Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side (17 page)

136 Deb

Deb’s spirits were keen to let her know that they were there.

“That’d be Dad,” smiled Deb. And indeed, in the count-

less photos we took that morning, the two main orbs beside

Deb continually showed themselves. They shone consistently

either side of their daughter, irrespective of where we positioned ourselves in the house.

It seems that since Deb’s father, Ray passed away more

than forty years ago, his presence wasn’t quite as insistent as that of her mother. Doris’s relatively recent passing gave her a stronger connection to the earth plane. I suspect her presence was also more powerful as a result of her trying to comfort

and support her still-grieving daughter.

By the time I left Deb’s an hour or so later, we were both

buzzing with happiness at having connected with her parents.

At that point we didn’t realise we had also been hanging out

with Deb’s Uncle Tom.

Deb 137

It was later that afternoon that Deb emailed me, want-

ing to ask my opinion on one of the photographs we took. In

addition to the obvious orbs, there was something even more

striking about one of the photos. It was something that we

had both initially missed.

“Tell me if I’m reading into this, but is that a face in the red cushion?”

I quickly opened up the attachment and was incredu-

lous that I hadn’t noticed it before. A three dimensional face seemed to have manifested within the fabric of the cushion.

A man’s face seems to be looking directly at Deb as she plays

with her dog Daisy.

I emailed Deb back within seconds.

“Deb!” I wrote. “Does this gent resemble your uncle?”

Deb had told me that her Uncle Tom had passed away from

emphysema several months earlier. I had a strong feeling that

old Tom was seizing the opportunity to let his family know

that he was OK.

“He does!” she wrote back. She joked that she recognised

his
big schnauzer of a nose
and that it could very well be her Uncle Tom.

We decided then and there that we needed to give Deb’s

spirit family a better opportunity to come through. It was time to arrange a family séance.

There were to be five of us in attendance; Deb and myself,

in addition to Tom’s wife Bett and his daughters, Jill and Sue. As was the case when I first met Deb, I felt an instant connection to her Auntie and her cousins. We embraced at the front door as if we were old friends.

138 Deb

The face in the red cushion looks very much like Deb’s Uncle Tom.

After explaining what we would be doing that evening, we

sat at the table and invited the spirits to join us. We had no doubt that they would be happy to interact, and indeed Tom

had been building up to his big performance all day.

Jill told us that for several hours in the lead up to the

séance, Tom had been announcing his presence with a strong

whiff of tobacco smoke!

Tom, Doris and Deb’s father, Ray took turns at impressing

us with their ability to move the table. Each had their own distinctive style, which made it easy to distinguish who was com-

municating with us at any given time. Whilst the men moved

the table quite forcefully, Doris’s interactions with the table somehow seemed more delicate. Her table tipping efforts

were almost graceful, moving the table so rhythmically that

her musical bent easily shone through. She would rotate the

table in one direction, then lift it onto one leg. Then in one Deb 139

fluid motion, it would spin in reverse and tip itself onto the opposite leg. The table appeared to be performing an elegant

dance.

Doris maintained the rhythmic movement of the table for

several minutes, after which Ray and Tom decided to join her

for the grand finale. The three spirits pooled their energies

towards what would be a extraordinary display.

“Are you ready guys?” I asked. “Go on then, impress us!”

The movement began with little more than a subtle vibra-

tion, after which the round table began to spin. In order to

keep our fingertips in contact with the tabletop, the five of us pushed our chairs back and stood up. This was obviously the

cue to rev things up a little, as the table built up momentum as it spun around with increasing speed.

We couldn’t stop laughing as we shuffled around the table,

knowing full well that our spirit friends were having a chuckle at our expense. We knew how ridiculously foolish we must’ve

looked!

By the time we closed down the table and called it a night,

we were all feeling energised and at peace. We were convinced

that we’d just spent the evening with three beautiful spirits, and we knew that they had relished the experience as much as we

had.

A month or so later, Deb messaged me with some exciting

follow-up. It seemed that Tom was still partaking in the occa-

sional family visit, and had been a particularly frequent visitor to his daughter, Jill’s house.

Jill had long been smelling Tom’s signature scent of

tobacco smoke, but now he had taken to announcing himself

all the more. His physical manifestations had escalated to a

level that was difficult to comprehend.

140 Deb

Jill determined that the smoke seemed to be emanating

from the downstairs toilet, the perfect place to indulge in a for-bidden cigarette. Despite his emphysema, Tom used to sneak

an occasional clandestine ciggie; and it seemed he was con-

tinuing to do so after his death. Most astounding of all was the fact that in addition to the tobacco smell, small mounds of cigarette ash had begun manifesting on the toilet floor.

Each time Jill swept the ash away, it would reappear within

hours. In the end, Jill decided not to bother sweeping it up

at all, as Tom was sure to replace it with a fresh pile anyway!

Struggling to comprehend such a physical manifestation of a

spirit presence, Jill took a photograph of the ash. What better way to validate the presence of her recently departed father?

And if the phenomenon ceased, Jill would always have a

reminder of the lengths her dad went to in order to assure her that his spirit lived on. Tom wanted his family to know that he was still very much a part of their lives.

In addition to the mysteriously appearing piles of ash, Jill

noticed another unusual manifestation. She reports that from

time to time one of the nearby terracotta floor tiles gets inexplicably hot, despite those surrounding it remaining cool. Deb keeps me up to date with Tom’s reasonably frequent exploits,

messaging me whenever some new and exciting manifestation

comes through.

“So we have
Pillow Tom
,
Toilet Tom
and
Tile Tom!”
she joked.

His impressive array of physical manifestations made me won-

der what party trick Tom would come up with next. I was con-

vinced that whatever it was, I’d be impressed.

Post-death visitations such as Tom’s demonstrate the lim-

itless possibilities of the spirit world. Manipulating the physical realm is hard for our mortal minds to process. But as Tom

Deb 141

seemed to effortlessly prove, it is not only possible, but seemingly effortless under the right set of circumstances. The

energy required for a spirit to affect the physical world can be gleaned from a variety of sources; whether they be electrical, psychic or emotional. Believing that these events can and do

happen, provides additional psychic fuel to allow spirit pres-

ences to come through.

Strong manifestations such as these also serve to remind

us that there is no barrier to love; least of all death. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, spirits like Tom will do whatever it takes to prove it.

S é a n c e a t

t h e C l i n i c

The relentless flashing lights at my podiatry clinic seemed to intensify over time; so much so that not a day went by that I

didn’t see them. The spirit presences became increasingly pal-

pable; occasionally showing themselves as fleeting filmy fig-

ures or by clattering the instruments which lay beside me in

their kidney dish. In these instances my patients were quick

to joke that my clinic was haunted; little realising how much

truth lay in their off-the-cuff remarks!

My reception staff reported feeling uneasy when left alone

at the clinic at the end of the day. On one occasion my office manager, Sonia was convinced that one of the podiatrists was

still busily working away in their consulting room, such was

the noise filtering down the corridor. When she ventured into

the treatment room to investigate, she was stunned to find it

was empty.

143

144 Seance at the Clinic

I began to realise that as well as the spirits who came in

accompanying my patients, there were those who appeared to

be permanent fixtures. One little soul doggedly stood beside

my treatment trolley; repeatedly flashing an intense blue light at me from the centre of her chest. At first I thought the figure was that of a small boy, but I was to later discover my persistent friend was a little girl who had taken a shine to me. Rare was the day that she didn’t make her presence known.

The spirit activity escalated to the point that I knew it

would be remiss of me not to investigate matters further. So

with this thought in mind, I decided to hold an on-site séance.

In addition to dowsing with the pendulum and my now stan-

dard technique of table-tipping, I arranged for a lady named to Karen to record the evening’s proceedings on infrared camera.

I had met Karen a few months earlier, when we both

attended an investigation at the haunted Carinup Tavern. The

tavern’s resident poltergeist had provided a spectacular display; banging on walls and pelting us with stones. His tirade was

recorded by both television and infrared cameras; the latter providing further evidence of the poltergeist’s presence.

Despite the ghost’s obvious antagonism towards us, he was

surprisingly compliant when asked to show himself. He repeat-

edly acquiesced to our requests to appear before us, although I suspect that his motivation was to intimidate rather than coop-erate. Regardless, his appearance on infrared proved to me that it was possible to physically record spirit energy, thereby validat-ing what I was seeing with my clairvoyant vision.

Of course the infrared image was very different to what I was

seeing clairvoyantly, since it was capturing the ghost’s energy imprint and converting it to an electronic signal. The poltergeist appeared on camera as a radiant, darting orb; as opposed to the Seance at the Clinic 145

filmy, grey figure I saw before me. The location of the orb did however correspond to where I was seeing the figure, so as such I considered it to be a useful investigative tool.

I arranged to conduct the séance on a Friday evening,

a couple of hours after the last patient had left. Along with Karen, I invited three fans from my Facebook page; ladies who

had expressed a desire to gain firsthand experience of the paranormal. I also invited one of my patients; a company director

named Andrew. Andrew had asked to be included in my next

investigation and I was happy for him to make up our group

of six.

It was decided that at any given time there would be one

person filming proceedings digitally, whilst Karen took charge of the infrared. The remaining four would be the sitters as we tried to establish spirit contact.

It was gratifying to see orbs on both infrared and digital

cameras, exactly where the spirits presented themselves in my

day-to-day work life. They congregated behind my treatment

chair, occasionally darting across the room in an energetic display of barely-contained excitement.

One dashed underneath the table, as if in preparation

for the tipping which was about to take place. There was no

doubt we had an eventful evening in store; the spirits seemed

as excited as we were!

I began with the usual protective rituals, after which the

omnipresent little spirit girl was quick to step in. My sitters were amused to notice that when the spirit energy starting

coming through, my hair began to stand on end. It looked as

though I was surrounded by a halo of wispy flyaways; a look

so ridiculous that the seriousness of proceedings was momen-

tarily forgotten!

146 Seance at the Clinic

The little girl confirmed that she is with me every day