WE live in an age where social networking on the internet means that it is virtually impossible to lose contact with people, even if they’ve left town or changed jobs.

But imagine if there was a way of contacting people after they had died.

Dorset spiritual mediums A Touch of Glass claim to be able to help people do just this. Andy Peel and Lisa Hide offer spiritual readings for people wishing to contact dead relatives.

“We feel privileged that we can do it and help other people,” says Lisa.

They claim to be able to communicate with the spirit world using just alphabetical cards and a glass.

“We ask the spirits things to prove that they are family members by asking them to spell out the names of other relatives and places they have names for,” said Andy.

Being the curious, or more aptly, sceptical individual that I am, I welcomed the chance to have a reading with A Touch of Glass (atouchofglass.co.uk).

Seeing as how I had never met Lisa or Andy before or told them any names or details of any dead relatives of mine, I was interested to see if anything would happen.

The three of us sat around a table, on which alphabetical cards lay in a circle with a “yes” and a “no” card at opposite ends. In the middle was a glass tumbler, which we each placed a finger on.

Before we started Andy called upon a spirit to protect the reading so that no bad spirits could come through, only family members.

At this point I still wasn’t sure I believed that anything was going to happen.

Andy asked if there were any spirits present, and the glass moved across to “yes”.

The glass moved again to the letters F - R - A - N - C - E - S. The room went icy cold and everything suddenly felt very real.

Frances was the name of my Grandma who died 10 years ago when I was just 11 years old.

After that more names were spelt out as the glass slid across the table from letter to letter.

The name of the town where she lived, the name of her house, places where we used to visit in the summer and the name of my favourite cake she used to bake for me.

Then I asked: “Do you know that I finished University?” and the glass shot across the table to “yes” with so much force that I jumped out of my seat.

Andy asked: “Who are you with?” And with stunned astonishment I watched as the glass spelt out the name of my granddad, who was married to my grandma and died shortly after I was born.

By now the room was so cold that Lisa and myself could feel our hands going numb.

As we finished, Andy asked that my grandma Frances would watch over me and to show me from time to time that she was still there.

As I got in the car, ‘Every Breath You Take’ by Sting was playing on the radio, and I just happened to tune in at the point when the lyrics say: ‘Every step you take I’ll be watching you.’ Very spooky.