ESP - gift or a curse?

It doesn't matter whether you were raised under the eye of organised religion, were nurtured by a hippy earth mother or have a sound scientific background, at some time in your life you will have come to question your own belief in ESP (Extra Sensory Perception).  Psychologists have devised scientific experiments to try to prove or disprove the fabled ability to predict future events. 

From biblical prophets advised to prepare for impending doom by an unseen God, to Nostradamus who predicted virtually every natural and man made disaster that has ever or will ever happen, right through to Derek Akorah who claims to commune with the dead while visiting Britain's spookiest residences, we are all curious. We are all eager to know what lies ahead.

People, (especially women),  are drawn to have their fortune foretold by a gypsy for a small fee. Some venture into the realms of the supernatural seeking advice from Tarot cards or spiritual mediums. The death of a loved one can be devastating and it is perhaps understandable that vulnerable people often seek answers from those who might exploit them. Perhaps I am too cynical but if someone offers to speak to your dead relative when holding out their hand for payment, I would smell a rat.

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle actually popularised spiritual medium-ship, publicising his own adventures and experiments with table-tapping and glass moving. During WW1, so many young men were killed that many bereft people turned to spirtualism to bring comfort. Tales were rife of the spirits of dead soldiers coming to sit among the living as the nation tried to cope with the enormity of the loss: Almost every family had lost someone to war by Armistace Day in 1918. Jeremy Deller tried to capture the effect with 'We are Here' , his 2016, living memorial to those killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme a hundred years earlier. It was a wonderful piece of street theatre in which I was honoured to participate.

Well then - do 21st Century Britons believe in ESP? We watch a heck of a lot of sci-fi. We read loads of dodgy information on the internet and we are entertained by movies like The Sixth Sense by M Night Shyalaman and The Others (starring Ms Kidman) in which people who don't know their post-mortem status, walk among the living. We have all seen Derren Brown, controlling people's minds on TV or perhaps on stage. He is a very intelligent man who has perfected manipulative techniques that could convince almost anyone that he has the power of second sight, that he can read minds, predict future events. 

I like to tell people that I recently discovered that I am psychic - because it says medium on the label in my panties. That one always gets a laugh but I use it as a deflection. If I ever told you the truth...

Extra Special People

I believe we all have power to see

when travelling transcendentally.
I often venture – it sounds absurd
to witness events that have not occurred
I have, in the past, witnessed a crime
as if watching through holes in space and time
and journeyed to places unknown to me
to help right a wrong and give testimony.
I can’t intercede in my dreaming state
but my statements usually resonate.
I once approached, over someone’s shoulder
watching him observing a murder,
he shuddered, looked into my face afraid,
as if I had walked on top of his grave.

I once levitated, roused from sleep

by a child in white standing at my feet,
she beckoned to me but I wouldn’t go,
I was only nineteen and I didn’t know
what reason she had to visit me -
her attention,  a frightening novelty.
An angel, a spirit,  hallucination,
a figment of my imagination?
From that day, others appeared
and gradually I conquered my fears.
Sometimes I hear them but I am aware,
and when I see them, they like to share.
Often they ask me to clear up a mess,
bring others to justice and help them to rest.
 
Once or twice in lucid dreams
I’ve known exactly where I’ve been,
I note the signposts I am shown,
guided to places I’ve never known.
I dreamed I won twice on the lottery -
the very next week it happened to me.
On a sunbed, I had a flash premonition
showing a three vehicle collision,
Sadly the car in the middle was mine,
I couldn’t avoid it, I didn’t have time,
at the moment of impact I derived, 
that I was certain to survive.
I think I went back to a safer place,
my spirit set free by a moment of grace,
released from the wreckage without a scratch
amazing fire-fighters who saw the crash.
 
I once saw things, told people straight,
but now I wait, I cogitate,
if you knew what lay in store you, 
you might rearrange the things you do,
and cause a time anomaly,
impacting on others easily.   
I wouldn’t profit from ‘propheteering’,
I don’t do spiritual engineering,
but maybe if I saw a friend,
who could avoid a sticky end,
I might be moved to help them out,
I might just tell them to 'look out'.
But be careful – if I call on you,
it might be with the boys in blue.
I see dead people too.

Thanks for reading.  Adele