SOME people may not believe in psychic powers, but Sue Rawlins does after a message from her late father saved her life. MEGAN REYNOLDS reports.

SUE Rawlins was a little sceptical of psychics until she met Tracy Higgs at Spirit in Sun Street, Waltham Abbey, a psychic who ultimately saved her life.

Ms Rawlins, who runs the Green Dragon pub, Waltham Abbey, has always believed in life after death, but never felt such a strong connection with the dead until Ms Higgs gave her a psychic reading in September 2003, two months after she moved to the town, and less than a year after her father died.

The morning before her reading Ms Rawlins came across a prayer book her father gave her as a child, and at the reading Ms Higgs described the book accurately.

For Ms Rawlins this was proof of Ms Higgs' psychic ability as she told her things only she or her father would know.

Ms Rawlins has since delved into her own spirituality, developing her psychic and medium abilities at Ms Higgs' psychic circle, with a select group at Spirit.

She said: "When I had the reading with Tracy I actually felt my dad and since I've been coming to the circle I've learned I can see him in spirit and other spirits as well."

Once, while meditating in the circle, Ms Rawlins felt her father hug her. "I could actually feel his warmth, just a feeling of love that started at my hands and went right round my arms and back, and it just felt like someone was hugging me. The feeling was so overwhelming, I just burst into tears."

In another meditation session the group visualised a camp fire and invited spirits to attend. Ms Rawlins looked up to see her father, who died of bowel cancer in November 2002. She said: "He turned round and said get yourself to a doctor, girl, you've got what I had'."

Ms Rawlins had suffered pains in her lower abdomen and, convinced of her vision and her father's wisdom, went to her doctor. She spent two days in hospital having tests and though doctors found a stone in her gallbladder it did not explain the stomach pain.

She insisted on further tests and doctors eventually found a lump in her bowel. It was removed and Ms Rawlins knew the operation was a success as her father later told her "you're all right now girl, they got it".

Ms Rawlins said: "I knew I'd be all right, my dad told me I'd be all right. He told me I had it, and to go and get it sorted, and I did, and then I knew I'd be all right because he said so. I knew I had it but it didn't bother me because I had such faith in my dad, he loved me when he was here and I knew he would look after me and take care of me."

Before she met Ms Higgs, Ms Rawlins knew she had some psychic abilities, as she dreamt the last 24 hours of her father's life the week before he died "right up until this tear was coming down his cheek", she recalled.

"I could sense his brother and sisters and mum and dad were all there waiting and he'd been seeing them for a while before he died as well."

Ms Rawlins' sensitivity to spirits has since refined and she now "sees" the spirits she could only "sense" before.

She said: "My nan comes and my dad comes and all the family's there and it's just so nice they're gone but they're still there if I need them. It's like being in a dark room and all these lights come on when they appear."

Ms Rawlins said communicating with spirits was a positive experience, especially for closure.

"It's useful if they haven't said what they needed to in their time here, and if you need closure with them. I know my dad loved me but I can never remember him saying that and it's good for that to come through, that he does love me and is proud of me."

Her father has given her advice from the other side', and she believes he has gained a wisdom since passing on, resolving family differences and helping her to move on.

When Ms Rawlins now attends an audience with renowned psychics like Tony Stockwell she can see spirits, can see what the other people are seeing.

Of the gift she is developing, she said: "You've got to work at it and you learn every day."

Having seen famous psychics such as American John Edwards and British Tony Stockwell in action, Ms Rawlins said Tracy Higgs, who has been a practising psychic for four years, was like a female Tony Stockwell'.

Ms Higgs has featured in national newspapers and magazines. She worked on a "psychic detective" television show and is on a weekly television show on the One Destiny channel, responding to mystical questions sent to her via text message, and she writes regularly for Spirit and Destiny magazine.

Like Ms Rawlins she began developing her talents after a reading five years ago, advancing her skills at the Arthur Finley College, Stansted Hall, taught by the country's top mediums.

Ms Higgs said: "I could always see and used to talk to my great-grandad. I've always been very sensitive and feel people's emotions, feel what they've been through and feel how the spirit has passed."

Tracy is clairaudion, as she can hear the spirit world, clairsentient, as she can smell it, and clairvoyant because "when I see people I actually see them".

"The reason I'm here and opened the Spirit centre is to open it for everybody. There are so many places where you have to fit in, and if you don't fit in, come here."