I figured that now would be the best time of year to make this post. Tis the season for all things ghostly and ghoulish. But really, what are ghosts?
I wanted to talk a little bit about ghosts, energy, spirits..etc and offer some insight.
I've watched A LOT of ghost-type shows. Shows about paranormal investigations, shows about psychics and mediums, simple ghost story shows..etc. and there are some things that over time I'm consistently annoyed with that I feel if the people offering help were legitimate, they would know better than to do. Over the years I've seen *a few* people get it right (IMO), but the majority don't. I want to give you my view on things and what's consistently worked for me over the years. This is just my opinion, but for me, it works.
First off, I want to distinguish between the different types of things that can haunt (and I use that term loosely) your home and how it can make you feel and what kinds of things happen.
So lets start with breaking things down.
There are several types of "entities" out there and they are all different. I start from the basic idea that we are all energy and made up of energetic vibrations. And the vibrations of these entities are different for each one. (I'll explain more about the frequency levels further down)
Ghosts (Intelligent): Are people who have died that remain here for whatever reason. Some don't know they've passed. Some know they passed and have unfinished business or are waiting for a loved one to cross over before they go. Some know they've passed and lost their way and can't get home or are just confused and stuck. Some have passed and have purposefully turned away from the light. Ghosts have different personalities just like every other living person here. Some are nice, some are mean, some are angry, some are sad, some are happy...etc. Generally ghosts will make you feel whatever they want you to feel. If they want you to feel confused or scared, they'll project that. They can also change the way you see them in order to scare you (ie--taking the form of something that scares you: the devil, a wolf, a distorted scary face...etc) If they want you to feel like you're being helped or protected, they'll project that. They usually vibrate on a lower frequency.
Ghosts (Residual)/Imprint: Residual ghosts or hauntings are not like intelligent hauntings or ghosts. These are ghostly memories that are played over and over in the same area. It's like it's on a loop and it's a scene from a movie that's playing over and over. It's not aware that there are other people around and it doesn't seek to interact with you in any way. It's just there to replay the same scene over and over. It will usually replay something that was important to them, and/or very often it will replay it's final moments in life. So if someone died by being strangled to death, you might hear or see a struggle, a woman scream, loud thumps as her fists and body are hitting the floor...etc and it will generally occur at the same time--either same time of day every day or sometimes it's annually or the same date each month. But you'll notice that it's always the same. You'll hear people say "At 3am I always hear 5 loud bangs and it sounds like someone is being shot downstairs in our family room. But I go down there and nothing is there. But it happens every night at 3am!" It's a residual ghost or haunting when it's repetitive like that and/or if you try and engage and it's completely unaware that you're there. They are stuck in a time loop and unaware that they are stuck. And sometimes the ghosts themselves have moved on and it's the house holding onto this trauma and replaying it over and over. This is a mid-range frequency.
Spirits: Are people who have passed, know they've passed and have transitioned to the other side. They come to visit you to give words of comfort, or to warn you, or to help you cross over. They come when called upon, when needed, and just to say hello sometimes. They don't stick around for an extended period doing scary things to you. A spirit will usually make you feel calm and give you a LOVING sign when they're around. They'll also stop giving signs if you ask them. They vibrate on a higher frequency.
Shadow men: Are seen just as that. They look like a person but they're just solidly black. These are very low frequency energies and they're never good and never there to help. They can make you feel scared for no reason. You usually see them out of your peripheral vision. They make you feel like you're being watched all the time. Ghosts can make you feel like you're being watched, but the difference is that the ghost watching you comes and goes. With the shadow men, that feeling never goes away.
Black mist/non form: This is not a person. This never was a living person. This is an accumulation of dark, angry, scared, malicious energy. It usually manifests in areas where there is a lot of fighting, anger, trauma, mental torture, emotional trauma and torture, physical torture. It feeds off any and all negativity. It creates more negativity in order to grow larger. This is a low frequency energy.
Poltergeist: Are a manifestation of energy that is being manifested and brought into existence by a person in the house (or people in the house). We put out energy all the time in all different ways--good vibes, bad vibes, negative feelings, positive feelings...etc. Poltergeists come about when we refuse to process our feelings in a constructive, healthy way. When we bottle things up, stuff our feelings, swallow our feelings/words, don't address issues..etc. Over time it collects and eventually creates a bundle of energy that will express itself by throwing things around, causing more anger, fear, and tension. It feels a lot like how a black mist or shadow man might feel except that there is no black mist or shadow man ever seen (and mist and shadow men like being seen because they like to scare you). If you don't address your feelings through talk, therapy, journal keeping, artwork..etc, it will seem like it's following you. Moving will not help because it's being caused by you. This is a mid-level frequency.
Earth energies: These simply are energetic manifestations of the natural elements in the world. Sometimes they can be seen as glowing balls of light (different than orbs because they will give off light and illuminate). Will-o'-the-wisp, fairies, sprites..etc... are considered earth energies. They are the lowest frequency (and therefore rarely seen). When you feel these things, it usually feels like a warm small buzzing or very light shock going through you. It will start from your feet and work its way up and go up through your head. You usually end up feeling light-headed for just a few seconds and then it goes away. It's usually a calming peaceful energy. A sense of well-being is usually felt afterward.
Angels/Angelic beings: From my understanding of angels, they have never incarnated. That is, they've never lived here as a person. So the idea that my Aunt Tippy is my guardian angel is not the case. Angels are considered the purest manifestation of god's light. They are the highest frequency you can get besides god/the creative force...etc. They are here to protect, aid you, and support you at all times.
That's it. Those are the beings that are there. Please notice there are no legitimate demons or devils. Yes, there are things that are dark and have evil intentions, but I do not believe in them and have never had an encounter with one. If someone has and wants to tell me about, I'd be happy to hear it. That being said, I don't believe in possession either. I do not believe another entity of any sort can "take over" your body. Can you have physical reactions to entities? Yes. Can they make you feel more angry, agitated, snappy and act out of character? Yes. But working through you? No. They can make you feel like you want to do mean things, but they can't get inside you and make you act out those urges.
So onto frequency. Frequency is important because different techniques work for different frequencies.
The lowest frequency, to me, I call "the vacuum." I call it that because it feels like nothing. I would describe it as walking into a place and not feeling any vibration. It doesn't feel good, but it doesn't feel negative per se. You would interpret it as negative because it feels like nothing is there. Everywhere you go has energy and you feel it (whether you're aware of it or not). Imagine being a normal hearing person and then walking into a room and you go deaf. No sound. It's not that it's quiet. You're just deaf. You walk out of the room and you can hear. That's what it's like to walk into a space that's a vacuum. It feels weird and it feels off and kinda scary because on a base level, you know you should be feeling something. Vacuums happen because of lack of energy. There's no people walking through it, there's no ghosts there, no spirits, no animals go through there. It's literally dead space, ignored, and neglected. I don't come across vacuums very often because usually some sort of energy is wafting through there. The solution to a vacuum is to simply create energy in that space. Light a candle, visit it once a day and say a prayer or mediate. It just needs good attention and it will be fine.
Next up from the vacuum are the earth energies. They vibrate at a very slow heavy vibration. Think of a wave of cold molasses. It's a very deep low vibrating hum. The earth energy vibrations can get distorted and "scarred" because of traumatic events that occur there. So think of the Civil War, the extermination of Native American tribes across the US, Nazi concentration camps..etc. In those places the Earth energies have been scarred and damaged. They too need healing. The earth (land, property) can hold memories, trauma, and pain.
After the earth energy frequency, you have the black mists, the shadow men, and poltergeists. The shadow men are *slightly* higher only because they can take on human form. But really, shadow men started out as black mist, that over time, amassed so much energy that they can manifest in human form. However, they've NEVER been people. It's just black icky negative energy.
Then you have the ghosts. Dead people that are hanging around.
Then you have the spirits.
Then you have the angelic frequency.
And lastly you have the god/creative force frequency.
So now that you know the differences between each entity, we now have to figure out how to get rid of each one.
Lets start with simple ghosts. What works for one ghost doesn't work for all ghosts. I believe this is where it's helpful to have a medium come in and tell you who this person is and what they want. You have better luck getting rid of a ghost if you know a little about them. If they're just trying to convey a message or want you to hear and understand their story, then telling them to bug off isn't really going to work. Each ghost has a personality, a history, and possibly a story to tell.
The tricky part is bringing in a medium or psychic that is truthful and authentic. If they're not, then they're no help at all. Sometimes it's necessary to bring in 2 mediums (separately and at different times) and see if one person's findings corroborates the other. If both stories match (and they don't know each other, haven't talked to each other) then odds are the messages they're telling you are correct.
If bringing in a medium is not an option for you, then you can ALWAYS talk to your own personal spirit guides and angels.
Just sit down with them and tell them that you're looking for answers concerning the entity in your home. Ask them to tell you what you need to know. You can get answers from them by using a pen and paper. I like to ask my question (write it down with my dominant hand) and then with my non-dominant hand wait for the answer. The answers from them come through my non-dominant hand. This has always worked for me. Some people ask for answers in signs or dreams. That can work too. You just have to use what works best for you. And most of it is trial and error.
What you NEVER want to try is a Ouija board! Please, just don't. I can't stress this enough. I don't care if it's Parker Brother's store bought, something homemade or whatever. Please don't. Ouija boards are not inherently evil or bad. The thing is that unless you know exactly what you're doing (and you're working with a light-worker/medium/psychic), all you're gonna do is open a door for all kinds of low-level negative energy to come in. It's not a game. Every legitimate medium and psychic I know refuses to use one (including me). There are other ways to connect with the other side and the spirits than using a spirit board. There's so much prep work, blocking, and protection that has to go into using a Ouija board that it's just not worth it. And even then you're never sure what's going to come through. If the message is that important, they will find another way to get the message to you. So please, step away from Ouija boards.
Okay, so once you've gotten the info on your ghost, you can then go about trying to get rid of it. Just listen to what it has to say (if it has a message for you) and then tell it it's free to cross over now, and usually it will go away after that. If you're actually being haunted by a ghost who is just hanging out, doesn't want to leave, it was their property/home/item, then you need to do more. Some are just a little more stubborn than others.
This is when it helps to know who you're dealing with. I'm going to give you an example of a recent event. A friend emailed me and said that she had a ghost. She was hearing sounds, footsteps, sounds like dishes being dropped in the sink, and then a glass that was sitting on the counter in the bathroom flew across the room. Her boys (5 and 3) were just terrified. So she asked me to check in and see what was going on.
Turns out it was a guy named Jack. Late 50s/early 60s. He was angry because he just didn't want to be there. He was a gruff, straight-shooter type of guy. No fuss. Not touchy feely. Like in life, he wouldn't have hugged his children and told them that he loved them (even though he did). So my friend's very loud effusive kids were angering him. It's just too much noise and chaos. I dug a little deeper to find out where in he came from. He wasn't attached to the house, the boys, my friend, the land. Then he showed me a wooden piece of furniture. He said it was his and it was personal. So I emailed my friend and asked if she had a wooden piece of furniture that she had just gotten that was from Goodwill or a yard sale or something. She sent me a picture of this wooden filing cabinet. That was it! When I told her that was it, she said her husband hated that thing and never got a good feeling from it. She also said that a stranger had just given it to them--that he didn't want it any more.
Knowing this guy, his personality, and what was angering him helped my friend get rid of him. And this is where I get really annoyed and upset with TV shows. They call in a priest or a minister. ALWAYS. And what happens? Things might be quiet for a bit, but it usually escalates later. I can tell you that had my friend done that Jack would have been irate. Jack was not a highly religious person. He grew up in the tradition that Jesus is God and that's about it. He wasn't a church going fella and the "drama" of the Catholic church was a joke to him. So if my friend had brought in a priest or minister it would have been awful. Same thing if she had brought in a Native American shaman or a Wiccan Priestess because that would have been "crazy hippy stuff" and offended him just as much. He just wanted to be heard and to know if he could cross over.
What worked? My friend just told him "Jack, sorry about your file cabinet. I know it was personal to you. But you're dead and you have to cross over." She lit a candle and simply said the Lord's Prayer and that was it. He crossed over in a snap. She also followed it up with smudging and salting (I'll get more into detail about that).
Different strokes for different folks. That was a relatively easy and mild ghost. Sometimes you get mean ones, scary ones, ghosts who were jerks when alive and are hell bent on being a jerk in death. They don't want or need anything from you. They don't have a message or want you to hear their story. They just want to be jerks and either want to scare your just want you gone.
Jerky ghosts, shadow men and black mists can all be gotten rid of in the same way. It's a banishment ritual and it's worked every single time for me. There's some follow-up work with the shadow men and black mists but this is your starting point. This will also work on just your standard ghost, but I always think it's nice to give them a chance to express what they need to. They cross over easier when you do that and they REALLY appreciate it. Just like living people, they want to be heard and validated.
So here's what you need and why:
1.Salt--preferably sea salt or kosher. Please do not use table salt. I explain in this post here why you need sea salt or kosher salt.
2.Sage--Makes sure it's high quality good sage. The skinny incense sticks are okay, but again, whole sage leaves are better. Something like this is good.
3.A prayer or blessing that means something to you. It has to mean something to you and you have to believe in it. If you don't believe in it, it's not going to work. I'm not a Christian, so asking for Jesus's blessing on my home and for protection won't work for me because I don't believe Jesus is my savior. If your ghost does and you know they do, then by all means, use it. But otherwise, use something that you believe. Some people have used Wiccan prayers, Buddhist prayers, the Lord's Prayer, Prayers to the Creator, Prayers to the Universe. It really doesn't matter as long as YOU have faith and believe in it. When working with ghosts, it's easier and nicer to use something from a religion they're comfortable with. But for shadow men, black mists, and poltergeists it doesn't matter. They have no faith. They have no religion. They're just there to create chaos and bring in negativity and fear. So use whatever faith/spirituality YOU'RE comfortable with and have faith in.
So why sage and salt? This is something that I wondered and researched a couple of years ago. SO MUCH of the time I hear stories or see TV shows that uses just sage or calls in a priest and it doesn't work. The reason is, they didn't use salt. If you read my previous post you'll know why salt works.
What sage does is that raises the vibrational frequency. But that's all it does. It raises it. That's why after using sage people always say they feel lighter and they feel like a weight has been lifted and the gloom is gone. Because that's exactly what it does. Sage is great. To me, sage is like using a tuning fork on cobwebs. If you twang that fork and it's vibrating and you hold it against the wall where there's cobwebs, those webs are going to shake and float down. That's what sage does. It mostly moves stagnant, stuck energy. I like to use sage when I've been feeling down in the dumps, when I feel things are in a rut, or there is simply an accumulation of energy that has collected in the home. I also use it after I have guests stay at my house. You never know what energy they've brought in and have been holding on to. If nothing is haunting your home and you just want to energetically lighten the mood, sage is awesome. It carries away negative energy and emotions. It raises the frequency and lightens your spirit. It's important that windows are open when you do this so that the negative energy can leave. But sage alone will NOT get rid of an entity haunting you.
Salt, on the other hand, literally transforms energy. Remember that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only change form. Well that's where salt comes in. Salt is used for purification and protection. There's a reason that salt has always been given as a housewarming present to new homeowners. When you scatter salt, the vibration in that area is not only raised (like sage does) but it transforms it to a higher vibration on par with the levels of Angels and the god/creative force. Anything that is not resonating on that frequency will literally not be able to get in and get past the salt. It really is like throwing up a protective brick wall around you. I know it sounds silly and crazy, but I'm telling you, it works like a charm.
Next is the prayer or blessing you use. It's important to use something you believe in and that you believe will work, because otherwise, it won't work.
Every person that is being haunted or terrorized by an entity has an energetic connection with it. In that connection there is an unspoken agreement that the entity has a right to be there OR that you have no power to make it go. If you believe that you're powerless and what you're doing isn't going to work, then it won't. If you don't believe it, they wont either. So if a priest comes in and you're thinking that his blessing really isn't going to work, then the entity will ALSO believe that what the priest is doing won't push them out.
Another reason using a priest, shaman, priestess, minister, medium won't work is that it's YOUR home. They can't get it to leave something that doesn't belong to them. They can certainly help you and be your spiritual support network and help protect you, keep you in light and prayer, but it's you (and those that live with you) that have to be in agreement that you want the ghost gone and that you have to get rid of it. Your priest, shaman, spiritual adviser, medium..etc can work WITH you, but it has to come from you.
It's important that you're all in agreement because if the entity believes it has a spiritual/energetic connection and contract with you that you're unwilling to let go of or you feel you don't have the power to get rid of them, they will stay. You see this happen in families with small children. The entity comes to the children as a playmate or another child (instead of the negative entity is it) and so when people go to cleanse their house, the entity stays because really, the child is not on board with it going. You're asking it to leave and your child is like "dude, this is my friend" and so the entity still has a connection/bond/contract/agreement with someone in that house that it's okay to stay.
Here are the steps to get rid of an entity in your home:
1. You want to start off with a prayer of protection. I ask my angels and my guides to come in and surround me with the protective white light of the creator. But any prayer you're comfortable with with is perfect.
2. Go around your house (starting inside) and open as many windows as you can. This allows the energy to move freely out.
3. If you can, have one person on salt duty and one person on sage duty. You want to start from the top and go down. So from attic to basement. OR you can start bottom to top and work your way up. Either one works fine as long as you are being orderly and systematic about it. Don't forget attics, crawl spaces beneath the house and every closet or storage area. The entity will tried to hide if they can.
4. As you are saging and salting, repeat your mantra/prayer/blessing. Walk around and spread a perimeter of salt around the room and on your window sills. Make sure you're moving the sage smoke around the windows as well. Pour the salt in your hand and lightly sprinkle it around the edges of the room. (We just carry around the box of salt and pour into our hands and then to the ground/floor. It's important it goes to your hands first. It's your energy going into the salt and banishing it).
As you do this, anything that's there will immediately start moving away from you. It will retreat to whatever room or space it can in order to escape from you. That's why it's important to do every room and why it's important to have the windows open. It will eventually have no where to hide in the house and it will need an escape route, and open windows are it.
It's VERY IMPORTANT during this process to not yell, get angry, or fight with the entity. That strengthens the bond that you have. You are engaging with them and feeding it your energy. Don't get angry, don't yell (yet something else they do wrong in tv shows). A calm voice with conviction and strength, acting rationally and detached is all you need. Period.
5. After you've done the interior of your home, walk the perimeter of your home and sprinkle salt in the same way you did on the inside while also saging. You can do these separately if you need to. I would sage first and then salt if you have to do it in two stages.
6. After you've done the interior of your home, find a place that is sacred or calming to you (preferably outside) and sage yourself or have another person sage you. Sage every member of the household.
What you've essentially done is started inside your house and pushed the entity out and protected the inside of your house. But then you've now gone around the outside of your home and prevented it from ever re-entering. After a few days you can vacuum up the salt on your floor and windows and you'll still be protected because you've done the outside of your house. If you consistently and periodically salt and sage the exterior of your home (we do it at least once a year on New Years day) then you shouldn't ever have to salt the inside of your house again. You should still sage it though from time to time because all homes get stuck energy.
7. After you've done the inside of your home, the outside, and yourself; the last thing to do is ground and protect yourself (and all other family members). The best way to do this is with the 1 Cup Cleansing Bath.
And that's it. If you do all of this, your entity should have flown the coop.
If you any questions, concerns, or need clarification, feel free to comment below and I'll help you out as best I can.
