Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween – Welcoming the Spirits


Halloween is not only a time of costumes, parties, trick-or-treating, jack o’lanterns, and candy. It’s also the time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. This means that you can more easily contact the dead.  

But how do you do that? It’s easier than you think. Here are some methods to help you contact your department loved ones – or anyone else you want!

Contacting the Dead – 3 Easy Ways

Contacting the dead is usually harmless. But because the veil between the living and the dead is so thin on Halloween, evil spirits can also creep in. So before you summon spirits, you need to ask for protection. This can be as simple as saying a short prayer:

Dear Lord. I ask for your protection and ask that only good spirit come through to me in this session.  Amen. (You can use any deity you’d like.) 

You can also visualize a white or purple light streaming down upon you from heaven, then circling your body through the duration of the session.

After you have asked and received protection, you can proceed to one of these methods of summoning spirits.

1. Meditation. Go to a room where you will not be disturbed for at least 30 minutes. To set the mood, you may light candles and incense and play soft music, if you’d like. Sit in a comfortable chair, back straight, feel flat on the floor, with your hands (palm up) on your lap. Touch your thumb and index finger together on each hand.

Inhale slowly to a count of three. Hold breath for a couple seconds. Then exhale to a count of four. Repeat several rounds, concentrating totally on your breath. Whenever thoughts intrude (and they will), simply return your attention to your breath.

After a few minutes, start noticing your thoughts. Notice how they arise from nothingness and how they return to nothingness. Don’t engage your thought or try to hold onto them in any way. Simply let them come and go. After a few minutes of this, start noticing the space between your thoughts.
By this time, your thoughts should have calmed down quite a bit.

Now…every time there’s a space between your thoughts, ask a question of someone who has passed on. Think your question, as opposed to asking it verbally. Then wait for the response. Now that your thoughts have settled down, you should be able to hear the spirits. They actually talk to you all the time, but your mind is usually so busy, you don’t hear them. This Halloween, you can actually listen to them!

2. Scrying. You can contact the dead using a reflective surface like a crystal ball, a black mirror, or even a glass or bowl filled with water. Staring into a reflective surface is believed to induce a state of altered consciousness.

Just like with meditation, go to a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed for at least 30 minutes. Then…put your scrying object – crystal ball, black mirror, etc – on a surface at a level where you can comfortable look at it when sitting in a chair. Position an armchair so that it’s facing the table. Light a candle and put it on a stable surface somewhere behind the chair. Again, you may light incense and play soft music, if you’d like. Turn off any lights. The room should be totally dark except for one flickering candle.

Sit in the chair, close your eyes, and begin breathing slowly and deeply. As you breathe, relax your body and clear your mind. Relax and breathe for about ten minutes. Then open your eyes, and gaze into the scrying object. Look deeply into it, but with a softened gaze. (Let your eyes go out of focus).
You may instantly start seeing images, or you may see a mist form before images appear. You may also see nothing the first time around. (However, some people do see images in the very first session.) Don’t try too hard, and don’t scry for more than 20 minutes in the beginning. This is a method that takes practice. But you may also be one of those lucky people who see something immediately, especially if you do this on Halloween.

3. Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). You can listen to recorded sounds of spirits. This method is amazingly easy. All you have to do is turn on a recording device, ask the spirit a question, and then shut up and let the machine record silence for the next few minutes. When you play the recording back, however, you may be amazed to discover that you’ve recorded a spirit’s voice. (You will not hear this voice while recording, only during playback.) Though easy, the EVP method doesn’t usually give you a lot of information. Rather, you will probably just hear a word or two. But it’s probably enough to let you know your loved one is alive and well – at least in the spirit world!

There are many more ways to communicate with the dead, but these three are probably the most common. (Yes, I forgot to include the Ouija Board!) Do you have any favorites you’d like to add?