Imagine for a moment that you have in your home, a creature that has incredible supernatural powers. This creature is pure evil, extremely intelligent, cunning and vicious beyond imagination. It can appear as anything it chooses to whenever it wants to. This creature is capable of feats that stretch well beyond our laws of physics and does not have to deal with the physical limitations of our plane of existence. It does not have the ability to love or show compassion. The only “emotions” it has are hate and rage. You cannot reason with this being; it has no regard for human life. For that matter, it has no regard for anything other than itself. Furthermore, it is capable of causing physical harm and the mental attacks it unleashes are sometimes as devastating as the physical ones, if not more so. This being wants to cause as much harm as it possibly can. It wants to tear families apart, turning mother against father, son against daughter. It will use anything within its almost unlimited arsenal to create>havoc. In truth, its ultimate goal is the destruction, death or possession of you and all those who reside with you. This is a creature that cannot be stopped by any human means and perhaps worst of all, it can carry out its hideous attacks while being invisible to the human eye. This creature is called a demon.

Does that sound horrifying enough? Can you imagine being told that such a creature is in your home? That would be unbelievable, right? Imagine if you will, you are a parent and you have been told that not only is this creature in your house but that you cannot protect your children from it. Believe it or not, there are many who are told exactly that, as incredible as that sounds. Who would tell someone something like that? Well, that depends. Sometimes people are told this by well-meaning, good intentioned people who believe that they are trying to help. Unfortunately, many of those people are simply not qualified to make such a determination. However, there are also those who will tell this to someone for reasons that have less to do with helping others and more to do with their own self-serving interests. Those are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.

Let us get one point out of the way. Yes, sadly, demons do exist, as do devils. Do they interact with humans? Yes they do although this is almost always in the form of temptations. However, by and large, that is where the interaction ends. There are those times where demons play more of a direct role but it is rare, incredibly rare. Truthfully, you have a much better chance of winning a million dollar lottery than you do coming under direct assault from a demonic entity, unless of course, you do something to bring one into your life, either by unintentional means or direct invitation. The other exceptions to that rule are those of us who work in this field. We see much more than we want to. However, very little else will be said in this article about demons. Instead, I want to look at what people perceive as hauntings and those spirits who do the haunting.

In well over 90% of true hauntings, the culprit is a human spirit, that is to say the spirit of someone who once lived on this plane. Yes, there are occasions where a demonic entity will try to use the human spirit much like a puppet, but that is usually the extant of its involvement. Hauntings are in themselves rare, although they happen more than most people realize. To many, seeing a “ghost” leaves them to believe that they are haunted. However, in many of those cases, what they are seeing is the projection of residual energy that has been “imprinted” into the location where it is spotted. We call these “psychic imprints” or “psychic projections.” These projections will sometimes move and on rare occasions, speak. However, they will not react to you. In the instance where an actual spirit is present, it will react to you. It may look at you and vanish or it may come towards you but the point is it will react. With psychic projections, the movements and sounds will be repeated over and over again. There is no variance in the routine because it is not a spirit; it is simply residual energy left behind, possibly due to some form of emotional stress. (All of this and more are explained in my book, “Hauntings- How To Investigate Them. Contact me for more information.)

The fact that a spirit is present does not constitute a true haunting. A haunting is best described as a situation where a spirit, be it human or inhuman, does something intentional to cause fear or in extremely rare cases, physical or emotional harm. Most spirit encounters are harmless. Spirits can hang around for various reasons. It may be an attachment to a location or a person. It could also be that the spirit is afraid to cross over for fear of punishment for the sins that it committed while it was alive. Sometimes, they stick around to try to give the living a message of some sort. That message may be to let someone know that they are all right where they are. In some cases, the spirit may feel that it needs to protect someone left behind. The point is that there are many reasons why spirits will interact with the living.

What about those times when objects fall off tables or pictures are overturned or electrical items go on and off? These types of things can indicate the presence of a negative spirit but that is not always so. When I discuss this area with my students, I always ask them if they have seen the movie “Ghost.” For those that have, I tell them to remember the trouble Patrick Swayze had trying to get the attention of Demi Moore. Many people believe that once we die, we are suddenly enlightened. That does not appear to be true. Perhaps we gain some knowledge once we actually cross over but until then, we are as lost in death as we are in life. By the way, if you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. The person who made that movie knew what he was talking about although not everything is accurate.

How do you get rid of a human spirit? That depends on who it is and why it is there. Often, the key is to find out what the spirit wants or to assure it that it is safe to cross over because God is all loving and forgiving. If it is an evil spirit of the human order, getting rid of it can be tricky. However, what needs to be dealt with here is the harm that takes place when someone is told that they have a demon in their house when that is not the case. Think back if you will to the first paragraph. That is the perception most people have of a demon and it is a fairly accurate one. Telling someone that such a creature is in their homes has an obviously devastating affect on that person. The horror of wondering what horrible thing may happen can reduce the strongest person to a nervous wreck. Not only are your belief systems being thrown out the window but you must also believe that great harm will befall you and those you love. This is atrocious. I mean, this is common sense for God’s sake! That brings us to the purpose behind this article. If this so obvious, as it seems to be for any rational human being, why then do so many “experts” not see this?

The truth is that there are many people, far too many at that, who believe that demons are behind all hauntings. Some very well known investigators seem to find demons in every corner. A glass falls off a table. Got to be a demon, right? There is a rapping coming from a wall. No doubt about it, that has to be a demon! On and on it goes. I have even heard two popular “experts” in this field refer to a “powerful devil” as the cause of some relatively minor havoc in a home. I will not even dignify that statement by addressing it further. The question that begs to be asked is why people would jump to such a conclusion? In some instances, they are well meaning individuals who have been poorly taught or believe everything that they hear from someone “famous.” Most of those are inexperienced investigators who mean to do good for someone but their own conception of a demon is clouded. Many of these people have heard so many stories about demons, usually presented in such a manner as to trivialize the subject. Hearing the boastful stories of the thousands of demons their teacher has fought and conquered, mixed in with a little humor creates such a distortion that these people are actually being put in danger. Fortunately, very few of them will come across the “real deal.” Now to that investigator, a demon may look like no big deal but to the family in need of help, it is totally devastating.

It is real easy to “diagnose” a demon as the cause of trouble when you “know” so much about them. It is also easy to say that when you can go home in the morning. However, the victims who called for help see a much different picture. Their conception is more like what is in the first paragraph. Plus, they have to live with it each and every day. Do you think it ever leaves their minds? I have seen a couple put their dream house up for sale because they were told that demons were infesting it. Another threw away many treasured belongings, family heirlooms in some cases because they were “touched” by a demon. Others move out of nice affordable apartments into smaller, more expensive ones because, after all, Satan himself resides in their bedroom closet. Let me tell you something, if you are experiencing a real demonic haunting, the demon is quite capable of following you. It is the old “you can run but you can’t hide” thing. I have also seen families torn apart over the subject. It was not a demon that destroyed the marriage; it was the consequence of believing that there was a demon in the house that did it. I also know of some truly unfortunate people who worried themselves so badly that they ended up needing psychiatric care. This is a travesty and it is an abomination.

Then you have those who label everything demonic due to their own self-serving interests. Obviously, the story of how you had to battle powerful devils will sell a lot faster than the story of a minor, human haunting. These are the ones who will say anything if it will enhance their reputations, not to mention their wallets. The problem with this is the tragic effect that this can have on the person who came needing help. The investigator gets a couple of TV spots while the victims have nervous breakdowns. These people fail to realize that they are looked upon as experts and whatever they tell the victims is taken as gospel truth. Those who would tell innocent people that they are under the siege of a demon when that is not the case are a disgrace to the profession, if not humanity. They will complain on one hand about how little respect and credibility they receive while on the other hand, they act in such a manner as to cause the very thing they complain about. No other field comes under as much scrutiny as this one does and no other field has done so much to deserve it. They behave in this hysterical manner and then wonder why so few take them seriously. There are people in this field who are very knowledgeable and who sincerely want to help others. They take the time to learn and they make the necessary sacrifices. However, we all pay the price as a result of those who see demons everywhere.

Let me close this by pointing out that there are demonic hauntings. Over the many years I have been in this field, I have witnessed them and their capabilities. However, I cannot emphasize enough that those cases are rare. What should you do if you think you are being haunted? By all means, seek help. If it is a real haunting, you will need it. However, be wary of anyone who walks into your home and tells you after ten minutes that your home is the portal to hell. My advice there is to call someone else. The Catholic Church has the wonderful “Roman Ritual of Exorcism.” This was designed to expel the most serious type of spirit, the demon. While they are sometimes guilty of dragging their feet on the matter, they use that ritual only for the most serious cases, those proven conclusively to be demonic. The late John Cardinal O’Connor of New York openly talked about exorcisms and stated that he had given the authorization to perform them numerous times. He caught quite a bit of flack from the secular world over those statements but he felt they were necessary. However, he also pointed out how rare those instances are. He was an extraordinary man worth believing so when some “expert” tells you that there are legions of powerful devils in your house, be skeptical, be very skeptical.