Voice of peace HOW KELVIN’S RAISING SPIRITS
THE KIWI MEDIUM IS TAKING HIS SENSES TO HOLLYWOOD
Kelvin Cruickshank has dealt with some harrowing situations in his 20-plus years as a professional medium. When he worked on TV show Sensing Murder, he did readings that included seeing terrible deaths, and he’s also been involved in some private cases that have left him shaken.
But nothing compares to some of the cases he has been consulting on as part of his work on a US TV series called Voices from the Grave.
“I’ve seen a lot in my time but never anything like this,” explains Kelvin (49), who says that when he connects with the spirits of dead people, they often show him how they died and in some instances he feels like he experiences what they went through. “Horrific is the word that comes to mind.”
Kelvin has been travelling to Los Angeles regularly for the last five years to film the show. He’s one of three mediums working alongside homicide detectives, paranormal investigators, forensic specialists and cadaver dogs looking into murder cases, some of which are notorious and remain unsolved.
“It started out as a programme about haunted houses in Hollywood, which seemed pretty straightforward,” tells Kelvin. “But it turned into so much more than we were expecting. We’ve uncovered some very dark stuff that has gone on in the past, and is still going on. I’ve had some of the scariest experiences of my life and come across pure evil. It has been mind-blowing.”
Because the programme is yet to screen – there’s still more filming to be done – Kelvin can’t go into specifics about most of the cases he has worked on. But he has revealed in his latest book, Listen to Spirit, that he had a terrifying encounter with the spirit of infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker. Ramirez was convicted of killing 14 people in the mid-1980s, and Kelvin connected with his spirit while filming at an apartment building where the murderer had lived while committing some of his heinous crimes.
“When I do normal readings and spirit come through to me, I connect with their soul and will sometimes see what they looked like on this side of life, so I can describe them to their loved ones. In this case, what I was seeing wasn’t even human. It was absolutely petrifying.”
While filming another segment of Voices from the Grave, Kelvin passed out while channelling a murder victim, and briefly stopped breathing. And when he returned home after a stint filming in LA, he says he became aware of a presence in his car, which turned out to be the spirit of another well-known serial killer.
“Luckily, I have protections in place and I got rid of him pretty quickly,” he exclaims.
While his work is often intense and frightening, it is also rewarding, he says.
“We have been able to help spirit who are trapped and unable to cross into the light, so doing that has been really satisfying. And there have been outcomes to ongoing situations thanks to the investigations the team has carried out, which has made us all feel good.
“Normally, I don’t like to be involved in situations that are really dark because it is the complete opposite of what I am about, which is love and peace. But there are times when spirit want me to be involved because I am able to help, thanks to what I can do, so I do as I am told.
“And what has been really special about working on the show is the team involved. We have all become really close, and we always have each other’s backs.”
The Voices from the Grave
unit includes former homicide detective and forensic specialist Karen Smith and director Alisa Statman, who has worked on shows including Ally McBeal
and Modern Family.
In Listen to Spirit, Karen says coming from a scientific and investigative background, she’s had to accept that mediums like Kelvin can provide evidence that can help in solving cases by getting information from
“the other side”.
“I have seen what Kelvin is able to do and the information he gets, and there is only one place it is coming from.
“As a scientist, I can say there’s 95% of the universe that we don’t understand. But just because we don’t have the science to back up what’s there, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It just means we don’t get it.”
Alisa, known as Lisa, has had an interest in the paranormal since a medium did a reading with her late partner Patti Tate, and passed on information she could not have known without talking to Patti in spirit. Lisa tracked down Kelvin to work on her show after seeing Sensing Murder online and says he has been a crucial part of the Voices from the Grave team.
“One of Kelvin’s special skills is to handle the negative stuff. I think that is down to his experience and everything he has been through in his life, coupled with his belief system.”
Lisa says Kelvin constantly surprises her. She recounts that during filming at a house in an upmarket area of LA that had been the scene of a murder,
Kelvin not only connected with the victim, who’d been killed by her husband, but another woman in spirit he described as “a gorgeous blonde”. The second woman appeared to be observing what was going on but was not connected to the death.
At the time, Lisa couldn’t work out who the woman was, but the mystery was solved the next day when Kelvin visited Lisa’s home, which used to belong to the family of her partner Patti. He pointed to a framed photo of Patti’s sister and said, “That’s the woman who was there yesterday, watching.”
That woman was Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, murdered by the Manson Family in 1969.
Lisa says she has no idea why Sharon’s spirit showed up at that house. But when she watched the footage shot that day, there were clearly times when Kelvin was talking to someone other than the dead wife, “and to me, from what he said, it is clearly Sharon”.
Kelvin also says he has no idea why some spirits show up out of the blue, but he just
“goes with the flow”. He writes in the book about how he did that a year ago when the spirit of an elderly Maˉori man showed up in his bedroom one night, and he then had a vision of the kaumaˉtua lying in a steep tree-lined gully. He didn’t know who the man was, but found out a couple of days later when he was contacted by a relative of missing Maketu man John Mohi.
Kelvin was able to pass on more information about where he thought John was. Twenty minutes after the family gave those details to the police, a search team found his body.
“I hoped they would find him, but even I was astounded how quickly it happened,” Kelvin says.
The discovery of John’s body came almost a year to the day after information Kelvin passed on to the family of missing Hamilton man Raymond Stirling led to the discovery of his body, also in a gully. Coincidentally, both men, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, had wandered off and fallen down steep banks.
“As far as I am aware, this is the first time a New Zealand medium has been able to help locate the bodies of not just one, but two missing people,” says Kelvin. “I am just so glad I could help those families get their loved ones back.”
He still helps out families of missing people where he can, although he says he’s had warnings from spirits in a couple of cases to stay away for his own safety. “In some cases, spirit just won’t let me go there, so I don’t get anything.”
The coronavirus lockdown means he’s had to cancel shows around the country, along with a tour to promote Listen to Spirit. Work has also had to stop on his own fishing show, TradeZone Addicted to Fishing.
“I’m gutted about that,” he admits. “Presenting a show about fishing, which is one of my all-time favourite things to do, is a dream come true, but it can’t be helped.”
In the meantime, if the dad-of-two is able to help from his Bay of Islands home, where he’s holed up with his family, he’s happy to do what he can.
“Spirit let me know what
I am meant to be doing, and
I’m cool with that,” he says. “That’s what I am here for.”
‘I’ve seen a lot in my time, but never anything like this. It’s been mind-blowing’