In the West, 31st October is Halloween where people believe that all the departed spirits come back for spending the night on the Earth. However, I have not felt anything different energy-wise, happening on 31st Oct date that allows such mass movement of spirits through the dimensions.

I observe that in the Western civilisation is quite obsessed with death and the dead. There is a whole industry focussed on catering to the dead, from selling cemetery plots, funeral parlours to making diamonds out of the ash that remains! Even Halloween seems to be a children’s game of trick/treat or carving pumpkins and putting on garish make up and attending parties. Then again calling seances, planchette and inviting the dead to talk via mediums is quite common, and people are counselled to maintain a relationship with the dead. This in my opinion is needlessly morbid and in fact dangerous.

In my experience with the dead,

• Never call the dead for any reason unless you are sure that you can send them back. I had a client who went to carry out the funeral etc rites for his departed mother and came back with several thousand departed spirits accompanying his young child. Have written about this episode earlier.
• Never expose young children to such energies. They may get an ‘imaginary friend’ in the process who will drain their energies also also implant unsavoury negative ideas in their impressionable minds. These imaginary friends are not friends and certainly not ‘imaginary’.
• The departed are denizens of another plane of existence. The parent you knew in this life does not exist in that form now. Accept it and let go. Eg. One of my clients was scared of spirits and there was actually a bound spirit chasing her, carrying ill-will sent by her mother-in-law. We dealt with the ill-will quite easily. But why was she afraid? We did a guided mediation session for her and found out that in some past life she herself was trapped into being a carrier of ill-will, a bound spirit slave trapped by a tantrik. And to our utter shock that long-ago tantrik was her present mother! And her mother now was quite sincere, strict but fair, nothing to indicate such a happening past! But just see the karma, and how it gets balanced! That tantrik hurt my client so deeply that he had to become the mother, get pregnant, give birth to her, nurse her, nurture her, change her diapers, pack her tiffin, take her to school etc. This client changed my perceptions completely. The one closest to you, has the most karma to resolve with you and not all of it pleasant. After the living is done, better not call them again of your own violation.
• The departed one, even if it was your dear mother in this life, is not just that one person. When we are born we limit ourselves to the birth horoscope. When we leave the body, we again become our higher self and remember all our past lives, and our priority becomes the pending karma, nothing else. Example. My client’s mother departed, she was good to him and thus he was missing her terribly. Then she started coming in his dreams and scolding him, forcing him to go out of his way to do something for her brother/sister which would cause him significant loss. We contacted her and she clearly said that her karma with her son was complete, she had no feelings for him. But she had significant karma left with her brother/sister and wanted him to willingly take it on for her so that her account gets lighter. She knew that he still loved and missed her so was hopeful that she could force him to take it on!
• Some departed ones think that even if they have departed their children should still follow their wishes. Eg. My client’s mother wanted him to marry a woman from his caste, she died, and after her death he got married to a woman from a different caste. So his departed mother actually started haunting his house and his dreams. She was clearly visible in a largish-ballooned type of form inside the house and was so irritated, continuously talking! Finally we had to stop her entry using the Chamunda mantra. Then bundle her up and send her back through the dimensions to Pitrulok.
• Planchette can easily turn bad – One of my close friends as a teen, loved playing with planchette. It quickly became an addiction and he would call spirits for his and his friends entertainment. Till one day, the spirits realised that he could hear and see them. After that they started taunting him, talking to him continuously, threatening him, laughing at him to the extent that they now would not let him sleep. This went on for 2-3 days, till he started thinking that he should now commit suicide. Luckily for him his grandfather had recently died and in despair he thought that he could ask for help. His grandfather was willing to help and instructed him to burn the planchette board in a specific style to get rid of the spirits.
• And there is one more example I must tell you! I had gone to visit my colleague, she is a very good Shaman/tantrik. One of her clients walked in on us. And suddenly the client’s recently departed mother-in-law’s spirit entered into her and started begging her forgiveness. This departed MIL was also my colleague’s client. It was so extraordinary. The spirit would speak through the client’s mouth, then depart for a minute during which the client would speak, then again she would be possessed! The gist was that the MIL was saying sorry to the client for mistreating her while she was alive. The shaman was scolding the spirit for not listening to her advise and mis-behaving. The client was crying because she was unable to understand what was happening to her. And then the MIL spirit was also in deep contrition and crying because her routes into the other worlds were blocked because of her karma of harassing her daughter-in-law. It was such a scene!

In India, the Sarvapitri Amavasya, the no moon day falling in the month of Bhadrapad which falls in sometime in Sepember/October, is the day when pretatmas/ancesteral spirits cross over from their dimension, Pitrulok, to our world, Martyalok. I think that once in the ancient past, the Vedic Sarvapitri Amavasya must have coincided with the 31st Oct of some year and got stuck. Thus the Western civilisation perhaps got its Halloween.

This day of paying respects to the ancestors is a very serious day. It is the culmination of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapad month. Throughout these 15 days the routes between the 2 dimensions are gradually opened and on the no moon day the day is extremely heavy with tamasic energies. The food for the rites on this day, is prepared by the woman of the house, which in addition to all the other items has to have a pumpkin dish, black sesame seeds and a milk/rice sweet dish. These food items have the highest potential of absorbing the energies of the tarpan/rites and transferring that to the spirits. The oldest male of the house does all the rituals. The pandits engaged to perform the rites/tarpan have to perform 2 activities, first to call the ancestors to accept the energies offered to them and send them back too. In case they do not know what they are doing it can lead to trouble.

In India, we think of the departed ancestors only and only during this fortnight/no moon day. We have a very pragmatic approach to death. When the person dies, the rule is that the body should be offered as a Anteyshti/sacrifice to the fire/Agni on the same day before sunset. In case the death occurs in the night, the cremation is done the next morning itself. The ashes/asti collected are not even brought back to the house but the earthen pot is tied to a tree standing outside the house. On the third day these are put in the nearest river or the sea with more mantras and rituals. We then give away all the clothes and everything used by the departed person. We are very thorough about this, as generally nothing is kept even as a keepsake. Even the gold etc jewellery is recast into new designs and gems are cleansed. On the 13th day some more rites are performed and a feast is given to the neighbourhood people as a token of gratitude for helping out during this moment of departure. Then once every year, the departed are remembered and offered energy through rituals.

We know that the soul takes on several lives till it attains the final Moksha and this cycle of birth-death-rebirth is going on since the Universe began. We also do not think of the departed, as we know that the spirits in the Pitrulok are active in their own work and if we remember them again and again they get disturbed. So we go on with our lives and express our gratitude to them only once a year.

Back to what I was writing about, its is always advisable to never contact departed souls. It can be quite dangerous in unexpected ways. And you might be successful in calling them, they enjoy coming here, its like a picnic, they get free energy! But then they don’t go back. There are very few people who can actually deal with such energies, and clean up their effects.

In my practice I have seen such examples that I almost never directly contact departed souls. There are better and safer ways to counsel the clients.