Richard Sheargold (1911-1988) was an English psychical researcher with particular interests in electronic voice phenomena.
Life and Career
Richard Kempsell Sheargold was born on 20 December 1911 in Caterham, Surrey. He worked as departmental manager at McMichael Radio, Slough, which specialized in radio production and military technology.
Psychical Research
Sheargold joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1955, spending much of his time on experimental research in mediumship and electronic voice phenomena (EVP). The results of card-guessing experiments were mostly non-significant1 and those of a precognition experiment exploring the relationship between psi and memory were inconclusive.2
With regard to postmortem survival, he suggested that the appearance of communication through mediums was in reality a form of connection between people’s minds through memories. He wrote: ‘I doubt if such communication is a conscious act of the deceased in the sense that we understand consciousness, but may well have some kind of an emotional basis and partake more of the nature of a dream’.3
From 1971 he carried out research into EVP, concluding from his experiments that the phenomenon is real, in agreement with the testimony of experts such as Konstantins Raudive. Unlike Raudive he was not convinced that the voices were necessarily those of spirit entities, however.4
Against criticism that ‘voices’ heard on tape were purely subjective impressions in the mind of the hearer, he agreed that this could happen with prolonged listening to white noise, but pointed out that such spurious effects could not be played back, let alone deciphered. He also denied that the ‘messages’ seldom made any sense, which in his experience was not the case.5
His booklet Hints on Receiving the Voice Phenomenon provides advice on how to receive and decipher recorded voices.6
Selected Publications
Book
Hints on Receiving the Voice Phenomenon (1973). Bucks: Colin Smythe Ltd.
Articles and Correspondence
Experimental card-guessing using mediums as percipients (1961). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 67-73.
Survival and the physical basis of memory (1963). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 35-36.
[Chaffin Will] (1963). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 38.
Rosalie Case (1964). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 420.
Psychological exorcism (1965). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43, 99.
The psychology of occultism (1970). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 318-20.
Experiment in Precognition (1972). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 201-8.
[EVP] (1972). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 225.
[EVP] (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 210-12.
[EVP] (1975). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 128-29.
[EVP/ D. Ellis] (1976). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 250-52.
[EVP] (1977). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 566-67.
[Parapsychology jargon] (1980). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 322.
[Drop-in communicator] (1980). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 420.
[L. Flint] (1981). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 123.
[EVP] (1981). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 190-91.
[EVP/ J. Crabbe] (1982). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 320.
[Journal language] (1982). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51, 323.
Obituary: Konstantin Raudive (1975, with D. Ellis). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 43-44.
Book Reviews
Spirit Photography by Simeon Edmunds (1966). International Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. VIII, no. 4, 607-9.
The Ghost of Twenty-Nine Megacycles by John G. Fuller (1986). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 53, 329-31.
Literature
Sheargold, R.K. (1961). Experimental card-guessing using mediums as percipients. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 67-73.
Sheargold, R.K. (1963). Survival and the physical basis of memory. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 35-36.
Sheargold, R.K. (1972a). Experiment in precognition. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 201-208.
Sheargold, R.K. (1972b). [EVP]. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 225.
Sheargold, R.K. (1973a). [EVP]. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 210-12.
Sheargold, R.K. (1973b). Hints on Receiving the Voice Phenomenon (1973). Bucks: Colin Smythe Ltd.