Into the Night

Unlike the repetition of a classic haunting, apparitions are sentient beings in their own right.  These are the spirits of the deceased, most times, and sometimes the presence of something non-human, but not malicious.  An apparition will interact with its environment, and is usually quite curious about us and our lives.  Sometimes, this curiousity can be disconcerting and even disruptive.  So, how do you deal with a mischeivous or disruptive spirit?

Well, the first caution I must make is that you determine for a fact that it IS an apparition, and not something more dangerous.  Nine out of ten cases of non-haunting, non-poltergeist activity is, in fact, a benign or curious apparition, so chances are good that anything not causing physical harm falls into this category.

Once the determination’s been made that it IS an aparition, the next step is to try and communicate with it.  This is where mediums and other psychics come in extreme use.  They can ease communication with the spirit, and help figure out why it lingers.  I’ve encountered almost as many reasons for remaining behind as I’ve encountered spirits.  The most important thing to remember about most apparitions is that they are people, too.  Most of the time (about 95%), they are the spirits of the deceased, and they will act and react just like living people do.  Understanding what motivates them, and being able to communicate with them, is vitally important.

A disruptive spirit can be reasoned with, through a medium or psychic.  If they’re making the current family uncomfortable with their curiousity, often a mutual agreement can be reached.  As long as you treat them like you would any other person, most times you can confine the activity to one area of the house, or a certain time of day.  Perhaps consider giving the spirit run of the house during the day, if you work days, as long as it settles down at night so you can relax and sleep.  And just remember, if it’s a curious/mischeivous apparition, you have nothing to be afraid of.  Consider them just another part of your family, and typically the disturbances will fade into the realm of “typical” and you won’t even notice them, anymore.

However, if the entity in question is more than just mildly annoying and disruptive, or you feel threatened in your own home, you may be looking at one of the rarer infestations… the subject of my next post.

Now, I’m going to touch briefly on how to deal with some of the more common paranormal activity.  I know that I’ve only hit on a few paranormal entities and tools of the paranormal investigator.  For those looking for information on a specific kind of paranormal occurance/entity or wishing to know more about parapsychology, I am always available to answer questions and address concerns, either through this blog, or if privacy/anonymity is an issue, through e-mail at esthermitchell at cox.net (remove spaces and replace “at” with @).

Today’s occurance in question is the haunting.  Now, notice I call this one an occurance, and NOT an entity.  If you recall, when we discussed the various levels of spiritual inhabitation (see “Haunting vs. Apparition: What difference does it make?”), I explained that a haunting is a form of spiritual impression, typically of a traumatic or emotionally powerful event.  Since there’s no real spirit involved, there’s no entity.

This same issue poses a problem in getting rid of such impressions, be they visual, auditory, or sensory.  Hauntings are difficult to deal with, because there are no spirits to communicate with, no entities to influence or persuade.  By this same token, however, a haunting, while unsettling at times (depending on what it depicts), can’t hurt anyone.  So that leaves the ultimate determination of getting rid of it solely to the people who witness it on a regular basis.

There’s really only one way to rid a location of a haunting.  Much like you record over a length of tape to change what’s imprinted on it, getting rid of a haunting requires the occupants of the space to record their OWN impressions on the location.  Sometimes, this is easier said than done, as in the event of a particularly tragic or emotionally powerful death.  I recall one case I worked where every night, the family witnessed a young woman in a Victorian nightgown go down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out to the back yard, where she proceeded to hang herself from the tree there.  Even after the tree was removed, this event continued, and took on an even more eerie feeling for the family.  Investigation of the background of the home revealed that, in the 1890s, the daughter of a wealthy Victorian family hung herself from that tree after it was discovered she was pregnant out of wedlock and her father disowned her. 

This case was a classic haunting, full of very powerful emotions and a traumatic death.  To the current family living the home, I recommended that, if this event troubled them, the best course of action was to create an equally emotional, but much more pleasant, “recording” at the same time every night.  When I checked back with the family a few months later, I learned they had come to peace with the event, and learned to ignore it in favor of family time.  Knowing what causes a haunting and that it won’t harm you often makes people feel more at ease with the events they witness.  And the knowledge that, if it troubles you too much, you can simply “overwrite” it is comforting, as well.

The same isn’t true of apparitions or infestations… which we’ll discuss next…

I know it’s been a little while since I added anything to this lecture series, due to illness, but it’s time to jump back in… So far, we’ve touched on some of the most commonly misconceived paranormal occurances/entities, and we’ve covered a few of the tools used in a paranormal investigation.  There are literally hundreds of different kinds of entities and occurances, and every investigator/parapsychologist works with different tools.  The biggest resource a parapsychologist or paranormal investigator has at their disposal is research.  This is the single most necessary part of any investigation. 

You might not think that research is important in the investigation of the supernatural.  You’d be wrong.  Knowing the history of a location can often either prove or disprove the validity of a claim.  And when you’ve collected evidence of an entity’s presence, research will be your most valuable tool for assessing the danger level, and possibly figuring out how to clear a place of something that doesn’t belong there. 

Most parapsychologists collect extensive libraries of reference texts, ranging from mythology and history books to religious texts from different religions and books that explore one particular type of entity or another.  We gather large numbers of contacts with people who can be turned to for information.  We’ve also become experts at sifting through local or county property records, libraries, and more, in search of whatever locale information we can acquire on a place or people. 

 Some of us collect maps, which we mark with landmarks that might be important to the occurance, and some of us have even become experts at mapping ley-lines - energy pathways that connect significant points in an area.

Paranormal Investigation is not simply a matter of going in, snapping a few pictures and recording a few minutes of tape.  Often, it can consist of days of investigation, and weeks of research.