As has already been stated, there are some people who appear to be preternaturally aware of the emotional atmosphere of a locality; they can immediately recognize a disturbance in a room in their home which they know well enough through past familiarity, but at the present time simply feels cold and alien. This sensitivity is clearly essentially subjective, and both strangers and some friends who know the environment quite well may be unaware of anything unusual. On the other hand, a visitor with little prior knowledge of the area may quickly sense something wrong with the atmosphere, sufficient on occasions to produce a distinct feeling of depression. Sometimes strange physical phenomena may also occur, such as the displacement of objects from their customary situations to locations where they may suddenly appear after a variable period of complete absence. In such circumstances it may well be that the psychic energy that emanates from the person (or people) works to reinforce a psychically charged atmosphere or object.
Sometimes the atmosphere has been a notorious feature of the locality for a long time; sometimes it has descended dramatically like an autumnal fog. The analogy with a fog which encloses one inescapably can be quite apt, for its intensity may dull the senses as well as depressing the awareness of light and humour that lies very close to the joy of living. The nature of this negative feeling is obscure to the intellectual type of observer who may with irritation dismiss the whole matter as "ideas" in the minds of people with too little work to do, but these "ideas", if disregarded, may form the basis of a depressive illness. The question immediately follows: has the phenomenon come in as a reaction to a period of depression afflicting someone in the environment, or was the phenomenon the spark that set off the depression in an especially sensitive person? In the majority of cases that I have encountered, the human agent has been the primary target of attack, and in their turn has added to the general psychic mêlée.
It is helpful right at the start of this discussion to note that the clearance of malign psychic atmosphere is not synonymous with exorcism or deliverance. In the latter circumstance we believe that an actual tangible entity is haunting a particular locality and causing a disturbance, because it is acting blindly and seeking for its release, or less frequently desiring to frighten or confuse its victim. The discarnate entity should be put into the care of God, not cast out of its present situation into the terrible wrath of providence, which is conspicuously lacking in even elementary love. The battle that would ensue would have an inevitably favourable outcome, but the havoc caused might be of extreme destructiveness. But what we are at present considering is not the removal or exorcism of an invading entity, but merely the cleansing of an unwholesome atmosphere.
A good analogy would be a public house inundated with cigarette smoke or the fumes of liquor coming from the bottles opened by the attendant. Psychical unwholesomeness follows the presence of emotionally disturbed people in a locality, and sensitive individuals can be aware of undercurrents of sadness, fear, anger or any other negative emotion very quickly. They may not know the cause of the disturbance, but of its presence they have no doubt. In a number of well-recorded cases it has been established that a violent death occurred in the same house, even the same room, on a previous occasion. This type of sequence has occurred too frequently to be dismissed merely as coincidence. On the other hand, a room that has been the scene of great rejoicing in the past also tends to retain an atmosphere of happiness and celebration. As I have already stated all this sensitivity would verge on the ridiculous, but before we cast it all out as primitive superstition, let us compare the situation with that of a highly musical person who might go out of their way to hear a noted performer while an equally intelligent person might be deaf to the arts generally, believing them to serve no useful function in the advancement of human knowledge or endeavour. In the immediate period there would probably be no meeting of the two minds at all; one could only hope that in due course the artistically illiterate person would have their aesthetic and emotional ears and eyes opened to appreciate the spiritual grandeur of great music and art, and to be transformed by it.
The reverse situation is barely conceivable. Physically and intellectually we function as separate units, often extremely selfish ones, but when we enter into the collective experience of humanity as evidenced in the inspiration of the greatest art, we lose ourselves in order to find our true being which goes far beyond personal preference and enjoyment to include the whole of creation. It is when we lose our sense of separation in the wonder of the present scene that we can move beyond even an attachment to the greatest art to the divine essence on which the beautiful, the true and the good are eternally fixed. All that we can comprehend with the senses has its own limitations; all that we can grasp psychically has, as it were, frayed edges as one part merges into the other; but what we encounter spiritually changes us as people. The term "deification" is used by the Eastern Orthodox Church to describe the inner change that follows the influx of the Holy Spirit into the chastened soul. A completely renewed person emerges as the power of the Holy Spirit acts psychically to cleanse the soul and the body.
From this consideration of individual psychic malaise and its treatment, it seems clear that the work of the Holy Spirit is of paramount importance not only in clearing away noxious psychic miasmas but also in replacing them with a wholesome atmosphere of peace, hope and joy. The Holy Spirit can be identified with the healing presence of God, bringing clear sight into a situation of chaos so that one can at last be able to discern the problem clearly without interference from other people, emotional attitudes, and all dark psychic backgrounds with menacingly evil emanations. The emanations arise from the emotions of people still alive, to which are added the negative feelings of those departed from this mortal framework. In this respect it is a wise dictum that what we are now we shall continue to be in the future, at least until we strive to change our attitudes and ways.
I personally believe that we carry on with us our basic emotional attitudes and prejudices even after the death of the physical body, an acceptance of probable fact articulated by many psychic types of people. If this is true, then it is all too probable that we, or more precisely our souls, continue in a psychic flux between earth and the afterlife, a sort of purgatorial zone, until we are able to confront the course of our past life with courage and honesty. Then we may know fully the meaning of forgiveness as a new sheet is opened in the book of our lives, and the guilt and regrets of the past are wiped away as remnants of a past when we were still in the school of life.
It follows from this observation that the closer we are to God in assiduous prayer, the more protected we are from psychic assaults from invidious environments. No one can be totally protected, nor should we aim at such total protection - as we noted in the first chapter, it is through spiritual conflict that we grow in stature as people - but if we play our part nobly we shall not be vanquished but, on the contrary, be justly rewarded with the spiritual and psychical strength that comes from the Divine Source. The value of playing our part in the various problems and tragedies that beset our little world is that it brings us closer to our human compatriots to the extent that we may enter directly into their feelings and know what is going on in their hearts. An astute psychologist can project their personality into the object of contemplation, so fully comprehending it. This power of personal rapport is called empathy. The object is nearly always a fellow human, and when the inner fields of the person can be comprehended, an attempt can be made to relate to the individual to relieve them of their problem. The work of empathy has a strong psychic basis, but it also involves emotional sympathy and intellectual acuity. Some experienced medical practitioners have a built-in psychic reserve that warns them that a particular patient whose clinical history may not differ very much from the norm is in particular danger of death.
It should be noted that a demonic spirit is complete in its form even when it reveals its malevolence by being misplaced, for instance in human company rather than by staying aloof. The way those symptoms differ from those of spiritual dryness is distinguished by their response to deliverance. Once the invading spirit is sent back to God's care, the symptoms rapidly resolve. The great majority of people who have rejected their faith have done so for many other considerations, such as disillusionment, general depression, or personal dislike of ministers who had previously visited them and left an atmosphere of coldness behind them.
I believe that disturbances in the psychic atmosphere are invariably due to hostile emotions from people who have or have had some connection with the locality. A classical example of this hostile response is the familiar poltergeist, the German for "playful spirit". It shows itself in overt physical phenomena in the ambience of an adolescent who usually has quite severe emotional problems. The age of the person is usually one at which sexual arousal is proceeding pari passu with genital development, and the person is not in complete control of their emotions. Indeed, they may be quite ignorant about the full nature of sexuality, even in our very permissive society. As a result of this parental negligence the youngster is generally unhappy and maladjusted. There is nearly always an emotional problem with someone else, or more than one person, of about the same age group. In my own experience the person involved can also be of adult age or even elderly. The connecting feature seems to be the emotional state of the person rather than the age.
In one of the most memorable occasions of this type of phenomenon, I was called on to investigate strange paranormal events occurring in a home for underprivileged children. It was shown to me that the problem was one of poltergeist activity (this "showing" is a response to deep prayer, as I shall describe in chapter 9), and that the "treatment" (to use a medical analogy) was a period of equally deep prayer with the staff, a blessing of the premises, and, most important of all, a general discussion with the staff of both the nature of the disturbance and the way of dealing with it. There is in fact no stereotyped approach to treating a poltergeist apart from dealing with the emotional problems besetting its victim. While that individual is unhappy and discontented the chances are sure that the disturbances will recur. I found that in this particular case the children were too strictly controlled despite the loving care bestowed on them and that some of them were previously mentally disturbed. When subsequently the control was sensibly loosened, the relaxed atmosphere proved conducive to a fairly rapid disappearance of the very unpleasant psychic phenomena.
It is especially important in this type of case not to practise any type of exorcism, because there is rarely anything to "cast out" other than the unpleasant atmosphere and the fear of the people in the vicinity. All these are best dealt with by a simple but heartfelt blessing, together with the laying-on of hands. The significance of this gesture is debatable. I believe that it has direct healing power which is mediated psychically, for numerous "spiritual healers" seem to emit a directly healing influence by this means. Again all this can be ascribed to mere suggestion, but anyone who has received this type of treatment is frequently aware of intense heat emanating from the practitioner's hands. This heat was my own personal introduction to the ministry of healing. One thing is certain: it is stronger than the normal body temperature. I believe that this is one of a number of phenomena that form a connection between the physical and psychical fields of activity.
This thought brings us to consider poltergeist activity more precisely: the type of person most likely to be afflicted has been described, but what actually happens in their vicinity? The phenomena are of physical type: the unexplained movement of objects which may disappear unaccountably for a variable period of time and then reappear just as unexpectedly and quite often in their customary site; unexplained switching on and off of lights; unusual sounds like the heavy tread of footsteps outside the premises and of sufficient intensity as to mimic an approaching intruder; the turning on of taps and their subsequent tightening again. But can we explain this strange assembly? We have to admit that psychical phenomena cannot be explained scientifically with such certainty that everybody agrees about their very existence, let alone their mechanism. This uncertainty is related to their unpredictability; since the essence of scientific research is the repeatability of the phenomena. Psychical research, at least at the present time, fails to qualify as a scientific discipline. Poltergeist activity cannot be produced at will, as can the physical phenomena associated with scientific research.
My own view is that psychic energy might be converted into physical energy, and when conditions were right might express itself in a manifest fashion. The right conditions might be those of harmonization of the particular psychic energies of the person with those of the surrounding environment. When the two articulated simultaneously it could be that a physical manifestation might occur. The apparent purposelessness of poltergeist activity and its anonymous nature do not suggest a personal mischievous source from afar causing the trouble. It is, of course, possible that a mischievous source might harness a poltergeist for its own unpleasant purposes, but on the whole it is wiser to employ Occam's razor: the use of the fewest assumptions in explaining a thing. Having said this quite categorically, one must also note that in biological systems, which include disease processes, it is common for a number of different factors to work together, but nearly always one takes precedence over the others.
I do not believe that the poltergeist is necessarily malign in intent any more than a severe storm has a diabolical origin. But the alarm it may occasion in people - it often occurs in a group living closely together - can be quite considerable. It may be of value in obliging people to look more deeply into their spiritual life, even to the extent of evaluating their past in the light of possible future developments.
Chapter 4