SUZI Samuel’s first encounter with the spirit world was reminiscent of the scene in the movie Ghost, during which a spook jumps in to Whoopi Goldberg’s body and takes it over.
She didn’t see it coming, nor did she know exactly where it was going. A cryptic sentence just came out of her mouth from nowhere, in a voice not entirely her own.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be offered a job in a tent or a box at a sporting occasion when the flowers are blooming,” she found herself saying to a friend who had been decrying his employment situation.
Six months later, the friend was headhunted and landed his dream job at a major sporting event. It was springtime.
“Honest to god, I nearly fainted when he told me!” Ms Samuel told the Gazette.
Ms Samuel is one of a number of local clairvoyants, or ‘mediums’, providing readings for Hawkesbury residents. She works from her home in Grose Vale, and her customers come to her via word-of-mouth.
“There are so many clairvoyants around here. There are loads of us! It is quite a spiritual area - it attracts people who think that way. It’s a slightly slower pace here - not as frantic as Sydney,” she said.
The majority of Ms Samuel’s clients are regulars, though she also comes across those who suffer from what she calls ‘Princess Diana and Fergie Syndrome’, meaning they bounce around from one medium to another, hoping someone will tell them what they want to hear.
“Generally it’s people who need help and guidance,” she said.
“If a complete stranger can pinpoint your problems without you telling them, it can make you see them more clearly and in a different way.”
The word ‘clairvoyant’ comes from French, and means to ‘see clearly’.
“My cousin says it’s like a weather forecast - if there’s a dodgy period coming then they can get prepared,” she said.
Ms Samuel moved to Sydney from London six years ago. At 69 years old, she has just released a memoir called The Unintentional Medium, based on her experiences with the spirit world - including the almost constant presence of her two grannies, both of which have passed over.
“Other spirits come in sometimes, but I’ve got that a bit under control now, so most of the time it’s kept to when I do readings,” she said.
“It’s a lot more normal than people think. Many people expect a Madame in veils and ectoplasm. But they make an appointment and they sit down and I ask them if they want a cup of tea. I start laying out cards and we go from there.
“While I’m conscious of things I say during the readings, I never know what I’m about to say.
“I wish I was a clairvoyant like a lovely friend of mine who lives in the area, who knows so much about chakras and crystals.”
Ms Samuel said while she enjoys being a medium, her life is about much more than the spirit world.
“It’s not an all-inclusive thing. The psychic thing is lovely and it’s there, but I have a lot of life outside of being a clairvoyant,” she said.
“I am the president for Torch Bearers, a fundraising arm for Hawkesbury Legacy. We organise the badge appeal and put on fundraising events.”
Of her memoir, Ms Samuel said she is crossing her fingers that it will be well-received by the public, though a little birdie of the spirit kind seems adamant that she can expect positive results.
“It’s the sort of book that will either be a raging success or a complete bomb,” she said.
“But I’m told it will be a success.”
