Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns. Derek Acorah

move. ‘I don’t do mice!’ she repeated. She put her hands up to her face. ‘I can’t, I can’t do it.’

      It took quite a lot of persuading before she finally allowed me to take her hand and lead her forward. Huddling in her coat, with her eyes firmly shut, her head down and her other hand over her eyes, she followed me through the area with the grain and into the malt silos, where we were safe from mice. I did feel sorry for her, but I couldn’t help but feel just a tiny bit amused that in a brewery full of spirits, what bothered Danniella was a couple of small furry animals!

      In the malt silo I was soon picking up the energies of a spirit man. I could feel that he was being engulfed by something and was having problems with his breathing, but I didn’t know what was around him at first – it wasn’t water, but what was it? Something was raining down on him from above, suffocating him. I tried to understand what was happening to this man. One thing I knew for sure was that he wasn’t in visitation: he was trapped.

      I asked him to come forward and tell us who he was.

      Almost straightaway Sam gave me his name: Edward Stimpson.

      Then we asked his age. Sam told me that he was 26 years old. Then I knew what had happened! He had been testing the grain when he had slipped, overbalanced and fallen in.

      As I related this to Mark and Danniella, we heard a plopping sound in an area behind us. I asked whether it could be some kind of machinery, but Mark said no, there was nothing there. Was it Edward Stimpson communicating with us? We decided to move towards the area where we’d heard the noise.

      I reminded the spirit that we were his friends and respected him. Then I suggested he make a noise above us.

      ‘There you go!’ said Danniella at once. She had heard a noise at the end of the hall.

      She asked Mark to talk to the spirit. He too asked Edward to make a noise.

      We all waited in anticipation. Then there came a distinct couple of raps, much louder than before.

      ‘Hear that bang?’ I said to Mark. ‘That was heavy. Ask him again.’

      At that moment, unbeknown to us, in the dark back in the malt kiln Angus heard a scraping sound.

      ‘What the hell was that?’ Startled, he looked down to his left.

      It came again and then seemed to come from the other side of him. Angus looked round in alarm. ‘What the hell was that noise?’he whispered.

      We were also hearing noises – bangs and thumps and what sounded like a creaking door that suddenly slammed. Each sound was getting closer to us. It seemed that the spirit trapped in the brewery was responding to Mark’s requests.

      ‘Tell him to come closer,’ I said.

      Mark did so and once more we waited with baited breath.

      Then there was a tap.

      The spirit was continuing to respond.

      ‘Come closer, come closer to Derek. Keep making the noise,’ said Mark.

      The parapsychologist’s view

       ‘Yes, there were noises. I don’t think there was any evidence there to suggest that they were paranormal.’

      Dr Simon Sherwood

      Then I felt the energy swirling around me. I swayed and closed my eyes. Once more I asked the spirit to come closer. I had a feeling at the back of my shoulders. Then with a shiver I was channelling the man who had died in the grain silo.

      Channelling

      Channelling is a way of allowing a spirit to communicate by entering the auric field of a medium. Our auric field surrounds our physical body, protecting us. A spirit person cannot penetrate it unless we give them permission. In Faversham Brewery I had repeatedly asked the spirit to come close to me, but if I had said no, he couldn’t have jumped in. I make my own decisions on when to channel a spirit and follow Sam’s advice about whether a spirit is trustworthy or not. Having said this, once or twice I’ve misjudged the situation and a cunning spirit has leapt in and taken advantage of the opportunity. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often.