Nobody in the spirit world has ears or a mouth. Not one of them. So they don't talk in words — they talk in feelings, and most people are listening the wrong way.

My Helper Edward said something clever today, and I don't admit that often. We only ever see the tangled ends and the chaotic stitching on the back of the cloth.

In thirty years I have never once met anyone who got it the Hollywood way. No lightning bolt, no instant awakening. The real magic is quieter, and you build it.

We spend our whole lives polishing and defending the person attached to our name. But your name is the vehicle you were handed. The mission is simply to drive it.

Passion, shared goals, raising a family — that's scaffolding. It was never meant to be the permanent structure. When it falls away we panic and assume it's over.

Talk is cheap and you don't need belief, you need proof. So give your Helpers one small, specific job and a deadline, and then get out of the way and watch.

The spirit world doesn't sort your experiences into good and bad. It sorts them into experience and nothing. Sitting on the sidelines to stay safe is the wasted option.

This isn't fantasy and it isn't new. It's older, more natural and closer to home than you think. We haven't lost the ability — we've just forgotten how to use it.

He never intended to take his own life, but when the cancer came he decided not to fight. Is letting yourself die the same thing? An interesting question to sit with.

The universe doesn't respond to hope. It responds to action. Do nothing and it does nothing. It isn't a fairy godmother waiting on your wishes — it's an amplifier.

Shel Silverstein's original always struck me as grim and cynical. So I rewrote it, and in my version the boy gives something back. Much prefer it.

A short one today. When you cannot see where you are going, remember you are surrounded by wisdom you cannot see — and by the echoes of everyone who has loved you.

Some things go round your head when you wake and won't let go when you try to sleep. Sometimes all any of us needs is somewhere safe to be heard without being judged.

Forget the Hollywood special effects. Your Helpers have better things to do than stage a full paranormal event. They nudge — and here are five of the ways they do it.

Her grandfather marched into my office before I'd put pen to paper, furious and determined to be heard. So do I soften what he said, or write it exactly as it came?

Too many readings lately where people feel lost in their own lives. Life has got so noisy they no longer know who they are. Here's your reminder: your life, your rules.

David died in 2005. So I asked him what he'd change if he could live it all again. The answers involve a northern tea shop, a motorbike, a dog, and almost nothing about work.

Four hundred metres up the hill behind our house there is a spot where nature closes around me and I disappear. Your spirit only needs a bit of time to remind you it's still there.

Did he know it was coming? No. He woke up standing on the hard shoulder looking at the wreck, worrying about his golf clubs. More answers from my dead friend David.

You sent 137 questions and filled 29 printed pages. Here are David's first answers — on losing a body, on watching us grieve, and on whether he enjoys it over there.