to seriously consider getting my house 'blessed'

[Ozziesmom]

Urgh HELP!

My 3 yr old DS has had an 'imaginary friend'- 'Anna' since he began to talk. We don't encourage it nor ignore it but it is becoming an increasing problem. he is genuinely scared of her (having read up on imaginary friends it doesn't sound like she is much of a friend) he doesn't talk to her, just about her. She apparently tickles him in the night and he can feel her breathing.

It is slightly spooky because we found out that the person who lived and died in our previous house (where this began) was call 'Anne'- however- we have since moved and she has seemingly come with us.

Over the last 6 weeks or so he will not let me out of his sight, he refuses to go to the toilet on his own and has to come with me when I go, I can't leave the room without him becoming anxious and having to come with me (even at the expense of watching Peppa Pig- serious stuff) He says he is worried that Anna will come.

He has now began waking 5+ times a night calling me and wanting me with him because he is scared. We are both utterly exhausted.

I have tried moving his room around/ putting a 'robot' to stand guard by his door, teddy bears, 'asking' 'Anna' to leave. I have tried being firm and tried being reassuring/ comforting.

My SIL suggested a blessing and I am seriously considering it. We do not practice any religion but I need to try something else as it is becoming so difficult.

As I said she does not fit into any of the descriptions of imaginary friends (she is scary and not a companion to him of any sort)- could it be more sinister or am I so exhausted my own imagination has gone gaga?

I'm considering getting my house blessed because I have literally had one illness after another since moving in here. I am sure there is a bad spirit about the house.

Nothing at all to do with my affection for wine/fags and shit diet. Noooo way.

I don't believe a word of it, but if it will make you feel better then do it - and then use the reassurance it has brought you to be rock solid for your son.

But stick with C of E / RC - do not touch the spiritualist churches with a bargepole.

NB captain we have been in the new house over a year now.

Ozzies when my mum had our blessing, my little bro' was at school (he was only about twelve, bless him) When he got in we told him that whatever was in the house had gone and he said that he knew as soon as he walked through the door that it had gone.

Do it when DS is at nursery/GPs/greyhound racing and when gets in sit him down and say "Anna has gone now. She told me to say goodbye to you but you won't see her anymore." Or maybe the person who comes and does your blessing will be able to tell you the best way to go about it?

The Spiritualist church did my mum's and they were lovely. Just my experience.

I think your vicar would be a great place to start.
I'm sure he'd agree to come to your house one evening so you both can be in. We have a vicar visiting us at home in a couple weeks, (for something else), and he agreed to come to us as we have a baby and tricky to leave him in the evenings.

YANBU. If you do not wish to or feel like doing your own blessing, by all means contact a vicar. I agree with going for a CofE, CofS, RC clergy person.

Or if you are Jewish, a rabbi or an imam if you are Muslim.

As someone who has seen a spirit with my own eyes! i disagree (obviously) that there is no such thing as "ghosts"

Tell her to leave, if that doesn't work and she is still there seek help from the spiritualist church.

We had a spirit in my house and he/she was very frightening to me as i was only 14. My mum wrote a blessing, saying may no bad feelings come beyond this door ect ect ect, And it went.

Some people don't feel comfortable or confident telling spirits to go, though.

I've had one who really unsettled me, but then that pissed me off and that gave me the balls I needed to get him gone.

Honestly, as pointed out, most clergy see this as a normal part of their job and are helpful.

Poor you and DS. I agree to get the house blessed if you feel it is the right thing to do, but is there anything else going on in your DS's life that could be affecting him? My DS is the same age and if it happened to us, I would firstly be wondering if there was something going on in his life that is troubling him. Maybe a child picking on him at the nursery, or a new routine that he is struggling with? Just a thought, and good luck.

Whilst you are thinking about getting a vicar around, maybe post on the religion part of the website to see if any of the kind folks on there are willing to pray about it? Can't hurt can it?

My dn had an imaginary friend for a very long time.i actually heard and saw her talking about her day at school to thin air.i was looking through door to see who she was speaking to.i always thought it was a ghost tbh.but she was never frightened of him.

Why are people advising to avoid the spiritualist church?

Agree though to avoid anybody who wants to charge you. Anyone who is genuine will do it for free, whatever branch of spirituality/religion they follow.

Also agree that it's best to do it when DS not around, and not tell him, I think it would scare him more. If it helps - then you have your answer, if it doesn't, you're no worse off than you were anyway.

Do these things happen on the night or through the day?do you think es having nightmares?nightmares are very real for young children which can be hard for them to understand whats real and whats not.i dont doubt ghost btw just seein if it aint anythin else.

Yeah i agree don't let ds see any of the "blessing" it may upset or frighten him.

It happens day and night i believe.

I've had experience of this and it can be scary at the time.

My dd1 had a man with two cats come some evenings when she was in bed to "talk" to her.

She didn't mind this so much but talked about two cats that came with him. (yes I know I sound like a crackpot but bear with me).

She described him in extreme detail and it sounded like my (ex) husbands great uncle - we haven't any photos of him at our house or his parents, so it couldn't have been guessed.

Then she started drawing other children and adults that would "talk" to her at night, she did this at nursery and would tell the staff about them - she was about 3/4 at the time.

I too, didn't want to make this in any way real to her so listened to her in a half hearted way but was trying to take it in at the same time.

Then she said that the little boy wouldn't leave her alone - she said he wouldn't let her sleep and kept moving her things around - we never saw any of this.

Anyway, I had a friend who went to a spiritualist church - she had been going for a couple of years because she was interested.

My husband and I discussed this and agreed to ask her for advice. We made sure she came around when my daughter was asleep so she didn't know anything and then she lit a candle in the living room and (not out loud) asked them to leave. They did apart from the little boy (apparently) and both my husband and I heard a bang from upstairs and there was no-one there as my daughter was downstairs asleep.

My friend persevered and then she said they had gone - we watched the candle moving quite a lot (I know that can be explained away too)

Anyway, that seemed to do the trick - we had already done the talking to our daughter about there being no-one really there but she was insistent that there were people coming into her room at night. It had been disruptive because she kept waking up throughout and was generally tired then during the day.

I don't know how I would have gone about it if I hadn't known my friend would help, although she did suggest that if it didn't work then one of her friends from the spiritualist church would help - at no cost either.

I would suggest that you maybe talk to some friends who may be able to give you a recommendation - they should be at no cost - rather than a charlatan who would probably charge.

It's not easy - it's a taboo subject and unless you've had experience of this it's easy to disbelieve.

However, when we had the issue I think I would have tried anything to have peace of mind - as long as that didn't involve the child in any way - I didn't want her growing up believing in ghosts or anything like that - imagination can be a powerful thing.

Anyway, I hope some of that helps.
Good luck

I used to live in a haunted victorian house and ghost activity started in the day aswell as night.no one would go loo on their own thats how scary it was.so i do know how u feel.Was so glad when we moved

Thanks everyone, shoesandbags I think we are on the same page so to speak. What I am struggling with is DS loosing faith in me when I am telling him his robot will stop 'Anna' coming he just says 'but she's magic' I don't want to set up role play with him to say goodbye to her, for her not to disappear because there is genuinely something spooky going on! He needs to trust his mum.
I forgot to mention that he also has a fear of mirrors/reflections, (he sounds so neurotic ffs!)

I want him to have a happy childhood this is making me really sad for him :(

I have just texted an old friend who I recalled had some kind is experience with her DD's when they were little. They were RC's unlike us but we are meeting on Monday so hopefully she can give me some advice also.
BTW it happens night and day and has been going in for pretty much 2 years, but much worse in last 2 months.

I would have the parish priest visit. He'll think nothing of it he is only doing a blessing for you. In Ireland we would get a new house blessed all the time.

I really dont know what you can do.i wish i did.id be to scared to ask it to leave.i could never say those words in my old house.they seemed angry,slamming doors,stamping,smashing invisible glass (shudder).It even talked said get out in a creepy voice.heard a girl singing abc.i still av nightmares about that house sometimes

i had similar experience with my then 7 yr old, to the point where she was having severe stomach pains, leading on to hospital scans etc, then referred to child psychologist. i have a friend who is a spiritual healer and she helped me clear the house of all things 'not nice'. it really helped me to light tealight candles in every corner of the house, whilst the children were at school, gently wave joss sticks into the corners and ask that anything that was scaring my daughter was not welcome in this house any more.
in the meantime, we went through 'worry dolls', special healing teddies, anything at all to try to help my daughter, becauseyou will do anything to take that hurt away x we practised going upstairs with her a few paces in front of me, she would move on, and i would follow. this took a few weeks, and is still not perfected, but is certainly better. lots of hugs and reassurance till you're blue in the face helps too!
best of luck, if in doubt contact your local spritual church, they're the ones who can help the most x

Get your local vicar or the vicar who married you to come and talk over the situation with you, and he/she should be able to conduct a blessing of the house in every room. I've known lots of vicars who have done this, simply to bless the house, and also because there was something more of a disturbing 'presence' or atmosphere, whatever any of us understand that to be.

It is very rare for a diocesan exorcist to be called in. Mostly these situations are calmed and eased with prayers said together, and sometimes a routine of prayers.

lots of good advice (but going off topic - why do so many posters say only 'him' for the Vicar??)

Ozziesmum the Vicar who married you would be a great place to start as you already know him, but if you live in a new Parish he may advise you to contact the local Vicar too.

Ozziesmum

YANBU...my elder DD had a similar thing...at 2 se begand seeing "Ladies in the Wall" ...apparently they "Popped their head out" andlooked at her in the night.]

She was and is very articulate and described the, a lot...she said there were 3 of them, they popped just their heads out and they had brown wrinkled skin and all thre wore pinkish headscarves.

She said they smiled at her!

It freaked me out a lot...and they came nightly...oddly this only happened n the Summer but it happened for three summers.

Eventually I went in there and asked them to leave...explained they were scaring her.

We never heard a peep about them this summer and I felt a bit about it.

Interesting side note is that our hme is modern bt hen I researched it, it seems that it was built on th eland which was owned by the local workhouse...and right hre was a big orchard...I like to think the women were workhouse inmates...who worked in the orchards...maybe they were wrinky due to spending years outdoors...and it sort of explains the headscarves...kind of a uniform?

Either way...I would ask this Anna/anne to leave....can't hurt can it?