Psst. Wanna hear something that is borderline anti-American? Halloween has never been that big of a deal to me. Go ahead, deport me.

Then again, neither has Thanksgiving. Gorging on mounds of food, watching a pointless NFL game featuring the Redskins or Cowboys and - face it - celebrating our illegal immigration and eventual displacement and/or slaughter of the indigenous Native Americans is overkill. The American way.

The stuffing can wait. I want to delve into Halloween for a moment or two.

As a young child I, like most kids, All Hallows Eve was reason to get decked out as Spiderman (the old school cartoon Spiderman) or Jim West (the original Jim West from the original Wild, Wild West TV show), grab my bucket - or plastic bag - and venture up and down the streets of my neighborhood collecting candy, bubble gum and the occasional box of raisins. Fruit of any kind was summarily disposed of by my mother out of fear of hidden razor blades or strychnine.

As I aged into my teens, I grew out of the trick-or-treating phase. There were a few movies that gave me the creeps - The Omen and The Exorcist come to mind - but aside from the normal TP'ing of someone's yard, Halloween was a pseudo-holiday that officially started the Christmas countdown clock.

Flash forward several years. I'd watched my own kids enjoy the spoils of their door-to-door collections. Yet, those same nights, I'd cringe at the thought of getting out of my chair over and over again to answer the door. Halloween held no luster, no excitement and no real purpose.

Then a few years later, while traveling the most perilous path on my journey, I met Pam.

Pam's favorite holiday had always been Halloween. Not Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving - hell, not even Arbor Day - but Halloween. At the time, the gaping wounds of being disowned by my own kids were fresh. I was my own costume, I suppose. Yet, I had no interest in decorating for or celebrating Christmas, much less Halloween.

My, how things change. Shamanic journeying opened my eyes to many, many things. However, being given an understanding of realities, realms and spirit altered my views about Halloween.

Now, I not only decorate for Halloween and Christmas, I pull a Clark W. Griswold and set the power meter spinning. I enjoy seeing the smile on Pam's face. In addition, I listen - a critical aspect of awareness - and notice that most people consider spirits, ghosts, demons or anything 'unexplainable' as being equal and all to be feared.

Not so.

I'll attempt to explain this as clearly and as simply as possible. Everything in the (multiple, overlapping) universes is nothing more than energy. Energy vibrates. Everything that vibrates emits a frequency. Energy is ever-present, doesn't 'die' and never stops moving.

*Look at your desk, coffee cup or car. They all appear to be solid, yet they are all composed of atoms - energy - which are in constant motion. Our limited perception doesn't allow us to see that movement - hold that thought.*

Our thoughts, actions and words vibrate like guitar strings.

Negative thoughts and actions equates to low vibration energy. Love, kindness, positive words and thoughts equate to higher vibration energy.

To put this information into context as far as Halloween goes, lower vibration energies - ghosts, demons, etc - are drawn to higher vibration energies. Since energy cannot be banished or killed, those lower energies must be met with higher vibrations. Fear, anger, worry - human traits that are low vibration energy is heightened at Halloween (thank you, Ghost Hunters). However, stepping headfirst into the murky, low energetic places with confidence and a sense of self awareness - a universally natural high vibration, positive energy - isn't frightening. In fact, doing so is an act of compassion.

The word is transmutation - in a nutshell, transmutation is releasing low vibration energy back to the earth or cosmos (whatever you care to call it) with love. It's an act of love for the betterment of that negative energy.

However, unless there is a liberal amount of blood, gore, chills and questions left unanswered, liberating the ghosts, goblins, demons, poltergeists, etc, doesn't make for good television or movies.

I often get discouraged by many psychics, mediums - especially self-proclaimed, certified healers - due to their apparent disregard for the 'betterment' aspect of spirit. After all, that is what it's about - betterment through unconditional love and acceptance for lower vibration energies.

We are all keepers of spirit. That spark of the Divine within us is overshadowed and globbed up in the muck and mire of human existence. But, that light - the spark of divinity - is within each and every living creature. And, that spark is pure, unadulterated love.

So, what's all the fuss about when it comes to being scared shitless on Halloween? Aside from the amusement of haunted houses and costumes, there's nothing to fear when it's understood that we can all raise our vibration - our frequencies - and burn away the muck with that inner spark.

It's a choice we all make. No one can make that choice for us.

And yes, I enjoy Halloween again. It's sort of a homecoming now. Boo Yah!

Peace.