Posted by: Tanoro
- January 05, 2007
Introduction
Welcome! So you are seeking information on the paranormal, are you? Look no further! Ever since man was first able to comprehend the concept of an afterlife, we have been fascinated by the possibility that ghosts truly exist and are able to haunt houses, people, and get caught in camera shots. Unfortunately, within hundreds of years of hauntings, possessions, and paranormal investigation, man still has not come entirely to the truth that ghosts exist. With that, we can only speculate about where they come from, why they are here, and whether we should do anything about them. Possession is another ghostly fascination of man which I shall also touch on within this article. I shall explain just what ghosts are and how they come to be. The information in this article is based on personal theories inspired by personal experiences and observations with actual ghosts. Read with an open mind and you may find yourself inspired.
While my house is not haunted, I have relatives whose houses are. I know a great deal about ghosts and spiritual entities because my fascination with the occult and paranormal has led me into many years of experience and research. I am going to explain exactly what ghosts are using a theoretical, but rational and surprisingly logical, method that you may find, while not officially proven, is naturally, spiritually, and semi-scientifically feasible.
My home town was never known for its ability to reconstruct new buildings over decades of time. In fact, most of the buildings in my home town are quite old and some houses are as many as three generations old. This is the nature of the old south. Ghostly encounters are not as plentiful as you may think, unless you know how and where to look.
My own grandmother’s house, I found at a young age, was haunted by three ghosts. One was a man, who later became known as “Jacob” and his wife “Elizabeth.” Their son also haunted the house, but we never had many dealings with him. Jacob was known for scaring people who dared to doze off in the living room alone. My sister had such a misfortune. Noting her description of his reaction, it was doubtful that he was trying to scare anyone. Elizabeth was best felt eerily standing in front of a certain mirror at night in a dark room at the back of the house. Even when non-psychics stood in front of that mirror, they would feel an eerie sensation. There were also several incidents involving cups moving by themselves across the kitchen counter, but we never figured out which ghost was responsible for this. We assumed it was the son being mischievous.
Within this article, I will attempt to dispel many of the superstitions surrounding ghosts and attempt to explain what ghosts are and why they are here. Please note again that the contents of this article are mostly theoretical because science has no means of measuring, tracking, or even acknowledging that ghosts even exist.
What is a Ghost?
What pops into your head when you hear the word "ghost"? Do you envision a solid white sheet-like mass with no feet that hovers around making a moaning sound? Do you picture little white specks and smears that hover in and out of camera shots when someone takes a picture? Or perhaps you picture a humanlike shadow that you see walking down your halls at night and disappearing through a wall. Some of this has some truth to it and some of it doesn't. I'll touch on each part one at a time to give you a better idea of what ghosts are and why they behave as they do.
Every living creature on this Earth is a soul within a physical shell which we call a "body." When that soul leaves its body, it is known as a “spirit.” Spirits are living entities which possess no physical anchor to the physical world. It is our mind, our emotions, our imagination, our very essence. It is what makes us conscious and alive! A ghost is nothing more than a mass of living bioetheric energy that strays away when a spirit leaves the body. While science hasn’t proven that ghosts exist or not, science has proven that moving masses of energy naturally don’t move without the mass undergoing constant change. Energy constantly moves, shifts, and changes from one form to another as it flows. Parts of itself also break away during these transfers. This is the physics principle of conductor resistance. Therefore, when death occurs and the spirit moves on from the body, it would be naturally feasible to assume that some of this living energy would be left behind when the spirit moves on.
Think of it as drops of water left in a bucket when you pour the water out. Those drops remain in the bucket in small amounts and mostly remain unnoticed. If your body is that bucket and you "pour" your spirit out, you may find yourself leaving small masses of spirit energy around. These small masses gather together to form what we, as the living, know as “ghosts.” Essentially, ghosts are little more than pieces of your spirit that strayed away while the rest of you moved on.
You may notice that this perspective concerning bioetheric energy and the energy masses of ghosts actually sits entirely apart from the theology of the afterlife no matter what religion you are. I can’t say whether or not there is a Heaven or Hell. Who really knows? That’s why the root word of “theology” is “theory.” However, when viewing how ghosts are formed in this manner, it becomes a minor detail. It doesn’t matter where the spirit goes when the body dies if your concern is how ghosts are formed. They haven’t come back from anywhere, much less the grave! They were simply left behind!
Ghosts tend to appear in various places familiar to the spirit which released it. Ghosts often are seen mimicking events or activities that happened during his/her lifetime. I like to explain these events as having an “instinctual familiarity” to the spirit that released the ghost.
For example, let’s say you’re an elderly woman that loved to prune your garden everyday. Over time, you’ve allowed your mind to build an unconscious awareness to automatically do this activity without much conscious thought. You’re so skilled at it that you can now do it in your sleep. After your death, a ghost may show up there doing this same activity with the same or similar level of conscious thought in which you used to perform it during your life. Many such ghostly loops are known as “psychic imprinting” and “residual haunting.” It is the same energy that creates ghosts but the ghost is not free to roam. I like to refer to such places where free roaming ghosts appear as “spawning points.” Such residual hauntings also manifest in the form of footsteps walking down the halls of old homes or moaning sounds coming from a room that once housed the death bed of a sickly person.
Ghosts are often seen as suffering souls because of their seemingly restless behavior. However, they are not suffering, but they were suffering at the moment of their death. They, of course, aren’t feeling any pain as a ghost. You are simply seeing and hearing the imprint of their body and sounds from a time in which they were alive, like a natural tape recording. Cassettes and VHS tapes depend on magnetic imprinting to produce their audio and video playbacks. Nature simply has her own version that uses bioetheric energy instead.
Psychic imprints can also appear in places where traumatic events took place. Many of the old battlefields from as far back as the Civil War still rage with psychic imprints today. Some people believe these ghosts are restless and not at peace. I don’t believe this to be true. We are merely seeing and hearing bioetheric recordings. If the bioetheric energy could be broken up by an exorcism, then we’d probably no longer hear or see them, but an entire battlefield of dying soldiers most likely left an entire ocean of bioetheric energy to break up. This explains the eerie feeling you get even when there are no sounds or ghosts in sight.
There are also ghosts that are not part of psychic imprints that pretty much come and go at a seemingly desired pace. Of course, some ghosts with lesser levels of energy and are not part of a psychic imprint, such as your apparitions, vapors, or “orbs,” simply move around their spawning points because they haven’t the energy to do anything else. Interestingly enough, free-roaming ghosts tend to behave almost exactly like some of your psychiatric patients you find in any hospital! If someone were to suffer an accident that left their body physically well and active but their mental condition somewhat damaged, they would react to familiar stimulation just the way a ghost would and vice versa! The primary differences between them would simply be the limitations of the patient’s physical body, while ghosts are pretty much free to roam.
It’s a simple concept of “spirit energy equals consciousness.” It takes this energy to be alive and conscious. When you lack that energy, you lack that consciousness and you know little of anything going on around you except that which is deeply familiar to you. Just like a psychiatric patient, ghosts wander around looking for something familiar to attempt some sort of interaction. When you have this energy, you are fully alive and aware of everything around you. When someone is described as acting “spirited,” they are describing someone who is acting energetic, full of life, and responsive to all stimuli in their immediate environment. Reversely, ghosts are not nearly as active as people are and respond primarily to subtle stimuli of deeply familiar things.
Are Ghosts and Spirits the same thing?
Many people, when talking about ghosts and spirits, like to use the two terms interchangeably to refer to the ghostly entity that typically haunts old houses. This is mostly due to the fact that people don’t understand the difference. This would, however, be politically incorrect. Spirits and ghosts are not the same thing. They are very much different.
A spirit is the non-physical part of every living creature on Earth. Every creature has a spirit of some kind. Your spirit, when alive and within the body, often reflects many things about you such as: your mental health, spiritual skills, personality, level of personal energy and stamina, etc. Spirits, when out of the body, are fully aware and conscious of what goes on around them. They can see without their physical eyes. They can hear without their ears. They can speak without their mouths. They are able to make decisions and choices and solve problems with intelligence, even without their physical brain. Spirits are energetic and glow with all the mental power that their living counterparts possessed. Some great psychics, such as Sylvia Browne, insist that spirits can even bi-locate or be fully conscious in two or more places at once. It is also a very popular belief that when living people “astral project,” have “out-of-body experiences,” or “near-death experiences,” they have, in fact, left their bodies and assumed their spirit form.
Spirits could be described as a person or living entity without a physical body. Some of these beings were once human and they know how to help and assist you with advice if you know how to listen. This is the concept of “spirit guides.” A spirit guide is a spiritual entity that serves as a guide for you from the moment of birth to the moment of death. This was a very popular belief among Native American Shaman and is used quite often in many occult religions today.
A ghost, as I explained earlier, is merely a small piece of your spirit that gets left behind when your body dies and your spirit moves on. Among the greatest differences between spirits and ghosts are their levels of consciousness and awareness. Most ghosts, depending on the amount of bioetheric energy that has collected to form itself, possess smaller levels of consciousness. This is why many ghosts are often seen wandering about, almost in a dream-like state. I like to describe it as a “sleep walker” state. They don’t have all of the living energy that we have; therefore they can’t act as consciously as we do. They simply don’t have the spirit, ironically speaking.
What are the various types of ghosts?
I like to classify ghosts under several different categories based on their level of consciousness and their ability to interact with the physical plane. As I previously explained, level of consciousness depends entirely on the amount of energy used in the mass to form the ghost. Many paranormal investigators use other terms to classify and even sub-classify ghosts. I’ll just be touching on some of the basics to give you an idea of the various types.
First up is a type of ghostly effect known as a “vapor” or “orb.” These are very tiny masses of bioetheric energy that have little to no consciousness at all. They are difficult to spot and most people who have them never realize it. They often manifest as tiny specs of light that dart in and out of camcorder shots and are often mistaken for dust particles and pollen. These masses are also responsible for what paranormal investigators know as “cold spots.” A cold spot is a distinctive area of atmosphere where temperature takes a noticeable sudden drop for no apparent reason. Vapors of slightly higher energy content often appear as a mist or cloud that moves about houses and seemingly have actual desired courses. Psychics can often feel some larger vapors, but most are so tiny that it’s impossible for anyone to notice. Vapors and orbs usually have no ability to interact with the physical plane.
Above vapors, you have “apparitions” or “specters.” An apparition is a mass of bioetheric energy that can take human or animal shape depending on the spirit from which it came. They usually appear transparent or almost invisible. They can also appear as a dark or white silhouette of a person. They sometimes are able to make some sound and sometimes able to make limited contact with physical objects such as knocking on things and moving small objects. These are the ghosts most people report seeing in most haunted areas all over the world. They usually have some consciousness. Some psychics are able to speak with them through methods of spirit contact.
The next rarest type is the “phantom.” A phantom is a ghost similar in nature to your apparition, but they demonstrate greater levels of consciousness and even have some abilities to communicate with non-psychics. These ghosts are made of much larger quantities of energy than vapors. Phantoms are often able to scribble on walls, speak to you when you’re dozing off to sleep, and even move small objects around frequently. These ghosts are rare and make for the most interesting ghost tours. Psychics are easily able to sense them and speak with them and they are sometimes known to get irate when provoked.
Finally, the rarest type of ghosts is one that most everyone has heard of. They are known as “poltergeists.” The term “poltergeist” is German, meaning “noisy ghost.” These ghosts are reported roughly once every decade or so. They contain enormous amounts of bioetheric energy and are almost as conscious and aware as a small child, which is a lot for a ghost. They can very easily interact with the physical world and are capable of terrifying levels of violence when provoked to include slamming doors, lifting heavy objects and people, throwing objects around, etc. These ghosts are responsible for the concept of “possession.” They should be exorcised quickly if violent events occur.
As I said before, there are other types of ghosts. Some professional investigators have many different terms to describe different types of ghostly effects and manifestations. However, I’ve only covered the types of ghosts here and not so much the official terminology involved with their various forms of manifestation. There are simply too many to name.
Are Ghosts Dangerous?
The answer to this question is a little complicated. While I cannot rightfully say that ghosts are or are not dangerous, I will say that there are far fewer dangerous ghosts than there are dangerous people in society. Most of your more common varieties of ghosts, like vapors and apparitions, have little to no ability to interact with physical objects; therefore they are about as dangerous as a housefly and just as vivid. However, ghosts that contain much higher levels of spirit energy, like poltergeists, are very easily capable of giving you the most terrifying experience of your life.
Ghosts have been known on occasion to become violent enough to cut, scratch, bruise, and even attempt to cause serious injury to living people. Some poltergeists, when threatened by exorcism, have been known to lift people off the ground and even throw people across the room. Not to mention, there is that often serious issue known as “possession.” I will touch on this later.
On a brighter side, most ghosts never show much interaction with people unless provoked or attention is called by familiar stimuli of some kind. Cases have been reported where ghosts may interact with someone who bears a physical resemblance to a person the ghost knew in life. I once read of a man who was attacked by a ghost in the middle of a session with a psychic. He later found out that the ghost was from a person who was murdered in the house by a person who bared a physical resemblance to the man the ghost attacked. This is very suitable stimulation for ghostly manifestation and unfortunately for that man, the stimulation was one filled with hate and fear. Finally, if a psychic were to try to speak with a ghost, it could cause the ghost to manifest in some way.
Basically, you would have better chances of getting abducted by aliens than getting haunted by a particularly dangerous ghost. They do happen, but very rarely. Keep in mind that a person who was cruel in life will probably be cruel in death as well. It has been reported in the past that ghosts of a particular deceased person might tend to pick on someone who he or she picked on in life. If that person seemed to enjoy doing it on an instinctual level, then it would be feasible to assume they would do exactly that as a ghost. Psychiatric patients who were known to be cruel and violent in their past often get abusive with those who care for them.
Maybe I am just being enthusiastic when I say this, but I like to believe that there are still more good people out there than there are bad ones. With this in mind, it is likely that only a small percentage of the bad ones will leave behind a ghost that inherits their mental alignment. On top of that, there will only be a small percentage of those ghosts that will be formed from large enough amounts of bioetheric energy to interact with physical objects, so you can imagine how small the number of dangerous ghosts is. Reversely, this is the same token for good people who leave behind ghosts. This supports that most ghosts are generally neutral by nature, neither violent nor caring.
Amusingly enough, most people worry more about their privacy then their safety when haunted by a ghost. Some people suffer from a concept that their most private moments are not so private when a ghost if present in their home. This is naturally a pointless fear. Ghosts may observe your private moments, but they will not have any use for information obtained by such observation. Most ghosts cannot communicate with most people, so they cannot share their findings of your private life with anyone nor would they have any desire to. Bearing a lack of consciousness, most ghosts would likely not remember their observations anyway.
Can Ghosts Possess People?
Possessions do not take place near as often as most people think. It takes a ghost with an extraordinary level of bioetheric energy to overwhelm the spirit energy of a living, healthy person. Such verifiable cases are estimated to occur once every few decades or so and it always seems to occur to a person in poor mental health, or otherwise persons not in the proper condition for a battle of will power. Ghosts simply are not powerful enough to control someone whose spirit is greater than there own. A person must be on the same level or lower for a ghost to overwhelm his or her own spirit energy and take control of his or her mind and body. This happens very rarely! It takes a particularly strong ghost versus a particularly weak person for possession to take place.
On the other hand, there is a common practice among occult practitioners known as “invocation” and “spirit unity.” This practice involves settling the mind and allowing a summoned ghost or spirit to take control of the body of a living, willing person. Why would you want a ghost to take control of your body? A good reason would be that ghosts have knowledge and skills that we do not. Note the example I used earlier, referencing an elderly woman who loved to prune her garden. Let’s say that someone who practices invocation wants to prune his or her garden but knows little about how it’s done. The practitioner could summon the elderly woman’s spirit and invoke her into the practitioner’s body and allow her to prune the garden for you on a physical level using the practitioner’s body.
I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone learn invocation because of it being an easy access to skills and information. By all means, stick to the internet for your information unless you are seriously willing to seek an occult path. Invocation is very complicated and should never be attempted by someone who is not well educated in the occult. It is also not motivation to keep a particularly troublesome ghost around.
There are some ways to tell if you think someone you know is under possession. Don’t expect their bed to float off the floor. Their head won’t turn 180 degrees or more. Their hand probably won’t burn if you put a cross to it. Let’s leave Hollywood to that. One of the most alarming methods is their vocabulary. If the person in question begins to use words that he or she otherwise would not or speaking a language that he or she didn’t previously know, then it should be a warning that something is not right. Sudden losses in ones train of thought can often be a warning sign. If the person in question is speaking to you quite actively and suddenly forgets what he or she was talking about, then this could support that control just shifted. Having knowledge or skill in certain subjects that he or she did not previously know about would also be a warning sign. Remember that possessions normally happen to people in ill health or mentally weak-willed. The average healthy person does not fit this description.
It takes a lot of familiarity and observation to tell whether or not someone is possessed. Take them to see a doctor or psychiatrist first and make sure it is not some other illness simulating these symptoms such as schizophrenia. If you honestly believe that you know someone who is possessed, by all means, take them to see someone who is immersed in the occult and ask for their opinion. Take care about who you visit. There are some dishonest practitioners out there that will claim an exorcism is needed and then charge you ridiculous prices regardless of the situation.
How do I Recognize a Ghost in My Home?
This is a very tricky part of the trade. As some ghosts are often made up of very small amounts of energy, they are very difficult to spot and almost never manifest in any way that can be recognized by the average person. Most old homes and buildings in America that are more than 50-years-old have apparitions of some kind, but they are usually so weak that no one ever notices when they manifest. That is assuming they manifest at all! If you’re living in an old home, you probably do have spawning points around; however, if the energy is very low, it’ll be so vivid that you’ll never know it’s even there. On one important point, ghosts do not only appear at night, contrary to popular belief. Ghosts are simply easier to perceive at night because the human mind and body are naturally more settled and less active during the evening.
If you have a ghost in your home that would be of any trouble to you, it would be very obvious. Ghosts, like some psychiatric patients, act a little mischievous sometimes. They can move things around, write on walls, keep you up at night with noise, and many other things. If they bother you, have an exorcism done. But I would highly recommend investigating the ghost further before you exorcise it as a ghost can sometimes tell you valuable information. There are a few ways of doing this.
It helps to have a psychic over to speak with the ghost and find out more about it. You may find that some psychics can get a name for you to call the ghost. Unlike spirit guides, a correct name is important when working with a ghost. If you want to get the ghost’s attention for anything, you can call it by name and it will likely respond. Their name is a suitable familiar stimulus and will likely catch the ghost's attention. This is useful if you are attempting to exorcise the ghost yourself. Psychics can also get information for you relatively quickly and without much hassle. However, attempting to speak to a ghost can trigger a reaction from it that you may not be prepared for, so attempt with care. Some psychics endure scratches and bruises when trying to speak to a violent ghost.
For those of you who are not supportive of the psychic point of view, there are paranormal investigators all over the United States. Paranormal investigators can get information, pictures, and recordings on tape for you, but you have to endure having their crew and equipment in the house and there will not be much privacy during that time. You will be expected to sign legal documents permitting cameras in even the most private areas of your home. Paranormal investigators often take several days to investigate as well. Some will work for a very good price because they want the ghostly footage as badly as you want the ghost out of the home. Unfortunately, the investigative crew are not likely to be able to remove the ghost from your home.
Both investigative options can work relatively well in their own respects, but I find combinations of the two work best of all. Some paranormal investigators even have psychics among their crew to placate customers who support either point of view. These types of investigative crews are among my most recommended.
How do I get rid of a Ghost in My Home?
There is only one word I can use in response to this question: “exorcism.” Most people who have seen the movie The Exorcist may find the concept dangerous, but that is Hollywood for you. Exorcisms do not have to be elaborate, glamorous, or even eventful. A lot of people who have little to no occult experience performs exorcisms on houses containing a mildly active ghost. You do not actually need holy water, but it does help and I would recommend it. There are other things you can use if holy water is not obtainable. Burning dried sage leaves has a similar effect to holy water. You can purchase a small bundle of sage, known as a “smudge stick,” at any occult, meditation, or incense shops. Smudge sticks have been used in Native American Shamanic cleansing rituals for centuries and are very effective.
People of the Christian traditions prefer and are often suggested to have the house blessed instead of exorcised. In minor cases, where the ghost is somewhat cooperative, this may be enough. However, in more violent cases, the ghost is not likely to be bound by a mere blessing. Something more powerful is needed. Christian priests choose to believe that ghosts do not exist and their manifestations are merely in service of a person's fears or personal issues. They believe that acknowledging a ghost gives it form and strength. This is why Christian priests assume a mere blessing will suffice. For ghosts, this simply is not the case. Many skeptical home-buyers have been made whole-hearted believers by the purchase of a home that contained a ghost. This is a true fact that unravels the Christian theory on whether or not acknowledgement gives a ghost its existence.
The key concept in exorcism is to break up or "disperse" the foreign bioetheric energy mass in a home, area, or person. In your home is a living cloud of energy. The bigger that cloud is, the more active and powerful it becomes. How do you stop it? By breaking the mass up! Holy water is clean water charged with spirit energy. When a ghost approaches a point marked with holy water, it is exposed to a sudden burst of the bioetheric energy in the water. In some respects, it is a lot like an electric fence. When an animal approaches the fence, the gets a shock. Prolonged exposure results in physical harm to the animal. This is why holy water is placed on a person who is under possession. Religious emblems work in a similar way, especially whose who have been ritually blessed.
There are many various ways to perform an exorcism, depending on your religious tradition. No matter what tradition you are, a well-performed exorcism can be very effective in permanently dispersing the bioetheric mass that make up a ghost, leaving your house free and quiet for the remainder of your stay within it.
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Article Posted by: Tanoro
