Spirit-Chasers: Ancient and modern techniques for dispelling
unwanted entities Written b y: Michelle Belanger Every culture
the world over has had traditional tools and objects intended to
protect the living from unwanted the spirits. You might think
that the dead, once they were finished with their lives, would
move on and not bother with the living. However, especially
among less modernized cultures, the dead were perceived as being
very jealous of the living. Thus, on nights when the wall
between the worlds grew thin, such as Samhain, it was believed
that the dead would return to their living relatives and attempt
to feed on their vitality or to steal them away altogether in
order to join them on the otherside. When there was no immediate
family for the dead to prey upon, it was believed that any
living person would do. In addition to the dead, there were all
manner of other spirits and entities active on the otherside. As
an old Scottish prayer specifies: “From ghosties and ghoulies
and long-leggedy beast