Sylvia and phone calls from the dead

[Minarvia]

I hate to start a new thread but I think I have to for this. I'm watching Sylvia on Montel right now. Granted, it says "repeat" but I haven't seen it before. Anyway, a lady, Laurie/Lori (?) was just on who said that after her mother was cremated she and her siblings cremated her and buried their mother's cell phone with her cremains. Then they got numerous phone calls from her number and numerous text messages from her and want to know if they are really from her.
Laurie didn't say if her mother actually spoke to them or just rang their phones. I'm just assuming since she didn't mention a voice that her mother just supposedly rang them. She says the phone records only show incoming for them but there is no outgoing from their mother's phone. Sylvia said, "well, it couldn't say the Other Side!" Sylvia then says her ex-daughter-in-law got phone calls the same way from her mother. But, of course Laurie's mother is just trying to say that she made it and is all right.

Does anyone know if there are a lot of cases like this? And have any so-called cases been debunked? Is Sylvia the only "psychic" who validates the reality of cell phone calls from the dead?

Also, I just have to wonder why anyone would bury a cell phone with a deceased loved one. I don't see why not, but unless the person was addicted to their phone or unless the survivors are hoping for calls from them after burial I just don't see the reason for it. :confused:

[Alice Shortcake]

I get the impression that the siblings were already believers in an afterlife and buried mum's cell phone with her ashes in the expectation of hearing from her.

Wasn't it lucky that they didn't put the phone in her coffin BEFORE she was cremated?! Although you have to wonder why a discarnate entity would use a phone at all instead of just speaking to her nearest and dearest by telepathic means.

I've not researched the subject, but I'd be surprised if stories like this didn't date back to the earliest days of telephone technology in the 1890s.

[sdt23107]

I don't think phone calls from the dead happen much. Most of the stories you hear are of the dead just being a pain in the rear not running up long distance charges.

Also you can rest assured that they are not real as SB will validate a malfunctioning phone as a call from the other side.

[JoeEllison]

Does Sylvia charge the dead $750 for a 20 minute phone call?

[Bob2038]

I wonder if account for the mother's phone was canceled or they still payed for it.

After canceling an account, cell phone numbers are eventually(after a certain length of time) re-distributed to someone else.

[bahrketnaten]

Should one use an extended life battery or remove it?

BKN

[Minarvia]

Ha! Good responses! I wonder, too, about why the phone wasn't burned along with Momma. And I also wonder why the dead would need it. Of course if the deceased was a great lover of texting than she would need a phone to talk to her "bff's" and say she was "lol" and such. :D

I also see the point about stories like this probably going back to the 1890's. Also, I seem to recall where phones were sometimes installed in caskets in case the person buried wasn't really dead.

And I'll bet that Sylvia charges $750 from a dead person. After all, she is their messenger on This Side ready to deliever their messages to their deaf-as-a-post loved ones still here. And she has to make a living, too, right? :rolleyes:

[headscratcher4]

So, spirits from the otherside can generate enough energy of some kind to get a burried cell phone to broadcast from an urn or a grave, but they can't generate clearly enough to be understood more better than: "I feel a presense over your shoulder...I think it starts with a B...maybe Bob...is there a Bob who is important in your life? No? Mayby it is Bobbie, yes it is a fema...no wait, maybe it is Bangor, is Maine at all important to you?"

[Minarvia]

It's not the spirits, you see, it's us. WE are the ones who don't know how to pay attention properly. Just ask Sylvia. :rolleyes:

[Magic 9-Ball]

Is "The Other Side" local or long distance? And who's their carrier, too? :confused:

Seems to me if they're taking the time to call, they ought to stay on the line to talk. I would think the family would have a few questions.

[headscratcher4]

Could and did the dead use the telegraph? Will they be better able to maniplate the IPhone? Why don't they have their own blogs?

[CLD]

http://www.amazon.com/Phone-Calls-Dead-Scott-Rogo/dp/0136643345

[alfaniner]

"Can you hear me now? Good. Get me the hell out of here!!!"

[Minarvia]

"Can you hear me now? Good. Get me the hell out of here!!!"

:D

"You buried me in this cheap suit!? Oh, the outrage! Just you wait! I'll...I'll...ring your phone and leave coins lying about just to teach you a lesson!"

[Monza]

"If you are a benign entity wishing to haunt a house, press 1."

"If you want to engage in playful poltergeist acts, press 2."

"If you want to posess the body of the living, press 3."

[headscratcher4]

Para Espanole, numero 4.

[thatguywhojuggles]

I use Verizon. They suck. Sometimes it takes days for me to get a message that someone has left on my voicemail.

Perhaps they're using a crappier service than Verizon and calls that the mother had made are just now starting to arrive??

:D

[Minarvia]

Of course if I were deceased I would rather use a cell phone than Sylvia or John Edward. Ick.

I will have to look more into this topic, tho. When Sylvia had no problem telling Laurie that it was indeed her mother and to leave a tape machine running in an empty room I had to roll my eyes and say "puhleeeze!"

[CLD]

A fun, pun-filled review:

Review of PHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD
November 25, 2001
The Land Beyond Area Codes....,
By Lee Hartsfeld (Heath, OH United States)

I'm nearly tempted to give "Phone Calls from the Dead" a couple of extra stars for what might be the best paranormal title in the history of publishing. Certainly, this insane and vastly entertaining non-examination of long-long-distance calls from The Land Beyond Area Codes deserves some credit for being a fun read. And the book is educational in its own way as a marvelous study in the practice of leaping (connecting?) to elaborate conclusions based on no evidence whatsoever. So maybe I should be kinder in my rating. It's a tough call.

Anyway, in this book we learn about "Theta-agents" contacting the living via telephone to give cryptic messages on behalf of the (usually) recently departed. We learn about living people sometimes placing phone calls without actually placing them. (I wonder what those look like when the bill arrives?) And we are presented with alternate theories, none of which I can reCALL at the moment. Paranormal writers always present a variety of theories, possibly in the hope that the reader will not get hung up on any one theory. And, in keeping with the paranormal party line, these authors don't hesitate to suggest that any or all criticism of their views is off-line. Obviously, we are to free our minds of any critical static as they ring in one theory after another.

Crank literature can be tedious, but this book flows quite smoothly, with a serious and busy tone that contrasts greatly with the sheer lunacy of the material. I eagerly await "Crank Calls from the Dead" and "Phantom Telemarketers." And I hope no one from beyond ever calls me collect.

[Minarvia]

That's a good one, CLD! Yep...those crazy spirits! So in older times I wonder if spirits had to write letters or send telegraphs. :rolleyes:

[RSLancastr]

"Do not hang up. This is an important phone call from The Other Side. All of our spirits are busy haunting others, and one of them will be with you shortly."

[ysabella]

I'm imagining my Caller ID lighting up with DEAD GUY

[bahrketnaten]

With Singhoular now defunct, Ve(be)Rizon will in take over the spirit biz.

BKN

[CLD]

Actual wav files of dead phoners:

http://www.thecircleukevpgroup.com/category13/

[Magic 9-Ball]

"Your next dead caller will be available in... ten minutes. Do not hang up, or you will lose your place in line. Remember, you can visit our website at www dot deceasedcallonline dot com."

[RSL's better half]

Anyone think that perhaps the phone was stolen by a grave digger, and he perhaps is calling numbers in the phone's memory thinking it's funny?

[Kilgore Trout]

When I first heard of this a while back, I thought it would make a good phone for a drug dealer. Typically those folks just get phone calls. With the right phone plan, maybe they bereaved would keep paying the bills as they'd be relatively cheap and be willing to pay for just a few calls from the dead. The dealer would probably have all the phone numbers stored in the phone already..

ETA: To answer the question, yes. Seems likely. But I like my version better. :p

[Minarvia]

Anyone think that perhaps the phone was stolen by a grave digger, and he perhaps is calling numbers in the phone's memory thinking it's funny?

I don't know. Doesn't the family usually witness the sealing of the vault the urn would be in and the burial? Digging up the grave afterwards would surely be noticed by the family who would presumably visit it. I'm not saying I believe phone calls from the dead really happen, but I don't know that the phone itself was stolen. But, again, that WOULD be an explanation.

[Zep]

I would have thought that phoning Sylvia Browne WAS calling a dead person.

[JoeTheJuggler]

She says the phone records only show incoming for them but there is no outgoing from their mother's phone.

What does that last mean? They're still paying for their mother's phone and they've been checking the records for outgoing calls?

Can you get a text message with no text? If not, wouldn't it have been a pretty important thing to mention--what the message actually said?

"My skin's so dry [having been cremated]! CN U PLS SND ME some lecithin. L-E-C-I-T-H. . . "

[-Fran-]

What does that last mean? They're still paying for their mother's phone and they've been checking the records for outgoing calls?

Can you get a text message with no text? If not, wouldn't it have been a pretty important thing to mention--what the message actually said?

"My skin's so dry [having been cremated]! CN U PLS SND ME some lecithin. L-E-C-I-T-H. . . "

I think this thread is suitable for you to show of your punny talents in, Joe :D I'll be waiting for some good ones ;)

[JoeTheJuggler]

I think this thread is suitable for you to show of your punny talents in Joe :D I'll be waiting for some some good ones ;)

Too much pressure!

Um. . .something about composing a text while a body's decomposing? (No. . she was cremated.)

Maybe the old girl had one of those plans that let you urn more peak minutes?

Can a decidedly acellular person even use a cellular phone?

I wonder if she places calls to all her old haunts?

Oh well, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. . . .it's past my bed time.

[-Fran-]

Too much pressure!

Um. . .something about composing a text while a body's decomposing? (No. . she was cremated.)

Maybe the old girl had one of those plans that let you urn more peak minutes?

Can a decidedly acellular person even use a cellular phone?

I wonder if she places calls to all her old haunts?

Oh well, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. . . .it's past my bed time.

:D Well, not bad considering it was on demand ;)

[chillzero]

Anyone think that perhaps the phone was stolen by a grave digger, and he perhaps is calling numbers in the phone's memory thinking it's funny?

That's what I thought.

I would see some 'logic' in burying a phone with a body if the person was obsessed about being buried alive - like the old bells they used to put in coffins... but after the are cremated I wold think there was no doubt.

[Big Les]

I use Verizon. They suck. Sometimes it takes days for me to get a message that someone has left on my voicemail.

Perhaps they're using a crappier service than Verizon and calls that the mother had made are just now starting to arrive??

:D

This might explain at least some such calls. There was a desperately sad story told during a recent 9/11 documentary of a girl who went to those searching the rubble at ground zero saying that she'd received messages from a relative who'd been in one of the towers. It turned out that due to a backlog, the messages were being delayed and she was receiving what had been the last messages of someone who was now dead and not, as she had hoped, alive in the rubble. :(

Typically though, the period for text messages persisting is only three days or so, so this might not explain something like the OP.

[headscratcher4]

Wonder what phone Musak from the other side sounds like...lots of Barry Manilow, I'm afraid.

[Minarvia]

I don't know why I didn't consider this at the time, but Laurie could be just plain lying. People do if they think they can get on television.
Of course if the family did indeed receive text messages long after their mother's death then something else was clearly happening.

JoetheJuggler - :D

BigLes - I didn't know about backlogs. I never use texting myself.

[eir_de_scania]

Wonder what phone Musak from the other side sounds like...lots of Barry Manilow, I'm afraid.
Hmmm...would that indicate heaven or hell? :confused:

[-Fran-]

Hmmm...would that indicate heaven or hell? :confused:

Hell! definitely! :D

[Alice Shortcake]

Dodgy funeral directors must be shaking in their shoes. I can just imagine them being called from the Great Beyond by dissatisfied customers: "You utter BASTARDS! You put my shoes on the wrong feet! And I SAW you take the handles off my coffin before it was burned so you could re-sell them!"

[RSLancastr]

Hmmm...would that indicate heaven or hell? :confused:One of the most shameful events of my life was when, at age 18, I took a girlfriend to a Manilow concert.

The shame of it all would have been somewhat mitigated had the evening ended up in her bed, but alas, it was not meant to be.

To answer your question. Hell. Definitely.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Dodgy funeral directors must be shaking in their shoes. I can just imagine them being called from the Great Beyond by dissatisfied customers: "You utter BASTARDS! You put my shoes on the wrong feet! And I SAW you take the handles off my coffin before it was burned so you could re-sell them!"

You don't become a funeral director if the existence of ghosts is a possibility you have considered!

Or any sort of afterlife, because that would imply wanting to avoid Hell.

[eir_de_scania]

But hell does have all the good musicians...:D (Manilow will not be in The Hell Combo, that's for certain-

OK. Manilow for hell, and harps for heaven!

[Achán hiNidráne]

This thread reminds me of a little song I know:

Eat jelly doughnuts and lose twenty pounds a day.
Hear the story of the man born without a head.
And top psychics all agree
That the telephone company
Will have a brand new service that lets you talk to the dead.

Oh, Midnight Star!
You can believe it if you read it in the weekly Midnight Star.
They're keeping Hitler's brain alive inside a jar.
Midnight Star, I wanna know, I wanna know.

"Weird Al" Yankovic,
"Midnight Star."

[RSL's better half]

Too much pressure!

Um. . .something about composing a text while a body's decomposing? (No. . she was cremated.)

Maybe the old girl had one of those plans that let you urn more peak minutes?

Can a decidedly acellular person even use a cellular phone?

I wonder if she places calls to all her old haunts?

Oh well, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. . . .it's past my bed time.



I like this guy! Joe - U R 2 fny! (That's a little bit of texting lingo.)

[fuelair]

Does Slyvia accept collect calls from the dead (at least from dead celebrities - like Rosie and Tom C. and Brittany)?

[clerihew80]

One of the most shameful events of my life was when, at age 18, I took a girlfriend to a Manilow concert.
Hell, in order to get laid, I've told chicks that I believe in astrology.

[-Fran-]

Hell, in order to get laid, I've told chicks that I believe in astrology.

And did it work? :)

[clerihew80]

And did it work? :)
Hard to say. Really, the astrology thing was one small thread in a grand pattern of dissembling.

I will say this: chicks who are into astrology are easy lays. No Removing censor bypass.

[-Fran-]

Hard to say. Really, the astrology thing was one small thread in a grand pattern of dissembling.

I will say this: chicks who are into astrology are easy lays. No Removing censor bypass.

You think this could work on guys too? ;)

Hey, wouldn't it be kind of funny if two skeptics met in a bar and both lied about being into astrology, to get each other into bed? Could happen.

[clerihew80]

You think this could work on guys too? ;)
All guys are easy lays, whether they believe in astrology or not.

[clerihew80]

Edited by chillzero: Removing censor bypass.
Now how is it that I'm allowed to characterize a segment of the female population as "easy lays," but I'm not allowed to use an utterly benign combination of letters that signifies the excrement of a male cow? Why is profanity considered to be so much more offensive than sexism? This is arbitrariness of the most irrational variety. The last thing that I would expect in a so-called Skeptic's forum.

[chillzero]

Now how is it that I'm allowed to characterize a segment of the female population as "easy lays," but I'm not allowed to use an utterly benign combination of letters that signifies the excrement of a male cow? Why is profanity considered to be so much more offensive than sexism? This is arbitrariness of the most irrational variety. The last thing that I would expect in a so-called Skeptic's forum.

I am watching this thread to see if I need to split out this derail. If it is restricted to these 5 posts or so, it can stay.

The language you used is subject to moderation as per the Membership Agreement. The rest of the discussion is not - other than potentially as taking the thread off-topic.

If you have any further issues with regards to your infraction, handle them in forum mgt,and not here in thread. Any further discussion of this after this post will be moved to AAH/Forum Mgt.

[clerihew80]

Good to know that we're being watched. Soooo, Sylvia Browne and phone calls from the dead, huh? Has she been contacted by a Winston Smith, by chance?

[Minarvia]

Now that I think of it I do hear quite frequently about the deceased supposedly ringing phones of their loved ones but I never hear of them actually speaking. They can summon the energy to ring but not to talk? I find that odd. I think they also allegedly mess with electronics, so I suppose Sylvia can say that is how they would be able to text message, such as on Laurie's phone. I can't believe people believe this. Of course it begs to me the question that if all this stuff is true, why not put a cell phone with text capability with the remains of all murder victims and after burial/inurnment text who killed them. :rolleyes:

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

All guys are easy lays, whether they believe in astrology or not.

Funny story, one time a guy who believed in astrology tried to use astrology to pick me up. "Do you believe in fate?", "You're a Leo and I'm a Leo!", "My horoscope said I'd meet someone today". :D

Needless to say, I told him I didn't believe in any of that and he said he was interested in why I didn't and we had such a fun time debating it so he asked for my number anyway. For some reason, he never called me, though.