Stéphane Allix - The Test: Incredible Proof of the Afterlife

Copyright 2018 by Stphane Allix

Original title: Le Test

Editions Albin Michel, Paris 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Helios Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Helios books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Helios Press is an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Allix, Stephane, author.

Title: The test : incredible proof of the afterlife / Stephane Allix ; translated by Grace McQuillan.

Other titles: Test. English

Description: New York, New York : Helios Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018003157 (print) | LCCN 2018014419 (ebook) | ISBN 9781510729377 (eBook) | ISBN 9781510729360 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Mediums--Interviews. | Future life. | Spiritualism.

Classification: LCC BF1311.F8 (ebook) | LCC BF1311.F8 A4513 2018 (print) | DDC 133.9/1--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003157

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-2936-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2937-7

Cover design by Jane Sheppard

Cover illustration by iStockphoto

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Nothing is more illuminating than
the beautiful death of a loved one.

Michka

Introduction

When my father passed away, I placed four objects in his casket. I spoke about it to no one. I then interviewed mediums who claimed to be able to communicate with the dead.

Would they discover what the objects were?

This is the test.

My father, Jean-Pierre Allix, passed away on June 16, 2013, at the age of eighty-five. He was an admirable father; I loved him and still do. He taught me to be a man whose word and sense of honor meant more than anything else. He encouraged me to become a person who expected as much from myself as I did from other people and to be proud of my heritage. He taught me to be curious, to know how to use my best judgment, but also to listen without judging too quickly. He showed me by his example that life is astonishing, and that it is precisely this ability to be astonished, whatever ones age, that saves us from despair. He showed me how to watch, read, understand, and search. He introduced me to Tolstoy, Flaubert, and Stendhal, and he inculcated in me the importance of constructing sentences that mean something but that are also pleasant to read. A text is music, he used to say.

As you read what follows, you will better understand why I think my father is far more than the mere subject of a peculiar experiment, namely the test I put forward to six mediums, two men and four women. He is my partner, the invisible but central character in this book, to which he contributed at times with difficulty, often with emotion, and even, at certain moments, with humor.

When he was alive, we had spoken about death on several occasions; in 2001, I had lost a brother, and he a son, in an accident in Afghanistan, and the subject was ever present in my family. We had both mentioned how interesting it would be, after his death, to try and undertake this research together.

The day of his burial, I was alone in the room at the funeral parlor. A few minutes before the casket would be closed and sealed, I took four objects along with a little note and hid them under the fabric covering his corpse, out of sight. From that moment and until the casket was closed, I remained next to it to reassure myself that no one could see the objects concealed against his body. I am also absolutely certain to have been, until today, the only person aware of the presence of those objects in his casket.

On that Saturday morning of June 22, 2013, I left the following things next to my father:

a long, thin paintbrush,

a tube of white acrylic paint,

his compass,

a paperback copy of The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati, one of his favorite books,

and a small note slipped inside an ecru-colored envelope.

I took the time to photograph each object just before putting it into the casket. Then, I spoke to my father, looking at the empty space above him rather than at his body. I explained to him what I was doing, and that his task would consist of telling the mediums what the objects were. A little over a year later, I asked several mediums if they would be willing to participate in a small experiment, though I remained very evasive as to what the subject of this experiment was.

Science and mediumship

Can we really communicate with the dead? Some claim it is possible and even practice it as a profession. A certain number among them are not charlatans. So who are they? The objective of this test is to investigate six mediums known for their reliability, their honesty, and, of course, their well-recognized abilities.

The number of people who use the ability to communicate with the beyond professionally is greater than we might imagine. Thousands of people consult with them, but few talk about it.

What are the challenges of mediumship? Is there material to be probed? Are these abilities real? Is this a phenomenon of society that we can reduce to a kind of swindle, unconscious on the part of certain mediums, but completely conscious for other charlatans? Are we dealing with a collective illusion? A form of autosuggestion in people who are unable to overcome the reality of loss? Or are we talking about real communication with the afterlife? For those who practice it, is it a gift or a curse? A vocation or an illusion?

Through the six encounters I am offering you, and the six test sances that I will attend, I am going to attempt to answer all of these questions with thoroughness and objectivity.

Mediums claim that the deceased are present beside themthey see them, feel them, speak with themand that they receive information simply because the deceased are whispering in their ear. You will discover that upon analysis, the data shows that this idea is plausible: an aspect of our personality or our identity could continue to exist after physical death in a form capable of communicating with a medium.

Life after death is, today, a rational hypothesis. Scientific research conducted on mediumship has allowed this to be confirmed.

A medium is a person who, by connecting with one or several deceased people, obtains information, sometimes of an intimate nature, about a person they are meeting for the first time in their lives. This is, in fact, one of the most mysterious things about mediumship, because to date no explanation exists that would allow us to determine in a conventional way how such a thing is possible.

When the medium finds themself in front of a client they dont know, whom they are usually seeing for the first time, they are able to deliver a fair amount of more or less significant factual information, claiming to receive it from people who have passed away. The question is, where does this information come from? Research has been conducted over several decades, notably by researchers such as Gary E. Schwartz of the Windbridge Institute. This research analyzes the nature of information that mediums are capable of obtaining while under strictly controlled conditions.