Cher Chevalier
Cher Chevalier is renowned psychic and spiritual adviser who has helped and counselled many people around the globe from all walks of life.
FemaleFirst was given the chance to speak with Cher and quizzed her about the nature of her gift, how it drove her to the brink of suicide and her thoughts on new film Hereafter.
- I've read that you got into spiritualism after two near-death experiences as a child; could you tell us a bit more about that?
The first near death experience I had was when I was four, and I was run over by a motorbike and I technically died for a period of time. The clarity that I have from the experience is that, from the moment of impact I seemed literally to be catapulted out of my body and I was in what I can only describe as a semi-state, I was watching everything that happened.
I could see the blood all over the road and I could see my body crumpled up under the motorbike, I could see all those things but then there would be glimpses where everything was very quiet as if it was a very long way away but I was acutely aware of everything.
I didn't feel anything at all it was almost like a state of non-being but pure awareness. Then of course I would have glimpses of the light, being floated into the other side if that makes sense?
But at the same time, as well as being able to see everything I could even smell the burning rubber of the tires so it was sort of like being in both realms at the same time simultaneously. After that I was hounded, the only way I can describe it is that I felt like I was being watched all the time, I knew I was being watched, I could feel it.
You know like when somebody walks into the room you can feel their presence before you see them? It was like that but it was a while before I started seeing things maybe a couple of years.
- And your other accident?
By the time I was 9 I had another accident and this time I was run over by a car, and after this particular accident that was it, my faculties just completely opened up I could see things, beings. I became extremely psychic and mediumistic, I knew things that were going to happen, quite often very bad things.
I remember crying in bed thinking 'please don't let this happen, please don't let this happen' and then it would happen. My senses, sight, sound, hearing, taste, smell, everything became very acute and that accident was the trigger for everything else and from then, for the next 10 years up until I was 19, I felt like a victim of these psychic flashes and I had no way to control them and no way to stop them.
I could be walking out in the street and get a vision a not be able to see the road around me, just the vision and then it would be gone.
- So what happened after that? What did you do?
After that I was spotted by this very highly gifted medium who had similar things happen to him when he was really young and as soon as he saw me he could tell the experiences I was having from my auric feel .
He invited me to join, what he called, the high circle which was a very private little group which consisted of myself, himself and a couple of other people who were in their 60's. They were much older than me and he was in his 60's as well but I sat in his circle once a week, every week for two years and he helped me to fine tune and hone those skills so that I could control them.
I got to know the guys who were showing me things and I was able to learn how to switch it on and switch it off to some degree.
- Were you quite open to joining the group or were you shy at first?
I was quite apprehensive about doing it at first but to be honest I felt I didn't really have a choice; I'd never met anyone else who had felt that they could help me in any way.
My mum had a friend that was a medium and used to do readings for people and things, she did come along with me to the meetings. I was scared, this man was in his 60's, he was a stranger so she came with me and the two of us went together for two years.
- Do you follow any religion?
No I don't, I'm completely non-denominational but I would say that I'm devoted to god in that way. I think that religions are lead to the same source, and all the prophets teach a similar message coming from the same source so I would say my life is devotional but non-denominational.
- You cover a lot of areas within what you do from dream analysis to spiritual and psychic protection, what's your favourite area to work in?
To be honest, the psychic and the mediumistic side is only a small part of what I do now. After my training I went on to work as a psychic pretty much straight away. I had a period where I tried acting and things to shut it all out but it didn't work and that was many many years ago.
I'm 39 now so in the last 7 years I've be focusing more on the mystic side and I have just a handful of students that I'm training up with esoteric and exoteric practises. All of them have very serious experiences like is portrayed in the movie (Hereafter) and that's why I thought the movie was such an accurate portrayal of the beginnings of how these things affect people, whether it be near death experiences or the mediumistic side. Very often they go hand in hand you see but it's what the people do then, after that, what happens? So that's the arrear that I deal in most now.
I do help people with a lot of psychic counselling and even is Sufism what they call 'sweeping' which is to do with transportation of the shadow of the lower self, the ego, so I was thinking when I watched the film if they do a sequel it should definitely be how these two characters, Marie and George, could go onto much, much higher levels of awareness and they would therefore be spending a lot more time in the other realm, in the invisible realm. Perhaps work in the invisible realm to go on a do what would be considered miraculous things here in this dimension.
- Matt Damon's character in the film Hereafter at one point says "it's not a gift, it's a curse" do you ever feel it's more like a curse than a gift?
My book has been classed as very controversial because I reveal a lot about the shadowed side. There are a lot of books out that talk about the nice fluffy angels and all the nice things.
That is true but it's only part of it, we live a realm of duality, night/day, black/white, male/female and with spiritual and psychic experiences you're not exempt, for example in this realm we have murders and healers so it's no different in the invisible realm.
It's the same so some of things that you are made a witness to or even an active participant in, can be horrific and some can be divine and sublime.
So yes, I reveal a lot about the horrific side and the isolation, I really related to that in the movie actually because there was a massive period for me, five years where I was in total isolation because people couldn't understand what I was going through, it's happened to me many times and I'm still not married, I lead a celibate devotional life still.
Those periods were very distressing to me, so when he was portraying little scene's where he's sat at the table eating alone, it made me cry! Because that happened to me for like years and years and years and years and years until I had to resonate at a different level and now it doesn't really matter to me what happens, all that matters to me is the work.
But at his level it matters greatly and it can make you very depressed, what happens is the experiences keep increasing, just like with him, once something happens to you it becomes a part of your reality it's not like you can choose so it's part of his awareness, so it really touched me that part of the film.
- Obviously all the pressure got to you and as you said you can't control it, it's part of who you are, so was there ever a time you thought about giving up on life?
Oh yeah, there was a period when I was begging god for me to die, I just could not live with it anymore. There were most definitely periods when some of the spiritual experiences leave your physical body so drained that you can be in extreme pain, you can't move, it might last a few days at a time.
It's not just the loneliness and the isolation, the further you go the narrower the path becomes so you can't eat certain foods, you become super sensitive to people's vibrations, it becomes so extreme for a period until you learn to transcend it that yes, absolutely there was a period where I would have happily gone into the other realm.
- What was it that helped you come back from that?
Seven years ago I came across, what I term in my book as my teacher and he's a mystic and so that was the beginning of a whole new level of growth for me. Because of my devotion and my love of god I wouldn't kill myself, if I hadn't have had some kind of religious affiliation, a love for the divine and had some knowledge that if I had killed myself I would only be putting myself further back in terms of human evolution, I would I have definitely done it but because of my devotion I couldn't so I went through the what they call the chasm of fire.
But with the film, if they were to make a sequel and include this kind of stuff it could be absolutely ground breaking, there is nothing out there like it, there are no films, and there are rarely any books and when these come out they're only in circulation for a little while so that the right people pick up the stuff and then they're gone out of circulation again, on purpose.
- So you'd like to see more films like Hereafter?
Absolutely, but at a much deeper stage, because the handful of people that I'm helping now they've had these experiences and then they find themselves having the mystic experiences and there is no one to help them.
Not just movies, things on TV tend to be a sensationalism of the dark side, movies about poltergeists and things like that and those things do happen, it's just when they make movies about these things they're never educational it's always scare-factor. So what about the poor person sitting at home, seeing that movie and thinking 'my god, that has happened to me' what do they do next?
See what I mean, there is nothing out there like that, dealing with the reality of the mystic path, it's all sensationalism. Even with the psychic stuff to some degree it's all about 'wow people can see this', 'wow people can speak to people in other realms' it's like yes, but then what?
So yeah, I would love to see a sequel to this (Hereafter) because it seems to have been done with a lot of sincerity and a lot of depth. Also the characters weren't being praised like some kind of ridiculous superheroes, it was really touching how realistic it was but there is definitely room for movies out there that go a step higher than that.
- Obviously you are going to come across people who are very highly sceptical of what you do, what would you say to people who are sceptical of your gift?
In a way the saying 'ignorance is bliss' is a very true one because if you are not subject to those things then lucky you, if you are then you have to have people to help you. People do commit suicide and some students on the path do die.
These things are very serious and they always have been whether you're reading the bible or the Quran, it's full of stories of mystics and how they've been tempted, tested and had visions.
Whatever angle you want to go from, whether it's new age spirituality or atheism or religion, everything boils down to this because whether we like it or not, whether we believe or not, all of us have to leave this dimension.
We all have to leave the body and that is what we should be preparing for, but people who have these experiences are getting glimpses of that in advance and then they have to live with it while they're here.
It's terrifying but what can you do, it's one of those things, if it happens to you it's your reality and if you try to deny your reality, you go mad so what's the choice?
- What's next for you Cher, what are you planning to do in the future?
I will very shortly be putting out my manuscript to my publisher for the next Modern Seer book, which is much more about how one transverses the realms of existence working as a mystic.
Cher's book The Hidden Secrets of A Modern Seer is available now.
Hereafter will be available on Blu-ray Triple Play, Double Play, On Demand and Digital Download from 13th June 2011.
Cher Chevalier is renowned psychic and spiritual adviser who has helped and counselled many people around the globe from all walks of life.
FemaleFirst was given the chance to speak with Cher and quizzed her about the nature of her gift, how it drove her to the brink of suicide and her thoughts on new film Hereafter.
- I've read that you got into spiritualism after two near-death experiences as a child; could you tell us a bit more about that?
The first near death experience I had was when I was four, and I was run over by a motorbike and I technically died for a period of time. The clarity that I have from the experience is that, from the moment of impact I seemed literally to be catapulted out of my body and I was in what I can only describe as a semi-state, I was watching everything that happened.
I could see the blood all over the road and I could see my body crumpled up under the motorbike, I could see all those things but then there would be glimpses where everything was very quiet as if it was a very long way away but I was acutely aware of everything.
I didn't feel anything at all it was almost like a state of non-being but pure awareness. Then of course I would have glimpses of the light, being floated into the other side if that makes sense?
But at the same time, as well as being able to see everything I could even smell the burning rubber of the tires so it was sort of like being in both realms at the same time simultaneously. After that I was hounded, the only way I can describe it is that I felt like I was being watched all the time, I knew I was being watched, I could feel it.
You know like when somebody walks into the room you can feel their presence before you see them? It was like that but it was a while before I started seeing things maybe a couple of years.
- And your other accident?
By the time I was 9 I had another accident and this time I was run over by a car, and after this particular accident that was it, my faculties just completely opened up I could see things, beings. I became extremely psychic and mediumistic, I knew things that were going to happen, quite often very bad things.
I remember crying in bed thinking 'please don't let this happen, please don't let this happen' and then it would happen. My senses, sight, sound, hearing, taste, smell, everything became very acute and that accident was the trigger for everything else and from then, for the next 10 years up until I was 19, I felt like a victim of these psychic flashes and I had no way to control them and no way to stop them.
I could be walking out in the street and get a vision a not be able to see the road around me, just the vision and then it would be gone.
- So what happened after that? What did you do?
After that I was spotted by this very highly gifted medium who had similar things happen to him when he was really young and as soon as he saw me he could tell the experiences I was having from my auric feel .
He invited me to join, what he called, the high circle which was a very private little group which consisted of myself, himself and a couple of other people who were in their 60's. They were much older than me and he was in his 60's as well but I sat in his circle once a week, every week for two years and he helped me to fine tune and hone those skills so that I could control them.
I got to know the guys who were showing me things and I was able to learn how to switch it on and switch it off to some degree.
- Were you quite open to joining the group or were you shy at first?
I was quite apprehensive about doing it at first but to be honest I felt I didn't really have a choice; I'd never met anyone else who had felt that they could help me in any way.