The Haunting

Webster’s online dictionary states a haunt as 3 : to visit or inhabit as a ghost. Allwords.com says a haunting is 1. Said of a ghost or spirit: to be present in (a place) or visit (a person or place) regularly. But is this really what a haunting is? There has to be more to this than that, right? Well my friend there is so much more. The haunting is the backbone of paranormal research and investigation, making up a great deal of our time and effort in the field. Hauntings are so varied that to define what they are with a simple definition is merely impossible. There are so many types of haunting that I feel each deserves the proper amount of coverage for one to truly understand what is going on.

One thing I cannot stress enough is the misconceptions of the haunting. Having a ghost does not mean you are experiencing a haunting. Ghosts sometimes roam and venture to places other than that which they are familiar. These roaming spirits may come for a little while and then leave. Also I must add you can be haunted without having an actual ghost in your home. This may sound odd at first but later in this article that point will be made much clearer. First let’s really look into this amazing topic, the haunting.

To me, there are 4 types of haunting, each a bit different from the last, but each equally important to the study of ghosts. Let’s begin with the most common.

The residual haunt is the most common and probably the most misunderstood of all the hauntings we will discuss here. In truth this type of haunting does not involve “ghosts” as much as memories. The simplest and best way to view this topic is to think of a film projector that at random shows the same scene over and over again, in a continuous loop. The common theory is all objects, be it a chair, table or what not have an energy field around them. When a strong emotional discharge (death, birth, etc.) happens the event may be stored on that energy field and played back at a later time. Another theory is that underground water sources or atmospheric differences can record these events just like the energy fields of objects.

One misconception is that all residuals are visual, this is however not the case. Many residuals are merely sounds, or even smells. It is not uncommon for a residual to be simply a feeling that overtakes the person experiencing it. You may ask how can I tell if I am experiencing a residual haunt? This is easy actually. First off the ghost in question will not respond to you. It will not interact because to it you are not there, it is merely a memory being relived by an entity that no longer exists. Objects will not be moved or misplaced in this type of haunt because the entity is totally unaware of the items existence. It is not to uncommon for doors or windows to open but this is mainly do to the recordings energy being expanded. The residual haunt is one of the more difficult haunts to have come to an end. Sometimes the activity can be linked to an object in the location and when the object is removed the haunt is removed as well. Sometimes however the location itself is the recorder and projector and in that case the haunt can go on for an infinite amount of time. This type of activity, while unnerving, is not one that should cause much concern, as it is relatively safe, unless you get scared and in a panic fall or bump into something.

One event exclusive to the residual is what I have called the living ghost. This is when a residual recording is made of an event in which the person involved is still alive. Many people make the assumption that death and violent events are what cause residuals but this is quite wrong. Any event where a great deal of emotional energy is dispersed will have the potential to be recorded by energy fields and upon random times played back. Many cases have been reported in which a living person has managed to see or even photograph themselves haunting the place they live. This is further proof that we are not looking at a real ghost in residual haunts.

Although the above occurrence is quite rare it is still encountered and can be a very awkward experience to have happen. I like to use the film “Back to the Future” as reference. Imagine the scene were the girlfriend sees herself in the future and passes out because the shock. This is the same thing as seeing yourself as what you might feel is a ghost. Once again I must stress residual haunts are not caused by ghosts in any way, it is merely a played over recording.

This form of haunting is by far the most interesting and in truth the type a researcher really has to work at to get any answers. Some people call this a traditional, or real ghost haunting as well. This type of haunting may have the same effects as the residual but we are no longer dealing with a recorded scene, or image. We are now dealing with a real ghost that has the ability to react to you as you do it. It may manipulate it’s surroundings by moving objects, turning off lights and other things of that nature. It is not known exactly why the ghost is still here and has not moved on to a final resting area, but there are many theories on the subject. One is the theory of untimely death, or to put it in layman’s terms, wrongful death. This would be a murder or an accident resulting in death. Many researchers feel this coincides with another theory that states ghost stick around to complete unfinished business which can include things such as watching out for family or even something as simple as seeing a play they missed while alive.

Another very interesting fact to this type of haunting is the way the spirit might choose to make contact. A residual is pretty much what you see is what you get while the intelligent haunt can be a whole different ball game. The ghost in question can actually make contact by touch, smell or any senses. One common way we as investigators into the paranormal make contact is by a process called EVP (electronic voice phenomena) This is a technique in which questions are asked aloud to a recorder with space in between each question. Upon play back you might hear the questions be answered by the ghost itself.

One drawback to this type of case is the ghost may be completely unaware that it is dead. To it you might be the ghost and thus it is not entirely uncommon for a living being to scare the ghost. These ghost retains the personalities they had in life and although are no longer living they still have the ability to learn new things. Many ghost have been able to use elevators despite the fact the technology did not exist when they were of the living. The intelligent ghost may also be able to help someone in a time of need. Many cases have been reported where the ghost helped save a life or even find a missing person. For me and my team this type of haunt is the one we want to find but at the same time it is very very rare and not so easily experienced. I thought it would be interesting to mention a very famous intelligent haunt. The resurrection Mary case from Chicago is probably the most famous of the cases. This case features a girl who is buried in Resurrection cemetery, yet she still is seen and has been known to go dancing and even get rides back to her resting spot. This brings up a good point about intelligent haunts. There are those few cases in which for some reason ghost must maintain themselves in a certain location and leaving it will weaken them. While it is not yet known why this is it is often assumed it has to do with attachments. To me a ghost who haunts a cemetery has a strong emotional attachment to their physical body, even though they no longer have a use for it. Let’s move on to the next type shall we.

This is yet another form of haunting that has no actual ghost involved. You may have been mislead by movies and even the very popular Harry Potter books have misleading information on this type of haunt. The Poltergeist is in a sense a ghost created by the living to carry out stress when they have no other outlet. Events common to this type of haunt include rappings, and objects being missing. Glasses may break and even objects seem to fly across the room. Electronic devices may malfunction or in rare cases explode. It is also not uncommon for physical injury to result in this type of case from either an object being thrown or even scratches and bruises that appear without reason. This may lead you to feel a demonic presence is involved but in truth it is actually a human made occurrence. We use the term psyhcokinesis to sum up the activity, in a simpler term we will use the letters PK. PK is the ability of a human mind to create events and carry them out without even knowing it is going on. This can be a very annoying occurrence and may stretch out for years if not remedied.

The activity in this type of haunting is caused by what we call an “agent”, which is simply a human who is unknowingly causing this event to happen. Many variables can cause this to take place, but the most common is stress. When a person endures a big change that causes stress they may start to exhibit PK activity. The first suspect to look for is a adolescent person in the home. That age bracket is one that experiences some of the most stressful events imaginable and thus is more likely to cause the activity. One tell tale sign of what is going on is to assess who is the target of any PK attacks.

We do this by detective work. Yes, a paranormal investigator needs skills like a detective to make good judgments and evaluate the evidence clearly. One case that I have read up on was that every time a lady went to wash her dishes the water pipes would burst or dishes would break. When her husband was in the room dishes would fly toward him or even water would spray him. The agent was actually the wife, who was promised a new dishwasher by her husband and in not getting one allowed the anger to stay hidden, thus creating a subconscious reaction that became actual PK activity. The problem was fixed when a new dishwasher was brought in.

Many changes can affect people and cause these reactions. Worrying about grades in school or a big test might cause a person’s books to fly about the room or even in rare cases catch fire. These activities are difficult for investigators to analyze because they follow close with the theory of an intelligent haunt with the exception of no actual ghost, but even though no ghost is present it is not uncommon for EVP to reveal something. Many PK cases have yielded recordings and even in some rare cases pictures of floating objects.

This is a very controversial and much overlooked type of haunting. Though different theories have been made, mine is that portals might connect to where spirits await their time to move on and thus they can use these portals to come back to the world for a short period of time. Most portal cases are recorded in cemeteries, but are not uncommon in other locations.

This type of haunting is basically a doorway that will allow entities to pass into the living world. At this point it is not known for certain that ghost of former living people are what is passing through. Some feel it is other entities from different dimensions. One common thought is portal hauntings are what spawn the type of being we commonly call the shadow person. While this form of haunting is still in the early stages of explanation I do plan to discuss it more thoroughly in a future article. For now though I must bid you farewell, and happy hunting.