Lets talk Ghosts

[Rusty64]

I searched the forum and it seems to be lacking a general discussion thread for ghosts(I'm limiting my definition here to refer to the spirits or energetic marks left by once living humans or animals). This thread is just here to post your beliefs on ghosts, how/why they form. I mean according to all popular afterlife beliefs(heaven, ascension, reincarnation, nothing) ghosts shouldn't exist, yet I'm sure most of you on this forum have had an experience with them in someway, most people even those who aren't into mysticism people have at least one solid "ghost story".

I'm not one 100% sure but I think there are two distinct entities that get labeled "ghosts" firstly the spirit of a person once living that is still on earth either due to being trapped somehow or perhaps by choice. And stains on reality left by people's psychic energy, the latter is very interesting to me and what I think makes up a lot of popular "hauntings" simply the mark left by a persons thoughts and actions, an automatic unthinking puppet, like a scratched recorded that keeps looping one part. It simply carry's out actions, and may or may not respond to stimui, and just hang around till the stagnet energy runs out or they're exorcised.

Lastly I have reason to belive that people who were particualrly trained or just talatneted in their clairvoyance and general mysical ability are better at commuication with the physical if they end up or choose to be a ghost than thoese that weren't. also of course the sooner after death the more potent a ghost, thats my personal theory to the whole "why are they not reincarnted/in an afterlife" simply that there is a liminal period between death and the next life, a spirual cooldown period.

 

[Eliyel]

Some interesting ideas here! I've grown to think thoughtforms are a big contender for a lot of ghost activity. Widespread stories or concentrated belief in a particular person's lingering spirit coming either from a bunch of spooky story enthusiasts, or grieving friends and family hoping to make contact, could easily have a way of taking direct shape in the nonphysical to mimic the deceased person. As time passes on and memories or emotions fade, that thoughtform gradually weakens, or it might end up growing stronger in cases of the story achieving far-reaching infamy.

I do think that actual spirits of the deceased might occasionally swing by to see how things are going, but I haven't personally seen a lot to convince me that people end up getting legitimately trapped after they die, or that they would want to hang around watching from the sidelines 24/7.

 

[Suayakoat]

I think ghosts are mere "glitches in the matrix" which appear when the "system" for processing Souls on this world goes wrong in one way or the other. I believe there are spiritual hierarchies and other entities responsible for the "processing" of souls on the planet and they are a little bit like the police or other law enforcement organization-they do their job for the most part and the system works well, however, well...there would always be those "outlaws" that manage to escape the system in one way or another and behold...ghosts! Spirits that have a particularly strong will, are unable to easily reach the other dimensions through trauma or just unfinished business here, and those who are simply too stubborn to accept they have died could and do turn into ghosts and we observe them in the physical. That is why, for example, fields of battle, e.g. place where many people unwillingly lost their lives, become haunted soon after the event. When too much of a life is wasted to death and the soul holding that life simply can't go on a ghost appears.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I don't really have any strong ideas about what ghosts are, but I lean towards some variant of the 'stone tape' idea. Ghosts almost always associate with a place, and I think something about that place has trapped something that thinks it is still a person, or, like an LLM, displays behaviours that make us think that it is a person. Maybe there is some connection with poltergeists, maybe not.

 

[Swampdweller900]

Ghosts are fascinating because there seem to be a variety of different kinds that can arise from humans. Personally, I think a space and emotional experience is a huge part of what leaves a human ghost behind. But I think they fall into 3 main categories:

Emotional residue in a space from repeated exposure. This is your classic "replay" haunting where you get something like a woman is seen in a hallway, doing something mundane. My personal opinion is that years of doing the same thing, feeling the same heightened state, in the same place, can etch some part of our egos onto the space. These can exist in places where the person haunting the space didn't die, and the person might have died peacefully, hundreds of miles away.

Emotional residue from short or singular exposure to extremely high emotions. This is more like "someone was murdered here and we still hear the screams!" type of haunting. Especially when an end of life event occurs at the location. I personally think that these can also be spirits of people who don't realize they're dead, or don't want to transition over because of wanting to share information about the event of their lives that is so important that they get stuck in a loop thinking about it.

Spirit attachment to living people. This is less "I feel like grandma is with me now," and more like "Your dead mother is attached to you and draining your energy." Similar to the spirit feeling something was left undone, a haunting that follows someone around and is not attached to a location.

For the last two, these would sometimes fall into the category of "Hungry Ghosts" where there's a bit more sentience, and sometimes the spirits understand that they need to draw energy from our 3D mundane space to interact with us. I've heard one retelling of an NDE, likely unreliable, that some people pass and if they don't cross over, an entity attached to them will offer them "immortality" to turn them into some energetic leech that persists able to see our realm and not (or barely) interact. Which sounds friggin' terrible to me, but I can see people making that deal.

 

[Planet13]

I sometimes wonder whether “spirits” are less independent beings and more like echoes — not voices from outside, but resonances within us.
I once visited a place without knowing anything about my ancestry there. While I was there, a quiet idea arose from within me to look into my family tree. Later I discovered that several branches of my ancestors had lived in that exact area, and in the surrounding villages, about 300 years ago.
That made me question whether what we call “spirits” might sometimes be something else: a form of continuity. Memory that lives on through people rather than as a separate entity. A kind of ancestral resonance that surfaces when we’re ready to connect with it.
An echo isn’t a separate voice — it’s a response. Maybe certain places, histories, or moments activate something already present within us. Not because a spirit is actively reaching out, but because we are part of an ongoing story that stretches further back than we consciously know.
So perhaps “ghosts” are not always external presences. Perhaps sometimes they are the feeling of belonging to a longer thread of existence — the quiet awareness that we are not as disconnected from the past as we think.

 

[ventajsteloj]

I don't really have any strong ideas about what ghosts are, but I lean towards some variant of the 'stone tape' idea. Ghosts almost always associate with a place, and I think something about that place has trapped something that thinks it is still a person, or, like an LLM, displays behaviours that make us think that it is a person. Maybe there is some connection with poltergeists, maybe not.

Along the same lines with 'ghosts' nearly always being associated with a place, I have wondered if perhaps some of these ghosts are actually spirits of the place, nature spirits, elementals etc. I have always had the feeling that a lot of what are termed ghosts aren't always
actually spirits of the deceased, although many may be.

 

[Ohana]

Ghosts are. In certain cultures and religions like Hinduism and Buddism there is a spirit called a Preta or hungry ghost. I briefly looked into their background and they are hungry spirits of people that were deluded by greed. They now haunt places unless their family cares for this spirit or some sources they may haunt for eternity maybe? It might just be a really long time they will haunt but still.

The Preta has an insatiable hunger and can cross both the land of living and dead. But they will forever remain hungry wandering trying to find a hunger that can never be filled.

Theirs also Jewish mysticism that believes in a dybbuk that attaches to the soul of the living. These people commited grave acts in life and now will restlessly wander hoping to find a soul to posses to escape their wretched existence upon this earth.

So those are some ghost beliefs I know about.

 

[Morell]

Spirits are very broad topic. Usually when I hear ghosts, I think about weak spirits that can at best show themselves but don't really do anything.
But when we speak about non incarnated beings, the range is infinite, beings in all levels of power, abilities, age and inteligence.

 

[Ohana]

Spirits are very broad topic. Usually when I hear ghosts, I think about weak spirits that can at best show themselves but don't really do anything.

The showing themselves is doing something. If you had a personal connection with them then that triggers grief. It also makes a person not aware of magic or spirits or afterlife aware of it and that does something probably emotionally to the other person.

I think about it like Gravity is the weakest force but its the force that affects most of our day to day. Then ghosts might be like that and though ghosts might be the weakest force despite gravity being the weakest force people can still hurt themselves falling.

Have to still be careful/respectful around ghosts I think.

Post automatically merged: Today at 4:20 AM

Anything can get you. Anything. I'm saying this from expierence. I was just dealing with a ghost then I get the worst news imaginable and everyday is a struggle to persist now.

I was just dealing with a ghost issues and now its. Its a bigger issues now. It spiraled. I dealt with the ghost issue mostly now. Oh now. It spiraled. I was just dealing with low level ghosts.

Then then something came and it might have been because of those ghost. Never be too careful but also have to explore. Its a horrible balancing act of being careful but not to careful. Alright

Post automatically merged: Today at 4:21 AM

I didn't know I even dealing ghosts I thought it was my mind. But no probably not. Now it spiraled a bit. So just stay careful out there.

 

[Morell]

The showing themselves is doing something. If you had a personal connection with them then that triggers grief. It also makes a person not aware of magic or spirits or afterlife aware of it and that does something probably emotionally to the other person.

I think about it like Gravity is the weakest force but its the force that affects most of our day to day. Then ghosts might be like that and though ghosts might be the weakest force despite gravity being the weakest force people can still hurt themselves falling.

Have to still be careful/respectful around ghosts I think.

Post automatically merged: Today at 4:20 AM

Anything can get you. Anything. I'm saying this from expierence. I was just dealing with a ghost then I get the worst news imaginable and everyday is a struggle to persist now.

I was just dealing with a ghost issues and now its. Its a bigger issues now. It spiraled. I dealt with the ghost issue mostly now. Oh now. It spiraled. I was just dealing with low level ghosts.

Then then something came and it might have been because of those ghost. Never be too careful but also have to explore. Its a horrible balancing act of being careful but not to careful. Alright

Post automatically merged: Today at 4:21 AM

I didn't know I even dealing ghosts I thought it was my mind. But no probably not. Now it spiraled a bit. So just stay careful out there.

Most spirits I notice do not care about me in the slightest, they just live their own life. If they do take any interest and intention and are behaving well, no problem. If not, I get to "leave, or else..."

 

[Ohana]

Most spirits I notice do not care about me in the slightest, they just live their own life. If they do take any interest and intention and are behaving well, no problem. If not, I get to "leave, or else..."

I think some or most spirits might not be able to even sense me a lot of the time. I have this habit of being able to jumpscare people becuase it seems like I come out of nowhere. And I was good at hide and seek as a kid and would run off never to be seen from again.

It might also be that where I'm at currently doesn't seem to have a lot of spirits present. So I can't really sense much.

There's one exception to the rule and its one spirit that I think should care a little bit less now but its there and still appreciative. I think it helps with recharging energy and sleep.

Post automatically merged: Today at 6:48 AM

Maybe the problem wasn't ghost related but people and people not minding their own business.

But I think spirits of people who knew the person when they were alive could haunt them. Maybe they wouldn't do anything but be unsettling.