The Christmas Carol is the fictional story of miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge.
He was haunted by the ghosts of his Christmas past, present, and future. They reminded him of who he was and where his path was leading to give him a second chance at making other choices. We don’t tend to associate Christmas with ghosts or hauntings with our own spirit, but this spooky time of year might be a good time to take a look at what lurks within our own psyche. We might find a ghost or two hiding there.
How Can We Haunt Ourselves?
Unlike Scrooge who looked only at his present life past, a self haunting discovers what spiritual residue from past lives remains that continues to influence your life. Examples of past life residue are unexplained phobias, like an intense fear of dogs when you can’t recall a negative experience with one or a dreadful fear of drowning despite never been in water deeper than a three foot pool. Past life residue can result in the carrying of medical issues or pain that no treatment can alleviate. The energy can be about having unfinished business. If you find yourself compulsively repeating patterns that don’t make sense in the here and now, you may have had a made a dying vowing like, “I’ll always love you,” “You’re going to pay for that,” or “This will never happen to me again!” that continues to play out in this life.
The groundbreaking work of Dr. Raymond Moody who studies near death and shared death experiences suggests that the consciousness continues after death and is met and transformed by what is described as “heavenly energy” or love. However, ancient yoga teachings say that our consciousness has four distinct energy fields: the vital field which carries the imprint of all unresolved physical wounds, pains and diseases; the emotional field which carries memories of unresolved emotional issues; the mental field which carries all obsessive or repetitive thoughts; and the spiritual field which belongs to the collective unconscious (according to Jung) and houses karmic ties of unresolved psychic or spiritual connections. (Dr. Ian Stevenson’s extensive work with people who spontaneously recall past lives has shown that many also carry the wounds of their deaths in the past life in their current bodies as birth marks. This evidence may support the idea of the existence of the vital field). When we reincarnate, the energetic imprints of those past life fields come back with us for better or worse!
How Can You Tell If You are Haunted?
If you have any of the following signs, you may have unresolved past life energy lingering around:
- De` ja vu, strong compulsions or feelings about a person, place or thing. Feeling inexplicably drawn to someone or something.
- Mysterious illnesses or pain that don’t respond to treatment.
- Phobias or unexplained fears.
- Recurring thoughts or nightmares that aren’t related to anything in this life.
- Repeating patterns- especially illogical ones- such as OCD behavior, a compulsive drive to win, ferocious condemnation of a lifestyle, belief or practice, or playing the loser.
- Being a grounded, rational person when it comes to everything except a specific person, place, thing or event and feeling like you have no ability to control it or do anything different.
So how do you get unhaunted?
Sometimes the energy that follows you isn’t holding you back in any way. If you “always knew” you were going to be a doctor and have always possessed a driving force to help people, this could be the result of past life energy where you felt helpless to aid others or you were in need of help yourself and couldn’t get it. If the drive is benefiting you, I’d leave it alone. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, right? Just because there is a past link doesn’t make something bad. If you are growing and contributing, I’d say keep it!
If you have an issue that is bothering you that you’d like to be free of, search for conventional helpers who specialize in present life remedies first. Although it may feel like things are out of your control and there is a past life energy controlling you, it could very well be something very mundane and simple. A trip to a doctor, therapist or pastor may be just the thing to turn things around. If that fails, you may wish to consider making an appointment with someone trained in past life regression.
There are generally no qualifications required for someone to hang a shingle and begin offering regression services so thoroughly screen your prospective helper. Hypnosis may or may not be used. If so, having a certified hypnotherapist is a bonus. While past life work is almost always therapeutic, not all work is therapy. If you want therapy, find someone who is a qualified therapist. This generally means that they have advanced degrees and state licensure. As more research is done on past life therapy, it becomes more and more important that providers of this type of work have specific training. Ask about this too. There are many in the field with only a high school level education, but have been researching for ten or twenty years. Their education could be far superior to that of someone with a degree who only does one or two regressions per year. Consider the whole picture.
Just as Scrooge’s ghost taught him something about himself, your ghosts can too. However, at the end of the day, energy that began in the past generally has no place in the present. The point of revisiting unresolved energy is to release it and move on. When you’re ready to be who you are now, confront the past, use it, grow from it, and leave those old ghosts behind.
By Laura Giles, a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
