Definition
There is no unequivocal opinion about whether ghosts and ghosts are a material substance introduced in some way into our reality, or whether this is just an extraordinary type of hallucination. Be that as it may, ghosts are entities that are perceived by the senses, although according to all the laws of physics, their existence is impossible. As a rule, we see visions of dead people, and we know that they are not alive. There are ghosts that are tied to a specific place. Sometimes they live in such places for hundreds of years. Sometimes they can be seen only once - often they are ghosts of people who died not so long ago. There are many evidences of encounters with the ghosts of living people, but which physically cannot be at this time in the place where they are seen.
These kinds of visions usually occur when the person whose ghost is being seen is in a critical situation (illness or mortal danger). In such cases, a person probably has the ability to project his image over a long distance.
However, there is evidence of the appearance of ghosts of living people who are not in danger. As a rule, the “transmitting” does not know that his image is seen many miles away from his location. The German term "doppelganger", which means the ability to simultaneously stay in two different places, is often used to refer to these mysterious and rather rare phenomena.
Evidence about the appearance of ghosts of living people is less common than about ghosts, deceased, but this may be due to the prevailing stereotype in the views of this phenomenon. In the literature, ghosts are generally described as a translucent figure or hazy image, and it is widely believed that a ghost can be easily identified by any witness. However, according to eyewitness accounts, most ghosts look quite tangible and at first glance they can be mistaken for an ordinary living person. Only if eyewitnesses recognize him as a dead person or if this ghost does something unthinkable from the point of view of a normal person (for example, pass through a wall), only then his supernaturalness will be obvious.
All of these issues complicate the attempt to understand the nature of ghosts and become the reason why one of the most common otherworldly phenomena in the world is still the subject of heated debate, even among like-minded researchers.
Historical overview
Promotional video:
Ghost encounters are probably the oldest and most common type of otherworldly experience recorded. In the legends of almost all civilizations there are stories that tell of encounters with the spirits of the dead. In tribal societies, the communication of the leader with the spirit of the deceased predecessor was often viewed as a source of great wisdom. In more developed cultures, from the ancient Greeks, Romans and ending with Christians, encountering ghosts was not unusual, but they caused fear rather than worship.
Dark forces
The Church in the Middle Ages used such fear for its own purposes, declaring ghosts to be a devilish obsession and considering those who saw them witches or people who are in connection with the devil. This was done so that Jesus, who through his resurrection became, in fact, the most famous ghost in history, could maintain an exceptional position. Therefore, occult knowledge, which includes the study of mental phenomena, went underground. The occult sciences were studied secretly, not only because they were considered dangerous, but also because of the persecution of the Inquisition.
They even chose a special ritual to drive out the devil. Exorcists tried to drive out unclean spirits from their homes and deliver them into the "hands of God." Often it was a fight against a poltergeist and isolated ghosts. There is an opinion that such phenomena as poltergeist and ghosts are generally not connected with each other and the culprits of the poltergeist are rather alive.
Study and investigation
Serious attempts to understand what ghosts are, have been made for more than a hundred years. They go back to the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). The registration of ghosts was one of his first major achievements, and even today remains a tangible contribution to the study of this phenomenon. Their census was supplemented in the 1960s by Oxford researchers Celia Green and Charles McCreery, whose detailed analysis of ghost behavior is a model for how such work should be done.
In addition to studying ghosts, researchers are constantly recording eyewitness accounts of their appearance, increasing the existing database.
Nowadays, thanks to the use of promising new techniques, the study of casts gives more encouraging results.
Animated or inanimate phenomenon?
Typically, ghost stories are associated with old houses or castles. And the more ancient such dwellings are, the more generations have lived there, the more incredible legends and stories associated with ghosts surround them. It is often said that the British Isles is the most haunted area in the world, but ghosts are everywhere, and this opinion has developed about Britain, probably because there are many old buildings on its territory.
There seems to be no age limit for ghosts. There are stories of ancient Celtic ceremonies that were observed in places of stone circles, which may have been inhabited by ghosts thousands of years ago. There is also a story about a ghostly Roman legion. He has been seen in the York cellar for 1800 years. On the other hand, there is ample evidence of how recently deceased people visited their loved ones. Probably, in addition to unwillingness to part with relatives, there is an attachment to the place where the whole life has been lived..
• A curious case that took place in Los Angeles in 1993 illustrates this problem. Near one of the old houses, they saw the ghost of a woman and after an investigation it was established that she had previously lived in it, but moved out 50 years ago. It was assumed that the woman died, but because of her attachment to this house, she settled in it in the form of a ghost. But as it turned out, the woman is alive and lives many miles from this place. In fact, she was seriously ill, was in a coma, and it may well be that the most beautiful days for her spent in this house surfaced in her subconscious. After some time, her condition improved, and the ghost stopped appearing.
There are cases when ghosts communicated with living people, talking with them on serious topics. Usually in such cases they appeared in the form of images projected on a white surface that served as a screen. And they played the same scene many times. It is like a video that is played all the time. One gets the impression that some unknown force has preserved and repeatedly demonstrates an important moment of life for the viewer. Perhaps this entity is not a thinking substance.
But sometimes this opinion is refuted - for example, when ghosts transmit knowledge that they could receive only after death. Therefore, there is a theory that considers ghosts as a way of interaction between the mind of dead people and the mind of the living. We still do not know whether this means that the deceased does not stop thinking or that the telepathic abilities of the eyewitness thus materialize information obtained in the usual way.
Ghost sightings
The sight of ghosts is probably one of the most terrifying phenomena you can imagine, although this perception is largely due to our culture and upbringing. It may be a pleasure for someone to meet a friendly ghost.
• I interviewed actress Doreen Sloane who lived with her family in a large house in Birkenhead in the North West of England. In the 19th century, this house belonged to the family of a wealthy businessman. Ever since Doreen moved there, her entire family began to feel the presence of long-dead former residents. Doreen recounted how vague figures wandered about the dining room, throwing a cat into a stupor; how these ghosts penetrated the closed doors of the wardrobe; and how the ghostly smells of cooking suddenly appeared and disappeared. This happened so often that the Sloans soon began to realize that his former owners lived with them in the house.
Doreen explained that when you allow this kind of phenomenon, the fear of it gradually disappears. Moreover, her family felt satisfied that the ghosts of the previous tenants seemed to approve of their arrival and do them no harm. It was even pleasant to feel them close, because it evoked a feeling of the immortality of the human soul.
In fact, people seeking to get rid of ghosts are more likely to be wary of the consequences of communicating with them. This rejection has been building for centuries and is based on the concept of ghosts as evil spirits. Often people attribute the harm caused by a poltergeist to the phenomenon of ghosts. Doreen Sloan's case is certainly an example of how being sensible about such an issue enables mutual contact.
Paranormal research groups are ready to help people who live near ghosts. Cooperation with specialists is possible in any form convenient for you. It will be able to help find out if there is evidence of ghosts visiting this place in the past, and also with the help of a medium, determine their essence. Some of the psychiatrists who practice so-called "mental deliverance" come into contact with the ghost and try to convince him to vacate the house and voluntarily leave for the afterlife. Such mediums usually believe that a ghost is a soul that either has not realized that the physical existence of its body is already over, or cannot leave the earth and its old home.
Of course, it is up to you to decide whether to invite a medium. Researchers of the paranormal cannot guarantee complete success, but there is still hope that with their help it will be possible to achieve more significant results.
Ghosts and technology
The use of modern technical equipment is a promising direction in the observation and detection of ghosts. There are opportunities to get images of them or fix other manifestations due to a coincidence of circumstances.
• 1993, December - once, at a Christmas party, a photographer was filming children at play. After the development of the film, on the TV screen, accidentally in the frame, they saw the face of an unfamiliar woman. But the TV was turned off during the shooting, and no one was in front of the screen, according to the assurances of all adult family members. Subsequently, some identified in the picture a woman-medium Doris Stokes, who died several years ago.
• Mysterious apparitions took place in Manchester and Dublin. In the first case, a chilling inhuman voice was recorded on the answering machine. And in the second, instead of the crying of the baby, adult voices were transmitted from the room, in which, except for the child, there was no one else, to the device "children's watchman"
Ghosts today
Ghosts can appear everywhere, but they are not always visible.
• The incident in April 1995 is a good example of this. One family was vacationing in Exmoor, on the Somerset-Devon border. It happened at 5.20 in the morning, and it was many miles to the nearest housing. Suddenly they were awakened by the sounds of a children's song: "Ding-ding-dong." Not seeing anything suspicious in the semi-darkness, the family went to bed again.
After 20 minutes, the sound was repeated, and the father wanted to find out its source. He did not understand how a child, judging by his voice very small, could be here alone so early. He followed the sound of a voice that was still heard in the depths of the forest. Then the singing suddenly stopped. When the father told the rest of the family at breakfast, they only laughed. But the chance excited him to such an extent that he wrote a small piece of music based on the melody of a ghost song.
But the family was not amused when, before leaving home, they met a local historian and told about what had happened. The historian was shocked. Having made the appropriate inquiries, he returned in speed with an amazing story.
1858 - A local 5-year-old girl was sold by her own father to her caregiver. She soon disappeared. She was last seen walking somewhere around four in the morning. Then the teacher himself disappeared. Everyone thought that he took the girl with him. But after a while, people passing by the abandoned mine heard deep sighs coming from there. An investigation was carried out, and the girl's body was found in the mine. She was killed and thrown there. Her father was accused of this crime. All this happened in the place where the singing of the ghostly child was heard that morning. It sounded 136 years later, probably on the anniversary of the last fatal hours of the child's life.
• Another case. Erica Davis from Salt Springs, Florida spoke about encountering a ghost that she clearly saw. In the early morning of April 12, 1993, her brother came to her and told her the bad news. At night their father died unexpectedly. He was only 50 years old and never had any health complaints. His heart simply stopped beating.
Then Erica's husband reminded her of the dream she had the day before. The dream remained somewhere in the distant recesses of her memory, and she simply could not remember it. Her husband recalled how in the middle of the night she screamed, addressing someone outside the window. The worried husband decided to check if a burglar had made his way into the house, but, seized with unaccountable horror, he quickly returned to bed. By then, Erica was fast asleep again.
What her husband had told her helped her to recall what had happened. Then at night her father appeared to her, called her by name and said that it was time for him to leave. At first she objected, but then, seeing him at the window, she said: "Okay." The conversation was interrupted and the father disappeared. This vision coincided exactly with his death, which was certified by the coroner. Erika's appearance of her father at a time when his life was suddenly cut short, miles away, is a classic example of a crisis vision.
These kinds of incidents force us to think seriously about the really important questions associated with the phenomenon of ghosts. Understandably, Erica Davis's visions could have been caused by various reasons. Skeptics might say that this is just a coincidence and that her dream was brought into line with the reality of the subconscious mind using selective memory.
But in admitting this, we cannot but recognize its supernatural nature. Thus, there are two options that can cause this phenomenon.
Maybe the message about her father's death was received by Erica's brain, as soon as it happened, and her dream is the result of this signal. The bitter news mysteriously swept through time and space and entered the sleeping woman's brain. This is quite possible if we recognize the reality of telepathic communication. But how could her father know he was dying when he had a heart attack? Could his subconscious have sent a similar message? We cannot answer these questions. But the fact that this all happened at the time of the death of Erica's father fully confirms this explanation.
• Indisputable evidence of a telepathic connection is provided by the following case: the husband of a woman from Birkenhead, who is on the Wirrel River, called her on the phone and said in a sad voice that he was now very far away. This call coincided with the very time he was shot during a robbery. When the woman regained consciousness, she realized that there was actually no conversation, since she did not have a phone. And only when she was told the tragic news, she realized that in some fantastic way the conversation had taken place.
Along with the hypothesis of a telepathic connection between loved ones at a critical moment in life, there is evidence that the ghosts of the dead may appear to their relatives.
In other words, although the reality of the existence of ghosts as out-of-body entities is not excluded, this gives rise to the idea that the spiritual substance survives the death of the physical body.
Official science is more likely to explain this connection by the peculiarities of the functioning of the brain of a living person than by the action of an out-of-body substance, denying the hypothesis of the existence of life after death.
In addition, it should be noted that sometimes phenomena that at first glance seem inexplicable, upon closer examination, lose their mystical aura.
• Malcolm Robinson spoke about a study in Scotland in late 1993. In a family in Falkirk, every night, at one time, when no one was around, a toy guitar played the same melody. The house was preparing for the holiday, and the people around were amazed by the sounds of music made by the guitar lying motionless against the wall. The researchers could not provide an explanation for the nature of this phenomenon and in the end took the instrument with them to conduct the experiment. But the guitar didn't make a sound after that …
D. Randalls
