that my table tipping sessions were indeed a type of séance.
By now I was becoming a competent table tipper and the spirits seemed to be ever more willing to come through. Their physical manifestations were becoming stronger; the proof of their
presence more irrefutable. I had finally established a strong
link of communication with the spirit world and the word was
out; amongst both the living and the dead.
It wasn’t long before I was inundated with requests to
facilitate spirit contact, and I found myself conducting small-scale séances with increasing regularity. Since this was becoming time consuming and mentally draining, I decided to trial a larger scale event, inviting twenty guests in one sitting instead of the usual groups of four. I had no idea whether the loss of intimacy would be detrimental to spirit contact and I was curious to find out.
117
118 Laurie
The plan was to begin the evening with dinner, after which
we would convene in my downstairs family room and invite
the spirits to join us. My psychic friend, Paula would com-
mence proceedings by doing readings for our guests.
She began by methodically reading each person in turn,
but there was one impatient spirit who simply refused to wait.
Paula’s physical discomfort became evident as she put her
hand to her throat.
“Someone’s passed from suicide … something to do with
the throat.”
She looked towards a group of women seated on the
lounge.
“Has this gentleman come with any of you?”
Suicide victims are often the strongest and quickest to
come through and this evening was no exception. The spirits
of those who have prematurely ended their lives are invariably surrounded by an aura of intense emotion, as I suspect they
are enveloped in sorrow and regret. They are often eager to
contact their loved ones; to make amends and offer comfort
with the assurance that they’re OK.
My friend, Lane identified her Uncle Laurie immediately.
Laurie had passed just a month earlier, a seemingly spur of the moment suicide which saw him put a gun barrel to his mouth.
Lane’s grief was still very raw and she excused herself and
went into the kitchen. I gave her a minute or so and then fol-
lowed her upstairs. Lane was crying, shaking from the inten-
sity of her heartache and shock.
“I felt him put his hand on my shoulder,” she said tearfully.
“Barbie, he was really there!”
Lane has often displayed mediumistic abilities, so it didn’t
surprise me that she felt Laurie’s presence so strongly. Lane
was ordinarily at ease with the presence of spirits, but the
Laurie 119
rawness of her grief had taken the experience to a new and
intense level. I suggested that if she wasn’t comfortable with Laurie being so close, that she ask him to step back a little. I assured her that he’d understand.
“No, it’s fine,” said Lane. “It was just a bit of a shock …”
Lane remained in the kitchen for a little while longer, whilst I returned to the group downstairs. She later told me that
she stayed behind to speak to Laurie. Contrary to what I had
expected, Lane didn’t want Laurie to ease up at all, in fact she had asked him to provide her with some solid proof of his presence. She asked Laurie to give her an unmistakeable sign that he was really there beside her. She wanted to be convinced.
Once Paula had completed the readings, it was time to
work with the table. We decided to work in groups of four,
swapping the sitters every few minutes so that everyone could
experience the phenomenon for themselves.
Paula began the table tipping with a breathtaking display.
The table skittered repeatedly across the floorboards, buck-
ing and rocking as if it had suddenly come to life. Those
who hadn’t experienced table tipping before were awestruck,
almost unable to comprehend the scene playing out before
them.
It was a hard act to follow, but Laurie made sure that my
table tipping session was equally memorable.
I began with the usual prayer of protection and invited the
spirits to make themselves known to us. Using my pendulum,
I asked if I was speaking to my spirit guide. The answer was a strong and categorical NO.
I was informed that I was speaking to a spirit who had
come with one of my guests. Of course I suspected it was Lau-
rie right away, but proceeded to list the names of my guests in 120 Laurie
turn, asking if he had come with them. Each name was met
with a no, until I asked if he had come with Lane.
The pendulum began to transcribe big, strong circles; the
signal for yes.
When I asked if I was speaking to Laurie, the circles
became even larger, so I encouraged Lane to come and join us
at the table.
After answering some questions which confirmed that we
were speaking to Laurie, he told us he was eager to try and
make the table move. He said he wasn’t sure if he would be
able to do it, but was certainly keen to try.
Fingers poised lightly on the tabletop, I invited Laurie to
see what he could do. The vibrations coursing through the
wood came through almost immediately; a promising sign! A
moment later the table lifted up on one side, tipping straight into Lane’s lap.
Laurie’s effort was met with encouraging whoops and
clapping from those standing around us. The energy in the
room felt electric. The table returned to its starting position for a brief moment, after which it lifted up once again, tipping back towards Lane. As impressed as we were, Laurie was
about to take things further.
Suddenly from behind me, I heard the sound of glass
breaking. My first thought was that someone had knocked a
glass over. But the wide-eyed expressions of those before me
quickly dispelled this idea, as it was evident that something
incredible had just happened.
I turned to see that the candle holder had spontaneously
broken, a large piece of its glass casing had sheared off and was lying beside it. The candle itself continued to innocently flicker.
I picked up the holder to examine it, searching for a plau-
sible explanation for the spontaneously breaking glass. I won-
Laurie 121
dered if perhaps the glass had gotten too hot, but of course the glass was designed to be heat proof. The wick itself was
leaning away from the side that shattered, thereby dispelling
my initial theory that it had simply overheated.
It was at this point that Lane told us about her request in the kitchen; and how she had asked her uncle to give her an unmistakeable physical sign. It seems Laurie was happy to comply. It was an incredible conclusion to an emotionally charged night!
When going through the photographs after my guests had
left, I came across a photo taken shortly before the candle holder broke. Hovering just above it is a beautiful, iridescent orb. Could it have been Laurie gearing up for his grand finale? It seemed too much of a coincidence to have been anyone else.
I later discovered that Lane wasn’t the only one to be
graced with a loved one’s visit, as my friend Alison revealed
the following the day.
A moment after this photo was taken, the glass candle
holder just beneath the orb shattered. We were convinced
that Laurie was the culprit!
122 Laurie
I emailed Alison the morning after the séance, eager to
share with her a sequence of three photographs that were taken the night before. The photos showed a distinct orb sitting just behind her, its size and shape identical in each frame. I felt sure that the spirit was Martin, Alison’s infant son who died seventeen years earlier. His twin brother Brett, and indeed Alison herself, have always suspected that Martin is around them. The
persistent orb seemed more than a little coincidental.
Paula expressed a similar belief during Alison’s reading, picking up on the presence of a young spirit who was closely con-
nected to her. The photographs seemed to reinforce this and I
was interested to hear Alison’s opinion of the photos. I had no idea that she had a thrilling experience to relay herself.
Alison told me that not only had she been aware of some-
one sitting behind her for most of the séance, she felt as
though she was being firmly enveloped in a bear hug. It just
had to be Martin!
Once she got home, Alison thought about what Paula had
said about her son. She had suggested that Alison only had to
ask, and Martin would happily give her another sign. In fact he was waiting for an invitation to do so.
Alison lay on her bed and began to breathe deeply. She
closed her eyes and thought of the baby son who would’ve
been a strapping teenager by now. Whispering into the dark-
ness, she asked if he would touch her.
Within seconds he was there; an unmistakeable presence
sitting beside his mother on the bed. Alison felt a warm hand
within her own, which she described as feeling as though her
hand and Martin’s were merged into one.
“It wasn’t as though I was holding his hand,” she explained.
“It was more a case of his hand being inside mine!”
Laurie 123
Alison told me she was overcome by a sense of overwhelm-
ing happiness and peace.
“I felt so blessed,” she said. “Then I simply drifted off and had the best sleep I can remember. I just can’t wait to experience something like that again!”
After this wonderful experience, the photos I sent her were
just the icing on the cake. Alison was already convinced that
she had shared a wonderful experience with her son, and as
lovely as it was seeing the photographs, no further proof had been necessary.
It was safe to say that our mass séance had been a resound-
ing success!
Laurie’s presence lingered into the following day, and
the atmosphere in our house remained charged. I decided to
establish contact once again, to ask if Laurie was intending to move on.
He assured me that he was continuing on his spiritual path,
and had every intention of going into the light. Having com-
forted his loved ones by proving that his spirit lived on, he was now at peace. He was ready to embark on the next phase of
his journey.
I felt a pang when I realised that this was goodbye.
“Laurie … would you like to leave one last gift for your
family?” I asked.
I had no doubt that the answer would be yes.
“How about we go downstairs and take one last photo? Do
you think you’d be able to appear for me?”
I grabbed my camera and made my way down the stair-
case, stopping halfway so as to capture a full view of the family room.
“OK Laurie,” I said. “Shine big and bright for me!”
124 Laurie
I asked Laurie for a farewell photo, and was rewarded
with this memorable snap!
The photograph that I captured took my breath away; as
I immediately noticed the plate-sized, radiant orb. There was
Laurie on the lounge, in the very position where Lane had
been sitting the night before.
“Look at you …” I said. “You’re absolutely beautiful!”
I wished him all the love and happiness in the world and a
moment later, he was gone. Another beautiful soul that I have
been privileged to have crossed paths with.
Lane ended up keeping the broken candle holder, as a
reminder of her much loved uncle. Together with the photos
in which Laurie had shown himself, her family had a special
set of mementoes to acknowledge his after death visit.
Despite Laurie’s despair towards the end of his life, his
spirit had moved beyond the negativity which had furnished
his final days. Although dark emotions had led him towards
his tragic end, he was no longer held in their clutches. The
darkness had turned into light.
Laurie 125
The purpose of Laurie’s visit was to no doubt make
amends, and to offer his family peace before progressing on his journey. Although he carried a sense of sadness and regret, the over-riding emotion that he radiated was love.
Now he was moving towards the light, comforted by the
fact that he had given his loved ones some reprieve from their pain. And should they need further comfort, I have no doubt
Laurie will be back in a heartbeat, to radiate his comfort and love once again.
Given Lane’s sensitivity to the spirit world, I suspect he’ll
make a beeline for his niece when needed. And I have no
doubt that he will be welcomed with open arms.
chapter sixteen
S t a n
The first thing someone would think if they heard something
shatter in a gift shop, is that some clumsy customer had acci-
dentally broken something. And that’s exactly what came to
mind when I heard a crash come from the front room of an
old house, each room of which had been converted into a
showroom for different types of gifts.
The front room housed mostly decorative items: mirrors,
vases, jewellery cabinets and such, and there was quite a selection of statues. In fact it was a statue which, according to the only person in the room at the time, had flung itself off its high shelf and shattered on the floorboards below.
“Honestly, I was nowhere near it!” Stan explained to the
owner, who seemed as unconvinced as I was.
I had no choice but to believe him when barely a minute or
so later another statue hurled itself at Stan’s feet.
127
128 Stan
Stan in his beloved crystal shop.
“Whoa!” laughed Stan. “It’s the old woman whose house
this used to be. She doesn’t like me because she knows I only
work with sixth dimensional beings …”
I must have been looking at Stan strangely as he studied
me for a moment and then began to chuckle. “You think I’m
weird, don’t you?”
“Not in the slightest,” I replied, “I’ve had lots of similar
experiences myself.” I held out my hand in introduction but
Stan waved it away.
“I don’t do that,” he said. And before I knew it, I was envel-
oped in a body-crushing bear hug as introductions were made.
“I’m Stan!”
We chatted about our mutual interest in the otherworldly,
at which point my friend, Charmaine walked into the room. I
Stan 129
didn’t have time to warn her before Stan had swooped upon
her and her petite frame dis
appeared into the folds of his voluminous flannel shirt.
“I’m Stan!” he said again.
“Charmaine …” came the muffled reply.
It was getting close to school pick up time, so we decided
we had better make tracks, as it was a good forty minute drive home.
“So where are you guys from anyway?” asked Stan.
“Kalamunda,” I said. “We’re hills girls.”
“Really?” Stan laughed as he pulled out his business card,
“Me too. Come by and visit me at my shop some time …”
Unsurprisingly, Stan’s business was a new-age style store
which specialised in crystals. It was nestled at the end of a long driveway; a large converted shed in the middle of the bush. As well as having more crystals than I had ever seen in one place, Stan also sold all manner of spiritual paraphernalia. There
were pendulums, talismans, dream catchers and jewellery. The
was also a healthy population of statues, many of which were
Buddhas. Stan’s store was a haven of treasures, especially for someone as spiritually-minded as me.
There was a shrine-like set-up in the far corner, which is
where Stan did readings and aura cleansing for his clients. He often performed these rituals with the aid of a Selenite obe-lisk-shaped rod.
Having already become acquainted with Stan’s rambunc-
tious ways, I was not perturbed when he ushered me towards
the shrine area.
“Come on!” he urged. “Let’s see what’s going on with you.”
130 Stan
Taking the crystal rod, he then proceeded to pass it before
each of my chakras, to check whether I had any energetic
blockages.
It was my solar plexus chakra which commandeered the
most attention, with Stan announcing it was positively brim-
ming with effluent.
“Gotta get rid of this,” he said, holding the rod perpendic-
ularly to my body. It was as if he was using a crystal hose to leach out the negativity which had been polluting my chakra.
“Geez!” he said after a few minutes, “Where’s all this fear
coming from? You’ll be glad to see the back of this …”
I didn’t go into it with Stan at the time, but I suspected that the fear I was carrying was the result of what I now referred to as my poltergeist days, and quite likely to be what was holding me back from developing my clairvoyance.
I have no idea if it was psychosomatic or a direct result of
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