Evidence of the Afterlife | Robert Lyon, Kerry McLeod + Philip Dykes - Part 2 (Episode 197)
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Evidence of the Afterlife director Robert Lyon and evidential mediums Kerry McLeod and Philip Dykes return for Part 2 of this conversation on the documentary and the practice behind it. In this episode, Robert describes the reading that convinced him of an afterlife, and Kerry and Philip explain how mediums tell their own thoughts apart from psychic impressions and communication from deceased people. The three also talk openly about doubt, fear of death and the unexpected moments behind three years of filming.
About This Episode
Robert Lyon is the director of Evidence of the Afterlife, a documentary following evidential mediums Kerry McLeod and Philip Dykes as they teach and demonstrate around the world. Both Kerry and Philip held senior roles in executive management before becoming mediums. In this episode they discuss the discipline behind evidential mediumship, the risk of diluted training, and how two mediums share a marriage.
Robert’s Turning Point
About a year and a half ago in Miami, Robert set his camera aside to fill an empty seat in a practice reading
He describes 15 minutes of rapid images: a grandfather’s black classic car in a suburban driveway, a brick fireplace and a white shag carpet
The details kept coming, from a red and white stained glass lamp to fridge magnets from every city her grandfather visited
Snowball fights in Central Park and a horse drawn carriage ride followed, each confirmed by the sitter
The message, he says, came with her grandmother, who passed when the woman was very young: her grandparents are together and fine
In Troy, Ohio, a bearded sport fisherman father came to Robert unprompted while he filmed a student who was struggling with her reading
Psychic Information vs. Evidential Mediumship
Kerry calls it a three part struggle for developing mediums: is it my own mind, the person in front of me, or someone who has passed?
Psychic work, she says, feels “one dimensional,” like one physical person understanding another
Mediumship feels “like psychic times ten,” so animated and emotional that she becomes the communicator
Philip compares psychic work to a glass of water and mediumship to a bucket of champagne
A private reading can move between the two, but a demonstration should be 100% evidence from the deceased person
Philip challenges every impression, and recalls a friend who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars acting on a poorly evidenced message
Certainty, Doubt and Fear of Death
Robert says he is 100% convinced of an afterlife, yet still wakes some mornings asking, “What if I’m wrong?”
Kerry and Philip say they do not fear death, only a painful dying process
Kerry says that even if the afterlife proves different than she expects, she has lived with intention and integrity
Philip calls consciousness one of the last frontiers for humanity to discover
Kerry warns that partially trained mediums are now training others, diluting the field
Her fear: when her own time comes, there may be no skilled medium left to reach her family
She hopes reputable scientists will investigate mediumship at a much deeper level
Two Mediums, One Marriage
Kerry and Philip first met as tutors at a UK mediumship seminar held once a year for three years
A coffee invitation at a 2017 summer seminar turned colleagues into friends, then a couple
They married and went straight into lockdown, which they joke meant it had to work
Before committing, they agreed to read each other, and Kerry says everything she found matched what Philip had told her
Their golden rule is never to read friends and family, a lesson Philip learned after losing a friendship early in his development
Today they don’t read each other either, choosing to ask, “Will you tell me when you’re ready?”
Behind the Scenes of Evidence of the Afterlife
Online critics and some friends and family have pushed back, and Robert lets the film speak for itself
His first documentary, Rinaldi, follows Brazilian instrumental transcommunication researcher Sonia Rinaldi
On his first night in Blackpool, Robert walked a mile out at low tide, then learned people have drowned there when the tide returns
He and Philip took a detour to Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where the Beatles played about 300 shows
At Australia’s Twelve Apostles, a huge wave soaked Kerry and Philip moments after Robert called the final shot
During an interview in New Mexico, Robert says a wooden artwork flew from medium Tom Newman’s bookshelf and landed two feet away
Robert describes editing three years of footage into an 80 minute film as a process that “just kind of comes to me”
About Robert Lyon, Kerry McLeod + Philip Dykes
Robert Lyon is a Miami-based filmmaker, former CBS photojournalist and director of Evidence of the Afterlife. Kerry McLeod and Philip Dykes are evidential mediums from Scotland and Lancashire, England, who teach and demonstrate mediumship internationally.
Connect
Kerry McLeod + Philip Dykes, Psychic Mediums + Tutors
Website: Philip Dykes + Kerry McLeod
Robert Lyon, Director
Website: We Don't Die Films
Watch: Evidence of the Afterlife
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