When discussing ghosts and investigations, one needs to address three areas
- Is it the property, house,
- Are the individuals that live there haunted?
- Does it matter?
Yes it does and I will tell you why. Though its easy to say " The property is haunted, so the house is. " Not so! The LAND is haunted. Case in point, I was working on a case in Tennessee, and a group I work with down there had phoned me and asked about this particular property they were standing on. Using my remote viewing skills I told them there was a tree on the property that a black woman was hung from..she was thought to be a witch and was, in fact, into Voodoo. I was right..
But the thing to know about this is that she inhabited the PROPERTY, not the house. She never appeared in the house, but the home owners said they could feel a presence not only on the land, but peering into the windows as well. Her energy only resonated outside. They never felt her inside and I told them they wouldn't..This woman vowed before she was hung to haunt the LAND..not the house. Though the house that stands is the original..She doesn't go inside. This is also called RESIDUAL haunting..we will discuss that later though.
Houses can be haunted too. A good example of this is the LaLaurie House in New Orleans. Back in the late 1800's, Madam LaLaurie and her husband owned the house. They threw elaborate parties, and were very much the socialites of Louisiana. What the public, and in fact the LaLauries friends didn't know was, the LaLauries were keeping slaves chained up in the attic and were conducting horrible experiments on them. Mr LaLaurie was a doctor, and between him and his wife, they were experimenting with these slaves to sell to the circus.
Breaking the bones and resetting them in different positions, cutting tongues out and resewing them..sick stuff. One of the slaves downstairs that worked in the kitchen set the kitchen on fire, and the Fire Dept. found the horrors upstairs, and then found 60+ bodies buried under the floorboards by the back door. These individuals subsequently haunt the LaLaurie house to this day..although its been transformed to apartments, there are still reports of chains dragging across the upper floors, and sightings of slaves standing over peoples beds as they sleep. Again, this is residual, and I shall address this shortly.
Then there are haunted people. Put simply, ghosts attach themselves to the living and follow them where ever they go. This phenomenon is vital to recognize if you are investigating a haunted building, or home. If the person or persons residing at the establishment have the same occurrences where ever they move, it sounds suspiciously like the person is haunted, and the ghost or ghosts are following them. Its important to establish this, as its vital information if the owner asks if you can get rid of this entity that is present. It is more difficult to detach a spirit from a human, then it is to detach a spirit from a home, or property. As I stated before, its through deductive reasoning that you can build a pretty solid case that the individual, or individuals in the establishment are indeed the cause of the haunting, just by the commonality of multiple hauntings in multiple places.
As a Case Manager that lands some pretty high profile cases, I always want to establish what kind of haunting I am going to ask the team to go investigate. It is always helpful to know what your up against.
As for Residual haunts, they can be classified in 2 VERY broad categories. Property Residual, and Structural Residual. Residual Hauntings repeat an action, or feeling over and over again. These feelings or actions are usually equated to the individuals daily habits and goings on when they were alive. Residual Hauntings can also occur on an anniversary. Property Residual would be something like a horse carriage pulling up to the front of a home, and you catch the sound of horses hooves on recorder. Some of the most famous Anniversary Haunts occur at Gettysburg, when the actual battles took place. The activity levels increase around this time..If your investigating a home or property where there may be an anniversary of an event, its always best to try to be there with your equipment to catch the rising levels of activity.
Structural Residual is interesting, because you are capturing the rise and fall of activity from peoples daily lives. This would be prevalent in some of the old mansions. In the daylight hours you would catch children playing, women talking about fabric of the day or party plans..You might smell bread baking, or stew cooking. Perhaps you would hear pacing upstairs from a gentlemen contemplating financial dealings. On the dark side, Residual Hauntings can include murders, as is the case in Iowa, at the Vallisca Axe Murder House. This type of Haunting needs to not be taken lightly. Sometimes what humans do to other humans carries over for an eternity. Its best to leave this type of haunting alone.
As always, I open the floor to you, the reader. If you have any questions, or comments, please leave them here and I will address them. I hope this information is helpful if your already an investigator; if not, I hope this information sparks something inside you to want to join us to seek the truth..Its out there!!