Living in a Haunted House by Chad Stambaugh

This article is for those whose homes are haunted. If you are looking for someone to come and exorcise your home, you have come to the wrong place. It has been our experience that there is no sure fire method for removing spirits from a home. No blessing, no rituals, no icons, no religious words will "force" the spirits to depart. Now that I have your attention, I will discuss some of the aspects of having a ghost in your attic, basement or living room.

You become aware of footsteps going up and down the stairs, muffled voices, strange smells, cold spots, the feeling of being watched, appliances turning on and off, hearing your name being called, finding personal items vanishing and suddenly reappearing elsewhere, seeing balls of light and black shadows moving about, taking pictures and getting smoky vapors on film. Perhaps you have a son or daughter who can see and hear the ghosts. Perhaps these ghosts scares them and they are afraid of sleeping in their room at night.

A home, apartment or building does not require a death to take place for it to be haunted. Many new homes are haunted because the ghost or ghosts like the home and have decided to dwell within. Did you catch the important word -- decide to dwell. Yes, the spirits think and respond just like we do. Sometimes the land is where the spirit is attached and not the house. Most often the spirits move about without restrictions as to where they died or where they lived.

Most people are frantic when they discover that their homes may be haunted by ghosts, what should they do? It has been my experience that the first reaction is to label the ghosts as demons or some other evil spirits, especially if the people come from one of the fundamental Christian sects. They feel threatened by the presence of these creatures from beyond the grave. They think, "What have I done to merit this kind of ghostly activity?"

They become frantic because they relate their haunting to television shows about demons and dark monsters. They call in a minister or priest to bless the home and cast out these unwanted spirits. Unfortunately the spirits still remain at large, the blessing did nothing accept peak the activities in the home. Now they are really scared and they start surfing the web for help?

Sound familiar? Unfortunately this is how most people respond when they discover they have a ghost or ghosts living with them in their home. It is sad that folks immediately jump to the false conclusion that ghosts are evil or demonic simply because they do not understand them. Ghosts are NOT demons. First, take off your religious rose-colored glasses and view the events without religious dogmas and fears. Ghosts are people without bodies. They have intelligences, emotions, personalities and attitudes, just as they did when they were living.

Do you realize what you just read? Ghosts are people without bodies, complete with their attitudes, personalities and emotions. If they were happy campers in life, they will be happy campers in death. Ghosts are NOT fragmented souls cursed to roam the earth. This is an outdated philosophy by ill-informed ghost researchers who relied upon Ouija boards and séances for their information. Ghosts exist in a "ghost society" of their creation.

Just as some people are loners so too are some spirits. Most hauntings are by more than one ghost, often several. This does not mean they stay around in our physical realm. They may exist within the spirit realm and only choose to become active in our domain during the full and dark moons because of the much stronger geomagnetic fields or during solar flares.

The spirit realm and the physical realm exist on this earth, but in different dimensions. The spirit realm may often overlap our physical realm, bringing the two as one. Other times, we hear noises coming from the spirit realm, but heard in the physical realm. This is why a person hears boxes being knocked over in their basement, but no boxes are out of place. The boxes being knocked over existed in the spirit realm, but was manifesting the sounds in the physical realm.

Ghosts love to be pranksters. They love a good joke. They love humor. If you will examine your ghostly experiences, you will find the pranks were simply harmless pranks that scared the boo-boo out of you because you fear the unknown. Once you come to an understanding of life after death and that ghosts are the evidence of life after death, our fears slowly fade away.

Why are the ghosts here? Some are here because they want to be, others are anchored here because of unfinished business or unresolved issues. Something as little as not being able to tell someone that they love they may anchor a spirit to this realm. We take with us our emotional baggage, both good and the negative. The negative emotions keep us earthbound, the positive emotions allows us to soar to higher realms beyond the earth plane. We must let go of the negative emotions if we want to soar. Bitterness, anger and resentment are but three of the many negative emotions that we tend to hang onto throughout our life. These same emotions will anchor us, preventing us from becoming all that we can be after death.

We can learn from those who have gone before us. Ghosts should not be feared, but studied so we can learn more about what happens when we cross beyond the grave. There is life after death and by understanding ghosts, we can understand what we need to do in this life to prepare for this transition. The religious folks who fear ghosts also fear death because they believe they will be going to Heaven or Hell. This fear of not knowing which place they will be sent often brings forth much fear when they discover they have a ghost. They quickly discover that their religion does not deal with the issues of death and the spirits of the dead who return to the earth. Unfortunately, they do not understand that the spirits that left the earth at death can and do come back to this earthly plane.

Instead of being fearful, be of brave heart and learn to love the spirits as spirits. They are an evolved life form in composition, but they still retain their earth based memories and attitudes. Don't judge or condemn them, treat them as you would someone in your peer group. Speak in a calm, firm voice, show no fear, show love and compassion. If you dislike something they are doing, ask them to stop and explain why. Explain if you need some private space, free of spirits, such as in the bathroom or bedroom. Remember, you can learn to mutually co-exist together in a harmonious way. So what do you think?