Ghost Calling Me Mean

I'm a big advocate against confrontation of ghosts. It's rude and downright mean. A lot of ghost hunters I've run across are not gifted with the ability to quickly discern who is on the other end of that communication. Few of them have a crew member with psychic or medium abilities, and they depend upon electronic or battery-operated equipment, as well as vague questions. Therefore, when they confront and antagonize the ghost, they don't know if it is a small child, someone's mother or sister, or a confused and lost soul.

I've made a solemn promise to myself to be respectful of the paranormal and the ghosts I meet there. The members of my Supernatural Researchers of Texas crew feel the same. But I got sucker-punched by a ghost last week, who accused me of exactly that, being mean. That did give me cause to step back and think hard about what I'd done. My only defense, at least to myself, was these two ghosts were upsetting a small child. And those who follow my stories and blogs know that nothing gets my dander up faster than a ghost scaring a child.

I usually do know whom I'm confronting, even though sometimes it takes a while for me to open communication with the ghost or ghosts we find. This time, we were somewhat aware ahead of time what the situation was. We knew there was at least one older lady ghost who was upsetting a ten-year-old little boy. It didn't take us long after arrived, however, to find two ghosts there, both of them older women. That's what set the state of affairs up, a situation that had deteriorated quickly from the boy enjoying playing with one woman, to him being upset and scared. That's when my crew was called in.

It took us even longer to figure out exactly who the second ghost was. The homeowner was fairly certain about the first one, and we confirmed that. After some detective work and questioning, we learned who the other woman was.

As I always do, I opened a door into The Light soon after we arrived. Both women refused to cross through it. They were fighting with each other, and one refused to leave until the other one did. And, of course, each insisted the other one go first. Eventually, my temper flared.

"You both need to understand what the heck you're doing to the people in this home," I said. "Most importantly, you're scaring a little boy. I'm giving you one last chance. You either go into The Light — and go now — or else. We're going to be doing a cleansing, and you won't be able to re-enter this house. You'll end up wandering around somewhere else, lost and alone. And I'm not just threatening you. I'm telling you how it will be."

I'll admit, my voice was rather angry. We'd been there close to an hour, dealing with two women who were only interested in besting each other. I guess I got through to one of them, because she immediately went into The Light. I walked back to the room where the second ghost had taken up residence and sternly told her the other woman had left, and that it was her turn to go.

You're mean! she said to me.

Uh oh, I thought to myself. Even though they had more or less driven me to it, I was sorry I'd broken one of my own rules.

This woman continued to refuse to go into The Light, although she did continue to communicate sporadically with a couple of the crew members. Whenever I approached the room, though, she shut down.

A while later, I realized what I needed to do. I apologized to her, and she accepted the apology. Minutes later, my crew member Sarah and I successfully led her outside and watched her go up the golden path into The Light.

I'll probably write more in-depth about this investigation and the cleansing we did after we were sure both ghosts were safe across The Veil, but I wanted to touch on enough of this to make it clear that ghosts are indeed still people. They maintain their personalities and even their character flaws prior to entering The Light. I don't think these two women knew each other in life. In fact, I'm fairly certain they didn't. And maybe I handled the situation the way it needed to be handled. I'm not sure. I do know that I felt compelled to apologize to that second woman, and she was big enough to accept that apology and do what I asked, which was what was best for her.

So I'll continue to be a proponent for everyone to be respectful of the ghosts they meet, including myself.

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I am getting some writing done. Not as fast as I'd like, but plans are slogging along. I'll get Living with Dead Folks, Volume Two, the collection of my 2013 blogs, up next month. Angela already has an idea for the cover. I also want to start working periodically on another volume of true ghost stories, Volume VI. In addition, SRT has an investigation lined up this week, so the year is off to a busy start.

Sometime this year, the Beckham Hotel in Mineola should open for business. I'm so looking forward to that! I already have my reservation in for the first available weekend, and Connie wants us back to do another investigation after the hotel is open. She wants to know how the ghosts feel about having visitors again. That will be so interesting and a lot of fun, given the slew of evidence we got during the last investigation. I'll keep reminding myself to be polite, even if I encounter a ghost who is rude to me. If it's a negative entity, though, no promises.

I'll be sure and shout out here and on my Facebook page when the Beckham is open. I'd love to have anyone close enough to visit join us at their Grand Opening.

Stay safe, and….

Boo!

T. M.