Sara explores the unexplainable in the program Kalla kårar

Other dimensions, loss of time and frightening experiences are examined in the program Kalla kårar. The psychologist of religion Sara Duppils at the University of Gävle participates as an expert. Based on scientific perspectives, she contributes with her thoughts on people's extraordinary experiences.

In the documentary series Kalla kårar, journalist and presenter Jack Werner meets people who have had unexplainable and frightening experiences. With his expertise, he tries to find out if they are supernatural events.

– I bring my knowledge of spirituality, religious psychology, the history of religion and the world of imagination. Both I and the other expert, who is a physicist, contribute with our thoughts and experiments from a scientific perspective, says Sara Duppils, lecturer in the psychology of religion at the University of Gävle.

Remembers one episode from Öland in particular

She has long been researching extraordinary experiences that may be linked to spirituality and spiritualism. In this program, Sara Duppils has studied the cases, read excerpts from interviews, had many meetings with the editors and done research.

– In the program, people talk about their experiences. We, the experts, discuss what can explain the experiences. Then the viewer gets to form their own opinion, whether there are natural explanations or whether it's about something else.

She remembers one episode in particular, about a bus driver on Öland. The experience happened many years ago. He also worked as a musician and had been at a gig with his son.

"Drove into another dimension"

As they drove home, the same way he always drives, the roads were different, there was a thick fog, he was driving on a steep hill that wasn't usually there and the distance took less time than usual to drive.

– He felt like he was driving into another dimension, like another world. His son had the same experience. He had been thinking about it for many years. When people experience things, it's easy for them to think they're imagining things, to doubt their sanity, to think they might have had a temporary psychosis. That's why I was so happy to see this man relax at the end of the episode, when he learned that other people had similar experiences in the same area at different times, says Sara Duppils.

Was it possible to find an explanation for the experience?

- No, it couldn't. The physicist did some experiments, but there was no natural explanation. I gave a spiritualist explanation model. What you can say is that time, space and consciousness are connected and everything is very fragile.

How has it been to participate in the program?

- It was great fun and incredibly new for me. I've been on TV and radio before, but only temporarily. Now I got to follow a recording for a longer period of time and it was a lesson that I will benefit greatly from in life. I really enjoy working on the third task, communicating research to the outside world.

Text: Anna Sällberg