Top Tips For Making The Most Of Your Next Ghost Tour

There isn't a town nowadays that doesn't offer a ghost tour or two or at least a historic walk. Even I have been known to pop in a tour with my friends once in a while. If you're a serial ghost tourist, you probably wonder what new those tours can offer once you have been to so many of them.

Apart from the spooky stories and the obvious history component there are things you can do to spice things up a little, not only for yourself but for your companions too, especially if you're lucky enough to be attending with your mates instead of a partner who just tagged along to keep the peace and would rather spend the night watching cat videos on their phone than participate.

Here are some tips to make the most of your time on the tour.

1              Listen to the history. I mean, really listen to it. Those stories not only contain anecdotes of ghost sightings and gruesome events but also little morsels of important history of the country you live in. The historic buildings that you normally would just walk by without a second glance are places where pivotal events may have taken place. Many tours pay a particular attention to the historical component of their event and you will hear about local legends, intrigue and mystery.

2              Take a moment to imagine yourself being a part of history. What it must have been like to live in the particular era the building or site is from? Having a great imagination is a very important stepping stone to your psychic senses as it disengages us from our logical mind and allows us to perceive information that is not immediately visible and makes sense.

3              Participate in the activities, don't be a bystander. Tours offer activities such as staying in a cell on your own at gaols for lone vigils, partake in dress up re-enactments, have access to basic equipment such as cameras, voice recorders, EMF meters and the like. Don't be shy!

4              If you're not into dress ups or equipment, you can cut your teeth on some psychic development. Even if you don't encounter any active spirits on the night, residual energy and psychic imprints are easy enough to pick up by just about anyone. Whether old or fairly new, they are a good opportunity to get some hands on experience. Most tours would be familiar with psychic phenomena and will be able to guide you in your experience. Pay special attention to your emotions and your thoughts as they will be your psychic indicators. Voice what you feel whether you think it's relevant to the location or not as you will find that often the history of a site is more complex than it appears.

5              Last but not least, don't pay attention to those who treat those tours as a distraction. Rowdy and inconsiderate guests can ruin it for the rest of the tour group. Most operators will deal with them swiftly and decisively. If you feel uncomfortable by any other guest/s just let the tour operator know. Chances are that other feel the same way. People who don't take ghost tours as seriously as you do still buy tickets and think that their attitude and behaviour is somehow warranted and OK. You just go and do your psychic "thang", regardless.

Sydney as well as other capital cities in Australia have an abundance of great tours available to cater for all ghosty tastes so next time you're here, make sure that you book yourself and your friends tickets to at least one of them. Enjoy!

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. 

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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.

5 Fluff Free Meditating Tips For The Superbusy

According to Webster Online Dictionary, mediation is continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature. Yawn! This explanation is likely to put the most devout Buddhists off mediating, let alone a mum who's desperately looking forward the kids to go to bed so she can at least have 5 uninterrupted minutes in the bathroom. Or the busy professional who even works on the train on their way home from work after a 10 hour day.

When you hear the word meditation, what comes into your mind? Incense smoke filled yoga room with dreadlock and drawstring pants wearing people? A stack of never opened CDs you bought ages ago thinking you will have the time and dedication one day to "really get into it"? Or maybe an idyllic picture from your Facebook newsfeed showing a person sitting on a mountain top looking mighty serene and kind of full of inner peace smugness? I hear you!

Don't let all this dissuade you from at least trying it on for size. Bringing meditation into your every day is easier than it might seem. Let me share with you some ideas that I think will grow on you faster than you can say Namaste. These 5 top tips will not only help you get into meditation but will enhance your experience with psychic development.

1              Relaxation and Mindfulness

If you haven't done any meditation before, I suggest you try relaxation first and some mindfulness meditations or visualisations. These types of meditations are guided and on top of the soothing soundtrack of ocean waves, bird sounds and the like and you will have a person's voice taking you through a landscape of some kind usually. Sandy beaches, cool caves, lush forests are all popular choices. To start off with, choose something that is not too long. About 10-15 minutes will do. Choose a time when you won't be disturbed, turn your phone off and find a comfortable place to sit. I prefer a sitting position as it's just too easy to fall asleep during a relaxing meditation. As much as you want to enjoy it, unless it's bedtime, you want to get on with the rest of your day once you're finished.

2              Noise is Good

If guided meditations are not your cup of tea, I found that just a track of plain sounds is very effective. I have tried various background noises such as white noise, wind blowing, the sound of rain, drums, even whale songs. There is plenty of free material available online or inexpensive tracks on iTunes even. This type of meditation will allow you to be in the driver's seat and go wherever you want to go in your head.

3              Your Happy Place

You will be much more inclined to spend time meditating if you have a comfortable, inviting, cozy place to go to in your head if you're not using guided meditation. You can create the space you want in your head, even the path you get there on. Lack of imagination is not an excuse here as you can also go back to physical places in your thoughts where you really enjoyed yourself in the past or felt peace and calmness. I have a temple space I visualise, where I go to in regular meditations.

4              Thoughts Be Gone

I used to think that meditating means to be completely thought free until I met a yoga teacher who taught me something invaluable and I pass it onto everyone I teach. Don't fight your thoughts when they come into your head. It's natural to have those floating through your mind, even when meditating. If you're focused on keeping them out and fighting to push them out of your head once they enter, your focus is not on your meditation but your mental processes. Imagine that those thoughts that come into your head during meditations are like lithe leaves, being blown into your mindscape during meditation and see them float out of your head as effortlessly as they floated in. Acknowledge each thought and let it drift on and the next one and the next one until there aren't any more. Most of all, don't give yourself a hard time if you're not successful right away. Meditation is called a practice for a reason.

5              Keep It Simple If You Go Off Track

One of my issues during meditation used to be that I often "came out of it" really suddenly and was unable to go back into that relaxed state. Or during guided meditations I would drift away and completely off the path that the guidance was, especially during psychic development classes. I would find it difficult to re-focus once that happened and I would spend the rest of meditation time either with my eyes closed, fully aware and trying not to fall asleep in front of everyone in the circle or beating myself up in my thoughts for not keeping on task. Another technique I learnt from my yoga teacher helped me overcome that issue as well. Whenever I felt myself drifting or coming out of meditation, I would re-focus my thoughts on my breath. As I was inhaling and exhaling, very deliberately, I would feel the rise and fall of my chest and continue with that practice until I was back on track. Some people in my circles found that focusing on their heartbeat works better for them and that is perfectly fine. This is also helpful at the beginning of a meditation session as it helps centring and balancing the mind, priming it for a great meditation.

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.

Shadow Path - A Year of Commitment To The Dark Side

Last night's solstice circle marked the end of a year long journey. The shadow work has been quite challenging and the pathworking often stretched me to my human limits. Finishing the year much much wiser, deeper, more compassionate and Last night's solstice circle marked the end of a year long journey. The shadow work has been quite challenging and the pathworking often stretched me to my human limits. Finishing the year much much wiser, deeper, more compassionate and focused. 

Consulting the High Priestess - A Tarot Ritual

For most people maybe Tarot cards and herbs are not often seen as working together. For me however, the woody scents of mugwort, lavender and many other herbs is something that is inseparable from my Tarot work. Not only do they keep my precious cards that I use for readings company but have provided a source of liberating wisdom in home circles as well as during my solitary practice as a witch in ritual. Luckily most herbs used for opening the psychic senses are easily accessible and may can even be grown in our gardens with no fuss at all.

It has been many a time that I have made myself a fortifying cup of mugwort tea with a hint of rose and lemon balm before sitting down for a reading. The steaming cup sitting on my reading table. I even made a special blend that I use for ritual purposes when I want to connect with the archetypes of my Tarot and use it to scatter it on the floor, making a circle of working space, my little haven for my magickal Tarot work. In this article I share with you this blend and the use of it, hoping that you will derive as much pleasure out of it as I have been for a long time now.

 

Take one part of mugwort, rose petals, lemon balm, a bay leaf or two half of eyebright. If you're intending to use this blend as an incense, you might add some sandalwood chips or frankincense to make the smell more pleasant.  Mix the herbs together in a bowl while imbuing the mix with your intention for its use. You may want to chant something like:

"Herbs of sight, bring your might, show what's hidden, bring to light."

Keep in a separate container, labelled with the name of the mix and when you made it. If you want to use it with your cards, just put some in a callico or organza bag and keep with your card. I keep the bulk of my mix in a pretty glass container. I use that to mark out a circle when I cast in my temple space before I begin working with my Tarot. You can also use this blend as an incense to burn it on a charcoal disk.

This month I have also included another ritual to go with your psychic circle blend that will bring you even closer to your inner high priestess.

If you pull out all the High Priestess cards from your decks, (that is assuming that you are like me and one deck only just won't do) and put them next to each other you will notice one thing that seems to be common in most cards. She is depicted wearing a white dress. Some would say it’s due to her position as a priestess that she chooses to remain a virgin to be bound by no man. I partially agree with this, however it’s not the only reason I think. Her independence is not only prevalent in her being in her own power but also in the fact that she is ready to receive any hidden knowledge without any prejudice, there are no ingrained behaviours that would prevent her from gaining new understanding. This to me also signifies purity of mind.

Instead of only using rational knowledge that comes from learning through experiencing, she has the power, the tools and means to access the limitless universal knowledge and therefore glean things that would otherwise remain hidden to those not privy to those skills. She not only sees what is happening in the world but also the reason behind it. Consult her when you need to connect with the wiser you to make a decision where you feel like you don’t have all the facts or when all options seem to be blocked.

To connect with you inner High Priestess, the wiser you, try this simple ritual. You will need a pomegranate, a paring knife and a plate, pen and notepad, white tea light candle, incense or oil of sage or sandalwood, The High Priestess Tarot card or a printed picture of it.

Find yourself a quiet space where you will not be disturbed for about half-an-hour. Put on some soothing music if you like. Light you candle and incense or oil in an oil burner. Write down on your notepad a question that you need clarification on or a problem you need insightful help with. Cast your circle and scatter your psychic herb blend in a circle around you, marking out the space where you will be performing your ritual.

Sit while you concentrate on your breathing until your mind is settled down. Invoke the image of The High Priestess on your card in your mind as if she were sitting opposite you, giving you a reading. Ask her your question or tell her about the problem you need her assistance with.

Sit with her for a little while she connects with you. When she signals you that she’s ready, just bring your awareness back to your space a little bit. Cut the pomegranate in half and offer her some of the seeds in exchange for her help. Take your pen and notepad and start writing down the information she’s giving you while snacking on the pomegranate seeds yourself. Write until you’ve exhausted all the knowledge she was giving you.

Leave your notes for a day or two, but at least for a few hours, then go back through them again and make your decision. If you're planning on using the blend as a tea, please make sure that you omit the bay leaves and check the rest of the herbs with a herbalist to make sure you're not taking something that might compromise your health should you ingest it.