Sierra Sky aka Spirit Rescuer  

For some people, the haunting doesn't end on Halloween.

On Sunday evening – on the day after Halloween, when all the spirits are supposed to be nicely tucked away for another year – a small group gathered at the Adolphus hotel in downtown Dallas to talk about "Haunting and Healing."

Organized by Dyan Garris, who lives near Tucson, Ariz., the event also took place Friday and Saturday nights, drawing about 100 people total. Sunday, only five curious souls showed up, but they got the full ghostly experience, hearing from four experts on various aspects of hauntings and how to deal with them.

The Adolphus' own alleged ghosts were merely incidental to the event, but added a lot of fun for the attendees, said Garris, a clairvoyant, psychic and energy worker. "Our main purpose, though, was to help heal people who are being haunted and attacked."

Dealing with ghostly doings can mean psychological work with both the haunter and the hauntee, moving energy around in a positive way or other techniques, said Garris and Rita Louise, a medical intuitive and naturopathic healer. Sierra Sky, another of the experts present, performs spirit rescue, helping earthbound spirits move into the next realm. Derik de Leon, the fourth member of the group, is an intuitive and healer.

The visitors who showed up Sunday, at a cost of $20 each, seemed motivated mostly by curiosity. "I'm a definite believer, and a hopeful seer" of ghosts, said Elizabeth Gardner, 39, of Allen. She gingerly held a lavender crystal pendulum by a chain as de Leon taught her how to get spirits to use it to indicate "yes" or "no" to questions.

"I'm sweating," she said, although the room was chilly.

"That's the energy coming up through your hands," de Leon said, nodding.

A brief ghost hunt ended on the hotel's 22nd floor, at the foot of a staircase where a spurned bride supposedly hanged herself. One area, a guest said, was definitely colder than the surrounding space. All three pendulums held by the paying visitors vigorously spun in clockwise circles – that's a "yes" – when Sky asked if the bride was present.

She then asked the bride if she wanted to "go into the light."

"Yes" again.

Everyone became reverentially quiet as she performed a ceremony to help the spirit along.

"Are you still here?" she asked later. This time, all three pendulums spun counterclockwise, for "no."

Margaret McConnaughy, 55, of Van Alstyne said that when she was at the top of the "bride stairs," her hearing aid suddenly went dead; the experts had explained that spirits' energy can wreak havoc on electronics and batteries and such. After the spirit-rescue ceremony, the hearing aid came on again.

The group plans similar events, Garris said, probably again at Halloween time because that's when interest in the paranormal peaks.

"Our e-mails are flooded with people who need help," she said. "And people need to know that they're not alone in whatever they're experiencing."