Something that our spiritual work at the Centre has not involved hitherto is much research. We host an annual visit from the Department of Parapsychology at Northampton University which is when we hear about some of the latest work from the team there, and we have some plans for our own research which I will write about another time.

 

But there is an ever-increasing amount of parapsychological and spiritual research going on in the world and we would like to recognise, disseminate it and learn from it. To that end we have invited Dr Oliver Lazar to come to Edinburgh (from Germany) to speak about a very promising vein of evidence for Survival that he seems to have tapped.

 

Oliver is a scientist – a medical doctor, a computer specialist, a general polymath of the sciences – who lived an entirely left-brain life until he was 43. He then had an extraordinary experience in which a young girl who had been killed in a traffic accident contacted him from the beyond and provided information that he had no idea about but which, when presented to the girl’s parents, turned out to be very accurate. Oliver‘s right brain was activated and, as he would now say, his soul too, in a series of  overwhelming contacts from what appeared to be Spirit.

 

Many scientists would have left things there, perhaps with a big question mark over them – after all, Oliver was a rationalist materialist from his earliest years – but his inquiring mind couldn’t just nod and move on – he needed to know. Three years of thinking and working later he has set up a flourishing research programme (called EREAMS, an acronym in German) in which, using two very effective mediums, he has been able to comfort more than 500 sets of bereaved parents by bringing them messages from their dead children of a most convincing kind. One of his mediums, Bettina Suvi-Rode, took part in one of our Tuesday Talks in 2022 and spoke of her abilities.

 

Oliver has now written an account of this investigation, telling his own story and moving on to his research plans. For us this is like gold dust – a fully-fledged scientist looking into matters spiritual with all the objectivity and prudence you would expect for such a person. His book has been translated; I have read it myself and it made a strong impression on me. I am certain that it will alter the views of everyone who reads it

 

Once the book is out Oliver will visit us at the Centre, probably in October, to give a talk and hold a seminar on his work. He has remarkable English and is most engaging; I am looking forward to his appearance here in Edinburgh very keenly. His work shows the way forward, I think, for research in our area and we are lucky that he has agreed to come to us in Scotland, more or less first.