Every day there is exposure to forces of darkness and this is why Scripture admonishes us to "pray without ceasing" (Thessalonians 5:17). When one rubs against evil -- in places, around people, from circumstances -- it can come home with us, sort of muck or dust of the spiritual kind.

"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet," says Matthew 10:14.

And so too when exposed to spiritual grit, a person should take prayerful measures not to bring it home -- and for certain this is especially important to those whose expertise is exorcism!

And here we come again to the new book, Hauntings, Possessions, and Exorcisms, by Adam C. Blai, an official advisor or "peritus" in the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh, one who consults bishops and priests across the nation and assists at rites of deliverance.

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In the book, Blai, a clinical psychologist, explains that during intensive years of assisting during a particularly difficult series of exorcisms (perhaps linked to a satanic coven), he experienced two "firsts."

One was that Adam "saw a ghost," and the other was "a disembodied voice."

"My home started having a lot of strange phenomena in that first heavy year," he writes.

"Growling in the walls, digital clocks quickly running backwards, black shadow figures standing in the rooms when you woke up in the night, and moments of paralyzing fear as a disembodied demon came into my bedroom. I would always pray, or sometimes jump out of bed startled and swinging, but there was nothing to it."

Things went bump in the night -- to the point where Blai began sleeping on a couch because of the activity in his bedroom.

But that didn't halt experiences. It was while sitting on the couch that Adam says he looked up and "saw a ghost outside of the living room. It was a pale white human figure made of some kind of dim, liquid light that was gently moving."

He watched it for a full two or more minutes -- a complete human figure, head to toe, wearing clothes but ones too vague to note details. An aqua-colored night light glowed against it, its blue luminosity seeming to flow up the apparition's legs like slow moving water, before diffusing into the blanched aspect of the spirit.

They just stared at each other. When Blai looked away to see what time it was, and then looked back, the apparition was gone...

The ghost -- perhaps a deceased uncle (perhaps something in disguise; the features were too indistinct) -- never spoke. But Adam clearly heard a voice on another occasion. As he was resting on the couch of a rectory after another difficult night of exorcism, he heard a voice -- about a foot behind his head, very deep and grave -- say, "You won't get me." It wasn't difficult to know who and what that was.

When a voice is heard with the physical ears (as opposed to an interior voice), it's called an auditory or auricular locution -- relatively rare.

But sounds?

Many are those who hear noises they can't peg to anything -- nor even attempt to. Perhaps you have had such experiences -- good or bad. (Let us know [here: [email protected]] if you wish to share them.)

But here's the point:

Form a prayer bubble around yourself and your family and your house. Shake off the dust and grit. Cast away negativity, when such is encountered. In some cases, spirits may attach to darkness within ourselves -- meaning we have to purge. And remember the power, in spiritual protection, of: fasting.

It was only with prayer and fasting, Jesus told His disciples (Matthew 17:21), that a stubborn spirit could be cast out. For fasting purifies and puts us above the "prince of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

[Note: at this time of demonic attack, suggest to your pastor that the St. Michael prayer be said after Mass]