The Dangers of Ghost Hunting

by Von Braschler, author of Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter

I did not seek to become a ghost hunter, but the job found me. I was trained by a wonderful woman named Helen who lived on an island and insisted that my teacher and hers would like me to have this skill. She added that I might not want to do it but added that helping deceased people move forward after physical death was a wonderful gift. Somebody, she noted, might one day need someone to clear a ghost out of their home.

The way she described it, based on her own successful work, I would likely find a little old man or woman dressed in a coat and hat just waiting impatiently to move on. She told me that some people upon physical demise would be afraid, nervous, or hesitant to fully leave this world. Perhaps they clung to people and places they could not abide leaving. Maybe they felt guilty and worried what awaited them beyond this life. In some cases, she told me, ghosts were simply confused and did not fully realize that they had died and must move on. So, my teacher said the thing to do was to sit with them to calm them and assure them that it would be alright for them to leave.

I must report that my experiences with spirits who haunted buildings was not as cordial and easy as that described by my teacher. I was eventually asked to enter various haunted buildings to try to remove different spirits. There I found troublesome entities that were dangerous and not willing to listen to anyone about leaving.

Consequently, I decided to report my findings and add to what my teacher had given me as a means of warning people who thinking chasing down spirits in haunted buildings is really as fun and glamorous as depicted on television. It can literally threaten your life and burn everything around you to the ground. That is pretty much what happened to me.

Here are the tools Helen suggested I take with me in a little bag when visiting a haunted area:

• Salt, preferably kosher salt, to apply in a circle on the ground to keep the spirit out.
• Spikes to drive in the ground to mark the four cardinal directions to fence out the spirit.
• A hammer to drive in the spikes.
• Holy water to throw at the spirit if it became resistant, which she said was unlikely in her experience.
• A mirror to shine in the direction of the spirit to show it had no physical form to reflect.

My first request was from a member of an old church in Portland, Oregon, who said a spirit had haunted that building for many years. He assumed that it was probably a former custodian or member who felt an obligation to remain there. I wandered throughout the dark building on a day it was closed and felt its presence everywhere, sometimes hearing things. At times it seemed that it was not playing with me, as much as stalking me. In any event, I was unable to communicate with this spirit, but noticed a light ignite in the empty building as soon as I left and looked back at the church.

My second request came from a woman who had lost her sister on Mount Hood and was trying to trace what might have happened to her. The woman was receiving calls from her sister who seemed to scream out for help, without listening to anything said to her on the phone. The woman tracked her sister’s last known location as a mysterious cabin in the woods in a place known on the mountain as Sleepy Hollow. I visited the cabin, but the elderly women there (said to be spiritual healers) did not let me inside or admit any knowledge of the girl in question. Later, the badly decomposed body of a young woman that fit the missing sister’s description washed up on the shore of a mountain lake. This poor victim must have died much earlier than the period when my neighbor received the frantic phone calls.

Later, I was asked to remove a troublesome spirit from a mobile home in the national forest near Rhododendron, Oregon. The spirit appeared as a friendly little girl with blond curls to the daughter in the trailer, but to the parents, it appeared as a menacing, dark presence that repeatedly tried to chock them in their bed.

I sat on the bed of the daughter and called out to what the girl had seen as a sweet blond playmate. When it failed to communicate with me, I moved deeper in the trailer toward the parents’ bedroom.

In the narrow hallway from the daughter’s bedroom to the back bedroom, I passed a washing machine and dryer that made the passage narrow. In the dark, however, I saw a hideous dark creature with red eyes and long, crooked arms and legs. This was no little girl with blond curls and likely not the ghost of any deceased person who ever lived. It was a spirit that sought to possess the land and everything on it.

Outside the trailer, I found a tree with the names of dogs and the dates they had all died there. I told the family to remain outdoors. I went inside and lured the spirit to look into the mirror and follow me outside to the porch. There I smashed the mirror and salted the grounds. I do not recall whether I properly sealed the four directions to call the watchtower with my spikes.

I could not wait to get into my car and speed away. Driving away, the car developed odd electrical problems. Then I felt choking hands around my neck. I returned to the mobile home and apologized for being unsuccessful. I could not wait to unload the spirit from my car, I must admit.

A day or two later, I heard many fire trucks going up the mountain in the direction of that trailer and followed them. The structure had mysterious burned to the ground with the family’s dog tied under the trailer by a chain nobody recognized.

My takeaway from these experiences is that not all spirits who haunt buildings are ghosts of deceased people. Also, many spirits who haunt buildings do not want to be found and react unpredictably in ways that could be dangerous.

Spirits also seem to single out whomever they want to reach or touch. Not everyone will hear or see them. Therefore, I conclude that they are projecting thought forms that are directed at specific targets. They can project this energized consciousness at will to project an audible voice that can be selectively heard and even recorded at times. Using thought power, they can selectively appear to some people, but not others.

They might appear like your uncle John or sound like your aunt Ruth, but that is not indicative of their true identity. They have no physical form, but project upon people how they wish to be seen or heard. Consequently, a malevolent spirit can appear as a sweet little girl with blond curls at times.

It seems like fun for some people to explore haunted buildings with the false belief that non-material spirits cannot harm you. Rest assured, they can and they will if prodded, haunted, and provoked.

Thus, I caution people to avoid such places and even urge ghost hunters to abandon such places if they find an uncooperative spirit who does not want to be discovered. If you are able to clear your mind to communicate with it without incident, on the other hand, then you might be able to help the ghost of a deceased person move on.

Most difficult to remove would be a spirit that has been created by the negative emotions of angry, bitter people who have cast off their negative thought forms for years until they become bundled and trapped in a corner. There the negative energy bundle assumes the general shape and form of its human creators, although it more accurately resembles dark clouds of negative energy. These ugly man-made demons, if continuously fed through the years by their hosts, will become more powerful and menacing. Just being in a house with such a dark creature gives one a headache and nervous condition.

As with many spirits that cannot be removed, it is best to move away when confronting such a spirit. People who live with such a creature can either stop feeding it with more negative energy or move out. Such spirit forms cannot communicate with a ghost hunter, be calmed, or reason with you. They are pretty much impossible to remove by anyone but the people who scattered the embers of their negative emotions throughout the building.

It is most important to remember that thought forms have power, direction, and impact. They can be controlled or bounced carelessly throughout a room like bullets from a scatter gun. Everything has energized consciousness that we commonly call thought forms – even spirits. The spirit realm that seeks to haunt our physical space can become pretty dark and deadly.

My book about my experiences, Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter, therefore, is more a cautionary tale of encounters with malevolent entities and other disembodied spirits than a primer meant to encourage ghost hunting as an occupation or hobby. I hope it keeps you safe.