Daoist Exorcism, VIII

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VIII. pp. 76-89 Encountres with Ghosts

VIII.A.0. p. 77 ghosts (gui)

p. 77a

"form and appearance of ghosts" : "sometimes they appear translucent, sometimes they appear as shadows, and sometimes they take on a white misty appearance with rippling edges surrounding their form. They may change appearance while being watched, or they may vanish completely. Some appear as human or spiritual beings (of all classes), some as animals, and some as phantom objects (trees, houses and bridges, etc.). ... A ghost can also manifest as a disembodied voice or an energetic ball of light."

p. 77b

Poltergeists "manifest through such antics as making noises, vile smells, strange lights, moving objects, interfering with telephones or other electrical equipment, turning lights and appliances on and off ... .

 

... this paranormal activity almost always occurs at night.

{Such paranormal activity as I have witnessed has happened in the evening (nigh sunset) whenever motion of the praeternatural being viewed took place; but whenever the praeternatural being remained motionless, it was always during the full daylight (not nighttime).}

 

Such occurrences usually start and stop abruptly and can continue for several hours, several months

{Such visible forms and appearance may instead typify divine beings as witnessed by mortals. Souls of the dead tend to remain invisible, and are usually (or always?) whisked away promptly to become redincarnate into another body for another lifespan. I have often seen praeternatural manifestations (glow or black shape or shadow or whatever) in the shape of a human or of an animal, and always believed (except for the one viewing that occurred in my childhood, when I thought that I was looking at the soul of a dead person) while I was viewing it that it was a deity visiting from a divine world. [It would take a rabid atheist (or a complete ignoramus) to imagine otherwise.] (Sometimes I saw a sphairoid, and believed while I was viewing it that it was a divine vehicle.) When I once heard a disembodied voice speaking from the air, I assumed that it was that of a deity.}

VIII.A.1. p. 78a attachment of a ghost to a living person’s mind

"earthbound ghosts soon learn to enter, hitchhike on, and overshadow the minds of individuals who frequent the areas and places where the earthbound ghosts are".

{The praeternatural being who is able to enter or to "overshadow" a living human is a deity, not a "ghost" -- so say West African who have much experience in these matters in the way of spirit-possession (the "areas and places" involved being the interiors of West African religious temples).}

VIII.A.3. p. 79b the 3 powers of ghosts

"They are able to put specific thoughts into people’s minds that can cause them to act in unethical ways.

{Would "these unethical ways" usually include failure to welcome being severely exploited by a rapacious ruling-class?}

They are able to block a person’s progress (mental, emotional, or spiritual).

{Would this co-called progress usually include developing an obsequious submissiveness to a ruling-class?}

... When a ghost enters a room, you will feel the temperature of the room drop, and generally experience a chill;

{This may be related to a "ghost’s" capacity to keep one from losing one’s "cool" (peacefulness; and by "losing one’s cool", becoming "hot-headed", viz. wrathful).}

this is known as a "psychic cold."

{The Hellenic word /psukho-/ (with variant /psukhro-/) literally signifieth ‘cold’.}

If a ghost touches your body or passes through your body, you will also experience a feeling of ... extreme cold."

{Any ability to "put specific thoughts into people’s minds" would be a power of deities, not of "ghosts".}

VIII.A.4. p. 80a ghost-attacks due to heritage

"In most ancient cultures, it was believed that the living could be held liable for all of the ... actions performed by ancestors (e.g., "the sins of the fathers visiting {being visited upon} their descendants"). It was thought in ancient China that

the mistreated ... dead could complain to the Three Officials (known as the Judge of earth, the judge of water, and the Judge of Air) ... and initiate a "grievance from beyond the tomb." If the mistreated ... dead initiated {and won, in the divine courts of law} a "burial lawsuit" (known as "Zhongsong"), specific detrimental occurrences would immediately begin to affect the living.

{The "living", upon whom such "detrimental occurrences" would begin to affect, would, of course, be members of the oppressive ruling-class who had unjustly and violently abused commoners who had died from being thusly abused.}

This type of inherited ... {guilt} was known in ancient China as "Jicheng Zhongfu," or "received (inherited) burden," and was ... passed from one generation to another."

{If an oppressive and violent ruling-class were not immediately divinely manifestly punished for its crimes against the working-class, it was believed that, nevertheless, divine punishment would eventually be inflicted upon such a unjust dynasty.}

{In the Han Dynasty, such accounts of divine punishment merely involved private individuals; but in later accounts even royal dynasties were held to be divinely punishable. After the popular feeling that even royal dynasties are divinely punishable became in widespread vogue, then cases involved private individuals lost their prominence.}

VIII.A.7. p. 82a interacting with ghosts

"When a ghost is responsible for a haunting, ... a spirit entity is present that is trying to communicate ... to the physical realm. ... When communicating with a ghost or spirit entity, the mystic must use mental telepathy as a form of thought transference."

VIII.A.8. pp. 82b-84 common ghostly manifestations

p. 82b

"Ghosts seem to move through solid matter and can appear or disappear abruptly. They can also cast shadows and be reflected in mirrors ... .

 

Many ghosts have jerky

{This is also true of visions of the type which are not located relative to the material world and can be seen in the waking state with the eyen closed. (I have seen them thus, often.)}

p. 83a

or limited movements, while others are lifelike in movement and speech."

p. 83b

"In China, the relatives of a recently deceased person ... detected the presence of his or her ghost in the house on the seventh day after their death. The ancient Chinese believed that it generally took this long (three to seven days) for most ghosts to realize that they have died. Once they have accepted this fact, they would return home to "collect" their belongings and say their final farewells. On the evening of the seventh day, the deceased person’s relatives would set up an altar and ... leave his or her personal belongings outside their bedroom door so that they could "pick them up."

 

Special care was taken to include the spirit ghost’s shoes, because it was believed that he or she could not travel to the Underworld without them."

{The same belief and practice about the soul of the recently dead needing shoon for traveling is also praevalent amongst Zaratustrians.}

VIII.B.0. p. 85 hauntings

p. 85a

"a ... powerful ghost will attach itself to humans, animals, and even plants that are being transported in order to move from one area to another. ... In order to cross running water, a ghost must first attach itself to a human or animal to "catch a ride.""

p. 85b

"There are two main types of entities encountered during a haunting. One type of entity was originally ... living ...; such an entity is known as a Gui or ghost. ... The other type of spirit entity is ... an Elemental or demonic entity. This type of entity has never walked the Earth in human form."

VIII.B.1. pp. 85b-86a psychokinesis

p. 85b

"demonic entities are regularly capable of moving furniture and appliances that weigh hundreds of pounds.

A ghost is able to manipulate physical objects, provided there is no significant weight (levitate a pencil, or break a teacup). For example, lights may be switched on and off,

 

there may be knocking or

{I have experienced this.}

 

small objects may move in your presence."

{I have experienced this.}

p. 86a

"The earthbound ghost tends to remain in a particular room ... . ... A ghost can manifest at any time (day or night)."

{It may, howver, be that, instead, both heavyweight and lightweight "entities" are actually deities, albeit of distinct categories.}

VIII.B.2. pp. 86b-87a types of hauntings

p. 86b

"Ghosts from old houses and ancient places have been known to relocate to new homes that incorporate material from the haunted location."

"In the magical art of sorcery, rituals are conducted at sacred sites or houses with the intention to deliberately

p. 87a

construct a type of super spiritual entity (usually a guardian) ... . This spirit guardian is created ... ."

{Actually, a divine being cannot be created nor destroyed : a divine being can, however, be enlisted into service and induced to serve as guardian-spirit, whether of a person or of a locality.}

{The fundamentally atheistic attitude of the author, or of his literary sources, is in evidence in the baseless supposition that guardian-spirits can be "constructed" or "created". Guardian-spirits are aeternal divinities who of their own free will may condescend (for their own motives) to assist living humans in those humans’ projects and endeavours. On the contrary, from the point-of-view of such immortal divinities, mortal humans’ lives may be "constructed" or "created" by them. Surely, the sort of insult fabricated by author (or by his literary sources) cannot go forever unpunished by the deities involved, if this matter of honor be sufficient brought to those deities’ attention.}

VIII.B.3. p. 87 haunted houses & spirit-portals

p. 87a

"Generally haunted houses contain "cold spots" where paranormal activity is centered. These "cold spots" are considered to be interdimensional doorways or spirit portals through which spirit entities travel. ... The strange phenomenon ... common to haunted houses can result from the activities of ... spirit entities operating through these interdimensional doorways. The

p. 87b

strange phenomenon commonly observed in haunted houses can often be explained as the observation of the "original" event ... of the energetic pattern (i.e., haunting).

 

{A myth is (as, e.g., according to MER) likewise a description of

 

This phenomena {sic : the author hath carelessly reversed singular and plural of this Hellenic word} is viewed ... within a repeating loop (for example, the image of a ghost always ascending the stairs at a specific time of night)."

 

a divine event which may be endlessly repeated, whether in the natural world or in an artificial ritual.}

MER = Mircea Eliade : The Myth of the Eternal Return.

VIII.B.4. pp. 87b-88 researching a haunted house

p. 87b

"Before seriously considering performing an exorcism on any type of person, place, or thing ..., it is advisable to first conduct extensive research surrounding the item in question. ... Sometimes a haunting can occur due to misguided magical practices (i.e., the individual did not understand how to control the magical ritual they were performing) ... . ... Before exorcising a haunted area ..., the local history of the house and the land surrounding the area should all be taken into consideration. All surrounding areas that contain any form of supernatural history should be noted ... . ... It is also extremely important to know if the individual

p. 88a

seeking your help has inadvertently offended a Guardian Spirit of a sacred site, and Elemental, or a Nature Spirit. Another important thing for an exorcist to note is the energetic patterns of the area’s Feng Shui, especially energy traveling along the area’s ley lines and water lines. These areas are common energetic pathways used by certain spirits {sic} entities for travel ... .

If the area has been deliberately cursed, the symptoms need to be ... and the cause of the curse discovered and removed. Sometimes an area can be accidently cursed. This can happen when amateur sorcerers perform poorly-executed shutdowns of the Magic Circle after completing their magical rituals. When High Magic (i.e., Deity Magic) is not performed properly, the gathered magical energy can ... crate all form of problems. ... If left unchecked, the magical effects of the released [energy] can eventually manifest in a full-blown ... demonic infestation. This is one reason why, when visiting the area in question, an exorcist will be careful to note any unusual animal behavior (e.g., the lack of birds singing is a clear giveaway that the energetic field is toxic and destructive)".

p. 88b

"Before exorcising a possessed {"an obsessed", not "a possessed"} individual, all information relating to his or her ... spiritual health, as well as family lineages containing shamanic and paranormal skills should be immediately noted ... . ... Are they, or were they ever involved in any form of occult magic?"

VIII.B.5. pp. 88b-89a before beginning an exorcism

p. 88b

"the sorcerer will perform a purification ritual in order to prepare ... for the encounter. Depending on the type of spirit entity involved, the preparation can take from several hours to as long as three days. In certain encounters with powerful demonic entities, three days of continual purification prayer and fasting on Holy Water in mandatory ... . ... When performing an exorcism, usually a team of three trained sorcerers (priests) combine their energies and enter into the target area ... as a single unit of focused magical power. Before arriving at the area in question, ... the team of exorcists first determine if the encounter will require gentile negotiation tactics, or ... fierce magical ...

p. 89a

psychic combat ... . ... Sometimes, the peaceful coexistence between a benign spirit entity and the current resident of a place is the only safe and healthy resolution to the problem.

If the entity is found to be extremely hostile, Depending on the circumstance ..., the exorcist can choose

to trap, bind, and remove the spirit (i.e., by placing it in a storage area, like placing a Genie in a bottle);

create an energetic portal and then return it to where it came from, or

banish it to a more suitable dimension (e.g., in cases where a rogue Elemental is involved)".

VIII.B.6. p. 89 removing an entity

p. 89a

"Techniques such as shaking clanging cymbals, ringing gongs, lighting firecrackers, spraying Holy Water, burning sacred herbs ... are

p. 89b

all used in order to drive the spirit out of certain areas of the house and lead it into a containment cell (i.e., a ball of Jet or Obsidian is used as a securing medium). ... An energetic vortex is created within the center of the ball of Jet (or Obsidian) and placed in the middle of the containment area. The energetic field of this swirling vortex extends 360 degrees outwards into the room, moving in a clockwise direction. As the spirit entity is driven into the containment area, it becomes trapped within the magical orb’s energetic field. ... Eventually the spirit entity is spiralled into the center core of the magical orb, and contained. The exorcist will then use magical incantations and hand seals in order to seal the trapped spirit inside the magical orb (sometimes magical gourds are used in this process)."

VIII.B.7. p. 89b cleansing a haunted house

"After an exorcism, it is necessary to ... change the energetic structure of a house in order to avoid re-encountering any earthbound ghosts ... that have been attracted to the area. One technique ... is to remove all outside bushes that block the windows ... . Inside the house, paint the walls white, yellow, or light blue ... . Remove all furniture, pictures, mirrors and mementos from any previous owner."

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Jerry Alan Johnson : Daoist Exorcism : Encounters with Sorcerers, Ghosts, Spirits, and Demons. Temple of the Celestial Cloud, Pacific Grove (CA), 2006. revised 2007.