Ghosts Among Us - James Van Praagh [43]
At one major studio, there was a completely unscrupulous producer working on a TV show. He was in the habit of lying to everyone in order to get what he wanted, always using the excuse, “It’s what’s best for the show.” However, he really only wanted what was best for him. If that meant someone else would have to get fired or take the blame, then so be it. There were many people on the set who would have given their blood, sweat, and tears to make the show work, and this producer was the type who would take all the credit. I am sure many of you have worked for someone just like him: a boss whose reality is based on selfishness and manipulation.
On this particular day, I was in my office going over some production notes. When I had a question for one of the staff members, I left my office and walked down the hall toward the other end of the floor. Halfway down, I stopped in my tracks because an overwhelmingly bad odor had gotten my immediate attention. It smelled like sulfur or rotting eggs.
“Hey, James, how’s it going?” I turned to see this very same arrogant producer behind me. I promptly moved over to let him pass. Just feeling his energy made my skin crawl. For me, the image that came closest to describing his energy was that of the character Pig Pen from Charles Schultz’s Peanuts comics. Pig Pen is the one with a big ball of dirt around him. I could not believe what I was seeing. Dark, dirty shadows and snakelike creatures protruded from the top of this producer’s head. It was like watching a real-life Medusa walk by. Looking at his back, I saw various shapes and sizes of what appeared to be knives or swords. He looked like a porcupine. What quickly came to mind about the swords was that they might be negative thought forms sent by people he had wronged in the past. These negative energies were actually living on his back. I could not wait to get out of there, so I turned around and went straight back to my office to write down what I had witnessed.
It was obvious that this producer had no clue about the negative thought forms he was carrying on his back. Those negative energies would probably not have a completely physical effect on him for several more years, but who can say. The more bad behavior he engaged in and the more jealousy and insensitivity he showed toward others, the more life and power these attachments would probably accumulate. A persistently negative mind-set can open a person to something far worse, and that is possession.
POSSESSION
Who can forget the movie The Exorcist, starring Linda Blair? After seeing it, I couldn’t sleep for weeks without having the lights on. Ironically, I read William Peter Blatty’s book when I was in the seminary studying to be a priest. Interesting, isn’t it! Anyway, in the movie the young girl, Regan (played by Linda Blair), is possessed by a demon. Her entire personality changes, and she is unrecognizable even by her own mother (played by Ellen Burstyn). Of course, this movie was made purely for entertainment value, so the scary parts were a bit over the top and much more dramatic than any actual possession I have ever witnessed. However, even though possession might not include chucking up green pea soup, spirit energies can indeed come into a person’s sphere and influence him or her in a very negative way. In fact, most possessions are so subtle that it is sometimes difficult to believe that a person is behaving any differently than normal—probably because that person’s “normal,