The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death [Paperback]

Is there life after death? Reading this remarkable book may convince even the most hardened sceptic, with its apparently solid scientific evidence for our continuing survival once we have shuffled off this mortal coil. What distinguishes the experiments chronicled here from other attempts to 'prove' that there is an afterlife are the rigorous protocols under which they were carried out. With chance, coincidence and connivance carefully eliminated, spectacular results were still achieved: handwriting, hieroglyphs and messages appearing on factory-sealed film, coins materialising, and lights dancing in front of impartial observers.

Written in a calm, precise and dispassionate style, the book comes in advance of 'The Scole Report', which will shortly be published as an official Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research - SPR.

The Scole Experiment describes how physical objects have been passed to the group from the spirit world and tells of visits by solid teleported entities, who speak directly to them. It reports how animated images from other realms and dimensions of life have been captured on sealed video film and contains the results of psychic photography, where images appear on 35mm film.

Some of these images are truly remarkable, but none more so than plate 44 [an image taken from video experiment on 28/03/98]. On this picture you can clearly see a man's face wearing glasses in what appears to be a bubble-like sphere, hovering in what looks like crystal formations.

Grant and Jane Solomon authors of two best-selling books, Stephen Turoff: Psychic Surgeon and Harry Oldfield's Invisible Universe, have written a compelling account of the pioneering work of the Scole Experimental Group. Intriguing fascinating and convincing. Very highly recommended.

These are the results and findings of a group of psychic researchers and healers exploring evidence of life after death. The book describes how objects have been passed from the spirit world, and includes the capture on sealed video film of animated images from other realms.

The Scole Experiment is now widely regarded as the most important scientific investigation of evidence for life after death in history. Highly-qualified and objective scientists, and a whole range of other people who attended the Scole Group's sessions, came away convinced that (mostly) invisible, discarnate intelligences were making direct contact with those present. It is therefore understandable that the first edition of this book, which chronicled all the events that occurred during the five year experiment, created a great deal of discussion in the national and local media when it was published in the UK in the autumn of 1999. Numerous radio and television programmes ran the story. National newspapers devoted extensive column inches. The Times on Sunday put The Scole Experiment on the front page of its Sunday magazine and the Daily Mail serialised the book in its centre pages over a number of days. A fierce internet debate is raging still. If the evidence is accepted, the implication is simple: we humans do indeed survive the death event in some conscious form. This new, and long-awaited, 2006 edition includes an update on the fascinating progress of the continuing experiments involving the Scole mediums. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'You are invited to attend a presentation of the work of the Scole experimental group.'

The invitation was addressed to our friend Harry Oldfield, the scientist and inventor who was the subject of our last book, Harry Oldfield's Invisible Universe. Harry smiled knowingly as he handed it to us.

'What's this?' we asked.

'It's all in there,' said Harry, nodding at the letter. 'Just up your street, I would think.'

'Are you going?'

'Try and stop me. This is important work. It's at the frontier of science. It could change the way we collectively view the nature of life itself.'

We soon saw what Harry meant. The letter explained that a group of experimenters was actually communicating with 'dead' people, now 'in spirit', who said they had died, only to awaken in another world. It was claimed that the spirit beings were manifesting in the cellar where the experiments took place. Furthermore, communication was being achieved using modern technology like cameras and tape recorders. We had been investigating such phenomena - obtained with and without instruments - for some time and were keen to examine such a story at first hand. Had these investigators really recorded contact with another dimension on modern equipment?

For both of us, our interest in possible life after death had been intensified by personal loss. When Grant was still a young university student, his father died suddenly, struck down in his mid-forties by a brain haemorrhage, while Jane's dearest friend had recently died in her thirties, after a long battle with cancer.

Physical death comes to us all and many speculate on whether it really is the 'end'. Throughout history, it has been viewed by many civilisations as a transition to 'another place'. Like many others, we would like to know the answer to the survival question now, rather than having to wait until we die to find out, or not, as the case may be.

So, on Sunday 3 May, we drove from our home in Essex to Lyng in Norfolk to attend a seminar given by the Scole experimental group. After a wet and windy journey, we arrived at the seminar and soon discovered that 30 or so others had been similarly intrigued by the letter of invitation. We later learned that many of these people had been following the progress of the Scole experimental group for some time. A number had even set up their own experimental groups under SEG guidance and were beginning to experience unusual phenomena themselves.

As the rain drummed noisily against the panes, a large, bearded, friendly-looking man beamed at us from behind a lectern on which his notes were balanced. He introduced himself as Robin Foy, one of the founders of the Scole group.

The group had formed at the beginning of 1993 and operated completely independently of the Spiritualist movement or any other organisation. They were non-religious and non-sectarian. Their work was intended to be universal and embrace people from all walks of life, whatever their beliefs. They were involved in serious scientific research into the paranormal, using an entirely new and unique approach. They met to conduct twice-weekly experimental sessions for the development of tangible and objective physical paranormal phenomena in the cellar of a house in Scole, near Diss in Norfolk. This cellar had developed into an experimental science room but they knew it, more affectionately, as 'the Scole Hole'.

Many of the experiments ran simultaneously. The group could be doing audio, photographic and video experiments all in the same month and even during the same session.

Soon after the Scole Experiment began, a team of spirit communicators made themselves known to the group during the experimental sessions. By pioneering brand new forms of tangible paranormal phenomena they aimed to prove conclusively, once and for all, that death does not exist and that there are other dimensions of existence. These other dimensions are hidden from normal perception by the limitations of our senses and our current scientific instruments. The group was told that their team alone consisted of 'thousands of minds', all working in unison towards achieving this tangible proof of the existence of other dimensions. Other teams were preparing to work with similar groups. Some had already started.

Over the past few months, there had been many images produced on the video films, many of these obtained during a period of full light. The team had explained that some of the beings who were projecting images onto the videotape were only able to project their thoughts in an abstract manner. Consequently, many of the images that would be seen in the future would be abstract shapes and patterns. Most recently, however, they had tended to portray animated faces. The images raised many more questions than the group had answers for. They could only show them to us and let us speculate on their origin and implications. These moving images of 'other dimensions of reality' were truly amazing.

As the day went on we heard statement upon statement about the group's experiences which would challenge anyone's credulity. But there was something down to earth and honest about these people, a fact which, for us, added weight to their presentation. On the long journey back to Essex, we agreed that one thing was certain: we must find out more. As soon as we arrived home, we wrote to the group, proposing that we write a book about their work. A few days later, we received a reply. The group had consulted the spirit team, who considered the time 'indeed right' for such a book to be written.

It is important for a wider audience to learn about the Scole Experiment, for this story has far-reaching implications for us all. As Harry said, it could change the way we collectively view the nature of life itself. To begin with, however, we can only ask that you suspend all preconceptions for a short while and read on to discover more about the unique Scole Experiment.

This ground-breaking book records a five-year investigation into human interaction with paranormal phenomena. Members of the Scole Experimental Group and investigators from the highly regarded Society for Psychical Research scientifically observed, measured and assessed these phenomena, with extraordinary results.

'The investigators...encountered evidence favouring the hypothesis of intelligent forces, whether originating in the human psychie or from discarnate sources, able to influence material objects, and to convey associated meaningful messages, both visual and aural.' Montague Keen, Professor Arthur Ellison and Professor David Fontana.

'I had the opportunity to take part in two sessions of the Scole Experimental Group in 1995 and 1996. My own observations as well as later personal reports of my colleagues left me convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena.' Dr Ernst Senkowski, Experimental Physicist.

Grant and Jane Solomon are investigators and writers in the field of 'spiritual science', an emerging area of study in which the investigator seeks physical (i.e. real to the senses) evidence for those experiences in people's lives that have to-date been grouped in the category of 'paranormal phenomena'. Grant is the author of 'Stephen Turoff, Psychic Surgeon' (see Amazon.com), a book about a man with extraordinary healing abilities. Jane and Grant are the authors of 'Harry Oldfield's Invisible Universe' (Amazon.com), which chronicles the achievements of a remarkable scientist who, amongst many other things, invents instruments by which the invisble universe of paranormal phenomena might become more visible to those without the natural abilities to perceive them. Grant and Jane also write articles for newspapers and magazines and have appeared on a number of the television and radio programmes which are increasingly devoting more and more air-time to discussion of these subjects.

Introduction

'I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.'C.G Jung

Four people sat in a dark cellar. Two of them went into trance and conveyed messages from a team of spirit communicators. The other two followed the spirits' instructions. They put brand new films on the table, films which had never been in a camera. Afterwards the films were developed. Images were found on them - handwriting, hieroglyphs and other symbols and messages.

This was the work of the Scole Experimental Group. It offered thought-provoking evidence in support of the notion that there may be life after death. Similar experiments had been conducted in the past, with 'mental mediumship' being used to try to prove that conscious discarnate beings can communicate through a human instrument, the medium. Unfortunately, messages from Aunt Doris might convince her nephew, but they are not always ideal for scientific study. A sceptic can say, 'That was chance', 'coincidence', 'intuition', 'a good guess' and so on. So, in 1993, the Scole Experimental Group embarked on a five-year experiment using a revolutionary kind of 'physical mediumship' to produce solid objects from the spirit world. The term 'solid objects' means things recognisable to our senses or our instruments, that is, visible manifestations, lights, sounds, touches, tastes and smells. Some of the tangible objects took the form of messages transmitted onto photographic film, audiotape and videotape.

The idea behind physical mediumship is simple: physical evidence of survival is transmitted from the spirit world to our world. Then, once something physical is here, it can be scientifically measured and assessed. Mental mediumship is hard to prove scientifically. However, solid phenomena are different. Experiments can be conducted, tests undertaken, scientific procedures implemented. With such experiments in the past, the aim was always to get a permanent paranormal object, a tangible 'thing' that could have only come from 'somewhere else', without any possible trickery involved. A fabled example is two interlocking rings made of two different types of wood with no join in the rings. This type of solid object would be considered 'convincing proof' as it could not be produced by 'normal means'. The aim of the Scole experimental group was to produce not just one solid object but such a huge number and variety that scientists would have to sit up and take notice.

In fact it was not long before a variety of senior scientists, including some very experienced researchers into the unknown, became interested in the phenomena being produced. The Scole group was happy to allow scientific scrutiny of their work, a fact which impressed the scrutineers. The investigating team included electrical engineers, astrophysicists, criminologists, psychologists-and mathematicians. They were most interested in the photographic films because the time and method of production of these films could be controlled. They asked to attend experimental sessions in order to control certain parameters. Still the images appeared on the films. Some of the scientists found this hard to explain and suggested that extra precautions be taken, including bringing their own films and putting them in a padlocked box for the duration of the session. Yet again the images appeared on the films. But now they were slightly different. Instead of being simply photos of faces and places, they were cryptic messages, clues to puzzles that the investigators were invited to solve.

Later, even more amazing images were received on videotape and messages were transmitted onto audiotape. Objects materialised, lights danced and solid beings appeared before previously sceptical observers.

The unique and revolutionary evidence provided by the Scole Experiment may suggest that solid scientific proof of survival may not be far off. If so, there are unavoidable and far-reaching implications for us all. It would be proof that we do not die ...