Mary White is a natural communicator -- but the people she communicates with are dead. The medium explained her extraordinary powers to JENNY SCOTT

UP on the stage of the Colne Municipal Hall, Mary White is chatting to two women. One of them is sitting, riveted, in the audience in front of her. The other is the spectator's grandmother . . . and passed away some years ago.

Mary is enjoying communicating with both women -- in particular, the one the rest of the room can't see.

"She's a very soothing presence," she says. "She's all in lavender -- a very calming colour. I think she was a very spiritual person when she was here on earth."

After Mary has passed on a few personal details and words of reassurance to the woman's granddaughter she moves on to somebody else in the audience.

This is one of the stand-up demonstrations Mary, a psychic and medium from Burnley, has been practising for the past eight months, but the experience is an exhausting one.

"People think you just stand up on stage and that's that," she explains, the following morning.

"But when you do a large venue like Colne, you've got to have very high energy levels. This morning I feel like I've got a hangover."

Nor does Mary have a terribly clear recollection of what went on as she stood on stage last night.

"I forget what I've said. I just let it go because you can't hold on to anything the spirit gives you. Your mind's not big enough.

"You're a channel -- you hear it, speak it and release it."

So what exactly happens when Mary communicates with the spirit world?

"When I use my psychic powers, I can see a clear picture of things that are happening around people in everyday life," she says. "I can sense things like the colour of their car or the kind of job they do.

"But the clairvoyance and mediumship comes in when somebody from the world of the spirit recognises you, whether it be family or friends, and chooses to come and speak and give you information to help you with your life.

"This can be spiritual, materialistic, or sometimes they just want to say hello. How I see them depends on how they want to appear to me. Sometimes I can actually see them."

Mary is helped by her two guides in the spirit world -- a strict monk called Brother Michael and a Chinese man called Mai Lng.

She says: "They are the ones who speak to me and teach me about the spirit world. They know in advance who is coming to see me and bring the spirits through to me."

Mary's powers are hereditary. She grew up off Gannow Lane, Burnley, where her parents founded White's Pies.

Her grandmother, however, was known in the town for her psychic powers.

"My grandmother, Elizabeth Robinson, was a sort of clairvoyant," says Mary.

"She used to tell me to sit, learn and listen. And being around her and watching her talk to what, at the time looked like thin air, seemed perfectly normal.

"It was only after my grandmother passed away I came into a heightened sense of the spirit world. I was going through an emotional trauma and the spirit came to help. I started picking up on things that were in the news. I woke up one night and saw this man's face and the next morning I put the television on and saw he'd escaped from prison."

Mary did not delve straight into life as a clairvoyant, though, instead opting for a more everyday career.

She worked as a unit controller at Lucas, the car parts manufacturer, for 22 years. Five years ago, she took redundancy and set up a business offering holistic therapy before moving into clairvoyance.

Now she does Tarot readings, clairvoyance, healings and teachings from a room above Glamour Puss beauty salon in Clayton-le-Moors, where people come to see her from as far afield as Australia and America. She also stages live demonstrations, such as the one at Colne. "I've never been shy about standing up and speaking to people," she said. "I still hate it when I come across people who are sceptical or who want information that's black and white. I find that, with the spirit world, you don't always get what you want to know, but what you need to know. The way I work is to give guidance to people who need it. The main objective is to bring peace and balance -- it's not about fishing out next week's lottery numbers!"

Since Mary's aim is to bring peace to people's lives, you might assume she leads a very peaceful existence herself. But far from it, she says.

"The saying that there's no such thing as a happy medium is true," she laughs. "You are so sensitive that even the tiniest drop in the ocean to me feels like it's a tidal wave.

"You have the extremes of emotions. If you're upset, you feel it a hundred fold more than other people, but sometimes, if you've done a really good reading, you're floating and nobody can touch you."

Mary's success has also brought her work on radio. She's the resident medium on 2BR and also worked on Revolution Radio and Radio Lancashire.

"I don't think there's an issue with what I do being seen as entertainment," she says. "I don't speak to entertain people but to give them information and comfort from the spirit world."

And Mary believes there's a real need for people to find solace in spiritual matters -- particularly these days.

"We think we've evolved and, materially, we have. But if you look at what's really important in life, we haven't evolved where that's concerned."

For more information about Mary's work, contact 07947 374889.