Derek Acorah - Haunted - Scariest stories from the UK's no. 1 psychic

As well as asking for protection, I would also stress that it is absolutely necessary for mediums to practise the discipline of closing themselves down to spiritual influences when they are not working. To leave oneself open is foolhardy indeed. Not only will the medium become exhausted by the constant draining of their energies, but they won’t be living a true and proper life on the physical plane and will therefore lose that important grip on reality that day-to-day life gives.

When I am working on a paranormal investigation, all my psychic and mediumistic senses come into play. I will watch for the slightest movement denoting spiritual activity. I will listen to make sure that I pick up any words spoken by a spirit being. My psychic senses are honed to the energies in a location so that I can glean any recordings contained in the fabric of a building, in the brickwork and wood or even in the ground upon which it stands. I am fully alert and concentrating on the job in hand.

If it happens that a spirit entity appears, I evaluate the emotional state and temperament of that being. I will communicate vocally with it and hope that I will be allowed to hear any responses clairaudiently. If a spirit being does not wish to communicate I then rely upon the help of my spirit guide, Sam, who will act as a go-between conveying messages from the spirit person to me.

At times I come across spirit beings who are behaving in an anti-social manner or causing concern to the current inhabitants of the building in some way. It is on these occasions that I sometimes choose to channel the spirit in an attempt to discover just why they are acting in this way. In order to do this I have to invite the spirit being to enter my aura, i.e. come very close to me and almost overshadow me. This means that the space in which I am standing is now almost occupied by the spirit person as well and I have absorbed that being into my own aura. It is then and only then that the personality of the being I am channelling will be demonstrated through my own physical body. If the spirit was a violent being in their physical life, then I will demonstrate violence. If they were erratic in behaviour, then I will become erratic for the brief time that I am channelling them. In other words, I will become the person that the spirit being was when they were living here on Earth.

What I have found over the past two or three years is that my channelling has been described as me being ‘possessed’. This description was used, for example, by certain members of a production company, through their ignorance of the subject, during the making of Most Haunted . It didn’t matter how many times I requested that these people did not use that description of that aspect of my work, they still did. I suppose that was because it sounded more exciting and ‘paranormal’ to talk of possession. But I must stress that I have never been possessed.

I have also heard that sometimes people have commented that I might be schizophrenic or psychotic. I am neither. I am a medium. I find it distasteful in the extreme that certain individuals demonstrate their ignorance of mental health conditions or, even worse, refuse to appreciate just how much heartache and trauma the families of people suffering from such conditions have to undergo. If I behaved in such a manner I would be thoroughly ashamed of myself.

Channelling is something that I choose to do. It is an educated choice and I make it because I know that I am experienced enough to deal with the situation. I also have an exceedingly strong spirit guide, doorkeepers and spirit helpers who will assist me, and I make sure that I have at least one person with me – in most cases my good friend Ray Rodaway – who is experienced in dealing with the situation when I do choose to channel a spirit entity.

I have found that by channelling a spirit entity I am more able to understand the personality of the person as they were both in their physical life and after their passing. It gives me a greater depth than merely communicating using the gifts of clairvoyance or clairaudience.

CHAPTER TWO

Over the Christmas period of 2006 my mother and her sister, my Aunt Eileen, came to stay with Gwen and me at our home in England. On 27 December we all travelled to Spain and stayed there for a week. During that week my mother was not herself at all, but I did not realize quite how ill she was.

Prior to the Christmas period I had felt unsettled. My mother had kept coming into my mind and I had gained the distinct impression that all was not well, but I had pushed the thought away, as it wasn’t something I wished to contemplate. Something told me, though, that this would probably be the last Christmas I would spend in her physical presence, even though she appeared to be well and in good spirits at the time.

Most people are under the impression that, as a medium, I am well aware of any events about to take place in my life, but this is just not the case. We mediums receive nothing for ourselves. We are deeply intuitive and get ‘feelings’ when unhappy or joyous events are about to take place, but we receive no definitive information from our guides and helpers. To acquire such detail would necessitate a visit to another medium.

Despite my unease, my mother, my aunt, Gwen and I enjoyed the two-day Christmas holiday and all appeared to be well on our trip over to Spain. Within a couple of days, however, my mother was really not herself. Unlike her normal practice, she would stay in bed until quite late in the day and wasn’t at all keen on going out and about. Usually she would be enthusiastic about eating out in restaurants and taking trips to the shops, but not this time.

Gwen had arranged our flights home for quite late in the day so that Mum could have what was now her usual lie-in. Lunch-time came and when my aunt went to rouse her, she found she couldn’t. She called me through to the bedroom. Then, gradually, Mum woke up properly. I was worried about what was going on, but did not want to take her to a Spanish hospital, as I was sure this would distress her. I urgently needed to get her home, where I knew she would be happier.

When we finally arrived back at my mother’s house, I called the doctor. He came out to visit her and advised that she should go to hospital immediately. An ambulance was called and Mum was admitted to the hospital. She was suffering from a breathing complaint. She had been a heavy smoker all her life and now, at 80 years of age, she was suffering the consequences. Her poor body was not receiving enough oxygen. In effect she was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The weeks dragged by and we were at the beginning of March with Mum still in hospital. After many ups and downs – indeed, many moments when we thought she was lost – she seemed to rally. The doctors told us that there would be no recovery, but that she could return to her home to spend her last few days or weeks there. Mum had in fact been most adamant that she wanted to return home to be with her family for some time. She was unaware that she had little time left.

Arrangements for oxygen supplies were made and Mum arrived home. My sisters who had flown over from their homes in America stayed with her to care for her. My brother Colin and his wife flew over from his home in Spain. My brother Wayne, my sister Barbara and I were resident in England anyway. So Mum was happy. She had almost her whole family around her – her sons, her daughters and her beloved sister. The only person missing was Fred, my dad, who had passed over to spirit some seven years earlier.

After only three short weeks, Mum suddenly relapsed and then within a day or two she was gone. She had gone to join Fred and the rest of her family in the world of spirit.