Dealing with Negative Spirits

In a previous article we discussed the general nature of some specific spiritual beings, especially ghosts. Now we will further document the methods of dealing with the category of negative, malicious and harmful ghosts known as “spooks.” It is important to note that not all ghosts are harmful and not all ghosts should be dealt with in the methods and manners described below. Indeed, some ghosts can be quite helpful and often pleasant, though be it unsettling to some, and beneficial to have around. These beneficial ghosts should be treated and honored just as any other person would be honored and respected to whatever degree you deem appropriate and are comfortable with. I like to coin the situation with the phrase, “Ghosts are people too.” For the most part, they are!

Help from the Church - Spooks being an especially nasty and often malicious lot, we should be aware of ways to deal with them just as we should be aware of how it’s appropriate to deal with especially unsavory people that are still yet living. When someone living threatens you or the ones you love you may rely on the local authorities to deal with them if the situation escalates to that level. Much is the same with spooks actually. I recommend learning the basic skills and techniques we will discuss here in handling especially unpleasant ghosts so that you can handle much of the situation yourself but if the situation escalates out of control please feel free to call in the ghost “authorities”.

These ghost authorities may take on a few different roles in society; priest, a friend or family member into or experienced in the occult; or perhaps even a clergy member of a different faith than you. Don’t feel bad about consulting a different religion’s priesthood if you can’t find support in your own. You have to do what’s right for you and as long as you are doing that your higher power will understand and lets face it; if you’re reading this article because you need help the situation is probably already desperate enough that you are not in a position to turn down competent help from ANYONE.

If you are Christian and your local community does not offer any type of support then you may want to consider other denominations of Christianity that DO have an open and sincere belief and interest in spiritual beings like ghosts and demons such as Mormon, Charismatic Catholic, and Pentcostal. In my experience these segments of Christianity deal quite well with negative spiritual entities and are very serious about dealing with them firmly and swiftly. You should find ample support among these communities.
Should you not be Christian or feel comfortable exploring beyond the realm of Christiandom you may also find competent help with Native American, Wiccan, Druidic, or other pagan-based religions. Dealing with spiritual entities is a daily task to most of these faiths.

First and foremost, if you are a religious or spiritual person, you should consult your local religious leader. By no means should you feel ashamed, silly, or otherwise indisposed to voicing these concerns with your local clergy as that is honestly part of the reason they are there for you, spiritual guidance. Nobody said it was only for YOUR spiritual guidance. Most clergy, if they’re worth their salt, have honestly dealt with some form of ghost, demon or other spiritual conflict in the past. If they have not then there’s no time like the present to learn. They are there to support and serve your higher power AND you. You are, after all, part of their “flock” are you not?

Helping Yourself - I have always firmly believed in the adage, “God helps those who help themselves.” Even though you’ll be pursuing help from someone who’s supposed to know what they’re doing as we’ve discussed above in many cases it will come down to you, your faith and your resolve to deal with the situation head-on. Ultimately, in many cases, it’s your life, your house, your loved ones being affected and your place to step up to the plate and take charge of the situation.

Before you go charging head-on into an inky black shadow or a cold spot you need to educate yourself. If whatever is haunting you zaps you senseless you’re not going to be of much help to yourself or anyone around you. Do some serious research. Learn everything you can about paranormal research, ghosts & spirituality. Get some books from the library or the book store and pay special attention to titles that talk about “True haunting”. If things have gotten bad enough in your situation you are likely to see some serious parallels in the events in the story and those unfolding in your own life. I highly recommend getting a copy of the book “The Black Hope Horror” which can give you a full illustration of how things can go horribly wrong with spooks. The title is currently out of print but it’s well worth the searching to find a copy if your situation is desperate enough.

You should also take advantage of the TREMDNDOUS amount of material available online. Try searching on key phrases like, “true hauntings”, “ghost hunting” and “paranormal investigation”. Since you’re online you might consider trying to find a paranormal investigation group near you that might be of some aid. They often have ties with clergy that are experienced in dealing with situations such as what we are discussing. Almost all paranormal investigation groups that I know of have some sort of online presence and shouldn’t be difficult to track down.

The key here is to “know thine enemy”. If you know yourself you are well off but only half equipped to deal with the situation. If you know your enemy you are well off but only half equipped to deal with the situation. You have to be well acquainted with not only the ghost phenomenon and what to expect but how you truly feel about it. Ask yourself how you will react if you are confronted with the situations that are talked about in these true haunting stories. Begin to batten down the mental and spiritual hatches for the fight ahead because if you happen to have a truly nasty spook it could be a long, dangerous and nasty fight. In the end though, remember it’s your life, your house, your family and you have a right to be happy. No one, living or dead has a right to take that from you.

Getting your Heart Right - This is honestly one of the most important aspects to dealing with a spook for so many reasons. One cannot venture into a lions den and be a coward. You must find the heart and the faith to do what you must for you and your loved ones if they are being affected by this.

Lets state something for the moment. This is a key concept that we must realize. All living being feed on energy of some sort. We, as living beings consume food that has the chemical potential for energy that our bodies unlock through digestion. That is our energy source. Ghosts and other spiritual beings often have the ability to absorb energy in more direct and pure forms. Hauntings are often associated with uncharacteristic cold spots.

Some people believe that this may be the ghost feeding directly on the heat in the air and transforming it to energy to feed from. Negative spirits tend to feed on negative energy. If your house is filled with negativity you may have actually ATTRACTED the ghost to you because it may see you as an abundant food source. In some instances I firmly believe that spooks scare people simply to feed off of the emotional energy they put out when scared. It’s very common for people to talk about being frightened out of heir mind one minute during a haunting and then feeling “utterly drained” the next. Well, where did that energy go? The answer? You have just become the corner vending machine for the spook. STOP IT!

Whether the spook came to you because your house is extremely negative or your house has become extremely negative because of the influence of the spook (and both are true in some cases) you have to fix the issue. Make amends for whatever is going on. Put it aside for now if you can and pull together as a family. This is often a very desperate time for not only you but the spook. The harder you try to fight it the more desperate and scary it can become. Get counseling to help everyone in the situation. Find someone whom you can talk to and trust and really open yourself up and let everything go that you’ve probably been holding back. Keep a journal of how you feel and the events that take place (we’ll talk more about this in the documentation section below) Overall, look at your behavior and the emotional situation of everyone being affected and do WHATEVER you can to brighten the situation.

Keep in mind that while you pull together as a family (if it’s a family being haunted) the spook will most likely be fighting your efforts every step of the way. If he’s chorded into you (or linked to you psychically) then he will do whatever he can to promote disharmony and distrust. You have to realize this for what it is and do what you can to deal with it. Remember, united you stand, divided you fall.

Walk with God - You may not be an especially spiritual person at the onset of this ordeal but I can almost guarantee you will “find your faith” to some degree in the process of dealing with the situation. If you are a spiritual person then you are a step ahead of the game at this point. If you have a spook then you must deal with them on a spiritual level because they are spiritual beings. This will, no doubt, be a great time of soul-searching for you and your family. In being confronted with a ghost you will have to come to terms with the fact that we do not simply snuff out of existence when we die. Obviously there is life after death if ghosts exist. Ultimately dealing with a spook is a spiritual game of chess with a very dangerous opponent. Either you get the faith to be able to effectively move your pieces or you find yourself in spiritual checkmate.

This does not, however, mean that you necessarily have to start going to church or that you must convert to any specific religion. Finding your faith does not necessarily mean you are religious though if you have little formal spiritual education you may not be able to easily recognize the difference. In that case it would probably be best to cultivate a relationship with a church or other spiritual organization that you find yourself agreeable with. Sometimes, simply being around people with a great deal of faith (fellowship) can be a great booster to your own faith. When you see it’s ok to “believe” and that EVERYONE won’t label you a fruitcake for having a spiritual side you know then it’s often easier to really look in yourself and figure out what you’re spiritual made of. Often I’ve found that with truly negative spooks the haunting can be so frightening that the human mind is forced to develop a spiritual relationship with their higher power if they are to survive the incident with sanity in tact.

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Documentation - Documenting the incidents is crucial. It can be used to help you build a case for the clergy you are trying to enlist support from. Accurate and thorough records can also help paranormal investigators and even clergy to establish patterns of behavior from the spook and can serve as proof to yourself that you’re not simply going out of your mind.

There are several simple kinds of documentation that you should immediately consider starting. The first and probably most important is a journal. Every time there is an incident as small as a feeling of being watched or objects being misplaced or appliances misbehaving it should be logged along with any emotional impressions or thoughts you had about the incident and the exact time and date. You may also want to document the relationships and interactivity of anyone involved in the situation. You may start to see a pattern of aggression or depression associated with the events of the haunting. These may also be linked to lunar or solar cycles as the earth’s energy field is drastically affected by the positioning of these bodies. If this sounds odd consider the effect the moon’s gravitational pull has on the ocean. Therefore, keeping track of any solar or lunar activity in connection with the events listed in your journal may be of benefit as well.

Potential things to list in the journal

• Strange sounds / noises / voices / smells
• Feeling of being watched
• Dramatic shifts in temperature
• Appliances or other electrical devices malfunctioning
• Strange behavior from pets or other animals
• Feelings of Dejavu
• Nightmares that are out of the ordinary
• Aggression or depression in anyone who does not normally exhibit such behavior
• Objects being moved or disappearing unexplainably
• Anything that appears to be out of the ordinary

The next documentation that should be implemented is photographs or video. Having hard evidence of something strange going on will not only help you bring the experts in your situation up to speed but will give you a bit of peace of mind when you have something tangible to refer to when you start doubting yourself. Do not expect to get photographs or video of full-blown apparitions. This is exceptionally rare even in the direst of circumstances. Still pictures will often produce odd round discolored orbs in the vicinity of any paranormal activity or at times odd streaks across the photo. An expert familiar with paranormal photo analysis should be able to help you determine the validity of your photos. An excellent idea might be to keep a standard 35mm camera loaded and ready to go in a central location so that it can be easily accessed if something is happening. Video of paranormal activity will often show odd patterns in shadows or very fast streaks of light passing through the room. The most ideal video cameras to use are the new Sony Nightshot cameras that have low-light and absolute dark filming capabilities. In most cases though, a standard 35mm camera will suffice.

Basics Concepts for Spiritual Cleansing - Negative ghosts thrive on negativity. Infusing an area with positive energy makes the area very hostile to the spirit. Because we are talking about spiritual energies and vibrations it’s important to remember that the exact tools and prayers you use are not nearly as important as the confidence you have in yourself and your abilities and the intent with which you perform these tasks. For instance, one of the techniques we will describe below involves burning incense and prayer candles. One might assume that if expensive or rare incense were used or more ornate and expensive candles that the exercise might be more effective. This is simply not true. Spiritual exercises have more to do with your belief and faith in what you’re doing than they do with the materials at hand. If you BELIVE that more elaborate, exotic or expensive tools and supplies will be more effective then they most likely will be, however, the same effects can be accomplished with much lower grade materials as long as the same level of belief is maintained. Belief and emotion funnels energy into the spirit. The material world is often very secondary.

Some substances, practices and tools do seem to be naturally more effective than others. For instance, sage, rose, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh are traditionally known to be very positive and effective tools for dealing out a great deal of sacred or positive energy. This is often a cross-cultural belief as well, which in the author’s mind gives it a bit more credence than just standard rumor. That is not to say that one must purchase the most expensive qualities of these substances if you plan on choosing them. Simply having them in whatever form is convenient for you to obtain them is usually sufficient.

Generic Cleansing Techniques

Incense
Burning pleasant smelling incense with the intent that the smoke and smell from the incense will fill your entire house with positive energy or divine white light can often be highly effective against negative spirits. The burning of incense for spiritual reasons has been used since the beginning of recorded history. Thousands of years worth of spiritual leaders can’t be wrong! You might try lighting the incense while you say a little prayer to your higher power. Ask your higher power to infuse the incense with divine positive energy and push out any negative forces and exclude all those forces not working for “the light.” Again, it’s the intent that matters most. I recommend the following incense varieties:

· Sage ·Copal ·Frankinsense ·Myrrh ·Lavender ·Rose

Prayer Candles
These candles are very common among the Hispanic community and can often be found in the Hispanic section of your local grocery store for a very reasonable price. They are usually tall glass candles with prayers or positive icons listed on the outside. Choose one that fits your needs. I recommend something that invokes the Archangel Michael or similar spiritual force. As you light the candle focus on the intent in the prayer on the candle or something similar. These candles are designed to burn for extended periods of time but remember that a burning candle should never ever be left unattended, especially if your spook has a tendency to knock things about.

If you are unable to locate a prayer candle you are satisfied with you can make one of your own. Obtain an adequate candle from your local supplier, a candle with one of the incense scents listed above that is designed to burn for at least several hours would be ideal. To prepare your candle you may want to write/draw (using a marker) or carve icons or prayers sacred to your faith/religion on the outside of the candle. Do this with the mental intent that when the candle is activated (or lit) the desired effect will be produced. The energy of the burning flame will lend energy to the effect of the intent the candle has now been imbued with. A further embellishment might be to “dress” your candles or anoint them with herbs or oils that are attributed to the effect you desire. See the list of smells above for a list of appropriate herbs for this purpose. Holy water or blessed anointing oil can also be used for this purpose.

Display Positive Symbols of Your Faith
This is especially effective if you have an especially close relationship with your higher power. Notice I said “positive” symbols of your faith. I don’t necessarily consider an image of Jesus Christ being tortured on the cross to be a very positive and uplifting symbol so this might be one to be avoided but this icon may inspire drastically different feelings and emotions from you. If this is the case then feel free to use whatever works for you. Post these symbols everywhere in your hose. The idea is to make it so that the spook in your home cannot escape to any crack or crevice without being in the general proximity to these sacred symbols. Print the symbols out on avery sticky labels and put them behind picture frames, under chairs and tables, underneath rugs, in air vents, etc. Of course, post them in the usual places like above doors and in hallways and such. Give these symbols as much exposure as you can and every time you see one give it a mental energy boost by imagining divine white light emanating from it and filling the entire room.

Positive Music/Chanting
Sound is one of the purest forms of energy so creating a positive sound can be one of the most effective forms of creating a positive environment. I recommend a light pleasant gospel or music associated with your faith. If you REALLY want to get serious obtain a copy of a prayer that’s being recited and loop it to play continuously. Native American and Japanese prayers and chanting have also produced dramatic results.

Clean the Clutter
It’s hard to see things in a positive light in your home when the home is covered in filth or even if it’s just chaotic, disorganized and filled with clutter. Organize your space, put things in their proper place. If you don’t have a proper place for something then find one. Organize yourself and your space. Order begets serenity and serenity begets peace and peace begets positive energy. If you really want to get serious about this, which is highly recommended, look into the subject of Feng Shui.

Keep your Spirits Up
Sorry, I couldn’t resist the temptation for the pun here. The point is to keep a positive attitude and keep morale up. If you allow yourself or those around you to become negative then you are only hurting your situation with the negative spirit.

It’s YOUR Home
Declare dominion over your own space. Fill it with your energy, your spirit and your presence. Don’t allow the spirit to make you feel trapped in your situation or dread coming home. Remember it’s YOUR home and you have every right to be there. The negative spirit is usually the intruder in the situation. Don’t let anything scare you out of your own home, your property or your personal space.

Smudging
Smudging is the practice of sweeping away negative energy using a tool or energy to focus your intent to drive out negativity in the area and replace it with positive energy. Wands of smoldering sage or sticks of incense are most commonly used for this purpose, as it’s easy to visualize the smoke cleansing the area or item being smudged. Get a good steady stream of smoke coming from the tool you’re using and blow it in the area you are sweeping clean. If you are sensitive to smoke then try a lit scented or unscented candle or even a folding fan. The point is the intent used to focus your own energy in sweeping away negativity.

Smudging the entire house should be done regularly to anchor positive energy to the area. Begin in a central location in your home or the area being smudged and gradually work your way toward the doors and windows. The importance here is to visualize a clean positive area space and energy behind where you have already smudged. Be sure to get under tables, in closets, in air vents, the attic, etc. as these are favorite hiding places when you have a spook on the run.

James S.-

And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

The Soul Collector / Harvester

This was an email exchange between a client in our group and myself. I'm including it because I think it might be helpful for someone.

Client Email Starts:
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So, let me run this by you and get your opinion on this......

Yesterday was a fairly active day, and had been an active 24 hours. I had seen a full-body apparition walk out of the kitchen the night before last, and the house was restless all day long yesterday. Kim had caught my mother-in-law's dog following something around the master bedroom & bathroom, and we were getting cold spots all day long. Last night, when we were all sitting at the couch talking about the day, I couldn't quit squirming because my senses were firing off that they were sitting with me while we spoke. Kim even felt one side of her get cold, like one had taken a seat right next to her. We weren't worried about it, since we had gotten used to them coming up to us since we've been acknowledging them.

Last night, when we went to bed, Kim & I decided to make one more attempt at an EVP session, since the house had been so active, and we were still wondering the reason behind the "help" we heard on the previous session. We asked them to identify themselves, and asked what it was they needed help on (note: I just finished listening to
the recording, and there's two spots where a male voice is definitely talking, and pretty extensively - it's just too low to filter out and make out what's being said...). Now the fun part. Before I go into what happened, keep in mind two things about me: I never remember my dreams, and I never dream the same thing twice, especially in one night.

As we went to sleep, mine was restless. By the time around 1:00 am had hit, I had already woken up twice, from the same dream having to do with the house, and the same two words ringing in my head --
LOUDLY...........

Soul Collector..........

I thought it was weird, and something in me was telling me to look this up as soon as I got up. I brushed it off and went back to sleep, and was startled awake promptly at 1:30 by two things: One of my dogs was going batshit crazy in the living room barking a protective bark like someone was in the house that didn't belong, and the following words ringing in my head -- again, LOUDLY......

Soul Collector's here.........

The dog barking woke Kim & I both up, and I walked the house to make sure everything was alright. As I walked into the living room, the dog was in the middle of the floor barking. As soon as she saw me, she stopped & went back to the couch and laid down next to the other dog, that wasn't doing anything. The house was clear.

As soon as I got up this morning, I went over to the computer and googled the words. I had never used that terminology to my knowledge, and aside from maybe seeing a movie title by that name a long time ago, It's never been used in any conversation that I've had. Needless to say, it was very interesting what I found out.....

The house has been completely quiet today. When I brought this up to Kim, we called her Mom into the bedroom & I told them what had happened. After we had been talking a few minutes about it, I noticed something: there was no presence with us as we spoke, which has been the case every time since we acknowledge that they were here. We also found out another interesting tidbit: Kim's Mom & Dad never heard the dog. At all. It may be a bad pun, but that dog was barking loud enough to wake the dead, and they never heard a peep.......

Sorry if I ran on too long. I can get carried away sometimes.....lol. I thought this was very interesting though, and wanted to get your take on it. I almost posted it on the group page, but decided to get your take on it first. Let me know!


My Response:
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I was honestly wondering when/if this scenario was going to play out with you guys.

I've never heard it called a "soul collector", but at some point in active hauntings if they get active enough something will show up to "clean up the mess" so to speak. It's very similar to the process of calling down the "light of god" which is essentially creating a portal to the other side or some other spiritual place that's much further out of synch with our reality. I've always considered that other place the "real" reality. That's where spirits SHOULD go to continue the process of their evolution.

It seems that a spirit can stay here for a myriad of reasons but basically they're putting their spiritual evolution on hold while they stay here with us. If they have a good reason to stay here their force of will can allow them to stay or if they're just confused/scared they may elect to stay. The point here is that sooner or later, for their own good, they really need to move on to that other place.

It's possible that these spirits just wanted to make themselves known. They may have called this soul collector to take them, someone in the house could have subconsciously called him or the activity in the house just may have gotten so intense that it just popped up on his radar. I've always looked at this entity very similar to the concept of "death" as portrayed in the movie "Meet Joe Black".... sort of a bus driver from here to there.

Don't be surprised if the same spirits show up back at your place again later. They can and often will come back for short visits, but almost never show up for very long, almost like they've taken up residence on the other side but will pop over here when needed. The way I've seen this play out in the past has always lead me to believe that when these entities are taken to the other side someone sits them down and reminds them that the spirit world is their real home and they get the "big picture" back where they realize that we're only alive for short spurts in our spiritual evolution, basically when we need to "go to class" to learn a few more lessons.

Your experience and what you describe is quite normal for those sensitive to the spirit. The fact that you heard this speaks very clearly to your own medium ability. It leaves me wondering if recent events haven't played out with the intent of putting you on our group's radar to use that talent for the greater good.

This explains something to me too that you may find valuable. I'm much much more sensitive than I let on. I keep this ability very low profile because I tend to use it to check other mediums. It also allows me to sort of scan new clients and see if they're yanking our chain or not. The truth is we are ALL mediums to the extent that we allow ourselves to be. We all have the ability to sense spiritual energy. It’s a matter of getting comfortable with the idea and exposure.

At one point in the conversation you came out and admitted that you have that ability to a lesser degree but every time you tried to minimize the description of your own ability what I can only describe as your "aura" (if there is such a thing) would spike in such a way that you were not being truthful, but at the same time you would still maintain an overall feeling of complete honesty. I see this type of thing a lot with people who know they need to make a change but they're just not ready to make that change on an emotional level so they're rationalizing their situation.


Client's Response:
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It's interesting that you said harvest. I heard another voice during that process last night call him a "harvester", and almost put that in when I googled the phrase this morning......

It's funny, I've always known that I have some kind of ability, but the combination of keeping it at bay out of denial and that good ol' fashioned Bible-Belt Southern Baptist upbringing I was put though always made me put it to the side. Any time I've talked to anyone about it, up until I met Kim, always would look at me like I was crazy or full of shit, so I would always shut it down.

I've always thought of my abilities as being very slight, mainly instinctual more than anything, and never really "stretched my legs" so to speak, to see what I can really do. I would still imagine that, despite having a very open mind, my age and experiences would still be a little bit of a hurdle (at least I say that - I still learn things at a near geometric rate). Like I said before though, I'm always open to learn new things, and I think you may be right that this has played out like this for a reason. Maybe I just need my "doors blown off", perception-wise, to kick this thing in gear, since I know belief & perception can help or hinder.

Funny, Kim & I were just talking early this morning before I sent you the note, & she said that she thought that I may have more of a "gift" than either one of us has thought, and asked me what I thought about exploring that. She looked right at me and did a big "see....I told you so!" after reading your response. She's behind me 100% to try and see....

A Family for Eric

So an investigation this weekend really hit home for me.

For those of you that don't know, a group of friends and I run a group you might call a paranormal investigation group (http://houstonghost.com).

A man emailed us last week, who obviously seemed very stressed by what his family had been experiencing. He was approaching our group for help, which is ultimately why our group exists. Working with clients is always a learning experience for us, that's what we get out of the situation, but more importantly our group facilitates a much needed support / consultation function for families having this particular issue.

After gathering some initial information it was apparent the family really had an issue (you might be surprised how many hoaxes/idiots we get emails from). The information he provided in our initial online "interview" form contained some subtle hints that this was a family in genuine need, not someone looking for entertainment.

Initially we offered them an investigation spot/schedule a few weeks out, but they asked if we could meet sometime sooner since they were experiencing some fairly traumatic events. Among them were disembodied voices calling the names of family members, kids (pre teens and teens) afraid to sleep in their rooms or go into certain parts of the house and both the mother and father experiencing a sensation of being held in place while their whole bed shakes violently. The father had begun to verbally challenge the entity to call it out and demand that it leave his family, especially their children alone. In response, the entity had started to toy with him by opening every cabinet in the kitchen on a regular basis so that only he saw what was going on.

When we arrived early Saturday afternoon we had a little trouble finding the house because of lack of house numbers, but we had a strong suspicion what house was involved, because you could literally feel something was going on in the house from the street. Our medium, a very very talented woman, was already a bit on edge that morning because she had some very disturbing dreams about the client's house the night before centering on some fairly disturbing issues/imagery involving the elderly.

We eventually found the client, introduced ourselves for the first time and our group split up, as has become our normal procedure. One group member sits the clients down and interviews them, going over their initial report, our procedures, how our group works, what the client can and cannot expect from us, etc. while the mediums and note takers that accompany them tour the house on their own, getting their impressions and readings.

During this investigation I served as the interviewer / case working talking to the clients and essentially keeping them busy while the rest of the group does the job we came there for, figuring out what's going on. The clients mainly re-iterated their initial complaints about the bed shaking, cabinets opening on their own, little things in the house being molested/moved, a general feeling of being watched and a few other of the usual complaints for cases like this. Chief among them was the obvious concern for their children and the wife was newly pregnant so they felt they needed to get a handle on the situation now, before things got out of hand. In talking with them my heart really went out to both of the clients. I know what it's like to feel like something may be threatening your children and you feel almost completely powerless to protect them. Truly, that's one of the worst feelings a parent can ever experience.

Once the rest of the team was finished touring the house we all sat down in the living room and the mediums shared what they were getting. Keep in mind that our group has a VERY strict policy of not allowing the mediums to have any background knowledge on a client or activity happening in the house at all until after the medium has finished sharing their readings with the client.

As the medium started talking about one event after another that the family had been experiencing in great detail (without any previous knowledge i might add) and what/who was behind it you could literally watch the borderline fear, worry and anxiety on the faces of the clients melt into understanding and compassion. The medium started talking about the long black haired girl named Samantha that was hanging out with and talking to the teenage girls in the family. She would follow them back and forth between their house and client's X wife's house. The clients had just described her in our interview not an hour earlier and their own children had described just such a girl named Samantha. There the medium was telling them about a girl with the exact same description named Samantha that was just hanging out to be out with girls her own age. Samantha knew the girls in the family could see (the children were also mediums, which is very common) her and she apparently enjoyed that interaction.

Then came the story of Eric. Eric was a 9/10 year old little boy who was just essentially pissed at the world because nobody was paying any attention to him. He could see everyone, but apparently nobody could see him. He was so upset he was almost to the point of wanting to hit and scratch people to get attention. We strongly suspect that Eric is responsible for the bed shaking incidents the family had described and was doing nothing more than trying to get someone to acknowledge him, to the point that he was literally screaming at the mediums. When they initially asked him what his name was his response was, "what does it matter? nobody pays any attention to me anyway?!"

He could see the father in the family and had started what Eric described in his own words as a "tit for tat" confrontational game with the father. Eric would do something and the father not wanting to acknowledge that what was happening may have been the spirit would blame whatever was happening on the cats. This, in turn, would only make Eric more angry so that he would act out, eventually doing things like opening all the cabinet doors in the kitchen, but only when Chris would see it. It was sort of their own little Father/Son war, only the father wasn't really aware he was playing the game with the equivalent of a ghostly son.

We explained that there was nothing inhuman in the house and that though there were multiple spirits involved there wasn't much to worry about. Their best practice was to address the spirits when they were being bothersome just as they would address one of their own kids. The only difference being it was a little more difficult to ground the kids without a physical body. The point though was to talk to them and acknowledge them and also to take up a few spiritual practices like smudging the house to keep any negative spirits from just wandering in and trying to make a nest.

Once all this was explained and we identified and fixed a few other issues in the house that was contributing to the anarchy in the house the family seemed much more at ease, if not a bit overloaded. It was a lot of information to take in, even for a family that had been dealing with these events on a daily basis for months. The group shook hands and exchanged hugs with the family and we went our separate way to have dinner and a few rounds of margaritas. I was happy that we had brought the family some measure of relief to what was initially a very tense situation.

I gave the clients about 24 hours to process the information they were given and I gave them a follow-up call on Sunday just to see where they were at and if anything had developed. The father said our visit had indeed helped them understand that there wasn't anything to be afraid of in their situation and in fact their hearts went out to the little boy in their house. The father confessed that he had cornered himself in a bathroom and had a conversation with the boy, somewhat of a father/son talk.

He asked that if Eric could hear him and wanted to pray with him then to move the left curtain in the bathroom for no and the right curtain for yes. Low and behold a few seconds later the right curtain moved ever-so-slightly. The father took that as a sign for yes and began to pray. At some point the father felt an icey chill on his left hand and he took that to mean the boy had taken his hand. The father said that from that moment on the whole atmosphere in the house had changed. He even told Eric that if he wanted to he could come to work with him whenever he wanted. How's that for some interaction for Eric? :)

As I'm about to go to bed tonight I sit back and think how blessed I am to be in a position in such a team of friends in our group that we are able to help a family achieve understanding in their difficult situation. Not only have they made a major step toward resolving their problem but in a very real way their family just got a couple of souls bigger. I'm happy and very thankful I could be a part of that.

Note: incidentally, the medium's dreams about the elderly being abused and housed in deplorable conditions was confirmed. The family had bought the house they were living in VERY cheap because it used to be an assisted living facility. The family had remodeled it extensively, but in the father's own words, "There was blood and feces all over the walls when we moved in." You should have seen the medium's face when he said that. It was like everything she had seen the night before made sense. I wonder now if Eric didn't somehow find himself abandoned in that house somehow when it was a nursing home, or perhaps he was one of the previous residents that had simply regressed to the state of a 10 year old. Maybe he was just wondering by and found himself there one day. Who knows.

James S. -

And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

ghosts vs demons in a negative haunting

Been thinking about this subject off an on for a while, but it's especially been at the forefront of my mind for the last few days since watching the new movie Paranormal Activity.

It occurs to me that maybe we put too much emphasis on whether a haunting is "caused" by a ghost or a demon. There's usually a lot more anxiety if it's determined there may be a demonic presence. Really, in many ways I think that extra anxiety is pointless. What does it matter? The effect, danger level and often the treatment is all the same.

Fundamentally does it matter if your arm is being torn off by a mountain lion or a bear? The real issue is the fact that you're being mauled. You need the mauling to stop. Once a harmful/malicious intent has been proven by the spirit does it really matter what it's genealogy is? Does it matter if Hitler is german or polish? He's still Hitler right?

What's in a name?

One can argue that demons are more powerful and therefore more dangerous... To some degree I can see that point, really depending on how you define "demon". I know many christians that would say any/all spirits we encounter are demons and still others that would say any spirit that's not a ghost (disincarnate, or spirit of a now deceased but once living human) is a ghost. Technically I would personally say to be qualified as a demon by the standards of most mainstream christianity the spirit would have to have been born/created as an angel and then been cast out with Lucifer assuming you're down with that mythology. And, like it or not, christianity is a mythology just like any other religion. It just happens to be the dominant mythology of the day.

That doesn't account for a myriad of spirits with different origins according to other mythologies / religions. Nature based religions like my own and many other religions on the planet recognize a whole legion of spirits that have absolutely nothing to do with angels/demons in the classic christian sense.

It eventually all boils down to is this thought again... you're being mauled. You've got a hostile spirit harassing / doing harm to you and yours. Does it matter if the entity can present an ID card and pedigree as to what it really is and where it really came from? No... not at that point in time it doesn't. Your main focus is dealing with the entity.

Now, someone at some point is going to argue this, "Yes, it's important to know what it is because if it's this kind of spirit you're supposed to do this and if it's that kind of spirit you're supposed to do that....". That's a valid argument. Really it is, but not for the reasons you might think. and I'll get to that in a moment, but first we have to go somewhere else to lead up to that.

What's the treatment?

In my experience both academically and with hands-on trial and error in these situations I can tell you this. A buddist family doing a spiritual cleansing or a native american family doing their ritual or charismatic christians doing their thing all have 1 thing in common. It works. No matter what the origin of religion / mythology if the people participating believe in the event believe it will be effective, eventually it will be. I have no way of proving this to you though other than to submit that this is my own experience and from what I've seen this is true. I could illustrate further why I believe this to be true but ultimately it would get us away from the topic at hand and this is all theoretical metaphysics anyway. Very little of anything in this arena can be "proven" in the traditional sense of the word.

The statement still stands though for the sake of argument that most means of exorcising / cleansing will be effective so long as the participants and the family/people involved have faith. This works for ghosts and demons alike as far as I can tell. I say this because i have yet to have a spirit walk up to me and produce official state / otherworld issued identification cards stating they are indeed a ghost or demon. All I can tell you is I've encounter many spirits in many haunting situations and so long as the correct methodology is imposed by people of faith that results will be achieved from what I've seen.

That, again, leads me to the statement that if the treatment is the same for both then why draw the distinction between ghost/demon?

Communication

Here is the only scenario I can see where it would make a difference. I said earlier I'd get to this and here it is. It comes down to motivation. What is the motivation of the spirit? If the spirit is acting up / lashing out because it's angry about something within your control to fix then perhaps a compromise can be reached. The spirit of some old lady is scaring the crap out of you because a piece of her favorite jewelry ended up in your hands and she wants it to go somewhere else? Well, if you can find out what they want done with it and do it maybe it'll resolve the conflict. There are any number of situations where some kind of action can be taken to resolve the conflict behind why the spirit is upset. Stop renovating the house the spirit loves. Deliver a message that they need delivered, etc.. That may in itself resolve the haunting.

The above scenario is for a spirit that wants something you can do. Something that's within your power to help with. What about a scenario where the spirit just wants to torment or demoralize as is the case with demons in christian mythology? Or even the spirit of some ghosts that's so enraged that they just want to lash out at anyone and everyone? No amount of communication in those situations will be helpful. The spirit in that scenario has no motivation at all to resolve the conflict.

That's not to say trying to communicate is bad, but it has it's risks and in the end may resolve the situation, may further complication the situation or make may it generally worse depending on the motivation of the spirit involved. I may be in your best interest to try and communicate just to see if you can figure out the motivation, but...

Here's the catch.... If you're not a psychic medium and don't have access to one you trust then how in the world are you going to get that information? How are you going to open a dialog with the spirit? In many cases you simply can't. You could go the ouja board route, but honestly I don't endorse that. If you really don't have much expertise in these issues and you happen to be dealing with a wolf in sheep's clothing situation where a really really negative spirit is pretending to be nice opening further communication with it can be disastrous.

Here's something else to chew on, especially from the perspective of the christians. If you do open a dialog the spirit may not be telling the truth. There's nothing at all in the rule book stating that the spirits can't mislead you. What if the spirit tells you or the psychic that it's actually the ghost of a lost little girl just looking for a family to live with. You might then be tempted to tell the spirit it can stay so long as it behaves. But, in reality the spirit is a big nasty wolf hell bent on causing chaos in your family. If you invite it to stay you're only going to allow it to root deeper into the situation which will make it that much more difficult to remove later.

Your best and safest course of action is commence some sort of exorcism / cleansing ritual yourself or to get the assistance of clergy / experts that know what they're doing. If it's a negative spirit and they know what they're doing you will likely see results. It may take time and things may get much more intense before they get better, but eventually you'll likely see positive results.

You do the heavy lifting

As a general note though, I strongly recommend to most of the people I've worked with in these situations that they themselves take responsibility for whatever cleansing / exorcism ritual they decide to go with under the GUIDANCE of someone who can advise them. You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you're having a long drawn out spiritual battle with some entity in your house and you have to continually call Father Frank from the church down the street at 3am because there's a bowl of butterscotch pudding floating through the living room again. You want to take charge of your situation. Most likely it's your house, your family and your life that's being messed with. An outsider to the situation will not have nearly the emotional investment and eventually faith needed to deal with the situation at hand.

I say this from personal experience. I've tried to be the "call me day or night anytime you need me to come over" consultant and you know what, they will call you day or night. They (clients) will become dependent on you. They begin to see in you their salvation and they expect YOU to handle the situation when in fact what needs to be happening is they need to take control of their own lives and deal with the situation themselves. You have to tech them to fish, not bring fish to them at 3am. They're the ones that have to keep up the sometimes daily exercises / prayers / chicken foot shaking that is required to drive out a negative entity.

What's really happening in a cleansing / exorcism

I believe this is what's really going on in these situations. The folks conducting the rituals / prayers / blessings or whatever are anchoring massive amounts of positive energy to the location / people involved. This makes any negatively oriented entities very uncomfortable. You keep anchoring more and more positive energy to the place where the negative entity decides to hang out and eventually they'll find some place else to hang out. It becomes a contest of wills, and sometimes a violent contest. A negative spirit / entity that's been picking on a family for a while and calling the shots is likely to get madder than a hornets nest when you start poking him with a stick trying to get him him/her/it out. Hence the, "it's liable to get worse before it gets better" scenario.

Even in the case of a catholic exorcism where (in theory) you're driving out a fallen angel from a human body it doesn't work the way most folks think of it. It's not like you do the ritual and then it's over. Anyone who's done more than 5 minutes of serious research into exorcisms the way the catholics do it will know that an exorcism can go on for days or weeks or months. The priests are not doing the ritual just once, they're doing it over and over and over again. If it were just a simple matter of saying the ritual once and the demon/spirit had to obey then no ritual would take more than 10 minutes, just enough time to recite the prayer.

No, that is not the case. These are long drawn out ordeals where the priests are invoking powerful symbols of positive spiritual energy and beating the demon over the head with it over and over and over again until at some point the demon decides it's not worth the fight anymore and leaves. Did you catch that... The demon DECIDES it's not worth the fight anymore. It's their choice to leave or not. If you make them uncomfortable enough they'll leave. Even in christian mythology when Christ himself cast out demons there was supposedly a dialogged involved that suggested the demons would voluntarily leave (very quickly though) simply because they wanted no part of messing with Christ. If I was a demon come face to face with someone as obviously spiritually awake / alive as christ I don't think i'd want to slug it out with him either. Again though, this seems to imply choice on the part of the demon.

Eventually if you keep chugging away and make the situation so incredibly uncomfortable for the entity they will eventually go away. Well, that's how we hope it works out. Other possible outcomes are in the realm of possibility, but we'll get into that in a bit.

Why should you take any haunting seriously?

The fool that first said ghosts can't hurt you is a greater fool than the fool that followed the first fool. All you have to do is apply a little common sense. Any spirit that is capable of moving objects and/or touching you or effecting the environment is potentially dangerous. A ghost that can move a child's teddy bear from one side of the room to another is just as capable or any number of things like... floating a knife above you in your sleep, turning on/off a stove, placing a flammable or explosive object on top of said stove. I recently watched video documentation of an entity putting a box of bullets on top of a stove burner. If that's not dangerous I don't know what is.

I don't think anyone would disagree that whatever type of entity you classify as a demon can be dangerous, but there is nothing in the world stopping a normal every day ghost from being dangerous as well. It all boils down to their motivation. If they want to kill you in your sleep they can. The fact that you woke up this morning to be able to read this article is a testament to the fact that you probably dont have to worry about that. That doesn't, however, mean that the entity isn't or can't at some point become dangerous.

So, we've established that both ghosts and demons can be dangerous and that the treatment is ultimately the same. Why bother with making the distinction at all? The only thing you're going to do is freak people out using the D word. A negative haunting is dangerous no matter what type of entity is causing it. If the entity has proven itself to be malicious or negative then the clear course of action is the same no matter the origin of the spirit.

James S. -

And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

EVP Research - Notes from the spiricom manual

Spiricom Manual:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/259140/Spiricom-Technical-Manual

The spiritcom manual is a notebook detailing experiments from an authentic and genuine scientific approach on the subject of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), aka communication with the dead. It details information gathered through the course of the project from both traditional research from books and other mundane sources of information but also contains a significant amount of information channeled through mediums.

The basic premise is that living physical scientists are working in conjunction with deceased scientists in the spirit world in order to establish a method of two way communication. A traditional spirit medium is used for more direct communication during phases of the project to facilitate collaberation, but the overall goal is to be able to communicate effectively with the spirit world without the use of a living medium.

Interesting notes from original review of the material.

A significant amount of knowledge in electronics is needed to build the devices carefully detailed in the manual.

Direct Voice Mediumship: A method by which spirits may use spiritual energy to fashion a sort of "spiritual machine" that will produce an audible voice without the active participation of a medium. This phenomenon has apparently been documented extensively.

A spirit is required to meet 3 criteria in order to successfully imprint EVP or use Direct Voice Mediumship.

1. Have a desire on the part of the speaker (spirit) to communicate.
2. Move the "lips" of the spirit as it is talking in the same manner that it did when it was alive (corporeal).
3. Think what it is it wants to say just as it did when it was in it's physical body.

Supposedly those are the 3 key criteria that allow a spirit to imprint (or impede) evp upon a medium.

It is apparently easier for a spirit to modulate a constant tone/signal such as a musical tone or even white noise than it is to speak "normally". By comparison it could be said that normal voice living beings use to communicate is nothing more than modulated air.

It is apparent that frequency (vibration rate) is a key denominator, possibly in all of creation. This seems to jive with modern physics research as well. After an individual dies they seem to operate at a much higher frequency than they previously did. That frequency seems to increase as their "evolution" increases. Tuning a carrier wave for communication to a specific frequency that the entity can interact with seems to be critical.

Apparently spirits can build "machines" or some sort of constructs out of energy. It makes me wonder if "magick" and/or prayer is not the same sort of construct of spiritual energy.

Music in particular (or perhaps more acutely the vibration there-of) seems to resonate across multiple dimensions / frequencies. A tone at a frequency audible to us on the physical plane also resonates many octaves higher and lower than the tone we perceive. Therefore music, most notably specific tones in music can carry across multiple planes of existence / dimensions / frequencies.

Mediums can apparently communicate with spirits because they have a different frequency structure than most people, especially when in a "clear" or "open" state of mind. They are apparently easier to "resonate" with.

Mental & Causal planes can communicate in the 12000 MHz range

Middle Astral and 25-35 MHz range

A great many factors can influence reception and overall communication efforts including but not limited to solar activity, lunar cycle, other forms of Electromagnetic interference, etc.

There may be a relationship between positive spiritual contact (good quality evp/communication) and lunar cycles in the format of more reflected solar light (more moonlight) seems to promote better quality communication. This may perhaps explain strange happenings during the full moon.

Is low or high solar activity preferable?

A Faraday cage can be used to effectively screen out some EM interference and does not seem to hinder spiritual frequencies.

spiritual beings exist as a specific wavelength of light.

more to come....

James S. -

And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference