When I moved into a centuries-old farmhouse, I didn’t expect it to be quite so… crowded. Built in two parts—one from the 15th century, and a more “modern” addition from the 1700s—the house had survived the English Civil War and held echoes of its past. It was once home to a slate quarry captain, whose presence was impossible to ignore. His energy lingered, as did that of his wife and children. For the most part, the atmosphere was joyful and peaceful, but strange, unexplainable things kept happening.
Lights turned on by themselves. Doors that were shut would somehow open again. The pets would stare and empty spaces and their eyes would follow something only they could see. Most unsettling of all, the front door—a sturdy, locked door—would often be found ajar when we returned. And then, there were the noises: the unmistakable sounds of children running down the corridors, their laughter echoing faintly through the house.
Naturally, I turned to a familiar process. I’ve worked with energy bodies before, helping them return to source. After all, we believe that ghosts aren’t the souls of the dead, but their energy bodies—often stuck on the physical plane because of unfinished business or attachments from loved ones. I performed a ritual designed to release these entities, but no matter how many times I did, they returned.
It was clear something deeper was at play, so I shifted my approach. In a deep meditative state, I journeyed out of my body to communicate directly with these spirit beings. That’s when I learned the heartbreaking truth. The energies I was encountering weren’t the energy bodies of the dead, nor were they restless spirits from centuries past. They were fragmented pieces of the souls of children—specifically, the souls of boys who had been abused in this house by a former owner.
This owner, who was a member of the church and a scoutmaster, was now serving a long prison sentence for the abuse he inflicted. The house had become a place of trauma, holding these shattered pieces of innocence and childhood. These boys, now grown men, had lost pieces of their souls during their suffering, and those pieces had remained in the house, trapped and unable to move on.
It all made sense—why my usual ritual wasn’t working. These fragments didn’t need to be returned to source; they needed to be returned to the men they once belonged to. This kind of trauma leaves deep wounds, and the process of healing them is something we do at CETfreedom, known as soul retrieval. It’s a shamanic practice that helps people reclaim parts of themselves that were lost due to trauma.
Knowing this, I took a different approach. I created a guardian spirit—an energy form that would keep these fragmented souls safe until the men they belonged to were ready to reintegrate them into their lives. In this way, the spirits of the boys would be protected, waiting until their adult selves were able to heal and reconnect with the childhood they lost.
The house was still very much haunted but so much more at peace.
This is the unusual haunting of my farmhouse—a haunting not of the dead, but of living souls, waiting for healing.
