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CHAPTER TEN SPIRITS OF THE DEAD<br />
can give rise to automatic clairaudient episodes, much like<br />
scrying into a blank black mirror, and the technologically<br />
savvy occult investigator may have the secrets of the universe<br />
revealed by the voices of the dead, the real value of EVP and<br />
ITC may well be lost to the Black Magician that is starving for<br />
serious and immediate results.<br />
2. Moving from the modern world of technological Sorcery and<br />
into the earliest days of Necromancy, we find figures such as<br />
the Sumerian Sha'etemmu, the pythia at Oracle of Delphi,<br />
and the notorious Madame Blavatsky, who practiced and in<br />
their way embodied the most widespread form of<br />
communication with the dead: channeling, otherwise called<br />
mediumship. Through the induction of trance states and<br />
attunement with the energy of the being to be channeled, the<br />
medium invokes some or all of the intelligence, power, and<br />
individual characteristics of the entity, pushing her identity<br />
aside and becoming the mouthpiece for the spirit. The<br />
experienced psychic medium is usually capable of controlling<br />
the intensity, depth, and duration of the union with the spirit<br />
of the dead, making a distinct, yet distant mental contact,<br />
taking on a portion of the personality of the dead, or sometimes<br />
allowing the spirit to enter her body completely, to an extent<br />
that most would call possession. Although the technique of<br />
channeling, once mastered, can open doorways within the<br />
Sorcerer and is necessary for Workings such as Assumption of<br />
Forms and demonic self-possession, in the rites of Necromancy,<br />
channeling gives the Necromancer little control over the<br />
communication itself, and robs him of the objective vantage<br />
of the third person. One of the only instances in which<br />
channeling may possibly be of use in speaking with the dead is<br />
if an experienced medium were to channel the spirit, and<br />
through that medium the Sorcerer could hold conversation<br />
with as little restraint as he would with another person.<br />
Finding a genuine adept channeler, however, is no easy task,<br />
and due to the oft occurring problem of conveying thoughts<br />
and emotions in any usable syntax, a good deal of confusion<br />
and frustration will mark the first dozen or so rituals, until<br />
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