Did you have experiences with earthbound spirits (a.k.a. ghosts) growing up? If so, did you have any mentors to guide you through the experience, or did you find yourself alone and frightened of the spirit world as I did?

I have found that we, as humans, are afraid of what we don’t know about. In order to release our fears, we need to learn about what scares us. In this post, I’m going to share the things I wish I knew about earthbound spirits as a child with the hopes that it will make the spirit realm less scary for you.

How I was first introduced to the realm of ghosts

My story begins at two and a half years old while visiting my grandmother’s house. On this visit, I climb down the stairs into the basement and find myself facing a man in the hallway. This man is leaning up against the wall and he has long stringy gray matted hair, red eyes, and his arms and legs fade out. When he notices that I can see him, he leaps off the wall and starts chasing me.

Although I was too young to understand this experience at the time, I can remember this event clearly today because it was a traumatizing experience for me.

When it happened, my family didn’t believe me. But when cupboards started flying open of their own accord and chandeliers began moving around and around, they changed their minds pretty quickly.

Growing up, my mom told me I had a natural gift for spirit communication. But I was scared. I had no mentors to guide me through these experiences to help me understand what was happening. And at the time, spirits were not talked about in public. If you mentioned anything about these types of experiences, you were often met with doubt and reluctance from others. And this lack of acceptance among those I knew contributed to my fears.

Because of that early experience and others like them over the years, I decided at a young age to “close the spiritual door” as much as I possibly could. And the truth is, I ran from my spiritual side for over two decades before getting into a place of acceptance of who I truly am—a physical and spiritual being—and then learning about that which scared me.

9 Things I Wish I Knew About Earthbound Spirits as a Child

As children, most of us learned about earthbound spirits (a.k.a grounded spirits or a type of ghost) through television and movies. Unfortunately, distorted media representations of the spiritual world have contributed to society’s fear of spirit. For example, horror movies often give the public an unrealistic, fear-based view of spirit and often omit the very real light side of the spiritual world.

We, as humans, are scared about what we don’t know about. And to release our fears, I find it best to learn about what scares us. And that’s why I wrote this post.

Below I am sharing nine things I wish I knew about earthbound spirits as a child with you. If I had had a spiritual mentor to teach me these things, I don’t think I would have hidden from my spiritual side all those years. I could have embraced who I truly am a lot sooner.

(1) An earthbound spirit was a person like you and me

The truth is, earthbound spirits aren’t that different from us. We, as humans, are all spiritual beings experiencing life in a physical body. An earthbound spirit is a spiritual being who no longer has a physical body. Though they no longer have a physical body, they still hang around on the physical plane as a spirit.

Thinking about them as people without a physical body, I find helps.

(2) Earthbound spirits have free will

Spirits, just like us, have free will. When we die, we are all given the opportunity to cross over into the light—back to the spiritual plane. Earthbound spirits, however, choose not to cross over, and they stay behind on the physical plane for personal reasons.

Reasons earthbound spirits stay behind can include: watching over a loved one; unfinished business; the shock of being dead, and thinking that if they don’t cross into the light, then they are still here; certain spirits can feel that they are unworthy of crossing over because of the decisions they made while alive; and more. The reasons for someone to stay behind are endless.

Earthbound spirits are never forced to move on; they must be ready or convinced that it is time. That being said, most spirits will crossover at some point. There are people and light beings (those residing on the spiritual plane) whose purpose is to help earthbound spirits move on.

(3) Earthbound spirits are the same people they were when they were alive

An earthbound spirit will be the same person they were when they were alive, which means they aren’t enlightened versions of themselves. They can still grow and learn as an earthbound spirit, but as the person they were in the life they most recently departed from.

They aren’t going to have wisdom from higher realms to share with you because they are still attached to the earth plane. It’s when we cross over to the spiritual realm that we merge with our higher selves and remember who we truly are, why we chose to experience life on earth, and all the lessons we’ve learned over our many lifetimes.

(4) Earthbound spirits are not necessarily bad

Until an earthbound spirit crosses over into the light, they remain who they were as a person in their previous life. And while most people who stay behind are generally respectful of your boundaries, there are some who are not. It all depends on the spirit, their personality, the emotions they are feeling, why they stayed behind, and more.

(5) Earthbound spirits need energy from the physical plane

When a deceased person chooses not to cross over into the light, they become earthbound. And in order to remain on the physical plane and carry out any activity, an earthbound spirit needs energy. They cannot get the same energy as humans do through food and water, and they aren’t able to tap into source energy in the spiritual realm. And so, they need to get energy by a different means.

There are two main ways in which an earthbound spirit can get energy: one from residual energy, which is excess energy that lingers in an environment. For example, an earthbound spirit can feed off fear energy inside a movie theatre during a horror movie. Another example is when that ghost chased me as a child; the spirit would have been able to feed off my fear energy.

And the second way earthbound spirits can get energy is from living people. In this situation, they will attach themselves to a person to feed off their energy. Now, most earthbound spirits are unaware that taking energy from living people can be detrimental to a person’s health.

Often, an earthbound spirit stays to watch over a loved one, but they don’t know that their presence can be more detrimental to their loved one’s health and that they can be of better assistance from the other side once they cross over.

(6) Earthbound spirits do not make up the entire spiritual world

Earthbound spirits are not the only type of spirit out there. Of course, there are spirits like earthbound spirits, residual energy, dark energy, entities from other places, and more.

But there are also light beings, those spirits who reside in the light, including angels, spiritual guides, deceased loved ones, animal guides, ascended masters, and more.

And also, there are earth angels who reside on the earth plane to watch over the plants, animals, waterways, and the overall environment. They are called elemental spirits, which include fairies, gnomes, tree spirits, leprechauns, sprites, mermaids, and more.

This list is not all-inclusive; in fact, there are probably more spirit types out there than I can count. But my point is that earthbound spirits are not all that there is. So if you grew up having frightening experiences with earthbound spirits as I did, I want to remind you that there is a light side to the spiritual realm.

(7) You don’t have to connect with earthbound spirits

When we begin to open our intuitive senses, any spirit can try to catch your attention once they know that you can sense them. But the best part is that you have the power to choose who you invite into your life. You can set boundaries to keep certain spirits out of your home.

You can set boundaries to keep earthbound spirits out of your home altogether. Or, if you want to pursue working with earthbound spirits because you are called to help them cross over, you can set boundaries to let them know when, where, and how spirits can contact you. And be sure to include any non-acceptable behaviour as well.

(8) Protection methods and tools exist

Protection methods and tools exist that you can use to protect yourself and your home from uninvited energies.

Examples include:

• Your voice—you have the power to tell a spirit to leave your home. You are in control of who visits and stays. With a firm voice, tell them to leave through your front door and never to return.
• A protection wrap—you can visualize a protection wrap around you. A protection wrap can be used as a preventative to protect your energy when you know you are heading into an energetically dense environment. It can also be used whenever a situation calls for it. For example, if you encounter an earthbound spirit while you are running errands and they start to follow you. Learn how to create an energetic protection wrap here.
• Crystals—You can connect with crystals for protection. You can carry individual crystals or create a protection crystal grid inside your home. Some of my favourite crystals for protection include amethyst, black tourmaline, black onyx, and tiger’s eye. If you’d like to learn more about crystals and how you can confidently integrate them into your daily life, you won’t want to miss the Crystal Companions Program!

These are just a few of the protection methods and tools I use on a daily basis, but there are more available.

(9) You are never alone

The most important thing to remember is that you are never alone. Every person has a spiritual team made up of spiritual guides and angels here to assist them on their life journey.

You can ask your spiritual team for assistance whenever you encounter an earthbound spirit. For example, you can ask for protection; assistance enforcing your boundaries; or assistance removing an earthbound spirit from your home or energy field. And if you are working with earthbound spirits, you can ask for help with communication and assistance with crossing an earthbound spirit over if it’s time.

You can ask for assistance for anything, but you have to ask. Your spiritual team will not intervene in your life unless you ask because you have free will. Whenever you ask for assistance, be sure to thank your spiritual team.

And that’s it. These are the things I wish I knew as a child about earthbound spirits. I think I most would have wanted to know that it is possible to set boundaries and protect myself, and even more, that I was never alone. I hope this post assists you on your earthbound spirit learning journey.

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With Love,

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What do you wish you knew when you were a child when it comes to the spiritual world? Let’s discuss this in the conversation below!

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