Hawick Paranormal

What Are Ghosts?

In it's archaic meaning, the term 'ghost' refers to the animus or disembodied soul of the departed. Followers of Spiritualism believe that ghosts are souls of the earth trapped on Earth because they are unaware that they are dead, have unfinished business to attend to, or are in a state of confusion.

Frederic WH Myers- a founder of the Society for Psychical Research in London, defined ghosts as "A manifestation of persistent personal energy, or an indication that some kind of force is being exercised after death which is in some way connected with a person previously known on Earth."

These are just some of the definitions of ghosts.

The word ghost is generally used to describe something we cannot explain. The term is usually used for an entity which is mostly invisible to the naked eye and which appears to behave against all rules of current scientific understanding and logic. It is generally accepted in the field of Paranormal research, that ghosts fall into several categories, each with their own characteristics.

Here are some examples:-

ONCE SENTIENT GHOSTS

Ghosts of humans and animals that once lived.

INANIMATE GHOSTS

Ghosts of objects that have never been sentient.

POLTERGEISTS

Location based Poltergeists are usually centered on a specific site

Person based Poltergeists are centred on a specific person who is the focus of it's attention

Poltegeists are mischievous and often malevolent Spirits or energy that is characterised by noises, moving or throwing of objects and general physical disturbances

DOPPELGANGERS

Human, animal and inanimate doppelgangers. Sometimes called doubles, vardogers, or bi-locators. These are entities who take on the physical appearance of someone living.

TIMESLIPS

Retrocognitive Timeslip - Where the percipients witness experiences from the past as if they were actually physically there

Precognitive Timeslip - Where the percipients witness experiences from the future.

ELEMENTAL GHOSTS

Intelligent entities that have never been sentient. These entities are born from bad or negative energy, or turbulent or depraved actions. The most primitive of ghosts, they are often malevolent and unpredictable.

MISCELLANEOUS GHOST PHENOMENA

All Phenomena which cannot be categorised in the above ways

These are the seven categories of ghosts. Below is some explanation of the characteristics of their appearance.

INTERMITTENT GHOSTS

These ghosts behave in no particular or obvious pattern. There may be several sightings in one day and then nothing for weeks or months after.

CYCLIC GHOSTS

These ghosts cause phenomena to occur at specific or regular times, usually at the same time of day or the same day each week.

ANNIVERSARY GHOSTS

Ghosts which cause phenomena to occur on a day that was important to them during their lifetime.

REACTIVE GHOSTS

Ghosts described as reactive, cause phenomena to occur as a reaction to actions taken by the living. They can cause phenomena to occur as a result of renovations to property that they had a strong connection with in their lifetime, the removal of items from the ghosts previous home, or in response to the livings emotional state of mind.

ONE OFF GHOSTS

These ghosts can cause phenomena to occur on the one occasion without there being any obvious or apparent reason.

CIRCULATIVE GHOSTS

Ghosts described as circulative are reputed to haunt several locations.

WANDERING GHOSTS

These ghosts have been sighted at different locations, but do not have a circulative pattern of haunting.

Ghosts also have personality and awareness characteristics.

CONCIOUS ghosts appear to interact with the living. They show signs of intelligence, and are just as aware of us as we are of them. CONCIOUS ghosts can often communicate with the living through the help of a medium or by using a ouija board. They can often interact physically with the living by making physical contact such as tapping someone on the shoulder or stroking their hair.

OBLIVIOUS ghosts appear to be completely unaware of the living world. They exist in their own dimension without interaction or intelligence of the living.

BENIGN ghosts do not mean any harm or upset to the living. In some cases, the ghost can actually benefit the living in some way, eg, passing on an important message, or drawing attention to something important.

MALEVOLENT ghosts try to affect the living's life in negative ways. Some witnesses have reported being scratched, bitten, kicked or strangled by negative and malevolent entities. Fortunately, truly malevolent entities are rare.