Scole Experiment

The Afterlife Investigations: The Scole Experiment

“Best evidence of life after death ever.” This is what this documentary film is pointing out. Is there really a life after death? Well this film makes me believe more that there is indeed a life after death. However, how can scientific evidence explain life after death? Now this film showed me how.

The ninety-minute documentary film is about the Scole Experiment, which is a five-year investigation into life after death. It is conducted by members of the Society for Physical Research (SPR) in the late 1990’s in Scole village in England. Tim Coleman, the director, collaborated with the Scole Group and the surviving SPR investigators and was able to interview the visitors of the experiment and was able to see some of the audio/video recordings made by the group. According to the film, there were overall six mediums and fifteen investigators from the SPR. Most paranormal phenomena showed in this film is the evidence of afterlife particularly physical mediumship such as disembodied voices from old radios and tape recorders, ghostly lights fluttering about the room and inside the bodies of the investigators, images appearing on film inside secured containers, reports of touches from unseen hands, levitation of the table, ancient things appearing inside secured rooms and matter becoming immaterial. As observed in the documentary film, there are numerous investigators and sitters involved, comprised not just by paranormal experts but also renowned scientists, due to the large number and consistency of paranormal phenomena shown without any fraud observed, many acclaimed that Scole experiment is really true. I mean how can they get so many big and prominent psychics, scientists, and investigators speak up to their film if the experiment is just a hoax? I don’t think these people can afford to disrupt their good reputation by participating in such a hoax. Hence, this must be really true evidence that humans have spirits; they have life after death and can do some interaction with the living people revealing some conjuring powers.

Despite the responses and perceptions of the experts in the film that makes the information disseminated reliable, I do not have a guarantee that the filmmakers do not make use of any trickery. I don’t say that it is a hoax for using some trickery but what I’m saying is that not every single thing must be believed in. There can be instances that filmmakers want their films to be very realistic where easy minds can undoubtedly considered that’s why they make use of trickery. First critic point I would like to argue is the use of radiant wristbands to prove that the sitters were not moving during their experiment in the dark room. Yes it is essential to prove that no one can move during the experiment to explain the ghostlike phenomena happening but according to my research, professionals said that most séance performances used this trick. It is also said in my research that the wristbands used at Scole were never subjected to testing, no one really knows what happen to these wristbands when lights are off. There are so many ways that someone can get into and out of these wristbands. Another thing is that there is no hand holding that happened in the experiment, which makes it easier to escape. Thus, for me, the video of fluttering lights in the dark room is nothing impressive. I mean every paranormal experiment make use of that trick just to show their audience that there were no deceptions intended! Nevertheless, I see the Scole group as the usual people who do an experiment and of course want to attain great recognition by their audience that’s why the authors are somehow biased on the details they report in the film, my second critic point. For me, it’s innate for filmmakers to be biased. I say biased in a sense that their witnesses in the dark room are only the authors of the Scole report that say that the sitters never moved their hands. It is very expected that these authors would say that they were not fooled! Even if I myself was part of the filmmaking, I will force myself to believe that everything we do in the experiment is true! But if I were part of a critic audience, I would not have stayed in my seat and watched the experiment happen without examining the sitters and the equipment and observing their preparations. That’s what wise critics do right?

In spite of these possible trickery and bias, it doesn’t make the afterlife probability any less true. Yes there is a small chance of trickery and bias but there is a larger chance that realms of afterlife can only explain these paranormal phenomena. I say there are lots of phenomena that are unexplainable in the film! I have my 3 biggest inscrutable phenomena! First is the manifestation of different enigmatic images on film cartridges, but what makes it supernatural is that the cartridges were placed inside a padlocked box and the room where the film developed is completely dark. Where can those images come from? No one can explain! What makes it more peculiar is the hidden message in those images, “significant” images from the past. Most images are those who have stories behind it, like it lead us to the need to rediscover something from the past. Second is the appearance of ancient things inside the dark room out of nowhere that same with the images, it seem that it lead us to a “significant” something from the past. One might think that it can be fraudulent given that the people from the Scole experiment are mostly old people and they can keep those ancient things with their selves. But no one from the group lives for like a hundred years ago! Those ancient things are really ancient that are really inexistent in today’s generation but here it is now and no one knows where it really came from. And the Scole group would not be that desperate to spend big amount of money just to check the validity of those ancient things if they aren’t really interested to what this phenomena means. Meaning, they certainly have no idea. Lastly is the disembodied voice from old radios and tape recorders. I find it the creepiest evidence in this film given that the investigators proved that there is no any connection found in the old radios and tape recorders, they even tried it without energy source but still the voices went on. Similar to other phenomena, the voices came from significant people of the past who seem to have “unfinished business” here on earth, a Scole scientist who had passed away, children who had passed away and left their parents, and other dead people who have an important message for the group of people listening to them. It made me ask myself, “Why do people go away but then suddenly goes back?” The answer is that because they still need something from you or they really don’t want to go away in the first place. It’s the hidden notion of all these phenomena, it’s unexplainable but if you’re going to view it in another perspective, these spirits from afterlife interact with the people on earth for a reason.

For me, the best evidence of afterlife is not purely scientific; you cannot expect science, which is a human-made study, to explain the wonder of afterlife where humans never have a complete access. I think this is the reason why Scole experiment has not been a mainstream study. This is actually the first time I heard about it. If Scole experiment is truly the best evidence of life after death, then it would have made worldwide headlines and it would be the most talked about science all over the world, but why didn’t that happened? It’s simply because scientific evidence is not enough to prove after life. The Scole experiment might be true but it must explore more than just the scientific evidence of afterlife, in order for it to be called “the best evidence of afterlife”. But if someone would ask me, do I believe in life after death? Yes I am! And it’s not just a mere faith basis! Aside from the supporting scientific evidence, there are many near death experience that showed that there is indeed “something” after death. Humans might not have a complete access to afterlife but some do have a glimpse access and were able to communicate it to the life on earth, which is for me more reliable than any scientific evidence.