This was a response to my question for stories about spirits and energy. Thanks to Fiona for this goose-bump-worthy story:

Dear Johanne: Loved the story of the mirror! I have worked in the past as a professional psychic ( now I just work privately when I want to) , and what the article suggests is quite true. Personal items, such as furniture, homes, jewelry etc DO hold the emotional energy imprints of their previous owners –  and this is especially true of antiques, as well as older homes.

About 20 years ago, I bought a lovely Victorian home in a small town east of Red Deer. I did not do my homework. It was a *very* unhappy home with quite a tragic history. Had I known what all of the locals knew, I never would have purchased it.

There were clues within the home, but I chose to ignore them. For instance, the interior was painted grey; the windows were all sealed shut from the inside, and the lovely west-facing sun room windows had been boarded over with tongue and groove fake log siding on the outside. If I had been paying attention, I would have perceived that here was a house that was not welcoming, rather it was trying to keep the world out, and something else, in. But, like I said, I ignored the signs and bought the house anyway…for $33K.. way too cheap.

I took one of my dogs with me one day as I was moving things into the house…the dog got as far as the dining room, stopped, and was staring at something I could not see. He began to growl, and walked backwards, hackles up, from the dining room to the back door and proceeded to shred the curtains hanging on the door, scratching frantically to get out of the house. That should have been another clue for me, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

Animals can see spirits quite clearly, and are excellent energy barometers. It is also extremely unnatural for an animal to walk backwards  – in this case, walking backwards never taking his eyes off of what he could see, but I couldn’t.

We got moved into the house, with many strange things occurring during our 2 year stay :  rocking chairs that rocked by themselves, and boiling water coming up through the toilet and cold water pipes, even though upon inspection (trying to detect the problem) three different journeymen said it couldn’t happen.

We heard voices speaking, and the sound of ice tinkling in glasses, the smell of cigar smoke after dark – when no one smoked in the house, and the sound of a cat meowing, when we didn’t own a cat.
I was awakened at different times by my youngest son talking to someone. I asked him who he was talking to, and he would reply, “I’m talking to the man sitting on my bed. His name is H.”…and on one occasion, I actually saw a depression on the bed, as if someone was sitting there. That was when I decided to look into the history of the house – which I might add contained two mirrors in both bathrooms that were original to the previous family.

The previous owner, H. had quite a drinking problem. One night, while driving drunk, he had a head on collision, and the five people in the vehicle he hit were killed. He was also left in a wheelchair, never to walk again. He was a very angry and bitter man and he did not allow himself to have indoor water or electricity.  Sure enough, neither of these amenities were installed in the house until after he died in 1986. His wife committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage a few years later.

The mirrors in this house were …odd. It was quite an uncomfortable experience looking into them. It made one uneasy, like you were being watched. All had this unnatural energy emitting from them. On one occasion, a guest completely ignorant of the house’s history, ran out of the bathroom white as a sheet, and left the house abruptly a few minutes later. She told me she had been washing her hands and looked up into the vanity mirror only to see an older woman staring back at her.

This energy transferred to other mirrors in the house as the “haunting” grew in magnitude and malevolence. I removed all of the mirrors in the house, finally not being able to bear looking in to one to put on makeup or do my daily grooming. The energy in the house became more and more oppressive with many more strange incidents taking place, sometimes with clear harm intended. Finally the energy came to a head when my fiancé attempted suicide…in the garage.

At that point, I put the house back on the market at public auction, and within a month, had moved back into the city, being sure not to take anything original to the house with me. After I yook the last load from the old house, I went back in and began a cleansing and banishing rite  – more so to ensure that whatever unhappy spirits were there, would stay there.

As I made my way downstairs, I could hear glass breaking in the upstairs…and sure enough, as I was making my way through the house, glass in various windows and doors was cracking and breaking for no apparent reason. Some doors even slammed shut of their own accord. That was one place I could not get out of fast enough, and was glad to shake its dust from my feet.

Thanks to Fiona for sharing this wonderful story / experience.