Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side (27 page)

But then again, wouldn’t it make interesting reading for a follow up chapter? Perhaps I need to give it some thought …

E l l i o t t

So many of the spirits I have connected with have come to

me through my podiatry practice. Likewise some of the

most amazing stories of spirit contact have sprung from my

patients’ mouths. It sometimes seems as though my clinic is

an endless source of ghost stories; whether they be my clients’

experiences or my own.

Melanie was one such patient, who came with a slew of

stories about her experiences with the other side. The word

around town was that she was quite a character as well as

being a gifted medium; she was the sort of person people

gravitated to. Our mutual friend Angie had relayed some inter-

esting accounts about Melanie’s spiritual gifts, so I’d been

looking forward to meeting her and comparing notes.

Perhaps fortuitously, Melanie’s son Elliot was having recur-

ring problems with an ingrown toenail. As such it was just a

matter of time before they came knocking on my door. As

227

228 Elliot

I set to work on Elliot’s toe, I broached the subject of our

mutual interest.

“I believe you and I have a lot in common,” I said.

“Yes we do. “she smiled. “All three of us!” Melanie looked

towards her son, and placed her hand gently on his arm.

“You see them too, don’t you darling?” Eleven-year-old Elliot

squirmed slightly in his chair, nodding at me with an expres-

sion of barely masked fear. “He doesn’t like it though, do you mate? Sometimes I have ask them to go away …”

“It’s usually the same one,” said Elliot. “It’s the same ghost that Scott saw in the shed.”

Melanie told me that her eldest son had been tinkering

in the garden shed when he heard a noise behind him. He

saw some movement from the corner of his eye as he briefly

glanced towards where the sound was coming from. He sim-

ply presumed his father had come into the shed and continued

working.

As Scott began chatting, he found it increasingly odd that

his father was ignoring him, so he turned around to see what

was going on. Of course his father wasn’t there at all, but Scott had not imagined seeing a masculine figure.

There before him stood the ghost of a young man, star-

ing at him with ill-disguised despair. He looked needy and

unhappy. It took a moment to register that the man wasn’t

entirely solid, and as the realisation that he was seeing a ghost sunk in, young Scott began to scream. He bolted through the

shed door and into the house in a matter of seconds; his adren-aline fuelling his flight to safety at breakneck speed.

Melanie reassured her trembling son, after which she ven-

tured into the shed to see who had been trying to get his attention. By then, the young man had gone.

Elliot 229

It wasn’t long afterwards that the ghostly visitor returned,

this time focussing his attentions on young Elliot’s bedroom.

Elliot said that he knew someone was there before he saw

him, as the atmosphere in the room suddenly felt
cold and

funny.

“You just know when they’re coming, don’t you?” said

Melanie. “It’s kind of like a buzzing that takes over the whole room.”

Elliot nodded as he continued.

“I felt really scared so I pulled the blankets over my head.”

“I
still
do that, “I said. “And I’ve been doing it since I was your age. You’d have thought I would’ve grown out of it by

now!”

Elliot smiled.

“I did look though,” he said. “There was a man standing

there; he had his hands on his hips and he looked really angry.”

The man stood across the room for what felt like an eter-

nity, and although terrified, Elliot couldn’t help but look. He was later able to describe the man in great detail, right down to the well-worn hoodie he had paired with his faded jeans.

“And …” said Melanie, “that’s when we worked out who he

was. My husband’s best friend took his own life when he was

in his twenties. Todd used to always wear a hoodie; never saw

him in anything else!”

Melanie said that once they worked out who the ghost

was, she was able to address him directly and ask him to stop

scaring the children. She urged him to go towards the light,

telling him it was time to move on.

“And did he?” I asked.

“Not immediately,” said Melanie. “He needed a bit of coax-

ing.”

230 Elliot

Elliot said that for a while Todd’s visits were quite frequent and each time he would move in that little bit closer.

“One time I didn’t even look at him I was so scared. I just

kept my head under the covers … but I knew he was there!

Then I felt him sit next to me at the end of the bed and he put his hand on my leg …”

“I think when he did that he was trying to help you,” said

Melanie. “That was the day you came off your skateboard and

grazed your leg … I think he was trying to make it feel better.”

“Is that where he touched you?” I asked Elliot. “On the

sore bit?”

“Yep,” said Elliot smiling. “It was actually!”

By the time Elliot and Melanie told me this story, it had

been several months since Todd’s last visit. Melanie feels confident that he has made it towards the light; putting his painful history behind him as he moves forward on his spiritual path.

And as for Elliott and Scott, it’s highly likely that their

future will be peppered with similar ghostly visits. I believe that all children are born with a sensitivity to the spirit world, but that in most cases it tends to lessen as they grow older.

If, however, early paranormal encounters are validated rather

than dismissed, it’s more likely that the sensitivity to the spirit realm will continue to thrive.

The added factor of having a clairvoyant mother would

further contribute to the development of Elliot and Scott’s

spiritual gifts. It’s highly probable that they inherited their heightened sensitivity from Melanie in the first place. My hope is that children like Elliot and Scott learn to let go of their fear early in life, and embrace what is undoubtedly a wonderful gift. It’s been a long, slow journey towards this realisation myself and I wish I could have reached it earlier. Perhaps if I’d Elliot 231

been taught a greater understanding of my experiences when I

was younger, I wouldn’t have been so fearful.

Fortunately Elliot and Scott have an amazing mother to

teach and guide them. I have no doubt that Melanie will be

helping her sons nurture their gifts every step of the way.

O u t o f B o d y

It is widely believed that in the instant before death, the soul vacates the body. It’s thought to be a protective mechanism

to spare the dying unnecessary trauma, thereby making the

transition from the physical to the spirit world as gentle as

possible. Those who have had near death experiences rarely

report feeling physical pain, and often describe the death scene as being viewed from above. The death process seems to be

imbued with peacefulness and calm.

Out of body experiences (OBE’s) are not the exclusive

domain of the dying, and indeed some individuals can instigate them at will. Another scenario whereby human consciousness

can separate from the body, is when someone is undergoing

severe emotional or physical trauma. Again, it is a protective mechanism, sparing the individual needless suffering.

OBE’s go some way in providing us with a glimpse of what

it’s like to inhabit the spirit world. And perhaps the more we 233

234 Out of Body

can understand what it’s like to be in spirit, the more we open ourselves up to paranormal experiences of our own.

When I reflect on my out of body experiences as a young

child, I feel sure that they were instigated by my brush with

death as a newborn. Perhaps I had lingered at the life/death

interface for just long enough for it to become familiar to me.

Maybe that’s why I found myself effortlessly floating up to the ceiling so frequently as a child.

As unsettling as these episodes were, I feel they were the

precursor to the paranormal experiences I am so grateful for

today. My early glimpses into otherworldly realms paved the

way for my clairvoyance; and as such they have enriched my

life beyond measure.

It’s always heartening to meet a fellow
fringe-dweller;
someone who has also travelled the subtle interface between the

living and the dead. I met Ginny whilst on a business trip to

Melbourne, our paths crossing randomly outside the interna-

tional airport. Like me, she is clairvoyant, seemingly the result of a protracted OBE whilst she was a child. Sadly for Ginny,

the precursor for her OBE was much more traumatic than my

own.

I met Ginny and her sister on an overcast Melbourne after-

noon; shortly after the arrival of my flight from Perth. As I stepped out of the airport terminal, I was approached by two

smiling American women, with the offer of sharing their cab

into the city. They had secured a small minibus, so we clam-

bered in amongst our jumble of suitcases and handbags.

They asked me where I had flown in from, and whether

the purpose of my trip was for business or pleasure.

Out of Body 235

“I’m here for a writers’ conference,” I replied, to which the

more boisterous of the two produced a mammoth hulk of a

manuscript from the depths of her bag.

“Hey, you’re a writer,” she laughed. “Me too! We’re here

for the week to edit this thing …”

I enquired as to the size of the manuscript. It was the hefti-

est draft I had ever seen.

“This is what 165,000 words looks like,” she beamed

proudly, giving the pages a self-satisfied slap.

They both asked me whether I had any books published,

so I briefly told them about my first book which was in the

final stages of editing, and that it dealt with my paranormal experiences.

“No way! This is a spiritual book too!” laughed the manu-

script-wielding sister. “Are you a clairvoyant?”

“I’ve seen spirits for as long as I can remember,” I said. “My parents think it’s because I nearly died at birth.”

“Yeah well they do say trauma can heighten your paranor-

mal abilities,” said the more reserved of the two. “That’s what happened to us. That’s what Ginny’s book’s about.”

Ginny began telling me their story, and I sat spellbound for

the remainder of our journey.

The story which unfolded was shocking and confronting,

yet the two sisters who endured it sat smiling as they took turns relaying the tragedy of their childhood. They told me that given the opportunity to re-write their past they wouldn’t change a

thing. As painful as it was, it is through enduring their tragedies that they have evolved into the vibrant, strong women they are today.

Ginny told me that when she was ten and her sister was

six, their father shot their mother in their remote Kentucky

236 Out of Body

farmhouse. The shooting was the climactic end of a pro-

tracted siege, as their father had held the family to ransom for an excruciating ten hours.

Being the eldest of six children, Ginny took it upon herself

to shield her mother, and physically placed herself between

her parents. She desperately pleaded with her father to put

down his gun. She ordered her cowering younger siblings out

of the room with as much authority as her quivering, ten year-

old self could muster, torn between physically protecting her mother and shielding the young ones from the drama unfold-ing before them.

Desperate to comfort her traumatised siblings (and per-

haps also for self-preservation) Ginny somehow found her

consciousness detaching from her body, until she was float-

ing up towards the ceiling of the room. From here she could

observe the scene beneath her, and was relieved to see her

physical form steadfastly maintaining a barrier between her

parents.

Ginny was drawn to the whimpering of her siblings, and

found she could will herself into the adjacent room, where her brothers and sisters were cowering together in a corner.

“It’s OK,” she soothed. “It’s all going to be alright. Trust

me!”

She wasn’t sure if they could hear her, but she felt that the

message was getting across. Their terrified sobbing began to

subside as soon as she reached them.

And this is how Ginny spent the next ten hours, detached

from her body, drifting between the rooms as she tried to

restore peace.

Eventually her father shoved Ginny out of the way and

there was a devastating crack of his rifle. Her mother was shot.

Out of Body 237

Back in our minibus the sisters stared at me wide-eyed, as

though the piercing crack of the bullet had only just shattered the silence, rather than almost forty years ago. I really didn’t know what to say.

“She did live though,” said Ginny. “And as awful as it was, it was worth it. That day got us away from that horrible man. It

gave us a new beginning.”

I am sure it wouldn’t have been an easy journey, and that

the trauma had carved itself into their hearts for many years to come. But the reason there was a book written about it at all is because the positives which sprouted from the family’s ordeal