Seeing the Changes
By Rebecca
I think many people associate the idea of possession with behavior that is very destructive and almost inherently evil. I have always thought of it as an extension of channeling, but where the person who is being "inhabited" may not be a willing participant in the experience, as though there is an element of being taken over by the dominant energy of an entity.
My first experience with this was in my childhood at my aunt's home. In fact, as her home was very definitely haunted, this was the focus of many of my early experiences with the supernatural and this inspired my life-long interest in this field.
Upon doing some research, my family learned that the area my aunt lived in had once been the home of many Native American tribes and part of the land in their neighborhood had supposedly been burial grounds. When the Spanish claimed California, they set up a series of missions, and Riverside County was a major mission presence between the mid-1700's to about 1832.
As we learned this, it made great sense because the apparition most commonly seen around my aunt's home was a monk; tall, wearing long robes with a cord-like belt and a cross tied to the belt. He was dark, with only blurry, vague facial features visible and the hood usually raised. My aunt had been through very difficult times in her life, experiencing a lot of loss and grief and her faith was badly shaken. She felt very abandoned by God and was very bitter in terms of religion. This was in total contrast, however, to her personality which was larger than life, hilarious and comedic. It made a lot of sense to us that she might attract an entity that would be trying to convert her - and she used to joke about this with typical irreverence. However, there were times when we would be sitting, usually after dinner quietly talking, that her facial appearance would completely change. It was subtle and slow, but she would drift a bit in her gaze, her face would look very stern - almost angry - and she would not respond to touch or gestures. There was a definite feeling as though a completely different person was looking through her eyes. I have two friends who had epileptic conditions and would have petit mal seizures, but there was no "energy" change around them the way the energy around my aunt would change when this took place. We would even try to ask her questions, and sometimes she would make an attempt to speak, but only an exasperated sigh would be made - never any words. Usually several minutes would go by and then she would make a startled movement, look a bit disoriented, shake her head and ask what had just happened since we were usually all gathered around her looking very concerned.
In fact, she had a rosary that had belonged to her mother and she kept it put away. The day after one of these experiences would take place though, she would usually find the rosary somewhere out in the open in the house - on an end table or a bookcase or in her purse. She was not afraid of the monk and actually didn't want him to leave. We were always trying to get her to have a psychic come in, and one parapsychology group wanted to come to interview her, but she was afraid the monk would stop coming. So, she never allowed them in. I think this gave her a feeling of having been "chosen" for his visits and this had a lot of meaning to her.
I recall seeing that apparition several times, and even as a child, I was not afraid of it. There was other energy in the house I was very afraid of, and while the monk always felt like he was very frustrated, it was not a feeling of obvious negativity. We just felt he did not like my aunt's blatant irreverence about God and religion.
The second experience most certainly DID involve a very negative energy and was very frightening when it would take place. It involved a friend, one of the two people who introduced me to a type of spirit communication using a glass to move around a homemade board to spell messages. She had a bad habit of leaving the glass on the board during breaks in the sessions which we were told was not something we should do because it remains a focus for energy and entities that could be negative. I brought this to her attention and reminded her to take the glass off the board and, when she casually went to lift it, she pulled her fingers back as though she had been burned when she touched it. We watched her run her fingers under cool water, and as she did, two large blisters formed on the fingers that had touched the glass. It was a classic example of something I would have had a hard time believing if I had not watched it happen.
While I dearly loved my friend, she had a tendency of being very social during the sessions and acting somewhat silly. During longer sessions, it was sometimes hard to keep her focused. On three separate evenings, each time under very similar circumstances when she was not taking things seriously, and during changes in the entity who was communicating, we would notice her getting a very stern look on her face. She would also seem like her posture was slumping.
The first two times this happened, we didn't know what was happening or what to expect. She just dropped her head, lifted it again and appeared very angry. She spoke to us in a completely different voice - a very deep, masculine voice - and demanded to know what was going on and where she was. We were taken completely by surprise as none of us had experience with someone slipping into a trance state. I don't know if our response was correct, but we acted on instinct and we tried to get her to stand and walk. We had long hallways in our apartment building and we tried to get her to walk down the hall. She was a very slim, petite woman, but her body felt like an anchor. Getting her to her feet and trying to make her walk was a real challenge.
We spoke out loud, telling the entity that they were not allowed to be there or to control any part of her body and that they had to go and separate themselves from her light. When she looked at us, it was as though two different people were looking from her eyes. One was her and we could really sense that she was clearly struggling with the experience, as though she was asking for help; the other was someone else. The air around her was completely charged. Every hair on our bodies was on end like there was static energy all around her. Then, whoever it was would go and she would slump over and feel very chilled and weak. She was aware that someone else was speaking from her, but she had no control over it.
The last time I saw this happen, we had some new people at our glass session. As soon as I saw the look coming over her face, I dashed up and told someone to help me get her on her feet and walking down the hall. This other person had seen her go through this on a previous occasion as well. This time, as we were walking down the hall telling this being it had to leave and that we were protected by our belief in All That Is, our friend turned to me, punched me in the chest, and with this completely deep booming male voice said, "TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF ME AND LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE. I'M NOT LEAVING!"
I said, "Oh, yes you are and you're leaving right now!"
I really believe the key to ending this was not allowing fear to take control. We always believed that if we had ultimate control over these situations, no one would be hurt. We did have to set some rules for her though because she was obviously very sensitive as a potential trance medium. She was not allowed to have any wine or drinks when we had our glass sessions. Sometimes people would have a social drink of wine. Anything that could potentially alter my friend's consciousness in any way was off limits and she had to stay grounded without getting silly or trying to "entertain" people with what she was doing. This was not a frequent occurrence by any means. Usually we had very positive beings speaking to us. We began each session asking if the being would agree to bring only positive energy to the people participating and on the few occasions when the being said, "No", we would say that we were not interested in communicating with them, lift the glass from the board for a few minutes and begin again.
The last thing I would like to say about this is that in my aunt's case, I think this was a Being drawn to her because of the loss and grief which underscored her life and the fact that she held such a deep hostility towards traditional religion and God. There was a chaotic aspect to her energy and life. This was similar to my friend who didn't take the communication sessions seriously or would act silly or let her mind wander while the session was going on. Again, she had a chaotic factor in her life. Somehow, I believe this played a strong role in the ability of these beings to gain access to them. I believe it highlights the fact that this field needs to be treated with respect because we can be vulnerable to the influence of other energies around us.
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