Although Halloween is far away, Hollywood began its ghost-phobic cinema early this year with the release of The Conjuring 2. In most people’s minds, the idea of hauntings are centered in this fear of invisible specters out to get us. However, for those curious about realms beyond this one, a haunting can be an interesting, positive experience.
The house I rent in west Los Angeles with my roommates is not overtly haunted, as in having to call emergency exorcists while giant portals to other dimensions are wreaking havoc in our living-room, but there is still a little “something” going on—which has been enjoyable.
One night, a tapestry in my roommate’s room unhooked itself while we were watching TV, sliding down to the floor.
“That’s odd,” we agreed. “It must be that ghost.”
Later, I went into the living room, and a Christmas decoration that was wrapped around the mantle disconnected itself and slid down from the fireplace, landing on the floor in a small pile.
Then, in that same week, one of our landlady’s dogs suddenly ran into the living room and began barking fiercely at one of the chairs (it had never done this before). It could see something lounging that we could not.
To top things off, I went to the gym one afternoon, and when I returned, a copy of the book I wrote, Understanding Life After Death, at some point had flown off my shelf and landed on the floor of my bedroom.
I placed the book back on the shelf and included a note that read “You’re welcome to do it again, I don’t have any problems with it.” However, to date, my book hasn’t moved a second time. The phenomena seemed to be a passing thing.
While some people become unnerved by this type of thing, it’s important to remember what’s really happening: the astral dimension is interpenetrated with our own world. And, our neighbor is not as separated as we think. Somebody who is very diligent, who lives on the astral side, can affect matter on the Earthly side if they really desire it. That’s all “hauntings” really are.
Their reasons to do so are numerous: curiosity, playfulness, or even a desire to help bring people awareness that they exist. We cannot discount that some astral residents may have malevolent intentions or a desire to frighten people, but there’s also no reason to believe that this is the majority of circumstances.
As for our ghost—who was it? It’s hard to ever know. However, as someone who infrequently travels outside his body, I did have an astral experience one night within our home. I was in our living room, on the astral side, and I saw a girl with jeans, round glasses, short dark hair and a backpack come through the door. I immediately came up to her and told her who I was (that I lived in the same home but on the Earth-side). She appeared very surprised by my presence, but then unfortunately—the experience broke before I could talk to her.
Was she the stranger trying to make contact? It’s impossible to know. However, I suspect many who live on the astral side view us as a curiosity just as we are mystified by their presence—especially since I believe many of them share the same spaces that we do, but in the astral counterparts. Perhaps, in the future, both worlds will be able to formally meet each other. But, until then, we’ll continue to be mystified and at times unnecessarily frightened.