What Are Ghosts? Do They Really Exist 

 
You aficionados of the supernatural are probably wonder, “What kind of questions is that? What are ghost? If we didn’t believe in them, we wouldn’t be visiting at this. 
 
But there are some newcomers out there and various ghost experts define the phenomena is different ways. If you consulted my version of Webster’s Dictionary, you’d find this definition, “A disembodies soul, the soul of a disembodied person conceived either as a denizen of an unseen world or appearing to the living in bodily likeness hence a specter or a spook.” Webster’s definition is a rather old fashioned one that describes literary ghosts, haunts that appear in many books and movies. Real ghosts, and we believe that there are such things, seldom meet Webster’s description. 
 
We think that there’s a lot more involved in hauntings than dead people returning from beyond the grave, although we wouldn’t rule this out as a possible explanation for ghosts we researched. To us, ghosts are sensory phenomena that have been witnessed by credible individuals but have no readily apparent or believable rational explanation. The phenomenon probably involves natural processes that aren’t readily understood but may have a supernatural cause. So are ghosts tormented souls that reach across vast barriers of time and space to send a message or to contact the living? Our answer is a resounding, maybe and maybe not! 
 
Let’s take a closer look at the various parts of our definition and discuss them in detail: 
 
Sensory Phenomena: Things that you see, hear, feel smell or taste. There are wide ranges of ghostly phenomena that affect the senses. They range from strange lights, disembodied footsteps and voices, being touched by invisible hands, cold spots, smelling things that aren’t there to seeing parts of or full blown apparitions that conduct intelligible conversations with the witness. 
 
Credible Witnesses: Individuals who are not prone to hallucinations, playing hoaxes or practical jokes, or who wouldn’t commercially benefit or profit from faking a haunting. Would people go to the trouble to fake a haunting just to have laugh or become the center of attention or to make money. Abso-haunten-lutely. History is full of such incidents and we will bring them to you on this web site. 
 
Judging Credibility: Most hauntings usually follow a pattern and have their own logic. If a story deviates from the usual pattern of a haunting, then the original story may have been added to, in order to spice it up. Or it could be completely made up. Older stories may have had lots of detail added, to make them better stories. But this doesn’t belie the kernel of truth that is the basis for the tale. If a newer story has a lot of detail in it particularly new or unusual details, then that story should raise a red flag and be looked at very carefully. 

Both of us have read hundreds of reports of hauntings, current and in the distant past, to have a feel for what seems right and what doesn’t. But with all our knowledge and experience, could a knowledgeable hoaxer fool us. You betcha. 
 
Inexplicability: The ghostly event must be inexplicable. Theories without proof don’t offer the explanation, just a possible explanation. We’re positive that some of the stories in our book could probably be explained by natural causes, if they were strictly and carefully investigated. For example, settling houses, underground water and wind in the chimney, all could account for noises heard during hauntings. When pipes expand and contract they sometimes sound like disembodied footsteps coming down the hall. But expanding pipes don’t trod down the hall, throw open the bedroom door and pull off your covers, leaving you shivering in the dark. 
 
We think any proof or explanation offer for a haunting must be demonstrable, and with ghosts, this is not an easy or simple thing. Probable, possible, maybe and could be just don’t cut it. Further, being able to fake a phenomenon doesn’t really prove anything either. All it proves is that the faker, is clever enough to fake, not that the event itself was a fake. Skeptics and so-called rationalists lean heavily this type of debunking, which is interesting, but doesn’t prove the veracity of the report. 
 
 
Types of Ghosts: 
 
We divide the denizens of the supernatural realms into three basic categories, ghosts that haunt people (poltergeists), ghosts that haunt places and ghosts that haunt things. Others may have a much more complicated ghostly taxonomy but we prefer to keep things simple. 
 
Poltergeists (Ghosts that Haunt People): Poltergeists (derived from a German word meaning noisy ghost) attach themselves to a single individual and follow that person wherever he or she goes. The victims are usually children in their early teens although this isn’t always the case. Poltergeists can do very nasty things to their chosen victims and surround them with inexplicable events. Loud noises and crashes occur, objects float across the room as if carried by invisible hands or are hurled off shelves and tables and smashed to bits. Uglier poltergeists have caused spontaneous fires to break out, showers of stones inside rooms, and walls that weep blood. 
 
Some poltergeists have been known to physically attack their victims, slapping them, biting them, pulling their hair and sometimes even levitating them. Despite all their destruction, poltergeists are very seldom seen. Fortunately these infestations usually last only a few weeks or months, rarely more than a year. Then they vanish as mysteriously as the came. 
 
Ghosts that Haunt Places: The vast majority of spooks in our book, haunt a particular place. The places they haunt can be as small as a single room in a small house, or as broad as a stretch of highway or mountain. A few, such as the Mothman, seem to haunt a whole section of the state and the neighboring states as well. 
 
Ghost that haunt places manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways, but they are more often heard than seen. But there are full-blown apparitions.  Some of these look like real people until they suddenly vanish or walk through the wall. Some are translucent or transparent while some lack various body parts, mostly their heads. Some apparitions follow mindless patterns over and over again, while others acknowledge witnesses and in rare instances, attempt to communicate with them. 
 
Sometimes ghosts that haunt places act a lot like poltergeists. They slam doors, fool with the lights, make loud noises and move the furniture around. But despite these similarities, there is a profound difference between the two. Ghosts that haunt places, never leave the place that they haunt. Poltergeists always stay with their victims, no matter where the victim goes, the poltergeist is always there. 
 
Now it is true that certain individuals seem to set off or attract ghosts that haunt places. A true poltergeist is only set-off by its victim. Any number of people can set off a ghost that haunts a place. So while certain people seem to wake up sleeping spirits, active ghosts don’t need any such psychic prodding to perform. Any one can set them off-----even you. 
 
Ghosts That Haunt Things These ghosts act much the same as ghosts that haunt places only they are attached to such things as pictures, items of furniture, cars and even airplanes. The big different between the two is that if you move the thing, the ghost will follow, much like a poltergeist follows its victim. Thus these particular spirits are bound to objects, and will follow that object where ever it goes, oft times to the consternation of the object’s owner.