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November/December 2010 Cosmic
Are There Spirits in Your Home

by Jeffrey A. Wands

Beyond the energy of your past relationships, you could be living with the energy of people you’ve never met that may be clinging to the objects in your home.

Whether they’re feeling ill at ease or just plain ill, people often call me in to determine why they seem to be so uncomfortable emotionally or physically in their home. When I get there, I almost always feel the same kind of negativity they’re experiencing. When I contact someone in the spirit world, I can usually tell whether he or she died from a heart problem, a lung problem, or even some kind of blow to the head, and the feelings I get when I walk into someone’s home are similar.

Here’s an example. One woman who had recently moved into a Manhattan townhouse asked me to figure out why her young son — who had always been perfectly healthy — was suddenly having asthma attacks for no reason the doctors could determine. As soon as I walked into her living room, I too began to feel a heaviness in my chest and to have difficulty taking a deep breath.

When I questioned the woman about the history of her townhouse, she told me that the previous owner had died of lung cancer and, furthermore, that the living room sofa on which her son often sat while he was watching television had actually belonged to the man. Sometimes I really wonder what people could be thinking! Of course that sofa was the cause of her son’s breathing problems.

I told my client that — as often happens when someone dies after a long illness — the previous owner’s spirit had remained earthbound, and his energy was still clinging to the sofa. Sometimes, depending upon the circumstances of the death, the person’s spirit doesn’t realize he or she is dead. This is particularly true when the death is sudden or accidental, but it can also happen when someone has been lingering for a period of time between life and death and doesn’t realize when he or she has passed over.

As a psychic, I was able to let the spirit know he no longer belonged there and ask him politely to leave. I told my client that she could keep the sofa if she really wanted to, but she would have to do something to shift its energy and make it her own. She could do that by reupholstering it in a different fabric or just by putting new throw pillows on it. Since it was a good, costly piece of furniture, she decided to reupholster it. Sure enough, once she made the change, her son’s breathing problems disappeared almost immediately.

Change the Energy

When you walk through the door of your home after a long and possibly stressful day, how do you feel? You should feel relaxed, protected, lighter and more energetic. If you’re feeling tense, tired, restless or overwhelmed, you need to pay attention to where those negative feelings might be coming from so that you can make the necessary changes.

It usually isn’t difficult to change the negative energy in a room, but — like my client with the sofa — you have to discover the energy’s source before you can begin to change it. You don’t need a psychic to do that. Just ask yourself these questions:

Do you have furniture or objects in your home that have been handed down or given to you? If so, the previous owner’s energy may still be clinging to the object.

If an item was inherited, how do you feel about the person who left it to you? If you didn’t like your aunt Alma, her coffee table may be making you uncomfortable. You might want to sit on her sofa and, if you have one, hold a photograph of your aunt or some object that belonged to her and tell her that you want to make peace. Then, change the appearance of that coffee table — paint it, replace the top, refinish it. By doing that, you’ll be changing its energy at the same time you honor and create harmony with your aunt.

Do you have secondhand furniture or other objects that were not brand new when you acquired them? Since you don’t know where your secondhand lamp or antique rug came from, it would be best to ensure that it isn’t harboring negative energy from its previous owner. You can do that simply enough by placing your own furniture on the rug or changing the lampshade. Make a little ritual of it.

You can address the spirits whose energy these objects are harboring and let them know that you respect and appreciate what they’ve left behind but that they now need to let go of those things once and for all.

Jeffrey A. Wands is the author of Knock and the Door Will Open. Visit www.jeffreywands.com. Reprinted with permission by Atria Books at www.simonandschuster.com.