Ghosts Among Us - James Van Praagh [20]
FOUR
The Undead
As mentioned, when a ghost decides to stay close to the earth plane for whatever reason, it literally becomes earthbound. There are a variety of reasons why a ghost remains tied to earth.
A person has some sort of unfinished business with someone on earth.
Death was sudden and unexpected, such as a car accident or murder, and the deceased is unaware of his or her condition.
A person may want to make sure that his or her final wishes are being followed.
A person with certain religious beliefs may be afraid of what lies ahead, especially if those beliefs tie into hell and damnation.
Because earthbound spirits reside in a very vivid mental and emotional state, their feelings and thoughts are extremely powerful. An earthbound spirit can be relentless in its desire to get what it wants. Imagine a situation in your life that you thought about over and over until it became an obsession. Perhaps you stubbornly stuck to a particular point of view and would not budge. An earthbound spirit can have the same obsessive nature, only magnified one-hundredfold. Once a soul realizes its mistakes and burns out the desire to follow obsessive behavioral patterns, it can move on.
Many a ghost has stayed behind because of unfinished family business. Perhaps a husband died without telling his wife where he left the insurance policy, and without it she could be destitute. The husband will attempt to get through to her in any way possible, no matter how long it takes, to let her know about the policy. He will stay until the situation is resolved.
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Contrary to the typical ghost story, earthbound ghosts do not aimlessly wander around deserted landfills and cemeteries. On the contrary, they are extremely attracted to the energy of the living and move about in areas where life is flourishing. They use the living’s life force to sustain their power. These ghosts are very influential and can sometimes cause the living to engage in activities that they might not normally do.
My friend Laura recently told me about her experience with earthbounds. It was 1995, and she had just moved into a little house in an area of Los Angeles called Venice. In the sixties, Venice was overrun with drug dealers, hippies, and Hell’s Angels. There were many violent crimes and drug-related deaths in that area at that time.
“The moment we moved in, I felt very upset,” Laura said. “I didn’t want to stay in the house at all and would find all sorts of excuses to leave. When I was out, I would want to stop in a grocery store for cigarettes, and you know, I don’t smoke. But I had this overwhelming urge to buy cigarettes.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well, I didn’t buy the cigarettes. After a few months, I figured a ghost was haunting the house. I went to a psychic, and she said that there were two people living in the house and that they were huddled together on the floor of the small bedroom and didn’t want to leave. She said they died in that very spot from an overdose of drugs.”
“Oh, my God,” I replied.
“She told me that the ghosts were the ones always sending me out for cigarettes.”
“So what did you do?”
“The psychic and I concentrated our thoughts to get them to leave. It took hours before they would go, but they finally left. After that, I never felt the urge to leave the house and buy cigarettes again.”
THE SAILOR
Another way a person becomes earthbound is by a traumatic death, like murder, or by an unexpected one, like a plane crash. In this type of scenario, the person may