5 Ways To Challenge Your Paranormal Team's Psychic/Medium - and they are going to love it!

To each their own is my philosophy. Some teams in the para field are adamant that psychics have no place in the field and some have their own, in-house psychic. Some teams are comprised of psychics entirely. Some have sensitives, some have skeptics. Some have a mixture of all of the above. This article is not about telling you which one is the best combination. As far as I am concerned all that matters is that the team are happy and work well with eachother.

If you work with psychics or may be considering working with them in the future, you will find this article useful. Well, I hope anyway.

Here are five ways to engage them in your paranormal investigations, whether private cases, public investigations or commercial locations.

1            Prepare a kit for them to use prior to the investigation. Include items that relate to the location you're investigating. Include some "easter eggs", items that have nothing to do with the location. It can contain things like old photos, items that were used at that location or relate to activities being carried out at the location, even replicas of items, sound bytes or even paragraphs of stories. Get as creative as you like. This is also a good way to gauge how suggestible your psychic is as well as whether they use cold reading techniques to gather information. Disclose nothing of the location you're investigating but leave your psychic plenty of time to work on items from the kit. They may use all of the items or just some of them. Extra brownie points for those who can point out the easter eggs.

2              Obtain a floor plan to the location you're investigating. If a floor plan is not available, just draw one up yourself. Don't worry about it not being an architectural drawing as long as it represents the rough proportions of the property. Give it to your psychic in advance for them to get a "feel" for it. Ask them to give your information on things like, what type of activity they feel is occurring and where. What each room feels like or looks like. Who does what in each room. As in what the day to day use of a space is. Are there any significant items in any of the spaces that might relate to activity. Again, get creative but also allow them to come up with their own information. If you want to push them just a little bit further, ask them to draw the floor plan themselves based on the psychic information they are getting. Do not disclose any information about the location. Extra brownie points for those who can differentiate between the activity of the living and any supposed spirits that may haunt the place.

3              Many psychics read from photos. If you've researched your location, like a diligent paranormal investigator should, you would more than likely have come across some images from that property's past. Pick one that is not an obvious and popular image and get your psychic to read the image. Ask them to provide information on people that have associations with that property or historic events that might have happened there. For a private case, ask permission from the client to use a photo of people living in the house, including some that have passed. Your psychic should attempt to point out relationships between people in the photos as well as gain insight on whether any particular person has any paranormal activity happening around them and what that activity is. Of course for this, as any private case, you'll have to pay particular attention to the client's privacy. As in all of the previous suggestions, give no information to your psychic. Extra brownie points go to anyone that can give names or initials of persons of interest relating to the photos.

4              Re-enactments can be useful during investigations as era cues have been show to produce some great results by teams. Your psychic can help you with that. Tapping into time lines and events that happened at a location, be it indoors or outdoors, private case or commercial building can assist with determining how or where to focus effort during investigation. Get your psychic to help act out events they pick up, either by taking on the role of one of the perceived spirits during the re-enactment or the role of the director where they instruct members of the team what to do or say, how to act etc. Much like a film director. I suggest recording this part on video as well as a separate audio track (or even several) for the chance to gather any possible EVPs these era-cues may generate. Of course, keeping all details from your psychic in this instance is also imperative. Extra brownie points for those psychics who can come up with some scenes to act out prior to the investigation where the events can be verified by the investigator team.

5              Many investigations involve haunted items. Clients report items disappearing or moving or otherwise being involved in paranormal activity. You may want to get your psychic to concentrate on those particular items. If you have the opportunity to get your hands on an item like this prior to the investigation, let your psychic sit with it for a while to see if they will pick up on anything that might relate to the origin of the activity around that item. If that is not possible, a photo of the item might suffice. Or even during the investigation, let your psychic spend some time with the item. In this case don't tell them beforehand what the item that was reported have phenomena around it is. Challenge them further by, again, using the easter egg technique. Expect information from your psychic that is not outright obvious about an item. Eg, a shaving brush being used by a male. Restricting information for this challenge is as important as for the ones mentioned before. Extra brownie points to the psychic if they can pick out any easter eggs or if they can provide information of the origins of allegedly haunted items.

Of course keep in mind that experimentation around psychic phenomena has many critics not to even mention the question that is in the most part and for a lot of people is yet to remain solidly unanswered. Is psychic phenomenon real?

I have had many experiences that I can't explain that led me to question and theorise for both for and against the validity of claims of psychic "powers" and mediumship. I never stop questioning and challenging myself in that regard and I look for answers on both ends of the spectrum. Pushing my own limits has become an obsession of sorts and I take great pleasure in guiding others to do the same. 

Top Tips For Handling Kids' Paranormal Experiences

Children are a lot more open to the world of the unseen and if my own two (not so) little cherubs are anything to go by, there are plenty they experience. Because they have no framework at a young age to put the experiences in, they often get missed in the babble of talking about imaginary friends and storytelling games. Is there anything you can do to have those conversations with your child where they tell you about their unusual experiences? Of course there is.

1              Take your child seriously when they talk to you about their imaginary friends. Some of them may not be so imaginary. When our daughter spoke of seeing her grandmother in her bedroom a few days after she died, she was too young to understand the concept of death. She was perplexed by the fact that as far as she was concerned, her grandmother was living in a different country. Until one night she visited her granddaughter wearing her trademark polka dot blouse she loved so much. Michelle was adamant in the morning that she spoke with grandma in the night and the description she gave was a perfect likeness to what she looked like before she died.  The visit was a comfort not only to her but the rest of the family and we wouldn’t have known about it had we not taken the time and care to listen to her story.

2              Some spirits in your house or around your children may not come from your family tree. As it was the case with the house we live in. It's an old farmhouse and there are plenty of spirit shenanigans going on on a daily basis. As it turned out, the gentleman who built it was still around in his corporeal form after we have taken ownership of it and he took his cranky self to the kids room at night on occasion. Having not the heart to dispatch the old man from the house he built, we still wanted to take some steps to make the kids more comfortable sleeping in their own beds at night. We have put a sign on the door of their room that said loud and clear, "NO SPIRITS ARE ALLOWED!". That took care of that problem. They felt they have exerted their authority over their own room and who is allowed in and peace at night has returned once again. The old man was never felt or seen in that room again.

3              Sometimes it's hard for children to put into words what they see, especially if they have no concept of it, such as someone walking through a wall or hovering on the ceiling. In that case asking them to draw what they experienced will make it easier for them to recall the experience and getting them to talk about it. It also helps in getting the scale of what they experienced and some clues on how they feel about it.

4              Sometimes siblings will have shared experiences. Depending on their age and the age gap in between them, they might express their experiences differently. It's important to be supportive and listen to what they have to say and give them a platform that promotes trust and a feeling of not being alone with their experiences. Kids are naturally mediumistic and some will grow up keeping their ability and growing it, however some will push it into the background only for it to come out later in life in a higher intensity but with much less control.

5              Introducing concepts such as angels and spirit guides is all and well. However I would very much caution against labelling any sort of spirit or other paranormal experiences as evil. Apart from causing unnecessary stress for children, as they have no understanding of what it is other than it's bad, it can cause severe anxiety that will last for years and other disorders.

6              If you're concerned and you feel that you need to discuss your child's experiences,  I suggest that you do that away from your child. Children are very perceptive and will pick up on your beliefs about their experiences. They will need you to be the one they look to for comfort and as a confidant that won't laugh at them. You might not be of the opinion that what they experiences was real but to them it was.

In any case, the most important to remember is that if you are concerned about the mental or physical wellbeing of your child, you need to see an appropriate health professional without delay. 

My Top Tips for Séances

Séances are back in fashion or maybe they have never been out. Social media now makes it so easy to connect with people and communities with similar interests. Whether you are part of an online community or an offline one in the field of paranormal or spiritualism, you may have noticed that séances are starting to come out of the shadows of Penny Dreadful and are being enjoyed once again more widely. This once favourite Victorian past-time activity is enjoying a revival.

If you're not particularly keen on joining a paid event with bunch of people you have never met before  but rather take part in a séance with your friends on a Saturday night, here are some guidelines that will assist you in making the night enjoyable.

Who should I invite?

In my experience the ideal number of people to get around a table for a séance is between four and seven. There really isn't a rule as to minimum or maximum numbers. If you have any friends who have some psychic development under their belt then ask them to come along. It's a great opportunity for them to practice their new skills. If not, then there are plenty of mediums around who will come to your house for a reasonable fee to conduct a séance. Google is your friend in this case but do make sure that you pick someone reputable and experienced in leading séances.

What sort of setting will I need for a séance?

Séances are best conducted in comfortable spaces where all participants can sit around a table (our circle has a round table) and move around as needed. A space that is well ventilated that can be made dark and away from noise is ideal. Pick a time when there will be no other disturbances in the house and there is nowhere to rush off to afterwards. If you're doing this séance in your home, the best time is when all people present in the house during a séance actually participate in it. If that's not possible, ask them to keep noise and movement to a minimum.  Otherwise you and your séance buddies might mistaken their pottering about the house for genuine spirit phenomena.

What other things do I need?

There is no special equipment needed for séances unless you want to get into physical mediumship. If you're just starting out, it's unlikely that you will encounter phenomena that will need special equipment. It's good to have some paper and writing instruments on the table during the séance. We have found in our circle that often information will come through the medium that is worth writing down. The spirit coming through the medium on occasion requested pen and paper to write something down or even draw. Some candles will set the mood with incense though they are not necessary. A low light desk lamp is sufficient. If you're going for candles, use the ones in jars as the chance of spilling is the lowest. If you're using a lamp, try a red bulb, it is easier on the eyes when the room is dark. Some would recommend to put a bowl of water in the middle as a focal point, though I believe that is more tradition than actual necessity. Things like creaky chairs and tables should be avoided for obvious reasons and it's good practice to check for droughts beforehand. When your candle flame moves or you feel a cold breeze across your face, you want to make sure that you are able to discount all natural and obvious explanations.

What if something scary happens?

For séances, the atmosphere builds up over time through repeated sessions in the same place and , ideally, with the same people. It's unlikely that the energies will be very strong if you're only just starting out. If you're more comfortable with someone more seasoned leading the séance then engage a medium.They should have ample experience in dealing with the unexpected. However in the absence of such person, it's good practice to have a plan for any untoward events. Those plans may include things like providing grounding for anyone in need, have access to water to offer to anyone affected, assertively ending the session or saying a prayer if that is deemed to be required. There is one thing you shouldn't do however and that is to upset and disrupt the circle and abruptly leave the room in panic. If you think that you or any of the proposed participants may behave that way, it's best not to attend such an event.

The purpose of the event is to encounter spirit phenomena and that may come in many forms, such as sensation of being touched, voice heard, movements experienced or even channelling. So, don't run away when things start happening. The phenomena are unpredictable and you never know when you shall encounter  them and in what power. You also have to be prepared for not experiencing anything at all.

It's also good practice to document séances either by someone who can act as a scribe, or recording them on voice recorders or even a video camera if that's possible. This is good for several reasons. You may catch a possible EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) on your audio track or if you opted for video, you might record something unusual on the footage that correlates with the audio track or someone's experience during the session. Notes are handy when you have a spirit return to the circle to communicate as you will find that doing repeated and regular session, you will have your regulars and familiars making appearances from The Other Side.

The process of a séance session is a topic for another article as there are many schools of thought and different traditions dictate different rituals.

Kicking Off 2016 in Gaol

When you're in the paranormal field for as long as I have been, there is not much left that whets your paranormal appetite as much as a location you haven't investigated before. Gaols, psychiatric hospitals and other places of obvious trauma, staple locations for paranormal investigators, are in short supply nowadays so last night I grabbed the opportunity to get stuck into some work at Parramatta Gaol with my long time para gal pal, Beth Luscombe from Access Paranormal.

I started the night with taking some location shots with my Fujifilm XF1 but had to give up shortly as the originally fully charged battery expired only seven shots into my session. An inconvenience to say the least as I wanted to travel light on the night an didn't bring a spare batter or a charger even. Rookie mistake, one that I'm sure my partner in crime, Beth will not let me live down anytime soon.

We started off at the shower block, a sandstone building with the floor sunken into the ground about three feet deep. A small and largely featureless space with a tiled floor and walls with some of the shower roses still in place. This area had an interesting environment for audio with the natural echo the high ceiling and general interior sparseness created. The only features of this space were two benches and a laundry trolley. We decided it was as good an opportunity for an EVP session as any other.

While Beth reports that there were no EVPS captured, there were some interesting personal experiences during the session. I had several sensations of being touched, something I had given the spirits I was sensing permission for. One in particular, whom I sensed, paid special interest to my hair, playing with it before moving to the silver chain around my neck before I felt a hand around my neck tightening somewhat but never to the point of hurting me. It felt like a power play playing out that formed a  part of this man's personality while he was alive. He didn't speak or gave me any more information about himself at the time so we invited him to accompany us to the other structures on the ground of the gaol we were planning on visiting on the night.

We decided to try our luck in a building next that is largely ignored by people for some reason. We headed to the first floor with our torches and after exploring the level we settled on a cell where I heard a deep groaning sound from on our walk by.

The EVP has again revealed nothing conclusive but while in the cell I saw some mist forming evenly in the cell almost opposite the one we were in, across the concourse. 

to watch the this file, visit my Facebook page

The footage and audio recording we took didn't yield anything paranormal at the time. It was as this time that the batter on my near brand new phone where I was recording the video with was getting close to depletion, even though I started the night with an almost full charge.

We headed over to another cell block where a séance just finished. Shortly after entering the building a large metallic clanking sound was heard that was repeated a short time later. The direction of the sound was obvious and we agreed that it was coming from above us. I took the opportunity to scan through the first and second floors to establish whether anyone else was there to make those sounds and tried to find the source of the audible phenomena. It wasn't until I reached the middle of the second floor concourse that I found a possible source, a metal sheet placed across the wire mash connecting the two side of the concourse. As soon as I walked on it, it made a familiar sound, a groan under my weight. I was the only one on that floor and on my way up I hadn't come across anyone there, aside from a man who was a part of the tour and who witnessed the sound with me from the ground floor to begin with. The sound has repeated a few times later on during the night with no one in the vicinity other than the investigators on the ground floor with me.

All in all it was a great night and a perfect way to paranormally start the year.

Regular tours are run at Parramatta Gaol by APPI - Australian Paranormal Phenomenon Investigators

Basic Starting Guide To Paranormal Photos

Spirit photography has been popular almost since the dawn of spiritualism and coincided with the dawn of photography as well. Some savvy photographers worked out how to use double exposure to fudge photographs for the unsuspecting public. And the public lapped it up. Fake spirit photos are not a modern age thing only done by someone cluey enough to use Photoshop. Ghost apps by the dozen are available to download for free for smartphones and are unashamedly uploaded to social media. Surprisingly there are still people who fall for them. 

The story of the photo usually starts with something like, "a mate of mine took this photo and sent it to me and swears it's genuine". Even investigators are not immune to this folly. On more than once occasion, I have been shown photos on smartphones with the above story and was expected to be in awe. Of course it didn’t go down well with the owner of the photo when I revealed that I was an investigator and a photographer myself and what they were looking at was a fake. Some tried to convince me it wasn't as they took the photo themselves. It makes me a little sad.

I would like to share with you some very simple and easy to follow tips you can use to take great photos even with a compact camera while on ghost tours, investigations or just on a rogue Saturday midnight cemetery dash.

No handheld devices

Forget your smart phones and tablets. While most of them take pictures with excellent resolution, there is precious little you can do photographic settings wise to adjust to your environment. Not to mention that any self-respecting investigator worth their salt will just plain and simple refuse to give you an opinion on your image, should you decide to send it to them. Simple and fairly inexpensive compact and SLR digital cameras are perfectly fine for taking snaps. Some even have really good low light functions and that means you won't have to use your flash all the time. We all know that one person on a tour or an investigation who just can't help themselves but take hundreds of flash photos, ensuring that participants are all but completely blind by the conclusion of the event. Not cool.

Have the right equipment

A tripod is a must have staple in your spirit photography arsenal. It doesn't have to be super-duper, weight balanced titanium with an inbuilt spirit level, you're not photographing for National Geographics. Inexpensive ones can be acquired online and are lightweight aluminium and will easily fit into a small backpack alongside your rations for the night, your torches, spare batteries and holy water. When you take pictures in the dark, whether your camera is set to auto or you adjust the settings yourself a longer exposure will required if you don’t want the images to turn out completely black, if your camera even picks up objects at all. Most camera sensors need something to hook onto when focussing or measuring for autosettings. Longer exposure means that even if the camera moves the slightest, you will have a ghosting effect on your image. This may even be caused if you breathe while the lens is open or the subject in the frame moves. Yes, even if the movement is the slightest.

Common misidentifications

Moving lightsources, dust, insects, cigarette smoke, breath or condensation are often misidentified as spirits on photos. The great orb debate has raged for a long as digital cameras have been around. Even longer if you take into account sunflares and lens reflections. At least now, in the digital age, where images are no longer captured on film negatives, aberrations on the images caused by incorrect distribution of developing chemicals or a faulty film strip can be excluded. There are steps you can take to avoid the above listed artefacts from appearing on your images. Trailing can be avoided by making sure that there are no prominent light sources in your shot. Someone holding a torch, a candle, even street lights can be misleading once you manage to put your images on your computer days later. It's unlikely you will remember every single details about your environment on the night you took your photos. Insects are hard to avoid but they will be pretty obvious once you get the hang of spotting them in your photos. Exhaled breath and cigarette smoke will not necessarily be visible when you take your picture, but will produce a distinctive signature on the image. Condensation in or on the lens will occur if you move between areas of varying temperatures like getting out of a warm car where you kept your camera and start taking photos outdoors on a cold day or night.

The Naked Medium

By Andrea Kaldy

I love Jamie Oliver! I have for a long time. Ever since this fresh-faced Brit took TV by storm back in Y2K and revolutionised cooking for millions (I'm pretty sure) of devotees with his simple, back to basics style of cooking. I knew that it was that simple, uncomplicated and utterly transparent way of handling food that got me from the start and kept me watching his shows religiously. The Naked Chef, his first show was aptly named. In the intro you can hear him saying, "it's not me, it's the food!". I have to admit, the first time I had encountered the show title, without knowing what it was about, I marked it on Foxtel to make sure I wouldn't miss it. Who wouldn't want to watch a hot young chef standing behind a kitchen counter, cooking food on TV … naked. Ok, ok , I know it's not a visage for everyone to picture …

You can imagine my surprise when the show wasn't what I thought it was going to be. No bare butts, no strategically placed kitchen items, no misty camera shots or clever angles. Anyway, this is not an ode to the Naked Chef or any sort of cooking show in fact. This article is about the Naked Medium. You can be forgiven if you're now conjuring up pictures in your mind of attractive young women running around in dark buildings, talking to the dead while naked. You couldn't be further from the truth! As lucrative as it sounds for a paranormal reality show pitch, it's really not the idea I was going for. By naked, I mean using nothing but the simplest, most transparent methods of communicating with the dead.

I see many psychics, mediums, chanellers (for the purpose of this article I will call them communicators) pulling out all sorts of paraphernalia when contacting the dead. From crystal balls to crystal grids, to complicated symbols, amulets, cards, and who know what else. My personal favourite is the all purpose carry on spirit guide that is constantly on the ready like an eager genie in a bottle to pop up on request to dispense advice (often unsolicited) to others or produce vague though seemingly relevant information and even be an intermediary between the communicators and the dead. Many a time I breathed a sigh in exasperation as I was reading about, listening to or watching such practices being carried out, especially in the paranormal, my chosen field of mediumship.

I observed students of mediumship starting to use those "tools" as they were expanding on their communication skills. But as everything, even mediumship has a natural way of evolving and some students do well allowing for that natural process to take place and eventually they let go of those crutches while some never do.

Any intuitive work, including mediumship is firmly based on trusting oneself and that trust, like a kind of compass, is based on the fine calibration of the very few, simple parts that make it up and its accuracy in showing information is closely dependent on the skills of the one who uses it. In fact, there are things that may interfere with the accuracy of the instrument and can lead to misdirection. Our internal compass we use for communicating with the Other Side or gather information via psychic channels is the same. If we are not careful, our finely tuned and precision instrument can lead us astray and we can get bogged down in shallow, in essence meaningless and distracting details.

For many, their skills never go passed this point and their lack of confidence in their own compass, accompanied by fear means they will forever rely on external factors to aide them in their work. I never understood the need for those things when I knew that direct communication with the dead can be achieved. It's a lot of work and it requires commitment but what it requires the most of is the willingness to take full and complete responsibility for what comes out one's mouth when working as a communicator. "Spirit told me", or "my guide/angel/ascended master told me to tell you" etc seems  nothing more than a complacent passing off of the responsibility for the information that a communicator is producing. 

What this field needs in my view is full accountability and transparency from communicators. Clarity of process as well as language that doesn't rely on any occult, spiritual or religious mumbojumbo and affords easy understanding to anyone without the extended need to delve into complicated, obsolete and obscure practices that are more ritualistic and obscure to the observer.

Strip down your mediumship and look at what you are using and relying on that has no real value in the communication process. Things that you have become accustomed to in a habitual way. There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to contact the dead directly and I encourage all seekers on this path to have the courage to leave behind the crutches, go beyond the fear of having to take sole and complete responsibility for your communication and enjoy the confidence it eventually brings in your ability as a communicator. The rewards are worth it because you will be able to experience the contact between this world and the next in a deeper  and much more direct way. Get naked in your communications,  all you need to talk to the other side is you! Simple, uncomplicated, transparent building blocks of pure skill. Just that.