Hearing messages of hope that are delivered in an accessible, safe space

At a Bristol social club, a psychic medium scans the room, inviting the spirit world into a space more often used for drinking and darts

- Josh Bullock, senior lecturer criminology and social sciences, Kingston University, and Caroline Starkey, associate professor of religion and society, University of Leeds.

The medium is talking to a small audience, mostly women.

She says she is giving them messages from their loved ones who have died. She says she is mentally communicating with a very young child in the spirit world. A teenager raises her hand - "Could it be my baby? I lost a baby last year" - and begins to sob.

A hush falls. Strangers cry. The medium comforts her and tells her that her lost baby is well, growing up in the spirit world and looked after. The girl, though still sobbing quietly, seems relieved and grateful.

Through 16 interviews, a survey of 84 people and formal observations at psychic nights, we found that for attendees, these events blur boundaries between sacred and secular, grief and humour, scepticism and belief.