I went to psychic school and was stunned when I was contacted by my dead friend
A TOP medium claimed last month he can teach “anyone” to talk to the dead at his spiritual training academy.
Steven Cranston runs The Soul Man and Friends in Broxburn, West Lothian, where students can even take a mediumship diploma.
The 40-year-old from Edinburgh says: “I think everybody has the ability to be a medium - the reason being is that we are all spirits with a human body.”
A sceptical Chief Features Writer MATT BENDORIS joined Steven’s diploma class to see if he too could contact the dearly departed.
I HAD the Zoltar turban, astro bling and gypsy earrings, but Steven Cranston took one look at me and sighed: “Psychics do fortune telling - we mediums purely connect with people who have passed.”
Talk about a boot in the crystal balls.
I joined Steven and his class of medium wannabes at The Soul Man and Friends on Broxburn’s busy East Mains Street.
And even though I had got the dress code drastically wrong, the dad-of-five and his students instantly made me feel at home with cups of tea and homemade muffins.
In fact, with its comfy chairs and feel good slogans daubed on the walls, his main seminar room looked more like a trendy artisan coffee shop than a place to summon the dead.
But when Steven started the class the chatter and clinking of cups was soon replaced by soothing music as we were encouraged to close our eyes, medicate, empty our minds and think of those we miss.
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I thought of my mum Annie who passed away last year, then my beloved aunt and uncle Sam and Ian, and how I still have to scatter their ashes at their favourite bench on Crinan canal, Argyll and Bute, beside Loch Gilp.
Incredibly 25 minutes passed in a blink of an eye when Steven then asked his eager students to partner someone they are drawn to.
It was to be conducted in a sort of speed dating format, where everyone was given two minutes to do a reading then move onto the next person.
HEART TROUBLE
A woman called Kim made a beeline for me, saying she felt the presence of an older lady in the room who was connected to me. Could it be my mum? My aunt?
I was under strict instructions only to answer “yes” or “no” before Kim began: “This lady had heart trouble.” Try finding an older person in Scotland who doesn’t.
But then Kim said: “I’m seeing a bench by the sea. And big birds. Bigger than seagulls.”
EAGLES
If it was my aunt then one day springs to mind when we were cycling along the Crinan canal and three white-tailed sea eagles - with a wingspan of over two metres - soared above us for 20 minutes.
Kim beams: “I knew she was showing me something bigger than a seagull.”
Hmm. A bench by the sea and giant birds is pretty good, but hardly conclusive proof.
ENERGY
But that was all we had time for as Kim had to move on to be replaced by a bubbly ball of energy called Angie Hendry.
And the 57-year-old from Livingston wasted no time as she told me: “I have a sharp dressed man. He was important. He’s a talker. A smoker. The type you’d be drawn to in a pub. A bit of a ladies’ man.”
This could be a photofit description of my first ever editor and future best man at my wedding, Danny Brown.
HORSES
But if I was in any doubt you could have knocked me down with a tealeaf by what she said next: “I’m seeing horse racing.”
Danny worked on the racing desk at a national newspaper for over 20 years and loved the nags.
Angie continues: “Something happened during a day at the races. It was hot and sunny and excuse my French but this man is now p***ing himself laughing.”
The hairs of the back of my neck stood up. I remember the day well, we’d gone to enjoy a VIP day out at Perth Racecourse over 30 years ago - and yes it was unusually hot and sunny spring day - and ended up having lunch with the auctioneer in the club house.
WINNER
Half an hour later we saw him encouraging bids for the winner of an auction race when I pointed at him and said: “That’s the guy we had lunch with,” only for him to reply over the PA system: “Are you bidding for this horse, sir?”
Angie continued: “This man is saying how he’s loving being in contact with you again. He says ‘that’s my boy’.”
That is exactly how Danny used to describe me. She adds: “He also wants to make sure you ‘see more sunsets’. I think he means that life is short.”
SPIRITS
It certainly was for him as he died at 55.
I had barely time to let that revelation sink in when it was now my turn to try a reading - afterall Steven said he could train anyone to talk to spirits.
My first willing partner was hairdresser Joanne Ormiston, 38, from Edinburgh, but as we held hands in silence I felt nothing at all.
Steven, a former manager at Greggs before he became a full-time medium, then asked me to sit in the middle of the 17 strong class, to see if they could bake up some spirits through collective positive energy.
PILOT
I was at a loss what to do and slightly embarrassed as I received gentle instruction from my tutor to just say the first image that comes to mind.
“A tall man, with a hat and a stick”, I blurted out. Had I really imagined him or was that just down to the power of persuasion?
Steven continued: “Do you feel anything in your body? Any part of your body?”
For some reason I felt a sensation over the top of my head, sweeping my hand over my scalp.
MEDIUM
From the back of the room I heard, “That’s my dad.” Gina Vereker, 39, from Carlisle, had once been one of Steven’s students but now works with him as a medium.
It turns out her airline pilot father Chris Alock had recently died at the age of 88 from Alzheimer’s.
She says: “My dad was tall, wore a hat and had a stick in later years.
“But he would do the same thing you were doing with your hand, especially in the last few days of his life. it was almost as if he was trying to sweep away the confusion.”
FREAKING ME OUT
Two hours had passed and now the class was at an end. I felt exhausted. Had I really contacted the dead or just imagined it?
Steven says: “That’s what we teach here - to trust what you’re feeling. It’s our safe space, but it takes time to learn and then there’s the ethics involved too.
“We can’t have people leaving here and wandering up to strangers to tell them they are surrounded by the spirits of their relatives. That can freak them out.”
This is freaking me out but in a good way. I could probably work out a rational explanation for most of what I had been told - except Danny and the day at the races.
It was too random to have been a guess. And Angie had rattled out her reading like a machine gun, without fishing for information, she just gave it to me straight.
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So I may have entered the session feeling like a psychic tw*t but maybe, just maybe, I really could be mystic Matt.
*For more info on Steven Cranston visit: