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In this Article:

• Are ghosts real, or is it our imagination?
• The eleven most common signs of a ghostly presence.
• How do sensations like being watched or sudden chills relate to hauntings?
• Could objects moving or flickering lights indicate paranormal activity?
• What role do dreams, animals, and intuition play in identifying a haunting?

Are Ghosts Real? The Top Eleven Signs of a Haunting

by Ttheresa Cheung.

From a spiritualist perspective, when we die, our spirits, the energy of our thoughts and feelings, our essence or personality lives on, and it is this part of us that can reach back into the physical world. Countless people have written to me saying they believe they have been visited in some way by the spirit of a departed loved one, and in most cases these spirits have appeared through dreams, visions or afterlife signs to comfort, guide or simply say one last goodbye, if saying goodbye wasn’t possible when they were alive.

Strictly speaking, these reassuring afterlife signs are spiritual experiences rather than ghostly encounters. They comfort the bereaved with the empowering message that physical death ends a life and not a relationship, whereas ghosts typically haven’t found peace on the other side. However, the distinction between ghost and spirit remains fuzzy, and any kind of communication with the other side could technically be described as haunting.

According to a group of pioneering parapsychologists, some people are naturally predisposed to having ghostly experiences, and there is a campaign for mental health professionals to take reports of paranormal experiences and so-called haunted people syndrome more seriously. It is thought that people who identify as highly sensitive (score highly on intuition, creativity and empathy) may be more likely to interpret anomalous events as ghostly. Wherever you lie on the sensitivity scale, however, the potential for such experiences lies within everyone; those lower on the scale may even find that episodes of emotional intensity can become a catalyst for a psychic awakening.

Life After Death: Are Ghosts Real?

Afterlife research is still in its infancy but the fact that scientists are becoming more open to the idea of life after death, or at the very least willing to investigate the possibility and offer a deeper understanding of the further reaches of human consciousness, is a huge leap of faith.

So much of this research is hidden in academic journals and obscured by jargon, but when you follow it and alongside it read witness statement after witness statement, it is very hard to believe that there is no credible evidence or data out there for the possibility of an afterlife at all. Of course, there is no hardcore or definitive proof that ghosts exist (yet), but equally – to risk repeating myself to stress the point – there is no hardcore or definitive proof that they don’t.

So, in the spirit of quantum science, perhaps ghosts are an infinite possibility we have yet to understand fully.

Eleven Signs of a Ghostly Presence

Here are eleven of the most common signs of a ghostly presence. They aren’t by any means the only signs, but they are more likely to occur than others. Each of these haunting signs may have a very simple, rational explanation, so we all need to think critically about all possible alternatives before assuming we’ve encountered a ghost.

Being watched

This is perhaps the most commonly reported sign: the sensation that you are not alone and are being stared at or watched by some kind of ‘presence’, or that someone is standing behind you but when you turn around, no one is there. This can occur in a specific location, like your bedroom while you are falling asleep, but it can happen to you at any time.

Invisible sensations

This sign is something you can’t actually see, but you can feel it touch you, either physically or emotionally. If you have feelings of inexplicable sadness or anxiety in a certain location or in a particular room in your home, and these feelings subside when you leave that place, there is the possibility that this may not be to do with the location or your mental state. There could, and I stress could, be a ghostly presence lurking there.

A New York State court ruled that a seller must inform a potential buyer if their house has a history of haunting, because if they don’t and the buyer discovers the history of the house, they may have to return the deposit. This is exactly what owner Helen Ackley discovered in 1991 when her potential buyer, Wall Street trader Jeffrey Stambovsky, discovered that the $650,000 Victorian house in Nyack, New York, that he had put a $3,000 deposit on had a reputation for being haunted that dated back to the American Revolution. The court ruled that it was impossible for Stambovsky to know about the ghosts and Ackley had a duty of care to inform him.

Odours

Odours that don’t seem to have any source are another potential sign. Vanilla, flowers and perfume are the most commonly reported. There is an olfactory condition called phantosmia, or smelling things that aren’t there, so of course this, together with possible hidden sources of certain smells, needs to be ruled out before you consider any ghostly blame. Sometimes the odour in a haunting can be less attractive, like tobacco.

Electricity

Flickering lights or lights turning off and on by themselves or sudden flashes of bright light could be a sign. Some people believe that ghosts communicate using the invisible medium of electricity.

Ghosts in the machine

Phones or laptops may inexplicably lose battery even though they are plugged in. Your remote may not work even though the batteries are live. Your TV may switch on and off for no reason. Clocks may stop and start. Mobiles may behave erratically or send random texts. Again, there are lots of logical explanations here, such as faulty sockets and wiring, so these needs to be ruled out first.

Whispers and sounds

You may hear whispers or the sound of someone calling your name, most typically on waking, but there is no source. You may also hear unexpected sounds such as footsteps or knocking sounds.

Cold spots

There might be distinct temperature drops in your home, or you may experience a sudden chill. Cold spots without any logical explanation are often said to be a sign of a haunting.

Shadow people

You may glimpse flickering figures and movement in the corner of your eye or in the mirror, but when you look closely there is nothing there. You may also notice a shadow that has no source. The shadow people are sinister and often human-shaped, and they are believed to be ghosts in dark-matter form or interdimensional beings – or something else entirely.

Moving objects

Objects moving from place to place when you haven’t touched them, or finding things in the most unlikely places, like your mobile in the fridge, could be another sign. We know that objects don’t typically move on their own, so it goes without saying you need to rule out draughts, your own forgetfulness and the pranks of others first.

More than a dream

You may wake up in the middle of the night from a strange kind of dream you have not had before. Sleep paralysis and sleep disorders need to be ruled out before deciding you have been visited by ghosts. Also we know that vivid nightmares can be triggered by stress.

Animals and nature

If you own a pet and they act alarmed around a certain location or area in your house or keep staring at a certain spot for unfathomable reasons, they could possibly be seeing something you can’t. Similarly, wild animals may act in an unusual way in areas with ghostly vibrations.

Sometimes Subtle, Sometimes Not

You’ll notice that some of the ghostly signs are subtle while other are more stand-out. Chances are you have experienced some of the subtler signs, like a vivid dream of a departed loved one or the feeling of not being alone in a location, but not paid any attention to it before because it felt so everyday.

Apparitions and objects flying through the air are as exceedingly rare as full-blown ghostly visions. From now on, if you do experience any of the subtler signs like the above, please don’t be afraid. Pay closer attention. Keep a record. Write down everything you can recall about it.

Strange Things That Go Bump in the Night

If you wake up in the middle of the night and feel anxious in the darkness, that’s OK. You are human, and centuries ago that natural-born anxiety could well have saved your life from threatening predators! Take a deep breath, sit up, switch a night light on, drink a glass of water and write your experience down in a journal.

Of course, when you suspect a haunting, it is always advisable to first think critically and try to eliminate the reasonable, tangible explanations before jumping to a ghostly conclusion. For example, if you feel a sudden draught, is there a window open somewhere? If you hear a strange noise every night coming from your basement, have you checked the pipes?

When you have done your due diligence and simply can’t think of any other possible cause, rest assured there is no harm at all in suspecting that ‘something else’ might be going on. And never forget that it doesn’t have to be alarming unless you allow it to be. Most ghosts are benign or unaware of your presence. The living will always be scarier than the dead.

And if ‘something else’ does happen to you, take comfort and confidence from the knowledge that you are most certainly not alone – in more ways than one. You are in the majority. More people believe in ghosts than you might think, with some surveys suggesting as many as a third strongly believe.

And if you encounter those who feel the need to belittle your openness to the possibility of an afterlife, here’s a resilient quote from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, from his 1919 address to the Society for Psychical Research: ‘I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of dismissing everything I cannot explain as fraud.’

Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission.

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Haunted World: 101 Ghostly Places and Encounters
by Theresa Cheung  (Foreword by Loyd Auerbach)

Paranormal expert Theresa Cheung shares 101 of the most mysterious and spooky true stories of hauntings from around the world together with the latest afterlife science and research, providing fascinating insight into our never-ending love affair with ghosts. Sharing the details of some well-known and particularly mysterious hauntings together with some less-well-known tales and personal stories from her readers and listeners, Theresa explores these ghostly encounters through four categories of hauntings: residual, poltergeist, inhuman and intelligent.

With an introduction to modern parapsychology, a look at the latest science that digs deeper into our never-ending love affair with ghosts, psychic-themed self-help advice and ghost hunting tips, Haunted World is a timely and entertaining journey through the thrilling world of afterlife research.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition, Audiobook, and Audio CD.

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