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They use powers of the mind to illuminate the darkness.

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I knew that I could see things when I was very very young, including the death of my father when I was 14 years old.

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Their vision seems infinite. Their insights occasionally terrifying.

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Everything seemed to explode. And the only thing that I could think of was to run for my life.

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To uncover what is buried, reveal what is concealed, they are psychic detectives.

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The open world is known for its unexplored world of shadows and phantoms.

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A land that knows no limits of time or space.

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From the dawn of discovery to the nightfall of catastrophe.

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A journey through a universe of the unexplained. The unforeseen, the unbelievable.

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A place beyond reality where no question will go unanswered.

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A place where myth and legend are all superstition of science.

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A place where the world is known for its unforeseen, the unbelievable.

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A place where the world is known for its unforeseen, the unbelievable.

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A place where the world is known for its unforeseen, the unbelievable.

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It's time for our journey to begin.

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The argument seems obvious, but the conclusion is fantastic.

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The mind can see far beyond what we know to be real.

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Knowledge surrounds these library walls. And with these instruments, that knowledge can be ours.

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The past is entombed in the present. That is what Joseph Buchanan, an American pioneer of psychical research, wrote in 1848.

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He was referring to a phenomenon called psychometry.

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An ability that guides certain gifted individuals into worlds that most of us can only dream of.

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A strange land that is home to psychic detectives.

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That home borders upon a land beyond most of our dreams.

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A strange terrain that can exist simultaneously with reality.

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This woman has been brought to the scene of a ghastly crime. She has been called as a last resort.

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For somewhere a murderer walks alone, secure in the knowledge that he has escaped retribution.

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She holds in her hand an outwardly innocent object, but it is an object charged with meaning for this brick struck the killing blow.

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And when it is gripped tightly, the crime lives again.

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This is called psychometry. And what she is seeing in her mind's eye is somehow connected with what she holds in her hand, visions that can point her towards a killer.

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These visions are not unique. In fact, they can be found in the most normal of surroundings.

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This is the home of Dorothy Allison, a 62 year old housewife who lives in a typical suburb in New Jersey, in the United States.

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Dorothy Allison is normal in almost every way. Only she has one ability that makes her stand out from her neighbors.

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She has the gift of second sight. A gift recognized and nation over by police.

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Dorothy has been helpful to us because when you get to working on a homicide or a missing person and you just don't know where else to go, you have to come to Dorothy.

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And she will help you out somehow, some way.

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I believe that we all are gifted with various talents. Some people, kids, Mozart. Everybody is born with special talents.

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Dorothy was born with the talent of second ability.

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It is this ability that has brought Dorothy Allison to many crime locations, often as a last resort by police departments who have exhausted every other avenue of investigation.

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For example, in 1980, Dorothy was called to the scene of the Atlanta child murders. And her insight helped break the case.

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I cannot explain it. I would say I'm the least informed person about psyching.

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I don't know psyching powers or psyching. I don't read about it. I don't believe that if you study, you can become a psychic. I believe you need to have it or you don't.

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In a less enlightened time, Dorothy might have found herself burned at the stake to care the witch tortured into silence merely because she possessed abilities beyond the comprehension of her accusers.

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It is impossible to calculate just how many psychics lost their lives and suppressed their visions due to ignorance.

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One of the first recorded use of psychics in crime detection occurred in 1888. The criminal, Jack the Ripper.

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A famous Victorian psychic, Robert Lees, allegedly led police to the home of a man that many believe was the infamous murderer, a physician, William Gull.

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Unfortunately, police refused to take Lees seriously. And Gull escaped justice, if indeed he was guilty.

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Today, there are better documented cases that could convince even the most determined skeptic.

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The case for the credibility of psychic detection is a strong one. And in police files, the world over, compelling proof of its accuracy can be filed.

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Now, police are much more sophisticated. Computers, detailed chemical analysis, even genetic identification can be used to gather evidence.

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But many police departments still employ psychics, even though their successes fly in the face of rational investigation.

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Why? Because they work, and no police department likes to argue with success.

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One psychic with an international reputation is Peter Hercus. He acquired second sight through an unfortunate accident.

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He fell off a ladder, hitting his head. When he came to, Hercus found that he had gained an apparently crystal clear insight into the psychic dimension.

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One of our modern nearest most brutal and mysterious crimes took place in the United States in the city of Boston.

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13 women were killed by a person known as the Boston Strangler. Peter Hercus was there, and his visions of the crime and criminal entered his mind in an unusual way.

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There's more that I don't think about murder, how it looks like, how I know. I get and I wait for what I see in a mental picture.

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Hercus mental pictures showed a different man from the person who ultimately confessed, and to this day he maintains that the real killer was allowed to escape.

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In 1969, Hercus was brought to the scene of the infamous Sharon Tate murder. At that time he described the murder scene, a description that was confirmed when the murderers, a crazed group controlled by Charles Madsen, were brought to justice.

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To understand these strange visions better, we must experience them for ourselves, embark upon a psychic journey and come face to face with a power that may be within us all.

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As is often the case with the paranormal, there are ordinary explanations for many of these cases. Not all police departments are convinced that psychics are effective. In fact, some believe that they're wrong as often as they're right.

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As far as psychics and police work goes, we have not been able to determine that psychics are useful investigatively.

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My impression is that as far as psychics motivations go, that there is a mix of motivations. I think that there are a lot of phonies out there, no question about it, we've encountered some of them.

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There is also a very sincere group who honestly believe that they do have special ability because they've had a vision or a special kind of dream or a waking nightmare kind of situation. However, when you test it in the laboratory or in real life applied research as we've tried to do here, there are real questions about translating that into help for the police in real crime cases.

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There have been many, many skeptics and my answer to them is at least try it. And then if you see a psychic isn't helping them get rid of he, she, whoever it may be, and don't bother with it.

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You can tell people things thousands and thousands and thousands of times, but you have to experience it for yourself one time to become a believer.

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Belief can strike suddenly and it can lead to some frightening destinations. There are those who believe that these almost magical abilities lie dormant within us all.

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Trained psychics have learned to tap these powers, but occasionally, ordinary people see extraordinary things and it can turn their lives upside down.

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On December 17th, 1980, a woman sat listening to the radio. A local nurse had vanished. That was the beginning.

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I had been listening to the radio news all day. I heard prior reports on what was going on in the neighborhood about the missing nurse. And as soon as they said house to house search, for some reason it was as if I heard she's not in a house.

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I just saw a visual picture of an area. It was as clear and as if I were looking at a photograph, a dirt path leading out and a hill behind it. Many thoughts ran through my mind. It was as if I could see white through shrubbery.

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Ettersmith went to the local police with a terrifying vision.

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I walked in the front door and saw the desk officer told him that I wanted to speak to someone about the missing nurse. He directed me down the hallway, which I realize now was homicide division.

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And he asked me if I thought I could point this area out on a map and I said I was sure I could.

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After leaving the police station, Etter became obsessed with what she had witnessed. She decided to search for the body herself to put her mind to rest. And when she arrived at the site, she saw something white, something unspeakable.

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I could not tell what I was looking at. As my eyes continued to travel down this form, there was two nurse issues on the feet. And at that particular moment, I said, oh my God, I said it's got on white nurse issues. It's got to be her.

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Her terrible vision was real. She had discovered the body of the missing nurse. And the police had a prime suspect. Her name was Ettersmith.

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After all the questioning, after me volunteering for a polygraph to prove that I was telling the truth, at 5.30 am on Thursday morning, Van Nuys police officer.

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Had me booked a former and locked in jail.

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Luckily for Etter, the real killer confessed and she was released. Later, filing and winning, a wrongful arrest suit against the police.

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But she has never forgotten the horrible scene that appeared unbidden in her mind's eye, or the consequences of telling the truth that some still refuse to believe.

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Many people remain skeptical of these psychic powers. They believe a combination of luck, misidentification and wishful thinking gives psychics their reputation.

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Now, let us examine one case in detail and see for ourselves whether psychic detection is science or coincidence.

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Police are extremely skeptical of non-professionals who dabble in their domain. Yet Dorothy Allison has earned their respect, their trust.

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Dorothy Allison has been involved in hundreds of cases. Some she has helped solve, others she has not.

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One of her most tragic stories began on May 15th, 1978 when a young girl named Susan Jacobson went out shopping and never returned. Her parents at first were worried, then then frantic.

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We had called the police at 9 o'clock at night because it was not her routine. Susan didn't like to be out in the dark, she wasn't home.

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After two weeks of total unsuccessful operation by anyone in authority, you start getting desperate, I guess as any parent would.

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We got in touch with Dorothy Allison through my sister. She asked me directions how to get to my house.

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When Dorothy first came here, she said, what is 2562? And I said, how in God's name does she know when my daughter was born?

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Because that's my daughter's birthday, February 5th, 1962.

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I think I was more nervous than Dorothy. I did not know what a psychic was. I really had no experience with psychics.

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And she walked in, came in, sat my dining table, had a cup of coffee and wanted to know what MAR meant.

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When I picture the area, what I saw was the MAR, three letters, MAR, that is all that I saw at first.

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I saw the church steeples, I saw a burnt-out car, I saw a bit of water there and I kept smelling oil.

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But though the police were convinced that Susan had run away, her father felt differently.

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He began to search for the area that Dorothy had envisioned and he soon found a place that closely matched her description.

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With abandoned cars, nearby water, a church steeple and the letters MAR. Only the smell of oil was missing.

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I thought we had searched every place and it wasn't until 22 months later that I found out that during that search I stood 6 feet from my daughter and never knew it.

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Susan's father continued the search. The police had long since dropped out of the case. Two years went by and then one afternoon a group of plain children smelled oil and discovered a half-buried industrial drum at the inside.

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They found Susan Jacobson.

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She was murdered by her boyfriend because she was going to break up with him and I knew this the day that I was in that house.

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For 22 months Dorothy Allison is the one who kept me personally going. With her friendship she never let me down.

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Contacting Dorothy is the best thing that ever happened to me, to my wife and to my family. If it wasn't for her, we may today still be searching for my daughter's remains.

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Dorothy Allison had seen the truth behind Susan's disappearance and her vision led to the conviction of the murderer.

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People must understand one thing, that when I worked with a family I could become very very close and I always said to myself, I will look for these children as though they were my own children. I feel they're family, they're part of me.

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There's a personal kind of tragedy that can accompany these psychics on their travels. They're occasionally dragged to the lower depths of human experience, whether they want to go or not.

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And often their greatest successes are inextricably linked with another's misfortune.

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But a positive power does exist inside them. A power that can bring justice to the guilty and protection to the innocent.

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Is there a way that these powers of the mind can be perfected? Can these abilities ever become a standard tool of law enforcement?

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Could these visions make crime obsolete?

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The obvious successes of psychic detectives defy all of our definitions of what is possible and what is not.

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There are men and women who seem to have the ability to slip the bounds of our physical world, allowing them to experience insights that must be acknowledged, if not completely understood.

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Psychics are going to have to play a role in our police department investigations because we can't solve everything. I was a skeptic when I first started to.

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I cannot convince other police officers that this is the way it is, as simple as that. You have to find out yourself.

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As far as police using psychic, psychic they're doing it a lot more now than they've ever done. And I think they're taking a chance and saying, well look, if this works we will use it.

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When I first met Dorothy, it was kind of a strange sequence of events because she came in and started telling me things about my case that only myself and my partner knew about.

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As far as I'm concerned, this is not the thing that I want to make money on. To me it is sacrilegious to take money for the murder of a little child or a missing child.

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I am nothing more than just a housewife or grandmother, and that is it.

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I've never gone around claiming to be a psychic. My kids always do that. They always claim I'm a psychic.

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I feel that there are many gifts that are unexplained and it's very possible that this is one of mine.

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What compels these strange visions? Why does the human mind tell us so much while at the same time denying us the whole truth?

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These questions have no easy answers, but the experiences of these men and women are evidence that these answers can be found.

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In the late 1800s, fingerprints were thought to be irrelevant in establishing guilt.

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Time and the art of crime detection has changed all that.

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It has taken centuries for these psychic sciences to gain any credibility.

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Still, it seems that there are some people who see beyond our physical world, who gaze into the faces of the innocent and the guilty.

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We cannot understand you, but we must respect and thank you.

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Psychic detectives.

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Secrets and mysteries presents information based in part on theories and opinions, some of which are controversial.

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The producer's purpose is not to validate any side of an issue, but through the use of actualities and dramatic recreation relate a possible answer, but not the only answer to this material.