I'm fascinated by ghosts. I've never experienced a haunting, but I've learned a lot about the paranormal over the last couple of years out of morbid curiosity.
Lemme start by saying the show "Ghost Hunters" and "Dead Files" is garbage. There are a lot of ghost hunting shows that are absolutely terrible for the public perception on the spirits of the dead with very few exceptions who take a scientific approach and try to learn more about them. How they operate, the characteristics of a haunting, and so forth. The days of treating ghosts like a Halloween spooky thing will one day end when the proof becomes irrefutable to their existence, and how they live among us beyond death.
Some recurring trends are
-When they're present, it gets much colder.
-Your body can detect their presence, either by getting that feeling like you're being watched, or the hairs standing on end (some believe a reaction caused by a spirit's inherit electro-magnetic energy). Sometimes you gain the sensation of being touched, or sometimes even scratched.
-Rarely, they can manifest themselves as a full-bodied apparition, sometimes they're an amorphous shadow form, or even some instances, the opposite as a form of light. When photographed they can appear as orbs, mist, or even unexplained dark spots (parallel to the shadow figures). I'm not even talking about film or video exclusively, I'm saying especially with your own bare eyes, from the sound of recurring accounts.
-Sometimes they can be heard with your bare ears...a residual energy that a location may have experienced, replaying an event that happened long ago like an echo of time...but I'm sure there are some, separate instances where it is the disembodied voice of the soul itself. Speaking intelligent responses and attempting to communicate with the living. Sometimes they speak in a resonance that only sensitive microphones can detect what they say, with startling clarity at times.
...What does that say about the truth of our afterlife?
Why hasn't anyone really tried to buckle down and scientifically communicate with the dead? If Electronic voice phenomenon's are to be taken seriously, we could be right around the corner from being able to speak with souls of the past at will...and yet we don't understand the criteria of what bounds the spirit here. How this is an ethereal entity that remains sometimes invisible and unheard from the living, but sometimes...not. Some speculate it requires great tragedy, or merely extremes of emotions...a cataclysmic event that may have lead to a death so abrupt, the individual themselves aren't fully aware that they're dead.
...But, if EVP's and ghost-like evidence are to be believed...some instances document that spirits CAN retain memories. Some interact with the modern world. Static objects, or the living. Animals, who seem to be sensitive to their presence. If they retain thought, or conscious will, than surely they're aware that they are dead. Even ghosts of Tombstone Arizona have been documented acknowledging that they were once alive, but are now expired. I ask again, what does this say about our afterlife?
Some have spoken the names of the investigators. Did they eavesdrop, or do they have access to knowledge beyond our comprehension? What could we learn from the dead if the dead spoke back? Sometimes they relive their horrific fate over and over again, like a record eternally skipping through time...are these residual energies or are they sentient? If they're residual, are they still intelligent, and perceptive of our living realm that they shift through?
Could intelligent ghosts bridge our knowledge between the world and physics we know and understand in our dimension to a parallel reality? Something more ethereal, bounded by no physical forms, where spirits are malformed wisps of memories and knowledge? Is that our destiny? Don't even pull the religion cards...there are nun ghosts, priest ghosts, preacher ghosts, etc...what are THOSE spirit's thoughts on being trapped to a specific location....is that heaven to them? What kept them from being saved, or is salvation subjective?
Are there angels and demons, or good ghosts and asshole ghosts?
...I'm fascinated by them...and while I don't wish to be haunted and harrassed by the dead...I wish to learn what they see. What they've learned after they crossed over. If they're able to speak, and if they're willing to teach. If they could provide the living with a helpful "heads up", or if their unique conditions in the afterlife could even aid science and technology. My mind runs amuck with the possibilities, and it's helped shed my fear of them...I can't wait to see my first ghost. I like to think I have a vivid imagination, I only hope that it won't be unexpectedly terrifying or overwhelming.
Have any of you experienced any hauntings or ghostly experiences? What are your observations on ghosts and the spiritual paranormal?
-Formerly known as Phobotech-
Voice Actor / Pre-Production Animator / Illustrator / T-Shirt Designer / Author
"I sail through a golden nexus. By tanks with armor that glisten. I watch and I play with creations, and what I'm not reading, I listen." <-
