THE ghost FILES

Karina Machado is a journalist, host of the Spirit Sisters podcast and the author of Spirit Sisters, Where Spirits Dwell and Love Never Dies, a non-fiction series exploring the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people. Now, on the upcoming The Ghost Files podcast, each week, Karina will introduce a guest who’ll share their personal encounter with the spirit world.

When my two children were preschoolers, my husband started seeing ghosts in our little 1920s cottage in Sydney. These were no corner-of-the-eye shadows, but full apparitions.

There was a cheeky boy who peered at him from around a doorway, a lady in a red nightgown who glided down the hall and, finally, a blonde girl who was so lifelike, he mistook her for our daughter. I never saw them (phew!) but I did sense a strange charge in the air, as light bulbs exploded and toys crashed over in the dead of night.

Though this was the most extreme spooky encounter I’d ever experienced, it wasn’t the first. I’d been aware of a world beyond our senses since I was very young, listening wide-eyed to my mother’s stories about uncanny events in Uruguay, where I was born. I was enchanted by the idea that there was more to life than what our five senses dictated, and alongside C.S. Lewis and Enid Blyton, I was always reading

true ghost stories, too.

I loved stories about the afterlife because they gave me hope, not fear. They made me wonder about possibilities, and filled me with awe about life and its mysteries.

I’m not alone in taking solace in the unexplained, as I discovered when I wrote Spirit Sisters and met women including Kath, who lost her two daughters in a horrific accident, and only found the strength to go on when she saw their spirits fluttering toward her one night …

I met Amy, who saw a family materialise in front of her at a sleepover when she was in primary school. She’s never forgotten how the curious little boy reached out with his finger to prod her leg …

These things weren’t possible, but they happened, and in sharing these encounters, experiencers find solace, comfort and a sense of belonging.