Can pets really contact you from beyond the grave?
Spiritual medium Gordon Smith believes he can connect with animals in the afterlife. ELIZABETH ARCHER puts it to the test
‘If you have a bond you can reach out in the spirit world’ ‘If I hadn’t had that premonition he might not have survived’
WITH my eyes closed I took a deep breath, cleared my mind and listened out for the familiar miaow of my cat. Yet as hard as I tried all I could hear was silence and the ticking of my bedroom clock.
The truth was my beloved moggy wasn’t in the room or even in the house. As crazy as it sounds I was trying to connect with her from beyond the grave.
And I’m not the only one to be pining for my old pet. We’re a nation of animal lovers and 80 per cent of British owners say they treat their pet like a member of the family.
We spend on average £18,000 on our four-legged friends in their lifetime and one in 10 says they have even bought designer clothes for their furry companion.
“Pets become part of the family, sometimes the most important part,” says Dr Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire.
“They offer unconditional love and companionship and they never grow away from us or judge us. It is no wonder that when they die we feel the loss so acutely. We also care for them and humanise them to a large degree and all of these factors leave us bereft when they die.”
So it is perhaps no surprise that the latest trend among animal lovers is to try to connect with their past pets in the spirit world.
Renowned medium Gordon Smith says he has often been able to make contact with his clients’ four-legged friends.
“You don’t expect people to come to you to get in touch with animals but quite often when I’m giving a reading I get a sense of an animal in the room,” says Gordon, 55, who lives in Argyll, Scotland.
“Because I’m used to having animals around me it feels natural when a deceased pet comes into contact. I honestly think if you have a bond of love with an animal or a person then you can reach out to them when they’re in the spirit world.”
Gordon has been interested in the paranormal since childhood after discovering he had a gift for mediumship when he was six.
At 24 Gordon began practising readings and 15 years later he became a spiritual medium.
Over the years he began to notice he often got messages from animals as well as people.
“Many times in my practice as a medium, people who had lost animals would come for a reading to get in touch with a person they’d lost and then been shocked and surprised when I mentioned their pet is there too,” he says.
“It’s almost as if I feel my own dog come and wind around my feet or sometimes I’ll just hear a woof or miaowing noise.
“When I describe that to the owner, pictures will form in my mind and often I can tell how the animal died.”
He says people are greatly comforted to know their pets have passed into the spirit world.
“I’ve met so many people whose only companion was their pet. When they lost that animal they were grief-stricken and it brings them comfort to know their furry friend is still around.”
He recalls a time that he was praying for a friend’s dog who was gravely ill.
“The dog was very dear to my friend but she was sick so some friends and I had been praying for healing.
“Sadly her canine pal died and a few weeks later I had a really vivid dream about the dog. I could clearly see her taking a wallet out of her owner’s bag and placing it by the bed.
“I couldn’t think what it meant but the next day I rang my friend and told her about the dream. She explained she’d lost her purse and had turned the house upside down looking for it – then later that day she found it by her bed. It meant the world to her to know that her dog was still nearby.”
And Gordon had a similar experience with his own dog Charlie, a springer spaniel. “I was away in Italy at the time and when I woke up one morning my stomach was in agony. I knew something was wrong and I could hear my dog Charlie whining, even though he was back home in Scotland.
“I phoned home to find out Charlie was off his food. I’m not prone to worrying but I told my partner to take him to the vet straightaway.
“Somehow I knew something was dreadfully wrong. When they took him to the vet they discovered he had a stone lodged in his stomach and he was bleeding stomach acid into his body. The vet did an emergency operation and saved his life.
“But if I hadn’t had that premonition he might not have survived.”
But how can our pets send us messages, whether they’re alive or dead?
Gordon believes the loving connection between people and animals transcends physical limitations.
“I believe a particularly powerful loving bond can stretch beyond the normal, whether it’s between two people or a person and an animal. And making contact is not just something mediums can do. If you’re a sensitive person and you have a strong love for your pet, you can connect with them too.”
I ask Gordon about my own beloved cat Smudge, who died when I was 14.
When I was a child we were inseparable, I loved her more than anything and was devastated by her death.
During our interview Gordon does a reading to see if he can get in touch with my beautiful black cat but sadly no messages came through from the spirit world.
I was disappointed but then he suggested that I could have a go on my own too.
Following Gordon’s advice I focused on my immense love for her and over the next few days I started talking to her in my head as if she was still in the house.
“If you’re here, please come and see me,” I told her.
Then one day after work I sat down on my bed and closed my eyes. I tried to clear all other thoughts from my head and focus on my cat.
I listened intently for Smudge’s miaow but after a few minutes of trying I began to lose hope. There were no noises or visions, just silence. Perhaps I am not destined to hear from my furry friend again or perhaps I just haven’t got the knack.
But I can certainly understand why so many people want to hear from their pets from beyond the grave as sometimes they love and understand us like no person can.