Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side (11 page)

at the Kalamunda hotel; the last of a series of three I had

arranged to help its many ghosts cross-over. His name was Jus-

tin, and meeting him filled my heart with positivity and joy.

Although the seance was conducted specifically with the

hotel’s ghosts in mind, young Justin did not waste the opportunity to come through. He had come along with his sister-in-law, and was determined not to waste an opportunity to speak to her.

The Girl in Room One 85

Justin’s sister-in-law was similarly keen to make contact

with him, and before the session began, she asked me my

opinion on suicides. As I expressed my thoughts on the matter, the young woman smiled at me excitedly. It seemed as though

she was expecting her much-loved brother-in-law to speak to

her all along. Despite knowing that the purpose of the séance

was to connect with the ghosts of the hotel, Kellie couldn’t

help but hope that Justin would nevertheless come though.

As I closed my eyes and white-lighted the table, a cheeky

male presence was quick to take over. Given his strong and

vibrant energy, I was hardly surprised that he’d managed to

hijack the table. For now, the hotel’s ghosts didn’t stand a chance!

At this point, no one but Kellie knew his name. He quickly

addressed that, spelling out J-U-S-T-I-N with apparent ease.

His energy was confident and strong.

I looked towards Kellie who was seated directly oppo-

site me, whose tears confirmed that
Justin
was indeed her brother-in-law’s name. He had taken his own life over twenty

years ago, and Kellie had continued to feel a connection with

him ever since. What followed was message after message,

confirming that Justin had been beside her all along. Kellie

laughed with embarrassment as he referred to her speaking to

his photo, and confirmed that he is beside her listening when

she does so.

Quite obviously a bit of a larrikin, Justin made references

to his affection for smoking marijuana. He referred to enjoy-

ing
smoking
bud,
which is indeed the term he favoured with regards to his favourite pass time! He was a jovial, vibrant

presence, and assured Kellie that he was happy.

Once he had convinced his sister-in-law of his presence

and had raised the vibration with his joking disposition, things 86 The Girl in Room One

took on a more serious tone. Justin’s kind and caring nature

was about to shine through.

On a previous visit to the hotel, I had been made aware of

the ghost of a young woman lingering in one of the hotel’s

guest rooms. As the story went, she had taken her own life

some forty years earlier; in reaction to the demise of her relationship.

The young woman had remained in Room One ever since,

feeling trapped and confused by her sudden, untimely passing.

I felt sure she was the girl who had appeared in Jacqui’s photo.

I asked Justin if he was aware of the spirits occupying the

hotel, to which he emphatically replied
YES.

Over the three weeks that I had been connecting with the

hotel spirits, it was the girl in Room One who concerned me

the most. The others spoke to me freely, and were happy to be

guided towards the light. Although they initially came across

as sad and confused, they began to thrive on the attention that my friends and I were lavishing upon them. What began as an

ominous feeling of heaviness pervading the hotel, progressed

to a light-hearted sense of joviality. The ghosts were relishing the attention they had been deprived of for decades, and they

were obviously touched by our efforts to help them. As our

connection developed each week, their awareness of the light

became more and more apparent. They assured us that they

were happy to cross over.

That is all of them except for one spirit; the girl in Room

One.

Although she did briefly step forward during the first seance, her connection was not particularly strong. Her manifestation

was fleeting, just long enough to identify herself as Bev and tell us that she was the young woman from Room One.

The Girl in Room One 87

Disturbingly, she suggested that rather than taking her own

life, she had actually been murdered. When asked who it was

that killed her, she told us that it was her boyfriend. She said that he then made it look as though she had killed herself.

Naturally we were all taken aback by this, and before we

had time to ask her more questions, Bev’s energy faded and

she was gone. The thought of her trapped at the scene of her

death filled me with despair, so I asked Justin if he could possibly connect with her.

He told us he had already done so. Both being in their late

teens when they passed, the two seemed to gravitate towards

each other. Justin confirmed that her name was Bev, but he

preferred to call her
Bub!

Bev had obviously been reaching out to us, but for reasons

I can only guess at, she seemed to have trouble fully connect-

ing. Perhaps she was confused and disoriented by the abrupt-

ness of her death, or maybe she couldn’t be at peace until her alleged killer was brought to justice.

In addition to her initial communication at the seance, I

also had two photographs of her. It seemed she wanted to be

noticed and was reaching out for help.

The first was taken by my friend, Jacqui, when she stayed

at the hotel a couple of years earlier. The image of the distraught young woman is so distinct that if one didn’t know

any better, the presumption would be that it was a photograph

of a living person. The giveaway, however, is the fact that the young woman’s face seems to be distorting, almost as though

she is having trouble trying to maintain her visible form. And of course, Jacqui assures me that no living being was standing before her at the time.

88 The Girl in Room One

Being very sensitive to spirit presences, Jacqui could feel an energy shift in the room and started snapping photos. She had

hoped to capture some orbs to confirm her suspicions that she

was in the company of a ghost, but what she got was much

more than she could possibly have expected.

Two years later, Bev saw fit to appear in someone else’s

photo. In fact it was the same evening that I conducted the first seance at the hotel; the night she first identified herself by name.

A lady named Lidia (who had been one of the sitters at

the seance) took it upon herself to visit Room One before she

went home for the evening. She emailed me first thing the

next day, to ask my opinion of the image she had captured.

My friend, Jacqui, was astounded to capture this photograph. We later
discovered that the ghost in the photo is that of a teenage girl named
Bev, whom many believe took her own life in Room One.

The Girl in Room One 89

“I had been in Room One before,” Lidia told me. “I sup-

pose it was over a year ago. I’d connected to Bev then, so

thought I would see if I could do so again.”

Lidia told me that upon entering the room for the first

time, she had been immediately assailed by a sense of constriction around her throat.

“She was showing me how she died,” said Lidia. “And you

know what else? She told me back then that her boyfriend had

killed her. Having her repeat the same thing last night seems

more than coincidental …”

Is the face peering from around the door jam,

that of our teenage friend, Bev?

The attached self-portrait shows Lidia standing in the door-

way of Room One. It seems she took the photo by accident as

she was leaving the room. Although grainy and out of focus,

the face peering from around the doorway is unmistakeable.

Lidia’s face dominates the bottom left hand side of the shot, yet over her left shoulder is the distinct image of a face. It has 90 The Girl in Room One

the same plump cheeks as the woman in Jacqui’s photo, and

looks as though it could well be the same woman.

Bev was definitely trying to reach out to us.

So of course, when Justin told us he’d been in contact with

Bev, I wondered if we had finally found a way to help her. I

suddenly felt optimistic.

Justin assured us that he had been speaking with her, and

that she was finally ready to cross over. He told us that he was taking Bev to the light.

Justin’s whole energy was uplifting, and I wondered if

Bev was being bolstered by his positivity. He, too, had suf-

fered during his lifetime, and seeing him so evolved and happy was nothing short of inspiring. Perhaps he made Bev feel

that way too. Justin was a shining example of joy overcom-

ing heartbreak, and epitomises the beauty of a new beginning.

Through Justin’s example, Bev was able to start healing. He

showed her that no matter how tragic one’s earthly history,

there is still happiness, fulfilment and purpose to be found

within the light.

As I write this, I can’t help but feel that we have a moral

obligation to investigate Bev’s claims that she was murdered.

It’s highly likely that the undisclosed circumstances of her

death are the reason she remained earthbound for almost forty

years. Surely she deserves justice after all this time.

So even though I feel that Bev has at last crossed into the

light, the situation still warrants final closure. If Bev’s boyfriend did indeed kill her, surely he needs to be brought to justice. And if he too has already passed, the score will need to be settled on the other side.

T h e B o y s

To say I just happened to chance upon another haunted house

would be a lie, as I admit I was deliberately in search of fodder for future chapters. I trawled the internet in search of a suitably haunted-looking building; somewhere with a rich history and the possibility of ghosts. The Ellington School House looked perfect. I booked my family in for a two night stay,

eager to discover whether the old school house would deliver

as much as it promised.

Built in 1885, the school serviced the farm children from

the district. It was operational sporadically until 1944, depending on how many children were living in the vicinity at the

time. The schoolhouse had been restored in keeping with its

nineteenth century character, with wide rustic floorboards and the original blackboard still intact.

I caught my breath as we first entered the white-washed

classroom. I immediately recognised the dense atmosphere

which alerts me to the presence of spirits. There is an unmis-91

92 The Boys

takeable heaviness which often characterises a haunting; a

heaviness that I felt as soon as I walked into the room.

The proprietess, Evelyn, dropped by shortly after we

arrived. In keeping with her country hospitality, she welcomed us with gifts of fresh eggs and cake. She told us a little about the building’s history, from where I managed to steer the conversation towards the topic of ghosts.

“So …” I asked casually. “Any possibility of the place being

haunted?”

“Not that I’ve experienced,” said Evelyn. “Although a cou-

ple who stayed here some time ago thought so. They reckon a

vase walked across the top of the cupboard and then smashed

onto the floor.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly.

“Well they were pretty weird,” said Evelyn. “So I’m not

really sure what to believe!”