Ghosts

[Reverend Annie]

Ghosts, have you seen, felt, smelled, heard, or sensed them? Have you seen strange lights, orbs, fog, or other phenomenon? What have your experiences been with spirits?

[P.dasi]

Namaste Reverend Annie..............I have spoken briefly to Chandler on this subject. According to my own experience, and from what I have read in ancient East Indian texts. I can share some information if you like. Ghosts according to Indian tradition exist. They are subtle bodies, made up of mind, intelligence and false ego. They arise due to someone having committed suicide, or dying untimely. As reincarnation is part of the Indian philosophy, these souls have not lived out their alotted time on earth, and must hang around till their predestined time has come. So they float around in the ether as ghosts. We cannot see bodies of mind, intelligence or ego, but we can feel their presence.

Ghosts are in a suffering condition, because they do not have a gross material body with which to communicate, or enjoy, or perform activities. They seek sometimes to occupy other's bodies. They gather in places of chaos, clutter, mess, junky atmosphere's, unclean places, graveyards etc. They usually enter a weak minded person's body, through their saliva, and try to control that person. Therefore one is thus known to be possessed.

In India special mantra's are chanted to rid ghosts. One who is attacked by a ghost, feels a thick heavy presence over their body, and they cannot move or speak. Usually this happens in the state between wakefullness and dreaming. One can free himself from the presence of ghosts by chanting the Hare Krsna Mantra, known as the Maha Mantra, or the most powerful mantra in existence. Ghosts sense the power of the mantra and flee. So this in a nut shell is what I have come across in my life's experience..................Hare Krsna.............p.dasi.

[Reverend Annie]

Fascinating, P.dasi. I am sure different cultures have different beliefs about ghosts and their origins, their reasons for haunting, etc. I know some people ask ghosts to enter their bodies and use them for conduits to talk to loved ones and such, but the thought of one being able to actually take over a weak body is a little unsettling.

So what is this Mantra that you speak of?

Namaste!

Reverend Annie

[Reverend Annie]

Here is a post I did on my forum back in September:

A small little town that I used to live in called Field, in British Columbia, Canada is alive with ghosts.

Situated in Yoho National Park, just 20 or so minutes from Lake Louise in Alberta, and 15 minutes from the "Great Divide" and Alberta/BC border, this town used to be the site of a Ukrainian work camp. That was back in the first decade or 2 of the early 1900's.

I lived in a small cabin there one of the winter seasons that I worked for Skiing Louise, for 6 months. It was beautiful there. I lived in the second highest house in Field (actually on the mountain overlooking the town). You can see a picture of the quaint little town under the heading "Travel".

[This refers to the "Travel" category on my forum at http://reverendannie.myfreeforum.org]

March 8, 2002

A friend and I decided to go up the mountain to the cemetery. Actually it was my idea and I was just short of dragging my friend there.

To keep myself busy, I counted the steps from my house to our destination. It was 800 steps up the mountain. There was nothing up there. On the other side of the mountain, miles away, was a shale mine. There was nothing and no one within miles of the place we were headed to however, nothing alive anyways.

As we reached the cemetery, I noticed that the entrance was on the other side, not out to the road itself. We went over to the entrance and my friend started getting those big as basketball eyes. I told her it was not imperative that she go in, just that she stay at the entrance and write down anything she saw or heard.

I left my clipboard, pen, and coffee cup there with her and proceeded to go in by myself. It was a crisp winter day. The ground was covered in snow to about 2 feet. Many of the graves were covered in snow so much that I had to brush it off to see the gravestones. I was very careful not to step on any graves.

I made my way to the middle of the graveyard, pausing at graves to look. One interesting thing that I noticed was that many of the dead were young children. Many of the dates were somewhere around the years 1915 to 1920. Then.....it stopped. It was like there must have been an epidemic or something during that time The deaths virtually stopped until the early 1950's. I thought "Those poor children!"

In the center of the cemetery, I decided to ground and center, catch my bearings so to speak. I began talking to the spirits, reassuring them that I was not there to harm anything or anyone, and that I just wanted to take in the beautiful energy there.

I did not feel any bad feelings of any sort. Suddenly I felt as if something brushed my back. I got a bit of a chill. It didn't feel like bad energy. It just felt as if someone was checking me out. A couple of minutes later I saw my friend parallel with me to my right side.

Oddly, she was backing up. The clipboard, pen, and coffee cup were nowhere to be seen anywhere near her. She continued to back up, her hands up at her sides, something like Michael Jackson's moonwalk, except that she had this horrified look on her face.

I finished what I was doing, continuing on to a few more graves, then went back to the entrance, now completely across the cemetery from where my friend was. Outside the gate, I found my clipboard, pen and cup. The clipboard and pen were placed on a rock.

I carefully closed the gate, making sure that the spirits could sense my reverence. I then proceeded to catch up with my friend, who by now was near the edge of the cemetery heading towards my house, still walking backwards. She stopped when she saw me coming towards here.

When we got back to the cabin she wrote her recollection of the events. Here it is:

"What I saw and felt

As I walked up towards the graveyard, I got chills like all the hair standing up on ends. Felt very uneasy. As I stood there I could hear voices, many, but was unable to make out what they were saying. Off in the woods I kept hearing noises like something was coming. I looked over at you to see if you heard them too. Just then I heard a loud noise and as I turned my head I seen a white flash behind you headed toward the back of the graveyard. That was when I put down the clipboard and backed away down past the entrance and waited."

My cat used to sit on the window sill or on the floor in front of the window and stare with big huge eyes outside. Sometimes it was an elk or moose. We had a lot of them around there. However, sometimes it wasn't anything visible to the human eye.

As a Reiki Master, I deal with energy. Every day, as I drove down the mountain near the spiral tunnels of the railroad, to the small town of Field, I could feel my hands tingle as if I was doing a Reiki treatment. They would continue to tingle each night, all night, until the next morning when I drove back out of the valley to work.

There is said to be an old cowboy that wanders the town, sometimes alone, and sometimes with 2 friends....but that is another post.

[P.dasi]

Namaste Reverend Annie:.........The mantra I speak of is as follows:

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna ,Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare.............

According to ancient Vedic Texts in India , this above Maha Mantra contains the energy of the entire universe. In the Bhakti Yoga Path, the understanding is that God is a person and that He is the source of the entire universe, and that in this age of Kali Yuga, or the iron age of quarrel and hypocracy, filled with much suffering, the Lord incarnates in the form of sound, or Mantra to deliver the fallen souls, from the cycle of birth and death, known as Samsara.

Causeless Mercy, Compassion, Love, and Joy is the essence of this Mantra. When ghostly beings are given a chance to hear this Mantra chanted in a merciful and compassionate mood, then their sufferings are mitigated.

I was told a story once about a great Vaisnava Teacher, a Bhakti Yoga Master, named Bhaktivinode Thakur, who was visiting Champaran, where he saw many persons worshiping a ghost, called a "Brahma-daitya" who was living in a Banyan Tree. This ghost had the power to influence peoples minds, and a local court judge, who was under his spell, repeatedly delivered court judgments which favored some bandits who were propitiating the ghost. One day a scholar approached the Yoga Master about the problem. Bhaktivinode told the scholar to recite the ancient texts of Srimad Bhagavatam beneath the tree where the ghost resided. After one month, when the recitation was complete, (as the Srimad Bhagavatam has 40 or so volumes), the tree cracked and fell to the ground, and the ghost left. This Hare Krsna Maha Mantra is found in the Srimad Bhagavatam text. As the Mantra is considered the sound incarnation of God, the Scripture known as Srimad Bhagavatam is considered the literary incarnation of God.

So the difficulty the people of Champaran were experiencing due to the ghost, was solved by the positive sound vibration of mantra.

Personally, myself, I have had a Ghost experience. One night after a particularly exhausting day, and low energy level, I felt a heavy presence bearing down weight upon my entire body. I couldn't move, or speak. I knew it was a ghost, from the descriptions I have read about. I tried to chant the Hare Krsna Mantra out loud, to make it leave, but I was unable to open my mouth. So I mentally chanted in my mind, with all my energy, putting everything I had into the Mantra. Then boom,,,,,,,,,,,the heavy weight lifted off of my body, and the ominous presence disappeared.

So these paranormal realms or dimensions do exist. We just have to understand them properly for what they are.

.................................Hare Krsna...............p.dasi

[P.dasi]

The Ayurvedic Description of Ghosts and Possession

:..From India's Healing Text of the Ayurveda, written by Dr. David Frawley, we see the following description: "In most ancient cultures mental disorders were often attributed to various kinds of possession,,,,by ghosts or evil spirits,,,, and some sort of exorcism was prescribed, Ayurveda also shares this view but in a more sophisticated way, through the knowledge of Yoga. This view is not a naive superstition but reflects the Ayurvedic scientific knowledge of the astral plane and occult worlds. Our physical world is intimately linked up with subtler worlds, and there is a constant interplay of energies between these different dimensions. Forces from these planes can affect us in both positive and negative ways.

Ayurveda distinguishes different forms of possession, according to the entities involved. Possession is most common in individuals who are too passive, dependent, vulnerable,open and impressionable. There is often low self-esteem, an extreme sensitivity and a capacity to take on the influences of the environment. The aura is usually weak and the sense of self is not well defined.

Possession can also occur with groups, as in mob actions and can affect whole countries, like Germany under the Nazis. We must respect these subtle forces, learn to recognize them, and learn to ward off their negative effects. Otherwise we are like children in the dark and can bring upon ourselves many negative experiences that are not necessary. It is here that astrology is particularly important giving us a picture of the astral forces at work in our lives.

Ghosts are entities who were overly attached to the physical world. Death may have been sudden, so it was hard for them to pass on. They wish to continue their stay on the earth plane by being connected with the living. To send them to where they need to go, use of Calamus root in Ayurveda is recommended. Calamus clears the effects of ghosts from the mind. Holy Basil also clears our psychic environment and connects us to the immanent power of the Divine. Incense and ringing of chimes and bells is also clearing. Remove stagnant air from the house, clear attics and basements of old possessions, as negative entities require a negative air space to life in. Consciously direct the entity away, sending it on to its next life, telling it that it's fulfillment is only possible in a new birth."

Hope this authentic information proves useful........p.dasi