Death
may be called the eternal slumber, but is it possible that deceased
20th century entertainers are still creating new product?
That’s what an 83-year-old woman in San Diego claims, though music experts are skeptical.
Jenifer
Whisper insists she’s been telepathically channeling new songs from
dead celebs like George Gershwin and Walt Disney since the 1970s.
For
instance, Whisper claims Disney once appeared to her with a brand new
cartoon character named “Buddah Mouse,” who, he told her, is the great
grand uncle of his other creation, Mickey Mouse, and preaches the truth
of reincarnation.
Whisper started out “ghost writing” songs from the grave in the early 1970s when Gershwin allegedly approached her personally.
“I
heard a knock on the door and no one was there,” she told The
Huffington Post. “Then I heard a voice say, ‘Hello Jenny! It’s me,
George Gershwin.’”
Whisper
was surprised that the composer of “Rhapsody In Blue” chose her over
her sister, Madeleine, who Jenifer says was a better musician.
“Growing up, they wouldn’t let me sing,” she said. “Everyone said I threw them off-key.”
She
said she conveyed this information to Gershwin’s ghost, but he said her
talents for telepathy would make up for her lack of musical knowledge.
The very next day, he sent her a song, “Love Is All There Is.” Further
songs by Gershwin and others soon followed, more than 100 so far.
“I
feel a vibration coming to me and from the vibration, I know who the
individual personality is,” Whisper said. “If it’s Judy Garland, Johnny
Mercer, George Gershwin, I feel that.
“When I’m receiving a song, I’m on cloud 9. Then I finish it and they come back and polish it and it’s even better.”
Whisper
said the celebrities — who she calls “My Stars Above” (also a reference
to an alleged song channeled to her from Gershwin) — tend to be all
business when working and rarely offer any revelations about their
life, other than there is no death.
“Marilyn Monroe did tell me she adopted JonBenet Ramsey after her death,” she volunteered.
Whisper
sings the songs into a cassette recorder and then relies on a piano
player to translate it into sheet music form so she can perform the
numbers with others at various shows in the San Diego area.
Whisper’s
psychic songs may strike a chord with people who want to believe in an
afterlife, but there is plenty of reason to be skeptical, least of all
the fact that — despite ongoing research – the scientific and religious
communities in general still say there is no evidence of life after
death.
Her
story also raises another big question: The songs that Gershwin, Jimi
Hendrix and others composed while living still make money for their
estates, so why haven’t they given her help in getting their alleged
after-death songs out to the masses?
“I
wouldn’t even know about putting the music out there on a world level,”
she said. “I think Disney’s studios may have offered $500 for Buddah
Mouse once.”
Whisper’s
claim that her songs were actually written by famous composers presents
potentially sticky legal issues, according to Joy Butler, an attorney
specializing in copyright law.
“I’ve never run across a case like this,” Butler told HuffPost. “She’d have a hard time convincing a court.”
If
the composers supposedly channeled by her create music that is too
similar to previous works, Whisper could be theoretically held liable
of violating an existing copyright.
Even
if that’s not the case, Butler says using the names of famous people —
and claiming they wrote new songs through Whisper — could potentially
violate the right of publicity held by the estates of those famous
people.
Of
course, those legal snags mean nothing if her songs aren’t really
written by the dead composers — and at least one music expert is
skeptical.
Jim
Briggs, a Los Angeles-based studio musician, well-acquainted with
Gershwin’s music, analyzed the reportedly new sheet music of “My Stars
Above” and says it does not display the same mastery that one would
expect from the composer, especially 78 years after “Porgy And Bess.”
“If
[Gershwin's] communicating musically from beyond the grave, I can’t
believe that at no point did he suggest ‘My Stars Above’ be an
instrumental,” Briggs told HuffPost by email.
Whether
Whisper’s songs are actual compositions from deceased celebrities or
not, she still believes they convey a message that people live on after
their death, something she admits she’s thought about.
“I’m 83 so it isn’t so farfetched that it will be my turn,” she said.
When that happens, she hopes to finally meet her alleged afterlife collaborators once and for all.
“I’m hoping they’ll have a big reunion party with me,” she said.
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