Paula Wratten - My Story

My name is Paula Wratten and I am 45 years old, and ever since I can remember I have been able to see and hear ghosts and spirits.

The fascination with haunted houses started when I was 4 years of age when our family moved into a Victorian terraced house in Wimbledon. My mum and dad started to renovate the house and use to send me to my room to keep me out of the way of builders, I spent many a long hour talking to Maria the nanny but could not understand why nobody else could see or hear her. It was not until I was 7 years old that my father investigated the history of the house and discovered that the lady I had been talking to was the governess who had lived there in the Victorian age and her name was Maria.

As I grew up theses experiences continued to be part of my everyday life I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would become a ghost rescuer. I feel at this point I need to explain the difference between a ghost and a spirit, both a ghost and a spirit have had a physical existence but a spirit chooses to cross over to the over side where as a ghost chooses to stay on the physical realms because of unfinished business through love, anger, addictions, justice or just plain fear of crossing over, what ever there reasons are it can be very disturbing for the people that live in haunted homes or businesses, I always encourage my clients to clear these energies away as ghosts are not pets and deserve a chance to go over to the light.

Over the years I have been asked to clear away ghost and spirits from houses and business a like. Every job that I go to is totally different, some are very easy and some are down right awkward some ghost go in a matter of minutes while others take hours to convince to cross over. It is not always the case that these lost souls leave the place that they are haunting, they have free will like you and I, in these cases it is best to leave the ghost a lone until they are ready to cross over on there own accord.

As a teenager my gift got me into alot of trouble, I would often say things to people that I could not possibly know and after delivering the news to them I would be left with a rather stunned person looking at me, I learnt very quickly not to say things unless I was asked.
In my twenties I started my business as a beauty therapist and tried to put my unusual gift to one side but the spirit world had other ideas for me, no matter what I did I was always pulled back to working with spirit, the messages from departed loved ones came flooding in as I worked with my clients, if the client was open then I would pass on messages to them.

Eventually the business was sold and I went into medium ship full time. It was a testing time for me as my personal energy was challenged alot in the early years, being a medium is not all about spirits it is about the people you come into contact with on a daily basis, listening to the stories and experiences of others is also very important.
One of the most fascinating cases I have been asked to help on was the curious case of the dead tree. I named it that because of the events that happened after the clearing. I was asked to go to a house that had had some disturbances occurring, strange sounds, cold spots the normal things for a classic haunting, but this was different the energy seemed to be coming from outside in the garden.
 
When I first investigate a house clearance it always best to rule out normal things that may be making the client uneasy but not necessarily ghosts, if all the evidence does point to the paranormal then I start to work to find out what is going on with the house or the people within it. The house in question did have some cold spots but mainly stagnant energy that was easily shifted, but the garden was very eerie, in the middle was an oak tree but it had died many years ago, the owner told me that only crows visited her garden and she never liked to sit out even on sunny days.
 
I asked to be left alone in the garden and within minutes a scene that you would only describe as out of film with robin hood played out before my eyes, a small dark haired girl about ten years of age ran passed the woods at the back of the house, she had no shoes on and looked like she had not washed for days, following her were soldiers on horses screaming and shouting at her, one stopped and the girl ran towards me i looked at the soldier as he fired an arrow from his bow at me, the girl disappeared but the scene was so vivid that I put my hand to my chest because I thought I had been hit by the arrow, the shock of that stopped me for a minute or two, as I turned to face the house the crows were in the garden again and the client was looking at me rather bemused, so you heard it too she asked, I said that I had only seen the people whereas she had heard the horses and screaming.
 
It took me a while to finally contact the young girl who told me that she had been in the woods looking for food when these men had come and chased her and she ran to the tree for cover but when she woke up she was lost, I explained to her that she had died the arrow had killed her as she fell by the oak tree, she was trying to find food for her family and young brother but never made it home, I explained that her family were waiting for her and within seconds I felt her leave.
 
The garden felt lifted and the crows were gone, two weeks later I received a call from my client to say that blue tits had returned to the garden and upon investigating the history of the land it was owned by Henry 8th and was used for hunting grounds.
 
A year had passed and an email received from my client saying that the oak tree was showing signs of life, some things can be explained while other things will remain a mystery.

Paula