The Ghost Posts ~ Day One!

Are you ready? Is your seat belt buckled? Here we go!

Welcome to Moxie's Month of Horror! (Or something like that...)

I wanted my first post to be about the different types of spirits that people are most likely to encounter. As sort of the "paranormal wrangler" for the museum I work for, I've been involved in several different investigations (I'm working on a post about the Do's and Don'ts of Ghost Hunting) and I can tell you that even the "experts" don't agree on the different types that exist.

For me, most of my encounters can be broken down into three different very vague groups.

Residual Energy: This is the type of ghost most people encounter. These are the "leftovers" in the ghost spectrum. They aren't true hauntings, because they are more like snapshots of a certain dramatic/traumatic time in someone's life. Every day, people walk around giving off energy. Lifting my fingers to type this is exerting energy. If you believe energy cannot be created or destroyed, then you understand this. Our emotions are also exerted into energy. So if you feel or do something that is extremely dramatic, your energy can sort of be trapped where it is exerted. I'm pretty sure dying is the most dramatic exertion of energy that most of us experience, so it makes sense that most of these "ghosts" are found in the place where they died. They can scare the shit out of you if they died violently, but you aren't going to be hurt by them. It's kind of like a tape that is on a perpetual replay. You may hear them/see them, but they aren't going to try to make contact with you. Most often these are the type that show up as orbs, mists, ect on film.

Hauntings: These are true ghosts. These are people/animals that don't know they are supposed to pass over, or they simply don't want to. They may or may not even know you are there. They have unfinished business or they are searching for someone or they are scared of moving on to the other side. These are much more rare than the Residuals, but are more common than you think. These are spirits to be wary of because their agenda is more important than yours. For whatever reason they are sticking around, they don't care if they scare you. They are on a mission or they are just lost and don't realize they should go. They can sometimes be convinced to move on, but if they don't, and it freaks you out too much either move or call in a professional. These sightings are much more vivid than the residuals and most people who see these can remember facial features or can recognize some sort of emotion that the spirit feels. Not all are bad, some are very helpful. They tend to show up as stronger, more shaped mists, shadows, or full blown people images on film.

Demons: Bad shit, my friends. These are extremely, extremely rare and absolutely should NOT be played with. Yes, I believe they exist and you just shouldn't screw around with them. Not at all. I've had two instances in my life where I wondered if that's what I experienced, and I did not like it. At all. These are destructive spirits that were never human and there only purpose is to hurt. This is call in the priest/shaman/medicine man territory. This is scary shit and they are very prone to attaching themselves to people and/or places and they are very difficult to detach. Avoid at all costs. Typically they show up as very dark shapes/shadows.

These are just very generic categories and there are people with a lot more experience in this stuff, so, if you are still intrigued, check out some of these articles I randomly found:

http://www.ourcuriousworld.com/TypesofGhosts.htm

http://www.newenglandparanormal.com/learn/learn_2.htm

http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Ghosts&id=226270

http://www.paranormalghostsociety.org/ghosts.htm

http://www.ghoststudy.com/types.html

I received 7 stories for the contest and I'm planning on posting one a day for the 7 days before Halloween. The winner will be chosen by popular vote (and I get the final vote casting when it comes to a tie) and will be announced on Halloween.

Tomorrow I'll start getting into my own stories, I promise...