Derek talking about Halloween and his own view on spiritual development.

Halloween is here again and I wonder if some of you have forgotten where it came from, it is a time I remember my own family culture and I celebrate the fact that we live on, and our love ones sometimes choose this time to come back and see us, that is why according to some we dress up as to scare away the bad spirits.

I have some wonderful memories of Halloween of going out and telling stories or having to sing for treats, the warm fire places and much more and with all this stuff going on with the mad clowns on TV news. I though it be good to remind everyone about the true meaning of Halloween and what its meant to myself, as is its a time I celebrate this wonderful gift I have to help others with a message from loved ones in a healing sense, where I am  privileged to act as the medium or the go between, I strongly believe we all can connect and I have some amazing examples and experiences some of which are in this blog. I love doing and going to events at this time, and it should be about fun and celebration that we are always loved and never alone.

What is Halloween all about?

Info from History Chanel

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

Derek after a show in Slains Castle theme bar in Aberdeen

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

One of my first strong Mediumship phone reading.

I have had so many wonderful experiences both giving and receiving readings and it always take you by surprise.

The first really moving one I gave was when doing the psychic phone lines when unemployed in 2007 for a short period, I had a call from a woman who was 49 in love with a younger man etc you know the sort of call I was having mostly based on what she would love to do to that young man not the sort of thing I really wanted to hear, but during that call I heard a big bang in my kitchen sink, went thought to see what happen and there was nothing out of place, strange I thought.

I finished of that call and had a think to myself do I want to do this sort of stuff listening to older women’s sexual issues etc you can imagine what was on my mind, but I was unemployed and needed the money, but just as I was going to sign off, the phone went I took the call hoping it was not another Horney women again.

This time the voice was female but sounded sad, I picked up a very young girl in sprit and told the women I had a young girl here, That’s Katie she said, I told her not to tell me anymore, I then felt myself choking and seen a grape in my mind. She confirmed this, as her daughter died at the age of two after she gave her a grape which got stuck in her throat. (Very sad this) I asked her if Katie climbed up into her sink and played in the sink in her kitchen, after that experience earlier where I heard a bang in my kitchen, she confirmed that she loved playing in the sink and would always be making noises, there were lots of other validations, but what got me was the message.

Katie had two brothers and her Mother was now pregnant again, her Dad was in the Gulf with the armed forces. Her Mother was so grief stricken as she gave her the grape that made her choke and felt so guilty that she was very depressed and not spending quality time with her brothers or Dad.

Derek Live on Air

Katie told her though me that it was not her fault, and that her brothers needed their Mum back, she was ok as she was with her Nan, I could feel the grief lift from her Mother. There was a lot more which is personal and also very moving.

To me that made it all worth while that day and also taught me how important the messages from sprit are. Yes I was on the psychic phone lines and I know that there is bad press about these lines but there are genuine psychics and mediums who work on these lines who just want to help.

Wasn't long after that I ended up on TV working with the Psychic today team on sky Chanel 886 and have appeared in the studios, but remember the law has changed and we are now very restricted by what we can do live on air and that is why just now I am very careful about doing facebook live readings.

Thinking about all those that have lost a loved one and are still grieving, being a medium and a sensitive soul I feel your pain, but I also have the privilege to feel the love and that love never dies. Keep sending love today

Finding your  own Spiritual way.

Finding your own way; if anyone had said to me 15 to 20 years ago that I would be doing what I am today I would have said there off their head. Looking back now I had always had gifts but had not realised, very often what stares us in the face we don’t notice, like a smell that is around and we cant figure out why, a certain tobacco smell then you realise that it was your granddad’s pipe tobacco and you think to yourself how can that be? He’s dead

Even this time last year I was drawn to two roses, at a certain time and something told me to take a photo of them.Then a client phoned and asked me if I would do a mediumship reading for her when I got home to Fort William and guess what,  her late husband loved roses and I should her the pictures and it brought a tear to her eyes. So keep your eyes open and you never know you may be a similar experience

Wild flowers remind us that beautiful things can happen even in hard to grow areas, all they need is a little light and love.

Spread some light and love today to those in your life going though the darkest challenges life can bring us at times. When we send it unconditionally with love, they then can see it's possible to recover and flower again!

You have a major problem and can’t think of a way out of it, and then suddenly you get a thought from nowhere with the answer. I have found that most of the friends I have who are developing, have went though some really bad times and had to find that inner strength or self belief from somewhere.

One thing I have learnt you have to find yourself first and understand how you feel about yourself. It’s no use helping others and taking on their problems if you feel unhappy, sad, miserable, frustrated or crazy. You’re just adding to your own problems.

That is why we can empathise with many of our clients as we have been though similar experiences. 

What a great feeling it is to help them, help themselves by sharing our experiences, which I think is the best gift to give, and tell you what it costs £0000. The more advanced we get in our mediumship; we can pass on some great learning’s and advice from our loved ones who have passed over plus some great information from the spirit world in general.

Yes we have sometimes to pay for readings from the more advanced mediums but in today’s world how many chat/advice lines do we phone that cost £0.45-£1.50 per min? lots and that’s not the psychic ones, Sprit is always there they don’t have answering machines and days off, there with us 24/7 (that doesn’t mean they watch us in the toilet or in bed etc. I have had some strange questions from clients about that lol)

Its very worthwhile investing your time and a little money in developing your skills, and it’s ok to take a donation or charge for your time when you give a reading, use your judgement. I have given more free readings than paid ones but what I got back in return money could not buy (love)

If I had not been though hard times of loss when I was young working offshore with events like the Piper Alpha, loss of a brother to suicide and so on…. I could in some ways not do what I do, so yes I agree we need to learn, but it is also right to have fun and not feel guilty about it. Halloween gives us an opportunity to do that.

Piper Alpha

We work hard for the times we can spend lots on ourselves and family, we must learn to receive as well as give. I spent so many years running after folk fighting their battles for them I forgot about me, Ended up in hospital with a slipped disk with a choice have an operation or you will be in a wheel chair for life. I had to sit for 10 days and not move, but boy did that not change my life, and in some ways, the life of others as I took action then to turn it around as we do live in the now, not the past life or in the future. I live for the moment and enjoy it as much as I can good bad or indifferent. I think we should ask for stuff for ourselves and take a break from our lessons and just live for the moment.

Enjoy sailing through your day, be guided by that divine light inside you, give all your troubles to the angels and just breathe and relax today, allow yourself space to think and just be in the moment, find that peace inside and realise you are calm and will overcome your challenges in time but for now I am at peace and feeling that divine love and light!

I discovered that some of my late highland relations also had signs of psychic abilities and that Scotland has a history of mysticism . My great Gran Mary MacKenzie was said to have shown signs of psychic abilities the MacKenzie Clan are linked to the Famous Brahan Seer more info can be found on the Clan wed site www.clan-mackenzie.org.uk

more info cant be got from story a written about this in Chat its fate.

Down load here

I am not tied to any faith . I do however believe in life after death and the holy spirit I was brought up within the Church of Scotland and continue to attend services in that church I do attend services in other churches.

Being Spiritual does not tie you to a church or a belief it is a way of life.I discovered that some of my late highland relations also had signs of psychic abilities and that Scotland has a history of mysticism . My great Gran Mary MacKenzie was said to have shown signs of psychic abilities the MacKenzie Clan are linked to the Famous Brahan Seer more info can be found on the Clan wed site www.clan-mackenzie.org.uk

Remember today is a gift that’s why we call it the present I moved back to a small town Fort William after years of living in a big city of Aberdeen plenty to do lots of like mined folk, jobs etc now I wake up to quiet roads, beautiful scenery and fresh air.

The locals are here some of them are sad and depressed they don’t know what they have. We seem to forget about living a happy life and worry about the material stuff, when we lose that, we grow spiritually and long may it continue. By the way it’s ok to get angry and frustrated now and again it motivates us to take action, some sheep need their Sheppard and that’s what we are at times.

I have some amazing experiences and I will share some of them here just now.

People have been asking about the Photo on my Facebook and my web site, from March 30^th 2012, of me and a hazy image of a dog, there is also a faint image of head and shoulders on the left of the lady in front of me. I never thought when the photo was taken that I would be so amazed, I uploaded the photo straight from my iphone, so folk wouldn’t think I had made it up, that week I had been asking for evidence from the spirit world if what I was feeling and seeing in my mind was true, not that I was questioning it, but I had just started doing more live demonstrations and always get nervous before hand, as I still do now because we have no idea what’s going to happen. So this did give me a lot of confidence to carry on doing demonstrations.

The night the photo was taken, was the first time I’d been to one of Dereks’ shows, although I had seen him for a private reading previously. I had been impressed with his reading for me, and had decided to go to the show to see how it all worked with a crowd. As the evening progressed, I felt very emotional, and was feeling slightly nervous. I don’t know why, as I wasn’t involved in any way. Near the end, Derek said he had a message for me, but it didn’t seem relevant at the time. I had been getting “visions”, and “smells” all night, of things I couldn’t make head nor tail of . Then he hit on the dogs theme….German Shepherds, to be precise! I had a lot of involvement with my sisters’ dogs, over the years. She had German Shepherds since her late teens, and I had looked after them a lot when she was away etc. I had also been the person who buried a couple of them when they died. I laughed to myself about it, and thought no more.

At the end, when I was leaving, I watched a couple of people who I didn’t know, take photos of Derek, standing in front of the seating area. I was drawn to the scene…although there was nothing to see. I eventually left, but found myself hanging back for some reason. I think I was one of the last to leave. I felt a bit sad as I went down the stairs…a feeling I quite often get if I am near the scene of a fatal accident, or if I go back to places I once associate with family and friends who are no longer with me. I threw it of, and went home.

The next day, I still had a feeling of “sadness” about me. I just couldn’t seem to throw it off. A few hours later, I came across a photo on Facebook, one of the audience had taken the night before. Derek was standing looking towards the camera, with a hand out stretched by his side. Looking up towards his hand was a hazy image of what looked to me like a LARGE DOG! I couldn’t believe it. Was this the dog who was communicating with me? The possibilities are endless. I haven’t been able to see Derek in person since, but when I do, I hope for a similar experience. I have worked on my own spiritual development since, but have not reached the level I need to act on my “visions” and feelings I get. I would love to work with Derek, for a while, and further develop my capabilities.

Kenny Gray

This was my second time going to Derek’s show, Derek and I became friends  at his show there was a guy who Derek, had been drawn to and gave him some validations and messages from departed friends, then as he pulled away Derek said he felt two dogs “German Sheppard’s.” And if it meant anything to him, he said it did, after that Derek closed the show but Derek said to me that he did not have a photo for his profile/Facebook etc, so I took his phone and I took a few pictures for Derek. We did not think anything of it, then we went for a few drinks back at the hotel chatting away we both had a look at the photo and couldn’t believe what we were seeing in the photo the picture of the dog. We posted it on Facebook and Kenny commented on it saying it was the dogs. Amazing eh!

Nicola Gemmell .


Wasn't long after that I did a show in Aberdeen's Holburn Bar upstairs and this photo was taken. and you can see a lady and other faith images of orbs etc.

Have a great Halloween.



I am running courses in November see my web for details
www.ahappymedium.co.uk