Listen Live Mondays from 11pm Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 1 Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 2 Contents Note from the Editor page 5 Haunted Australian Shipwrecks page 6 Harry Houdini Master Magician & Psychic investigator page 9 Mysteries of Melbourne & Sydney’s Luna Park page 10 The Paranormal Guide page 15 Australiana Pioneer Village page 16 Taunton Castle page 18 Australian Ghost lore page 20 “Achoo!” “Bless you!” - Superstitions page 22 Uncovering the ghosts in Newcastle page 23 The different types & kinds of Paranormal Investigation Teams page 26 Past Life Regression page 27 Conspiracy Review page 29 SOuL Searchers Parapsychology Course page 30 Paracon Australia page 31 SOuL S.P.I page 32 Australian Paranormal Phenomenon Investigators page 33 Paranormal Equipment page 34 Paranormal Groups within Australia page 35 Workshops, Courses & Events page 42 Friendly Businesses page 43 Soul Searchers Advertising & Deadlines page 55 Cover – Shipwreck by Janine Donnellan Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 3 Contributors to Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine Below are profiles of our regular writers and also our occasional to Soul Searchers Paranormal magazine. Janine Donnellan ~ Editor & workshops and spiritual development. This does not Founder of SOuL S.P.I blind him however to keeping an open mind while Janine Donnellan is the founder of investigating. SOuL Searchers Investigations and Editor of the online Paranormal Jenny Taylor ~ Website Manager Magazine. She is also Lead Jenny is the Website Manager as well Investigator of the SOuL Searchers as Historian/Researcher and Part- Paranormal Investigations Team. Janine has been time Investigator for SOuL Searchers. conducting house clearings and paranormal Jenny's fascination with the investigations for over 15 years and established SOuL paranormal and occult developed Searchers Paranormal Investigation Team in 2006. during her childhood and in later Janine has a certificate of Advanced Achievement in years she explored areas such as psychic Parapsychology (1998) Australian Academy of Applied development, Reiki and other alternative healing Parapsychology and her interest in the occult was methods. Having a background and training based in developed as a young child through her spiritualist science (Bachelor of Science, Zoology) she Grandfather. Janine is also an Energetic Healer and understands the importance of investigating all Reiki practitioner. possible mundane causes (eg. psychological, physical) of any alleged paranormal activity. However, she Nic Hume ~ Assistant Editor keeps an open mind to all possibilities and has Nic is the Co-Founder and Lead personally experienced many episodes of Investigator of APPI – Australian claircognizance, clairvoyance and one 'definite' ghost Paranormal Phenomenon sighting, for all of which there is at present no Investigators. Nic's fascination with satisfactory scientific explanation. Jenny has been part the paranormal realm was cemented of the SOuL Searchers team since its beginning in at the tender age of 14 when she experienced her first 2006. full-bodied apparition. Over the years she has had her fair share of unexplainable experiences. Nic has Brother Truth always been curious of why people do what they do, Brother Truth is the writer and so she studied Psychology at university, and currently editor of popular alternative news works as a Counsellor. She has the ambition of and book review website- combining this knowledge with her interest in the The Conspiracy Review paranormal to eventually become a Parapsychologist. (www.theconspiracyreview.com). Nic writes articles for the APPI website, is a regular For the last seven years Brother Truth has researched contributor for Spirit Magazines and has also been deep geopolitics and paranormal phenomena, writing published in Doreen Virtue's Saved by an Angel. numerous articles and book reviews to much acclaim. Steve Millard ~ Case Manager of Ashley Hall - The Paranormal SOuL S.P.I Guide Steve is the Case Manager and an Ashley Hall is the website owner, Investigator for SOuL Searchers administrator and manager of all The Paranormal Investigations. Ever since Paranormal Guide’s operations. he was a child Steve has had a He came up with the name The fascination with all things paranormal. As he got older Paranormal Guide about three years ago when he he had more questions than answers and as science started work on his book about Haunted locations has developed over the years so too has the around Australia. His interest in the paranormal equipment he uses to assist him in investigating the started in his teens while reading the Readers Digest paranormal. .Steve has Clairvoyant and Clairsentient book 'Into the Unknown'. From there he researched abilities which he is constantly developing through UFO's extensively before moving into the field of Ghost and Hauntings research about 3-4 years ago. Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 4 Happy New Year! I have a good feeling that 2013 is going to be another exciting year for the Australian paranormal community. Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine is hot on the trail for YOUR paranormal stories, especially ones that are unusual. Also if you are starting something new we want to hear about it, whether it is a new video, a ghost tour or an event. Don’t forget we have Paracon Australia, the paranormal conference which is happening this year in Melbourne on 8 - 10th March 2013. So register as soon as possible to secure your place. I am also pleased to welcome two new contributors to our Magazine, Ashley Hall from The Paranormal Guide and Brother Truth from Conspiracy Review. Please note that all contributors whose work is included in the Soul Searchers Magazine receive full credit, and are linked to their website if desired. If you want to advertise your event or business we have competitive rates. Did you know that SOL Magazines has now received over 75,000 visits? If you advertise in the Soul Searchers Magazine your ad will also be advertised for free in Axis Mundi. Janine Donnellan Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 5 Did you know that surrounding Australia there sunk and have been reported to still haunt the are nearly 8000 registered wrecks, ranging in waters where they had sailed. age from the 1600s to present day? With so many lives lost in traumatic circumstances The Flying Dutchman is a classic tale which one wonders how many of these shipwrecks tells of a legendary ghost ship that can never are actually haunted. make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever. Sightings in the 19th and 20th We have often heard about mysterious ghost centuries reported the ship to be glowing with ships that sail the seas, often people have ghostly light. The sight of this phantom ship reported spectral images of ships that have is said to be a portent of doom. Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 6 Here in Australia we have two reported haunted wrecks out of the thousands of wrecks. Perhaps there are more haunted wrecks out there waiting to be discovered. The thought of encountering a ghost underwater is quite scary and I am sure that many a diver has had a strange encounter but has kept it to him or herself. The Yongala SS is perhaps one of Australia's best-known ghost ships. The final voyage was SS Yongala’s 99th. It started on the 14th of March 1911 under the command of Captain William Knight. The appealing vessel left Melbourne, reached Brisbane on the 20th of March and Mackay on the 23rd. When it Alkimos a Greek-owned merchant ship was left the port at Mackay it was carrying 49 wrecked on the coast north of Perth, Western passengers and 73 members of the crew. It Australia in 1963. The wreck is a popular was then when the ship was last seen; SS diving venue, and is also reputed to be Yongala was reported as missing on the 26th haunted, making it of interest to paranormal March 1911. Even if the government offered investigators. a substantial sum for information leading to the discovery of the ship, nobody knew where A variety of events and allegations throughout it went missing. the vessel's history have given rise to it being regarded as being 'jinxed', cursed or haunted, both during its working life and since it was wrecked. This aspect is the main focus of present-day interest in the ship. History The ship was built during World War II by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards in Baltimore as part of the United States' Liberty ship program and was originally scheduled to be named George M. Shriver. It was launched on October 11, 1943. On October 20, the vessel was re-assigned to the Norwegian Shipping & Trade Mission, was re-christened Viggo Hansteen and saw war service for about 18 months, primarily in the The SS Yongala wreck was not discovered Mediterranean and was crewed by mariners until 1947. In the years that followed its of various nationalities. It served as a disappearance there were stories about a troopship and transported cargo, in convoys ghost ship moving on the waters between that were sometimes attacked by German Bowen and Townsville. After World War II the aircraft and U-boats. wreck was discovered at approximately 30 meters within the Central section of the Great A murder-suicide took place on board Viggo Barrier Reef Marine Park. The bottom of the Hansteen in August 1944, while the ship was ship was ripped and so SS Yongala became at Naples; Canadian radio operator Maude an artificial reef, a unique habitat for marine Steane is reported to have been shot by life. another crew member, who then killed himself. What about shipwrecks? Are they haunted too? Soul Searchers Paranormal Magazine – January 2013 - 7 After the war it was sold to a Greek shipping actively trading as Alkimos after the war.