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A forensic psychologist who was once possessed by the spirit of a dead prostitute has told how she quit her job with the probation service to become an exorcist.
Silver Wolf says she has seen ghosts since childhood and didn't think much of a spectral dog followed her to the dentist when she was six.
As her mum, Suzanne, was a Romany and had " the gift," according to Silver, she inherited certain psychic powers – including an uncanny ability, when she was working with criminals, to predict when one of them was going to reoffend.
“In my 20s, I got a job working within the probation service with high risk offenders, including violent criminals and rapists," she said.
“It was hard, because I would know someone was about to offend again before they did. I would know when someone was planning to go out and commit a rape. By the time I was 26, the paranormal energy had kept on building until I ended up feel feeling pretty suicidal and I left my job."
Describing herself professionally as a “medium, exorcist and ambassador of the gods," Silver said her psychic powers shut down temporarily when she was eight, after her mother passed away following a tragic accident.
She then saw an old woman in a blue nightgown standing in the corner of a cafe going "Ssshhh!" with her finger to her mouth.
“I just shut down so I could cope," she explained.
“Later, when it all started up again, when I was 26, the dudes upstairs told me, 'we shut you down so that you could survive.'"
Leaving home at 16, Silver worked in a hotel bar to pay her way through college and university, where she studied applied psychology and computing – specializing in forensic psychology.
But, in her late 20s, she reached a crossroads and “walked out" of her life – leaving behind her job and her boyfriend, and visiting a spiritualist church for the first time, where she sat nervously at the back.
Recalling how all the messages from beyond the grave that night were for her, “I was so nervous, I deliberately sat at the back, but then the messages from my mum started," Silver said.
“She told me I have 'death energy' in my energy field, and that this was the work I should be doing. She said I'd be seeing a lot more dead people and then she told me I needed to accept that this was who I was – telling me I was a medium."
No longer spooked, Silver left the church feeling relieved rather than frightened.
“What my mum told me explained the feelings I'd been having, so I decided to join a mediumship circle, because I knew I needed to learn to control what was happening to me," she said.
For the last decade, Silver has worked with death energy to help the living and move dead souls and other entities, as she calls them, on to the place where they need to be.
In Greek mythology people who did this were known as "psychopomps" – those who guide souls to the afterlife.
To perform this function, Silver engages the services of her spirit "allies," many of whom are Brazilians who follow voodoo traditions.
Explaining that 'moving a spirit on' is no mean feat, “you don't go into a dog fight with a poodle, you go in with a Doberman," she said.
“My allies are terrifying to look at, and my initiations were scary, but they are fiercely protective of children and those who have been abused," she added.
“Nobody ever wants to talk about the horrid stuff. We're all scared of it, but actually, we need to know about it in order to protect ourselves."
There are nine realms of existence, according to Silver, who says each is populated by spirits, ghosts, demons, deities and entities.
Some may be malevolent and all of them can attach themselves to a person or a place, especially if an individual is very stressed or there has been a drama, like a crime, committed in a home.
Hauntings may begin subtly, but many will escalate until the person being haunted no longer feels safe, she claims.
“There are things in all those realms, and they are more evolved than us which means they can easily access our world," she warned.
“You may just be walking down the street and any old Tom, Dick or Harry entity could attach itself to you."
Often asked to perform exorcisms in America, Silver even found herself being possessed last year by the spirit of a dead prostitute, who became attached to her while she enjoyed a drink in a bar with friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“This hooker used to turn tricks for drinks and although I didn't do that, I spent a week drinking far more than I normally would and behaving out of character which only stopped when I moved her on," she said.
Silver says her fees can vary because “every single exorcism poses different risks, dangers and challenges."
“People often get co-dependent on the dark force contaminating their lives and that can take a lot of management, the emotional support afterwards if hard – it's like post-exorcist counseling," she continued.
“While every exorcism is different, each appointment always includes a spiritual cleansing of the house and putting up protections to stop spirits coming back in."
Nervous about either upsetting religious people or attracting too much attention by talking about what she does, Silver feels the notion of what she does has been distorted by films like The Exorcist.
Again, an exorcist is someone who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or other demons, but Silver feels exorcism should be seen as the removal of something negative, including negative thoughts, negative energy and negative entities.
Explaining why she has decided to talk about what she does, “I don't like attention, but my allies have told me it is time to speak out. They said, 'Nobody else can do what you do, so it is time to be seen. I want to reclaim the word 'exorcism' from the church," she said.
“We live such disconnected lives now that it is easier for hauntings to happen and I know the dark is building, but so is the light, and that's why the work I do is important."
Silver Wolf's e-book, In The Lap Of The Gods, is available here and she can be contacted through her website at www.wayward-soul.com