Of course the arrival of a white feather is not necessarily a sign that there is an angel around. I recall sitting in the passenger seat of my vehicle one day whilst Ray Rodaway, my tour manager, was driving me to a theatre venue in the south of England. We had been travelling for a couple of hours or more and had decided to stop at a motorway service station. It was a very cold day so we both put on our jackets prior to leaving the vehicle.

We returned to the car approximately half an hour later and took to the road once more. We had been travelling for no more than a few minutes when I heard Ray say, ‘Aye, Ackers! You know what you were saying about angels – when there’s one about you sometimes see a white feather?’

I nodded.

‘Well,’ Ray continued, ‘I think there must be one about now because a white feather’s just drifted down from the roof of the car. You don’t think we’re being warned that we’re about to have an accident, do you?’

I looked at Ray sharply but could see from his expression that he was really very serious. In fact he looked rather nervous. And sure enough, when I looked at the dashboard of the car, there sat a small white feather.

As I looked in Ray’s direction again I could see a small pinprick of white sticking through the outer material of his jacket. I pulled it and out popped a small white feather.

‘No, Ray,’ I said dryly, ‘there aren’t any angels around just now. The only feathers being shed at the moment are by you and your duvet jacket!’

An expression of relief spread across Ray’s face, followed quickly by one of embarrassment. ‘Don’t tell anybody about it, will you, Ackers?’ he said.

By this time I was convulsed with laughter. ‘Oh, Rods! This one is too good not to share!’

CHAPTER 3

Following Our Destiny

Guardian angels, spirit guides and family members in spirit do not of course reserve the right to make their presence felt in our lives only when we are in mortal danger or when we need reassurance. Our guides and guardians are designated to us at birth to ensure that we conduct our lives in the manner chosen by us prior to our incarnation into this physical life. Because we have free will, our God-given right, we may put ourselves in danger of choosing the wrong pathway and veering away from our chosen life’s experience, and it is the job of our guardians and guides to make sure that we do not stray.

My own life is the perfect example of somebody who started off on one pathway only to be forced some years later to meet my destiny – just as my grandmother had foretold many years previously.

The one aim in my life when I was a child was to become a professional footballer. If anybody asked me what I was going to do when I grew up, my answer would always be: ‘Play football for Liverpool!’ If pressed to consider another possibility, I might reluctantly say that being a train driver might be interesting, but I never seriously considered it. I had my heart set on playing football.

Throughout my childhood I experienced proof of the existence of a spirit world and I had been told by my grandmother that I would follow in her footsteps and work for spirit by one day becoming a medium. However, I had proclaimed that I didn’t want to ‘be a gook’ and privately had pooh-poohed the idea. I did not question that there was a world beyond and that people came from that world into our world and mingled with us just as they had when they were in their physical lives – I had received more than enough proof of that – but I did not want to work with those spirit people. I wanted to be a footballer!

Finally my ambitions were fulfilled – I was signed at 15 years of age as an apprentice professional footballer with Liverpool Football Club. Gleefully I would tell my mother, ‘Gran was wrong! Look! I’m a footballer!’

What I did not know at that time was that although my ambition was being fulfilled, my ultimate destiny would still have to be met. Before incarnating into this physical life I had made a promise and that promise had to be kept.

I was allowed a certain amount of success as a footballer, but did not achieve the standard that I wished. My footballing career came to an end at a relatively early age and I was left with no choice but to follow the pathway that was meant for me – the pathway that I myself had chosen whilst still resident in the world of spirit prior to my incarnation here. As my grandmother had foreseen and as I myself had promised, I would become a worker for spirit – a medium – and a medium I became! It was my destiny!

I had reason to be talking to a young man in his thirties one day. I will respect his wish to remain anonymous and will merely call him ‘David’. His story is one where spirit, rather than working in mysterious ways, brought this young man to the realization that he was on the wrong pathway rather abruptly.

David’s story began in one of the poorer areas of Liverpool. He was the youngest of three brothers in a family which was not very well off at all. In fact most of the time money was very tight indeed. David’s mother and father both worked when there was work available and consequently were away from the family home most of the day. David and his brothers were left to a great extent to fend for themselves. Boys will be boys, and in their harsh environment it was not long before David was playing truant. Time went by and his appearances at school became less and less frequent. By the time David was 14 years of age he rarely attended school at all. He was a tall well-built lad who appeared older than he was, and eventually he became part of a group of teenagers who were known as ‘no goods’ in the area. If ever there was trouble David would be there in the thick of things. Stealing cars and joy-riding were activities that took place on a weekly basis. David thought there was nothing like the excitement of stealing a car with his mates and driving to Southport at high speed. On one such occasion the car he was in careered off the road and ended up in a field. David and his friend were badly cut and bruised – they were fortunate to escape with their lives.

By the time David was 15 he was well known to the local police and had been in court on numerous occasions. The day eventually arrived when he was sent away to a correctional institution for a number of months. When he was released he merely picked up his old lifestyle, but now with the reputation of being a really bad lad.

One day, however, things changed dramatically.

‘It was really strange, Derek,’ David told me. ‘I was walking along with me mate, just talking about this and that and planning our next bit of mischief, when I suddenly felt a really hard slap to the side of my head. It really hurt. I looked at my friend and said, “What was that for?” I was just about to fetch him one back when I realized that he couldn’t have done it because he was too far away from me. He’d stopped to light a ciggie and I’d carried on walking, so he was a few yards away.

‘We carried on towards me other mate’s house, but when he asked me in I told him that I was going home. I needed to have a good think. For some reason that slap around the head affected me more than any copper yelling at me or any court of law sending me down.’

Over the next few days David told me that he had stayed in and pondered on his life. He realized that he was not happy at all with his lifestyle and in fact was beginning to feel rather ashamed of himself and the things he had done. He began to look at things from the perspective of those who had suffered because of his actions – the owners of the cars he had stolen, the people whose lives had been affected by his crass and sometimes cruel behaviour. He began to feel deeply ashamed.

‘There was nothing I could do to make things better for them, Derek,’ he told me, ‘but I made a pact with myself that I wouldn’t knowingly cause hurt or harm to anybody else.’

David turned over a new leaf. He had lost his opportunity of education by now, for he was 16 years of age, but what he did was find himself a job in a local factory. He started earning a regular wage and mixing with a different group of people socially. He left his old life behind and became a worthwhile member of the community. ‘I’m not saying I became a pillar of society, mate,’ he said, ‘but at least I could look myself in the eye and wasn’t dodging out of the way of the coppers!’

David continued to work at the factory. He became a supervisor – a position he still holds – and he has now married and has children of his own. ‘And I make sure they keep to the straight and narrow,’ he told me with a twinkle in his eye. ‘It’s funny, y’know, Derek! If I hadn’t had had that slap around the ear that day I don’t think I’d have stopped what I was doing. I’d just have carried on and ended up being a real no-hoper. Who d’you think it was?’

I smiled. ‘That was your guardian angel,’ I told him. ‘A life of crime wasn’t meant for you. You weren’t meant to waste your time in prison. You had far more to offer than that. In your old life you wouldn’t have met your wife and you wouldn’t have brought your children into this life. You were made to change your ways so that you could meet your destiny!’

CHAPTER 4

Spiritual Intervention

There have been many occasions when people have related to me that they have felt that they have been prevented from being involved in an accident or harmed in some way by an unseen force. These are examples of spiritual intervention – those times when it is absolutely evident, without a shadow of doubt, that something or somebody has stepped in and saved us from a dangerous or even fatal situation.

It has to be understood, though, that spiritual intervention can only take place when an injurious event is about to take place that is not on our designated pathway, i.e. is not part of our destiny. If we have chosen to undergo an experience then that event will take place, and nothing and nobody, neither in the physical nor spiritual world, can alter that fact. As explained earlier, we have to meet our destiny in order to achieve soul growth.

There are times, however, when we can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and it is then that our guides, protectors and family members in spirit are allowed to intervene in order to prevent either physical or psychological harm from happening to us.

It may be on the pathway of one person to experience a fatal accident, for example, but not on ours. This is the reason why you read in newspapers of accidents where people ‘miraculously escaped’. It is simply the case that whilst one person had chosen to experience that method of passing back to the world of spirit, the other(s) involved had not.

A typical example of spiritual intervention took place in my own and Gwen’s life a little while after my mother-in-law, Joanie, passed on to the world of spirit. Gwen and I were preparing to go on a journey which involved driving along quite a large section of the M6. We had been on our journey for no longer than a few minutes and were stationary at a set of traffic lights when the car’s engine cut out. No matter what I did, that car was just going nowhere. Ultimately, the garage had to be called out and the car towed back for investigation. An examination of the vehicle could give no particular reason for the engine’s refusal to start, but it did uncover a major mechanical fault. If Gwen and I had undertaken that journey it was inevitable that an accident would have occurred that would have resulted in either serious injury or a fatality. As soon as I heard the mechanic’s report, I knew that spiritual intervention had taken place and I also felt sure that Joanie had more than a little to do with that intervention!

I do not think that any of us will forget 7 July 2005 – the day when London was almost brought to a standstill by the horrific suicide bombings on the city’s transport system. On that day I was travelling to London with Gwen to attend meetings that day and the next. We had elected to fly down from Manchester airport to Heathrow on the 8.30 a.m. flight, so were unaware of what had happened until we actually landed at Heathrow some time after 9 a.m. The airport was in uproar with people trying to get transport into the city. The underground trains had been suspended – due to ‘an electrical problem’ we were told at the time – and consequently the queues for taxis were enormous. We were more than grateful that a car had been arranged to collect us from the airport. It was only when we climbed into the back of the car that we learned from the driver the true horror of what had taken place during the brief time we had been in the air.

It was a very long slow drive into London along the M4, but as we drew closer to the city on the A4 the traffic became lighter and lighter – a phenomenon we had never experienced before. However, the traffic travelling in the opposite direction was almost gridlocked, such was the desire of people to put as many miles as possible between themselves and the horrors that had so recently taken place. The police were advising people not to travel into London if they could possibly help it, but we had no option. Even though by now all our meetings had been cancelled for that day we still had people to see early the following day and were booked into a hotel for the night.

We eventually arrived at the hotel and with most of the day stretching out in front of us and nothing else to do we decided that after lunch we would take a walk along Oxford Street. However, this was not the Oxford Street we were used to! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed. Because the whole of the transport system had been suspended and taxis were virtually impossible to get, people had left work early to walk home – some of them facing a trek of miles on foot.

Gwen and I wandered aimlessly along, glad to be out of the confines of our hotel. The only people around seemed to be hurrying along with resigned expressions on the faces, no doubt on the way to their homes, and groups of bewildered tourists standing at the barricaded entrances to Oxford Circus and Marble Arch tube stations. Police vehicles rushed by in enormous numbers and there was the incessant sound of sirens screaming.

After a while we turned around and headed back in the direction of our hotel. Turning into a small side street, we noticed that a small coffee shop was still open for business. I ordered coffee for both of us and we sat outside on the almost deserted pavement.

A well-dressed man who looked to be in his thirties was sitting at one of the tables smoking a cigarette with an empty coffee cup in front of him. After a while he picked up his briefcase and began to walk away. After a few paces he hesitated, turned around and approached the table at which Gwen and I were sitting.

‘I’m so terribly sorry to bother you, but are you Derek Acorah?’ he asked.

I told him that I was.

‘I hope you don’t mind me speaking to you,’ he continued, ‘but may I introduce myself and could I ask you a question?’

‘Certainly,’ I told him.

He pulled out a chair and sat down. I could see that he looked rather upset and decided that I would let him speak without interruption.

The man told me that his name was Craig. He worked in the city and usually travelled via the train and underground system each day. The previous evening he had begun worrying about his journey to work the following day. He had not been able to dismiss these unaccustomed feelings of unease and foreboding, and had even mentioned them to his wife. She had dismissed his worries as being due to pressure of work and the fact that he had an important meeting to attend the following morning.

After a restless night Craig climbed into his car as usual to drive the mile or so to the station. Although his car was not an old one by any means, it had refused to start. Frustrated at the thought of being late for his meeting, Craig ran back into the house and telephoned for a taxi to take him to the station. The taxi duly arrived, but because of unusually heavy traffic the journey took 10 minutes longer than it ought to have done. Craig arrived at the station just in time to see the train he regularly caught disappearing out of the station on its way to London.

‘The point is, Derek,’ he said, ‘had I caught that train I would have been involved in the bombings. I would have been on the very train that was blown up. I might have been in one of the carriages that were so badly affected. I might even have been killed!’

Craig continued by explaining that he had never really considered the reality of the spirit world or the fact that we have people looking after us in another dimension. He told me that although he had watched Most Haunted from time to time he had found it merely an entertaining programme and had not dreamed for one moment that the events that took place were real.

‘My wife believes everything that happens in the programme, but I’ve always told her that it’s a load of nonsense,’ he said, looking more than a little embarrassed. ‘Today, however, I’ve had to seriously consider that there may well be somebody up there looking after me. I cannot explain the feelings I experienced last night and the urge to call into work to say that I wouldn’t be coming in today. I’m not the sort of person who would do that, so I overcame my feelings. Then there was the business with the car not starting and, even stranger, the taxi taking so long to get to the station. It’s just unknown. I was so angry when I missed that train. Of course when I arrived at the point where I would pick up the tube and found everything was cancelled, the light began to dawn, especially when I heard talk of bombings. Could it be that my guardian angel was trying to get a message to me and I ignored it, so he made sure that I wouldn’t be harmed?’

‘I think you’ve answered your own question,’ I told Craig. ‘It was indeed your guardian angel or, as I call them, your spirit guide impressing you with the fact that all was not well and that you were in danger. It is not on your life’s pathway to suffer great physical harm and it is certainly not your time to pass to the world of spirit. Every obstacle possible was put in your way to prevent you from boarding that train this morning.’

‘Thank you, Derek,’ Craig said as he stood up to take his leave. ‘Maybe I’ll watch your work in future through newly enlightened eyes,’ he added with a smile.

Numerous people have related similar stories to me concerning times when the intervention of somebody not of this world has been evident during a time of potential danger.

Linda wrote to tell me about her experience. She has a daughter, Becky. After Becky was born, Linda developed a strange fear of the staircase leading down from the front door of her apartment to the exterior door. Every time she passed the stairs with her baby in her arms she felt that someone or something was pulling her towards it. It reached a point where if Linda was carrying Becky in the area of the stairs she would walk so that her back was literally rubbing against the opposite wall. If Becky was not with her, nothing would happen and she could quite easily walk by or up and down the stairs without any problem whatsoever.

As Becky grew and began to be more mobile her parents purchased a baby walker. (These baby walkers are now no longer manufactured because they caused so many accidents.) They also positioned a baby gate across the top of the stairs in order to prevent Becky from going anywhere near them.

One day Linda’s husband had gone downstairs and unfortunately not locked the baby gate correctly. Linda was in the kitchen. Suddenly she had an overwhelming feeling of fear and dread. She rushed to the stairway in time to see Becky heading downstairs in her walker. What should have happened is that she should have tumbled over and over head over heels many times. Linda was incredulous when she saw her sliding down the stairs instead, still seated securely in her baby walker whilst remaining upright with little more than a gentle bump as she hit each stair.

‘It was as though an invisible hand was holding her upright until she reached the bottom of the stairs, where they turned a corner at a 90-degree angle,’ she told me.

The baby walker with Becky still in it came to a halt at the bottom of that first set of stairs. During that brief period, Linda managed to reach her daughter and pull her out of the walker before it tumbled down the remaining few steps. Although Becky was screaming with fright, she appeared to be unharmed by her experience.

As a matter of caution Linda and her husband rushed their baby to hospital, where she was X-rayed a number of times. No injuries could be found other than a slight bruise on her forehead.

‘Was she just very lucky or was there divine help?’ Linda asked me. ‘Was it Becky’s guardian angel warning me about those stairs when she was a tiny baby, and was she somehow saved from major injury?’

I have to agree with Linda that it is very likely that someone in the world of spirit was looking out for the little girl that day. Somebody intervened to prevent her from being seriously hurt. It is my opinion that it would be a member of Linda’s family who had passed to the world of spirit who was impressing Linda with feelings of dread and fear every time she went close to the staircase with her baby in her arms. That person could see what would happen at some point in the future and was determined that Linda would be alert to the possibility of a disaster involving her child and the staircase.

* * *

Catherine is a well-travelled lady who has had numerous experiences where spiritual intervention has prevented her from suffering as a consequence of major riots and bombs. She believes that the number of times this has happened is far too many for it to be purely coincidence.

Once she was travelling to South Africa with her grandparents. A few moments after they left Cape Town serious riots broke out and many people were hurt.

Another time Catherine attempted to book a holiday to Erie in Pennsylvania. She intended to fly on 1 September and return on 11 September, but the travel agent told her that she could only fly via New York City. Again, this trip was to be taken with her grandparents. One had a heart condition and the other was disabled. Catherine demanded that they fly via Pittsburgh and the only flight available was on 10 September. When she and her family arrived back in the UK on 11 September 2001, suicide bombers had attacked America. If she had not been influenced to change the date of their journey, she would have been stranded in New York City with her grandparents.

When in Spain on the Costa del Sol, Catherine intended going to Marbella for the day but then just did not feel right about it. She decided to go to the local market instead and travel to Marbella later in the day. About an hour later, she heard what she thought was a car backfiring. The news came through that a bomb had gone off in the bus station in Marbella, right next to the bus that Catherine would have been on.

Catherine tells me that there have been many, many more instances when she has felt that she is being watched over from the world of spirit. I can do nothing other than agree wholeheartedly that this is definitely the case!

Mandy’s mother has a theory that Mandy’s friend who passed on to the spirit world in November 1998 saved Mandy’s life. Her father, however, is convinced that she is just the luckiest person on Earth.

Mandy’s story begins when she was a 16-year-old student at Tooele High School. She was always involved in various events and during the school holidays was required to attend practice for the drill team at 6 a.m. each morning. She lived approximately seven miles from the high school and her journey involved passing the Tooele Army Depot main entrance.

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