The first type of haunting is exactly like a video playback of a historic or tragic event. This is called a residual haunting. The event unfolds in front of you and there is no interaction between you and the ghosts. They seem to not notice you and go through the motions of the event that occurred in the past. This event has been imprinted on the area or building and is replayed back later when conditions are right. The ghosts that you see in this type are not earthbound spirits, they are just visual play backs. Since everything is made up of energy, the theory is that some of the energy from an event can be recorded by certain materials and played back when the atmosphere triggers it. Remember that video and audio tape is just oxidized (rust) film that enables the images and sounds to "stick" to it. This type may be frightening when you see it, but you are in no danger so enjoy the experience.
The second type of haunting is an interactive spirit that manifests in many ways. You may see a full bodied or partial bodied apparition. More frequently than that, you may here voices, music, footsteps, etc. You may also smell odors which sources cannot be found (i.e. pipe tobacco when no one smokes). You may also see orbs, mists and other light effects. You may feel touches, cold spots, and other light physical contact. This ghost is the spirit of a deceased human being. They may be stuck here (earthbound) for reasons such as tragic sudden death, fear of moving on, guilt or unfinished business. They also could be here visiting loved ones or to warn or pass along a message. These human spirits are the same as they were in life, so they may be good or bad, but not really evil. Think of all the people you know, probably a bit of good and bad, some worse than others. This type can cause some scary situations but you must think about the situation they are in, you don't see them but they see you. They will try to get your attention any way they can. Many times this is the terrifying event people will write to me about like the lights going on and off, items moving, noises, etc. For the most part these are just attention getters and nothing more. There are a few more mischievous human spirits that will do these things to bother you and scare you on purpose. They may just be a prankster or maybe they want you to leave the old home or not to change something in the home. They have all the same motivations you and I would have. These human spirits account for a majority of the hauntings we encounter and are relatively harmless. Yes, there are extreme cases and sometimes they can cause dangerous situations, but this is not the norm and is rare.
The third type of ghost you may encounter is not a rare one, but is rare
that they interact with the living. They are non human spirits, commonly known
as demons and devils. They are mentioned in the bible numerous places in both
the old and new testaments. People like Ed and Lorraine Warren have been
dealing with this type of spirit for years. This type is dangerous and can
cause you harm. I believe that if there is good, there must be a counter
balance, evil. These non human spirits often disguise themselves and friendly
and helpful human spirits. They often appear in cases dealing with Ouija
boards, black magic and satanic worship. This is why I recommend not trying to
contact spirits and doing ghost hunts without some understanding of what's out
there. It's also why I recommend you go with or learn from experienced people
before hand. That way you can ghost hunt with relative safety from these
entities.
by Dave Juliano
I get many questions regarding apparitions or figures that appear black or dark in color. A majority of the people I speak to have already assumed that, because of the color, the apparition is evil or demonic in nature. This is simply not the truth in the majority of cases. A human spirit may also appear as a dark shadowy form in many cases. The "evil" that most of these people feel at the time they see the black figures is the natural fear being misinterpreted as an evil presence. Many people are frightened by the normal symptoms of a haunting like footsteps, doors opening, voices, etc. They assume they are being hounded by demons from hell. One of the main purposes of this page is to help people understand better what is happening and defuse some of the fear involved in these encounters.
Now, there are evil spirits, but most of you will never encounter them. Even in my own experiences, there was only one apparition that I definitely felt was evil. I drew that conclusion because I could compare the feelings I got from that one spirit to the others I had encountered for 18 years prior to seeing that one. The other black imps as I call them made me feel very uneasy but I cannot say that they were, without a doubt, demons. I am still leaning toward that being the case but I have to keep an open mind and assume that anything is possible. It is also possible that you may be get bad vibes from a human spirit that, for some reason, is not friendly toward you. Perhaps you changed something in their house like the wallpaper in their favorite room or something else to make them feel like you are messing with things that belonged to them in life. Other than typical symptoms of a haunting, there is little else the mean spirited human ghost can do to you except make you feel like it doesn't like you. In conclusion, seeing a black shadowy spirit does not mean that you are definitely facing an evil spirit. You need to investigate further to determine what the presence is, and a majority of the time you'll realize it is a human spirit and not demonic. From my experience, you will know by the actions of the spirit and the feelings you get from it, whether or not it's evil. Just keep in mind the odds are against it being evil
The existense of ghosts has been debated for
centuries. It is only in modern times with technology having advanced to it's
current stage that we may now capture on film and audio what many believe to be
images of the supernatural. The questions of why some can and yet others cannot
see or sense the presense of these entities has been contested with numerous
theories both for and against the subject of spirits. One such cause for
speculation is do our children see and sense what many adults either cannot or
will not see?
One theory is that
children have not had years to adjust their thinking and have not had the time
to train themselves as to what to accept or not accept as reality like adults
have. Adults program their thinking and consequently refuse certain images,
noises, and feeling as real simply
because in our minds we cannot accept impossible or unproven
science.
Some parents unknowingly
start to teach and train their children at a very young age to block these
images. They do it out of protection and misunderstanding of the situation.
How many parents have tucked their little ones back into bed with the words that
they thought were reassuring; there are no such things as ghosts, you just had a
bad dream, it wasn't real, it
was just
your imagination? I think most parents are guilty of this including myself. How
many parents are guilty of telling their children that their imaginary friend is
not real, maybe not realizing that not only is that friend real but a ghost? I
am sure it has happened before. Do you ever wonder if any of those bad dreams,
those images seen in the night, those imaginary friends how many may actually be
ghosts that for whatever reason have shown themselves to a child?
When we tell our children it was just a bad
dream we may inadvertently teaching them to mistrust what they may have actually
be seeing. Eventually training themselves to block what they have been taught
cannot be real. Where as the opposite side of this theory; the parent who
teaches their children that sometimes for whatever reason, a spirit may linger
after death,
is leaving a space in that
child to be able to accept the vision, the noise or the feeling of the
supernatural. Could this be why some people are able to accept the supernatural
with an open mind and yet others cannot? Does the door get shut at childhood or
can it remain open? This is just one of the may theories used to explain why
children see more of the supernatural world
then adults do. Comments are indeed welcome!
The word words comes from the German tern poltern - "to knock" and geist - "spirit". This phenomenon has been researched extensively for years. It has been the subject of movies, but I don't think Carol Ann and her family were being plague by a poltergeist in the movie. There are a few different theories on what poltergeists are. I am going to discuss the one theory that I believe here and keep it simple as possible.
A typical poltergeist haunting seems to always consist of noises, such as loud knocking, and objects moving about on their own. There can also be voices, smells and apparitions in addition to the other symptoms. Usually these events are witnessed by numerous people in the home , including visitors. The events may start slowly with small noises and small objects moving and then may progress to something like furniture flying around the room and full bodied apparitions. The exact events differ from case to case as well as the progression and severity. Normally there is one person who seems more affected than others and is always present in the home when events occur. When that person is removed from the home, the events cease. This person is usually a preteen female who's hormones and the stress of that age combine and finally release subconsciously in a way that causes the poltergeist activity. The person is causing all of the phenomenon with the subconscious mind and they are not aware that they are the cause. This person can also be a teenager or into their early twenties and may be under some unusual amount of stress. When they are relived of the stress, sometimes by moving from the location, the problems stop. If the stress or causes continue, the "haunting" seems to follow them. Reliving the inner problems is the key to stopping the poltergeist activity.
Poltergeists are not often easily discernable from other types of spirit hauntings. The symptoms are often very similar. An onsite investigation and extensive research is often necessary to uncover the hidden existence of this type of phenomenon. This explains why many questions that investigators ask seem off base when they interview witnesses in a home. They are trying to rule out a poltergeist problem before they start the investigation into the possible spirit activity.
A controlled situation would be where a psychic, medium or clairvoyant is present. This way the medium could sense if any dangers are present and close off the communication before any harm was done.
The Ouija board is just a piece of compressed wood, sold at virtually all toy stores and occult supply and book stores. Ouija is a combination of two words: "oui" and "ja" which mean "yes" in French and German respectively. The board itself is not dangerous but the form of communication that you are attempting often is.
Most often the spirits whom are contacted through the Ouija are those whom reside on "the lower astral plane". These spirits are often very confused and may have died a violent or sudden death; murder, suicide, etc. Therefore, many violent, negative and potentially dangerous conditions are present to those using the board. Often times several spirits will attempt to come through at the same time but the real danger lies when you ask for physical proof of their existence! You might say, "Well, if you're really a spirit, then put out this light or move that object!" What you have just done is simple, you have "opened a doorway" and allowed them to enter into the physical world and future problems can and often do arise.
I would strongly advise against the use of the Ouija, automatic writing or seances. If you don't happen to be lucky or unlucky enough (depends on how you look at it) to contact any ghosts, then if nothing else, you could become emotionally attached or dependent on the board's advice. This can be psychologically adverse on the psyche as you will attempt to get more and more information out of the board and you could actually just be using the board as an avenue to the inside of your own mind without realizing it. In other words, you could be asking questions of the board and then your subconscious mind would be using the planchette to answer your own questions! This often happens to those people who use the board by themselves.
I believe the following cases are true examples of what could happen to those who continue to use the board or become obsessed or possessed!
I invited a foul horror into my house with a Ouija board. My brother and I got no results when we started to use the psychic device, but suddenly the message indicator mysteriously began to move. The first thing the board told us was that the message was being sent by Seth. Then I made the tragic mistake of telling the board to prove it was real by doing something supernatural. The results were startling and scary. The board told us that the grandfather of one of my best friends would die in a week. The chandelier in the room began to shake violently and the chimes rang like pieces of metal being smashed together. The room became as cold as ice and we were shivering, though the thermometer read 70 degrees. The horrible stench of death filled the room and we couldn't stop gagging and coughing.
Suddenly, the noises stopped and the room was as quiet as a cemetery in the middle of the night. My brother and I looked at each other in terror. We opened the windows to get rid of the stink or rotting flesh and told each other we'd forget the whole thing. But a week later the grandfather of one of my best friends died just as the board has predicted! And from time to time the chandelier would rattle, the room freeze and that awful smell return. I couldn't take it any more. I threw the board away and told my mother about the experience. She told me that once you tamper with a Ouija board, its evil spell will remain forever. And to this day, those terrifying tremors shake the house and the stench of death fills the room.
A simple Ouija board became a passport to Hell for a family that accidently summoned a demon into their living room. "I thought it might have been the Devil himself," says John Ravens, father of the tormented family. "When it was over, we were all bleeding and had severe burn marks. Our living room was a disaster area."
"It was supposed to be a joke," says Gloria, the girl's mother. "We were going to make believe we were talking with the spirit world."
Little Lynda, her nine-year-old brother Ronald, and their parents gathered around the board for what they thought was going to be an evening of fun at their home in a Toronto, Canada suburb. "We were just playing around with it when suddenly the planchette that spells out answers began moving by itself," says John. "We were all scared, but then I thought maybe one of the kids was up to tricks. We started asking questions, and this spirit began speaking to us. "Then it asked if it could visit with us. By this time, I was sure someone was playing a joke, and I said yes," he adds.
That's when the nightmare began. "The demon appeared within seconds," says John. "It spun around the room overhead, laughing and cursing at us. "It was surrounded by a ring of fire and the room became so hot, it was like an inferno from Hell." The family describes the demon as red and black with scaly skin and horns. It also had giant bat wings. "Then it suddenly swooped down and attacked us," recalls John, horror flickering over his features. "It started biting each of us on the face and arms. "We tried getting up and running for the door, but every time we did, the creature started clawing us. It was so fast, we couldn't escape from it."
Lynda and brother Ronald were picked up repeatedly and hurled across the room. As they lay helplessly on the floor, the creature pounded on their chests and heads. "It had hooves that dug into my children's faces and skin, marking them badly," says Gloria. The attack lasted for more than an hour before the horrifying demon vanished as quickly as it first appeared. The children were screaming and crying as John pulled them out of the house and drove to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for cuts and burns.
"They are vile creatures of the night," warned Dr. Alberto Gonzalez, of the Pan American Institute of Health. "They exist. They can possess the bodies of their victims and cause normally gentle, nonviolent people to commit outrageous crimes. They can assume other forms some quite ghastly.
"And they are among us in many instances solely because of these sinister toys called Ouija boards." Gonzalez, a psychiatrist and parapsychologist, claims he has found demonic links to several cases of cattle mutilation and human vampirism in Central America.
Says the Rev. Morris Cerullo, president of World Evangelism and author of The Black Side Of Satan, Creation House, Carol Stream, Illinois, 1973. "Many people have related to me weird tales of answers given by the Ouija board. This and other occult games may seem intriguing, but the implications are serious and not to be tampered with. They can lead to dangerous waters indeed.
"Use of a Ouija has even led to violence and even to murder..." Dr. Marta Prohazka of Fairfax, Virginia, is also convinced that spirits can play terrifying destructive games with human behavior. During her practice as psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, she realized that many patients she had considered "hallucinating paranoid schizophrenics" might instead merely be in touch with something invisible to her but visible to them."I came to understand that another plane, or dimension or existence interrelated with our plane or visible manifestation," she said. "By training and expanding consciousness, some individuals gain entrance into that invisible dimension. It seems to some like a window into heaven.
"I also learned that contact with the other dimension can be dangerous, especially if a psychically sensitive person loses his emotional harmony. The window into heaven can then become a window into Hell."
Millions of the plastic oracles are in use in American households, nevertheless. And the eerie messages from beyond they have spelled out have been credited or blamed for marriages, divorces, sickness, misery, mystery or murder. Psychic and medium Anne Rose told the Sun: "Horrible demons have definitely been released by the Ouija board.
"The Ouija board is a vehicle which makes it easy for negative spirits and demonic forces to enter this plane of existence." The Merrillville, Indiana clairvoyant cautioned that evil spirits or demonic forces often gain the trust of people experimenting with Ouija boards by answering several questions truthfully and providing predictions. "Once they have gained the trust of their victims, it is easy for the entity to move in and take over either by strongly influencing that person, or by outright possession," she said. People who are untrained and unsophisticated in the field of the paranormal and supernatural should never play with devices such as the Ouija board, according to the clairvoyant.
Suggested further reading:
by Tom Cooney of NEBPI
True hauntings are rare but they happen more than most people realize. Very often phenomena will take place in someone’s life that appears to be unnatural but may indeed have a logical explanation. However, there are those times when there simply are no logical, rational explanations. When that point is reached, you may need to start thinking about a haunting.
How can you tell the difference? Common sense must prevail. If you hear odd banging noises coming from your basement, there may indeed be a natural explanation for it. Perhaps you hear scratching coming from the far corner of the room. Before you call in an exorcist, it might be a good idea to look for any of a host of animals that may be making a nest nearby. Of course, if your couch slides across the floor with you on it, you can probably rule out squirrels. At that point, it is a good idea to look for help.
That can be tricky because those who deal with paranormal phenomena do not advertise in the yellow pages. With the Internet, it becomes easier and harder. A quick look will show that there are umpteen organizations that all claim to be top paranormal investigators. Some are and some are not. Look around and don’t be afraid to contact several of them. Ask questions. That is the best piece of advice I can give you. Ask them how many cases have they done. Ask them what type of cases have they worked on. Ask the ages of the investigators. When they tell you that they are all 19, it is a safe bet that they do not have a lot of experience. They may be good but it is likely that they have not worked many cases and probably few if any serious ones. However, before you contact anyone, there are some things you should do first. This can save you a lot of time and if you are experiencing a real haunting, every minute that you have to endure is terrible.
The first thing you should do is organize your thoughts. When you talk to someone (or write to them) you will want to give them as much information as possible. When you first contact someone, you will probably be nervous and in that state of mind, it can be difficult to remember details. Personally, I cannot remember my own name half the time and that is under stress free conditions, assuming there are any. However, every single detail is needed when someone is trying to determine whether there is a serious problem or not. The first thing I always tell a potential client is to take a notebook and section it off. In one section, list anything that you can remember from the past. Jot that down in as much detail as you possibly can. Obviously you cannot be expected to remember all of the details but list as much as you can. It is fine to say that such and such happened about 3 months ago and I think so and so was there. Simply be doing that you may remember other incidents that have taken place. Believe me, the more information you can give an investigator the better. Jot down everything you can think of, even if it probably has a rational explanation. I always tell people that I would rather sort through 99 items that were natural then miss one that is not.
In another section, list everything new that happens. Here you have to be detailed. List the activity, who was there, the day and date. Take note of the time and list the location and the duration of the activity. You can even list the weather conditions. The first thing I like to do when I take a case is look for any patterns that may be there. Knowing that the activity always seems to center around one person can be extremely valuable. Discovering that activity always takes place on Thursdays means that I know when to be there. Does the activity always start in one room? If it does, we know where to set up. Patterns often hold the key to the haunting. The trick is to find the pattern.
Another key to solving a haunting is to know why it started and what type
of spirit we are dealing with. Some people believe it is easy to tell the
difference between human and inhuman spirits but that is rarely so. Sure, if
someone in the house levitates, it is a safe bet that it is not human and that
it isn’t a squirrel. However, that type of activity is rarely seen. Much of the
activity that takes place in a haunting is borderline. Thus, if we know why it
started, we may also know what is there. For example, if someone has been using
an Ouija board, we know that we are dealing with something that has been invited
in, most likely inadvertently. It could be either human or inhuman but we know
why it is there. In order to get rid of it, we need to take back the invitation.
In a bizarre sense, that spirit has a right to be there because it was invited
in. Before anyone can get rid of it, that invitation must be closed off.
If someone in the house tried playing with a conjuring book of some sort,
then we know we are dealing with a spirit of the occult and it is probably going
to be demonic. Also, once we see the spell, we will have a good idea as to how
to stop the spirit. For those reasons, tell the investigator whether or not you
may have done something that caused the haunting. Do not be afraid that the
investigator will start pointing the proverbial finger at you. If one does, tell
him to cop a walk and contact someone else. Anyone who wants to judge someone
does not belong in this business. In many cases, hauntings begin because of
something that was done to invite spirits in. If you are sincere about helping
others, there is no place for blame. If you have some sort of evidence, photos
or tapes, let the investigator know that. They may be very helpful.
Always tell the investigator what your religion is and whether or not you practice it. Make sure that you tell the investigator whether or not you have been using prayer as a weapon and what affect that has had on the haunting. That can be crucial information. Has the house been blessed? If so, tell the investigator that and explain any reaction that took place afterwards. Tell the investigators whether or not you believe yourself to be psychic. Try to find out if other family members are. You may be experiencing problems simply because a spirit knows that you have the ability to feel or see him. Try to get as much info as possible on the house. If you know the previous tenants, perhaps you can ask them if they ever had a problem there. Another key question is when the problem started for you. Did it begin in that particular house or did you have problems in other places. In some cases, it is not the house that is haunted; it is the people themselves. If you have pets in the house, you should tell the investigator how the pet reacts around the time the activity starts. Dogs and cats tend to be very sensitive to spirit phenomena. Providing as much information as possible is important. There can be a lot of time wasted with back and forth communication. This is especially true when you are working with e-mails. Someone will e-mail me and I will then send them a list of questions. That person will answer them but maybe leave out something important. I will read the list of answers and then ask more questions. Back and forth it goes. Do you see how much time can be lost?
Before you even contact an organization, there are some things that you can do about the haunting right away. The first piece of advice is to give the activity as little recognition as possible. Certainly this is hard to do if your kitchen chairs go flying through a window but in many cases, the activity is minor. Negative spirits, be they human or inhuman have a strategy. Part of that strategy is to create fear and negativism. Spirits literally feed off of that. The more they do, the more they can scare you and the more emotion you put out. They want attention. Give them as little as possible and you can lessen the effects of the haunting. Be sure to tell the investigators about this. They need to know what happens when you use this tool.
Another extremely helpful defense is the use of holy water. Whether you
are a Catholic or not, it does not matter. Holy water works, plain and simple.
When activity breaks out, use the water. In most cases, it will stop or reduce
the activity. Again, when you contact an investigator, tell him/her that you
have tried this and what affect it had on the situation. Another helpful tool is
prayer. Whatever religion you subscribe to, pray. Many people do not want to
hear about prayer but the fact of the matter is that there are no physical ways
of stopping spiritual problems. Sorry. Be sure to tell the investigator of
anything you have tried designed to stop the problem.
As there are
things you can do to help the situation there are also things you can do to make
the problem worse. One very important rule must not be broken. Do not, for any
reason issue a challenge to a spirit. No one is a match for a spirit one on one.
However mad it gets you, do not challenge it directly. Under no circumstances
should you try to exorcise the spirit on your own. That is a very dangerous
process and the results can be catastrophic. Leave that to those who have been
trained in doing it. Also, however bad things get, do not despair. The haunting
will end. However it may be a battle and sometimes these battles are won or lost
by attrition. No matter what, keep up hope. As always, tell the investigators
what you have tried and what the results have been.
These are pretty
much simple things but they can help the investigator greatly and speed up the
process of getting help. The quicker the investigator gets involved, the quicker
the problem can be dealt with. The more information the investigator has, the
better the chances of solving the problem.