Is my house haunted?
I have nightmares each time I try to meditate. Is some unseen force trying to stop my spiritual progress, or do I have 'bhoots' in my house? Veena Minocha answers.
This question and answer series will help to clear your inner-soul confusion on all matters that are demanding your spiritual attention. Spiritual teacher and Healer Ms Veena Minocha will endeavour to clear the 'fog within' by answering all questions sent to her at veenaminocha@hotmail.com

Whenever I feel I have put in a lot of effort through prayer and meditation, the following night I get these awful dreams. I feel as if someone is trying to overturn my bed, so that I get hurled on to the floor. It is as if these unseen devils were so strong that they would push me into darkness, and I wake up feeling very scared and tired.
This has happened too frequently and now I am writing to you for an explanation. Can it be that some unseen forces are trying to stop my spiritual progress, or should I put it down to the existence of devils and "bhoots' in my house?
Vinod Mandal from New Delhi
Veena Minocha answers: Dear Vinod, any dreams where you are helpless against strong devilish forces must make you very afraid. Please remember, these are the demons, which you carry around you in your own mind and inner self. Have you had violent thoughts against anyone, which are so entrenched inside you that you are powerless to repel? Do you have an enmity towards someone or something that is making you feel helpless and overpowered?
The first thing that you must do is to light a small diya, or a candle every evening. As you light this lamp, state your intention to God, and all the forces around you, that this is the Light of your Soul, which is connected to God, and that no one who is not of the Light can enter your home or your aura.
Ask that you may be made invisible to all those who are Not of the Light. Now see that this Light is expanding and forming a protective globe of Light around your body, as well as around your bedroom.
This is a very effective way to protect us from all 'demonic' forces, whether they are negative thought forms, which we have nurtured, or outside ones which have been directed at us through unknown sources.
Please do some soul-searching, and try and see if it is your own fear of being brought down hurling into the darkness of duality and wrongdoing that has overtaken you. If the fears are very strongly entrenched in your mind and body, then it would help to consciously face the, accept them, and deal with them positively.
If there is any trace of guilt in you as to any wrongs that you may have committed, then it is time to make amends in whichever way you might think possible, to reduce this burden of guilt. It could be that in some way you are trying to punish yourself through these frightening dreams.
Always look to the Light and ask the Light of God to guide you and keep you in Its wondrous Comfort and Radiance!