I had a good friend in Northern California who lived in a home known along the river as Ghost House. Her daughter, who was coming of age, started complaining about ghosts appearing when she opened her door, etc, scaring her. They asked me to do a house blessing but the house felt fine. (I was heavily into shamanism and the intuitive healing arts.) I told the daughter that every time a ghost scared her, laugh at them. She did and they stopped bothering her.
I'm not a believer in hauntings but I'm not NOT a believer in hauntings. When I was a child I always felt there was a lion-like beast crouching in our dining room. Even as an adult visiting my parents in that house I still felt it. They've moved. I don't feel it in their new house.
I don't know if I created it with my mind or if it was there before. I'm okay with not knowing. I have a lot of prescient dreams and premonitions, but I wouldn't call myself a psychic. It does make tarot reading creepy for some people though.
It's honestly a good thing if you never have to believe in them haha. And prescient dreams and premonitions well...generally when people are more in touch with themselves, these will be stronger for them. We are all connected in inexplicable ways. Some of us can tap into that consciously or subconsciously. This is also why reading books can be such a mystical experience. A good book has a lot in common with a good haunting.
I’m also someone who has lived with and encountered spirits throughout my entire life. Something a lot of people don’t know is that people can also be haunted (like you said the spirits followed you) but I would also highly suggest seeking out people who do know how to clear because calling upon the divine is NOT enough sometimes. Even the producers of these movies like the Exorcist and Conjuring movies have a real life exorcist on set. Because you do NEED someone who knows how to communicate with the entities and can clear them. Also it’s highly important to understand lucid dreaming in depth before practicing especially if you have entities attached to you or your home. I would recommend reading and learning from RH Stavis because she is someone who has cleared many people and homes. The hierarchy of entities ranges from small to very very large and there are some things you need more than just prayer to help with.
I respect this perspective. And if a qualified medium or suchlike found me in such a time I'd be open. The ones I've encountered however have not been...the greatest. And yes, lucid dreaming can be dangerous, but it's only as dangerous as you allow it to be. I'm not laying down laws here, but if I did, I'd say, don't drink and lucid dream and definitely don't get high and lucid dream and definitely definitely don't do any kind of drugs and lucid dream. It should be attempted only with full possession of your faculties
Hi Shannan this piece is so very intriguing. I love how you woven together your own experiences with that of paranormal events. I like your reflection on the devil. I often wondered why is God and The Devil differentiated? Could it not be the work of one single entity? Also the ghosts are linked so well to psychological trauma and I respect the advice you gave on how to manage it. Anyone who says your advice is not therapy in itself is kidding themselves. Great work.
I, too, grew up in a literally haunted house. Even my family doesn't deny how strange things were to this day. I agree with you on horror movies. Not only can they be great for coping, but they can be useful when trying to rationalize something that's often called irrational, at younger ages especially.
That being said- I think this is a great piece. You used easily accessible and understandable concepts from different areas, and you made the irrational into something easier to perceive as rational. If horror movies are coping and rationalizing, this is the more mature version of processing and accepting. As small as an article may seem, this could genuinely help someone. Extra special gold stars.🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is a great piece. What I appreciate the most about it is the way you counsel drawing upon one's own resources and the specificity of the situation, rather than a framework imposed from without, by practitioners who may bring unhelpful paradigms to an issue that is entirely individual...
Prescient dreams and premonitions, Shannon. Agreed. Especially when we are very young.
I can remember many times being asleep, but feeling awake and unable to move while someone stood at the end of my bed and stared at me. Knowing I am sleeping, seeing myself sleeping, and then realizing I've fallen into a lucid dream again. I leaned not to fear it, and when I'd reached a point where I thought, that's enough, I'd wake myself up.
I used to fall without effort into lucid dreaming when I was very young. I could not stop it -- at the beginning, when I was afraid. The most memorable one happened when I was seventeen and on my first trip away after graduating from high school. Went with my older sister for one week and stayed in an old boarding house for girls at the beach.
I was terrified that time, but after a while, but I knew how to wake myself up, and that one didn't return. Must have stayed in the room for the next guest.
Eventually, I used to fall happily into lucid dreaming because I started seeing my father after he died. Occasionally, my mother visited, but so far my sister has remained only in my "normal" dreams, as if she were still alive, but in those, I am fully aware she is dead already, and when that happens, I wake myself up.
Nobody has haunted me in years. Each time it happened when I was older, even if it seemed to be an evil entity, like in the boarding house so many years ago, I just accepted the presence and then they'd leave me alone. I wonder if "acceptance" is all that is needed? As if I might be forgiving something of which I am not aware?
I also grew up in a haunted house and have had all sorts of supernatural experiences throughout my life! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic, and I’d love another essay (or several) about growing up in a haunted house, and what happened when the ghosts moved with you!!
I’ve had this saved for a while and thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experiences and guidance for moving through. I love that it brings us closer to ourselves in trust and in understanding the root of our haunting. The tell no one part stayed with me, thinking of my relationship with trust and seeking…knowing that I have everything within myself to navigate a situation and also to stay open to help as it naturally appears. Thanks for a great read!!
Whenever I hear someone say "I don't believe"... doesn't really mean much because what is is what is no matter what you believe. Believing or not is because of how you were raised or taught or based on your experience which again, means nothing and usually what we believe is how we draw a boundary around to for what makes us comfortable or safe, or so we think. It is only our version and safe is relative not fron what you believe because again, what exists EXISTS and believing or or not will NOT undo something that exists. We are sold a completely fake manipulated version of this world and what we really are as opposed to what we are told we are and we believe these things but it doesn't change the reality of what ACTUALLY is. It is naive to think we live on this planet with only humans down here as ther is a myriad of beings coexisting down here with us as the author stated, some disembodied humans, some fallen beings in embodiment and lots and lots, trillion of dark energy beings at different levels of evil, which is part of why we are in trouble. We all know they are here at some level, we all feel them, catch them out of corner of the eye, a slight touch, but we make that choice, "I don't believe" so then they are not there, but they are and they affect, infect us. Look at this place and the level of us overrun by evil as though it is our "normal" way of being. We can't energy they can feed off of if they get us to darken it through neg emotions. We are spiritual beings carrying God's energy and they can't absorb his energy anymore, so they get it from us. So we are being used at more than one level. This is why the fallen billionaires are trying to normalize evil....think about it. It is time for us to wake up from thinking we are human beings. We are spiritual beings down here for a human experience in the midst of a great planetary reset. We are made to handle it.
This post made me want to finally watch The Exorcist 👀 My favourite film as a child was The Craft, and I feel like that says a lot about me too lol.
Super interested in the concept of using lucid dreaming to deal with a haunting! Sending out a detached part of yourself to face the intangible... I feel like that has applications beyond ghosts, too.
I've had some ghostly experiences myself, though fortunately no hauntings. My first experience was *extremely* weird though, so I should probably write about it sometime!
Shannan, one of your readers wrote about discovering laughter as a powerful weapon in the face of evil, and his words immediately made me think of something I have found helpful as well: singing.
Laughter, music, and especially singing can raise your energy and frequency. Evil spirits need lower energies such as fear, sadness, grief, and anger; they feed on them. Singing also releases endorphins and oxytocin and helps reduce cortisol, the stress hormone. As the body begins to calm, fear and stress loosen their hold, and I believe that can change what we are able to withstand.
I was haunted by an evil spirit for decades, and he hurt me terribly, sometimes leaving physical marks that were visible even to others. In my “dreams,” he would murder me over and over again, and the pain felt very real.
Yet those experiences also opened a door that eventually led me toward one of my purposes in life. Along the way, I received help from a very grounded, older medium in England. Her intervention changed everything.
Sometimes, when I’m resting and drifting off to sleep, I leave my body and have one of the out-of-body experiences I’ve had since early childhood. There is a transitional state in which my physical body is already asleep while my astral body is beginning to separate from it, and it is during this state that I am often attacked. My feet are pulled, the blanket is dragged away, or something grabs my wrists.
I no longer panic when it happens, nor do I call upon the so-called angels in these situations. It never helped me. None of them came when this particular kind of attack occurred, although at other times they do appear when I need help. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that in those moments, it was up to me to help myself.
Then, one time, I heard a male voice say, “Tell them you bless them with your love.” So I did. I could feel hands closing around my neck, choking me, and something within me said firmly, “I bless you with my love.” All at once, the spirit was gone.
I have done this ever since. I believe some of these spirits simply want to go home. They need help, and they really should leave this realm. Others you could probably spend another hundred years trying to convince to go, and they would still refuse to leave.
Demons are a different matter. I don’t judge anyone who doesn’t believe they are real. But to me, they are as real as you and me, and as the spirits of those who were once human but have not passed over. I have learned never to disrespect them, never to trust them, and never to provoke them.
Shannan, there is so much more I could say about your wonderful article, but I’ll leave it here for now. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
In my craniosacral work, I periodically run across demons “haunting” the client. Most often the client is unaware of any entity, but is aware of a stubborn issue that defies all avenues of treatment. I love the idea of laughing it away, but have not tried that. Not even sure if I would know how. I agree that many so called “experts” can fail or make it worse, and I believe it is because they are not firmly grounded in their own body or deeply connected to spirit. There is a lot of ego in that group. I simply stay as deeply rooted in myself as I can, and talk with the spirit. Most often it is suffering itself, and showing it the way to the light is appealing. I allow the entity to make its own decision and most often it will choose the light if I do not impose pressure. Those who won’t, I simply allow them to remain, and revisit when I can. I believe these entities are driven by fear. Allowing them to feel safe seems to me to possess the best possibility for complete resolution.
Loved the last paragraph. Loved that you made it the last, emphatic, bada boom, bada bump closure. I have never heard that translation for the word "dharma" before, so thank you.
I had a good friend in Northern California who lived in a home known along the river as Ghost House. Her daughter, who was coming of age, started complaining about ghosts appearing when she opened her door, etc, scaring her. They asked me to do a house blessing but the house felt fine. (I was heavily into shamanism and the intuitive healing arts.) I told the daughter that every time a ghost scared her, laugh at them. She did and they stopped bothering her.
Are you still a practicing shaman? I would trust you totally with a haunting. And what delightful advice. Joy in the face of fear!!!!
I'm not a believer in hauntings but I'm not NOT a believer in hauntings. When I was a child I always felt there was a lion-like beast crouching in our dining room. Even as an adult visiting my parents in that house I still felt it. They've moved. I don't feel it in their new house.
I don't know if I created it with my mind or if it was there before. I'm okay with not knowing. I have a lot of prescient dreams and premonitions, but I wouldn't call myself a psychic. It does make tarot reading creepy for some people though.
It's honestly a good thing if you never have to believe in them haha. And prescient dreams and premonitions well...generally when people are more in touch with themselves, these will be stronger for them. We are all connected in inexplicable ways. Some of us can tap into that consciously or subconsciously. This is also why reading books can be such a mystical experience. A good book has a lot in common with a good haunting.
I’m also someone who has lived with and encountered spirits throughout my entire life. Something a lot of people don’t know is that people can also be haunted (like you said the spirits followed you) but I would also highly suggest seeking out people who do know how to clear because calling upon the divine is NOT enough sometimes. Even the producers of these movies like the Exorcist and Conjuring movies have a real life exorcist on set. Because you do NEED someone who knows how to communicate with the entities and can clear them. Also it’s highly important to understand lucid dreaming in depth before practicing especially if you have entities attached to you or your home. I would recommend reading and learning from RH Stavis because she is someone who has cleared many people and homes. The hierarchy of entities ranges from small to very very large and there are some things you need more than just prayer to help with.
I respect this perspective. And if a qualified medium or suchlike found me in such a time I'd be open. The ones I've encountered however have not been...the greatest. And yes, lucid dreaming can be dangerous, but it's only as dangerous as you allow it to be. I'm not laying down laws here, but if I did, I'd say, don't drink and lucid dream and definitely don't get high and lucid dream and definitely definitely don't do any kind of drugs and lucid dream. It should be attempted only with full possession of your faculties
Hi Shannan this piece is so very intriguing. I love how you woven together your own experiences with that of paranormal events. I like your reflection on the devil. I often wondered why is God and The Devil differentiated? Could it not be the work of one single entity? Also the ghosts are linked so well to psychological trauma and I respect the advice you gave on how to manage it. Anyone who says your advice is not therapy in itself is kidding themselves. Great work.
I, too, grew up in a literally haunted house. Even my family doesn't deny how strange things were to this day. I agree with you on horror movies. Not only can they be great for coping, but they can be useful when trying to rationalize something that's often called irrational, at younger ages especially.
That being said- I think this is a great piece. You used easily accessible and understandable concepts from different areas, and you made the irrational into something easier to perceive as rational. If horror movies are coping and rationalizing, this is the more mature version of processing and accepting. As small as an article may seem, this could genuinely help someone. Extra special gold stars.🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is a great piece. What I appreciate the most about it is the way you counsel drawing upon one's own resources and the specificity of the situation, rather than a framework imposed from without, by practitioners who may bring unhelpful paradigms to an issue that is entirely individual...
Prescient dreams and premonitions, Shannon. Agreed. Especially when we are very young.
I can remember many times being asleep, but feeling awake and unable to move while someone stood at the end of my bed and stared at me. Knowing I am sleeping, seeing myself sleeping, and then realizing I've fallen into a lucid dream again. I leaned not to fear it, and when I'd reached a point where I thought, that's enough, I'd wake myself up.
I used to fall without effort into lucid dreaming when I was very young. I could not stop it -- at the beginning, when I was afraid. The most memorable one happened when I was seventeen and on my first trip away after graduating from high school. Went with my older sister for one week and stayed in an old boarding house for girls at the beach.
I was terrified that time, but after a while, but I knew how to wake myself up, and that one didn't return. Must have stayed in the room for the next guest.
Eventually, I used to fall happily into lucid dreaming because I started seeing my father after he died. Occasionally, my mother visited, but so far my sister has remained only in my "normal" dreams, as if she were still alive, but in those, I am fully aware she is dead already, and when that happens, I wake myself up.
Nobody has haunted me in years. Each time it happened when I was older, even if it seemed to be an evil entity, like in the boarding house so many years ago, I just accepted the presence and then they'd leave me alone. I wonder if "acceptance" is all that is needed? As if I might be forgiving something of which I am not aware?
I would also add, 'be prepared to have a conversation with them'. In my experience, sometimes setting clear boundaries is all that's needed.
I also grew up in a haunted house and have had all sorts of supernatural experiences throughout my life! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic, and I’d love another essay (or several) about growing up in a haunted house, and what happened when the ghosts moved with you!!
I adored this piece. Had me hooked from the first line. <3
I’ve had this saved for a while and thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experiences and guidance for moving through. I love that it brings us closer to ourselves in trust and in understanding the root of our haunting. The tell no one part stayed with me, thinking of my relationship with trust and seeking…knowing that I have everything within myself to navigate a situation and also to stay open to help as it naturally appears. Thanks for a great read!!
Whenever I hear someone say "I don't believe"... doesn't really mean much because what is is what is no matter what you believe. Believing or not is because of how you were raised or taught or based on your experience which again, means nothing and usually what we believe is how we draw a boundary around to for what makes us comfortable or safe, or so we think. It is only our version and safe is relative not fron what you believe because again, what exists EXISTS and believing or or not will NOT undo something that exists. We are sold a completely fake manipulated version of this world and what we really are as opposed to what we are told we are and we believe these things but it doesn't change the reality of what ACTUALLY is. It is naive to think we live on this planet with only humans down here as ther is a myriad of beings coexisting down here with us as the author stated, some disembodied humans, some fallen beings in embodiment and lots and lots, trillion of dark energy beings at different levels of evil, which is part of why we are in trouble. We all know they are here at some level, we all feel them, catch them out of corner of the eye, a slight touch, but we make that choice, "I don't believe" so then they are not there, but they are and they affect, infect us. Look at this place and the level of us overrun by evil as though it is our "normal" way of being. We can't energy they can feed off of if they get us to darken it through neg emotions. We are spiritual beings carrying God's energy and they can't absorb his energy anymore, so they get it from us. So we are being used at more than one level. This is why the fallen billionaires are trying to normalize evil....think about it. It is time for us to wake up from thinking we are human beings. We are spiritual beings down here for a human experience in the midst of a great planetary reset. We are made to handle it.
This post made me want to finally watch The Exorcist 👀 My favourite film as a child was The Craft, and I feel like that says a lot about me too lol.
Super interested in the concept of using lucid dreaming to deal with a haunting! Sending out a detached part of yourself to face the intangible... I feel like that has applications beyond ghosts, too.
I've had some ghostly experiences myself, though fortunately no hauntings. My first experience was *extremely* weird though, so I should probably write about it sometime!
Shannan, one of your readers wrote about discovering laughter as a powerful weapon in the face of evil, and his words immediately made me think of something I have found helpful as well: singing.
Laughter, music, and especially singing can raise your energy and frequency. Evil spirits need lower energies such as fear, sadness, grief, and anger; they feed on them. Singing also releases endorphins and oxytocin and helps reduce cortisol, the stress hormone. As the body begins to calm, fear and stress loosen their hold, and I believe that can change what we are able to withstand.
I was haunted by an evil spirit for decades, and he hurt me terribly, sometimes leaving physical marks that were visible even to others. In my “dreams,” he would murder me over and over again, and the pain felt very real.
Yet those experiences also opened a door that eventually led me toward one of my purposes in life. Along the way, I received help from a very grounded, older medium in England. Her intervention changed everything.
Sometimes, when I’m resting and drifting off to sleep, I leave my body and have one of the out-of-body experiences I’ve had since early childhood. There is a transitional state in which my physical body is already asleep while my astral body is beginning to separate from it, and it is during this state that I am often attacked. My feet are pulled, the blanket is dragged away, or something grabs my wrists.
I no longer panic when it happens, nor do I call upon the so-called angels in these situations. It never helped me. None of them came when this particular kind of attack occurred, although at other times they do appear when I need help. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that in those moments, it was up to me to help myself.
Then, one time, I heard a male voice say, “Tell them you bless them with your love.” So I did. I could feel hands closing around my neck, choking me, and something within me said firmly, “I bless you with my love.” All at once, the spirit was gone.
I have done this ever since. I believe some of these spirits simply want to go home. They need help, and they really should leave this realm. Others you could probably spend another hundred years trying to convince to go, and they would still refuse to leave.
Demons are a different matter. I don’t judge anyone who doesn’t believe they are real. But to me, they are as real as you and me, and as the spirits of those who were once human but have not passed over. I have learned never to disrespect them, never to trust them, and never to provoke them.
Shannan, there is so much more I could say about your wonderful article, but I’ll leave it here for now. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
In my craniosacral work, I periodically run across demons “haunting” the client. Most often the client is unaware of any entity, but is aware of a stubborn issue that defies all avenues of treatment. I love the idea of laughing it away, but have not tried that. Not even sure if I would know how. I agree that many so called “experts” can fail or make it worse, and I believe it is because they are not firmly grounded in their own body or deeply connected to spirit. There is a lot of ego in that group. I simply stay as deeply rooted in myself as I can, and talk with the spirit. Most often it is suffering itself, and showing it the way to the light is appealing. I allow the entity to make its own decision and most often it will choose the light if I do not impose pressure. Those who won’t, I simply allow them to remain, and revisit when I can. I believe these entities are driven by fear. Allowing them to feel safe seems to me to possess the best possibility for complete resolution.
Loved the last paragraph. Loved that you made it the last, emphatic, bada boom, bada bump closure. I have never heard that translation for the word "dharma" before, so thank you.