SOOTHED BY SPIRITS

A new documentary, Look into My Eyes’, explores the bond between clairvoyants and their clients. Lydia Spencer-Elliott chats with the director to find out why people are seeking solace from mystic sources, regardless of their credibility

- Lydia Spencer-Elliott

What will I regret on my deathbed? Do my birth parents wish they hadn’t given me up for adoption? Will I ever own chickens? These are just a handful of the wide-ranging questions asked by yearning clients to a group of New York psychics, who feature in Lana Wilson’s new documentary Look into My Eyes.

Of the dozens of individual sessions included in Wilson’s film, regrets, uncertainties and nagging questions are addressed with varying degrees of success. One woman looking for relationship advice is emotional to hear her late grandmother is “in the room” during her session – and still disapproves of her husband. Another client is informed that her grandmother’s spirit is present at her reading. The woman wearily responds that, in fact, both of her grandmothers are very much alive. For all the eerie hits, there are just as many uncomfortable misses.

“Are they actually connecting with ghosts or having a shared experience of make-believe?” asks Wilson when we connect – non-psychically – over Zoom. “In the end, it doesn’t actually matter. They are sitting down with a complete stranger and trying to take that person on an emotional journey that changes them in some way. As humans, we have this need to connect to each other. When it does happen, it feels like magic.”

Interest in spirituality is booming. Over a quarter of those in the UK believe in the existence of “gifted people” who can see parts of the universe that are hidden from others. Meanwhile, 23 per cent of the population have admitted to having consulted a psychic on their life dilemmas.