Paranormal   

Question of the Week

Posted 

February 5, 2012

 
  Each week I will post a question raised by people I meet at  book events or  at  

haunted  locations I visit,  or submitted to me by e-mail.  I will post my  answer Sunday

evenings,  usually no later than 6:00  PM. I would appreciate your feedback if you have

additional  information you believe I should include, or if you  have a contrary  

opinion.    

What procedures or rituals work best to rid a place of an unwanted spirit? Is there anything new?

I dealt with this question several times in the past in this blog, at paranormal conferences, and on radio and TV. I’ve also answered this question for client who found an unwanted spirit in their workplace or home. Last week I discussed who the nature of these spirits. You might want to read that discussion (found at the bottom of this page) before continuing with this statement. 

Basically, spirits who show up at a location and act as though they refuse to leave are angry or evil entities. 

THE ANGRY SPIRIT 

Typically, the anger is directed at the current occupant is non-specific. That means the ghost does not know the living person and has no agenda such as revenge. The anger is generated by the impression that the living person is occupying space that the spirit feels it owns. That is an important clue for developing a banishing procedure or ritual. 

Anger might also arise because the living occupant has a lifestyle that is objectionable, performs activities within the location that the spirits dislikes, has changed the décor in a way unacceptable to the spirit, or fails to recognize the spirit. 

The core element of spirit anger is that the entity believes it has ownership of the place and the living person or persons are intruders. Contributing factors may be the spirit’s confusion. This arises from the obvious elements of the time period, modern amenities such as TVs and computers, and the spirit’s inability to function as a living being. 

THE EVIL SPIRIT 

These entities are not demons. They are ghosts who were mean or evil when alive. Death has not dissipated their criminalistic or anti-social behavior. They manifest within a place, find opportunities for harassment and disruption, and find living people whom they can torment or manipulate. 

Evil spirits are likely the kind of entity that attaches to a specific person. This entity tries to use the “host” to create thoughts or actions that the spirit cannot produce. Typically, two kinds of people are susceptible to becoming a host for an evil spirit. One is the weak-minded person, mentally or socially disabled by ill-health, drug or alcohol abuse. The other is the intelligent, skilled person whose attributes appeal to the evil spirit. Despite the intelligence of the targeted host, attachment occurs usually because this person is pre-occupied with numerous thoughts, projects, responsibilities, etc., is completely unaware of the risks of spirit attachment. 

Evil spirits take up residence in a place simply because they like the environment or its location (over an unmarked grave, for instance), and they feel they can manipulate the place and objects within it to suit their own tastes or satisfy their desire to create problems. These spirits typically break things, causes objects to fall from walls or shelves, cause electrical devices to fail, cause fires or cracks in walls, or create foul odors or disturbing sounds.        

COMMON ELEMENT

In terms of presence in a particular space such as home or workplace, angry ghosts and evil spirits have one thing in common: they both believe they have a right to occupy the place. The process of banishing them requires us to focus on that important perception.

BASICS OF BANISHING SPIRITS

As a brief summary; there are three basic elements tot banishing rituals. They have religious connotations but it is important for users of these banishing rituals to understand that it is not the religious beliefs, affiliations, or practices of the user that matter. You can be an atheist and still get great results. The essential element of their success is that the spirit perceives them to have power. 

1. Holy water: wet a finger and make the mark of the cross over all entry points to a room, home, or workplace. Some practitioners recommend that this be done daily. As the mark is made, recite some prayer or incantation such as, “ By the power of God and Jesus Christ, you are banished from this place and forbidden to return.” There are numerous incantations available through the Internet. You might also ask a Catholic priest for suggestions. 

2. Religious iconology: place objects such as across, Bible, rosary, St. Benedict medals, statuettes of angles or Jesus at the site of the most disturbing spirit manifestation. 

3. Incense: use sage to “smudging” the place. This is a process of burning an herb such as sage that repels angry or evil spirit. Some practitioners recommend walking throughout the spirit-infected place waving the smoldering sage in the air to allow its fragrance to completely fill the space. Other suggests that smudging be augments by burning sage in as ash tray on a daily basis at the site of the most disturbing spirit manifestation.

OTHER BASICS INCLUDE;

Patience: the process can be lengthy, sometimes exceeding six months. The idea is to wear down the spirit. You must engage in a war of attrition.

Persistence: you much perform banishing rituals frequently. Most practitioners recommend daily performance couple with virtual permanent display of religious iconology. 

Change the environment: if you suspect an angry or evil spirit manifests because of specific activities that occur at the site, stop those activities until the spirit is banished.

ANYTHING NEW?

I have some suggests that aren’t new but they are rarely discussed in blogs and articles. I’ve used them for years and found good success when they are added to the basic banishing rituals listed above. 

Identify the bad guy: Often, background research can identify likely suspects. If a name or some other identifying characteristic – sailor, soldier, victim of a disaster, criminal, or victim of criminal activity – can be obtained from background research, that information can add considerable power to banishing rituals. Typically, evil spirits feel protected by anonymity. Angry spirits might feel they can be more belligerent if they remain unidentified. 

Banishing rituals directed at a spirit, by name or other distinguishing characteristic, dissipates a spirit’s ability to hide or move about undetected. Banishing rituals such as smudging are more powerful if you distribute the sage fragrance while stating the spirit’s name. if you don’t have a likely name for the spirit, you might say “All spirits whose bodies rest beneath this ground must leave this place.” Or, “Soldiers who died on this ground must move on to their reward in heaven.”   

Identify the motivation: Background research may give clues as to the spirit’s motivation for its disturbing presence and manifestations. If your angry spirit feels it is the rightful owner, you must clearly state that ownership has changed hands, usually many times over a period of weeks. You might point out modern amenities and renovations that have altered the place since the time the spirit occupied it when alive. If you live in a Victorian house in San Francisco, the disturbing spirit may occupied it before the time of hot and cold running waster, flush toilettes, etc. Point out all the changes in a way that make s the spirit feel that the place has been transformed to something almost unrecognizable as its former residence. This dminishes the strength of its desire to re-occupy the place.

Inform the spirit: Clearly state that the spirit is no longer welcome in the place. You can be polite but after a while, a more forceful tone of voice might be required. 

Assist the spirit: Some practitioners attempt communication sessions or séances with the spirit in an attempt to resolve the spirit’s problem. This can be a risky process because it can lead to a strong attachment to any person participating in the séance. Also, if resolution of problem is impossible or falls short of complete resolution, the spirit may stay awaiting additional help. 

FINAL WARNING 

It is best not to engage in two-way communication with an angry or evil spirit. You may speak to it, but do not invite it to communicate with you unless you have strong protection against attachment.

Thanks for your questions and visiting this page for anwers. Say in touch!                               

                                                              Jeff Dwyer      

From last week . . .   

Who are the angry, evil spirits who may attach themselves to us via a Ouija board or other contact?  

   Many people believe that the use of Ouija boards, performance of seances, and other attempts to inter-act with spirits may enable angry or evil spirits to become present in our homes or attach themselves to our minds or bodies.

   Based upon the experience of many credible people, it is clear that these spirits may be disruptive and create frightening experiences. Most of these spirits cannot create physical harm, but they may be psychologically damaging.

   Problems they create may not be limited to the location at which they were first discovered. Some may attach themselves to the client or the investigator or a person encountered at random. The attach may be brief but typically it lasts for weeks or months and requires repetitive rituals to break the attachment. Most attachments are merely bothersome, consisting of an uncomfortable feeling of being watched, sleep disturbances, and frequent voices heard or psychically perceived that disrupt thought processes. Others may be so damaging that the services of professional demonologists, psychologists, or priests trained in exorcism may be needed.  

ANGRY GHOSTS

   A place may be quiet in a paranormal sense for many years until some change arouses a place-bound ghost. The ghost will then become active and demonstrate an escalating level of disturbance, giving the impression that it is angry. Sometimes, angry ghosts respond to kind treatment. Ask them to stay out of the child’s room and they may do so. Ask the ghost to be quiet while meals are served, and its activities decline from rambunctious to a benign presence. Typically, these spirits demonstrate signs of cooperation mixed with deeply disturbing violence.

   Ridding a place of an angry ghost requires that you convince the spirit that things have changed. Sometimes, when a spirit is told it is welcome to stay but it no longer owns the house, they move on. Most often the ghost refuses to leave because it is angry about changes in its former residence or workplace such as new paint color, style of furniture, art work, or a TV that emits irritating noise. Anger may arise because the ghost dislikes current occupants or their habits. Frustrated with its inability to reverse changes or evict people it dislikes, it creates disturbances and refuses to move on. Added to all of that, the ghost may feel deeply anxious about its present form of existence.

   Paranormal investigators must realize that a ghost’s presence may be linked to some unresolved problem, conflict, or desire that should be respected. Background research may reveal that resolution has already occurred. If so, inform the ghost that the problem no longer exists and that it is free to move on.

   If no resolution is possible, you may perform a communication session, with audio recorders running, in which the paranormal investigator or client extends an invitation for the ghost to move on that includes mention of the rest, happiness, personal fulfillment, reunion with friends and family that awaits the spirit on the other side.

   If we are dealing with a profoundly stubborn and troublesome ghost or refuses to leave, there is a wide variety of banishing rituals the ghost hunter and client may try. I’ll discuss some new information about Banishing Rituals next week.

EVIL SPIRITS

   Many people have left the site of a paranormal investigation with a feeling that something was “stuck” to them or otherwise staying close enough to cause unwanted behavioral changes, interfere with thought processes, diminish ability to concentrate on a job or project, and disrupt household routine. There is considerable concern about picking up a spirit, evil or otherwise, while conducting séances and paranormal investigations. Attachment may also occur when the host invites the spirit to interact with him either because of curiosity or a desire to experience the spirit manifestation of a loved one who has died. Many paranormal investigators wear protective icons and perform protective rituals and perform banishing rituals as they leave the site of an investigation. 

   A series of focused questions may reveal if a disruptive, malevolent, or evil spirit has “attached” to a living host:

1. Do you feel a basic change in your personality or behavior after visiting a haunted site?
2. Has there been an abrupt change in your attitude toward others or some aspect of your life, such as your job, car pool companions, family members?
3. Do you experience strange disembodied voices or perceive a stranger talking inside your head. 
4. Has there been an abrupt onset of nervousness, anxiety, fearfulness, anger, hatred, or other emotion that is not characteristic of you?

   Once these questions are considered, and a negative attachment by an evil spirit seems likely, the process of breaking the attachment should begin immediately before the entity grows stronger. Rarely, the attachment may be very brief and end when the investigator leaves the venue. In some instances, it may become a very long attachment, lasting a year or more.  Negative attachments can be extremely stressful and damaging to the host, causing harm to relationships within a family, the loss of a job, or fears of mental illness.  

Who are these evil spirits? They aren’t demons. Let’s set that concept aside for now. Evil spirits are the consciousness of a dead person. That means they are ghosts. These evil spirits were once human and may retain all the meanness humans have so dramatically displayed for millennia. 

   Many naive people believe that immediately after death of the body the spirit becomes an angelic, benevolent, loving entity that has suddenly acquired great knowledge of the universe and may tap into some huge storehouse of wisdom that is beyond the reach of living beings. This erroneous concept of a spirit that has suddenly become saint-like often includes notions that contact with the entity cannot be harmful from an emotional or psychological perspective because the spirit is heavenly and therefore good. Perhaps this is why people use Ouija boards and engage in séances without protection. 

   Well, I can tell you that this view of spirits is all wrong. 

   It is possible that upon crossing over or passing through the light to the next higher realm of spiritual existence an orientation and education process may occur that awakens the spirit to the wrongs it committed and evil things it may have done when alive. This may accomplish a complete over-haul of the spirit’s knowledge and attitudes, creating the nearly-angelic being we’d expect to find on that next-higher-realm of existence.  

   However, it is important to understand that spirits who remain earth-bound for several minutes to several years after death don’t undergo this orientation process. Death does not transform them into a nice spirit, or cause them to recognize defects in personality, the destructiveness of their behavior, and the negativity of their attitudes. In short; if they were jerks, or even criminals in life, they will retain much of their basic behavior and personality after death, as long as they are earth-bound.

   These evil spirits are among the ghosts we may see and hear in our investigations. They retain and may demonstrate all the malevolence, belligerence, bigotry, and hatefulness that characterized their life.

   I suspect that for many bad spirits, the process of dying and the realization that the great transformation has occurred causes some dissipation of negative attitudes and behaviors. Many who did not believe in an after-life would suddenly realize what is really going on and that petty disputes and negativism that dominated their lives are no longer important. However there are some spirits who are so negative, that they retain destructive attitudes and behaviors. This is particularly true if the spirit does not realize he is dead. 

   For spirits who do realize they have died, there may be a realization that their new form of existence allows them opportunities to carry-out their aggressive, manipulative, and destructive agenda with far greater ease, unencumbered by the constraints of a physical body.

   Evil spirits may attach to a living “host” because it knew the host when it was alive. This is especially true if the spirit is motivated by revenge, jealousy, or rivalry. In the vast majority of negative attachments, however, the evil spirit did not know the targeted “host” when alive. The spirit picks on a stranger because it can achieve more control over the host if it remains anonymous, and its operating methods and motivations remain unrecognized or hidden. 

   The implications for ghost hunters and paranormal investigators are clear. When you enter a haunted venue and invite spirits to manifest, you should take steps to protect yourself. It is wise to research the history of the site and history of spirits suspected of haunting it before visiting the place. I always go online and search for criminal activity that may have occurred at the site or close to it. I also look for burial grounds that may have been covered by modern development, locations where child molesters lived, and the proximity of facilities for the mentally ill. I’ve discovered two places I intended to investigate that had histories that put me on guard against evil spirits. One place was once the home of a murderer. The other was close to a half-way house for the mentally ill.   

   If your research indicates a criminal or other destructive person may be the spirit responsible for paranormal activity, it may be unwise to invite that spirit to inter-act with you for the purpose of obtaining audio recordings (EAP/EVP).

   In my experience these interactions have the following characteristics;

1. Spirit and host did not know each other when the spirit was alive 

2. The host does not possess anything that the spirit once owned 

3. The host has some skill or talent that the spirit wishes to use 

4. The spirit is malevolent and does not care about the welfare of the host

   People who suffer from these negative attachments report the following characteristics of the experience;

1. The spirit speaks to the host frequently, often through the night disrupting sleep patterns. More than one voice may be heard.
2. An apparition is never seen and movement of objects does not occur.
3. The spirit interrupts the host’s thoughts, particularly those aimed at self-assurance that a mentally illness has not begun.
4. The spirit travels whenever the host travels. These negative, attached spirits are not place-bound. In fact, place has nothing to do with the host-spirit interaction.

   Fortunately, these negative attachments are rare, but all paranormal investigators should be aware of the dangers and establish safeguards for protection during their investigations. Who is most susceptible to a negative attachment?

1. People whose energy or spirit is diminished by alcohol or drugs.  I advise ghost hunters to never stage an investigation within 12 hours of consuming alcohol and some prescription medications.
2. People who project or espouse negative thoughts about harmful actions aimed at themselves (suicidal tendencies) or others
3. Individuals who have a weak grasp on their true selves, who are easily manipulated by the living or the dead. These individuals typically waste whatever intellect or skill they may have while pursuing a shiftless, useless life devoid of goals, aspirations, or interest in a career or education. 
4. People who possess exceptional intelligence or rare skills or talent the spirit wishes to use in some way. These may be the most difficult negative attachments to break because spirits feels invigorated by the host’s intellect or talent.

    Banishment of an attached spirit, especially an evil one, is a highly specialized process that requires the skills of a therapist who thoroughly understands the issue. I’ll discuss this process next week.