My life spent linked to the spirit world

Published 13th July 2010 - The News

Paul Cissell says his dead great-granny used to visit him when he was a child.

Don't believe him? He doesn't care.

It's fair to say he meets a lot of sceptics in his line of work – so many in fact that he estimates three-quarters of the audience who turned up recently to see him in Southsea were curious non-believers.

Perhaps that's why he's used to quizzical looks when he says he's been experiencing spooky goings-on since he was very young.

The 42-year-old believes being psychic runs in his family. Although he didn't always know it, his grandmother worked as a clairvoyant and his aunties were both regulars at the local spiritualist church.

'My mum said when she bought me home from the hospital that's when it kicked off in the house,' he explains.

'She told me: "I brought you home and unexplained things would happen".

'Mum's attitude was even though it frightened her she had an understanding of it. She thought: "If I ignore it, maybe it will go away".'

Push him for details on what kinds of funny things would occur and he says: 'There was just unexplained things that would happen.

'It really didn't manifest until I was eight or 10, that's when I had more of an understanding of it. Whether you believe it or not, it's down to the individual.

'You would hear the footsteps coming up the stairs, doors would open, temperatures would just drop so that you could see your breath, I was thrown out of bed.

'Sceptics might say it was a child's imagination, watching all those horror movies, but when I was a child we didn't have those kinds of movies. The scariest it got was Wolf Man. My parents didn't let me watch horror films.'

Without prompting, Paul mentions sceptics regularly. He now works as a medium, conducting private readings and presiding over group demonstrations. His job has taken him all over the world and he insists those who doubt he really can do what he says he can do don't faze him.

'I always say I don't care if you believe me or not,' he adds.

'I'm not bothered. It's down to you as an individual as to whether you go away and believe that it has taken place or not.'

Whether you're a sceptic, a believer, undecided or simply couldn't care less, there's no denying that psychics, mediums and all things supernatural have become a big part of the entertainment business.

Mediums such as Derek Acorah and Colin Fry regularly perform for sell-out crowds across the world and have their own TV shows claiming to connect those in the audience with family members.

Cult TV show Most Haunted returns tomorrow night with an episode filmed just down the road at the Weald And Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex. The show, on Living, is presented by former Blue Peter host Yvette Fielding and has built up a strong fan base thanks to the spooky things it claims to capture on camera.

Everyone loves a spine-chilling ghost story and a survey released last year suggested four out of 10 people believe in apparitions, with more than half believing in life after death. No wonder then that entertainment shows such as Most Haunted get re-commissioned year after year.

Yet Paul, from Fratton, Portsmouth, warns viewers should watch those kinds of shows with their eyes wide open: 'I take my hat off to Most Haunted, they have really done well but it's an entertainment show,' he adds.

'There's a lot of money that goes into these productions. If they just sat in a room and nothing happened it wouldn't be any good. They have to over dramatise some of the experiences they have.

'I'm not saying that they don't have these experiences, but they have to dramatise them.'

When it comes to his own experiences he says he began receiving messages from the spirit world when he was very young.

He claims he was visited regularly by an old woman and a man in uniform that no-one else could see.

'I knew exactly what was happening. I was terrified.

'I'd say to my mum "There's people there" and she said it's all in your head.

'I later found out that she knew everything.'

He says he was about 12 when he told his aunts what was happening and adds: 'I gave a very vivid description of the old lady and I gave a very vivid description of the gentleman.

'They both looked at each other and said "You've just described our brother who died in World War Two and our grandmother".

'There are no photos of them anywhere, there's no way I could have seen them.

'A sceptic might say you're seeing what the mind wants to believe but I hadn't been influenced by any talk about them.

'The woman always used to wear a black dress and apparently she used to wear a black cape.

'She must have died 20 or 30 years before I was born. She was in her eighties when she passed, still with a youthful complexion but she had long grey hair.'

Spooky stuff.

Paul decided he wanted to become a medium when he hit his early-20s and has spent time studying at the College of Psychic Studies in London.

He recently teamed up with Portsmouth-based Dead Talking Events, an entertainment company specialising in ghost walks, psychic suppers and the like.

Explosion museum in Priddy's Hard, Gosport, and Portsmouth's ancient Wymering Manor are all popular haunts for those prepared to pay to go looking for evidence of the supernatural.

So how does Paul explain haunted houses, ghosts and other spooky encounters then?

'Everything has an energy so anything that's ever existed has a memory,' he explains.

'When we talk about haunted houses it might not necessarily be the house, it might be the site.

'Some people are sensitive – in the right atmospheric conditions – to be able to look into the memory of time and see it being replayed and that's then what most views of ghosts are – you are looking into that window of time.'

Paul reckons it's a common misconception that the people who come to see him are the vulnerable, the recently bereaved or the grief-stricken. He stresses he's not a bereavement counsellor and he won't charge people who feel he's got no connection with them.

'Most of the people who come are very down to earth normal people who don't have any major issues. They come out of interest. They know a family member or a friend and they want to see if it's possible to contact that person.

'I get all kinds of people coming to see me from all walks of life.'

Of course clairvoyants, mediums and psychics are nothing new – they've been around for centuries. But Paul reckons they've become more popular in recent years.

'I think the days have gone when it was a little old lady in the dark rubbing a crystal ball,' he laughs.

'It has progressed into the public domain and into the media. People have a morbid interest in it.

'Whether you believe it or not, people are fascinated by it.

'People want to believe that when you pass you don't just disappear into nothing. We would like to think that there's something.

'Some people don't but the majority of us would like to think that there's something much more out there than this.'

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/east-hampshire/my_life_spent_linked_to_the_spirit_world_1_1253961

© Paul Cissell