Through its incredibility truth escapes recognition.
-- Heraklit, Greek philosopher [ 500 BC  ]

The biggest obstacle for scientific progress is some people’s refusal, scientists included, to believe that seemingly incomprehensible things can in fact happen.
-- George S. Trimble

Different kinds of ghostly apparitions:

Ghosts differ in their appearance as well as in their nature. It is believed that ghosts show themselves either in form of globular objects emitting light (orbs), in a nebular or smoky form, in form of ectoplasm, or maybe even as shadowy figures (shadow people). Probably the rarest kind of ghostly appearance is the full-bodied apparition. The ghost appears in the shape of the body he occupied during his lifetime.

In recent times doubt has been cast on the existence of orbs and ectoplasm as well as nebular apparitions. In most cases pictures depicting them seem to have a natural cause (like cigarette smoke, condensation, dust etc.). Ectoplasm was forged by many self-proclaimed mediums during their spiritualistic sessions mainly during the 19th century. That’s why photos of paranormal phenomena are always to be taken with a grain of salt, especially as they can nowadays be easily forged with a multitude of different computer programs.

It’s controversial if the so called “shadow people phenomenon” falls into this category. There are many theories reaching from parallel dimensions over the restless souls of the dead to extra-terrestrials. Science tries to explain this phenomenon either with malfunctions of the eyes or with pareidolia, stating that the brain automatically interprets unclear pictures as known objects or even faces.

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Ghostly apparitions attached to a certain place:

One has to distinguish between different kinds of ghostly apparitions, not only in their outer appearance, but also in their nature. One of them seems to be sort of a fingerprint in spacetime, repeating itself over and over again in a certain place at a certain time. This imprint is possibly caused by a dramatic experience, setting free very strong emotions. This kind of ghostly apparitions can neither interact nor communicate with us.

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Intelligent hauntings:

In addition there are also intelligent types of ghostly apparitions, which can either be bound to a certain place or free to move wherever they want. They are able to perceive us and can also interact with us. Some of them seem to have the ability to physically affect their surroundings, i.e. move objects or even attack living humans, though this seldom occurs. This type of ghosts can also verbally communicate with us, though their voices most of the time can only be heard when recorded, amplified and filtered. It seems that they need a lot of energy to manifest or speak, which is the reason that hauntings most of the time don’t show themselves in a bodily form or only as faint shadowy figures (see above). Intelligent hauntings usually are recognised as the disembodied souls of the deceased. Next to humanoid apparitions there are also animal spirits.

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Demons and nature spirits:

There are also reports of hauntings, which can neither be credited to “imprints” nor to disembodied souls. This certain type of haunting is said to be caused by non-human spirits, so called nature spirits, like fairies or leprechauns, or possibly also by demons.

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Poltergeists:

This phenomenon, which manifests itself mainly through banging noises and the movement of objects, is not a classical haunting and normally not caused by a spirit. The word poltergeist is derived from the German “poltern”, which means to rumble or bumping noises and “Geist”, which simply means ghost. Poltergeists are nowadays mostly linked with outbursts of strong psychokinetic energy and often caused by adolescents in their puberty or people under extraordinary psychological strain.

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