FROM her glowing tan to her false eyelashes, Alex Thornhill is
every inch the glamorous Essex girl.
But what you wouldn't predict is that Alex, from Hornchurch, is
a crystal ball-bothering psychic.
She says: "I found it scary when I was growing up. I used to see
a man standing in my doorway at night. When I was four I predicted
someone we knew would go to prison.
"As a teenager I knew a family friend was having an affair and I
successfully predicted her marriage would last ten years. At first
I didn't think of becoming a psychic. I went to dance college.
"But I realised I had a talent I could put to good use.
"Sometimes it's scary – I hear voices, I see objects thrown
across rooms and I see ghosts – but I have spirits to protect
me.
"I use a crystal ball, tarot cards and spirit guides. Otherwise
I'm not like your average psychic.
"Everyone has this perception of what they look like – usually
an old, fat, hippyish woman and that's just not me. I love to dress
up and go out.
"My abilities can make it difficult with men. I predicted that
my ex was leading a double life. It turned out to be true – he had
a family with another woman.
"When I introduce myself as a psychic to blokes they tend to go
bright red. I'm like, 'I can't read your dirty thoughts!' A lot of
blokes back off because they think it's a bit freaky. Perhaps
that's why I'm currently single.
"I'm a big believer in psychic ordering. If you create a mood
board with things you want on it, they can start to happen. I put a
boob job on mine and my ex randomly offered to pay for me to get
them done. So it really works.
"I have family who don't believe in all this. My dad doesn't. He
calls me Septic Peg.
"But seeing is believing. Eventually, I think one day there will
be solid proof.
"But until that day comes you can't get down on people for being
sceptical. I'm not out to convert anybody."
MIA DOLAN claims she knew she was psychic from the age of 22 —
and has even helped the police on difficult cases.
Mia from Kentish Town, north London, says: "I get these
incredibly clear visions, like a still photograph, in my mind.
"Sometimes they are premonitions of the future. At other times
they are events that have already happened.
"I had a perfectly normal childhood and my first psychic
experience happened when I was 22. It's so mundane, it makes me
laugh.
"I was in the living room with my children, having left the
grill on in the kitchen, when a man's voice next to me said, clear
as day, 'The toast is burning'.
"I ran into the kitchen and sure enough, it was.
"Then a few weeks later I was walking down the street towards a
friend and the same voice said, 'She is pregnant'.
"She was — and she didn't even know yet.
"Of course, this totally freaked me out. I now know this voice
is what we psychics call a guide. His name is Eric.
At times, it is frightening. I have absolutely no control over
it and I have no idea why I have been chosen in this way.
"I'm just an ordinary woman who grew up in a council house — my
mum was a secretary and my dad a salesman. I finally realised that
this was a gift and I had to embrace it.
"I don't always predict good news. My husband and I were going
through a bad patch when I was in my early thirties and one
evening, when we were having a row, I suddenly had this psychic
vision of him in bed with my friend.
"It all turned out to be true and we divorced soon
afterwards.
"I began working with the public, doing face-to-face readings —
I will never do a telephone reading — and even working with the
police on crime scenes.
"In one case, a woman had gone missing and the police took me to
the place where she had last been seen.
"I walked past a shop with whitened windows and I said we had to
go in there.
"The police kicked the door down and out the back we found a bin
bag of clothes covered in the woman's blood.
"I spend my life now working with the depressed, the dying, the
bereaved — people who desperately want to know what is going to
happen, or trying to make contact with a loved one who has
died.
"I walked past a shop with whitened windows and I said we had to
go in there.
"The police kicked the door down and out the back we found a bin
bag of clothes covered in the woman's blood.
"I spend my life now working with the depressed, the dying, the
bereaved — people who desperately want to know what is going to
happen, or trying to make contact with a loved one who has
died.
"I am using my gift for a positive purpose.
"Many people are sceptical but I welcome that. I'm sceptical
myself, yet I can't deny what I see and hear.
"All I do is pass on the messages I receive.
"Just think — how many of us haven't had a premonition, a sense of
déjà vu?
"It's in us all, because we are part of the spirit world."