Blast

Let’s start by getting something straightened out. There’s the physical world in which we live, the ‘other side’, in which spirits reside and then there’s Cumbria – certainly a world of its own, wouldn’t you agree? Or so I thought on Friday 5th September, as did Colin Fry, starting our thirty minute-long phone conversation with, “we’re not far off Carlisle, oh the rain.” Welcome to our world!

The 44-year-old is a world-famous spiritualist medium and I caught up with him for a chat before he was due to give Carlisle the creeps, in one of the highly acclaimed shows of his international tour.

He’s been practicing spiritualism for over 30 years but only became a professional medium 11 years ago after leaving a job in sales. Colin was catapulted to fame and became a household name after a successful run of TV shows, notably, Sixth Sense with Colin Fry, on Living TV. He’s also worked with many other successful TV spiritualists such as Most Haunted’s Derek Acorah and Tony Stockwell.

The other side

A medium can communicate to the other side using one of or a combination of the following techniques. Clairvoyance, this is the ability to see the messages, clairaudience, the ability to hear messages or clairsentience, which is the ability to read messages through a heightened strength in smell, touch and emotions.

“Most mediums use a combination of the three but I mostly use clairsentience. I see the thoughts through emotions,” says Colin.

Colin Fry

“Some people have got a little bit in them, but some don’t. People should follow their path. Someone has to do it and I did often ask why me? But I just accept it now, it’s a gift.”

Colin first realised he has the gift to communicate with the dead when he was around 11 years old.

“It was when I was due to start secondary school, I was walking home when an ambulance rushed past me and I heard a voice. It was my granddad’s voice who’d been dead for a number of years telling me that the ambulance was going to my house because my mum had had an accident. I got home and it was, my mother had fallen down the stairs. This was the first time I realised I’d heard a voice clearly,” he recalls.

One of the most covert aspects of spiritualism that constantly faces criticism is the way the mediums receive their messages.

“I use senses and emotions. Every time a communication takes place I deal with different personalities, it’s just like how we communicate but on a higher and more elevated level. It’s about availability, adaptability and how they convey to me. It’s just what I can sense. Sometimes it’s like trying to pick out one voice from a stadium full of football fans,” explains Fry.

Television

Colin’s TV show, Sixth Sense with Colin Fry is an international hit. He communicates with the dead to pass messages onto the studio audience, and more often than not Colin communicates with spirits that seem to be there with him, stood next to him, as normal as me standing next to you. This leads to me asking whether he actually sees the spirits.

“Yes, quite clearly,” he answers.
In an early show of the tour Colin described a particular dress in great detail. The dress belonged to the deceased wife of a man in the audience. The audience member was astonished at how much detail Colin was going into because this dress was the one the man had laid his wife to rest in.

“He asked me how I knew this. I replied, because she’s stood on the stage showing me it,” he tells me.

However, Colin isn’t alone when he performs. He has the help of his spirit guide, Magnus.

“He’s my organiser. Sometimes you get a number of voices trying to get through at one time, Magnus will organise them. Most mediums will have a guide, someone from the spirit world, who by choice or designation is there to mentor us,” he says.

Surprisingly, Colin turned down an offer in television 3 times before he finally accepted to make Sixth Sense. He seems incredibly modest about why he chose this path.

“I work for the people that need it. There was just a series of events in my life that lead me to do this.”

Despite his famed television show and incredible success across the waters, Colin still finds himself in the midst of criticism. This is nothing new to him, nor is it for many of the people who follow Colin’s path. When discussing how he takes it, he’s just as critical of them, as they are of him.

“I’m a national medium, of course people will throw stones, but if you don’t want to be seen then don’t put your head above the wall. Say what they will, I’m still standing. There’s one particular reporter who just doesn’t like my genre, he declines to personal insults and unjust criticism. I’m open to constructive criticism, just not snide miss truths,” he says.

Sceptics

Sometimes though, the toughest sceptics can turn into his biggest spectators. Colin remembers a particular audience member in New Zealand, who got a little more than he bargained for.

“In my audience there’s what I call drags along - the people who are there with their wives or partners. Then there are the people who come along just to be sure. They are the kind that don’t like football, but have been to a match just to make sure they don’t like it,” he explains.

“The particular man in New Zealand said he didn’t want to come, but his father connected. He said to me, “I’m now angry, because I have to go away and re-think”.”

Re-thinking is exactly what I’ve done since talking to Colin, I do believe that there’s something there, but I’m not one to commit to something without seeing it. I would definitely fall into the ‘come along just to be sure’ category of his audience.

On that note, I ask about the obvious…

“I don’t have much time for religion, I have a personal acceptance with God. Religion is too concerned with internal politics now,” he says.

As our conversation drew to a close, I got sidetracked. I wanted to delve into the unseen, ‘scary’ aspect of his career. I’m sure he doesn’t find it frightening but talking to the dead would certainly give me a few goosebumps.

“I try not to play up to entertainment. The media’s fascinated with bad news and just as in this life I will encounter good and bad spirits. Chairs have flown at me and once I had a knife thrown at me, spinning through the air. But I don’t play up to it, it gives them power just like in this life and makes it seem the norm, which it isn’t,” he explains.

What about me?

I ended the chat on something you could call a cliché. Which hurts to admit, but I imagine every journalist would have asked him the same thing, (I was acting quite the smarty pants here), ‘So Colin, what can you tell me about me?’ I gave a light-hearted chuckle and waited for a reply.

“I don’t give readings over the phone, a medium in America once gave a reading over the phone and the recipient misunderstood the message, then went and took her own life,” he replies, in a much more serious tone than I expected.

“I take full responsibility for my messages and give people the chance to speak to me face to face about them afterwards. But I do think you’re going to have a really nice afternoon on this dreary day,” he ends.

How nice. I’m much more open about the idea of spiritualism after our chat, but there’s still something lingering that I can’t quite put my finger on, it’s not a spirit, hopefully, although the lights did just flicker.

After all, seeing is believing, right?