Shades of Harry Potter about all of this. The medical response to my situation seemed to be “keep taking the tablets”. While this had bought me some respite time, I’d spent three months off work with a diagnosis of “anxiety and depression”, I knew prescription medication wasn’t a long-term solution for me, I just didn’t know what the solution was – I needed a guidebook to this new world I found myself in. I’d been reading quite an eclectic mix of books on world religions, spirituality and self-help and explored some of them without finding any definitive answers, which in retrospect was probably the answer to my problems – there are no definitive answers. The books had been helpful in suggesting possibilities, which was a start as I’d returned to my job as a chartered surveyor at the start of 1997 and they provided some sticking plaster over the wounds. While on a visit from base to the regional head office in Bristol I stopped off for lunch at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, a huge out-of-town shopping centre and entertainment centre, which I’d seen described as “a cathedral of consumption”. Having bought some lunch I decided on some nourishment for the soul too, and headed for Waterstones book shop. As I entered I remembered reading a method of finding guidance in one of the many books I’d been reading and decided to give it a go. The suggestion was to still your mind as far as possible, frame a question in your mind (ask for guidance) then just go about life and see what comes to you. Question framed, I headed for the Mind/Body/Spirit section and looked around; there was a book projecting out from the shelf at a precarious angle. Intrigued, I picked it off the shelf and browsed the endorsements and first chapter, it ‘spoke’ to me and my ‘condition’ in a way I’d not found before. ‘Channelling for Everyone’ was my doorway to another dimension, the Otherworld, and the author ran practical weekend workshops - there was one scheduled within the next six weeks. And so my introduction to Channelling came at West Malvern in March 1998, not without some trepidation at what I was letting myself in for I hasten to add.