Creating Sacred Space: The Power of Self Empowerment

It was a dark and stormy night...

Seriously, the night was indeed dark, but it was clear and crisp, the air
filled with an early autumn chill.

Nine bleary-eyed people are sitting around a dining room table. Five of them
are members of TAPS and the other four are just a few of the members of a
family we have just spent hours with in hopes of bringing a peace back into
their lives that, according to them, has not been there since they had moved
here, into this house, ten years ago.

Sue, (not her real name) a wife and at home mother of five sons, tells TAPS
that she has not been able to bring herself to go up to the second floor of
the house after everyone has left for the day to their various jobs or
schools. She will stay only on the ground floor as going upstairs has become
too unnerving for her. Shadows at the baseboards and whispers in her ear,
cold spots and radios that turn on and off by themselves, keep her ground
floor bound.

But neither is the ground floor without its own bit of unsettling paranormal
activities. Their twenty-year-old parrot Gracie has suddenly and
mysteriously "taught herself" to cry like a baby. Any of you who know
parrots know that they are taught sounds and words by mimicking and can not
learn them on their own. The whole family has sworn that none of them have
taught Gracie this new talent. Sue claims that this "crying" that Gracie has
suddenly and inexplicably picked up out of nowhere is mournful and very sad.
"Like a child in pain and pure anguish". This is extremely difficult for
this mother of five to have to listen to.

The dining room in which we sit is simple yet tastefully decorated. Family
pictures surround us. And the pretty curtains on the windows give stark
contrast to the dull paint on the walls. The homeowners tell us these walls,
and all the walls of the house for that matter, have not seen a fresh coat
of paint in ten years, due to the fact that whatever has been residing with
them will not let them paint, wallpaper, renovate nor decorate any room in
the house without making its presence known by some kind of disturbance
which has been manifested in the form of anything from the smashing of
heirloom crystal to possibly even causing seemingly endless annoying
troubles to the family's numerous cars.

This room that we all sit in now at 3 a.m., the last room in the house that
has been sealed and blessed.

The investigation and documentation we have conducted has taken hours. The
blessing of each and every room, including attic and basement, has taken
hours more. We are now nearing the end of our stay; getting ready to pack up
our gear and begin heading home. My ride will only be a half hour tonight.
The rest of the crew lives in RI so their trip home will be a bit longer.

This is a crucial time of any case in which TAPS involves itself. Because
this is when we have to leave and the family we have just spent so much time
getting to know and help, are once more left alone and most times still
feeling vulnerable in their own home.

This is the time I choose to give what I have come to call "My Self
Empowerment Speech". I call it this because this is exactly what it
does-gives this frightened family the self empowerment tools needed to
continue keeping the peace and tranquility that TAPS has brought to their
home with our cleansing and blessing.

Usually I not only concentrate on the family's personal religious beliefs,
such as, if they are Christian, holy water and prayer... but I also utilize
and suggest to them some other tried and true methods of cleansing that have
been around for centuries and have not only stood the test of time but also
transcend civilization barriers and also geographic boundaries as well.
Meaning, simply that the methods I suggest people use keep harmony and peace
in a home are ancient and folkloric rituals of creating sacred space along
with some new tried and true methods added to the mix for not only good
measure, but also to help some people to accept the ancient more readily
than usual.

These methods include the burning of sage or incense such as Frankincense
and Myrrh. Candles burned often, especially white or blue ones. Those colors
signifying purity and healing energy. Placing the pictures of beloved family
members who have passed over, prominently about the house and asking their
energy to come and join you in helping to protect your home. Fill the home
with a white light by visualizing it filling each room and surrounding
everyone who enters. Fill the home with prayer, laughter, love and music.
Clean up clutter, negative energy loves clutter.

All of these things work together to change the vibration levels of a home
and those who reside in it, therefore making it less hospitable to negative
energy and those who live there less vulnerable to psychic attack by any
subversive entity. And if you keep up with it, the victims become like the
child in the playground who suddenly ignores his "bully". Making it likely
that the "bully", in this case an invasive and unwanted and possible even
hostile energy, will move on to someplace more "inviting."

Of course most of what I speak of here as cleansing methods are used at
times when a house is occupied by intelligent malevolent or negative energy.
But can always also be used to create and keep one's own "Sacred Space." No
matter how harmonious a home, it never hurts to "open a window and change
the air" from time to time.

One week after TAPS left the house and family I talk of here; I called on
the telephone to check up on them and spoke to Sue. I could hear her
enthusiasm and excitement over the phone and it was the kind of positive
excitement and enthusiasm that we at TAPS like to hear most. It made me
smile to hear her tell me that for the first time in nearly ten years that
she is able to go up to the second floor of her own home alone, morning,
noon, or night and feel nothing but peace and comfort. TAPS declared this
case closed.

If asked why these methods work, I get a look on my face that tells the one
questioning me that they need to sit tight because I have a lot to say. Many
things come to my mind as answers to this question. Depending on who is
asking will determine how deep I wish to go with the answer given.

To some I tell simply; the methods I use to help self empower others are
like the car that I drive. I drive a car; it is a vehicle that gets me where
I need to go. I am not a mechanic. I do not know the ins and outs as to what
makes a car go, just that it gets me where I need to go.

To others I may go very deep and begin talking about all energy and matter
vibrating at certain levels; a table or chair vibrate at much lower levels
that say a plant or dog or a person. And those human energies vibrate at
lower levels still than those we call spirits. And enlightened spirit energy
vibrates at levels higher than say subversive entity energy.

Either way, I explain it, it all comes down to a belief in one's own ability
to empower one's self to take control and change things that can be changed
in order to restore harmony in one's life. This includes a life being
invaded by energies we may not completely understand, yet we gain control
over if given the right tools to do so.

-Fran

This lecture was given at the Rhine Research Center.