Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

NARRATOR: Tonight, a special unsolved mysteries report,

Mysteries of the Afterlife.

It is perhaps a fundamental question of the ages,

the ultimate mystery.

What happens when we die?

Physical death does not exist.

The body dies, but there is a new body waiting for you

and you simply step into that and there you are.

I know what it's like to die.

I know what it was like to see the other side,

and I know what it's like to come back.

NARRATOR: In recent years, thousands of credible people

have come forward with remarkable accounts

of a transcendent journey to the brink of death,

until they have returned, transformed

by what they believed was a glimpse

into a life after this life.

The explosion of interest in such near-death experiences

has generated a lively and controversial debate.

Many people are now convinced traditional views of heaven

and hell may soon give way to a new concept

of what lies beyond the grave.

In the next hour, three dramatic stories about life,

death, and the hereafter.

In 1975, Dannion Brinkley was struck down by a powerful bolt

of lightning.

His miraculous near-death experience very literally

changed his life.

When Karen Walker died of cancer at 21,

her grief stricken parents embarked on a spiritual journey

that they say enabled them to communicate

with Karen's spirit.

To all appearances, Heidi Wyrick seems

like any other 8-year-old, but Heidi has consistently

described strange visions of people no one else can see,

real people who passed away long before Heidi was even born.

Is it simply her imagination, or does

Heidi have a special gift that enables

her to move among the dead?

Join us for this special report as we explore

the mysteries of the afterlife.

You're about to meet a psychic named Dannion Brinkley.

He is perhaps best known for his book "Saved by the Light,"

a dramatic account of his brush with the afterlife.

Dannion's is a remarkable story, made more remarkable

by the manner in which he apparently

acquired his psychic powers.

[thunder]

It was on a blustery night some 20 years ago,

September 17, 1975.

Severe thunderstorms were sweeping through the Southeast.

(ON TV): --37 miles per hour.

NARRATOR: Dannion, then 25, I was at home in Aiken,

South Carolina with his wife Sandy.

I'm going to check on dinner.

All right.

Hey Tommy.

NARRATOR: Dannion was on the phone with his best friend

Tom when the storm passed directly overhead.

[thunder]

--lightning flashing.

[sizzle]

NARRATOR: At least 180,000 volts of electricity

shot through Dannion's body.

A jolt so powerful it left his shoes welded to the floor.

Oh my god!

Dannion!

I couldn't move. I couldn't scream.

I couldn't talk.

I didn't know what had happened.

I was on fire and burning.

And then all of a sudden, I'm out of my body.

I saw Sandy checking me to see if I was breathing

and start to work on me and pushing on my chest

and clearing my airway.

Tommy heard the explosion and he was on his way over.

He got there, he was a corpsman in the Navy.

He wrapped me.

He went to work on me.

He's trying to get my heart started.

He's pushing, he's breathing in my mouth.

He's talking to me.

Come on!

I look over his shoulder, and in my mind,

the first thing I thought is I always thought I was a much

better looking guy than that.

But I never got a chance to think any more about it.

NARRATOR: For all intents and purposes,

Dannion Brinkley was clinically dead.

He claims that he then embarked on what

has come to be recognized as a classic near-death experience.

[thunder]

I start down this tunnel, I see

what appears to be a form coming out

of this beautiful misty blue.

Then all of a sudden, I saw a panoramic life of view.

I not only felt everything I had ever done

and saw everything I'd ever done,

I became every person that I had ever encountered.

NARRATOR: In his youth, Dannion was,

by his own admission, self-centered and mean,

nothing short of a bully.

The pattern continued during a tour of duty in Southeast Asia.

Dannion says he was now forced to confront those he had

victimized through the years.

I felt the pain and anguish and anger and frustration

that I had caused these people.

And people don't realize that you judge

yourself when this happens.

You just judge yourself.

And that's what I did.

NARRATOR: Dannion was rushed to the hospital.

In the emergency room, his breathing

faltered then stopped.

Minutes later, Dannion's best friend Tom Hall was

told that he was dead.

And I just had a hard time dealing with this.

So they wheeled Danny into this--

a little dark room.

I have no idea what made me go back in there.

I just had to see for myself.

And I just felt like that he wasn't gone.

And I saw the sheet moving.

I all of a sudden went from a spiritual place in world

back into this place where I'm in a hospital.

I'm under the sheet and I'm looking up at it.

I can't move.

I can't talk.

I'm on fire again.

Doctor.

Nurse! Doctor!

Nurse!

He-- he-- he's breathing!

NARRATOR: Miraculously, Dannion Brinkley

returned to life nearly 28 minutes after he

says he had been declared dead.

Dr. William said he's in pretty bad shape.

The way it looks that the lightning went down his back.

And I think he just shattered his nerve system.

The doctors never did say he'll die, or he'll live.

He never did.

He just said, well, take it one minute

at a time or one hour at a time, or one day at a time.

NARRATOR: After a week in the hospital Dannion was released.

He was hardly able to walk or talk.

His eyes were so light sensitive that he

had to wear dark welder's glasses at all times.

I was partially paralyzed for seven months.

And it took two years to learn to walk and feed myself.

And I had a lot of time to lie my back hurting so bad,

falling down and blacking out and breaking my nose,

and not knowing where I was.

But the visions and the things that had happened in this, now

what we call the near-death experience,

have stayed with me longer and more coherently than virtually

anything that ever happened.

NARRATOR: Dannion remembered being led into what looked

like a magnificent glowing cathedral, which he recognized

as a place of learning.

Before him were 13 figures, which he calls beings.

Dannion says the beings approached

him one at a time, each thrusting a box towards him.

Inside of each box were tiny images of an event

yet to happen.

Dannion claims that all together he

witnessed 117 future occurrences, including

the election of Ronald Reagan, the collapse of the Soviet

Union, and the Gulf War in 1991.

Dannion later shared his visions with several of his friends,

who are now willing to verify that Dannion did indeed predict

events before they happened.

Dannion first made his-- start making his predictions

as he was convalescing.

He was talking about Warren Wood, which became Chernobyl.

He was talking about the food lines in Russia,

about them starving.

And there was just a lot of predictions that you know,

that I didn't pay that much attention to them at the time.

He always talked about the Gulf

War, and the collapse of communism,

and things like that.

But at the time, you didn't think that much about it.

But then when it came about is when you

really start thinking about it.

What's the matter with you today?

I just got a lot on my mind Tommy.

NARRATOR: Dannion know believes that his near-death experience

marked the birth of his psychic abilities.

But in the months just after the accident,

he admits he was simply a dazed and bewildered

young man who had undergone a dramatic transformation.

--about crazy, you being dead and all.

That's just it Tommy.

I wasn't dead.

I was really confused.

I'd never heard of a near-death experience,

and I literally was driving people nuts because I wanted

somebody to tell me either it didn't happen,

which I knew it did, and--

or please explain it.

I've been astounded at the number of people

I've met who have had such an experience.

NARRATOR: Almost a year after the accident to the spring

of 1976, Dannion attended a lecture given by Doctor Raymond

Moody, one of the country's earliest authorities

on near-death experiences.

--are very notions of death.

DANNION BRINKLEY: That day changed my life

forever because that's when I knew I wasn't completely crazy.

--or perhaps someone here has had a similar experience.

Dr. Moody, I've heard one of them experiences.

He gave me a way for someone who was kind

and understanding to explain to me

what might have happened to me.

When I heard his account, it seemed

very consistent with what I had heard from many other people.

I saw this light and I started going towards it.

RAYMOND MOODY: It's something that happens to quite a number

of patients who get resuscitated following cardiac arrest,

and therefore for that reason, doctors

need to know about this so that they can reassure the patient

that they're not alone, that in fact,

that this occurs fairly frequently.

--these beams were like full of life.

NARRATOR: Dr. Moody is also able to verify at least one

of Dannion's predictions.

--and-- and things about the future.

Things that were going to happen to our country--

In April of 1976, he told me that in 1990 there

was going to be a breakdown of the Soviet Union,

and that there would be food disturbances and riots

in connection with it.

In the 19 years since his near-death experience,

Dannion has honed his psychic abilities.

Recently, those abilities were put

to the test when Dannion was asked to consult

on a brutal murder case.

On August 12, 1993, John and Nancy Bosco of Big Fork,

Montana had been shot to death, execution style as they slept.

The police investigation turned up absolutely no leads.

Two months later, John's mother Toni met with Dannion Brinkley.

He immediately began to describe a suspect.

This is a kid.

This is a slight build kid with black hair.

This is someone who knows John.

He knew the layout of this house.

He's away at college.

In the very early part of December,

this little kid will be caught and he's in a college

somewhere out west.

I have to say that I just shook my head

and I thought to myself, I made a mistake in coming down.

Dannion doesn't-- this isn't going to get me anywhere.

I couldn't begin to make sense out of what he was saying.

NARRATOR: But amazingly.

Dannion Brinkley was correct on all counts.

Just as he predicted, a suspect, 18-year-old Shadow Clark

was arrested in December and later convicted.

Incredibly, Clark had lived in the murder house,

did know the Boscos, and he was attending college in the west.

Dannion had apparently solved the case

through the power of his mind.

This is new to me, and sometimes it's

troublesome because I pick up things that I

don't want to know about.

And if someone's intense around me I'm perceiving it.

But-- and I try to--

I'm still trying to figure out ways to turn it off, OK?

And at the same time, ways to perfect it.

Enjoy the experiments.

I want you to only respond with--

NARRATOR: In an attempt to verify Dannion's

purported powers, noted parapsychologist

Dr. William Roll observed Dannion in a series of tests.

OK, Dannion.

You mind if I just see your hand?

OK.

NARRATOR: Dannion gave readings for eight

people he had never met before.

In several instances, he picked out

details about the lives of these individuals.

There were facts that he could not have known.

It was like you knew when to pull out.

And that's recognized by your family.

WILLIAM ROLL: From the brief experiments we did this time,

I would say he is one of the more remarkable psychics

that I have worked with for sure,

and perhaps in the country.

Hey lady, how are you doing?

[kiss]

We're fine today.

Looking pretty today.

Hi young lady.

NARRATOR: Today, Dannion Brinkley

devotes much of his time to volunteering

at hospices and nursing homes throughout the country.

Jim, how are things going?

NARRATOR: Dannion believes that his own profound experience

has left him uniquely qualified to counsel others.

Hi, Ellen.

How are you do?

Hi.

[kiss] Good to see you again.

DANNION BRINKLEY: They say you never can know what it's

like until you've been there.

I know what it's like to be afraid.

I know what it's like to face death.

I know what happens when the doctors and the religious world

loses its credibility to you at certain stages.

Hi Kerry.

[inaudible].

How you feel?

Doing fine.

You have the flowers looking really great this morning.

Thank you so much.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the most remarkable aspect

of Dannion's story is his transformation

from a self-centered bully of his youth

to The Good Samaritan of today.

DANNION BRINKLEY: I have found a way to receive love from people

in hospices in nursing homes.

And I don't know if that's balance in the books,

but I don't care whether that is or not, for I've dealt with it.

And have dealt with all that I've been

and all that's happened to me.

And I dealt with it and then I went to work.

NARRATOR: If Dannion Brinkley's was an isolated case,

it might be easy to explain away or perhaps even dismiss.

But incredibly, some researchers estimate

that more than 8 million Americans have

had a near-death experience.

But few claim to become psychics.

Many of them describe a journey fantastically

similar to Dannion Brinkley's.

TOM SAWYER: As I went unconscious, all I saw

was darkness.

That darkness gradually took the shape of a tunnel.

And way off, absolutely positively to infinity,

appeared this little speck of white light.

This was the most beautiful thing that I'd

ever experienced in my life.

It was just extraordinary.

I then experienced a complete total life review.

I was then given a choice to return to normal life

or stay and become part of this light.

Prior to this experience, what I had figured out

was that when you die, you die.

The show is over.

Everything goes black and that's it.

I had thought about such things as religion and so on.

And I thought that it was just a bunch of foolishness.

KRISTLE MERZLOCK: I didn't really know where I was.

It's just that I looked up and I saw this bright light

at the end of the tunnel.

And there were colored bricks on the walls of a tunnel.

And then I saw this lady. She took my hand.

She said I'm Elizabeth and I will help you.

She just led me into the light and through the light

and into heaven.

I just felt that this was the place I wanted to be.

I was still alive there was still a part of me,

like my soul my spirit was still alive.

I wasn't dead at all.

NARRATOR: The near-death experience

is not a recent phenomenon.

Reports of people coming back from the dead date

to the Middle Ages.

However, over the last two decades,

advances in modern medicine have made dramatic resuscitation

much more frequent.

RAYMOND MOODY: There's no question in my mind

that near-death experiences are real to the people

to whom they happen.

That is then it's interpreted as a real event.

It makes enormous change in their life and so on.

And so it's in that sense, it's a part of their reality.

But for the rest of us who haven't

had that kind of experience, we just can't know.

We can't know based on what someone else says or reports.

NARRATOR: Is the near-death experience truly

a peek into the afterlife?

Or is it the physical manifestation of a human body

breaking down as it dies?

Dr. Susan Blackmore, a psychologist,

believes all the major components

of the near-death experience can be explained.

There are two main things that we need to understand that are

happening in the brain either when it comes close to death,

or it's under severe stress.

One of these is the lack of oxygen. The tunnel is

a good example of something I think

we can explain in terms of what's happening in the brain.

In the visual cortex, where all visual information

is processed, we know that the way the cells are laid out

is so that there are lots and lots of cells

towards the middle of what you're looking at, fading out

towards lots of the outside.

Now when you come close to death or under severe stress,

what happens is that all these cells start randomly firing.

Well, what's that going to look like?

It's going to look like a bright light in the middle,

fading off towards dark on the outside.

Then you'll find that lack of oxygen

will produce visions, hallucinations, flashbacks

to one's past life, and even feelings of floating, flying,

and out-of-body experiences.

Endorphins also can do that.

They act to make you feel relaxed, floating, pleasant.

It's a very, very nice feeling.

Terrible things might be happening.

Your body might be down there, blood all over the place,

you know.

But it feels OK.

And I think candidates best lead to a kind

of mystical acceptance, which can be quite profound.

I would have to say that some of the things they're saying

is true.

That that may be happening to some.

It may be hallucinations to others.

But then there were those of us that moved a step past that,

and we have a soul where powerful spiritual beings--

I'm starting where their definitions

and explanations leave off.

Many people argue that if you can understand

all these experiences in terms of brain

chemicals, that somehow makes them an important,

but not so at all.

The fact that you can see your life in a different context,

feel different about yourself and about other people, see

what's important and what isn't important,

that's what changes lives.

I don't mind if that's created by brain chemicals

or going to heaven.

The important fact is that it can make you a better person.

The explanations that I have heard proposed of near-death

experiences are interesting.

And of course, you know, we should encourage

physiological studies of everything, all kinds

of mental states and so on.

But my assessment is that we just don't

know the answer to this yet.

And that I don't feel myself in any great hurry

to come to the answer yet.

I mean, it's a mystery.

NARRATOR: If we are to believe, even for an instant,

that the living can go to the brink of death and return,

then we must consider another incredible possibility.

Can the dead themselves come back from the other side,

perhaps to take care of unfinished business?

The death of a family member is perhaps

one of the most difficult experiences any of us

will ever endure.

Who among us has not longed for just

one final opportunity to speak with a departed loved one?

Incredibly, woman in Southern California

believes she got that chance after the death

of her daughter.

Karen Walker was the only child of Jean and Tom Walker.

Born in 1949, Karen had what would be considered a perfectly

ordinary upbringing.

Karen was a very imaginative child, a very affectionate

person, very bright, read extensively from the time

she was about three.

I know Lori had to read to her.

She would read the stories to me instead, which was wonderful.

NARRATOR: One story in particular

would come to symbolize the closeness Karen

and her parents felt for each other, "The Three Musketeers."

The familiar phrase, "all for one, one for all"

became the Walker family motto.

When Karen was 17, the family circle

expanded to include her new boyfriend, Jim Alvarado.

Karen and Jim seemed an unlikely match.

Jim came from a large working class family.

He was a poor student who had been

told he'd never amount to much.

Karen knew better.

She saw something in me in terms of a potential,

as far as my intellect was concerned, you're right.

And even though at that time she didn't know you know,

what I lacked necessarily an academic skills,

although over that period of time in study hall

she began to learn.

And she began to help me even then.

--the clause may be renaming the subject.

NARRATOR: But still there were times

when Jim's mind would wander.

Karen had her own special way of getting him back on track.

--the clause may be renaming the subject.

Remember to-- [thunk] Pay attention.

Ow.

What was that for?

You're not going to get into college this way.

JIM ALVARADO: And she would get my attention,

and I would straighten up and get back to work

and do what I had to do.

She was my tutor.

She was my helper.

She was my friend, and somebody who I loved very, very much.

NARRATOR: In December of 1969 when Karen was 20,

tragedy struck.

The cause of a lingering pain in her right leg

was finally diagnosed.

Karen had Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare, usually fatal

form of cancer.

We react it with horror but with determination.

We were going to see to it that she got well.

The Three Musketeers were going to stay together.

And how are you feeling?

Uh, better.

NARRATOR: Karen began an exhaustive regimen of radiation

and chemotherapy treatments.

Then on February 20, 1970, Karen suffered an agonizing set back.

Ooh!

Ah!

JEAN WALKER: Karen woke up about 5 o'clock in the morning--

Mom!

JEAN WALKER: --pain in her leg for the first time

in a long time.

She had been going through cobalt therapy

and the pain had disappeared.

And suddenly the pain was excruciating.

My leg.

It hurts.

It hurts.

Oh.

I can't move it.

JEAN WALKER: The cancer had eaten

the bone completely through.

[scream]

JEAN WALKER: The bone was no longer there.

NARRATOR: Through it all, Karen's spirit was indomitable.

Jim proposed in March, and a wedding date

was set, December 19, 1970.

But on December 7th, Karen lapsed into a coma.

Though devastated, Tom and Jean accepted the inevitable.

JEAN WALKER: From the time Karen was in the hospital,

Tom would bring her every day, a single red rose.

And that was just kind of a symbol between them.

You know, that was their little affectionate thing they did.

She looks so beautiful.

I want you to know that if you have to leave us,

me and your mom, we understand.

And remember what-- whatever happens, what--

we'll always be together.

Remember what we used to say about the Three Musketeers,

how we'd always stick together?

Huh?

One for all and all for one?

When I learned that the tumor had gone into the brain,

I knew we had reached to the end.

She woke up in the middle of the night, and I held her hand

and asked her how she was, because that was first time she

had talked to me in nine days.

How are you feeling honey?

Mom, it's time.

I can't go on like this anymore.

I can't think anymore.

I understand.

Is it OK?

Of course.

Please tell Dad and tell Jim that it was my decision,

that I was ready to go.

I will, I promise.

[catches breath] You rest now.

(WHISPERS) I love you, Mom.

[catches breath] (WHISPERS) I love you too.

And as I was watching, something went

out of the top of her head.

It just lifted.

And it was like a wisp of smoke or fog or something.

And as I saw that happen, I said goodbye Karen.

Karen died on December 17, two days before she

would have been married.

JIM ALVARADO: I was devastated.

I was you know, not really feeling any physical pain,

but emotionally, I was feeling terrible.

And I guess at that time I was searching for the answers why

and you know, angered.

NARRATOR: The night after Karen passed away, Jim

stayed at Jean and Tom's home.

He sat up late in the hope that studying would

take his mind off the loss.

Incredibly, Jim was about to get the first hint that Karen's

spirit had survived.

JIM ALVARADO: It was more than a kick.

It was really an awakening on my part that got my attention.

And I realized that at that point,

that Karen was with me at that time.

NARRATOR: Jim's brief encounter helped

him cope with Karen's death.

But it was only an inkling of what was to come.

When we return, Jean and Tom Walker journey

into a world of mediums and psychics, and Karen's spirit

breaks through.

On December 17, 1970, 21-year-old Kara Walker

passed away after a long bout with cancer.

Seeking consolation, her parents Tom and Jean

went to visit family near San Francisco.

There over the next few days, they

sought out psychics and mediums in the faint hope

that they might contact Karen's spirit.

Three times they tried, and three times the Walkers

went away disappointed.

--message is from Abraham.

NARRATOR: They left for home on Christmas day.

Passing through Santa Barbara, they decided to call it medium

Jean had once read about.

His name was the Reverend George Daisley.

Reverend Daisley answered the phone

and told Tom that he was very sorry,

but he was six months ahead.

And so Tom said, well, could we make an appointment

for six months from now.

And Reverend Daisley said just a minute,

just a minute, the spirits are telling me

I must see you immediately.

Could you stay overnight?

And Tom of course said, well, yes, of course.

And so we made the appointment for the next morning

and went to see him.

NARRATOR: Jean and Tom agreed to limit the information

they gave Reverend Daisley.

While they did tell him their daughter had recently died,

they did not give him Karen's name.

19 hours had passed since the phone conversation.

The Walkers were confident Reverend

Daisley could not have learned anything about them overnight.

I knew they were grieving parents simply because--

NARRATOR: Today George Daisley is 83 years old.

He still lives in Santa Barbara.

It is known that I knew nothing about them whatsoever

otherwise.

Nothing whatsoever.

--many years ago.

And this is where we do our own sittings.

NARRATOR: The sitting commenced just after 10 AM.

Some people like to take notes to our sitting.

NARRATOR: Daisley's first impressions were astounded.

--daughter's voice.

I will tell you everything that she says.

Your daughter is here.

She is safe.

She is well.

She says she doesn't hurt anymore.

She wants me to tell you that you are the Three Musketeers

and you still are.

She says we are the Three Musketeers

and we'll always be together.

I was just flabbergasted that she could come

up with the one piece of information

that was so specific to us.

I think if she had said nothing else that day,

I would always, always know that Karen was still alive.

I'm hearing the name Karen.

Yes, yes, it's Karen.

It's her birthday soon.

I believe yes, January the 12th.

She wants you to celebrate her birthday.

NARRATOR: The details literally spilled out

of Reverend Daisley.

The Three Musketeers, Karen's name,

her birthday, even detailed descriptions of two photographs

taken when Karen was a child.

We went home smiling and crying.

And the emotions were just volatile.

Uh, but there was always from then on,

there was that underlying current of I know she's OK.

NARRATOR: According to Jean, Karen

eventually began to communicate without the aid of a medium.

Incredibly, Jean says that Karen's spirit even guided her

to write this book, "Always Karen," published in 1975,

chronicles Karen Walker's struggle with cancer,

her death, and her firsthand views

of a life beyond this one.

JEAN WALKER: When we die, we go into another dimension

that from this side we can't see, but is still life.

The body dies, but there's a new body waiting for you.

And you simply step into that and there you are.

She said I glow, I'm filled with light.

NARRATOR: Is it possible to bridge

the chasm between the living and the dead?

Between our earthly life and an afterlife?

In the small town of Ellerslie, Georgia

we found a little girl named Heidi Wyrick, who apparently

evinces that astounding ability, the ability to make contact

with real people who passed over to the other side decades ago.

Hello, honey.

Hi.

What's your name?

Heidi.

That's a pretty name.

Heidi, you know I live right next door.

And in my backyard, I have a swing.

I bet like to swing, don't you?

Yes.

NARRATOR: It all began in February of 1989,

just after Heidi's family had moved to Ellerslie.

According to Heidi, a man named Kahn

appeared at the front door.

--swing.

Would you like that?

He had white hair and he had a tee shirt on with blood

all over it.

And he had a bandage on his hand with blood on it.

Why don't you go ask your mama if it's OK.

OK.

Mama?

What Heidi?

Can I go play outside with a man?

You mean Uncle Mark?

No.

What man is it?

He has grey hair and he has blood on his shirt.

Come here.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

I thought someone was trying to kidnap her.

So I brought Heidi in and I locked all the doors.

And I got the butcher knife out of the kit-- out of the drawer.

And I called my husband home.

I said Andy, you have got to come home.

You know, there's somebody trying to kidnap Heidi.

We got out.

We walked all up and down the street

you know trying to find somebody that fit that description,

but we never found nobody.

Soon after she had seen Kahn, she started seeing

a man she would call Mr. Gordy.

And he was-- he would come in the yard,

and she would she would play with him outside.

Hi there Heidi.

That is your name isn't it?

Yes.

I'm Mr. Gordy, and I used to live in this neighborhood.

In fact, I knew those people next door real well.

And they used to have a great swing over there

in the back yard.

Would you like to go over and swing

with me for a few minutes?

OK.

And I thought that Kahn and Gordy was the same person.

So I thought his name was Kahn Gordy.

And that's when I started asking everybody.

Did they-- have they ever heard of the name Kahn Gordy.

I didn't know really who it was,

or you know if it was a real person.

But then after you know, we couldn't find nobody, or nobody

to fit the description, then that's

when I started thinking, you know,

that was just imaginary friends, and it didn't

really bother me too bad then.

NARRATOR: It began to bother Andy Wyrick.

And Lisa as well when Lisa's sister, who'd

bought the house next door, showed

them the former owners' papers.

Just read that one through.

What?

Right here.

Look, James S. Gordy.

When I seen Mr. Gordy's name on the deed,

I mean, I was terrified.

I really was, because I knew that the previous owners

had-- was there you know, years and years and years back.

So I knew that Mr. Gordy--

I knew he had to have been dead.

I knew Mr. Gordy who when I was a small child.

And Mr. Gordy owned a real estate company in Columbus.

And for many, many years, he was a Sunday school superintendent

at our church up here.

It was a Methodist Church.

And--

NARRATOR: Catherine Ledford's family had owned

the house next to the Wyricks.

Catherine verified that James Gordy,

who was the executor of her mother's will,

had died in 1974.

Mr. Gordy was a--

well, he was a tall lean man in stature.

And he was-- had a lot of dry wit about him,

but he was he was a good man, and he loved people.

He loved children.

And he was always willing to help

people and do things for them.

I asked Heidi, at the time, I asked her did

she think that it was a ghost.

And she was so little at the time,

she said that she didn't know because--

I said does he look like a normal person

or can you see through him?

She said Mr. Gordy looks just like you mama.

Just like somebody real.

NARRATOR: Catherine Ledford had no photographs

of Mr Gordy himself, but she corroborated

Heidi's description.

Mr. Gordy had gray hair, always wore a suit

and tie and shiny black shoes.

Catherine did bring over photographs

of her family, many of whom had once lived right next door.

I was looking through the pictures,

and I never saw none of them people.

And when I got to the bottom, there

was this little bitty picture.

That's the guy with the bandage on his arm

and the blood on his shirt.

That's Kahn.

Well, you know who that is, baby?

His name is Lon, and he's my uncle.

It was Lon that you saw.

Lon live here when he was a young man.

He died in 1957 of cancer.

And he lost his hand at a very early age.

I would say before he was 20 years old in a cotton gin

up here in Ellerslie.

When I saw him, he was um, his was holding his right hand

under his left hand.

And he was doing that in the picture.

And when I found out that it was Ms. Kelly's uncle,

and his name really wasn't Kahn, it

was Lon, it scared me to death, because I knew Heidi

was really seeing something.

And she was so small at the time,

and she couldn't really speak that well.

So I knew right then, she was mistaken.

It wasn't Khan, it was Lon.

NARRATOR: Had little Heidi Wyrick somehow

tapped into the afterlife?

Her visions of Lon and Mr. Gordy remained consistent and benign

for three years.

Then Heidi's mother Lisa became pregnant.

When we return, a new unknown entity

manifests itself in an ominous and threatening fashion.

For more than four years, young Heidi Wyrick

of Ellerslie, Georgia continued to encounter

the benevolent spirits of two men, James Gordy and Lon

Bachelor, both long dead.

But soon after Heidi's mother became pregnant in 1993,

a sinister Paul fell over Heidi's house of spirits.

Mama!

Heidi had never been scared of anything.

She had never been scared of Khan.

She had never been scared of Mr. Gordy.

But when she seen the dark figure in our hallway,

she was hysterical.

She was frightened.

She was screaming.

She was terrified.

NARRATOR: The new spirit became a frequent,

but unwelcome guest.

Sometimes visible and sometimes only sensed.

At first, me and my husband had talked about moving.

And, but then like I told him, I said I don't think

it would do any good to move.

Because wherever we go, she's just got

that gift that she's going to--

going to see people from the past, or people

that has been dead.

NARRATOR: On February 3rd, 1994, Heidi's baby sister

Jordan was born.

Two weeks later, Heidi's other worldly visitations

took a horrifying turn.

[crying]

What is it Heidi?

(CRYING) My face hurts.

Oh my God.

Are you OK?

(CRYING) No.

She had just deep gashes down her face.

And it terrified me.

I didn't know what it was.

I mean, it was so bad that the blood had come to the surface.

I mean, and I didn't know what it was.

And I feared well, it's so bad, it's going to leave a scar.

And I couldn't imagine what could

have scratched her that bad.

I thought maybe she has crashed herself

during the night, and I didn't really think too much about it.

So about two nights later, I woke up,

my side was just burning like a fire.

[breathes deeply] Lisa, Lisa.

What is it?

I had three claw marks going around my side.

And the next night I went to sleep.

And I woke up and I had three claw marks down my back.

And then it happened again the next night,

and I woke up and had three claw marks down my chest.

Maybe it might be a rat in the house.

But I know that I would have woke up

if I'd had the rat crawling on me

and scratching my face or side or whatever.

But after it happened four nights straight--

and it get to a point where me and Lisa would go to bed.

And then I'd tell her, I said if I wake up in the morning

and I got scratches on me, you know,

I don't know what I'm going to do.

I was worried to death that it was going to scratch the baby.

And that's when you know, I was so worried, I thought well,

I've got to do something before it scratches her.

And that's when I called Dr. Roll.

NARRATOR: Once again, parapsychologist Dr. William

Roll was a logical choice to investigate and perhaps explain

the unusual occurrences.

You were standing here?

And where was Mr. Gordy standing, you're saying?

NARRATOR: On September 12th of this year,

Dr. Roll visited the Wyrick's house.

As she came up with physical description and the names

that she apparently could not have

obtained in any ordinary way.

So that immediately made me interested in the case.

A couple of pictures had been found of Mr. Gordy.

The hope was that Heidi would be able to identify Mr. Gordy--

Mr. Gordy's picture is they were presented to her with a number

of other photographs.

In this pile of pictures, we are looking for somebody

who looks like Mr. Gordy. All right?

So--

NARRATOR: What you are watching is real.

Heidi Wyrick is looking through the photographs

for the first time.

That one looks like him.

That is Mr. Gordy. You're right.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, Heidi had chosen

the photograph of James Gordy.

Twice now, a little girl had correctly

identified her spirits from a photo lineup.

Having spoken to Heidi and her parents,

I'm even more convinced that we are dealing--

that we are dealing with a genuine

parapsychological experiences.

Then the question comes up, why are these things

happening to this little girl?

NARRATOR: Why indeed?

Was it all just a coincidence?

Did Heidi simply make two lucky guesses?

Or was Heidi Wyrick possessed some mysterious power

to communicate with the dead?

I'm not scared of Khan and Mr. Gordy because they talk to me

and they don't scare me, they play with me.

And the reason I'm scared of the other ones

is because they don't talk to me.

And I can't see um, I can't see his face.

If she sees them you know, and they don't bother her,

and she talks to these people, then I'm fine with it,

just so long as I don't see them.

I think Heidi is special.

I do.

She's been seeing them for so long now.

And it's just something I don't think she'll ever grow out of.

She's just a special child.

She's gifted so to speak.

NARRATOR: Is there truly an afterlife?

A Sunday school teacher named Rossiter Raymond once

wrote death is only a horizon.

And the horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight

until we each embark on the final journey, what

lies beyond will remain a source of wonder,

the most profound mystery of all.

[theme music]