The film

Summary

Can we communicate with the dead? Is it possible to receive a healing power from the hereafter? Who has never witnessed strange phenomena or heard of weird experiences? To explore mediumship we chose to attend live sessions. We looked for a medium who was ready to face clients and scientists who don't believe in it. Céline Boson Sommer is a medium and healer in the Swiss Alps in Martigny. She accepted to take up this challenge. The results are astonishing.

Every civilization, since the dawn of mankind, has shamans, priests, oracles or healers who claim to be in contact with the spiritual world. They often irritate in our society where science rules. Are we looking to verify their practice? We prefer considering them a pack of quacks. According to the anesthesiologist Jean-Jacques Charbonnier, we are facing « a cognitive dissonance »: our system of thought rejects pieces of information that are too hard to process. He observed and studied thoroughly near-death experiences which lead him to conclude that our conscience exists independently from our brain. Consequently survival after death would be barely doubtful.

Most mediums claim to receive a healing energy from the spiritual world. Many accounts mention mysterious recoveries and soothed sufferings. These cases have not been listed or analiyzed but « we have to note that it works » observes Clare Guillemin, radio oncologist. She offers her patients to receive, in addition of clinical care, complementary treatments from healers. « It may result from a psychological effect, a placebo or the intervention of an invisible world, it does not really matter in the end. What really matters is that it works. »

Is mediumship a gift? Yes it is, if we believe advertisements. According to some mediumship schools, it is not. Céline Boson Sommer studied in a serious British College where hundreds of healers are trained every year. We set off to explore this castle – which could have inspired the author of Harry Potter – and meet the professors who have set themselves the objective of proving life after death.

Is it possible to find conclusive evidence? More and more scientists leave open the possibility of the paranormal. Though, they come up against difficulties when they apply to it the restrictive norms of research. At the end of our investigation the mystery remains: we can chose to believe in it or not. But as the priest François Brune, author of several books about communication with the hereafter, underlines « If we show all clues as to survival, this can give meaning to our life here. »

« There are two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is though everything is a miracle. » Albert Einstein