A medium has recalled some of her spookiest encounters – including a spirit who haunted her gran’s house and pulled the covers back as she slept and a ‘nasty’ man who abused kids and refused to move on from former boarding school.
Calista, 39, from Perthshire, Scotland, who has written about her ghost encounters in her book ‘The Female Archangels,’ also told of the times she witnessed a ghoulish figure who liked to smash glasses at a local pub and heard the sounds of a wailing women in a city café.
Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, the mother-of-three recalled that one of her earliest memories, aged six, was of a man who haunted her grandmother’s house after hanging himself there over 200 years before.
‘My gran raised me alongside my mum,’ explained best-selling author, Calista, who has recently released new book ‘Unicorn Rising.’ ‘I loved staying at my gran’s house, as she was the best baker and she always let me lick the cake bowl. She was kind, grounded, and had a magical affinity with Mother Earth.
Best-selling author, Calista (pictured), 39, from Perthshire, Scotland, who has written about her ghost encounters in her book ‘The Female Archangels,’ has spoken of the Unicorn Rising of the man who haunted her grandmother’s house as she was growing up
Calista explained that two hundred years prior, the garage that adjoined the bottom bedroom of her gran’s long cottage (pictured) had been part of a grain store – and her home was haunted by a gentleman who hanged himself in the store
Calista aged six-year-old when she had her first angel experience. Pictured in 1987, left and on right right is her sister Mhairi and their then dog, Scruffy
‘If she wasn’t in her kitchen, she was in her garden, tending to her veggies. The only aspect I didn’t enjoy about staying at my gran’s house was sleeping there, for her house was notoriously haunted.’
So Calista’s gran’s friend and spiritualist medium – who was known as ‘Mrs. Gourlay’ – stayed at the house to help move on the spirit of the troubled man.
‘Mrs. Gourlay was able to excise the presence from the top half of the house after staying awake for two days and nights in spirit communication, but she never returned to clear the bottom half of the house, which was where I slept,’ explained Calista.
‘Despite it being a stone-built cottage, the bottom bedrooms were always freezing.
‘Bless my gran, she always placed a hot-water bottle in my bed and made sure I had plenty of blankets, yet the room temperature always felt icy.’
Calista added that at the time, her dog Scruffy used to curl himself behind her legs, but even his shaggy warmth couldn’t take the edge off the chill or help to remove the presence of the departed man, who would often manifest in her room.
Best-selling author Calista has written about her ghost encounters in her book ‘The Female Archangels: Evolutionary Teachings to Heal and Empower Your Life’
She continued: ‘Years later, I realised there was nothing to fear about this man, but as a young child, my fears felt very real.’
Recalling the first time she felt him, Calista explained: ‘I shut my eyes so hard and prayed for help.
‘I’d heard of angels before, but didn’t know what they were, yet something instinctual called to them from within me.
‘Before realising what I was saying, I asked the angels to protect Scruffy and me. No sooner had my request been sent out than the heaviness began to lift, until it completely vanished.’
She continued: ‘I peeked out of the corner of one eye and saw a light more brilliant than anything I’d seen before.
‘It was like looking directly into the Sun, but without any of the discomfort. In fact, it was the most comfortable, safe, and soothing feeling I’d ever felt.
‘I opened both eyes and watched in awe as this form of Light began to deepen into a soft, shimmering gold, before enveloping Scruffy and me in a large, luminous bubble.
‘To this day, I can still feel the peace of that moment. There was no sound, no fear; just a velvety calm that sent me straight to sleep.’
Calista (pictured, left) at a speaking at the Hay House Angel World Summit that she attended in 2018
As Calista grew older, she began learning reiki and applying its wisdom, and started to meditate in her spare time.
‘I met many angels this way, including Seraphime (my main guardian angel), who turned out to be the being who had protected me as a child,’ she explained. ‘Seraphime guided me to become a reiki teacher and a practitioner of different angelic modalities.’
Calista later became a medium of ‘Ghosthunter Psychic Investigations’ on the then Dundee channel – and went on to have many more spooky experiences – from accounts of ‘The Grey Lady of Glamis Castle’ to the well-known ghost that haunts the Wellgate shopping centre.
During her time there, she and other mediums were sent to properties, usually bars and restaurants that had a lot of spirit activity.
Calista’s book ‘Unicorn Rising’ (pictured) details how she moved onto the path of healing houses with the spirits
‘Travelling to many haunted locations within and around Dundee for Ghosthunter, I came face-to-face with many beings that others feared – from a ghoulish figure who liked to smash glasses at a local pub to the sounds of a wailing women in a café outside of the city,’ she explained.
‘Things would happen like burst pipes, people getting sick, staff seeing, hearing and sensing Spirit and weird occurrences.’
‘Yet in each case, these beings just wanted acknowledgment and/or a release of the aspect of them that was attached to the physical world.
‘The man who liked to smash glasses turned out to be a friendly Spirit who loved the pub so much that a part of him didn’t want to leave!
‘Likewise, the sounds of the wailing women came from a tormented soul who had suffered from postnatal psychosis during her physical life – her pain replaying in the walls of the café.’
Calista added that guided by the angels, they worked with the spirits to bring them to the Light. However, there was one ‘nasty’ man who she said refused to move on.
‘There was only one instance when a spirit didn’t want to leave,’ she explained. ‘This was a spirit of a man who was haunting a bar. Formerly the bar was a boarding school.’
‘He abused the kids and did not want to move on. I had to bring his mother in from spirit to help move him on but this didn’t work. He was fairly nasty!’
Calista’s ‘orb’ sightings:
Since leaving ‘Ghosthunter’ in 2011 Calista’s work with the Spirit world continued and took the shape of partnering more angels to cleanse and uplift properties and environments.
And with the advances in modern day photography, she says we can now capture non-physical beings with our phones.
‘Spirit tends to manifest as orbs – coloured forms of Light,’ she explained. Here are a selection of some of the orbs that I’ve taken:’
Maine, USA; December, 2021
‘I was visiting my friend, Jayleen. We were at her local pub and a guy came over to hug her.
Her mother, who is in spirit and acts as her spiritual protector, was felt by Jayleen when I took this picture.
We were both delighted when her ‘spirit orb’ appeared on film. One of the biggest spirit guide orbs I’ve captured so far.’
Calista’s friend Jayleen (pictured) at her local pub with the guy that came over to hug her
Temple Wood stone circle – a 5,500-year old ancient site in Kilmartin Glen, Scotland; February 2021
‘There was a lot of spirits around me when this was taken – including spirits local to the area, those associated with the ritual practices of these sacred stones as well as Archnagel Michael who manifested as this huge blue orb.’
‘He came in to protect me as this site (despite many people no doubt feeling a calming energy to this place) has a curse on it.’
Calista told how Archnagel Michael manifested as a huge blue orb at a 5,500-year old ancient site in Kilmartin Glen, Scotland
Portugal, December 2018
‘Myself and my then fiancé was guided to stop the car at Colares – a little coastal town near within Sintra and go for a walk to explore.
Sensing a lot of nature spirits guiding us, we happened upon this forest. As I’ve felt in the past, a nudge came to get the camera out and take a picture. To our delight this was captured!
There is the usual solar flares you’d expect from pointing a camera directly toward the Sun but the blue and pink orb has fairy energy / spirits within it and if you zoom in, you can also see faces of nature spirits in the rocks.
The double arrow like orb at the top of the solar burst is Archangel Metatron, the angel wisdom.’
Calista claims the double arrow like orb at the top of the solar burst is Archangel Metatron, the angel wisdom in this photograph taken in Portugal in 2018
Japanese restaurant in Pennsylvania, USA, October 2013
‘This day, I had taught a Level 1 Angel Healing course, introducing to the students for the first time how Archangels (which have been depicted as “masculine” in nature throughout art and history) have a female (Archeia) counterpart – aka, an angelic twin.
The host of the course and I couldn’t believe it when two angels appeared in the flame of an onion that the chef was cooking before us – one appearing larger with wings as a halo (the ‘male’ angel) and the other as a more ethereal, feminine form.’
Calista recalled how two angels appeared in the flame of an onion that the chef was cooking before her (pictured)
Hike to the ‘Praying Hands of Mary’, in Glen Lyon, Scotland; March 2018
‘Many people make pilgrimage to this sacred site as myself and my friends were doing.
The Light of Mother Mary appeared on film as the green light on the right hand-side as well as these unusual octagonal orbs, which are spirit guardians of the area checking in on what we were doing!
If you zoom into these, you’ll see intricate geometry. These orbs literally hold thousands of spirits!’
The medium told how The Light of Mother Mary appeared on film as the green light on the right hand-side as well as unusual octagonal orbs (pictured)
Maine, USA; July 2013
‘This photo shows a ‘Rainbow Bridge’ – a spiritual means of travel taken by Unicorns to come into our physical, earthly world.
I was so happy this was caught on film as I was writing my first book, Unicorn Rising: Live Your Truth and Unleash Your Magic (Hay House, 2018) at the time, and this day there was Unicorns literally all around me!’
Calista explained how this photograph shows a ‘Rainbow Bridge’ – a spiritual means of travel taken by Unicorns to come into our physical, earthly world
Calista added that it wasn’t just individual properties and spirits they helped, as sometimes it was parts of the land and collective spirit groups.
‘This was the case for the episode called, “Bridging the Realms”, a special Halloween special filmed at the footbridge of Balgay Park, Dundee,’ she explained.
‘The bridge (built in 1873) stretches over gorge between Balgay Hill and Balgay Cemetry. Reports of many seeing a “White Lady” at the bridge drew us to visit this location.’
She explained how some accounts alleged this woman threw herself over the bridge, while others claimed she was hanged or pushed by a local witch.
‘Regardless of the event, many Dundonians have heard a woman’s scream and bought into the belief that this spirit had the wherewithal to push passers-by over the bridge,’ she said. ‘What we discovered was not just one discarnate spirit here, but many who had taken their own life.’
In other investigations, Calista focused on one spirit at a time, speaking to their consciousness and helping to resolve what was needed so they could fully pass over.
‘At Balgay Bridge, we had to bring in specific angels (Archangel Michael and Azrael and their female counterparts, Archeia Faith and Archeia Mercy) to take all the spirits attached here over into the Spirit world,’ she said.
‘Then we worked together to cleanse of the bridge, land and surrounding area of fearful thoughts and beliefs that would otherwise keep perpetuating a sense of doom when walking the bridge.
‘It took a lot of energy to do this but to this day, the bridge feels much lighter and free of dense thought forms.’