by William J. Baldwin

Dan clutched his chest and left arm with his right hand. His flushed face contorted with pain, tears squeezed from his eyes. He appeared to be suffering a heart attack right there in front of me. I was stunned. At that point I had to make a choice between calling 911 or trusting the process. I trusted the process.

Robust and healthy, Dan was thirty-eight years old, yet had suffered with symptoms of heart trouble, including chest pains, for some years. Thinking it might be a past-life trauma, he wanted to explore this condition through regression therapy. As he probed his subconscious for the cause, I thought we might have uncovered a traumatic memory of another time and place. Or, he might be having a real heart attack. I shuddered at the thought.

In a few moments, Dan slumped in the recliner chair, his face relaxed and smooth. His right hand dropped to his lap. I checked his lips to see if they were turning blue. I watched his breathing. Lips remained pink, chest continued to rise and fall with each rhythmic breath. He was okay; I was greatly relieved. We continued.

Dr. Baldwin: “What just happened?”

Client: “I just died.”

Dan spoke in a calm voice, with only a hint of surprise. Next, I asked my favorite therapy question:

Dr. B.: “What happens next?”

Something always happens next. It’s a safe bet. A safe question in a therapy session.

The one who had the heart attack was an older man who had lived in Hawaii. He died suddenly on the beach during his evening stroll, just as suddenly as Dan’s brief “heart attack” episode only moments ago. A past life? Death in a prior lifetime? Possibly. It would not be unusual for such a past-life death to affect him in present time.

We continued.

Dr. B.: “What happens next?”

After leaving his body, the fellow hung out on the beach, unaware of time passing, unaware he had died. He was confused. This is typical behavior for an Earthbound (EB) soul of a newly deceased human. I suspected this EB had attached to Dan. The words and descriptions of what happened are the words and memory of the EB, coming through Dan’s voice. An entity influences the thinking of the client, who usually does not know the difference. The details of the narrative confirm the presence of an attached spirit, an entity.

The man, as a spirit, saw a little kid getting on a school bus near the beach. The little kid was Dan at six years of age. This could have been a day after the man’s death, or a year, or ten, or fifty years. That information was not essential in this session.

For some reason the older man was drawn to the child and joined Dan, apparently in the area of his heart. We could have explored the connection between them, possibly from another lifetime they shared in some way. But for the moment it was more appropriate to release Dan from the emotional and physical residue caused by this parasitic spirit attachment.

The EB was fixated in his own death throes, reliving the painful experience over and over again, repeatedly imposing on Dan the painful heart attack symptoms that were part of his body memory of dying. It had nothing to do with Dan. Medical examinations had never revealed any organic cause for the symptoms that had plagued Dan. It was more than psychosomatic; it was psycho-spirituo-somatic. The psyche of the attached spirit was imposing the painful physical sensations on Dan’s body.

With clarification of his situation, the spirit of the old man agreed to go. He was released into the Light. Most Earthbound souls don’t consciously want to harm the host; they are often confused and don’t know what’s happening.

Dan was scheduled the next day with his doctor for a reassessment of his condition. The nurse who took his blood pressure and checked his lung volume kidded him about earning a gold star. His tests were normal for the first time since his initial appointment with the cardiologist. There were no more signs or symptoms of heart trouble, no more chest pain for Dan.

In 1980 I attended a lecture on past-life therapy by Dr. Edith Fiore. During her presentation, Dr. Fiore mentioned the problems caused by spirits of deceased human beings interfering with living people. I was incredulous. She was serious. Spirit possession was real, and she treated the condition. Wait a minute! This is the stuff of horror movies like The Exorcist. As she revealed in her lecture, it was also part of her psychotherapy practice.

Dr. Fiore recommended a book by Annabel Chaplin entitled The Bright Light of Death, which described this condition from the viewpoint of a psychotherapist. Chaplin described a number of cases of discarnate entities interfering with people. Her approach consisted of releasing these entities from the living people and sending them on to a bright light. The results with her clients seemed miraculous.

I was deeply affected by this book. The first few chapters had a powerful impact on my understanding of reality. I had to set the book aside. Though the idea that spirits could be the cause of mental and physical illness in living people was new and foreign to me, I somehow knew it was true. My personal reality was forever shifted.

More than a month passed before I was able to pick up the book again and finish reading it. The effect on me was profound, and I knew the course of my life and the nature of my life’s work had taken a new direction. My natural curiosity led me to other books on the subject of spirit possession and exorcism, or “spirit releasement,” as I eventually termed the work. A year later, I began seeing clients for past-life therapy. With eyes to see and ears to hear, I soon discovered and recognized the signs and symptoms of attached entities.

While there were a number of books on past-life therapy available by that time, there were none that described and outlined a rational, methodical clinical approach to relieving the condition of spirit possession. As a scientifically trained and educated health professional, I needed such a methodology. Eventually I discovered that treatment of the human mind and soul provided a clinical approach in a spiritual context.

Religious texts accepted a preconceived notion of demons. The classic adversarial approaches to exorcism were steeped in ritual and superstition. The accepted method of exorcism seemed violent and without compassion. I could not accept this. As a result, I rejected the traditional religious approaches of both exorcism and deliverance ministry and sought a more gentle approach.

Dr. Carl Wickland, a psychiatrist and an avid Spiritualist, published his first book, Thirty Years Among the Dead, in 1924. The volume described his work, which he called “depossession.” The spirits who afflicted his patients were invited to channel through his wife, Anna, a gifted medium. His conversational approach was practical, methodical, and compassionate. He gently guided each spirit to the awareness of its own death, then invisible helpers from the spirit world assisted the confused Earthbound soul to find its rightful place in the Light. It was not necessary for the patient to be present in the treatment room. I studied his work and used it with my clients. I coined a new term for this process of mediumistic work: “remote spirit releasement.”

Wickland’s methods were the basis for techniques I developed in my own practice. In most cases I work directly with the client, the one with the problem of spirit attachment. I can conduct the remote spirit release through the client as the medium or connecting link to the target person, a family member or loved one. Remote spirit releasement is very successful in removing attached entities from people at a distance, much as it was in Wickland’s time.

Several books have been published on the use of pendulums for psychically discovering and releasing attached entities. However, since I have only rudimentary psychic ability, I chose to explore and develop a clinical approach I could understand, use effectively, and teach others to use.

What happens to those newly deceased souls who try but cannot return to their own body? Can souls really get lost, unable to find the Light? Can a disembodied personality “haunt” houses and other places? Can they hang around and bother living people? Can discarnate entities affect relationships between people? Can spirit possession be real?

The answer is a resounding—and disturbing—yes. Lost souls are found in haunted houses, cemeteries, battlefields, and sites where natural disasters have occurred such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanoes. And many Earthbound souls are attached to normal, living individuals like you and me.

Our language contains numerous references to spirit interference. Think of the many statements people make:

“Something just came over me.”

“I don’t know what got into me.”

“I am beside myself with anger!”

“I am not myself today.”

“It was like I was watching myself do that. It just wasn’t me!”

“When I looked into the mirror, I saw someone else’s face!”

“What possessed you to do that?”

The condition of spirit possession—that is, full or partial takeover of a living human by a discarnate being—has been recognized or theorized in every age and every culture. In 90 percent of societies world-wide there are records of possession-like phenomena.

Clinical evidence suggests that discarnate entities can and do influence living people. This condition has been called “possession,” “possession state,” “spirit possession syndrome,” “spirit obsession,” and “spirit attachment.” More recently, the term “dissociative trance disorder” was included in an appendix of the DSM-IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, fourth edition. The APA establishes the diagnostic criteria and terminology for mental disorders in this country. The definition of the disorder is a clear description of entity possession.

People have discovered and described many different types of non-physical entities and energies such as: crystals; shapeless black blobs; thought forms; various types of human and nonhuman spirits; “little people” such as trolls, imps, gnomes, devas, which are the nature spirits associated with plants (this is often found with cocaine or marijuana addiction); damaged souls of victims of genetic experimentation; implants of various kinds; and other unidentifiable objects and energies.

Many people have the mistaken belief that there must be some bizarre outward signs caused by an interfering spirit as depicted in scenes from The Exorcist. Incidentally, the movie was based on a true case, but some of the symptoms and behaviors portrayed actually came from two other cases, combined for dramatic impact. The incidence of such violent demonic possession as is displayed in that movie is rare.

In clinical practice, the aware counselor will frequently discover a condition that can best be described as spirit or entity attachment. The term possession implies total takeover of the victim/host; entity attachment causes interference with normal function and can influence behavior.

The condition is very common, and it seems that almost any trauma can cause a vulnerability to entity attachment. Some investigators in this field estimate that between 50 percent and 100 percent of the population are affected or influenced by one or more discarnate spirit entities at some time during their lives. Yet most people manage to live reasonably successful lives, even in the face of such interference. Through the years, I continue to be inspired by the indomitable human spirit.

While there are many different kinds of nonphysical beings and energies that can interfere with the living, the most common are the human soul and the nonhuman entity. Human souls include the spirit of the terminated pregnancy and the mind fragment of a living person. Nonhuman entities include the classic demon, described in religious literature, and the extraterrestrial, or otherworldly being.

Human Entities

The Earthbound Human Soul

The Earthbound soul, usually described as an Earthbound (EB), the surviving consciousness of a deceased human, seems to be the most common type of discarnate entity attached to living people. Attached souls of different age groups behave differently. An old and feeble person may act confused and lost, and just as feeble in spirit as they were in real life. Some women may present themselves as maternal and nurturing, sexy, angry, secretive, or helpless and whining as they were when living. Some young men may be arrogant, hostile, domineering, challenging, controlling, as macho as if they still had their own strong male bodies.

Like any teenager, the newly deceased spirit of an adolescent is caught between childhood and adulthood when the child personality is disintegrating and the adult personality is forming. Usually a person at this age has little orientation toward the spiritual side of existence, and is often defiant toward authority figures, yet aware and even resentful that they need their elders to survive. This is a difficult time in life and even more difficult in death. The newly deceased spirit wants to stay near the grieving parents, yet wants to be free. However, they usually don’t know where to go.

Earthbound souls of children often appear frightened and confused about what happened to them, where they are, lonely without mother, and cautious about talking to a stranger including the therapist. They can’t understand why their parents don’t come. They hide and often hesitate to speak.

These entities can become enmeshed in the aura, the energy field around the body. According to yoga philosophy, there are seven major chakras, or centers of consciousness, in the body, which lie along the spine and are associated with various physical, mental, and emotional aspects of human behavior. The base chakra, associated with the color red, lies at the base of the spine and has to do with survival and baser instincts. The second is the center of sexual and generative energy; the color is orange. The solar plexus is the seat of power, control, will, with yellow color. The heart is the center of unconditional love and is associated with green, the healing color. The throat chakra is concerned with creativity and expression and has the color blue. The brow chakra, associated with the pituitary, is called the Ajna center, or third eye, and has to do with inner seeing, intuition, and has the color indigo. The crown chakra is at the top of the head, associated with the pineal gland, and is considered the location of connection with the God-consciousness, with the color violet.

The emotional or physical trauma endured by a person can render those energy centers vulnerable. They are opened like doors to allow entry and attachment by an entity. This can be discovered in past lives or in the present. An entity can attach to any chakra, or energy center of the body.

They can also attach to the surface of the body, to any interior space, or to any organ, as in cases of heart or other organ transplant. The soul of the organ donor can follow the transplanted organ into the new body. Multiple organ donations from a deceased person to several people can cause a fragmentation of the newly deceased soul, as a soul fragment follows each organ to its new destination. Grateful organ recipients may get more than anticipated.

Organ Transplant

Sharon wanted to attempt a remote spirit releasement for Don, her husband, who had just undergone a heart transplant. Denise, their teenage daughter, had stayed with him in the recovery room following surgery. As he regained consciousness his first words to her were angry and scolding. It was unlike him to treat her in this manner, and her feelings were hurt. He did not seem like himself.

In the session, I directed Sharon to visualize Don. Immediately she felt a physical sensation of tightness in the chest. She repeated the first words that came into her mind:

C. (Client): “It’s too tight in here. It’s too tight, I can’t breathe.”

Questions revealed that these words belonged to Alex, the young man who was the heart donor. Alex and some friends were playing Russian roulette. Alex lost; he shot himself in the head and he died instantly. His mother was grief-stricken; his father was angry at the stupidity of the act. They accompanied the body to the hospital. They gave permission to use the organs for transplantation.

Alex was baffled by the episode. It had happened so fast, he did not yet understand. He watched the surgeons removing his organs. Alex’s words came through Sharon’s voice.

C.: “My kidneys went one way, my liver went another way, and my heart went somewhere else. I followed my heart because that’s where I live.”

His first awareness of the destination of his heart came when he saw Don on the operating table with his chest cut open and his heart missing. Alex was physically larger than Don so there was less space in the chest cavity. This was the cause of the sensation of tightness first expressed in the session.

In his fear and confusion, Alex had spoken harshly to Denise when he first saw her at her father’s bedside in the recovery room. Naturally, Denise assumed her father was angry with her. It was actually Alex.

Alex was eager to leave when he understood the situation. I asked him if there were any other spirits present. An entity can often be helpful in this way. He said he could see the scars where other EBs had been attached but they left when the man “died.” The entities had interpreted the removal of the heart as the death of the body.

While the original, rightful soul is out of the body during the period of clinical death, another entity can move in, invited or not. During this time attached entities might exit like rats leaving a sinking ship.

There was a change in Don following the remote releasement. He apologized to Denise for his behavior, though he did not understand why he had been angry. He assumed it had something to do with the anesthetic and other drugs. Sharon did not inform him of the remote work.

An entity can affect the limbs or hands, causing shaking, weakness or strength. In those extremely rare cases of inspirational possession a discarnate being can impart knowledge, literary skills, musical ability, and artistic ability.

What would cause a newly deceased spirit to stay here near the physical world instead of going into the Light, the Heavenly place, that is so beautiful and inviting? The EB can be bound to the Earth plane by the emotions and feelings connected with a sudden traumatic death.

Clarence and the Ghost

John, an electrical engineer, discovered an attached entity named Clarence. Clarence had died as he crashed the automobile he was driving. He described getting out of the car, only to see his body still inside. Confused, he glanced around. The first thing he saw was his Aunt Agnes. This frightened Clarence, because he knew she was dead and he thought he was seeing a ghost. He had no way of knowing she was coming to guide him to the Light. He took off in the opposite direction, running into John and getting stuck. In conversation, we helped ease his fear and carefully guided him back to Aunt Agnes, who took him home to the Light.

The Baptist Minister

Many EBs discovered with my clients are controlled by their fervent religious beliefs. Some fear they will not be welcome in Heaven because of their “sins.”

One male client discovered his father, who had attached after his death more than ten years earlier. His father was a devout Baptist minister with firm beliefs about the nature of Heaven. Yes, he shouted through the voice of the client, of course he had seen the Light when he died, but he wasn’t about to go to Heaven until it was the way he knew it was supposed to be. In talking through this with him, he finally relented and allowed himself to be escorted lovingly into the Light.

The Soldier’s Impossible Promise

Some people seem to be alone in life and cannot maintain a relationship. Some are desperate to be in a relationship with a significant other; many have no need and are not interested. It seems as if they don’t feel alone or lonely or don’t care about outside companionship. However, a jealous husband can remain with his wife following his death to ward off other potential lovers, as this case shows.

Louella attended a lecture I gave on the subject of regression therapy and spirit releasement. She then scheduled an appointment to check it out for herself; she had a feeling she might be affected by an attached entity.

During the initial interview, thirty-five-year-old Louella described her lonely life. She could not seem to maintain a relationship with a man for more than three months. For a client who wants to explore specifically for an attached entity, I often use the Sealing Light Meditation as an invocation of light and induction into the altered state. Then I ask directly if there is someone else present. In this case we didn’t even have to ask.

As Louella settled back in the recliner, she offered one more piece of information.

Client: “Oh, by the way, I had polio when I was two. Sometimes my right leg bothers me and I have muscle spasms.”

In a session, the offhand remark, the “Oh, by the way…” statement is often the key to the core issue.

Dr. B.: “All right, focus deep inside. Locate that spark of Light at your very center.”

C.: “Ooh! My head. It hurts!”

She grimaced and grabbed her head with both hands. She sat upright in the recliner. I recognized this as a manifestation of an attached entity, trying to get our attention. It worked.

Dr. B.: “Come out of her head! Stop hurting her! Come out of her head! We know you are here. Stop hurting her!”

The pain stopped, and Louella took her hands from her head. She lay back in the recliner. A moment later, her right leg lifted off the chair, her foot about eighteen inches above the ottoman.

C.: “This is what happens when I’m in bed with a boyfriend. My leg spasms. It always happens after we make love. It’s that polio!”

The physical sensation had shifted from pain in the head to muscle spasm in the leg. A sensation that moves around in the body indicates the presence of an entity. It was her husband from a lifetime in Egypt, around A.D. 550. He had gone to war across the Mediterranean, promising to return to her. This is the soldier’s impossible promise.

Her husband kept his promise, but only after he was killed in battle. He had found her in successive incarnations and had attached forty-two times. He felt justified in this, keeping his promise made to his beloved. This was definitely a distortion of love.

Millions of men have died in battles through the ages, leaving wives and sweethearts alone and desolate. Many of their souls have returned and attached to their loved ones, finding them in lifetime after lifetime. Finally, when they realize the damage they have inflicted by fulfilling their promise, they reluctantly agree to leave.

C.: “She’s my wife. She’s mine. I don’t want her to be with any other men.”

These were his words through her voice. He was trying to kick the other men out of her bed by causing spasms in the leg. After they spoke together, each through Louella’s voice, and expressed the love they had felt in that Egyptian lifetime, he was finally willing to leave. His presence was not appropriate. He loved her enough to leave.

Louella returned several weeks later for another session. She wasn’t aware of anything that had changed as the result of releasing the Earthbound soul of her former husband. However, several of her close friends had called to schedule private sessions. They had seen a great change in her. Whatever it was that caused the change, they wanted some of that for themselves.

Children are not immune to entity attachment. Many people who die in hospitals will actually “check out” newborns like new models in an auto dealer’s showroom. Confused about their death and reincarnation, the newly deceased soul can attach to an infant. Many clients have discovered such EBs in counseling session. They are not malicious, just confused.

The reverse can happen as well. Souls of infants and children can attach to other children or adults. A young child EB discovered by an adult female client, described the moment of attaching. The client was about six years old and she was playing jacks alone, enjoying herself. She glowed with happiness. The EB had died traumatically and longed for such happiness. She just “came in” to the little girl happily playing jacks.

In session, a sixty-two-year-old male client discovered an attached female entity who died in the hospital of a lower abdominal infection. She joined him at age six following an appendectomy. The similarity of the lower abdominal infection was like a magnet to the newly deceased soul. The story within the man’s family was that he never smiled following his surgery. The woman’s negative characteristics affected the man’s personality from the age of six.

A mother who dies when her children are young can feel such guilt that she will remain attached to each of them in a misguided attempted to stay and help them mature. An elderly mother can actually fragment before death, and a part of her will attach to each child following her death. Even a young mother who feels inadequate to her task of motherhood, anxious to “do it right,” may fragment a part of herself to be with her new baby. It is a sort of unconscious baby monitoring system.

A Family Situation

A demonstration session conducted with a young woman during a class revealed an interesting twist. Gwen, the subject, was well aware of the presence of Richie, her brother, who had died in an automobile accident some months earlier. The single car accident is often a suicide. She loved him deeply and welcomed him to join her after his death. He was guided to scan past lives and discovered they had been lovers in other times.

With little explanation of his situation and the effect he had on his sister, Richie was ready to separate from her and move into the Light. However, it appeared to be too far away. This indicates there is unfinished business with the host, soul fragmentation, or a nested entity, an entity within an entity. This happens when a person with an attached entity dies. The first attached entity remains within. If that newly deceased soul attaches to someone else, it still has the first attached entity “nested” within itself. If that someone else dies with the nested entities, and attaches to still another person, there is a three-layered nesting of entities.

There was no resistance on the part of either of them to the release, which indicated interference by another attached entity. As Richie explored within, he discovered the entity with him, but could not identify it.

In such cases, the focus of the questions shifts to this nested entity who responds to questioning, and Gwen gave voice to the entity. Frequently the client won’t release control of their own voice and will precede the words of the attached entity with “He/she says…” This works just as well as actually channeling the words of the entity. My voice was firm and demanding as I asked the following:

Dr. B.: “You, the one inside Richie, inside Gwen, step forward and speak. You, the one interfering with these people, speak up.”

C.: ‘Yes, what do you want?”

Dr. B.: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

C.: “I’m their mother.”

I was taken aback by this revelation and immediately softened my voice for the next questions. You shouldn’t speak so boldly to someone’s mother.

She then revealed that she had attached when Richie was about two years old. As his mother was still living, this indicated a separated part of her consciousness, a mind fragment. Her possessive and overpowering love, along with her fear of inadequacy for raising a child, had caused her to fragment and attach herself to her tiny son while still alive. Many cases of mind fragment attachment are family related, usually involving a parent in this or a prior life.

In the classic description of spirit attachment or possession, the living person is possessed by the spirit of a deceased person. Here the situation was reversed: a deceased spirit possessed by a living person.

Strong ties of love can interfere with the normal transition into the Light. Overwhelming grief of those who remain can hold a newly deceased soul back from moving on. A grieving person may welcome the spirit of a dear departed one and later find the consequences unbearable.

An EB can be drawn to any weakened part of the body and yet move about within the physical form. Such a moving sensation can indicate the presence of an intrusive entity. An entity can attach to an alter personality in a person with multiple personality disorder.

The attached discarnate entity becomes a parasite in the mind and body of the living. It imposes its own mental, physical, and emotional problems from its own immediate past-life experience and exerts influence on thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Additionally, it imposes unwanted physical symptoms. All this can be confusing and frightening to the host and family members. Such intrusion by a discarnate entity can interfere with any aspect of life of the unsuspecting host, even one’s taste for alcohol, food, even clothing.

Roberta and Her Mother

Roberta was in her mid-forties. She was a successful real estate broker, a capable woman. She heard a lecture on this subject and wanted to be evaluated for entity attachments. It was an excellent decision. Her mother had died about ten years previously and had immediately attached to her daughter. My questions were directed alternately to Roberta and her mother. Each answered in Roberta’s voice, and some of the revelations surprised Roberta. Subsequently, her mother agreed to release into the Light. Roberta was amazed at what had just happened and was introspective for a few minutes. Still musing on the experience, she described a sudden realization, “Half my wardrobe is my mother’s taste in clothes. I never liked those colors.” Changes had begun in Roberta’s life.

Cheryl and Her Grandmother

Cheryl attended a lecture on spirit releasement therapy. After the lecture, she approached me and asked a question.

C.: “Can an attached entity leave?”

Dr. B.: “Yes, sometimes they can leave. Why do you ask?”

C.: “I know my grandmother was with me after her death a few years ago. I could hear her voice. She even told me how to make pie crust. But she hasn’t been talking to me for the last month.”

I suspected the grandmother hadn’t left, and I asked gently:

Dr. B.: “Grandmother, are you here with Cheryl? Are you here right now?”

Abruptly, Cheryl began to cry; her body began to shake. In a soft voice she said:

C.: “Yes.”

Dr. B.: “You haven’t spoken with Cheryl for the last month, Grandmother. What happened?”

C.: “I knew she was coming here. I didn’t want her to volunteer for this. I don’t want to leave.”

Cheryl had learned of the lecture only days before. Her grandmother knew more than a month in advance. After a brief conversation with her grandmother, which included the resolution of a past-life trauma that involved her marriage with Grandfather in the current incarnation, she and Cheryl bid a tearful farewell to each other, and she went into the Light.

Excerpt from: Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits From Your Energy Body