Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters (11 page)

I explored for more details and asked Kacey what kind of faces they were seeing.

“This is what really scared me when Shannon told me. Shannon was playing down here with Holly one time and kept getting distracted. She kept feeling like something was terribly wrong but had no idea why. Almost as if someone was about to die and she was picking up on it with her sixth sense, I guess? Finally, she looked up and saw this creature’s face in the window to the garage room. She described it as having a really long giraffe’s neck but the face was ancient and reptilian looking. Almost a cross between a snake, alligator, and gecko’s face. She said that it had water pouring out of its mouth. I don’t know. I just hate that room with a passion. I never go in there, which is why it is completely empty. I won’t even use it for storage.”

Everyone seemed to be severely uncomfortable with the room and I was now certain that the demon truly did reside there. Although we had found the most concentrated room, I still wanted to find out why the entity had come into their lives. We went back upstairs to escape the black void leaking from the garage room and met in the living room. The basement’s cold grasp was hard to shake off as we ascended the stairs. The negative energy emanating from it felt like a very icy, damp fog that clung to bones and flesh.

I questioned whether or not Kacey was experiencing anything odd at her place of work or if any strange activity occurred. I wanted to see to what extent the haunting was affecting Kacey. In some difficult hauntings, the activity has occasionally taken place at the victim’s place of employment.

“Well that is something I wanted to talk with you about,” Kacey paused and stared at her feet beneath her clasped hands. “I would feel terrible if this was the reason why … but I work at a cemetery. You don’t think it could be the reason why things are so strange here, do you?” Kacey tried containing her tears. Her sense of guilt was saddening.
How horrible it would be to feel responsible for a terrifying haunting that is scaring your daughter and granddaughter
.

“Kacey, no matter what job you have, no matter where you live, you are never solely responsible for a haunting.” I raised my eyebrows and lowered my head to meet her eyes. “Okay?” I explained that spirits and demons alike both have a mind of their own and if they decide to haunt a location that is their decision; it was not her decision or her responsibility.

Spirits are everywhere, even at the grocery store or car wash. If they follow someone, that is something the spirit chose, unless that individual invited them. I told Kacey that I would like to teach her some techniques on how to protect herself more and how to keep out the bad things.

Kacey nodded her head quietly and I hoped to calm her feelings of remorse and shame. It was possible that the entity followed Kacey home from work, but it seemed as though Shannon was feeding the entity and giving it a permanent reason to stay with the family. I had experienced demons at cemeteries before, although I did not realize it at the time.

I began sharing my story with Kacey. One evening when I was in high school, my mother, boyfriend, and I decided that we wanted to visit a notorious cemetery nearby in Michigan in hopes of capturing an EVP. Concerned for the three of us and the possibility of getting arrested, my father insisted that he chaperone us to the graveyard and keep an eye out for us. My dad is a logical man. He is a retired engineer and inventor, has over sixteen international patents, and is a member of MENSA. At that time he was not entertaining the idea of ghosts and ghouls. But that would soon change.

In the courageous minivan we made our way to the cemetery at around ten o’clock in the evening. My mother, hoping she could outsmart the possible dark entities there, placed the voice recorder on the tombstone of a reverend—praying his holiness would protect our asinine efforts. Boy, were we wrong! We left the recorder there for about two hours and returned around midnight after having coffee and some dessert. When we revisited that night, the entire feeling of the cemetery had changed and all of us had felt the transformation.

My mom was incredibly nervous and dropped her purse; she scurried to gather the discarded items back into her bag before jumping into the car. We ran and grabbed the recorder and took off in the van.
So brave
.

At around three in the morning, I woke up to the loud sound of something crashing on the floor. I went upstairs to investigate but did not find anything out of place or broken. I begrudgingly went back to sleep. Later that morning, over the conversation of breakfast, I asked if anyone else had heard that sound. My father paused from eating his pancake and put down his fork. “Oh my god, I completely forgot about that!” My mom chimed in and also declared that she had forgotten. Apparently, while my parents were sleeping, my dad awoke to his sleep apnea machine being thrown across the room. The machine weighed a considerable amount and was not within arms-reach of the bed. The device was thrown several feet across the room and it abruptly awoke my dad.

My mother said she just lay there with her eyes shut and kept praying. “I apologized to the spirit and promised that I would never return to that cemetery if it would just leave and go in peace!”

My father also found the event to be unsettling, especially since he was the one targeted in the attack and had forgotten to grab his crucifix necklace before driving us to the cemetery. I, of course, returned to the cemetery in the future to show others, but my mother kept her promise and none of us were bothered again.

I did, however, encounter the same angry presence in that graveyard and, to this day, I believe it was evil in nature. Nearly eight years later my father now questions the experience and his logical, engineer mind has determined that the event is explainable. However, I distinctly remember his reaction the morning after the event—it was genuine.

Sometimes things follow people from cemeteries. As a lesson learned, I always advise people to protect themselves with prayers and the white light before and after dealing with compromising locations such as graveyards.

“So it is possible that it did follow you, Kacey, but I think it stayed because it felt it could influence Shannon.” As if we had summoned her, Shannon returned from her absence and joined us back in the living room.

I announced to both Shannon and Kacey that it sounded like the family was dealing with an inhuman entity, after hearing all of their accounts and personal experiences.

“So you are saying that it
is
a demon?” Shannon inquired with a sarcastic tone.

I confirmed with a solemn “yes.” The hooded figure she had been seeing, the reptilian face in the basement, the growling sounds, the inappropriate “touch her” statement on the baby monitor … all of these seemed to point towards a demonic presence. I proceeded to ask Shannon if she had heard any other voices, such as her child’s or mother’s voice when they were not home. Shannon paused in response to my question and then her eyes grew wider, her sarcasm gone.

“Actually, I do remember something like that.” Shannon’s voice had changed to a more humble tone. “Kacey had left to go grocery shopping while I was home with Holly one evening. While I was in the kitchen preparing some food for Holly, I heard my mother calling me. I assumed that she had a quick visit to the grocery store and perhaps forgot her wallet and that was the reason she came home so early. I yelled back to her and told her that I was in the kitchen, and asked her what she wanted. She did not respond, so I went into the living room to ask her again what she wanted. No one was home. I went through the entire house and couldn’t find her anywhere. But it
was
my mom’s voice!”

I continued taking notes as Shannon finished her story. I wanted to know if Kacey had personally encountered any physical attacks—a hallmark of how severe the haunting had become. I asked her if she had any experiences with the entity touching her. I listed clawing, scratches, poking, shoving, and slapping as examples. Kacey nodded her head and hesitantly began reciting her memories.

“Last summer I was taking a nap with Holly while Shannon spent some time with her boyfriend. We were just sleeping on the couch together, all cuddled up. I remember waking up suddenly after I felt a distinct fist or hand punch through the bottom side of the cushion!”

“Oh my God!” Shannon blurted out. “I didn’t know you had the same thing happen to you! I have had a fist punch me from
underneath
my bed’s mattress!” There seemed to be a connection or trust building between Shannon and Kacey after they shared their similar stories. They had obviously never truly talked about the haunting together and never gave each other the chance to confide in one another.

“It’s terrifying,” Kacey stated while looking over at Shannon. “It only happened to me that one time … but I don’t think I could continue living here if it happened again.”

I reassured them both that I came to help Kacey and her family so they didn’t have to keep experiencing these things. It is just not healthy living in fear and stress all the time. I didn’t want Shannon’s child Holly to grow up in a home with such a dark entity and environment. She would start to have memories soon and I wanted those memories to be good ones.

I decided that we should proceed with the blessing after figuring out the religious views of both Kacey and Shannon.

“I do believe in God. I am not religious in that I don’t go to church, but I am a firm believer that there is a God. I know Shannon believes in God, but not so much lately.” Kacey nodded towards Shannon in hopes that she would explain her views to us as well.

“I believe in God, it’s just that … I don’t ever seem to get a response when I pray and there are just so many bad things going on that sometimes I feel like He isn’t listening.” Shannon was resigned. “Like when that paranormal group came over here, everything got really active and I kept praying for God to make it stop, but it only got worse!”

I interrupted Shannon briefly to clarify her statement about a previous paranormal group and the increase of activity—it was an important piece of information.

It completely slipped Kacey’s mind, but she went on to explain, “Yes. We had a paranormal group from outside the Lansing area come to do an investigation one evening. Does that cause a problem for the blessing today?”

I explained that it was not a problem at all, but I was curious to find out if they had captured any evidence, had personal experiences, or tried to bless the home. Sometimes paranormal groups will try to bless a home and it doesn’t work, so then the activity flares up—along the lines of what Shannon was suggesting.

Shannon explained that the paranormal group got some weird or “abnormal” EMF (electromagnetic field) readings off her bedroom mirror. “We moved the mirror and couldn’t find any electrical lines or a reason for why the mirror was giving a high reading.” Shannon partly smiled—proud of her recently learned knowledge on paranormal devices and prac
tices. “There were about five of them, and they all started freaking out when their batteries died. They said that the spirit
was draining the battery.”

Kacey stated that she had seen their own batteries and light bulbs go dead pretty quickly in the house, so she was not too surprised when the investigators said their batteries were dying. She lifted the television remote, suggesting that she had to replace batteries too frequently and it was a source of much frustration for her.

“But they did kind of do a blessing, I think?” Shannon acknowledged. “I remember they brought a Bible and were walking around the house reciting prayers and stuff after they did the investigation that night.”

I inquired if the blessing was performed the same evening after the investigation. Shannon nodded and I jotted down the details on my cluttered notepad. I always preferred to bless homes during the daytime, but I understood the group’s desire to remove the entity after dealing with it during the investigation.

I asked Shannon and Kacey to sit and pray out loud together when we began the blessing—asking God to come into their home and lives and to remove any evil or dark entities. I reminded them to try to focus as much as they could while we performed the ceremony and if anything happened to keep praying and ignore the activity. Kacey and Shannon nodded, realizing that the final moments of the haunting had finally arrived and perhaps they shared an uncertainty in regards to the long-term results. After having a blessing done previously, some clients begin to doubt the effectiveness of praying and the ceremonies. I began unpacking my blessing supplies, including a charcoal disc that had to be lit.

When I went into the kitchen I found a gas stove with the igniter burnt out. I’ve always had visions of blowing up the kitchen accidently with gas stoves, despite my love for them in my previous culinary classes. It seems like action movies frequently use the gas line in the kitchen to demolish the place. I had
no
desire to do such a thing. My irrational fears were quickly extinguished when Carl bustled into the kitchen and started up the gas flames. I was relieved.

Holding the charcoal disc over the flame, I got the abalone shell ready. I remember sensing the presence behind me as I was breaking up the white sage smudge stick into small pieces.

As we worked, Carl and I joked amongst ourselves. “Do you feel that?” I asked. “Uncle Ted is here …” I referred to the demon as if it were some obnoxious relative.

“Yep,” Carl replied. “Didn’t you know there was a family cookout today?” I always appreciated keeping calm and a sense of humor even when being intimidated by an evil entity.

“Well, I brought a special dish to pass for the cookout, my smoked white sage—Uncle Ted’s favorite!” I chuckled and then headed into the living room with Carl.

Once the blessing began I always presented a “game face” attitude and although I was assertive and stern with spirits and entities during a blessing, I was always warm and friendly with the family to comfort them. I think many clients expect a dramatic and theatrical event to unfold during a blessing, similar to an exorcism out of a blockbuster feature. However, my cleansings are quite relaxing and healing for the families.