FORT KENT — Like Demi Moore’s character in the 1990 movie “Ghost,” pretty much anyone who has lost a loved one would give anything for just more more chance to talk to them.

In the movie, Whoopi Goldberg plays a reluctant medium who in the end opens a channel for Moore’s character to say a final goodbye to her deceased boyfriend.

Far from the silver screen, Jocelyn Boucher is a real-life certified psychic medium who has helped hundreds of people communicate with their dearly departed.

“There is an afterlife,” Boucher, who calls herself “ The North Shore Medium,” said in a recent telephone interview from her Massachusetts home. “Life does exist beyond this one. Our loved ones who have crossed over are in energy fields (and) it gives people hope to reconnect and know their deceased loved ones are safe.”

Stressing she is not a fortune teller, Boucher, 38, a native of Fort Kent, says by communicating with those who have died, she has proven the continuity of life and energy beyond death.

To open those lines of communication, Boucher said she must first raise her own levels of awareness and energy vibrations.

“I get the feeling of a spirit or entity as they come into my energy field,” she said. “Then I start seeing their face in my ‘third eye’ [and] feel how they passed and then the spirit downloads their energy into me. It’s just like computer software being downloaded.”

Boucher then gets flashes of images from that spirit’s life which she will then share with the loved one still on earth as evidence of that connection.

“Everyone really does have the ability to do this,” she said. “It just comes down to if people want to develop those tools and fine tuning those tools.”

For Boucher, her gift presented itself following a traumatic life event decades ago.

“When I was 3-years-old, I witnessed my sister being killed,” she said. “An 18-wheeler crashed into our house, killed her and I saw the whole thing.”

Soon after, the family moved into an apartment over the former Nadeau’s House of Furniture on Main Street in Fort Kent.

“I was really going through some post traumatic stress syndrome and pretty much pushed everyone out of my life,” Boucher said.

Almost, everyone, that is.

Boucher found comfort in the presence of what her family thought was a childish “imaginary friend,” but who Boucher said was actually the spirit that had died in that apartment.

That spirit soon brought out some if its friends for Boucher to meet.

“My imaginary friends were real,” she said. “They were there to help me cope with my sister’s loss (and) I remember having tea parties with them and playing dress-up dolls with them.”

When Boucher was 6-years-old, her family moved to New Hampshire and soon after, she said, her father was killed in a motorcycle accident.

“That feeling of loss again triggered a lot of emotions inside of me,” she said. “It felt like I was losing my sister all over again.”

Things stayed pretty quiet for Boucher until, in her mid 20s, she moved into a Massachusetts house populated with very active spirits.

“I used to see them hanging from the rafters, light bulbs would explode and shoes would go flying across the room,” she said. “We were under a spirit attack.”

Boucher went looking for answers and began working with a certified medium.

“She helped me fine tune my gift,” Boucher said.

Today, Boucher is a level 4 spiritual medium, a reiki master, shaman and holds a degree in holistic health.

“I have helped hundreds of people from around the world move on and heal from grief,” she said. “I can give them that connection so they know their loved ones continue on and it’s not just ‘lights out’ (and) that gives them peace and it removes fear.”

Clients calling on Boucher want to connect with a loved one and most commonly want to know if the deceased loved one is happy with the choices the living are making.

“People want to know if their loved ones think they are doing a good job and there can be a lot of apologies between them,” she said. “A lot of people want to have closure.”

Boucher takes none of this lightly and is always careful in how she presents the messages from the other side.

“I have had 10 years of training and I know how to deliver messages so I don’t shock the person,” she said. “I have to be gentle with my delivery because I am dealing with people’s lives and emotions.”

Boucher said she has certainly dealt with her share of nonbelievers and she respects them.

“I am not one to push my beliefs on anybody,” she said. “And there are those who, no matter how much proof I show them, will never believe.”

It does not help, she said, that there are plenty of fake mediums out there preying on people.

“I tell people to research the medium to make sure they have credentials and are certified,” she said.

Boucher works with clients one-on-one in person or over the telephone in addition to public shows.

She has two upcoming shows at the Inn of Acadia in Madawaska that are already sold out, plus an event at the University of Maine at Fort Kent at 7 p.m. Dec. 20 she is calling “The Spirit of Christmas.”

The best news Boucher has for anyone interested in contacting their departed loved ones is, they are never no-shows.

“I always connect,” she said. “The spirits are only a thought away.”