Noel Edmonds: I believe angels are guiding us

SUDDENLY angelology has become big business, best-selling books, specialist shops and now endorsement from one of TV’s biggest stars who believes he’s surrounded by strange ‘orbs’.

SPIRITUAL Noel believes the two orbs that visit him are his late parents SPIRITUAL: Noel believes the two orbs that visit him are his late parents

The glowing balls of shimmering light hover, Noel Edmonds insists, over each of his shoulders. Their delicate glow casts a golden aura over him as he goes about his daily life, commuting between his homes in London and the south

of France and working on his various television projects.

The “orbs”, as he describes them, watch over him constantly. They are, he thinks, the spirits of his late parents. And while the response to his latest claims might cause mirth in some quarters, for many other people they are proof of something more profound – that angels are watching over us.

“I have two orbs that visit me,” Noel says. “They’re both the size of a melon and one sits on my arm and the other is over my shoulder. I like to think they’re my parents. Conventional photography can’t pick them up but digital cameras can. My belief is that these are something to do with some form of spiritual energy. And possibly because I miss my parents like mad, I like to think they are them.”

Anthony Gormley s Angel of the North Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North

Speaking out about these “spirits” that he seems to think guide him is a brave move for the Deal Or No Deal presenter, who in 2005 reignited his career when he started on the programme after a long spell out of the public eye.

 

A year ago he spoke of his belief in cosmic ordering, a system in which you ask the planets for the things you need by writing a “wish-list”, and there were those then who raised their eyebrows about such unorthodox opinions. But Noel, 59, is far from alone in his enthusiastic belief in his orbs. Growing numbers of ­people are now believers in such phenomena and experts in the spiritual world have little doubt about what the TV presenter is experiencing.

Then I just heard calming voices saying that I could either drown or they would guide me back to the shore, which they did.

Jacky Newcomb

“From what he described I think Noel is seeing what we call angels,” says Daisy Floss, a spiritual healer and angelologist who thinks that interest in her field is booming.

The traditional image of the maj­estic winged being is, says Daisy, a Victorian invention. And unlike in the film It’s A Wonderful Life, where the suicidal protagonist George Bailey is guided by a human-shaped guardian angel called Clarence Odbody, it is more likely that those who feel the presence of an angel will experience something much less tangible.

“There might be a shift in temperature or a tingling sensation and perhaps the person might hear light, ­tinkling music,” explains Daisy.

“What they will see are shimmering globes of light of varying colour and intens­ity. There are different angels, each with different colours. Archangel Michael appears in sapphire blue, for example.

“What Noel describes is very typical of how angels appear to people. I know lots of friends who have digital photographs, like Noel says he does, with these shimmering orbs in the background. I have photographs of myself, too, with coloured light globes surrounding me. I know these are angels.”

And the purpose of these angels, she adds, is to guide and protect us.

For Noel they are “happy” and “positive” energy fields and his linking of them to his parents bares all the hallmarks of a guardian angel.

“If you are a positive person you will undoubtedly have orbs around you,” he says. “We are all made up of energy – we vibrate all the time. It’s inconceivable to me that when we die, that energy just disappears. That energy has to go somewhere. That’s what orbs are. I’m absolutely certain now that there is something else out there because I’ve got the proof.”

The proof, he says, is his collection of digital photographs in which his orbs are visible, although he has so far declined to share these snaps with a wider audience.

“I had a very interesting evening at a house I was renting a while back,” he says. “I was talking with friends about spiritualism and the subject of orbs came up. Someone got a camera out and started taking pictures. When I saw the images, I was like, ‘Hang on a minute that’s got to be dust or light’. I was fairly cynical but we took some more and the same orbs were there.”

Cynicism is something those who believe in angels encounter a lot – but in an age where people are increasingly looking away from organised religion, the popularity of angelology is expanding ­rapidly. Even David Beckham has a large angel tattoo on his back.

Jacky Newcomb, often described as the “angel lady”, has written eight books on the subject – two of which were best-sellers. Her work, including Angels Watching Over Me, has been translated into eight languages and each day she receives hundreds of messages, e-mails and ­letters from around the world.

“In the past few years interest in angels has grown significantly, from people of all backgrounds and all religions,” she says. “Either there are more angels around or people are more comfortable talking about it. Often people who told me their angel stories would say, ‘I’ve never told anyone this’, but these days people are more willing to talk.”

While it may sound spooky to encounter an angel, Jacky says those she has interviewed for her books almost always talk of a feeling of great calm. “It makes you feel very protected, safe and loved. It’s not a scary experience at all.”

Her own first encounter came at the age of five when she had a terrifying experience, being nearly swept out to sea off the Isle of Wight.

“A strong current caught me and dragged me out. Then I just heard calming voices saying that I could either drown or they would guide me back to the shore, which they did. It wasn’t a big Hollywood experience, just something strangely beautiful. There was no 10ft-tall winged being for me. It wasn’t until years later that I saw a thing about angels on TV and remembered.”

Search on the internet and you will find hundreds of websites dedicated to recounting stories of ang­elic experiences and there are many books on the subject such as How To Hear Your Angels, by the intriguingly named Doreen Virtue.

And there are the angel shops which do a roaring trade selling items such as white feathers, cer­amic angels and winged beings carved out of crystals.

But while the angel industry is booming Jacky is at pains to point out that she doesn’t charge for all of her services. She likes to offer people personal res­ponses to e-mails and letters free of change, she says, wary of the oft-touted accusation that it’s yet another form of spiritualism on which practitioners are cashing in. 

“I’m afraid you’re always going to get frauds in any industry. People should be cautious about what they’re paying for,” she says.

The leading authors in the field are not household names, despite the fact that some are best-sellers. Diana Cooper, for example, has sold 500,000 books although many people will not have heard of her.

“We don’t thrust our beliefs at ­people,” adds Jacky. “If someone doesn’t believe then I wouldn’t ever try to convince them otherwise. I like sharing experiences but I don’t like lecturing people at all.

“Angels are different things to different people but I am convinced there are more beings out there than we are aware of. As humans we’ve got limited senses. We’re not able to see everything. In science there are things like atoms we know exist but we can’t see with the naked eye.

“Sadly, I think we’re taught not to believe in things we can’t always experience with our senses of sight, touch, smell, sound and hearing. But we know dogs have better hearing than us and birds have better eyesight. We rely quite heavily on very limited human senses.

“I always remember, when people are sceptical, that we used to think the Earth was flat.”

And these days it certainly isn’t just Noel Edmonds who believes such phenomena are the real deal.

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