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

DEREK ACORAH

Scariest Stories from the UK’s no. 1 Psychic

Dedicated to the memory of all those whom we have loved who are no longer with us. We will meet again.

Acknowledgements HAUNTED DEREK ACORAH Scariest Stories from the UK’s no. 1 Psychic

Introduction

1. Channelling

2. My Beloved Mother

3. One Night in Blackpool

4. A Faithful Friend

5. Down Memory Lane

6. A Fright in St Albans

7. Liverpool, Capital of Culture

8. A Poltergeist in Hastings

9. An Unwanted Visitor

10. The Old Hall Hotel

11. A Very Big Mistake

12. Kensal Green Cemetery

13. Spanish Surprise

14. Locke’s Distillery

15. An Old Theatre

16. A Loving Family

17. Victoria Baths

18. The Man Who Couldn’t Say No

19. Land of the Pharaohs

Copyright

About the Publisher

My name is Derek Acorah. I am a spirit medium. I am clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient and I use my gifts to connect the physical world in which we live to the world beyond to which we are destined to go. When we pass over to the heavenly state, we will be reunited with the loved ones who have passed away before us, be they friends or family, neighbours or members of the animal kingdom who have been special to us during our earthly lives.

Although I was in my thirties before I commenced working for spirit professionally, I realized I had psychic gifts when I was a small boy. I was a mere six years of age when I had my first experience of spirit when I saw my grandfather on the stairway of my grandmother’s home. He had passed over to the world of spirit some years prior to my birth.

Over the years I worked first as a medium conducting sittings for people on a one-to-one basis and then progressed to taking part in radio programmes in the days when media mediumship was in its infancy. I went on to appear on television programmes, principally The Psychic Zone, Livetime, Psychic Livetime and Derek Acorah’s Predictions with Granada Breeze, the satellite arm of Granada Television based in Manchester.

Just before Granada Breeze ceased to broadcast, I agreed to take part in a pilot programme provisionally named ‘Haunting Truths’. That programme went on to become known worldwide as Most Haunted and is owned and aired by LivingTV. After appearing in almost 100 programmes and numerous Most Haunted Live broadcasts, at the end of series 5 I decided to move on. I agreed to take part in one last series and three more Most Haunted Live programmes and completed my commitment to the programme in October 2005.

By that time I had already commenced filming a new programme for LivingTV. It was known as Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns . Working with Danniella Westbrook and Angus Purden on the first two series and with Myleene Klass and Rhodri Owen on the third series, I had a wonderful time travelling up and down the country visiting reputedly haunted locations. Unlike the format of Most Haunted , these locations were not well-known historic buildings but homes, shops and other more insignificant places. Nonetheless they were often exceedingly haunted in their own right.

The summer of 2007 brought the realization of an ambition I had had for many years when LivingTV commissioned, through Ruggie Media, a new programme. It was to be named Paranormal Egypt . Making eight programmes covering Egypt’s incredible history and visiting locations not normally open to the public was a real privilege. The memories will remain with me for the rest of my life.

I am still working hard and have many projects in line for the future. I am continuing with my theatre tours, which encompass the whole of the UK and Ireland, and have plans to work further afield this year. I have made many new friends and I have also been fortunate in rekindling some old friendships. I am looking forward, as I write this in January 2008, to many more years of working for spirit.

CHAPTER ONE

First of all, I would like to say a few words regarding my work as a spirit medium.

For those who do not understand what a medium is, I would like to explain that a person with mediumistic gifts is someone who is able to communicate with people who have passed away – passed over to the spirit world or, as I like to call it, to the higher side of life.

Mediumistic communication with spirit people is achieved through clairvoyance, clairaudience or clairsentience. The word ‘clairvoyance’ literally means ‘clear seeing’, i.e. a person who is clairvoyant can see, either subjectively (in their mind’s eye) or objectively (with their physical eyes), a spirit person or a symbol passed on to them by people in the spiritual realms. Clairaudience is the gift of ‘clear hearing’. This happens when an individual receives verbal communication from people in the spirit world. Clairsentience, or ‘clear feeling’, is when a person feels energies. These are not necessarily energies from the spirit world; they may be energies from the living too.

All mediums are deeply psychic and clairsentient. Many are both clairsentient and either clairaudient or clairvoyant. Others, such as myself, are gifted in all three areas.

A medium can also often see the auras of people or animals. The aura is the individual energy field that surrounds every living being. It consists of bands of coloured energies denoting the physical health and emotional state of that being, and so a medium who is aware of it can gain information as to how a particular person or animal is feeling, whether there has been illness or emotional upset or, indeed, whether there is the imminent prospect of some ailment.

I feel it is important to point out that although a medium may be very gifted, when they are not working and open to spiritual vibrations, they are only as psychic as everybody else. So they are just as likely as the next person to lose an item, to have an unexpected flat tyre, to forget something or to experience any one of life’s ups and downs. It is pointless making that hackneyed quip ‘You didn’t see that one coming, did you?’ when a mishap occurs in a medium’s daily life. If any of you have made this observation, no doubt you have received a wry smile from the medium in question. The point is that it is only when a medium has prepared themselves for psychic work and has opened themselves up to the vibrations and influences of the world of spirit that they are in a position to demonstrate their mediumistic gifts.

By ‘opened themselves up’, I mean that they expand their consciousness – that part of the brain that houses our psychic side. (We all have it – we are all psychic to some degree.) They then become more keenly aware of the atmosphere around them, whether visiting a haunted location or giving a reading to an individual who has requested an insight into their life or an answer to a personal question.

The preparation for such work involves offering up a prayer for self-protection. This request for protection is of paramount importance. When I pray to my guides and doorkeepers, I do so for both myself and any other person or persons present with me. I must stress, however, that it is important for each individual to ask for their own protection from negative spirits. If you knowingly enter an alleged haunted location, you cannot leave the responsibility for your protection to the medium alone. You have a duty to yourself.