Substack of the Dead: When a ghost comes to visit
It is ok to tell them Get out you Perv!
As promised, here is the inaugral post on my dealings with the dead. By all means, please share your insights and anecdotes as is appropriate - my experiences are not all experiences. Also, when it comes to recognizing and handling what we label the supernatural, there is not one monolithic way of dealing with them.
Before we begin, let’s establish some common vocabulary. When I say “spirit” I mean a non-physical being, or the consciousness of a physical being, that may be living, dead, or something…else.
When I say “ghost” I mean a spirit that is usually dead, and under most circumstances was attached to a human body. If I refer to a passed on pet, I may refer to it as a ghost. If I refer to a wild animal, or an animal now extinct in the living world, I refer to it as a spirit.
When I get to practical animism those distinctions are really going to matter. These distinctions, should you begin meeting the spirit world where it’s at, can save your life.
Ask Nikki, she knows better than anybody.
Also, ghosts aren’t theoretical or maybe to me. I was born with second sight, and part of what drove me to witchcraft was looking for the #@#$@#!!!!! off switch before I wound up involuntarily medicated. I’ve found out in recent years that an absence of separation between the physical world and the spirit world is intrinsic to my ancestry. It’s genetic. I can’t not see them. I’m also well psat the screening age for schizophrenic hallucinations, and when I was 31, I finally had a therapist tell me to suck it up, I can see things other people don’t.
Now I can teach people how to see, hear, sense, smell, talk with those things. Those people. Those formerly human and non-human persons.
Ghosts do not manifest in a single, monlithic way. Different types of ghosts will appear differently - sometimes it’s cultural, sometimes it’s personal. I don’t know how genetics and environmental exposure affect the energetic bodies or the consciousness, but based on the varieties of ways the dead can appear once they’re done with that whole “having a body” thing, there’s definitely something that happens in life that impacts a moving body after it’s dead. Sometimes it’s because somebody died mad.
How a Stereotypical Ghost Appears
The classic haunting, I am visiting you from beyond the grave, comes with one main indicator: cold.
The temperature in the room drops, you start shivering, and for especially sensitive people feel a sort of heart-clutching situation as if the organs are starting to ice over.
In truth, that temperature variation is kind of nice when you’re in a dusty, poorly insulated Victorian and the humidity is past 50%. The rest of the time, it’s just intrusive, especially when the M********* has decided to make a visit to the end of your bed between midnight and 3 am.
About ten years ago, I had a friend in Minneapolis who lived on the top floor of a drafty Victorian. While she was an atheist, she was also from San Francisco and ghosts are just a matter of fact part of life there. She had noticed that midwestern ghosts were different - a lot more permission to haunt type stuff going on - so she asked me the usual questions kindhearted people ask, like “well, the ghost was here first…so…”
I gave her my boundaries talk, because she wasn’t about to go to one of the witch shops in the area to handle the issue.
When a young woman wearing clothing from the 1870s appeared to her and made an introduction, as she had been doing for the previous three weeks at 2:11 am precisely, my friend looked at the ghost and said, “F- off! I’m trying to sleep and I work in the morning!”
She said the ghost never returned.
I might have opened a window to ease the f-ing off process, and there are a few tweaks that I teach, but for a first time ghost banishing, that was pretty good and done for the righ reasons.
Can Ghosts Harm You?
As much as I would like to reassure you that all ghosts are harmless all the time, I can’t. But usually that’s not because the ghost can pick you up and toss you around.
Two words: emotional damage.
Ghosts can cause distress. Distress, for extended periods of time, can cause health problems. If the ghost is set on being a d*** the same health risks apply as they would to any other emotionally unhealthy relationship.
For example, a ghost waking you up in the wee hours is going to disrupt your sleep what with all the looming. That does have a negative impact on your physical and mental health. That’s harm.
Just like humans, some ghosts are better about boundaries than others.
One Ghost Shenanigan You Should Know about
A human ghost can’t possess you unless you give it consent. They can attach to your energy and follow you around, and I have had friends end up with yet another non-paying roommate using up their toilet paper. (In my case, the toilet paper waste was due to my very alive roommate getting drun and playing mummy. A ghost would have been preferable.)
There is an exception, sort of, to the nonconsensual possession rule: alcohol.
I am neither tetotaller nor tipler. My partner Synty is a Finnish/Sami-American shaman - gin is medicine at my house. I have specific relationships with plants best transmitted through alcohol. I am not saying this because alcohol is bad - just like everything else I work with, the medicine or the poison is in the dose.
When someone is drunk, dead spirits can and do possess people, or ride them home. These tend to happen at the “trashy” bars, and I had a mentor talk about watching one entity hop from person to person at a bar.
It appears there’s an element of choice in being a ghost, and being a ghost for a long time. Some of those ghosts choose to hang out at bars and in movie theaters all day, and hop into the nearest person with the most inhibitions down.
One thing I found fascinating is that certain bars and bar owners seem to know about this: I’ve been in spaces where the energy has been completely untended and watched the dead hopping around among the living. I’ve also hung out in bars where the owners or the employees seemed to make sure that all energy was managed. I might witness someone rip roaring drunk at the well-kept places, but I didn’t see anyone possessed!
I’m Scared of Ghosts!
I used to be scared of ghosts, and some can feel pretty scary As my weird shit-o-meter has grown, my fear has given way to either curiosity or outright annoyance depending on the circumstances and the ghost’s behavior. My advice is assess the same way as you would a living person: if the behavior is threatening, open a window, throw down some salt, and inform it it needs to leave, now.
I Don’t Believe in Ghosts!
OK. So for you, this is either exploring modern folklore or an intellectual exercise in receiving concepts outside your belief systems. I admire your efforts to boost your neuorplasticity! As long as you abide by the edict of the Wyld Stallyns - be excellent to each other! - you’re welcome here.
If you’re craving some Urban Magick, spirit work department then join me Wednesday, January 9th. I’m teaching Sacred Sites in Your City ONLINE - a hands on class that shows you how to tune in to the rhythm and spirit of your urban space, so that land, water, and collective spirit can show you where to find the holy places of your here and now. Reserve your space in class now! https://forbiddentickets.com/events/wicked-grounds/de948fddb5
Yes, you can catch it on the replay!
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