I hope this is the right place to post this- my question is about Smudging.

I've seen for years people on TV using sage to do a smudging ceremony to ward off evil spirits or ghosts. It was never anything I thought twice of using and personally prefer sage in my favorite Italian or Indian cuisines.

Recently, however, I read a few articles on negative ions and that Sage, much like the ocean, or any moving water, has these negative ions that can cancel out any positive ions that might be causing you exhaustion or overall 'bad' feelings. The science of it makes sense to me and I'm interested in doing it. However, am I missing something? Can I merely "smudge" with sage hoping for an atmospheric reaction between two opposing particles or is it really something you have to spiritually believe in to do? I've read some basic smudging guidelines (light it, blow it out, wave it out into the room, don't catch your clothes on fire ect.) but some people seem to take it very seriously(from how to extinguish the flame to what kind of container to put it in based on elemental signs down to not offending the "spirit" of the sage). I've got enough daily stress to deal with without having to worry about an herb's feelings.

So with that being said- any opinions or experience for this weary mother of a two year old looking for a pick-me-up?

I've never done it before but it's something I always recommend to clients looking for some information about getting rid of ghosts. As for if it requires science or belief, you can never go wrong with both.

Any reason you recommend it specifically for ghosts? And why sage as opposed to other spiritual ceremonies?

Well, my white sage has been ordered and shipped. Countdown to my Smudge experiment has begun.

I figure best case scenario, my house feels uplifted and brighter(go negative ions, go!) Worst case scenario, it's a load of malarkey and my house smells like a hippy den for a few days. Either way, it was really inexpensive(under 5 dollars) and has to be worth a shot.

Okay, so I finally did it. Here's what I did, along with my results:

I lit the sage and waved the flame out with a paper plate. I then placed it in a pyrex dish which I held with a pot holder as sage burns very hot.

I started in my bedroom and waved the smoke with the paper plate into each corner of the room. I'm not sure if I waved too much, but by the time I got to my daughter's room, the smoke was slowing. There were two rooms(me & my husband's room and my mom's room) which seemed to produce the most smoke. I actually saw an obvious increase in certain areas.

Downstairs the smoke was pretty limited, but you could still see it and smell it. Oh, I also did my crawl space upstairs and the basement, as well as myself, my daughter and my mother. I'm not sure if I should have re-lit it to get it going again. Maybe I will try that next time.

Overall, the smell wasn't that bad and I immediately started feeling calmer and more relaxed. In general I did feel an overall calm in the house. Honestly, I went into it rather skeptically. At the end, I lit it one more time, waved it out and left it in the pyrex dish on my stove. I had read that the negative ions from the sage will "seek out" any positive ions left in the home if you do this.

I did no ritual, really, and yet I do feel the effects.

I am not sure what kind of effect this really would have on ghosts ect., but there seem to be many personal experiences saying that it is very effective. To me, it really seems like it is a chemical reaction, and not a product of a ritual. If sage emitting negative ions does in fact scare away spirits like supernatural bug spray, then I guess beaches everywhere must be entity free lol

Granted, I don't have anything to offer as far as Smudging for haunting purposes, as I was just doing it for relaxing purposes. I do live on haunted property, and the spirits do come to my house from time to time, so I wonder if this smudging will keep them away, which wasn't really my intention. I'm not even sure if Smudging is selective in only scaring away negative spirits vs. good ones.

Regardless, I feel relaxed and ready for a good nap. Even my two year old is calmly lying next to me hugging my arm. Lately, she's just been wired, cranky and off the wall- heck, I think everyone in my family has felt that way. And as soon as my husband comes home from his stressful job I plan on being right next to the door with my smudge wand to waft him down so he won't harsh my mellow /cool.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />