The sceptics among us would find Lisa Williams’ job easy to dismiss. Talking with dead people isn’t your run-of-the-mill occupation after all. Lisa Williams herself, medium and clairvoyant, well-known from the popular television shows Life Among the Dead and Voices From the Other Side chuckles to herself and says she finds it “all a bit of fun really”.
“My father was cynical about psychics for years and last year with the shows in Australia and New Zealand, he went to every auditorium where he searched for hidden cameras and mirrors,” she says. It can’t be easy having a sceptic so close to home. With sell-out shows Williams believes “you have to have integrity, but also to come along with an open mind” and adds that her main focus and work is on helping people.
At the end of the Australian run Williams’ father congratulated her on her integrity and talent, and no he never did find any mirrors or hidden cameras.
The down-to-earth tracksuit-wearing acclaimed medium, is very relaxed in her office in Los Angeles with one leg tucked under her, on her seat as we talk. She is fun, engaging and as her friends say, “What you see on TV is Lisa. She is exactly just like that.”
Williams came to Los Angeles with no plans to make a television show, but did a reading for an associate of Merv Griffin (the American TV host and media mogul), and the rest is history. Breaking into America and coming to the attention of Merv Griffin and “not intentionally looking for fame, and not really wanting it” Williams says it’s been “incredible, I’ve loved every minute of it. If you are a struggling actor it’s hard to break in here, but I have enjoyed it.”
Although it hasn’t come without its difficulties. “It’s hard to set up a life, make new friends and you question who you can trust, and it did take me a while,” she says. So Williams goes back to the UK once a year to visit friends and family and reconnect with those closest to her.
“I didn’t really want to travel and leave England; I was a homebody. I never planned to live in LA, but my son who is now nine doesn’t want to leave as he has his friends here and he has an established life here, he loves it,” she says.
So how does a clairvoyant relax? “My son is very precious, I have good friends, I go out and have fun. It’s also really important to have a creative outlet, and I love music and jazz singing.”
But isn’t the spirit world always there bugging her wanting to have a chat? “It does stop, and I do have my own life. The more I go through life, I condition it to have an hour here or there.”
And what does she see when the spirit world decides to make contact? “Visually it’s like a thought projection. I see flickering light and I can see how they looked and their memory projecting in my mind’s eye. And although they may have been an overweight 60-year-old when they passed, they might present themselves as a 25-year-old; it’s how they want to see themselves,” she adds.
This year Williams is travelling to the Gold Coast, where she will be teaching Mediumship – Connecting with the Other Side workshops at the Royal Pines Resort in Queensland. So is it possible to tell if someone has psychic ability instantly? “You can tell if someone is psychic by their aura, their energy,” she says, “but it’s like anything, you need time and effort. What you put in you get out. It’s about practise, and you learn as you go along.”
