A PSYCHIC from Widnes says he might have been telephoned by a ghost.
James Byrne, a well-known medium who once gave demonstrations at the London Palladium, is used to spirits interfering with technology associated with him.
But this latest case is perhaps the strangest yet, he says.
He discovered the message on his answerphone when he returned from holiday in August. The message - a man saying is this switched on?' - had been left on August 7, according to James's machine.
There was no number recorded, but the phone has the facility to return the call.
James, aged 53, of Mansell Close, says: "A woman in Bolton answered, and when I explained who I was, she said I'd done a reading for her 14 years earlier. She said she'd not made the phone call."
The mystery deepened when James told the woman about the message and, after hearing the recording, she confirmed it was the voice of her partner who had died in June.
James says the woman contacted BT to check her phone records, and they confirmed that no call had been made to James's number from her line on August 7.
"We can't explain it," says James. "I'm not saying it's a ghost or an example of EVP (electronic voice phenomena said to be the work of spirits). But it is very strange."
James became aware he was psychic as a teenager and went on to become a very well known stage medium, making frequent television and radio appearances, and published a book, The Psychic World of James Byrne.
There have been examples of James appearing on television and radio shows where the sound equipment has faltered for no reason.
On another occasion he was giving a reading to a woman and was recording the session. Only later, when the woman listened to the tape, did she hear the voice of a foul-mouthed spirit.
James said: "Once I was driving with somebody else in the car, with the radio on. Suddenly - and from nowhere - a voice on the radio clearly said 'James Byrne'.
"That's one of the best examples, because somebody independent of me heard it.
"But how do you prove this answerphone message? You can't."
l Make up your own mind. Is the message on James's phone from a ghost?
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