Every living thing has both a physical and an ethereal body - even plants. Using 'Kirlian' photography, even a leaf's ethereal image can be seen, and even after half of the leaf is cut off.

If someone is terminally ill, close to the time of death, the ethereal body's energy - the spirit - gathers in the solar plexus area and starts to leave the body in a stream of energy, often referred to as the 'silver cord'. This spirit energy has a consciousness and feels drawn towards a source of light (often referred to as the spirit world). However, if that person is resuscitated, the movement of the spirit will reverse (often rapidly) and he or she may report feeling a jolt and recall seeing a light. Many say that they have met loved ones who have already passed. This experience is always reported as being peaceful and joyous. However, once the spiritual silver cord breaks its connection to the physical body, that person can no longer be resuscitated.

The 'spirit world' exists all around us, in a different dimension (often called a higher vibration) but as we are only equipped to see and hear a small part of all the energy frequencies around us, most of us are unaware of their presence. Spirit beings, however, can tune in to our energies, see our ethereal image and hear our thoughts, but they rarely interfere with us and certainly wouldn't try to harm us.

Some people say that it is dangerous to communicate with spirit people and that you are doing the 'devil's' work, if you 'call up the dead'. Is that true?

The vast majority of the human race are kind, considerate and caring. It is only a tiny minority of people who have no ability to comprehend the effect their selfish and evil deeds on other people.

If you ask yourself the question 'Would I go and spend a day with, say, Jack the Ripper or Adolph Hitler' the answer would be 'NO', because there is absolutely no attraction between you. Like attracts like and the same applies to the spirit world. They see us by the light and colours of our ethereal bodies. If they were 'good' people during their earthly lives, they will be happy to communicate with their family and loved ones, and even other like-minded people.

As long as you have love in your heart and are communicating with good intentions, through an experienced medium, there is no danger in spirit communication. There is no question of us 'disturbing the dead'. Spirit people are very much alive and they exist alongside us, in a different dimension. They are only too happy to be able to communicate with us.

A ghost is an image of a person or animal that is imprinted in the earth's energy field. It has no intelligence and can often be seen repeating the same actions time after time. It is a bit like a film on the cinema screen. You can see it but you can't interact with it.

A spirit is the intelligent energy or 'soul' that leaves the body on the point of death. Spirits are as alive as we are - the only difference is that they no longer have a physical body. Through a mediumistic person, a spirit can communicate with their loved ones. The spirit world exists in parallel with this one and although they are rarely seen, they are very much aware of us, our thoughts and deeds.

Most mediums spend years training to communicate with the spirit world. The energy that we all share - as both carnate and incarnate beings - is 'thought'.

Spirit people have no voice box, so can't verbalise their messages. And they too, often have to train to communicate with a medium. The more they practise communicating, the better they become.

The medium, in turn, has to quieten his or her mind to allow the spirit thoughts to influence his or her mind. This part of the brain is where imagination is formed and mediums often report 'seeing' an image in their minds, which they can describe. Sometimes, the medium will 'hear' the spirit thought or just feel compelled to say a certain word or phrase. The difficult part is discerning the difference between the spirit's thoughts and the medium's. To be a good medium, he or she must be dedicated, humble, and be prepared to continually progress.

To be a good medium you need to have certain characteristics that will make it easier for spirit to work with you. If you ask yourself 'Why do I want to be a medium?', and you answer is 'To be famous and make loads of money', you would not be suitable to help people with genuine needs. If your answer is 'Because I feel drawn towards this work and I want to help people', you are halfway there. You need to have empathy, tact, patience and a willingness to work hard for little financial gain, but huge satisfaction that you have brought your sitter genuine comfort.

Sitting in a development circle is the first step to developing mediumship, and such groups are not easy to find, but they are often run by spiritualist churches and centres.

Once established in a circle, have patience and devotion - it can take some time to learn how to listen to spirit without putting your own thoughts into the message.

Although many people are naturally mediumistic, that gift needs training and harnessing. Many Spiritualist National Union churches offer training and there are many good books available on spirit communication. There are also training courses available at the Arthur Findlay College, Stansted, but bear in mind that you cannot become an accomplished medium in only one week - it can take years. If you feel that you want to become a dedicated medium, contact us and we will try and guide you in the right direction.

There could be several reasons for this. If someone has had a long and difficult passing, they may need to spend time recuperating in a 'spirit' hospital or place of rest.

Another factor is the character of the person. They may not have much that they want to say to those they have left behind - after all there is little they can do to change what is happening to their 'earth family'. Some people are just not good at communicating, whether in spirit or on earth.

They may not find it easy to communicate and need to wait for a medium that they can work with. This could take some time. You will often find that a particular medium will bring through certain loved ones, every time they visit a church.

Rarely, the spirit person may decide to take on another earthly life, and re-incarnate almost immediately.

There have been incidences of spirit beings communicating after seventy years, so you may need to be patient!

In the past we have held an 'Adventures with Spirit' event, which was very popular. From this, we discovered that there are many people wishing to learn how to work with the spirit world . If you would like to learn how to communicate with spirit, please visit our centre and join our development circle.

Meanwhile, here are a few exercises you can do, at home or with a friend, to develop your sensitivity to unseen forces.

1. Sit quietly, quieten your mind and imagine you are talking to a spirit person. After a while, write down any conversations or observations you may have had. Do this on a regular basis and see how you progress.
2. Ask a friend to let you hold something that belonged to one of their loved ones. Concentrate on the object and 'feel' the energy. Tell your friend what you picked up.
3. Ask a friend to put a photo (that you haven't seen before) of a loved one in an envelope and scan it with your hand. See what information you pick up.

Don't forget, if you're curious about spirit communication, get in touch and we will try to help you.

Every spiritualist church has something different to offer. Unlike other religions, where there is a resident priest or religious leader, our churches have a different medium each week, who will work differently with spirit communication and usually offer a wide variety of interesting talks on spiritualist philosophy.

We find that every service we hold offers something to everyone who attends, even if you don't get a message from a loved one. It may be something that is said in the meditation, reading, philosophy or even the songs, there is always something to make you think.

The main thing about our meetings is that they are never predictable - every service is different. We don't use bibles or prayer books - everything comes from the heart and the spirit world have a knack of inspiring us through the words spoken in spiritual gatherings.

There is a branch of spiritualists who are Christian and worship Jesus, but most of us are non denominational and we don't use the Bible or Christian prayers during our services. Most of our services are inspiratational, that is, the medium addresses people from his or her heart, rather than refer to a prayer book or the Bible.

We also don't worship Jesus as 'the Son of God' as we believe that although Jesus was a great man, we are all part of the Divine Source and are therefore all sons and daughters of God (however we see him/her). There have been many great prophets in the past and we consider Jesus to be one of them. We don't imagine God to be sitting on a throne in heaven, either. Nor do we fear him as one who will punish us for our sins. We are responsible for our own actions and must face the consequences, either during our earthly life or when we return to our spirit families and realise what we have done.