Ed and Lorraine Warren were American paranormal researchers who are known for their involvement in famous cases such as the Amityville Haunting and for the establishment of the New England Society for Psychic Research. During their career and co-author of books wrote, gave lectures and the paranormal. Although their credibility is discussed by many today, many of their ideas about spirits and their behavior today remain influential.
In the book ‘The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren’ of 1980, written by Gerald Brittle, the couple shares their thoughts about what a spirit is, how people manifest itself and how the living they see. Although I think their point of view is worth reading, I don’t like the way they pass what is essentially only their beliefs as an absolute fact. The truth is that the existence of spirits is discussed, so there are no agreed rules about their nature and behavior.
That saying, some of what the Warrens claims, joins often held beliefs within the paranormal community and a broader public scope, so it is perhaps worth taking the time to understand their position to help you better understand the beliefs and claims of others who have reported encounters with spirits.
In the book the Warrens tell us that when it comes to the places where you will find a spirit most likely, it is a game of numbers. Places where more people have lived have died there, and that is why there is a greater chance that one of the deceased will stay. In particular, the Warrens mention “old isolated buildings”. But because of the Warrens’s own logic, I can’t help think that a densely populated city block would have a higher potential for ghost parties.
They add that “farms or older brick buildings” that were built near the sea during the colonization of America have the greatest potential to be chased because of the generations of people who have lived and died there. The couple does not mention why it is important to be through the sea.
Although this can be a good logic, buildings from this era are relatively rare in the US. So even if these buildings are the best place to meet a spirit, they are very little in between, which means that you will rather find a spirit elsewhere, purely on the basis of the fact that you are more regularly in a different type of building.
The Warrens also discuss why it is that some people seem to return as spirits, while others don’t. They call this ‘the ghost syndrome’, which they say it is caused by tragedy in the life of an individual where death occurs suddenly or under very traumatic conditions. Less often, a spirit will linger because of an unusually strong attachment to things of this world.
De Warrens strongly believed in the concept of ‘unfinished things’. They believe that if you die while you try to achieve something – which can be as simple as driving home – then after death you will be forced to complete this task, even if that just means that you are going home.
Ed and Lorraine believe that spirits are often not aware that they are dead. They write: “This is because the individual as a spirit no longer has the same consciousness that it had as a meat and blood person.” They compare this with the loss of a limb and write: “It is a lot like amputation. A person can think that his amputated leg is there when it is not. For the mind it is the same. Only in the case of the Spirit is the whole body amputated.”
The Warrens also explains how the action of manifestation works – this is a process that makes a mind visible to the naked eye. The completeness of this manifestation determines whether you are looking at a spirit or an appearance. The book explains: “It is called a ‘ghost’ if the functions are not recognizable to the viewer. If the functions are recognizable to the viewer, it is an ‘appearance’.
They clarify that a spirit does not have to manifest itself to be there. The Spirit will already be there, just imperceptible to the human eye. They write: “It manifests itself easily to verify its presence for that in the physical empire.”
To manifest themselves, the Warrens tell us that the Spirit needs physical energy, they explain that spirits have two possible options at their disposal.
The first method requires that a person is present, so that the mind can go through a “complex process of energy transfer to give itself a substance.” It does this by drawing from the aura of the living person. The Warrens not only understand this process, but they have also seen it and can describe it.
Write on the basis of the experiences of the Warrens, Brittle describes how this type of manifestation starts with two bluish orbs of light about the size of golf balls that float nearby, usually about 1.5 meters from the ground. While the process continues, the two light balls come together and merge in one larger ball around the size of a grapefruit. Others report hundreds of small bright spots in a cluster that come together in a single ball of light.
The author notes that during this process you also see stripes of light flashing of your body – this is that electromagnetic energy is drawn from your aura.
Subsequently, the ball will extend to a long cigar form of human size, and ultimately the defined characteristics of a person will then start to form until the Spirit has manifested itself as much as possible.
According to the Warrens, the other way in which a spirit can manifest through environmental energy and it does not require the presence of a person. They claim that this happens on “very moist days with a lot of fog or rain, or on stormy nights when there is a lot of electrical energy in the air due to lightning loads.” They believe that a spirit can build itself from energy in the atmosphere. When a spirit or spirit manifests itself in this way, the Warrens say that there is a tendency to be an “intense scent of ozone in the room, and materialization comes over with a bluish glow.”
Through both processes, the Warrens say that the appearance of the Spirit depends entirely on how that specific spirit chooses to project itself or see it in his own mind. This means that an appearance can cause malformations or injuries or be of a different age than where they died. It also explains how a spirit is able to wear clothing – they are only part of this projection.
“When a spirit is responsible for spooky phenomenon, there has either been an emotional situation in a house that activates the disruption or a spirit, his problem tries to communicate with the physical empire,” De Warrens explains.
Several people and families may live in a house, but only one person or one family can experience paranormal activities. This is because an “emotional interconnected” has taken place, this is where “a connection is made between compatible emotions.”
The Warrens give the example of women who are traditionally at home in the past. Sometimes they say the women died during delivery. That woman may be emotionally fixed in the house. 100 years later, a family with a new baby, suddenly comes in, the woman is seen in the nursery – the presence of a child has caused an emotional reaction.
Regarding spirit behavior, Ed and Lorraine, say that there are many common qualities. Most spirit problems occur in the night, we are told, often accompanied by strange scents or sudden temperature fluctuations. The books tell us: “Often a Spirit project scents to signal its presence, or removes energy from the room, making it cold.”
Victims of chases in the house can also experience doors, talked, heavy breathing and lights are switched on and off – “these are strong instructions of a spiritual presence,” Bros writes.
Being aroused every night is also an indication. De Warrens say: “Often a spirit will recreate its own tragedy every day, usually at the moment physical life was ended.”
This event can be aimed at a certain room, the book explains: “A human mind will tend to stay in a room that was in life in it.”
Of course the book also emphasizes the differences between human spirits and inhuman, demonic chases, but that is a completely different faith system.
