Have you ever been somewhere, by yourself, and felt like you were being watched?
Have you ever heard your name called, turned to look and no one was there?
Have you ever put something down, knowing exactly where you left it, but all of a sudden it’s gone?
You may think you are going crazy, but in reality you’re not… you are being haunted! The spirit world is trying to get your attention.
“No Such Thing as Ghosts”
In today’s society, talk about ghosts has become the norm due to the number of different ghost hunting reality shows. But, it hasn’t always been that way. When I was younger, we were taught there was no such thing as ghosts. Whatever we heard, saw, or felt was just our imaginations playing tricks on us. Young children and animals are the gateway to the spirit world. Children have childhood innocence about them and can sense things that adults can’t because they have not matured enough to have a specific belief system. Animals can sense the unknown because they can see at a different spectrum than we can. So, as children who are told there is no such thing as ghosts, we lose our gift and ability to sense when there is an energy shift.
The initial popularity of the belief in ghosts goes back to the end of the 17th century when many people were questioning their Christian faith and beliefs. The Catholic Church had their own belief system and made it taboo for anyone to believe in things that did not fit into their thought process—which is contradictory to their teachings of angels and souls. However, the actual belief in ghosts goes all the way back to the beginning of conscious thought.
Fast forward to the turn of the eighteenth century, society had become so fundamentally enthralled with ghosts that they wanted to have first-hand experience. People were desperate to experience a haunting that they would take the bones of children and put them on display for the townspeople to see if they could actually experience it. This ultimately led to what we now call “haunted houses.”
Invisible Celebrities
There seems to be a parallel of events happening today as there was back in the 17th century. With the deinstitutionalization of religious beliefs and people seeking to experience hauntings in haunted locations we have taken this to a whole new level. There was no television back in the 17th century, but we do have it today and those curious to know what it is like to believe in and hunt ghosts can now watch it on a variety of channels on multiple ghost hunting shows. But, most of the shows are not accurate in relaying the true understanding of what ghosts are. They are in it for the ratings and not to actually educate the public.
My belief in spirits, as I prefer to call them, came when I was in my late teens to early 20s, long before the majority of ghost hunting shows. I was experiencing unexplainable things. These experiences were nothing negative, just weird and different and I never once felt threatened. Then, years later, I became involved with NJ Ghost Hunters Society.
What exactly is a ghost or spirit? Ghosts are disembodied energy of a deceased human being that appears not only self-aware but capable of acting within a linear world of time and space. Ghosts are energy and they feed off energy. In a sense, we are all ghosts, that is, spirits residing in physical bodies. We are energy and everything around us is made up of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed. It’s like a pot of boiling water. The water will change form and turn into steam. Energy can be dispersed and change but can never truly disappear.
Spirit Types
There are many different types of Spirits, and they are reflections of how one lived one’s life or what has happened to them. There are also two types of hauntings but first I will explain why we encounter the different energies in different locations that those television shows don’t explain to us.
- Unaware/Denial spirit: The unaware spirits are simply spirits that are unaware that they have passed. They refuse to believe that they have died.
This is caused by sudden death either by accident, murder, or even suicide. Those who fell victim to the 9/11 attack is an example.
I had first-hand experience with a 9/11 victim while visiting the World Trade Center Memorial. I was walking around the protected section and all of a sudden my purse was ripped off of my shoulder. I did a quick 360, thinking someone was trying to rob me, but no one was near me or running away from me. Needless to say, it dawned on me what was happening and I felt helpless. There are so many spirits there that it’s overwhelming to say the least!
- Fearful: These are spirits who are so afraid that they did not live up to the expectations of their loved ones or their faith that they fear the possibility of judgment on the other side. To them, remaining within the comparative safety of the physical world is their only means of avoiding the very judgment and punishment they believe they deserve, and so they cling to the material world the way a frightened child might cling to their mother’s leg on the first day of school.
- Sad: They are sometimes left in a state of shock when they die that they cannot seem to get past their own death. The sad ghost is a lot of times found in cemetery hauntings because in their grief at the loss of their life, they may be drawn to the physical remains of what had once been their only earthly source of joy. These ghosts simply cannot let go of their losses long enough to notice their own unfortunate state and so remain walking in a never-ending treadmill of pain, regret and despair.
- Attached: These are spirits who have become so attached to their material belongings and/or the material world that they will not move onto higher plains. An example would be a home, jewelry or possibly a musical instrument.
- Jealous: When a ghost becomes attached to a person, place or thing and uses its energies to interfere, it is then a jealous ghost. It can try to intervene in one’s relationship, it can try to get people to move out of homes or it will try to render objects unusable.
- Mission: These are spirits who have unfinished business here on earth. They want to make sure their appropriate belongings go where they need to go.
- Comfort/Goodbye Ghost: I’m sure many of us have felt our loved ones around after they have just passed. That is actually a spirit of our family member or friend who wants to comfort us in our time of mourning. They will watch over us to make sure that we are ok.
I have experienced this many times when attending funerals, especially someone close. The first time I experienced this, it caught me off guard. I would hear their voice as if they were standing next to me or I would get so light headed that I couldn’t stand. I eventually got used to these feelings.
- Angry: Negative energy is a powerful force in its own right, so the idea that anger, rage and hatred might keep a spirit earthbound has to be considered. They can have poltergeist traits and can appear demonic in nature, depending on the level of anger and rage. Anger is a destructive force that grows more powerful with time and can only be dissipated through the power of love and compassion.
- Poltergeists: A Poltergeist is German for “noisy ghost.” This is usually centered on prepubescent teenagers or highly sensitive or nervous individuals. They can cause movement of objects, loud noises or moving trinkets. They are capable of dangerous stunts like tripping or slapping.
Types of Hauntings:
- Residual/non-interactive: Known as an imprint or residual haunting. It is a reflection of a moment in time that has somehow been inscribed or imprinted into the environment. This is an event that repeats itself over and over. You can’t interact with it. A good example of residual haunting is the Gettysburg battlefield.
- Interactive: They can make themselves visible to the naked eye, you can communicate with them, and they can touch you. You may catch an aroma from them, for instance, smell the perfume or aftershave they wore, or smell their favorite flower. They can emanate the smell of cigarette or cigar smoke.
Spirits are all around us, good and bad. We are not always haunted by spirits we don’t know. Our loved ones, including our pets, will pay us a visit at one time or another. Due to the overwhelming amount of television shows and Hollywood, we have been misguided on something that is not necessarily harmful.
Everything has energy, and when we pass on from this world we can leave behind an imprint of our own energy. So remember, whatever we do in this world will carry over into the next.
