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But that this is not the case. The field of paranormal activity is amazing. It has caught the imagination of people from every walk of life. It has always interested me and has influenced me to pick this as the topic for my research. Through this research I wish to uncover the truth about the existence of ghosts. I also wish to correct the wrong notions that people have about ghosts and enlighten non-believers. A three word question. What are ghosts? It sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! Many people have contemplated the idea as to what ghosts actually are. Some will say that they are a figment of our imagination. Some will say they are guardian Angels. While others will say that they are the work of the Devil and are demonic in origin. Some say that they are a form of electromagnetic energy. The same mysterious energy that allows our brains to function. There are many meanings associated with the word ghost. Of course the most common is that a ghost is the Spirit or soul of a person who is no longer living. A spirit is the soul of a person who for what ever reason has not gone on yet. We also have heard many stories of people having encounters with Angels. While these do not exactly qualify as ghosts they are Spirits but may not be of people who have lived. The same is said of what is referred to as demons. What someone may call a demon is actually an unhappy Spirit. When we pass on we will carry our same personality we have with us in life. In a sense our essence will not change. Just as there are disagreeable people we meet in life, there will be disagreeable Spirits we will encounter. Some people believe all ghosts to be evil. This is not so. Just because a person does, not for whatever reason, go on after death does not make them evil or mean they are here to do harm. In theory, ghosts are the remnants of what was once a human being. Someone, who at one time, had substance on this earth. They are everything that we, as living creatures, are- but without the vehicle we call the human body. They exhibit all the mental attributes that you and I have such as thought, conscience, emotions and emotional needs, morals, calculation, ego, personality and everything that makes up the human psyche. Acknowledging the existence of ghosts or spirits leads one to ask why they are here. Here are several answers. One reason is that the spirit does not realize, or refuses to believe, that it has died. This can often be the case, but not always. If one suffers a sudden or unexpected death, in disbelief, they may not pass on to whatever destination. Denial or unawareness may be the key to someone remaining behind. They will continue to go about their daily lives as though nothing happened. There are documented cases of this instance. Take for example; a mother dies unexpectedly, obviously she'd want to be home with her family. Soon, the family begins to notice strange things. They wake up one morning and the dishes are washed. Or beds that were slept in are made to perfection. Or the aroma of Mom's perfume permeates the house on occasion. This has been known to happen. Violence is another important factor. Spirits often feel the need for justice, even if it means remaining behind. Oftentimes, a ghost will try and communicate to the living in search of justice, sometimes leading to their killer. There is a documented case of an apparition of a woman who, every morning, would be seen searching for something at the edge of a field. After witnessing this several times, the land-owners decided to follow her. She led them to a stream in a wooded area nearby. From a distance, they saw her bend over as if reaching for something. After she had gone, the men went over to investigate. They turned up a rusty gun lying in the stream. The gun was traced back to a man who later admitted having killed his wife. Finally at peace, the apparition was never seen again. Some spirits will remain behind, unable to let go of people and/or places they have an emotional attachment to. This can be the case with pets as well. There have been many such cases. Scott’s experience is well wroth mentioning. “It began before I was born, after one of my parents' dogs passed away. Strange sounds, things popping up in the weird places, the types of things you might normally expect from a harmless haunting. My parents called some people in the phone book who are supposed to investigate paranormal occurrences. They said there was definitely a spirit in the apartment. Whether these people were for real or not, I don't know. Nevertheless, the occurrences, as I stated before, were harmless, the spirit was mischievous, but not violent. Shortly before I was born, my parents moved into our house, the spirit followed them. After a couple of bizarre dreams, and the fact that the occurrences had started almost immediately after the dog had passed away, my mother believed it was the spirit of her dog. By this time my family had taken to calling it Spook. I was born shortly after, which has no relevance to this whole story other than to show that I was alive during some of these bizarre occurrences and my parents did not make up the whole story. A few years later, my parents moved their business into a two-story office building, and Spook decided he would make this place his part-time home. He was ever-present upstairs. It always sounded like someone was walking around upstairs when no one was up there. Many employees did not care to be left in the office alone, a ghost, harmless or otherwise, was a ghost. For many years, strange things happened at home and at my parents' office, until we started having a lot of cats around the house. Whether this was coincidence or a dog's dislike for cats, Spook hasn't been heard from since.” The need to know that everyone will be okay without them can compel one to resist the temptation to move on. Also, a spirit's fear of being without loved ones can have the same result. No matter how you look at it, the emotions that play a key role in a haunting are Love, Hate and Guilt. While there are certainly some places that experience hauntings for years ghosts can turn up anywhere at anytime. Many people have had a single ghostly experience. This doesn't necessarily mean the area where he experience took place is haunted but more likely they had just been visited by a spirit passing through. Ghosts have no physical boundaries. Logically, they can be anywhere. Usually, the reason they remain behind associates with where they can be found. Unfortunately, in most instances, you cannot determine reason without finding them first. The longevity of a location can help you find a ghost. The older a place is, the longer the duration of time in which events, that could lead to a haunting, could have unfolded. Additionally, they can provide a familiar place to a ghost. Sometimes ghosts will return to what is familiar to them. As our world changes around them and things become less familiar, they may retreat to a place that has undergone little change. Historic buildings are notorious for strange happenings. A place with a violent history such as where a suicide or murder took place is another possibly haunted spot. We know that places where battles took place such as Gettysburg, Pennsyvania and Yorktown, Virginia seem to hold a lot of ghostly activity. Battlefields, with a high number of deaths, yield strong emotional attachments by the soldiers who died there. If you consider the number of men and the circumstances in which they lost their lives that really isn't surprising. There are many characteristics seen in ghosts. Ghosts often have favorite pieces of furniture or rooms to haunt. Hallways, stairways and other commonly traveled areas figure prominently for ghostly locations. After all this is where we all traverse the most in our house holds. Some ghosts are very interactive and like pulling pranks on people while others just prefer to ‘live’ out their ‘life’ quietly. Ghosts do not intentionally hurt people. If a ghost likes to throw books and you just happen to get up and walk into the path of the book as it is flying through the air then you are going to get hit. Often they touch or inadvertently bump into the living. Some ghosts talk. Some do this physically, while others seem to do it telepathically. In order to understand ghosts and their behavior, you must evaluate them from a human perspective. Why? Ghosts were living people once, just as you and I are. As spirits of the dead, they exhibit human emotions and thought. They are bound by the morals instilled in them by their parents when they were alive. When a ghost is active, it is merely seeking attention or recognition. Imagine for a moment that you are a ghost. You can see and hear people around you, but you cannot interact with them, or anyone. The frustration you would be feeling from this isolation is overwhelming. In fact, so overwhelming, that you would actually find ways to do something about it. What may seem as playful ghostly pranks, some being quite startling, are used to draw the attention and acknowledgement needed by human emotions. Yes, there are ghosts with bad intentions. Don't let that scare you. World wide, criminals account for little more than 3% of the general population. Because ghosts were people once, the same statistic should hold true for ghosts, greatly reducing the likelihood of a bad experience. The chances of actually having a bad encounter with a ghost are minimal. Of course, one's fear of ghosts can seemingly make every experience a bad one. You must evaluate any ghostly event. Did the ghost actually do something to frighten you specifically, or are you just fearful of ghosts? Ignorance, fear and prejudice walk hand-in-hand. Ghosts have long been victims of people's fear and lack of understanding them. Do not shun or banish them just because they do not conform to what you consider normal. Think it a privilege that they would choose you to have made their presence known. Life is energy. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Science fact is that energy can only change forms. The energy that makes up our being, where does it go when we die? It must transform into something else, but what? Ghosts are the ‘what’, the soul. When we die, we are still ourselves. Our soul still exists, only it cannot reside in a body that no longer functions. Just because we do not understand this immeasurable form of energy does not mean we should deny its existence. Most souls go on to something better such as Heaven, or worse, Hell perhaps. But, some remain behind............. Bibliography: Berlitz, Charles. World of strange phenomena. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988 Gerew, Sharon. “Co-Existence”.10 May, 1998 Gerew, Sharon.“Where are ghosts?”. 10 May, 1998 Gerew, Sharon.“Why are ghosts here?”. 10 May, 1998 Juliano,Dave. “Poltergeists”. 17 January,1999 Kaczmarek, Dale. “Oujia: Not a game”. 1997 Word Count: 1934
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