For most people that have gone through their lives with little to no experience with the paranormal, moving into an actively haunted location can be a shock. You may even start to doubt your sanity! For those of us involved in paranormal research, we see this over & over, so know...you are not alone! Perhaps your not yet ready to call a paranormal team into your home or place of business, what can you do? Below's some tips on ways to handle your experiences.
• Always keep in mind that what we think of "ghosts" are actually just people without bodies. Most of them are simply trying to get your attention so you can help them. However, keep in mind, if you were nice alive, then your probably still nice when you die...same with tricksters, mean people, etc. Their attempts to get your attention, such as opening/shutting doors, moving your belongings around, even an attempt to throw something at you, are generally not meant to scare you. I always ask our clients to put theirselves in the ghosts place. No one can hear you or see you & you may not even know your dead, honestly how frustrated would you get?
• Start & keep a journal to record all experiences. We recommend you keep it somewhere easy to get to in case you have visitors that have experiences & for easy access for you. This will help you to see any trends in activity, such as most active time of the day, which room has the majority of activity, and so on. It will also be very valuable for any paranormal teams you may decide to bring in.
• Keep in mind it's your home! You have both the right & the ability to lay down laws and/or ask them to leave. Again, if you are dealing with a "ghost", then they will listen eventually. You will probably have to say it over & over again, together as a family, but eventually they'll leave or follow your requests. I would recommend having an investigation done prior to kicking them out. If they're able to pass a message into us, they may decide to leave on their own. Even if they don't, they'll be more likely to leave easily when asked. Again, they're just like you & me, just without bodies.
• DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT THEM YOURSELF, ESPECIALLY NOT THROUGH OUIJA BOARDS, TAROT CARDS, OR SEANCES!!! Please, please, please, do not attempt any of those. While there are safe & proper ways to use all 3, we strongly advise against them. If you do, you are opening a door into your home or place of business that ANYTHING can come through. Generally the type of entities that greedily wait for these doors are not what you want in your home & near your family. For instance, inhuman malicious entities, commonly referred to as a demonic entity, love to get into your home this way. A demonic haunt is a whole other situation compared to an intelligent human entity (ghost), and I'll be posting more blogs about them. I did feel the need to add this warning to our list of tips. If you do feel you're experiencing a demonic haunting, get in contact with a professional Paranormal Team in your area as quickly as you can, do not wait.
• Regardless of the type of haunting you are experiencing, it never hurts to ask your religious leader (Priest, Pastor, Rabbi, Reverend, High Priestess, etc) if they'd mind coming to your home to bless the home or place of business & even family members. In most cases you don't even need to mention ghosts. If you run into an issue with your own religion, we've found the Catholic Church to be very helpful.
• Smudging is done by lighting a stick of sage, then going throughout the property wafting the smoke into every crevice, closets, etc. Easy to pick up at a local new age shop. I'd also advise reading more up on it so you can get the most out of it!
• Salt Bags - Ever since the ancient Egyptians, salt has been highly thought of as a protection against evil & negativity. I always carry a salt bag on every investigation...better safe than sorry!
• I could go on & on talking about rocks and their properties, but trust me this info is easily accessible via google!
Ultimately you'll need to bring in an experienced paranormal investigators team, if for no other reason than to be able to show any evidence presented that you hear/see all the times. That's a huge validation for you to be able to finally say "See I was seeing that short black shadow!"
But....but....how do I start trying to find a local group? What most of you will find is that there's just too many such groups, especially in & around highly populated areas. Word of mouth is key, so if you are able to ask around for a good group that'd be great! Next step, google (ie: paranormal investigators Chattanooga, TN). Read over their pages, each should provide you with their ideology, methodology. Pay attention to the overall look & ease of use on their site.
Another good place to start is American lists of groups by state, below is one such resource:
http://paranormalsocieties.com/index.cfm
As for confidentiality, most groups offer a variety of confidentiality options. From 100% full confidentiality, to no confidentiality, though most choose the the happy middle. This option allows us to post any evidence found at the location to our website, YouTube, etc, but without specifics such as: names, location of property, etc. Instead your evidence would be posted with no names at all and a vague location (such as in Hamilton County TN) With this option, it allows us to post any evidence captured while still keeping your location & names kept confidentiality. So you do get to negotiate with any group you choose to go with, as to which option is best works for you.
Aside from the Confidentiality Agreement, we also include the permission to investigate on our 100% Liability Release. We release each client from any liability (ie: we injure ourselves, etc) while still offering to make restitution for any items we may accidentally damage. Each group has some variation of these forms.
Always check out a groups website first before contacting them. It's also a good idea to ask each group for 1-2 references from former clients. Once those steps have been made, you should be ready to speak with each of them. Ask us the tough questions, remember, we are there to help you!
Last thing to think on involves the different approaches used by different groups. Although this is not a full list of all the approaches, here are the three most prominent:
1) Scientific without the official use of psychics and/or sensitives
2) Scientific with the official use of Psychics and/or sensitives
3) Faith based groups
In the end, it's who you feel more comfortable with. Also, if you're willing to allow more than one group in at separate times, you may be able to get more supporting evidence that your home is haunted or not haunted.
Thank you!
Samantha M.
MPRS
Founder & Lead Investigator
www.MystiqueParanormal.com
MystiqueParanormal@gmail.com
