Questions About Ghosts, Spirits and Hauntings

We are often asked many different questions regarding ghosts, spirits, hauntings and other related phenomena so we decided that we should add a page to our website that attempts to answer some of the most often asked questions we get when we talk with people. It is our hope that the questions and answers on this page will help clear up any misunderstandings or misconceptions that you might have or answer something that you often thought about asking but didn't know who to ask.

What are Ghosts?

Perhaps the most oft asked question we receive from people is what are ghosts. The term, "ghost", has become more of a general overall categorical word that is applied to everything that could be considered associated with spirits, hauntings and ghosts. The term is actually misused when used in this way as ghosts are merely one type of phenomena that can be experienced and is a specific type all on its own. Ghosts are usually associated with what are known as "residual hauntings" A residual haunting is a memory, for lack of a better term, of some event or some person(s) activities that occured at some point in the past. Rather than being the actual spirit of someone who has passed, ghosts are merely shades of something that occured at some point in history that does not interact with witnesses on any level. For example, at battlefields around the world, there have been reports of witnesses seeing the actual battle being "reenacted" on the anniversary of the battle. The battle itself may have occured many years or even centuries before but witnesses view it at times well after the battle was actually fought. This is an example of residual haunting with ghostly participants. Another example would be the replaying of an event, such as a tragic death, on the anniversary of the original event that replays itself for many years after the event occured. For more information on ghosts, see our section on ghosts in the Terms page which you can access here.

What are Spirits?

Spirits are the embodiment of what makes us who we are. No matter what religion you subscribe to, no doubt there is something mentioned about an inner self or being or soul that survives the physical body after physical death. Spirits then are the combination of those things that make us who we are. Our personality, our sense of humor, our demeanor, our likes, our dislikes, our emotions, our intelligence. All these things combine to make up who we are and allow people to tell our identity by the way these personality traits are ordered in our lives. This other part of our self is what a spirit actually is. It is that unseen and intangible part of us that remains out of sight until it separates from our physical form and returns to our natural state as spiritual beings. Spirits can manifest themselves in many ways including full apparitions, mists, or by creating smells that can be associated with a person specifically such as cigar smoke or a certain fragrance. Spirits seem to be able to interact with the physical dimension and appear to be capable of acting on objects to cause movement and disturbances from inanimate objects. In short, while ghosts do not interact with the living, spirits often do and many times in surprising or frightening ways.

What is an Apparition?

Apparitions can come in many forms but the most sought after form is when a spirit manifests itself in physical form as they appeared when they were alive. These apparitions are rare but witnesses who see them swear that they were seeing the deceased as they were when alive eventhough they knew that the person was deceased. Apparitions may also appear in ectoplasmic mists. These mists resemble fog or smoke but when examined, faces or even body parts such as a hand or a full arm can be seen within the mist. Orbs may be a form of apparition although more study is needed to either prove or disprove this theory. Orbs may be what the Egyptians referred to as the "Spirit Vessel" which was the form that the soul took after leaving the physical body. There is some fascinating research going on currently which shows promise in support of this theory.

Apparitions may also be tactile in nature. Smells that could be associated with a specific person such as a particular cologne or perfume or cigar smoke when nobody is smoking may be a form of apparition. Hearing voices or moans or whispering can be another form of apparition. A strong stench of death or decay or a scent of flowers like roses can be another form of apparition. Feeling a cool breeze where there ought not to be one or the sensation that someone is behind you and breathing on you is yet another form of tactile apparition. In short, anything you can see, hear, smell or touch can be an apparition if it can be connected to other activity that indicates spirit presense.

What is a Poltergeist?

Poltergeist is a term that has been given to unseen forces which cause havoc and create mischief of all kinds. The name poltergeist comes from Germany and literally means, Noisey Spirit. Poltergeist activity is usually centered around one individual who is called the "target". This person is usually a young girl who is entering puberty and under the age of 21. Although the phenomena seems to be centered around young girls, it can and does happen to young boys as well. The current mainstream belief is that the problematic period as young children enter puberty is that they may, unknowingly, harness psychic powers that actually create the manifestations associated with poltergeist activity. PKE Psychokinetic energy is released by the mind into the environment where it creates strange sounds, moves objects, destroys things and generally creates an inhospitable environ not only for the target but others around them as well.

While this thoery does make sense, it doesn't explain some of the more violent or malevolent aspects of poltergeist activity. Children having bite marks mysteriously appear on their limbs, being spit on when no other persons are present, physical attacks and even rape or sexual molestation have been attributed to poltergeist activity. Another disturbing manifestation is the strange growling sounds or scratching sounds combined with or independant of cursing and blaspheming in front of witnesses. In this regard, the activity takes on an almost demonic possession like aspect. It could be that some sort of lower entities are drawn to the chaos and turmoil within certain children as they approach puberty. Like a magnet, these emotions and conflict draw lower level forms to where these children are and the activity begins. By creating further conflict and turmoil, these lower entities might gain a source of power or enrichment on which they feed. Further study is needed on this phenomena to better understand its true cause.

What happens to us when we die?

This has to be one of my favorite questions because the simple answer is that we do not know yet. Various cultures believe different things about the construction of the afterlife and how it might appear to us living in the physical world. Some believe that we are recycled and live again and again until we learn those lessons we were destined to learn and achieve enlightenment at which time we join with the creator of the universe. Others believe that your actions and how you lived your life here determines what your afterlife will be like. Still others believe that we are merely creatures of nature and nothing happens when we die. The possible explainations are varied and range from the complex and very intricate to the simple and very mundane. At the CRPIS, we have a theory that is based on my conversations with several clergymen of different faiths. Probably the most telling statement that I ever heard was the one given to me by a Catholic priest with whom I discussed EVP and spirit voices. He said, "Perhaps the world of spirit is closer to us than anyone would ever imagine, or be comfortable with." There is a lot to that statement and it falls in line with what other religions have as a basis to their vision of the afterlife.

Our theory is that different planes of existence are all around us but that we cannot see them or know that they are there except for those few times when we are given an insight to them either by design or by mistake. Imagine if you will for a moment, that where we exist now, the physical world, is the center of our universe. Like rings in a tree, other levels of existence surround our reality and are there simultaneously with the one in which we find ourselves now. Out on the first ring is where those spirits who are tied to the earthly existence reside. They do not want to go forward or cannot go forward and so they stay as close to our reality as they can eventhough they are no longer a part of it. This causes them to stay in a state of limbo. They are no longer part of our reality but they cannot progress in their spirit lives because of their attachment to our reality.

Here is a small drawing to put our concept or theory into perspective for you:

As you can see, around our physical reality are the realms of the spirit world. As you go farther out from the center, you begin to leave the physical world farther and farther behind and in time, you may cease caring about the physical world at all while caring for the people you loved and knew that are still in it. The closer the spirit ring to our physical reality, the harder it is to let go of old attachments and desires and so those spirits that are existing in these areas are trapped in a kind of limbo between their advancement and their old lives in the physical to which they can never truly return.

We cannot prove or disprove this theory as to the hierarchy of levels of spirit progression but we believe that it may be a start in the right direction to understanding why some spirits seem to stay around the physical and what they knew rather than move on. Only time and further study will yield the truth of the makeup of the afterlife.

Orbs,What Are They? Are They Real?

There is much debate about orbs and the real value of them to paranormal research. Depending on which camp you subscribe to, you may or may not see any value to considering them evidence at all. At the CRPIS, we feel that until such time as there is conclusive proof that orbs are not paranormal, naturally occuring if as yet unknown phenomena or genuine identifiers of places where paranormal energies are concentrated, we prefer to keep all of our orb photos and go about the process of keeping the ones we feel may have some value in the future.

You can listen to all of the so-called "experts" who will tell you how dust makes orbs on film, moisture droplets in the air cause orbs, pollen and a host of other particulate matter in the air around us can cause false orbs but you will not hear them explain the photos where people DID NOT vigorously shake a carpet full of dust or throw handfulls of sand into the air or take photos when it was snowing or raining or damp out. That would require work and the one thing that dyed in the wool skeptics will never do is work to prove that their theories or statements are the correct answer to the question. It takes much less effort and energy to simply suggest that something is false or manufactured or explainable than to do the research and prove that it is real. That is the bastion from which all skeptics launch their attacks and why no amount of evidence will ever satisfy them.

Here's what we believe we know about orbs:

Some seem to have intelligence guiding them. By that, we simply mean that they move in directions which a free floating piece of particulate in the air would not move and may even exhibit purpose in direction such as heading towards a camera or a person.

Some exhibit characteristics that may indicate they are in a state of flux such as color changes, size changes, shape changes, motion, etc.

Most orbs are caught by people in night time photos. This used to be the case almost exclusively but now, more and more photos are being taken during the day and both indoors and outside.

The mindset of the photographer seems to effect, in initial investigation of the phenomena, the quality and quantity of the orbs which will be photographed. This may indicate a direct link on some psi level between the expectations of the photographer and the appearance of the orbs. In other words, if you go out to catch orbs on photos, you probably will.

Orbs can and do show motion. Often times, photos of orbs in motion seem to indicate that the object moves rapidly, often being caught in the process of moving from one space to another in the same photo.

The level of opacity is different from orb to orb. Some are clear and some a more milky white consistency while others are extremely transparent and most difficult to see. This may be an indication of locomotion or movement between spaces or between dimensions or may be just a shift in size or some other change to physical attributes. This may be important especially if these orbs turn out to be some sort of celled "creature" that we are just now coming to know about such as the Rod phenomena may be.

Orbs seem to occur around areas reported to be haunted or experiencing what we would call paranormal phenomena so this possibly indicates a relationship between orbs and magnetic fields. There are some groups who are currently working with static and moving magnetic fields and their relationship to orbs appearing from things like televisions, etc. in conjunction with the appearance of such fields. No doubt more will be coming on this research.

The bottom line seems to be as the old saying, "When the student is ready, the Master will appear". Apparently, when you open your mind to seeing orbs and capturing them on film is when they become most prevelent. This again may go to the intelligence of orbs, the latent psi abilities of the photographer, being in the right place to capture a naturally occuring organism on film, or any of a host of other possible explainations.

Our contention at CRPIS is that orbs should not be discounted as possibly useful evidence because we simply don't have enough answers yet as to their composition, their abilities, their purpose or their reason for being. Until such time as we do have some answers to these questions, it would be foolhardy and irresponsible to dispose of them simply because so called "experts" have deemed them irrelevent.