Shop Talk: Martin Hopgood

Welcome to our sec on instalment of Shop Talk today we had a chat with Martin Hopgood, Eastbourne’s Clairvoyant

1. How did you get into this line of work?
After 25 years of working as a carpenter/builder, my life went through a strange sequence of events which led me to the work I do now.
The trigger point was when I lost my dad, then 6 months later my mum, followed by divorce and becoming a single parent to five children. After a few traumatic months, I started to feel, sense and see things that my analytical mind couldn’t relate to! I thought I was going though a breakdown of some kind, I then made an appointment at the doctors expecting they would send me for psychological tests! Instead, I spoke with a very sensitive doctor who thought the experiences I was going through was connected to the spirit world, although she didn’t say that specifically, I knew what she meant. This in turn led me to people of like mindedness and onto the Arthur Findlay College in Stanstead which is a college of psychic science and hones peoples abilities. The rest they say is history.

2. What label or description do you give yourself when someone asks you what it is that you do?
I sometimes find it very hard to let people know what I do for a living as you can never tell what peoples reactions will be, Its easy tell people your a Carpenter or builder but not so easy to say that you talk to ‘dead people’! Most of the time people are very interested in my line of work if i mention i’m a medium, but i usually gauge who i can be open with before I mention what I do.I’m a very private person anyway and do not publicly announce my vocation.

3. How do you do it?
Many people ask how I receive messages from relatives that have crossed over or in their words ‘died!’ The answer is a simple one, I have just been allowed to seperate my logical mind from my intuative mind. I completely seperate my own troubles and issues of this world and go to a place in my mind where the spirit world live and blend my mind with the energy of the other world. Lets make this perfectly clear, Everybody has the ability to do what i do, its just you have to listen a little harder than some.I teach this work to anyone who is interested in learning it,You dont have to come from a long line of Psychics or Romany Gypsies! everybody has this gift, everybody can sense, see and feel the presence of the spirit world,You just have to listen a bit harder.

4.Have you done any training for this line of work?
I, personally didn’t do any training as such for this line of work but as I said in my previous comment, I attended the Arthur Findlay college just to hone this gift. This work isn’t work to me, its a way of life now. You never stop learning when working with spirit, Every client and every sitting is different from the last, You can never get complacent as information you receive differs every time.

5. What is your motivation?
I have a strong motivation for this work, I strongly believe that if I have something to offer others and can help in any way to help with their grieving process and life in general then that’s all the motivation I need. Many of us get lost in direction from time to time and need a little guidance, I have such a strong belief in what I do, I have realised that if you trust your intuition you will not go far wrong.

6. What can people expect when they come for a reading?
The best thing people can expect from coming to see me for a private sitting is a friendly welcome and a appointment with no time limits or structures, I try to make all of my clients welcome and comfortable and try my very best to deliver the messages from the spirit world accurately and with compassion. You must understand,as mediums,we cannot dial into the spirit world and connect with anyone we want! but the spirit world usually brings forward the loved ones you have come to hear from.

7. How long to the readings last and why?

 There is no restriction on time when I see my clients, I believe you cannot invite our loved ones in and then tell them to go away after a set time, I finish when they finish, a typical reading lasts between an hour and an hour and half.

8. Do you just do face to face readings or can people contact you by phone or email?
I read for people all over the world so there is no restraint on proximity.Many people prefer to have private sittings face to face, many have their readings done via email or by telephone, distance is not a problem.

9. You also do evenings of mediumship and clairvoyance – tell us about those evenings.
I do many demonstrations of mediumship in venues all over the south east and london. Evenings of mediumship & Clairvoyance are very popular, usually sell outs. This is an audience scenario, I receive information from the spirit world and pass that information down to my audience, spirit will come with names dates times places and people that connect with individuals in that audience. Many people who do this work have been accused of reading the person their talking to or feeding off of information that person is giving the medium, With all of my private readings and demonstrations, I tell my clients or audience, to tell me nothing! thats my job to tell them, I also keep my eyes closed while demonstrating or reading privately, this way I cannot be accused of reading body language or facial expressions, I try my hardest to eliminate everything I could be accused of doing.