Encounters with the Spirit World

By Brett Wright

Encounters with the Spirit World contains many never-before-documented reports of peoples' encounters with those who have left this life and gone to the next. Some of these accounts are inspirational and uplifting; some however, are truly frightening.

What stops this book from being just another, 'bump in the nig

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brett Wright
• Release date: Jul 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9780648323983

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Brett Wright

Ghost or Spirit stories have been around as far back in time as mankind has recorded history, and they probably go back a lot further than that. They have been the basis of religious belief, given understanding to unexplainable events, they help with the grieving process of bereavement and they excite a fear of the unknown.

Some people claim to have the ability to communicate with spirits, some people claim they regularly see or feel the presence of the departed. Some people make a very healthy living off the ‘industry’ of the next life.

I was a police officer for fifteen years and approach things with a fairly analytical mind set. So when I hear of spirit encounters I immediately begin to break down and analyse the story to see what can be proven and what can be disproved. I look for the story tellers emotional triggers when telling of their encounter, or lack there of. What does the person have to gain or perhaps lose from telling of their encounter. Is there an explanation for what the person experienced that is outside the possibility of a spirit encounter, and then that instinct that many Cops rely on, my gut feeling.

For me, from my own experiences, I have found if you go looking for an encounter with a spirit you more often than not will not have that sought after encounter. My experiences have come when I have least expected them, when an encounter was the last thing on my mind. But more about that later.

My personal belief is that most people who claim to be able to communicate with spirits are shonks. They pray upon vulnerable people, people who are desperate for some contact with a dearly missed loved one. These phonies get by from making very general comments about money issues, worries, things going on in peoples lives, health issues. Who amongst us does not have some kind of money issue be it good or bad, something that is worrying them, some type of health concern, be it major or minor or ‘things’ going on in their lives.

The person seeking to communicate with a family member or person dear to them who has passed to the other side is so desperate for some kind of contact with that missed person that they will see validation in these very bland responses from the alleged psychic.

Having said that I do think that out there somewhere there may be people who have a genuine ability to get ‘things’ from spirits. Little messages or feelings. However I don’t know if these people can ask targeted questions of a particular deceased person or if they simply get a jumbled and random communication that they then try to interpret.

I once saw a psychic in mid 2008. A mate of mine was going to see one in Nowra, NSW and wanted me to go with him. I had very recently gone through a horrible tragedy in which my beautiful fiancé, Elise, had passed away. I was struggling and existing in a daily state of misery and sadness. My friend thought I might get some answers if I went with him to see the psychic. I was very reluctant as I felt most people who claim to be psychics are charlatans, however I reluctantly agreed to go with my friend.

We arrived at this old weatherboard house opposite a large cemetery in the NSW town of Nowra, where the psychic, a lady, lived. My mate went in to see her first. He had some questions about his father who had passed away some years before. I was invited to stand out in the backyard while I waited for my turn to talk with her.

Standing there feeling foolish and in true misery. I thought to myself, If there is anything in this psychic thing, let this lady get a message that I am not eating enough and I need to eat more and that I am not drinking enough water and I need to drink more. I was in a terrible state of mourning and was not eating or drinking much at all.

After about forty minutes my mate came out. I asked him if he had gotten anything worthwhile from the psychic and he told me he had. He said the messages he got from his dad as passed on by the psychic used some sayings his dad used to use and that they were pretty unique. My friend was happy with that.

Now it was my turn and so in I went. I sat at the dinning table and the psychic sat opposite me and proceeded to get absolutely nothing right about me. No mention of Elise passing away, nothing. After about fifteen minutes of getting nothing right she gave up on trying and told me she wanted to give me a ‘healing’. Yeah sure, why not I thought. It’ll be just as useless as her ‘reading’ for me, but yeah why not.

So I got onto the massage type table and lay down. She put some whale noise music on from a cassette in the old stereo she had and the lady began to wave her hands over my body. Yeah this is great I thought, feeling like a prime goose. Then from out of nowhere she said, You need to eat more. And while I was processing what she had just said, she added, You need to drink more water. Needless to say I was more than a little surprised.

Why did you say that? I asked.

I’m not sure, its just something that came to me. Was her answer.

I had told this women nothing of what I had said silently to myself while waiting in the backyard. Yet she had nailed exactly what I had been thinking. How?

So ok, she got nothing right about my fiancé passing away, nothing at all. But she had got the message about me needing to eat more and needing to drink more water. Maybe there really was something in this? But for me it just reinforces that perhaps some people can get some messages or feelings sent to them, but its for the most part random and they can’t ask direct questions that they will get an answer back to. I could be wrong, but those are my thoughts on it.

A couple of years later a lady I was seeing took me to a Spiritualist Church in Wollongong. I wasn’t really into it and felt uncomfortable and was not in a place emotionally to open my mind to it.

After the service finished they conducted a healing where four members of the church took anyone who wanted a healing into a side room to conduct said healing. My partner, at the time, told me she wanted me to go in and that it was the main reason she had brought me to the church. So reluctantly and once again feeling like a dead set goose, I went into the room and sat on one of the four chairs that were in a line with the four ‘healers’ standing behind them.

I sat on a chair and an elderly lady started to wave her hands slowly in the air over my head and shoulders. I felt nothing at all. After five minutes or so of this it finished and the lady said to me, You have an injury to your right elbow.

She was right. In the accident that took my fiancé, I had received some very serious injuries and one of the injuries I had was nerve damage to my right elbow. I was not favouring my elbow and I had a jumper on so she could not see the injury, there was no way of her knowing about the injury. How did she know? Did she get some kind of spiritual message about my injury?

FOREWORD

The Case of Kristy Robinett

It is well documented that psychics have at times assisted Police all over the world with locating the bodies of the deceased.

On the 16th June, 2004, Ashley Howley, a 20 year old from Columbus, Ohio, USA, disappeared.

Ashley’s family contacted Police and Detective Russell Redman of the Columbus Police Department soon took over the case. A Person of interest was quickly identified, Ashley’s former boyfriend, Robert McMichaels, however there was not enough evidence to charge or convict McMichaels.

About a year after Ashley’s disappearance, psychic or ‘spirit guide’, Kristy Robinett, claims she was visited by Ashley’s spirit, who began trying to communicate with Kristy, attempting to tell the spirit guide where her body was located.

Kristy says that these visits over the following months and years became stronger as she believes Ashley was better able to understand and control what was happening to her in the next life.

Kristy believes the spirits of people who have passed on to the next life have the choice to either enter Heaven right away or to stay in limbo for a time, (limbo is believed to be the place between this living world and Heaven), to be with their loved ones in this life until they are ready to move forward to the next life.

While Kristy claims she was communicating with Ashley, the Police investigation had stalled. Police were unable to find any evidence to progress with their investigation which had hit a wall.

Kristy had approached the Columbus Police to tell them Ashley was communicating with her. The Police in turn put Kristy in contact with Ashley’s family.

For the following three years Kristy claims Ashley continued to visit her, giving her glimpses of where her body was buried. Kristy now had the help of some of Ashley’s family and the local Deputy Director of Columbus Metro Parks, Larry Peck, while she continued to try and unravel the signs she was being given by Ashley as to where her remains were to be found.

Kristy believed the remains were in a park area and spoke to Larry Peck who agreed to walk with Kristy through the park whilst Kristy claims she was being guided by Ashley.

As time went by Ashley continued to be able to better communicate with Kristy until she was able to direct Kristy and Larry to a house bordering the park, the house belonged to Robert McMichaels, Ashley’s former boyfriend and the Columbus Police Departments number One suspect into Ashley’s disappearance.

In the meantime, in early 2008, Police had received a major break through in the case when a friend of McMichael’s came forward after McMichael had murdered his own mother and her partner whilst they slept. The friend confessed to Police that he had helped McMichael bury Ashley’s body on his property, that boarded the state park.

This gave Police the power to search McMichael’s property and as a result of that search, Ashley’s body was found buried about thirty metres from his house.

Much of the information Kristy had given the police as to where Ashley’s body would be found matched exactly with where the young women’s body was located.

Detective Redman later said, ‘Based upon what Kristy was able to give me initially, I was somewhat quite amazed as far as the things that did line up once Ashley was found’.

Was it a coincidence? Many people strongly believed Ashley’s former boyfriend, Robert McMichael had killed her and it would not have been hard for Kristy to say Ashley was directing her to McMichael’s home as the location her body could be found.

However the details of how Ashley had been buried would have been very hard for Kristy to make up. Details for example where Kristy claimed Ashley had communicated to her that she was locked in concrete. When Ashley’s body was found, it was indeed covered in concrete that McMichael had poured over it in the grave.

In the end Police had found Ashley’s body through a lucky break and good Police work, however as Detective Redman stated, some of what Kristy had told them about where and how Ashley’s body was buried proved to be remarkably accurate.

Just a good guess?

There are many shows on Television where ‘paranormal investigators’ nervously creep around old buildings, almost always at night, using a variety of electronic ‘ghost catching equipment’ from video to audio technology.

The music the viewer hears whilst watching the investigators through infrared cameras creates a feeling of anticipated fear of what the ‘ghost hunters’ are about to encounter.

These shows can be entertaining however how many, despite all their cameras and other ‘expert’ equipment, have ever picked up any real evidence of spirit activity?

When watching these shows it can be more interesting to hear what other witnesses to the locations have to say about their own encounters. People who work at or live in these buildings.

In the TV show Haunting Australia, whilst the team of ghost hunters are attempting to collect evidence of the existence of spirits who allegedly haunt the old Woodford Academy in the NSW Blue Mountains, a fire alarm is tripped casing the local fire department to attend the building during filming of the episode.

The strange thing is that the show claims they had turned the alarm off during the filming, if this is the case, how was the alarm activated. The Haunting Australia team claim to be baffled by the alarms activation.

Attending Lawson Fire Brigade Chief, Steven Johnson, explained,

There’s something strange that occurs here from time to time and sets off the automatic fire alarm.

The fire sensor that activated during the Haunting Australia show’s filming was tripped in the roof space of the Woodford Academy building. A check by the Lawson fire crew showed there was no fire in the roof space or anywhere else on the property.

Fire brigade Captain, Johnson, went on to say,

When me and one of the firemen were actually in the roof space looking at one of the detectors the adjoining detector actually activated. He went over to that, I was up in the roof space at the same time, sort of partially in that area, and while he was over there at that one, the one on the other side activated and there was no reason for that. It was very weird, having three detectors activated and two of them while were were there!

The Woodford Academy is said to be haunted by up to twelve spirits, some of them are said to be angry or at the very least agitated, while others, reportedly, enjoy playing jokes on the ‘living world’ occupants. Did the actions of one of these spirits cause the fire alarms to activate? It seems to be an ongoing problem at the old academy if they did.

I’ve always had an interest in ‘ghosts’, but it was a very casual interest and more of a spooky bump in the night type of interest. When the accident happened my interest immediately changed and I wanted to know everything I could about the next life. About where my fiancé had gone.

The assistant minister my fiancé and I had been seeing to do our pre wedding planning was very good to me after the accident. He was about the same age as me and he came and saw me once or twice a week and would sit with me for hours. I appreciated his caring and his attempts to try to ease my pain. It must have been a burden for him to come and sit with me for hours like that. I really appreciated his company.

However whenever I talked about ‘experiences’ I was beginning to have at my home, he would become uncomfortable and try to steer the conversation in a different direction. I realised encounters with spirits was possibly not part of the churches ideology.

So I wasn’t going to get much help in finding answers from the Church. My Nana on my mothers side had stories about spiritual encounters she had experienced in the past and my mother also had some stories of things that she had seen and felt over the years.

The only experience I ever had was in the very early 90’s when my wife at the time and I put our daughter to bed one night. She was a baby, only eight or nine months old. It was a normal night and my daughter had gone to bed without any problems. A couple of hours later my wife and I also went to bed.

Later in the night I was sound asleep when I suddenly heard a women’s voice say Sarah, which is my oldest daughter’s name. It was very clear and it woke me up. I sat bolt upright in bed. What was that I thought. The best way I can describe the voice was it sounded mature, like a women in her late 50’s to perhaps late 60’s.

I was tired and just wanted to lay back down and go back to sleep. But I thought I had better get up and go and check on Sarah just to make sure she was ok. I walked down the hallway and into her room. She was sleeping. Everything is fine I thought, but just to make sure I touched her forehead. She was burning hot.

I went and got my wife and we took Sarah’s temperature. It was one degree below thirty nine degrees, temperature where babies will fit or have seizures. We quickly put her into a lukewarm bath to cool her down and then took her to the hospital.

She was ok. But what would have happened if I had not heard that voice and gotten up to check on her? Would she have passed away in her sleep? Would she have been a SIDS, (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), death? What was that voice? Are there such things as Guardian Angles? Was it an ancestor who had passed to the other side watching over my daughter? Who had spoken my daughters name in my mind to wake me up?

After the accident that took my fiance I began to have experiences.

It took me many years after the accident to be able to start moving forward with my life. It devastated me. I have no real words to explain the sorrow, immense emptiness and loss. There are no real words.

These experiences made me want to find out more, hear stories of encounters others had experienced. I began talking with friends about the things that had happened after the accident and was surprised at how many people came back to me with stories of their own. Stories of encounters with the spirit world.

CHAPTER ONE

Encounters

As I said before, from my own experiences, you will most likely have an ‘experience’ when you least expect it. Asking for or expecting a message from the other side will most likely leave you disappointed.

That is why I look at things like ‘Ghost Tours’ as a bit of fun, but nothing more than that. I have been on four tours, three in Sydney and one in Picton, and never saw or felt anything, nor in all honesty did I expect to have an encounter with the spirit world on these tours. I was open minded about the possibility that something unexplained might happen, but was not holding my breath.

Having said that, some people do claim to have experiences on such tours and on one I did at The Rocks in Sydney there was a women who said she felt and ‘smelt’ things, like blood, right throughout the tour. Although she would always pick up on these feelings and smells right after our tour guide told us what had happened or been seen by others at the different places we walked through. Perhaps that lady just had a very vivid imagination.

Ghost tours can be fun, hearing stories from the past be they historic or creepy, they can be a good entertaining way to spend an evening. But will you really have an encounter on one?

I did the Quarantine Station Ghost tour in Manly, Sydney, in late 2017. Like other such tours, I found the historic information myself and the other participants were given to be very interesting, however I had no supernatural experiences on the tour. Although I must admit being in buildings like Samuel’s Hut and the group shower block, where I spent a little time alone, was a bit creepy.

Our guide on the tour, Bob, had a wealth of information about the Quarantine Station’s past and some of the people who had been patients or worked there. He was entertaining and clearly enjoyed his roll as our guide. Bob believed he was the reincarnation of someone who