WHAT'S the secret of staying lively and healthy into old age?

According to Phyllis Henderson, it's done by realising your "inner potential" and you don't have to be old to do it.

Phyllis, 81, is an author. She also goes round the Warrington area lecturing, and she keeps herself fit by making sure that she gets out and about every day.

She told the WARRINGTON GUARDIAN the secret of her lively living - praying with energy and focus, breathing exercises, an enquiring mind, and giving herself positive affirmations, which involve constantly telling herself she is getting better at everything she does.

Surprisingly for an older person, Phyllis has an approach to life which is quite futuristic by many people's standards.

She works extensively with the Warrington branch of the Aetherius Society which is dedicated to the uplifting of mankind and encouraging people to look after each other.

This is done partly through courses on a variety of topics, which Phyllis helps to run. The next one is an evening of personal discovery at the Patten Arms on November 30.

Some of the instructors who do these courses, are, like Phyllis, pensioners. "I have learned to unlock the secrets of my inner power," said Phyllis.

"There is a whole world of possibility for people to explore, and to me, this is what makes living so exciting," said Phyllis.

Society members are followers of the teachings of the late Dr George King, who claimed to receive regular messages from space intelligence and spent 40 years going round the world passing on information.

Phyllis and her fellow members believe that all the earth's problems could be solved through manipulating spiritual energy, because we all live in a vast sea of energy which people can channel through themselves, sometimes with miraculous results.

Phyllis is also into healing people and showing them how to do it for themselves.

During the war, she worked on the Enigma code. She was based at RAF Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire, as a wireless operator, noting the signals from Germany that were later decoded and helped Britain to win the war.

The work is the subject of her fifth book, which she has just completed. She has had four other books published, which have been children's and romantic books, and is now hoping to find a publisher for her wartime work, which is in a totally different vein.