Surviving Death (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[woman] At the moment of death
are we actually just dead,
or is something else going on?
[man 1] Whatever this consciousness is
that we have in this life,
it was also there in another life before.
[woman 2] It's not,
"Do we believe in ghosts?"
but the fact that we continue
to report them and see them.
[man 2] There are things
that science can't test,
but it doesn't mean they don't happen.
[woman 3] How good would it be to know
there is life after death?
-[woman] Well, hello.
-[man] Hi, there. How are you?
-You don't have to worry about your shoes.
-Are you sure?
-Sure?
-Just come in.
-I'll show you where to go.
-Nice to see you again.
-Hello. How are you?
-Yeah, good to see you. Hi, Sue.
[woman]
The question of survival after death
has been an interest
I've had for a long time.
[woman 2] Hi!
What is the nature of human consciousness?
Does it exist outside of the body?
And if there's some kind of way
that consciousness is, like, there
the question then becomes, can we
communicate with this consciousness?
[whispering]
So
okay.
-Hi, everyone.
-[all] Hi.
I'm Sandra.
I tend to speak very fast.
You can ask me to slow down.
Um, I also have no filter.
So, when I was four, I used to see spirits
and I'd get messages from them.
So, as a child, I had no filter.
I have no filter now.
So don't take offense
at anything I might say,
'cause they're telling me what to say,
and don't shoot the messenger, okay?
[Leslie] As part of my interest
in the question of survival past death,
I invited medium Sandra O'Hara
from Ireland
to come and sit with a group of people
who she'd never met.
[Leslie] A medium serves
as sort of a telephone wire
to contact a deceased person
for someone called a sitter,
who goes to that medium
with the hope of communicating
with this deceased loved one.
Okay.
Where do I start?
Gonna try and get a name.
Okay.
Has somebody got, like, a David?
-David?
-[woman] Me.
-Yeah, that's my dad.
-[Sandra] Um, okay.
Um, do you dream about Dad quite a lot?
-All the time.
-Yeah.
He's giving me a feeling of visiting you
in your dreams on a regular basis,
wanting to assure you that he is okay.
Um
Also wanting
Okay.
So if I handed you an orange,
would that mean anything to you?
He was a commodity trader.
He traded cotton and orange juice.
Okay.
Okay. It's sometimes like charades for me.
I don't know why they show me things.
You know, and, uh
Are you the lover of books?
Yes. And so was he.
Yeah. Did you make,
like, a piece of furniture out of books?
Like a little side table or somethin'
that you stacked up books or
Yeah. It's a table I saw in London
of books stacked up.
I took a picture
and wanted to have it made.
He's also showing me--
[Leslie] Communication with consciousness
is really compelling,
but there was a personal reason
that I was curious about this.
I lost my friend Bud Hopkins in 2011.
I was actually with him
at the moment he died.
It was just the most surreal, unimaginable
kind of experience.
Just a breathing, living person one moment
and then, a minute later,
they're just this nothing.
Just shocking
on a kind of a spiritual level.
Um, and it made me even more curious
about what is that process all about?
Are they leaving their bodies?
Are they actually just dead,
or is something else going on?
Who's goin' on a cruise?
Talking about planning one.
-[woman] I am.
-[Sandra] You are? Okay.
-Has your dad passed?
-Yeah.
Yeah, okay. 'Cause Dad said,
"I'm Dad and I'm goin' on that cruise."
-Oh, my God.
-[laughter]
About age four, I would see people there
that other people couldn't see,
but I didn't realize that they were
not living people.
[whispering voices]
Then I realized that, when they spoke
to me, their mouths didn't move.
And that's how I kind of knew who was
a spirit and who was a living person.
My mum, bless her,
was freaked out by it. [chuckles]
A feelin' around the head with your mum,
so what was the ailment
around the head area?
-She had brain tumors.
-[Sandra] Right, okay.
So when a spirit message comes in,
I can feel the energy shift in the room.
You know if you're driving along
on a hot day
and you see that shimmer on the road?
I see that in the room.
Sometimes it's like
playing a game of charades,
so I might see a word or an object or
something they show me,
and I have to very kind of quickly
sort of piece it together.
Does the name Robert
mean anything to any of you ladies?
I feel a grandfather energy.
Like a Robert.
-I have a Robert.
-[Sandra] You have a Robert?
-Yes.
-In spirit?
-Yes.
-Okay.
Um Was he, like, outspoken
or, like, opinionated?
-Uh Yes.
-Yeah, okay.
-'Cause he's comin' through that way.
-Okay.
Um, who has the connection to politics
in the room?
Well, that was something that this person
and I often chatted about.
-Okay, then that could be it.
-Okay.
I won't say if he's enamored
with today's politics.
-I won't get into that subject!
-[laughter]
Um, but maybe not. Okay. Um
[man] I'd been aware of mediumship,
but I assumed most of that was fake.
I mean, for someone to fake this
would not be difficult,
because when you're grieving,
you're so desperate for this to be real
that it would be simple
to just throw out--
throw out a whole bunch of information,
and of course, the human brain is gonna
pick out the ones that do make sense.
You know, it's gonna pick that stuff out
and ignore the rest of the stuff.
So I didn't put
a whole lot of stock into it.
[Mike] Dad, what have you learned in life?
Anything you wanna
Have patience.
[Mike] Have patience?
And good things will happen.
[woman 2] That's true.
Dad has boatloads of patience.
And then my dad passed suddenly
about eight years ago.
I went into a full-blown
existential crisis
that if someone as good and wonderful
and amazing and full of love as my dad,
if that could just be gone
as if it never existed,
then what was the point
of anything at all?
Like, I really couldn't
I was like, "There's no point to anything
if someone like that could disappear."
But then my sister went to this medium.
She had this remarkable,
unbelievable experience
and she was convinced that my dad
really was there and talking to her.
And I was like, "Well, that's awesome!
But I need proof, personally."
So she hired this medium
to come to our house to do a reading.
And I was gonna test her.
I said, "Dad
this woman is coming to this house
tonight.
If you are really there,
I want you to have her mention my hair.
I need a specific thing like this
to know that this is real."
My sister and I were both keeping notes,
and the whole thing is extraordinary.
She's coming up with details,
some of which are-- are specific things
that happened, like, yesterday.
We're wrapping up to leave,
but instead of walking out the door
she takes another
I mean, if you're a skeptic,
you think she takes another
stab in the dark for some reason
and says
"He wants to talk about your hair."
I To this moment,
this is the most, um
flooring moment of my life.
I mean, still to this day.
I-- I-- I gasped. I-- Like, I couldn't
breathe for a second, 'cause
'Cause I-- I hadn't told
anyone on the planet.
This was totally personal
between me and my dad.
That is what sent me
to see what evidence was out there
that life continues after death.
And I started to meet with mediums.
[birdsong]
To get a reading today
with someone I know
knows nothing about me,
is really exciting.
I-- I've gone as far as, like, creating
fake email addresses with a fake name
when I've tried to contact a medium,
'cause, you know, I don't know
the lengths someone will go to
uh, to perpetrate a fraud.
I mean, people make
a lot of money doing this.
So, you know, I need--
I need real evidence.
It can't be general stuff for me.
It can't just be,
"Do you have a father figure who's passed?
Or maybe a grandfather?"
'Cause of course I do.
My parents got divorced when I was a kid,
but they were soulmates and stayed friends
for the rest of their lives.
If she mentions that,
it would be unbelievable.
If she gets a sense of how he passed
We don't know exactly how he passed,
we just know that it was very fast.
He still had his keys in his hands
when we found him in the house.
And if she comes up
with super specific stuff about that,
that will be really extraordinary.
-It's so nice to, uh, have you here.
-Thanks. So great to be here.
-I'm Laura Lynne Jackson.
-Hi.
-Um, what is your first name?
-Mike.
Mike. It's so lovely to meet you. And
[Mike] Laura Lynne Jackson is a medium
with a fantastic reputation
for being remarkably accurate.
All right, so I'm a medium
and so what that means is I can perceive,
um, consciousness from people
-who have left their physical bodies.
-Okay.
I will see a point of light
push into my screen
-on the right-hand side.
-Mm-hm.
That is, um, a spirit on the other side
who is no longer
in his or her physical body.
[Laura] When I was 11 years old,
my grandfather, who I was so close with
and loved so very much,
I had this moment
of just knowing that I needed to see him.
That sense of panic didn't go away
until I got to his house
and spent the day with him.
And that was the last time
I ever saw him alive.
He ended up going to the hospital
two days later,
where he was diagnosed
with advanced leukemia,
and he died within two weeks.
Shortly after that,
I confessed to my mother.
I said, "I knew Pop-Pop was gonna die."
She said, "You just have an extra ability.
It's an extra way
to perceive the energy around you.
It's a beautiful gift.
Don't be afraid of it."
For me, the whole experience is a game of,
like, almost, psychic charades.
Sometimes, I hear a name. Sometimes,
I-- I will hear a phrase or a word
or I will hear, sometimes, music.
So it's my job
to always be interpreting what it means
-so that you get the message properly.
-Okay.
I will tell you, about 85% of the time,
I have no idea what it is
I'm sharing with you.
-But as long as you know, we're good. So--
-Right. Okay.
[Laura]
What should come through in a reading
are things that are
what I call un-Google-able.
Something you thought.
A conversation you had with your loved one
maybe the day before.
A conversation you had in private.
Information that is so specific
that there was no way to Google it.
So I'm just gonna be quiet for one minute.
-Okay.
-I'll focus on your energy
-and take it from there, okay?
-Okay.
I have two people stepping in.
I have, um, on my lower right,
a father figure, for me, for you.
-Mm-hm.
-That is-- It's either dad or grandfather,
but very fatherly.
-Has Dad crossed?
-Yes.
-Yeah. And Grandpa too, right?
-Yes.
Is there a name
that repeats in the family there, too?
And is there a John? With a J name?
There's, like, three people
walking in at once, so--
-There-- there is a name that repeats.
-Okay.
-And there is a J name.
-That's to, like, your
-So let me go to Dad and your grandfather.
-Okay.
That's where they're telling me
the name repeats in the family.
-I have the middle name of
-Okay.
-Yes.
-I feel that's what I need to acknowledge.
They're very happy, very proud of this.
He wants to talk about, um, not having
a proper goodbye before he crossed.
-Do you understand this?
-Yes.
And that the family
needs to let go of that.
He's very matter-of-fact with this.
He's very funny.
He's like, "It's a waste of time
to be upset about that here."
He's got this, like,
great sense of humor under there.
-Mm-hm.
-Like a dry
-Like dry, funny wit, sense of humor.
-Yes.
-Like, I love his energy.
-Yes. Yeah.
I'm ta-- I'm just listening to Dad
about how he crossed.
He gives it to me as, like, sudden.
Does that make sense to you?
-Yes.
-And I feel, like, a sense of impact.
Does that make sense to you?
That impact sense?
Could be, yeah. Not--
We're not exactly sure.
He's going back
to his relationship with your mom.
-Were they divorced?
-Yes.
Were they divorced for, like, 12 years
before Dad crossed?
-Longer.
-Okay.
But they were still, like, connected.
-They were friends. Do you understand?
-Yes.
-Mm-hm.
-Friendly in each other's lives.
That's how he gives it to me
and he's happy about that.
Another important
message, yes.
And then he kind of just, like,
pulls back.
-Okay.
-There were
You know what? You never need me.
Here's the thing.
-They're always with you. Always.
-Mm.
Um
[Mike] That was, for me,
on the extraordinary side.
A lot of it, like I was talking about
before, is general stuff.
Like, "Is there"
And a lot of the names were not right
or didn't make sense to me.
And, again, if someone says,
"Is there a John?"
I'm sure there's a John
somewhere in my fam-- I'm sure there is.
But it's that combined with
some of the other stuff.
The way she hit on the relationship
between my mom and my dad was big.
And then there's also the stuff
that's more of a quality in a reading.
She felt like my dad.
The way she was describing him
and how he was saying
the things he was saying.
You know, stuff like that,
you can't quantify.
These things are always the same for me.
I'll-- I'll have these experiences,
and, in the moment
I think, "I don't have to
study another thing again.
I don't have to do any further research.
I now know for sure my dad is still here,
everything's gonna be okay."
Inevitably, the critical mind,
always, the hyper-skeptical mind,
always eventually comes in,
so that keeps me on this path.
You know, you've heard extraordinary
claims require extraordinary evidence.
This is the biggest claim ever.
There's no one on the planet
who doesn't have a vested interest
in the question,
does life go on after death?
[man] Parapsychology would be defined
as the study of anomalous experiences.
Experiences that people label
as paranormal, spiritual, psychic.
And our task
is to understand them scientifically.
So, to try and make sense
of people's experience for them.
Sometimes, it might open up,
uh, new avenues,
new ways of understanding
the nature of reality.
The University of Cambridge Library
holds the special collection
that belongs
to the Society for Psychical Research.
The Society for Psychical Research
is the oldest scientific body
devoted to the study
of paranormal phenomena.
It was established in 1882
by a group of Cambridge academics
along with practicing mediums
who wanted to understand
if there was a scientific foundation
to the experiences that they were having.
The list of members of the early SPR
is quite illustrious.
A range of, um, Nobel Prize winners,
including Marie Curie and Pierre Curie,
uh, Charles Richet.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sat with mediums
thousands of times.
Mark Twain was a member of the SPR.
He was avidly interested
in psychical research.
William James, probably the preeminent
psychologist of his day,
co-founded the American SPR.
They were particularly interested
in psychic phenomena,
telepathy and precognition,
but also apparitions,
sitting with mediums
It was a way to marry together
religious belief and the scientific method
to see if it really was possible
that some aspects of consciousness
survived bodily death.
Psychical researchers
very quickly differentiated
between two kinds of mediumship.
So-called physical mediumship
and mental mediumship.
Mental mediumship demonstrates survival
through communications
from the medium herself.
However, physical mediumship
provides evidence of survival
through physical phenomena.
Typically, in a séance where people
would sit around a table together,
the table itself would vibrate
or even levitate.
Things like musical instruments
would be included in the séance room,
and these would spontaneously
start to play.
Objects suddenly appearing or disappearing
in front of everybody.
[bell ringing]
Physical mediumship is tantalizing,
because although on some occasions
researchers were deeply disappointed
to discover fraud,
there were other sittings
when a wide range of phenomena occurred
that was impossible to explain away,
and provided a solid case
for the occurrence of survival.
[woman] I do know
that consciousness survives death.
As mediums, we open ourselves up
to the spirit world.
We move our awareness to their world
and they draw closer to us in our energy.
We create a meeting space
for both worlds to be united.
[whispering voices]
[Leslie] I'm at a center that teaches
workshops and trainings on mediumship.
It's really interesting for me,
because I-- I sort of wear two hats.
I'm always collecting information
and trying to document things.
I'm also here
as somebody who has a personal interest
in what the experience
of physical mediumship is,
and, you know, what it's like
to sit with a physical medium.
In the world that we live in now,
physical mediumship is very, very rare.
This is one of the few opportunities
outsiders have
to see physical medium Nicole de Haas work
and to sit with her in her séances.
[Nicole] This is like my second home.
It's a spiritual home for development,
where the quality of teaching
that you can get in mediumship
is of the highest standard in the world.
[Leslie] Many mental mediums have told me
that you don't have to be born
with this innate ability,
that you can actually train
and develop it as an adult.
People are coming to this retreat
who have already had some experience
with their own natural abilities,
and so they want to develop that further
to be better mediums.
[Nicole] Welcome to this beautiful place.
This week is called
"Explorations of the Soul."
It's a week where we focus
on different forms of mediumship.
People from all over the world come
to study every aspect of mediumship.
Trance, healing, spiritualism.
We have lectures, tutorials,
meditations in the morning.
Really be aware of the words
and how the words relate to your life.
[man] People who come to this week,
they're seeking the natural ability
that is within them,
and to understand it,
and to work with it.
It's just the energies and the way
that they work in us sometimes.
They they leave us feeling
that bit dizzy.
[woman] We teach people
about spirituality.
We teach mediumship, communication
between the two worlds, healing.
It's about that truth of eternal life,
and it's about that truth
that we live on past that physical death.
[man] We teach
the mechanics of mediumship.
We explain how the soul works
on a psychic level.
[woman] Have you ever
-I've been
-been in a séance with Nicole before?
-Just once.
-Just once.
-Yeah.
-Okay.
[Nicole] I think the most special part
where people also come for
is, of course, the séance.
Uh Did you receive a séance form?
-Did you--
-[man] Yeah, I've already sent it,
-uh, by mail, and, um
-Oh, okay.
[Nicole] Mediumship is a healing journey.
And I will tell the students
that one of the reasons
why they chose to do mediumship
is to heal themselves.
A love of the spirit world--
[Leslie] There's a process of grief
that's going on.
Being here can help them deal with that,
and possibly help them connect
to their loved one while they're here.
-Nice to meet you.
-Same.
-Nice to have you.
-Thank you.
[woman] In 2014, my father passed.
I had the feeling
that he wanted to talk,
he wanted to make contact.
The reason that I'm here is I wanna
develop and study some form of mediumship
to figure out [laughs]
what else is he trying to say?
[speaking Dutch]
[woman, in English] I have come here
to learn, to get the tools
to work with the spirits myself at home.
I'm constantly
in emotional situations,
because of my work as a funeral director.
When I come here, I remind myself
that it's not my hurt. It's not my pain.
And that there is a life after this.
-Okay, good.
-What we need
Because we have rooms close together.
[woman] My father died,
uh, three months ago.
He believed in life after death.
As a scientist,
your scientific mindand your
I don't know, curious, childish,
exploring mind,
they're talking to each other.
And one is saying this,
and one is saying this,
and they're, "No, that can't be real."
"Yeah, but it is." "But it can't be."
"But it is."
You know, they are having
this kind of conversation.
How does Buddhism combine
with western spiritualism
and how does that combine
with the Mexican tradition, for example?
[man] I feel alone in this world.
There has to be a way
for me to make this communication.
To bridge To make a bridge between
this invisible world that is out there.
When my dad passed away,
I was a 14-year-old.
So I didn't really get to say bye to him.
We were, like, Hindus, right?
In our culture, the way it works
is that the eldest son has to put
the father's body on a piece of wood
then set him on fire.
That moment, when I-- when I just saw him,
the fire was coming up.
I was like,
"Hey, maybe he's just gone somewhere.
Maybe it's an invisible world.
I can't see him but I can feel him."
And when I'm saying this to you,
I still feel him now.
I can feel-- I can feel him.
Literally, I can feel him. And I know
that he is there with me right now.
I've gotta figure out
how can I communicate with him.
[birdsong]
I'm going to take you through a journey
into physical mediumship,
into the wonders of the séance room.
So can I ask
Can I see hands if you have never sat
in a physical séance?
Okay, so quite a few.
So let's have a look with you all
[Leslie] With physical mediumship,
there are actual manifestations
that take place during the séance,
which everyone in the group can witness.
People can experience voices
that speak in different parts of the room.
There are materializations.
It could be a materialization of a hand
that people can see or touch.
And sometimes there are materializations
of full-form beings
that walk around the room.
[Nicole] Here we are in the séance room.
Normally, a camera is not allowed
to come in here.
The séance room
is quite a rare opportunity
for people to experience the spirit world
as close as possible.
Because, where mental mediumship
can turn you into believing,
physical mediumship
can turn you into knowing.
As you can see, there is a cabinet.
This is used in physical mediumship
to contain and to build the energy.
It's my working space, basically,
as a physical medium.
When I sit in that cabinet,
normally, we sit in full dark conditions.
We sit in full dark conditions,
there is no light.
We play music and people sing along.
This creates that energy,
that-- that power that we need.
It's like we raise the vibration
and they
come close to us.
And somewhere in the middle,
we have to find that meeting space
and to get that vibration right.
You can see the cable ties.
And the reason is that I'm being
strapped to the chair with Velcro straps.
So if I would unstrap it,
you're-- you hear. "Crrrck!"
You know? The same around the ankles.
They strap me as well there,
so I can't get out.
We have people in the séance room
who might claim
that it was me walking around.
They might say, "Oh, she escaped
from her chair and did something."
And unfortunately,
we had situations where
there was not genuine physical mediumship.
And those people made it very difficult
for the genuine ones to work.
[woman] For a lot of time,
there was this real emphasis on these
mediums who could manifest things.
And there was a whole cottage industry
in fake manifestations at the same time.
The Society for Psychical Research
really weeded through
a lot of this physical fraud.
They would tie the mediums down.
They would chain them down.
They would put them in boxes
where nothing could move.
If you did a séance in the dark,
they would catch them
moving things with their feet.
They would catch them
wriggling their hands out of the knots.
I myself am very skeptical
of physical mediums,
because, um, what's the physics
of floating off the ground, right?
What's the actual law of physics
that says I can levitate?
[Nicole] Physical mediumship is rare,
because a true physical medium is born.
The spirit world once explained that we
have a stronger vibration of the spirit.
But not everyone
who has that stronger vibration
will recognize it
as being a physical medium.
So I only have been lucky
to be able to find it.
As a child, we moved to an old farmhouse
in a small village.
I had a visitation in my bedroom.
There was a young girl
standing in my bedroom.
She told me her name and she said
that she was buried in the garden.
I told my parents.
They were not too open to all of this.
Months later, my parents
were planning to redo the garden.
When they took away all the bushes,
there was a grave
that belonged to this girl.
Then the spirit world said, "You know
you have it,
and you must sit for physical mediumship."
[birdsong]
[Colin] Physical mediumship
is a great rarity.
But everybody, to some degree,
has an ability within them
to connect to the spirit world.
So this afternoon,
we're gonna look at how we move
into an altered state of consciousness
in order to, uh, perceive the spirit.
What we need to do is to move into
these different levels of consciousness
where we can then begin
to experience in another way.
Your partner is going to give you the word
that we want you to focus upon
to create the exercise.
[all muttering]
[in Dutch] Friendship.
Friendship.
[in English] I feel the quality
of trust is a kind of
um
deep communion with life.
[Colin] When I was 16, my mother had a lot
of unfinished business with her father.
She never got to say goodbye
to my granddad.
And so she wanted to go
to a spiritualist church.
So we went together.
She got the first message
and they gave all the information
about her father
and not being able to say goodbye.
And that really
was transformational for her,
because she was able
to let go of the memories and to heal
through this this being able
to bring the two worlds together.
[organ music playing]
I was so impressed
I then made the spiritual ministry
my life's work.
[cheering and applause]
Good evening, everyone.
How are we doing? Are we all okay?
[all] Yes.
Love, like life, is indeed eternal.
And each one of us
is the living message of the spirit.
I'm very conscious of
It's like I'm pulled
in two directions at once here.
Because the gentleman there
with your legs crossed,
-is your father in the spirit world?
-That's right.
Your father must have liked tobacco
at one time.
Tobacco at one time.
But it's in a tin, you see.
And I seem to pack--
pack the tobacco in here.
-So it's gotta be a pipe at one time.
-That's right.
-That's right.
-Because
When I work publicly,
there are many people there.
I will ask the spirit to be with me.
I may see the spirit, feel the spirit,
hear the spirit or just know the spirit,
but then I'm conveying a message
to whoever understands the information.
It's not possible
to speak to every single person.
But what is possible
is to bring the presence of the spirit
to everyone.
Do you know what I've just seen?
Do you understand
about photographs taken at a zoo?
I have those.
-You have those?
-My family.
Because I just saw
photographs to do with a zoo
and somebody who's had
a photograph taken with monkeys.
-I did.
-You did?
Isn't that wonderful?
Because, all of a sudden, I wanted
to hold the monkey or the monkeys.
And you're looking horrified,
-God love ya.
-Yeah! 'Cause--
-And so-- I know! Well
-[laughter]
And then, all of a sudden,
I wanna laugh a little bit here,
and and it's as if it's of the family
and it's of life.
All of their love is with you,
-now and forever more.
-Thank you.
Love and love and love to everyone else.
-[man] Thank you.
-Thank you all very much.
[cheering and whistling]
[Deborah] You really see the rise
of spiritualism and the rise of mediums
in times of stress or trauma
or doubt about the world around us.
Starting in the mid 19th century,
you have the rise of science
as a really powerful force
in starting to define
the world we live in.
You have naturalists like Charles Darwin,
who basically dissects us
into essentially
creatures of biology and mechanics.
This puts science directly in conflict,
not only with religion,
which is still powerful,
but with people's ideas
of who they are in the world.
So then you see scientists
starting to say,
"Well, could we bridge this gap
between the mechanical, physical world
and the more spiritual world?"
This puts a kind of impetus to the rise
of organized spiritualism itself.
Eventually it became
the Church of Spiritualism,
as an alternative
to the traditional religions.
Religion was entirely based on faith.
But over here, we can connect you,
really directly,
even physically, with the other world.
-[woman speaking Dutch]
-[woman 2 clears throat]
-[Nicole speaks Dutch]
-[woman] Ja.
-[switch clicks]
-[organ music plays]
[Nicole] Physical mediumship,
in a traditional way,
takes easily ten to 20 years
to fully develop.
Because you can't develop
physical mediumship on your own.
You need a circle,
a dedicated group of like-minded people
that sit every week
at the same time, at the same place,
with the love for the spirit world.
[Carin] When you come into the circle,
that's a commitment you have to make.
You can't do anything else
on a Tuesday evening.
I don't go to birthdays.
I don't go to parties for my work.
I always go to the circle.
Our roles, basically,
is to make sure that the medium is safe,
but also stabilizing the energy.
When the spirit world
wants to produce phenomena,
they take a little bit of energy off us,
because they need that
for the manifestation
or creation of-- of sounds or anything,
uh, they want to create, or healing.
So they take a little bit
of that life force from us.
The circle actually is even more important
than the physical medium.
So we work together as a team,
with a team in the spirit world.
[Leslie] Physical mediums
tend to work with a group
of communicators from the other side
that they call their spirit team.
Some people call them their controls.
The spirit communicators are people
who have lived on Earth and have died.
The medium goes into a trance state.
The spirit communicator
comes into that body
and uses the vocal cords of the medium
to communicate.
So they're speaking
through the medium's body.
With Nicole, there's Silver Cloud.
[distorted female voice] As always, it is
a delight to join two worlds together.
There's a little boy named Tommy,
who's nine years old,
who is lively and energetic.
If you look back in history,
all physical mediums had
at least one child in their spirit team,
and there is a reason for it.
Because Tommy's job in the séance room
is to make people feel comfortable.
[high-pitched voice]
I'm Tommy and I'm very important.
About a year ago, uh,
Freda started to introduce herself,
and she is mainly the one in the séances
and trance demonstrations
bringing the loved ones to communication.
[distorted female voice]
It's always a pleasure
to share the love
and the healing together, dears.
[Aman] My dad used to work at the airport.
He used to kind of hold me in his arms
and he used to show me the planes
and he used to make me guess,
you know, which plane that is.
You know?
And I used to be like,
"Yeah, one day I'm gonna
travel the world with my dad."
That was my vision when I was growing up.
He is my best friend.
I could feel that he is trying
to get in touch with me.
-Pleased to meet you, Aman.
-Nice to meet you.
Okay.
Every reading starts differently,
so I just want you to sit back and relax
and see how we go.
I know there's been some people
that you've lost
very suddenly, very unexpectedly,
I want to say.
Um, would you know, um, somebody
that had their life taken as well?
Not just passing,
but I know that somebody's life was taken.
-Would that make sense to ya?
-Hmm Um
Yes? No? Just say no if it's not right.
-No.
-Okay, that's fine.
I also feel it's not just a friend.
It feels closer than that. It feels like
a brother if that makes sense as well?
-In that area. Okay, mmm, not happy
-You're right somewhere.
-But you're going Go on with this.
-Okay, because I know it's Hmm.
Would I be right in saying he has
a condition that goes through him as well?
But there's not much we can do about it.
Understand?
-Not really.
-All right, okay.
Okay, because it's just, mmm--
not happening.
[sighs heavily]
He doesn't like people
prying into his private life.
-Yes, that's right.
-Because each time I try and push in,
he pushes me back out.
This is why I'm struggling with him
a little bit.
It's almost like he only lets you know
what he wants you to know and everything.
But I know, um but I know
were very much like brothers,
very much thick as thieves,
if you understand and, and
Hmm. Not happy.
Not happy with it.
What I'm
gonna do is stop,
-as I know I'm not gonna get there, okay?
-Yeah.
-I have to be open and honest about that.
-Yeah, yeah.
Um because the more I'm going on,
the more uncomfortable I am. Um
[Philip] As lovely as the gentlemen was,
and he is really lovely,
it's a case of we can want it too much.
We can close the doors.
So what we try and say to people
is just be open.
We'll see who comes,
and hopefully we get there.
[birdsong]
[Aman] I can't be selfish and say that,
"Hey, you know, you have to come forward."
Everyone is experiencing these energies
differently.
I trust in the spirit world enough
to help me reconnect with him someday.
At the same time, I want to develop myself
into trance, uh, mediumship.
That's something I'm exploring
at the moment.
[Nicole] A trance healing medium
is a mental medium.
The spirit has control of the medium.
Then the medium is used
as an instrument for the spirit world
to give healing to the recipient.
-Hello.
-[both] Hello.
-You must be Hans.
-Yes.
Hello. Nice to meet you, sweetheart.
I'm ready if you want to come through.
-Okay.
-Can I come, too?
-Yes, absolutely.
-Thank you.
[woman] He has got muscle cramps,
muscle spasms.
He doesn't have the strength
in his hands anymore.
He's tired.
All of the time, he's tired.
[Hans] We've seen every hospital,
doctors,
but can't find exactly what it is.
Have a seat over there.
Yeah, I hope, today, maybe
I get some answers.
Yeah.
I've now been a working medium
over 40 years.
Makes me feel very old.
But, um, I now have reached the point
where I have developed
my healing abilities along with spirit
and an inspirer called Dr. James
who works through me
in an altered state of consciousness,
also known as trance.
Okay.
The way that Dr. James
came into my mediumship
My husband
had had major surgery on his leg.
If you snore
So Bob's on the sofa with his leg
and I'm sat in the armchair.
We both witnessed a light in the room.
And out of the light
stepped an elderly man
with a big old Gladstone bag,
like a doctor's bag.
And he went to the bag
and he took out a ball of light
held it against Bob's leg
and it dissolved in.
And he did that probably a dozen times.
And Bob said, "The pain's going."
And he just looked at Bob,
nodded and smiled,
and looked at me
and just walked back into the light.
And then Dr. James
started coming through me.
And he just got stronger and stronger
over time.
All right, Hans.
I'll see you in a little while.
I have no medical training.
I just hand over to him
and I just step out of the way.
[Hans snoring]
[Libby clearing throat]
[Hans snoring]
[deep voice] Aah.
Good day to you, dear boy.
Hm, hm.
I trust that you are comfortable, hmm?
Yes.
Excellent, excellent. Hm, hm.
I know that you spoke to my medium
um, of your health concerns.
-Hm?
-Mm-hm.
Let's just see what we can do here.
Straight away, the feedback I have
tells me that your, uh adrenal glands
are working double time, mm?
Right. When this started hm
you had just gone through
a very stressful time, yes?
-[Hans] Yes.
-[Libby] Mm.
If you were a caveman, dear boy,
I would tell you
that your flight and fight response
uh, kicked in.
I think that's the modern phrase, hm?
-[Hans grunts]
-And you've never released that energy.
[gasps]
[grunts]
Now then
-Uh, do you have any tissues, my dear?
-No, I don't.
-There are some in my medium's handbag.
-[gasps]
If you could just
-[splutters]
-Just help yourself, dear boy.
-Hm?
-[sniffs]
There we go.
So all of that emotional issue
has been tied up inside you, hmm?
-So what I want to do here is just
-[Hans sighs]
place a little energy
Now, this is quite fine energy,
so that you're not getting this panic
coming back again, hmm?
So
-into there we go.
-[sighs]
Did you notice you're not shaking?
-[Hans] Yeah.
-[Libby] Mm. Now, how do you feel?
[Hans sighs softly]
I feel, uh, nice.
Good. So there we go.
All right, dear boy.
I think we've done all that we can
for today
and I will continue to send the energies.
-Mmm?
-Okay.
So take care, dear boy.
-Thank you.
-And enjoy. Enjoy.
Hmm.
Thank you, my dear. Mmm.
And God bless you.
[Hans sighs]
[Hans] Now, in this moment,
I feel really great.
The pressure I had
it's gone.
My pressure in my body
in my arms, in my legs,
it's gone now.
I've got my husband back.
He Uh, look at his face.
He's totally changed.
Yes.
[Libby] I'm not here to convince you
or to prove anything to you.
If you want healing, you can have healing.
If you've come for a message,
I'll see what I can get for you.
But I don't try to convert people.
Because I know that people need
to find this in their own time and space.
There'll be a point in their lives
when they need something.
And that's often
when the spirit world will step in
and help them to understand
what's going on around them.
-[crickets chirping]
-[owl hoots]
[murmur of voices]
So, ectoplasm.
A term with a lot of misconception.
Ectoplasm is a substance
being exuded from the physical medium.
It comes from all orifices.
It can come from the nose, the mouth,
the ears, the belly button.
Um, sometimes, other places
that I'm not going to mention.
Um
But this is Uh, this is
how ectoplasm comes into the room.
And as soon as it leaves
the body of the medium,
then, with the power of the spirit world,
they are able to
create the right substance
to use it for a manifestation.
Any questions about this?
Yes, Patricia?
[Patricia] Are you conscious
about the ectoplasm leaving your body?
Sometimes.
[Patricia] How does it feel?
Painful.
[Nicole] During séances,
when I sit in the cabinet,
as soon as the music starts to play
and the vibration is right,
ectoplasm flows from me
and then the spirit world
brings in their power
and they are able to manipulate it.
The spirit world will slowly develop you
towards working with ectoplasm.
And there are different stages.
It might start as gas.
Eventually, it becomes more fluid.
But the spirit world can manipulate it
into a very solid substance.
Ectoplasm is very sensitive to light.
And especially in the early stage--
early years of development
with a physical medium, if
light comes in,
and even the tiniest light comes in,
the ectoplasm shoots back in the body
uh, and it causes, uh
internal bleedings, bruises, burns,
whatever.
I'm developing now for almost seven years.
And we tried sitting in red light,
having someone taking pictures.
I started producing ectoplasm.
I was in a trance state,
but far away in my consciousness,
I could feel the pain becoming stronger
and stronger, but I couldn't move.
The spirit world stopped the experiment
because I was burned.
[Chris] Charles Richet
was a Nobel prize-winning physiologist.
He sat with a number
of eminent physical mediums.
He was quite impressed
by the phenomena that he witnessed.
He coined the word "ectoplasm"
to capture some of the phenomena
and was positively disposed to the idea
that these had
some kind of spiritual source.
Ectoplasm is a material
that seemed to be important
in the construction of, uh, apparitions.
People might witness,
uh, a deceased loved one,
maybe the face or the hands of somebody,
and this was created from this material.
On the whole, however,
the SPR were very suspicious
of physical phenomena.
Their early researches
uncovered quite a few frauds.
There were lots of, um, gizmos available
through the magical community
at that time
that were able to generate the effects
by normal means.
At times, ectoplasm was, uh, photographed.
Uh, very often,
it looks very like cheesecloth.
Uh, I've never personally witnessed
those phenomena
so I'm-- I'm deeply skeptical.
There always will be that group of people
who will have question marks.
And it's okay to be critical.
It's okay to be
To have an inquisitive mind.
It's okay to question.
I'm not saying we shouldn't question,
because I have an inquisitive mind,
an analytical mind as well.
But I'm open to the possibility
of what can take place.
[Carin] I'm really happy to be here,
because we're preparing for a séance.
You will be part
of a beautiful experience,
sitting in the love of the spirit world.
I want you singing loudly with each other,
holding hands,
and be part of those--
that beautiful evening together.
[Leslie] Tonight,
Nicole will be giving her séance.
People are interviewed ahead of time
to make sure
that they're not claustrophobic,
that they can handle
being in a pitch-dark room,
that they're willing to bring
the right kind of energy into the room.
It's really important to hold hands,
because you cannot touch the ectoplasm,
because it's very dangerous.
So, are you looking forward to it?
[laughter]
[Sara] I'm open to whatever happens.
Of course, if my father showed up,
that would be sweet.
So this is the recorder
and we put it in the bag
so we can record
the whole séance.
[Ilsa] The only expectation I have is that
she will feel presence of the spirit.
And I
hope for communication
for someone who has really needed it.
[Carin] We need to take precautions,
because of the safety for the medium.
Everybody will be searched.
We ask people to remove jewelry,
to remove metal.
Metal can become very hot,
because of the energy.
[Aman] My dad lived life to the fullest.
From him, I learned be kind,
be humble and be generous.
If he can come forward
It depends entirely on the spirit world
in the end, what they wanna do.
[Nicole] When you go to a séance
of physical mediumship,
you are actually about to experience
an extraordinary moment
where two worlds join together
and people are touched in their hearts
and souls
by the presence of the spirit world.
[deep female voice] Good evening, friends.