The footsteps always started late at night or in the very early hours of the morning. They began in the attic room at the top of the house. They would then come down the bare wooden staircase and walk along the corridor leading to our bedrooms. The footsteps were unmistakably human and perfectly normal, just as if you or I were walking along. But everyone in the house was asleep in their rooms, so who could it possibly be?

At the time, I didn't understand why the footsteps would carry on past my parents' bedroom and past my younger brother's bedroom until entering my room and standing by my bed. Why me? I was just five years old and completely terrified. I didn't see anyone, as I would always pull my bedclothes right over me and lie there trembling with fear until I felt it 'safe' to emerge.

So began my early realisation that, to paraphrase Shakespeare, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in conventional philosophy! Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but I was clearly psychic. It was only some years later that my mother, also psychic, told me that our house had indeed been 'haunted' by the troubled spirit of a young teenage seamstress who would have occupied the attic room but passed in a fire many years before. She had sought me out perhaps for help. And indeed, many years later, as a fully fledged spiritual medium, I was able to return to the house (my family no longer lived there) and help encourage the girl into the light. (Why some spirits get 'trapped' and are seen as 'ghosts' is an entire subject in itself).

But I wasn't just psychic, I also had a very questioning mind. I well remember around the age of seven standing with my father looking up at a beautiful starry sky. I had just heard the word 'infinity' at school but couldn't understand it. I asked my dad about it and what was beyond the stars. He replied it was just infinity, space just went on and on with no beginning and no end.

This didn't satisfy me at all and, combined with my psychic awareness, helped set me on my path to discover more about the meaning of life. Why are we here, where do we come from, where do we go to, what are we meant to be doing whilst we're here, is there a God, what exactly is out there in the 'infinite' universe etc etc. I must have been a nightmare!

It led me on a journey that saw me get a degree in Philosophy, study the world's religions (but remain free-spirited myself), keep abreast of scientific developments and develop as a spiritual medium at the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (SAGB) in London.

In the case of scientific discovery, I remain particularly interested in energetic exploration, as spirit existence is essentially energy vibrating at a much higher frequency than our earthly bodies. (Again, another huge and fascinating subject in itself).

And I studied Philosophy – an exacting, sceptical analysis of anything and everything – precisely because I didn't just want to accept the way the world was presenting itself to me, I wanted to question it rigorously. Indeed, one of the things that most attracted me to the spiritual path is the way guides would say don't just accept what we tell you, examine it and if anything offends your reason, reject it. What a breath of fresh air, having been brought up before to just have blind faith. No, sorry, faith is great, but should not put a limit on our naturally inquisitive minds and to demanding better answers to awkward questions about God and all else than just to have faith.

I believe it's this combination of well-founded knowledge combined with my psychic gifts, which makes me a very grounded, down-to-earth spiritual medium – quite the opposite of being 'away with the fairies'!

I fully accept and indeed encourage people to be sceptical until you have either experienced spirit beings for yourself or have been given incontrovertible evidence by a spiritual medium. But just think about this for a moment. Of all the millions upon millions of encounters with 'ghosts' recounted every year by people from all walks of life – most with no interest in spirituality and many downright sceptical – just one of these sightings, just one, has to be true to prove that life after death is a reality!

But, of course, a great many of the stories are true. Often people in the military, the police, scientists and others are reticent to tell of their experiences for fear of being ridiculed. This simply adds to their credibility.

Over the years, I can't begin to recall how many spirit beings I have seen and heard, often when I am not in meditation and least expecting it. All I can tell you is that I am more certain about spirit existence than anything else in this crazy world.

Once you truly embark on the lifetime (and beyond!) journey of gaining spiritual knowledge whether as a psychic or not, it opens your mind to so many other aspects of existence.

Consider this, for example. The empirical approach in Philosophy examines the way we come to understand our world through our five senses. What we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell gives us our experience of the world. Anything outside this, closed minds like to call the supernatural, i.e. above or outside our normal sensory perception and therefore somehow strange or inexplicable.

But just because we don't comprehend the full workings of nature doesn't make things beyond our limited senses 'supernatural'. There is no such thing as the supernatural, it's simply that the full extent of nature's laws are beyond our experience and comprehension. For example, dogs are said to have a sense of smell at least a hundred times greater than humans – we can't even conceive what that must be like. An eagle flying way up high in the sky has panoramic vision, yet can also pinpoint a hare on the ground. Bats have a kind of in-built radar that not only allows them to fly about in their thousands in dark caves, but is incredibly advanced. Whales can navigate around the oceans and return to the very same bay every year. I could go on!

So, in other words, there are many more heightened ways of sensing and interacting with our physical world than we possess. Why is it then such a jump to accept sensing other dimensions? We have probably all heard of or even experienced for ourselves times when dogs and cats raise their hackles or won't go in a particular room. Just because our limited five senses can't pick up on anything doesn't mean there's nothing there!

Here's a brief analogy. When your TV or Radio is switched off, it doesn't mean the TV and Radio waves aren't still in the room. Switch the medium on and you receive the sound and vision, switch the medium off and the sound and vision disappears. But those TV and Radio waves are still round and about you. Just because your five senses can't pick up on them doesn't mean they're not there.

The spirit world is not up in the sky, just as there is no such place as hell at the Earth's core (a completely ridiculous religious fabrication to keep people in fear and subjugation). Spirit are around and about us right now. As many who have passed over or had near-death experiences have recounted, it's like stepping into another room. And there are many dimensions to spirit existence. Everything in the universe is energy and spirits simply exist on a higher vibrational level of energy than us. That's why communication can take a lot of dedicated meditation and spiritual development on our part for it to be successful.

Perhaps you begin to recognise – maybe you do already – that we are part of something absolutely vast. And to understand it better, helps us put this life into perspective and gives it greater meaning and purpose. Because your life is important, whatever your circumstances, and is a vital part of the universal energy that connects us all.

In our hearts and minds, we all intuitively know there has to be far more to this life than humankind has yet discovered. And not just in terms of life after death.

• Is there truth behind the millions of claimed cases of 'deja vu'?

• Is reincarnation a reality and how else can we explain stories from ordinary people who recall precise corroborated detail from 'a previous life'?

• Is time circular not linear and therefore is it possible to 'predict' the future?

• Is telepathy as practiced by the Aborigines and other ancients a reality?

• Is there intelligent life in the billions of planets in the countless universes and what exactly are we part of physically, let alone spiritually?

• What if humans could develop the far superior sensory capabilities of animals?

• We know we haven't yet explored a fraction of the healing and other elements in the Earth's plant life – what other secrets are we missing?

• Could energetic healing one day replace all medicine and extend human life?

• Why do major events such as historic battles seem to leave an 'energetic footprint' that is reproduced in certain conditions?

Again, I could go on! And the above is just scraping the surface of the knowledge that could be there for us to reveal. We have no more than nibbled timidly at the feast of truths that our world presents.

As best I can, I will use my psychic gifts to help open more minds and to let guides, helpers and loved ones bring comfort, healing, joy, love and guidance to those ready to receive it with an open mind and an open heart.