The Psychotherapist Who Sees Ghosts - A Memoir

For nearly fifty years, Noel Eastwood, a former registered psychologist now retired, lived between two worlds. In one, he was an ordinary Australian: a teacher, husband and father who eventually became a psychologist. He worked with traumatised people, including severely disabled children, and spent years helping patients confront the hidden parts of their lives. In the other, something very different was happening.

From childhood, Noel experienced strange presences that seemed to watch over him. As he grew older, he began having out-of-body experiences, encounters with the dead, visions, altered states of consciousness and experiences he could neither explain nor forget. He explored meditation, hypnosis, astrology, tarot, Taoist practices and the mysterious territory of the unconscious. He also learned to keep quiet.

The professional world in which he worked had little room for experiences that could not be easily explained. Even when two psychologist colleagues expressed an interest in astral travel and out-of-body experiences, telling them the truth about his own experiences came at a cost - neither spoke to him again. So for decades, Noel carried on with his ordinary life while keeping another life largely to himself. Then there were the ghosts.

Some appeared unexpectedly, others seemed to need help. Noel describes encounters with people who had died, experiences of guiding the dead, and one extraordinary encounter with a presence that tried to kill him. There are stories of healing, trauma, past lives, archetypes, unexplained visitors and encounters that seemed to cross the boundary between psychology and something beyond it. And then came the experience that changed everything.

In a profound altered state, Noel encountered a mysterious figure who told him: “You will die on Sunday. Prepare for it on Friday.” What followed became, in his interpretation, an initiation involving death, rebirth and the ancient figure of Mithrais. Decades later, he would still be trying to understand what happened.

This is not a book asking you to believe, it is the account of what happened to one man. Noel describes these experiences as honestly as he can, while acknowledging that their ultimate nature remains uncertain. Were they encounters with another reality, manifestations of the unconscious, products of altered states, or something else entirely? He does not claim to have all the answers. What he does know is that they happened to him.

The Psychotherapist Who Sees Ghosts is the story of a life lived between the seen and unseen: childhood visions, out-of-body experiences, encounters with the dead, psychotherapy, trauma, meditation, past lives, mysterious beings and a lifetime spent trying to understand where one world ends and the other begins. After nearly fifty years of silence, Noel Eastwood finally tells his story.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 — Part 1

The Boy Who Remembered

- A childhood between worlds

- My big brother

- The leopard changes its spots

- School bully

- Bushwalking

- The curtain is lifted

- I go hitch-hiking – the child grows up

Part 2

- Rebirthing the past – my life changed

- The Pool of Peace

- I had my children while I was teaching – and it was frightening

- Sonja

- Teaching, clinical hypnotherapy and psychology

- Tai chi

- Astral travel and out-of-body experiences (OOB)

- Kundalini is like a runaway train

- And then I got sick

Chapter 2 — Things That Go Bump

- The farmhouse ghosts

- The bad old man

- The Peeping Tom

- Stinky Pete

- The poltergeist

- The ghost who tried to kill me

- The black blobs

- The pandemic nurse

- The clone lady

Chapter 3 — Meetings With The Gods

- Pan, Pluto, Persephone, Hera and Demeter

- Jesus

- The Fool's Inner Quest

Chapter 4 — When The Dead Come Visiting

- Soldiers from World War Two

- My mother-in-law

- The gift of love

- Operating theatre

- The pale lady

- The old man in a tweed jacket

- The girl who was allowed to go early

- Spontaneous dream that saved my family

- My friend, Al

- A gift of energy

- “You come from the other side!”

Chapter 5 — Healing The Inner World

- Assault

- Mum gave me away

- Delmore's healing

- A sad story with a happy ending

- Kim's sanctuary

- Valda

- Rod and the army guy

- The boy

- "Am I mad?"

- John

- "I didn't know."

- “I’ll kill you!”

- The old couple

- The naked guide

- "Oh my god! Now I remember!"

Chapter 6 — Past Lives And Archetypes

- "They're burning me!"

- The Indians got them

- The young monk

- Leonie and the astrology archetypes

- Scottish soldiers

- The scroll

- My past loves

- My death

Chapter 7 — Visitors from Beyond the Stars

- The sky above

- I was awake

- Venusians

- Alien creature

Chapter 8 — The Death That Changed Everything

- Mithrais initiation

- Why Mithrais? Why a Persian religion?

- Do we need to experience death on the path to enlightenment?

- Spirit and the mystic's path

Chapter 9 – Practical Notes For The Path

Don’t be shy, say ‘Hi’

Some tips on how you can arrange your inner world

Epilogue

APPENDIX 1 – Frequently Asked Questions

- Are ghosts real and do they hurt you?

- My 4:00 am meditation

- Dreams and OOB experiences

- Programmed dreaming

- Have I brought anyone along for an astral ride

- Rolling out and falling through the floor

- Lifting up and out

- Extending

- Flying in dreams

- Do I see auras

- Have I been able to time travel

- Am I psychic?

- What does the Navel Chakra (Centre Point) feel like

- What role does the solar plexus play in whole-body breathing

- Are you a Taoist

- My astrology and tarot practice

- Sleep healing

APPENDIX 2 – The Christos Experience

About the Author

A new book by Noel Eastwood - published November 2026. You can get it from Noel's Payhip site, Amazon, Voices, D2D, and other web sites.