I moved to my current home appoximately 7 years ago. Well, around 3 years ago I had what I guess you could call my first major supernatural encounter.

I had been on my computer late one night. Around 11:50 - 12: 10, chatting and just browsing the net when I heard a creak from the top of the stairs behind me. I figured it was my wife getting ready to tell me to get to bed as she tends to do when I'm up late online. Anyways so I just shout back before she can say anything "Yeah I'll be up in a bit".

Well I turned off the computer, got up and went to the stairs. My stairs don't go straight upstairs but instead have a landing and then turn and then go upstairs. So when I got up to the landing and looked upstairs (it was all dark) I could see this shape, a figure of someone standing up at the top of the stairs and then it walked off without a sound out of my sight towards where the bathroom and my bedroom was. At the time I just shrugged it off as my wife waiting to see if I really was going to be off in a bit. So I got upstairs and walked past my bedroom on the way to the bathroom... here's when I became a believer.

I opened up the door to the bathroom (It was partially open) and there standing not two feet away from me was this black figure. Blacker than black, and just a presence that chilled me to the bone. I put my hand out to see what was there, to my surprise my hand passed through it. My hand went bitter cold and every hair on the back of my neck rose. At this point I was ready to freak, I quickly rose my left arm to hit the lights and as my arm was on it's way up the figure leaped at me. When the lights came on, even though it was in mid leap (and right in my face) it vanished. Gone, without a trace.

Well being somewhat of a religious person I began praying for my life all the while looking all around me. After a while I began telling myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me. So I calmed myself down and made my way to my bed. I got in and closed my eyes. After no more than two minutes I could hear the water in the bathroom running. I ignored it saying that I was hearing things, then I felt poking. I was poked once in the face, and twice in the leg. I simply ignored it and hoped it would go away.

Well, the next day I was talking with my wife and it turns out that she was having some weird episodes that very night, and several times in the past. Later on we experienced many more of these encounters with this figure, almost always centered around the bathroom. Many times it would tend to lunge at me every time I reached for the light.

The house has also had some other "quirks" not involving the figure. For example my wife saw three odd shapes out our bedroom window. Not clearly visible but she described them as appearing much like the cloaking effect in the predator movies. Another time I was in the basement and heard a loud crash from the main floor. When I had reached the main floor me and my wife both proclaimed at the same time "what happened?" We had both heard the noise, me from the main floor and her from the basement. Our young daughter has also woken up in the middle of the night claiming her bed is shaking, and she hears laughing. One night a little hat from one of her teddy bears she claims flew across the room and hit her in the face.

This has gone on for a while now and I was wondering what the experts had to say about this as I'm still rather new to this and well, I feel quite unprepared.

Another thing we noticed that might be of interest: There is a house next door to us that people tend to rent but they never seem to stay for long. Well, whenever the house next door is empty we experience peace. No noises, no figures in the night, however the second someone moves in, all of the "things" come back.

What course of action would you recommend? I'm ok with the figures, the noises and the such, they don't bother me, but I'm afraid for my daughter. She sometimes is just absolutely terrified of going to bed and won't go to bed unless someone's in there with her.

Sincerely, Gabriel

I would first recommend having a Priest who knows exocism rights to get a "feel" for the house, and possibly the grounds surrounding it. Failing that, or if you are not so religiously inclined, have a psychic tour the grounds, there seem to be lots of them popping up recently. Having connections to the Church, I could make a few recommendations if necissary.

I have a pair of optical scanning goggles that I would be happy to send you some schematics. They allow me to "see" different energies by converting their frequencies into the visible spectrum. I designed them after a recent encounter I had along some geographical energy lines. The weird problem is they only seem to work intermitantly. All the wiring and electronic components work correctly, and I have had time in recent weeks to test them, but my frends don't seem to see what I am able to clearly focus them on. Maybe you can use a pair to look around your house for concentrations of unusual energies, maybe illuminating these strange figures in the darkness.

-- Euclid's 6th

My suggestion?

Do the priest thing (Whatever faith you practice)... but don't tell him you want an exorcism or your house is haunted.

Tell him that you have been meaning to have your home blessed for some time. That it's a family tradition of yours that any home that your family have moved into must be blessed as soon as possible by an ordained priest.

Then let him go through the house from one room to the next blessing the house room by room. Best case scenerio he may drive out whatever you got, Worst case scenario he witnesses soemthing spooky and will take to the higher ups about what he's gotta do.

I would suggest against misleading specialists to the nature of the disturbance. Certain entities must be dealt with with quite specifically, and the better prepared you are, the more successful you are. If the Priest, or whatever specialist you bring in does not have the right equipment or mental preparedness, seeing a spook is the least of what could happen. Death or major collateral damage is the more likley result. If you explain the situation, and you first choice balks, move on to choice number two. Someone will help you, and I for one would rather have someone look at me strangley for awhile than be dead or injured from an ommission to save my "reputation".

if you can see the entity, you could always capture it within a faraday cage( i think thats how its spelled). from what i hear entities have trouble passing through flowing energy much like they would a wall. once comtained it would be easier to deal with.

Some also have difficulty moving through certain kinds of solid objects and get stuck in them. We have a few such things under lock and key.

There is a very simple solution to all of this... Simply tell it to leave. Be polite about it, but be firm. It's worked, more times than it hasn't, in cases where the spirits haven't actually caused physical harm to anyone.

Oftentimes, it's just a faerie or a similar small critter looking to give someone a case of the creeping heebie-jeebies. It's like a joyrider... They're out for fun, but not out to hurt anyone.

Just say something like, "You're frightening my family, and as such, you are no longer welcome within these walls. Please leave us alone."

I can't really explain why this usually works, but it does... Perhaps the faerie, once it realizes that its fun and games have gone too far, wanders off to find other people to derive its joys from. Maybe in just telling it to leave, you're generating a kind of crude ward that's effective on the little buggers.

Whatever the case, if doing this doesn't work, you may have to resort to more drastic measures...