Real Ghost Repellents

Feeling unexplained cold? Seeing human figures floating through your room at night? Then you may want to consider a ghost repellent. Dr. Lyons mentions several remedies to Jack, all of them real.

St. Dymphna is the Catholic patron saint of mental disorders. Those troubled by ghosts are advised to pray to her.

The ancient Chinese art of feng shui is about arranging objects in space in such a way that they create a harmonious environment. The feng shui remedy for ghosts is to carry a mirror because the Chinese believed that if a ghost saw itself in a mirror, it would become frightened and leave.

As for Jack’s ghost repellent, each of its ingredients--garlic, cinnamon, echinacea, and five-finger grass--is reputed to have spirit-repelling properties. However, as Jack discovers, too much of this concoction, especially the garlic, can end up driving away more than just ghosts!

There are dozens of other traditional solutions from rice grains (ghosts will reputedly stop to count them but being bad with numbers will find the exercise frustrating enough that they decide to leave—think of you fleeing math class!) to painting your front door red (spirits won’t enter a house with a red door). But perhaps the easiest solution to a bothersome ghost is simply learning how to coexist.