By Kate Jackson
Trembling with fear, ten-year-old Fae Jackson darted out of her bedroom and down the stairs to her mum.
She had just seen the wispy image of a person – who had hissed into her ear: “Can you hear me?”
It was the first of hundreds of ghost sightings that would plague the young girl and lead her to believe she may have psychic powers.
Incredibly, Fae’s younger brother, Ashley, has now started reporting similar eerie sightings – despite not knowing of Fae’s.
Mum Lynn has come to accept her kids have supernatural powers and that, just like the movie The Sixth Sense, her children can “see dead people”.
To Lynn, this is anything but a special gift – she sees it as a curse she would love to break.
The 39-year-old, from Waltham Cross, Herts, says: “It feels like someone is bullying my children and I can’t do anything about it.
“It would have been easier to deal with if they had an illness. At least I would know where to go for treatment.
“Fae has got used to it and now she enjoys having this ability – but Ashley hates it.”
Surveys in the UK show that one in five Brits have seen or felt the presence of a ghost – and that 53 per cent believe in psychic ability. The research coincides with Matt Damon’s new film, Hereafter, about a reluctant medium. Fae, now 13, and Ashley, eight, can relate to that.
Stay-at-home mum Lynn says: “The first sign was when Fae started primary school.
“She used to tell me one of her friends was purple or the teacher was red. So one day I told her, ‘No darling that boy isn’t purple’. She said, ‘Mummy I mean the colour around him’.”
Now they both believe Fae was recognising auras, the glow said to radiate around a person.
Ghostly sightings started when Fae turned ten, and appeared nearly every day. Once Fae reported her bed being shaken by a frustrated female ghost.
Another time she said she could feel the energy of an old woman against her back while showering. She even says that at times she can feel ghosts playing with her hair.
Lynn says: “How do you deal with something like that? She was terrified. I did start off thinking it might be attention-seeking, but you know your own children. She was shy and not a story teller.”
In her skinny jeans and patent Dr Martens, petite Fae today seems at ease with her powers but her huge blue eyes still betray her fear during one of the most terrifying incidents.
She says: “I had walked out of my bedroom and there was a mirror at the other end of the hall. In my reflection I saw a person’s head on my shoulder. It was red. I was so scared. But now I understand that it is my grandad and that he is my spirit guide, who is protecting me.”
Fae matter-of-factly goes on to relate how she encounters these unexpected visitors.
She says: “It’s not like seeing something solid like a chair, it’s like a glimpse of the person.
“Mostly I can sense something or feel the energy there and the picture and details come into my head. Like their name can pop into my head or how they died.
“If I close my eyes I see their picture building up. It happens so quickly. I have all this information in a couple of seconds.
“I used to be really scared, I wouldn’t like the dark and I wouldn’t like looking in the mirror in case I saw something.”
The double blow came when Ashley began to see ghosts too.
He refuses to discuss the idea that he may be psychic. Lynn says: “We had been careful to keep everything that was going on with Fae from Ashley. I didn’t want him to be frightened. Then, about a year ago, he refused to go into our conservatory and wouldn’t go to the toilet alone.
“I asked him what the matter was and he told me, ‘There’s a head following me around’.
“My blood went cold. How do you tell a seven-year-old that some people can see dead people?”
Lynn’s husband, David, 45, is clearly concerned and supportive yet, like Ashley, prefers not to discuss the issue.
But supernatural powers may run in the family. Both David’s dad and Lynn’s gran believed they saw spirits.
Lynn says: “Fae has tried to tell Ashley it’s OK and happens to her but he doesn’t believe her.
“She’s intrigued by it now but he hates it and is terrified.”
Through talking to other mediums, Fae has learned to cope with the sightings but Ashley is very much in denial. Instead, a friend who does distant healing – called Theta Healing – has focused on Ashley, asking that he doesn’t see anything frightening. Lynn believes this has reduced the sightings but says he still has what he calls “bad thoughts”.
Fae, who has learned to channel her ability into learning Reiki healing, says: “I can close down my chakras – points in the body from the head to the feet.
“You do it by thinking of those points as lightbulbs and you shut them off so you are closed to the spirits. I can also ask them to go away and I can imagine a white light around me to protect myself.
“When it first started I was seeing spirits every day but now it isn’t as often.”
Fae adds: “I have only told one friend at school, she was fine about it and accepts it.
“But I wouldn’t tell anyone else because I think they would tease me. I would be the witch girl.”
Lynn and Fae plan to write a book together on their experiences. They have also launched Facebook group Children With Spirit.
Lynn says: “One of my issues is that there’s no real help out there for people like us.
“Talking to other psychic children has really helped Fae, so hopefully it can help others too.”
Names have been changed.
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