In the coming weeks I plan to publish dozens of strange and intriguing photos I captured over a 12-year period. The pictures were made possible by combining Polaroid (instant photograph) technology with a subtle energy device called a “luminator.”
I bought a luminator from Michigan inventor Patrick Richards in 1999 and took thousands of pictures over the years… until 2010, after Polaroid stopped making its popular 600 film. I had friends, family, and clients pose in my lab, and I hauled the luminator around the country, taking pictures at conferences and seminars.
The luminator is a tower-shaped device that houses two fans, one above and one below a plexiglass cylinder with liquid-filled rings mounted along its internal wall. The counter-rotating fans create a vortex, like a small tornado that swirls through the cylinder. The hardware and the vortex together open a portal that (apparently) allows the subtle realities around us to interact more directly with our dense material reality.
(Note: You can click on any of these pictures to see it larger in greater detail)
The rings in the cylinder contain a water-based liquid that inventor Richards programmed with intention as he designed each luminator… the way one can program a crystal.
Read more about programming crystals
The photos hint at the illusory nature of our physical world, which seems so solid and real to us… trapped as we are in the five senses. Somehow the luminator helps to break down the illusion, to give us a glimpse of the subtle realms that flourish beneath the surface of our dense reality.
Basically I would photograph a subject while the luminator was whirring nearby, and as the picture developed over several minutes, strange anomalies would usually begin to appear.
Sometimes the photos were “normal,” showing the subject clearly. But more often than not, the developed picture would be hazy, with strange light streaks and other anomalies. Sometimes unusual faces emerged from the mist… and those were the pictures of greatest interest to me, as an afterlife researcher.
My all-time favorite shows the spirit of late singer John Denver clearly in the picture.
I was invited to share my ITC research at the Celebration Metaphysical Fair on April 20, 2002, in Colorado Springs, and it was a good opportunity for something miraculous to happen because there would be two luminators present.
My friend and colleague Jack Stucki was a therapist who used a luminator in his practice in Colorado Springs. In fact, it was the spirit faces caught on Polaroid film in the course of Jack’s therapy sessions with clients that first grabbed my attention and compelled me to acquire a luminator for my own use back in 1999.
Jack joined me during the workshop that chilly day in 2002, and we put both luminators on stage, creating a powerful field of subtle energy. We took pictures of all the participants… and those are the focus of this opening article.
Joy Schilling owned the Celebration Bookstore next door to Jack Stucki’s therapy practice. When Jack and I took a picture of Joy, the face of John Denver was superimposed clearly over Joy’s face.
Also at the Celebration Fair we took a picture of Missy Rhodes, a pretty woman who (along with husband Terry) raises horses in Colorado, and whose hobbies include decorating eggs (think Fabergé eggs, not Easter eggs). When Missy’s picture developed we could only see the edge of her face (on the right), The left side was replaced by a face that I think, after a decade of pondering on that picture, belongs to the famous opera singer Marian Anderson.
MissyRhodes… with Marian Anderson?
Here are some of the other photos taken during the Fair in 2002. I decided the best way to present them is post them with a very brief description. I’m including a cropped portion of each original Polaroid, along with a light-enhanced version. As you study them you might be compelled to offer your thoughts and insights in the Comments section below. A discussion about these photos would be by far the best way to present them.
When the series is complete, my plan is to assemble them into another e-book, along with readers’ comments.
Jewelie’s picture clearly has 2 or 3 faces…
Lisa seems to have a man with her, peering off to our right.
Regina clearly has a spirit friend looking off to our left… and something interesting on the right as well.
This is Tana…
… and this is apparently a spirit fellow ‘visiting’ her during the Fair.
There were other pictures taken at the Fair that day in Colorado Springs, but these were among the most interesting.
What do you think? Spooky? Intriguing? Ho-hum? Insightful? Mind-boggling? Unbelievable?
– – –
(A big THANK YOU…
… to all of my photo subjects who took part in these experiments and were glad to share the results through my research.
… to the spirit team working with me through the years to build a communication bridge between our worlds… especially those later years (1999-2010) as we produced many hundreds of these photos. – – MM)
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The Faces in the Mist series:
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Macy Afterlife: The Beacon 
Hi Mark,
It’s really great to see these early photos. Amazing! I was thrilled to be able to participate in your luminator workshop here in NYC, and witness the photo of a clear male spirit appear over my face, which you included in your book, Spirit Faces. Look forward to seeing more of these photos.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Your interest and participation mean a lot to me.
Your pictures and others from NYC will probably be the subject of my next article. We’ll see.
All the best to you!
Mark
Hello Mark,
I find your photos very intriguing and have come across some from your other site. I’m especially captivated by the 1st one with Joy. Am wondering if Joy Schilling or Jack Stucki or you–knew John Denver personally? ( Perhaps it’s the location of Colorado Springs??)
I find Missy Rhode’s image is also quite interesting- particularily in the fact that she decorates Faberge eggs. So I wonder if there is a possibility that within each person there can be a common factor for a particular image to emerge??
I can also see Jewelie’s, Lisa’s, Regina’s images as you say.
It was very interesting in learning how the luminator came to be. Thanks for sharing these. I look forward to any more you might be able to share!
Marri
Hi Marri,
Pardon the delay in replying… I was just rereading these articles and found your comment.
There was one woman at the Colo Springs conference who had known John Denver in lifetime… and I/we kind of expected John to show up with her… if he showed up at all.
I suspect he chose to show up with Joy Schilling because of some kind of resonance in spiritual vibration… a compatibility of thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.
Most important to me is the fact (to me it’s fact, to others probably speculation) that John Denver was there in spirit at the conference, participating in my ITC work. A clear indication (to me) that he was working with my ITC spirit team at the time. VERY exciting prospect for me at the time.
Now that I’m no longer actively experimenting, I’ve bid my spirit friends ‘adieu’ as they move back to paradise… to inspire me in my writing… in a more distant, less “up-close-and-personal” kind of way. They no longer need to feel compelled to visit or hang around the dense spirit vibrations near the Earth to work with my equipment. They know how deeply grateful I am to them all for their tireless work over the years.
God bless, Marri…..
Mark
Hi Mark,
Glad to hear from you!
Busy with a new job I haven’t had a chance to catch up on your other articles yet…all of which I have SAVED til I can read them.
I understand what you mean about the role resonance plays in our spirit contacts. Personally, I feel that when we see a recognizable spirit involved in ITC, it tends to open up public interest to the work of ITC or even the (Paranormal Field)
and can provide access to spread information with ease and speed.
You accomplished much with your ITC spirit team. You must feel blessed (indeed it is a blessing) to have worked with an enlightened group of spirit contacts who end up being spirit friends.
It must also be sad to say goodbye because of the bond that was bridged between you and your spirit friends. True, in time they have to move forward in their spiritual life.
Yet there are spirits that for several reasons cannot leave Earth.
I saw a program which I feel needs more attention brought to its methods because a miracle occurred to a community using the power of PRAYER that had earthbound spirits.
Mark, if any, what feelings do you have about earthbound spirits?
I remember Dr. Konstantin Raudive and his messages sent to us, especially the means in which they were sent. Perhaps he too has moved forward…
Sadly, I haven’t heard any more news with reference to him.
Take care Mark and many blessings to you.
Marri
Hi Marri,
Earthbound spirits generally aren’t as happy as they could be. More confused than they should be.
They pose problems for us on Earth (by bleeding into our consciousness), as well as for themselves.
Ideally, there’d be efforts underway on Earth (such as the prayer group you mentioned) that would move legions of the ‘lost souls’ to the lighter realms where they belong.
This would be a much nicer place if we cleared out the shadow world..
Konstantin Raudive and the others at Timestream were mostly at the ‘4th level’ of the astral realm, which is pretty much of a light, paradise place, but still much like Earth. They’re not what would be called earthbound.
But yes, I’m sure he’s able to move up to higher realms when he so chooses.
He considered it his mission to stay at the 4th level for awhile after his death, in order to participate in ITC.
From the finer realms it’s impossible to interact in such an intimate way with people on Earth and their equipment.
Good luck at your new job,
Mark
Rereading this post two years later, I realize I made a small mistake in my reply (above) to Marri. Konstantin and Timestream are settled in the Third Level according to the Myers model…
(see https://macyafterlife.com/spiritual-reality/ )
The Third level, or mid-astral plane, as a beautiful, earth-like realm where people are sort of polished-up versions of what they’d been during lifetime on Earth. Most of their more animalistic qualities have been cleaned up, and they can get along with each other much better than we can. Still, they’re close enough to us in disposition to allow the necessary resonance for ITC bridges.
At the Fourth level, or higher astral plane, people are much more polished spiritually, and can’t resonate with the troubled, often savage human thoughts and feelings that we take for granted here on Earth. For someone at that level to work in ITC with Earth, he or she has to descend to the Third level to do so.
Mark
Hello Mark,
I also see what looks like a profile in the middle area between the two sides of the face being photographed. The profile can face either left or right it does not always go in the same direction. In some of these images it would seem that that there is an element that resembles Picasso’s cubist treatment of the human face. Has anyone noted this before?
DR
Hi David,
Yes, we’ve seen lots of spirit faces in profile superimposed over human subjects who are facing the camera.
I haven’t heard the Picasso likeness before. Interesting. 🙂
Mark
Hi Mark,
Your Luminator experiments are absolutely fascinating. I just recently ran across them. I’ve been experimenting with various ITC techniques since the summer of 2009, so I’m no stranger to trans-dimensional phenomena (though, in my eyes, its splendor is everlasting despite how accustomed I’ve become to experiencing it). I’ve mainly been working with Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), radio frequency sweeping, and water/light reflection techniques. I’ve attained, in my personal opinion, remarkable results over the years during my experiments.
When I first saw your Luminator photographs, they instantly reminded me of a photo that a former friend of mine shared with me years ago. He was from Ireland, and his father was murdered in a pub back in 2005. A few months after his father’s death, an anomaly appeared in a photograph. The photo was of my friend, his girlfriend, and his sister singing karaoke. It had a blur or haze to it, though (similar to the distortions seen in the Luminator photographs). Looking closely at my former friend in the photograph (who is wearing a red shirt), you can clearly see what appears to be the spirit of his father overlapping him. I wish I had a lifetime photograph of his father, because the resemblance is blatant and undeniable. Here’s the original photo:
And here’s the cropped/enlarged version:
It’s my theory that our personal energy is one resource the spirits use to manifest like this in photographs. I think energy usage aids the manifestation process a great deal. It was my friend’s sister’s boyfriend who took the photo above though, if I remember right. I’m not definitively sure what type of camera he was using. I think it may have been a digital.
Have you tried using any other type of camera (besides a Polaroid) for your Luminator experiments, Mark? I know you said you discontinued your Luminator experiments due to Polaroid no longer producing the type of film you were using, but I was wondering if there was maybe an alternative camera option that would suffice for your experiments? Also, did Patrick Richards ever offer you the schematics or blueprints for the Luminator? I’m really interested in working with that device. I think it has a lot of unexplored potential. It’s a shame that Patrick didn’t produce more of them.
Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication over the years in this field of ITC research though, Mark. You’ve inspired a large number of people (myself included). I’d love to dedicate the rest of my life to working with ITC (or, as I like to call it, “TDC” – Trans-Dimensional Communication). It’s quite easily my number one passion. I’ll have to tell you about my water and light reflection experiments soon, too. I think you’ll find them highly intriguing. Hope you’re doing well.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
Hey Jeremy, first off, thanks for that amazing photo. It really does look to me like your former friend’s late father, murdered in that bar, was close in spirit to his son during that performance. That would be my tentative conclusion, based on what you told me… and not seeing a lifetime photo of the father. The photo is indeed reminiscent of the spirit-face photos I got with Polaroid cameras in the presence of the luminator.
And I agree that our personal energies are used by our spirit friends in manifestations like these… as well as our electromagnetic energies when they come through our equipment with voice and computer text and images.
You might want to look at a comment by Mark Whited on this post…
https://macyafterlife.com/2011/04/04/spirit-guides-spirit-visitors-or-spirit-attachments-or/
… where we discuss a new type of luminator being developed that would work with digital cameras.
But, no, the eight or so luminators that were developed by the late Patrick Richards only seemed to work with Polaroid cameras, which are no longer being produced.
Not much technical information was made public about the luminator’s inner design, though it’s a rather simple device, as I show in this post:
https://macyafterlife.com/2012/03/18/faces-in-the-mist-1-colorado-springs/
(which, it turns out, is the same post on which you made this comment. 🙂 )
I, too, called it TDC (TransDimensional Communication) when I first got involved, but soon realized I was swimming upstream. The term ITC (Instrumental TransCommunication) was already locked in… and its advantage over TDC is that it refers to the use of devices or instruments, which differentiates it from mediumship forms of transdimensional communication. So, some people refer to it all as transcommunication… either instrumental transcommunication or mediumistic transcommunication.
Finally, yes, I’d be very interested in seeing your results. I’ve had some experience with the FrankBox (frequency scanner) technologies, and worked a bit with Margaret Downey, seeing her water reflection images.
It’s my experience that spirit will try to come through any medium or device or technique they can… and about 95 percent of the successful results hinge on the human’s “energies,” which includes consciousness, intent, spiritual development, and, as our invisible friends at Timestream told us, “a rare quality among humans in which the a focused intent can pierce the veil like a lance.” You can read that contact on page 10 of this issue of the Contact! journal:
Click to access c9701.pdf
All the best to you.
Mark
itcmark@gmail.com
Hey Mark,
Thank you for replying so quickly. You’re more than welcome. I figured you might find the photo intriguing. 🙂 It makes me wonder if the effect seen in Luminator photographs can be more naturally induced (without the Luminator device present). Perhaps through the slowing down of a camera’s shutter speed? I was searching through Keith Clark’s forum “ITC Bridge” and came across a thread where they were discussing the Luminator photographs you’ve taken.
A forum member on there (“neokortex_simulacrum”) attempted to naturally reproduce the effect seen in Luminator photographs by slowing down the shutter speed of his digital camera. One of the photos he took of himself in a mirror was highly interesting. It looks incredibly similar to your Luminator photographs (with similar photo distortions). You can clearly see what appears to be two faces side by side in the photo. Here’s the link to the image:
http://www.itcbridge.com/forum/attachment.php?id=2728
And the link to the discussion thread I was referring to:
http://www.itcbridge.com/forum/view_topic.php?id=1157&forum_id=7
The Luminator evidently makes this process much more effortless and effective (via the dissolving of dimensional boundaries or the opening of trans-dimensional portals/doorways – making it easier for the spirits to manifest). Though I think there’s a high probability that the phenomena can be achieved in a more natural manner as well (with a greater amount of effort from both sides, of course).
Also, have you heard of a company called “Impossible”? They are supposedly the only company in the world that produces instant film for classic Polaroid cameras (including 600-type film). Their website:
http://www.the-impossible-project.com
Their film is quite pricey (and a lot of it is currently out of stock on their website). But I was wondering if you had experimented with it yet. Might be something worth considering.
Did your friend Jack Stucki ever finish constructing the Luminators that he told you he was building, Mark? I’d really like to buy the Luminator schematics off of him (if I could). Attempting to build one myself would more than likely be the cheapest route to take. What are your thoughts on the Luminator device possibly assisting with other areas of ITC research? I’m interested in seeing if having a Luminator running during my water and light reflection experiments would aid in the transmission of the images. Margaret Downey helped me out quite a bit when I first started working with the water and light reflection technique back in 2010. She has had some phenomenal images appear during her experiments.
It would be really interesting to use a Luminator during radio frequency sweeping experiments as well. Spirit boxes have become quite innovative. There are a few researchers who mass produce custom made spirit boxes with features such as sweep rate control, analogue sweep circuits, and echo chambers. Really exciting, groundbreaking stuff.
Are you familiar with the Scole Experiment, by the way? The Scole group attained some fascinating, mind-blowing results during their experiments as well. I have a lot more to say, but I wanted to keep this comment as relevant to the Luminator as possible and I’m starting to drift off topic a bit. I’ll e-mail you soon, Mark. Going to be sending you some of my water and light reflection images and such.
Thank you very much for the PDF link to the issue of your Contact! journal, too. I’ll be reading through it today. Hope you’re having a great week. 🙂
All The Best,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
Using a slow camera speed allows the greater chance for camera blur, in which either the camera or the subject move. It would be easy to create an anomalous-looking picture by just turning the head from left to right while the picture was being taken.You could easily get two faces (of the same person) doing that. So, I doubt whether slow shutter-speed would be helpful in getting real spirit faces in the picture.
For spirit face photos, somehow two or more dimensions come together and show up on film. The luminator seems to make that happen… the pulling-together of multiple dimensions, or the opening of a portal between them. The presence of certain individuals can also make that happen… people who have a certain energy about them. Also, being in certain emotional states can also make it happen… but I’m not really sure what those emotional states are.
I thought using the luminator would help my ITC radio experiments, but it didn’t seem to affect the results, just having the luminator running in the room during the experiments. It still seems to me like the luminator should help with audio and video experiments… but that wasn’t my experience.
I heard from others (Jack Stucki, I think) that Polaroid-like film didn’t have the same results with the luminator that the Polaroid film had.
Yes, the Scole group also had remarkable results in there multidimensional experiments.
All the best,
Mark
Hello Mark,
It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.
I understood what you meant and I didn’t notice the discrepancy 🙂
It’s all about resonance and to communicate with us it happens on the Third level.
I sincerely appreciate your updated comment to me and to all of us here.
Many, many thanks!
Marri
Thank you for posting the John Denver photo here on your website. I was surprised to find a good quality version of the image here. I’d love to know what the lady behind John Denver looked like. To me, they both look very similar, but maybe that’s just John’s face I’m seeing. It would help to see her without him on top. Anyway, thanks so much. I’m enjoying reading your website. You’ve done some very interesting work. I just noticed those shooting stars on your website background, lol. That’s really cool. I’ve never seen that before.
Best wishes to you.
Hi Ms Stone,
Yes, I have a picture of Joy Schilling somewhere. At the time, she and her husband owned the Celebration Bookstore in Colorado Springs, which was next door to the office of my friend Jack Stucki, who used a luminator in his therapy practice.
It was Joy who was the subject of the photo that day when John Denver appeared in spirit.
I’ll see if I can find that picture of Joy in my files….
Thanks for visiting this site!
MarkM
PS – those shooting stars on the website are actually snowflakes…. This site is hosted by WordPress, and these snowflakes are a default feature that shows up on the site automatically every holiday season, courtesy of WordPress. There’s a way I can turn them off, but I’m with you: They’re pretty awesome! 🙂
I’m thinking that these superimposed faces might have something to do with images already in the minds of the people being photographed, due to some emotional association with them at some point in their lives. It may just be that somehow the photographs bring these images out of their subconscious minds.
Also, where does one go to purchase the Luminator? I’ve done some researching and could not find anything under “Patrick Richards The Luminator” in google or in youtube. In fact, in youtube, someone was explaining another type of device he called “The Luminator”, some sort of projection device.
Any information you can forward to me would be greatly appreciated, including how much the device costs, as I’ve not been able to find any information on it. And what do you do since Poloroid no longer makes type 600 film? Will it only work with that type of film, or can it work with any film camera? Thanks.
Hi Cris,
What I’ve deduced from my research is that there’s a lot of spirit activity all around us much of the time. When spirits get “up close and personal” by moving into our aura, our minds sort of meld to some degree. We can then be inspired by brilliant intuitive insights or be subject to grief or anger… depending on the ‘state of mind’ of the visiting spirit.
It sounds a little spooky, but it’s a commonplace situation while living here on Earth. Apparently spirits resonate with and are drawn to each other (and to the astral spirits that are part of us living humans as well) because of like disposition. When they come into our aura, there becomes a blurred line between our “subconscious” mind, which could also be called our astral mind, and the astral mind of the visiting spirit.
Here’s a google search link that takes you to several websites about Patrick Richards and the luminators he invented:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=patrick+richards+luminator&*
I paid about $15,000 for my luminator, and as I recall there were only about 8 of them developed. I never tried real hard to get pictures using non-Polaroid cameras (35mm, ditital), but the general consensus among luminator owners is that the spirit faces appeared regularly only with the Polaroid 600.
Another Colorado fellow, Jack Stucki, has been developing another generation of luminators for his healing practice. Not sure if they produce spirit face photos.
All the best,
Mark