Kelvin Cruickshank is a psychic medium who worked on the Sensing Murder TV show and does public readings around the country. He's just published his fourth book, Inside the Medium, and says his dad was once his biggest sceptic.
1. Go on, tell me: What will Question 12 be?
Do you think your interviewer should be shouting lunch today?
2. Have you ever met a psychic you didn't like?
Absolutely. There's a few of whom I think don't work from the heart. A lot of people are working as mediums for their ego or status. It's not that they're pretending, because they think they are a medium, but they are not. They are not talking to dead people.
3. You address a fair bit of your new book, Inside the Medium, to sceptics: do you get sick of justifying what you do?
Most stay away these days but I have enjoyed the challenges that come. If the sceptics are happy being sceptical, then I'm happy for them. Bless them.
4. What do you tell your children about life after death?
I tell them just what I tell the public - that when we cross over we don't die, we continue on. Home (Heaven) is a beautiful place and we are here to learn and absorb things. Where we are now is a big school for us.
5. I've never understood why, if spirits are talking to you, they don't just come out and say it. Why are there always just hints about who and what they are saying?
Because they're dead. It ain't that easy, aye.
6. Has being a medium made you wealthy?
I drive a Hilux ute, not a Maserati.
7. Describe your childhood.
My mum was pretty much a hippy when I was young - we went to Sweetwaters festivals and Nambassa. Then she shot off to university and Dad cared for the kids. We had a very open childhood, understanding all walks of life, which was good.
8. How have your parents coped with what you do?
Dad always used to say "that's a load of bullshit", "that's a lot of crap". I got to the point where I said if you can't accept me then let me go on my journey - and I didn't see him for a while. But then he saw me on TV [with British psychic Colin Fry] and rang me up and said "you're helping people aren't you boy?" and he came to a show and has been my biggest fan since. Mum is now an Anglican hospital chaplain and she said for years that she didn't understand - but then she had her own experience with a dying woman who she was caring for in hospital, who had three spirits turn up just before she died. Now she gets it. That was a big thing for my mum because she's very religious.
9. You were diagnosed at one stage with having ADHD: what were your symptoms and what were they really masking?
I was so active in mind because I was trying to keep away from the dead people and that was misread by doctors who threw drugs down my throat. They only masked the truth for a short time.
10. Why did Sensing Murder never actually solve a crime?
We as mediums were asked to sense murder, not solve murder. But it appears to me that even when we hit the nail on the head, even with names and places and amazing detail, it wasn't enough. New Zealand authorities require hard evidence, which is difficult to come up with many years after the tragic event.
11. Your audience seems predominantly female - is it your good looks or are women more attuned to the spirit world?
I'd be most disappointed if they came only for a perve. I actually have important things to say and share. Yes, a lot of females are connected as they are open to it. I wish more blokes were like that and they are getting there slowly.
12. Do people ask you to do party tricks?
All the time. However, there is a right place to do what I do and a wrong place. Being on the booze at a party then talking to dead people just to appease others is incredibly disrespectful. And besides, I'm not a freak show.
