Originally submitted by LFN member Spectre

A psychomanteum is a room set aside for communication with those who have died and are believed to have passed to the world beyond. It is specially designed to promote an altered state of consciousness that facilitates such contact. Essential to the décor is a mirror into which the person wishing to communicate with a deceased loved one gazes. The use of the psychomanteum is traced to the ancient Mediterranean Basin, where its use is described in various writings and to the sleep temples of the followers of Asklepios.

The modern use of the psychomanteum had been advocated by Raymond Moody, a physician most known for his study of the near-death experience. Moody had noted that having an apparition of a loved one who had recently died had a healing effect on many people. They were given a sense of peace by knowing that their loved ones were alive and in a better place. They were also, on occasion, to complete their grieving process by resolving a broken relationship that had been present at the time of the death of the other party. 

Following the publication of his highly successful books, Life After Life and Reflections on Life After Life, Moody constructed a psychomanteum and developed a simple process of inducing apparitions that including sitting inside the mirrored room and sending telepathic messages to the person with whom contact was desired. He discovered that the great majority of the people who went through a process of preparation for the psychomanteum actually saw an apparition within the room or later in their bedroom. Moody reported on his research in his 1993 book, Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones. 

The successes of the initial attempts at encounter have led Moody to train facilitators to spread the psychomanteum work. In his book, he offers instructions on constructing a psychomanteum. He has also initiated a research program to quantify the results of contacts made within the psychomanteum. Moody believes that it will provide further evidence of communication between the living and the dead.

http://parapsychologyinfo.com/Death/Psychomanteum.htm

Phenomena at Death

Watchers by the deathbed have often claimed to hear rushing sounds and see some kind of curious luminosity. Hyppolite Baraducattempted to secure a photographic record when his son and wife died. He found that in each case a luminous, cloud-like mass apparently hovered over the bodies and appeared on the photographic plate.

This old black and white photo was taken in 1907 by French neurologist Hippolyte Baraduc. The photo is of his dying wife as she gave her three final gasps of life.

Telekinetic phenomena have been known to occur before death. A Mme. Martillet and a Mme. Claudet, who nursed Alfred de Musset in his last illness, said that as he lay in his armchair they saw by the light of the lamp that he was looking at the bell near the mantelpiece. But he was so feeble that he could not rise. ‘‘At the moment,’’ says Martillet, ‘‘we were surprised and frightened; the bell-pull that the sick man had not reached, moved, as if by an invisible hand, and my sister and I took each other’s hands, saying: ‘Did you hear? Did you see? He did not leave his chair.’ The servant came, having heard the bell’’ (Annales des Sciences Psychiques [1899]). 

Charles Richet, in a report on the case, inquires, ‘‘Should the singular phenomena mentioned in all ages as accompanying a death or serious event be considered as akin to hauntings? There are legends of clocks stopping, pictures falling, some object noisily breaking, etc., but it is difficult to determine the part played by chance coincidence.’’ 

 George Micklebury reported in the Daily Graphic (October 4, 1905) a startling instance of clairaudient premonition of impending death that occurred as he was listening to the High Mass in London. He suddenly heard his daughter’s distressful voice: ‘‘Pray for me, father, I am drowning.’’ Two friends, between whom he was kneeling, heard nothing, but asked him whether he was ill, because he looked so startled. After the mass he took a train to the farm where his daughter was working and found her in bed, alarmed, but safe. She had fallen into the river from a capsized boat and become entangled in weeds. She had lost consciousness before she was rescued. During the moments of unconsciousness, she said, she saw her father at High Mass between two friends, whom she named, and also saw Father Pycke, the celebrant. Then she saw no more.

The vision of traditional family apparitions, death-coaches, banshees, and phantasmal animals often proves to be a true premonition of death. In the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (vol. 10, 1894), Mrs. E. L. Kearney narrates: 

‘‘My step-grandfather was lying ill in my father’s house. I was coming downstairs when I saw a strange cat coming towards me along the hall. When it saw me it ran behind a green baize door which separated one part of the hall from the other. This door was fastened open, and I went forward quickly to hunt the strange cat (as I thought) away, but to my utter astonishment there was no cat there, or anywhere else in the hall. I at once told my mother (and she told me the other day that she remembers the occurrence). My grandfather died the next day. Taken in connection with the above the following is interesting. My mother told me that the day before he died she saw a cat walk round her father’s bed: she also went to hunt it out, but it was not there.’’

http://parapsychologyinfo.com/Death/PhenomenaAtDeath.htm