"From the moment my son could talk he'd tell me about 'The Men' who'd come into his room."

My psychic abilities came to the fore after I miscarried my second child, a daughter, whom I would have named Brooke, had she survived. After this incident my psychic abilities opened up and could not be shut down. This was an extremely traumatic time in my life and at times it was terrifying to witness the daily visions that I was being shown by the spirit world.

After the miscarriage I was told that I would most likely not be able to conceive any more children, due to numerous health issues. Deep down in my heart I knew that this was not the case. I could feel that there were other little souls waiting to be born into my family.

Two years after the miscarriage occurred I fell pregnant with my beautiful son, Blake. This was a time of great joy, but also a time of great torment as my psychic abilities were growing stronger and stronger and I still found it very hard to control them.

During the pregnancy I worried what the visions and psychic experiences would do to my unborn child. To help calm me and alleviate the stress from my new psychic gifts, I did a lot of meditation and would listen to the singer Enya, to help me relax.

My boys, Ryan and Blake, were born one day and four years apart. Blake was born on 31 March 1994 and Ryan was born on 1 April 1990.

My paternal grandfather, Bernard Ernest Gee, shares the same birthday as Ryan; and for a moment, there, I thought that both boys would share the same birthday. However, I think Blake was a little too impatient to wait another 24 hours before arriving into this world.

Psychic Debbie Malone shares how to know if there are spirits in your presence.

From the moment Blake arrived, he was very aware of the spirit world. He was very different to Ryan. He was a very nervous baby and was not very cuddly like his older brother. If I had the window open and the curtains in the room moved with the breeze, he would become hysterical until I closed the window and the curtains stopped moving.

It was quite difficult to get him to settle. The only way I could settle him was to play music by Enya, which I am sure he heard while he was in utero.

Blake had a true mind of his own and was more interested in playing with our dog, Schooner, than playing with his brother. He was happy to go outside into the backyard and make guns out of sticks, or find other pretend weapons that he would use to play with his invisible friends. He was always frightened of the dark and extremely frightened of heights.

From the moment he could talk he would tell me about the men who would come into his room and frighten him. On numerous occasions he would tell me that ‘The Men’ were back in his room. When I asked him about ‘The Men’ he would just stop talking and tell me that he didn’t want to talk about them anymore.

One day, when he again mentioned ‘The Men’, I asked him what the men looked like. He said that they had their arms or legs missing. He said some of them had nails in their heads and they were bleeding. He said that they were dressed in green clothes and some of them were wearing helmets.

He would describe ‘The Men’ in his room on numerous occasions and it made it difficult for him to go to sleep. When the boys shared the same room the issue with ‘The Men’ became more confronting, as both of the boys began to experience unusual events in their bedroom. At night, to help the boys to sleep, I would read books to them and then lie in their room with them until they feel asleep.

At about four years of age Blake became very interested in the First and Second World Wars. My children have a number of family members who were in the Second World War and this is the reason that we thought he may have become so interested in the armed forces.

One day when we were looking at a book about ANZAC Day, Blake said that the men in his room looked like the ones in the book. The picture was of men in their battle fatigues, in green army uniforms, and with helmets on their heads. Finally, I began to understand who my children’s mysterious visitors were.

ANZAC Day became a very special occasion for our family, especially for Blake. He was always very adamant that we attend the ANZAC Dawn Service because he would tell us that we couldn’t let our mates down. He said that we needed to ‘Remember Them!’

From the age of about five, until he was in his early teens, he always wanted to wear army camouflage clothing. An American friend of the family gave him a whole lot of children’s-size reproduction army camouflage clothing that her son had grown out of. Any clothing that was in camouflage colours or had any connection to the army became a part of his wardrobe.

Another friend of ours was a member of the Army Reserve and gave Blake some army-issue camouflage paint, which he proudly wore when he was dressed in his army clothes. If his army clothes were dirty or in the wash, he would refuse to wear anything else until they were clean and dry.

I thought his interest in the wars was just a stage he was going through and I thought that he would grow out of it. I now realise that there was so much more to this connection.

This was an edited extract from Always With You by Debbie Malone (Rockpool Publishing $29.99) now available at all good book stores and online.