Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters (6 page)

After the shower incident, everyone began sleeping together in the living room, giving up and surrendering their bedrooms and personal space to their invisible intruder. “It” was winning. Showers were only taken while another family member would supervise the bathroom, keeping the other person company in the now very-uncomfortable bathroom.

Things continued to get weirder and more terrifying. At
night, dishes would fly out of the closed cupboards and smash all over the floor. This created a ritual of cleaning in the morn
ing for Betsy, which proved to be difficult with her recent surgery and back injury. She was becoming more and more exhausted. The entity pressed on, determined to break down the family’s will and happiness. It was persistent.

During these strange events, Bryan began finding mysterious scratch marks and burns across his body and on his limbs. For no apparent reason, Bryan would experience a hot burning sensation, only to find a new scratch mark or welt.

During our visit I asked Bryan’s permission to document the scratches and I took several photographs. I tried to raise his spirits by joking around as if I were doing a professional photoshoot and he were a professional model. It was important to keep up good spirits even when the family was surrounded by darkness.

One night, Bryan sat up watching the Lion’s football
game. Bryan went into the kitchen and gathered some snacks. Upon returning to the room he noticed that his dad had stolen his seat in the recliner and was now watching the game. Bryan and his father sat for a while and Bryan made several comments to his dad about certain “crappy calls” that were made. John would quietly reply with “Yes.”

Then John’s loud truck pulled into the driveway. Bryan assumed his mother had run to the store, using John’s truck. Bryan took his dishes to the sink and returned to the living room after cleaning his dishes. That’s when he saw John walk in the front door with a few groceries in a plastic bag.

“Wait. What? You … were just … I mean, what are you doing? I was just talking to you.” John asked Bryan what he was talking about and why he looked so startled. Bryan explained that he had just experienced an entire conversation with “John” while they watched the football game together. John hates sports and made a point of interrupting Bryan’s story to make the fact known. John said, “I would never watch football or any sport on TV for that matter. Whatever he saw was not me!” The figure previously sitting in the chair was not
Bryan’s father, although it physically looked and sounded like
John.

In demonic cases it’s not uncommon for the family members’ voices to be mimicked; however, this was the first case I had in which a physical manifestation interacted for a prolonged period of time.

After Bryan finished sharing this story with us, he went into his room and grabbed a drawing pad that he frequently used. He showed me the “weird triangle-shaped men” he used to draw when they lived in the farmhouse. They didn’t mean anything to him until they moved into the trailer. One day, when Bryan and Collin were in the kitchen, they saw a shadow in the corner. It was shaped exactly like the figures Bryan had drawn.

Sarah had
also
witnessed this oddly shaped triangle figure a different time. She also saw a disfigured creature crawl into the corner of the living room. It sounded like a horror movie. Collin got excited while Sarah recalled the story and grabbed a video game from their television stand and pointed out a
picture, “It looked something like this!” On the back of the case was a Gollum-like character with lanky limbs and a sinister face. He was excited to have a visual aid that looked sim
ilar.

How was this even possible?
The paranormal world never fails to surprise me, but I listened with a skeptic’s ear to see if I could rationalize any of the incidents. Then, right at that moment, one of the kitchen cabinets flew open on its own accord. It was as if the entity acknowledged our discussions about it, confirming that it was present.

My heart sped up and I looked around the room, scanning to see if one of their pets had opened the cupboard, but I found no logical answer. Carl, Mike, and I decided that we should begin the cleansing soon before any further events happened. It was time.

As we pulled out our blessing and smudging supplies, I could sense the entity in the house, anticipating our moves. The charcoal disk began sparking and popping on the stove and soon the earthy aroma of the white sage filled the air. We walked through each area of the house opening doors and closets. In each area, we recited a prayer:

“In the name of God, I command any unclean spirits and evil entities to leave this house immediately! Great Spirit, please bring this family happiness, good health, prosperity, and peace. Remove any negative influences and deliver them from any evils that are here. In your name I pray, Lord. Amen!”

We repeated our prayers during the entire ceremony while we blessed the house with olive oil and salt. I began sprinkling the holy water throughout the home with Bryan. As we moved from room to room I could feel the entity cowering and moving away from us as if it despised our efforts. Even though I had feared that Carl, Mike, or myself might be attacked, we pushed forward and commanded that the entity leave. “
In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this family and this home!
”

As we finished the house blessing, the air suddenly lightened and the house became brighter. The dogs stopped barking and the atmosphere grew peaceful. We gathered with the family to recite together a spiritual warfare prayer [included at the back of this book] as a final act of closing.

During the prayer, which takes several minutes to complete, Bryan began to get antsy. I soon realized the battle was not over.

I asked Betsy to lead the prayer, and we all repeated each segment after her. I saw Bryan hunch over and begin to sweat as he repeatedly aired out his shirt. Betsy rubbed Bryan’s back to comfort him and I could see Bryan closing his eyes in order to further concentrate. He appeared to be extremely uncomfortable and was having difficulty in reciting the prayer with the rest of the family. He looked at me and I nodded at him as if to gesture that he should keep pressing forward with the prayer—something might have still been attached to him. Bryan regained his composure and continued with the prayer, despite his apparent discomfort. He writhed in pain.

In several case studies it was common for a client to become sick to their stomach during an exorcism, and I wondered if Bryan was experiencing a similar situation. I considered grabbing Bryan a wastebasket as insurance in case he felt the need to vomit.

We were on the final sentence of the prayer and Bryan had finally endured through it all. We all finished reciting the prayer and looked around the room. Silence pervaded as we all absorbed the happiness and positivity that filled the house. But best of all, love was present in the home and it felt so warm and beautiful. I felt like a small child wrapped in a mother’s blanket of security. Absolute peace.

“I thought I was going to throw up!” Bryan exclaimed.

I asked how everyone felt and if anyone could feel the difference in the home. It was a drastically different house than when we first arrived. I felt that great things were now on the horizon for the family and they could return to a normal life.

“It feels lighter …” Betsy stated in an almost skeptical tone. But after a few minutes she said, “That is amazing! Thank you so much for coming and helping us.”

She asked how much she owed us. After performing numerous house cleansings across the state I began to lose money and only asked that our clients donate an amount they were comfortable with to cover the travel costs and supplies. But Betsy’s family was clearly in a financial bind. I told Betsy that they owed us nothing—I wanted to do this one “pro bono” for the family and prayed they would be on the road to recovery. Betsy and John were touched by my offer and Betsy began to tear up.

Betsy gave me a big hug. I could feel Betsy’s tension and sorrows leave her and tears formed in my eyes. She was a beautiful soul despite all of the struggles and pain her family had experienced. Betsy gave me a very sincere and grateful look and nodded her head.

We all exchanged hugs and our goodbyes as Carl, Mike, and I packed up our belongings. We came in to their home as strangers but quickly bonded with the family through such a spiritual experience. I gave the family instructions to start organizing their rooms so they could begin sleeping there again. “No more sleeping in the living room and no more supervised showers. This is your home now and you must act like it. Think of it as being part of the Witness Protection Program—your old life is no longer a part of you, and you have moved on,” I explained. Betsy’s family understood that they would have to conquer their fears of showering and sleeping alone, but realized it was much easier now that the entity had left. I asked for Betsy to call me if anything came up, if the activity returned, or if they needed something. Carl, Mike, and I made our way back to my car and finished with a closing prayer for the three of us in private.

I asked how Carl and Mike felt now that the blessing was finished.

“I feel awesome! I am ready to go to work now!” Mike exclaimed. We laughed because Mike wouldn’t be returning to his job for several days, but we were happy he felt
that
great.
Another successful cleansing
, I thought to myself as we made the long drive back home.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Betsy the next day:

“Hi, Samantha! Everything was okay. Our son slept in his room and he said he slept like a baby. He was even alone in there for a while after dark and he said that he wasn’t creeped out or anything. Thank you so much, all of you, for helping us. I’ll keep in touch and let you know how it’s going.”

The last I heard from Betsy, they were doing wonderful
and their lives turned for the better. Their story has been fea
tured on television and is quite remarkable. My heart still goes out to that family and I pray they continue to live a blessed life.

[contents]

CHAPTER 3

GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN CASE

—POLTERGEIST

J
ackie and Bob were in their mid-sixties and lived comfortably in a luxurious home off the shores of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. It was a beautiful sunny day as Carl and I took the hour and a half drive down there, trying to enjoy the road trip before partaking in spiritual warfare yet again. The lake sparkled and glistened, and I felt the presence of Great Spirit with us, reassuring that our endeavors would be successful that day. Spiritual warfare, while gratifying, is draining because it changes your entire life.

I was close to turning twenty-three years old at that time and spent my weekends battling the dark and helping others instead of going out and partying like most people my age were doing. I had outgrown the excessive nightly partying early on, and I was content with my lifestyle, as it filled me with happiness—and a few scares on occasion—but it was never boring. Although it wasn’t a clear and concise “career,” I felt I was fulfilling my life path and mission here on earth, whatever that may be.

I was ready to remove this entity from Jackie’s home; the entire week leading up to the blessing was a hellish one for me (credit: obnoxious demon).

On September 29, 2011, Jackie had contacted me regarding a “poltergeist” she was experiencing. Throughout all my years of research I had genuinely believed in poltergeists. However, I didn’t agree with the common theory behind poltergeists, which is that a person’s subconscious or personal energy manifests the events and causes the haunting, thus it seems that a foreign spirit is active in the home, but essentially one person causes an entire haunting. That being said, I did believe that it was possible for a person’s energy, such as an adolescent’s, to
attract
an entity, which may lead to a haunting.

Eventually, this case and other case studies I had read about would entirely change my opinion on poltergeists.

“
It took my feet out from under me while I was walking down a marble hallway in our house and caused me to fall flat on the marble face-first
…
fractured teeth, needed stitches, that was last week
…” I read over Jackie’s message and instantly felt that she might not be dealing with a poltergeist. Instead, I felt she was dealing with a demon. Jackie declared, “The crosses I put up don’t work.” She had also given the demon a name: IT. In many of the demonic cases I handled, the clients nicknamed the entity “It.” I had met many “Its,” aside from the famous clown one.
Maybe in the future
…

I had spoken on the phone with Jackie for over an hour, reviewing all her experiences and history. She spoke very quickly and precisely, determined that she was not losing her mind and was, in fact, experiencing something paranormal. Jackie would sometimes go on a tangent about some of her encounters, forgetting that I
did
truly believe her and didn’t need further convincing. I almost always gave clients the benefit of the doubt, knowing that providing a precautionary house cleansing wouldn’t hurt the situation, even if there weren’t a haunting. “Water materialized out of thin air on our kitchen stool, we found black tarlike goo in our shower, the toilet water would boil, it would howl and sing show tunes in the heating vents, scratch and bang on the walls, and other stuff like that.” Jackie listed off a bizarre inventory of all the goings-on in the house. If our conversation had been overheard, I’m sure we would have both been institutionalized. Thankfully, I was in the privacy of my home and sat at my desk as I jotted down notes, listening to Jackie’s accounts on the other end of the phone.

Several days after talking with Jackie, I was sitting at my desk, again replying to e-mails and inquiries about hauntings. As I was typing and staring at the computer screen, I heard a tornado siren blare.
Tornados in October?
I sat frozen and realized that this sound wasn’t a siren and instead was originating from
inside
my house. “WooooOOOOOOPPPP!” The sound started from a lower note and ended at a high pitch; unlike any siren or alarm I had ever heard. The hairs on my neck and arms stood up as the feeling of the house changed. It was not a siren test.

What once was the peaceful, protected haven of my home was now invaded by a presence I had not encountered before. I shot out of my chair and stood in the living room, which opened up between the foyer, kitchen, and office. My heart sped quickly and I stood there for what seemed to be minutes, trying to slow my breathing and pulse. Nothing in my house made that sound and the sensation of it was completely alien. I felt a dark presence in my home. “In the name of God, I command you to leave this house! You are not allowed here! You are not going to stop Jackie and Bob from receiving help! Leave. Now!”

I looked at my snoring English Bulldogs as they sleepily stared at me. “Did you guys not hear that?” I asked them. My adrenaline was still surging and I tried calming myself down. Jack and Annie, despite being luxurious couch potatoes, are some of the most alert and aware guard dogs I have ever owned. Apparently, they had
not
heard this shrieking that echoed through the entire house.
How was that possible?
Was I losing my mind? In retrospect, I believe that they have been protected from experiencing anything dark as a result of my promise to Great Spirit, as mentioned in the introduction. I was grateful.

I began connecting the dots and realized the entity that visited my home was the same one that had been bothering Jackie and Bob. Only two days after talking with her, the entity felt threatened enough to make a visit at my house. I knew I was being challenged by the same presence because Jackie had mentioned that she would hear a siren blaring through her house from the heating vents. This was the second time that an entity had visited me prior to a house cleansing in an effort to prevent me from helping the client.

I believe that these entities try intimidating me so that I will fear for my own safety and decline further help to the clients. However, I was determined and would not bow out of helping a person in need. I made the decision to not inform Jackie of the event, trying to keep her nerves calm until after our visit. I didn’t want to fuel any panic in Jackie’s mind until we could calmly talk about all the events together before the blessing.

In my opinion, episodes like this prove that demonic entities
can
simply teleport or relocate themselves based on whatever their agenda is and that they are
not
human spirits.

I sat at my desk trying to regain my composure and continued writing my e-mail. I wondered to myself how powerful of a demon we were working against, as there is some unwritten hierarchy of the dark. Some demons are more powerful than others, going out of their way to disturb you, and others will hide and cower. We still had an entire week until we would cleanse Jackie and Bob’s home. I anticipated that it might prove to be a difficult week for Carl and me.

It was.

Each demonic case takes its toll. Many clients don’t realize the effect their cases have on my personal life and that I commonly have to sacrifice my peace and happiness in order to reach enlightenment for the client. Often, Carl and I would become agitated with each other when a severe case was pending, as if the entity was trying to disrupt our lives—hoping we wouldn’t be together by the time the blessing was due. Although our romantic involvement eventually ended, Carl and I were very aware of these entities and their effects on us, so we consciously reminded one another that a cleansing was approaching and we were probably being influenced by an entity. After we acknowledged that possibility and caught ourselves, we became stronger and the demon’s efforts subsided. Prior to Carl’s affair, I remember him telling me about a sex
ual dream he had involving someone who looked exactly like
me. However, this doppelganger quickly turned sinister and proceeded to assault him. After our separation, he reported having paranormal experiences at his rental home and I have always wondered if the entity from chapter six had a role in the outcome. Again, these cases take a toll on anyone involved.

In the case of Jackie’s demon, I was unable to sleep the entire week prior to the cleansing. I would repeatedly wake up at 3:00 a.m., knowing that I was being disturbed during the “unholy hour.” It is thought that 3:00 a.m. is a mockery of the 3:00 p.m. “holy hour,” when Christ was believed to have died upon the cross. Again, demons love to mock the holy trinity or anything sacred.

I lay there awake and alert. My eyes would inform me there were shadows in the corners that were darker than usual and the energy of my bedroom seemed to hold its breath. I would lie there trying to go back to sleep but my senses were wide awake, as if I sensed a predator nearby. The entity had already visited me and shrieked in my home, now it was causing me to lose sleep.
Every
consecutive hour I would awaken each night, and I was becoming very frustrated. I greatly needed some rest in preparation for the blessing.

This wasn’t the demon’s first time in keeping someone awake.

Jackie began noticing a darker presence in their house after she underwent a surgery a year prior at the University of Michigan hospital. Although unusual, this wasn’t the first case in which an entity had followed a client home from a hospital. Being a Michigan State Spartan, I teased with Carl about how the University of Michigan’s hospital was contaminated with demons and thus was at fault for Jackie’s demise. “Wolverine demons … ugh! Is there anything worse? Demons already have large egos to begin with!” However, this was all in good fun and it is plausible that any hospital could harbor darker entities with the amount of death and sadness that surrounds these institutions.

The day of Jackie’s surgery, her husband Bob arrived at the hospital to pick her up after the procedure. “I remember it was a full moon that night,” Jackie recalled. On the way home from the hospital, Bob’s demeanor completely changed and he became very resentful towards Jackie. “He told me to shut up and threatened to drop me off and make me walk my way back home. We were easily over an hour from our house.” Through their thirty-six years of marriage, Bob had never been one to make such comments or be disrespectful towards Jackie.
Why was he behaving like this?
Jackie silently pondered.

Overwhelmed by the intensive surgery and medication, Jackie lulled off into a heavy sleep until they arrived home. “The next day Bob was back to being Bob. I didn’t mention the argument we had the night before in the car, because I was afraid I’d upset him again. I didn’t ever want to see that side of him again.”

Jackie’s health began to rapidly decline after her surgery. She was bedridden for nearly four weeks, a condition that was unexpected by the doctors. Her hair began falling out and Jackie seemed to age more quickly. Before the procedure, Jackie was a healthy and robust woman. She would go running every day and frequently played tennis with her friends. It seemed as though her energy was being sucked out of her and fed to the entity. Towards the end of her time being bound in the bed, a strange knocking began. “First it started in the office room. I could hear it rapping away in there. I thought it might be the computer, and had someone come examine it but nothing was wrong. Then it began knocking on the windows and soon moved to the headboard. I was losing sleep and was being driven insane!”

Bob had not experienced anything abnormal and was never home during the events, leaving Jackie to feel very alone and questioning her own sanity. “I would mention this to Bob, but he just thought I was letting my imagination get the best of me. He hired so many technicians and fixer-upper guys to come look at our house.”

One day Jackie heard a strange gurgling sound in their master bath. As she approached the bathroom, she was perplexed to find that the toilet water was bubbling and boiling in the toilet bowl. “Bob immediately called a plumber and he arrived a few short hours after our phone call.” Jackie sat there explaining the incident to the plumber as he finished examining the toilet and plumbing lines.

As he placed the cover back on the toilet, he turned to her and calmly asked, “Well, do you think you have a poltergeist?” Jackie was surprised that a man of his profession would openly suggest such an idea. I quickly reminded her that plumbers and the paranormal seem to go hand in hand these days. “You remember the Roto-Rooter guys on T.V., right?” Jackie and I laughed.

She continued with her story, “I recall looking at the plumber and he arched his eyebrows at me as if he knew that I was already aware of the house being haunted.”

“Maybe you should call a priest or bring in one of those ghost-buster groups? Maybe they can explain all of this and help you,” he suggested while packing up his belongings.

Cue the Michigan Paranormal Research Association. And so we rode in on our white horse with shining armor. Instead of having a white horse, I had my white Ford Escape, but it proved to be a sturdy and valiant mobile. “
Turn right. Recalculating. Approaching destination. Recalculating.”
Before leaving my house, TomTom, my GPS, knew the exact location of Jackie’s home and how to get there, but upon nearing the destination, it no longer recalled its whereabouts—as if the GPS were on trial and now conveniently forgot its previous statements. The GPS seemed as if it were overcome by the demonic entity and was now giving us driving directions.

“Would you make up your mind! Damn it, TomTom!” I was tempted to throttle the GPS until it gave us more truthful directions. I glared at the device and Carl and I both laughed at our situation. It wasn’t uncommon for our devices and communications to malfunction prior to a cleansing, as if the entity was making one final attempt to get rid of us.

After driving in circles, slowly closing in on Jackie’s home, we finally spotted the correct driveway into the subdivision. I pulled into a very lavish labyrinth of beautiful homes, just across from the lakeshore of Lake St. Clair. I remember reading that some hauntings were closely situated next to a body of water or a river, and that the paranormal (or energy) can be conducted by water, thus leading to more intense or frequent hauntings of homes by water.