Sheri Perl says she communicates with her son, Daniel, who passed away in 2008, through mediums. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

By Leslie Albrecht

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER WEST SIDE — When Sheri Perl's son died of an overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs in 2008, she said she knew just what to do.

A week into her grief, Perl visited a psychic medium who, she claims, helped her communicate with her dead son, Danny.

Speaking through the medium, Danny assured his mom his final moments had been painless, a message that gave Perl precious comfort at a time when she had been "brought to her knees" with sorrow.



Since then, Perl has embarked on a mission to help other bereaved people connect with lost loved ones. Though some regard the practice as fraudulent, Perl says it's given her a solace that she wants others to have.

Photos of Sheri Perl's son Danny, who died in 2008, decorate her living room. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

On Friday and Saturday night this week, she'll host group sesssions in her West 99th Street apartment with the medium Roland Comtois, who describes himself as a "channel" who can connect with the spiritual realm.

Psychic mediums have gained a measure of traction in popular culture in recent years, from John Edward's "Crossing Over" TV show to Matt Damon's portrayal of a reluctant psychic in "Hereafter."



There's room for 30 people to attend each two-hour session, at a cost of $70 each. Comtois tries to bring messages from dead loved ones to everyone who attends the session, Perl said.

"If you are bereaved in any way, it's a way of lifting your heart," Perl said.

At sessions with mediums, Perl said she's seen relief wash over people who've been waiting years to ask questions of dead loved ones.

One man asked his father if he approved of his lifestyle — he was gay — and was told yes. A woman whose daughter was killed in a car crash received a response to the long unanswered question, "What happened?" Her daughter said through the medium that the crash was simply an accident.

Maria Ong, a part-time pre-kindergarten teacher from Dutchess County, has attended sessions Perl hosted with Ron Fredrics, a psychic. Fredrics, who had never met Ong before, correctly identified that she had a connection to Bali — her family is originally from Indonesia — and that her family had adopted a dog who is sometime overfed.

Ong, who's in her 60s, attends the sessions so she can feel closer to her daughter, who died at age 25 in 2003.

"I know it's not for everybody," Ong said. "I do it because I see it as a treat. For me, it is a connection to my daughter and I truly hope what happens there is genuine. So far, I haven’t been disappointed."

Perl calls communicating with dead loved ones "connecting up."

"There is no rabbi, no priest, no words that will make you feel better, but connecting up makes you miss them less," said Perl, an ordained interfaith minister. "My son has not been erased from the earth. He's left his body, but his spirit is here and connection is very possible."



Perl said Danny comes back to her through mediums, cracking jokes as he did when he was alive and telling her about the afterlife.



Perl, 60, became fascinated with the world of the unseen when she was a young woman. As a teenager she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, then contracted Hepatitis C from a blood tranfusion.

A photo of Daniel Migdol, who passed away in 2008. His mother, Sheri Perl, says she can still communicate with him through mediums. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

She became very sick, and doctors were at a loss. Figuring she had nothing to lose, she wrote to Harry Edwards, a spiritual healer in England.

Perl credits Edwards with nursing her back to health with "distance healing," a process in which Edwards directed "spirit doctors" to heal Perl. Her blood tests started improving almost immediately, Perl said.



"I could feel all this energy, but I couldn't see it," Perl said. "It just woke me up to the presence of the spirit."

She began visiting mediums to communicate with her dead father. In the 1970s, she took ESP classes. It was at one of those that she met her husband, Jerry Migdol, who went on to became a real estate developer. Today they have two children, Jessica and Aaron, and three dogs.



Perl wrote a book about her spiritual healing experience called "Healing from the Inside Out." She's working on another one about bereavement.

She also runs an online prayer registry that collects prayers for children who have passed away.



To those who are skeptical of mediums and the presence of unseen spirits, Perl tells them to investigate for themselves.



"I can't prove anything," Perl said. "After 40 years of exploring, I've come to believe very strongly that personality survives death, but that's because I've seen it."

