Were the Mediums Genuine on Surviving Death Netflix: Mediumship Episode?
“Studying consciousness tells us more about how the world is fundamentally strange. I think we have a few revolutions to go yet before we get to the bottom of it.”- David Chalmers
Reading Time 7 mins 21 sec
Surviving Death Netflix: Episodes 2 + 3: Mediumship
I have had a lot of medium readings since the death of my dad.
Having had over 50 medium readings and exploring if there is any evidence of an afterlife, a lot of people have been asking me my opinion of Netflix, “Surviving Death,” episodes 2 and 3 on mediumship.
Yes, I know that is a lot of medium readings. Yes, they have helped with grief, but really for me, it is about exploring the evidence of an afterlife, the nature of consciousness, and how mind-blowing and profound it is to watch an ordinary person defy the laws of the universe.
Not all of them do, of course, but to even watch a few give an accurate reading, gives insight into the very nature of our consciousness. Being skeptical and not especially believing in anything spiritual or any “extraordinary claims,” I can’t imagine ever not feeling a bit thrilled and shocked when I see a medium know things they could not have known by normal means.
Read my take on Netflix Surviving Death Episode 1 Near Death Experiences (NDE’s) and Episode 5 Seeing Dead People.
Netflix Surviving Death Episode 02 and 03: - Mediumship
Psychic Mediums Sandra O’Hara, Angelina Diana, and Laura Lynn Jackson read for Mike Anthony whose dad has passed away.
The episode opens in Leslie Kean’s apartment (the author of the book “Surviving Death” that the docuseries was based on.) In the opening the medium, Sandra O’Hara, is giving a small group reading. Full disclosure, I cannot be completely unbiased since I already have a strong opinion of Sandra’s abilities. I have had a reading with her, and I also know a few other people whose assessment I trust, who have also had readings with her. All of us were very impressed.
During the opening you see Sandra read the small group and get some information that could be accurate, but it is so edited and cut short, that unfortunately you don’t really get to evaluate the quality of the evidence or of the reading. You do get a brief view into a group reading.
One of the attendees and main sitters (people who get readings from mediums), Mike Anthony, is a logical skeptic who went on a mission to explore the evidence of an afterlife, after the death of his father and wrote a book, “Love, Dad.” In this episode he shares a bit of his experiences with mediums. I know Mike - unsurprisingly, considering our stories are so similar. I trust his assessment as well. Exactly like me, he states that his rational mind is always working and keeps him on the path of exploration. Also, he states that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” and that these claims (that our consciousness survives and that the mediums talk to dead people) is the biggest claim ever made. So our minds work similarly.
Mike shares that the first psychic medium reading he ever had was with a medium Angelina Diana, who blew his mind when she gave a very specific message he had asked for from his dad. I also had an amazing reading with her, have met her a few times, and I have seen her give group readings, so again I am not going into this with a fresh set of eyes. But knowing he thought highly of Angelina (and not so highly of other readings he had had - something he told me when I met him), I believe his story about what happened with Angelina.
Mike was skeptical but these mediums seemed to get really accurate and evidential information.
You also can watch him get a reading with another psychic medium, Laura Lynn Jackson. The docuseries shows a clip and again, I have to sit this one out in terms of a neutral assessment. I also knew beforehand he was amazed by her reading, and I also have seen her give group readings where she blew me and the room away. She is one of the first mediums I met, when I assumed this was all nonsense, and she helped change my mind. So seeing the accurate snippets she gave to Mike, was hard for me to evaluate instead of just appreciate. However, the information she gave seemed specific and ungoogleable.
Before I delve into the rest, I will say I would have liked to see a bit more about Laura and Sandra, and get more of a “behind the scenes” peak into how Mike (and sitters in general) hid their information from both mediums. Also I would’ve liked to have seen how the mediums prep for readings, how they experience readings, and some details about the testing and experiments they have participated in. I know what these two mediums are capable of, and I think they should have been given more time.
Chris Roe, PhD, President of the Society for Psychical Research and Deborah Blum are voices of logic and reason.
A voice of knowledge and reason, Chris Roe, PhD, who is president of the Society for Psychical Research, gave a bit of history of mediumship and stated how scientists such as Marie Curie had an interest in mediumship. He also discussed that there was a lot of fraud historically detected when mediums held seances.
Another voice of reason is Deborah Blum, who is the director of the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She shares how there have been remarkable stories, such as mediums in the past who have levitated off the ground and could manifest objects out of nowhere. However, she explained, the above mentioned SPR has unsurprisingly detected lots of fraud in this physical mediumship. She does retain a curiosity instead of only dismissing physical mediumship as nonsense.
School to become a psychic medium.
The rest of the episode is primarily dedicated to a medium school and retreat in which a few mediums are featured. One who makes an appearance that I can vouch for from a very evidential reading as well as from some other people I trust who stand behind him, is Colin Bates. I do not know any of the other mediums.
Psychic and energy healing
There is a medium who goes into a trance and does a physical healing on a man who has had muscle cramps and pain. It is definitely dramatic, with the man crying, and his wife later stating she now had her husband back. He seemed healed. Interesting, but in my mind an extraordinary claim that needed to be delved into much more deeply to be taken seriously. Healing is a whole other chapter/topic and is not mediumship. Such healing is fascinating, and something I know very little about.
I think to have done this one right, the man’s doctors should have been interviewed first. He should have gotten a medical assessment with tests before and after. I cannot explain how this part should have been specifically conducted, since I am not a doctor, but tests taking vitals etc should have been done before, maybe during - if possible?, right after, and a few months afterwards.
Healing from the grief of his dad passing away.
A man who lost his father when he was young attended this event in order to learn more about mediumship, have some closure, and connect with his dad. He did get a reading. It was not evidential. To be completely fair to the medium giving it, I have seen good mediums have an off reading, so I will not dismiss his abilities, but I did not think this medium demonstrated abilities in this episode either. However, the man who wanted to connect with his dad, did not seem to need the level of evidence more sciencey people do, and he stated he was happy.
Seance and Trance Mediumship
Now one of the mediums who got the most coverage in both mediumship episodes 2 and 3, was Nicole de Haas. The coverage of her has been quite controversial. She states she is a trance medium. As opposed to some of the others who communicate with your loved ones and bring you evidence, knowing they are doing so, Nicole goes into a deep trance, is unaware of her surroundings, and essentially her consciousness is taken over by spirit guides. This is called a seance. I personally have attended two seances, back to back, by the same medium and I can say they were nothing more than a carnival sideshow. Pure stage magic, that wasn’t very good.
I cannot make a definitive statement on Nicole’s abilities, but I can give a general assessment which is just an opinion. A small group of people joined Nicole sitting in a circle in folding chairs in a room. Nicole entered what is called a cabinet, which is a curtained chair in the circle. The lights went out. It was completely dark.
The medium then began to enter a trance state and channeled spirits who she regularly “works” with. Her voice became husky as she channeled “Silver Cloud” and then high-pitched as she channeled another regular, a little boy Tommy. A deceased father of one of the attendees was claimed to be there. It did seem absurd. I can’t say whether she genuinely believes or not, but there was nothing evidential that came through.
Later this same medium Nicole came to Mike’s home and gave a reading to his family. The evidence seemed strong until they realized a lot of the statements were on Facebook. Since there were not enough controls, I have no idea or valid opinion if this is accurate or not. It would not be fair to Nicole to assume she did cheat. It would not be fair to assume she didn’t.
Laura also makes another appearance and brings in some impressive information about the daughter of Mike’s family friend. This mother seems very moved and convinced by the message.
They also touch on another physical medium, Stewart Alexander, who has supposedly done some remarkable, “defy the laws of the universe” phenomena. He holds weekly “circles” in England, where the same group of people have attended for years. During the circles, he supposedly causes physical phenomena to occur and he connects with people’s deceased loved ones. I know Leslie Kean is a part of that circle, joining through ZOOM. In an episode, Mike Anthony joins a special guest from Zoom with Leslie, and seems to get some pretty great evidence.
From knowing Leslie, I trust her assessment. And from all I have heard about Stewart Alexander, I think there seems to be something absolutely astounding going on. But, if I did not know any of these people, and stumbled across this show, I am not sure I would be convinced.
Studying psychic mediums needs strict controls and protocols.
If I could have decided how Stewart Alexander, and physical mediumship was shown, I would have delved in deeper. I would have added a second physical seance medium, had a few stage magicians assess the set beforehand and make sure there were no ways the mediums could cheat. Then these stage magicians would have attended the seances and assessed. I have a biased opinion of how it would have turned out - which if I was to do this as a genuine experiment, might not be the case at all! I imagine one of the physical mediums being similar to the dog and pony show I attended, and very easily exposed. I then imagine them contrasted with Stewart Alexander, who would absolutely astound them.
In terms of Nicole, and the mediums in general, I would have liked to see the sitters work with researchers to put strong protocols to hide their identities in place. I think there was way too much emphasis spent on the channeling of guides like the little boy “Tommy” as opposed to the actual science.
Also, all readings were conducted in person. One of the most evidential types of readings are phone readings, when the medium cannot see who they are reading. They can’t “cold-read” based on appearance, age, or unintentional facial or body language cues.
In the NDE episode, Netflix featured top caliber researchers such as Dr. Bruce Greyson. Then later in the reincarnation episode, Netflix focused on Dr.Jim Tucker, and the research he has conducted on children with past life memories. Along with Dr. Greyson, he is part of a serious research team from the University of Virginia that has studied this inexplicable phenomenon using top level protocols. Netflix was not as discerning in who they featured in the mediumship episodes. It touched lightly on some of the best mediums, who are taken seriously by the top-level researchers, but included many less evidential and verifiable aspects of mediumship. If other episodes focused on the most convincing and paradigm shifting evidence, the same standard should have been applied across the board from reincarnation and NDEs to mediumship. Although bits were included, that same caliber was not given to the mediumship episodes.
More scientific evidence of mediumship
I wish they had delved deeply into the strongest evidence of mediumship, showing in-depth those few mediums who truly seem to challenge the laws of the universe, and our understanding of consciousness (something I know Sandra O’Hara, Laura Lynn Jackson, Colin Bates and a few others, are capable of). I also wish they had focused on the scientific studies of mediums as much as they did of NDE’s and reincarnation. Yes, these two episodes of mediumship were entertaining, and could leave you questioning, but many other shows have approached mediumship in this way. Since other episodes in this Docuseries tackled the best and most serious evidence of other life after death phenomena, I wish they had focused on mediumship with the same discernment.
Watch it! I would love to know what you think. Or if you have any questions about my take or want me to elaborate - Comment below on this article or email me by clicking here -liz@wtfjusthappened.net