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PARKS
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About the Author
Barbara Parks (Kalamunda, Western Australia) is a microbiol-
ogist and podiatrist with her own private practice. She has spoken about poltergeists on the radio and is frequently sought out for paranormal investigations. She lives in Australia with her husband and three children.
embracing the
s p i r i t s
true stories of my encounters
with the other side
B A R B A R A P A R K S
Llewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side © 2013 by Barbara Parks. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Edition
First Printing, 2013
Book design by Donna Burch
Cover art © : Victorian paisley background: iStockphoto.com/ShutterWorx Woman walking through hall: iStockphoto.com/Özgür Donmaz
Cover design by Adrienne Zimiga
Editing by Andrea Neff
Interior photographs provided by the author
Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3679-2
Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public.
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Llewellyn Publications
A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
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Woodbury, MN 55125-2989
www.llewellyn.com
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
to come
Contents
Introduction / 1
Chapter 1:
The Night of the Poltergeist / 5
Chapter 2:
Repercussions / 19
Chapter 3:
Matilda / 25
Chapter 4:
Matt / 29
Chapter 5:
Gary / 37
Chapter 6:
Lover Girl / 43
Chapter 7:
Robert / 53
Chapter 8:
The Heritage Hotel / 57
Chapter 9:
The Kalamunda Hotel / 65
Chapter 10:
Ouija / 75
Chapter 11:
The Girl in Room One / 83
Chapter 12:
The Boys / 91
Chapter 13:
The Haunted Theaters / 101
Chapter 14:
Steve / 111
x Contents
Chapter 15:
Laurie / 117
Chapter 16:
Stan / 127
Chapter 17:
Deb / 133
Chapter 18:
Seance at the Clinic / 143
Chapter 19:
Shirley’s Funeral / 149
Chapter 20:
The Interactions of Others / 155
Chapter 21:
Austin / 183
Chapter 22:
Ghostly Guardians / 197
Chapter 23:
Marnie / 203
Chapter 24:
Cliffside / 211
Chapter 25:
New Norcia / 219
Chapter 26:
Elliott / 227
Chapter 27:
Out of Body / 233
Chapter 28:
The Michelin Man / 239
Chapter 29:
The Ghost of the Government House / 243
Chapter 30:
A New Chapter Begins / 251
I n t r o d u c t i o n
The spirit world has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are replete with the ghosts
who lingered by my bedside; their radiant, kind faces sooth-
ing me to sleep. Back then, I considered these visitations to be comforting and normal. I had no reason to suspect that my
nightly visitors were anything out of the ordinary.
It took some years for me to realise that my bedside entou-
rage were ghosts, and when I did, a crippling fear was quick to set in. My fear began to dull my sensitivity, and later as a teen, it fuelled what were to be a series of terrifying visitations. And now, almost three decades on, I am still waging a battle to be entirely free of its clutches.
My experiences as a teenager have a lot to answer for, inas-
much that I found myself sharing a house with a persistently
nasty poltergeist. Although my reactions to paranormal phe-
nomena have become more tempered over the course of my
1
2 Introduction
forty three years, ghostly visitations still set my heart racing. It’s an ingrained response that I struggle to keep in check.
As time goes on and my encounters with the other side
become more prolific, I have, however, discovered that the
spirit world is rarely malicious. Accepting this realisation has helped me forge ahead with the development of my clairvoyance, despite the occasional fear-fuelled setback. I’ve come to realise that by keeping negative emotions (particularly fear) at bay, it’s possible to minimise the likelihood of negative paranormal experiences.
Projecting a sense of positivity and love attracts positive
interactions, whereas negativity attracts the same in return. In addition to actively trying to suppress my fears, I believe that by embracing my clairvoyant abilities, I have invited the spirits to be around me. As such I seem to have attracted an upsurge in
visitations, most of which have been uplifting and positive.
Whilst the first part of my life was about learning to cope
fact, and I’m generally comfortable encouraging these inter-
actions. I have learnt that spirit visitations are a blessing, and have reached a point where I am comfortable facilitating contact between spirits and their loved ones. I no longer feel
targeted by unseen entities; I feel privileged to have their attention.
In order to maximize my potential as a clairvoyant, I have
explored ways in which to develop my mediumship abilities
and establish a reliable mode of communication with the spir-
its who seem to be perpetually around me. My clairaudience
still remains muted, so I have focussed my attentions on dows-
Introduction 3
ing with a pendulum, orb photography and table tipping. The
stories within these pages document my journey towards
developing these skills, and the wonderful spirits who have
helped me along the way.
I have been privileged to meet the delightful twenty year-
old Gary, who managed to redeem himself after our “shaky”
start. Gary first commandeered my attention by waking me
up by shaking my bed, an unacceptable trick I was quick to set him straight on!
I was touched to meet a very active spirit gent named Lau-
rie, who was desperate to make amends for the pain he had
caused his family by taking his own life. Laurie wasted no time in physically manifesting; first by placing his hand on his niece, Lane’s shoulder. He went on to move my pedestal table, all
the while presenting himself as a glowing, iridescent orb. His grand finale came when Lane asked for something undeniable;
an irrefutable sign that he was really there. Lane’s request was met by a shattering of broken glass, as the glass candle holder on the table beside her spontaneously shattered with a loud
crack.
Not quite as endearing was the poltergeist, Ted, who
announced his presence by pelting me with a smattering of
small gravelly stones. His angry banging and accompanying icy
chill were almost enough to send me scampering for cover. I felt as though I could easily revert to being the terrified girl I once was, and that all my hard work of the past few years would be
undone. It took all my courage and resolve not to allow this,
and turn a potentially damaging experience into something pos-
itive.
As recently as a few years ago, these same experiences would
have paralysed me with fear, whereas now I know enough to
4 Introduction
realise that the spirits mean me no harm. They still have the
ability to set my heart pounding, but I can retain enough presence of mind to calm myself and work out what it is they want.
I have discovered that spirits are reaching out to me for good reason. I feel it’s my responsibility to establish what that is and to do my best to help them.
I would like to think that as time goes on, not only will
my abilities become more honed, but the last remaining sker-
rick of fear will be eradicated forever. Maybe then the spirits’
voices will finally manage to come through.
So from my earliest memories of the ghostly entourage
who surrounded my cot, to the terror of my teenage haunt-
ing, I find myself purposefully marching forward on my jour-
ney towards connectedness with the spirit world. So even in
those times when I falter, there is no choice but to continue
moving forward. And as I keep marching onward, I trust that
you, my readers, will continue the journey with me.
chapter one
T h e N i g h t o f t h e
P o l t e r g e i s t
To conquer one’s fears one must face them; it’s something I’ve known for as long as I can remember. Putting the theory into
practice however, is another matter altogether.
Of all the entities I’ve come across in my lifetime, it’s poltergeists that scare me the most. I know too well how vio-
lently they can manifest. I’ve been on the receiving end of
their attentions often enough to know that the phenomenon
is terrifyingly real.
Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to consciously decide to
go head-to-head with a poltergeist. The opportunity to do so
sprung up at me unannounced. And as it did so, I realised that if I wanted to continue on my path of spiritual growth, it was time to face my demons.
As with all of life’s pivotal moments, this one began inno-
cently enough. The chain of events which placed me in
Carinup the following day began with a quick scan of my
5
6 The Night of the Poltergeist
Facebook page. A post by Tony G immediately caught my
attention. Tony is reputed to be Australia’s Ghost Whisperer and
is a highly regarded medium. His recent appearance in a high-
rating TV show further cemented his reputation as one of the
nation’s best.
Tony was looking for two volunteers to join him on a
ghost hunt, scheduled to coincide with Halloween which was
the next day. Despite a flicker of trepidation, I decided to put my hand up. And somehow from the throng of eager would-be ghost-hunters, Tony chose a lady named Karen and myself.
In less than twenty four hours we’d be joining him on an investigation which would prove impossible to forget.
Our destination was the 105 year-old Carinup tavern,
which was reported to be attracting the attentions of an irate poltergeist. Although almost two hundred and fifty kilometres from home, its reputation suggested that it would be well worth the drive.
I met Tony and his wife at our arranged meeting point in
Bunbury, so that we could travel the last fifty kilometres to
Carinup together. The half hour we spent in the car set the
scene for the rest of the evening, as Tony told me about some
of his previous experiences with poltergeists.
He spoke of an investigation he’d conducted a couple of
years earlier, set in a lonely old farmhouse which was home to three teenage girls. Amongst a steady litany of ghostly manifestations, the image of a pair of crucifixes would repeat-
edly appear on the benches and tabletops. It looked as though
they had been burnt deep within their surface. The teenagers’
mother had tried scouring the effigies off, but no matter what she used and how hard she scrubbed, the crucifixes remained
fast. Yet when Tony gently ran his thumb over them, the
The Night of the Poltergeist 7
images instantly faded from sight. It was as though they were
reacting to Tony’s powerful psychic energy. When he looked
at his thumb there was no sign of the blackish colour which
had defined them, his thumb remained clean. It was as almost
as if the crucifixes had never been there at all.
Tony also told me about an alarming case whereby a pol-
tergeist was hurling crockery and knives, so frequently and
recklessly that the homeowner’s life seemed at risk. Once the
cause of the disturbance was uncovered however, it didn’t take long for the home to resume normality. This is true of most
hauntings, there is usually an underlying issue. The paranor-
mal activity is most often a cry for attention, and if the spirit’s concerns can be addressed, the disturbance usually recedes.
In this particular
case, the focus of the haunting was an ex-
soldier who had served in Northern Ireland several years earlier.
One of his comrades had suffered an horrific injury as the result of a bomb blast, which would have resulted in a slow and agonising death. Wishing to spare him further suffering, the man
proceeded to shoot his friend in the head. As a result of what was in effect a mercy killing, he had been unable to forgive himself and had punished himself ever since. The ex-soldier’s life was dominated by his all-consuming guilt and he was spiralling deeper and deeper into a remorseless depression. His marriage
had crumbled, he was unable to work and was habitually drink-
ing himself into oblivion.
Tony soon established that the poltergeist was in fact the
man’s deceased comrade, who was becoming increasingly
frustrated by his friend’s progressively bleak existence. The
spirit’s frenetic behaviour was a desperate attempt to get his friend’s attention, and to assure him that he had done the right thing by ending his life.
8 The Night of the Poltergeist
Once Tony relayed the message from the deceased soldier,
it didn’t take long for the haunting to settle down. The com-
munication certainly afforded some peace to the attention-
seeking spirit and hopefully provided some peace and closure
for the man as well.
It was with these stories fresh in my mind, that we
Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side Page 1