PARTICIPANT 021 GUIDE TO SCORING 0 = Nothing in your perception of the object was generally or specifically accurate. +1 = One or two general things from your perception correlated with the object or owner's life. +2 = Several specific things from your perception correlated with the object or owner's life. +3 = Your reading generally was on target, with at least a few specific details, about the object and/or owner's life. +4 = Your reading specifically was on target about the object and/or owner's life. +5 = An incredibly accurate perception of the object and/or owner's life from beginning to end of reading. OBJECT H - "BOY AND GIRL STATUETTES" WHAT PARTICIPANT SAID/WROTE 1 Heiroglyphics 2 Spirit says "these are haunted" 3 When I was putting hands over them lightly, I felt a vibration from the table 4 Children - scared, we have to be easy on approach 5 Just as these statues are once a girl and a boy lived among us. They were purchased to represent the two. In the grief of their parents, past. The tender pair played together as best friends and loved each other as they knew each other’s souls. 6 Girl - The one grew ill at a very young age and since both had come in to live their lives together. To the parents eyes of that time, the other died (boy) also of grief and a broken heart. 7 The parents lived on, bought these in remembrance and energy of the family’s tragedy lives on in the material of these statues. 8 Movement from energy where they are placed in present (hands buzzing after holding) OBJECT H - ACTUAL BACKGROUND OF OWNER/OBJECT OWNER: This object was lent by a Roman Catholic housewife born in 1935. Originally from northern Italy, she has lived with her husband in Hamilton, Ontario since the late 1950s. She and her husband are retired, and own many rental properties for income. They are active in their cultural community, have three daughters and four grandchildren – three male and one female. They raise rabbits for food in their backyard, and have a garden. She is well-known in her family for her cooking, and serves very traditional rural, northern Italian dishes. She and her family have gone to resorts throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, but otherwise her travels have been limited to Canada and Italy. STORY OF THE OBJECT: She lent two small porcelain busts, one of a boy, the other of a girl. Made in Venice, they were given as a gift when her husband’s brother and his wife visited Canada in 1972. They are displayed on shelves in their living room with family photos and a few other mementos. The bust of the girl was broken when one of her grandchildren accidentally knocked it off a table where it was displayed in 1999. The woman interpreted this as a portent that her youngest daughter was dead – which never came true – and she was only relieved when her grandson confessed to breaking it. This story is a favourite in the family. RESULT = 0 Owner of object and experimenter found no correlation between what was perceived from the object and the object itself or the owner's life. OBJECT E - "PIPE" WHAT PARTICIPANT SAID/WROTE 1 Gay male - father’s pipe 2 Pains in right hand 3 Handed down, personal keepsake 4 This person who currently has possession of the pipe may find that they smell smoke in the room where it is kept - this is a signal of presence 5 he loved to sit, smoke pipe and enjoy the view; listen to music 6 Much love is held in this pipe and acknowledged by father’s presence 7 Also see pipe being smoked in a rec room atmosphere 8 Dark hair then graying with age 9 Large nose - long 10 but squarish jaw 11 Thinking man - enjoyed solitude 12 Heart condition connected to pipe OBJECT E - ACTUAL BACKGROUND OF OWNER/OBJECT OWNER: This object was lent by a Caucasian male school teacher born in 1976, raised, and still living in the greater Toronto area. He was educated at Trent University, and then attended teacher’s college in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He lives with his girlfriend in a suburban house. He loves baseball, history and is a musician. He has not travelled much beyond Ontario. He has not had any paranormal experiences, although he has recently been active in volunteering to investigate them. STORY OF THE OBJECT: The object is a pipe that the man purchased at a novelty shop across from the Toronto Reference Library in 1996 or 1997. It was kept on top of a bookshelf, either beside or in a wooden case. The object is significant in its novelty. He and his friend, both smokers, each purchased the pipe as something different, thinking it would make them look sophisticated at bars and concerts. He used to relax and smoke the pipe while he was a student at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. His mother also enjoyed it when he smoked the pipe. He used Captain Black Tobacco when he smoked it. He even used the pipe as part of an attempt to stop smoking cigarettes. RESULT = +2 Some aspects of the participant's perceptions resonated with the man who lent the object, including lines 8 and 9, which reflect his own physical appearance, as well as lines 6 and 11, which accurately describe how the man loved to sit with his pipe and listen to music, and that he is a thinker who enjoys solitude. However, the other details listed, such as the health issues, connection to father, and sexuality, are inaccurate. No further specific information on the object, circumstances, or owner's life came to light in this reading. OBJECT D - "PLAQUE OF VIRGIN MARY" WHAT PARTICIPANT SAID/WROTE 1 Can feel a very light energy coming from item - feminine 2 Passed over presence coming back to tell a story (assumption) 3 Get the impression it may have fallen off of the wall but I don’t understand why it didn’t break - sensing movement 4 There is a tapping sensation on the palm of my hand holding it - telling me of an energy presence 5 It is like I can remember Chris [the experimenter] telling me that it was in a house when his friends bought it and they wondered where it came from and I told him it was a former owner?* I sometimes have "dreams or visions" that I remember this way. 6 "A trip to a holy shrine" - it was bought there - Honduras / Mexico? 7 Connected to a very elderly, wonderful, kind-hearted woman, in passing (death) 8 "Bed rest," "cannot continue" 9 (The table knocked) * Note from Chris Laursen: I do not recall telling the participant this. OBJECT D - ACTUAL BACKGROUND OF OWNER/OBJECT OWNER: The owner is Chris Laursen, a Caucasian university student born in Alberta in 1974 who was living in downtown Toronto at the time of the experiment in an apartment by the harbour with an art student. He studies history, and is making this his second career after having worked in the media as a journalist and then administrator. He was working at a broadcasting association at the time, and was about to return to university to prepare for graduate school. He has travelled in North America, South America and Europe. STORY OF THE OBJECT: This object was purchased a few months prior to the Psychometry Experiment by Chris Laursen from eBay. The previous owner (who lived on Long Island, New York, and claimed to be a paranormal investigator, although this could not be verified) of the plaque contended that it was from a haunted house in Belmez, Spain, where in the 1970s faces inexplicably appeared on the floor (as if they were painted or drawn with charcoal). Laursen was sceptical that this object actually originated from this house, and thought it would be interesting to test it in the experiment to see what people would get from it. RESULT = 0 It is hard to correlate the accuracy of any reading on this object given the circumstances, although line 7 could be interpreted in connection to the alleged female owner of the object from Belmez. However, no aspects of the experimenter's life, how the object was obtained, or its alleged history were perceived in the reading. OBJECT A - "CLEVELAND INDIANS PIN" WHAT PARTICIPANT SAID/WROTE 1 (I had angry feelings before opening the box - felt like knocking everything off the table) 2 Beer drinking and partying 3 Lots of energy, youth 4 Campfire, forest, very tall trees, "good times," good friends 5 White Eagle [participant's spirit guide]: Let me tell you a story of a man that didn’t know his name. He was pure of heart, sensitive of touch but thought he was a burning flame. He kept his soul hid on the inside where none he thought could see but when lightning struck, his heart doth broke, for there inside was he. 6 I’m asking White Eagle what it means. When the person owned this pin, he wore it with pride and had an outward "macho" mystique, when really on the inside he was a very warm-hearted and easily hurt person but people didn’t understand that because of his exterior appearance. And so he covered this up with outbursts of aggression. 7 Not sure if pin belonged to a man or a woman? Could be both. OBJECT A - ACTUAL BACKGROUND OF OWNER/OBJECT OWNER: The owner of this object is a Caucasian female born in Prince Edward Island in 1973 who resided in Ottawa, Ontario at the time of the experiment. She lived with her boyfriend in an apartment, and had one cat. She was finishing a university degree and working a retail job. She has travelled extensively across Europe, North America, and Japan. She reported having many psychical experiences in her life, namely having a strong sense of things that are about to happen. STORY OF THE OBJECT: The object she submitted was a pin of the baseball team the Cleveland Indians. She obtained the object in 1991 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and keeps it in a tin case (given to her by her deceased grandmother) on her bedroom dresser. It was given to her by her high school boyfriend who was popular at school. She was dating him and his parents did not approve of the relationship, forbidding him from seeing her again. Around this time, they had an argument and decided to take a few days break from each other. The day that happened, she felt ill – and had a horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen, but she didn’t know what. She went for a drive, and drove by a fatal automobile crash, witnessing the police covering the body. Soon after, the police notified her it was her boyfriend in the crash. He was killed and they gave her the pin he was wearing. Her boyfriend’s parents wouldn’t even speak with her at the funeral. To this day, she still feels his love. RESULT = 0 Although the owner of their object found line 3 interesting since it correlates with her youth, she and experimenter found no correlation between what was perceived from the object and the object itself or the owner's life.