Tuesday Topic, with Christine Rutter

EVER wondered why you had a hunch about something or instantly disliked someone you met? It could the work of your guardian angels - celestial navigators who play daily mind games to steer the course of your life and help you make heaven-sent choices.

According to a woman who believes in angels, our everyday actions are part of a much bigger plan plotted by divine guides who relay words and impressions to help us to achieve whatever it is we came on earth to do.

"It is like your are the chairman of a board of governors," said 36-year-old Julie Eckersley, a pleasant Australian from Perth with bleached, cropped blonde hair - a world away from the middle-aged, beaded, sandal-clad person I had expected to meet.

"There is no mystery to angels," said Julie.

"Cymbals and thunder don't crash and gods don't appear.

"Angels are often depicted as cherubs with wings but they are just people who mastered the game of life while on earth.

"They now help others to make the right choices, find their purpose and have a happy and fulfilled life. They do everything in your best interests."

The notion of our fellow beings surviving the grave to help us through life is not an odd one.

From ancient times man has always been instinctively curious about life after death.

Eastern cultures believe we return to earth in varying incarnations.

Christianity denies this but the resurrection is the heart of its creed.

It is only a post-modern, atheist world which rejects this ancient knowledge in favour of a more scientific, rational approach. But things are slowly changing. People everywhere are waking up to the idea that there is more to life than the physical, material world.

Julie believes you are assigned one or a team of attendant spirits to watch over you from birth but people have free will as to whether they heed their heavenly hints.

"Many people are too wrapped up in stress or the physical things of life to hear them," said Julie.

But she said people could learn to explore and trust their intuition and begin to build a bridge of communication between themselves and their celestial guardians.

She believes nobody is devoid of psychic ability and it is just a case of tuning into the angels' frequency.

"It is basically about trusting your sixth sense," she said.

"It is so easy to talk yourself out of following your psychic sensitivities. I suddenly realised I wasn't alone.

"I was a successful market research analyst, took every course under the sun and had lots of friends but inside I felt stressed-out and unfulfilled. But the angels taught me my purpose in life - to do public speaking.I started to enjoy life. I was less stressed and more confident."

Julie is running a workshop on the subject of angels at Blackburn Library tonight at 7pm

It is as part of her world tour for the Inner Peace Movement.

"They are with me," she said with conviction.

"When they come close to you, you can feel it.

"It is a physical sensation."

Anyone interested should turn up at 7pm at the Abram Room, Blackburn Central Library, Town Hall Street.

The first half hour is free.

The hour-long lecture which follows will cost £4.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.