| HOME Back to media Extract from The Psychic Voice: October 2006 When author Jacky Newcomb started having a bizarre series of dreams as a child she didn't realise that it would spur a whole new career. Voices from the other side bring spiritual knowledge and even saved a family members life. 'Right from when I was a small child I would wake up and see people in my room. Although I never thought WOW I'm psychic, to be honest the whole thing kind of freaked me out. We used to call them 'Jacky's nightmares' because we had no other reference of understanding. Later I realised that I was seeing spirit but it didn't make the experiences any easier. As an adult I remember once waking up to a whole crowd of people in my room and another night an elderly gentleman leaning right over me whilst I lay in bed. He seemed to be peering at me and holding his glasses at length as if they were a magnifying glass. It makes me shudder to think he was examining me somehow. Another night two children appeared in my room. I remember them clearly because this was the first time I had seen spirits in colour. They seemed more solid than I had seen energies before and were wearing traditional Dutch dress. I could even hear them giggling! An old school friend had a great interest in esoteric things and told me that they would probably go away if I asked them to so I tried it later that night. I was stunned when the visits stopped and then typically I missed them terribly. I began reading a lot about the paranormal and once I began to understand some of the phenomenon that had been happening to me, much of the fear just seemed to disappear. I understood that once I had a little control over the experiences they could even be fun! Much later I had the first of a series of dream experiences which were to change the course of my life. An old school friend, who had died of cancer as a young man, came to me in a dream. I realise now that it was a 'classic' spirit visitation experience. What I now call Spontaneous Afterlife Communication (SAC). We were in a bare room, empty except for two chairs. I knew immediately that he was 'dead' and rushed over to throw my arms around him. We chatted for ages about what it was like on the 'other side' and he seemed happy and looked well. In classic dream visitation experience I completely forgot all the afterlife knowledge he shared with me at that time (although I believe that much of it had filtered down into my unconscious waiting to be awakened later). I often wonder if the reason I have this 'understanding' of the other side is because of his, and other spirit visitations I have had since. When it was time for him to go, I asked if I could pass on messages to his family (I assumed that this was why he had come to me), but the answer was no. He had come, he explained, because he could. The dream visitation, if you are lucky enough to have one, is more real than any other dream you will have. The details are clear and you nearly always know that the person who is visiting you is 'dead'. They visit for many reasons, but mostly to reassure us. Jacky believes that friends and relatives mainly visit those left on the earth plain to let those left behind know that they have made it safely to the other side. 'Loosing a loved one has to be the hardest thing we go through. Even if you believe in an afterlife, grief has to be processed in the normal manner. There are no real short cuts to loss. Sometimes though we become so paralysed in grief that we cannot move on in any way and this is what seems to prompt a contact from the other side. Although they come at other times too. Even though people share stories with me from all over the world, many are very similar. They tell us 'Don't worry about me, I'm fine'; 'I arrived safely and I'm with people I know'; 'I love you and one day we will be together again.' Listening to other people's afterlife communication experiences has helped my own understanding too. Jacky also has regular visits from an Uncle who died many years ago. 'My Uncle Eric is a regular and often brings me spiritual knowledge. Eric was a bit of a trickster in life and is still humorous now he has passed. I remember asking him what he did all day in his heavenly realms and he told me he just messed about! Of course I know that's not all true and he later explained how he is training to be a spirit guide and that one day we will all do the same.' Jacky feels that Eric acts as a sort of spiritual guide for her and her family. 'I have my own spirit guides of course but Uncle Eric seems to help out too. He has told me on numerous occasions that he has a different name now, his 'spirit name' but the family never remember this so we still call him Eric. His personality is much the same now as it was then. Eric always flickers lights at family occasions, usually right after we mention his name. I told my Dad once that Uncle Eric, (his brother) was in the room with us and would probably do something to prove he was around once. I immediately stood up and the smoke alarm gave a single bleep! Dad and I burst out laughing, knowing that Eric was up to his usual tricks again!' There is one occasion where Eric's message was a little more important though as Jacky recalls. 'We were on a family holiday in Spain and on the night before our last evening Eric came to visit me in a dream visitation. He warned me that Dad was not to have '�the operation' and although I did not know what he meant by the message, I shared it with my mother and husband the next morning. Later that night, Dad became seriously ill and we had to rush him into the local Spanish hospital. Great difficulties then occurred with the language barrier and we suspected that dad was experiencing a gall stone problem (which he'd suffered with before). The Spanish hospital wanted to perform an exploratory operation and alarm bells rang immediately as I remembered Eric's warning. My mother, sister and I made several telephone calls to other family back home and although it could be potentially dangerous we decided to bring dad home rather than risk the operation. Dad and other family members agreed. It was an awful flight home. We even had to sign away liability to the hospital because we were taking him home against their advice but once home in our local hospital they stabilised him really quickly. A couple of days later, the doctors performed a simple procedure. It was gall stones as we suspected and no operation was needed. Although I cannot prove it to you, I know that Eric saved his brothers life with his dream visit.' Jacky's life changed as she began to investigate these and other SAC in depth. 'I realised that there had been little written about these spontaneous afterlife communication experiences here in the UK and wanted to spread the message to people. I was by now receiving hundreds of stories of visitation experiences from people all over the world to my website. Patterns of experiences were starting to emerge and surprisingly similar accounts from many different people. I felt very strongly that I wanted to share these stories from ordinary people. Messages of hope and joy and the continuation of life are important for us to enjoy our time here on earth, without the worry of loved ones who have already moved on. I went on and wrote my book, 'An Angel Saved My Life; and other true stories of the afterlife' which become a bestseller. I was stunned and humbled. People needed the reassurance that life goes on and these many stories seemed to show this. I love what I do now. I have even taught the grief counsellors at my local hospice about the phenomenon. Whether you believe in it or not, the experiences still happen. In my experiences, when accepted as they should be, afterlife communication experiences often mark the beginning of healing after loss, and our loved ones seem unlikely to stop their contacts of reassurance. Life goes on and they are desperate to let us know directly.' Jacky Newcomb's brand new book, 'An Angel by my Side; more true stories of the afterlife' is published by HarperElement, priced �6.99 (6th November 2006). Signed copies available from www.angelladyshop.co.uk For more information about Jacky's work, or to visit her online, go to www.jackynewcomb.co.uk HOME Return to Media Page |