Ian Doherty was born on 3rd December 1962, in Llay near Wrexham North Wales and is currently residing in Sleaford Lincolnshire where he works as a full time Spiritualist Medium.

 

It can be quite difficult at times to recount a little of oneself, without the ego coming to the fore or to embellish the truth.   I was seeing spirit at an early age, though to be honest, I chose to hide, gathering the blankets over my head and around my eyes, “if I can’t see them, then they’re not there.” I must admit to having had an intense fear of the dark, even at the age of twelve my mother would take me to bed, the bedroom ablaze with light, the door open onto a floodlight landing.  

Many times whilst walking around the village I called my home, I would stop, panic rising in my stomach, I could walk no further, such was the intensity of feeling ahead of me, yet nothing there to be seen. Imagine my dilemma, as a paper boy, walking down the pathway to the door, it seemed ever so long, whilst having to fight my urge to run, as  I thought to myself, “what if I that women is there again” of course they always were, an imprint on time, a ghost. I very rarely spoke of these feelings to anyone, after all was it only in my head?    Going through school was an uphill struggle for me, being amongst the smallest in the school, compounded with a marked stutter, a prime candidate for ridicule. I can look back on those years, not with fondness, but with an understanding that those years helped sculpt me into the man I am today. 

As a shy young man of 18, the armed forces was a daunting prospect, yet the urge to explore was everything, to see the world. I made a lot of friends, something I had always found hard to do, the bond of camaraderie was strong, my shyness was being replaced with a humour only those in the forces can understand, as people from like backgrounds come together. These early years offered a respite for me, for I was no longer seeing or sensing anything around, it must have been in my head after all, a sigh of relief. This was not to last long however, for the feelings were to emerge with a vengeance some 10 years later. The feelings were back, with an intensity, some times so strong and overpowering that I literally had to run out of the room, I needed answers to the many questions being raised within my mind, to push back the fabric, to see what lay beneath.  

I talked to my mother on the feelings I was having, of having been terribly afraid of the dark. I sat and listened in amazement as my mother recounted the many times she had been awoken from sounds downstairs, and on coming into the front room and finding myself reading a book illuminated by light through the windows. I was the grand old age of six, and taking into account that it would take me another five years to aspire to the lofty heights of four feet eleven, the light switches on the wall were then, beyond my reach. This caused a fair amount of intrigue with myself, sleep walking was ruled out as a possible cause, my mother being able to rationalise with me, as such this was probably the most important turning point in regards to my development into the medium I am today. I have always enjoyed reading, my thoughts now turned away from thrillers and horror stories, and into the fascinating world portrayed by Raymond A Moody, D Scott Rogo, and Dr Melvin Morse. There were many accounts of an afterlife, many stories recounting details of how family members returned to communicate with their loved ones, of people being visited by their friends and family alike as they too were about to take their transition into the world of spirit; this not only brought me a peace of mind, it fuelled further my thirst for knowledge. 

A little time later, and with a beating heart, I entered through the doors of my local Spiritualist church. There was so much joy, such a welcome, I felt a wholeness within, not only did this feel right, it filled my heart with wonder, I had indeed come home.    My first forays into the development circle brought with it an awakening within, I was beginning to understand what had been occurring around me for so many years, the mantle of fear which had enshrouded me for so long as a child had been cast aside, no longer was I afraid of what I was seeing or feeling, it all made sense to me now.  My development was fairly quick in comparison to some, so focused was my intent to unfold my abilities, to discover how far they could go, I am learning still.

Becoming more sensitive had its own drawbacks however, peoples actions would cut more deeply, words deeper still, it was like being in school once more. This I discovered was the natural way of things, for to enhance the energies around us a higher degree of sensitivity was required. I was still in uniform during this time, and spent several months in Bosnia, I felt let down, my development was moving quickly along, so why was I sent away to some foreign land? The simple answer is again one of development, seeing the devastation, people walking around with faces of stone, the coldness of hatred ran rife, how my heart ached.  

Colour was to play an important part within my overall development, to all extents it still does. I felt an empathy with it, and could clearly see the hues of colour around people, moving back and forth, like the masses of sea weed within the ocean depths. I began to draw what I was seeing, not in the literal sense, but by way of a symbolic representation in a pictorial form, this I came to understand as a form of psychic art, even today as I sit before a sheet of blank paper, I never know what will appear within the finished drawing.  

My visual acuity increased at a fast pace, I was beginning to see people walking around the room, stopping next to someone, and then fading away before me, a realisation that this was what was occurring with me through my childhood, and my younger years. It would be another two years, and at the age of 38 that I was seeing spirit with such clarity, the wrinkled lines etched upon their faces, the buttons on their clothes, the patternation on their shoes, at times the way they stood before me could have me in fits of laughter, moved to tears, though never in sadness.

My work with colour has taken an added turn, the complexity and density of hue within the aura is leading me towards ascertaining illness through the placement and texture of the colour; along with my clairvoyant ability increasing in this area also. I am thus undertaking ongoing research in this area and hope to improve this ability over the coming years, with the hope of being able to work alongside the medical profession in the diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease.