Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side by Barbara Parks (bill gates best books TXT) 📕

felt so comfortable in during their lives.

186Austin

Austin went on to tell me that despite only meeting his

guide in adulthood, he had seen ghosts and spirits since he

was a small child. He was raised by his grandparents, both of

whom had strong mediumistic abilities which heavily influ-

enced young Austin’s day to day life. Spirits were a natural and expected aspect of life.

He has vivid memories of making the long trek across

lonely paddocks to get to school, and the insistent voices who would repeatedly call his name as he passed by.

His grandfather had warned him about the presences in

the paddock and told Austin that he was under no circum-

stances to respond to their calls.

“You are only to speak to those who approach you cor-

rectly!” his grandfather would say.

So the young Austin kept his head down and trudged on

towards school. As time went on he experienced more and

more, and found that as long as he remained prayerful and

trusted in the protection of God’s golden light, he didn’t feel threatened by the visions before him.

I told Austin about my frightening experiences at the hands

of a poltergeist, and asked him whether he had any frightening paranormal encounters of his own.

“Oh yes!” he said, and told me about one time in particular

when he had forgotten to say his prayer of protection prior to investigating a haunting. “It was years ago. I know better than to do that now …”

A woman called the church sounding distraught, con-

vinced that there was a negative entity overtaking her home.

She asked if someone would come to the house to see if

they could help, as the presence was systematically destroy-

ing her family’s lives. It appeared that the family were expe-

Austin 187

riencing an endless spate of illness and bad luck, objects were being thrown around the house and precious possessions

seemed to be disappearing. Family members had been physi-

cally assaulted and the woman’s young son had been forcefully

ejected from his bed.

The woman sounded so desperate that Austin agreed to

visit the house to see what could be done. He went together

with Mrs Perkins, a long-standing church member and tal-

ented medium who was also a respected teacher in the Spiritu-

alist Church movement.

The family greeted them on the front porch and whilst Mrs

Perkins stood outside talking to the family, Austin ventured

inside alone.

He was only a few steps down the hallway when he was

violently struck to the back of his head.

“Get out!” hissed a female voice in his ear.

Wasting no time, Austin bid a hasty retreat to the front

porch, and told Mrs Perkins what had happened. Despite his

long history of paranormal encounters, it was the first time

Austin had been attacked by an entity. He was visibly shaken

by the physical assault.

Mrs Perkins reminded Austin that they needed to pray for

protection prior to entering the disturbed household, and thus armed with their spiritual armour, they entered the house

once again.

The feeling of oppression was evident at once, and a sense

of negativity overcame the pair as they entered the house. A

menacing-looking old woman lingered down the hallway,

a ghostly apparition who identified herself as the woman’s

mother-in-law. She hated her son’s wife whilst she was alive

and death had done little to assuage her venom. In fact she

188Austin

hated her all the more as the daughter-in-law had taken pos-

session of her most prized possessions; her jewellery and her china.

The ghost made her intentions very clear. Unless the fam-

ily relinquished her possessions, she would continue to make

their lives a misery until they conceded to her wishes.

Surprisingly, the family didn’t agree to the old woman’s

terms immediately, as the pieces in question were very valu-

able. Austin was incredulous that they would even contem-

plate keeping the contentious items, and reminded the family

that their safety and peace were infinitely more valuable than any monetary value.

Finally a compromise was reached and they agreed to get

rid of the jewellery and the china, sharing them amongst fam-

ily members rather than destroying them or just randomly

giving them away.

Whilst the troubled household resumed normality shortly

after, the recipients of the old woman’s possessions began to experience similar disturbances within their own homes. Austin and Mrs Perkins were summoned once again.

Mrs Perkins made contact immediately and the dead

woman made herself very clear. As bitter and attached to her

belongings as she was, she was adamant that no one should

have her things! She was completely earthbound and fixated

with her material possessions, and couldn’t bear to see anyone, not even her own family, taking ownership of her earthly treasures. It was beyond her comprehension that she was dead and

had no use for tea cups, dinner sets, necklaces and rings. She refused to be convinced.

It was eventually decided that the dead woman’s posses-

sions had to be destroyed, as she would undoubtedly follow

Austin 189

the items to whichever house they were taken, and wreak her

jealous havoc accordingly.

Under the supervision of Austin and Mrs Perkins, the old

woman’s belongings were gathered up and taken to the rub-

bish tip. To ensure that no junkyard scavengers found them

and took them home, they were bundled up in boxes and then

destroyed. The family paid one of the tip employees fifty dol-

lars and watched as he crushed the boxes with his bulldozer

until they were no longer recognisable.

It seems the bitter old woman was satisfied with their fate,

preferring to see her items destroyed rather than in the hands of others. There were no further disturbances after this day.

Austin had only one other negative experience, this one

instigated by his daughter fooling around with a Ouija Board.

The phone rang just a little after 1 am. Austin could barely

make out the voice of his stricken daughter, as she tried to

speak through her hysterical sobs. She was absolutely terrified, that was apparent, but it took much calming and cajoling to

ascertain why.

Austin’s heart sank as the facts came to light. His daugh-

ter and her friends had spent the evening playing with a Ouija board, and had unleashed a throng of angry ghosts who were

at that very moment clawing at the walls. Austin could hear

his daughter’s friends screaming in the background.