Psychometry: Reading the Energy of Objects & Photographs

I decided to split my presentation into 5 sections: My Spiritual Journey – to familiarize you all with me and give you an idea of my personal, professional, and spiritual background and experiences. And I divided My Psychometry Experiences into 2 parts: My Personal Experiences and My Professional Experiences. Even though they are all similar, they are different. Like BC & AD = Before Clairtangency and After Divinity. I still kind of question some of my spiritual experiences that occurred in my BC era. But I am absolutely confident about the things I have experienced in the AD.

I’ll also be discussing the History of Psychometry and do a Psychometry Demonstration and a Q&A session. And if you’d like to revisit this speech, the text of this presentation has been posted on my website on the Spiritual Seminars page.

So, let me begin by introducing myself: 

I’m Jim Byers and I am from Wyoming – that’s Wyoming borough in Pennsylvania not Wyoming the state. The state was actually named after my borough in honor of a small revolutionary battle fought in Wyoming in 1778. But I just say to everyone “Have you seen the tv show The Office? I live like 20 minutes away from Scranton. And trust me, Michael Scott makes Scranton seem WAY more glamorous than it really is.”

Professionally, I’ve worked in the communications industry as a newspaper reporter, as a graphic artist, in public relations, and spent some time at Highlights magazine – you know the children’s magazine in dentist and doctors’ offices. I’ve also worked in the human services field. This year, I decided to leave my day job to dedicate my time and energy towards my spiritual work. A lot of people spend their days working a regular job and their evenings and weekends doing spiritual work - because there’s not benefits package or 401k plans for psychics or reiki masters. It just became too much work for me to balance it all so I took a leap of faith. Being here today with all of you reinforces that decision for me. 

Spiritually, I am a psychic medium, but I also offer past life regressions, reiki, and dream interpretations. I’ve been offering spiritual services for about 10 years now, but I’ve been receiving information all my life. I believe we all possess spiritual abilities, just at different levels of strength. People will say “You have such a great gift.” But to me, a gift is something you give to someone. We are all born with natural psychic abilities. If you really take a moment and review your life, I’m sure you’ll recall a moment when you saw something heard something, knew something, or felt something extra ordinary.

I know I have. And that’s what motivated me to begin my spiritual journey. And that’s why we’re all here today, right?

One of my most significant spiritual experiences occurred 15 years before I ever did a reading. It involved psychometry…

Psychometry is considered a process in which a person can receive information by touching an object. Extra sensory perception. Psychometry is also known as (psycho-scopy). Both terms are acceptable, but there is a difference. Psycho is related to the mind/the soul. Metry is about measuring and Scopy is about examining. I like to use the term psychometry because it’s easier to say and doesn’t sound so medical or intrusive. 

Psychometry uses Qualitative data which is descriptive information referring to things that can be observed, but not measured; like colors or emotions. Psychoscopy uses Quantitative data which is anything that can be counted or measured; numerical data. 

Early psychometry studies were performed to simply observe outcomes. While Psychoscopy studies were measurable experiments to learn the frequency, the stages or levels, and averages to calculate results. 

The title of my presentation is Psychometry: Reading the Energy of Objects & Photographs. But psychometry also involves the recording and studying of the information people receive when they hold an object. And a psychic reading or a medium reading can be considered an experiment. I take notes during readings and allow my clients to take notes or record during a reading. And we discuss the information I receive from holding an object during and after the reading. 

Psychometry measures people’s clairtangency; the ability to receive information through touch. Over time, some people have begun to use these 2 terms - psychometry and clairtangency - interchangeably. 

Most people are already familiar with psychometry: the stereotypical carnival gypsy, right? 

The old woman with a hairy mole on her face, hunched over holding a client’s hand. But don’t laugh, because the old carnival gypsies are on to something. I used to hold hands with clients, more when I read at fairs than during private 1-on-1 sessions at my home office, because I believed it helped me make a quick, strong connection with a client’s energy. And I need to have a quick, strong connection at fairs because I have a limited amount of time to receive as much information as possible. In between the distractions of screaming kids, people jabbering right next to my booth, and the overhead raffle winner announcements. Any type of an energy boost is helpful to me. But after the pandemic, I no longer hold hands with a client– unless they are having a very emotional response to the information I’m providing to them.

I believe that there is a transfer of energy and information when people connect physically: through hugs, holding hands, and handshakes. As a reiki practioner, I believe there is an energy transfer during sessions when you place your hands upon a client; whether you’re healing them physically or spiritually. Through touch, reiki practioners feel their clients’ energy levels which guides them to the areas where they need to concentrate the healing. Unless it’s a family member or a friend, I usually don’t do hands on reiki. Instead, I hold my hands above each chakra. But you make contact with a client’s energy field either way. 

During a reading, I will hold onto stones & crystals to magnify my energy to make a stronger connection to receive information or for healing. I use stones & crystals in ALL of my spiritual work: If a client is seeking guidance on a relationship, (which is like 1 out of 3 readings) I will hold onto Rose Quartz because that stone is associated with love. If a client is seeking messages from a loved one, I may hold onto Angelite since it enhances spiritual communication. Turritella for a past life regression and Blue Kyanite during reiki sessions. And sodalite for meditation. 

We all have our own favorite stones. We’re drawn to these stones for a reason and when we hold them or wear them, we absorb their energy. There are some beautiful crystals out there, but it’s not about appearance as much as it is about energy. I usually practice the Indian Jones theory: that the most valuable objects are not always glittering and glamorous.

When it comes to stones, size doesn’t matter…but naturally the bigger the stone the more energy it emits. They don’t have that huge crystal in the meditation room at the Edgar Cayce Center because they didn’t know where else to put it.

My point is that we can absorb energy and receive information from touching humans, natural objects, and man-made objects. 

Which brings me to my first real experience with psychometry. 

At that time, I was a junior at Bloomsburg University, majoring in journalism. I was home on Easter break. And when I was home on school breaks I would stay with my grandmother. This time she was in the hospital for minor surgery. My mother stopped by to get some clothes and paperback romance novels for my grandmother. And she had something for me – a journal my grandfather had written about his military service during World War II. This was around the time that the movie Saving Private Ryan was released and she thought that since I was studying journalism that maybe I could do something with her father’s war journal – maybe write a book? Maybe a movie? 

I politely took the journal from my mother and promised her that I’d read it later. But without my grandmother at the house, there were no homecooked meals and it was pretty quiet so I eventually started reading it.

By the time the journal was in my hands, it was 40 years after my grandfather’s death. I never met him since he died in the late 1950s from polio. He had no idea he had contracted the disease and it was misdiagnosed because polio was more of a children’s disease. I theorize that he contracted it while visiting his father in a nursing home or at church where he was led a Boy Scout troop and the boys’ choir. Doctors thought he had the grip – which is an old timey word for the flu. But he rapidly declined day by day and by the time he arrived at the VA Hospital, he was in the final stages of the disease and passed away within a few hours after his arrival. Many mementoes and memories related to him were washed away by a devastating flood that swept through my hometown in the early 1970s, a couple years before I was born. But somehow, this war journal and a few photos survived the death and destruction.

The journal is a collection of handwritten and typed pages that documented his basic training in the US Army. Donald Byers was a Philadelphia boy recalling all the terrible food, grueling military exercises, and uniforms that never fit. The journal ends as he departed on a ship from Virginia for “parts unknown.”

“There’s gotta be more to this,” I thought. And with my grandmother not at home, I knew I could rummage through her home uninterrupted. I went through every closet, every drawer, but found nothing. But in the last drawer of the last dresser, next to decks of pinocle cards I found a bunch of small notebooks and old letters. I even found one of those old Western Union telegraphs. 

I opened one of the notebooks and noticed that it picked up where the journal left off. After my grandfather left Virginia, he landed in North Africa for training and was now at war in Italy. He was a wireman, responsible for radio communications between command posts. His journal described the rigorous marches, the freezing cold weather, the lack of food and supplies. As well as the dead bodies that laid along the roads. 

As I continued to read, I came upon a passage that described his company’s movement during a night mission that had them crossing an open field that they feared was under enemy observation. My grandfather jotted down a quick note: “Felt scared when we first started, but okay after a hundred yards.”

That phrase really hit me. I read it over and over again trying to fathom the level of anxiety and dread my grandfather must’ve felt as he crept across that field. After several reads, I began to feel his fear of an ambush or stepping on a hidden landmine. That phrase hypnotized me, putting me in some sort of state in which I saw the war through my grandfather’s eyes. For a moment, it was me who was creeping thru that field. My eyes were scanning the tree lines and I looked over my shoulders for Nazis. I heard gravel crunch under my boots and the grass brushing up against my legs. I heard my own nervous breathes. Then THUD. 

I blinked and realized that the notebook had slipped out of my hands and onto the floor. This vision was so intense that I relaxed my grip on the notebook to focus on this memory from the man who once held it. My heart quivered from the thought of my grandfather in fear for his life. And then it donned on me: in a way…my life was in danger that day too. If he would have been killed it wouldn’t here, I wouldn’t be here with you today! Then I picked up the notebook and flipped back to that page. That’s when I noticed that this passage had been written on my birthday, September 25; more than 30 years before I was born. 

Suddenly, I was overcome with emotions and began to cry uncontrollably. I ran outside onto the back porch because I needed open space and fresh air. As I was crying, I didn’t feel like I was crying FOR my grandfather, but instead crying AS my grandfather. “There’s no crying in the Army! You pick up your weapon and march soldier!” That’s the military mantra, right? Soldiers don’t usually cry, but if they do it’s off to the side and not for very long. I felt that these tears were pent up, that they had been held back and were finally being released. 

It was in that moment that I realized there was more to his story and I was determined to find it.

So, I spent the next 10 years researching, designing, and writing My American Odyssey – which is available on Amazon.

But, like many of my early spiritual experiences, I didn’t tell anyone about it. And I didn’t see it for what it was – it was mediumship. It was clairtangency. It was psychometry. I just read an object that hadn’t been handled in decades and it belonged to a dead person. Someone who I knew very little about since my family didn’t really talk much about him. I was more afraid than I was amazed and excited.

Spirituality is such a fluid field. 1 + 1 does not always equal 2. I always believe that we should exercise a healthy level of skepticism. It’s the journalist in me. And being a 90s Generation X slacker, I just thought it was just a really weird experience because I wasn’t a psychic. But a little part of me acknowledged it and used the mysterious experience as a motivation to help my grandfather finish telling his story. 

As I wrote the book, there were times when I felt my grandfather was giving me the words to write; guiding my research or making sure I finally received those military records I requested years ago. Anyone ever try to request records from the government? Then you know what I’m talking about. A year into the process - out of nowhere - an old family friend from Phoenix, Arizona, sent us an envelope filled with pictures and letters that my grandfather had written to them while he was overseas during World War II. 

My grandfather was on a train headed back to Philadelphia for a furlough while in basic training. He noticed a little red headed girl walking up and down the aisle. They began to chat – and this was a time when it wasn’t creepy for a man to talk to children. This is when people were polite towards each other, neighborly. He eventually began talking to her mother and they became pen pals and very good friends even after the war. Years later, my grandfather named my mother, Janet, after the little red headed girl who was by then a teenager. After he died, our families kept in touch through letters and phone calls, but Big Jan and Little Jan never met face to face until a couple months before my mother’s death in 2019.

There were times when I read his letters and the journal that I felt his emotions: his depression, his loneliness, and his anger. I heard and felt the shellshock of a bomb that landed 20 yards away from his command post. I saw the final expressions on the faces of the dead soldiers he described. The more I wrote, the more I learned about him, the more I bonded with him…and began to love a man whom I had never met.

A great experience, right? A heart-warming story? 

And that’s the way I looked at it. And that’s the way I promoted the book. I briefly discussed that psychometry experience in the Foreword of the book, but I didn’t tell that to reporters during interviews. I was afraid it would take the focus away from my grandfather’s story: this was his book, I just put it all together for him. I was more interested in promoting the book then exploring the spiritual experience that had spawned it - just another example of me ignoring my abilities.

But that was my first real experience with clairtangency. It took several more experiences over a dozen years for me to finally realize that I needed to begin my spiritual journey. So, I found classes and seminars – like this one – to gain knowledge and develop my natural abilities. But it was never my plan to become a medium. 

When a client makes an appointment for a reading, I welcome them to bring a small object if they are hoping to make contact with a specific spirit. It’s not mandatory, I can make a connection with or without an object, but it does help me make a stronger connection. During a reading, I like to see what information comes through naturally first using mediumship before I take an object. I may not even need the object. I’ll ask for their object when I feel I need an energy boost or if I’m not connecting with the specific spirit they had hoped to hear from.

I prefer reading objects over photographs. I can read photographs, but I believe that watches and clothing are more personal items that absorb our energy from human contact. The residual energy is even stronger when it’s from an object someone had worn over a long period of time: jewelry, clothing, glasses. For me, photographs don’t possess as much energy because they are usually framed and hung on a wall without much human contact aside from occasional gazing. Unless, maybe, if it’s a photograph that was in your dad’s wallet that was always in his back pocket.

Some people say that photographs do capture a person’s essence or energy and I do believe that. But I guess it doesn’t capture enough for me to read?

And that’s what I need – more energy to make a stronger connection. And that’s during a mediumship reading or a psychic reading. Clairtangency allows me to feel a spirit’s energy so I can make a connection and pass along messages. And it allows me to feel the energy of living people in order to provide guidance to them or about them. 

Now, you may think “Wow, you should be working with police to find missing people!” Hold on. A wise medium, Joe Schiel, once told me that you should be EXTREMELY cautious when working with law enforcement. You may be a spectacular medium and truly make a connection with the energy of a missing person, but if you go to the police station claiming to have specific information about a case you may quickly end up a suspect in that case. You won’t be a hero; you’ll be inmate number 587641.

I’ve only worked on two missing persons cases. Once, I approached a family because I felt compelled to do it. The second time, a missing persons group approached me. I did both of these readings voluntarily at no charge. I am not about to make money from a family desperate for answers on a very public, open missing person case. 

And I don’t do house calls either. I don’t clear houses or help spirits cross over because you never know what you are spiritually or physically walking into. I’d rather avoid a spiritual attack, a dog attack, or any other kind of attack.

Another thing I avoid is online readings. I can do them I just prefer not to do them. The energy connection doesn’t feel as natural to me. I try to keep technology out of my readings as much as possible because I don’t want to experience any technical difficulties during a session. It’s happened and it just throws off the entire reading for me. I’m more of an in-person kind of person. 

I don’t like to read cell phone photos, but I will do phone readings? Like I said: sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason when it comes to spirituality.

My clients have brought an array of objects with them: from clothing to jewelry to statues to hash pipes. I’ve read them all. One client came for an appointment holding a long item wrapped in a garbage bag. My first thought was “Oh wow, this guy’s bringing a rifle into my office.” But thankfully it was one of those old vintage black panther statues. From that statue, I connected with 3 people, his parents and step-father – which confused me at first because both of the men were named Bill.

A reader’s focus should not be on guessing the object that they are holding. It should be on feeling the energy emanating from it. Sometimes when I’m holding an object, I can feel a sensation or not; same thing with crystals. 

When I’m holding an object, the energy may generate an image of the person who once owned it. I may feel emotions like happiness or depression, sternness or silliness that were characteristic of the person. Or I may feel a physical ailment they suffered or their manner of death. I may also receive information about them like their name, occupation, or important numbers. This connection may be so strong that I hear a sound like a favorite song or a musical instrument that they played. 

Reading an object provides me with another way to receive even more information about a person or spirit than I would normally receive without it. It’s not necessary to me for a meaningful reading, but I always encourage clients to bring small items that were related to a spirit they want to connect with. As long as they can carry it inside and it’s not a weapon. And I am not responsible for any broken or lost items. As clients place an item in my hand, I look away so the appearance doesn’t influence my reading - but keys are keys. A ring is a ring. It’s about going beyond that. Going beyond the obvious sentimental or symbolic meaning of the object. 

As a journalist and amateur historian, I am compelled to share some facts and history with you. But I don’t want this to turn into a boring college night class, so I’ll give you the cliff notes.

Psychometry is an ancient practice that has gone by many names in many cultures for many years. It was usually associated with shamans or alchemists. Every town had their village idiots and their village mystics. The witches and warlocks and gypsies. It wasn’t until the 1800s that scientists tried to measure psychic abilities through experimentation. 

“Why has there been so steady an opposition in modern times to the recognition and culture of our spiritual facilities when they have recognized and honored it in the past…in civilizations like Egypt, India, and Greece.”

That is a paraphrased quote from Dr. Joseph Rodes Buchanan. He was among the first leading psychometry researchers in America during the mid-1800s. When I looked into Dr. Buchanan, the impression I got was that he was a revolutionary thinker who questioned the laws of society, culture, religion, politics, and nature. He mixed rational and abstract thinking – science with spirituality. He was a social advocate during a time when America was grappling with slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor, environmental and workplace safety. Technology was advancing as was research into medical and mental health.

He goes 100% against his own father, Dr. Joseph Buchanan, who worked in the medical department at Transylvania University in Kentucky and published a book that argued that “the mind was mere organic matter devoid of spiritual essence.” Decades later, his son would take the complete opposite approach. 

The young Buchanan was a physician, spiritualist, and was one of the many 19th century researchers who sought creative solutions to the dichotomies between body and soul, mind and matter, science and spirituality. In the 1840s, he developed psychometry defining it as soul measuring, and measuring all things by the power of the soul. The soul – which to him, was embedded in the brain – was simultaneously an object for research and a measuring instrument capable of revealing human character, interpreting natural history, and demonstrating the reality of an immortal soul. 

It was a new and improved method of reading a person’s energy. He believed that highly sensitive spiritually developed people (we call them psychics, mediums, empaths / He called them psychometers) could receive information about people by coming in contact with the aura they radiated. Buchanan saw psychometers as instruments because, in a qualitative sense, they registered and measured the energies emitted by humans or objects. 

Buchanan believed that his research not only proved that human souls were capable of feeling energies and receiving information, but that this process could be used for social reform and improve scientific study. He hoped that in time his work would prove that psychometry could be applied to all aspects of life: the medical field, the law, politics, and daily life. Psychometry could help doctors heal patients. It could help with criminal investigations and court proceedings in order to confirm innocence or guilt. Perhaps touching a fossil could help us learn about an extinct species. It could help people learn how to treat each other with more compassion. And psychometry would help politicians govern better. Yes, he was a dreamer, wasn’t he?

But in some ways, some of his lofty ideals have become reality. Spirituality has become more mainstream and accepted over the past 200 years. Even more over the past 20 years. Look at the hundreds of paranormal shows on television. Holistic therapies like reiki are now being used to heal people. Psychics are assisting with criminal investigations. And even President Ronald Reagan relied on psychics for political guidance.

Buchanan’s studies were more Subjective than Objective. More Qualitative than Quantitative. So, the scientific community was leery because scientists always want numbers and processes that can repeat the same results.

Some of you may already be familiar with some of Buchannan’s psychometry experiments. I actually have some archival footage of his experiments here…

But Buchanan was running similar experiments…all trying to test people’s natural psychic abilities. Dr. Buchanan was absolutely a scientific and spiritual pioneer.

One of his initial tests involved identifying metals through touch. Psychometers were blindfolded and given a few minutes to hold onto different metals that were wrapped in paper to conceal its appearance. Test subjects intuitively named the types of metal in their hand and, in some cases, people tasted specific metals. Some felt energy running up their arm to their head before they named the metal. 

He even conducted experiments to test psychometers’ ability to identify diseases. Test subjects would place their hands upon the head of a person suffering from a particular illness then “Name that Disease!” Others would hold onto clothing or objects owned by someone who was suffering from a certain disease as a way to identify it.

Another test involved people laying their hands upon a flat object – which unbeknownst to them it was a landscape painting. Soon they began describing experiencing serene feelings; visions of a quiet forests; the sensation of a cool breeze, or the sound of a roaring brook.

Buchanan began to theorize that humans emitted energies that became embedded forever in materials they created; especially letters and illustrations. He claimed psychometers had the ability to measure someone’s character by holding a letter written by someone to their foreheads – like Carnac. 

But psychometers were not intuitively giving the answers to pre-written questions – they were sensing the author’s mood, character, or personal history. 

Buchanan wrote, “We find that immediate contact of the (letter) with the forehead yields an impression more promptly than between the hands. When the letter is held between the hands the impression is at first local – in the hands. Then, it gradually passes up the arm, like the influence of medicine, and reaches the brain where it affects the mental organs and gives an impression of character.”

Some of these letters he used in experiments were written by American presidents like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Some letters were written by people who were expressing depression, anger, happiness or love to test the accuracy and range of emotions that could be sensed by a psychometer. 

The information and messages psychometers received came to them thru the Clairs: 

· Clairvoyancy: receiving information in the form of images and visions.

· Claircognizance: receiving information in the mind. 

· Clairaudience: hearing information.

· Clairalience: receiving information through the sense of smell.

· Clairgustance receiving information through taste. 

· Clairsentience: receiving information in the form of sensations.

· Clairempathy: experiencing someone else’s emotions.

· And clairtangency: receiving information through touch. 

I feel like I’m pretty strong in all those categories – maybe not so much smelling and tasting though.

Buchanan felt that the best psychometers were people of high intelligence and good moral standing. In his opinion, proper people were more likely to have stronger abilities and be more accurate than a person who practiced debauchery. 

Initially, he chose men of high stature: lawyers, priests, doctors, and professors for studies, but his research soon showed that women were the better psychometers. One of these women was the widow Cornelia Decker, who later became Mrs. Buchanan. He described her as “a lady of distinguished appearance with that remarkable delicacy and spirituality of manner in which is generally associated with psychometric genius.” 

His studies discovered that women were more sensitive and more accurate psychometers because they seemed more sympathetic than men and therefore made them more receptive to the radiations of energy from people and objects. This led to Buchanan using more women than men for his experiments. 

Between the subject of his tests and his test subjects, Buchanan dealt with his share of skepticism and sexism. In the mid-1800s, men were considered the more superior gender. So, the predominantly male scientific field doubted Buchanan’s work just because he used female subjects. Some scientists equated his studies to old wives’ tales or just plain trickery.

Since I’ve joined the spiritual community, it seems to me that the stronger mediums tend to be women. There are definitely more women practicing and teaching spirituality than men. Whenever I am at a seminar or a fair or a crystal shop, I am always outnumbered by women – which is fine with me.  

During my time providing spiritual services, I’ve noticed every year that 83% of my clients are women. I believe women are more interested in spirituality than men. Women are more willing to actively explore it. Spirituality involves patience, trust, faith, honesty, compassion, hope, and love. Not all men are capable of expressing all that. Some can’t even do half of all that.

While watching paranormal shows, I’ve noticed that the boyfriends and husbands are always the last ones in the house to acknowledge that paranormal activity is taking place. It must be a masculinity thing: men naturally want to defend their family, but it’s difficult to do that against an invisible intruder. It may be emasculating for some men to admit that they can’t defend their family, so they ignore or deny the scratches going down their back or objects flying across the room. 

But really, when any person allows themselves to open up to the Universe they will have more intense and more meaningful spiritual experiences - man or woman. 

And that’s what Buchanan wanted to prove with his experiments.

Now, you would think it would be hard to find test subjects during an era that was so refined and religious. But as I read Buchanan’s book, The Manual of Psychometry, it seems as though many people were curious about it despite spirituality being so taboo. People really wanted to try psychometry. And as I worked on this presentation, I began to feel more of an appreciation for the people who practiced psychometry and spiritualism during the early 1800s. They were truly trailblazers – just like those who established Lily Dale in 1879. They spearheaded a movement at a time when spirituality was more about religion and the Holy Ghost, not mediumship or reiki or meditation. Priests, pastors, reverends, rabbis, and other religious leaders were the only people - the only men - who supposedly had a connection to the Divine. So, I really admire the bravery of Buchanan and the founders of Lily Dale. And the gypsies too.

One documented experiment involved an older woman who was very skeptical of Psychometry. But when a letter was placed in her hands, she began to cry uncontrollably. The woman described experiencing an overwhelming feeling of sorrow. She was crying so much that the experiment had to be stopped. It was later revealed that the letter was written by a man who was grieving the recent death of his beloved wife. 

An even more profound case involved a female psychometer who experienced the medical condition of a letter writer. This young woman made a very strong connection that allowed her to accurately describe the character and the temperament of the writer - a well-known local Reverend. She became lethargic to the point that she asked to end the experiment. When she tried to rise from her chair, she had difficulty with “locomotion”. She could not do the Locomotion, nor could she walk straight. The people present were confused until they realized that the author of the letter also suffered from a form of paralysis.

She was receiving this information through clairtangency, clairempathy, and clairsentience. This woman was so impressed by her psychometry experience that she was compelled to read more letters. She was feeling the same excitement, like that natural high we all feel when we make an undeniable connection to the spirit world; whether it’s during a reading or meditation.

But with every subsequent reading, she was becoming more and more physically affected. She was experiencing the same painful symptoms suffered by the authors of the letters. The woman eventually stopped reading letters altogether because the pain became too much for her to bare.

I’ve experienced this myself. During a reading a few years ago, I began to experience an intense headache and stomach pains. When I told this to my clients, the husband and wife looked at each other in disbelief then said that their deceased daughter had a rare stomach disease. She was unable to process food and liquids properly so she constantly had stomach pains from eating and not eating, as well as crippling headaches from hydration.

After a weekend of readings at a psychic fair, I do feel lethargic. I can be moody and sometimes I take a week off because I just don’t want to be psychic for a while. But then I get a call from someone who is in desperate need of guidance or a message and the cycle begins again.

Buchanan felt that just being in the presence of strong psychometers raised his own vibration. He wrote, “Meeting with good psychometers appeared to cultivate the germ of psychometric faculty in myself. My mind has always seemed clearer and more delicate in conducting psychometric experiments than at any other time.”

He also described something that I have experienced myself; maybe some of you have experienced it too. Buchanan wrote, “My strongest impressions, however, are those which I feel when a good psychometer is giving a psychometric description of a character. My sympathy is often so keen that I acquire a positive conception of the leading traits of character independent of any remarks by the psychometer.”

Translation: Buchanan felt that when he was in the presence of a strong psychic that their energy would raise his own vibration making him more open and able to receive information about the same person related to the object being used in the experiment.  

Have any of you ever experienced that? While witnessing someone being read and you begin to get information on them or the spirit too? That usually happens to me at seminars during class exercises.

The more I read about Buchanan and his experiments it seemed as those he was just walking around with a briefcase filled with letters; ready to test anyone willing to be tested. While visiting Boston, he met with Reverend Kent: a pure and pious man who fit all the requirements of the “ideal test subject”. The Reverend was highly skeptical, but he was willing to participate and be honest and open about whatever he experienced. The clergyman said he felt nothing when he first held the letter. But in moments, he began to feel a surge of energy that made him feel a sense of pride, gallantry, and strength. So much so that the feeble elderly man rose from his chair shouting as he described the character of the man who authored the letter he held. Buchanan had to stop the experiment and guide the Reverend back into his chair. It was then revealed that it was a fiery letter written by President Andrew Jackson lambasting his political opponents. And if you know history, President Jackson was not a compassionate, polite man - and that’s putting it nicely.

This letter written by Jackson must’ve been in Buchanan’s traveling briefcase because he mentioned it several times in his book. He reported that most psychometers felt a vigorous rush of strength, patriotism, and bravery when they held the letter to their forehead. No one else stood and shouted like the Reverend Kent, but one woman seemed to experience something similar to channeling. Or shape shifting.

While visiting a Judge in Mississippi, Buchanan handed Jackson’s letter to a short, plump woman with a round face. She immediately felt disdain and objection to the energy she felt. This woman’s beliefs were quite liberal for the time period: she was vigorously against slavery, sexism, and child labor. Her beliefs clashed with the character of the man who wrote the letter that she held. The energy was overwhelming her. She reported that it felt as though her face was contorting.

Buchanan wrote, “She complained of feeling as though her face was hard and elongated, her cheeks hollow. And her whole temperament changed to the energetic iron tone of General Jackson’s.” He continues, “…it was only by feeling her face with her hand and asking those present how it looked that she could escape the conviction that her face had actually changed its appearance.”

With such interesting and successful experiments, Buchanan was confident enough to share his theories during a visit with the esteemed Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. He handed the letter to a young woman in the room as Clay watched on with intrigue. The woman’s responses were acutely accurate and impressed Mr. Clay so much that he began to perform his own psychometry tests. And Clay was quite accurate according to Buchanan. But when it came to politics, he lost all 3 of his presidential campaigns. Maybe he should have stuck with psychometry?

By the 1860s, Dr. Buchanan had become the chair of “Physiology and the Institutes of Medicine” at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, then published a couple of essays and his book, the Manual of Psychometry in 1885.

The next leaders to emerge in Psychometry research were William Denton and his wife, Elizabeth. Their involvement in the field began gaining notoriety as Buchanan’s focus shifted more towards publishing in his older age. Buchanan acknowledged the Dentons for their contributions to Psychometry noting that The Dentons “have been especially distinguished by their remarkable success in such explorations…”

William conducted more than 100 tests with his wife to demonstrate that a sensitive psychometer could read natural objects like a mineral or fossil and provide information about its existence. Elizabeth began as a test subject for her husband then eventually became a leading authority in psychometry. The couple coauthored a book in 1863 which was like a “he said, she said” book on psychometry. He was logical and she was mystical. The 19th Century’s Dharma & Greg, I guess? 

The Dentons wanted to establish the credibility of their practice by playing up their skepticism and respective gender roles. William described their experiments as phenomenon “too strange to be believed,” and that he was merely reporting “facts.” Elizabeth stated that she was raised to be skeptical of all things; especially the spiritual. But after hundreds of tests, she overcame her bias and was ultimately convinced that the visions she received from minerals were “the natural result of forces subject to law, and those laws were deserving of investigation.”

Psychometry research continued as the psychic Fox Sisters and high society séance parties become chic. Spirituality was becoming so popular and accepted that even Mrs. Lincoln was using mediums to contact her deceased husband, Abraham. 

Some scientists tried to develop methods to strengthen psychometers’ abilities and created standardize tests to produce credible data. Buchanan passed in 1899 and with him died the interest and experimentation in psychometry despite his abundance of tests and published essays as well as the Dentons’ work. 

Psychometry’s popularity and its scientific significance faded by the beginning of the 20th Century due to scandals and hoaxes by spiritualists to the point that Harry Houdini became a self-anointed psychic debunker in between his daredevil stunts.

Buchanan founded psychometry to change the world one person at a time. He believed that when people exercised psychometry that they could receive information and messages that would spur social, political, and economic prosperity across America and eventually the entire world.

In the 21st Century, psychometry is not widely practiced in the scientific or medical field. It has evolved into a therapeutic method used mainly for children’s behavioral issues. It is used for psychological, personality, and academic tests that measure how the brain is performing and individual behaviors. It reveals a child’s fundamental strengths and weaknesses to determine their treatment. Psychometry is now called psychometrics and is defined as the science of measuring mental capacities and processes.

In the spiritual community, psychometry is still a relative word. But usually, you’ll hear people refer to the Clairs before you hear them say psychometry or psychoscopy. 

Psychometry tests are being conducted every day: by mediums offering readings in Lily Dale; paranormal investigators in Gettysburg; and aura photographers at psychic fairs. Scientists are doing studies using the same simple methods used by Buchanan and the Dentons as well as more advanced equipment to record and analyze data about the relationships between humans, energy, and spirits. 

And you are practicing psychometry when wear grandma’s favorite sweater or if you offer some type of spiritual service. 

Psychometry, psychoscopy, clairtangency…whatever you want to call it…the fact is we can receive information about someone by holding onto an object they possessed. Dr. Buchanan and the Dentons documented the undeniable evidence during hundreds of experiments over several decades.

 Buchanan wrote in The Manual, “Does not every psychometry experiment demonstrate an infinite range of the intuitive power?”