S.O.R. Unit Conducts House Blessing

Three members of the Spiritual and Occult Research Unit of the Natchez Area Paranormal Society traveled to an undisclosed home in another part of Mississippi last month to conduct a house blessing and clearing, along with several other actions in order to help a family troubled by significant paranormal activity.

This case, which began in 2008, was taken over by NAPS in September of 2011 based upon a request by the Team Leader of another paranormal team that NAPS works closely with. This Team Leader was contacted by the family for help after years of frustration and little relief. This leader recognized that the case might very well include the presence of demonic or evil spirits, and knew that NAPS works regularly with such cases, and that it is an area of specialty for our team. (Members of our S.O.R. Unit are constantly working such cases.) It actually turned out that the case only involved mild demonic presence, but nevertheless was an extremely complex case that had to be handled carefully.

The unit's finding concluded that several factors were in play, two of which were: significant sensitivity of one of the family members which attracted spirits; and, spirit attachment to an object which was purchased at a sale and moved into the home. Team Leader Mike Chapman explained, "This ended up being an extremely complex case, and the case file we have on this situation is one of the thickest files we have. We worked very hard on this case, for this family. We learned a lot while investigating their case, and feel very honored and privileged to have worked with them to get to the bottom of what was going on and why, and come up with a plan to resolve the problem based upon our conclusions. There were many factors involved, both predisposing historical factors on the site, as well as factors specific to the family that then moved into the home, which we call "precipitating factors." They all combined to set off the activity."

Mike further described one of the predisposing factors that contributed to the activity was that a former homeowner worked in a cemetery and brought home tombstones to the property. "This was a very unwise thing to do in my opinion, and most probably was one factor in the haunting or spirit activity in the home. He was probably unaware that doing this would cause this, but sometimes innocent or naive behavior or activity opens up a doorway and the spirits come through. This case though, had over half a dozen contributing factors that led to this activity, not just that. It wasn't any one thing, it was the combination of many things." 

The unit's finding indeed concluded that no less than seven major factors contributed to this family's misery, and at least fourteen total factors that contributed to one degree or another. This led to one of the most complex and lengthy lists of "Recommendations for Case Resolution" that the team has ever compiled, with no less than nineteen action points. Seven of those resolution action points were for the team to do, and twelve were left to the family to complete and work on. The team has finished its seven, and now the ball is in the family's court so to speak. Mike reports that progress is being made. "I'm especially proud of the dad in this family. He has taken leadership and appears to be working the plan. He definitely loves his family and I hope and pray it works out. We have done all we can, the rest is up to them. That's the bottom line with all of these cases. We do our best and work very hard to understand what is going on and help bring clarity to a family or person in need, but in the end we can only do so much. The real work is done by them. It's simply a matter of free will. They have to exercise their free will and be very persistent about it if they want a positive outcome." 

The unit members conducted the house blessing, which is a form of deliverance ministry. Mike explained further, "We prefer to have clergy do this if at all possible. However, because this family's minister was not at all open to this, and due to the distance, we will not hesitate to pray for a family and go through their home for them. The alternative, which is to leave them without help or assistance, would be immoral in my opinion.

Christ, through the general priesthood, has given all Christians the authority to do this sort of thing. What is important to me personally is to be humble, and give clergy the opportunity to lead. But if they refuse or can't, we are all empowered by the Holy Spirit to do such things. I would strongly advise though, that not just anyone do this. I do think it is a calling and should be done by individuals trained, called, and experienced to do this work. There are consequences and counter actions that come because of what we do. I call this "blow-back." The demons know who we are, and they do not at all like what we do. But, "greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world." And, to be honest, it's more than just binding any demons and having them leave, it's praying for God's peace to settle upon the family and also for any lingering humans souls to move on to their eternal rest. It's not all just about any possible demons that are harassing or oppressing them."

Definitely one of the more interesting aspects of this case, besides one of the children being significantly sensitive to spirits (which contributed to attracting them as if this child were a lighthouse in the darkness) was the object which had spirit attachment to it, known as psychometry. A few days after removing this object off of the site, which was "bound and sealed" by prayers, holy water and blessed oil so that any spirits attached would not flee back inside the home or property or attach themselves to any of the investigators or their belongings, the object was again sealed, prayed over, and destroyed. In December, while in the home, teams members had their own personal encounter with spirits attached to this object, which the family had complained about for years. Mike added, "I will say this, that something was definitely attached to that object, without question. We don't know why, the family purchased it at a sale. So, whether it was used in some ungodly rites or some unholy activity, we don't know. We just became convinced that the family was telling the truth about this object because we had experiences of our own with it." This is not the first time investigators have had to deal with object attachment. "Actually, we've dealt with several objects recently, such as books, Ouija boards, and a tribal mask," he advised. 

Apparently, the object also did not want to fade away quietly in the night either. The team found it difficult to destroy. Mike explained his personal experience, "Yeah, that was quite unexpected. I doused it with gasoline, and after sprinkling it with a few drops of holy water and praying over it one last time to bind the demon or spirit to go to the Cross and have Christ command it where to go, I lit it afire. The gas burned off, and immediately the fire went out. This object should have burned easily. I left it alone for a few days and went back a second time. I prayed over it again, sprinkled holy water on it - certainly not enough to prevent it from burning - and then really doused it, I mean soaked it, with gasoline. I lit it again, and the same thing happened. The gas burned off, and the flame was just a small little flicker on one little area. I walked away and started to leave again. However, I decided to sit down about forty yards away and pray, to ask God to allow it to burn, to be destroyed. Another investigator showed up just after, and little by little it caught up. We added some wood nearby to help it, and soon it was roaring. It is now gone, destroyed. Maybe it's because of prayer and the promise "where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be also" had something to do with it. I suppose we had our own little Elijah moment, I'm not sure. The main thing is, I'm glad it's gone."  

The S.O.R. Unit, according to Mike, now turns its attention to two other cases, one in Mississippi, and one in Louisiana. Meanwhile, the team at-large is focused upon the Eola Hotel public case investigation and the Glenburnie - Goat Castle Murder investigation, for this August's TV Production with Natchez TV and producer Eric Glatzer.