“After death, the information recorded in the human brain leaves the body as magnetic field data with a will of its own. This, primarily, is what is indicated with the word ‘ghost.’”
“Wow, really?” Miss Utsumi’s wide eyes went even wider as she gasped in surprise.
“Most all examples of spiritual phenomena can be explained by use of this electromagnetic field theory.”
“It sounds kind of like plasma.” Mr. Sawazaki muttered to himself. He sounded like he was sulking.
The announcer ignored him, too, as he continued to question me.
“If the occult could, in fact, be explained via the scientific method, wouldn’t it cease to be occult at all?”
“No, that’s not correct. As I’ve said in my books, we’ll soon be able to completely explain spiritual phenomena with science in the near future. But that’s just the beginning. That will be the first time that the occult is, in the true sense, recognized scientifically.”
“Mm... You kind of sound like you’re talking about a religion, Dr. Hashigami. I’ll admit it makes for a compelling story, though.” At this point I’d just stopped paying attention to Mr. Sawazaki altogether.
“You heard Dr. Sawazaki a moment ago, yes? Parapsychology is still a young field. I’m well aware that we have a long way to go. You’ll remember that they mocked Copernicus’s heliocentrism at first, too. So I don’t think it’s appropriate for Dr. Sawazaki to be so dismissive of the occult, or my own theories. Humanity should be less aggressive, and more humble, about its own ignorance. The newest discoveries await us not in space, but very close to us. And I’m sure those discoveries will bring us all a great deal of joy.”
“That’s what I mean when I say it sounds like a religion. Explain to me what separates you from that crazy old fraud of a spiritualist over the—” He cut off mid-sentence.
Miss Utsumi had suddenly put her hands to her chest and doubled over in pain.
“Aah... ahh...” She was moaning as if she was in agony, and her face looked extremely pale. There were beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
“Miss Utsumi? What’s wrong?” The announcer sounded worried.
Was she sick?
It felt like someone should go over to help her, but since this was a live broadcast, no one was sure what to do.
I could see the staff starting to panic in the background. But the man who seemed to be the director was just waving his arms around instead of giving clear orders.
“Begone!” Amidst the chaos, there was one person that stayed calm.
Mrs. Motomura shouted, spittle flicking from her mouth, as she looked around the studio.
Shrine priestesses dressed in white ceremonial clothing ran onto the stage. The camera was still running, but they didn’t care. There was no explanation as to who they were.
“This room is filled with the spirits of evil! And this girl, too!” Mrs. Motomura pointed at Miss Utsumi, who still seemed to be in pain.
“She is being possessed by evil, earthbound spirits!” One of the priestesses took an onusa, a wooden wand used in Shinto rituals, and handed it to Mrs. Motomura.
She and the others must have been Mrs. Motomura’s students or something.
She brought down the onusa again and again on top of Miss Utsumi.
“Uweh! Keih! Sweyh!”
No one else could do anything but look on in shock. For some reason, despite all this, the cameras were still rolling.
“Evil spirits, begone from this mortal vessel! Keih!”
“Gwa... gwaaaaahhh!” Miss Utsumi screamed in a voice that didn’t sound anything like what I’d heard from her earlier. Drool was dripping from her mouth and her eyes had rolled back in her head.
Only then did one of the staff members come out with instructions written on a whiteboard.
“Cut to commercial!” it said. The announcer nodded.
“I’m sorry. We’ll be back after these messages.”
After a few seconds, someone in the back yelled “Commercials are rolling!” Then several of the staff carried Miss Utsumi out of the studio.
Mrs. Motomura gave a sigh of satisfaction and went back to her seat.
“That was a close call,” was all she whispered before she sent her students out of the room.
“...” It felt like everything I’d just seen had happened in some faraway world. It didn’t seem like there’d be any way we could hold a real debate now.
When the commercials ended, the program continued without Utsumi.
The announcer spoke to Mrs. Motomura.
“So Mrs. Motomura, is Miss Utsumi going to be all right?”
“The spirits have left. She’ll be fine. You should know that your words have angered the spirits, and brought this upon her.” Evidently she was trying to say that it was Mr. Sawazaki’s and my fault.
I didn’t really care, but Mr. Sawazaki overreacted.
“That’s stupid. It’s simply ridiculous. I’ve seen plenty of fake spiritualists like you, who want to make a business out of the occult.” Just like before, he was making no attempt to hide his irritation. But now his anger was directed at Mrs. Motomura, not me.
Mrs. Motomura’s eyes went wide as she shouted back. “Fools like you are the first to die, and you’ll die quaking in fear!” There was no way to recover from that.
I couldn’t believe they were getting so excited over a debate on a TV program.
Didn’t they realize how many millions of people were watching? They were essentially embarrassing themselves in front of every single one of them. If you were incapable of debating in a calm, controlled manner, you had no business being on TV in the first place. But what I really couldn’t believe was that neither the announcer nor the staff were trying to stop this. It was like they’d given up on any attempt at making this program work.
And what was most unbelievable of all was that the announcer calmly brought the program to its end.
“I’m sure we all have a lot more to talk about, but unfortunately, we’re all out of time. This concludes this evening’s episode of Psychic Research Lab: Special Edition. Thanks for tuning in.”
Since it was a live broadcast, when the time slot was over, they had to end it. Still, I’d never heard of a program ending like this. They were going to be swamped with complaints from listeners, right?