By The Celtress Miriam O’Gara

We Celts can’t resist things mystical. I’m no different. Music is mystical and as a singer, I’ve always been in tune with how my body feels. I just know when things aren’t right. I used to put this down to how sound readily sensitises the body, to the point where the body would quickly feel ill and as a woman I accepted that hormonal changes could also cause me to feel malaise, but I was lucky and didn’t suffer much of this. So, why then did I often find myself struggling with confusion, feeling sick out of the blue, and particularly around toxic individuals? Sometimes I worked for companies where just being in the office made me ill. Was it me? Was it the tasks I was set? Was it fear of some sort (couldn’t think of any) or was it a lifestyle thing? My gut told me it was none of this. Deep down I knew I was overlooking something.

As a young person I had been quite spiritual and voluntarily so, but ultimately my path would later become more Pan Spiritual. I began to notice patterns emerging. The spiritual experiences I’d had on my Catholic path, and the spiritual experiences I’d later had following a Pan Spiritual path, had nothing to do with the paths themselves, but everything to do with me. I could channel spirit. This stopped me in my tracks. Like so many of us, I happily found spiritual support in a church, group, community etc., but ultimately, for me, this was a misstep.

As with so many schools in the 1970s and ’80s, mention anything like mediumship, meditation, yoga, reiki or chakras and there would be consequences. My mother did yoga and got little support in the ’70s and at no time did any educator pick-up on the fact that I was a classic clairsentient, they wouldn’t have known what it meant. So, psychically speaking, I wasn’t truly prepared, protected or properly educated on spiritualism. However, one spiritual advisor, Father Louis Hughes, spoke to me in my teens at some length about chakras. He had spent years in India and taught and practised Yoga daily, and chakras are very much part of the protection journey for a medium.

From my twenties, I had noticed odd physical symptoms that I presumed were medical conditions or perhaps psychosomatic. Choking or excruciating pain that would appear out of nowhere, then disappear. As the years past, I became aware that this happened when I entered particular environments and contexts, old tudor buildings and after key events, such as the release of the US hostages from Iran, where in a dream the night before the announcement, I saw them released.

Years went by with all life’s twists and turns. Then something happened. I had a sobering experience that changed everything. I took a client on a fieldtrip to an arts centre. I’d never been there before and was interested to find out that the building had not only a fabulous theatre, but a cinema and Jazz club too. As we finished touring the complex the manager mentioned that tonight was the opening night for their new fourth venue, a Poetry Room, and he walked us down a corridor towards a new entrance. I was walking immediately behind him. He pushed through the door into the room and I followed. All at once I felt a terrible punch in my solar plexus (and it wasn’t the manager!). I knew instantly that a powerful and dark energy wanted me out of there. I became confused, finding it hard to see in front of me and felt this heavy oppressive energy building up throughout my head to the point where I thought I’d pass out. The room itself was bright and sunny and painted white. It didn’t look in the least bit threatening but something in here was trying to overpower me. I was determined to stand my ground and mentally confronted it and refused to leave (also, what would my client think if I ran?…)

Over the years, there had been other occasions when I had walked into buildings and felt a negative energy come at me. Sometimes just playing games with me blowing in my ear, but I didn’t understand what it was and usually got out of there fast. I was never fully equipped to handle these situations and I promised myself that if it ever happened again I wouldn’t run in fear. That was years ago and this time, I was in my fifties and had spent much of my forties reconnecting, studying mediation and in particular Reiki. I knew I had reconnected with most of my abilities but hadn’t paid enough attention to mediumship or psychic protection. But on this day and in that room, that neglect had come home to roost. Maybe it was because I was older now, but I decided to take control and fight the fear and began to walk the length of the Poetry Room to the back wall. I past other rooms along the way, which where off to the left and right. At the end of the rectangular room I stood with my back to the wall. The oppressive energy was at its worst here. It was pure fear and I immediately felt that the fear was coming from behind the wall. I was finding it hard to breathe and I wasn’t sure if I could continue much longer without running outside, so I turned to the manager and blurted a question out, “Is there something behind this wall?” Looking back, I feel the manager was also struggling and knew I’d picked up on something. He made no eye contact with me but was surprisingly frank and quick to answer. He explained that the rooms to the left and right which had no doors, were in fact old prison cells. We were now in the old gaol and the wall behind me contained another cell which of late they had had no choice other than to seal-up due to the paranormal activity coming from it. I had never in my life been here before and knew nothing about the place other than the fact that it was a very popular arts centre. The presence of the gaol was all news to me. He explained that the sealed-up cell had been used years ago by priests to hear the final confessions of prisoners who were just before they were hanged. The next thing I knew, the manager was marching out of the room and back to reception. I went looking for my client, who thankfully was totally oblivious to what was happening to me and said my goodbyes. Once outside, there was no way I could go home. I was just too unsteady and had to wait couple of hours for my head to clear before driving.

That all happened in 2016 and the upshot of this experience is that it finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to seek out psychic protection. I realised I would have to investigate mediumship further, that I’d ignored this ability not wanting to be known for it but I had dragged my feet for too long. I was a singer, writer and interviewer and I did not want to add ‘medium’ to the list. You might say, “So OK, don’t!” Well, the thing is, it’s a calling and is part of your very essence and that complicates things. I have had this ability all my life and simply haven’t been playing the game. I haven’t been, nurturing and developing it. As a result, I have left myself exposed and extremely unprotected as a clairsentient.

Fast forward to the present day. From 2011 till 2022, studying Reiki and Reiki Psychic Programmes has been a joy and I completed a Mediumship Diploma this year with the objective of equipping myself with protection. I’ve learned so much, made wonderful friends and found this study immensely consoling during the first wave of the pandemic. I love combining Reiki and Mediumship. My area of interest is distance Reiki with mediumship, and thankfully I have become well schooled in psychic protection. I hope to share some of this with you in later articles but please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have experienced similar events.

If you have any of the ‘clairs,’ clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience etc., know that it can take a while to realise just how vulnerable you are, particularly if you know little about them and don’t know where to start. Developing these abilities also requires simultaneously learning how to protect yourself, and learning about the role this plays in keeping you physically well. If you are a medium, learning to read your body and paying attention to its responses when dealing with spirit is a skill which improves with practise. It is never too late.

This was the story of an event that pushed me to take action and acknowledge my mediumship and believe me, I still have a lot still to learn. Yes, I am a singer first, but mediumship is an integral part of who I am. Something that I once neglected but thankfully now embrace as a gift.

By the way, I phoned the manager of the arts centre a few days later and told him about my experience. He wasn’t surprised at all and explained that when he worked in a previous arts centre a few years earlier where a man had been murdered, it became clear that he was haunting the basement. The manager engaged a priest brought in a priest to cleanse the room and help the soul pass over.

He ended by saying he had already made the call.

The Celtress Miriam O’Gara