Is Your House Haunted?

Posted on December 20, 2013 by jonimayhan

Have you ever come down with an illness that starts slowly? The first symptoms are very subtle. You might feel tired and run-down. Days later, it might evolve to a sniffly nose or a cough. If you’re like many of us, you’ll be in denial for the first stage of the cold. You’ll attribute the tired feeling to not getting enough sleep; the sniffles could just be allergies. Like illness, a true haunting seldom comes without signs and symptoms

The first thing you might notice is a feeling of being watched. It’s that sensation you get when someone comes into a room quietly and just stands there. Sometimes it might take you a moment to realize they’re there and you’ll turn around with a gasp as you see them. A ghost might give you the same sensation.

You might also notice that items left in one place inexplicably show up somewhere else. Or a light you turned off suddenly turns back on again. You might also hear sounds that aren’t normal to the house. Sometimes the haunting will never progress beyond this, but other times it will escalate. Being aware and then taking action is important during the beginning stages.

The first thing you will want to do is rule out normal explanations. If you’re hearing footsteps in the attic, go up and look for signs of an animal. Has a squirrel broken through a vent? Do you see mouse droppings or chewed insulation? If you feel like you’re being watched, rule out high electromagnetic energy, which can often make a person feel paranoid, even leading to hallucinations. Bedside alarm clocks are often big culprits, as are ceiling fans, microwave ovens, or faultily wired electrical outlets or circuit breakers. If you don’t own an EMF meter, which most normal people wouldn’t, you can begin by narrowing down the area that affects you. Do you feel the sensation of being watched only while you’re in your bedroom? Try moving or unplugging items to see if it alleviates the sensation. If all else fails, an inexpensive EMF meter can be found on the Internet for under $50, or you could simply call your electrician.

If you’ve ruled out all normal explanations for the signs of a haunting, the next step is to figure out why your house is haunted.

Did you just move in? Chances are the house has been inhabited by an earth-bound ghost for a long time and is just letting you know they’re there. I don’t feel it’s ever okay to live in a house with a ghost. Even if it’s dear old grandma, she’s not in a place of rest and she needs to find her way to the next dimension (aka Heaven or The Other Side).
Did you just start a renovation project? This often will trigger a ghost to come out of hiding. Imagine being so attached to your house that you didn’t want to leave it after dying, and then watching some numb-skull rip out the beautiful kitchen cabinets you spent eight months building from scratch. You might jump in to complain too.
Have you been dabbling in the paranormal? Did you go on a ghost hunt and attempt to communicate with the dead? Something might have taken you up on this and followed you home. If you investigate, you should always, always, always protect yourself during investigations. I cover this in the last chapter of my book The Soul Collector.
Are you a sensitive? People who are able to sense and even possibly communicate with ghosts are more at risk for having ghosts follow them home. In the ghost world, sensitives stand out. A ghost might recognize you as someone they can communicate with and will follow you home. If you’re curious if you’re a sensitive, I wrote a blog called “Do you have a Sixth Sense?” that might help you.

The truth is: ghosts are all around us most of the time. Being a sensitive, I can tell you that I’ve sensed them at restaurants, movie theaters, and at other people’s homes. While I was interviewing someone for my latest book project, I captured three very clear ghost voices on my digital recorder. One helpfully asked us if we’d remembered to turn off the light.

Opinions will vary on how to eliminate the haunting. Here are the top suggestions:

Claim ownership of your space. Let them know that you live there now and that they need to move on. Tell them to look for the white light, which is a doorway to the other side, or to call for a family member who has passed on to help them. Being dead on our side of the veil isn’t a pleasant experience. They’ll be able to see and hear the things we do, but will have very limited abilities. If this doesn’t work, move onto the second tip.
Do a house cleansing. You can do this in a number of ways:
- Ask your minister or priest to do a house cleansing.
- Contact a trusted psychic medium to do this. How do you find this person:
  - Many metaphysical shops will have a list of psychics in the area.
  - The Internet – research this person thoroughly before inviting them in.
- Do it yourself. Purchase white sage mixed with sweet grass from your local metaphysical shop or purchase it online.
- - Be calm, but firm as you do this.
  - If you have connected with your spirit guides or guardians, ask them to help you. Everyone has spirit guides, but might not have connected with them. Ask anyway. You never know who is listening.
  - Open a few windows in the house as you do it.
  - Light the sage and fill every room in your house with the smoke, starting with the outermost corner and working your way to the front of the house. Let the sage smoke cover every inch of space in every room, from floor to ceiling. Some say the smoke is calming to them, helping them transition to the next plane.
  - As you burn the sage, tell them you are filling the house with light and love and that no negative energy may remain. Tell them this is your house and you’re taking it back. Encourage them to find the peace and love they desire through the white light. Tell them it’s time for them to go.
  - When you’re finished, stub out the sage stick on the front walk.
  - Some people will follow this up with a ring of sea salt around the border of the house, or on the windowsills and doorsteps.
  - Others will also take a warm bath filed with sea salt and lavender, ridding their body of the energy.
  - Cut your ties. You can do this physically, as well as mentally. Cut the cords that connect you to this energy and then move on. Don’t think about it. Shove it out of your mind. Thinking about it could actually draw them back in, so avoid this as best as possible.

What do you do if your house is still paranormally active after all these measures have been taken? Some ghosts are going to be resistant about moving on. Typical measures aren’t going to work with them. You’ll have to move into a second phase.

Contact an established and highly recommended paranormal group to help you. Be forewarned that this will often increase the activity, but if the group is able to help you, it will be worth it in the end. When you reach out to them, ask for references from other clients they have assisted. A good group will not charge you for their services. If they do, you should probably run the other way. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer them a donation for the time and money they’ve spent helping you. Many won’t accept it, but others will. Offer anyway.
Contact a trusted psychic medium. Talk to your local metaphysical store for references. Ask for references of clients the medium has helped. A good medium will be able to remove the middle man and talk directly to the ghost, helping them to move to the other side much more effectively. Many mediums will charge for their services, but some will not.
Move. I don’t like this last option, because you are only leaving the problem for someone else to deal with. Or worse, you go through the effort of moving, only to discover the ghost has followed you.
Research the history on the house.
- Go to your local town hall and research the census records and death records to find out if it’s a former home owner. Sometimes a tragic event could have caused them to stay behind. Or maybe they’re just attached to the house. Sometimes just knowing who you’re dealing with helps in moving them on. Talk to them by name. Tell them you understand why they’re there, but it’s your house now and you promise to take good care of it. Then, do the cleansing.
- Go to your local library and read back issues of the newspapers. Find out if something tragic happened. Sometimes all they want is for someone to acknowledge what they lived through. Follow it up with a cleansing.
- Do nothing. Allow the energy to calm down on its own. Don’t acknowledge them, don’t be fearful. Just go about your life as usual. Sometimes this simple thing makes a difference, but sometimes it just makes it worse.

All of these suggestions are just suggestions. Ghosts were people too, and not everything is going to work with everyone. The more resistant a ghost is, the harder they will be to move along. But always start at the beginning of the list and rule out normal explanations first. You will save yourself a lot of time and stress. When I went through this myself back in the 1990’s, I wasn’t sure what to do and resources weren’t as prevalent as they are today. I ended up moving out, leaving the energy for someone else to contend with. I later heard that the house was sold five times in five years and it made me feel very guilty for not pursuing it further.

Whatever you do, do it with a purpose and remain calm. Fear is never a good tool for working with ghosts and neither is anger. Most hauntings are human in nature and a sense of compassion will be your best ally.

What if the haunting isn’t human? Signs of a non-human haunting will range from foul smells in the house, to finding unexplained scratches on your body. If you suspect this isn’t human, find a professional to help you, whether it’s a member of clergy, a trusted paranormal team, or a good psychic medium.

And always believe it will work.

Faith and a firm sense of belief will carry you much further than doubt and fear.

Joni Mayhan

Joni Mayhan is a paranormal investigator, as well as a free-lance writer. Please check out her paranormal thrillers on Amazon.com and BarnesandNobles.com. For more information about the author, please see her website: Jonimayhan.com

The Soul Collector – The true story of one paranormal investigator’s worst nightmare

http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-Collector-ebook/dp/B00EIHG90Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1381464557&sr=1-1&keywords=joni+mayhan

Angels of Ember trilogy – After a devastating virus nearly wipes the world clean of people, 16 year-old Ember Pain grows tired of running and hiding from the bad men who hunt her and her younger sister, Elizabeth. Fighting back becomes a necessity, even if it threatens her very life.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=angels+of+ember+trilogy&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Aangels+of+ember+trilogy

Lightning Strikes

Ember Rain

Angel Storm

Discovering Your Sixth Sense

Posted on December 6, 2013 by jonimayhan

Having a six sense doesn’t necessarily mean you can predict tomorrow’s lottery numbers; nor does it mean you will necessarily foresee a future catastrophe. Sometimes it’s as simple as trusting your intuition.

Do you often know who is on the other end of the line when the phone rings? Do you meet someone and know instantly whether you like them or not? Do you sometimes have the feeling that you’re not alone, but nobody is there?

Learning to develop this additional sense isn’t for the impatient. It involves slowing down and paying attention to every detail of your life, listening to the strong impulses, and understanding that most of the things that happen to us aren’t usually coincidence.

Tips for unlocking your six sense:

Understanding your sixth sense – Abilities come in all shapes in sizes. Some people have the ability to sense or communicate with ghosts. Others get visions of future events before they transpire. Some people have an uncanny ability to read other people, knowing what they’re thinking or feeling without having been told first. Some are more subtle. One of my friends is a very dedicated pet sitter. She will often know that something is wrong with a dog before the owner does. This could be a very useful tool in her field, providing the pet parents buy into what she is telling her.
Believing your abilities – My mother didn’t think she had a sixth sense until I pointed it out to her. More times than I could count, I would pick up the phone to call her, only to find her on the other end as she attempted to call me at the same exact time. She also has an uncanny ability to always find a front row parking spot. Sometimes having a six sense isn’t as prevalent as being able to predict the sex of someone’s unborn baby. It might be as simple as trusting your intuition and not trying to push it away. It’s a special gift that was given to you at birth. Embrace it and use it.
Meditation – spend a few minutes a day going deep into your mind, allowing the rest of the world to fade away. You can do this all by yourself with little instruction, or you can utilize one of the many self-guided meditation videos on the Internet. It allows you to hone your thoughts down to the bare essentials, discovering a place in your mind where the clatter and bustle of everyday life can’t touch.
Pay attention to your surroundings – watch other people’s reactions to the things you do and say. Understand how body language and eye contact plays a key role in how we interpret how other people are feeling. Really try to tune into what they’re telling you. Crossed arms might mean they are closing themselves off from the conversation, an inability to maintain eye contact might mean they aren’t comfortable with what is being said. Watch for the non-verbal cues and see if they match what your mind is interpreting. People with empathic abilities often feel what other people are feeling, sometimes even physically, and have an uncanny ability to understand other’s moods and thought processes. Learning how to live with the ability could be a blessing, if you are able to handle both the good and the bad. If someone is angry with you, it gives you a chance to unravel the anger before it becomes an issue.
Believing in yourself – do you sometimes get a strong feeling about something for no apparent reason? Have you ever woken up with a strange premonition? Pay attention to the outcome. If you find some truth behind the impression, you will learn to trust it more. Many people believe that we are all born with the sense of insight but leave it undeveloped, having been told as children that we “have an active imagination.” It doesn’t mean that the abilities disappeared. It just means we’ll need to dig a little deeper to find them and nurture them back to a useable level. Others feel that abilities are usually passed down through families. Sometimes the gift is hard to distinguish, like the case with my mother. More than likely, she was born with similar abilities as mine, but didn’t pursue them and allow them to develop.
Find validation – if you have a strong sense that something has happened to someone, ask them. Follow the clues to see where they lead. This involves being curious enough to find the answer. I would often get impressions about people, but never had the courage to follow it through by asking. One day, I simply took a deep breath and asked, only to find out that my intuition was right. It gave me the faith to keep trying.
Develop a relationship with your spirit guides or guardians– everybody has them, but not everyone is aware of them. They could be there, whispering in your mind, guiding you through the day. I didn’t believe in them until I experienced it firsthand. I was driving along a highway, when the image of my late grandmother popped into my head, telling me to slow down. Seconds later, my front tire blew out. Had I not slowed down, I probably would have been badly injured, if not killed. Find yours through meditation or just ask for a sign that they are there, then follow your instincts.
Document everything – keep a journal and write down the things that come to you. Did you have a strange dream that a friend was going to have a difficult pregnancy? Or did you get an odd feeling when you met a co-worker for the first time? Being able to go back and track this is very helpful. Make sure to record the date it happened, the time of day, and even things that seem trivial at the time, like the mood you were in, the cycle of the moon, or the type of weather outside.
Research – my sixth sense involves communicating with ghosts and spirits. It took me a very long time to trust that what I was feeling was more than my imagination. I read every book I could get my hands on and took several psychic awareness classes. Every piece of information brought me closer to understanding my abilities.
Share your experiences – most people are afraid to talk about these things. They’re scared that other people are going to make fun of them or think they are crazy, when in truth, many other people have these feelings as well. Find someone you can trust to talk about it. If possible, find someone who is going through a similar situation, or someone who has mastered the skill you are seeking. Finding a good tutor might make the difference between wondering and knowing.
Understand that everyone is different – several of my friends are also sensitives. They know when a ghost or spirit enters a room. My cue is audient. I hear a tone as they swoop in, which is also accompanied by a sense I can’t explain. I just know someone is there. One of my friends feels a tingling on the side of her head. Another friend’s finger’s tingle. Just because you don’t feel the same cues, doesn’t mean you aren’t experiencing something. This also means that no one can tell you exactly what you need to do to develop it. This is a case where practice makes perfect. Talk with other people about what they’re feeling, but don’t expect someone to hand you a magic wand and enable you to become a psychic medium overnight. You will have to figure some things out on your own.

Unlocking this six sense could change your life in many ways. It’s a matter of taking a natural gift and exercising it until you’ve built it into a powerful asset, but you’ll never know until you’ve tried.