Places and objects hold residual energy from the souls that come in contact with them as energy imprints. Sometimes the sense of this is strong, as when you touch a lamp in an antique store and the image of a pioneer woman reading beneath its light flashes through your mind. Sometimes the sense is weak, as when you feel a slight tingle at holding your grandmother’s favorite button tin in your hands. Psychometric ability can turn places and objects into links between this world and the hereafter.

When you take a photograph, fragments of light interact with the molecules that form the surface of the film to take shape as visual images. The film—or the negatives processed from it—contain those fragments, those bits and pieces of energy, virtually indefinitely (well, at least as long as the film remains intact and undamaged). As many times as you want, you can develop pictures from that film. You can look at these pictures again and again, the representations of energy that you’ve captured on paper.

Spirit energy is like light energy in that it alters surfaces that it contacts. It interacts with the molecules that form those surfaces, leaving virtually indelible fragments. These fragments, when “developed” through psychic expression, present images. Rather than taking visual shape, like pictures, these energy imprints can take many forms. But unlike pictures, these energy imprints are dynamic. That is to say, every new energy contact with them (such as you picking up the object that holds them) can evoke something different. You get something like a metaphysical slide show (although the images are not always visual).

Whatever you touch, you leave a little of yourself behind. From a physical perspective, you leave molecules of scent and skin oils. These are the substances that tracking dogs can detect. (A dog’s nose is so sensitive to smell, it can “read” just a few molecules.) You might also leave fingerprints, skin cells, and DNA (microscopic fragments of your genetic coding). These are the substances that high-tech detective methods can retrieve and use to identify you. Solid surfaces such as desktops, doorknobs, and windows are likely to collect more of these physical tracings from your touch.

You also leave energy molecules. These are intangible and undetectable by physical means. Energy imprints are often micro-vignettes that capture and store representations based in emotion. In touching the object, you might feel a flash of joy or of sadness. You might see, fleetingly in your mind’s eye, the image of a baby’s birth or the gathering at a funeral. The stronger the emotional connection, the more intense the energy imprint … and the more vivid the energy “replay” that occurs.

The more often you touch an object, the more of your energy it retains. Items worn often and close to the body, such as wedding rings and favorite clothing, retain high levels of energy. Items you touch infrequently, such as silverware or jewelry you wear just once a year, typically retain low levels of energy.

An object you touch infrequently can hold a lot of residual energy if the only times you touch it are emotionally intense. If the jewelry you wear once a year is the necklace and earrings you wore at your wedding and now wear it when you celebrate your anniversary, it’s going to hold much more energy than if it’s a bracelet you bought on a whim and wear only occasionally because you feel guilty about leaving it sit in your jewelry box. Because people pray with them, rosary beads often contain strong personal energy.

In 1939, Seymon Kirlian, a Russian electrician by trade and inventor by avocation, discovered that when he took pictures of his hand, the developed photographs often showed a glow around his fingers—his hand’s energy field. One of the most famous examples of Kirlian photography came from the University of California Center for Health Science, showing the glowing photographic image of a full leaf although the leaf in the picture had a piece ripped off. The leaf’s energy field completed its image, even though the leaf was no longer intact.

Since its inception Kirlian photography has evolved in various technological directions, some of which use electrical equipment rather than cameras to capture images of energy. Currently, researchers are exploring ways to apply Kirlian photography to medical diagnosis and treatment. Doctors have long known that the body’s energy composition changes in illness. Whether you look at these changes as physiological—the outcome of biochemical changes within the body—or spiritual, they are verifiable. Researchers hope that some day Kirlian technology will present energy images that can monitor the progress of treatment for serious diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Any object that you touch holds at least a little of your energy. Some objects hold energy longer than others. Generally, the more solid or dense the object, the longer it retains energy imprints. Metals, jewelry, and even items such as pottery or crystal can hold a person’s energy over generations of time. But even fabric, books, papers, and other more fragile objects can retain energy for surprisingly long periods of time—perhaps however long is necessary for the object to convey its energy messages to the person who needs to receive them.

The physical structure of any metal is very dense. As a result, it holds energy for a long, long time. Ann’s grandfather, a firefighter, died in the line of duty fighting a fire when Ann was just four years old. Ann had been the last person in the family, other than her grandmother, of course, to speak to him that fateful day. Many years later, as Ann prepared to sell the house where her grandparents had lived, she came across an envelope pushed to the back of a bureau drawer. Inside the envelope she found the belongings her grandfather had carried on his person the day he died.

When Ann picked up her grandfather’s keys, she felt a tingling, almost like an electrical charge, and remembered herself as a four-year-old, sitting on her grandfather’s lap. Image after image of her grandfather and his life flashed through Ann’s inner vision, including his last moments in the fire. All these years, these keys retained his energy … and now, 40 years after his death, that energy surged as a gift connecting Ann with her grandfather.

Objects like keys and jewelry retain great amounts of energy not only because they’re metal but also because they’re usually in daily contact with whomever uses or wears them. Every morning after putting on his firefighter’s uniform, Ann’s grandfather took his ring of keys from the top of the bureau and put them in his pants pocket. He carried the keys there, close against his body, reaching for them occasionally, his thumb and forefinger rubbing the medal of the Virgin Mary he hung on the ring for protection, until he came home again after his shift and put them on the bureau.

Those keys collected energy from every experience he had all through each day, compiling a virtual energy record of his life. They recorded the energy trail of his life, and of his passing. At his death, the keys were sealed in an envelope by Ann’s father and stored away by Ann’s grandmother, where they stayed until Ann found them. The envelope helped to contain the energy imprints the keys held. And each time Ann touched the keys, she experienced a different perception of her grandfather. Ann carries the keys with her now, and her grandfather’s energy walks with her.

Jewelry of emotional significance, particularly wedding rings, also stores significant energy. Part of this comes from the intensity of emotion of the jewelry’s first use, and part of it comes from the everyday contact the jewelry experiences. All the joy and sadness, success and disappointment, calm and outburst … these emotions that are the expressions of life become attached to possessions such as jewelry in the same way that electromagnetic energy becomes attached to an audiotape or a CD.

To replay a tape or a CD, you need a compatible machine. But to “replay” energy imprints, all you need is to tune into your psychic sensitivities! Holding your dad’s watch or your great-grandmother’s ring could bring forth a flood of energy experiences.

When Rita was in her first psychic development class, another student, a young man, brought a bottle cap. It was a simple, plain, Coors beer bottle cap. He asked for someone to psychometrize this. Two students tried and couldn’t get anything, and then the teacher handed the bottle cap to Rita. As she held the bottle cap in her hands, Rita saw a vision of being in the woods and then saw a very, very dark place with a pool of water in it. Although it embarrassed her to say the words out loud, she said to the young man and the class, “I see funny-looking men in yellow suits!”

The young man laughed. He had been up in the New Hampshire woods and had gone caving with his friends. They had gone into a cave that had a big pool of water inside. In the pool, left behind by other cavers, was a bottle of Coors chilling in the frigid water. The four young men shared the bottle and brought back the bottle cap. They were all wearing yellow neoprene suits!

Where do you spend the most time when you are in your home? You might say the living room or the kitchen or even the bedroom (as we spend a third of our lives sleeping). And none of these answers is wrong. But in truth, the most extensive interaction you have with your home is actually with your furnishings.

A good number of furnishings are nothing more than functional, of course. You use them and then put them at the curb for recycling or disposal after they wear out. Some furnishings, however, become family heirlooms. Through the years, they take on emotional and historical significance. The delicate china tea set a distant cousin carried home from a trip to the Far East … by sailing ship. The marble-top dressers that Great-Great-Grandfather Pete carved as a 14-year-old apprentice the year the American Civil War ended. And even the handprint of your daughter, from when she was three years old, now frozen in plaster of Paris and hanging in a frame on the wall.

The objects of our daily lives pick up considerable energy. How long and to what extent they hold depends on the object’s use and the number of people who use it. Debbie was in an antique store when she rested her hand lightly on top of a small table. Like a flash, she saw the image of a Victorian-era woman, dressed in a long, dark skirt and a white blouse with a high, buttoned collar and long sleeves. The woman’s dark hair was pulled back and wrapped around her head.

At first Debbie thought the vision was a spirit, but it remained still, like a photograph. When Debbie lifted her hand from the table, the image disappeared. When she touched the table again, this time in a slightly different place, the woman’s image reappeared. But this time she sat in a chair beside the table, holding some sewing or embroidery in her hands. Each time Debbie touched a different place on the table, a different image of the same woman appeared.

The shop’s proprietor noticed Debbie’s apparent interest in the table and told Debbie it had just come into the store earlier that week. The woman who had owned it had recently died. The family held an estate sale, and the table had been among the items that didn’t sell. It was a lovely piece that had been in the family for several generations, the proprietor said. The woman would sit for hours at the table, which was in front of her living room window, sewing or reading.

When a tracking dog is about to set out on a track, its handlers try to have it smell an item belonging to the missing person. An item of clothing, not washed since the person last wore it, is ideal, because it captures and holds the person’s scent. The more contact with the cloth, the stronger the scent signals that the dog can read. The dog then searches for matching signals, following them until the trail runs out or the dog finds the person.

Fabric can hold energy imprints for long periods of time, too, and for much longer than it holds a scent. Dresses, scarves, hats, and similar items that end up stored in trunks in attics for years and even decades hold tight to the energy imprints they’ve collected. Pull such an item from its sanctuary, and those imprints might seem to float out, just like dust.

In one of Rita’s classes that she teaches at the church, she asked her students to bring items to practice psychometry readings. One student brought his most treasured possession, a woolen New York Yankees baseball cap. He handed it to Rita and said, “Here, see what you get from this.”

Rita held the cap in her hands and felt the most incredible adrenaline rush of her life! She had the impression of being on the baseball diamond, looking out at the pitcher. Her heart was pounding and her hands were sweating. She described these responses to the student, who was tickled. The cap, he said, had belonged to a former New York Yankees catcher! What Rita “read” from the cap was the experience of the catcher, crouched behind the batter during the high excitement of a baseball game.

Psychics who work with police to find missing people read the energy imprints of objects connected to the missing person. These energy vibrations become a trail the psychic can follow, providing details about the person’s fate that police have been unable to determine based on physical evidence. Often, a psychic working in this capacity can hold an object from a crime scene and describe information about the person who committed the crime.

Rita has been involved in a number of missing persons situations. In one, a 14-year-old girl had disappeared. A friend of the girl’s mother knew of Rita’s work and called Rita to see if she could help. The girl had been missing since Friday evening, and it was Sunday afternoon when Rita got the call.

The family feared the girl had been abducted. Her hairbrush was still on her dresser, and the girl never went anywhere without it. So Rita asked if she could hold the brush. As soon as she took the brush into her hands, Rita knew the girl was safe and fine. “She’s at a house just south of route 37, the house of somebody she knows,” Rita said. “I’m seeing three brick steps going up to the front door and a storm door with the initial ‘K’ or ‘R’ on it.”

Later that evening, Rita got a phone call. The girl had been found, safe and a little embarrassed, at the house of a friend—you guessed it—just south of route 37, with three brick steps going up to the front door and a “K” on the storm door! The girl had gone to spend the weekend with her friend, thinking her mother knew of the plans.

You have countless opportunities to practice and develop your psychometry skills. Here are two exercises to get you started. The first is a structured meditation; the second is an exercise of opportunity.

For this exercise, you need the help of a friend. Ask the friend to bring a small object that he or she wears frequently, such as a watch, a piece of jewelry, or a scarf. Also ask your friend for permission to do an energy reading from this object. Don’t look at the object. Make yourself comfortable where you aren’t going to have interruptions, and ask your friend to join you.

It’s most helpful to you in developing your psychometry skills if your friend is willing to discuss the possible meanings of the energy messages that you received through the object. But understand that he or she might not want to do this, if these messages have evoked unexpected emotions. Psychometry, like other energy reading, can reveal deep meanings. As you become more comfortable with reading energy in this way, you can try reading objects from people you don’t know quite as well.

As you go about the many activities of your daily life, look for opportunities to experience the energy imprints of objects around you. Although you won’t get much feedback to confirm the accuracy of your perceptions, this exercise helps you make psychometric skills part of your everyday life. Here are some examples:

As you can see, the opportunities this exercise offers truly are unlimited!

Psychometry certainly has many applications in psychic contexts. But what about in spirit contact? Many mediums use psychometry to establish a link to a loved one on the higher side. Handling an object imbued with the loved one’s energy instantly signals other holders of the same energy—the loved one—to connect. It’s like a cosmic directory assistance!

The contact established using psychometry as its bridge can be especially powerful, and is very helpful when you want to contact a particular spirit entity. Often, this approach quickly establishes evidence of the continuity of life, because it transitions from the tangible world to the spirit world in a way that appears logical to us.

Sometimes the energy readings the medium gets from the object help direct questions the medium can ask of the spirit entity. This might provide direct information that you are seeking, or the information that you need to have (even if you don’t yet know that you need it).

Places retain energy, too. Locations are just collections of objects; a house is walls, floors, stairs, and other surfaces that people contact all the time. In fact, much of what people perceive as “haunting” is really not spirit presence at all, but rather an energy imprint, also called residual energy, which captures and replays a significant event. Because such events typically have intense emotional connections, they are generally connected to a person (or people) and might have to do with some sort of trauma or tragedy.

It isn’t always easy to determine whether spirit presence is genuine or residual, because the same kinds of events can connect either to the physical world. Generally, an energy imprint doesn’t involve any kind of interaction. Its presentation might change so that you have a different perception of the energy experiences that are retained. An experienced medium can tell whether the energy is active or residual.

Rita was asked to visit a home that its owners, two adult sisters, believed was haunted. The sisters had not had pleasant childhoods in the house, and for many years as adults had been estranged from their parents. The women inherited the house after their mother and then father passed away, and they wanted to sell it. But every time they went into the house they were overcome with fear, and left without venturing much further than the vestibule.

As Rita walked into the house, all seemed calm enough with no evidence that the father’s spirit was present. Rita did detect distinctive energies. Among them was the energy of a mentally disabled great-aunt who had lived with the family for a time. Hers was a confused but benevolent presence. Rita and the sisters prayed to help the great-aunt find her way to the higher side, and her presence was gone.

As Rita continued walking through the house, she could feel the energy, sometimes intense, of childhood traumas the sisters had experienced at the hands of their abusive father. These traumas lingered as energy imprints that activated memories in the sisters. As soon as Rita explained this to the women, they immediately felt better. Knowing that there were no spirits remaining in the house, they were able to clean it out and sell it, and move on with their lives.

Trauma, of course, leaves intense energy behind. But not all intense energy is traumatic. Many homes are filled with energy imprints of the moments of joy and laughter that marked the lives of the families who lived there. You might step onto the lawn of an old home and suddenly hear shouts and giggles of children playing hide and seek, or see in your mind’s eye a yardful of tents made from bed sheets. Happiness leaves its imprints, too.

The Least You Need to Know