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Introduction
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E very day of my life I talk to people who have died.
However, I know that people dont truly die. Trust
me; I talk to them. I am aware that I am mind, body, soul
and spirit. In my early years as a practitioner and intuitive I
used the word soul and spirit interchangeably, until I came
to understand that there are four layers to our being. Beyond
our mind and body is our soul. It is the soul that moves in
and out of each lifetime, experiencing itself through the
human body and personality. The spirit is a field of energy

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that rests beyond the soul and comprises the same energy
that others refer to as God, the universe, Allah or Buddha.
We each have our own spirit with a unique energetic
vibration that defines us, like a fingerprint. Our spirit
is all-knowing, filled with pure wisdom and love.
Myintuition draws on the part of me that is spirit
energy. My intuition therefore is pure in its intent and
connected to the wisdom of the universe. This knowledge
has changed my life, and it has given me the greatest gift of
allpeace of mind.
I am also a social worker. For ten years I worked with
people experiencing trauma and death in a hospital
emergency department. I supported the family and
friends of patients who were dying and had died. While
some of the deaths were expected, and the transition was
easy, many deaths were tragic, unexpected and traumatic.
Until I began working at the hospital I would have
described my life as having two paths that I lived
simultaneously: the path of my soul, full of intuition,
connecting with spirit and spiritual development; and
the practical path, my career. Little did I know, when

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I took up the position, that my hospital social work would

be aided and enriched by the spiritual realm, through the
souls of hundreds of people who came to the end of their
lives before me. But so it transpired. And I began to see
that each time I assisted a patients soul to make sense
of their death I was taking part in something that held a
meaning far greater than myself.
For ten years I was held in a unique tension: in my
career surrounded by death and those acutely touched by
it, and in my spirit able to communicate with the souls of
those people who were dying and had died. It was a path
with ethical considerations, and I was careful to keep the
spiritual aspects completely apart from my professional
work. My first priority was always my professional role
as a social worker and I never compromised that. But for
me personally the two paths were interwoven, creating
unique insight into the nature of life, of death, and of the
mingling of the two.
I saw life after death, and I felt myself change. Over
time I began to notice that I altered the way I lived my
life. I noticed afresh the rich colours of the pansies in

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the garden, the feeling of the wind on my face, and the

delight of my girls wrapping their arms around my neck.
I began to breathe in as many moments as I could. I now
live with an understanding that each moment I have is
the only moment I can rely on.
The result is that I live differently from other people.
To begin with, I do not fear death; it is simply a passing,
not an end. I live in each moment, aware that it could be
my last in this life and that how I live it affects everyone
around me.
I believe that the lessons I have learned can be of
benefit to everyone, which is why I have written this book.
In it I describe my personal experiences with the afterlife,
mostly through stories of my spiritual encounters at the
hospital. The impressions I have received from and the
conversations I have held with souls of the dead and with
my spiritual guardians have given me insight into what
happens at death, but also wisdom for how to live life,
and I have aimed to pass this on in the stories that follow.
In order to protect the identities of my clients, all
names in the stories have been changed, along with some

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of the peripheral details. I believe that the stories speak

for themselves, and therefore I have allowed them to do
so, giving them prominence throughout the text, while
also describing some of my roles practical considerations
that may be of interest to readers. It is my hope that
through sharing these stories I will pass on the insights
I have been given, so that you too may understand
more about death and, through this, reconsider how you
might live.

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 g
An unusual
perspective

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 I have an unusual view of life and death. Many frontline
health-workers, emergency personnel and palliative-care
professionals are the same. Working closely with human
tragedy changes the way you perceive human existence.
For me theres an added dimension: I talk to the souls
of people who have died. Some of those I met as a social
worker died in traffic or workplace accidents, or through
suicide, heart attack or stroke; some died gently in their
sleep. All taught me a great deal.

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 1 g
Finding my way
to spiritg
I lay in bed. The house was quiet except for the distant
hum of the fridge. Suddenly, a howling wind started
up outside, prompting my heart to a faster beat. I pulled the
covers up close beneath my chin. To my eight-year-old ears
the wind sounded like a monster trying to blow our house
down. My father appeared in the doorway, and he used
what were by now familiar words to try, for the hundredth
time, to soothe away my night-time terrors. Rabbit, its the
sound of the wind. Theres no need to be afraid.

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Later, as I lay wide awake in the darkness, I felt the

hairs across the back of my shoulder blades and neck
stand erect. My pulse beat loudly in my ears, and fear
raced down my arms, nearly exploding out through my
fingertips. I could feel it again. It was there.
I rolled over slowly to face the doorway. In it there
stood a ghostly apparition. I closed my eyes. But the
figure was still there, even clearer in my minds eye: a man,
tall, with a beard, and wearing blue overalls. He stood
motionless at my door. Just there. I had often sensed
he was there, but until that night I had never actually
seen him.
I leaped out of bed and raced through the darkness
towards my sisters room. Ruth! Can I sleep with you?
As always my sister obliged and with a sleepy
Yes moved over, allowing me to climb in next to her.
Wrapped in the rhythm of her breathing and her warm
presence, I felt safe once more. My heart finally returned
to its usual beat, and I slipped into sleep.
The next morning, as I ate my breakfast with my dad,
I described what had happened. He listened to me with

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an unusual expression on his face. He was calm, quite

matter of fact, as he explained that I had seen a ghost,
possibly the ghost of the man who had once been married
to a lady my dad was currently dating.
I smiled. In the safety of the morning light I felt
happy that I could perceive ghosts, lucky to be able to see
the unseeable. Dad told me that it was a special gift that
others in our family also had. I was excited. I felt magical.
On the way to school I told Ruth what Dad had said.
Wow, you can see ghosts? Thats cool!
Later on I heard her telling her best friend that
Katrina can see ghosts. For the rest of the day I walked
with a spring in my step. I was happy. My mind delighted
in my newfound understanding of my world.
But that evening, as I was getting ready for bed,
I was struck by the reality of the long night ahead. The
enchantment of my newfound ability dissolved. As the
light waned my wonder and excitement were replaced
by fear. I knew that with the darkness came the ghosts.
Most people believe that the souls of dead people are in
heaven, but I knew they were down here with us, and

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I didnt like it. I said a prayer begging God to take them

up to heaven with him.
When my father tucked me into bed I pleaded with
him to leave the light on. He tried to talk me through my
fear, but his words made no difference. The terror that
grabbed my chest and clutched at my back could not be
talked away.
As the years passed this became the rhythm of my
life: happy with my intuition by day, full of fear by night.
And so my extraordinary adventures began.

By the time I was fifteen years old my life had changed

dramatically. My father had remarried, and my home
life had become unbearable. Home was no longer a
happy place to be. Ruth and I moved out. Ruth went to
live with our beloved grandmother, while I was taken
in by our kind Aunty June. In the school holidays
I would travel to the country to stay with another aunt,
my Aunty Gwen, who is a psychic and clairvoyant.

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Aunty Gwen introduced me to a wondrous world.

My years of learning with her gave birth to a lifelong
journey of discovery that I continue to live today. We
immersed ourselves in a daily practice of reading the
cards, meditation, and crystals. She taught me many
different ways to connect with spirit on the other side.
She also taught me how to control my metaphysical
experiences. I learned how to make contact with
spirit only when I wanted to: I could decide when,
where and how I experienced my intuition. After
those years of frightening night-time encounters
with spirit, I found learning to control the way
I experienced my sixth sense liberating. At times I
was still scared at night, yet in Aunty Gwens presence
I always felt comfortable.
Having family members who were supportive of
my intuition was a great gift. Not all children have this
support; some are told that what they are seeing, feeling
and hearing is not real. I feel for those childrenit
creates unnecessary confusion. For me, those years
represent a time of returning to the familiar.

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Aunty Gwen was involved in a new age group

people who were psychic or simply interested in the
paranormalthat gathered in the village regularly.
When I was visiting her on holidays she would take
me along with her. The group members were everyday
people: if youd passed one of them in the street you
wouldnt have guessed that only the night before they
might have been sharing time with the supernatural.
I loved every moment of attending that group. It was
exciting to sit in a room full of people whose life was full
of spiritual phenomena and intuitive practices.

With maturity and experience I have grown to under-

stand my intuition and use it powerfully in my life.
My intuition helps with everyday living as well as
tackling broader issues, in areas ranging from whether
I will be able to get an emergency appointment with my
hairdresser today to whether a patient in the emergency
department will survive.

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Sometimes I am asked how I communicate with spirit

and experience my intuitive impressions. Its difficult
to describe succinctly, because I receive them in many
different ways. Sometimes they come to me in the form
of words, images or an overwhelming emotional feeling,
which I call impressions. At other times I am given a whole
concept. Depending on their subject, messages generate
a range of feelings. If I receive a strong impression that
I am going to get a job I am applying for, then of course
that feels good, but if an impression comes to me that
there is conflict in a relationship, this feels unpleasant. An
impression concerning a future event will remain with me
until the event has transpired. I rarely find fault with my
impressions, though at times I havent liked them.
Occasionally I feel the presence of an impending
death; in fact, I am able to know that I am going to
experience a tragedy well before it happens. This
is something that I can turn on and off at will. I have
control over whether I feel it or not; impressions come
only if I ask the question. I am fortunate in this, as it is
not the same for everyone: some people are continually

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flooded by intuitive messages and feelings as they go

about their everyday lives. For these people it can happen
any timethey might be walking down the street and
as they pass another person they will suddenly know
something about them. Some people might describe this
as their gut instinct; I describe it as powerful intuition.
Our society is not yet at a stage where knowledge of
the afterlife is considered a normal part of everyday life.
But everyone is intuitive; everyone has the capacity to
connect with the spiritual world. When we discover that
there is no veil, no separation between the physical and
the non-physical world, our fear and grief are softened
a little. I hope the following chapters will help you to
understand and connect with the spiritual realm, leading
you to a fuller life as a result.

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