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Friday 20 January 2012

Do you believe?

Emma L Clapperton – Aspiring Author of Beyond Evidence.

 The paranormal is one of those things that either you believe in, you don’t or you are open minded. I was open minded to begin with, that was until I lost my Grampa to a heart attack in June 2002. After that, I wanted to delve more into the world of spirits, life after death and all the other stuff that comes with it. I totally believe that when you die, you don’t just die but you move on to a higher plane, another level. I suppose I believe this because I am terrified of death itself. The thought of your heart suddenly stopping or your brain haemorrhaging absolutely chills me to the core. Surely you can’t just die, your soul, your personality, your mind. Surely all of your lives work and achievements can’t just disappear with you when you go, if so...what is the point? I attended regular spiritual meetings that raised funds for cancer charities a few years after my Grampa passed away. The mediums were amazing, to say the least. Not only could they tell me about my Grampa and his life, they could tell me things that I had only ever told my partner (Chris) and this is what stretched my mind into thinking that we are not the only life level out there. You may read this and think “Yeah, she’s a nut!” or you may read this and think “I absolutely get you!” but whatever you think, it’s your mind and your opinion and I will never disrespect that. In the last ten years I have thought about the afterlife and wondered what it must be like... Is it just a bunch of souls floating around the sky using memory to project the images of past life, like faces of those who have also passed or a simple pavement to walk along? I work in childcare and one child asked me “How do we get to heaven?” and when I said I didn’t know, his reply was “Maybe we can use the clouds as ladders and climb up.” I liked the sound of this, not because I am religious but because it sounded like a peaceful and happy place to be when your soul makes the transition from human to... whatever it is afterwards. I suppose I will never know until I experience it for myself. Some people I have spoken to are a mix of opinions but I have a very close friend Maxine, who lost her brother to the war in Iraq and she has been told that she has psychic abilities however she is too afraid to learn how to use them. The reason I mention her brother is because she senses that he is with her most of the time. But not only him, she sensed the spirit of a little girl who died when she was a little girl herself. She does not see the spirit now but she does sense the spirit of a girl named Victoria who follows her mum around a lot of the time. When she spoke to her parents about it and described the little girl, it turns out that the friend of her parents had lost a child matching her description. Maxine was a little freaked out by this but has learned to live with it. I had never truly experienced the presence of a spirit until I participated in an over night stay in Edinburgh Vaults in Scotland – an old historical haunting to raise money for PTSD for ex servicemen and soldier’s of today. It was called Niddry Wynd and I have to say that it has been one of the best experiences to date. There were around 30 or 40 people involved and we had a psychic medium and a paranormal investigator and a parapsychologist so that every angle (logical explanations as well as paranormal explanations) could be covered while we investigated the Wynd. I took part in a Ouija board and I was extremely shocked when I experienced shortness of breath and hot sweats... after I challenged the evil spirit of a paedophile to try and see if he could take on someone who would stand up to him. I was pleased of the experience but I did hold my hands up and say “OK” when the medium told me to stop winding him up. Things have happened to me at home that I will admit could be explained rationally, like light bulbs shooting out of the ceiling onto tiled flooring but not smashing, a sudden smell of Old Spice when I leave a room in my flat (Chris does not wear Old Spice), my cats suddenly sitting up and intently watching the hallway of my home... Yeah, I suppose the bulb could have been loose or the scent could be a desire of my imagination and the cats could see a tiny fly that only a cat’s eye would see. But it comforts me to think that it’s my Grampa and I hope that he is here keeping an eye on all of us. It would just be disappointing if I was proven wrong. I hope that day never comes. I try to see a medium whenever I can and I love to read anything paranormal, especially James Herbert, the best selling British Horror Novelist. And now, I love to write about it too. I hope that if your are sceptical, you could give it a chance, just once... you may be pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised. I am now a strong believer in the paranormal and life after death but believe me, I am in no hurry to experience it for myself.