Does the involvement in Spirituality open us up to bad entities?

I havent stopped asking myself this question for around about a week now, its driving me crazy. I have no idea why I came up with the question, I woke up one morning and found myself asking myself this question.

What I mean by it is, when we start to 'believe' in what ever we believe in, any type of religion, do we open ourselves up to bad entities.

For example, a skeptic would dismiss the 'bumps in the night' as coincidences. A believer like myself ends up either pacing the corridoors looking for who ever it is disturbing me/cowaring under the sheets, depending what my feeling of the entity is. It seems that lately all im feeling are bad energies around me, particularly on my landing in my house. I have had this problem before, and I have done a blessing on the house which actually calmed everything down, but its started again. I have always been interested in Spirituality but its only been for the past 2 years that I have really started practising it. Funnily enough, thats when I have been feeling all this negative energy around.

Would be great hearing peoples opinions from any religion, as im sure it applies in all religions.

Yes, we do open ourselves up but that is all a part of the experience/learning/development process. Imagine you're a malevolent Spirit. Someone opening up for the first time sends unguarded energies out in the Universe, to a bad Spirit that's like a lighthouse switching on and they see a huge opportunity for mischief. It's like saying 'Hey! I'm new, come get me'. As part of your development it's a barrier, how do you move on from there? If you can't handle those scary monsters then you shouldn't go past that barrier. If you want to go past that barrier then what you use to get past it helps you to deal with what's on the other side of it.

I don't believe in good or bad energies, to me energy is benign until people (and Spirits) use it for bad purposes. Energy does what it does, it flows around until someone fiddles around with it. Form that perspective you can change the energies. Suck it down, turn it around and spit it back out again. Turn it into what you want it to be, imagine it is nothing but good vibes and fill the house with it. Bad Spirits resonate badly with good vibes. Cowering under the sheets doesn't help because all that does is give the bad Spirits energy on a silver platter, and as long as you're generating bad energy they'll continually come back to you no matter what else you do. Once you get past your fear and stand on your own two feet, those scary monsters will soon go to find new ground to feed on. Even if you find the courage to get out from under the sheets, it's a start. Just take it step by baby step. Fear is just strength turned around.

I think it’s important to recognise that Spirituality and Spiritualism are two different things. Spirituality may involve meditation and such, whereas Spiritualism involves communication with spirit. And yes I believe this can open up to lots of unsavoury things for the inexperienced.

I happened to see a program on TV yesterday evening about psychic children. One of them saw ghosts, even of the very long dead (in costumes).

The crying ghost that kept him awake at night was 'sent to the light.' The bad energies he felt were got rid off by burning sage. Weeks later his mother said that he was a much happier child.

For what it's worth.

[xxLoveLifexx]

When you open up to these things, it's just that you become aware of what already happens and find deeper rooted explanations.

If you haven't looked into your basement for 20 years than there can be a lot of vermin. When you don't look into the basement they still exist, though you won't become too aware of them unless you decide to open the door, explore and get rid of it.

I think it is possible that when we start to dig deeper into the spirit that things like this happen. May I ask a few questions?

What exactly have you been doing in your spiritual search, rituals or practices?

Do you know how to shield and protect yourself?

What aspect or elements are you drawn to or are interested in in the spiritual sense?

only your will can 'open you up.'

before spirituality, we are simply blind to what's happening all of the time.

[Jyotir]

Hi Shorna,

When people begin to consciously aspire it means a deliberate attempt to transform ego-based/ignorance based ways of living. Previously one was supporting this by unconsciously accepting, living in and with, in unconscious agreement, assistance, preservation and promotion of these ignorant modes. Of course it is going to be threatening to forces that are committed to separation, darkness, to any regressive untransformed ego-based modalities, etc., when anyone wants to change this game - because it means a threat to the preservation of their power.

It's very much like when someone wants to begin to fix up an run-down drug infested neighborhood. The dealers do not like this because they are in control. If you were living there and accepting it with all the consequences no problem, but try to change just your own house , and there goes the neighborhood.

One way these forces try to 'attack' is simply to resonate with those parts of the being that are present or residual lower forms which are now undergoing an attempted tranformation. This is why many seekers experience a powerful reactive effect in themselves (backlashes) when they try to change - it is merely the 'old friends' trying to stimulate and preserve the old passing energetics. Best thing is to be calm and keep moving forward, pray for protection.

Sri Aurobindo has written about this phenomenon in Letters On Yoga, Part 4, Section 7.

Opposition of the Hostile Forces


~ J