Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ also appears in my book A PARANORMAL CASEBOOK: Cases from a Parapsychologist's First 25 (or so) Years, 2nd Edition (2024) , and covers phenomena and investigation.

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WHAT ARE GHOSTS? AND OTHER QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What is a “ghost”?

The term “ghost” has covered a variety of experiences in many cultures. In general, most people use the term ghost to mean a spirit or some form of a person after he or she has died. However, the word is also sometimes applied to any figure of a person or animal experienced in any location when the person or animal is not physically present, and especially when the ghost represents someone or some animal that has died. In effect, there’s often no distinction made as to whether the “ghost” is a conscious being or just some kind of recording of past people, animals, or events.

Parapsychologists do make the distinction, and often use the term “apparition” to refer to the concept of human personality or consciousness (or that of an animal) appearing in some form after death. There are other categories for similar — but different — experiences.

 What are those categories?

Parapsychology, and its predecessor psychical research, essentially created three main categories of what have often been considered “ghostly” happenings. The three are different conceptually, but events around each can appear similar and can even indicate unique combinations of phenomena. Investigators of these phenomena should know the parapsychological perspective of these three categories, since within the field there is much more agreement about them than you’d ever find among psychics — who often have their own personal perspectives — and amateur ghost-hunters.

What I call my “big three” are apparitions, hauntings, and poltergeists. In shortened form, they are spirits, recordings, and living-agent psychokinesis.

 Say more about apparitions.

An apparition is our personality (or spirit, soul, consciousness, mind, or whatever you want to call it) surviving the death of the body, and capable of interaction with the living (and presumably other apparitions). It is pure consciousness. Apparitions are seen, heard, felt, or smelled (thankfully, not tasted!) by people through the process of telepathic communication.

The model of an apparition is that it is consciousness without form. As the apparition has no form, and no sensory organs or normal ability to communicate, he or she essentially connects to the minds of living people. The apparition essentially broadcasts sensory information (what he or she looks, sounds, feels, and smells like) to the minds of us living folk. Our brains/minds process the signals and add them to what our normal senses are picking up. Some people do better with visual input, some with auditory or other kinds of information. Some can process combinations.

But because they have no physical form, they are not seen with the eye or heard with the ears, and such. It’s why in a crowded room with lots of living people and a ghost some see the ghost, some hear him, some feel his presence, some smell his cologne, and some get different combinations of those perceptions. And of course, lots of people in the room may get nothing at all. This is also why ghosts can’t be photographed — they don’t reflect light.

But aren’t there photos of ghosts?

There are many — too many — pictures out there of various light shapes that people have concluded are ghosts and spirits, generally without exploring other photographic reasons that the lights appear in the picture.

If a ghost could appear in a picture, it would be because the apparition consciously affected the film or digital media, not because they simply appear in a bright flash (which is absolutely not the case). In other words, the apparition affects the picture media with his or her mind. By definition, this is psychokinesis (PK), or mind over matter.

Some of the photos are taken at the same time that people are actually experiencing something considered a ghost or haunting. At the very least, the photos are taken in places where people had fairly recently had such encounters. Those are more evidential (more valuable as evidence) than photos simply taken in locations that feel “spooky” where there have never been reports of ghosts.

When it comes to photos, we look at two main issues that, according to photography and camera experts, account for the vast majority of shapes:

·        Reflections of the flash or the infrared light used to help focus (and just because you can’t see an obviously reflective surface in the frame of the photo doesn’t mean there wasn’t one in range of the flash or infrared)

·        With digital cameras, there are often “drop-outs” of individual or small groups of pixels that get converted to “orbs” when the picture goes from the digital data to what we see as the image.

·        A powerful flash — claimed by some as the reason these shapes show up on camera — increases the chances of bounce-backs. And if a flash goes off and the camera “sees” an actual thing/shape illuminated and floating in the air, someone’s eyes ought to also see it, since it would be visible. The eye and most cameras pick up the same spectrum and frequencies of light.

 When things show up on film or digital media that have a paranormal source/cause, it would be a result of some consciousness/spirit (living or deceased) affecting the picture’s media — that’s PK

Is that how ghosts also move objects?

Yes. If an apparition causes an object to move, it’s by PK at its purest form: pure mind affecting matter.

Of course, living people can also do this.

 So, a ghost photo could be caused by a living person’s PK?

Yes. The expectations and desires of the photographer, or someone else present, directed at actually capturing something on camera could trigger an unconscious burst of PK that affects the film or digital media.

 So, people can cause things to move or otherwise affect things mentally? Is that what a poltergeist is?

The term “poltergeist” can be traced back hundreds of years. Some have found it as early as the 16th century in Germany. But the term has come to represent something very different from the literal translation of the German word for “noisy ghost,” just as other words in languages have changed their meanings. A good example is the word “computer,” which in the pre-IBM days of the 20th century referred to people who could compute (math).

In poltergeist cases, physical effects are the central theme, including movements and levitations, appearances/disappearances of objects, unusual behavior of electrical appliances, unexplained knockings and other sounds, and temperature changes, with all combinations possible as well. Rarely are ghostly figures or voices seen or heard (though these are not out of the question, as the first case I investigated — The Black Knight of Petaluma — demonstrates).

The model we work from is called recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis, or RSPK, a model that evolved out of a seminal case in Seaford, Long Island, New York in 1956 investigated by William G. Roll and J.G. Pratt. It is PK that occurs without conscious control, and happens over and over. It doesn’t come from an apparition or ghost but from someone living or working in the environment where the poltergeist outbreak is happening.

 Isn’t a teenage girl responsible in these cases?

That’s a stereotype that’s a bit off, and we can thank Stephen King’s excellent novel Carrie (and the 1976 movie of the same name) for cementing the stereotype in the popular culture.

The poltergeist is caused by the mind of a living agent, generally someone in the household undergoing emotional and/or psychological stress. The agents are people who typically have no method of dealing with the stress on any normal level, so the subconscious blows off steam by taking advantage of the psychokinetic (PK — mind over matter) ability we all have. In other words, you can think of the poltergeist scenario as a telekinetic temper tantrum.

Yes, there are more cases involving teenagers — and not necessarily more girls than boys. We get poltergeist agents as young as 11 or 12, and I’ve had cases with people as old as their early 80s.

How can you be sure in poltergeist cases that the events are not caused by a ghost?

In the rare poltergeist case where there is an apparition apparently being seen, that figure is generally not clear (often shadowy) or is not even representative of a normal human being. The behavior is very different than apparition cases, and connects to the psychology and stress in the situation.

The movement of objects, and often-destructive nature of the events, in poltergeist cases is also very different than in apparition cases where PK is apparently happening. In those cases, typical physical activity is purposeful and rarely destructive or chaotic. 

Additionally, psychics and mediums brought into poltergeist cases don’t detect spirits/ghosts. Those that are skilled at “reading” the living can often pick up on who the poltergeist agent is (note: not all mediums can “read” the living, just as not all psychics can communicate with the deceased).

Finally, the events stop when we can pinpoint the poltergeist agent and work to either relieve the stress or get the agent to accept that he or she is doing the PK. If we were dealing with ghosts in such cases, I find it hard to believe they’d stop harassing people with PK simply because the parapsychologist found a living person to blame.

Of course, I could be wrong — maybe there’s a ghostly conspiracy to lead parapsychologists to incorrect conclusions. Not!

 One note: While most of us in North America use the term “poltergeist” in context with living agents, and cases of apparitions with the entity using their own consciousness to affect the world physically (using PK) as an apparition case with apparitional PK, I’ve been told by a number of British colleagues that any case with physical activity may first be described as a poltergeist – followed by a breakdown of who or what is ostensibly causing that physical activity (so, a living agent or apparition using PK).

What about your other category, hauntings?

Like the poltergeist, the haunting relies on the living. Unlike a poltergeist case, where the phenomena are caused by the agent, a haunting is received by people. Hauntings actually show that we are all psychic receivers (clairvoyant) to some degree.

Ever walk into a house and get a feel for its “vibes” (the house feels “good” or “bad”)? Of course, that feeling could be because of normal perceptions — maybe the decor is nice or “off” — but you also may be psychically perceiving emotions and events embedded in the environment.

One ability proffered by many psychics over the ages is psychometry: the ability to “read” the history of an object by holding or touching it. Objects, we’re told, “record” their entire history, and some can decipher that with psi.

 But what is a house if not a big object?

In haunting cases, people report seeing (or hearing or feeling or even smelling) a presence (or several) typically engaged in some sort of activity. It could be a man’s figure walking up and down the hallway, or footsteps heard from the attic, or a man and woman physically fighting until one is dead, or even the sounds of two people making love coming from an adjoining room.

The events and figures witnessed in hauntings tend to be repetitive both in what’s experienced and when they occur (at approximately the same time). Speaking with the “ghosts” tends to do no good, because they just continue to go about their business, as though you’re not even there. In other words, they’re essentially holograms instead of conscious beings capable of interacting.

Hauntings seem to be some kind of environmental recording of events and people. The house or building or land somehow records its history, with the more emotion-laden events and experiences coming through “louder” and “stronger.” That people mostly report negative events and emotions (around suicide, murder, or other violent crimes, or emotional fights) is likely due to a reporting artifact rather than any unbalanced ratio of negative to positive events — people experiencing something negative are more likely to report it or ask for help.

You might think of a haunting as a loop of video or audiotape playing itself over and over for you to watch. Trying to interact with it would be akin to trying to interact with a show on your television — you can turn it off or change the channel, but I wouldn’t expect the actors to suddenly stop and talk to you directly.

By the way, TV ghost hunters refer to hauntings as residual hauntings (we find no need for the word “residual,” since it’s implied in our definition, though we may use the term place memory). Psychics may refer to them as psychic imprints.

Give an example of how to tell the difference between an apparition and a haunting.

One way I can get this point across is to bring up the old ghost stories.

Let’s say we have that old haunted Scottish castle, where the lord of the manor (who died some 300 years ago under tragic circumstances, of course) appears on the parapet every night at midnight (playing his bagpipes, naturally). You see him coming toward you — needless to say, you’re starring as the intrepid investigator here. He reaches your position, then walks right through you. And night after night he goes through the same motions (playing the same tune). That’s either a haunting — a replay from the past — or a very boring ghost.

Should he stop one night, however, and ask if you have any favorite requests you’d like to hear... well, then you’ve got yourself a real “live” ghostie (apparition).

A more modern metaphor might be this:

You walk into an office conference room and see a videoconference system. There’s a friend or colleague on the monitor who says hello to you. You say hello back but get no response. The person on the monitor then goes on to talk about something. You make a remark but get no reaction.

Someone else comes into the room and turns off the VCR. Your colleague on the monitor was unable to make the actual live videoconference and made a videotape for you instead. It was a recording — like a haunting.

However, if the conference system was on, and your colleague was live and capable of interacting with you, that would be similar to having a conscious being — an apparition — interacting with you.

What is place memory?

This is a term many parapsychologists and psychics use to denote the imprinting of historical information — events in the past — on a location (house, piece of land, etc.); the place has memory of its past that we can perceive. In other words, it’s another term for haunting.

Do ghosts of living people ever appear?

One important additional bit of information about apparitions is that there are numerous reports of apparitions of still-living people. Often those people are having an out-of-body experience at the same time they’re being perceived as apparitions, or they’re having dreams about visiting the persons who see them as apparitions. Sometimes the apparition is generated by a person in some sort of immediate danger or crisis. It’s as though the apparition is projected to get help for them.

Are there ever imprints of still-living people in hauntings?

Yes, there have been many such reports. We all leave imprints in the environment, especially locations in which we live for a long time. People often move from one home to another, but that doesn’t erase or hide your imprints in your previous address.

In other words, new residents to your previous home might pick up on the impressions you made in the environment.

In fact, it’s the living who leave impressions, not the dead – although the subject of the perceived imprint might be deceased at the time of the perception. 

Think about it this way: you can watch a movie from the early 1930s on any number of streaming services or DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and more. It’s extremely likely that everyone involved is now deceased – actors and crew (unless actors included children, but even then). But even though we can watch the movie well after their deaths, they were alive when the movie was filmed (recorded). 

In similar fashion, the environment somehow records the activities, emotions, and other information about the living – often “replayed” in our perceptions days, weeks, years, or decades (maybe even centuries) later. 

 The strangest — and probably scariest — kind of haunting has been infrequently reported: A person sees an image of himself walking in the home. Creepy! Of course, it’s not much different than watching oneself on video — though lots of people find that creepy, too!

 One thing to consider is the concept that we all continually leave impressions behind. That includes ghost hunters investigating a location leaving behind their own imprints (especially when they get freaked out by misperceived sounds and sights). The “ghost” later investigators may perceive could be the residual haunt left by previous ghost hunting teams!

Which are more common — apparition or haunting cases?

The number of reported apparition experiences is much higher than haunting experiences, but the number of apparition cases — where the apparition appears more than once and sticks around for a while — is far surpassed by the number of haunting cases.

The sheer majority of apparitions are seen once by a relative or friend or loved one typically within 48 to 72 hours of that person’s death (though sometimes as long as a week or two after), as if the person is coming to say good-bye.

In other words, most people don’t stick around as a ghost for more than a day or two. Longer-term apparitions tend to have a psychological/emotional need or strong desire to stay here. Such needs or desires include denial of death, fear of “what’s next,” a strong desire to stay with one’s loved ones, or even anger at a life cut short.

Not everyone with such strong desires or needs sticks around as an apparition, and there are likely some environmental factors that allow such people to remain when the conditions and the psychology coincide. These factors, I personally suspect, include both geomagnetic conditions and other as yet unidentified factors in the physical environment.

Where do ghosts usually visit or stay?

Ghosts hang around with people in homes, offices, restaurants and bars. Ghosts tend to stay in places where they had some psychological/emotional connection or relationship during their lifetime. In other words, apparitions tend to appear where living people are.

So, ghosts don’t haunt the place they died?

While places where death occurs either tragically or continually (like a terminal ward at a hospital, or a battlefield, or the site of a murder, for instance) tend to be ripe for place memory, for hauntings, apparitions rarely stay where they died. The exception is when the place where they died is also the place where they lived and felt most comfortable or connected to when alive.

What about cemeteries? Do ghosts hang out there?

People rarely die in cemeteries. People even more rarely live in cemeteries. These days, when we’re buried in a cemetery plot, there’s a good chance our entire physical bodies are not buried there, what with organ donations and such. People rarely have any connection to the burial plot, given that other than perhaps picking it out, there’s nothing to connect them in life, and so nothing to connect them in death -- unless their own minds do so.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, as there are a few cemeteries around the world that have a single ghost. But certainly not the hordes of ghosts that amateur ghost hunters expect to find in the graveyards.

Cemeteries may be haunted, in that funerals provide much in the way of emotion that can be imprinted on the environment.

So why DO amateur ghost hunters hang out in cemeteries?

They’ve been given some very wrong information by a few bad sources, or they simply assume that since the dead (bodies) are there, ghosts should be there too.

But here’s the real problem: There are very few people working around cemeteries at any given time. There are very few visitors to cemeteries on a regular basis. So, who would be there to experience or report apparitional sightings? The amateurs generally go to cemeteries without even having heard a single report of an apparitional encounter.

Why can’t you prove the existence of ghosts?

We define a ghost/apparition as consciousness. Unfortunately, the existence of consciousness and an understanding of what it is or might be is still up in the air as far as mainstream science is concerned. In other words, there’s no physical evidence for consciousness among the living other than our own behaviors and thoughts. If we can’t prove the existence of consciousness in the body/brain where we assume it is, how can we prove the existence of consciousness outside the body, especially without direct cooperation of those floating minds (the apparitions)?

The only way to study consciousness, whether it is consciousness of the living or dead, is by the experiences of people. Parapsychology is primarily a social science, though we try to bring in measuring tools of the physical sciences. The best evidence comes from people (witnesses). The best cases are those where there are multiple witnesses and information is provided by the ghost that can be verified later.

But while the issue of consciousness is still up in the air, so is our proof for ghosts.

Beyond that, the very idea of proof in Science is incorrect; it's about evidence.

Can you be harmed by apparitions, hauntings, or poltergeists?

Let’s take these one at a time.

Apparitions connect with you telepathically — mentally. So, while they can frighten us and cause emotional or psychological distress, they can no more harm us than, say, a particularly violent or sad or controversial TV program. It’s all in how we react to the “signal.”

While some ghosts have apparently learned how to move objects (a rare thing, by the way), there is little in the way of destructive activity such as we see in poltergeist cases. So, while such activity might be very annoying, it’s hardly harmful.

Hauntings are like video or audio recordings so, as with a TV program, it’s all about how we react to the imprint. If the imprint is of a horrific murder, naturally that’s going to be difficult to be around, and some would consider that harmful.

Additionally, with hauntings the person experiencing it may take on the feelings and even reactions of the recording of a person being attacked, and their body may physically react to that experience – with scratches, bruises, etc. Some people, under hypnosis, when told a pencil is a red hot iron poker, will get an blister when the pencil touches their skin.

Poltergeist phenomena, as destructive as it is, rarely cause any harm to people or animals — again, other than how we react to what’s happening. However, two things are important with regard to “danger” in poltergeist cases:

1. Never duck into the path of a flying object. You might get hit, even though it was not directed at you.

2. Realize that the unconscious mind of the poltergeist agent might cause harm to the agent herself. In cases with bruising, choking, or other such “attacks,” the “attacker” is generally one’s own unconscious mind. See my case “The Choking Ghost” for an example of this.

How do you investigate reported cases of apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists?

For the best answer to this, read the case reports in this book, or pick up my book ESP, HAUNTINGS AND POLTERGEISTS: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook (1986, reprinted in 2016 and readily available through Amazon and other online booksellers). Or if you want a simplified version of “how-to,” try by book Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate the Paranormal (2004, Ronin Publishing)

But as an additional bit of info, realize that your first — and best — step is to interview all the witnesses. Then consider alternative (normal) explanations. Visit the location, and interview again. Look around for any and all possible normal explanations.

Remember that you are not only looking to see if the case is paranormal or not but each reported event in the case.

What do you mean by that last bit?

In many cases, a person might have an actual apparitional or haunting experience. But now the person is so sensitive to the environment, due to being freaked out or scared by the experience, that every unexplained coincidence, every sound never really noticed before (such as house settling noises), every time something falls (usually because of clumsiness or simply being improperly balanced on a shelf) — all of this can become different events “caused” by the ghost.

What about the role of technology in investigations? Don’t you need equipment to make the investigation scientific?

First, using technological/electronic devices does not make an investigation scientific. It’s the application of scientific — physical and social sciences — methodologies and how one assesses the data that applies here. Unless a sensing device is used properly (and too many amateurs haven’t even read or understood the instructions) and the data gathered is appropriately assessed and applied, there’s nothing scientific about its use. A chimpanzee can be taught to use and react to a sensing device such as we use. 

I also must mention that since this book was originally released in 2005, there have been a number of people who have devised, manufactured, and sell “ghost hunting gear” with often unverifiable claims or claims as to how devices work that simply don’t make any sense, scientifically (or paranormally). 

Secondly, we define these phenomena based on human experience and observation. A ghost is consciousness. A haunting is a result of interactions with human consciousness. A poltergeist is caused by human consciousness (though at least in these cases, the physical effects can be observed by all and recorded, since they are physical).

So, unless the data gathered from the tech devices is correlated with human experiences of something unusual or paranormal, you simply have anomalous — or unexplained — “readings.” Not necessarily anything paranormal.

What about Demons?

The concepts of demons/demonic entities reside within Religion and mythology, not Science. The various definitions typically tie back to supernatural/divine entities, often created or related to the existence of God or gods, which fall outside of the natural world.

Science studies and attempts to understand the natural world. Even though psychic phenomena (which include apparitions, hauntings, poltergeists, ExtraSensory Perception, PsychoKinesis, etc.) are labeled “paranormal,” they are not considered outside of the natural -- parapsychologists consider them all part of normal human experience and existence.

Demons, and their “good” counterparts, Angels, are typically the provenance of religious beliefs or faith. Interpretations of psychic experiences can be through the lens of religion (or other beliefs rooted in one’s culture) and if seemingly harmful, get labeled as “demonic” and if seemingly positive and even miraculous, as caused by “angels.”

I should point out that angels in the Old Testament are not the most positive of beings, often acting as God’s soldiers or even assassins. 

So, I guess one’s interpretation and labeling depend on what “good book” one follows. 

If demons don’t exist, why do so many people think they are being bothered or attacked by them?

Thanks to the reality TV shows, and a long history of the Media (including movies and scripted TV) making ghostly experiences “spooky” and/or horror-focused, if any psychic experience – ghostly or otherwise – could be interpreted in a negative way or as somehow harmful, “demonic” is an easy label. Another label I’ve heard when people have a run of bad luck is “cursed.” This is often caused by one event, such as a relationship break-up or job loss or car accident, leading to emotional or behavioral reactions that can lead to other negative situations. Not a curse and not a demon – just life.

In all too many cases of apparitions, hauntings, and poltergeists, the general message put out into pop culture is that these are things to be feared, situations that can escalate into the truly dangerous, and that something “evil” is behind them. Paranormal reality television shows focus on this to ensure their ratings, mainly because it is well known that humans pay more attention to “bad news” than good – the “bad” grabs us by the emotions and can hold us there. 

            “Demon” or “demonic” is a convenient label with lots of religious, mythological, and emotional baggage around fear.

Are there evil apparitions? Hauntings? Poltergeists?

First, I recommend reading the excellent book THE SCIENCE OF EVIL: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Simon Baron-Cohen (2011).

 Let’s take these one at a time.

 Apparitions: 

Ghosts are (or were) people before they died. They are still people/consciousness. There is no evidence that people change their personalities after death.

Of course, living people do good and evil acts, may behave in a moral or amoral manner. Living people get along with others or have hate for others. Some like violence and may do violent things, others abhor it. So it stands to reason that apparitions, like living people, have it in them to be anywhere on that behavioral/personality spectrum.

However, how many truly evil people are there in the world? How many people are there whose only interest is in the suffering of others? I’m not including those whose goal is to gain material wealth or power or fame with no regard for others, since ghosts aren’t going to gain anything.

The answer is: a very, very small percentage of humanity. There’s a much greater percentage of people who simply don’t care about others (especially people they don’t know). In other words, like living people, the dead likely don’t care about you (unless they knew you when they were alive or get to know you after death).

In general, when we look into apparition cases with apparent physical harm to people, we find other more normal explanations (or on rare occasion, cases like “The Choking Ghost” in this book where the individual’s own unconscious caused self-harm).

Additionally, there is very little evidence that PK can be directed against others in a way that could cause harm to them.

However, on occasion a witness in an apparition case might perceive some negative thought from the entity which their body could react to, especially if the individual believes the ghost can hurt them. Not PK, but a thought put in one’s  head – this can be called a nocebo effect (the opposite of the placebo effect).

Personally, while I’ve “met” ghosts I didn’t like (because they were jerks), I’ve never been afraid of any.

Hauntings:

Remember: hauntings, or place memory or psychic imprints, are effectively recordings of actions or emotions of the living imprinted into the environment that we perceive. Nothing conscious. Nothing that can be directed specifically at us (or any individual).

If the imprinted activity is of something negative (or even violent) that happened in the location, people could pick up whatever that activity was and observe it like watching a horror film. One could potentially pick up the emotion of, say, a victim, or even in rare cases, the physical sensations of a victim of a victim.

That could be negative psychologically for the perceiver, but there is no actual physical danger (and certainly no demonic activity).

Poltergeists:

There is little evidence that intentional PK can be used against a person in a way that could cause physical harm (exception: one steps into the path of a moving object and gets hit). 

As mentioned, there is evidence that on occasion the psychology of a poltergeist agent directs physical impact on the agent’s own body.

This is not to say that poltergeist cases are benign. They are chaotic activity that can damage physical property, cause electronics to malfunction, and cause psychological trauma in those even witnessing the activity.

Any specific things one should do or not do when investigating a case of an apparition, haunting, or poltergeist?

Again, take a look at my previous books mentioned below. Additionally, you’ll get a real feel for what we do by reading the cases in A PARANORMAL CASEBOOK.

But for some of the nitty-gritty, see the last section for a list of things to do and not to do when conducting a paranormal investigation. For detailed specifics on ghost hunting and paranormal investigations, read my books:

ESP, HAUNTINGS AND POLTERGEISTS: A Parapsychologist’s Handbook (1986, reprinted in 2016) 

Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate the Paranormal and Hauntings & Poltergeists: A Ghost Hunter’s Guide (both from Ronin Publishing, 2004) 

For those interested in how an investigator works with psychics and mediums, pick up my book co-authored by psychic/medium Annette Martin: The Ghost Detectives’ Guide to Haunted San Francisco (2011, Craven Street/Linden Publishing)

What one thing would you say is the most important for anyone wanting to really understand ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists?

Learn more about psychic abilities and experiences in general and learn more about Parapsychology.

We connect with apparitions via telepathy. Apparitions communicate with us telepathically. We perceive imprints in the environment apparently through a form of clairvoyance. In other words, via non-sensory means (ESP).

If apparitions can sense their environment, they are doing so directly, without the use of their senses — in other words, clairvoyantly. Mediums communicate with spirits via telepathy. Both telepathy and clairvoyance are forms of ESP. 

Don’t ignore what parapsychologists have done and learned about ESP through research in the lab and in the real world.

 We move/affect things mentally via psychokinesis. Ghosts (who have minds) move things via psychokinesis, since they have no physical form with which to physically affect things otherwise.

So, learn about psychokinesis, both in the real world and the findings from laboratory research.

What are credible organizations I can connect with and other resources?

See the attached document!