The Psychic Adventures of Derek Acorah: Star of TV’s Most Haunted. Derek Acorah
presence and the names ‘Joanna’ or ‘Jessica’ were suggested. The spirit of this young girl is frequently seen in the corridors, front of house and stalls of the theatre. She is reported to be very pretty with long blonde hair and is dressed in Victorian-style clothing. She is often seen in the company of a man with either black eyes or no eyes. Unfortunately, on the day of the investigation, the spirit man chose not to make the team aware of him.
Meanwhile I was honoured that Julie Goodyear had graciously agreed to introduce me to my audience at the beginning of the show. I had worked with Julie briefly whilst she hosted the Granada Breeze programme Livetime and was delighted to see her once again.
I had a tremendous evening and judging by the audience’s response, so did they. Many people think that a demonstration of mediumship is all ‘doom and gloom’ with an atmosphere of misery and sadness. This is not the case at all. If a person had a cheerful and outgoing personality whilst here on Earth, they will carry that personality through to their life in the spirit world.
I can recall one hilarious moment at the Liverpool Empire when a young man from the spirit world tapped me on the shoulder and told me that he’d like to speak to his sister Karen and her friend, who were sitting in the audience. ‘Tell them Carl wants to speak to them,’ he announced in his cheeky Scouse accent.
I duly did as requested and a gasp went up from a young lady who was sitting half a dozen rows back in the stalls.
‘I’m alright now, our kid!’ shouted Carl. ‘Look!’ And he proceeded to skip across the stage.
‘I can’t do that,’ I said to Carl.
“Course you can, Degsy,’ came the cheeky reply.
‘Carl’s telling me that he’s fine now in the world of spirit,’ I told Karen, ‘and he’s kicking up his heels just to prove it.’
Carl continued, ‘It wasn’t any good, that stuff. I knew I shouldn’t take it, but it got a hold of me and I just carried on. Didn’t think it’d see an end to me, though. But guess what? I’m not skint over here—you don’t need money!’ With that he turned out his pockets. ‘And I don’t have to keep looking over me shoulder!’ He burst into peals of laughter and ran across the stage, warily looking over his shoulder. ‘I don’t need to keep an eye out for the rozzers over here!’
I looked out to Karen in the audience and wondered how on earth I was going to pass that message over. ‘Oh well! Go for broke,’ I thought and repeated exactly what Carl had told me, giving a demonstration of the turned-out pockets and the hasty scuttling across the stage whilst looking over my shoulder.
Karen and her friend were beside themselves with laughter, together with the rest of the audience. ‘That’s our Carl,’ Karen said. ‘He was always getting into trouble and had to keep on his toes.’
Carl’s message continued. ‘Seriously, though, kid, I’m OK over here, and guess what? I’ve met old Uncle Jimmy! He’s shown me the ropes. Tell you one thing, though, I’m not happy about our Dave nicking me bedroom!’
Karen laughed through her tears. ‘Dave’s our brother and when we lost Carl, Dave took over his bedroom. Their tastes in decoration weren’t quite the same,’ she added tellingly.
Carl passed on messages of love to his mum and dad and the rest of the family. He finished up on a light note by telling his sister that the medium she’d been to see just after his passing had not been able to make contact with him. ‘Because she was no good, that’s why,’ he scoffed. ‘Next time you want to speak to me, go to somebody who can do the bizz!’ Karen nodded her agreement.
The evening was drawing to an end, but there was just one more thing to do. Dr Montz came on stage to ask whether any member of the audience who had experienced spirit activity in their home would agree to the ISPR team visiting their premises to conduct an investigation. The reason behind his request was to prove to sceptics that an investigative paranormal team could go into an undocumented building and still pick up on the spirit activity there without the possibility of research.
A number of people put their names forward, but one young man stood out as being more in need of our assistance than the others. To preserve his and his family’s privacy, I have changed their names.
Paul had come to the theatre in the hope that he would receive a message from his wife Paula who had passed to the world of spirit just five weeks before. She had suffered from that horrible condition called cancer. Paul was absolutely bereft. He had been left to look after his small daughter Jemma on his own as his family lived out of the Liverpool area.
We arrived at Paul’s neat home in a suburb of Liverpool the following morning. Paul was there with his daughter and his mother. Dr Montz felt that I should be the first person to go into Paul’s home to speak to him.
I entered the house by myself, leaving the rest of the team outside. I walked over to Paul and took his hand. I could feel all the hurt, sorrow and desperation that he was experiencing. I picked up the anguish of his loss.
Jemma was there, clinging to her toy rabbit. She had become destructive since the loss of her mother, and her family were worried about her. As I did not want to conduct a reading or any sort of investigation in front of the little girl, I asked Paul’s mother to take her through to the kitchen area of the house, together with Linda Mackenzie, who has an amazing empathy with children and has marvellous healing powers which I felt could benefit Jemma.
As I stood in the lounge I became aware of a slim young woman in spirit. She smiled gently and said, ‘I’m Paula. This is my home and Paul is my husband.’ She pointed over to the window and told me, ‘That was my last resting-place—there under the window.’
‘Did you have Paula’s coffin at home?’ I asked Paul, ‘because I have a young woman with me who’s telling me that she was laid under the window. She’s also telling me to thank you for the necklace you put around her neck whilst she lay in her coffin.’
Tears welled up in Paul’s eyes. He told me that he had placed a cross and chain around Paula’s neck as she lay there.
‘You’ve heard Paula around the house, especially on the stairs,’ I said.
Paul confirmed that he had indeed heard noises, especially on the stairs. The noises were reminiscent of when he used to help Paula up the stairs when the ravages of her illness had made it impossible for her to climb them herself.
‘There’s something serious I need to speak to you about,’ I told Paul. ‘You mustn’t do what you’ve been thinking and planning. Paula’s telling me that you must carry on. You must stay to take care of Jemma.’
Paul gasped and as he stared up at me, I could see the tears welling once more in his eyes. ‘I know what you’re saying, Derek,’ he said as he stared down at his hands. ‘I understand.’
‘Always know that Paula loves you,’ I told him. ‘She wants you to be happy. She knows that it will take time, but you must persevere because you have to be responsible for Jemma.’
We went into the kitchen where Linda was playing with Jemma. I could see the healing colours surrounding the child and I knew that Linda had been sending out healing energies whilst playing with the little girl.
I like to think that we were meant to visit Paul’s home and that as a result of our visit he was able to continue on and come to terms with the passing of his young wife. I feel that he learned that life does indeed continue beyond physical death and that loved ones never really leave us. They remain with us until we ourselves leave the physical plane and rejoin them in the world of spirit.
Belgrave Hall
The grand finale of the ISPR team’s visit to the UK was a visit to Belgrave Hall in Leicestershire. Belgrave had recently been in the news around the world. The cctv system at the old hall had picked up some anomalous footage. Had a ghost been caught on camera? The video footage purported to show two ghostly