Daniel Hecht_Cree Black 02 by Land of Echoes Read Free Book Online

manifestations of any strong emotion or yearning, positive or negative, but they're almost always feelings that
     are unresolved. What I do is try to find that connection between ghost and witness, try to understand the issues that they have in common,
     what's unresolved for both of them. One of my clients called me a psychotherapist for ghosts, and that's not far wrong—except
     that I do it for the witnesses as well because ghost and witnesses need to progress in parallel toward resolution. Dr. Mayfield
     looks for physical evidence of ghosts and uses various technologies to try to identify the mechanisms of their manifestation.
     Our assistant, Joyce Wu, supports our work with historical research and forensic investigation. I use psychology and a special
     set of. . . sensitivities that Mason calls a variant of projective identification. I just call it empathy. All it means is that I intuitively mesh with people's feelings. I take on their states of mind, which helps me to see and
     understand the ghost they've seen. And helps me find the link between them."
    To Cree's surprise, the whole banana didn't prompt another skeptical comment or semirhetorical question. On the contrary:
     Tsosie turned back from the cliff, his eyes seeking Julieta's, and Julieta faced him with a guarded expression that seemed
     to caution him to silence.
    Half the sun's disk was below the distant mountains now, and the lovely light on the near rocks and trees dimmed as if absorbing
     darkness from the growing shadows. Far below, another tramcar was sliding up its invisible wire.
    "Look, I can't package the whole thing in twenty-five words or less," Cree said, "any more than you could explain education
     or medicine. If you're not going to believe me, and you're not going to tell me anything about this boy, we should get back
     to the station. Is that the last car for the night? It's getting cold."
    "Just one more question, Lucretia, please," Mason said. " Where do ghosts occur? Why do they appear in a given place?"
    Cree glared at him but went along with it one last time. "We're not entirely sure. They often appear in the place where they
     died, or in a place that figured importantly in their lives. Some are very limited, able to manifest only in a single house
     or even just a single room or patch of ground. My partner believes they manifest where local electromagnetic or gravitational
     conditions are favorable. He has shown a correlation between cycles of manifestation and fluctuations in geomagnetic fields,
     such as those caused by tidal forces. The living human brain and nervous system is an electrically mediated organ and creates
     electromagnetic fields—that's what we measure when we take an electroencephalogram. I have a more complex view of it, but
     Ed believes that the strong emotions of the dying create fields that imprint on local geomagnetic fields, like tape recordings
     that play back when conditions are right."
    "So these favorable conditions," Mason said, "according to Dr. Mayfield, they're electromagnetic fields that support or reinforce
     the energies of the ghost? Functionally, ghosts come into being when conditions exist that amplify or . . . host the ghost's feeble or latent fields?"
    "Exactly."
    Mason's face, bilious orange in the dying light, smiled hugely. "And, of course, it makes sense that another human brain and
     nervous system—a living one—would create just the right fields, correct? Would make the perfect amplifier? The perfect host?
     Isn't that concept entirely congruent with Edgar's thinking? Doesn't it jibe also with your own belief that ghosts manifest
     when they encounter a supportive neuropsychological or psychosocial environment?"
    Oh my, Cree thought, seeing it at last.
    They all watched her expectantly as she sorted through it. Of course. The history of it went back forever and ever, through every tradition of psychology and spirituality and medicine from the
     dawn of time. It was just too