12:25pm Wednesday 28th August 2013 in Leisure latest newsBy Jim Palmer, Leisure Editor
Psychic medium Tony Stockwell on seeing dead people as child, the church and sceptics
CAREER advisors across the country are probably not telling 16-year-olds to earn a crust as a psychic medium.
But when you have been seeing dead people since you had a den under your bunk bed, you probably don’t need to be told.
Essex boy Tony Stockwell has been demonstrating his psychic abilities and putting people in touch with dead relatives for 25 years. He will perform at The Woodville in Gravesend on September 11.
A few minutes into our chat, Tony throws in to the conversation that he “was always seeing things as a kid”.
What kind of things? “People that other people couldn’t see,” he said. “I would see people walking through rooms. We had bunk beds as kids and underneath my dad made a camp for me.
“In the darkness, I would always see a boy’s face looking at me.”
It was not as terrifying as it sounds, Tony said.
“The visions are always accompanied by a wonderful feeling,” he said. “It’s not like you see in horror films.”
At 16, after the death of his grandmother, Tony was taken to a Spiritualist church by an older friend of his sister.
He said: “I became absolutely mesmerised by the concept of people speaking to the dead.”
Tony went to weekly meetings for two years and, at 18, was invited to join the church’s development group.
Less than two years later, he was asked to deliver his first messages.
“It went well and I remember I did two contacts and both were well-received,” he said.
Since then, he said his career has “galloped” and he has perfected his craft.
Unsurprisingly for a much-maligned profession, Tony – who claimed not to understand cold reading techniques, let alone use them – had a message for critics.
He said: “Be sceptical, that’s fine, but I think it is narrow-minded.
“It is a wonderful thing we are talking about – life after death.
“Maybe someone who is sceptical could come along open-mindedly and just sit there and be still because they may be pleasantly surprised.”
This year he has toured in Australia, Canada and America. Our conversation was down the phone from a Scottish hotel room.
“It sounds glamorous,” he said. “But it’s gruelling. You need dedication for it.”
There is also an emotional toll in spending night after night conveying messages from dead people too.
He said: “It can be very difficult. Most messages are great – it’s mostly people who are 70-plus who have had a great life and you are recounting information.
“But my first contact last night was Samantha – a little girl looking for her mother. That was tough.”
Tony has a happy knack of consistently being able to contact the dead, which he puts down to being able to clear his mind, but says there has been a time when no spirits turned up for his show.
He said: “It happened once, about 20 years ago. I was doing a demonstration in a church and nothing came at all. In the end, we just did a question and answer session.
“I am quite grateful because it does show that when it works, it is working for a reason.”
Tony Stockwell: An Evening of Mediumship is at The Woodville, Gravesend, on September 11. Tickets £20.25 or £18.25. Go towoodville.co.uk or call 01474 337774.
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