Experiences from the spiritual dimension can be both good and bad. Up to now most of the experiences we have documented in this section have been positive experiences. In this particular case, we have a seeker of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF) who had negative subtle-experience in the form of a fishy smell.
I live in the hermitage (Ashram) of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation in Goa, India and offer my time towards the spread of Spirituality. I do this free-of-charge as my spiritual practice (sadhana, sādhanā ) of serving God. I generally keep a water bottle with me while working in the book section of SSRF. I fill the bottle on a daily basis with fresh filtered water. On 14 January 2006, towards evening time as I was finishing my work for the day, I opened my bottle for a sip of water. Almost immediately, I got a strong odour of fish emanating from the bottle. I was really surprised as there is never any fish served in the hermitage nor had the bottle been next to any fish. I myself dislike the smell of fish. I found this really strange and took the bottle of water to seekers from the subtle-perception department of SSRF. The seekers in this department have an advanced sixth sense (ESP) ability. Through their sixth sense they immediately diagnosed that the root cause of the fish smell was an attack by ghosts (demons, devils negative energies etc.) to cause disruptions in my spiritual practice.
They then advised me to rinse the bottle with salt water and then with Holy water (Thirta, Thī rta). The salt water and Holy water act as remedies against distressing energy, destroying it. After I did this the smell disappeared. I could then use the bottle again without the offensive smell.
– Ms. Manisha Jadhav, Goa, India
The spiritual science behind the experience
Just as Divine energy and the Omnipresent God are associated with pleasant fragrances, the ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies etc.) are associated with foul smell. The ghosts had used the Absolute Earth Principle (Pruthvitattva) to create the bad smell.
Ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies etc.) try to create obstacles in the spiritual practice of seekers, particularly when a seeker is offering services unto God. In this case, the ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies etc.) deposited distressing energy in the water that Manisha was drinking. Distressing energy is a subtle-energy that ghosts use as their primary weapon to harm humans. Through distressing energy ghosts can manipulate or change any process or mechanism. Here they used it to obstruct Manisha’s spiritual practice by causing the physical discomfort of having to inhale an odour that she particularly disliked. In addition they also caused a reduction in clarity of thought, tiredness etc.
