A controversial television seance airing today will claim it has reached the spirit of John Lennon, but viewers will have to pay $9.95 to find out what the peace-loving Beatle has to say. The special, being carried on pay-TV service In Demand, was organized by the producers of a 2003 attempt to channel the late Princess Diana.

Sight unseen, the Lennon effort has been attacked by the late Beatle?s friends and fans as a tasteless effort to profit from his assassination 25 years ago. But producers say they are hoping to lure an audience that now loves such prime-time network TV shows as ?Ghost Whisperer? and ?Medium.? The program features what is described as an Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVP, that a psychic on the show claims is the disembodied voice of Lennon speaking at a seance in one of his favorite New York restaurants, La Fortuna. EVP is based on a belief that spirit voices communicate through radio and TV broadcast signals.

Reuters was given a preview of the program, ?The Spirit of John Lennon,? on condition that it not reveal what the ?voice? said during the taped seance. Producer Paul Sharratt, who heads Starcast Productions and who calls himself a skeptic, said hearing the voice has made him a believer. ?The Spirit of John Lennon? is being done without the knowledge or consent of Lennon?s estate or his widow Yoko Ono, who declined comment. Her longtime friend and spokesman Elliot Mintz has called the entire exercise ?tacky, exploitative and far removed? from the icon?s way of life.

Sue ZEIDLER