Long Intervals of Horrible Sanity: The Official Blog of George Wilhite Horror Author: Channelling Books for Spirit Authors: A Conversation with Medium and Author Dorothy Davies

Dorothy Davies is a writer, editor and medium who lives on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England. It is reputed to be the most haunted place in the UK, the word wight means spirit, which may well explain why her latent psychic abilities only came fully to the fore when she moved there just over 17 years ago.

She works as editor and book designer for a small private publishing company during the day and edits for Static Movement and writes every evening. She walks and talks with spirit companions and visitors 24/7, declining to follow the “advice” of others that she should “limit the time she speaks with spirits” because of ongoing migraines.

Her companions insist that the migraines have nothing to do with them, but have everything to do with the pressures of 21st century living, compared with their much easier (and richer) lives as medieval aristocrats! Dorothy's answer is: you do not ignore friends when they visit and she will not do that to those who expend their spirit energy to be with her.

Dorothy is my guest for the next couple of blog posts. Today, we will chat more about her experiences as a medium, while the second half of our interview will focus on her writing, especially her book I Bid You Welcome: A Collection of Dark Tales from Writers in Spirit. (cover and purchase links can be found at the bottom of this post)

Welcome, Dorothy. Your bio states your latent psychic abilities only came fully to the fore when you moved to the Isle of Wight just over 17 years ago.

Did you have any earlier experiences that made you suspect you had these abilities?

I was, for many years, a devout Christian. Only now, with hindsight, do I see that many of my experiences were spirit rather than Christian, if you see what I mean. Example, once, in the middle of Holy Communion, I heard the rustle of robes and felt the pew move as someone sat down beside me. No one was there, physically, that is. My first reaction was, this is Christ himself. From this distance of time and current experiences, I can say it could have been but it could also have been my guide, a Mayan priest-king, who wears robes. But one incident was definitely spirit engineered. I was living in northern Spain at the time and on my way to work (governess to the deputy Mayor of Bilbao's youngest children, my task, to play with them and ensure they learned English, all we spoke whilst I was there.) This particular day I had no money left. I paid my bus fare and that was it, no more money. I faced a lengthy walk home after work. I went into the first chapel I saw, knelt down, prayed for help, looked up and found every statue in the place wore a halo of gold, which faded and disappeared. When I got to work, the children's mother came out to see me. 'I thought you could use this', she said, handing me my wages, a whole week early...

From my teen years I read books about opening the third eye, anything to do with psychic ability, without actually doing anything about it. It was as if the knowledge was being absorbed but the time was not right. I had a reading with an eminent psychic, who told me my life was one long series of surprises. She was right, it was and still is.

Being bound up, as it were, with the Church of England, attending Holy Communion regularly, being one of the Flower Ladies, most of my feelings were suppressed. Then, for no reason I could see, I stopped going to church. I later found out that the affair which finally broke my 23 year marriage started at that time.

My move to the Isle of Wight came about through that series of 'coincidences' which only spirit could engineer. I had taken a copy editing course, I had been writing for this small publishing company, I offered to do editing work for them, was accepted (long distance) and so, when the breakup came, the director of the company told me to get the next ferry over, that I could have a job in house. So, Isle of Wight it was, no questions asked. I bought the first home I viewed, one that feels right nearly 18 years on, and one that is crowded with spirits several times a week when the gentleman's club, which met there regularly in earlier times (the house is 138 years old) still gather, dogs and all, for their meetings.

Tell us about the first experience after moving to the Isle that convinced you that you were in fact a medium.

A year after moving to the island, I visited the Victoria Arcade, which is two doors away from my home. I was drawn to the tarot reader who had a place there, and went in for a reading. She turned over the first card and said 'you're very spiritual, do you sit in circle?' I said no, and she said 'you should.' I had at that point been having a lot of psychic experiences, picking up thoughts and feelings of co-workers and so on. I contacted the spiritualist church in Ryde and the president asked me to visit before the Sunday service. She said she had many people say they were psychic but it was all their imagination. I went and after about two minutes she said, 'fine, let's go in to the service, shall we?' I had passed that test. The medium for the evening gave me a simple message from the platform, including 'watch your back'.(the very next day I was asked to help lift the photocopier...) when the medium left the platform he stopped by my side and simply stared at me, as if trying to convey a message without words. I was too new then to know what it was but am sure it was something to do with my future work.

I sat circle (a group of like minded people who gather to meditate and share their power and experiences) for some time in that church and then moved to Ventnor church, where I became Secretary, did platform work myself as well as regular circle attendances and somehow, through all this spiritual work, became a working medium.

This is all quite fascinating. Have you ever encountered visual or physical manifestations of spirits?

I 'see' spirit with my physical eyes as flickering lights, almost as if the air is being disturbed. I can liken it to 'seeing' the Stealth bomber, if you can take that as an analogy. I 'see' spirit clearly in my mind often. Physical manifestation, things are moved at times...my spirit friend Daniel came to me as a clown (we later wrote his life story--he being a concentration camp victim) and clowns play tricks. I use a pendulum to find missing things. He moved my pendulum... there are many Daniel stories, because he shared his time between me and an intensely spiritual medium from Lymington. He used to plague her with his tricks, too.

I know when spirit visit us in circle, I get very cold down one side.

I know when spirits want to let me know they are there when their favorite tracks roll round on the CDS, I go cold from head to foot. They have ways of letting me know they are there.
I have been told one day I will see spirit as clearly as I see living beings. I am waiting on that day!

Thanks. It is interesting to hear an actual medium’s experience with this compared to the version we get in most novels and films.

What current projects are you working on in collaboration with spirits?

Currently there are about six books started, I want to finish something! In print/on Kindle are books by George, duke of Clarence, Henry VIII and Judas Iskariot. To come, Guy Fawkes, Charles I and Jacquetta Woodville.

I am working on the life of Katherine of Aragon right now, books by JFK, Antony Woodville (my medieval hero and companion) Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots are started. I have several compilation books in progress too, some are collections of reminiscences from pop stars, jazz singers, blues singers and so on, some are 'celebrities', radio stars, people like that. I also have to write Dispatches From The Mists of Time, where people come to give me the story of a particular period of their life, rather than a full length book. One example is Harold, who wants to talk about the march from Stamford Bridge and the Battle of Hastings because, as he said, no one is interested in anything else! This is a way of my 'clearing' the list of 50 or so spirit authors, because I will not live long enough to write them all!

I took time out to write a non-stop series of short stories, they have now stopped and Katherine has come back to say, shall we continue my book and tell the world what it was really like being married to the most famous king you had? This is what we are doing right now. Then I know JFK will be back, he says it is time we finished his book (he's right) then I will move on to Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots. This book focusses on the relationship between two powerful women who never met but whose lives were blighted by each other's actions. Each chapter is told from alternating viewpoints. I found that when one chapter was done, if there was writing time left, the other would not carry on... she had to come the next night...

Life is not for a moment dull around here. Lady Jane Grey made herself known on Monday night, she is added to the list!