Surviving Death (2021) s01e03 Episode Script

1
[woman 1] 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?
-[Carin] That's all? That big strap?
-Mm-hmm.
[Nicole] It's okay.
Okay. The buttons of the vest.
They're closed.
-Are you doing okay?
-[Nicole] Yes, that's okay.
When the curtains close,
they will be playing music,
which is a way they have
of raising the vibration in the room,
and everybody sings
to connect to the spirit world.
Then, Nicole de Haas's communicators
from the other side
will start speaking through her.
They often will bring in loved ones
connected to somebody in the group.
[door closes]
Dear spirit world
[speaking Dutch] From the Circle of Life,
let us be connected to you
with our heart and soul,
to the Great Spirit and Spirit World. 
Amen.
[all] Amen.
-[tape deck clicks]
-[spiritual music plays]
[in English] It's important
that we keep the vibration high.
It's good for the energy.
[spiritual music continues playing]
[ethereal singing]
[deep female voice]
Welcome, my friends, good evening.
[all] Good evening.
My name is Silver Cloud.
And I'm the one
who will take care of the whole procedure
throughout the evening.
So, my friends,
are you all looking forward to it?
[all] Yes!
We have a lot of work to do this evening.
I need you to play music
and to sing as loud as you can, friends,
to raise the vibrations.
And, at some point, I'm quite sure
that Tommy boy will take over.
[laughter]
Marjon, you can turn on the music again
until Tommy boy will come.
Okay. Thank you, Silver Cloud.
Yes, my dear.
-[tape deck clicks]
-[piano music plays]
[woman gasps]
-[woman] So, we
-[group sings] Some say love ♪
It is a razor ♪
It's getting colder over here.
I feel the energy around my legs.
My lower legs.
-[man speaking]
to bleed ♪
-[man] So very strong
-[woman] Not something
[piano music continues]
[high-pitched voice] Hi, guys.
-[all call out greetings]
-Hi, Tommy!
-[woman] Good evening!
-[man] Hi.
[Tommy] Hi.
[all] Hi, Tommy!
Let me explain what I do
for those who don't know.
I'm responsible for the ectoplasm.
So I've got a dirty job.
[loud laughter]
So, Freda wants to come and speak.
-[all murmur]
-[woman] She's very welcome.
[Tommy] Because she needs to do something.
-[laughter]
-[man] That's nice.
I'm here, dear.
-[man] Oh, she's here!
-[woman] Hi.
-[man] Hello.
-[woman] Hello.
-[man] Hello, Freda.
-[all] Freda.
The young man on my right,
can I have your name, please?
Aman.
-[Freda] Aman?
-[Aman] Yes.
There is a gentlemen for you here.
I try to understand,
because he speaks a different language.
Would you understand "Beta?"
Yes.
-[Freda] So, help me, what does it mean?
-[Aman] It means "son."
I've got your father here,
and he's repeating the word, "Beta, beta."
[Aman] Yes.
He wants you to know there is still
that burden that you carry.
[Aman] Right.
-[Freda] Would you understand?
-[Aman] Yes.
Aman, I need you to speak to him.
I need you to draw him close. Invite him.
Speak in your own language, please.
-[Aman] Okay
-[Freda] Because he's ready.
[in Hindi] Papa, you there?
Papa, what happened that day?
I don't know what happened that day.
I don't know anything
about what happened after that.
-[wind gusting]
-[flames crackling]
[in English] There's a sensation
on my chest. It's like
As if someone is over me,
kind of feeling.
It's intense, in a way.
I feel like a person is there.
Now it's like
Yeah
I can sense that something
is in front of me, yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
I feel, like
a figure in front of me, yes.
It's time to get him back, dear.
But I want you to know
that he loves you very much.
But especially he needs to say,
"Let go of that burden, dear."
Because it still affects you, dear,
in many areas of your life.
Yes, because I couldn't
say goodbye to him.
[Freda] This is what
he wants to say to you.
There is nothing
you could have done about it, dear.
-[Aman sniffles] Yeah.
-[Freda] You gave everything to your mom.
[Aman] Mm.
-[Freda] And your family.
-[Aman] Yes. [sniffles]
And he knows about the responsibility
you took on your shoulder, dear.
[whispers] Yeah.
And now it's time to let go, dear.
[Aman sighs] Mm-hm.
[Freda] He will be with you, dear.
[Aman] Yes. [sniffles]
[Carin] Please have a look.
-Has anything changed?
-[man whispers] Okay, yeah.
-[Carin] Just look at the cardigan.
-[woman] Look at the jacket. The jacket.
-It's open now.
-[man] It's open.
-[woman] It's open.
-[Carin] It was closed.
-[man] It was closed. Yeah.
-[Carin] Yes.
[Nicole sighs]
[murmurs]
[Velcro tearing]
[Nicole] Séances have a great impact
on my physical body.
It takes me about half an hour to an hour
to get back to my normal self.
[Aman] I just feel blessed.
He was standing in front of me.
He was there. I could feel that.
He was six foot. I'm--
I'm taller than him.
And he-- he was here somewhere.
Um And when she said, "Touch him,"
I could feel that, um
It's a peck on the forehead
kind of a sensation, and he was there.
Yeah.
-Cheers.
-Here's to Papa.
[Aman] It was a bit overwhelming for me
to have that recognition from my father.
It was like, you know, "You did your best.
You're doing your best."
And-- and that, for me, was
was that, "Hey, I'm proud of you."
'Cause-- 'cause that's what I was, um
longing for.
Having that physical aspect coming in
I think it's just a different level.
It's got to be, hasn't it,
because there's always the part of self
that will always question.
But you can't question that.
Because you just can't, basically.
[Nicole] As soon as
I got back out of trance,
I knew the spirit world
did something with materialization,
uh, because I can feel that
within my body.
Although it was very hard for me
physically and emotionally,
I think the spirit world
did a marvelous job.
The father who came
for one of the students
made me proud of the spirit world,
but also of my circle, that they were
capable of allowing this to take place.
Mediumship's about love.
It's about healing.
We can help people build that relationship
with their own spirit within,
with their own soul,
and to start living their true expression
in this life.
[Leslie] I thought
the séance was wonderful.
It was obviously very powerful for Aman.
And I think that's one of the healing
powers that it has for people, you know,
is that what's important is
the experience that it provides people.
[Sonja] My father died three months ago.
I loved him dearly, and it helped a lot,
Aman being addressed by the spirit world
and by his father.
That made me feel like someday I will too.
[Aman] Through mediumship,
my life changed completely.
We think these people, they're gone.
But they're always around us,
watching after us.
[birdsong]
[footsteps]
[keypad beeping]
[alarm chimes]
[beeping]
[man] The mission
of the French Institut Métapsychique
was to establish whether or not
paranormal phenomena can occur
under totally controlled conditions.
[keypad beeping]
These molds were made
from materializations
produced by the medium Franek Kluski
towards the end of 1920
under totally controlled conditions.
-[camera shutter clicks]
-[whispering voices]
Kluski was certainly one of the most
respected mediums of his time.
He was among the rare physical mediums,
meaning that he could produce
materializations.
He was invited
to give a number of sessions.
Out of those sessions,
nine molds came into existence.
And there was a report made
of observations throughout the sessions.
Basically, there were several
very high-level people
that were surrounding him
and controlling his hands.
Charles Richet,
who won the Nobel Prize in physiology.
Gustave Geley,
the director of the Insitut Métapsychique.
Camille Flammarion,
a very well-known astronomer.
And the Comte de Gramont,
a man of great stature.
They were positioned around this container
with water that was hot,
and melted wax was floating on it.
The sessions were done
generally with red light.
And Kluski's materializations appeared as
a luminescent, kind of smoky substance
progressively would take form
and become more and more specific
to becoming a hand.
And then to the hand
plunging into the wax container
and plunging out.
And very quickly,
this wax mold would form,
of course with nothing in it,
because apparitions are apparitions,
and then deposit, right on their knees,
this paraffin-dripping hand mold.
The research at the institute
was meant to preclude two forms of fraud.
One was that you already have a hand mold,
a wax hand mold, somewhere on you
and you just pull it out.
So the experimenters
put a specific chemical in the paraffin.
After the sessions,
they found the same chemical signature.
So that means
the molds were formed in the session.
They could not have been imported.
The only second explanation
that's possible is that somehow
Kluski freed his hands
and dipped it in the paraffin
and pulled them out and dipped it again
and that way he formed them,
and then deposited it next to them.
All this happening while there are
six individuals around him,
looking at him like hawks
while he's in a trance, slumped over.
But there's more to it than that.
As you might have noticed,
these molds are miniature.
They're not the size of an adult hand.
They're the size of children's hands
between five and ten years old.
And this is not even a hand.
This is a foot.
So it just seems to me that the only
plausible explanation for cheating
is if some of these Nobel prizes
and astronomers and counts
just were in on the deal
and they just decided
to fabricate all this evidence.
That's the only possible explanation
I could find that is non-paranormal.
[Chris] Some people
have tried to replicate
the hands produced
under Franek Kluski's, um, sittings,
um, with varying success.
-[camera shutter clicks]
-Houdini was one of those people.
It was well-known in that time
that there was a need
to have some expertise in magic
if you were going to be able to work out
how the phenomena might be simulated.
But the problem with someone like Houdini
is he was a self-publicist.
So how he presents his involvement
may not be truly how it went,
because it's all about
giving a higher profile to Houdini,
rather than necessarily
getting at the truth.
[Leslie] The molds of the Kluski hands
are the most incredible evidence we have
for the reality of materializations.
I've studied them.
I've read every word of the lengthy report
that was done on how they were made.
I trust the scientists
who did the studies.
But it's one thing to study them.
It's another thing
to experience it for yourself.
My main experience
of physical mediumship personally
has been with Stewart Alexander,
who's a medium in the UK.
He's been working for 30, 40 years.
Very, very developed.
-[camera shutter clicks]
-Because of how long he has been working,
Stewart Alexander
is able to introduce light into the room.
I witnessed a cloud of ectoplasm
coming out over this table.
This was actually in red light.
And it forms into an actual, living
human hand, and I was able
And then the hand bangs on the table
to let you know it's physical,
and you can see it.
And then I was able
actually to hold this hand and touch it.
-[camera shutter clicks]
-You can touch ectoplasm.
If the spirit communicators say it's safe,
then it-- it happens.
It just opened up a door of questioning.
You know, how do you explain this?
-[Leslie] Hey!
-[Mike] Hi there.
-It's so good to see you guys.
-[woman] Here we are!
[Leslie] Come in.
[Mike] Ever since my dad passed away,
I've been investigating mediumship
as a possible way to reconnect with him.
That led me and my mom and sister
here today
to have a séance with Stewart Alexander.
Remotely.
Stewart and his circle are in England
and we just hook in over FaceTime.
[Mike's mother] You know, I've always said
that some people leave this world
and they leave a little hole.
You know, they're okay people.
Some people leave this world
-and leave a gigantic hole.
-[Leslie] Mm.
Um
And he was one--
definitely one of those people.
I know that he's still somewhere
and he's tried so hard
to get through,
because he knew we were devastated.
-Um
-[Leslie] Yeah.
-[sister] Desperate.
-And desperate.
-Yeah.
-Desperate to know.
I was desperate to know,
like, what he is doing right now.
Like, you, that were
this huge part of my life,
like, so alive just days ago,
where are you?
People deal with grief differently,
but whatever it was with me,
my bond with my dad
it's It's just, it's still
-Just, he was my guy, you know?
-[Leslie] Yeah.
[Mike] This is all real.
This man might be talking to us.
-I have no doubt.
-Right?
He's gonna be talking to you.
-[Liz] I hope so.
-[Leslie] You hope so.
-[ringtone trilling]
-There we go.
[ringtone continues]
[woman] Hey--
[Stewart] Hi, Leslie, love. How are you?
-Hey, guys.
-[woman] Hi, Leslie.
-Hi, Stewart.
-Hi.
Hi!
[Leslie] Every Monday, I connect
to Stewart's séance in northern England.
If something physical is going on
in that room and it's in the dark,
obviously we can't see it.
But when a spirit speaks through Stewart,
I can talk to that spirit as easily
as everybody else who's physically there.
-[Stewart] Are you ready?
-Yeah.
[soft music playing]
[elderly male voice]
I cannot begin to tell you
how I have looked forward
to this evening.
There's a gentleman here
who so wishes to speak with his family.
This will not be simple for him,
but he will do his very best.
Come on, Robert. I'm here. I'm waiting.
-[voice calls out]
-[woman] He's getting excited.
See you I see you.
-[woman] He's here. He sees you.
- He sees you. He sees you.
Oh! It's wonderful.
-[gasping sounds]
-Robert?
Yes! Yes!
-[groaning sounds]
-I'm here.
[Robert] Yes
[woman] Steady, Robert.
-Steady, Robert.
-[Robert] I'm so sorry.
[hissing] I'm so sorry.
[Mike] "I'm so sorry."
[Robert gasping] I'm sorry.
-[Mike mutters]
-Don't be-- don't be sorry!
[Robert gasping] I'm so-- I'm so--
I didn't want to
go.
[choking sounds]
-[Mike] "I didn't want to go."
-I know. I-- We know that.
[Robert] I love you.
-[Mike] "I--
-Love you.
-[Mike] We love you too. We love you!
-[Jen] We love you too, Dad.
[Mike] This is a form of contact that you
never think you're ever gonna have again.
That's a really powerful thing.
And for my mom and Jen,
uh, it was incredibly moving.
[laughter]
When you have a sitting
that's meaningful, it can get addictive.
They wanted to experience more.
The majority of a person
is ineffable, right?
Like, mo-- most of what a person is
is hard to put into words.
They just bring up a feeling in you.
And that, for me,
is the strongest evidence for myself.
I really believe that was my dad. I mean,
that's how powerful that experience was.
And it-- it pulled me out
of this terrible place.
And, um if I were to discover
that that wasn't real
ah, that would be really hard.
That would be really hard, obviously,
for me to take, so, uh
the more times I put myself
in this situation
the more of a chance
that this could all unravel for me.
And I could, like, you know,
see-- see behind the curtain.
[knocking]
-[Leslie] Hey.
-[Mike] Hi there!
-[Leslie] Welcome.
-[Mike] How are you?
-Hi!
-Come on in, guys.
-[Mike] Great to see you.
-Come in.
-[man] Hi, Leslie. How are you?
-[Liz] Hi, how are you?
[Mike] I've brought my mom
and, uh, sister, and my brother-in-law
here with Leslie Kean, at her house,
to have a trance demonstration
with Nicole de Haas,
which I've done in the past.
-[Nicole] Hi.
-I'm Mike's mom, Liz.
-How are you?
-Hi, Liz.
-Nice to meet you. I'm Nicole.
-Same here.
-Hi, I'm Jen.
-Hi.
-Hi, I'm Nicole.
-You look just like I imagined
[Leslie] Nicole's here from Holland
with five of her colleagues.
-Hi, Mike.
-Hi, how are you?
-Hi! Good to see you.
-How are you? You too.
[Mike] Obviously,
the question of evidence gets trickier
if the medium you're seeing knows you.
So I always ask my loved ones
to communicate something to the medium
that I've specifically requested,
which I tell no one.
That becomes especially important
in a case like this,
where Nicole knows a lot about me.
My brother-in-law's freaking out
a little bit. He's a little nervous
-about spirits, and what's gonna happen
-[laughter]
-Just a little bit.
-Are they comin' to get him somehow?
-He's-- he's a little nervous.
-Yeah.
Are you-- are you open to take part
in the experience tonight?
Yeah, I'm goin' back and forth.
-You know? Back and forth.
-Okay.
[Nicole] We're not doing
physical mediumship.
So let me explain a little
about what you can expect tonight.
-Okay.
-[Nicole] Because, you know, to me,
-it's important that you feel comfortable.
-Oh, for sure.
[Nicole] Okay.
So, I'm not only a physical medium.
I'm also a mental medium
and a trance medium.
When I do trance,
as soon as the music starts to play
and the vibration is right,
I go into a deep trance state.
I'm not aware of anything in the room.
So I'm not aware of the spirit world
taking control over me.
I'm not aware of the inf--
uh, of the information they share.
Um I've no clue.
Trance is not physical mediumship.
It's not a séance in dark.
So I'm not sitting in a cabinet
strapped to the chair,
-like I would normally be in a séance.
-[Liz] Right.
Um So it's a--
quite a different environment.
But still, the spirit team
that works with me is the same team.
Sometimes people ask me, "Do we have to be
afraid of the spirit world?"
And I said no,
because we are all in the presence
and the love and the power of spirit
and that's the most important.
-Mm-hm.
-Right.
[wind whistling]
[whispering voices]
[creaking]
[whispering voices]
-Please sit here, over here.
-Thank you.
[Leslie] Trance mediumship
is very different from a physical séance.
It doesn't involve any physical phenomena
occurring with ectoplasm.
That's why we can have lights and cameras
present in the room.
[spiritual music plays]
[breathing deeply]
[ethereal singing]
[inhales]
[deep voice] Good evening, friends.
-[all] Good evening.
-[inhales]
It is, as always, a delight
and a privilege to be able to join you
and to unite both worlds as one.
My world realizes
the importance of this evening
to get the message across into the world.
-Okay. Thank you.
-Thank you.
Within a moment,
Tommy boy will come and speak to you all.
-Wonderful.
-Great.
-Thank you very much.
-So thank you, my friends.
-Thank you.
-Thank you, Silver Cloud.
[gasps and whimpers]
-[woman] Tommy is coming.
-[woman 2] That voice to come--
-[woman 3] Tommy's about--
-[high-pitched] Hi, guys.
-Hi, Tommy!
-[all] Hi!
[woman] Hi, Tommy.
It's-- it's so different to be
in another place, you know?
[woman] You like it here, Tommy?
-Yes.
-[chuckling]
-Hi, Leslie.
-[Leslie] Hi, Tommy. How are ya?
I'm fine. I like your home.
-I'm glad.
-[Tommy] Yes.
[woman]
They're a little bit excited, uh, Tommy.
-Are they?
-[woman] Yes, they are.
-Are you?
-[all] Yes!
-[laughter]
-Yes! That's what I like to hear.
-Yes!
-[woman] Lots of voices.
-Yeah.
-Yes.
-Yes.
-[woman] Yes.
[Tommy] I see a gentleman.
-You're new here.
-Yes.
-[Tommy] Yes.
-[laughter]
-What's your name, sir?
-Toma.
Toma.
Would you understand
your grandfather, Andrew?
Yes.
Yes. He's here.
Really?
He says you like fish.
[Toma] Yeah.
You eat them and you sell them.
Yes.
[Tommy] Yes.
-Yes.
-[Tommy] Because he is saying to me
there is a shop being in the family for
a few generations.
[Toma] Yeah.
Would you understand
"Hook them up?"
-[gasps]
-What's that?
Yeah, my-- my father says that.
[Tommy] What does it mean?
It means when, um somebody
orders something at the restaurant
-[Tommy] Yeah?
-he calls it in as,
"Could you hook them up?"
-And the customers like that.
-[Tommy] Really?
-Wow.
-And do you like cars?
-Yeah. Yeah.
-[sighs]
-[Tommy] Do--
-A little. [laughs]
[Tommy] You ha--
-Did you have a very ugly green one?
-[gasps]
-Yeah!
-[laughter]
-Well, I don't think it's ugly.
-[laughter]
It's like the color of a frog.
-Oh!
-[Toma] It is, yes.
-Yes.
-[Toma] Mm-hm.
But, you know, your family is here
to share with you how much they love you.
Okay.
So please take their love.
I do.
And fish.
[laughter]
-Thank you.
-[Tommy] Yes. Yes.
So thank you all for speaking. Bye-bye.
-Thanks, Tommy.
-[woman] Thank you very much.
-Oh, wasn't that wonderful?
-[woman 2] Yes.
-[Mike] That was extraordinary.
-[woman 3] An ama--
-I can't wait to tell your dad.
-[Toma] Yeah, I know, I know.
-I know.
-[woman] Oh. Hello, Freda.
[soft female voice] Yes, dears.
-Yes.
-[woman] Take your time, Freda.
Yes. Yes, dear, I will.
I would like to have the two ladies
on my right next to me.
Would it be possible?
-Take my hand, please, Jen.
-Yes.
Very carefully.
-It's a bit cold, dear. Yes.
-Yes.
Yes.
-Can you please take my hand, dear?
-Yes.
[Freda] Yes. Oh, that's wonderful, dears.
Because I've got Rosann here.
Okay.
Well, you under-- You understand
who I'm speaking about,
-don't you?
-[Liz] Yes.
I'm speaking about Rosann,
which is your sister-in-law, dear.
-[Liz, sobbing] Yes.
-[Freda] Yes. And it's your aunt, dear.
-[Jen] Yes.
-[Freda] Yes.
She's getting quite emotional now, dears,
because she only passed recently, dears.
[Jen] Yes.
In mid-April. Yes.
-[Jen] Yes.
-Yes.
I also know, dears,
that she was a minister of the church.
-[Jen] Yes, she was.
-Yes.
[Freda] Yes, she was.
And I have to say to you both
that although you miss her so much now
it is okay.
-Yes.
-She's doing well.
-[Jen] Right, okay. Good.
-I'm glad.
[Freda] But I have to go now.
So thank you all and until we meet again.
-[all] Thank you, Freda.
-[Liz] Thank you.
[grunts and sighs]
[inhales]
Hm?
-Take your time.
-Yeah.
Want some water first?
Yeah. Thank you.
[Liz] She described Rosann to a T.
[Jen] Mm-hm.
[Mike] She did not give me
my code word, though.
-[Jen] You asked Rosann for a code word?
-Yeah, while she was still in her body.
[Liz] That's a lot to ask for.
-[Mike] Why is it a lot?
-[Liz] Maybe she didn't hear.
-[Mike] Why is it?
-[Liz] You don't know if she heard.
They say they're with us all the time.
They're always here.
-[Liz] It doesn't work--
-It shouldn't be a lot to ask for.
If you're gonna take all the effort
to prove to me that it's really you
-by giving me all of this information
-I know.
a lot of which
is on Facebook and stuff,
why won't you just say the one thing
that will definitely convince me?
-Right. No, I understand that.
-[Mike] Make me know.
What happened with your grandfather,
that comes close.
-Yeah.
-The the "hook 'em up" thing.
That's And the car.
-Yeah. And the fish.
-[Mike] The Charger.
"Hook 'em up"
is on the front of our menu.
[Mike] It's on the front of the menu?
-[Jen laughs]
-[Toma] Yeah.
-It is. It's-- it's small, though.
-It's on the front of the menu?
-[woman] It doesn't matter.
-[Jen] It is on the Facebook page.
-Oh, God!
-[Jen] It is on the Facebook page menu.
[wind gusting]
[Mike] We came into that trance
demonstration last night with high hopes,
but there wasn't anything said
of a personal nature that was not
on some social media fairly recently.
That's also
the thing, so, uh I have--
I just have no idea what to make of it.
You know, it's hard to
If someone were mmm
not being totally honest
about this kind of thing
I mean, and you're playing
with people's emotions in that way
that's not right.
-[Liz] We were overwhelmed with emotion.
-[Mike] Absolutely.
[Liz] Yeah. Because everything she said
was exact.
I mean, that was Rosann.
-That was what happened.
-[Toma] Mm-hm.
Yeah, there was nothing that was said
that was wrong.
[Liz] But afterward, we were reviewing
what was available on the internet
and what was not available.
We found that just about everything was.
Yeah, it was I was blown away.
But then, afterwards, you really sit down
and your emotions calm down
and you think about it, it's like,
"Okay
you know,
let's see what's going on here," it's
The stuff was out there.
You're so happy in the moment,
and you want to believe,
and it must be very hard for real mediums
to get anything that's not available.
So that's what our souls
keep searching for.
Something that couldn't be known
by any stretch of the imagination.
[Leslie] There's so much information
on the internet about people now.
-Well--
-In the old days, it wasn't there,
-so it was never an issue.
-No. No.
-So is that an issue now?
-No. I mean, I
-It could be an issue. I don't know.
-Yeah.
I've-- I've never had issues
or questions about it.
-Uh
-Okay. I'm just curious,
'cause I could imagine it coming up,
because of just the prevalence
-of all this information.
-Well, I'm not totally honest.
I had one situation.
Uh, but that was not, uh
Actually, that was people
involved in mediumship themselves.
And they,
having seen me demonstrate once
-Yeah.
-and they saw me, uh
giving such specific evidence, uh
that, in a way,
they-- they did not believe
that this could come from my mediumship.
It took me a while, uh
to be able to accept that.
You know, this is what can happen.
But I have I just have to continue
and to move on
and have full trust in myself
and the spirit world.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-But it's not an easy road.
-Yeah.
-It's not an easy road.
[Leslie] It's a perplexing
and difficult situation to deal with.
For mediums today,
it's much more difficult for them
to do meaningful readings,
because everything's out on the internet.
And in physical mediumship,
the medium always knows who's sitting,
because of the sensitivity of it.
So it's gonna raise that question
for people.
[Chris] Some members of the SPR
were ambivalent about mediums,
because they were quite often
caught cheating.
For mental mediumship,
the standard counter-explanation is
in terms of something called cold reading.
So cold reading
is a collection of techniques
by which somebody can glean information
from another person,
um subtly,
in ways that they don't notice,
detecting people's non-verbal behavior.
We respond differently to positive things,
compared with negative things.
We interject quite a lot.
So people would be surprised,
if they have a one-to-one reading,
how much of the time
they're doing the speaking,
to help clarify
or elaborate on things the medium says.
It can run all the way through to
techniques that are called hot reading.
So this includes, um,
gathering information in advance,
using social media these days
to get information
that's really quite specific about you,
but I can feed it back later on
as if it came
from your relatives and spirits.
[camera shutter clicks]
When it comes to physical mediumship,
members of the SPR generally
were disposed against physical phenomena,
which was too susceptible
to reproduction by fraud.
There were lots of sittings in which
an accomplice worked with a medium,
so that no matter
how well controlled the medium was,
somebody was able
to secrete themselves into the room
and produce the effects that way.
However, there are a number of mental
mediums who were very highly regarded,
who were very thoroughly investigated,
that have never
seriously been accused of cheating.
Information was very accurate,
very specific,
and was acceptable to the person
and they found it persuasive.
So there's lots of people
having experiences
that, as yet, are not truly explicable.
The key is to bring those phenomena
into the lab to test.
[buzzing]
[Chris] We want to monitor
your brain activity,
to see whether there are differences
in your brain activity
when you're producing
accurate information,
compared with occasions when you're
producing less accurate information.
And, in that way, we hope to get
some kind of insight into the mechanism.
How is it that you might be
sensitive to sources of information
that other people are not?
We need to stretch this cap
over your head.
Bit like a swimming cap from school days.
[Chris] Modern-day researchers
are still keen to work with mediums.
However, the nature of that research
has changed somewhat
with developments in technology.
That's looking really good.
Now we have access to video
and audio recording equipment.
We can measure
the brain activity of the mediums
as they claim to enter trance.
[woman] Question 17. What body parts
were affected at the death?
[medium] The stomach and the lungs.
[Chris] With brain activity experiments,
we're able to demonstrate
whether or not
something is actually changing
in terms of the medium's
state of consciousness.
What's most exciting
is that there are significant differences
at a number of sensor sites
that are in the gamma band.
The gamma band
is the highest activity level band
that we measure from human beings.
And that seems to relate to
a standard description that mediums give
where they talk
about having to raise their own vibration
to make contact with the spirit world.
There can be large individual differences
in the activity patterns
that we see from individuals
uh, participating in--
in neuroscientific experiments.
So it's really important
to pool data from a number of mediums.
Hopefully, in the future, we can start
to discern patterns in those data
and slowly get a handle
on what's really going on.
But we're not able to reach
any conclusive, uh, findings today.
[woman] Is there three boys
on his side of the family?
-[Mike] Three.
-[woman] Perfect. Okay.
He keeps saying, "My son, my son,"
'cause he wants you to know
that he's very proud of you
and he, like, literally just made me,
um, either
[Mike] I've been doing
this research with mediums
and I'm getting results
that seem significant.
It's so exciting, 'cause it's, like,
re-validating the experience that I had.
And every time something happens,
I'm thinking,
"Okay, my dad really is still here."
When we were, uh, doing the interview,
I couldn't help noticing
a light going on and off.
What happened in Massachusetts
with the trance demonstration,
as far as how it affects
my overall journey, I would just say,
it doesn't.
I mean I don't count it as being
evidence of anything.
But it did bring me some clarity
as to what I do feel is genuine.
Um
You know, there's a definitely
distinctly different feeling I get
when something's happening
that I think is genuine.
-[Liz] Hello, friend. Hi!
-Hi.
[Mike] And I think that people knowing
that there's more out there
could help this world.
Glad you could make this.
Good to see ya.
[Mike] Hi, Sue!
-Hi, Mike.
-How are you?
-Good.
-[Liz] Sue is a nurse, like I am.
I've known her for many, many years.
How are you feelin'?
When Sue's daughter died at age 35
She lost her to drugs.
And Katie, which is her daughter, uh
It was a long struggle
and it took a lot from my friend.
And I never sit out
in my garden anymore
[Liz] I told Sue,
I have no doubt life goes on,
and if you ever want to try a medium
no pressure
tell me, let me know."
You know, getting out of bed has been
-the hardest thing for me to do.
-[Liz] Yeah.
Just-- You just don't wanna get up.
You-- you want to stay in bed,
and if you stay in bed,
then this didn't really happen.
[birdsong]
You just don't wanna get up.
[Sue] I lost my daughter
just over two years ago.
Tragically,
we didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
I've never been to a medium before.
But Katie was very interested
in the paranormal.
I feel like I needed
to try to reach out to her in some way.
[Mike] Right now, Sue is in the place
where it feels like
she's lost her daughter forever.
My hope Is that something will happen
in her reading with Laura Lynne Jackson
that will at least open up the door
to the possibility
that her daughter, in some way,
is still around.
If you're deep in that grief,
just that tiny opening in that door
can really change a person's life.
[Sue] I've never met this medium before.
But I wanna know that
Katie's okay.
[sighs]
She had a-- a difficult life, and, um
I just wanna make sure
that now she's happy
and that she is okay.
And, uh
I wanna make sure that there
isn't anything that I could have done
to have saved her.
Have a seat right here.
First of all,
thank you for being open to this.
If you're here, I know one thing.
This-- this reading was set up
by the other side, not by us.
Our job is we receive the invitation
and then you could say yes or no,
so you said yes.
So the universe thanks you for that.
All right, I'll just be quiet
one minute, focus,
and we'll start with that core
aura reading and take it from there, okay?
-Okay.
-Right.
Okay. Um
Your core is interesting.
You have a lot of green to the left.
It basically means that one of your soul's
major soul challenges this lifetime
is about embracing change.
Okay? I feel like there's been
a really big shift in your life path, too.
Specifically the last three years.
Do you understand this?
-Yes.
-It's just like, "Boom."
And I feel like this is the real soul test
of your lifetime
-Mm-hm.
-because this loss feel profound to me.
Okay.
Um
Okay.
[sighs] I
I keep hearing, "Mom, Mom, Mom."
Is there a child on the other side
connected to you?
-Yes.
-Do you understand? This is what I feel,
-like, yelling out, "Mom."
-Mm-hm.
Is this the loss
within the last three years?
-I feel like this is why we're here today.
-Yeah.
And I wanna talk about, um, you wanting
to be very, very private in your grief
-Yes.
-is how I wanna say it.
It's been very hard for you.
Being here today
is huge for you.
Unbelievable.
You are being thanked so profoundly.
Um I'm hearing a name
that sounds like Carrie. Kerry?
Is that connected to
-It's Katie.
-Ka-- Your--
-Is that your child on the other Kay?
-Mm-hm.
-It's Katie.
-Katie, okay.
That's--
'Cause I'm hearing, like, the K-A part.
-Yeah.
-Okay. Um
It's like, "Thank you, thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you, Mom." And I--
I literally wanna come hug you
so tightly around your-- your neck.
Here's the first thing to tell you.
You're the best mom in the world.
You're the best mom.
Do not think for a second
you were meant to intervene,
save, be able to do anything here.
You keep trying to take that burden
on yourself.
Like, "I should have done
something differently.
I could have prevented it."
No, you couldn't have.
You couldn't have at all.
This crossing feels
very tragic to me, too.
Like a being ripped away.
-Do you understand this?
-Yes.
And you carry this guilt around.
You need to bless her by letting that go.
You need to know
you were not meant to be there.
You were not meant to stop anything.
-Do you understand this?
-[sniffles] Yes.
She also wants me to talk
You have something from her
in your zipper pouch in your purse?
She wants you to show me.
Do you understand what this is?
-Uh-- Yes.
-I don't wanna make you take it out.
She's very funny about it.
She's like, "I just wanna"
"She's good," is how I wanna say it.
Like, she's orchestrating this
and she got--
she has-- she has the proof in there.
So she wants you to--
It's in my pocket.
Okay.
Did you have it in your purse earlier?
-Yes.
-Yeah. She's telling me that.
-So is it tied to her? Do you understand?
-Yes.
Okay.
It's
-It's her fingerprint that I had made.
-That is beautiful.
And she says she wants you
to touch it now.
-Yes.
-She wants you to know
-that's how close she is to you.
-[sighs]
And she wants to teach everybody that,
because she says that's how close
we all are to you.
And she says
you don't even need to wear it.
"I am with you always.
There is nothing you could do
to break me apart."
[sniffles]
You do not need to worry about her.
She is in a place of love and joy
and beauty
and she does not feel any loss.
She's so sorry.
But she's so thankful.
She's thank-- thanking you
for not only being her mom,
but for showing up for her today.
She wants me to give you a hug.
Because she's
-It's from her. Do you understand?
-Mm-hm.
I need to hug you.
That's how she gives it to me.
She's sending so much love.
And she is with you always.
[birdsong]
[Sue] I'm utterly in awe.
I feel that m-my daughter was really there
and that
so she was
so that we were communicating.
And I-- I just never dreamed
I would have that opportunity.
She sounded so well.
Um, she had her personality.
She had her sense of humor.
I just feel like Katie's okay now.
That makes me very, very happy.
So it's given me s-- comfort that I could
never have gotten any other way.
[Mike] If this is real,
people should know. [laughs]
It would change
Uh It'd change everything.
And-- and, I mean, it's been
It's all been so powerful for me
that I now walk through this life
personally believing
that life does go on after death.
[Nicole] The skeptic could easily say,
"Oh, you know, she might be a fraud."
That's what we have to deal with
as mediums.
We have to accept that there will be
people in this world
not believing what we do.
[Leslie] Mediumship gives people hope.
It gives people a sense that there's
something way more than just the physical
that is part of who we are.
That opens the door to realities
that are unexplainable,
but yet point to something much bigger
about who we are,
and what might happen to us when we die.
And when that door is open,
you can find that connection on your own.
I really felt that my daughter
was, um communicating.
But from what I understand
I can maintain that communication
by myself.
[Laura] One of the biggest fallacies is
that anyone ever needs to go to a medium
to get signs and messages sent to them.
While a medium session is important,
it's really just meant to be a doorway
for the sitter
to start a much larger conversation
with their loved ones on the other side.
These signs and messages,
they're always around us.
The ceiling lights started to do
this unbelievable dance of light.
It was just absolutely amazing.
[woman] I would come and visit my mother.
I would say, "Mother, now,
could you send me a cardinal?
Send me a cardinal when you get to heaven.
Then I'll know that you're-- you made it."
Thought of
It is Mother!
-[laughter]
-[woman 2] We were just in awe.
I mean, how many times
do you hold a miracle in your hands?
-Oh! What?
-[gasping]