Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Welcome to Lessons from The Helpful Dead, where you'll learn the world is not what it seems. And you are much more than you think you are. Here. You'll learn about positive and reassuring messages from supposedly dead people whose main purpose is to help us find out what happens after we die, and why we're here, how we got here, where we're going, and discover that you are really a powerful, eternal spirit. I'm Dan McEnany. Today we will continue our discussion of Captain Lift, who died in 1928, uh, when a Rich Aris hired him to make, uh, one of the first trips from Britain to, uh, the United States. Uh, unfortunately, the the, uh, plane crashed because of bad weather, so I'll continue where we left off. We were at the point where, uh, speaking through the respected psychic Eileen Garrett, uh, captain Hinchcliffe had proven to his wife through what we call evidential, that is, uh, information that could only be known to him and the party he was communicating to.
Speaker 1 00:01:18 Uh, he had proven to his wife that it really was him speaking, and so she was no longer a skeptic and began to believe it was him. So the, the genuine nature of his identity having been suitably established, uh, through all these pieces of information, he then addressed his two major concerns. One was the future safety of flying a wooden strut had broken and contributed to his crash. He said, and he wanted it clearly understood that sh the, uh, they should be made of aluminum and not wood. His other concern was his wife's financial security. Lord Inchcape Ellc Mackay's father was not disposed to provide anything for the widowed Emily. And indeed he directed that all the money in his daughter's estate be put in trust for 50 years, eventually to be used to help pay off England's national debt. Now, Hench lift through Eileen Garrett nevertheless assured his widow, Emily, that her financial concerns would be taken care of in late July, probably not until July 30th.
Speaker 1 00:02:28 At the same time hears that Emily and others make contact with the press to put the pressure of public opinion on Lord Inchcape. The publicity was indeed generated as planned, but as July 30th neared its end, it appeared that Inscape had not been moved by it. Then at eight 30 that evening, Emily received a call telling her that he had set aside 10,000 pounds from his own fortune for Emily and the family. Now, this case was significant for a number of reasons. First, Emily in the beginning was highly skeptical and she took word for word dictation of everything that was said. So there were numerous personal details on record that could be checked for verification and they all checked out. Second, Eileen Garrett was not only the country's leading psychic, but she was also highly skeptical and investigated herself. She sought out the cooperation of scientists, medical professionals, psychologists, and many prominent people in her attempts to find a scientific explanation for her abilities and to attempt to explain what kind of process was taking place.
Speaker 1 00:03:37 Her personal friends included many in the highest levels of science, government, and literature. She supported efforts to expose fakes and charlatans and was therefore well respected for her integrity and professionalism in many circles that might otherwise scoff at channeled information. Third, Hinchcliffe in some sessions, gave detailed descriptions of what life on the other side was like for him. He also told of, uh, meeting several other deceased airmen. He described how he did not even, he, he didn't even realize at first he was dead and professed to be in the world, similar to what he had left with an easy passing through. There was nothing angelic or ethereal for him, no choirs of angels. His experience reinforces the notion that you experience what you expect to experience in the early stages of death. He believed you saw the quote writer side only after going through a sort of refining process.
Speaker 1 00:04:38 At one point, he swore that a supposedly dead friend, who he called old Loewenstein, could not be dead as reported because he was not able to locate him anywhere on that side. It turned out that he had committed suicide and had been in a kind of stupor for a while, but with the aid of a group of living, people with psychic abilities headed by a Mrs. Taylor who performed what, what's called Soul Rescue missions, uh, for people who had recently deceased, uh, in his condition, uh, thanks to her and, and the group, he progressed to the point where he could finally meet Hinchliffe. It was a bittersweet moment for Lowenstein because he had learned then for the first time through Hinch lift that he lowenstein was actually dead till that moment. He had thought that he had somehow miraculously survived his leap from a plane into the ocean.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 Lowenstein also communicated through Eileen Garrett to verify all of this. Now, the amount of verifiable information delivered under these conditions leads to the leads to the logical conclusion that Hinch lift did indeed survive and communicated important, useful, and helpful information through a respected psychic. Now, in addition to all of that very important point, he also warned of a much larger disaster about to occur unless dramatic changes were made. He was referring to the R 1 0 1, a British airship under construction. He tried to get a message through to his friend, squadron leader Johnston, the navigator of the airship. Through his wife Emily. He supplied many technical details that would hopefully persuade Johnston to pass these concerns onto others. But Johnston was not persuaded. Johnston along with several other officers and crewmen, died in the crash of the R 1 0 1, the famous 777 foot British dirigible in France on October 5th, 1930 on what was to be its first long distance voyage to India.
Speaker 1 00:06:49 Although there had been several shorter test flights over the previous year. Now, the R 1 0 1 was supposedly the safest air ship ever built, but there were severe, uh, structural flaws in it. The R 1 0 1 was built by the British government while a sister ship the R 100 was built by private enterprise. Wouldn't you know the R 100 with a simpler design had completed an impressive trip from England to Canada, and back in August of 1930, Germany's Zeppelin had also completed a number of impressive flights. So there was a lot of pressure to make a long flight on the R 1 0 1. Despite its many structural and other problems in order to justify the enormous expenditures for its construction now, the construction of these ships was closely tied to English National Pride. They were magnificent floating hotels, a sort of Titanic of the air. And so there was, uh, not only a lot of publicity, but immense political pressure surrounding the first, uh, major long distance voyage because of its prominence.
Speaker 1 00:07:58 Several of the air, uh, of the, uh, of Britain's top airmen were aboard, including the Minister for Air and the Air Vice Marshall, because of those influences. When justifiable, caution and common sense would indicate that several difficulties caused by the structural Flo structural flaws should be followed by structural redesign and extensive repairs, there were instead bandaid approaches to correcting them. Now, these related to the steel structure, the fabric used, the placement of gas bags and other components, the effects of motors and the movement of cables in difficult weather, and the problem of abrasion causing some parts to break or twist after the crash, in order to prevent a second ritual from meeting the same fate, the anguished personalities of the officers and crew who had died speaking through Eileen Garrett Argu argued strongly to one of their living friends by the name of vis that many of these structural changes must be made in that dirigible before another flight was attempted, or the project should be scuttled all together because the airship has constructed simply were wasn't airworthy and severe storms.
Speaker 1 00:09:14 So they gave detailed descriptions, highly technical in nature as to what the structural and design problems were. The extent and accuracy of those technical details leave no doubt that these personalities were indeed the crew members they claimed to be. They also communicated similar information to an investigative reporter. Now, this information was not released until after a highly visible court of inquiry had completed its investigation and issued a whitewash report holding no unresponsible. But when this information was released by the investigative reporter became a worldwide sensation, picked up a newspapers around the world many years later. In 1967, the R 1 0 1 was again the subject of an investigative report by a Michael Cox. He was a, a British documentary film producer. In tracking down the information given by Eileen Garrett the psychic, he found new evidence to support its accuracy papers that the dead airmen referred to were found, and these had been ignored by the Court of inquiry.
Speaker 1 00:10:23 So what makes the case of, uh, the airmen who would not die so compelling are several factors. First, there was so much technical information that could have been known only to seasoned aviators who knew the ship well. Second, collectively, they gave many specific bits of information that established their identities. Third, the psychic Eileen Garrett was the most respected medium in England, and her credibility was recognized at the highest levels of English society. Fourth, because of the extremely high visibility of the case, the information was examined by several notable and technically qualified skeptics, and by many people whose major aim was to de debunk frauds. One of them was a famous atheist. Every one of them came to the conclusion that the information was indeed valid and could only have come from the surviving personalities of the airmen. As I mentioned earlier, uh, their input, uh, can't tell us a whole lot about the conditions of life after death because they had so recently died. But this is one of the most impressive cases for the proof of the survival of the human personality after death. In our next episode, we'll take a look at Raymond Lodge. He was a British officer who, uh, died in combat in, uh, September, 1915, and he gave a lot of insightful information about, uh, his perceptions, uh, and how they grew in the months after he died. Again, I'm Dan McIn, bringing you lessons from the helpful dead.
