It’s challenging enough for most of us to deal with the Here and Now, with the interactions we have with others and the oftentimes complicated relationship we have with our own selves. But what happens when disruptions come from otherworldly forces that are beyond our comprehension, frame of reference and personal control? In her new Book, Keeping the Balance, Sue Churchill taps the spiritual clearance work that she and her husband do in order to help their clients resolve psychic attacks, spirit possession and residual energies associated with paranormal activity.

Interviewer: Christina Hamlett

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 Q: What attracted you to the realm of spirituality?

A: My parents were spiritualists, so it was always an open subject in our house. I questioned my own beliefs when I was in my teens as I had an interest in different religions but, in my heart, I felt that the soul or spirit surviving physical death was the truth. I spent many years developing my mediumship skills through joining different development groups. I am still developing; it is a life-long lesson. Apart from learning how to connect with spirit, I was introduced to healing and rescue work. My husband, Mick, who I work with spiritually, thankfully shared my interest and he also started to work on his development and we attended several groups together. I spent several years serving spiritualist churches as a medium: we both also began training as spiritual healers and embarked on our journey conducting spiritual clearances. This started after we experienced our own spiritual activity and worked with a medium to resolve it. Our first case was helping a close friend and gradually more people needing help were guided to us: we were broken in gently and developed more skills with each situation. Sensitive communication skills are central to spiritual working; many people you deal with are distressed and they find themselves in scary situations which they don’t understand. Mick is a trained bereavement counsellor and I have spent many years in the field of care and care training; this has given us both useful communication tools for interacting with people and handling sensitive situations.

Q: How does your background in spirituality interface with your journey as a writer?

A: I find they work quite well together. Prior to writing and publishing my first book, I had only ever composed small “inspirational prose” pieces. I wasn’t an organized writer, I would feel inspired with a few words and set them down on whatever I could find at the time. I believe some of what I wrote was inspired by spirit and served to provide philosophical insight to help with comprehending the spirit world. A medium once advised me that any philosophy I received from spirit was not specifically for me, it should be shared with others to promote a wider learning. My book explains some of the work we have done which may help others understand their own situations and how to find help as well as provide them with a better understanding and food for thought to inspire and assist them on their own spiritual journey.

Q: What was your inspiration for writing this book?

A: I noticed many of our clients we had helped spiritually were very interested in the work which we did. In 2014 I broke my arm and was unable to go to work for about three months. It was then I had the time to write so I simply started writing about some of the cases we had resolved. I wanted to help people understand what we did, how we did it and about the knowledge of life-after-death and spiritual aspects which we had learned over time. I also hoped the book would help people who are experiencing paranormal activity or spiritual problems to understand more about them and where they can go to get help.

Q: What does the title mean?

A: From my title, Keeping The Balance, it isn’t clear what the book is about, hence, the subtitle: Our Journey Through Spiritual Hell. This still doesn’t fully explain but it at least highlights the subject area. I see the spiritual work we do as tipping the scales towards the light. In my view there are many energies in the universe, most of them not yet recognised nor understood by science and mankind generally. On the one hand there is positive or good energy and on the other there is negative or dark energy. There is a constant battle between these energies to overcome each other and gain some ground. We play our part to ensure the positive energy stays strong and keep the negative energy at bay: we are keeping the balance.

Q: Paranormal activity and problems don’t happen to everyone. Are there contributory factors which can lead to a person being affected versus being left alone?

A: It doesn’t affect everyone, but it can affect anyone and there isn’t one single factor which may cause it to happen. A common question we have been asked by the people we help is, “Why me?” Sometimes there may be environmental reasons for a person or household being affected: energy lines or leys may be causing more spiritual activity or exacerbating it. Historically, there may have been distressing and fatal accidents or events in the area resulting in many lost souls who need help crossing over. Some properties are very close to electricity pylons; pylons emit high amounts of electro – magnetic energy and this can cause people to experience goose bumps, mood changes and paranoia which can be mistaken for paranormal experiences. Difficult personal circumstances causing low mood, anxiety or depression may leave a person more vulnerable as negative energy can build up around them. As the negative energy grows, it will then affect them causing their low mood to worsen and intensifying the negative energy. A concentration of negative energy may cause problems and attract more energies and spirits. There is a lot to be said for confronting and trying to deal with your feelings and trying to keep positive. Personal spiritual protection for those who undertake paranormal investigation or spiritual work is important. Without it, a person can be vulnerable to attack or attachment by spirit and energies.

Q: Have you ever been attacked by spirits or experienced any unpleasant episodes of your own?

A: During one difficult case where a woman was possessed, and it required many visits to resolve, my husband was almost dragged out of bed by a spirit. He awoke in the early hours of the morning to find something had hold of his leg and was pulling it. He called out to wake me up and between us we managed to clear the energy. It was very unnerving. Due to the nature of our work to help people who are undergoing spiritual attacks or activity, we have found this can render us targets. We often find that prior to our first visit we experience negative spiritual activity at home or things crop up to stop or deter us from visiting. We have learned how to protect ourselves effectively and deal with anything which happens to us, but we still have to be on our guard.

Q: Conversely, have you ever had pleasant/positive experiences from paranormal interventions?

A: Helping a person plagued by unwanted and often negative spiritual activity where the result is peace for them gives us a good feeling and an awareness we have achieved something positive. In addition, some of the work we carry out involves spirit rescue—guiding lost and trapped souls to the light where they can find healing, understanding and continue their own journey in the spirit world. On one occasion, a few days after one such case, the spirit of the man we had helped over appeared before my husband; he immediately thought he hadn’t passed over, it hadn’t worked, and he was still earthbound. As the man smiled and then faded, my husband realized he had simply returned to thank him—a good and rewarding result.

Q: If books are judged by their covers (and I truly believe they are), what do you feel your own cover design says about what prospective readers can expect from the content?

A:  I wanted the cover to be eye-catching and sum up the philosophy of the book and our spiritual work. Mick had the initial vision of what he felt would look good and symbolise our spiritual work. He loves images of the grim reaper so that was a must, plus he felt it was a good representation of death. He felt the yin and yang symbol superimposed on an image of the earth held in the reaper’s hand would sum up the wider message in the book—yin and yang representing the balance of energies and the reaper holding that balance in his hand. Once he had the ideas and some images for the cover, an artist friend of our son came up with the final design. We both liked images of the moonlight through trees so that was a perfect choice for the background. I just hope readers won’t see the cover design as being too scary!

Q: What was your experience like in finding a publisher?

A: Although I started writing in 2014, I didn’t finish my book until early this year. I had investigated the process of publishing and I felt very overwhelmed, so I concentrated on finishing the book. I looked at companies who can sell you a package with different levels of help to publish. I was quite keen on this method until I realised that the company own the ISBN and rights. Our youngest son came to the rescue and introduced me to self-publishing. He published his first book towards the end of 2017; he managed it very quickly as he wanted it to be out before Christmas. He introduced me to Createspace and was there for me when I had little niggles and questions. I initially published in paperback and I found the guide they provide very useful and explanatory. Once it was live I decided to look at doing an electronic version. Personally, I like a proper book but I realise so many people prefer electronic now. I am quite good with computers but not an expert and it took me about three solid days to get my book Kindle-ready. My advice for anyone publishing for Kindle is to download everything available from the site to help you format your book so it is Kindle-ready.

Q: What are you doing to market it?

A: As a virgin author who self-published, I haven’t found it easy. I didn’t have the foresight to think about marketing prior to publishing. I was too busy working and trying to finish the book when I had spare time. After an intense couple of weeks in the final stages of publishing, the book was live, and I finally relaxed for a moment. I then realised I needed to market it. I regularly share my book and links to it over social media, trying to target those who have a spiritual interest and I share on pages used by potential readers such as paranormal investigators, mediums and healers. I recently discovered Book Connectors on Facebook which is a very friendly, helpful group where you can find bloggers, other authors and advice. I have also sent copies to spiritual publications and asked for a review. I have paid for two adverts. The first was in a popular spiritual magazine with a good distribution; it cost around £50 for a small paragraph with colour picture. I then came across a US company online, Whizbuzz Books. Your book remains on their site forever and they also advertise it regularly over the whole range of social media for a year; you can include a decent size description and links to your own website. Unless you have deep pockets, you must be resourceful to find as much free advertising as you can.

 Q: Your book addresses spiritual areas and beliefs which many may see as controversial or unbelievable. Do you think it would be well received or of interest to those from different belief systems?

A: I hope so, as many people are exploring different philosophies nowadays and seeking answers. Part 1 of the book describes a cross section of the spiritual clearance cases we have resolved and is, therefore, factual. However, each of these clients were from different backgrounds and belief systems. I explain how we conducted each clearance and how, in some cases we adapted according to the beliefs or religion of the client in question. Negative spiritual activity does not discriminate, it can affect anyone. One of our clients was Catholic and her parents were Baptist. After we helped her, I talked her through methods and techniques for keeping positive, moving forward and protection. She liked to use prayer and I supported that because it was her belief and her confidence in prayer which helped her through this negative episode. In Part 2, I speculate and theorise around spiritualism and belief systems which I hope will encourage readers to explore for themselves. I make it very clear my conjecture is according to our experiences and how my understanding and knowledge has grown from them.

Q: There are lots of books about spirituality out there. A simple search on Amazon, for instance, reveals over 60,000. Can books help readers glean a better understanding of spiritual subjects? If so, how do they possibly go about choosing which ones will be the best fit for them?

A: Books can help immensely with gaining a basic understanding of many areas and helping an individual look at the different paths. There are many which provide fundamental information on auras, chakra, meditation and spiritual protection. However, I feel it’s important to remember that some of the information written will be the authors’ opinion, not necessarily fact. When choosing a book, you may have specific authors or books which have been recommended to you, but it’s still difficult to select which is right for you. Have a good look through bookstores. Amazon is great as there is so much choice but that isn’t always helpful. Going to a good book shop and taking your time to browse is often better. There’s nothing like handling a book to get a feel for what it is like. If it seems to be right for the subject area you’re seeking, then go with your gut feeling for which is best—the one which feels right, the one your eyes want to go back to. Listen to your intuition. Never take everything as gospel. You will begin to recognise authors you like or indeed practitioners, like us, who publish their experiences.

Q: If readers are having spiritual problems, what do you recommend as a starting point for them to seek resolution?

A: It depends on the person affected and their beliefs. A strongly religious person may be better off approaching their own minister for advice as a first step. Otherwise, I would suggest a local spiritualist church or centre or a recommended paranormal investigation group. Spiritualist churches (you can find lists on the Internet), will usually be able to help or suggest a local medium who is able to help. I strongly advise against finding a medium, psychic or paranormal investigation group online unless they have been recommended or you are able to check them; there are so many who do not know what they are doing.

Q: What’s your advice for fellow wordsmiths who—like you—are planning to write their first book?

A: My advice is, do it! Life is for doing, not for regretting missed opportunities. Last year I enrolled on a distance learning creative writing course which I am finding very beneficial and I would recommend. Not only does it help with writing styles for different genres, it also teaches the processes for progression in different areas of professional writing. For this book, I did no planning, I just started writing and although it worked quite well as it is non-fiction, it did cause me more work going back and forth and re reading to complete. I would also advise making a careful note of any quotations or references to other works so when it comes to acknowledging them, they are easy to find, and you don’t miss any.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: For anyone who is experiencing upsetting spiritual activity or problems, no, you are not mad. Don’t suffer alone in silence; seek help. You can check out our website or contact for a chat https://suechurchill966.wixsite.com/spiritualbalance and [email protected]. If you’re a new writer, there are many people out there who are keen to help you along the way. Join groups, connect on Facebook; they will all help to guide you and it can open doors to more help and connections.