Although now I am quite well known as a teacher in spiritual studies, it should be said that my first introduction to spiritual matters was not a happy one. As a small child my family moved to a run down old shop in London, and like most little ones, I would see, hear and generally be aware of all sorts of spirit manifestation.

This house had a pair of large iron hooks set inside the frame of what was then the kitchen doorway, and as a child, I would reach up and swing on these hooks, having a fascination for them although it would be many years before I realised what they were originally used for.

My father like many others of his generation, came back from World War II a very damaged man, not physically but mentally and he appeared at times totally unable to think and feel, and would sit for hours in an arm-chair just staring at the wallpaper.

I can still remember him shouting in his sleep to “get your heads down boys”

This exposure to suffering attracted all sorts of astral creatures, known as “exuviae” to his aura, and that of the house.

I now realise he would never have got better in a house such as this.

It has been established now that depression is one of the consequences of living in a haunted house, and the house had an empty, heavy and depressed feeling to it.

Living in a haunted house can develop a child’s psychic awareness at an early age, and I still remember when I was seven years old, queuing for school dinners when a boy in front of me put up his hand in front of my eyes. As he did so events from his future began flashing before me, one superimposing on another, with all the intense emotion relevant to each, totally swamping my young mind and at the time, leaving me upset and confused. From that day, I have read hands for people the world over, always believing that the bottom line of any reading must be part of the healing process.

The house itself was two hundred years old, and as I was to discover when I was in my twenties, the many alleyways around the property which baffled me as a child, were to guide the animals to the house which in days long past, had been an abattoir and butchers shop.

You will be familiar with the fact that a shark can be attracted by spilt blood in the water from many miles away, so it is that some spirits in the air, will be drawn to spilt blood, and the killing of animals on a daily basis would attract some horrific astral entities.

It has long been a method of black magicians to spill blood to bring the spirits, and some old religious cults still insist on cutting animals throats in the same way.

These satanic rituals continue today with animal blood being smeared onto the faces of children, in hunting re-enactments. While in Iraq the faces of detainees were “blooded” with the menstrual blood of prostitutes; this is a powerful weapon capable of psychological programming the victims to attract demonic forces to the oldest part of the brain, the “Hippocampus” via the breathing and autonomous nervous system.

This can establish a deep connection with primordial forces that can grip a mind and destroy it; the torment and inner anguish produced resulting in a great desire to spill blood. The Native American Indian war paint produced a similar effect and was used when battle was felt inevitable.

Even the Christian rite of Communion, which the Vatican calls: “the miracle of transubstantiation” where the bread and wine is supposedly transformed by the magician or priest, into the body and blood of Christ, is a more modern form of the same ritual.

In wartime, spirit feeders on spilt blood will influence men to shed more blood, which attracts more primary demonic entities, who will influence men to shed even more. And it was these entities that would frighten me as a child at night so much that I was often barely able to move, or even breath, in my bed at night. The sight and feel of some of these creatures will be with me always, and it is probably the close contact with these inhabitants of the lower realms that gave me the abilities of a healer and exorcist, in later years.

Animals respond in their own way to these forces.

Take one to the vet and watch its reaction, it knows it is going to be slaughtered, and its body produces fear and adrenaline. Just as a dog will smell fear on a human, so the blood imbibing creatures of the lower astral will smell that fear and adrenaline, and feed on it.

As a child I would regularly watch from my bed at night what I can only describe, as if you throw a lump of meat into the garden and a flock of cawing black crows will soon fly round squabbling over it, fighting for some of the life force in the meat.

These lower realm creatures would flock and caw in the same way, around and above my home.

Necropophagy, or the eating of dead flesh was said by the philosopher Empedocles to be the real original sin of the bible.

There has always been argument and controversy over whether it is right to kill an animal to eat its meat, and I have studied this issue for many years, but please understand that where blood is spilt, the lower spirits will gather, and like the house I lived in as a child, it will not be a pleasant place, and this aura will persist for many years.

When playing in the garden as a child I would dig up lots of bones and thought I might have found a dinosaur as children do, and the metal hooks in the doorway, on which I would swing, was where the animal were hung upside down, for the separation of its limbs. This only became apparent to me after many years.

Houses such as this are emotional sink-pits, where no happiness or kindness exist, any encouraging words are immediately dissolved in the air, no romantic prosperity, contentment or warmth, can exist here, and the human inhabitants of such premises also embody some aspect of the walking wounded.

Unhappiness does not exist in a vacuum however. It is contagious and I’ve often found that when called to exorcise buildings, the people living there often need either exorcism or spiritual healing themselves. A certain denial can accompany these people who often exhibit symptoms of either emotional numbness, or persistent sarcasm, even sexual promiscuity, or some other toxic character deficiency, which prevents integration with others and successful relationships.

T.Stokes lecturer in paranormal studies copyright 2001