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Necrophony

Through the 19th and into the early 20th century, electricity was often seen as something closer to magic than science. Electricity was invisible, yet you could feel it by touching a charged plate, the same kind of plate that could make dead flesh jump. Electricity was some bound up with ideas of "life force" and the alchemical notion of "ethereal fire." When it was discovered that electricity generated magnetic fields, electro-magnetism also took on this occult quality.

It's been argued that when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he wasn’t looking for the newest in communication technology, but a way of talking to the dead, mainly his dead brother. Marconi believed that invisible radio waves could cross between the land of the living and the dead. So did Tesla.

Probably the most famous researcher to dabble in this kind of techno-spiritualism was Thomas Edison. In the 1920s, Edison's last work was on a "spirit phone" or "spirit communicator." A well-known workaholic, Edison didn't let death slow him down and allegedly transmitted even more info on the subject to the medium Sigrum Seuterman in 1967.

"Necrophony," a term coined by Michael Doherty, has a rich and interesting history. For a good lowdown on this interzone of technology and spiritualism, take a look at Andrew Cooke's article, "ELECTROPLASM."

http://www.crd.rca.ac.uk/alumni/00-02/andy/plasmic-city.htm

Posted by Kadrey at January 3, 2003 05:16 PM

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