Burks, Eddie

Eddie Burks (1922–2005) was a healer and clairvoyant known for his work in Spirit Releasement.

Eddie Burks was born in 1922 in London’s East End. When he was about five years old, he underwent an operation for a tonsillectomy and had a Near-Death-Experience (NDE). It was a disturbing experience in which he felt himself hurtling along a tunnel to a magic garden. He was upset to return. For years, he dreamed about the tunnel, until at age 30 he learned about NDEs and then fully understood his experience.

The NDE soon kindled a questioning of the religious instruction he received in church and a spiritual inquiry that was to shape the rest of his life. Burks had been reading philosophy since age 11. A turning point came when he discovered Nandor Fodor’s Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, with a foreword by Sir Oliver Lodge. For about eight years, he explored Spiritualism.

Burks’s metaphysical interests were superseded for a number of years with the demands of duty, marriage and career. He served in the army for four and one-half years, and following World War II he began a career as a civil engineer with his degree from London University. He and his wife, Margaret, had a son, Michael.

In 1970, Margaret, or Peggy as she was called, died unexpectedly at age 51 of an infarcted left ventricle of the heart. Burks and Michael were devastated. The day after she died, she returned and made her presence known to Burks. He became aware of her while fixing lunch for himself and Michael. Burks was cutting up leftover chicken when suddenly he burst out laughing, to Michael’s astonishment.

He explained to Michael that Peggy was standing near him, reminding him of what had happened the previous day. Burks had fixed the chicken for himself and Peggy, putting the choicest pieces on her plate. Somehow the plates got mixed up, and he ended up with the plate intended for her. They had laughed about it, and now she was reminding him of it. His spirits were lifted. Peggy made frequent visits to Burks over several months. They shared telepathic communication.

Burks remarried in 1972, to Patricia Millership, who had two girls from a previous marriage. Together they had a son, Christopher.

In 1981, Michael died suddenly of a burst aorta artery. He was 35. Like his mother, he also returned to visit Burks.

Peggy’s death helped to expand Burks’s psychic sense, which opened further in other ways as well. In the late 1970s, he became aware of a presence that made itself known to him at various times. It was never seen or heard but was felt, like an invisible cloud that was always on his right side. He knew it could be trusted, and it brought him a great feeling of peace.

The presence was involved in Burks’s spontaneous beginning as a healer in 1975. One day Burks visited a friend whose wife had just come out of the hospital after having a severe spinal operation for cancer. She asked him if he had brought a spiritual presence into the room. He was intuitively prompted to take her hands and then felt a surge of energy flow through him and into the woman. She made a quick recovery and lived for a number of years.

Burks began to do healing work and psychic counselling on an informal and part-time basis, soon establishing a long-term relationship with the Bristol Cancer Care Centre, a leader in complementary treatment for cancer.

His healing expanded into spirit releasement as Burks became increasingly aware of spirit presences around people and trapped in places. His first release occurred spontaneously in a case beginning on March 7, 1983. Burks felt himself overshadowed by a presence that identified itself as Egyptian. He seemed to be a middle-ranking nobleman who had been mummified. The spirit was agitated that he had not been assisted by his slaves and attendants after his death. With Burks’s help, he was led away to a sleep period, and Burks was instructed to pray for him. On March 22 the Egyptian again appeared, this time asking for more help. He reappeared on October 17, showing signs of impending liberation that would enable him to move on in the spirit world. He instructed Burks to make certain gestures of prayer and blessing and expressed thanks for having “spiritual truth” opened to him.

Burks’s releasement work was always done in a partnership with spirit guides or presences. The guides help a trapped soul find Burks. He telepathically talked to the soul and listened to its story, and persuaded it to move on. One of his roles was an anchor so that when the soul was freed—which released a great deal of emotional energy—it did not rebound into psychic space and risk becoming lost again.

In 1989, he retired from his job as a civil engineer and turned to healing and releasement work full time. In 1999, he became a founder of the British Association for Spirit Release. He served on the council of the College of Psychic Studies from 1982 to 1992. In addition, he was a member of the Scientific and Medical Network, a group of professionals seeking to build a bridge between science and medicine and the paranormal.

Burks was often featured in the media for some of the cases he handled, especially the Queen’s Bank Haunting in London in 1993, which received international attention. He lived in Lincoln, England. In 2003, Burks was seriously injured in an automobile accident and had to stop releasement work. He recovered but did not regain full health. He died on August 23, 2005, in Lincoln County Hospital. He was 82. See Littledean Hall.

FURTHER READING:

• Burks, Eddie, and Gillian Cribbs. Ghosthunter: Investigating the World of Ghosts and Spirits. London: Headline Book Publishing, 1995.
• Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Angels of Mercy. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits– Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – September 1, 2007