What happens when experiences you’ve had since childhood — experiences you once struggled to understand — eventually become the very path your life takes?

In this episode of the Anthony Larkin Podcast, I’m joined by Barnsley-based spiritual medium and Reiki practitioner Bethany Kilner, founder of Mystical Magpie.

Bethany’s story begins in Penistone, South Yorkshire, in a house she describes as intensely haunted.

From objects apparently moving by themselves and unexplained activity around the home, to an experience at just six years old involving a dark shadow figure standing beside her bed, Bethany shares the childhood experiences that first opened the door to what she now understands as spirit.

But her journey hasn’t simply been about mediumship.

Bethany speaks openly about a very difficult period in her younger life when she struggled with depression, dark thoughts and feeling completely lost. She shares the extraordinary sequence of events surrounding a serious horse-riding accident, discovering she was pregnant with her first daughter, and why she sees that moment as a major turning point in her life.

We also explore how Bethany eventually learned to trust her mediumship and what she believes happens when she connects with somebody who has died.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Growing up in a house Bethany describes as haunted
• Seeing and sensing spirit from childhood
• The fear of wondering whether what she was experiencing was real
• Depression, difficult periods and finding a new direction
• The horse-riding accident that changed everything
• Losing her beloved Liz — and why Bethany now regards her as a spirit guide
• How Bethany receives information during mediumship readings
• Learning to distinguish her own thoughts from what she believes is spirit communication
• Ethics and responsibility when working with grieving or vulnerable people
• Evidential mediumship — including some wonderfully bizarre validations!
• The unforgettable “Granny P” Love Heart that Bethany still has today
• Reiki and angelic energy
• Past lives and reincarnation
• What Bethany believes the afterlife may be like
• Aliens, other frequencies and consciousness
• Why Bethany believes healthy scepticism is important
• Building Mystical Magpie and creating a spiritual community in Barnsley

There are moments of grief and vulnerability in this conversation, but there’s also plenty of laughter — including possibly one of the strangest pieces of mediumistic evidence I’ve heard so far involving “Derek Pakora” and a one-legged blind chicken!

Bethany is refreshingly open about her beliefs while also acknowledging that people should question, explore and come to their own conclusions.

Towards the end of our conversation, Bethany shares how she imagines the afterlife: free from physical pain, reunited with loved ones, and still able to remain connected in some way to those we leave behind.

And her final message is beautifully simple:

**Be your true, authentic self — and leave a little bit of sparkle everywhere you go.**