The nature of negative hauntings

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The nature of negative hauntings
July 6, 2009
Elizabeth Costanzo
Examiner.com

ver the last several years, the viewing public has been inundated with paranormal television programs such as SciFi’s Ghost Hunters, A&E’s Paranormal State and the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures. Investigative teams attempt to prove the existence of the spirit world and its coexistence with the living world. Although the media would seemingly have us believe that every other house on the block is inhabited by ethereal beings, a true haunting is more unique than one might think. Of course it is not the intention of individual programs, most notably Ghost Hunters and TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), to create fear among the viewing public; but, more importantly, the goal of TAPS and other like-minded groups is to educate viewers on the true nature of ghosts. Sometimes, this message gets lost in the heavily saturated media that bombards us with clever editing.

A popular misconception among the public is the assumption that any and all hauntings are of a negative nature. In reality, very few are actually negative. Human spirits who have lost their way or who have chosen to stay among the living are not often “evil”. Many of these spirits have unfinished business, are seeking someone or something that eluded them in life or they simply do not realize that they are no longer living. A spirit or ghost typically carries the same type of energy that they did in life, whether they continue to be gentle and loving or even angry and gruff. There are also spirits who retain the trauma they experienced during their deaths, often reliving that one moment in time that has landed them in a fog of confusion and despair. These souls are in need of direction, clarity and resolution.

However rare, “evil” spirits and inhuman spirits do exist within the spirit world, and the activity they generate, may be quite disturbing to the living. Certain characteristics and signs are usually present in a negative haunting; these would not normally occur with a human spirit with human emotions, regardless of their state of mind. Although many human spirits may carry a negative vibe of anger, depression or the afore mentioned trauma, most of these spirits are not truly evil by nature, but are often “stuck” with the prevalent emotion that they could not escape in life.

This is not to say that all “evil” or diabolical spirits were never human, as many were; but the evil human spirits who do cause negative disturbances are not locked hopelessly in the trials of human emotion, but rather they have consciously chosen the dark path over the light. In our culture we would refer to these souls as followers of Satan or as souls of the “damned”. These damned souls have lost their humanity and the remembrance of any desire to be good or righteous. In addition, there exists a rare, but all too real, inhuman spirit. These evil or diabolical spirits never lived life among humanity. Humanity was never theirs to be lost. Whether we call them inhuman, diabolical or demonic, the goal in their existence is the same: to destroy the righteous and to incite the fall of humanity, to take our God-given free will and use it as a tool against us. It is within the damned that the truly evil succeed.

Though human spirits do possess the power to make themselves known to the living through apparitions, disembodied voices and the occasional touch, they lack the ability or desire to manipulate and harm the living through great physical force as inhuman and damned spirits do. The truly evil create an oppressive atmosphere for the living and even for the dead.
There are specific occurrences of activity which are indicative of a negative or inhuman haunting, and though rare, can give rise to a kind of hell on earth for the living. The negative/inhuman spirit will often attempt to gain the trust of the living through deception of its true form. For example, a diabolical force may disguise itself through the apparent embodiment of a young child’s spirit. After gaining one’s trust, they begin to lure the unsuspecting person into an attachment whereby the inhuman can manipulate the living. Another tactic the diabolical employ is through imitation of a person’s loved one. They may take on the voice of the living, inciting confusion and disarming the intended victim’s sensibilities. For example, a mother may hear her child calling out for her, only to find that the child is no where near the source of the voice.

Poltergeist activity can often be mistaken for demonic activity and vice versa. Poltergeist translates literally from the German as “rumbling spirit” or “noisy ghost”. In recent years, it has become widely accepted that poltergeist activity is actually the result of unconscious telekinesis by a living individual. These telekinetic occurrences are the result of the person’s inability to express their own emotions in a productive way and may include aportation of objects, sleep paralysis and even dark mass projections that appear to be of a spectral nature.

Demonic or negative activity can mimic these telekinetic incidents, but most often the inhuman spirit is clearly not a result of the telekinetic mind. This is not to say that the inhuman cannot be invited into the human world by the dabbler in the dark arts or by one who has been spiritually weakened from bouts of major depressive episodes or drug addiction, as quite often is the case. Whether the negative spirit is inhuman or damned, the physical forces they exhibit can be quite frightening to say the least.

In my own experience, the signs of the negative were quite obvious not only to me as a medium, but also to my family and friends who witnessed its peculiar and often abrupt actions. For years, I coexisted with a damned soul attached to an antique object that I owned. Many times, it would cause a cannon-like boom that shook our home in direct response to a threat posed against it. These ear-splitting booms are often connected with the negative and are sometimes described as seemingly breaking the sound barrier. The damned also had inhuman strength and would strangle those whom I love, leaving them gasping for air and imprinting ligature marks around their throats. These acts as well as the visual confirmation of the damned entity seen by many, occurred in more than one of my homes where the object of attachment was used as furnishing. Caught in an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) the damned imitated the voice of an investigator’s daughter and my own child’s voice as well. During the ensuing investigation, I stated to the entity that it would no longer have a chance to torment my family and that we would be removing it shortly; it replied through an EVP in direct respose to my statement and in a sinister voice yelling, "No!"

At one point, after initial interviews with the paranormal investigation group, a force unseen kicked a banister rail out of its vertical position. Immediately after hearing the sound of splintering wood and a great clatter only a few feet from where I was standing, I saw the missing rail broken completely in half and lying on the floor 15 feet away from the stairwell.

In fact, as often reported in demonic and oppressive cases, large animal scratches appeared on my body during several nights, materializing with no visible source and they burned as if branded into my skin but disappeared usually within 24 hours. Unlike many protrayals in television and movies, these were not signs of demonic possession, but signs of negative infestation. Just as a parasite attaches to its host, the host does not take on characteristics of or become the parasite.

The most crucial piece of advice that I can give to anyone who thinks they may be experiencing a negative haunting is to keep your composure and never, under any circumstances, provoke the entity or challenge it in any way. The more fear and/or agitation that you show, the more energy it gathers to use against you.

The point of this article is not to incite fear or to promote the existence of the devil, but rather to educate the public on a subject that is not often discussed. My intention is to offer hope and help to those who may be experiencing a negative haunting and have no where to turn. We were able to remove the negative entity from our home successfully, with the help of a knowledgeable paranormal group and also by ridding the home of the antique object of attachment. For more information regarding negative hauntings, you may contact me with questions at elizabeth.zocostan@gmail.com.

If you live in Virginia and are in need of a paranormal investigation as a result of any type of haunting, visit my good friend Jackie Tomlin, founder of Central Virginia Paranormal Investigations, at www.cvapi.com. On her site, you can also click on "Podcasts" under which the April 9, 2009 radio broadcast, features me as a guest psychic. You can hear a more detailed account of the negative haunting that I and my family experienced, along with insights from Jackie, an extremely gifted psychic. On CVAPI's website, you will find many links to all areas of the paranormal.