Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter

Book excerpt: A how-to primer on safe ghost removal with accounts of the author’s most dangerous spirit confrontations • Includes lists of what to do and what to avoid and explains how to identify what kind of spirit you are dealing with and whether it is safe to attempt removal • Details the author’s difficult attempts to remove spirits from haunted buildings • Reveals how haunting spirits may not simply be ghosts of deceased people but may be powerful entities manifested from rage, hatred, and frustration Despite early recognition of his own psychic sensitivities and ability to see spirits, Von Braschler did not seek to become a ghost hunter. He entered on this path through a chance encounter with a professional ghost hunter. After training with her, he returned to Oregon where he began exorcising ghosts for friends and acquaintances and, as he reveals in these pages, quickly stumbled upon forces far beyond his level of experience. Sharing his true story of what can go wrong when ghost hunting, Braschler describes his training sessions with the professional ghost hunter and details his most difficult and dangerous attempts to remove spirits from haunted buildings, including an old church in Portland and an herbalist’s trailer on Mount Hood, where he encountered a spirit known to choke people in their sleep. He explains how not all spirits are simply ghosts of deceased people reluctant to move on from this plane of existence. They may be entities created from the rage, hatred, or frustrations of a building’s current or former inhabitants, and disturbing them can lead to dark confrontations without easy resolution. Offering a primer on ghost removal, Braschler provides practical lists of what to do and what to avoid when removing ghosts from a haunted building. He outlines how to identify what kind of spirit you are dealing with, whether it is safe to attempt removal, and how to approach the ghost and convince it to leave. Detailing his own intense and sometimes hellish battles with unseen spirits, he also includes an impassioned plea of caution to those who try to contact ghosts and spirits purely for entertainment.