Lisa Williams communes with the dead in lively way

/Home/Psychic phenomena/Mediums

Lisa Williams communes with the dead in lively way
April 19, 2009
GoErie.com

Lisa Williams hears dead people.

She see them, too.

In pop-culture vernacular, she's a ghost whisperer with a sixth sense, if not a living X-File.

She's also a bright, engaging soul with spiky hair, personality plus and a passion for helping people. She says they're reassured by messages their deceased loved ones pass along from beyond.

"The one thing in common that people feel is hope and comfort," said Williams, a Lifetime TV host who's on a "Messages from Beyond" tour that arrives Monday at Erie's Warner Theatre.

"When you're able to communicate to someone who has lost their child through a tragic situation, to tell them what their lost daughter is feeling, there's a lot of forgiveness. It's incredible and you can sense this relief."

She said the people she reads for get a sense of relief, and you also hear it in the audience. "I hear, 'Oh, wow.' Or, 'Oh, God -- that relates to me.'"

For two years Williams has been a fixture on Lifetime in "Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead," one of many shows about the paranormal.

"John Edward and all these people have brought spiritualism and psychics and mediums all out into the forefront," Williams said. "It's made it a little bit more acceptable."

While Williams awaits word on whether Lifetime will renew her show or, she suspects, change the format, she's on a national tour, giving readings to audience members.

Williams, a native of Birmingham, England, says her grandmother, Frances Glazebrook, was also a spiritualist medium and she encouraged her.

Williams believes heredity plays a role in passing on what she now calls a gift, though she didn't see it that way as a youngster.

"When I was 3, I was speaking to dead people," said Williams, 35. "I thought everybody could do it. I thought it was normal. It was just something I did.

"In many respects, I didn't understand it. I didn't embrace it the way I do now. I learned over the years -- it's such as massive part of my life and a massive part of many people's lives -- that for me it really is a gift. But when I was a kid I thought it was just something I did, my little parlor trick that I could do and no one else could."

She's wasn't afraid.

"The people around me were afraid of it for me. I was like, 'Why is that man talking to me?' And my mom would be, 'What man?' 'That man, there.' It didn't really bother me but I was branded with 'acts of imagination.'

"I think I was more annoyed that I wasn't accepted, but it certainly never scared me. It only scared me later on in life when I realized there are negative energies you can pick up."

She knows many people don't believe her. Her father is one.

"My father is one big skeptic," Williams said. "It's not the fact that he doesn't believe in what I do. He knows I help people, and that's one thing he can't take away. But it's his own belief system he questions.

"I think some people have been brought up with a certain way of thinking. Maybe some people are reluctant to change," she added. "Maybe some have very analytical minds. You just don't know. There are many reasons for people to be skeptics."

At a reading like the one in Erie, Williams says she's "at the mercy of the spirits." They talk to her; she relates what they say.

"I literally get all the information that I can, and then I call out to the audience-- 'Who can relate to this person?'

"That's how I find out who I need to speak to, then work from there. Then another spirit might jump in, and another. It can sometimes be quite crazy, but it's fun."

Williams said the process doesn't work in reverse. People can't ask her to contact a dead ex or parent.

"I don't have the magic telephone," Williams said. "I wish I did."

Still, she said, some magical contacts have happened. Williams said Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana and Merv Griffin -- the late producer, who helped sign her to Lifetime -- have all reached out to her.

"When you're put into that situation -- 'Oh, my God --- Diana or Marilyn Monroe' -- you're almost star struck," she said. "That's how I felt."

Williams said she saw Monroe come down a staircase at a hotel in Hollywood the actress frequented. She said she asked her why she's still lingering.

"She said, 'I just want to be loved.'"

Williams said she's heard Diana twice. Once, "she jumped through to contact the person I was reading to; I had no idea she knew Diana. It was just like a friend would contact a loved one."

Another time, the client hid all photos of her daughter with Diana before Williams came over to avoid influencing her. After the reading -- and Diana had communicated --- the client revealed the photos.

Where are these spirits who she says communicate with her? Williams says she doesn't believe in heaven or hell; she thinks they're in another dimension.

"I believe they have all crossed over; they just choose to come back and communicate with us," she said. "I always say to people it's a different dimension. I try to explain, 'Just imagine they are next door and you can't knock on the door or wall and talk to them in some capacity. You may not be able to get to them, but they'll certainly hear you.'

"I believe they are in a totally different dimension and it's not a physical presence; they have no physical body. They are an energy format that's all around us all the time. They can be here when they want to be or need to be."

Once, Williams said, a reading helped solve a crime in England. A spirit told her to tell a victim's mother that he had not killed himself. The case was reopened.

"It turned out, in fact, that he was murdered," she said.

Most readings aren't so dramatic. They involve spirits who want to comfort loved ones, like the woman who had stayed around the clock by her son's deathbed. She felt badly because he died while she was in the bathroom.

"He said, 'I didn't want you there. I didn't want you to feel bad that you saw me take my last breath.' He chose his time to go, actually,'" Williams said. "She was relieved. That woman e-mailed me later and said, 'Now I can sleep at night.'