THE BROAD MATE
By Kevin Collins

     In the spring of 2010, I moved home to a little village in County Durham. I remember when I first visited thinking what a very warm and homey feel the house had which was one of the reasons, out of several houses I'd viewed, that I chose to lease this house. Getting a feel for a place, I think, is one of the first things we do instinctively before we every buy or rent any property.
     At first, all was fine as I slowly unpacked and got properly settled in. It was around early summer when I first started to notice that little things had started to happen around the house that I just could not explain. I was very busy at work and had a lot going on in my life at that time, so when the noises started and things began being moved in the house, I put the noises down to the age of the house and assumed I had moved things and forgotten.
     A friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in going to the local Spiritualist Church as she had heard there would be a good medium working that night. Having never been to a Spiritualist Church before, and at that time being a total non-believer, this was a big step for me as my views on religion were totally scientific. I went along with an open mind and listened intently to what the medium was saying to the people he came to. I was hoping that he would come to me so I could see for myself if he could bring forward someone I loved to convince me that there was something to this. He did not come to me, but what he was saying to others truly fascinated me and captured my imagination. I started to attend the church regularly and, being so fascinated, I started a development class to find out for myself from my own experiences. This was probably when all the activity in the house started.
     Just before August in the summer of 2010, I experienced one of the most frightening events that has ever happened to me. I was fast asleep in bed when I was awakened by a heavy pressure on top of me. I opened my eyes to see a man bearing down on me as I struggled to get his weight off of me. I knew instinctively that it was not of this realm. "Why," I shouted, "Be gone!" One minute I was eye to eye, then the body slowly ascended into the ceiling and was gone. Before my brain had time to compute what had happened, my bed began to vibrate. Over and over in my head I just kept repeating, "This is not happening. It's just your imagination," hoping that I would wake up and that it was all just a bad dream. The bed continued to vibrate. At this point, I had no doubt that I was fully awake and fear and panic had fully set in. I felt like the bed had been vibrating for an age but, in reality, it had only been several minutes. It took awhile for me to feel safe enough to settle down from the experience and get some sleep, yet still wondering, "Was that real or was it just a very vivid dream?" Thankfully, for me, nothing else happened that night.
     The next day, I phoned a friend of mine from the church and told them about my experience. Unsure myself whether I had been having a very vivid dream or had been visited by a spirit, I accepted their explanation that it was most likely that I'd had an out-of-body experience. They thought when I woke so suddenly, I saw myself re-entering my body and the energy from that would have shaken the bed. My friend was convinced he knew what had happened to me, but did say, "Well, if it was spirit, you should never tell them to go away. They obviously want to get a message to someone. You should have asked what they were there for." Although I accepted the explanation, I was still not totally convinced as it didn't fully explain what had happened to me.
     The following night, again I awoke to the bed vibrating and, this time, it vibrated for too long for me to have been dreaming. I knew I was fully awake. All I can say is that I was so frightened that I was rigid in my bed, praying for it to stop. As I had been going to the Spiritualist Church for awhile and was in development, I instantly put protection around myself hoping, in some way, that this would protect me. In my frightened state, I remembered what my friend had said, so began asking in my head who the spirit was and what did it want to tell me. I repeated this several times, but received no communication. Eventually the bed stopped vibrating and everything settled down. Shaken by this, it took a long time to settle down and, eventually, I fell asleep again.
     I, again, rang my friend the next day and told him what had happened. He told me that I'd better speak to Michael, an experienced medium, at church on Sunday after the service for some advice. As it was a few days before I would be able to speak to Michael, I was a little apprehensive about going to bed that night however, over the next few nights, everything was quiet and I was able to sleep through the night.
     Sunday came and I attended Spennymoor Spiritualist Church. After the service, I decided to speak to Michael. He advised me that it was possible that I had been astral traveling and since things had settled down, this would be the most logical to him. Michael also thought it was possible that spirit were drawing close for some reason, but that I had been wrong to send the spirit away without asking why it had come. I could understand what Michael was saying as I had a lot of personal issues going on in my life at the time and, I won't lie, deep down inside I was longing for one of my loved ones to come forward and help me.
     Over the next few weeks, other than the bed vibrating now and again for short periods, nothing else happened which seemed to suggest and support what Michael had said about my possibly having out-of-body experiences.
     I can't remember the exact date but, all of a sudden, the mood in the house seemed to change. Although it was summer, the house seemed a little cold. I went to bed that night as usual and read a chapter of my book. I was just settling down and was about to roll over to turn out the bedside light, when I discovered I was unable to turn over. Thinking I was just wrapped up in the duvet, I struggled, then quickly realized I was not wrapped up in the duvet as I was not able to move either way. Something was stopping me. This was seriously freaking me out, but I remembered what I was told and asked, "What are you here for? What are you trying to tell me?" However, this did no good so, out of total fear, I used all of my strength to get whatever was stopping me from moving to release me. This worked, but the bed vibrated more than it had ever done before. I was so shaken by this that I went and slept downstairs on the settee. It took awhile for me to settle down and eventually feel safe enough to go to sleep.
     The following day after work, I went to church and spoke to my development teacher. John listened to me and showed me a different type of protection than what we used in our classes which I was advised to use before settling down to sleep. That night, still a little apprehensive, I went to bed and, as directed, put the protection around me. Thank the Lord nothing happened and this continued for a good few weeks.
     Since I was new to the area, I had no idea regarding what had gone on at the property before I moved in. The landlady told me that she had a terrible time with the last tenants and had to fully refurbish the house before she could let it again. Up to this point, I had only passed pleasantries with my neighbors but, to my surprise on the previous Tuesday, my neighbor turned up at church for the open circle. I said hello and, after the service, we chatted. We were both surprised to see one another there. So, one Saturday morning whilst putting my rubbish out, I struck up a conversation with my next door neighbors. I told her about what the landlady had said to me about the house. My neighbors then went on to tell me all about what had happened and how pleased they were that she had found someone decent to rent the house to. Apparently, the old tenant was into taking in all sorts and was in and out of trouble a lot. He was a bully to his partner and, in a freak accident, he fell as his partner was trying to get away. She ran him over with the car and killed him and, now, she was in prison for it. I was shocked by what I had been told as it seemed to be such a quiet area with even a little kiddie park just outside my door.
     Little things started happening again late in September in the bedroom, but I just put my protection around me as I had been shown. In December, things went to another level when the spirit started its activities when I was either reading or watching TV instead of waiting until I had settled down to sleep. It held me down as I snuggled the duvet around me and, in some cases, pulled the duvet over my head. Each time, the episodes became more violent than the last. With what I had been told about this individual, it all started to make sense and although, at this point, I was able to repel this mischievous spirit with a struggle, I was becoming lost as to what to do. I was very frightened as everything that I had been told to do was having no affect.
     I went and spoke to a very well respected medium who had worked with Doris Stokes in the past. I told him everything that had been happening to me. After taking everything into account, he advised me that this can happen when a person is taking to spirit in such a way. I told him that I was becoming unable to sense him and was told, again, that this can happen which was more troublesome for me. I was advised to open up and speak to this spirit and tell him that I was no threat to him and meant him no harm. I was to tell him that I was sorry for what happened to him, but that his time here was over and that he needed to move toward the light. While doing this, I was advised to place a lit candle in the window which would give direction for this spirit to follow. I did this on several occasions and everything calmed down. I hope, in some way, that I helped that soul into the light.

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