Parapsychologists and scientists have diametrically opposed points of view on life after death. The first believe that the energy-informational essence, or human soul, continues to exist after the death of his physical body and is able to come into contact with living people.
The men of science deny this. Meanwhile, there are many reliable facts that indicate that contacts with the subtle world not only occur, but also leave material traces in our reality. In particular, this applies to painting.
It can not be
For the first time this phenomenon became known in 1945, when a lawsuit began in Holland in the high-profile case of a millionaire painting dealer Henrikus Antonius van Meegeren, who was accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the years of occupation. One of the proofs was the painting Christ and the Harlot by the famous Dutch painter of the 17th century Jan Vermeer of Delft. The painting was found in the personal museum of Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, and it was Meegeren who sold it to the fascist leader in 1943 for a million guilders.
Immediately after the war, cooperation with the Nazis in the Netherlands was severely judged. And here it was about the sale of national treasures, while the museum staff at the risk of their lives hid priceless objects of art. No one doubted that, by the verdict of the court, Meegeren would be hanged.
However, at the very first court session, the artist puzzled the judges. The prosecutor accused him of aiding the Nazis by selling them Vermeer's masterpiece, a jewel in the treasury of Dutch art, for personal gain. In response, Meegeren said that he wrote the painting Christ and the Harlot, and not a classic at all.
- You claim that this painting is a fake? But its authenticity was established by the largest expert on painting of the 17th century, Abraham Bredius, and confirmed by his colleagues. They are unanimous that the technique and manner of writing of the Delft master cannot be faked.
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“Nevertheless, I painted this canvas with my own hand, and Vermeer, if you like, can be considered a co-author,” the accused insisted.
- But this cannot be! After all, the great painter died in 1675 and therefore could not help you paint "Christ and the harlot"!
“And yet it was exactly so,” Meegeren persisted, and as evidence told the astonished judges the amazing story of his life, which did not fit into the framework of common sense.
Co-authored with spirit
Even while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Han van Meegeren showed a talent for painting. His first large painting of the interior of the Church of St. Lawrence in Rotterdam won an award. And in 1922, Meegeren took part in a large exhibition in The Hague with an unexpected success for a novice artist: all his canvases were sold out in a few days.
But critics greeted his work with hostility: who needs hopelessly outdated biblical plots, and this Meegeren's talent has wept a cat. The artist tried not to pay attention to the devastating reviews, continued to write, tried to exhibit. And then, at the suggestion of the then fashionable painters, who feared the appearance of a competitor, he was given a real persecution. In the end, the desperate Henricus left his homeland, moving to France, but there he did not achieve recognition. With grief he began to drink, his wife left him. In the end, out of despair, van Meegeren decided to commit suicide.
At that moment, a gray-haired old man appeared in his mind's eye, who sternly said:
- Do not take upon yourself a great sin before God. You will destroy not only the soul, but also the talent sent from above, which you have. I was also not recognized, but I did not give up. Follow my example and I will help you.
- Who are you? - Asked the shocked Meegeren.
- Jan Vermeer.
So, according to Henrikus Antonius van Meegeren, their fantastic acquaintance happened. For the artist, it turned out to be fateful. Meegeren stopped kissing the bottle and took up his brush again. He spent long hours at his easel and suddenly at times began to notice that someone else was driving his hand.
He began to give preference to cold light colors, which he did not like before. Gradually he achieved perfection in the transmission of the finest shades of light, concealing the contours of illuminated objects and figures, as was the case in Vermeer's canvases. And when he began to automatically write out the intricate monogram of Vermeer, he realized who was his invisible mentor.
Then the late artist began to visibly appear in front of his patron. He taught how to make paints according to old recipes, buy the works of unknown medieval artists in shops, wash off paints from them and paint on old canvases, after which he artificially aged the paintings so that they darken and cavities appear on them - cracks on the upper layer of paint. But the Delft master began to paint a large canvas on a biblical subject with the hand of Meegeren himself, and this took more than one month.
In 1932, everyone who was interested in painting was in for a sensational discovery. A previously unknown painting by Vermeer "Christ in Emmaus" was discovered in one of the private collections.
The experts carried out an examination, which established that both the canvas and the paints are all real: the 17th century. The Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum acquired the find through the mediation of a commission agent, artist Van Meegeren, for 550 thousand guilders (a fortune at that time).
Such a high price was due to the fact that Vermeer worked on his paintings very slowly and carefully, so his legacy was small. In the catalog of the auction, held on May 16, 1696, 21 paintings were listed, and in the 1930s, 16 of them were known and only 4 were in the Netherlands.
Therefore, one can understand the buyer of "Christ at Emmaus", who asked the mediator van Meegeren to "comb" private collections in southern France and northern Italy. To his delight, he found several more paintings by Vermeer.
While testifying in court, van Meegeren argued that these paintings came out from under his brush, and in total he wrote about a dozen canvases in collaboration with the spirit of the Dutch painter. And when one day he asked Vermeer: "Why do you need all this?" - the spirit of the master allegedly answered: "To continue to reveal to people the beauty of the world around them."
By the hand of a master
The confession of the accused was so fantastic that it raised doubts in his sound mind. But van Meegeren insisted that everything he told was true, and undertook to prove it:
“Give me paints and brushes,” he pleaded. - I'll write another Vermeer, and then you will believe me.
After much debate and doubt, the court decided to conduct an investigative experiment. The artist was provided with everything he needed. From August to November 1945, in a well-guarded house, in the presence of experts, he created a new painting by the Delft master.
True, none of the specialists supervising him knew that at the very beginning Vermeer's spirit appeared to Meegeren, which reassured the accused: “You will be acquitted, I will help you,” he promised. "With your hand, I will write" Christ preaching in the temple, "so that no one will have any doubts about our joint work."
When the canvas was finished, the experts faced a difficult choice. To admit that the paintings of van Meegeren, previously attributed to the great Dutchman, are a fake is to sign his own professional inconsistency. But even against the obvious fact that all canvases are made with one hand, you will not go.
Officially, Meegeren is considered an unusually talented forger.
And the fact that we are talking about the life of an innocent person - the artist himself, it seems, did not bother them. In the end, they delivered a cunning verdict, stating that Meegeren, judging by the picture painted with them, could have been (!) The author of the rest of the Vermeers.
The charges of collaboration and embezzlement of national property were dropped from Meegeren. But then another was hanged - fraud on an especially large scale. In total, the sale of the "joint" paintings brought him more than two million pounds. However, the court sentenced him to only one year in prison. The artist was already making plans for a creative life in captivity, but on November 30, 1947, he unexpectedly died of a heart attack.
The phenomenon of psychography
At that time, nothing was known about psychography, or automatic writing, when a person only holds a pencil, pen or brush in his hand, and they themselves move along the paper against his will. Therefore, the van Meegeren case remained a mystery. But in the second half of the 20th century, researchers of the paranormal discovered that the process of obtaining semantic information against the will of a person is not so rare.
Cases of manifestation of this phenomenon can be very diverse both in form and in content. Moreover, departed artists more often than other people of art strive to continue their work in this world. Here are some of the most famous examples.
An amazing incident occurred in April 1973: three months after the death of Pablo Picasso, Englishman Peter Crawford, an engineer by profession, suddenly felt an irresistible desire to paint. I bought brushes, paints, canvas stretched on stretchers, and began to spend all my free time at an easel. Soon he noticed that someone outside was directing his painting studies, forcing him to mechanically paint pictures. Moreover, Peter drew them very quickly, without preparatory sketches and without corrections, and on each he put a distinct signature - Picasso.
Something similar happened to the Dutchman G. Mansfeld, who until the age of 46 never took a brush in his hands and in his normal state cannot draw even the simplest picture. From time to time he falls into a trance, and writes pictures, perfected in technique and complex in composition, in different styles, with his left hand, although not left-handed. According to art critics, they are so heterogeneous in style that they belong to the brushes of different virtual artists.
With two hands
Another example is the phenomenon of the Brazilian psychologist Luis Gasparetto. In a state of trance, he conducted more than one hundred public sessions of "afterlife painting". Once, right in front of the TV camera, he painted 21 pictures. And for each I spent only 5 to 30 minutes. Experts recognized them as the creations of such renowned masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Durer, Renoir, Cezanne and Picasso.
Moreover, the medium drew masterpieces not only very quickly, but also with two hands at once on two different canvases. According to Gasparetto, he does this because one of the great artists in the subtle world is simultaneously writing with each hand. Therefore, he can paint pictures even in complete darkness. Gasparetto himself is convinced that such deceased masters use him as a tool to show that life continues after death.
The same mysterious manifestation of afterlife creativity is observed in the Brazilian Maria Gertrude Coelho. This woman has never learned to draw, and she does not consider herself an artist either. But she only needs to prepare a set of oil paints, a canvas and plunge herself into a deep trance to create a real masterpiece. Such a loud definition in relation to her paintings is not an exaggeration at all, because she copies with amazing accuracy the paintings of such masters as Velazquez, Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse. In addition, each canvas bears the author's autograph.
Maria herself claims that her hands are controlled by the spirits of great artists. First, she has a telepathic invitation from the masters to get to work, after which her hands begin to move by themselves. Moreover, she does not use a brush, and draws all pictures only with her fingers. The speed with which they flash in the air simply mesmerizes the eyewitnesses.
According to Senora Coelho, she does not always manage to establish a connection with the subtle world. Parapsychologists who have studied the phenomenon of an unusual artist believe that the possibility of contact does not depend on her, but on the physical state of the energy communication channel, which, obviously, periodically does not transmit waves from the subtle world. By the way, in our world it sometimes happens with radio waves.
Sergey DEMKIN