Derek Acorah’s Amazing Psychic Stories
Derek Acorah
Amazing stories of psychic encounters by TV's favourite psychic, Derek Acorah.The star of LIVINGtv’s ‘Ghost Towns’ shares incredible real-life tales of dramatic rescues, dream visitations and near-death experiences from his own life and the lives of many of the people he has worked with.The book includes:• Why hauntings occur, and why certain locations are ‘chosen’ by the ghost.• Miraculous survival stories which defy explanation, including remarkable medical recoveries.• Near-death experiences, and an answer to the question ‘what is it really like to die?’• Spirit visitations – how and why spirits can visit earth, and how psychic medium communication works.• Real-life dramas and what happened when those from the afterlife intervened.• What these encounters with the spirit world mean, and how they prove the existence of life after death.
derek acorah's
AMAZING PSYCHIC STORIES
Derek Acorah
Dedicated to the memory of Bill and Joanie
Introduction (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
My name is Derek Acorah. I am a spirit medium. I have been working professionally as a medium for over 25 years now. During the course of my work I have come across many, many instances where divine intervention has taken place – those occasions when we just know that somebody up there is looking after us.
We all have our own different ideas about the workers in the world beyond – those who are charged with the task of guiding our footsteps through this earthly life, those who care for us and prevent us from making errors of judgement or foolhardy decisions that would cause us to undergo experiences not meant for us in this lifetime. Some people refer to these astral beings as their ‘guardian angels’. Others, like myself, refer to them as ‘spirit guides’ and ‘helpers’ or ‘guardians’.
However we think of these beings, we all have guiding influences in the heavenly realms who have been allocated to us from birth and who will remain with us for as long as we live on this Earth plane. We may not be aware of their presence, and indeed, some would say that there is no such thing, but I can promise you that there is. You may not be able to see them or hear them, but I doubt that there is anybody alive in this world today who has not at some time or other been inspired by spirit to make a decision which has altered their life quite radically in some way. It may be a last-minute change of plan that has resulted in the avoidance of an accident; it may be going somewhere on the spur of the moment and meeting a person who has changed everything. Such events don’t take place randomly – they are meant to happen. They are engineered by our guides so that we can experience just what we are meant to in order to fulfil the decisions regarding lifetime experiences that we ourselves made before incarnating into this life.
As well as spirit guides, there are of course the true angels – those celestial beings who draw close to us in moments of great stress or loss, or even as a sign of something momentous that is about to take place in our life. These angels are not human beings returned from the spirit world – they have never incarnated into this world in human form. They are pure positive energies in much the same manner as poltergeists, which are pure negative energies. Neither angels nor poltergeists have ever taken human form in an earthly life.
The Celestial Caretakers’ Spiritual Hierarchy
In every society there is a hierarchy and the people at the top have worked hard in order to earn their position. The world of spirit is no different.
When a person leaves their physical life and returns home to the heavenly state they enter a period of recuperation. Once they are ready to take their rightful place once more in the spirit world they are asked what they feel they have achieved during their incarnation here on Earth and whether they feel that they have learned the lessons necessary for their soul’s growth.
What, you may ask, is the point of ‘soul growth’? The more a spirit experiences during its physical lifetimes, then the more it grows and progresses. The ultimate aim is to achieve a position as a teacher or main guide, helping someone through their physical life.
Beyond the status of ‘guide’ lies the pathway towards the spiritual hierarchy – the ‘Old Ones’, as I like to refer to them. The Old Ones are those spirits who no longer return to the earthly environs. They inhabit the highest celestial realms. They have experienced everything, they have no more learning to undergo, they have evolved completely. They are as near to perfection as it is possible for any spirit to be and are closest to our creator God.
The Old Ones are the spirit masters who speak to the spirit masses in the Great Halls of Understanding. They teach them about what is expected of them and talk to them about what they have learned in their earthly incarnations and what they feel they ought to learn in their next physical lives on Earth.
The Old Ones also have the responsibility of monitoring those people who have been elected leaders of our physical world – the heads of state, prime ministers and others who have been charged with the well-being of the people. It is the Old Ones who step in and alter the course of history when they consider that it is necessary for the greater good of mankind.
It is also the Old Ones who are responsible for the laws of karma. They have to ensure that every karmic debt, whether positive or negative, is repaid in full.
Below the Old Ones come the ‘Caretakers’. These spirits are not quite so highly evolved as the Old Ones but are sufficiently experienced to act as guardians and spirit guides to people in their physical lives. They also have the opportunity to reincarnate into a physical life themselves once or twice more to undergo more of life’s experiences, should they so wish, in order to achieve the ultimate Old One status.
During a final incarnation, I believe that the Caretakers have a particular duty: to try to help us reorder the way our lives are lived so that our Earth becomes a more heavenly place. I believe that people such as Jesus Christ, Buddha and Mohammed decided that before taking their place in the highest celestial realms they would return to a physical incarnation one last time in order to help humanity.
The Caretakers look after all the realms of spirit. The more highly evolved a Caretaker, the higher the realm of spirit that they are responsible for. The Caretakers with more to learn consequently oversee the realms of the younger spirits and the spirit people with more to learn.
The Caretakers are therefore responsible for newly discarnate spirits entering the spirit realms. They make sure that everything is ready for their entry into the state of rest and recuperation once they have been delivered by their spirit guide and their family members from their physical lifetime. After spirits have successfully recuperated, Caretakers will help them to review that lifetime and to determine whether they feel that they have achieved what they intended to achieve or not. Discussion will also take place with regard to the spirit’s next incarnation, what it hopes to achieve and whether that lifetime’s experience should be easier or harsher than the last incarnation. Ultimately the decision as to what will be experienced in a physical lifetime and when reincarnation will take place is entirely up to the spirit. It may decide to reincarnate almost immediately or may wait aeons before taking up the challenge of yet another physical incarnation.
Each of us has made these choices. They are ours alone, but throughout each incarnation we are guided along life’s pathway. Guardian angels, spirit guides and family members in spirit can all make their presence felt in our lives, both to help us keep to our chosen life’s experience and to encourage us when the going gets tough. Many, many people have had such experiences and I am happy to be able to tell their stories here.
Contents
Dedication (#ud138b476-cd6d-5145-9eeb-9550c71d1505)Introduction (#u94d65d84-6cb3-5a3e-b853-e5340479beb3)1. My Meetings With Angels (#u6588d414-aa8c-5b8b-8024-b1e8dd1518b8)2. White Feathers (#u4d80f1b4-3f4b-5551-a9b2-61ad7f879b60)3. Following Our Destiny (#u24a87dae-f6f1-5940-ad10-1a4352469ddf)4. Spiritual Intervention (#u9c7125fb-e664-5b10-a4da-301ed9bacf9e)5. The Words Of An Angel (#uc99aaece-50fc-5f5f-bdb8-ecfb0dffd267)6. Do Angels Follow You Wherever You Go? (#litres_trial_promo)7. Do Angels Meet Us When We Die? (#litres_trial_promo)8. Near-Death Experience (#litres_trial_promo)9. Soul Growth (#litres_trial_promo)10. The Wrong Pathway (#litres_trial_promo)11. A Joint Message (#litres_trial_promo)12. The Touch Of An Angel (#litres_trial_promo)13. The Reunion (#litres_trial_promo)14. Reincarnation (#litres_trial_promo)15. Children And Visitation (#litres_trial_promo)16. A Friend Returns (#litres_trial_promo)17. Strangers! (#litres_trial_promo)18. An Angel’s Warning (#litres_trial_promo)19. Wings Of An Angel (#litres_trial_promo)20. Angelic Animals (#litres_trial_promo)21. A Premonition (#litres_trial_promo)22. Reassurance (#litres_trial_promo)23. One Good Deed … (#litres_trial_promo)24. Forgiveness (#litres_trial_promo)25. Saved By An Angel (#litres_trial_promo)26. Signs From The Spirit People (#litres_trial_promo)Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)Also By Derek Acorah And Available From Harperelement (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 1 (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
My Meetings with Angels (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
So far in my lifetime I have experienced being in the company of a true angel twice. The first time was when I visited California in 1998.
On the day prior to my return to the United Kingdom I was sitting in a diner in Marina del Rey in the company of some members of the International Society for Paranormal Research, including Dr Larry Montz. Quite out of the blue I became aware of a presence with me. Feelings of absolute joy, divine delight and pure love flooded through my being. I had never felt anything like it before. I was moved to tears by the sheer force of emotion. I felt changed and enlightened. I knew that the experience had been brought to me to help me understand my mission in life to tell the whole world the truth of eternal life.
The second occasion I experienced a meeting with a true angel was in the back garden of my home. My father Fred had passed on to the spirit world the previous November and I knew that the time was drawing near for my beloved dog Cara to pass on to the world of spirit as well. I was deeply saddened. Cara had been my trusted companion for almost 17 years and in all of those years she had never left my side. She had been with me during some very bad times and had shared the good times with me too. She was ‘my girl’ and I did not know how I was going to cope without her loving physical presence.
As I sat with my head in my hands contemplating what was shortly to take place, I heard a gentle rustling noise. A feeling of warmth, peace and all-encompassing love flooded through my whole body just like the feelings I had experienced that afternoon in Marina del Rey. I was enveloped in dazzling pure white light and once again I cried with the pure loving emotion of the experience. My deep sadness was replaced by a complete calmness and acceptance of what was to be. As the light evaporated and the celestial being withdrew from me, I knew that my Cara would be safe in her heavenly home and that my father would care for her until we were once more reunited.
It is interesting to note that the circumstances surrounding me at these times were entirely different. On the first occasion I was in the company of other people and the atmosphere was positive and upbeat. There had been animated conversation about a bright future. It seemed to be something within that conversation that caused the angelic visitation. It was as though the heavenly realms were setting their seal upon it. As Dr Larry Montz said, ‘I think that today we have been visited by this spirit for a specific reason – to tell us we are walking on our predestined pathway.’
On the second occasion when I felt an angelic presence I could not have been feeling less positive. I knew that my beloved dog’s health was failing fast and I was at the point where I had to make the ultimate decision regarding having her euthanased. I cannot describe how I felt. I loved Cara dearly and could not bear to let her go. But if I loved her, I asked myself, how could I let her continue to deteriorate to the point where life for her would be painful and difficult? It was the most awful decision I have ever had to make in my life and it was then that the angel visited me. On that occasion I feel it was to bring me peace and let me know that the correct thing for Cara had to be done. It was to remind me that she would pass over peacefully knowing that she was loved and that I loved her enough to let her go on to the beautiful place waiting for her. It was to remind me that she would not be alone – that my father Fred would take care of her until it was time for us to be reunited in spirit. It was to give me solace at a time when I was very, very sad indeed.
Whatever the circumstances, when you are visited by a true celestial being the feelings of peace and love are so intense. Warmth radiates to both the inner and the outer self. I can only describe it as a ‘living light’.
It is curious that it is only relatively recently that people have begun to speak of their experiences with true angels. This may be because in the past such stories have been dismissed as claptrap and silliness. But angels exist just as surely as you and I.
When a person is truly blessed by an angelic visitation, their descriptions are always the same – an awareness that the light around them has become dazzlingly bright and an atmosphere of intense peace, love and happiness. As the angelic presence recedes, it leaves behind positive feelings. Visitation from an angel is a truly life-changing experience.
People see true angels at different times and for different reasons. The most common reason for angelic visitation is to give strength to a person who is feeling sad or lost, to give them hope for better in the future. Other people experience angelic visitation when they are ill. People also see angels at times of great happiness and report that seeing the angel is an affirmation of that happiness. In short, angels can be anywhere at any time and in any circumstances.
An angel visited Penny when she moved home as a six-year-old child. She was with her parents and her brother but was somewhat afraid of the house that the family was to move into.
As Penny nervously entered the bedroom that was to be hers, she noticed a very bright light in the corner of the room. As she stared at the light she began to see the outline of what she described as ‘the sort of angel you see in picture books’.
From that point onwards Penny wasn’t afraid of her room. She felt happy and peaceful there and spent many happy childhood years in the house.
And so an angel came to make a nervous little girl feel happy and at peace at a time when her life was changing.
CHAPTER 2 (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
White Feathers (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
When people describe angelic visitation, it is not uncommon for them to report the mysterious appearance of a white feather. This is meant to let you know that an angel has been around in your time of need or that you are not forgotten and that life goes on.
There have been occasions when an inexplicable white feather has been discovered in my own home. We do not have any caged birds as pets and although there is a garden frequented by many birds, none have ever been inadvertently trapped in the house. The feathers have always been discovered lying on a kitchen worktop and never in the bedrooms or anywhere on the upper floors where it would be possible for a feather to escape from bedding. Our cats have never brought a dead bird into the house, so that explanation is out of the question too. I have even seen a feather drifting down from the ceiling and gently landing on the kitchen work surface. There is no explanation whatsoever for the appearance of such feathers in our home. It can only be the work of an angel.
Angels are of course everywhere, and everybody, whether they recognize the fact or not, will at some time have their life touched by an angelic being. Not all angelic visitation is of the celestial nature – we can also be visited by our ‘guardian angels’, those people who have once taken human form and who care for us from the world beyond.
A white feather may be dismissed as insignificant or not even noticed. There are some people, though, who set great store by a white feather featuring in their life.
One such person is a young woman whose son passed to the world of spirit at a very young age due to a serious illness. On the anniversary of his passing and at other times during the year when she is feeling particularly low, she will always find a white feather. There is never an explanation as to why the feathers should be found where they are, but they give the young woman comfort and, she feels, the knowledge that her son is always around her and draws even closer when he feels his mother needs uplifting.
Another woman who has found white feathers is Carole. Although I have not met her, she has kindly allowed me to tell you about her tragic experience.
Carole’s husband passed to spirit very suddenly at the age of 47 as the result of a massive heart attack. Tragically, this awful event took place whilst Carole was out of the house and her husband was in the company of their two teenage children. As you can imagine, it was a terrible time for the small family, but gradually they began to get back some sort of normality and were coping well.
Carole firmly believes that her husband is her guardian angel and I have to agree. From what she tells me, he is guiding and guarding his family just as much as he ever did whilst he was here in his physical life. Carole tells me that whenever she has to take on a task that her husband would have performed in the past, such as checking the oil in the car or fixing something in the house, she sees a white feather somewhere in her path. She has grown to expect them now and is never disappointed!
In her quiet times Carole often reflects on days gone by. She tells me that on such occasions she feels her husband’s presence strongly, even to the point of feeling a slight pressure on her shoulder or her hand being gently held – proof indeed that her husband has not gone away but is there as much as he ever was and no doubt always will be.
So the symbolic white feather brings huge comfort to a bereaved wife, confirming to her that her husband is safe and well and still caring for her from the world beyond.
Rebecca is also been the recipient of white feathers.
Rebecca suffered serious depression after a horrendous and almost fatal attack by an ex-boyfriend of her mother’s. Whilst still on medication for her depression she went out with her friends one night. She was unaware that taking an alcoholic drink would affect the medication she had been prescribed and returned home even more depressed and upset than ever. She attempted to commit suicide but fortunately was found in time and taken to hospital, where she stayed overnight.
When she arrived home, she went straight to bed. The windows and door to her bedroom were tightly shut. After a long sleep Rebecca awoke to find a large white feather on her bed. She is convinced that it was from her grandfather in spirit, who also suffered terribly with depression, and that he had come to give her comfort and tell her that everything would be alright.
Since that incident Rebecca tells me that she has been finding white feathers every now and again in some very strange places. I have to agree that it is very likely that her grandfather is in visitation. He is letting her know that he understands what she is going through and is watching over her.
Maureen inherited a small dog named Leckie after her cousin and his wife sadly passed on to the spirit world within 18 months of one another.
A year or so after taking Leckie into her home, Maureen began to suffer with arthritis that was sometimes so severe that she was unable to walk. Happily, the little dog was there to comfort and amuse her and keep her company. On really bad days he would cuddle up close to Maureen as if he was comforting her.
Sadly, in time Leckie too passed on to the spirit world. Maureen was very upset at losing him and felt an unreasonable anger at her cousin for leaving him with her in the first place. She felt so bitter and angry that she had lost her cousin, his wife and little Leckie that she went along to her cousin’s grave and removed the dog’s photograph that she had placed there three months earlier.
The following morning Maureen found the most beautiful soft white feather lying next to her sofa. It was in the exact spot where Leckie used to lie and sleep. Maureen wondered whether it was a calling card from an angel to help her through her grieving period or whether it was from Leckie himself to reassure her that he was still close by when she was lying alone and suffering with her arthritis.
Since that day Maureen’s anger and bitterness at losing her family members has left her. The love that she always had for them has been restored. That little doggie angel’s work has been done!
Wanda was holidaying with her family in a sixteenth-century cottage in Cornwall. She felt very uneasy after the first day or so and was sure it was haunted. Because she knew that she had almost two weeks left of her holiday she decided that she would pray to the angels for protection for her family from whatever was in the cottage.
The next day her sister reported that she had seen a figure with huge wings walking past the front window. She was convinced it was an angel and added that it had left a large white feather.
Wanda’s partner was not convinced and said that if angels existed, could they leave a sign, such as another feather. Moments later Wanda’s son rushed to where his parents were sitting. ‘Mum, a huge white feather has just dropped down from the ceiling in the living room!’ he shouted.
Wanda thought he had probably been listening to the conversation and told him, ‘Yeah, sure it did!’, but he was insistent.
Wanda’s sister went to collect the feather that she had found earlier and Wanda’s son produced his feather. They were both pure white! Was it a coincidence? We will never know. What is known, though, is that Wanda was not bothered for the rest of her holiday by the ghostly resident of the cottage.
Lois is also convinced that she has experienced angelic visitation.
Lois tells me that in the early spring of 2005 she was at her workplace. The radio was playing in the background and she got up to change the station. She tuned in to a programme that featured an interview with me. At the end I described my experience with the angel who brought me such peace and comfort just prior to the passing of my beloved dog Cara.
Afterwards Lois walked over to the window and as she stood there looking out and thinking about the story of the angel, what appeared to be a feather floated down from the sky and landed gracefully on the ground right in front of her. Thinking it was her imagination, she rushed downstairs and ran outside to where the feather had landed. She was amazed to see that there on the ground lay a beautiful white feather. She picked it up and brought it inside.
Later that evening Lois showed her husband the feather and told him about the radio interview. She says that she did feel a little stupid and thought that she might be reading a little too much into the arrival of the feather, as it could well have been a coincidence that a bird’s feather had fallen whilst she was thinking about angels. She says that her husband Craig may have felt that too.
The following week Lois and Craig travelled to America. On the day that they were leaving to travel back to the UK, as they were loading up the car with luggage, a large white feather blew into the hallway, stopping at their feet.
Two weeks after returning to the UK Lois’ father passed on to the spirit world. She was devastated. There have also been a number of other events that have caused her concern, not least the danger of losing her sight due to her diabetic condition However, she writes that things are starting to get much better in all areas, including her eyesight. She says:
‘Although I have never told my friends or family aboutthe feathers, as they’d most probably think I wasoversensitive and losing the plot a bit, I firmly believethat the significance of the feathers in my life was to letme know I wasn’t alone and to give me strength for thetough times that were to come, to comfort me with theknowledge that my dad hasn’t left me and is beinglooked after in spirit. The feathers did not protect mefrom or stop any of the pain and difficulties that wereto enter my life, but I am sure my ability to copewould have been much less without them. I believethat my feeling that the angels had given me a signmade me think about things more spiritually andallowed me to put my difficulties much more inperspective in relation to the bigger picture of humanexistence. All of us have difficult times in our lives,some more so than others, but I feel it is how we chooseto deal with the difficulties that teaches us the lessonswe need to learn. For this I am eternally grateful to theangels for their interaction in my life.’
I could not have put it better myself!
Of course the arrival of a white feather is not necessarily a sign that there is an angel around. I recall sitting in the passenger seat of my vehicle one day whilst Ray Rodaway, my tour manager, was driving me to a theatre venue in the south of England. We had been travelling for a couple of hours or more and had decided to stop at a motorway service station. It was a very cold day so we both put on our jackets prior to leaving the vehicle.
We returned to the car approximately half an hour later and took to the road once more. We had been travelling for no more than a few minutes when I heard Ray say, ‘Aye, Ackers! You know what you were saying about angels – when there’s one about you sometimes see a white feather?’
I nodded.
‘Well,’ Ray continued, ‘I think there must be one about now because a white feather’s just drifted down from the roof of the car. You don’t think we’re being warned that we’re about to have an accident, do you?’
I looked at Ray sharply but could see from his expression that he was really very serious. In fact he looked rather nervous. And sure enough, when I looked at the dashboard of the car, there sat a small white feather.
As I looked in Ray’s direction again I could see a small pinprick of white sticking through the outer material of his jacket. I pulled it and out popped a small white feather.
‘No, Ray,’ I said dryly, ‘there aren’t any angels around just now. The only feathers being shed at the moment are by you and your duvet jacket!’
An expression of relief spread across Ray’s face, followed quickly by one of embarrassment. ‘Don’t tell anybody about it, will you, Ackers?’ he said.
By this time I was convulsed with laughter. ‘Oh, Rods! This one is too good not to share!’
CHAPTER 3 (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
Following Our Destiny (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
Guardian angels, spirit guides and family members in spirit do not of course reserve the right to make their presence felt in our lives only when we are in mortal danger or when we need reassurance. Our guides and guardians are designated to us at birth to ensure that we conduct our lives in the manner chosen by us prior to our incarnation into this physical life. Because we have free will, our God-given right, we may put ourselves in danger of choosing the wrong pathway and veering away from our chosen life’s experience, and it is the job of our guardians and guides to make sure that we do not stray.
My own life is the perfect example of somebody who started off on one pathway only to be forced some years later to meet my destiny – just as my grandmother had foretold many years previously.
The one aim in my life when I was a child was to become a professional footballer. If anybody asked me what I was going to do when I grew up, my answer would always be: ‘Play football for Liverpool!’ If pressed to consider another possibility, I might reluctantly say that being a train driver might be interesting, but I never seriously considered it. I had my heart set on playing football.
Throughout my childhood I experienced proof of the existence of a spirit world and I had been told by my grandmother that I would follow in her footsteps and work for spirit by one day becoming a medium. However, I had proclaimed that I didn’t want to ‘be a gook’ and privately had pooh-poohed the idea. I did not question that there was a world beyond and that people came from that world into our world and mingled with us just as they had when they were in their physical lives – I had received more than enough proof of that – but I did not want to work with those spirit people. I wanted to be a footballer!
Finally my ambitions were fulfilled – I was signed at 15 years of age as an apprentice professional footballer with Liverpool Football Club. Gleefully I would tell my mother, ‘Gran was wrong! Look! I’m a footballer!’
What I did not know at that time was that although my ambition was being fulfilled, my ultimate destiny would still have to be met. Before incarnating into this physical life I had made a promise and that promise had to be kept.
I was allowed a certain amount of success as a footballer, but did not achieve the standard that I wished. My footballing career came to an end at a relatively early age and I was left with no choice but to follow the pathway that was meant for me – the pathway that I myself had chosen whilst still resident in the world of spirit prior to my incarnation here. As my grandmother had foreseen and as I myself had promised, I would become a worker for spirit – a medium – and a medium I became! It was my destiny!
I had reason to be talking to a young man in his thirties one day. I will respect his wish to remain anonymous and will merely call him ‘David’. His story is one where spirit, rather than working in mysterious ways, brought this young man to the realization that he was on the wrong pathway rather abruptly.
David’s story began in one of the poorer areas of Liverpool. He was the youngest of three brothers in a family which was not very well off at all. In fact most of the time money was very tight indeed. David’s mother and father both worked when there was work available and consequently were away from the family home most of the day. David and his brothers were left to a great extent to fend for themselves. Boys will be boys, and in their harsh environment it was not long before David was playing truant. Time went by and his appearances at school became less and less frequent. By the time David was 14 years of age he rarely attended school at all. He was a tall well-built lad who appeared older than he was, and eventually he became part of a group of teenagers who were known as ‘no goods’ in the area. If ever there was trouble David would be there in the thick of things. Stealing cars and joy-riding were activities that took place on a weekly basis. David thought there was nothing like the excitement of stealing a car with his mates and driving to Southport at high speed. On one such occasion the car he was in careered off the road and ended up in a field. David and his friend were badly cut and bruised – they were fortunate to escape with their lives.
By the time David was 15 he was well known to the local police and had been in court on numerous occasions. The day eventually arrived when he was sent away to a correctional institution for a number of months. When he was released he merely picked up his old lifestyle, but now with the reputation of being a really bad lad.
One day, however, things changed dramatically.
‘It was really strange, Derek,’ David told me. ‘I was walking along with me mate, just talking about this and that and planning our next bit of mischief, when I suddenly felt a really hard slap to the side of my head. It really hurt. I looked at my friend and said, “What was that for?” I was just about to fetch him one back when I realized that he couldn’t have done it because he was too far away from me. He’d stopped to light a ciggie and I’d carried on walking, so he was a few yards away.
‘We carried on towards me other mate’s house, but when he asked me in I told him that I was going home. I needed to have a good think. For some reason that slap around the head affected me more than any copper yelling at me or any court of law sending me down.’
Over the next few days David told me that he had stayed in and pondered on his life. He realized that he was not happy at all with his lifestyle and in fact was beginning to feel rather ashamed of himself and the things he had done. He began to look at things from the perspective of those who had suffered because of his actions – the owners of the cars he had stolen, the people whose lives had been affected by his crass and sometimes cruel behaviour. He began to feel deeply ashamed.
‘There was nothing I could do to make things better for them, Derek,’ he told me, ‘but I made a pact with myself that I wouldn’t knowingly cause hurt or harm to anybody else.’
David turned over a new leaf. He had lost his opportunity of education by now, for he was 16 years of age, but what he did was find himself a job in a local factory. He started earning a regular wage and mixing with a different group of people socially. He left his old life behind and became a worthwhile member of the community. ‘I’m not saying I became a pillar of society, mate,’ he said, ‘but at least I could look myself in the eye and wasn’t dodging out of the way of the coppers!’
David continued to work at the factory. He became a supervisor – a position he still holds – and he has now married and has children of his own. ‘And I make sure they keep to the straight and narrow,’ he told me with a twinkle in his eye. ‘It’s funny, y’know, Derek! If I hadn’t had had that slap around the ear that day I don’t think I’d have stopped what I was doing. I’d just have carried on and ended up being a real no-hoper. Who d’you think it was?’
I smiled. ‘That was your guardian angel,’ I told him. ‘A life of crime wasn’t meant for you. You weren’t meant to waste your time in prison. You had far more to offer than that. In your old life you wouldn’t have met your wife and you wouldn’t have brought your children into this life. You were made to change your ways so that you could meet your destiny!’
CHAPTER 4 (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
Spiritual Intervention (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
There have been many occasions when people have related to me that they have felt that they have been prevented from being involved in an accident or harmed in some way by an unseen force. These are examples of spiritual intervention – those times when it is absolutely evident, without a shadow of doubt, that something or somebody has stepped in and saved us from a dangerous or even fatal situation.
It has to be understood, though, that spiritual intervention can only take place when an injurious event is about to take place that is not on our designated pathway, i.e. is not part of our destiny. If we have chosen to undergo an experience then that event will take place, and nothing and nobody, neither in the physical nor spiritual world, can alter that fact. As explained earlier, we have to meet our destiny in order to achieve soul growth.
There are times, however, when we can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and it is then that our guides, protectors and family members in spirit are allowed to intervene in order to prevent either physical or psychological harm from happening to us.
It may be on the pathway of one person to experience a fatal accident, for example, but not on ours. This is the reason why you read in newspapers of accidents where people ‘miraculously escaped’. It is simply the case that whilst one person had chosen to experience that method of passing back to the world of spirit, the other(s) involved had not.
A typical example of spiritual intervention took place in my own and Gwen’s life a little while after my mother-in-law, Joanie, passed on to the world of spirit. Gwen and I were preparing to go on a journey which involved driving along quite a large section of the M6. We had been on our journey for no longer than a few minutes and were stationary at a set of traffic lights when the car’s engine cut out. No matter what I did, that car was just going nowhere. Ultimately, the garage had to be called out and the car towed back for investigation. An examination of the vehicle could give no particular reason for the engine’s refusal to start, but it did uncover a major mechanical fault. If Gwen and I had undertaken that journey it was inevitable that an accident would have occurred that would have resulted in either serious injury or a fatality. As soon as I heard the mechanic’s report, I knew that spiritual intervention had taken place and I also felt sure that Joanie had more than a little to do with that intervention!
I do not think that any of us will forget 7 July 2005 – the day when London was almost brought to a standstill by the horrific suicide bombings on the city’s transport system. On that day I was travelling to London with Gwen to attend meetings that day and the next. We had elected to fly down from Manchester airport to Heathrow on the 8.30 a.m. flight, so were unaware of what had happened until we actually landed at Heathrow some time after 9 a.m. The airport was in uproar with people trying to get transport into the city. The underground trains had been suspended – due to ‘an electrical problem’ we were told at the time – and consequently the queues for taxis were enormous. We were more than grateful that a car had been arranged to collect us from the airport. It was only when we climbed into the back of the car that we learned from the driver the true horror of what had taken place during the brief time we had been in the air.
It was a very long slow drive into London along the M4, but as we drew closer to the city on the A4 the traffic became lighter and lighter – a phenomenon we had never experienced before. However, the traffic travelling in the opposite direction was almost gridlocked, such was the desire of people to put as many miles as possible between themselves and the horrors that had so recently taken place. The police were advising people not to travel into London if they could possibly help it, but we had no option. Even though by now all our meetings had been cancelled for that day we still had people to see early the following day and were booked into a hotel for the night.
We eventually arrived at the hotel and with most of the day stretching out in front of us and nothing else to do we decided that after lunch we would take a walk along Oxford Street. However, this was not the Oxford Street we were used to! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed. Because the whole of the transport system had been suspended and taxis were virtually impossible to get, people had left work early to walk home – some of them facing a trek of miles on foot.
Gwen and I wandered aimlessly along, glad to be out of the confines of our hotel. The only people around seemed to be hurrying along with resigned expressions on the faces, no doubt on the way to their homes, and groups of bewildered tourists standing at the barricaded entrances to Oxford Circus and Marble Arch tube stations. Police vehicles rushed by in enormous numbers and there was the incessant sound of sirens screaming.
After a while we turned around and headed back in the direction of our hotel. Turning into a small side street, we noticed that a small coffee shop was still open for business. I ordered coffee for both of us and we sat outside on the almost deserted pavement.
A well-dressed man who looked to be in his thirties was sitting at one of the tables smoking a cigarette with an empty coffee cup in front of him. After a while he picked up his briefcase and began to walk away. After a few paces he hesitated, turned around and approached the table at which Gwen and I were sitting.
‘I’m so terribly sorry to bother you, but are you Derek Acorah?’ he asked.
I told him that I was.
‘I hope you don’t mind me speaking to you,’ he continued, ‘but may I introduce myself and could I ask you a question?’
‘Certainly,’ I told him.
He pulled out a chair and sat down. I could see that he looked rather upset and decided that I would let him speak without interruption.
The man told me that his name was Craig. He worked in the city and usually travelled via the train and underground system each day. The previous evening he had begun worrying about his journey to work the following day. He had not been able to dismiss these unaccustomed feelings of unease and foreboding, and had even mentioned them to his wife. She had dismissed his worries as being due to pressure of work and the fact that he had an important meeting to attend the following morning.
After a restless night Craig climbed into his car as usual to drive the mile or so to the station. Although his car was not an old one by any means, it had refused to start. Frustrated at the thought of being late for his meeting, Craig ran back into the house and telephoned for a taxi to take him to the station. The taxi duly arrived, but because of unusually heavy traffic the journey took 10 minutes longer than it ought to have done. Craig arrived at the station just in time to see the train he regularly caught disappearing out of the station on its way to London.
‘The point is, Derek,’ he said, ‘had I caught that train I would have been involved in the bombings. I would have been on the very train that was blown up. I might have been in one of the carriages that were so badly affected. I might even have been killed!’
Craig continued by explaining that he had never really considered the reality of the spirit world or the fact that we have people looking after us in another dimension. He told me that although he had watched Most Haunted from time to time he had found it merely an entertaining programme and had not dreamed for one moment that the events that took place were real.
‘My wife believes everything that happens in the programme, but I’ve always told her that it’s a load of nonsense,’ he said, looking more than a little embarrassed. ‘Today, however, I’ve had to seriously consider that there may well be somebody up there looking after me. I cannot explain the feelings I experienced last night and the urge to call into work to say that I wouldn’t be coming in today. I’m not the sort of person who would do that, so I overcame my feelings. Then there was the business with the car not starting and, even stranger, the taxi taking so long to get to the station. It’s just unknown. I was so angry when I missed that train. Of course when I arrived at the point where I would pick up the tube and found everything was cancelled, the light began to dawn, especially when I heard talk of bombings. Could it be that my guardian angel was trying to get a message to me and I ignored it, so he made sure that I wouldn’t be harmed?’
‘I think you’ve answered your own question,’ I told Craig. ‘It was indeed your guardian angel or, as I call them, your spirit guide impressing you with the fact that all was not well and that you were in danger. It is not on your life’s pathway to suffer great physical harm and it is certainly not your time to pass to the world of spirit. Every obstacle possible was put in your way to prevent you from boarding that train this morning.’
‘Thank you, Derek,’ Craig said as he stood up to take his leave. ‘Maybe I’ll watch your work in future through newly enlightened eyes,’ he added with a smile.
Numerous people have related similar stories to me concerning times when the intervention of somebody not of this world has been evident during a time of potential danger.
Linda wrote to tell me about her experience. She has a daughter, Becky. After Becky was born, Linda developed a strange fear of the staircase leading down from the front door of her apartment to the exterior door. Every time she passed the stairs with her baby in her arms she felt that someone or something was pulling her towards it. It reached a point where if Linda was carrying Becky in the area of the stairs she would walk so that her back was literally rubbing against the opposite wall. If Becky was not with her, nothing would happen and she could quite easily walk by or up and down the stairs without any problem whatsoever.
As Becky grew and began to be more mobile her parents purchased a baby walker. (These baby walkers are now no longer manufactured because they caused so many accidents.) They also positioned a baby gate across the top of the stairs in order to prevent Becky from going anywhere near them.
One day Linda’s husband had gone downstairs and unfortunately not locked the baby gate correctly. Linda was in the kitchen. Suddenly she had an overwhelming feeling of fear and dread. She rushed to the stairway in time to see Becky heading downstairs in her walker. What should have happened is that she should have tumbled over and over head over heels many times. Linda was incredulous when she saw her sliding down the stairs instead, still seated securely in her baby walker whilst remaining upright with little more than a gentle bump as she hit each stair.
‘It was as though an invisible hand was holding her upright until she reached the bottom of the stairs, where they turned a corner at a 90-degree angle,’ she told me.
The baby walker with Becky still in it came to a halt at the bottom of that first set of stairs. During that brief period, Linda managed to reach her daughter and pull her out of the walker before it tumbled down the remaining few steps. Although Becky was screaming with fright, she appeared to be unharmed by her experience.
As a matter of caution Linda and her husband rushed their baby to hospital, where she was X-rayed a number of times. No injuries could be found other than a slight bruise on her forehead.
‘Was she just very lucky or was there divine help?’ Linda asked me. ‘Was it Becky’s guardian angel warning me about those stairs when she was a tiny baby, and was she somehow saved from major injury?’
I have to agree with Linda that it is very likely that someone in the world of spirit was looking out for the little girl that day. Somebody intervened to prevent her from being seriously hurt. It is my opinion that it would be a member of Linda’s family who had passed to the world of spirit who was impressing Linda with feelings of dread and fear every time she went close to the staircase with her baby in her arms. That person could see what would happen at some point in the future and was determined that Linda would be alert to the possibility of a disaster involving her child and the staircase.
* * *
Catherine is a well-travelled lady who has had numerous experiences where spiritual intervention has prevented her from suffering as a consequence of major riots and bombs. She believes that the number of times this has happened is far too many for it to be purely coincidence.
Once she was travelling to South Africa with her grandparents. A few moments after they left Cape Town serious riots broke out and many people were hurt.
Another time Catherine attempted to book a holiday to Erie in Pennsylvania. She intended to fly on 1 September and return on 11 September, but the travel agent told her that she could only fly via New York City. Again, this trip was to be taken with her grandparents. One had a heart condition and the other was disabled. Catherine demanded that they fly via Pittsburgh and the only flight available was on 10 September. When she and her family arrived back in the UK on 11 September 2001, suicide bombers had attacked America. If she had not been influenced to change the date of their journey, she would have been stranded in New York City with her grandparents.
When in Spain on the Costa del Sol, Catherine intended going to Marbella for the day but then just did not feel right about it. She decided to go to the local market instead and travel to Marbella later in the day. About an hour later, she heard what she thought was a car backfiring. The news came through that a bomb had gone off in the bus station in Marbella, right next to the bus that Catherine would have been on.
Catherine tells me that there have been many, many more instances when she has felt that she is being watched over from the world of spirit. I can do nothing other than agree wholeheartedly that this is definitely the case!
Mandy’s mother has a theory that Mandy’s friend who passed on to the spirit world in November 1998 saved Mandy’s life. Her father, however, is convinced that she is just the luckiest person on Earth.
Mandy’s story begins when she was a 16-year-old student at Tooele High School. She was always involved in various events and during the school holidays was required to attend practice for the drill team at 6 a.m. each morning. She lived approximately seven miles from the high school and her journey involved passing the Tooele Army Depot main entrance.
As well as being part of the drill team, Mandy was also performing in a musical called The Benson GristmillPageant. On the final night of the pageant, she stayed out until around 4 a.m. at a cast party. Then she went home, but had to be up again at 5.45 a.m. to attend her drill practice.
Normally when Mandy would drive to drill practice there was a lot of traffic, because the army depot shift began around 6 a.m., but on this particular morning there were no other cars on the road. That was just as well, because after about three or four miles Mandy fell asleep. She was woken up by the sound of rocks hitting the windows of the car as they were thrown up by the tyres. She realized that she was about to hit a reflector pole head on, so swerved, but unfortunately the pole hit the passenger side of the car. This caused it to spin out of control.
As Mandy battled to gain control of the vehicle once more, she continued sideways along a fence and turned the car again just before she hit a telephone cable pole. By this time the brakes had failed. Mandy slid past another sign and all the way across the road where there was a steep drop. With no brakes, it was impossible for her to stop the car. Just before it reached the drop, however, the front tyres blew and the vehicle came to a halt.
Mandy says that the car was ‘totalled’. All four wheel rims were bent, the frame was damaged, there was no front passenger door, no mirrors, no windows on the passenger side and no door handles. The engine had been shoved up the dashboard right to the point of entering the front seat.
Mandy had not even been wearing a seatbelt, but she walked away from the car with only a small cut and a strained ligament in her left foot. When the police arrived they were amazed that she had come out of the accident alive, particularly because she was so close to the busy army depot.
Mandy says that she is not sure what happened that day, but having three police officers point out about half a dozen reasons why you should be dead or seriously injured really has the effect of waking you up.
I have to agree with Mandy’s mother – on that day Mandy was certainly being looked after by spirit. It may well have been her friend, but could also have been a member of her family who was looking down upon her.
I hope that in future Mandy will remember that driving when you are as tired as she was really is a very dangerous thing to do and gives all those people in the spirit world who care for us an awful lot of extra work.
Christine is convinced that an angel saved her daughter’s life whilst she was out on a shopping trip.
At the time Christine was standing next to the car with her daughter whilst her husband returned to the shop to pick a few things up. As he came out of the shop his daughter saw him and set off running to meet him in between the parked cars. Christine panicked, as she could see a car moving at some speed through the rows of cars, looking for somewhere to park. Before she had a chance to call out to her daughter to stop, ‘it was like she had run into a wall and she was thrown back, inches away from the car she was about to collide with. She landed on her bottom. I just knew that something had stopped her suddenly and thankfully saved my child.’
Christine says that although there was no visual evidence of an angel being present, in her heart she knows that something extraordinary happened on that day.
Trent was on a camping trip with his family and friends. They were staying in a log cabin close to a rocky ridge.
When the family had settled into their cabin, Trent and his father went exploring. Trent decided that he would go down a slope very carefully and slowly, but unfortunately at one point leaned too far forward and was propelled at full speed almost to the brink of a precipice. Suddenly he felt an ‘amazing swooping sensation’ which knocked him back. It felt as though an ‘amazing strength’ had come from someone who was looking down on him and protecting him.
Paul wrote to tell me of an incident that happened when he was driving along in his car. The radio began to crackle badly and he pulled over to tune it in, thus delaying his journey by a few short moments.
With the radio working properly once more, he set off once more. As he approached a set of traffic lights, he was horrified to see a vehicle drive through the red lights straight across his pathway. Had he not stopped momentarily to tune in his radio he would have been in the direct pathway of this vehicle and would have been severely injured or even killed.
Another incident involving driving was reported by Holly. She was driving her car along a motorway in a convoy of traffic which included a large articulated lorry, when for no apparent reason she felt compelled to turn off at the next exit. Even as she was doing so she just could not understand why she was feeling this compulsion. Feeling rather annoyed with herself because she now had to find her way back to the motorway using a network of A roads and had added time to her journey, she drove on for about three miles before finding signs back to the motorway.
As she approached the sliproad, however, she was caught in a tailback of traffic and could see blue lights flashing ahead. As the queue of traffic progressed slowly onto the motorway she could see that there had been an accident involving the very same articulated lorry and group of vehicles in which she had earlier been travelling. Had she not pulled off the motorway, she too would have been involved in the accident.
Somebody was obviously looking after Holly, because not too long after the above incident, she was distraught to realize that she had lost a considerable sum of money whilst working on a film shoot in a large muddy field. The money was to pay for her food for the next week and without it she would not be able to eat. She was absolutely desperate.
After work, as she was walking along the street to her flat, she saw a lottery ticket on the floor and felt compelled to pick it up. She went into her home and turned on the television just in time to see that four of the numbers on the ticket she had found had been drawn that night in the National Lottery. She hurried around to her local supermarket and proffered the lottery ticket. In return she received a sum of money identical to the amount she had lost earlier in the day.
Kay recalls the time some years ago when she received a telephone call from her mother, Sue, who was very distressed because she had had a dream. In the dream she had seen her own mother, who had passed on to the spirit world some time before, but she would not let her draw close to her. She remained behind what Sue described as a ‘veil of sorts’ and kept telling her that the time was not right.
Later that day Sue was involved in a horrific motor accident. She was so badly injured that she was not expected to live. She was in a coma and was placed on life support. Her family was told that it might be kinder to switch off the life-support machine.
As Kay sat with her mother, holding her hand and telling her how much she was loved and wanted, a tear rolled down Sue’s cheek. Against all the odds, Kay and the rest of the family decided that they would ignore the doctors’ advice and keep on fighting for Sue’s life.
Weeks passed and slowly Sue began to make a recovery. A year later she was back at home. She recalls very little of what happened on that dreadful day, but does remember that her mother was in constant attendance whilst she was in hospital, telling her that, just as in her dream, the time was not right for her to join her family in the spirit world.
CHAPTER 5 (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
The Words of an Angel (#u27d1af38-f748-5a32-ae27-2566ad9d94cb)
Because mediums are in direct communication with the world of spirit people generally think that we have all the answers and do not experience any of the ups and downs in life. This is just not so. We cannot live our lives isolated from the trials and tribulations of life here on the Earth plane. We get hurt, both physically and emotionally, just as much as other people. We feel let down, we feel emotional pain, we fall in and out of love and we also experience the anguish and grief of losing a loved one to the spirit world. We are of course fortunate in that we know that at some point in the future those loved ones will communicate with us and show themselves to us clairvoyantly, but it is just not the same as throwing your arms around a person here on Earth.
It was at such a low time in my life that I was walking along the sands at Southport. It was late autumn and the town was empty of holiday-makers. Anybody who knows Southport will be aware that the beach is enormous and when the tide is out you are hard pressed to see the waters of the Mersey estuary and the Irish Sea in the distance.
I was feeling very depressed. Life was not being kind to me. Nothing was going right. I had deep financial problems and my emotional life was in a catastrophic state. I felt that I had nothing left to live for. Ending it all and taking myself over to the spirit world seemed a very appealing option.
As I walked towards the murky waters I thought how easy it would be to just keep on walking and to disappear completely from this earthly plane. ‘What do I have left to live for?’ I asked myself.
It was at this point that I became aware of a young lady walking along beside me about 10 feet distant from me. As I turned my head to look at her, I recognized her. It was my sister Angela.
Angela had but a brief visit to the Earth plane. She had passed to the spirit world as a very young baby and I only had a vague recollection of her coming into our family. My last memory of her was lying in a tiny coffin in my grandmother’s front parlour. Throughout my life, however, whenever the going has got tough for me Angela has shown herself and encouraged me to carry on in spite of the difficulties I have been facing at the time. Although only a tiny baby when she passed back to the spirit world, just like me she had grown and matured and was now a lovely young woman who was the image of our own mother when she was in her middle twenties.
Angela smiled reassuringly at me. I could feel the depth of her love and care washing over me.
‘The time’s not right, Degs,’ she said. ‘There’s somebody out there for you. You’ll find love again – somebody who will care for you properly and who’ll value you. You don’t have much longer to wait. When you meet this person, you’ll find every aspect of your life will improve – it’ll take on an even keel and everything will balance.’
I ceased my heavy trudging through the wet sand towards the water’s edge and looked up towards the dark clouded sky. As I did so, a small chink appeared in the clouds and a beam of watery winter sun shone down upon the waters. I felt a lightening within myself.
I turned to look once more towards Angela. She smiled reassuringly, raised her hand in salute and slowly faded from my sight.
My sister Angela! So well named – an angel indeed! And she was right! Although things did not happen overnight, gradually opportunities presented themselves in my life and I was able to sort out the more pressing problems. I weathered my emotional storm and although it would be more than a year before I found true love once again, I was able to start enjoying myself in the company of friends. I also had my work for spirit – the most important thing in my life. I realized that I needed the time without being tied to an emotional relationship in order to dedicate myself my spiritual work.
The night after my walk on the sands I attended my regular physical circle. Physical circles are meetings of a number of mediums, usually between six and eight, who sit with the sole purpose of assisting one of their numbers to attain physical mediumship. Physical mediumship is the point where a medium goes beyond the gifts of clair-audience, clairvoyance and clairsentience and develops the ability to produce ectoplasm in substantial enough quantities to enable a spirit to be viewed by those who do not have the ability to see clairvoyantly.
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