This is the fourth, and last, of this small series of articles that ‘set the scene’ for the publication of ‘Being A Sceptic Is Oh So Easy’, which is now available on Kindle via Amazon.
I thought it might be useful to explain what the book is about, as well as give an update on developments in the two years since I wrote the original manuscript.
When I initially decided to write these articles I thought long and hard about how I should ‘title’ them. The fact that I chose ‘My Psychic Journey – Personal Experiences’ as the subject heading and ‘Seeing Is Believing When It Comes To All Things Psychic’ for the articles, sums it all up quite nicely. For me this has been a very personal journey. I am no expert on this subject and I am not a medium or clairvoyant, although I have done quite a bit of research to inform my psychic fiction writing.
The experiences I’ve had are not things I have sought out, far from it and for many, many years I regarded each incident as little more than a curiosity. I filed them away in the attic of my mind, never seeking to consider the bigger picture of what it all meant. Why? Because being a sceptic is easy – it means you don’t have to justify or explain anything.
I don’t talk about politics or religion, simply because I’m not well enough informed about anything outside of my own beliefs. But I have to make it clear that from an early age I believed in the existence of God. I don’t think it was just because of the fact that as a child I was made to attend church and Sunday school, or that as a teenager I joined in local church activities. It also wasn’t the singing of hymns (although music and singing is uplifting), or the readings from the bible that inspired me. The connection I felt was something deep inside of me; private conversations with God when I caught up with him each night before I went to sleep. I talked to him like a father and friend, he made me feel I could ‘bare my soul’ and there was no need to keep secrets. Now I admit the idea of doing that probably did come from going to church and my mother, who herself had a very religious upbringing. However, she wasn’t one for attending church – even though her belief in God was central to her life. She was more about being kind and doing charitable/selfless acts, as her way of worshipping the God she loved.
I do love the majestic feeling of being inside a beautiful old church, but I have to admit I prefer being there when it’s empty, rather than full of people! So God to me isn’t about identifying with a particular religion, it’s about one-to-one time with the creator. My mother’s influence in that relationship is clear, in that I generally tend to be offering thanks rather than asking for things. When I ask for something it is usually for someone I love, I rarely ask for something for myself. That’s because if someone close to me is ill or suffering, and my appeal for healing is answered, then I feel I have been given something. So you can see that my belief is simplistic, always has been.
I thought my psychic experiences started in adulthood and it seemed that the things I saw, felt or heard were connected to houses. We have moved around a lot in our married life and this includes renovating several really old properties, as well as ‘doing up’ some much newer, tired and un-loved houses. I also spent a period, during the property renovation years, working part-time for Estate Agents showing people around residential properties.
Jump forward now to 2004, my father has just died and there had been a huge family row about his funeral arrangements. I’d dug my heels in over what I truly believed he would have wanted and my mother and I didn’t speak for a week. Can you imagine how hard that was, given that my mother was this kind, compassionate, self-less soul? My parents were very different characters and my father was flamboyant, a socialiser and would have wanted a celebration, so in the end that was what we had. After the funeral and the ‘party’ to celebrate his life, I was at home on my own and getting ready for a quiet meal with family later that evening. I asked my father to give me a sign that he had witnessed his party and that I hadn’t upset my lovely mother for some silly notion. I wanted to be absolved of my guilt and I asked for something tangible, unmistakeable. So that’s what he gave me!