Iain McMillan John Lennon is trying to generate energy for the spirit world, says Linda Polley, who claims to channel the legend's music.

During his brief stay on this planet, John Lennon implored his fans to believe music could change the world. According to Linda Polley of Fargo, N.D., since 1999, Lennon has been using his music to change not only Earth, but the heavenly cosmos as well.

But John's dead, you say? Well yes, but when has being six feet under ever stopped a musician from releasing another album or six? Just ask Elvis, Tupac or Cobain: Death can be a hell of a career move.

In Lennon's case, his posthumous music career is not limited to the release of ancient eight-track recordings discovered in some former girlfriend's sister's friend's lawyer's basement.

Since 1999, Polley claims, John has been stopping by her trailer in Fargo to deliver his latest offering from "the heaven sessions" -- more than 50 songs in all -- so she may record them on her electric keyboard and spread them to the world in an effort to save both the sinful masses and the chaotic "Afterlife."

Such is the tale that inspired British filmmaker Barney Snow to venture across the pond to frigid Fargo. Snow spent eight days in November, 2000, with Polley and her husband, Gerald, taping the documentary Where Has Eternity Gone? -- named for one of Lennon's Polley-channelled recordings.

The documentary has been screened in Britain and recently highlighted the Slamdance Film Festival -- an alternative version of the Sundance festival -- in Utah, playing there on Jan. 15 and 17.

"I'm interested in small things that the world doesn't think are of any importance," Snow says.

In a sweet, grandmotherly voice with the hint of a New England accent (the Polleys are originally from Maine), Linda Polley explains how the man who once declared himself and his band "bigger than Jesus" came into her life as the saviour of all things pure and wholesome.

On the night of Oct. 9, 1999 (what would have been Lennon's 59th birthday), Polley was having trouble falling asleep. Every time she closed her eyes, her head was filled with a strange, unfamiliar song.

"I didn't know it was by John Lennon and I didn't know much about him," she says. "I was more of a Monkees and a Herman's Hermits fan than the Beatles."
fter checking with Gerald's "spiritual guide," Polley learned it was in fact the spirit of John Lennon making a rather long-distance phone call. Not surprisingly, Polley was less than prepared to begin work with one of the most revered artists of the last half-century.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I can't do this. This is John Lennon -- he was really famous, and look at me.' "

Lennon, who, while living, never seemed like much of a fan of the church, had apparently turned over a new leaf and was attempting to generate energy for the spirit world through his heavenly music.
Like John says, being murdered in cold blood on the streets of New York tends to change ou," Polley explains.

"I told them, 'I don't believe a word of this,' and they said, 'Never mind, we'll tell you anyway,' " Snow recalls.

Polley met Gerald at a seance in 1971 while he was training to become a psychic medium. A year earlier Polley, now 51, had graduated from high school and had begun work at a local nursing home, where she heard the only Lennon song she can remember -- Woman -- playing in the cafeteria.

By 1972 they were married, wrapped up in a faith they call "spiritism" and publishing Voices From Spirit magazine, which told of their conversations with the spirits of John F. Kennedy, Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette, Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart, among others.

Gerald, who washes dishes at a local restaurant to support the couple, anointed himself the official spokesman of the Afterlife, then he and Polley set about spreading the "spiritist" gospel -- a movement that believes in natural law and personal responsibility and denies the existence of a singular supreme being.

"Gerald is the creator of this world, and Polley is the spirit," Snow says. "It gave them a structure without which they'd be lost."

When Lennon arrived in her life, Polley knew little of the legendary musician. "I only knew he had been shot and was married to Yoko Ono," she says.

Nonetheless, she was the lucky soul chosen to receive the first track from Lennon's posthumous comeback album -- a jovial little ditty entitled Listen to the Angels, which features lyrics such as "Listen to the angels when you pray on Christmas Eve/ Don't let the Earth and Heaven die/ Let's all give life another try/ Listen to the angels when they talk on Christmas Eve."

"When I first started out, I couldn't even play the piano and sing at the same time," she says. "But ever since that first song, I couldn't believe how I got used to it so fast. And when it first started out I could actually feel him guiding my hands. It was kind of creepy, but really cool, too."

Polley performs all of Lennon's channelled tunes and has posted some clips on the couple's Web site (www.justfree.com/music/spiritist/).

"Most of the songs he sent me while he was working with the angelic choir -- it's like a thousand spirits. He was the assistant director and Johann Sebastian Bach was the director."

The channelled music includes a selection of 15 songs for an album Lennon wishes to be released. The Polleys are currently looking for musicians and producers to help record said album, which Polley says will help create much needed energy for the troubled spirit realm (all proceeds, as per Lennon's request, will be donated to Save the Children).

(On a side note: E. Michael Harrington, a noted professor of music composition, was once asked to analyze Polley's compositions to determine whether they bore any resemblance to the late legend's work. While he maintains he does not believe a word of the Polleys' story, he did acknowledge a slight resemblance to Lennon's songwriting style.)

Polley's channeling of Lennon has turned this quiet couple into media darlings along the Jerry Springeresque circuit of disturbingly popular, off-colour radio shows.

"They're kind of a modern-day radio freak show," Snow says.

Polley and Gerald often do 10 or more radio interviews a week and, after frequent appearances on Los Angeles' KROQ FM, Listen to the Angels was remixed by pop star Moby and placed on the station's Christmas compilation album in 1999.

"They're different," says Jay Tilles, producer for the Kevin & Bean show on KROQ, on which the Polleys have been frequent guests. "They're very backwoods and very simple people. It's just an odd mix of technology meets the ultimate simpleton."

Snow is far more appreciative of the Polleys, their faith and their music. "It's a way of living that is much richer than you might expect," he says. "They're artists of the imagination.

"I reserve judgment on their insanity," he adds.

Regardless, the Polleys soldier on. Each day, Linda Polley e-mails some 30 newspapers, television and radio stations with Gerald's latest news from the Afterlife.

"They keep going," Snow says.

And while Lennon's post-death output might not be inspiring the human race to some sort of cosmic enlightenment, it continues to drive this couple onward and, they hope, upward.

"It resists explanation, it's something to be celebrated on its own," Snow concludes.

"Like Gerald says, if someone doesn't want to believe in something, you can't make them," Polley explains.

As Lennon himself once sang, "People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing ... I tell them I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall."