Biography

I was born in the Lancashire mill town of Ashton-Under-Lyne in 1959, the fifth son of Alfred and Olga Dakin. My memories of my father seem to be blocked these days but I do seem to remember him as a man who had conflicts within himself and what he wanted from life. He was not in my view a very good family man as he often took his frustrations out on his children and wife in the form of physical abuse and verbal abuse. He was also an unfaithful husband and was known for his womanising.

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My mother Olga, earned a reputation in the family for moving addresses because in the years after my birth and up to her passing in 1990, she moved house seven times. At the age of forty she discovered that she had psychic powers and in subsequent years was a very influential and noted member of Dukinfield Spiritualist Church, in Cheshire.

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As I have already stated I’m the youngest of five children, all boys, and to my knowledge all my brothers at some point have experienced psychic intuitive happenings but I seem to be the one who has been the most gifted in this field. I can trace the gift of prophecy in our family back a couple of generations, firstly to my mother and her sister Brenda and also back to a sister of my grandfather’s on my mother’s side called Agnes. I have been told that she was often referred to in the family as being a bit “odd.” For quite a few years my mother encouraged me to sit in her circle and develop what seemed to be a very natural psychic gift, but I had other ideas. For most of my teens and twenties I just wanted to have fun, drinking and socialising with friends. I often wonder what would have happened if I had taken up Mediumship at an earlier age, but with hindsight I think it was better that I was able to experience the different avenues of life before committing myself to several years training, which was necessary, in order to receive and process Spirit information to a high standard.

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 People often ask me when it was that I had my first psychic experience but I find this very difficult to define as I can actually recount seeing and hearing people who had passed over for as far back as I can remember. Another question that I am asked quite often is whether the fact that I can see “dead” people frightens or unnerves me. My answer to this is that it doesn’t bother me unduly, luckily I seem to have the sort of personality that can accept what would be to most people, unreal or bizarre.

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I would say that my psychic gift really became apparent immediately prior to my mother’s passing which was when I was thirty years old. For weeks the same thought had been running through my mind, I knew that I had to buy a suit for a funeral and I also knew that it was a member of my family who was about to die. The feeling was so strong that I knowingly took my bank account into overdraft to buy the suit when I knew I really could not afford it. I had very little money at the time because I had just separated from my first wife. I was trying to work out who was going to die when my mother was suddenly rushed into hospital with suspected breast cancer. This was bad enough but four days later my eldest brother Stewart was also rushed into hospital and died shortly afterwards at the age of thirty nine. My two other brothers Christopher and Paul had the unenviable task of telling my hospitalised mother the news, whereon she simply said, “yes in four days time I will be with him.” Sure enough four days later my mother passed in her sleep and my worst nightmare had come true.

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I have since observed that mediums seem to have to go through a time of trauma just prior to their true awakening. This was certainly true in my case, it is almost as if we have to endure suffering in order to gain experience of pain with the result that we can hopefully empathise with people in distress, after all it must be easier to help a person when you can put yourself in their shoes. I have always known deep down that there is life after death and that prediction of the future is possible because of my own early personal experiences. It was on a cold and wet autumn night about three months after my mother’s passing when I received a visitation from her, I was not totally shocked. Whilst watching television a flickering on the wall caught my attention and as I gazed at it with curiosity the flickering became a light that grew to about the size of a golf ball. Golden in colour, it grew larger by the second until reaching the size of a basket ball, then in the middle of the light my mother’s face started to take shape. With her face clearly visible, her arms, body and legs grew outwards from the centre of the light until she stood before me in solid form.

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You may think that this would be an experience to strike fear into the bravest of men but in fact it was a peaceful and most beautiful sensation, one that I will never forget. My mother began to speak, she told me of events that were to take place in the short and long term future, about my daughter Gemma and about my pathway forward as a medium. Most of what she told me has indeed come true and I am in no doubt whatsoever that one hundred percent of what she told me will eventually come to pass. That night she told me that my ex wife was pregnant to the new man in her life, she said that I would hear this news the next day and that I shouldn’t let it upset me. Sure enough the next morning I called in the chemist shop where my ex wife had previously worked and as I walked in the owner shouted insensitively across the counter, “have you heard the news?” He then went on to say that my ex wife had been in the shop earlier for a pregnancy test and it had proved positive. I simply replied, “yes I did hear that,” and walked out of the shop. True prediction such as this from the Spirit world is born out of love and I feel sure that my mother’s intention was purely to help spare my feelings and I thank her for that.

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This visitation started me off on a search to find my own true psychic potential. I joined Dukinfield Spiritualist Church in 1991 and quickly learned that my psychic gift was very strong, in fact I would often pick up a great deal more than the guest speaker. I sat in my first development circle under the direction of a lady who has since passed. She was a kindly woman but alas fell short in the field of training other mediums. She put me on the platform far too early and I began to suffer violent headaches and a feeling of immense pressure around my temples. Whilst under her instruction I remember taking a spiritualist service with her in Urmston near Manchester and the links that I was getting were confused and lacking in accuracy. I was also starting to be bothered by Spirits while I wasn’t supposed to be working. This was usually when I was relaxing or out socialising. Several times I had been stood at the bar in a public house and had been extremely impressed to relay Spirit information to a person near me, but I always resisted because I felt and still do feel that it is not right to force communication on anyone. I tend only to work with people who have first given their permission for me to work with them. I realised at that time that it was control of the gift that I was lacking and that it was something that had to be put right in order for me to be able to master and control the communication channel.

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Shortly after this initial training I was guided towards a gypsy lady, called B, by the president of Dukinfield Church, Mrs Beryl Vale. B. took one look at me and told me that I must sit with her. She placed her hands on my head and immediately the tight feeling vanished never to return again. B. taught me a great deal about control of the psychic gift, how to open up and close down the vibration and how to focus correctly into Spirit vibrations. I still to this day teach and use her method of control as I have never found a better system and seriously doubt if I ever will. Soon after this training I began to work the Spiritualist Churches in earnest and at the peak of my time as a speaker and demonstrator I served seventy eight churches up and down the U.K. I will always be thankful to B. for her wisdom and her training because since sitting with her I have always felt in control and at ease with psychic phenomena. There will always be a place in my heart for B.

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Turning professional was for me an obvious step and I hit the professional stage with my own one man show at Burnley Mechanics Theatre/Hall and worked on radio for the first time to promote the night. I was a bag of nerves as I remember and said the word “basically” twenty seven times! The night was a success, that is to say, I was on wages. There were several good messages during the evening and I stood on the stage at the finish, red faced and exhausted, while the audience applauded. I was perhaps fortunate in the fact that prior to turning professional, I had been able to visit theatres and halls with the medium James Byrne. He had allowed me to introduce him on several occasions and I think this helped to build up my confidence when it was time for me to stand up in front of large gatherings of people. I also sat in on radio broadcasts with him and again this gave me confidence because when it came time for me to broadcast I was not at all phased by the studio environment. Now that I am a regular radio broadcaster I can appreciate the start that I had, it helped me enormously.

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In 1993 I started a spiritual group of my own which is currently progressing well doing trance and transfiguration work. The group consists of people who are very committed to the work that we do and it is very important to me. I feel very strong karmic connections with the members of the group. In 1995 I met my wife Christine, she has been a great strength to me in my work. Chris has been a member of my circle since 1996 and has witnessed many Spirit communications and channelled information exchanges. I wish to thank the existing and past members of my group in particular Gerald Gaskell, Linda, Andy, Judy, and Jonathan, who also I feel has the potential to be a good medium in the future.

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Those with a knowledge of Spiritualism may have noticed that I have not yet mentioned the Spirit people who work with me so I see it as a fitting end to my story to mention them now and indeed pay tribute to the higher entity I have the privilege to serve, whose name is Red Cloud.

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I have never been aware of a guide when working spiritually, I think that the reason for this is that I see myself as one with the Spirit world as they are one with me. I have been aware of many guides throughout my spiritual quest though, Ben a Negro slave, and Jacque a Flemish sailor from a tea clipper who died when his ship broke its back in mid ocean. These are just a couple to mention but the two most influential have been Ranji an Asian Indian physician who is my trance and healing guide and Red Cloud a highly evolved Master and teacher. I first became aware of Red Cloud in 1992, when I was on my way to take my very first solo spiritualist service at Saddleworth S.N.U. Church, in a small village in Lancashire. As I approached the church, alone in my car, I heard a voice booming out physically all around me saying, “Red Cloud.” I was shocked by the intensity and volume of the voice. I had heard external voices before but never with this power.

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I arrived at the church and introduced myself to a man selling raffle tickets at the door and as I glanced at a table that was pushed against a wall where the raffle prizes were displayed, there I saw a framed picture of a red Indian chief in full head dress. I remarked to the man that I liked the picture and he said he also liked it and that the last visiting medium had called the Indian in the picture, Red Cloud. I was surprised, to say the least, as this was the name that had been so forcefully shouted down my ear only ten or so minutes before. I bought a ticket and as you may have guessed, I won!

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The picture of the Indian now hangs with pride of place in my home. I do not particularly believe that this is a picture of the Red Cloud that I work with but I rather think it was given to me to act as a focal point and in any case I do regard the event as a particularly good piece of Spirit evidence that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I have researched the name of Red Cloud over several years and in the first instance I found that there was a great Indian war chief by that name but somehow I didn’t feel that this could be what I was looking for until one day a book was loaned to me by a dear, now departed friend Joan Adams. The book is called “Fifty Years a Medium,” and it is the autobiography of a lady called Estelle Roberts, probably the most gifted medium that has ever lived, who’s guide was indeed called, Red Cloud. This was the link that I was looking for, I have since received a visit from Estelle Roberts while in trance to confirm that it is one and the same Spirit Guide. Red Cloud is a very powerful and evolved entity and I don’t believe he is my personal guide but rather that I seem to be a facet of his group. It’s as if I’m one of his workers under his very direct powerful control.

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Having now consolidated my client base I look forward to new avenues of work. I find the Internet a fascinating concept and through my web site I hope to find a way of broadening my horizons. I will now start to travel and I am very excited about America and the opportunities there. I’m negotiating with agents to allow me to work there in the future. I think that workshops and seminars are a good way to reach people and make them aware of their gifts and I can see that this will be an area in the future that will require me to make my mark.