What is a Ghost?

Have you ever seen a ghost? Or have you ever heard or felt something that felt creepy to you?

Ghosts are very popular subjects these days. About half the American people admit to believing in them, and there are ghost beliefs in nearly every culture in the world. People have told ghost stories and reported ghostly encounters for all of recorded history. Today, paranormal investigators are compiling film and audio evidence, and experimenting with changes in electromagnetic fields and temperature in allegedly haunted places to try to determine if there is objective evidence for the existence of something we might identify as a ghost. Growing evidence indicates that there is, indeed, some unexplained phenomena that can, for lack of a better word, be identified as a ghost or spirit.

Ghosts may inhabit many different types of places. Sightings have been witnessed or filmed in theatres, prisons, schools and homes all over the world. Just like the living, ghosts come in many shapes and sizes. And just like the living, they also have different temperaments. Recognizing what type of ghost or spirit is haunting an area is important in paranormal research as it often tells the story as to why the ghost may exist.

Following are the main types of hauntings encountered by witnesses and ghost hunters and paranormal researchers.

Intelligent Haunting

An Intelligent haunting is when a spirit has the ability to interact with people and its surroundings. When people think about hauntings or ghosts, it is usually this kind that most often comes to mind. These types of ghosts may not realize they are dead, are attached to a particular thing or person or may be trying to communicate something important to the living.

Intelligent hauntings usually manifest or show themselves by slamming doors, moving objects around a room or has the ability to disturb electrical devices within a home or place. Some of these types of spirits can be friendly but others may be aggressive, depending on the circumstances as to why they are haunting in the first place.

In general, ghosts are unable to cause you serious harm.

Residual Haunting

A Residual haunting is thought to be basically an energy imprint of a happy emotional moment or a traumatic occurrence that happened to the spirit.

These types of haunting usually contain no interaction with the living, so you will not be able to talk to it and nor will it notice you. The energy imprint may also contain smells and sounds that the living can detect too. The same image may replay itself time and time again giving substance to the theory that residual haunting are memory imprints or energy.

Poltergeists

It is a common belief that a poltergeist is not actually a haunting but is a manifestation created by someone undergoing extreme emotional stress or changes who unconsciously create disturbances. They are most often found to center around one particular individual, explaining why this theory exists.

A poltergeist can be violent or it could be benevolent and often manifests by knocking and rapping on walls, throwing things around a room, items moving and the opening and closing cupboards and doors and interacting with people.

Demonic Entities

Demons are the most feared and fearful encounters, and are often mistaken for a ghost. They feed off of the energy of the living, causing situations that create fear. These are most often non-human nor were they ever human and create disturbances that are unpleasant. Remember, these types of entities have the potential to cause harm, but are extremely rare. The chance of actually encountering one is very slim.

A haunting is caused by many reasons but as you can see above there are many different types of haunting that can occur. For those interested in the paranormal or who are researching haunting and haunted houses, knowing the type of haunting is important when determining it's existence.

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