Welcome to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher Tom Slemen, for the Globe.

In this latest story, Tom tells a tale of love beyond death...

The one great certainty for us all is death – but what happens after we die?

Do we go, with great finality, down that six-foot hole or up the crematorium chimney as a puff of smoke - and that’s that?

The materialist would say so – but I say otherwise. In this era of celebrity atheists preaching their sermons of disbelief (usually via social media) to the easily-led, I take great pride in thinking for myself.

If a person is honest regarding his or her views on life after death, that person must say they are an agnostic – they neither believe nor disbelieve – but await the proof for or against a life beyond this one.

The universe is a huge place and its workings are simply too mind-boggling to fathom at the moment, and if scientists don’t even know what gravity is or how to cure cancer, then what chance do they have of working out who or what made this universe?

The Christians say God said “Let there be light!” and there was an unimaginable outburst of energy which created every light source in existence – every star and galaxy was called into being and flew outwards from the cataclysmic explosion.

The scientists laughed at such a story – but then don’t they believe in the mysterious “Big Bang” which gave birth to the universe 13.8 billion years ago? What caused this awesome explosion of energy?

The scientists don’t know.

Ironically, it was a Catholic priest - Georges Lemaître – who first suggested the theory of the Big Bang – which he called his “Cosmic Egg” hypothesis – in 1927.

Furthermore, there is another embarrassment to astrophysicists, and this is the missing mass of the universe – it simply can’t be found, so they sheepishly named it dark matter.

So, against this vast backdrop of ignorance about the origins and workings of the universe, is the question about a life after death so silly?

I have amassed so many cases that seem to indicate that there is a life beyond – and before – this one.

Some folk seem to get recycled (reincarnated), and curiously, some people known to one another in one life seem to travel in groups and reincarnate together; they are like families of souls that wait in some limbo till every member has passed on.

Many years ago, a Birkenhead girl named Claire fell in love with a young maths tutor at her college named Robert.

She was 18 and he was 23, and she was besotted with him, but he remained professional and would not get romantically involved with the girl, but everybody could see they had a thing for each other.

Robert was very handsome, over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and bore a strong resemblance to the American actor Christopher Reeve.

Claire eventually left the college, met a Heswall man and married him.

Claire lost touch with Robert, but as the years went by, she wished she had hooked up with him.

Her husband had turned into a selfish womaniser and showed no interest in his wife.

Claire visited the college where Robert had worked and one of her old tutors said that Robert had left three years back to take up a teaching job somewhere down south, possibly Sussex, but he wasn’t sure where.

About a year after this, Claire was injured in a serious car crash which left her in a coma for a while.

As she lay in her hospital bed, she could hear her mother praying nearby, and suddenly she felt as if she was coming out of her body.

She soared high into the air over the Birkenhead hospital, and when she looked down she could see the curve of the River Mersey and every building and landmark in great detail.

Claire went higher and higher, and thought she had died in the hospital bed.

She found herself walking on clouds that stretched for miles, and the sun was either rising or setting, but it was in her eyes.

Walking towards her across this breathtaking cloudscape was a man in silhouette with his back to the sun’s glare.

"Claire, it’s me – Robert," said a familiar, reassuring voice.

"Robert?" Claire was no longer afraid. She could see it was her lost love.

They embraced, and he told Claire she was between worlds, hovering between life and death, and that he himself had passed away last year – on his birthday, ironically.

"They are fighting for your life down there," he told Claire, "and I hope they succeed, because you need to live a happy life. You haven’t been happy with that husband of yours Claire."

Claire felt so elated in Robert’s arms. "I want to stay with you – I always loved you Robert – I should have married you!"

"I was to blame too – I should have gone with my feelings for you; I did love you, Claire," he said, and hugged her tight and kissed the top of her head. "I’ll wait for you if you have to go back."

Claire felt herself slip out of his embrace and cried out as she floated downwards.

She awoke in the hospital bed in tears.

She eventually recovered and was discharged.

She later found out via a friend that Robert had indeed died on his birthday a year before from natural causes.

Ten years after this, Claire died after a short illness, and just before she passed away she told a friend at her bedside that Robert had come for her, and she smiled, then closed her eyes for good.

Haunted Liverpool 30 is out now.