A Study on Ghosts

Written by AL2Fenrir
Published with permission by the Psionist Group

What are ghosts? No one knows for certain. However, there are quiet many theories surrounding these astral entities, and most people believe that they are spirits of the dead. This belief seems to be the widely accepted or the traditionally accepted one.

So now, are ghosts real? We will not answer that question directly, instead, we will throw a counter question like how was it included in the dictionary in the first place? Why would our ancestors create such a term if it didn't exist? Did someone dream of them and thought they were real, or someone had actually seen them and thought they were dreaming? Perhaps ghosts are not true, but could we just dismiss the claims of over a million individuals who keep telling the tale even since ancient times? Yes, the word "Ghost" had been foretold over and over again, and its popularity doesn't seem to diminish. In fact, in the advent of science and technology, it only revealed itself even more. Authentic photographs of ghosts were taken, actual videos were captured, and mysterious noises had been recorded, all these eventually prompted science to create another branch which is known as Parapsychology. We are now attempting to explain that which could not be explained. So now, does this convinces anyone?

The Traditional Belief

Ghost is the right term for the Spirits of the Dead. It was believe that a human being has a soul or spirit contained in its physical host (the human body), but when it dies, its soul departs and exists in another dimension or level of existence - The Astral Plane. However, in some instances, the soul fails to entirely part the Physical Plane and causes them to get stuck in between realms. This erroneous departure is often caused by a trauma or a tragedy, but to some extent, is influenced by some other spirits. And, because of this, the spirit of the dead continues to roam the plane of the living, and sometimes manifest through some unknown process that even our science have not yet managed to understand.

Types of Ghosts

Upon further research, our team manage to find some interesting facts about ghosts. We learned that there are actually different types of ghosts. Their type are based on their type of manifestations, which were fundamentally based from accounts of people who had the same type of encounter.

The Wandering Type

This is quiet strange, but these type of ghosts could actually interact with the physical world, and sometimes were thought to be alive, only to found out later that they had been long dead.

We cannot find any concrete explanation to this one, but we do have a hypothesis. We base our hypothesis on Hans Holzer's perception. Note that Han Holzer is a veteran ghost hunter who seems to understand something about ghosts. He said that a ghost is a human being who has passed out of the physical body, usually in a traumatic state and is not usually aware of his true condition. We find this true since some wandering ghosts were claimed to interact with the living as if they were really alive or so they believe that they were alive.

We believe that a human being is a multidimensional being. His/her level of existence is affected by his/her belief. We have found people who could levitate, and move objects by believing that he/she could do it. Now, such is the power of faith that a man could defy some laws of nature, and if this could happen to a living person, the same goes with the dead. A soul who believed that he/she is still alive could also defy the laws of the other plane, and this may well explain why he/she could manifest on this world where he/she could either be seen, heard, or both.

However, note that not all are ghosts. There are also other astral beings who could do the same, the Bible referred to this beings as the "Fallen". Some ghost hunters call them entities, while some call them spirits, demons, or angel.

The Residual Type

Some ghosts appear to be mere recordings on the environment in which they once existed. Some examples include a Civil war soldier who could be seen on repeated occasions staring out a window at a house where he once stood guard. A dead child's laughter is heard echoing in a hallway where she often played. There are even cases of ghost cars, ships, and trains that can still be heard and sometimes seen, even though they are long gone. These type of ghosts do not interact with or seem to be aware of the living. Their appearance and actions are always the same. They are like spirit-level recordings - residual energies - that replay over and over again.

"A traumatic moment in time leaves an indelible impression on the building or area," says Strange Nation in "What is a Ghost?," "replaying itself for eternity. This could be anything from a glimpse of the past - a recreation of some traumatic or emotion-laden event - to footsteps up and down a hallway."

What causes these recordings to be made and how and why they are played back is a mystery. "How and why past events are recorded and replayed repetitiously is not understood," writes Lauren Forcella. "Whatever the actual mechanism, it apparently possesses longevity as the encore performances of a haunting can continue for decades or longer. Generally, the haunting is a fragment or portion of an actual event."

The Messenger Type

These kinds of ghosts may be the most common. These spirits usually appear shortly after their deaths to people close to them. They are aware of their deaths and can interact with the living. They most often bring messages of comfort to their loved ones, to say that they are well and happy, and not to grieve for them. These ghosts appear briefly and usually only once. It is as if they intentionally return with their messages for the express purpose of helping the living cope with their loss.

"This category commonly involves one-time visits to someone with whom the apparition has close emotional ties," says Lauren Forcella at Paranormal Investigations, who calls these ghosts "crisis apparitions." "Though the encounter usually seems to be a type of farewell, sometimes important and useful information is relayed to the 'viewer.' Though dying is the most common crisis, other life-threatening situations can also trigger apparitional visits."

However, note that not all visits comes in direct contact, some may use an agent, while others communicate in a dream.

The Haunting

Ghosts exist in a kind of limbo in which they haunt the scenes of their deaths or locations that were pleasant to them in life. Very often, these types of ghosts are able to interact with the living. They are, on some level, aware of the living and react to being seen on the occasions that they materialize. Some psychics claim to be able to communicate with them. And when they do, they often try to help these spirits to understand that they are dead and to move on to the next stage of their existence.