I am often asked by interested people if there really are such things as spirits, spooks or ghosts. The answer I always give is that to me there is no possible doubt, I have both seen and heard spirit people. But my beliefs are my own and I would not try to impress them upon others of far different persuasions. To many, say to a devoutly religious Roman Catholic, my truth might be considered absolutely outrageous. Or to a Pentecostal Minister any account I give of seeing spirits could be thought satanic, linked to the forces of darkness. To a member of the Islamic religion I might be thought to be dealing with Djinn's or evil forces. Others of a more cynically scientific bent would probably just think me stupid, some could go so far as to doubt my veracity. Spiritualism and contacts from the world beyond are emotive subjects;yet to me my truth is just that, truth.

Truth is probably best defined as being that which people believe. Though your thesaurus will list a long line of words which are linked to this catch all term; words like fact for instance. But who decides what is a fact and what it is not? in the end it is the individual who must decide. It is a fact that at approximately 4.30pm on the 27th December 1988 in the front room of my home, I was sitting with my great aunt's husband, whom I always called Uncle Jim. We were watching a TV programme titled 'The Shape of the Nation'. It was about an air journey around the coast of Britain, as the camera flew over Blackpool the music playing was 'I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside'. The tune changed to match the coastal area depicted. As the TV camera pictured the coast of Lincolnshire the music switched to 'The Licolnshire Poacher', it goes 'It's my delight on a Friday night in the season of the year etc'. Now my great grandfather Charles Sutton used to be a gamekeeper and lived in 'Keepers Cottage' at Old Lango near Blackburn in the county of Lancashire. His father Bill Sutton was the keeper before him. This is his picture:

Charles Sutton

As I heard the music play that tune my mind went to Charles Sutton and I wondered if he had ever known the song, which I thought he really must have done as it is a well known piece of folk music. With this thought in my head I looked across to his photograph on the wall, as I did so I saw the eyes in the picture flash and the Christmas tree, which was in a pot beneath his picture, lifted up off the floor and glowed with sparkling golden lights all around it. I shouted to Uncle Jim and he stared in total amazement at this impossible sight, we both did. The tree was levitating, floating without visible means of support. As soon as the music changed everything switched back to just as it had been before, but we both knew that something very special had happened. I asked Uncle Jim if he had ever seen anything like that before and he said he never had.

At the time this incident happened my Uncle Jim was almost 80 years of age. I recounted this story to my brother Martin  who is a senior police officer with the Greater Manchester Police. My brother did what might have been expected of a police officer, he checked my strange tale with Uncle Jim. When the old gentleman told him exactly the same incredible story, Martin had to accept that something very odd indeed had taken place.

Edith, the daughter of my great grandfather Charles, was still living at the time, so I decided to tell her what had occurred. The strange thing was that when Aunt Edith repeated the story to her own daughter she discovered that at approximately the same time that myself and Uncle Jim were witnessing the floating Christmas tree she was tending the grave of Charles Sutton in a cemetary outside Burnley in Lancashire. Those are the facts in the case of the illuminated floating Christmas tree and they are, to the best of my knowledge, the truth.

I have no doubt that many people would not accept the above account as being factual. Some might consider it contrived or souped up for added effect, others could think that both myself and my Uncle Jim experienced an illusion. I only know that for me, and indeed for my late Uncle, this experience was real, it really happened.

I am not the first to see a fiery tree or bush, there is an account in The Bible, in Exodus Chapter 3 verse 2, which tells of Moses seeing a such a sight 'he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed'. This is the proverbial 'Gospel Truth' that is generally accepted as such. My truth is open to doubt, even ridicule or wild accusations of demonic influence. Yet no one seemed to doubt Moses, even when he came down the mountain with ten commandments having received these from God, his story was accepted.

I am sure that many people experience encounters with the world of spirit. Whenever I attend a public demonstration of mediumship there is usually a number of individuals who tell me of the one time they saw a 'ghost' or something inexpicable that happened to them. It is perhaps true to say that the vast majority of people only have the one psychic experience in their lives. No doubt there are some who never ever encounter anything that can not be explained away in purely scientific material terms. For such people belief in the world of spirit has to be a matter of faith. Unless one sees, or actually experiences the truth of communication between the two worlds of physical and spiritual life, then faith is all one can have.

There are of course many ways that an individual can seek first hand proof of the survival of the spirit after the death of the physical body. Mediumship through a third party is the most obvious and best known method of non-psychics gaining proof of survival. I know that there are countless thousands of people searching for the answer to the question 'Is there anybody really there?' spirit-mediums can provide that answer. There is a belief that each one of us has some psychic power awaiting development. I for one believe this to be true, my personal psychic gifts are limited but developing, I am able to produce automatic writing with my left hand, I am not ambidextrous in the generally accepted meaning of the word. I can not write clearly with my left hand when I want to, no matter how I concentrate the writing looks like scrawl, however the words transcribed through automatic writing are formed exactly the same way with either hand, not perfect copybook text but the same.

Perhaps you have an inert unused psychic power just waiting to be developed, or maybe you are seeking proof of survival through another's mediumship. Whatever your search is you can find some part of the answer to the question 'Is there anybody really there? by reading my book 'The Psychic World of Derek Acorah' published by Piatkus Books Ltd. Read a review by following this link: HERE. Psychic Development advertisement.