TOP Scots medium Gordon Smith has one of the spookiest jobs in the country. A Glasgow hairdresser, he's also worked for many years to bring paranormal messages from the 'other side'. As the Record's Psychic Barber he's helped thousands of people come to terms with losing a loved one and unearthed the hidden reasons behind ghostly going s-on. He's been praised by celebrity clients, including Ally McCoist and Michelle Collins, and is the subject of a BBC documentary to be screened next week. In his new book, The Unbelievable Truth, Gordon explains how mediums get their information, what happens when we die and the truth about poltergeists and ghosts. LINDSAY CLYDESDALE took a look in his psychic casebook. THE CLOSE SHAVE I'M often asked, 'Why do you do mediumship?' I often ask myself the same question, especially on a weekend when all of my friends are going out and I am heading off to give a demonstration of my work. On one such day, 5pm came and as I prepared to close the s alon alone, a man arrived wanting a s have. He was lying in the barber's chair when I felt someone watching me. I looked in the mirror and, to my horror, saw a young woman looking back at me. I just didn't know how to react. 'Who are you?' I thought. 'Judy,' she replied. The impression was so strong, I knew she wanted me to talk to the man I was s having.

'Do you know who Judy is?' I asked him.

It was like an eruption - he sat bolt upright.

It turned out that Judy was his wife and she had died six months earlier. As I described her, he began to sob. I then asked if she could give me some evidence that would clinch it for him. She said: 'Thank you for the lollipops.' I was hoping for something more earth-shattering, but her husband broke down at this.

Two days earlier, he had gone to her grave with their seven-year-old son, who had asked if he could take some lollipops instead of flowers. Now I knew why I did mediumship. It was to prove that death is not the end of human consciousness. That knowledge can heal people whose hearts are breaking.

KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR

RECENTLY I had to have a general anaesthetic before having tests done and I really hoped I would have some sort of paranormal experience.

As it happened, I did, but not of the Near Death Experience kind. As I began to come to, I became aware of a lot of people standing around me.

Some of them were writing,then I realised I was speaking. It turned out I'd been talking during the procedure and giving messages from the spirit world to the theatre staff. One of the nurses told me that even though people mumble gibberish under anaesthetic, I was referring to all present by their Christian names and talking about their relatives who had died.

Several of the staff had accompanied me to the recovery room to see if any more would be said.

HAUNTING EXPERIENCE

NOT all cases of poltergeist activity investigated by mediums and psychic researchers are spectacular. Most of the cases I've gone to could be explained using common sense and logic.

An elderly lady claimed to be having a terrible time with a spirit she said was frightening her during the night. At her house, we went upstairs to the bedroom where she heard the sounds and voices of the spirits who kept her - - C A R - B U at night. I admit that on entering the bedroom there were noises from above the ceiling. 'Can you hear the voices?' she asked. What I could hear was the scratching and cooing of pigeons in the attic.

I don't know if it was the mischievous side of my nature, but I gave the old lady a ritual that would expel the sounds in her room. I stood in the centre of the room and clapped my hands together with as much force as I could. Almighty thunder could be heard from above, followed by silence.

As we left, I couldn't help but think there are more haunted people in the world than haunted houses.

THE FORCE IS WITH YOU

THE more I consider the number of episodes of second sight that happen to people when they least expect it, the more I see we live as people in time and space, but there must be a part of our consciousness which exists outside time.

A story told by Sir Alec Guinness comes to mind. Sir Alec had spent many hours ona plane to New York and was exhausted and hungry. He, along with his agent, had tried many 19, was alleg without finding a free table when they entered an Italian bistro.

Once again they were told there were no tables. Sir Alec was ready to give up when James Dean got up and kindly asked them to share his table. Before they sat down, Dean asked if they'd step outside for a second.There sat a sports car which Dean told them he had just bought. Strangely, Sir Alec said, in a voice he hardly recognised, 'Please never get in it. If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week'.

Dean was found dead in the smashed car a week later. Alec claimed never to have done anything like this before and had no idea how it happened. My feeling is it was to do with his state of mind, that his tiredness opened his mind to a line of time concerning James Dean and the car. Most episodes of precognition occur when the mind is drifting between sleep and waking.

A COLLAGE OF DREAMS

ONE of the more bizarre episodes was a dream I had when I was about 23 and working as a hairdresser.

I hadwoken early, but decided to stay in bed as long as I could. My mind became fuzzy and I drifted into that nice state between sleep and waking.Then I began to hear a soft pulsing sound in my ears, like soft breathing, which built up to a buzzing sound. Pic-tures began to form in my mind of a most peculiar scene.

I saw my father carrying a Dobermann Pinscher to a funeral car where a vet, nurse and motor mechanic were waiting. A popping sound went off in my head and I was - - C A R - B U.

At work, I'd just told a colleague about the dream when a man came in and told us his dog had been knocked down by a car. Luckily the dog, a Dobermann Pinscher, was unhurt and the man driving the car was a vet and had taken the dog for a check-up. The man also said his girlfriend had gone with the dog and she was wearing her nurse's uniform as she was going to work.

I then got a phone call from my father to tell me his eldest sister had died and could I come and get him as he had smashed his car on the way to see the funeral director.

My colleague looked at me in total disbelief as she realised everything I had told her had unfolded within a matter of hours.

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