Jo and friends help an old ghost move on to the light

In 2010, our group of six -- four men and two women -- rented a holiday cottage with a trout dam on a large farm property in Oberon, Australia. We'd visited it several times before and had had relaxing weekends. Mobile phones do not work there.

This weekend was going to be different. We were at the trout dam; the men were fishing and I said to Jackie (I don't know why), "There's someone missing."


"Yes, they're over there," she said and pointed to an area that everyone was avoiding without realising it. A little later, Jackie, John and I went for a walk around the property because we felt unsettled. We were aware someone or something was following us.

Later that day things really kicked off. Wallaby and Mick, our husbands, suddenly began acting very strangely, as did John -- talking wildly and incoherently and being the opposite of their usual loving, considerate, fun selves. The next day they were normal and had absolutely no recollection of the several hours of their strange behaviour at all or anything they had said. It was just a blank. The only one not affected was Gaz.

When we returned home, I consulted a well-respected local psychic. He told us that over 100 years ago, a poor, itinerant man been offered a bed for the night there and he had murdered the owner of the property. The murder had not been discovered and the itinerant had taken over the property. There had been a gold rush in the area at the time and no one had noticed the missing man as people had been coming and going all the time and it was not unusual for someone to suddenly disappear; it was usually believed that they had just moved on to another gold area or gone back to the city.

When we had taken that casual stroll, we had unknowingly come near to where the body had been hidden. The psychic also said that since then the place had had an uneasy history. There had been a stabbing there in the 1920s and another fight in the 1930s that had resulted in a death as well as numerous strange accidents. Even though it was a seemingly pleasant holiday cottage, most people did not revisit it without actually knowing why they were reluctant to go back. Since we had been several times, the spirit of the murderer was now trying to protect his guilty secret and drive us off.

We decided to try and help this tormented ghost, since we all hold deep spiritual beliefs. Acting on the psychic's excellent advice on what to do, we got together in a sacred space in our local area and told his spirit that it was all right for him to leave -- no one was interested now in his crime, that he could not now be held accountable and he no longer had to guard his secret.

Apparently, he did not even realise that he was dead. We had a clear vision of him -- a short man in dusty brown, baggy trousers, a thick gray shirt, heavy boots, with longish red hair and a battered wide brimmed hat, aged in his mid-40s. We all had the same image. He was angry and scared. He had stolen and murdered to get what he wanted and it had only brought him misery.

We "opened a door" for him and gently urged him through to the other side. He was uncertain as to whether he should go or not; he kept looking back, then he would take another look through the "door", -but he did finally cross over into the light.

The next time we went to the cottage, we noticed that it felt different. It seemed to be "clean". We burned some black candles to disperse any negative energy. The next morning we noticed the candles had melted into the shapes of dragons, which we regard as protective creatures. We took photos of the candles, as we were so amazed at the shapes.

That was a very peaceful weekend. We've been back several times since and there has been no trouble at all. I would like to stress that we did not act until we had received proper advice from the psychic, and I would not recommend anyone else in a similar situation to take action without proper guidance.

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