Art attracts the unseen

Erica (an alias) was the first of three earthbound spirits to come forward…but that’s how she is; bold, outspoken and expressive. She was quick to tell me that as a California artist, she enjoyed bold expression. “Breaking boundaries” was her passion. Erica succumbed to breast cancer in 1968 at the age of 43. In 1993, her earthbound spirit attached to the Kelowna Art Gallery because of its contemporary architectural design. “It isn’t stuffy looking like the museum galleries,” she says.

Erica then tells me why she stayed behind (that is, why she chose not to crossover into the light at the time of her death). During life, she didn’t believe in ‘heaven’ and was quite vocal with her opinion “that here was no afterlife”, therefore, chose to stand firm to that conviction at the time of her death. She has since decided she is ready to reincarnate because she says…“life is grand”.

All the years that Erica remained at the gallery, she was never aware of another earthbound spirit who attached to the building in 1997. This unnamed female spirit tells me she died in Buffalo, New York in 1978 at the age of 53. When I asked how she died she shared the picture with me - as if she invited me momentarily into her living room. I watched as she used a paperclip to dig lint out of an electrical outlet and witnessed the electrical jolt that flung her across the room. She tells me “No home is worth losing your life just to keep it clean!” She expressed her concern about how her husband would react upon discovering her dead in their apartment and remained behind because of her desire to comfort him during his grief. She knew he sensed her presence but never spoke to her. As time went by, she realized her husband needed to move on with his life and she stepped away, eventually attaching to the Kelowna Art Gallery because of her appreciation of art.

One more earthbound spirit roamed the property – that of a young woman who died in 1886 at the age of 25 while giving birth and chose to remain to try to help the children she left behind. Her story was that of the hardships experienced by many pioneer women.

Earthbound spirits seem to retain the personalities they developed during their lifetime and the connection with them can feel as close as talking to the person next to you in the grocery line. This particular day, we met the spirits of three very different women from equally diverse lifestyles who all chose to settle on the same property because of their one commonality, a love of art.

Interestingly, each of the three female spirits, ‘occupied’ the same property for more than a decade, yet neither was aware of the other until we connected with them for the purpose of helping them to cross. Once a spirit chooses to be Earthbound, they apparently cannot cross into the light without some help. With our assistance, these three spirits were able to find peace and reconnection as they crossed over to complete the journeys they started long ago.

Photo: Contributed

Cahrei and Mike “the Ghost Guy” Rowland are partners operating Healing Haunted Houses in Kelowna where they remove lost spirits and negative energies from people’s homes and other buildings. For more information visit www.healinghauntedhouses.com

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.