That's the spirt (From Bournemouth Echo)

That's the spirt

7:00pm Sunday 25th November 2007

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BRITAIN has never been considered a particularly spiritual nation. But a new poll suggests that more of us believe in such things as the afterlife, guardian angels, and fate than initially thought.

In fact, the percentage of people in this country who believe it is possible to communicate with the dead, for example, is higher than the percentage who vote for political parties.

Whereas once we considered the more superstitious or spiritual members of our community as eccentric or in the minority, the findings in an Ipsos MORI poll suggest that belief in ghosts, souls, telepathy and premonition is far more mainstream.

For example, nearly half the population (47 per cent) believe in life after death, two in five believe in ghosts and a third of us believe that governments around the world are concealing evidence of extraterrestrial beings.

More than half of us touch wood to avoid bad luck, and 62 per cent of British people are convinced we have souls.

The poll also revealed that women are more likely to have a spiritual leaning. For example, 50 per cent of females believe in guardian angels, compared with 25 per cent of men.

Richard Lawrence, bestselling author and psychic, explained: "The fact that women are generally more in touch with their feelings than men makes them more sensitive to spirituality.

Richard is also the executive secretary of The Aetherius Society, an organisation dedicated to the spiritualisation of modern culture. He told the Echo: "The real reason why so many people - men and women - believe in these things is that they are true.

"However much people try to secularise the modern world, so many people have experienced the paranormal that it has almost become normal."

Such experiences include feeling the presence of a loved one, or even a gut feeling about something. He says it isn't just mediums and psychics who can tune in to a higher spiritual plane.

People including Mae West, Joan of Arc and the Greek philosopher Socrates are all said to have had contact with spirits.

Even Winston Churchill said he had spoken to his dead father - about issues such as politics.

From his early years, British poet and painter William Blake experienced visions of angels who, it is claimed, dictated the famous work Jerusalem to him.

Richard continued: "And the dead composer Schubert appeared to Schumann and gave him a melody!

"But there are millions of stories from everyday people who have experienced something they can't explain. Such as the paratrooper who heard a voice before he jumped out of an aircraft saying: Check your parachute.' "Sure enough, it hadn't been folded properly and he would have died if it hadn't been checked.

"But what was the voice?" asked Richard. "Was it a guardian angel - or something from his own subconscious?"

Trying to answer these and other questions, Richard has been touring the country talking to members of the public about his own experiences, and revealing the unknown influence of mediumship on modern civilisation.

A former Observer columnist, Richard recently featured as a guest expert on ITV's This Morning and was due to speak at Bournemouth's Positive Living Group at St Ambrose Church Hall in Westbourne on Monday, November 26.

"Mainstream religion may be on the decline," he said, "but our innate spiritual needs still have to be met. Belief hasn't gone away, it is just being expressed in different ways."

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