that it was playfully striking her on the arm in time to the music, and then it went silent. When the flashlight was turned on, the tambourine was nowhere to be seen, and oddly, nobody had heard it hit the floor. Julia finally located it under the little table that held the cd player and red light. As one might imagine, we were in very high spirits at this point!

I decided to try some private experimentation on my own, which was to see how emotions and affirmations might affect it. While the others were singing or offering encouraging words, I began imagining my “happy place”—which is lying on the Caribbean beach of St. John. I could easily feel the delicious sensations of the warm water lapping at my feet, the tropical breezes, the overall feeling of peace and contentment. Immediately the table began to shift its movements directly towards me! At that moment, the song “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” began playing—and although it was a modern version, I vividly imagined Judy Garland singing it, and how it made me felt, which was a mixture of strong emotions that went way back to my childhood, and seeing a TV show of her singing it on the stage at Carnegie Hall. The table appeared to respond even more energetically and tipped up towards me on the two legs on my side, until it was almost at a 90 degrees angle, as if Judy was taking a bow! By that time I was standing and had pushed my chair back so I could move with the table, which seemed to be trying to “walk” towards me. The table then fell back on all four legs. I shared aloud what I had just done, encouraging everyone to summon up strong feelings of any kind of emotion. Right away, the table appeared to respond to our efforts, going up on two legs in another direction, while twisting and turning. All the while, we managed to keep our hands on the table.

It then seemed to be getting a little out of control, going up on its legs and then down with enough force to make us worry it might break. To our surprise Kai then loudly commanded the table to be still; he did this several times before the table’s movements subsided. He explained that unlike a physical mediumship séance, the energies here were less in control by spirit, so the sitters should always be in control in a table sitting. We should encourage the table to move, yet not hesitate to tell it to behave or stop. It’s still not clear to me whether those in Spirit need these instructions for some reason, or if we are actually imposing an intervention upon the actual energy forces.

At this point Kai appeared to come to an intuitive decision, perhaps based on the table’s energies, that we had come as far as we could, and to now try the modified plastic table. Almost as quickly as the first, whitish light began flashing and spiraling upward from the surface of its center and edges. I had yet to see any of the playful greenish-yellow spheres or other lights in or outside the boundaries of our circle, so one might surmise that, like the physical mediumship circle, there was a kind of force field being generated in which the table and its sitters were contained. The rising lights from the table’s surface, along with the occasional flash that arose from the floor between sitters, sometimes traveled up a few feet over our heads but then vanished. The difference I noticed with this plastic table was that lights were also flashing from beneath it, which I saw as bright white. This lends support to the idea that the spatial dimensions of the table’s underside make a significant and positive difference in gathering and storing up energies.

As with the first table, this one began to move quickly, although awkwardly, due to the stacks of paper plates affixed to its legs. Although Kai repeatedly reminded our spirit companions to be extra gentle with this table, it seemed to have a mind of its own, and acted as if it could barely contain its excitement. It levitated to what felt to me like about 10 inches from the floor, pushing up against our hands for about 5 seconds, and then not-too-gently fell back to earth. The table continued to act excitedly, and some of us tried to calm it with soothing yet still congratulatory words, but it was clear it was going to quite quickly dislodge the taped extensions to its legs. It then settled down, and although it was decided that the night was drawing to a close, Kai proposed one more thing to try.

We had clearly built up a lot of energy, and perhaps with Spirit we could use what was left in some way. Still in total darkness, we all stood up and placed our hands on top of one another in the center of the table, about 2 feet from its surface. As directed by Kai, we all loudly counted out loud from 3 to 0; at “0” we were to push slightly downward with our collective hands and also with our minds and spirits. Some of us were still giddy and reeling from the exhilaration of the night—i.e., “not firing on all cylinders”—and pushed at “1” instead of “0”. Nothing happened except some confused giggling. When we did it correctly by shouting and pushing at “0” there was a silent but blinding flash of incredibly bright white light, which burst through our fingers and shot out from under our hands, lighting up the room for a millisecond. We immediately tried it once more, with the same result. There was such a strong afterimage of the light on my retinas that I felt quite disoriented and wanted to sit down. Apparently this was the same for the others, and we collectively felt it was time to close the circle, which we did with thanks and praise to Spirit for their wonderful efforts for this night.

This “white light” experience has been successfully executed before by the original FEG group in Germany. For the excellent details given there, follow this link to the post, “Memorable Table Sitting.”