Ghosts/Hungry Ghosts

[Gerard]

I had a vision this morning, I saw what we really look like without our minds being active. We are vibrating beings surrounded by an aura (combined Qi) and different colours that emanate from the internal organs and energy nods in the web (chakras). Mind activity decreases the potency of this large energetic field we project; however, damage to the internal organs creates holes/gaps that disrupt the normal flow of the Qi and all the emanating colours associated with the internal organs and the chakras.

 

Then I saw how ghosts will prey on weak humans, those who suffer intense emotional suffering, especially if they develop a drug and alcohol addiction as a result. The two beings (human and host) may develop a simbiotic relationship with the hungry ghost (check my thread about haunted houses).

 

You are more than welcome if you like to add anything to this interesting topic, especially if you have direct experience with it.

 

Thanks.

[lino]

I had a vision this morning, I saw what we really look like without our minds being active. We are vibrating beings surrounded by an aura (combined Qi) and different colours that emanate from the internal organs and energy nods in the web (chakras). Mind activity decreases the potency of this large energetic field we project; however, damage to the internal organs creates holes/gaps that disrupt the normal flow of the Qi and all the emanating colours associated with the internal organs and the chakras.

 

Then I saw how ghosts will prey on weak humans, those who suffer intense emotional suffering, especially if they develop a drug and alcohol addiction as a result. The two beings (human and host) may develop a simbiotic relationship with the hungry ghost (check my thread about haunted houses).

 

You are more than welcome if you like to add anything to this interesting topic, especially if you have direct experience with it.

 

Thanks.

 

If you see that, please call Amitabha Buddha (Namo Amitabha Buddha) or Green Tara (Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha). The ghost would appreciate it and the earth human being that is stuck here would certainly appreciate it too.

 

You keep spouting stuff about "karma", "karma", and "karma". Not all events are connected to each other with cause and effect, and dependent origination.

[fizix]

I probably would never have believed in anything like ghost/energy vampire type entities if I didn't have first hand experience with these dark beings while I was heavily addicted to heroin and several other substances; these beings/things do not have to have any control or influence on you, if you are being preyed on, you DO have the ability to ward them off, though you first must face the demons within yourself.

[Taomeow]

I had a vision this morning, I saw what we really look like without our minds being active. We are vibrating beings surrounded by an aura (combined Qi) and different colours that emanate from the internal organs and energy nods in the web (chakras). Mind activity decreases the potency of this large energetic field we project; however, damage to the internal organs creates holes/gaps that disrupt the normal flow of the Qi and all the emanating colours associated with the internal organs and the chakras.

 

Then I saw how ghosts will prey on weak humans, those who suffer intense emotional suffering, especially if they develop a drug and alcohol addiction as a result. The two beings (human and host) may develop a simbiotic relationship with the hungry ghost (check my thread about haunted houses).

 

You are more than welcome if you like to add anything to this interesting topic, especially if you have direct experience with it.

 

Thanks.

 

Gui, the classic hungry ghosts of taoism, are neglected deceased ancestors, especially those who died violently and/or didn't get a proper funeral or were buried where yin feng shui is very bad (e.g., the grave gets flooded with water, or worse, is disrupted by construction.) From the way we've been treating our ancestors since the destruction of shamanic traditions, and from the way we've been treating fellow humans in countless wars, it looks like there's more gui in the invisible world interacting with our own by now than of any other kind of entities. Who they prey on -- well, the victims of choice are usually direct descendants (children and grandchildren) of the gui. If the gui has no descendants, he/she/it will prey on whoever is handy.

 

One good remedy is an ancestral altar, with incense burnings, offerings of food, water, and wine, and occasional prostrations. This will guarantee that ancestor spirits don't go hungry -- both the act of remembering and the offering of spiritual nourishment will keep them content. A content ancestral spirit can be contacted for help and advice, the way it's always been done in all indigenous cultures. A neglected one can turn into an enemy.

 

A sensible young woman I know had a night job at a seniors home, and at one point a ghost of an old lady who used to live there started showing up and making conversation. The young woman actually asked her why she was stuck and didn't move on somewhere in afterlife. The old lady's ghost told her, "They don't like too many drugs there (pointing a bony ghost finger in the general direction of heaven) -- when I was dying, doctors pumped me up to the gills with all kinds of drugs, and that's why they (pointing a finger again) didn't want me..." FWIW...

[Trogdorf]

[Sunya]

[Birch]

Good point.

 

When I saw E.T. (the movie)the first time, it got to me so much that I hallucinated a full blown "E.T." walking across the floor at the end of my bed. I was pretty young at the time. When it first came out

 

I think the best starting advice I read on here about "spirits" is that whatever they are, whether from one's own mind, communicating with one's own mind, seen in one's own mind etc is to take them as yet another manifestation and then move on.

 

I don't know what happens if you "engage" with them as others have here and unless they're going to really be helpful with respects to what's going on on this plane then I don't see the point. My personal opinion. Yes, there is some mixed fear/respect in there

 

Remembering our ancestors may help us with where we're at. If we're around, they got through, so something they did worked till now

[Aetherous]

Here's a funny story, along the lines of what Kate said.

 

When I was somewhere around the age of 17, I was staying up late one night watching the movie Barfly on TV. It's kind of a boring movie, and I fell into a half asleep state.

 

That night was one of the most memorable spiritual experiences I've had, because this angel appeared in my basement. It was as tall as the ceiling, probably 9 feet, and its glowing wings stretched out to fill the whole room.

 

The next day I was so intrigued. I had never heard that real angels were really tall, so I looked it up on yahoo (the popular search engine at the time). Found a little bit of info.

 

Years later, at the age of 25, time: yesterday...I decided to watch Barfly again and understand what brought on that experience all of those years ago.

 

Come to find out, there was a part in which an actress describes seeing a really tall angel in her room. Wow.

 

So basically, I was subconsciously led on to experience that, and it wasn't a real visit, as I had kind of assumed all of these years.

[Taomeow]

Here's a funny story, along the lines of what Kate said.

 

When I was somewhere around the age of 17, I was staying up late one night watching the movie Barfly on TV. It's kind of a boring movie, and I fell into a half asleep state.

 

That night was one of the most memorable spiritual experiences I've had, because this angel appeared in my basement. It was as tall as the ceiling, probably 9 feet, and its glowing wings stretched out to fill the whole room.

 

The next day I was so intrigued. I had never heard that real angels were really tall, so I looked it up on yahoo (the popular search engine at the time). Found a little bit of info.

 

Years later, at the age of 25, time: yesterday...I decided to watch Barfly again and understand what brought on that experience all of those years ago.

 

Come to find out, there was a part in which an actress describes seeing a really tall angel in her room. Wow.

 

So basically, I was subconsciously led on to experience that, and it wasn't a real visit, as I had kind of assumed all of these years.

I'm not so sure about that. The actress's words may have created a bridge... things connect when they are bridged, on all levels, from your own neural dendrites connecting synapses in your brain to your whole brain connecting with your body via neural fibers, to your whole body connecting to the rest of the universe via electrical, magnetic, thermal, chemical (e.g. breath) etc. interactions. Your body temperature being different from that of the room you're in is one such bridge -- you create a local molecular traffic around you that is shaped by your being there. If you're a cat and there's fleas in the environment, they will react to the thermal bridge -- their all senses are shaped around detecting it -- and cross it. Similarly, words you hear in a half-asleep trance-inducing state can create a brain wave pattern that is a local bridge shaped by your being, well, in trance. Trance is the state accessible to entities that can't contact you otherwise -- while, e.g., a state of your electrochemical brain activity known as "logical step by step analysis" is a lock that closes most doors to most entities.

 

For comparison: cooling off of your mucous membranes is a state that makes them accessible to some microbes and viruses that otherwise can't penetrate it -- that's why we talk of "catching a cold," what you really catch is beings that the cold let through. (Whereas a high fever kills many of them, which is why the body raises its temperature to get rid of entities it is trying to eliminate.) Similarly, a trance state makes you, or anyone else, more "permeable" to some entities. Since the entity that you heard mentioned in your trance state was a tall angel and not a short elf, that's who "permeated" -- it's like turning when someone has called your name in the crowd, you go, "what? who? did someone say Scotty?" The same thing may have happened to that angel. Then when he (?) saw that his name was mentioned just by chance (someone in the crowd may have been calling a Scotty all right, but you turn around and discover it wasn't you they were calling, some other Scotty?), he left, end of story.

 

We are not nearly as suggestible as we believe we are. We are much more along the lines of "more" or "less" permeable to stuff, the state we are in is a bridge or a bridge burning endeavor... We assume that if our contacts or lack thereof with other dimensions, realities, entities can be affected by the state we're in, it must be "all in our head" when they manifest. Not so. It's an interaction... a bridge between your state and the state of the universe.

[alexandrov]

and if you all are wondering where chogori's thread on haunted houses is...

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/13469-more-on-haunted-houses/

 

quite an interesting thread

[Gerard]

One thing is what some of you are discussing...mental formations triggered by an specific event.

 

Another is being able to see/sense spirits with the third eye. The vision I had the other day was experienced after a regular Vipassana meditation session and no thoughts crossed my mind with regard to ghosts.

 

In the last couple of years, I have noticed that I attract female emotional vampires, sensitive females born in the year of the pig and sheep, with alcohol problems. I also had the opportunity to visit the homes of two of them and when I did ghosts inhabited them. After they tell me strange events that occur in their homes (already described in the haunted houses thread), I think to myself" "classical scenario of a haunted house."

 

In one of the instances, the host developed a strong connection with the entity (a bikie murdered many years ago as a result of "a settling of accounts" in the drug trafficking business) to the point she didn't mind it being in her bedroom.

 

I forgot to mention that before Christmas I was lying on my lounge in the corpse position trying to relax after a gruelling training session, and at one point in time I suddenly felt something moving very fast on top of me and felt a chill all over my body. I quickly realised that the girl that lived with the ghost of the bikie came over my place a couple of months earlier. It might have happened that the girl could have piggybacked another ghost or it could have come all the way from Taiwan, as I had a Taiwanese friend living with me for several months who had deep emotional issues, resulting from childhood abuse. She could have piggybacked the ghost as well. Anyway, I have no idea where it came from but is no longer at my place.

 

Finally, when I was in my final year of my university studies here in Australia, I met a very sensitive girl, an Aquarian (this one with no visible emotional issues) who happened to live with 4 ghosts in her house. She told me the house she was living in was built in the 1920s, a very old Queenslander home which hosted a family that was murdered in the 1930s after a house break-in gone bad. My classmate and her family got used to the "ghost family" to the point they didn't mind having them in there. I asked her: "how do you guys know there are ghosts in your place?" Well, she said: "things moving, styrange noises, sometimes you can suddenly see somebody with the corner of your eye and then you turn around and is gone, voices, laughter, etc."

Edited March 30, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[Trogdorf]

[alexandrov]

this is an interesting topic of discussion

 

I was just wondering if anybody knows of any practical methods for getting rid of unwanted spirits?

 

or should we just try to appease them? or should we only appease our ancestor spirits and get rid of all the rest??

 

lesser banishing ritual?

 

mantras?

 

burning sulfur?

 

I have heard that many spirits are attracted to blood, semen, feces, vaginal fluids, old food and dirty

 

environments in general and such and thus one

 

should keep their house clean to avoid attracting such spirits in the first place.

[SingaporeGuyHere]

this is an interesting topic of discussion

 

I was just wondering if anybody knows of any practical methods for getting rid of unwanted spirits?

 

or should we just try to appease them? or should we only appease our ancestor spirits and get rid of all the rest??

 

lesser banishing ritual?

 

mantras?

 

burning sulfur?

 

I have heard that many spirits are attracted to blood, semen, feces, vaginal fluids, old food and dirty

 

environments in general and such and thus one

 

should keep their house clean to avoid attracting such spirits in the first place.

 

yeah interesting stuff...always good to know..

[Gerard]

If you don't know what you are doing is better not disturb the ghost as this could bring you even more bad

luck.

 

I would like to mention another ghost incident I experienced at my first Vipassana retreat in Thailand. I was allocated to a kuti (small cabin) like the rest of the monks and lay practitioners like myself. Well I knew already there was something wrong with that place. Firstly, foul smell coming off the shower-toilet and which was impossible to remove even though I used all sorts of cleaning products (this was before even I knoew that this methods are useless for ghost removal), female hair stuck in the drain. I knew that there was a female meditator with heaps of emotional blockages that had been residing in that kuti in a recent past.

 

How did I know this? Well, in the last 3 days lock-up period where the practitioner is asked to meditate 24 hours a day without leaving the kuti, I had a powerful spiritual encounter with the entities that were "invited" to the kuti by that female (or maybe they were there already in the first place attracted by someone else).

 

The night of the 3rd day, 2 demons turned up while I was meditating and sent beams of light against me with their eyes. I recited the mantra of "Om Mani Padme Hum" and asked for Buddha's protection. It took a while but in the end they were gone. Next morning my teacher discussed with me about any spiritual experiences during Vipassana and I mentioned to him this incident. He nodded and only said to me: Remember Gerard, all Samsaric phenomena is impermanent. I agreed but asked him: what would have you done in my case, stay there and do nothing. I was being harmed by the demons, I had to stop them. he said nothing, I know my teacher is a very hardcore Theravadin, but I am not, lol; hence I like to use Tibetan Buddhist/Taoist protective measures against those sort of attacks.

[Birch]

Hi TaoMeow!

 

I "get" what you're saying and it feels more or less logical to me. What I'd like to be able to do is better discern which phenomenon come from where:

 

- local event trigger (e.g. watching a movie, being in the same room as a person who is feeling sad - or happy)

 

- internal event trigger (e.g. your back hurts, drinking coffee;-))

 

- non-local triggers (TBD)

 

Questions:

 

- Dreams vs trances?

- Shamanic visits.

 

I'm especially interested in the last one as I've had a couple of examples where I can't say for sure what is going on. But that would be pretty typical of me when weirdo things occur Plus KAP does allow me to be more accepting of weirdness. Benefit or disadvantage?

 

I read Narby and some other people on the and they all seemed to have recurrent themes about how to set up such bridges, what to take with you upon crossing, how to interact with the beings along the way. If you're a (post) modern person, what do you do if the shamans turn up? Either it's a bunch of dreams reflecting my hearty interest for weirdness or actual Siberians, Bon and Buddhistss are intentionally seeking "people like me" out.

[Taomeow]

Hi TaoMeow!

 

I "get" what you're saying and it feels more or less logical to me. What I'd like to be able to do is better discern which phenomenon come from where:

 

- local event trigger (e.g. watching a movie, being in the same room as a person who is feeling sad - or happy)

 

- internal event trigger (e.g. your back hurts, drinking coffee;-))

 

- non-local triggers (TBD)

 

Questions:

 

- Dreams vs trances?

- Shamanic visits.

Hi Kate,

 

a million dollar question, this, and my answer is the usual: "know thyself." I think this might be my main practice, everything else is tools, while the final product (if there is such a thing) and the ultimate prize is self-knowledge and self-mastery, hopefully leading to mastery of energies of the world (which is commensurate with one's self-mastery in all cases).

 

So you know what you're dealing with if you know what "you" are in considerable depth (personally, not theoretically or ideologically, that is) and therefore can tell it from the "non-you." I've been through some deep feeling modalities and, e.g., discovered whole structures in my consciousness that were installed by my father that I routinely thought of as my own thoughts and my own ideas and... once you get to know the source, you immediately know if this is an organic part of your "self" or an implant. In my case, that system of values proved to be an implant, the proof was in a pure, intense feeling: "I don't want SOMEONE ELSE's stuff in MY mind." A feeling is different from an idea... when you get to feel that someone else's stuff in you is not you, it's like a splinter piercing your very aliveness, all you want is to get it out.

 

So... deep and precise feeling mechanisms that work with difficult stuff, not just the easy kind, are the royal road to consciousness and the resulting self-knowledge. They work... hmm, not unlike an extension of the immune system into one's consciousness: a healthy immune system works by discerning between "self" and "non-self" -- whatever is not compatible with "self," it will eliminate. An unhealthy one can't tell "self" from "non-self" (which is where "autoimmune" conditions start showing up, the immune system mistaking parts of "self" for "enemy" and attacking them... happens in the realm of spiritual ideation all the time, by the way, especially in the popular but misguided attacks on the "ego..."). By the same token, it might miss the real emeny invasion (a pathogenic microorganism or a carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic chemical and the cells transformed by same into something that doesn't belong, is no longer "self.") Consciousness, ideally, works like a healthy immune system, and arrested (fragmented) consciousness, like an ailing one. Which is when people are unable to tell self from non-, friend from foe, etc., in the spirit realm.

 

I'm especially interested in the last one as I've had a couple of examples where I can't say for sure what is going on. But that would be pretty typical of me when weirdo things occur Plus KAP does allow me to be more accepting of weirdness. Benefit or disadvantage?

 

I read Narby and some other people on the and they all seemed to have recurrent themes about how to set up such bridges, what to take with you upon crossing, how to interact with the beings along the way. If you're a (post) modern person, what do you do if the shamans turn up? Either it's a bunch of dreams reflecting my hearty interest for weirdness or actual Siberians, Bon and Buddhistss are intentionally seeking "people like me" out.

Do you mean it as a hypothetical scenario or did actual shamans turn up and seek you out?

[Birch]

Yeah for the Siberians, I think it was reading too much Narby

The others seemed to be seeking me out but as you very eloquently put it in your post above, defining the "you" from the "not you" is still a "work in progress"

 

Any ideas to do it faster? KAP is a pretty good "pipecleaner" ;-)

[RiverSnake]

Hi Kate,

 

a million dollar question, this, and my answer is the usual: "know thyself." I think this might be my main practice, everything else is tools, while the final product (if there is such a thing) and the ultimate prize is self-knowledge and self-mastery, hopefully leading to mastery of energies of the world (which is commensurate with one's self-mastery in all cases).

 

So you know what you're dealing with if you know what "you" are in considerable depth (personally, not theoretically or ideologically, that is) and therefore can tell it from the "non-you." I've been through some deep feeling modalities and, e.g., discovered whole structures in my consciousness that were installed by my father that I routinely thought of as my own thoughts and my own ideas and... once you get to know the source, you immediately know if this is an organic part of your "self" or an implant. In my case, that system of values proved to be an implant, the proof was in a pure, intense feeling: "I don't want SOMEONE ELSE's stuff in MY mind." A feeling is different from an idea... when you get to feel that someone else's stuff in you is not you, it's like a splinter piercing your very aliveness, all you want is to get it out.

 

So... deep and precise feeling mechanisms that work with difficult stuff, not just the easy kind, are the royal road to consciousness and the resulting self-knowledge. They work... hmm, not unlike an extension of the immune system into one's consciousness: a healthy immune system works by discerning between "self" and "non-self" -- whatever is not compatible with "self," it will eliminate. An unhealthy one can't tell "self" from "non-self" (which is where "autoimmune" conditions start showing up, the immune system mistaking parts of "self" for "enemy" and attacking them... happens in the realm of spiritual ideation all the time, by the way, especially in the popular but misguided attacks on the "ego..."). By the same token, it might miss the real emeny invasion (a pathogenic microorganism or a carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic chemical and the cells transformed by same into something that doesn't belong, is no longer "self.") Consciousness, ideally, works like a healthy immune system, and arrested (fragmented) consciousness, like an ailing one. Which is when people are unable to tell self from non-, friend from foe, etc., in the spirit realm.

 

 

Do you mean it as a hypothetical scenario or did actual shamans turn up and seek you out?

Interesting post Taomeow. Good immune system analogy.

[Taomeow]

Interesting post Taomeow. Good immune system analogy.

 

Thank you!

[Trash Filter]

Gerard,

 

You are absolutely right. I currently live in auz too mate, and I too lived in an old queens lander which was inhabited by a ghost. Other people saw it too.

They are generally a pain in the a#$. In our mainstream information we know so little about them, let alone perceive them consistently. They have caused a lot of trouble here on earth since time memorial, and they should be understood and dealt with accordingly ie: Enter trash filter. lol.

 

TF

[Gerard]

Gerard,

 

You are absolutely right. I currently live in auz too mate, and I too lived in an old queens lander which was inhabited by a ghost. Other people saw it too.

They are generally a pain in the a#$. In our mainstream information we know so little about them, let alone perceive them consistently. They have caused a lot of trouble here on earth since time memorial, and they should be understood and dealt with accordingly ie: Enter trash filter. lol.

 

TF

 

Yes agree, little is understood about sentient beings living in ghost form. Asians are far more advanced to Westerners with that regard but still they have to face similar issues.

 

Australians and Europeans consume way too much alcohol and other drugs, which creates gaps in their auras allowing ghosts to piggy back them.

 

Another thing, avoid having sexual intercourse in a house inhabited by a ghost(s) or with anyone you suspect being a emotional vampire as you'll be feeding more than one entity; the energy loss is very great especially from a spiritual practitioner's perspective.

 

Where in Australia are you currently living?

[Trash Filter]

You are right about that too mate.

I'm currently on the Sunshine Coast, where you at?

 

Just another note of interest, partners can drain each others energy, till it reaches an equiblrium. You can see this if 1 partner is more youthful then another initially. Might be why some old people feel good having a young partner and extend there life. E.g Clint Eastwood, lol. Some crazy elites do this sort of thing also with sacrificing young virgins, very intense.

 

TF

[Gerard]

Brisbane.

 

It's good cultivating correctly and at the same time leading a virtuous life. Morality will keep astral parasites away. if you like to can enforce your home with devices that will keep them away as long as they were not there in the first place because in that case you'll need to remove them first. Some protective symbols are:

 

1. Bagua

 

2. Wind chimes

 

3. Obsidian glass

 

These amulets will be protect your home by all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, as well as gods, dragons and others of the eightfold division. The Chinese place great importance and respect to Guanyin Bodhisattva as well as dragon entities to protect home from bad Feng Shui, and ghosts and living close to cemeteries (meditating in a cemetery as part of specific Buddhist practice is a totally different story) is bad FS because it brings very bad luck.

 

In Thailand, Theravadin monks use specific spiritual tattoos to protect them against demonic entities and other unwanted beings. Sometimes they depict Buddhist deities or temples and other times Thai scripts reproducing prayers or yantras a very specific pattern composed of dots. Basically in that country tattoing is a significant spiritual experience, whereas in the West, as you know is simply a fashionable item lacking real significance.

 

Here were I work I have seen astral parasites attached to coworkers who drink in excess and have serious emotional issues. I feel sorry for them as they don't have a clue of what's happening to them. One of them is as pale as a ghost, she has got one of those suckers absorbing her Qi to a great extent. Namo namo to them.

[C T]

Brisbane.

 

It's good cultivating correctly and at the same time leading a virtuous life. Morality will keep astral parasites away. if you like to can enforce your home with devices that will keep them away as long as they were not there in the first place because in that case you'll need to remove them first. Some protective symbols are:

 

1. Bagua

 

2. Wind chimes

 

3. Obsidian glass

 

These amulets will be protect your home by all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, as well as gods, dragons and others of the eightfold division. The Chinese place great importance and respect to Guanyin Bodhisattva as well as dragon entities to protect home from bad Feng Shui, and ghosts and living close to cemeteries (meditating in a cemetery as part of specific Buddhist practice is a totally different story) is bad FS because it brings very bad luck.

 

In Thailand, Theravadin monks use specific spiritual tattoos to protect them against demonic entities and other unwanted beings. Sometimes they depict Buddhist deities or temples and other times Thai scripts reproducing prayers or yantras a very specific pattern composed of dots. Basically in that country tattoing is a significant spiritual experience, whereas in the West, as you know is simply a fashionable item lacking real significance.

 

Here were I work I have seen astral parasites attached to coworkers who drink in excess and have serious emotional issues. I feel sorry for them as they don't have a clue of what's happening to them. One of them is as pale as a ghost, she has got one of those suckers absorbing her Qi to a great extent. Namo namo to them.

Wind chimes, baguas and obsidian glass are not Buddhist amulets!