Ghost Hunting: Grounding, Centering, and Shielding: Protecting yourself from Negative Energy

Grounding and centering are effective techniques to use whenever you are about to deal with any kind of situation that has intense, chaotic, or overwhelming energy. These techniques are effective in situations involving negative environments. Wait, you mean environments involving everyday people?! Correct! Every day when we are running errands, going to the bank, shopping malls, markets, restaurants, etc., we are exchanging energy with our environment. We put our own energy out, and we take in energy from others. It’s the equivalency of second hand smoke. You’re not really participating in it, but it can still effect you! The stronger the emotional energy of the environment, the more likely you’re going to be affected by it as well. If people have a strong emotional energy like anger in the area that it took place, it can stay there and other people would be affected by it. Take Gettysburg for example. The residual energy from all the death that occurred on that battlefield is still there close to 150 years later! Powerful, emotional events like these only need to happen once in order for the environment in which it took place to be affected by it.

So what is grounding and centering? Grounding is a technique that involves getting rid of that bad energy that the body absorbed. Centering is a technique that compliments grounding. The energy gets pushed out of your body, into the ground. Here’s an effective exercise for flushing out the absorption of negative energy.

1. Leave the environment that you feel is negative.
2. Stand with your feet slightly apart under your shoulders for balance.
3. Take three deep cleansing breaths. Breath in for four seconds, hold that breath for four seconds, then breath out for four seconds, and hold it for four seconds. 4-4-4-4.
4. Continue the cleansing breaths throughout the exercise.
5. Visualize the bad energy in your body as dark, slimy substance.
6. Imagine that you have magnets stuck to your feet and feel the earth pulling the bad energy from your body through your feet.
7. As the bad energy begins to clear, see an emerald green color start to emerge and see your whole body filled with it. Green is a healing color.
8. As soon as you see your whole body filled with green, end the exercise with the 4-4-4-4 breathing routine three times.

This technique has enabled subjects to deal with headaches and nausea after strong emotional residues have been absorbed. If you know that you’re about to go into a place where there is overwhelming, negative energy, grounding and centering will help. The goal of grounding and centering is to get rid of negative, harmful, energy and bring in positive, rejuvenating energy.

Now, is Grounding and centering the only defense against negative environments? Of course not! To add to it, you can also use shielding techniques. In Michelle Belanger’s book “The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide”, She offers three shielding techniques against negative environments. Use your imagination in these techniques, as they will add to the effectiveness of these shields. The first one is the bubble shield. Simply imagine that you are surrounded by a bubble and no one can get in. The next one is the mirror shield. Imagine that you’re surrounded by a double mirror. This one is much more effective because whatever negative energy is directed at you will just bounce back towards the attacker. The next one is the fire shield. This one must be used with caution and should only be used in the most negative haunting. Imagine that you are surrounded by fire. You can also add spikes and whirling blades to the fire shield if the activity starts to get really intense. Adding affirmations to these shields will make these shields even more powerful. Belanger gives some affirmations for these shields. For the mirror shield say “I am surrounded by a perfect mirror. Any attack towards me will only reflect back upon my attacker.” For the fire shield say "I am encompassed and protected. anything that seeks to breach this boundary will taste the flames.” What’s important is that you use or make an affirmation that feels right to you. An affirmation without feeling is nearly pointless. However, if you say the affirmation enough, it can become meaningful.

I have to say, these techniques are effective against harsh environments. I work in a retail setting which can be harsh at times. I’ve had a few instances now where a flow of irritating negative customers have come in to the store and have affected my co-workers and my boss. It was getting so bad, that I had to excuse myself to recuperate. I immediately thought of the grounding and centering exercise and I took the action. As soon as I drained out all that bad energy and imagined my body filled with green, a flow of positive customers entered the store! Was I ever so grateful. I have also used the mirror shield technique and affirmation at my work and that has proven to be very effective as well. It seems to create a flow of positive people coming into the store. The negative ones last a very short period of time. It’s like they just want to get out of there.

When it comes down to these negative environments, it all comes down to how solid your personal boundaries are. If you are someone with weak boundaries, your chances of being affected by others’ energy is very strong. If you’re someone with strong boundaries, you don’t have to worry about that. Overall, having strong personal boundaries in your life is a good thing. If you feel like you’re having boundary problems in certain areas of your life, take care of it right away. The stronger your boundaries are, the better for you, and the more people will respect you.