My Experience in the Psychomanteum

by Steve Trask

According to Wikipedia, a psychomanteum  “ …often called “mirror gazing”) is a mirrored room, specially set up to communicate with the spiritual realm.  Reflective objects or surfaces, such as blood or water, were considered a conduit to the spiritual world in ancient times. Sometimes described as an “apparition booth” the psychomanteum dates back to ancient Greece, where a person would gaze into a still pool of water. This silent and steady gazing into a reflective pool would produce apparitions or visions.  The room is set up to optimize psychological effects such as trance. Its key features are low light or near-darkness, flickering light, and a mirror. The dimness represents a form of visual sensory deprivation, a condition helpful to trance induction.”

Years ago I read Raymond Moody’s book called “Reunions.” In this book, the famous near death experience researcher talked about his experiments with psychomanteums, and how some people were actually able to use these to communicate with the dead using certain techniques.  Years later, Jamie Butler  proudly showed me her new psychomanteum setup atop a stairway in her office.  I jumped at the chance to try this! On a Tuesday evening I stopped by and decided to spend an hour in the darkened room. I was open to anything that might happen. Here’s my experience.

When I arrived to try out the psychomanteum,  Jamie noted that seven of my spirit guides had arrived about 90 minutes prior and were waiting to watch and assist my experience.  I excitedly entered the darkened booth, we placed a fan inside for white noise, and a small light behind my chair to allow me to see slightly in the darkness. I sat in the chair, took some deep breaths, looked up at the mirror (which I really couldn’t see- it was so dark!), and waited.

In the back of my mind, I expected to see faces, or even my mother or other recently passed relatives.  I don’t think it’s a good idea to have preconceived notions for these types of things. Anyhow, the first things I experienced were blobs or orange/white colors, which quickly moved from the top to the bottom of my vision, and sometimes from right to left. This was exciting, but lasted only for a few minutes. After that, I stared into the blurry darkness.  It reminded me of meditating – where my mind would wander, and I would see a lot of moving fuzziness in front of me. After about 15-20 minutes of this I noticed my eyes were tiring from staring ahead and I was blinking a lot. Shortly after that, I started to lose focus, my eyes would occasionally roll back and I would nearly fall asleep. Something told me to stay awake or I would miss the visual experiences  from dreaming the whole time. It was difficult to stay awake, especially with the white noise (which is optional).

When I was able to stay alert and focused, I sometimes noticed small movements of sparkling light. Brief, and fleeting, but they were there. Were my eyes just playing tricks on me? Probably about 30-40 minutes in, I started seeing some white clouds that would drift slowly and dissolve. Then, just the blurry blackness  returned to view.  Ok, I thought. I have seven helpers here – let me see something! Let me hear something!  At one point in a trance like daze, half awake and half alert, I had a vision of my mother in a garden, looking young and happy. Mom passed away two years ago and I’ve really missed her. It was a nice feeling to see that, however briefly.

I waited further and something strange happened, something unexpected. I felt a warming in my chest area. It was if a beam of energy was shooting right into my heart chakra, opening it up, and healing me. I’ve been very much trapped in work lately and have been emotionally blocked – serious and analytical. Was this my spirit guide team trying to open me up emotionally? This lasted for about 10 min, then the feeling was gone. I thanked whoever was helping there. Then, the alarm I had set to go off in one hour started to go off. Disappointed, I moved the light around so I could actually see the mirror in front of me a little better, and remained for 20 more minutes, determined to see something in the mirror. All I could see was that under-water like blurry/foggy vision.

When I left the psychomanteum, I felt somewhat disappointed, as my ego was anticipating some kind of paranormal experience. I got in the car and started to drive away, and surprisingly, I started crying. I don’t usually cry, in fact, I rarely cry! My chest area felt warm and tight, as if someone had given me a massage in that area. Emotions poured out of me and I felt open, sensitive and aware. I hadn’t felt this way in a long time. As I’m sitting here writing this tonight, I’m still feeling the after effects of my experience. I feel emotionally drained, but in a good way.

This was a good lesson. I shouldn’t try to force experiences, or have preconceived notions about what should or would happen. Instead of speaking with spirits, I was able to have some emotional/heart healing that was very healing, especially after I left the psychomanteum!  I would imagine that each experience in there would be different each time, and different for every person.

Thank you Jamie, for this very cool experience!
Steve Trask