Many real estate agents in the United States are beginning to embrace the new phenomenon of having their clients homes cleaned out of any ghostly spirits prior to them being put on the market for sale.

When prospective buyers felt a chill down their spines as they walked through the home of one of her clients, real estate agent Hedi Kennerknecht knew she needed help.

She got in touch with Monique Chapman, a self-described intuitive consultant, for a spiritual "cleansing" of the troubled property.

"She's so right, it gives you the shivers sometimes," Kennerknecht, an agent with Remax Executive in Fremont, said of Chapman's psychic abilities.

After initial misgivings, the client agreed to let Chapman heal the house. It soon sold, and there have been no complaints since, Kennerknecht said.

A step beyond staging and feng shui consultations, spiritual cleansing, its proponents say, can help both sellers and buyers overcome fears about even the eeriest homes; and some real estate agents are embracing the new phenomenon.

Audrey McInerney, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Walnut Creek, said that staging took hold in the 1990s, when homes were sitting longer on the market, but now people want more.

"People are into color and also into the underlying emotional appeal of the house," she said. "This is a niche that will grow."

Chapman, 52, is a petite woman who wears a half-dozen bracelets on each wrist with turquoise, lapis lazuli, tiger's-eye, citrine, tourmaline, moonstone and mother of pearl, all of which give her protection and enhance her intuitive ability, she said.

The Fremont resident said she uses a pendulum and candle to help cleanse homes of negative energy by going from room to room in a counter-clockwise direction. Afterward, she uses a combination of sea salt, sage and her hands to send "healing energy." She charges a $300 flat fee for her work.

Part of her job, as she sees it, also involves finding homes -- in this case for the spirits that inhabit some houses.

"We need to send them to a better place," she said. "And we give them escorts -- angels, seraphim, what you will -- to assist them on their journey."

Not everyone is as comfortable as Chapman in discussing her work. Two of Kennerknecht's clients declined to speak to the Times.

Publicizing spiritual problems with homes, aside from worries about public opinion, can lead to threats from buyers about nondisclosure of the problem, or could stigmatize properties, Kennerknecht said.

"Not everyone wants to talk about it. This is 'woo-woo' stuff," Chapman added.

But it is not so unusual. In 2004, centuries-old Indian remains were found at Hidden Oaks, a development of 21 $2.8 million homes in Lafayette, according to developer Branagh Development Inc.'s Web site. After the discovery, the developer took a series of steps, including relocating remains to a central area and honoring the dead, a state official said.

"There might have been a small offering of tobacco or a bigger ceremony," said Larry Myers, executive secretary for the California Native American Heritage Commission. "No one wants 'Poltergeist.'"

Shelley Thomas, 50, owns Intuitive Solutions in Martinez and provides cleansings and readings for clients. She said she can sense restless spirits in peoples' homes, something she calls "discarnates," and feels emotional charges when death or violence have taken place.

Monica Galli, 39, a self-employed single mother of four, was referred to Thomas by a friend when she was feeling stalled in her life and career. Worse, the new $550,000 home in Pleasant Hill she bought in July was making her depressed.

"I wanted a better life, a more successful life," she said Friday as Thomas was reading the energy in her home. "And I had been through two relationships and didn't want to be attracted to that type of man again."

Thomas, who charges $100 an hour for an initial consultation, used what she called her "high spirit" to begin clearing Galli's home of a male "discarnate" who was negatively interacting with Galli. Thomas held a slender, silver chain with a glass-blown blue heart in one hand, which she said acted as a pendulum, and closely watched its movements.

"A discarnate can be attracted to someone. ... Maybe it was the matching energy or sadness," Thomas said.

Not surprisingly, there is no hard data on how many homes are cleansed, but David Pearce, an instructor with Intuitive Way, a center for intuitive training in Walnut Creek, has seen an increase in spiritual cleansings. He and his students have conducted a few as field trips.

Last year they helped out a nightclub in San Francisco, a slow-moving home in Rossmoor and another in Pittsburg. He helped heal a rental property in Marin County that several tenants fled, and this month he and his wife are healing a Davis home as a wedding gift.

But he's not necessarily out to change minds. "We're not in the business of trying to convince other people what we do is real," Pearce said. "We offer our training and services to those people who are drawn to it."

Others said they were open to ridding a listing of negative energy or trapped souls.

"I would be willing to try it," said Kathy Thomas, a Realtor who works with Keller Williams in Pleasanton.

Using someone like Chapman or Thomas may be an advantage with certain houses, she said.

"Some people won't even look at a house if there was death in it," she said. "If there was some way to cleanse the house or help prepare it for sale, it might help ease people's minds."