Materialisatie Montague Keen

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by Danny Penman in the Daily Mail, June 22, 2004

BY THE time the paramedics arrived at the Royal Society of Arts it was too late. The soul of Montague Keen had left his body and his corpse was cooling on the floor. His wife, Veronica, stood watching, tears flooding down her face.

Her friends whispered words of hope, but in her heart she knew her husband's time had come. Moments before his death from a sudden heart attack in January this year, Montague had been engaged in a passionate debate on the paranormal at the Royal Society of Arts headquarters in Central London.

Although he made his living as a farmer and agricultural writer, the study of paranormal phenomena had been his life's work and one that he lived and breathed to the last.

Just before his life slipped away, the 78-year-old turned to his wife and, in a private gesture, reaffirmed a remarkable pact he had made with her some years earlier. Both had promised that whoever died first would endeavour to send a message from beyond the grave.

If successful, such contact would not merely offer comfort to the grieving spouse, it would - their eyes - settle the debate, once and for all, about whether life continued after death.

It was a romantic pledge on an epic scale and one that Montague was determined to keep.

And now, scientists in America claim to have discovered compelling evidence that Montague's soul has, indeed, survived and is working from the spirit world to fulfil his promise.

Using some of the most rigorous scientific tests ever devised to research the paranormal, Professor Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona has been investigating psychics who claim to have made contact with Montague's spirit. His conclusions are intriguing.

'Montague still exists,' says Professor Schwartz. 'It's clear to me that he is continuing his work from the other side. He is passing information to us through spiritual mediums.

'As a scientist myself, I have to be neutral and unbiased in my work and its significance. I have to sit on the fence. But the data given to us by Monty has pushed me off that fence. I'm now convinced that the survival of the soul after physical death is the only explanation that fits the data we've gathered.'

Could he be right? Of course, many claims have been made about the existence of the afterlife before, only to be revealed at a later date as the work of trickery or delusion.

But Professor Schwartz is not some mental conjurer, eager to enthrall the gullible. He has a doctorate from Harvard University, has served as Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and as director of one of America's foremost behavioural medicine clinics. He has edited 11 academic books and published more than 400 scientific papers.

Montague Keen was likewise an intelligent and dedicated man who had held a senior post with the National Farmers' Union. Throughout his life, he had investigated reports of paranormal happenings from across the globe, serving on the council of the respected Society for Psychical Research for 55 years subjecting all the cases he investigated to the utmost scrutiny.

During the 1980s he investigated crop circles and concluded that many were hoaxes. A decade later, he was the principal investigator into the so-called 'Scole group' of mediums. These psychics, who lived In the Norfolk village of Scole, claimed to receive messages from beyond the grave.

After years of research, Montague concluded that the mediums were not fraudulent, but he was unsure whether their unique power came from psychic forces in the human mind or from the spirit world.

Because of his respected track record, many paranormal researchers believed that if anyone could prove the existence of the afterlife, it would be Montague. Little did they realise would be his own death that would contribute so tantalisingly to that debate.

In the first few weeks after Montague's death, mediums around the world reported receiving messages from an unknown spirit. At first the messages were fuzzy, almost out of focus. The words were garbled, as if a child was learning to talk. But very quickly the thoughts and messages became clearer and sharper.

One of the first mediums who came forward with a coherent message was Dinesh Solanki, who had attended Montague's funeral wake.

'Monty said that he wanted Veronica to convert his ashes into a diamond, which was to be worn as a necklace,' recalls Dinesh. 'I was a little shocked because it sounded a strange thing to do.'

Veronica was stunned by the insight: 'Monty and I were discussing this in bed the night before he died,' she says. 'Dinesh could not have known this. It was known only to me and Monty. For me, this was the first concrete evidence that Monty had, indeed, survived death.'

Shortly afterwards, the Irish medium Christine Holohan claims she received a message for Veronica from Montague. It was simple and to the point.

'He wanted to remind me to plant the spring barley' says Veronica. 'It was pure Monty to worry about getting the crops planted In time. He contacted Christine at 11pm, but assured her it wasn't too late to call, as I was still awake reading a book in bed.' Indeed, that was exactly what she had been doing.

In both cases, the psychics had been investigated by Montague during the course of his research, so their 'messages' could be ascribed to good guesswork.

Shortly afterwards, mediums around the world contacted Veronica to say that Montague still passionately loved her and that she should continue her work.

Cynics might point out that such generalised messages were hardly revelatory. And after all, it would be in the mediums' interests to come forward with any 'proof' that their psychic powers were genuine. But what struck Veronica was the astonishing accuracy of some of the reports, which were accompanied by details that only she and her husband would know.

'Monty described his death to several mediums,' says Veronica, who still lives in North London. 'He told one that he was bitterly upset when I was moved away from him as he was dying. He couldn't move his lips to talk to me, but he desperately wanted to say goodbye one last time.'

All of this spiritual chatter from Montague eventually caught the ear of Professor Schwartz. Having met Montague during the course of his research, he immediately saw the value of trying to make contact with him in the afterlife.

'Montague was a renowned psychic investigator,' says Professor Schwartz. 'If anyone could communicate after they died, it would be him.'

Professor Schwartz moved swiftly to begin a rigorous, scientifically controlled study of Montague's apparent return. He began a 'double-blind' trial.

In this, four top mediums with no previous knowledge of Montague's work were selected and asked to make contact with the spirit world under controlled conditions.

None of the mediums knew the name of the spirit they were trying to contact. They were given only Veronica's first name and her relationship with the deceased. The mediums were then asked to make contact with the spirit world and to see if any presence was trying to make contact.

Before long, all reported that there was, indeed, a spiritual force trying to reach 'Veronica'. The messages they relayed were then scoured for facts that could be independently checked for accuracy.

Then the mediums were asked to make contact with the spirit world again, this time to receive any message from other, unrelated spirits.

This was known as the 'control study', designed to see whether the messages from Montague's spirit were in any way different from other supposed spirits. These, too, were investigated for accuracy.

Veronica was then separately tested to see if she could pick out which messages had been provided by Montague's spirit and which came from other 'voices'.

'To add another layer of rigour, I was not involved in collecting the data,' says Professor Schwartz, 'I did not wish to be accused of blasing the results.'

The experiments were devised to be so thorough that the only way the results could be skewed was by massive and elaborate fraud - or a million to one statistical fluke.

And when the first results came in, they were astonishing. Professor Schwartz says that more than 80 per cent of the information transmitted by Montague to the mediums proved to be correct.

His spirit was able to accurately describe his death and where it happened. It also described the manner of his father's death in World War Il.

The spirit also correctly stated that Veronica had installed new blinds in their house a few days previously. He even predicted that an article about his death would appear in the pages of the Daily Mail.

There were other tantalising revelations, but Professor Schwartz declines to reveal them, as he is preparing a scientific paper on his findings.

But he will confirm that, after these intriguing results, he dug a little deeper to see if one of the mediums could convince him personally that they were, indeed, in contact with Montague.

The experiment was re-run with a few changes. This time more than 90 per cent of the information proved to be accurate. And some of it was even more specific.

Professor Schwartz says: 'Under controlled conditions the medium said that September 23 was an important date for the spirit he had made contact with. That is the date of Montague's and Veronica's wedding anniversary.'

Given that the medium did not even know Montague's or Veronica's surname, there was no way of her knowing this. Encouraged by his findings, Professor Schwartz began to 'debrief' Montague's spirit about his experiences beyond the grave.

'Monty was surprised about how similar to "real" life the afterlife appeared to be,' says Professor Schwartz. 'He was surprised about how easy it was to "experience" Veronica and life in general. It's almost as if he's walking among us.

'He says that time does not exist in the afterlife in the same way it does for us. He experiences time because it affects those he loves, not because it affects him directly. He's also less worried about what people think of him. The ego appears to die.'

Professor Schwartz is now planning to extend his work. With Montague's help, and that of other spirits, he hopes to build up a comprehensive picture of what he believes to be the afterlife.

Through presenting such evidence to the world, he hopes to persuade even the most cynical minds that we are only just beginning to understand the nature of the human soul.

In the meantime, Professor Schwartz has already begun to re-think his own life and how it may best prepare him for the spirit world.

'The afterlife appears to be very much coloured by what we experience in this life,' says Professor Schwartz. 'By opening our minds to this before we die, we can take full advantage of the afterlife. If not, we will become imprisoned by our biases and beliefs.'

For Montague's widow, too, the results of the Professor's work have had a profound impact. She is now convinced that her husband is still with her in spirit form, testimony to their enduring love.

'People assume that only the young can love this deeply,' she says. 'It's not true. We are soul mates that should never be apart. We are still connected emotionally and spiritually.

'I miss him so much. My one consolation is he says he can't wait to show me around the spirit world. We travelled all around the globe together, so eternity has to be next.'

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