Learned men are still intrigued by the thought of life after death. Thus the late ex-bishop James Pike, a lawyer before he became an Episcopal clergyman, claimed to have gotten in touch with his son who committed suicide. Similarly, Anglican Bishop Stockwood insists that on five occasions he has communicated with the dead.

Gaining somewhat of an international notoriety in this matter is Rosemary Brown, who claims that ever so many great composers of the past appear to her and help her to compose music. While, by and large, persons who hear of it are skeptical, there are some who are impressed. Among these is British composer Richard R. Bennett, who stated: “If she is a fake, she is a brilliant one and must have had years of training. Some of the music is awful, but some is marvelous. I couldn’t have faked the Beethoven.”​—Time, July 6, 1970.

This indeed poses a question. Rosemary Brown has had very little musical training and appears to have very limited musical ability. Repeated tests indicate that she cannot even take down the simplest tunes dictated to her, and yet she has written some “marvelous” music as a result of her being “visited,” as she claims, by musical geniuses of the past. Then, too, at all her interviews she disarms reporters by her modesty and apparent sincerity. She claims that for upward of five years she has been in touch with such musical geniuses as Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Schubert.

The other angels that work with Satan the Devil first made themselves manifest in the days of Noah. The Bible tells that they had been righteous angels who left their heavenly spirit estate and took on human form so as to be able to cohabit with the daughters of men. The Deluge put an end to their enjoyment of this form of life, but not an end to their existence.​—Gen. 6:1-7; 7:21.

What is their present lot or state? The apostle Peter tells us; for in discussing the conditions of Noah’s day he says: “God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.”​—2 Pet. 2:4.

Thus we have an explanation of Jesus’ encounters with spirit-obsessed persons when he was upon the earth, and in particular why they recognized him and on one occasion said to him: “What have we to do with you, Jesus you Nazarene? Did you come to destroy us? I know exactly who you are, the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24) Being intelligent persons with spirit bodies, they could very well impersonate the dead and thus deceive humankind. A Scriptural example of this is the case of the witch of En-dor who professed to call up the dead prophet Samuel.​—1 Sam. 28:7-25.

All this explains why, as noted in Time magazine, “the spirits that mediums raise always inconveniently refuse to answer the very questions that would prove their existence.” It also accounts for the fact that Rosemary Brown, practically devoid of all musical talent, can compose music some of which might be called “marvelous,” and yet why these pieces of music are not of the great masters’ quality and why she is unable to solve riddles that their lives have left behind them.