Real Life: Paranormal activity

Surrounded by tarot cards, crystal balls, books on witchcraft and silver chalices, the mood was every bit as mystic as the clairvoyant gift that John claims to have.

The lighting is low, the room is warm and John's voice is soothing; not quite monotonous, but not filled with bags of character either.

He delivers everything he says like a statement of fact, whether it be telling us where he grew up, or telling us what he sees in our future.

The 63-year-old has been established in his work since 1969. He's the life president of the Psychic Research Foundation of Great Britain and also works as a life coach, claiming to help people 'reach their full potential, achieve their goals and develop a sense of inner calm and confidence'.

Comfortable and at ease in his office, John Starkey tells us what it's like to see into the beyond.

"I would describe what I do as seeing with feeling. It's the warm place between sleep and waking. I see things as pictures in my mind.

"I don't have a particularly special gift, I believe everyone has the ability but many never discover it, which I think is a great shame."

One of his earliest memories of having a psychic gift came when he was a choir boy at a church in Sutton Coldfield.

He says: "I used to sing in the choir at St Michael's church in Boldmere. The organist would look at me through the mirror in the organ and nod to me to indicate when to sing when I was performing solos at weddings and such.

"After his death, I was looking in the mirror and I saw him there, giving me the nod. I didn't feel scared as such, I was excited."

John's parents were supportive of their son's abilities, despite having religious backgrounds themselves. He says: "My parents were very encouraging and open. I could have told my mum that I was going to murder the boy across the street and she'd say 'make sure you're home for your tea!'"

John studied psychology at university whilst working part time at a butcher's shop. A colleague convinced him to set up business after John gave him a reading about his grandparents.

"When I started out in 1969, I thought that everyone felt the same things. The gentleman I worked with said to me that if he had the ability to do what I did he certainly wouldn't be here washing trays. So I started a business."

With the curiosity of the public piqued, starting a business as a psychic in the 60s wasn't the biggest challenge for John, promoting it was.

After he successfully won a legal battle with a newspaper to advertise his business, he became the first clairvoyant ever to do so.

It was then that his business went from strength to strength. John featured on a number of radio shows, taking calls from the public who wished to speak with him.

During one show the station received 78,000 calls and John still sees lots of clients today that came to him as a result.

One of his clients has been visiting him for 30 years. Unlike many other clairvoyants, John doesn't profess to regularly see the dead.

"You are just as likely to picture a plate missing from the kitchen as you are a dead person. I try to keep out of morbidity and spiritualism.

"I was once giving a reading to a lady and couldn't get anything for her. I said 'sorry, all I can see is a turtle' and she burst into tears. Afterwards I apologised for having upset her and she told me that she'd asked her husband before he died that if he ever came back, to describe the shape of a mole on her back. It was shaped like a turtle."

John has many recollections of instances with clients where he's taken them by surprise with the accuracy of his abilities. It's not until he leaves our journalist speechless by divulging personal information of her own that we start to question what we're really experiencing.

John concludes: "I believe that life is a dream you fall into at the time of birth and wake up from at the time of death. It's a surreal existence, just like a computer".

We're reeling when we leave John Starkey's office and return to the bright Wolverhampton street. Whether he truly has a gift we cannot say, but one thing's for sure; our experience with the psychic felt very surreal in itself.

Whether you go to one of John's events, visit him at his office or invite him to your home, the clairvoyant really must be seen to be believed.