Psychics 'contact Lennon' in TV séance
Psychics believe they have made contact with late Beatle John Lennon in a controversial pay-per-view television séance set to be broadcast in the US.
The show’s makers claimed a voice recorded on the 90-minute show, which will cost Americans $9.95 (€7.90) to watch, appeared to be that of the murdered musician.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we were able to make contact with the spirit of John Lennon,” British psychic Joe Power said.
“John was a very spiritual person who was taken from the world in the worst possible way and he wants to reach out.
“It’s not a question of us going out and finding John, it is making ourselves available for him to come to us.”
The show, The Spirit of John Lennon, has already provoked outrage among Beatles fans, and was branded “tacky” and “exploitative” by Yoko Ono’s friend and spokesman, Elliot Mintz.
“A pay-per-view seance was never his style,” Mintz said of Lennon.
An online trailer promises viewers they will also see the figure of a man filmed on infra-red cameras, and asks “Is it John Lennon?”
Music “from the other side” can also be heard, it claims, asking the same question.
Starcast Productions, which made the programme, said technical experts were currently reviewing the seance footage to try to confirm if the images and sounds were from the star.
The makers claim the recording is an example of a paranormal “Electronic Voice Phenomenon“, or EVP.
Those who believe in EVP think spirit voices communicate through radio and TV broadcast signals.
Starcast’s British head, Paul Sharratt, was also behind a pay-per-view effort to contact the late Diana, Princess of Wales in 2003.
The Lennon special was filmed in Liverpool, India, New York City and Los Angeles, at sites that had special significance to the musician.
It was at his favourite New York restaurant, La Fortuna, that the voice said to be his was captured on sound equipment.
Lennon was assassinated outside his home in New York’s Dakota building 25 years ago.
Sharratt said although he was currently withholding judgement on the recording, he believed viewers would be “bowled over” by its contents.
“I am a dyed-in-the-wool sceptic by nature, but have been simply amazed at what we have seen and heard during the filming of this special,” he said.
The pay-TV service In Demand will show The Spirit of John Lennon in the US tonight.
