Book of the Week

BOOK OF THE WEEK
I haven’t done a book review in awhile , and thought I’d try one for of course practice. While I will read fiction, as my eyes get worse and reading gets harder I tend to try to get the most of what is left in my eyes by learning something.
With me it is probably coincidence that I ever read anything pertinent to my situation, mostly because almost all my books come from thrift stores , paperbacks for very cheap. I do have a collection of hard cover books , that I treasure because of their age and beauty , but for the most part I read paperbacks, mostly that I just find.
With that said I’m not really sure where I came across today’s book of the week , but I’ve been glad that I did. To be a really worthwhile read a book should change your life , a little at least. This book does that.
“The Unquiet Dead” A Psychologist treats spirit possession By Dr. Edith Fiore.
In this case the title says most of the story line, our Dr. Fiore believes that dead people haunt the living and can cause real psychological problems. If you will she believes that possessions are quite common and cause most of the ills of personality disorders.
My first note among many is that at first glance this sounds like another way to blame someone else for your own problems. Since there is an epidemic of this at least in the U.S. where nobody is actually responsible for anything they do as long as they can find some way of deflecting blame.
I like to say that when you set out to really learn you should believe nothing because if you can believe in nothing you can also believe in anything possible. So for all you Christian’s who I’m not going to pick on , remember to keep and open mind if you can. That would go for skeptics , except that being skeptical is probably a good way to read this book. I’ll repeat myself as I’ve said this many times, “There are three times when you can’t learn , With your mouth open, or your mind closed, or you already know it all”.
I’ve had this book a very long time and its been almost four years since I last read it, so as you guess there is probably a personal reason that I would be bringing it up now. In fact I’ve used knowledge out of this book many times as , funny as it seems I possibly am a ghost magnet. After reading the book I could see the possibility that the dead were attaching them selves to my aura or that outer space of mind soul spirit. Not that I ever threw up split pea soup or had my head turn around , im fact that is a wholly other subject, demons , non-human entities usually considered evil and real bad news.
In fact or coincidence our lady doctor says that usually most people open to attaching spirits usually have an experience with some kind of possession that opens up a whole in your whole that allows spirits to enter and influence the way you feel think and act.
In my case my first encounter was an actual exorcism I kid you not. According to theory this makes me susceptible to ghost’s and possessions. While the story will be better told on a dark night near Halloween I’ll just say that I was only about maybe 6 years old and I saw something in that church , as everyone did. And yes I should never have been there along with my little sister and brother. I could blame my mom but one in those days where she went we went and that included a Pentecostal church. As I promised I’m not going to pick on christians , so I wont tell you about the pentacost’s but look it up. I will say this , going to a pentacostle church is an experience you wont soon forget.
Plus after reading her book and evaluating myself I realized that it made sense that I have been followed and inflenced by spirits my whole life. I used to call them my guardian angels but they could of just as easily of been the spirits of people who knew me as I was a baby, most likely my grandmother and greats on my mothers side. After all if anybody has a guardian angel or really plural because it’s taken more than one, not that I’m bragging, but many times my life has been saved by unexplainable ways , including for me the deciding factor I actually maybe saved my own life. I think I’ll briefly explain this , even though I am straying off into maybe another story for another place.
It was during a particularly icy winter and my driveway had been a one inch sheet of ice for almost a month. It was early morning and I came down the stairs and got ready to open the front door and go to work.
Then I heard a voice that said don’t open that door. Very clear and I looked around but I already knew I was alone, so I shooked it off as how weird and took another step towards the door and again I heard Do not open that door , but weirdly it sounded like me talking. I had to say something so I said well why not ? And the voice said just don’t open the door , and I of course said , in a way to myself “ eh what do you know” and I guess I answered myself as the voice with “ alright you jackass go ahead and open the door” and I had to open the door then. As I touched the door handle an electric line broke and fell on my inch of ice driveway, after it hit the house. It hit just as my hand touched the door and knocked me about three feet backwards and on my butt. It dazed me but after the shock I looked outside slowly and saw the power line bouncing on the driveway, if I didnt delay myself I surely would of been dead , so I believe.
What can be debated is who are what that voice was , but I heard it and it saved my life. Not that I always listen to voices in my head. As I’ve said that wasn’t the first or last time that I have encountered unexplainable occurrences , including a ghost at least one. Usually it’s because of the job I have , I work in a lot of houses more than one that had a recent death. Don’t get me wrong I am glad with my condition I don’t work in the health field.
People trying to judge just how crazy I am ask me if I believe in ghost’s, and I always say yes I have to, I met one. While most dead people are just confused and need a little guidance , Hokey as it seems you can just give them basically the old “Go into the light” speech and their on there way.
If you read the book anyway. When I met my first real whole stereo typical ghost or haunting spirit I had not read The unquiet dead and was unprepared on how to deal with ghost’s or really how dangerous they could be.
As I said earlier I believe because I seen and heard things that would only be explainable as being a ghost. I hope this doesn’t go too long but it is a pretty good ghost story, too bad its not Halloween but I got some scarier stuff for then anyway.
It start’s as a paint job I did when I was first learning the business and in them days I worked for a small construction company doing about anything , which is how you learn. I agreed to paint this house for him unseen , not that I could of turned it down , but the stipulation was I had to do it by myself, and not ask questions , which is always fun . I thought strange but hey and showed up and started unloading my tarps and tools. Almost immediately funny stuff started happening. First off I tried to open the windows , air the place out , but every time I would walk away the window would close. I said ok gravity , and propped open a window with a stick. Then I started checking out the house, More strange every time I’d turn on a light from the switch they would turn themselves off as soon as I walked away. Once again I figured old switches sometimes wear out like that, though all of them at the same time was kind of strange. I solved this by running my own lights where I was working.
That first day my boss showed up and I didn’t say anything except he might need an electrician. I did ask him like who owned the place , and he said a church across the street had recently bought it , after apparently nobody else would. I asked him if it was a death house , he said he didn’t know, but I think he did. Either way there was a huge spot on the wall that was either spaghetti or I didn’t really want to think about it. It was decided that I would get busy the next day.

The second day things got weirder or just more . It was like having someone walking behind you making sure you turn off the lights when you leave a room , or leave the door open it would close it, even the interior doors. Through all this I was getting irritated , not only the stuff going on , this place just had bad karhma . And by now I was pretty sure I was cleaning and primering a wall that didn’t have spaghetti on it. I was pretty sure someone had committed suicide with a gun to the head. But you know I figured it could be my imagination , all of it . So I start to put paint on the wall with a roller and pole when all of a sudden something threw my paint brush at me . It missed me and smacked the wall.
I had personally placed it on a counter in the next room. There was really only one thing to do , and I’m sure you know what it was. I ran , right out the door which slammed behind me. I was in my truck and backing out the driveway before I even blinked. I stopped in the driveway and started to think with myself. My first thought was I’m never going back in that house again, they can even keep my tarps .
My second thought though was ok don’t go back , but call your boss and tell him why you wont go back in the house. I had to make a decision , which I feared most , the ghost or my boss. I knew that he would be mercilous in teasing me , and he knew people I knew and would tell them so they could tease me together.
In the end I knew I had to deal with this house not just because of the boss, there’s a lot to be said about facing your fears so after less than half an hour I talked myself back into the house. I had a plan , I had seen you know, Poltergiest ,. I figured what could it hurt.
I entered the house and I said “ look Yes you are scaring me but my boss scares me too. First off your dead and somebody else living is going to move here. All I’m going to do is paint the place you can haunt the new owners if you want but I’m going to paint this place.” That and I ask him if he would cut out the scary stuff while I was there.
Again all I know is that he pretty much left me alone after that , only a few noises , more like showing off or testing me but no more haunting. So I learned another job I could do, house spirit cleaning , though I have never charged I have done a thing to more or less de-ghost a house. Not just ghost’s sometimes just bad feelings can linger in a place.
Then I found the book and mostly because of the title I read it. I obviously enjoyed it or it wouldn’t be here , because she has such a different theory and background I think the book is pretty much unique. To summarize she is a psychologist who believes that ghosts or the spirits of mostly unfulfilled lifes attach themselves to the living , causing many psychological problems , a lot of the addictions she attributes to dead people who were addicts attaching themselves to the living .
Agreed a very wild theory , that some dead , not all, usually people figure it out that they are dead and move on to whatever is next . Are among us influencing our lifes , in essence trying to live out there unfullfilled lifes.
Now wether I believe her or not she raised a few points that gave me pause. You know not only the jerk dead guy but all others I have knowingly and unknowingly came into contact could be attached to me , like leaches , sucking on my life.
Then again I also thought of the grandmother’s if they were there it was time to let them move on , even though I loved them , still do and appreciate that I’ve always known someone was watching out over me.
Thankfully Dr. Fiore also tells you what to do about cleaning your self of unwanted unquiet dead . I felt like I needed a cleansing, not to be confused with an exorcism, not demons , not evil,
just people mostly. As I said I worried about you know who , but I also wanted to be as nice as I could to the rest of the ghost’s. which is good because I had already learned that when dealing with dead people it really is important to be nice. Sometimes firm but always nice. The good Doctor gave the same advice always be polite. I think it is good to show some respect as well as empathy. They are probably not too happy , what with the dying and all. As she wrote and I had thought , most of these spirits are confused and usually just need directions.
But to get the pesky ones you have to do a little ceremony type thing that she describes way better than I can. Yes I did it , it’s almost silly but I felt better , I kind of got to say good bye to my mother’s mother who died when I was young, and I did it on tv so it was one of my best shows. Though as she warned I am susceptible to new attachings. I actually think I have picked up one and its weird. This is so strange I cant even tell you about it. Well I can tell you that I need another cleaning .
Which means I will probably reread that part in the book and be ready in a few months , hopefully I can hold off until Halloween as I should be ready to post the ceremony as a show , if I can work it out and your interested we can do you at the same time. But I would read the book its different , and if you believe it has some helpful information.
An aside if you think you have a ghost you need rid of give me an E-mail I can help. Peace and love B.