Speaking to the Dead on the Wind Phone

A big part of living a “magical” (for lack of a better word) life is following the lead that “spirit” (for lack of a better word) provides.

So when I saw that someone had set up a “wind phone” at the Starwood Festival a few weeks ago, I knew that I would be having a difficult conversation with my dead brother on it.

The original “Telephone of the Wind” (Kaze no Denwa) was built by Itaru Sasaki in Otsuchi, a coastal town about 300 miles north of Tokyo. As a sort of memorial to a cousin who died of cancer, Sasaki set up a disconnected phone booth in a scenic garden.

It happened that he created it just a few months before the March 2011 tsunai devastated the region, and many of those who had lost loved ones in the disaster found talking to the departed on this phone a good way to process their grief.

There’s a wonderful example of what I find attractive about Japanese spirituality here. The mystical experience is considered to be as accessible as a phone booth, and any person can create a shrine (of sorts) if inspired.

If I recall correctly I first saw a wind phone installation at Playa del Fuego a few years ago, and I think this was the first time one has been at Starwood. It’s a very simple thing to create, just some sort of booth (which provided the privacy for the ritual/prayer) and a disconnected, land-line style telephone.

When my brother finished drinking himself to death in February, it fell to me to lead some sort of memorial; and when we went to the county Register of Wills to open the estate and dispose of his worldly possessions (two junk cars and a few hundred dollars in a bank account, less than the cost of his funeral), Mom misplaced her ID and so rather than have to come back another time, it fell to me to be appointed his “personal representative” and go through the legalities.

This despite the fact that we hadn’t spoken since 2020, when he refused to go to rehab, or even significantly reduce his drinking, after ending up in the ICU on a respirator after a heart attack.

I had some choice words with him a few hours after he died, lying on the floor of his basement room in the house we grew up in, plastic tube still down his throat from the efforts of the EMTs.

But I added him to my ancestor altar, keeping in mind advice the I once heard from Byron Ballard to work with ancestors who had been troublesome in life – with their new, broader perspective, they will be ready to make amends. (Of course Jim wasn’t an ancestor, either of blood or of path. But he has gone before into the mystery, so.)

Now with a few months between his death and the moment, there was time for some more reflective words with my brother.

So my deep gratitude to however set up this wind phone installation.

References:

Saito, Mari. “National Tsunami survivors call lost loves on the ‘phone of the wind'”. Japan Times/Reuters, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tohoku-tsunami-phone-booth/.

Teh, Cheryl. “Survivors of Japan’s 2011 tsunami make a pilgrimage to the ‘phone of the wind’ to connect with lost loves”. Insider, 20 Mar 2021. https://www.insider.com/japans-tsunami-survivors-call-lost-loves-phone-of-the-wind-2021-3