Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters (4 page)

Jack came home later that evening and I worried the entity would come back full force and retaliate, something that I had read about in numerous books. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Jack finally got a good night’s sleep and nothing out of the norm happened. I was delighted that the cleansing provided him with some sense of relief and only prayed that it would last.

For many months the demon didn’t make its occupancy known and the family seemed to return to normal. Eventually, Jack and I went our separate ways after about a yearlong relationship and I wondered if the demon remained attached to the family. I never did follow up to ask.

It should be noted that dysfunctional families who do not address their issues are more likely to have a relapse with a demon—unless they take a proactive approach and really begin altering their lifestyles and relationships. As a healer, I can perform the cleansing and remove the spirits, but it is truly in the hands of the family to make sure they prevent any entity from having a foothold with which to stay attached to them. For example, if a demon is affixed to a parent because of their alcoholism and they choose not to become sober, the demon is likely to stay with that person despite how powerful a house blessing is performed.

After the experience with Jack’s family I began researching and trying to perfect the best techniques to use when cleansing a home from a demonic presence. I studied various cul
tures and religions and concentrated on the most potent
methods.

I founded a paranormal group that year while at Central Michigan University and began receiving many requests for house cleansings. I started helping countless people and, through the power of Great Spirit, healing was brought into their lives.

In 2009 I relocated to Michigan State University and created the Michigan Paranormal Research Association (M.P.R.A.), which was followed by an overwhelming number of house blessing requests. Shortly after, I met and began dating my previous partner, Carl O’Toole. Mike Best, Carl’s coworker, soon became a group member and accompanied us on several severe cases.

Because of the large number of cleansing requests, I could only respond to the most acute cases. The following chapters contain stories from my most disturbing and active cases.

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CHAPTER 2

NOVI, MICHIGAN CASE

O
n April 17, 2010, in the early hours of the morning, I awoke from another nightmare. I had dreamt I was battling a demon; I found it hard to shake off the vivid and realistic qualities of the vision.
In my dream I was praying and casting out the entity—a tall, dark, and faceless being—while speaking in Latin,
even though I am unfamiliar with the language. The shadowy figure had a very strong presence and, although this altercation took place in a dream world, the tension and effort it took to ward off this spirit felt extremely real. I awoke exhausted and disturbed.

Later in the morning I checked my inbox and discovered an e-mail asking for help with a possible demonic case. The score was now five for five: every time I had a demonic nightmare I would shortly receive a request for help to fight a demon.
Was there some sort of correlation? Was I psychically tuning in to what I would soon encounter?
I already accepted the fact that my dream world was far from “normal”; I would have accurate death premonitions or encounter horrifically evil entities in my sleep.

Bad dreams were frequent for me ever since I had begun battling the demonic, something I also had to accept. I now slept with a Himalayan rock salt lamp on, as a soothing nightlight. Salt rock lamps are believed to promote a positive environment by releasing ions into the room, but I also believe it keeps the darker things at bay.

The request for help I received on this particular occasion was from a woman named Betsy. She claimed that her son Bryan had been physically thrown across the room by an evil presence the same morning she contacted me. I immediately called Betsy and talked with her about the experiences, trying to figure out when and why this entity had entered their lives. Betsy had a sense of urgency in her voice that I knew was genuine.

Out of all the cases we had taken over the years, only two individuals had questionable stories and a possibility of mental illness—Betsy was very earnest in her story and I could tell she wasn’t being deceitful or just looking for excitement. I wanted to help protect her and her family from whatever it was they were experiencing. Although I was scurrying around with school and homework, I found this case to be particularly important and began scheduling a time for when we could visit.

Betsy and I discussed possible origins of the haunting. Betsy felt it might have been linked to the old farmhouse they had previously lived in. Carl’s coworker, Michael Best, had been on several investigations with us before and I truly appreciated his rock-solid and reliable demeanor—he wasn’t squeamish with the demonic. He was also someone who was serious about the client’s well-being; he wasn’t just seeking thrills through an investigation. I asked for him to join us on this cleansing.

We scheduled a meeting with Betsy and her family for a few days later—April 23, 2010.

Carl, Mike, and I all piled into the car and made the drive down to Novi, Michigan. It wasn’t unusual for us to sometimes experience weird physical and psychic symptoms that foreshadowed the visit. Surprisingly,
all three of us
began experiencing a headache before arriving at the house. In the back of my mind I felt we were “picking up” on the entity that awaited us at Betsy’s home.

We pulled into the neighborhood and mentally prepared ourselves by blocking out any negativity. Betsy’s family lived in a friendly community surrounding the Novi area. There were lots of cars on the street and people were walking around; we then realized that it was prom night for many of the high school students in the neighborhood.

We prayed in the car together, huddled in like a bunch of football players ready to take on the opponent. “
God, please surround us with your protection and white light. Help us deliver this family from the evil they are experiencing and do not let anyone be harmed and do not let anything follow us. Thank you. Amen.
”

As we approached the house I noticed that there were several students outside watching us, interested in what we were doing. I always prided our group on being very discrete; we never arrived in a large van with lettering on the side that screams, “We’ll kick your ghost’s butt!” Little did I know that the kids already knew exactly why we were visiting Betsy’s house and a lot of the neighbors were fascinated with our paranormal endeavors. I smiled at them and followed the steps up to the house.

Two large dogs confronted us at the door, barking and growling with their hackles standing rigid. I absolutely love dogs, and all animals for that matter, but I felt uncomfortable with this pair being so upset and aggressive. We commonly see animals that are very distressed and frightened when cohabiting in a house with a demonic spirit. Sometimes I feel that the demonic can influence the animal’s behavior as well. Thankfully, after our cleansings, the pets often return to normal and become very friendly and relaxed towards us.

I asked the man behind the screen door if Betsy was there.

“Yeah, come on in.” The man moved away from the entrance and welcomed us inside the house while he carted the two dogs away into the backyard. The metal screen door had chew holes ripped through it from the dogs.

In almost every case I can immediately sense the dark presence in the house as soon as I walk in or prior to entering the home. I feel heaviness on my chest, pressure on my head, and sometimes my hearing begins to waver. The atmosphere seems dark and oppressed, as if lots of misery and depression resides there. The air is usually thicker and sometimes proves harder to breathe. On occasion, I also get the sensation of feeling “dirtier.”

In the case of Betsy’s family, the piles of clothes and clutter in the bedrooms added to the oppressed feeling. Many demonic cases involve clients that participate in “hoarding” or unorganized practices, although Betsy’s family members were not hoarders. Keeping a clean home not only allows the energy to
flow
in a house more freely (i.e., feng shui), but your personal energy or aura is also cleaner and more functional. Many clients also tend to keep their houses extremely dark and don’t allow sunshine to enter their homes. There is a lot of power and positivity that radiates through natural light, so it’s important to integrate it inside your home by keeping your curtains open. The demonic seem to hate the light.

The sun fought to seep through the window treatments in Betsy’s dimly lit house. I asked where I could place my supply bag and began pulling out my notepad and pen to take notes. The family nervously talked amongst themselves. I asked where they would like to meet to discuss things. The three of us soon settled into the living room with the family. I knew they were uneasy and understandably so—how terrifying it must have been to be plagued by such a malevolent force.

I explained our backgrounds, what I specialized in and how many families we had helped. This seemed to make them more at ease. I think it’s very important to have a personal connection with each client and to relate to them as friends and family, not as some lab rat or opportunity for excitement.

I explained that we dealt with a lot of cases in which the haunting was severe or physical. I asked if they were comfortable with us talking with them for a while to pinpoint some things and then we would move on to performing a cleansing for them.

They all nodded in confirmation, even though I could tell they weren’t entirely sure how the process went. The family introduced themselves and I sensed they were a loving group with a strong bond—something that would help them greatly in a battle against the dark. I listened to their introductions, each taking turns: Collin, Betsy, John, Sarah, and ending at the corner of the room with Bryan.

Bryan was the son who had been thrown across the room the day Betsy had contacted me. As the oldest son, he was nineteen years old, six feet two inches tall, and weighed about 300 pounds. He was not a lightweight and clearly could not be easily thrown. Although it was hard to visualize Bryan being lifted up and tossed by the entity, I believed the family and their accounts. Several family members witnessed the event and were horrified, each solemnly testifying to the incident. They said that Bryan had been standing, talking to his mother, when suddenly an unseen force lifted Bryan up from the floor and propelled him backwards a considerable distance.

Betsy expressed that she was finally fed up with the severe haunting they were dealing with and began searching for paranormal investigation groups. After skimming through different Google searches she stumbled upon the Michigan Paranormal Research Association (M.P.R.A.). What drew her to us was that we offered “solutions to hauntings,” although she didn’t know what that might exactly entail. She was skeptical but was desperate enough to try almost anything to bring her family peace and protection—the entity had been following them for over ten years and counting.

The family began sharing their experiences, trying to categorize a timeline of events. I was taking notes, trying to piece the puzzle together to figure out what attracted the entity to them. Once I discovered why the demon was welcomed in or drawn to an individual or family, it was easier for me to remove the haunting. And so as Betsy’s family talked, a
very impressive and long history of paranormal events unfolded b
efore me.

The father, John, shared the history of the haunting, “We used to live in an old farmhouse outside of town before we moved in to this trailer. The previous owner’s husband was a real violent son of a bitch. I swear if you dug into the basement dirt you would probably find bodies down there. He was suspected of killing hippie women or something and was always in trouble with his alcoholism. He also used to abuse the mother-in-law that lived there with him,” John explained. “He was just a drunk hillbilly, but finally he died one day. Took him forever to die though! Karma served him right! He was T-boned by another car and it took him over twenty painful hours to kick the can!”

I was not sure how John knew these details about the previous owner, but it seemed they knew the family well.
Perhaps they were related
. After the man’s death, Betsy’s family moved into the farmhouse and they began to experience strange events. Disfigured faces would appear in the kitchen window at night, the family would witness a “cat-size” black shadow that would crawl along the floorboards and ceiling, a colonial girl was seen in the closet wearing a traditional dress, and Betsy would overhear the phantom conversation between two unseen men in the living room. It was very overwhelming for the family, but they continued to live there and attempted to ignore the spirits until they were confronted.

One day Bryan ventured into the back shed, looking for a shovel, when one of the old shed windows slammed shut on its own accord. Bryan heard movement behind him as though something was trying to ambush him inside the enclosure. Bryan made for the door and quickly stood underneath a nearby tree. He looked around and saw no animals that could have logically made the sounds, but Bryan knew in the back of his mind what the source of the disturbance was—the entity.

Bryan was scared but felt the need to stand his ground. After slowing his breathing a bit, he acknowledged the spirit out loud, “Well, if you’re so tough, show me what else you can do …” Before finishing his sentence and challenging the entity, a large tree limb snapped in half directly above him. Stunned, Bryan left the shovel and hurried inside the house. The mangled limb belonged to a living and healthy tree. I could not provide a rational explanation for how this incident was possible.

The fear in Bryan’s eyes spoke volumes to me and I felt he was being honest about this story. Needless to say, Bryan would never go outside near the shed unless his brother accompanied him. He learned from that experience to never challenge or antagonize an entity. Thankfully, the incident didn’t leave Bryan physically hurt, but he was definitely shaken up.

Bryan continued to explain that at night someone could be heard down in the basement tinkering away on something. Whoever heard the sounds would then realize they were home alone or that everyone was upstairs already. He theorized that it was the previous owner because he used to work on projects in the basement.

Sometimes drawers would open on their own accord, sounds of metal—nails and washers—could be heard moving around. They also heard pounding and hammering. The basement was anything but vacant.

While all of these odd occurrences were taking place,
John, the father, wasn’t experiencing anything strange. It’s not uncommon for only a few family members to encounter a severe haunting and the other spouse or member to witness nothing. I call this “singular isolation.” This phenomenon will break down the family trust and bond, soon causing arguments and a negative atmosphere that dark energies thrive off of. John assumed the children were creating stories to receive attention and that his wife was playing into their games.
There is always a rational explanation for everything,
he thought to himself. However, he would soon witness the unexplainable.

After enduring nearly nine years of disturbances in the farmhouse, and with their finances dwindling, the family moved. Following about a month of living in their new home, things began to happen again. The family’s hope sunk—they thought a haunting could only manifest at one house, and upon moving, they hoped it would be over with. They soon realized it had followed them to their latest home.

I asked Betsy if she thought this was the same entity or spirit(s) from the farmhouse or if it was an entirely separate haunting. “I think it might be the same spirit. We started seeing that black blob or shadow again, which was identical to the one in the farmhouse.”

I explained to Betsy that many families experiencing a demonic haunting assume that they can escape by moving and relocating to a new home; however, they are disheartened to find the entity is attached to them and follows them to their new house. I assured her that in order to get rid of a demonic entity, it must be removed—you cannot hide from it as it will prove to be pointless more often than not. As with any issue in life, you must confront your problems and not run from them, only then can you begin to take back control of your life. Betsy and her family seemed ready to finally rid themselves of this entity, once and for all.