Through the spirit of a child, Jacqueline Lunger was able to relay valuable information to assist investigators in the release of two innocent men from prison.
By Charles F. Emmons
In 2006, Jacqueline Lunger experienced a spiritual set up. A child had been murdered 13 years earlier. She communicated with Jackie, identifying her killer while delivering a message from beyond that helped police take two serial killers off the streets of Buffalo, New York and exonerate two innocent people who had spent years in prison.
Before I comment on this significant and (sadly) believable, but also inspiring account, let me explain my background. I am a sociologist (since 1971), a Spiritualist (since 1993), and the co-author (with my wife Penelope Emmons) of Guided by Spirit: A Journey into the Mind of the Medium (2003). I am a spirit medium, although not a professional one, and my main expertise in this case comes from having studied spirit mediumship in Hong Kong (cf. Chinese Ghosts and ESP, 1982; Chinese Ghosts Revisited, 2015) and in the United States. I am also well enough acquainted with Jackie (Jacqueline Lunger) to vouch for her character and wisdom.
If I have to pick a dominant role for myself, it is social scientist, but I am deeply interested in the subjective experiences of spirit mediums, which I do consider scientific evidence, not merely “anecdotal.” If we do not consider people’s subjective experiences of consciousness, then we will be stuck with knowing very little or nothing about consciousness at all (cf. Science and Spirit: Exploring the Limits of Consciousness, Charles and Penelope Emmons, 2012). Since becoming a Spiritualist I have learned to cultivate my own intuition and to respect intuitive ways of knowing in others. But when push comes to shove, I am more scientist than not, and the only thing I know for sure is that I don’t know anything for sure.
When you read There’s DNA to Prove It, be as skeptical as you like, but you need to consider the evidential elements of the mediumship involved, and not just the DNA evidence. I am in no way competent to discuss the law enforcement and legal issues, but I do see many points to make regarding the spirit mediumship that connect to my own experiences and observations as a researcher. Here we go.
First there is the psychic fair in April 2006. Such events are entertaining, but there is more going on (sometimes anyway). I attended a psychic fair in Erie, PA in 1993 that turned me instantly into a Spiritualist (Guided by Spirit, 2003: 105-107). The spirit medium reading I got was far too evidential to be considered coincidence. It had to be either ESP or a message from the spirit world (or both). And because I started getting highly evidential messages in my own head from my mother who died that year, I leaned toward the spirit explanation.
And we see clearly how important the psychic fair was in April 2006. It appears to have been a spiritual setup, because both JoAnn and Jackie were operating on intuition, as you will see. Jackie was a good choice for the medium to conduct the home party for JoAnn, both because Jackie had been a social worker (who could handle being in the seedy neighborhood where it was held) and because she had not known about the 1993 murder that is the core event in this case.
The home reading party was unusual because the group of women asked for their “private” readings to be given with the whole group present. Jackie, struggling to preserve the etiquette of spirit mediumship while accommodating their wishes, agreed as long as individuals could opt to do theirs privately. As you will see, the communal nature of the event, or group consciousness, turned out to be important because of the action taken afterwards, leading to the enlistment of help from a cold-case investigator.
We should also pay attention to several evidential elements in the reading. For example, the name “Crystal” was key in convincing the group that they were on the right track. No spoiler alert here; read the book There’s DNA to Prove It for the rest of the evidence. However, even more important was the individual and group dynamic that made it very difficult for the spirit medium.
Carol, the key sitter (person getting a reading or message), had closed body language, and was skeptical (to the point of being a “steel fortress”), even belligerent. I know how difficult it is to do mediumship under such conditions. One time I was giving messages in an organizational fundraiser. I gave three of my five sitters a pretty good reading, and one a so-so reading. But for the fifth one I saw myself at a kitchen table that was right up against the wall, and the wall was all I saw. Later I told the organizer of the event that there was one person I just couldn’t read. The organizer said, “It’s that woman over there, isn’t it?” “Yes,” I confirmed, “How did you know?” “Oh, don’t worry, nobody can read her.”
Wisely, as you will see, Jacqueline Lunger put her own psychic intuition (which seemed to be on the right track too) on hold, and waited for a spirit to speak. When the spirit spoke, the group knew what had happened, and didn’t even need to press for more information. So, even though there was evidential information given, the more important thing was the group/spiritual process. As my wife Penelope says, “This is not a parlor trick. It’s about healing.”
A parapsychological investigator, or a debunker, might focus only on the nature of the message, and try to evaluate how evidential it was (not to mention investigating every possible means of fraud). But the socially important thing was the group process that led to action. The spirit medium was needed to facilitate this process.
Back to my role as scientist trying to understand spirit mediumship. To me, Jackie’s discussion of her own experience is key. When she says that she got something psychically (her own ESP), but then got something else in another way (from a spirit), this is important information. This fits what I call The Experience Movement, researchers taking seriously the subjective experiences of the people who actually live the phenomenon. For more on this you can read Science and Spirit (2012), articles in the journal Paranthropology, edited in the UK by Jack Hunter, or visit Julie Beischel’s website at The Windbridge Institute, where they are linking neuroscience techniques to the statements of spirit mediums while they are undergoing MRIs in the lab. For example, spirit mediums can identify a high percentage of the time whether the individual they are being asked to contact is dead or alive. Also, their brains light up differently on the MRI depending on whether they are doing spirit mediumship or giving “merely” a psychic reading. In other words, we need both “objective” (laboratory) data and subjective accounts like the book you are about to read.
But let’s end on the human note. Think of how useful spirit mediumship can be. Useful for furthering the cause of justice (as in this case), for grief reduction (as in this case), and let’s hope for preventing tragedies like this in the future. There’s DNA to Prove It tells how the process of mediumship can be a valuable tool.
