Aussie mum: I'm a real life ghost buster

The stench of gunshots, blood and agony was almost overwhelming as Caterina Ligato opened the strongroom door. Reeling backwards in horror, the psychic healer realised a terrible tragedy had taken place at the building she’d been called to, to ‘clear’ of its unquiet ghosts.

It was only later she discovered three men, all members of the Bandidos bikie gang, had been gunned down in an ambush at Sydney’s former Blackmarket nightclub. The cold-blooded murders happened more than a decade before, but the gory evidence lingered in the fabric of the rundown business – invisible to all but the acclaimed medium.

‘It was scary. The second I got there I thought: “Oh my God, what is this place?” It was really full-on,’ recalls Caterina, who has been talking to spirits since she was three. ‘I opened the door and I could just smell blood and gunshots. I could sense these people who were still in agony because they were caught in the moment of being shot. It was so intense, that excruciating pain...’

Working in the intangible world of psychic attacks, hauntings and demonic possession has taken its toll on the self-styled ‘Ghost Whisperer’. Last year, single mum Caterina had to have her thyroid removed. The illness was a direct result, she claims, of the ‘extreme energies’ she encounters during healing sessions and exorcisms – or even walking down the street.

‘Over the road from my place there’s a police car yard, where they investigate all the mangled vehicles after accidents,’ Caterina shudders with horror. ‘I’ve seen dead people in those cars, screaming, with their faces all cut up.

‘It’s really traumatic sometimes to witness those souls in such distress, not realising they’re dead. Sometimes I have to hold back my tears.’

Despite any pain involved, the devout Catholic believes her uncanny spiritual skills are a God-given talent that she must use to help other people in need.
‘This is absolutely what I was meant to do, and I feel very privileged to have these gifts. Absolutely,’ she smiles, confessing that the church has problems with her vocation.

‘Oh God, in past times I would have been barbecued for what I do. I know it sounds strange when people ask what I do for a living and I tell them: “Well, I talk to dead people.” It’s not something I set out to do.’

Indeed, her strict Italian-born parents forbade her from talking about her visions for many years. ‘The work found me. Just my journey through life took me
to this place where I am now.

‘I was always surrounded by people who needed my guidance. I was like a magnet – I always found myself helping someone out or visiting someone who was dying.’

Today, word of glamorous Caterina’s powers has spread through word-of-mouth, seminars and workshops. At the cosy home she shares with her 14-year-old daughter Isabella in Sydney’s inner west, she receives letters, calls and emails from around the world, pleading for assistance.

With the support of her spirit guides, Caterina says she is able to steer lost souls safely to ‘the other side’ and to exorcise both ghosts and demons through ‘the beautiful pure energy of love’.

However, it’s a risky business. She has been psychically attacked so often she no longer gets scared, thanks to her undying faith. Yet she is still disturbed by a terrifying visitation that took place before her defences were fully developed.

‘I was feeling really good,’ she says. ‘I got home and got into bed and it was like this shadow came in. The door opened and an evil-looking figure stepped out of the void of darkness – part human, part-demonic. There was a stereo in the room and it started playing this really tragic ballad at full blast, over and over again.

‘I was pleading for it to stop, and this screechy voice screamed: “No matter how successful you become, you will never have love of your own.”
‘It seemed to go on forever, but finally I snapped myself out of it and called on God for help. Lightning came into the room and the evil entity vanished. But you know the most amazing thing? The CD that I heard that night wasn’t even in the stereo. It was downstairs in my car.’

Sadly, the cruel prediction came true. So far Caterina has not found a lifelong partner, although Isabella – who shares her mother’s psychic powers – is company enough for now.

‘Maybe a relationship would have been too much of a distraction from my work. But I hope that one day, when the timing is right, love will find me,’ says Caterina, who has detailed many of her jaw-dropping experiences in her recent book Ghost Whisperer.

‘Most people are fascinated, but to me it’s second nature,’ she laughs, preparing for a group reading at a dinner party. ‘It’s just part of life to me. It is what it is.’

CATERINA'S HEALING GIFT SAVED MY LIFE
For three years, Louise Gallagher grappled with a string of events so terrible she even contemplated suicide – her father died three weeks before her wedding, her business sank and thugs were sent to kill her. Money and strange items – even the kitchen spoons – unaccountably went missing. One of her sisters and her best friend disowned her. Her loving marriage ran into strife.The house was plagued with giant flies, while maggots crawled up through the floorboards. A horrible stench accompanied her wherever she went, and her head was filled with noise and thoughts of violence. Louise, a former marketing manager for IBM, thought she must be going mad.

‘It was like something from a horror movie,’ says the 44-year-old mother from Sydney’s eastern suburbs. ‘I felt as if I was fighting for my life and for my soul. I started to get bad tempered, which was totally out of character, and to have violent arguments. I was really battling to stay a good person and not to hate people.’

Louise believes it all began in 2006, when she cursed a neighbour for supposedly roping her dog to a tree. ‘I regretted it almost immediately, but the damage was done. It was as if everything rebounded on me.’

Desperate and living in hell, Louise prayed for help. Almost immediately, she found Caterina’s phone number and called late last year.
‘I know she’s the real deal,’ Louise says. ‘We had a healing session so extraordinary, it felt as ifa physical weight had lifted off me. From that day forward, my life returned to normal. In the past, I never believed that evil existed. Caterina certainly saved my marriage, and probably my life.’

To contact Caterina, visit caterina ligato.com

By: Jenny Brown
Photos: Ross Coffey